Building Institution

»Building Institution« chronicles the expansion of architecture as a profession and discipline in the postmodern era. Kim Förster traces the compelling history of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, which was active in New York from 1967 to 1985. Drawing on extensive archival research and oral histories, he constructs a collective biography that details the Institute's diverse roles and the dynamic interplay between research and design, education, culture, and publishing. By exploring the transformation of cultural production into a practice as well as the culturalization and global postmodernization of architecture, the volume contributes significantly to the institutional history of architecture.

Kim Förster (Dr. sc. ETH), researches and teaches at the University of Manchester with a focus on knowledge and cultural production, institutional as well as environmental history of architecture. An architectural historian, he served as Associate Director of Research at the Canadian Centre for Architecture from 2016 to 2018. In 2010, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York.