Talking Practice

In this episode of Talking Practice, host Grace La interviews Pier Vittorio Aureli, architect, educator, and co-founder of Dogma, an architecture and research-based practice in Brussels. Pier Vittorio reveals early beginnings of Dogma, which started as an academic comradery and became a professional cooperation. He expands on the reception and interpretation of his work and writing, including the contemporary challenges of housing.

As an educator, Pier Vittorio discusses the influence of his teaching and its role on his writing. The conversation sheds light on the imbrication of politics, housing, and social concerns. Pier Vittorio and Grace also discuss academia and why construction is at the “core” of the architectural discipline.

For more on Pier Vittorio Aureli’s work and teaching, check out his lecture – “The Longhouse” and recent publication – “Architecture and Abstraction.”

 

Pier Vittorio Aureli is an architect and educator. He studied at the Istituto di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) and later at the Berlage Institute and TU Delft where he earned his PhD. Aureli currently teaches at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he directs the Laboratory Theory and Project of Domestic Space. Together with Martino Tattara, he is the co-founder of Dogma, an office for architecture based in Brussels. Dogma has developed a specific interest in large-scale interventions, urban research, and especially domestic space and its potential for transformation. Aureli has published many essays and several books, such as The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture (2011), Living and Working (with Dogma, 2022) and Architecture and Abstraction (2023). He is currently working on an anthology of Manfredo Tafuri’s writings.

Grace La is Chair of the Department of Architecture and Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where she served as Chair of the Practice Forum, and former Director of the Master of Architecture Programs. Grace is also Principal of LA DALLMAN Architects, internationally recognized for the integration of architecture, engineering and landscape. Cofounded with James Dallman, LA DALLMAN is engaged in catalytic projects of diverse scale and type. The practice is noted for works that expand the architect’s agency in the civic recalibration of infrastructure, public space and challenging sites.