_ ON HOT ARCHITECTURE: OBJECT VS CULTURE CANDELA OLIVA VARIER
The Pao for the Tokyo Nomad Girl project (1985), by Toyo Ito, introduces the vision of a “urban nomad” immersed in the bubble of booming Japan. The performance of the building’s skin as an ephemeral interface between building and city informs Ito’s explorations, illustrated also in his project Tower of Winds (1986). Through his investigations of the border of the virtual and the physical, Ito proposes an answer to a new condition, that of the contemporary Asian metropolis in its transformation by popular culture and information society.
It is important to highlight that the concept of “culture” is used here as understood by Michael Hays: an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior. Hays, along with other theorists like Eisenman, defends the disappearance of this homo universalis out of the equation of architecture. The result would be an architecture preoccupied only with itself, able to be critical. In fact, he describes Mies van der Rohe as one of the few capable of producing truly critical architecture, and his Friedrichstrasse skyscraper project of 1922, as a masterwork of “reciprocity between the corporeality of the architectural object and the images of culture that surround it”. Ito also understood this relationship. As a matter of fact, the Pao for the Tokyo Nomad Girl shares with Mies’ skyscraper project the basic mechanism of physical and conceptual relation of the architectural object and the city.
The Pao for the Tokyo Nomad Girl is a portable parasite to the city of Tokyo. It takes over the infrastructures of work and leisure, reducing the space for privacy to light, minimal and mobile elements, that host the activities most linked with the existence of the Nomad Girl: information, rest and embellishment. For her, the concept of a house is scattered throughout the city, and life happens while she uses fragments of urban space as if it were a collage. The shed or pao consists on a bed and three pieces of furniture around it. The most important is the “intelligent cabinet”: it holds a device that provides and stores information on what is happening in the city. It is an information capsule that allows the girl to navigate the city. The others are a boudoir (the Nomad Girl needs to fix her look before going out to the urban stage) and a food cabinet. (1)
The Nomad Girl and her chrysalis home dissolve in the urban sphere of Tokyo: they surf the chaos of the city without resisting its movement, ideas and actions, the same way as Friedrichstrasse skyscraper surfs every-day over-stimulation (2). And by surfing the city, they are able to criticize it. The difference between both lies in the screen that allows the architectural object to interact with the context: in the case of the
1. IDENBURG Florian, Relazioni Nell’architettura di Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa, postmedia 2010 2. HAYS Michael, “Critical Architecture: Between Culture and Form”, Perspecta, Vol. 21. Yale School of Architecture, 1984, pp. 14-29
pao it is an actual screen (the intelligent cabinet), while the skyscraper uses its convex, glass courtain wall to absorb, mirror or distort theimmediate images of city life. As Hays would put, in both cases the solicitation of experience is intrinsic to the meaning of the works, being critical interpretations of their worldly situations.
Another discussion on the critical role of Ito’s work may derive from his description of the Pao for the Tokyo Nomad Girl as an extension of the girls’ skin, a metallic garment that allows for more intense, distorted ways of perceiving the urban environment. This refers directly to Marshall McLuhan’s theories of technological determinism, as Toyo Ito mentions in his article “The Image of Architecture in the Electronic Age” (3), under a paragraph conveniently titled “Architecture in the Electronic Age is an Extended Form of Media Suit”. McLuhan explains how different technologies imply extensions of the human body and its subsequent effects in the society. This gathering of information is necessarily biased by the media, which enable certain ways of understanding. What is more, he proposes that the medium of communication is actually more important than the content, and labels them as “cool” (high
3. ITO Toyo, “The Image of Architecture in the Electronic Age”, Domus Vol. 800, 1998, p.29
definition media, like television) and “hot” (low definition media, such as books)(4). According to this classification, both Mies’ and Ito’ s work would be utterly hot: they require the observer’s participation to make up for missing information, by interpreting the data that the architectural medium offers in a biased manner through the glass reflections and through the intelligent cabinet respectively.
4. MCLUHAN Marshall, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1st Ed. McGraw Hill, NY, 1964
Wall and Place Candela Oliva Varier
There is a stone wall and a square window located on a thin strip of land on the shores of Lake Geneva, surrounded by the Rhone valley and the Alps, in the city of Corseaux, Switzerland. It belongs to the garden of Ville Le Lac, a small house built in 1924 and designed by Le Corbusier. The house belongs to the early Modern Movement, and as such it meets many of the points that would define it: free plan, fenĂŞtre en longeur, roof garden. However, it is the wall and the opening at the east end of the lot that is interesting in this case. Dark and secluded, it seems like a concession that the architect could not resist to make, a corner for one to sit down and look at the views (the best in the house) framed by the glassless window. Almost devoured by vegetation, the wall is far from the antiseptic feel that the house next to it was pursuing. In an ideological context where control of the environment was the ultimate mystical experience, the garden corner has the humility of a localist attitude, a regard for the particular qualities of that lot in Lake Geneva.
The apparently naive gesture of designing a 10 metre long wall with a 1,50 x 1,20 m opening, half-enclosing the garden, is really full of intention. It is essentially a boundary, according to Heidegger “not that at which something stops but, as the Greeks recognized, the boundary is that, from which something begins its presencing� (1).
1. Martin Heidegger, in Poetry, Language, Thought (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1975) p. 159
The wall creates a distinction between inside and outside, which corresponds to the opposition man-made / nature. As Norberg-Schulz would explain (applying Heidegger’s phenomenological principles to architecture in a direct way), the understanding of in / out, as well as more complex spatial principles like centralization, direction and rhythm, is a premise to grasp the most important aspect of the phenomena of place: character (2). The genius loci of the lake, its spirit or its particular atmosphere, is in fact the opposite that we have to come to terms with in order to dwell its shore. The wall concretizes the spatial properties of the site, turning it into a place. It embodies Le Corbusier’s understanding of the landscape, and water, mountain, trees, acquire cultural value through the garden corner. The architecture is no less than uncovering the latent meanings in the Swiss landscape.
As much as Heidegger was concerned with post-war architecture’s lack of attention for the character of its locations, encouraged by the functionalist premises of the Modern Movement, architectural theorist Kenneth Frampton took the baton forty years later. He named this crisis of dwelling the “phenomena of universal placelessness” (3), and put the blame on the dominating mass media culture. Making a sharp distinction between “culture” and “civilization”, Frampton believes that modernity (or more accurately, modernization)
2. Christian Norberg-Schulz, in “The Phenomenon of Place” from Architectural Association Quarterly 8, no. 4 (1976) 3. Kenneth Frampton, in “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance”, from The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (New York: The New Press, 2002)
that modernity (or more accurately, modernization) has brought disastrous effects,
place (5)”. The difference between both thoughts is minimal, however they spring
like nuclear war, but also a blind faith in pure technique. He will defend an identity-
from opposite attitudes: Heidegger recognizes supreme value in the spirit of place,
giving culture that may discreetly appeal to universal technique, in the strategy of
and all architectural actions should be attempts to enhance it by concretizing it into
Critical Regionalism. Culture and identity, instead of “character”, is what defines a
physical matter, and therefore making it intelligible to us. It is technique at the service
place now. As for the relevance of the understanding of place, both Heidegger and
of natural qualities. Frampton, on the other hand, tries to mediate between universal
Frampton make claims to higher values based on their own interpretation. The
technique and local, “organic” knowledge. In fact, he defines the window as the most
German phenomenologist shows that etymologically the word “building” is very
delicate point where these two forces meet, having the capacity to inscribe
close to the archaic forms of “being”, “cultivating” and “dwelling” , from which he
architecture within the character of a region.
deducts that dwelling is our way of being on earth. The mere fact of existing makes us dwellers, and that implies an almost mystical relationship with our places.
Then, does the window in the garden wall at Ville Le Lac qualify as a critical
Frampton’s justification is more practical, even political: he is concerned about the
mediator? It certainly has generic dimensions, and it is placed at a regular distance
“endless processal flux of the Megalopolis” (4), a placeless city without boundaries. A
from the ground, perfect to enjoy the views while sitting in the garden corner. Yet, it
critical regionalist posture would fight this phenomenon, engaging in an architecture
has no glass or carpentry; it is a mere cutting in the stone wall with no climate control
of resistance.
function whatsoever, only a frame for the views. This makes sense, as the window is only separating to open-air spaces: the “inside” that complements its “outside” is only
Frampton backs Heidegger’s theories on the relevance of the architectural enclosure
conceptual. In fact, the distinction in / out is created by the wall and reinforced by the
or boundary, and names the result of it “place-form”. However, Frampton defines
window. Therefore, to some extent, the piece of wall at the side of the Petite Maison
boundary in a totally different way: it is a mediator between “the impact of universal
is conciliating the universality of the building system and modulation of a wall and
civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular
a window, and the poetry of the unfinished element, separating two pieces of nature while being degraded by moss and the pass of time, merely pointing at the view of
4. Kenneth Frampton, in “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance”, from The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (New York: The New Press, 2002) p. 21
5. Idem, p. 25
Lake Geneva. The modern movement, even in its rigid functionalist side that both
knowledge (the Megalopolis that Frampton would later criticize).
thinkers implicitly criticize, is embedded with small acts of regionalism / localism. However, we could go a step further to realize that the opposition “functional vs verThese acts are sometimes flirtatious concessions to regionalism, like in the case
nacular” is not entirely clear. Bruno Zevi brings the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930 into
discussed here, but there are many cases (specifically in the so-called second
the discussion (8). The aim of it was to firmly establish functionalism as the dominant
generation modernists) where a synergic union between universality and localism
architectural style in Sweden, with the support of figures like Gunnar Asplund, but
takes place. Architecture historian Michelangelo Sabatino believes there was an
Zevi argues that the question that was truly at debate was whether the roots of
appropriation of the vernacular by Italian modernism. Like Heidegger, he identifies
Scandinavian rationalism could lie in vernacular construction. He pointed out that
the “local” with the craftsman techniques, almost unconscious, long established
the spirit of the “1930 revolution” aimed to dissociate modern architecture from cu-
customs, and states that in the 20th century there was a synthesis of the collective
bism and purism, to give room to a new organicism made of lively and elastic forms.
expression of industrial production modes and the individual identity of the artisan’s
Then, if functionalism can also lie in the artisan’s method, shaped by centuries of
ethos (6). But Italy was only one of the many places where this happened. After all, we
history, to what extent can we oppose rationalism and localism, and think of critical
could turn the tables and say that one of the greatest merits of the Modern Move-
regionalism as something new and different?
ment, and what prevails today, was the introduction of a critical component into the long established customs of each region. By introducing the search for “the greatest
The true absurdity of this opposition is clear when we notice that even the works that
possible convenience and the greatest possible cleanliness” (7), in terms of volume-
are most detached from its context are subject to the passage of time. In fact, time
tric relationships, masses, flows, construction methods, etc, modernism was testing
sublimates in the shape of moss, cracks, humidity, oxidation and general corruption
the adequacy of regional architecture to the new machine age, in a word of universal
of the physical matter, and this happens in different ways depending on the atmospheric conditions of the location. Everything that we build is ultimately affected
6.MIchelangelo Sabatino, in “Ghosts and Barbarians: the Vernacular in Italian Modern Architecture and Design”, from Journal of Design History, Vol. 21 No.4 (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
by regional phenomena. And perhaps that is precisely why we find ruins extremely poetic: the genius loci always takes over.
2008) 7. Otto Wagner, in Modern Architecture: a Guidebook for his Students to this Field of Art (California: The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1988)
8. Bruno Zevi, in Erik Gunnar Asplund (Buenos Aires, Editorial Infinito. 1957) p. 62
Wall and Place Candela Oliva Varier
THE END OF KITSCH CANDELA OLIVA
“I come from a generation for whom metropoli was synonymous of cultural projection, then of economic projection, and nowadays it has become a theme park (…)”. Jean Baudrillard, 2008
Last month, the following situation took place in the context of the current discussions between the president of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, who has a project for the first casino, hotel and commercial complex in Europe, and the authorities in Spain, where the project is to be built. The politician in charge in Barcelona expressed his concern that the project would not be enough rooted in the territory’s context and tradition. The magnate’s response was quick and sharp: he proposed to recover a skyscraper design from Catalonian architect Gaudi, a commission from 1908 for a block in Manhattan, particularly that were the World Trade Center used to stand (pic. 1)(1).
Pic. 1. Fictitious render view of Gaudi’s project for New York
The intention behind this proposal synthetizes the basic ideas that led to the success of Las Vegas, or more recently, to many urban developments like Dubai or Shanghai: the use of the pastiche, the copy, the artificial and the fictive as a way of stereotyping any environment. Of course, the relation between this skyscraper project and the city of Barcelona has more to do with a shallow, over-simplified and ultimately fictive mental connection of Gaudi and all of his work to his home city. Should it be built,
1. Pau Suris and Luis Enrique Urtebey, “Venturi, Eurvegas y el modelo Barcelona”, El Pais [online], 22 April 2012
the skyscraper’s relation to its context would not be assessing real issues of the city
range of transactions related to the building, from guided tours to key rings with clin-
(which would have been the modus operandi of rationalist Gaudi), but rather pro-
ging figures of it.
viding a symbol with a meaning that can be captured effortlessly by everyone. The skyscraper would become a perfect example of kitsch, as described by Greenberg (2).
Kitsch ultimately tries to dress ordinary artistic production into high culture, meaning that the gap between refined, intellectual art and low-profile, folk art appears to be
In his 1939 essay “Avant-Garde and Kitsch”, Greenberg uses this word to name a
blurred. We can even say that kitsch creates the illusion that there is no such dis-
mechanism that takes advantage of a cultural tradition, its discoveries and acquisi-
tinction in culture, and if all society is part of the same culture, a feeling of equity is
tions, and makes them easily digestible. Kitsch extracts all sorts of strategies, tricks,
perceived by the masses. Only when true art (high culture, avant-garde) succeeds in
rules and themes from “high culture”, converts them into a system ready to fit into
evidencing reality do the masses realize the true nature of the social order that capi-
the dynamics of consumers’ society and then discards the rest (3). The result is of this
talism establishes for its own survival (“art becomes caviar to the general when the
formula, according to Greenberg, is faked sensation, one that can be consumed by
reality it imitates no longer corresponds even roughly to the reality recognized by the
anyone at any moment (“Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its consumers except
general”)(5) . Greenberg is interested in avant-gardes inasmuch as they are a threat
their money – not even their time”) (4). This describes perfectly the process that a
to the capitalist system, and declares that the mission of kitsch (antithesis of high
hypothetical recovery of Gaudi’s skyscraper would engage: kitsch would only borrow
culture) is to maintain the status quo. It is therefore supported and encouraged by the
form, leaving all the other architectural decisions that define the building behind.
high and ruling class. The threat of kitsch is that it prevents a hypothetical transition
Kitsch is only interested in the actual shape of the skyscraper, which teamed with the
to a socialist economic system, which Greenberg strongly hopes for.
marketing strength of Gaudi’s name (we can even speak of a brand) would result in two things: on one side, loads of tourists and local visitors confident to have experien-
Going back to the urban realm, kitsch produces a saturation of symbols that eventua-
ced a masterpiece of architecture. On the other, millions in benefits deriving from a
lly leads to thematization of urban space. This phenomenon has taken place in
2. Clement Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch”, Partisan Review 6:5 (1939)
5. p.10
3. Idem, p. 6 4. p. 5
top of the list, Disney, Universal and Sony are the capitalist forces responsible for one of the most spectacular expressions of contemporary leisure, a phenomenon first perceived in the theme parks of Coney Island. Rem Koolhaas named it “fantasy technology”, and identified it as the mechanism which, utterly based on excess, gave birth to Manhattanism (6). Thematizing an enclosure and placing the most advanced technologies at the service of simulation was thereby extrapolated to spaces for culture, consumption, and urban form. This is quite clear in cases such as Times Square, where the flashing, blinking lights and the colorful billboards focus all senses on consumption, as the way to be part of the city and embrace its culture.
Pic. 2. Mad Tea Party, Disneyland
In fact, there seems to be no actual residents of the theme park /city. People are whisked around the place and encouraged to consume, but never made to stay, as Michael Sorkin explains in his essay “See You in Disneyland”. He describes Disneyland, perhaps the most extreme case of urban space thematization, as “…the utopia of transience, a place where everyone is just passing through.”(7) In Disneyland, everything is “like” something else. Simulation is the norm, to the point that the different copies become incredibly alike, even if the originals differ. But that is not important anymore. (pic. 2-3) “The urbanism of Disneyland is precisely the urbanism of universal equivalence. In this new city, the idea of distinct places is dispersed into a sea of
6. Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York (New York: Th ames & Hudson, 1978) 7. Michael Sorkin, “See you in Disneyland”, Variations on a Theme Park, edited by Michael Sorkin Pic. 3. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Disneyand
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1992), p. 27
universal placelessness as every place becomes destination and any destination can be any place”(8). As Greenberg announces, pieces of high culture are taken and transformed into consumer goods. Only that this time, the result of this formula, the faked sensation, has the same or more value than the original. “Just like the real thing, only better” (9).
But we need not go to Disneyland or even to Times Square to appreciate the effects of kitsch in the urban space. Kitsch is everywhere. In fact, we can say that the ever more intimate relation between art, culture and consumption has changed our relationship with the world, our conceptions of geography, time and history, our ideas about the original and the reproduction, about art and non-art. The MOMA gift shop sells PIc. 4. Prada Store in New York
notebooks with ornaments that reference the Bauhaus style. The Tate Modern Gallery has a restaurant in its rooftop that boasts one of the best views in London, seasonal food, and the innovative Tate wine list. And Koolhaas’ Prada Flagship Store in New York is a hybrid between a luxury store, an outstanding exercise of architecture and a museum of clothing (pic. 4-5). Art, architecture, tourism, shopping, become a confusing mixture, processed and ready for us to consume. In a world where art, or what Greenberg had defined as high culture, is at anyone’s reach at any time of the daily routine, kitsch may have become an empty term.
PIc. 5. Prada Store in New York 8. Michael Sorkin, “See you in Disneyland”, Variations on a Theme Park, edited by Michael Sorkin (New York: Hill and Wang, 1992), p. 13 9. Idem, p. 22
Non-Place vs. Generic City
Candela Oliva Varier
In the current age of globalization, the idea of the city as we know it is under-
place: inhabiting is our way of being on earth (3). Then, a place is defined by
going a period of redefinition. We can agree that functional spaces related to
man’s experience on earth, and a non-place, Augé might add, is a geographically
consumerism and travel, like malls, train stations, airports, or even the global
defined space we are unable to relate to, or to provide with identity or history. In
metropolis, are some of the paradigms of contemporary urbanism. This paper
other words, we are unable to inhabit non-places.
is meant to reflect Marc Augé’s and Rem Koolhaas’ ideas on the seamless, sterilized, transient, privatized spaces of the late 20th and early 21st century,
The question of whether the feeling of alienation and disorientation that we tend
and to establish a contrast between both theorists’ respective contributions to
to experience in hotel chains, train stations and airports responds to that frus-
this discussion: the non-place and the generic city.
trated impulse to dwell may stem from Augé’s statement, but it is not the subject of this essay. We are rather interested in what defines a non-place and whether
The way Augé defines the physiognomy of the non-place in Non-Places. In-
it can eventually become a place. Augé is clear about the flexibility of the term,
troduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1). It can be summed up in
and recognizes that nothing is absolutely one thing or the other (4). Let’s take an
three characteristics: (2) a) purely functional, discouraging any kind of interac-
example from popular culture, the film Lost in Translation (5). It is meant to por-
tion between its users in favor of individual and isolated use, b) holding a pres-
tray the traveler’s space that Augé refers to, and a process that we could identify
criptive attitude (“insert card”, “this way out”), and c) lacking history and identity,
as the transition from non-place to anthropological place (or simply “place”). The
because being purely functional implies impossibility of becoming recipient of
characters meet each other in a hotel chain in Tokyo, a global metropolis meant to
collective memory. Ultimately, this description suggests that the non-place is
represent the counterpoint to North American culture. The immensity of the city,
negatively defined by opposition to something else, and that is the anthropolo-
on the other side, intensifies the very feeling of being lost and stripped from any
gical place. The latter concept stems from Augé’s premise, taken from Heide-
familiar reference. Bob and Charlotte find themselves at a dead end in their
gger, that inhabiting is an anthropological action that is inevitably linked to 3. Martin Heidegger, in Poetry, Language, Thought (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1975) 1. Marc Augé, Non-Places. Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (London: Verso, 1995)
4. Marc Augé, Non-Places. Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (London: Verso, 1995), pg 107
2. José Antonio Cerrillo, “Cine y experiencia urbana contemporánea”, in Aposta, n. 43, November and December 2009
5. Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation, U.S.A., 2003
lives, “trapped” in a hotel that looks like all the rest and in a “generic” city (to use Koolhaas’ terms). The emotional emptiness transmitted by the non-place settings is only released when the hotel and the whole city start becoming places: as the protagonists establish a romantic relationship, they are able to relate to the setting of their love, in the sense that they give a meaning to it. The hotel in Tokyo now has an identity in their minds, and a history (or at least, a story). (6)
This flexibility, given by the fact that the distinction place / non-place relies on our capacity to provide a meaning for it, is what the generic city lacks. Or I should say, the generic city is incredibly flexible, it grows, expands and gets destroyed to become something else (7), but it is more a capricious reaction of the city itself than a reflection of our personal or collective emotions. For Koolhaas, citizens play a passive role in the phenomenon of the contemporary city. The metropolis is an entity over which we have lost control, if we ever had it (“Planning makes no difference whatsoever (…) In this apotheosis of multiple choice, it will never be possible again to reconstruct cause and effect. They work, that is all”) (8). All we can do is be spectators.
6. See also The Terminal, the same situation in an airport. teven Spielberg, The Terminal, U.S.A., 2004 Lost in Translation (2004) 7. Rem Koolhaas, “The Generic City”, in S, M, L, XL, The Monacelli Press, 1998, pg. 1250 8. Idem, pg. 1255
To continue with the film examples, the generic city’s autonomy, could very well be described by Jacques Tati’s Playtime (9). It is true that it is very far from Koolhaas’ statement in the sense that it belongs to the 1960s, and it poses a critique to the homogenization of the built environment that modernity brought. However, I believe that this homogenization (represented in the film as infinity of glass façades, elevators and swinging doors) was the seed of contemporary “generic” in its wildest sense, which Koolhaas describes in The Generic City. The generic is detached from us, autonomous, free from history or identity (10), and Playtime successfully expresses this cosmic indifference, that turns us into mere observers, or at most, players in the everyday variations of the city (sometimes even producing absurd situations like the ones Tati poetically describes).
Augé and Koolhaas present two different but complementary approaches to the new spaces of the contemporary city. Although the subject, or inhabitant of the city, plays a distinct role in the non-place and the generic city, the general feel is that designers and urban planners have lost the authority they had (or rather they pretended to have) over the city, or at least most of it. Utopian urbanism seems more ridiculous than ever, now that the Frankenstein creature that we have been building since the industrial age has come to life. If, as I understand Koolhaas implicitly announces, this is a new era in our way of inhabiting the earth, will we
Playtime (1973)
9. Jacques Tati, Playtime, U.S.A., 1973 10. Rem Koolhaas, “The Generic City”, in S, M, L, XL, The Monacelli Press, 1998, pg. 1248
be able to come to terms with the generic city? Will we learn how to inhabit these new spaces, or are we doomed to permanent alienation? These are, I believe, the challenges of contemporary urbanism.
On Project and Action Candela Oliva Varier
In the recent essay “Project and Action: On Making Immodest Proposals” (1),
Goodman points out the possibilities that localized action offers in urbanism, gi-
David Goodman calls for a reflection on the current status of architecture and
ven the conditions of permanent destruction and regeneration that capitalism im-
questions where the future of architecture lies in relation to the project. He makes
plies, declaring his “love for the void” (4). The concepts “action” and “project” are
an overview of the recent years’ architectural panorama, where there has been
described in relation to the architectural realm, and the limits of their competen-
almost a boom of local urban actions of different kind (interventions, happenings,
cies are established. Somol and Whiting’s essay “Notes Around the Doppler Effect
installations) driven by citizen activism, and therefore carried out not only by
and Other Moods of Modernism” (5) is brought up to define project as a truly
architects. Although enthusiastic about the potential of “architecture without Ar-
mobilizing architectural category, while Goodman proposes a parallel between the
chitecture” (2), he points out the threats that we need to assess in order to take ad-
work of abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock, as understood by Rosen-
vantage of this sudden global rush of direct engagement to enrich our discipline.
berg (6), and architectural action: it is a record of the event at a certain moment,
Goodman is concerned that the opportunistic mood of these kinds of actions, the
and disciplinary tools have little or no importance. To get to the key point, Good-
value of which lie in their capacity to react to a particular situation, will become
man defends that the difference between project and action lies in autonomy. Pro-
the general attitude of architecture. In this picture, the discipline would lose its ca-
jects have value even before realization, or even if they are never realized. Actions,
pacity to create in the world of ideas, to think outside the frame (“….what remains
on the contrary, are always reactive, contingent and reference something of daily
of architecture’s power to propose new, imagined futures outside the current
life. “They always and only depend” (7).
moment and the current circumstances?”) (3). But this leads us to wonder whether big fictitious projects still have any value or relevance, in a time where immediate, acupunctural intervention seems to be more desirable.
4. p.5 5. Robert Somol an Sarah Whiting, “Notes Around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism”, Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory 1993--2009. A. Krista Syke s, ed. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010) pp.190-202
1. David Goodman, “Project and Action: On Making Immodest Proposals”, A+T, no. 39 (July
6. Harold Rosenberg, “The American Action Painters”, Art in Theory: 1900-2000 - An Anthology of
2012)
Changing Ideas, edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Malden, MA: Blackwell Press, 2003. 589-592
2. Idem, p.2 7. David Goodman, “Project and Action: On Making Immodest Proposals”, A+T, no. 39 (July 3. p. 4
2012), p.8
In the end, a way out of the dilemma is discerned: we should work towards an
critical in a pre-determined way. The practice in architecture offices is generally seen
architecture of projects through actions, instead of actions as ends in themselves.
as the moment for action. Projects are still there, making their way in ideas competi-
Goodman encourages us to focus our energies into effective architectural objects (af-
tions, exhibitions and magazines. However, there is a clear advantage of action over
ter all, that’s what we do best) rather than get lost in the fuzz of processes and politics
project: architecture is also a business, so practice as a vocation of project thinking
that projects and actions of activist nature frequently come with. We should be like
will probably not provide as much as producing buildable work that satisfies a client’s
Graham, Anderson, Probst and White’s Chicago Post Office of 1921: “big and slightly
needs.
dumb, perhaps, but able to shape the city in a clear and forceful way” (8). As for me, the importance lies on being critical. In whatever point within the pairing During my last four years as an Architecture student, I have found a great breach
project-action I situate myself in the future, I would like to make legible statements
between the practice of architecture at school and in the offices where I develo-
about how I believe things should be. The way I see it, the worst possible picture is
ped my internships. The academic environment is almost purely about the project.
an architectural practice that is totally passive and exclusively responsive of market
Architecture school is generally accepted as the place where theoretical discourse
forces. There is room for critique everywhere, in a commission for collective housing,
has its real influence on practice, by training the next generation of architects. It is
in a single family house, in a public library, in a student contest and in a design studio
the result of what architects think about what architects and architecture should do,
workshop. After all, if we do not try to improve and expand the possibilities of our
and its meaning in society at large. This means that, after all, architecture schools
own discipline, who will?
philosophy, methodology and contents are part of a project, one of which the whole architectural community in practice participates. The big ideas about what should
That said, I believe the combination of both project and action is the key to effective
be our concerns, areas of interest and fears in the next years are reflected in school
critique. Projects, even the most elevated ideas, need to have the potentiality, at least
programs, with the hope that the architects-to-be will assimilate these ideas into their
a slight possibility of becoming an action. If it cannot be applied in any way, it is just
practice once their training is over. It is clear that, to a great extent, we are taught to be
fantasy. At the same time, it is important that actions are based on the outcome of
8. David Goodman, “Project and Action: On Making Immodest Proposals”, A+T, no. 39 (July 2012), p.9
personal reflection, and projects of “The Big Idea”, to use Goodman’s terms, may establish a common goal, a situation towards which all the individual actions are oriented, even it is never reached. For instance, collectives such as Recetas Urbanas, Broken City Lab and Basurama work towards a scenario of citizen empowerment, a city where we all have the chance to fix or change what does not work with our own hands. However, it is very important to bear in mind what Goodman suggests: even in projectual thinking, the outcome should ultimately be objects rather than processes. Otherwise, we are denying architects’ greatest capacity.