Against the Modern Measuring Stick of Standardization

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AGAINST THE MODERN MEASURING STICK OF STANDARDIZATION

TOMI LAJA

rule (n.): c. 1200, “principle or maxim governing conduct, formula to which conduct must be conformed” from Old French riule, Norman reule “rule, custom, from Vulgar Latin *regula, from Latin regula “straight stick, bar, ruler;”

rule (v.): c. 1200, “to control, guide, direct,” from Old French riuler “impose rule,” from Latin regulare “to control by rule, direct,”

Utilizing Michel Foucault’s theories in Discipline and Punishment: the Birth of the Prison on social and governmental executions of power through public punishment; plague and partitioning; and correction through panoptic observation and surveillance, this essay argues standardization as a means of exerting oppressive power and control within constructed spaces. The case studies of Pruitt-Igoe, The Grand Paris Express, and Unite D’Habitation adhere to these concepts of punishment with their foundational use of standardization alongside surveillance. The Jeanne Hachette Complex, located in the French commune Ivry-sur-Seine, resists standardization, the measuring stick for modern compartmentalization and classification of the “Other.” These studies are located both in the United States and France, allowing for an examination of the countering approaches of segregation and assimilation, both sharing the agenda

Modular Man, Le Corbusier

of preserving oppression. In context to the strategies of the two western powers, the Jeanne Hachette Complex is one of dignity through its defiance of standardization, an upheld and expected norm within western design.

PART I : The Modern Measuring Stick : Standardization

“This set of measurements derived from and results in a world order that has colonial features. The assessment of the validity of architecture and its histories is based on certain notions, paradigms, figures, forms, texts, buildings, and styles. This mechanism of evaluation regulates the understanding and interpretation of architecture, as well as the inclusion and exclusion of its histories and theories. It also promotes and privileges certain cultural and intellectual aspects over others. Consequently, these criteria play a crucial role in institutionalizing architectural histories and theories.” 2

Unité D’habitation in Marseille France by Swiss architect Le Corbusier, a canonical figure in the dream of modernism and the author of the modular man, was completed in 1952. The work is noted for its exemplary organization and efficiency designed for 1,600 inhabitants with its modular arrangement of units connected with a single dark and narrow corridor at each entrance floor. Every inch of space is planned for, even the “social spaces.” Every interaction is predicted, calculated, manipulated. There is no room for improvisation, new programming, or spontaneous interaction. Humans become objects to be categorized and objectified through the planning of one singular man. This is the expectation and the measuring stick towards “good” modern design. In the project, there is no reference to life outside of the modern box. Rather, the decisions are based on the effectiveness of movement and the compactness of space and square footage. The ideals of modernization are regarded as the basis of logic in architecture within the western world. Yet, as researcher Samia Henni remarks in Colonial Ramifications: “The adherence of this type of ideology to categorize bodies in space singularly excludes many while promoting ‘certain privileges.’” 2 The home, the dwelling, the private space now becomes an institution: a societal space towards conformance and correcting through partitioning. Regarding the able-bodied man as not only the ruler—the measuring stick—but as the most valid creator further excludes women and non— binary genders, while re—generating

Unite D’Habitation, Le Corbusier 75

76 the idea that spaces can and should be designed through abelist, white, male assumption. This conception of space disregards non—western social normatives of collectivity, of gathering, of care. Inherently, migrant dwellers are taken out of the coastal context and excluded in pursuit of the modernist dream. Marseille is an important port which allows for trade and has played a large part in the industrialization of the geography while connecting immigrants from northern Africa into France. The ideology of standardization begins to regulate the relations, behaviors, and environments of those who do not fit the criteria of the modular man. Standardization becomes violent, and these spaces become controlled instruments within a larger system of control.

PART II : Standardization and Its Adherence : Segregation and Classification

“The invention of the ‘Other’— racial, religious, or gender— corresponds to the commencement and the commandment of modern human exploitation and research extraction, which long hid behind the mask of the ‘civilizing mission.’ It was a mission that European colonial regimes self— assigned themselves in order to intervene in the way that existing communities, kingdoms, tribes, and societies governed themselves, lived, and built. This dogmatic and authoritative ‘civilizing mission’ consisted of destabilizing and discounting prevailing codes and spreading, instead, European beliefs, principles, and languages in compliance with a colonial ideology dubbed ‘assimilation.’ 2

The colonial western consciousness has validated and normalized constructing dehumanized spaces for the “Othered” through the acceptance of standardization. During the mid 20th century, Saint Louis planned for the city to “develop.” The plan for modernization was argued as a prominent reason for the low—income Black demographic, the “Other,” to move into the Pruitt—Igoe Housing Complex (1954—1976) in order for the city to gain more space downtown and expand for the renewal. 3 This was the vision executed by city planners and designers which resulted in the segregation of the African American community in order to modernize the city. While Saint Louis had resources, especially in transportation and trade, these resources were isolated away from those who live in Pruitt—Igoe because of the out—of—the—way positioning from the rest of the city, physically punishing those of the African diaspora. The formal and conceptual relationship of the complex to the city is one of clear isolation; 3 the space itself creates the stage for public punishment and panoptic observation to the city and the world. The “Othered” were not only moved away to make room for modernism and expansion of the city, but also to separate Saint Louis from those in need of “correction.” The Complex, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, is monumental, brutal, and modular. There is no room for ornament, history, or storytelling aside from the one narrated by assumption and prejudice, a spectacle of “failure.” Not only this, but its death is televised and becomes a show for the world, ceremonial entertainment.

Pruitt-Igoe, Saint Louis

PART III : Standardization and Its Adherence : Assimilation and Correcting

While the United States holds a prominent history regarding racial segregation, France utilizes the method of separation through the dreams of assimilation and conformance. As seen with Pruitt—Igoe, the “Othered” are categorized in compartmentalized spaces: one on top of another and side to side. While this can also be seen within France’s grands ensembles buildings, a strong method of control by the nation is to disassemble the physical and conceptual idea of “community” within stigmatized groups. Consequently, those who are “Othered” are separated through forms of architecture, planning, and gentrification in order to dismantle the possible power of assembly. This can be seen systemically through the execution of the Grand Paris Express. In the United States, there is a romanticized and racialized idea of the suburbs as “safe” and “white,” while the Parisian attitude towards the suburbs, banlieues, is one of pronounced judgment since the periphery is home to over eight thousand people, 4 many identifying as Roma, refugees, or immigrants, usually holding lower statuses of wealth and economy.

A rendering of the future Saint Denis Pleyel Station by Kengo Kuma is an image of architectural representation as an advertisement of power. The Grand Paris project states that the new generation of stations will be “welcoming, accessible, and safe,” as said by the Société du Grand Paris, insinuating that these neighborhoods, outside of the city center and home to a majority of people of color, are in need of correction. The project utilizes methods of gentrification in order to “clean up” these “dangerous” communities. Historically and in contemporary times, neighborhoods such as Saint Denis were labeled and understood as spaces in need of surveillance and security both at a social understanding as well as implemented through policies 77

78 by the government. During 1989, security plans were put in place to further “secure” the transportation systems outside of Paris to control the spaces which held the “Othered’’ residing within the banlieues. Similarly, heightened security was put in place within Saint Denis on the regional buses and were only in effect while the vehicles were running within the city, not before or after, directly labeling the region as threatening. 5

The racial undertones in designing and labeling, or plaguing, these environments in order to control can be seen in the architectural Paris Project came new rail lines as well as increased development all over the region. A photograph of a 2018 poster advertisement in the banlieue of La Courneuve describes and illustrates the future housing projects in the neighborhood, which are designed quickly and efficiently with very minimal ornament. The scale of these new buildings are minuscule when compared to the large communal blocks of Cité 4000, controversial housing projects designed between the 1950s and the 1970s. A translation to the board states: “La Courneuve Transforming the 4000 West. Here, welcome the new beautiful homes.” Not only is the language infantile, which is directed to the majority immigrant community of La Courneuve, but the architecture is also generic. The housing attempts to divide and break down, physically in size and space, communities in order

typologies themselves. With the Grand to assimilate through separation, resulting in the surveillance of dwellers to create a more integrated vision of Paris.

At the outskirts, the peripherique, the plans are to erase the slums—a space where the “Othered” are depicted as criminals in extreme urban poverty— completely and replace them with private developments. Henri Shah, social anthropology academic, states, “The neighborhood junkyard, the primary workplace for many male residents, will be turned into a five-story building with terraces

Saint Denis Pleyel Station by Kengo Kuma

overlooking Paris from three-bedroom apartments running up to 400,000 euros.” The Grand Paris Project uses a systemic approach to take advantage of oppressed groups in order to further erase them. The project is unequal in its support of people, using the expansion of technology to partition people and promote the idea of plague to mechanize power through discipline.

PART III : The Resistance of Standardization

“Renaudie considered that urban life could not be activated unilaterally by urban planning unless an act of citizen appropriation also took place.” 6

The Jeanne Hachette Complex at Ivry-sur-Seine is a social housing project by Jean Renaudie (1925— 1981) and Reneé Gailhoustet (1929— ); the complex houses forty units and stands nine stories tall with included programming of civic spaces, retail, offices, cinemas, and parking. 6 Jean Renaudie was a Marxist member of the French Communist Party during his life. As an architect he considered greatly how to design spaces which gave dignity toward a collective, specifically within housing projects. 6 He did not identify with the grands ensembles of Paris—massive and mechanical structures attempting to be utopic and spectacular—which maintain design that is modular and compartmentalized. Renaudie instead designed an architecture of “uniqueness” for each inhabitant. Reneé Gailhoustet is an architect and planner who, in the realm of a Jeanne Hachette Complex

patriarchal profession and world, has been given less focus on the social housing project of Ivry-sur-Seine. She, though, was an instrumental leader in the project as well as the urban renewal of the banlieue. The municipal architect Roland Dubrulle of Ivry— sur—Seine passed on the role as Chief Architect of the municipality in 1969 to Gailhoustet. The social project is a derivative of the compact Soviet block typology while also formally critiquing the rigidity of French urban planning.

The design of Ivry—sur—Seine disrupts the Parisian Haussmann planning of the city while also involving the public spaces of the site. Unlike previous case studies such as Pruitt—Igoe, which isolates and alienates itself from the fabric of the city, or Unite D’Habitation, which confines its dwellers within the barrier of the block and lot, the project by Renaudie and Gailhoustet creates its own identity spatially by creating 79

80 Jeanne Hachette Complex

space for those living in the dwellings, while also integrating the urban fabric beyond the site and physical lot. The design expands relationships and context, allowing for spontaneous interactions and involvement with city dwellers. Each space is not over— planned, rather agency is given to those who utilize the spaces.

The proximity to greenery and terracing—which came as a result of designing each apartment as two stories, doubling the amount of green space possible 6 —adds to the care of both experience and health to those who live in the complex. The overlapping of space further unites the community: “my terrace, in front of my house, over your’s.” 6 This sentiment is an elaborate imagining of space for both the individual as well as the larger collective within the complex.

Each dwelling is a part of the whole project, affecting each other, just as the complex affects the public areas beyond the plot, and so on. The architecture creates a relationship, activating space and involving the citizens. The Jeanne Hachette Complex gives agency to the user through the resistance of standardization. The integration with the urban fabric, while upholding the ideals of the commune, avoids the presentation of the housing project as a spectacle, or a plague, to be segregated. From the integrated public spaces at the street level there is no grand stage. The complexity in the form does not allow for a panoptic viewing or singular narrative to the story of the spaces. The architecture by Gailhoustet and Renaudie is truly dignified with its critique of standardization through the intricate spatial design, intentional relationality to the urban fabric, and open identity for the intimate interior spaces for each unique user.

References: A+T Research Group.. 10 Stories of Collective Housing: A Graphical Analysis of Inspiring Masterpieces. A+T Architecture Publishers. Vitoria-Gasteiz. Spain. 2013. Benge, Joe. “Street View: A Corrective to the city from above in the Pruitt-Igoe Myth.” Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies (Volume 3) Publisher: Berghahn Books, Inc. Article. 22 June 2013. Enright, Theresa Erin. “Mass Transportation in the Neoliberal City: The Mobilizing Myths of the Grand Paris Express.” Environment And Planning A 45.4 (2013): 797-813. Web. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sherdian, London:Penguin, 1978. “Ruler.” Etymonline. Douglas Harper. 13 August 2020. Henni, Samia, “Colonial Ramifications”, at e-flux architecture <https://www.eflux.com/architecture/history-theory/225180/colonial-ramifications/>, 2017 Scalbert, Irénée. A Right to Difference: The Architecture of Jean Renaudie. AA Publications, 2004. Shah, Henri. “Whose Grand Paris? Roma Exclusion and Urban Expansion in Fortress Europe.” The Funambulist Magazine: Proletarian Fortresses. April 2018 Tuppen, John; Ehrilich, Blake. “Marseille.” Encyclopedia Britannica,inc. 2 November 2017.

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Jeanne Hachette Floor plans