Storytelling and World-Making: In Search of Political Architecture in the World of Hannah Arendt

This article offers an introduction to Hannah Arendt’s theory of politics and a comment on the relationship between architectural making and action. Targeted specifically at the architectural reception of Arendt, it highlights the distinction between the world of work and the realm of free agency to argue that storytelling—a political act—should be of equal concern to the politically ambitious architect as the making of buildings. Distinct from both fiction and architectural project narratives, Arendt’s storytelling contributes to rethinking the role of the architect in collaborative projects as well as the potential for political agency in architectural works.