Architecture and Sociology: A Sociogenesis of Interdisciplinary Referencing

Abstract

In this article, I examine the relationships between architecture and sociology through a historical lens. I provide an analysis of their cross-referencing since their respective disciplinary foundations in line with the histoire croisée [crossed history] approach. I also address the positions held by architectural researchers in sociology and by sociologists in architectural research both at the level of the disciplinary object itself—"architecture" and "society"—and at the level of the disciplines themselves: Do architectural researchers work with sociological knowledge or collaborate with sociologists and vice versa? In the reconstructed narrative, I demonstrate that, despite repeated attempts at rapprochement, collaborations did not become sustainable until the early 2010s, when—in the course of the what became known as the "design turn"—fundamental new aspects in interdisciplinary referencing could be observed, pointing to an integrative quality in both disciplines.