In No Time

Temporal Foundations of the Concept of Competency

Abstract

The text explores the construction of architectural competency, starting from the entwinement of the terms competence and competency. We define the distinction through the problem of time. Competence is atemporal in nature, while  competency is necessarily directed at the present. This bond is explained through defining competency as the ‘capacity of the production of the new’, in which the act of production is impossible outside the actuality of the present moment. Architectural competency is described through the extensiveness of theory, which obviates the production of the new. Therefore, we define it as the ‘production of the conditions for the production of the new’. ‘Production of the conditions’ here means constructing the problem as the body of the concept. This concept transfors the problem of ‘extensiveness’ into ‘intensiveness’ as creative potential. Thus, ‘the creation of conditions for the production of the new’ could be a rush towards the actual moment.