Architectural Space in the Philosophy of Agamben: Between Care and Use

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the role of the phenomenon of care in the study of architectural space in the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben. This work aims to interpret architecture in the context of Agamben’s biopolitics project and to critique his approach through the lens of the concept of care. The biopolitical dimension of architecture is revealed through Agamben’s central concepts: bare life, zoon/bios, homo sacer. The article raises the problem of the “uninhabitability” of urban and architectural spaces: from shopping malls to refugee camps. It examines Agamben’s interpretation of the concepts of care in Foucault and Heidegger and proposes an analysis of the concept of use as an alternative to them. Foucault’s care of the self and Heidegger’s care are presented in the context of seeking a critique of biopolitical governance. The concepts of chresis in Foucault and dealings with the ready-to-hand (Umgang, Zuhandenheit) in Heidegger form the conditions for understanding use. The concept of use presupposes a mode of dwelling that transcends management and possession. Agamben’s concept of dwelling as use is revealed through the work of urbanist Camillo Boano. In his research on refugee camps and other crisis zones, Camillo Boano demonstrates the relevance not only of dwelling as use, but also of the concept of care for the discussion around the critique of the biopolitics of architecture. Such a shift in emphasis is dictated by the expansion of the idea of dwelling as use and by an interest in the fragility and vulnerability of living spaces within marginal urban zones. Boano studies the care of people for one another in a community living in a space of constantly deteriorating materiality. From care as human essence and self-technique, we move toward care as a phenomenon that enables collective resistance to biopolitics within materially constrained communities.