The City as Design Agency: Integrating Design Thinking withthe Political Form of Architecture

Abstract

This study investigates the political dimension of architecture and urban design, focusing on their potential to act as instruments of critical resistance within contemporary governance structures. The research problem centers on the tendency of architects and planners to operate within neoliberal frameworks, which reduces design to a technical and managerial function, limiting its capacity to foster solidarity, social justice, and environmental responsibility. In response, this study examines how design agencies -emerging institutional actors in urban governance- can reposition architecture as a form of political action rather than merely delivering projects. To address this problem, the study hypothesizes that architectural and urban design practices must be reframed through principles of ethics, solidarity, and social repair. It argues that design agencies can develop transformative models that prioritize public benefit and spatial quality, thereby challenging the homogenizing logic of neoliberal urbanization. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative and comparative approach, analyzing global examples of design agencies to examine the relationship between spatial form production and modes of political representation. The theoretical framework draws on Ungers’s “City within the City” and Pier Vittorio Aureli’s notion of “absolute architecture.” These theories provide a lens for understanding how formal autonomy and antagonistic resistance can be institutionalized through design agencies. Ultimately, the study interprets these agencies not as administrative instruments but as urban apparatuses capable of generating political consciousness through spatial form.