The Dialectics of Design

The popularity of deconstructivist architecture around the world has invited controversy over the sensationalist design of these buildings. New urbanists, in particular, have criticized decon architecture as alienating and disorienting. From a historical perspective, this opposition between deconstructivists and new urbanists is the latest in a long line of debates over what constitutes "good design." Using a political-economy approach based on the work of Karl Polanyi, this article examines a centuries-long dialectic in design ideology between those who seek to embed design in social mores and those who attempt to "disembed" it from oppressive discourses. This analysis shows that the dialectic of design movements is intintately connected to the development of capitalist markets.