Dixit #05 – Conditions / About Condition

The fifth issue of Dixit, the journal of architecture criticism features the words of architects Charlotte Truwant + Dries Rodet, Mio Tsuneyama + Fuminori Nousaku who confront each other around the theme of conditions. What are conditions of society, of life, of perspective in the world of the 21st century? What are the conditions of architectural practice today? Are the conditions of use or practice defined by us or imposed upon us? And if so, by whom and when? If some of the conditions influencing our lives and choices appear universal—such as global warming—are they truly so? The idea here is to question the very notion of condition, which can be absolute but also relative to the organisation of societies, and of social, economic, political and climatic inequalities; and of course the cultural notions that qualify conditions by inserting them into more global contexts of varying scales. In short, isn't the definition of a condition intrinsically linked to everyone's decision to accept it as such?