Future and futureability

Regimes of historicity, criticism of design, architecture and culture — from modernity to the opening of possibilities

Abstract

This paper relates temporal dimensions, historicities, and architectural criticism, among other related subjects. Seeks to comprehend the modulations of coexisting temporalities, which designate different standpoints within the historiographical field — both in modernity and contemporaneity. It is motivated by two inflections in the current historicity regime. The first one is the historicist, in contrast to the previous futurist impetus. The second one is at debate, would it be: presentism, updatism or/and futurability. The study shows the predominance of a present-future or an imminence of the future within Modernity, which could persists nowadays in a pluriversal, intercultural and pro-commons way. Thus, it points out a possible transition from the historicity regime of Modernity, derived from its evident crisis linked with the irrationality of capitalism — through presentism and updatism. These processes provide the condition for opening up the possibilities of futurability, since it is the formation of the modern capitalist culture that is expressed by defuturing means, being an obstacle for recognizing plural chronologies.