Abstract
From a report of two work situations involving a dialogue between architects and social movements, this article attempts to demonstrate how professional practice in unusual contexts escapes the formal protocols, thereby denying generalized characterizations - such as 'the architect', 'architecture' or 'the market' etc. - as well as possible tighter semantic frameworks. The article also attempts to reveal how fragile the more flexible designations become or conceptualizations more rigorous, when facing an unstable reality, thereby denying the traditional protocols of professional practice. From the descriptions and these conjectures, it is suggested that the profession, currently deflated of its public sense and squeezed within the limits of its most mundane commitments, must be reinvented. We therefore speculate as to the possibilities of the profession in assuming new contents and structurally modifying the manner in which it operates its practical attributions.
Keywords:
Professional practice; habitat production; housing and self-management