The Architectural Performative on the Threshold between the Domestic and the Extreme: A feminist performance mapping the femicides in the public performing space

Περίληψη

Drawing on Lambert’s (2012) classification of architectural realms as the “Extreme” and the “Domestic,” this paper explores the performativity of conventional architecture in everyday life and examines how its narratives, qualities, meanings, and functions shift in response to political and social extremes. The central question emerges from the premise that emergency conditions radically transform architectural spaces themselves (e.g., a flat, a university building, or a beachfront villa), giving rise to new spatial typologies.

If architecture is understood as textual, and architectural texts are always structured in relation to their context, then political extremes inevitably reshape the semiotic framework of existing architecture. Under such conditions, certain spaces enter an altered operational state in which their dominant functions are displaced or transformed, producing a distinct effect on lived reality. This phenomenon resonates with Austin’s (1975) theory of language, particularly his concept of “performatives” — utterances that are neither true nor false but actively shape the reality in which they operate.

The “architectural performative” is therefore defined here as a text that is produced by architecture that has been transformed by political or social crises. Situated at the threshold between the Domestic and the Extreme, this mode of architecture is characterised by intentional misuse. This paper demonstrates how, in such circumstances, architecture adopts or produces diverse performative roles, ranging from a weapon to a symbolic catalyst for social change.