ABSTRACT
Theory, perhaps most particularly ‘this thing called architecture theory’, does seem to
remain ever problematic to itself. Yet, at the This Thing Called Theory conference held
in Leeds in 2015, amongst the many international contributors there were no apologists
amongst them and little need to legitimise theory’s necessity. In offering an opening
keynote, I prepared a series of reflections on moments in history where the discipline of
theory was challenged and also where it spontaneously emerged. This repositioning
offers a partial view on those reflections.
