Study. Be silent. Die: indeterminate architecture and the dispositif of studentification

This paper aims to explore the relationship between architecture and social movements in general and the indeterminate architecture of ruin and an event of squatter protest in particular. As a speculative project it reflects upon an architectural setting in which a protest took place in 2011 at the University of Sydney in Australia. Examining the architecture of this specific event and the ways architecture allows such turbulent moments to emerge are the focus of this paper. In this examination I combine the Foucauldian notion of dispositif with the emerging notion of studentification (formulated within the disciplines of geography, sociology and urban planning) in order to understand the role of architecture as a significant element in the rise of urban uprisings.