by Mahshid Rezaei
This is not a call for chaos.
To think anarchically is to remain curious. To ask why and why not before accepting what is given.
The opposite of order, then, is not chaos — it is freedom of thought.
In architecture, the tension between control and freedom is constant.
Our discipline tends to equate harmony with hierarchy, believing that order and predictability bring peace to urban life. Yet, as Richard Sennett reminds us, the vitality of the city lies precisely in its disorder — in its unfinishedness, friction, and improvisation.
What if harmony doesn’t come from uniformity, but from difference?
Giancarlo De Carlo once wrote:
“Architecture should not unify, but the opposite — encourage differences.”
When I first visited Barcelona, I finally understood what he meant.
The city breathes through its contrasts — Gothic and Modernist, planned and improvised, structured yet unpredictable. It reminded me of Sicily; it reminded me of freedom.
A non-authoritarian architecture does not suppress diversity; it gives it form.
Perhaps our task is not to impose order, but to find coherence within plurality — to design spaces that adapt, evolve, and invite participation.
“If architecture lets go of the authoritarian positions it holds today and moves to the side of the people, the people will defend architecture.”
— Giancarlo De Carlo
Maybe we all need to be anarchists — at least every once in a while.
Not to reject order, but to embrace the creative potential of disorder.