multitude

Network

Col­lec­tive:

1. Spon­ta­neous asso­ci­a­tion of per­sons united for polit­i­cal or trade union.
2. In a party or a trade union, a group of per­sons with liaisons out­side of the party, who deal with a spe­cific topic or issue.

Plat­form:

1. Fun­da­men­tal pro­gram at the basis of a com­mon action or nego­ti­a­tion car­ried out by a group.

These two words have become the new cliché terms used by archi­tects.
Col­lec­tives or plat­forms are pop­ping up on a daily basis to par­tic­i­pate in com­pe­ti­tions, small projects or pub­licly com­mis­sioned research stud­ies.
Dur­ing the ‘60s and ‘70s, this def­i­n­i­tion was rel­e­vant among stu­dents and work­ers aim­ing at polit­i­cal dis­cus­sion; today, these terms have been revived by archi­tects in order to define their more or less for­mal asso­ci­a­tion and work relationship.

This trend seems to triv­i­al­ize the mean­ing of the word “col­lec­tive.” In fact, it illus­trates that archi­tec­tural firms might be an out­dated set­ting for architecture.

Another phe­nom­e­non of archi­tec­tural prac­tice, which is also expe­ri­enced by other pro­fes­sion­als, is the phys­i­cal aggre­ga­tion of their offices within the same com­pound (or build­ing, block, or neigh­bor­hood).
It favours knowledge-sharing, and stim­u­lates col­lab­o­ra­tions and sol­i­dar­ity; but it also does not elim­i­nate the risk of self– seg­re­ga­tion. Because real inter­dis­ci­pli­nar­ity is lack­ing, the chance to inter­weave work rela­tion­ships with pro­fes­sion­als of other fields could be missed.