COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY. TOWARD TRANSGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURAL PARADIGMS.
MANIFESTO
Architecture is all too frequently reduced to an isolated act—carried out by a small circle of individuals, passively experienced by the majority, and seldom scrutinized in its broader social context. Yet urban environments function as living organisms, shaped by each action or omission, by the collective memories and the tendency to forget shared by their inhabitants. The act of building transcends temporal and social constraints, enabling a long-term process that connects historical narratives with future expectations. In this way, architecture unfolds through a continuous interplay between collective memory and ideology, whose effects reverberate across multiple generations.
From this perspective, architecture emerges as the ultimate act of responsibility. Its scope extends beyond satisfying pragmatic or aesthetic demands; it stands as a powerful catalyst for socio-structural change. It may reinforce ties to local heritage and context or, conversely, trigger cultural alienation and a rupture with inherited values. In this sense, architects and planners, as mediators between technical-technological conditions and socio-cultural determinants, assume a decisive role whose decisions carry profound implications for cultural heritage. Their ability to critically synthesize historical layers and to uphold local identity determines whether architectural interventions foster sustainable and authentic development, or instead provoke amnesia and estrangement.
In the theoretical framework advocated by Aldo Rossi and his collaborators—exemplified by the La Città Analoga project, presented as an architectural-theoretical platform at the 1976 Venice Biennale—the built texture is construed as stratified, a form of urban palimpsest in which each new intervention “inscribes itself” onto pre-existing memories, imprinting novel “engrams of recollection” into the urban fabric. According to Rossi, these accumulated traces and memories are not passive remnants but active participants in shaping urban identity and collective consciousness. Hence, architecture harbors the potential to assert itself as an artifact of continuity, unifying historical significance rather than neglecting or erasing it.
Nonetheless, reducing architecture to mere cosmetic interventions often transforms it into a spectacle of immediate appeal, subtly transgressing toward a model of urban amnesia—a process that suppresses the deeper socio-urban layers in historical and cultural terms. Overcoming such reductive approaches requires a maturation of collective responsibility that paves the way for transgressive architectural paradigms—models that reexamine and transcend conventional architectural derivations without severing the link to accumulated heritage.
As architectural theorists remind us, architecture is never neutral. It structures our experiences, encodes our narratives, and projects our aspirations onto the world. Therefore, it should be treated as a social contract—a covenant wherein every project and ideology must strive to enhance the common good. Confronted with a range of transformative models, we walk a fine line: we can either neglect collective memories or skillfully integrate them into contemporary discourse to shape a more responsible and inclusive architectural future.
The choice is ours—together!
Ivan Mirkovski – President of the XXII BIMAS_2025 Organizing Committee
