Urban politics and the work and labour processes of architecture: Survey research with young architect-workers in Turkey

Abstract

There is a general tendency in architecture to insistently see the work andlabour conditions of architects independently from “the production of nature as urban space” (Sert, 2020) embedded in the neoliberal capitalist economic order. However, considering the socio-ecologically crisisprone environments in which we live, understanding the complicated relationship among nature, the urban, and society becomes more crucial than ever before (Heynen, et al., 2006; Harvey, 1996; Smith, 2008). This article aims to question the common trend that treats the production process of urban space as if it were independent of the working conditions of architects. Current architectural theory struggles to find concepts for guiding the complicated relationship of architectural process particularly working conditions of architects with urbanization of nature in the 21st century. Accordingly, as specialized citizens, architects try to rethink ecological and civic imaginaries (Karvonen, 2011) for understanding human embeddedness in space, time, nature, and place (Harvey, 1996;Gandy, 2006). © 2021,Metu Journal of the Faculty of Architecture. All Rights Reserved.