Innovation in Practice in Theory: Positioning Architectural Design and its Agency.

The book is the result of a tripartite academic trajectory dedicated to the issue of innovation in practice. It gathers material produced for and during an interna-tional Ph.D. course, an international Summer School for Master students, and an international Ph.D. seminar, all held at Politecnico di Torino with the participation of students and faculty from TU Berlin, University of Belgrade, Architectural As-sociation, KTH Stockholm, Sciences Po, Centre Jean Pépin, CNRS Paris, Ecole National d’Architecture Paris Val de Seine. These three events also coincided, in temporal terms and in the general hypothesis being tested, with the fifth issue of the journal Ardeth (Architectural Design Theory) guest-curated by Andrés Jaque and dedicated to the theme of “Innovation as it happens.” These academic ex-periences are part of a wider thrust towards the consolidation of a growing net-work of schools and research groups working on the issue of innovation in the project of architecture: what does it mean to innovate the practice of architec-ture? Can we understand the project of architecture as a socio-technical object that, as much as other socio-technical objects, is susceptible to processes of innovation? Which paradigms of innovation can we refer to as architects? What is the role of critical theory in the research for innovation in the project? And, on the other hand, what is the contribution that pragmatist approaches can make when looking at day-to-day practice?