ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book investigates permutations between architecture, expertise, state, racial marginalization, colonialism, and regimes of land and property of the last fifty years. It tackles the dialectic of the housing question by investigating the many-fold manifestations of the architect and their possible alignment with anti-hegemonic forces. The book begins with Daria Bocharnikova’s study of the way the institutional and discursive practices inside state agencies (such as the All-Union Academy of Architecture and the Special Architectural Design Bureau, SAKB) shaped the architectural profession’s approach to housing in the Soviet Union from the 1940s to the late 1950s. It examines urban housing projects from distant parts of the world, each responding to the problem of urban stigma and the marginalization and racialization of an underserved urban community.
