A Flat World for a Short Real

Short Real is the territory where the discourse of architecture thrives on binary oppositions and metaphors at the expense of the everyday and earthly realities of architecture. It produces a conspiracy that propagates that the Hinged-Door-Leaf (the door) only becomes architecture when it is 'a self-referential sign' ('doorness') or a subjective 'place' (the 'threshold'). Although seemingly contradictory, both concepts bestow 'architecture' with an 'essence': something that 'happens in the mind', is absolute and is analogous to philosophical ideals. These concepts undermine the Genius of architecture as a unique design discipline that is 'deceptive', contingent and paradoxical. Flat World, as the territory of operation for the projects presented here, forges Design-Conspiracies to Negotiate the Conspiracies of Short Real by focusing on the ubiquitous Workings of the Hinged-Door-Leaf and employing the Paranoid-critical Method (PcM) of Surrealism. It situates its operations at 'point supreme' where all oppositions are present without being 'contradictory'. The Design-Conspiracies challenge conventions and rethink the relationship of elements of Construction that make the Hinged-Door-Leaf architects' greatest invention. In the process, Design-Conspiracies manage to envision another way that architecture, humans and the built world can relate to one another.