CORNELL UNIVERSITY College of Architecture, Art & Planning Department of City and Regional Planning
Late-Modern Differentiations Research Seminar on Urban Theory CRP 381-581
militarized zones and border conditions, development corridors and gentrified neighborhoods, entertainment complexes and retail districts‌
Instructor: JuliĂĄn Varas varas.julian@gmail.com TA: Meredith Schmidt mas298@cornell.edu
Phasing & Organization Thematic focus As an attempt to overcome the cultural and political relapse of Postmodernism, the last 15 years have seen the emergence of various intellectual efforts aimed at re-installing a sense of positivity within urban and architectural discourses. Aided by almost 50 years of developments in complexity theory, cybernetics, and non-anthropocentric philosophy, design disciplines have gradually evolved a new theoretical framework for transformative action. Consequently, our grasp of notions of form and organization has undergone an irreversible mutation. Superseding both modernist regimes of linear determinacy, and postmodern claims to undecidability, design theory has embraced a thermodynamic model of material reality where causal determinacy does not contradict emergence, novelty, or creativity. Rather than indeterminate, action and performance are the result of a condition of overdeterminacy that breaks the linearity of causeeffect regimes. The rise of the non-linear explanatory models of reality coincides with the recent period to which many authors refer as late-modernity. This research seminar will look at the contemporary urban condition by exploring some of the key texts and images that have contributed to the consolidation of such paradigms. It will utilize those theoretical tools to simultaneously frame and expand our understanding of emergent urban phenomena. A wide variety of organizations will be addressed: sprawling suburbs and gated communities, hyper-dense and implosive enclaves, housing and slums, infrastructural nodes and public space systems,
After a set of three introductory classes, the semester will be organized in two blocks of eleven sessions each. Each student (or team) will have to present once during each of the two phases. PHASE I will be concerned with the identification of the thematic focus of the research. Its aim will consist in identifying the main question (s) to investigate, defining the object of study with as much precision as possible, and getting acquainted with the bibliography. Phase II will be dedicated to sharpening both the focus and the methodological consistency. It will also deal with the research in terms of its materiality (what is the most interesting way to output the work?)
Weekly assignments & class dynamic The seminar sessions will consist of approx. 15 to 20 minute long image-based presentations about the weekly topics informed by the assigned readings (the texts should provide the framework in which to discuss the images). Following the digital presentations a there will be space for a Q&A session
CORNELL UNIVERSITY College of Architecture, Art & Planning Department of City and Regional Planning
and a round table discussion about the weekly course readings. All seminar participants will be expected to read the assigned materials for each session, even if the presentation will be done by an individual student. Active participation and creative contribution to the discussions will influence the final grade. Students should prepare questions to bring up every class, and they should also be ready to offer ideas and constructive criticism to each other. The weekly assignments will consist of a series of readings, in combination with web and library-based image research. Although the reading assignments will be relatively light (involving only a few hours per week), the research component will usually take more time. It is not the goal of the presentations to express an opinion about the cases being studied, but to construct an abstract diagram of the way in which a project or urban fragment works, or of the combination of forces that generate its form. Part of the intellectual challenge will consist of identifying the patterns and systems of organization that structure them, and extracting generative ideas from them.
Course submission Two to three thousand word illustrated essay OR web-page, broadening and systematizing the research conducted during the course. (Only one of the topics suggested, not the whole thing). Letter sized hardcopy and CD containing the text and the images in jpg format please.
Schedule We will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10:10 am and 11:25 in room 105.
Themes The raw material for the work will consist of a combination of the reading list –with special emphasis on the readings assigned for that theme, and the general bibliography- and a selected aspect, partiality or fragment of a city of your choice. The following bibliography list will be expanded during the development of the course, based on research conducted by students and further suggestions from the course instructor.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY College of Architecture, Art & Planning Department of City and Regional Planning
General Bibliography DELEUZE, Gilles, GUATTARI, Felix, A Thousand Plateaux. Introduction: “Rhizome”. PRIGOGINE, Ilya, STENGERS, Isabelle, Order Out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. (Especially the conclusion) GLEICK, James, Chaos. London: Vintage, 1998. LASH, Scott, URRY, John, The End of Organized Capitalism. HARVEY, David, The Condition of Postmodernity: an inquiry into the origins of cultural change, Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, 1992. KWINTER, Sanford, Architectures of Time, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, 2001. (Chapter 1: The complex and the singular.)
INTRODUCTORY PHASE A) Complexity September 1st
C) Natural and Artificial (The Machinic Phylum) September 8th
ZAERA POLO, Alejandro,“Order Out of Chaos: The Material Organization of Advanced Capitalism”, in Architectural Design Vol. 64 No 3/4, “The Periphery”, 1994. ZAERA POLO, Alejandro, “A World Full of Holes”, El Croquis n. , 1996.
DE LANDA, Manuel, War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. Zone Books, New York, 1991. KELLY, Kevin, Out of Control: the new Biology of the Machines. London: Fourth Estate,1994. (The Made and the Born) CORNER, James, Taking Measures Across the American Landscape. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999
INDIVIDUAL THEMES: 1) The Organic September 13th, October 18th
Natalie A. Estevez KWINTER, Sanford, “Confessions of an Organicist”. Log n. 5, Spring/Summer 2005. KOSTOF, Spiro, The City Shaped. Chapter 1: “Organic Patterns” DE LANDA, Manuel, “Non-organic life” in CRARY, Jonathan, FEHER, Michel, KWINTER, Sanford (Eds.) ZONE 6, New York, 1992.
B) The Virtual (Virtual-Actual vs. Possible-Real) September 6th DELEUZE, Gilles, Bergsonism, Zone Books, New York, NY, 1997. Chapters I (“Intuition as Method”) & V ( “Elan Vital as Movement of Differentiation” ). BORRADORI ,Giovanna, “Against the Technological Interpretation of Virtuality”, in: AD Hypersurface Architecture II. Vol 60 9-10/1999. John Wiley and Sons, London
CORNELL UNIVERSITY College of Architecture, Art & Planning Department of City and Regional Planning
4) Control Systems September 22nd, October 27th
Craig Sykora
2) Time and Organization (Nonlinearity) September 15th , October 20th
KWINTER, Sanford, "Politics and Pastoralism". Assemblage 27, 1995. KWINTER, Sanford, “Urbanism after Innocence: The Reinvention of Geometry”. Assemblage 18.
PRIGOGINE, Ilya, STENGERS, Isabelle, Order Out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. (Intro and Conclusion) DE LANDA, Manuel, A Thausand Years of Non-Linear History. Cambridge: The MIT Press, Swerve Editions. New York: Zone Books, 1997. (Chapter: Lavas and Magmas) DELEUZE, Gilles, GUATTARI, Felix, A Thausand Plateaux. Introduction: “Rhizome”.
5) Prediction & Prescription September 27th, November 1st
Alfie Koetter
3) Identity September 20th, October 25th
Daniel Petrone KOOLHAAS, Rem, “The Generic City,” in KOOLHAAS, Rem, MAU, Bruce: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1995. MAKI, Fumihiko, " Notes on Collective Form”, in: JA Japan Architect, Winter 1994-4, n. 16.
WILKINSON, Lawrence, “How To Buil Scenarios”, www.wired.com/wired/scenarios/build.html KELLY, Kevin, Out of Control: the new Biology of the Machines. London: Fourth Estate,1994. (Prediction Machinery) http://www.kk.org/outofcontrol/contents.php Hunch n. 8. Journal of the Berlage Institute (various articles) DOXIADIS, C. A and PAPAIOANNOU, J. G., Ecumenopolis: The Inevitable City of the Future. Athens Publishing Center, Athens, 1974
CORNELL UNIVERSITY College of Architecture, Art & Planning Department of City and Regional Planning
6) Decision-Making Processes (Expert Systems) September 29th, November 3rd LOOTSMA, Bart, (Article in) Reading MVRDV, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam. GIDDENS, Anthony, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991 MVRDV, The Regionmaker, Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2004) MVRDV, “The Functionmixer”, in FARMAX, 010 Publishers, Rotterdaqm. http://www.ess.co.at/
7) Essentialism vs. Evolutionary Thinking October 4th, November 8th
Jongsoo Kang KNAPP, Sandra, “Phylogenesis and the tree of life”. In FOA, Phylogenesis: FOA’s ARK. Actar, 2003. (to be completed)
8) Negativity and Critique October 6th, November 10th
Jay Corbalis BAIRD, George, “Criticality and its Discontents”, Harvard Design Magazine 21, Fall 2004/Winter 2005, 16-21. VENTURI, Robert, “Learning from Las Vegas” KIPNIS, Jeffrey, “Is Resistance Futile?”, in Log n. 5. Spring/Summer 2005
9) Spatial Performance October 13th, November 15th
Rob Kurucza
AUSTIN, J. L., “Performative Utterances”, in Philosophical Papers Oxford, 1961. WEIZMANN, Eyal, “The Politics of Verticality”. http://opendemocracy.net/debates/article-2-45-801.jsp KOOLHAAS, Rem, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. Rotterdam 010 Publishers, 1994 (Chapter: Coney Island – The Technology of the Fantastic)
CORNELL UNIVERSITY College of Architecture, Art & Planning Department of City and Regional Planning
Bibliography Other books: Mutations, Thausand Plateaux,, A Theory of Good City Form (Lynch), Atlanta (Rem), Precisions (Corbu), Delirious New York (Rem), David Harve, 100 Mile City (Dejan Sudjic), The Image of the City (Kevin Lynch), Grand Desing (Georg Gerster) Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, and Scott Lash. REFLEXIVE MODERNIZATION: POLITICS, TRADITION AND AESTHETICS IN THE MODERN SOCIAL ORDER. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.
Urban Theory ALEXANDER, Christopher, “A City is not a Tree,” in LE GATES, Richard T., STOUT, Frederic (eds.), The City Reader, Routledge, New York and London, 2000. KOOLHAAS, Rem, et al., Mutations, Actar, Barcelona, 2000. LE CORBUSIER, The City of Tomorrow and its Planning. Dover, New York, 1987. LERUP, Lars, After the City. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, 2000. VENTURI, Robert, SCOTT BROWN, Denise, IZENOUR, Steven, Learning from Las Vegas, The MIT Press, Cambridge-Mass. and London, 1972. WALL, Alex, The Dispersed City, In: Architectural Design Vol. 64 No 3/4 “The Periphery”, 1994. ZAERA POLO, Alejandro, “Order Out of Chaos: The Material Organization of Advanced Capitalism,” in Architectural Design vol. 64 No 3/4,“The Periphery”, 1994.
Research DE GEYTER ARCHITECTS, Xaveer: After-Sprawl, Research for the Contemporary City. NAi Publishers, Rotterdam, 2002. LOOTSMA, Bart. „Reality Bytes: The Meaning of Research in the Second Modern Age“. Daidalos 69/70. 1998/1999. METAPOLIS & ACTAR, HiperCatalunya: Research Territories, Metapolis IaaC and Actar, Barcelona 2003. MVRDV, Metacity / Datatown, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1999. MVRDV, Costa Iberica, Actar, Barcelona, 2000. MVRDV, The Region Mixer, RheinRuhrCity. NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf, 2003. STEELE, Bret, „Data(e)scape. Design as Research“, Daidalos 69/70, 1998/1999.
Globalization & Cultural Studies GARREAU, Joel, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, Doubleday, New York, 1992. HALL, Peter, “The City of Theory,” in LE GATES, Richard T., STOUT, Frederic (eds.), The City Reader, Routledge, New York and London, 2000. SASSEN, Saskia, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. SUDJIC, Deyan, The 100 Mile City, André Deutsch, London, 1992.
Forecasts BLOWERS, Andrew, HAMMNETT, Chris, SARRE, Philip (Eds.), The Future of Cities. Hutchinson Educational. London, 1974. DOXIADIS, C. A and PAPAIOANNOU, J. G., Ecumenopolis: The Inevitable City of the Future. Athens Publishing Center, Athens, 1974 FISHMAN, Robert, Urban Utopias in the XXth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Ll. Wright and Le Corbusier. Basic Book, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1977.
WRIGHT, Frank Ll., Broadacre City: A New Community Plan, In: LE GATES, Richard T., STOUT, Frederic (eds.), The City Reader, Routledge, New York and London, 2000.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY College of Architecture, Art & Planning Department of City and Regional Planning
Issues for the 1st class Sign up list, names, emails, city you will investigate (your city). Goals for this and the next class: get to know each other. I want to know what your skills are in terms on researching, handling information, presenting it, etc. - What is the most interesting thing you have seen in a city (any city) in your whole life? What are mot important global trends in the development of cities? What are the most important trends in the US? For the next class: Prepare a 5 minute visual presentation about the city in which you grew up. Answer the two questions above in relation to that city in particular. Research: bring no less than ten images, one of which should be high quality map of the city at scales approximately 1:10.000. Suggested way to structure the presentation: - Highlight a few important moments in the development of the city, and explain why they are relevant - Make a detailed presentation of one aspect of the city, rather than trying to give a general picture of it.