Contemporary architectural discourse seems to suffer from a critical "loss of faith". It seems, ironically, that at the very moment in which a solid critical apparatus would be useful, its conditions of deployment are among the least favorable. Ours is of course not the first such moment. Indeed, the difficulty or impossibility of criticism and critical thought has been a frequent theme of criticism itself.

Keynote speakers will include:

• Christian Bouchindhomme, philosopher (F)
• Jimmy Durham, artist (US), in a video interview with Koen Van Synghel (B)
• Jane Rendell, architect and historian (GB)
• Alejandro Zaera Polo, architect and theoretician (GB, N)

"Critical Tools" will also feature selected papers from several continents, touching on one or more of the following questions:

• Is criticism/critical thought still possible? Has it ever been?
• What's in an adjective: critical history, critical theory, critical practice?
• What is the anatomy of the un-critical: relativism, advertising, the star system?

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