PHILOSOPHICAL/ARCHITECTURAL INVESTIGATIONS ON CONCRETE Grzegorz Owczarczyk KTH atum semester KTH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2..New
materialism 3.Material assemblage 4.Thousands of years of nonlinear history.
5.Judith Butler, ‘Bodies that Matter’ 6.AFFECT 7. Subnature 8.Peter Sloterdijk, ‘Atmospheres of Democracy’.
INTRODUCTION ARCHITECTURAL/PHILOSOPHICAL INVESITAGTIONS OF CONCRETE In this short booklet I would like to indicate to process of an acquiring philosophical conclusion at the edge of architecture and philosophy. These also will include strictly philosophical stipulation –not directly related to architecture. However, it is important to realize that architecture (and not only architecture) is manifestation of “the will of epoch” (using Mies van der Rohe expression) what also was indicated by authors of analyzed text in short – everything intermingle with each other food ,electricity ,money , human thoughts and beliefs. It is reasonable to think that architecture is an “accumulated reflection” of a spirit of the epoch. If so it is important for architects to understand the cotemporary “spirit of time”. Contemporary times are times of pluralism –there is no one fixed picture of the world neither one fixed style or cannon in architecture. Moreover we realized more our cognitive limitations and complexity of nature which is the main obstacle for feed our stable and determined picture of a world. Part One: New Materialism or Material Assemblages However realization of the fact that architects are in fact actors of bigger whole/system/ “material energy flow” / assemblage is allowing them to act more consciously according to this truth. This knowledge also allows acting more efficiently. Many failures of designing the cities comes from false assumption that architect/ designer are able to design and predict every aspect of
human life. It is also frequent story that architectural designs are used in the way that was not intended – sometimes this usage is beneficial sometimes not as in .the case of modernistic settlements I would like to explore some features of given material namely concrete to show why it is good architectonic material. These conclusions can follow directly form indications of a given theory of architecture or general philosophy. Our tastes about landscape are consequences of an evolution process. We can argue that landscape full of greenery and water would be good supply of resources like food and water. As David Gissen indicated in his book about subnature our predecessors could prefer caves because of it protective qualities. However, today the danger and availability of resources is not important concern as it used to be but our .preference beyond logical reasoning remains On the other hand concrete has many other structural advantages and allows building structure as one monolith. This could satisfy our higher preference namely preference of simplicity as we want to have in science and our system that we design. Valerio Olgiati justifies his approach of designing buildings as one solid just by phrase: “… just because to be more total”. We like consistence and coherence it has something form music .and mathematics. Clarity of forms
2.New materialism -no informative value Consider common statement about matter and things that exist: There are chairs ,tables ,other people etc. everything made of matter . There are also somehow non material things like electro magnetic fields , money ,companies , relations etc. How they are related to matter it isnt defined within common sense convictions. Consider now statement of materialism: only matter exist. Such materialism is rejected by non materialist and new materialists. Consider now statement of new materialism Only matter exist but can manifest in many different aspects. Biology and other sciences explain how other phenomena are repleted to matter. So finally :” There are chairs ,tables ,other people etc. everything made of matter . There are also somehow non material things like electro magnetic fields , money ,companies , relations etc.” wich is the same statement as a common sense conviction.
3.Material assemblage New unpredicted qualities can emerge from enough complicated system. Set of plants can lead to uncontrollable blackout. Enough big set of neurons (brain) can emerge to consciousness. When we consider social behavior of ants it is more natural to think of a set of ants as one organism which can be somehow conscious and solve problems. We can think of humanity as having knowledge and acting as one thing even tough nowadays there is no man who have acquire all human knowledge but it is reasonable to think that humanity as whole have this knowledge and is developing it.
4.Thousands of years of nonlinear history. Manuel Dalanda in his essay shows that inventory of gunpowder and artillery affected and shaped the urban character. This happened because cities were released from protective walls because they didn’t serve its function. In many cases we are not aware what factors determine the shape of a city or a building. This can be aforementioned inventory of new technology, money flow or energy. It this picture I draw an example of a building in an urban tissue that contains these “invisible forces” that actually shape the building and urban settlement.
5.Judith Butler, ‘Bodies that Matter’ In her essay Judith seeks for an ontological place for feminine identity. It is interesting observation to conclude that our identity is at least partially defined but what we are doing. The function of matter emerges into something different. She cites Aristotle to indicate that when we consider wax we can look at is as from material or formal aspect. It is no necessary to ask what more essential form is or matter because there are two aspect of the same thing. Similar thing is when we ask what is mind. We can conclude that this is the aspect of a brain and don’t postulate separate object like immaterial mind. Activity defines identity. Cycling make cyclist not inverse that we born cyclist and then execute this internal quality. The same can apply for feminine identity.
6.AFFECT Nigel Thrift, ‘Spatialities of Feeling’ in Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect, London: Routledge, 2008.
affect is something between bodies ( living or non-living). It is interesting to realize how significantly our behaviors can impact on reality. When Shakespeare wrote the Macbeth the first link in this whole chain of affects was trace of the ink on paper (let’s assume that). Then it affected England at this time and so on. Now this initial trace on paper “affect” our theaters ,computers and finally brains. We can easily observe that everything is connected thorough chain of causality. When we consider movements of particles in air or in some liquid it is very unlikely that small local change in state of some of them can can affect significantly the whole for a longer period of time. This statement in fact very vague because it is relative was does it mean significantly and longer period of time but intuition is clear. Conclusion: Our world is partially organized and partially chaotic. When we think of a chaotic pile of a play-cards our single action can not affect this pile significantly. When we consider a structure of building made of play-cards then single action can destroy the all. Same works for our world one action can have tremendous impact on the whole – because it is organized. Our chains of communication are organized because our society is organized and our society is organized because our brains are organized.
7. David Gissen, ‘Part One: Atmosphere’, in Subnature David Gissen in his book about subnature indicates that there is area of environment that is normally in not taken into consideration during architectonic design process. This sphere can include weeds lichens, mosses puddle. It is interesting and important to see that these factors also affect significantly the final effect of architectural design. We can wish that we would have a clean white modernistic building but during the time it will get old and mosses start to grow on its white and clean walls. It is interesting to realize that we should take into consideration more factors that we normally do like atmosphere smoke and others.
8.Peter Sloterdijk, ‘Atmospheres of Democracy’. Our traditional convictions about relation between politics and space or architecture are not correspondent to truth. We can think that politics decide about architecture – politicians our planner defines master plans and regulations. Government makes an investments in infrastructure but infect this relation is bilateral. Space and architecture affects politics. Our organization of space reflects our political adjustment. We can indicate the type of space that is democratic or autocratic. Another reflection about text that we cannot separate the objects forms their environment and history. It applies for palm trees but also for humans and thoughts and systems. Human when separated from its natural environment can react the same way as palm tree in London. The same apply for system of power. For some society one solution can work for another’s not. This is problem for example in Russian when democracy is at some degree fiction but in Russia for many years there was one strong leader and that is what people expect.
:Bibliography Katie Lloyd Thomas ed. ‘Introduction’, Material Matters: Architecture and Material Practice, London: Routledge, 2007 . Diana Coole and Samantha Frost, ‘Introducing the New Materialism’, in Diana Coole and Samantha Frost, eds, New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010 . Jane Bennett, ‘Preface’; and ‘The Agency of Assemblages’, in Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010 . Manuel DeLanda, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, New York: Swerve, 2000. Excerpt . .Judith Butler, ‘Bodies that Matter’, in Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex, London: Routledge, 1993 Affective Atmospheres .Nigel Thrift, ‘Spatialities of Feeling’ in Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect, London: Routledge, 2008 .Eric Shouse, ‘Feeling, Emotion, Affect’, in Melissa Gregg, ed. ‘Affect.’ M/C Journal 8.6 (2005). 25 Nov. 2011 .David Gissen, ‘Part One: Atmosphere’, in Subnature: Architecture’s Other Environments, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009 .Ben Anderson, ‘Affective Atmospheres’, in Emotion, Space and Society 2, 2009, pp. 77-81 Peter Sloterdijk, ‘Atmospheres of Democracy’, in Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, eds, Making Things Public: Atmospheres of .Democracy, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2005 .Peter Sloterdijk, ‘Gas Warfare–or: The Atmoterrorist Model, in Terror From the Air, LA: Semiotext(e), 2009