For the first of a series of public conversations structured as duels and duets, Hernan Diaz Alonso proposes investigating the idea of the architect, precedent, and genealogy. Brett Steele responds by arguing that duels and duets are ritualized forms of conflict that have renewed relevance, and outlines oppositional pairs that have defined architecture from Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas. Diaz Alonso and Steele discuss the tribalization of architectural culture, nostalgia versus history, the need to create audiences for architecture, and the fragmentation of the avant-garde in the absence of historical enemies.