Editorial

Abstract

This new issue of Materia Arquitectura, the last
of 2022, explores ideas about architectural refusals as opportunities to position ourselves in the face of contemporary debates and problems. Refusals can represent, in this case, more than a simple abstention or rejection and takes on relevance as a definition of the architectural practice, of what architects should do and how they should do it. This can be read in various ways throughout the issue: as a professional decision on how to situate oneself within the architectural practice, in how to approach methodologies of teaching architecture, as a way of operating in architecture through projects and material processes, or in questioning how we face an increasing —and sometimes inescapable— virtualisation of human relations in digital spaces and even in abstraction from our physical surroundings.