Fiction/non-fiction, or: Myth and the architect's architecture

Architecture is constructed not only in its images of objects, but also in its idealization of authorship. While the one–to–one association of Architect with “their” Architecture perpetuates the illusion of the discipline’s agency and fosters impossible expectations of absolute control, broadly speaking, the originary and utopian impulse remains a fundamental component of an architect’s identity. The following paper confronts the largely unelaborated myths of the Architect’s Architecture presented by architectural discourse by way of three exaggerated Architectural figures depicted in works of fiction: Howard Roark (The Fountainhead), Stourley Kracklite (The Belly of an Architect) and The Architect (The Matrix trilogy). More specifically, the paper uses these heroic/antiheroic figures to explore three alternative relations of “Architect” to “their Architecture”. As such, the discussion performs two functions: it tests the fictionality of fictional and non-fictional constructs that reinforce and personify the myth of Architectural authorship, measuring fictional figures against non-fictional figures; and it presents an heuristic, offering both a perspective on the history of twentieth century architecture, and a means with which to negotiate cultural positioning in the ongoing present.