Abstract

This paper sets out to describe and conceptualize the social status and role of the architectural profession in post-socialist society. The turn towards market democracy from state socialism changes the material and symbolic conditions of the architectural profession. Privatization of the building and housing sectors transforms the architectural profession from previously a profession that had a say in city development processes into an entrepreneurial profession, depending on commissions from the private sector. In the article, I argue that architects claim a certain status as public intellectuals, but fluctuate towards an autonomisation of aesthetics in architecture, claiming architecture as art and trying to establish cultural capital as a legitimating strategy of certain decisions. The central theme in public discourse on architectu -re – generated by architects – is a dichotomy between architecture as art versus commercialized architecture. In this discourse, the role of “architects’ people” remains preempted. I argue that while claiming a status of “opposition”, architects ultimately add to the establishment and solidification of the current neoliberal order.