Letter to The Guardian, David Chipperfield
'When did we decide beautiful cities were a thing of the past?'
Saturday Letters, The Guardian, 22 March 2014

[EN] - Saying "Yes" to architecture

 

40 Logements - LAN Architectes

To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.- Le Corbusier

The dawn of modernity and it's technological revolution meant that new methods of production were going to transform our lives. These methods of production impacted, not only, how we build but also how and where we live. The urban discourse in the latter half of the nineteenth century was consequently dominated by a dialectic exchange between the ideal and the practical, a debate played out in the formation of the modern metropolis. The Modernist city yearns to be functional and organized as Corbusier demonstrates, To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects. Similarly Auguste Perret stated that architecture is « structuring the chaos within the plot ». Both of these architects used the modernist material by excellence, Concrete.

Modernist Architecture in France marked urban landscapes especially after the war where full cities like Le Havre were rebuilt. But unlike Perret, most of Post-War modernism emphasized the functionalist approach of architecture that was the order of the day, however this modernist approach had lost it's flair, Aldo Van Eyck criticizes it claiming that Post-War modernism had lost the engagement and hope of earlier design in favor of mechanistic designs. In 1947, the architect Aldo van Eyck built his first playground in Amsterdam, on the Bertelmanplein. These playgrounds represent one of the most emblematic of architectural interventions in a pivotal time: the shift from the top down organization of space by modernist functionalist architects, towards a bottom up architecture that literally aimed to give space to the imagination. (1)

Further to this the dissolution of the CIAM's and the rise of new conceptions meant architecture had shifted into Post-Modernity in April 1972. (2). This period meant new experimentations were possible, and that the question of the relation architecture holds towards the city was open again. In France Bernard Huet wrote in 1986 L'architecture contre la ville, an article which proposed a new view of architecture in France, this vision was historicist, and aimed at recreating the diversity of old cities in new districts of Paris. Water Towers became landmarks (3) and Agoras were mimicked. In hindsight such a concept failed. Even Ricardo Bofill who designed Espaces d'Abraxas in Noisy-Le-Grand admits that his utopian heterotropia had failed. (4)

Montigny, near Paris, and "Espace Abraxas" from Ricardo Bofill

Architecture is not against the city, The view embodied by Bernard Huet, and what we call now “Architecture Urbaine” in France is a period where architects said “no” to architecture, in fear, and in sceptisism of what late modernism had produced, architecture was rather something to fill in the gaps of the historic city, mimic them, and adapt itself too modestly to ever become anything in itself, by the end of the 90's this strategy had become as systematic and lazy as Post-War modernism they strongly criticized. What they had created was the city against architecture, standstill.

But this dichotomy is not suited to describe the complexity of contemporary cities and architecture, these poles exist aswell as a myriad of inbetween's (5) I would like to advance here an idea in which the city and architect converse. How does architecture answer the city, and vice versa? A concept where in knowledge of it's context architecture is capable of adapting itself and oscillating between the latter pôles and where is simultaneously say “yes” to architecture and urbanism. The following study will examine three conditions, first of all buildings must affirm their presence, thus being able to answer it's context, but also create a new context on which the city can further develop.

PRESENCE

We know that heroic architecture is risky, but also that all too modest and constrained architecture fails. Modernists found truth in hygienism and function, Post-Modernists in reserve, skepticism and simulacrum. We could admit that there is no truth, and really, in architecture there is no truth to be expected, the architect of today must move forward, for the sake of it, he is searching a truth without expecting to find it (6). Similarly we can't admit the Modern Tabula Rasa, nor the Post-Modern mimics.

Metamodern Architecture must say “yes” and must affirm it's presence, in the way Kahn develops his theory buildings that “want to be something” in, and need aspiration, this aspiration transforms their existence into presence. However we must be aware that presence is not a form of Bilbaoism (7), buildings can be present without stealing the focus, or entering in competition with one another.

Roger Diener is one of these architects who is able to give a real presence to his buildings without undermining the context, his buildings appear timeless, as if they had stood there (8). In Basel along the Heuwaage weg. we can find two buildings by the same architect that both have these characteristics, but are able to stay modest and do not conflict with each-other. Not far away we can find the Picassoplatz, an urban plaza with a project by Diener+Diener and Peter Markli, both these buildings compliment each-other, yet they can also be understood independently. 

Two projects by Diener+Diener

Picassoplatz in Basel - Left : Diener+Diener, Right : Peter Märkli

 

The force of presence of German-Swiss architecture, lies in the concept of Stimmung. It is a fairly complex concept to grasp, as it extremly personnal, Georg Simmel describes as an unity that constantly colors our landscape, this unity exists in the totality of psychics contents, he further describes it as something that penetrates all the details of a landscape without focusing on one element.

ABSTRACTION

The idea of stimmung exists within abstract realms, interestingly abstraction is also a method in which we can say yes to architecture and the city, abstraction is capable to hold the essence of what we claim to do. Building contemporary architecture can seems extremely hard in cities like Paris where the history and image of the city is so strong, it seems almost impossible to build something new and coherent, especially after the failed attempt of Bernard Huet and the “Architecture Urbaine” movement. Yet one building in the district of Clichy-Batignolle, a district in construction, seems to have a whole different approach to this question. The building is named “Hommage a Haussmann” and is a contemporary adaptation of the typical Parisian building.

View from the street

Abstraction has been returning since 1990's with the explorations of architects like Herzog&DeMeuron who wished to explore elements of architecture that had been condemned by the past. This manifests itself mainly in ornaments (see : Semper Reloaded), they are capable of creating an architecture that is fully linked to it's context, and so, can only be present in it's area. Such is the strategy used at the Schaulager where the facade is made with gravel from the site.

In Basel, the Schutzenmatt strasse transfigurates local sewer grates into an element that composes the facade, this heritage is typically from Duchamp, the sewer grates, are a ready made, the ready-made is typically local; as these are the grates you'll find in Basel.

The street façade is made completely of glass and is protected by a cast-iron curtain construction that can be folded back piece-by-piece at will. Wavy light slits lend the curtain construction a flowing textile-like feeling. While the construction hides the living space behind it, its heavy cast-iron material serves as a counterweight protecting against the noisy street side. In both form and material the façade components are related to sewer grates and to the protective grilles placed around trees. Thus, emphasizing they have their origins in the world of the street.

The way contemporary architects have been using Abstraction is typically linked to the concept of the Flaneur that can be itself affiliated to the Metamodern strategy of Neoromantism. The Flâneur aims to discover the multiple realities of the urban space he is discovering, as such projects like the Rudin House in Leymen by Herzog&DeMeuron seem like any old house, but it's abstraction transforms it into something totally new. (9)

Rudin House in Leymen

In a similar, the ornamentation of the Eberswalde library designed by Ruff aims to show what a library is supposed to be, this ornamentation can actually be ignored if you are not interested in it, but a flaneur (10) will want to discover the meanings and interpret the different meanings of this building. Abstraction is here to create a conversation with you, rather than a converting you with “witty ornaments”

SUSTAINABILTY

Finally, the two first strategies are here to create, these buildings are here, and able to become the basis of further architectural creation by setting their own rules, the building in Paris by LAN architectes is capable of being coherent with it's context via the abstraction of an Haussmanian building, yet also create the basis of further creation with it's presence. For this I will talk of two other Parisian buildings. First of all the “Rue des Suisses” where Herzog&DeMeuron combine two typologies to respect the urban context, and create a possible basis for newer projects, secondly a project by Bourbouze & Graindorge proposes a newer project in the place of an old Haussmanian building, it is as such, an Abstract Ghost of the older project. Saying “yes” to architecture is creating sustainability of what we construct tectonically, and the project by Bourbouze & Graindorge allows huge flexibility in it's space through it's structure, the construction is impeccable and makes the project seem timeless, the architects say themselves that “timelessness, is just another word for sustainability” 

 

Bourbouze & Graindorge

Bourbouze & Graindorge

To end this post I would like to cite a modern architect, that for many we have forgotten, Fernand Pouillon, who wanted his architecture to be rather of continuation than revolution

1- Ana Mendez de Andés (red.) (2010) Urbanacción 07/09, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, pp. 25-39.

2- Charles Jencks - Language de l’architecture Post-Moderne, Rizzoli, New York 1977

3- A project by Christian De Portzamparc

4- http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2014/02/08/ricardo-bofill-je-n-ai-pas-reussi-a-changer-la-ville_4359887_3224.html

5- Aldo Van Eyck, the Child, the City and the Artist, Nai1 Publishers, 2008

6- Robin Van den Akker, & Thomas Vermeulen, Notes on Metamodernism, Journal of aestheticsand culture,2011

7-Charles Jencks, Maggie Toy, Ecstatic Architecture: The Surprising Link, Wiley - Academic Editions,London, 1999

8- Joseph Abram, Martin Steinnman, Diener+Diener, Phaidon, 2011

9- Jeffrey Kipnis « A conversation with Jacques Herzog » in : El Croquis 84, Special

10- Charles Baudelaire, Le Peintre de la vie moderne, Paris, Fayard, 2010

[FR] - Architecture Metamoderne?

consult here. 

https://www.academia.edu/13317122/Architecture_Metamoderne_

Update

The blog has been calm lately, mainly because of professional and scholar obligations, however I've passed my jury on "Metamodern Architecture" I will shortly share with you the original french version, and a translated English one.

I have some projects for this summer, on points to explore, mainly about neoromantism and informed naivety.

[FR] - Bjarke Ingels (1/2)

Si Bjarke Ingels aujourd'hui se vend comme étant « unique » Il reste issu des studios OMA ou il a pu y travailler par le passé, en rencontrant Julien de Smedt, L'agence auparavant nommé PLOT enchaine les victoires, avec le premier grand succés étant les logements VM.ce projet fit le tour du Danemark, et pour cause outre son architecture, le bâtiment a coûté moins de 1 000 €/m². Le promoteur commanda à PLOT les mêmes logements quelques années plus tard dans la parcelle d’à côté. Plutôt que de reproduire le projet VM, PLOT dessina The Moutain,un projet qui connut autant de succès.

En 2010 L'agence, devenu BIG, publie « Yes Is More » Ouvrage dans lequel Ingels souhaite mettre a nu la pratique de l'agence pour révéler comment ils pensent, et conçoivent l'architecture. Les premières pages sont très intéressantes car elles mettent en avant le point de vue qu'il souhaite adopté, c'est une synthèse de l'histoire de l'architecture et comment il souhaite apporter du neuf.

Après « Less is More », « Less is Bore », « I'm a whore », « More is more » et « Yes we can », Bjarke Ingels pose « Yes is more », voilà sur quoi il ouvre son Archi-Comicbook « Yes Is More », Dans ces quelques premières pages il essaye de qualifier son agence, et sa pratique comme étant particulière. Sur la page « Yes Is More » Il parle d'une opposition existante entre une avant garde et une tendance plus fonctionnaliste, et souhaite se positionner les deux, C'est la que apparaît le terme «Utopisme pragmatique ».

Stratégie qui 5 ans plus tard, c'est avéré très fructueuse. Elle interèsse très rapidement Robbin Van Der Akker, et Thomas Vermeulen dans le cadre de leur publication sur le metamodernisme « Notes On Metamodernism ». Pour Luke Butcher Ingels « oscillerais entres des positions post-modernes et moderne » englobant des oppoistions intéressantes comme entre,l'utopisme et le pragmatisme, la naïveté et le réalisme, l'idéalisme et le pratique.

les typologies spécifique de Bjarke Ingels sont issu d'une refléction mûre

NOUVELLE GENERATION

Il semble important de préciser les origines de Ingels, plus loin que son rôle a OMA par le passé, et ce sont celle au cœur d'une nouvelle génération d'architectes/artiste Scandinave qui ont tenté de dépasser le Postmodernisme et renouer le style international, c'est ce qu'indique Marie Hélène Contal a propos de Snohetta.

Kjeitel Thorsen, présent depuis l’origine, est l’acteur principal d’une des succés-stories qui ont-vu, au tournant des années 1990, une génération nouvelle s’aranchir du post-modernisme et renouveler l’international design

[...]Réunir architecture et paysage est un concept qui a bien sur de fortes racines nordiques, le rapport a l’identité ce fait plus par la nature que par le construit.

[...]Il s’agit de s’agit de construire une autre approche du projet : intégrer l’architecture et le paysage en une seule conception, oublier les programmes de programmistes et concevoir le projet comme un fragment de territoire, avec sa géographie, son climat, sa société, plutôt que comme objet

Sustainable Design II, Marie-Hélène Contal (2011)

SUSTAINAIBLE HEDONISM

L'association de ces deux mots n'est pas banale pour Bjarke Ingels, les deux sont intiment lié. Il pense que jusqu'à très récemment l'écologie a été perçue comme quelque chose de négatif, une sorte de « dévolution », il souhaite dé-diaboliser l'écologie en architecture, en validant son caractère hédoniste

SUSTAINABILITY

De prime abord. L'architecture durable ne peut pas se constituer en un style architectural puisque ce sont avant tout des questions de gestion et de dispositifs techniques, pourtant des architectes comme Snohetta, BIG, Heatherwick etc.. pourrait nous faire penser autrement, l'approche se joue aussi dans un registre formel, ou la soutenabilité semble dépasser l'écologie simplement, et rentrer dans du social, économique etc..

En 2007 Susannah Hagan étudie dans « Taking Shape » deux strategies existante pour atteindre la soutenabilité de l'architecure, une solution purement téchnique, mais elle conclut que celle si n'est pas suffisante, la deuxieme solution, justement vise a dépasser la technique, a repenser la forme, le programme, le rapport au sol et le paysage il en ressort une architecture bien plus convaincante.

Luke Butcher en parlant de BIG parle de « Métaphores géologique », BIG utilise frequement des reférences formelles tiré de la nature, mais on dépasse la stratégie simplement formelle, il y a des véritables apports dans ces formes, Bjarke Ingels, parle de créer des espaces « réelment fonctionnel et 3D ».

Ce rapport Paysage/Architecture on pourrait l'appeler le « landform building ». Ce nom est emprunté de l'ouvrage de Stan Allen et Marc McQuade (2011), dans lequel les chercheurs de Princeton étudie un nouveau rapport au sol, a l'écologie et aux formes issus de la nature que les bâtiments peuvent avoir. Pour eux il s'agit réelement d'une nouvelle technique de conception

En 2004 en collaboration avec Julien de Smedt, le projet « Little Denmark » voit le jour, ce n'est pas le projet qui a rendu l'agence célèbre, d'autant plus qu'il n'est pas réalisé, mais il a le mérite d'être l'un des plus claire et contemporains quand a la préoccupation des architectes pour l'écologie, et de la mise scène d'un « landform building » 

Projet de Logement "Hualien" au Taiwan semble prendre réference les paysages chinois.

 

Paysages Chinois

Et si le Danemark avait une facture énergétique de 0 ?  (2004)

On commence directement avec la problématique « Et si le Danemark avait une facture énergétique de 0 ? »

Une première partie du projet est une longue analyse de comment les danois utilise l’énergie, une conclusion étant que 90% de l'électricité sert au chauffage et 10% au reste. Il en résulte d'un « €cosystème », l'analyse continue avec la volumétrie et son rapport au soleil, ombres etc.. Il en résulte quand au programmes des éléments mis en ensemble, qui a priori n'aurait pas de lien, mais génèrent une richesse 

€cotopia de "Little Denmark" 2004

Formellement nous sommes typiquement dans le registre des « landforms buildings », on aurait, assez ironiquement, a faire a une chaîne de cinq sommet dans un pays extrêmement plat, chose que Ingels cite a propos du Danemark plusieurs fois dans 'Yes is More'

Si le projet du little denmark met en avant la « sustainability » il met moins en avant le caractère hédoniste qu'il semble rechercher... 

Maquette de little Dnmark.

 

                     HEDONISM

Le deuxieme terme de l'expression est donc l'hédonisme, l'hédonisme c'est : est une doctrine philosophique grecque selon laquelle la recherche du plaisir et l'évitement du déplaisir constituent l'objectif de l'existence humaine. Pour Bjarke Ingels, on cherche le plaisir dans l'architecture, le véritable plaisir de pratiquer un espace, d’être surpris parc ce qu'on peut y trouver, émerveillé par le monde construit.

L 'hédonisme est un nom qui revient de plus en plus aujourd'hui dans les pratiques artistiques et architecturale, mais BIG ne fait pas dans l’orthodoxie, par exemple, en imaginant une piste de ski au sommet d’un centre de traitement des déchets à Copenhague ou en donnant à un immeuble de logements, à l’ouest de Manhattan, la forme d’une pyramide évidée afin d’offrir une cour de verdure. Avec une sincérité enfantine et une belle énergie.

Belle energie qui pose question a Martino Stierli qui a la biennale de Venise de cette année, dans le pavillon de Monditalia propose une recherche intitulé " The architecture of Hedonism : Three villas on the island of capri ». Il se demande d'ou vient se caractère Hédoniste ?

Installation a la biennale de Venise de 2014

Pour l'historien suisse, il s'agit non pas de raconter l'imaginaire collectif de luxure et décadence totalle de Capri, mais surtout de la mettre face a face a des problématique sociale, artisitques, architecturales etc contemporaine. Le registre hédoniste du projet sur capri est bien loin de celui de BIG, A Capri on était qui on voulait dans un plaisir personnel, Capri devient l'ile des individualistes, chez BIG il s'agit d'une émulation collective, on l'on reçoit le même plaisir mais pour reprende Martino Stierli, on recherche un lieu ou « s'échapper, un lieu des rêves fugitif, et de l'autrement » 

http://www.architectureofhedonism.ch/ 

Ode a l'hédonisme, l'exposition de 2010 de Shanghai avait pour thème « Better City, Better Life » et la réponse de BIG pour le pavillon du Danemark prendra réellement une dimension hédoniste, et « l'autrement » au pied de la lettre. Un ami a moi de Shanghai avait visité l'exposition universelle et m'avait fait part de la spécificité du pavillon du Danemark et de ces 1001 vélos

1001 Vélos danois a Shanghai (2010)

« Better City, Better Life » L’élément déclencheur du projet, c'est la comparaison entre Copenhague et Shanghai, des villes qui démontrent des tendances opposés, la chine favorisant la voiture, symbole même de son industrialisation massive depuis 1978, et Copenhague se dirigeant a nouveau vers le vélo, avec des collectifs pro-actifs comme Copenhaguenise, qui milite pour le vélo en ville. La direction du projet a été de promouvoir le vélo comme un élément attractif a Shanghai

Le bâtiment est conçu comme une spirale pour piétons et sportifs. Doté de pistes cyclables, les vélo sont mis à disposition gratuitement, et sont gardé par la ville après l'exposition. Le pavillon offre déjà une grande générosité par rapport a comment il se pratique, la circulation est fluide, et la forme généreuse par rapport a cela

Une autre générosité c'est celle de la statue au centre, il s'agit belle est bien de la petite sirène danoise, qui a été déplacé de Copenhague a Shanghai, assez ironique, dans un pays connu pour ses répliques architecturales immodestes..

Hédonisme, générosité, pavilion du Danemark a l'exposition de 2010

[EN] - Utopias Return ?

In my researches about Metamodernism, and investigations on metamodern architecture, I come ask myself about utopia, as the dutch theorists Van Der Akker and Vermeulen claim, utopia could be on it's way back, as we have kept a post-modern attitude but with the return of Modern positions. Antoine Picon has written about this in architecture, and in 2013 Ursprung held a workshop at D-Arch in Zurich, let's see what they have to say. 

Utopia may well be back, but what we must question is how it is manifesting itself? and also, why has it returned? 

-------------------

A few years ago, the subject of utopia and its relation to architecture was solely of historical interest. The utopian character of modern architecture has often been denounced, and is held responsible for the mistakes of modern urbanism. Modern architects, it was said, had jeopardized the quality of life in their attempts to change society. In his 1973 essay, Architecture and Utopia, the Italian historian Manfredo Tafuri was even more severe.

He believed the utopian streak of modern architecture was based on the fundamental delusion that Capitalism needed architectural and urban order to function in an efficient manner. In order to counter this, Rem Koolhaas and his followers tried to connect architecture with the real trends of the times, beginning with the accelerated circulation of people, goods and money, as well as sprawling urbanization. In order to cope with the prevailing conditions of the "generic city", architecture had to abandon its pretensions to change the world in a demiurgic manner.

It had to become realistic, in tune with what was really happening in the world, rather than pursuing the old pipe dreams of modernity.

For Koolhaas, this meant the study of urban areas such as Lagos, which present great problems for mainstream modern architecture and urban planning.However, there have recently been some changes. Utopia is returning to favor, such that it is being mentioned again at architectural exhibitions, and in books and lectures.

Considerable interest has developed in post-war utopian and counter-utopian movements. The megastructural projects of the 1950s, the Archigram legacy and the provocations of early 1970 Radical architecture movements, are being scrutinized in detail, not only by theorists and historians, but also by a growing number of practitioners.

These movements have created an agenda that we still share today. The early megastructures and other radical provocations offered the possibility of redefining design objectives and methods, by taking intoaccount new technologies emerging at the time; electronics, computers and new media were playing a more prominent role.

And because architectural discourse and practice are usually about endorsing the present state of things instead of proposing alternative futures, there is a growing dissatisfaction with the estrangement of architecture from political and social concerns. Megastructural and radical architecture interest us today for their capacity to imagine a different future. Conversely, the influence radical architecture has exerted on designers such as Koolhaas or Tschumi tend to demonstrate that utopia is not necessarily a sterile concept, that it can steer architecture and provoke its renewal.

Thus we clearly have something to learn from the utopian tradition, but we must avoid the temptation to idealize it, after having discarded it for so long. Despite its ambition to

transcend the flow of historical conditions, utopia is actually deeply historical; its status and content have changed throughout history, and its connection to architecture is thus more complex and ambiguous than usually assumed.

Let me be clear that I am notagainst the architectural star-system, globalization, and

digital culture, nor the transformation into icons of projects like the Guggenheim

Museum or the Seattle Library. But do we need perhaps to replace them in the perspective of a different future? How can we otherwise restore hope? In the past year, we have forgotten that architecture is also about the hope of a different and better future, and this is its real political and social function. This hope cannot be found in traditional formulas; the issue is no longer to design ideal cities or plans. The first lesson of history is to try not to repeat itself; a new kind of utopian perspective is needed today. Its starting point must be present day conditions, one of which is the blurring between nature and technology. Sustainable development also has to start from this point; for instance, in projects like the Fresh Kills Park, in New York, created on one of the world's largest dumps, the designers have had to put vents for the gases still produced in the underground as well as all kind of monitors.

Indeed, the true importance of the individual in a world that is unfolding before our eyes

remains unclear. Our age of paroxysmal individual expression, from iPod playlists to

blogs, is also one of increased anonymity, because of the sheer number of potential authors. Should architecture participate in the individual screening that is going on from consumer markets to security administrations, or should it rather play on the new conditions created by modern communication media? The answer is far from clear. Speaking of the individual, one cannot but be struck by the importance of faculties such as sensory experience. Architecture has recently preferred abstract schemes; a return to experiential dimensions may bring back richer sensory experiences. However, the advent of the digital age implies that these sensory experiences differ greatly from traditional ones.

Ultimately, a new utopian concept may necessitate a different sort of relationship

between image and practice, which will determine architecture’s social impact. The hope it inspires is linked to the perception of how images and projects relate to reality, and how they can be realized. This in turn raises the question of mediation and media. Key moments in the history of the interaction between architecture and utopia often correspond with a redefinition of the relationship between image and practice. One such instance came at the end of the eighteenth century,

Boullée produced spectacular, innovative drawings at a timewhen architecture was being regarded as an integral part of the public sphere, and was widely discussed. The press became the dominant medium during the nineteenth-century. New journals, e.g. the Saint-Simonian Le Globe and the Fourierist La Phalange appeared, and many former members of the Saint-Simonian and Fourierist movement became founders of, or contributors to, such journals. Similarly, one could argue that Archigram and Radical architecture reflected the reorganization ofthe relations between image and practice implied by the media of their time, from television to the first computers. Like Pop Art, they participated in this reorganization. The utopian dimension of architecture is inseparable from the question of how we communicate architectural concepts to the public; digital media present the obvious route, although this is more problematic than usually assumed. Take Toyo Ito's Sendai Mediatheque, or Foreign Office Architect’s Yokohama Terminal; not withstanding the continuous chain of computer documents linking the initial concept to the finished structure, the eventual realization differs markedly from the initial idea. Reinventing utopia today might ultimately not only be about sustainability or contemporary emergencies, as considered by Shigeru Ban;these issues are of course absolutely imperative, but we need also improve the linking of digital imagery to reality.

What radically different future lies in such links? This may prove to be one of the questions

architecture has to address today. 

-------------------------------

Discussion between Ute Meta Bauer (middle) and Pedro Gadanho (right), moderator Mechtild Widrich (left). First AAHA meeting at ETH Zurich, May 2, 2013

 

Utopian thinking in art and architecture today demands crossing the line between freeform planning and precise observation. Therefore, limits will occupy us both in the form of borders (real or imagined) between the disciplines of art and architecture as well as theory and practice and as literal political demarcations of great urgency within contemporary art and architecture. The three sections of the conference are organized around the themes of geographic boundaries (Tensions), utopian worldmaking (Visions), and production of social effects (Agency). The participants come from theory as well as from artistic and curatorial practice.

This public workshop is the first meeting of the international network Art and Architecture History Assembly, which was founded by scholars at ETH Zurich, MIT, and the University of Western Australia. The AAHA approaches the porous boundaries between art and architecture and the less steady academic dialogue between these disciplines from a global perspective, concentrating on themes of interchange between countries, regions, and cultures.

------------------------

http://www.gta.arch.ethz.ch/events/utopias-return

http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10579145/Picon_LearningFrom.pdf?sequence=1

[EN] - Evolving Ornaments - Semper Reloaded

« The relationship between abstract art and Modernist architecture was particularly strong in the early twentieth century. Many painters paid homage to architectural principles in their abstract compositions. Some, such as Kazimir Malevich in works he called architectonics, went so far as to experiment with three-dimensional extrapolations of ideas first explored in paintings.

A number of artistic groups and movements evolved around the formation of polytechnic schools, which taught the integration of art, architecture, and design. The most famous of these was the Bauhaus, founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius. His design for the school s buildings in Dessau (constructed in 1926), a series of interlocking geometric forms around a central matrix, embodies the transformation of an abstract, planar composition into a functioning, three-dimensional form. One of the great landmarks of the twentieth century, Gropius' Bauhaus buildings exemplify the primary tenets of Modernist architecture: the celebration of industrial materials and construction techniques, and the banishing of ornament and handcrafted elements in favor of a sleek, machinelike aesthetic. »

http://artnetweb.com/abstraction/architec.html

With Mondrian, gone were the references to nature, the city was to inspire us, this inserts itself in an intellectual evolution towards abstraction, Mondrian himself experienced too

Following this postmodernist architecture in America tried insertion of ornaments with the likes of Venturi and the New York V, Postmodernity in architecture is said to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" (to recall Dennise Scott-Brown) to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. As with many cultural movements, some of Postmodernism's most pronounced and visible ideas can be seen in architecture. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist style are replaced by diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Perhaps most obviously, architects rediscovered the expressive and symbolic value of architectural elements and forms that had evolved through centuries of building which had been abandoned by the modern style. 

 Since the 1990's certain architects have been demonstrating a position inbetween these, the ornament exists, and it's signification aswell, as I said in a previous post, the ornament has went from a conversion to a conversation. We can also note that the modern concept of abstraction has interested these architects.

So from here on we can ask ourselves, how does this abstraction manifest itself ? And what may have caused it ?

A possible answer, is Gottfried Semper, conteporary architects seem to have re-started where Semper left. For Semper adorning to « impose a natural order to the object » and the buildings become an extension of the natural order. Adornment, or « bekleidung » in german was first introduced in his four elements, the adorned wall is the « Gewänd » . In Semper's theoretical work the

Indeed, during an era increasingly suffused by the mechanical replication of historicist ornament, Semper’s theoretical valuation of functional form is prophetic of developments that emerge in the next fifty years. It is no accident that in the first decades of the twentieth century, August Schmarsow would still invoke Semper when describing the formal principles (Gestaltungsprinzipien) of ornament in terms of proportionality, symmetry, and direction. Perhaps Semper’s greatest contribution was the transformation of the ornamental artifact into an experimental model by which the architect, theorist, or historian can test a number of alternative.

Ricola Center - Photographed by Thomas Ruff

Ricola Europe's new factory building is located at an idyllic wooded site between the Rhine-Rhone Canal and the river Ill on the southern edge of the city of Mulhouse. The building is to be used simultaneously as a factory and for storage. Its simple hall with flexible floor plan divisions offers the perfect solution.

The building’s form recalls a cardboard box lying on the floor with open flaps. The cantilevered extending roofs on the two long sides open up both to the landscape and to the entrance and loading areas for fork lifts and transport vehicles, as well they create shade and weather protection. The short sides of the factory building are each closed by a black concrete wall. Water from the roof runs down over these black concrete walls and trickles into a deep bed of Alsatian gravel. The water running down the walls forms a fine film of plant life; a natural drawing ensues.

Both long walls are light walls providing the work area with constant, pleasantly filtered daylight. Light filtering occurs through printed translucent polycarbonate façade panels, a common industrial building material. Using silkscreen, these panels are printed with a repetitive plant motif based on photographs by Karl Blossfeldt. The effect the panels have on the interior can be compared to that of a curtain – textile-like – that creates a relationship to the sites trees and shrubs. Viewed from outside, the translucent printed panels on the façade and the extended roof again recall textiles – the lining of a dress or the inner padding of a box. If daylight diminishes, the printing is barely visible from outside and the material of the façade panels becomes much stronger. Their surfaces then seem rather closed and smooth, and their expression becomes more like that of the buildings concrete side walls.

Semper's theory is at work here, in two ways. First of all the main facade, the leaves, taken from Blossfeldts photographs. The photographs from Blossfeldt have a common interest with Sempers search with the origins of forms, where Semper demonstrates mathematically an Almond, Blossfledt question the origins of the shapes of nature, noting that those are never regular. The leaf facade is in Semperian terms a « Gewand » it erases the arbitrary divisions between nature and art, between nature and art, between the « Mauer » as an opaque element, and a « Mauer » as a « Gewand », a thick transparent Gewand. The second element on the building to recieve these neo-romantic distinctions between nature and culture is the side concrete wall that leave the rain fall down, letting the action of water « draw » this facade.

The ornament is also technical, indeed buildings like the Ricola Building, or the concrete Sgraffiti technique we talked about in the Eberswalde library demostrates exactly this, in Nottingham Caruso St John were selected to design Nottingham’s new Centre for Contemporary Art through an international competition in 2004. The artistic ambition of the project, encompassing object based visual art and time based performance art, has its origins in the artist run spaces of down town New York in the late 1960s, and in the work of artists like Gordon Matta Clark and Trisha Brown, whose work was directly engaged with the spaces of the city. The site for the new building is in a part of central Nottingham called the Lace Market, whose history and built form has parallels with the cast iron district of New York, giving the Centre a loose cultural connection to its site. In our design, we set out to offer a wide range of interiors that will have the variety and specificity of the found spaces of a factory or warehouse, within a new building: rooms that will challenge the installation and production of contemporary art and offer new ways for performers and audiences to interact.

The exterior of the Centre takes its inspiration from the amazing 19th century buildings of Nottingham, and in particular, from the impressive façades of the Lace Market. Once the heart of the world's lace industry during the days of the British Empire, it is full of impressive examples of 19th century industrial architecture and thus is a protected heritage area. It was never a market in the sense of having stalls, but there were salesrooms and warehouses for storing, displaying and selling the lace. 

Caruso&St-John's strategy was an austere, almost industrial building, that dared kitsch, not wit. In EL-CROQUIS, Adam Caruso claims that he is never scared of doing a kitsch building, and with it's golden elements, the architects demonstrate a certain stance and courage. But what is also interesting is in-between these golden elements, the « lace face », it typically is an abstraction of Nottingham's context, the ornament here has phenomenological aspect, from close we see it differently than from far away, again, like in previous posts, the adornment is extremely modest. To finish on the Nottingham contemporary, the architects, in many projects want to affirm the facade, the strength of the wall.

With such technical feats, one last question has yet to be answered, are we ornamenting buildings, or building ornaments? 

In my next post, I will dive into historical reasons that could have caused this evolution of ornaments.

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www.artnetweb.com/abstraction/architec.html

www.carusostjohn.com/

www.herzogdemeuron.com/

Carrie Asmann : Ornament and Motion 

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