The city walker as a minor architect Tactics against major architecture

Abstract

"Minor architecture" is a concept coined by Jennifer Bloomer and developed by Jill Stoner, that refers to the "minor actions that form spatial agency", fleetingly and anonymously, within what has already been built, that is, within what would be “major architecture”, with its own name and pretensions of permanence and stability, that is, order and obedience. Walking through the city implies a body traversing a public space and being traversed, in turn, by the hegemonic discourse that codifies that space. Walking through the city, inserting the body in a certain way into the urban fabric, can be a minor architecture exercise against the strategies deployed by major architecture. The walker becomes a minor architect the moment he or she subverts architectural design, violates barriers, leaves camouflaged messages, plays with names and signs, presents a minority profile to the public scene, defies established timetables, or actively contributes to a climate of indifferent solidarity between strangers.