Rereading the Theory of Matter in Architecture: From Neutral Objecthood to Dynamic Agency; The Intersection of Historical Materialism and Neomaterialist Frameworks

Abstract

Through a critical rereading of the theory of matter in architecture, this discourse emphasizes that the concept of neutral matter in the dominant discourse is not an inherent quality of materials, but rather the rigid outcome of epistemological and institutional regimes; systems that reduce the material body to an abstract and interchangeable unit, and systematically exclude the history of extraction, labor relations, the fluidity of circulation, and the temporalities of decay and afterlives from the realm of architectural explanation. In response to the necessity of moving beyond the schism between historical materialism and new materialism, the article presents the Dialectical Model of Mediated Material Agency (DMAM) as an explanatory engine. This model redefines agency as the causal efficacy of materials, and mediation as the institutional processes that activate, constrain, or direct that efficacy throughout all stages of the life cycle. In the operational phase, through the Mediated Agency Protocol (HMAP), this theoretical apparatus is transformed into a replicable research methodology that encompasses stages such as stabilizing system boundaries, identifying material capacities, mapping mediating constructs, and coding evidence along the sixfold mechanisms of M1 to M6. The final output of this method is the formulation of comparable mechanistic profiles that expose material neutrality as a systematic pattern of exclusion and elevate agency from the level of metaphor to traceable causal consequences. Thus, architecture transcends the mere realm of object production and attains the status of managing historical-material chains of consequence.