Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability

This forensic process—what Weizman calls ‘architecture in reverse’—shows how the analytical and presentational skills of architects can be deployed in graphic, damning detail, in circumstances that extend way beyond the comfort zone of the drawing board. – Guardian

The perspective shift he offers is no less than the image of a planet overrun by human machinations. Weizman presents the idea of human history written only by and for nation states, not their people. When we conceive of justice for ourselves and the world, that lens is always prefigured for the state viewpoint. But perhaps through experts like Weizman and his colleagues at Forensic Architecture, total control of that lens can be wrested little by little, to accommodate those who need it most. – New Scientist

Forensic Architecture highlights critical issues that must be discussed, as uncomfortable as they make people feelÂ…. The book exposes readers to a candid, much-needed understanding of the relationship between settlements, architecture, politics, and violence. This awareness is even more important in developed countries whose advocacy is necessary for wrongdoings like those described within the book to be recognized. – Spacing

Endorsements

The investigative work of Eyal Weizman and his colleagues at Forensic Architecture is truly remarkable, breaking novel theoretical ground while actively supporting struggles for justice. Again and again, landscapes of power, violence, resistance and ecological stress are transformed in stunning new ways. Among the many revelations in these pages is a new mapping of the connections between climate-change, drought, drones and armed conflict. These are powerful analytic tools that will be indispensable to the construction of a new human rights framework.

Naomi Kleinauthor of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

In many respects Forensic Architecture is the current reincarnation of Soviet Russia’s Factography, a collective enterprise that, in the 1920’s and 30’s, was geared towards the construction of facts, as opposed to merely documenting them. The difference between both endeavors, each similarly brazen in taking advantage of unprecedented advances of media technology, is that the facts that Forensic Architecture wishes to (re)construct are for the most part acts of state violence that the perpetrating state deliberately conceals. Those facts are registered in buildings (or traces thereof), which Weizman and his team equate both to photographs (sensors) and to tools for decoding other sensors (such as the clouds of smoke hovering over a bombed city). Analyzing the vast bank of images provided by social media in conflict zones through a computation of differential parallaxes, Forensic Architecture is fast becoming the most efficient visual machine against the suppression of evidence by the authors of crimes against humanity. Recent history tells us that its work will be evermore needed.

Yve-Alain Bois

In a world where environmental crimes are increasingly linked to human rights violations, Forensic Architecture has become an essential practice. Weizman and his team have understood how the tools of science and architecture can influence and transform the juridical system.

Baltasar Garzónformer Spanish investigating judge and president of the human rights foundation FIBGAR