¿Arquitectura defensiva, preventiva, hostil o arquitectura tout court? Indemnidad, cálculo y hospitalidad en Jacques Derrida

Abstract

This study analyses the expressions “defensive architecture,” “preventive architecture” and “hostile architecture” through the work of Jacques Derrida. These terms are commonly used to refer to the violence instrumentalised via the material environments that constitute what we often call “public space.” The main objective is to uncover the logic at work beneath and that legitimise this phenomenon by examining the discourse implied by each expression. First, “defensive architecture” is connected to the logic of the unscathed, that Derrida emphasises in its relation to the death penalty. Second, “preventive architecture” is related to Derrida’s critique of teleology as a neutralizer of the event, as was carried out in Rogues (2003). Third, “hostile architecture” is associated with the constitutive aporia of hospitality to announce the perpetual failure of all sorts of architecture-insofar as it is the place of hospitality-and its inherent hostility. Last, the study intends to shed light upon “the public” that is yet to come by considering some objections that could have arisen from the impossible condition of unconditionality.