The Architecture of Neoliberalism

The Architecture of Neoliberalism pursues an uncompromising critique of the neoliberal turn in contemporary architecture. This book reveals how a self-styled parametric and post-critical architecture serves mechanisms of control and compliance while promoting itself, at the same time, as progressive. Spencer's incisive analysis of the architecture and writings of figures such as Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher, Rem Koolhaas, and Greg Lynn shows them to be in thrall to the same notions of liberty as are propounded in neoliberal thought. Analysing architectural projects in the fields of education, consumption and labour, The Architecture of Neoliberalism examines the part played by contemporary architecture in refashioning human subjects into the compliant figures - student-entrepreneurs, citizen-consumers and team-workers - requisite to the universal implementation of a form of existence devoted to market imperatives.

Douglas Spencer

Introduction: Architecture, Neoliberalism and the Game of Truth 1. The Art of Neoliberal Governmentality 2. The Spatial Constitution of the Neoliberal Subject 3. Architecture Theory: From May '68 to the 'Real' of the Market 4. Labour Theory: Architecture, Work and Neoliberalism 5. Festivals of Circulation: Neoliberal Architectures of Culture, Commerce and Eduction 6. Neoliberalism and Effect: Architecture and the Patterning of Experience Conclusion: The Necessity of Critique Bibliography