The Surrealist Allegorical Architectural Project: Architecture, the Machine, and the Dystopian Condition

Speculative, paper-based allegorical architectural projects are rarely if ever conceived with the intention of being built; rather, they are typically situated as critical reflections on a present and a speculative future characterised by dystopian conditions. Their primary aim is to draw our attention to challenging environmental, political, economic and social issues that characterise our world. The machine has played a vital role in both the advancement as well as the degradation of our environmental, political, economic and social realms. This apparent contradiction situates the machine simultaneously as both protagonist and antagonist in dialectic narratives within the allegorical architectural project. Surrealism provides an important vehicle for telling stories characterised by contradictions, unexpected juxtapositions, and distant realities. This paper looks at the application of surrealist techniques in five allegorical architectural projects where the machine – as architecture – represents both the sanctuary that protects us from a dystopian condition, as well as the technological advancements that caused it. In one example, architecture is composed of five integrated machines that represent time, place and society: a theodolite, clock, compass, camera obscura, and loom. The machines – as architecture – provide a utopian environment inside the architectural habitat; but in doing so, they are destroying the natural environment outside. In another example, architecture is a machine that continually changes form as it builds itself from the debris filling a toxic dump site. The inhabitants of the architectural machine are a network of waste pickers who must recycle salvageable waste to survive, all the while living in a habitat composed of its toxic remains. This paper asks: how can a surrealist approach to the allegorical architectural project provide a voice to architectural landscapes characterised by environmental disaster, so that their tales may be remembered as important lessons for future generations?