CAAD Forum: Michael Moynihan

A century ago, housing was a primary focus of professional architects. Since the 1970s, architects have been largely excluded from international debates and world congresses focused on housing on a global scale. In this presentation, Michael Moynihan demonstrates that expertise related to housing shifted from professional architects to experts working in consultancy groups, governmental research institutions, and international development aid agencies. Rather than emphasizing episodes that explain how architects were excluded from the production of housing in the 1970s, this presentation considers specific instances when architects working in national housing ministries recognized their loss of agency and tried to resolve the situation by creatively engaging in newly emerging information systems. 

Through three interrelated examples (in Mexico, Argentina, and UNESCO), Moynihan highlights housing projects where architects took on managerial and bureaucratic roles and hired their own research teams filled with sociologists, computer scientists, and data analysts. Tracing this shift in expertise offers a new understanding of the role of international organizations in architecture, changes to the practice and education of architects in the 1970s, the soft imperialism of data and information sciences, and the complex ambitions of the emerging field of Human Settlements.

The CAAD Forum series is hosted by the Center for American Architecture and Design to bring faculty, students, and staff together for informal and inquisitive discussions about ideas relating to architecture and its history, theory, practice, and future. Presentations introduce and off insight into new and ongoing research, and are followed by time for Q&A. Lunch provided; first-come first-served. View past CAAD Forums on the Texas Architecture YouTube channel.