We are excited to invite you to contribute to the next issue trans 49 LEFT.
Please turn left.
The last house on the left.
Rive gauche.
Left provides a description and orientation for how to read and navigate space. It derives from Old English «lyft», which means weak, foolish, or useless. This symbolism likely stems from the fact that around 90 percent of people are right-handed, making the left side of the body less skillful for the majority. What is widely considered an objective term for orientation is thus, in fact, a clear demarcation, a result of an arbitrary binary, a concept rooted in bias.
The devil sits on your left shoulder.
A left-handed compliment is not a compliment at all.
To act out of the ordinary is to be gauche.
Left also stands for a political position. This designation originates from the parliament seating arrangement during the French Revolution: Those who advocated for more radical change sat to the left of the president. Today, the Left still holds the promise of greater equality. However, it is also used as a superfluous scapegoat for anything that disrupts the status quo.
Architecture is inherently part of its political, social and economic environment. The left Red Zurich for example laid the foundation for the city’s social housing, now clashing with a private market that sets the pace. So, where do we position ourselves as architects? Studios open up left visions during our studies, but what happens to them once we have left school?
I left home.
They left everything behind.
You are left in the dust.
Left denotes an absence of what was once a certain presence. The act of leaving creates a disruption in time, it changes a given situation. Extractive waste sites and microplastics are left to infest our environment. The building stock and suspended territories, left in a state of uncertainty, are constantly targeted for development. But ultimately, what spaces remain for interpretation and appropriation?
Together in issue 49 we look to the left side. What is left beyond an orientation? What else is there besides the right and the straight? Leave us directions towards alternative futures and leftist visions of the past; show us the left side of a floorplan; write with your left hand; tell us sinister stories and eat up the leftovers of yesterday; focus on the weaker side of yourself.
Send us up to 400 words in English or German via this link by April 10th!
x
Alex, Burak, Charlotte, Simon
NOTES
