We, the architects of the homeless

Abstract

From a report of two work situations involving a dialogue between architects and social
movements, this article attempts to demonstrate how professional practice in unusual contexts escapes the formal
protocols, thereby denying generalized characterizations – such as ‘the architect’, ‘architecture’ or ‘the market’
etc. - as well as possible tighter semantic frameworks. The article also attempts to reveal how fragile the more
flexible designations become or conceptualizations more rigorous, when facing an unstable reality, thereby denying the traditional protocols of professional practice. From the descriptions and these conjectures, it is suggested
that the profession, currently deflated of its public sense and squeezed within the limits of its most mundane
commitments, must be reinvented. We therefore speculate as to the possibilities of the profession in assuming new
contents and structurally modifying the manner in which it operates its practical attributions.