This thesis aims to demonstrate the existence, relevance, and implications of amateur archiving practices in architecture as a constitutive part of the continued archival life of records throughout the architectural design process, its administration, dissemination, and research. But how is amateur culture intertwined with architectural documentation within archival practice? Amateur archives of architecture, such as personal collections or informal arrangements of uncatalogued documentation, often blur the lines between historical record-keeping, curatorial engagement, and creative reinterpretation, influencing the ways architectural knowledge is structured, archived, and transmitted. By analyzing the evolving interconnections between archiving and architecture, this research illustrates how each discipline redefines the other through symbiotic interactions between actors who operate interchangeably as amateurs and professionals. At the same time, it expands the role of unofficial or non-institutional preservation practices, challenging traditional archival principles based on permanence, authority, or hierarchy. Instead, it introduces more generative, active, and evolving notions of documentation ecology and fragility, rhetorical power, and historiographical agency in architectural theory.
ETSAM // UPM
