Reform or Revolution: Architectural Theory in West Berlin and Zurich (1967–72)

The article explores the evolution of architectural and urban theory in the wake of the 1960s politicisation of the architecture faculties of TU Berlin and ETH Zürich. Focusing on Oswald Mathias Ungers, Jörn Janssen, and their students, it examines a symposium, an exhibition, and a seminar that shaped divergent perspectives on architectural theory. It considers Ungers’ attempts to reform architectural education and the profession itself in relation to West German socio-economic transformations, focusing on Ungers’ 1967 symposium and Janssen’s contributions to it. It then considers student criticism through a “go-in” organised at that same event and the 1968 student-led exhibition Caution Architectural Theory. It finally examines Janssen’s 1970 seminar at ETH, which unravelled the socio-economic roots of a Zurich housing development and demonstrated the need for revolutionary change in housing and planning. These episodes, observed through their material, social and political contexts, display alternative understandings of architectural theory and, consequently, of architecture’s role in achieving change.