behind the curtains. architecture as a theatrical play. keryn liew
PROLOGUE Architecture today has been monopolised by real estate developers, even to the extent where architecture became commodities, massproduced particularly in megacities. Lacking the dialogue that allows users to participate with, these commodities are formed with the obsession of branding. Architecture became objects of such obsession. And architecture should not be mere soulless objects. It is meant to be experimental. Each architectural work should reveal narration of stories. The walls, the windows and the thresholds are the actors of cities. Architecture should not just be an expression of structural elements, but a collective of actions that ignite the soul of both the building and the users within.1
1. Feuerstein, Marcia F and Gray Read, Architecture As A Performing Art (Burlington: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2013), 1.
CAST director : architect actors : architectural elements spectators: occupiers
who
and
INTRODUCTION
what
that
creates
the
theatrical
play
Rather than just mere designers, Cedric Price underlines the role of architects as activators of spaces to prompt participations and events.2 Architects ought to develop a fully choreographed production to be presented in the city of today. The creation of architecture should be treated as a theatrical play; with architectural elements as the actors to provide experiential messages and occupiers as the spectators to perceive them. By switching our approach into making architecture as a theatrical production, one then realize that architecture is a medium to deliver contextual messages. In regards to this, stories to be unraveled have to be in the context of responding to site and user specificity.
2. “Cedric Price�, Spatial Agency, last accessed November 10, 2016, http://www.spatialagency.net/database/price.
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Building 8 RMIT University by Peter Corrigan, 19933
3. Paul White, 1024 x 768 Building 8 RMIT University, 2009, photography, http: /browse;ID=7au4luwsht7i.jpg
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In fact, there are many parallels between architecture and theatrical play. Peter Corrigan, who has experiences in set designs inclines to take his architectural designs as strong representations of expressive illustrations on the building envelope. This is clearly depicted in RMIT’s Building 8 for instance. Embracing Postmodernism while echoing Robert Venturi’s view in architecture, Corrigan collects abstractions of complex visual symbols to create an architecture that he claims is alive.4 Architects have apparently been looking at the similarities to represent architecture visually as a theatrical play. Yet, there is a loss in embracing the essences of theatrical play - the libretto, music, choreography and staging that could be portrayed in architecture.
4. “Doing it his way,” Norman Day, The Age, last modified September 1, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/31/1062268467543.html
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Emphasising architecture as a play provides new insights into architecture, potentially avoiding architecture to be objectified as commodities. This is further scrutinised in Act 1: The Conceptual. Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “The medium is the message� where contextual messages become less important than the particular medium.5 The tangible outcome of architecture is the medium that hence shapes the conceptual message. It is then crucial to rediscover how the translation of theoretical discourse is formulated through the use of architectural elements to portray the play.
5. McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiore,The Medium Is The Massage (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967).
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Nevertheless, to say architecture as a play that narrates a story is not to say that it must be the story to be experienced by the spectators. Roland Barthes’ 1968 essay “The Death of Author� highlights the fact that there is never a seamless conveyance from the author to the reader; similarly from the architect to the users. Distinctive personal experiences are distilled from the multiple understanding of the conceptual, completing the purpose of architecture as a play. A theatrical play is only a rehearsal when there are no spectators. Likewise, architecture is nothing without the participatory of people. The many interpretations experienced by spectators through senses and atmospheric experiences contribute to the completion of plays. Atmosphere that could be appreciated by the spectators would thus be discussed in reference to phenomenology and poetics of space. In Act 2: The Perceptual, architecture is therefore discussed with the concern of user engagements.
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ACT 1 THE CONCEPTUAL “In architecture, concepts can either precede or follow projects or buildings,”6 Bernard Tschumi,
in The Manhattan Transcripts.
6. Tschumi, Bernard, The Manhattan Transcripts (London: Academy Editions.1994).
While disregarding whether the theoretical concept is applied to or derived from a project, it is apparent to Tschumi that each work must have a concept. In other words, a provision of a deep architectural discourse is needed. Aligning to his belief, architecture should have the power to craft an understanding of its context and cultural essence. Rather than a blind pursuit of iconic statements through architectural forms, real architecture should be refocused to its narrative process inside out. This process is critical from the ideation – the conceptual thinking to the translation – the architectural details. In a broader context, sequence, space and time are the three tied elements to present a narration.7 The actors of architecture have the roles to create an overall design system that narrates events and processes. Therefore, apart from functionality, the notion of sequences and movements are equally crucial in allowing architecture to speak. Designing hence require investigations on each embodied character the elements could portray.
7. Psarra, Sophia, Architecture And Narrative. (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2009), 2.
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Exodus, the voluntary prisoners of architecture by Rem Koolhaas, 19728
8. Rem Koolhaas, Exodus, 1972, digital image, http://socks-studio.com/img/blog/Exodus7-800x653.jpg
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Taking Exodus, the voluntary prisoners of architecture, a thesis by Rem Koolhaas as an example, the architectural element that is emphasised here provokes its own new definition. Despite Exodus’ avant-garde, it is intriguing to notice the impact the over scaled wall evoke. The distinct partition that divides the city to the good and the trapped eventually brings out the significance a wall could provide when experimentation is done to the element. In this case, it is the experimental play of scale. The architectural instrument that speaks here provokes a strong emotion of despair.9 The wall is in fact a masterpiece of real architecture. It is the protagonist that narrates the idea of users being the prisoners of the architecture.
9. “Exodus, Or The Voluntary Prisoners Of Architecture�, Fosco Lucarelli, SOCKS, last modified March 19,2011, http://socks-studio. com/2011/03/19/exodus-or-the-voluntary-prisoners-of-architecture/.cks.
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Subsequently, it is recognizable that tangible elements that are gathered together to produce architecture contain intangible embodied energies. These energies give references to symbolic, atmospheric meanings. The portals between exterior and interior, the walls that separate functional zones and the windows that frame atmospheres are not merely just a combination to produce an architectural form. These elements are capable of creating spaces that ignite an invisible energy, an emotional metaphor that users relate to.
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Strategies of Void, Jussieu Libraries by Rem Koolhaas 199210
10. Rem Koolhaas, Jussieu Libraries, 1992, drawing, http://oma.eu/projects/jussieu-two-libraries
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Viewing architecture as a whole, it is a field of knowledge that reveals the structure of familiarity in the world.11 A good precedent of such would be to visit Rem Koolhaas’s diagrams on Jussieu Libraries. The energy these voids provide lead to the idea of voyeurism, a narrative personal journey in exploring the architecture.12 Akin to Koolhaas’s approach to strategically explore voids in architectural space, the first step in treating architecture as a play is to explore scale, materiality and existing interstitial gaps between architectural elements. Experimenting what each element could offer is thus similar to testing what “new” they could convey to express a story.
11. Woods, Lebbeus, Peter Noever, Manuel De Landa, Anthony Vidler, and Christoph a Kumpusch, Lebbeus Woods (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2005), 16. 12. Eisenman, Peter, “Strategies of the Void. Rem Koolhaas, Jussieu Libraries, 1992-1993,” in Ten Canonical Buildings : 1950-2000 (New York: Rizzoli, 2008), 206.
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By further exploring the new of such architecture, it requires architects to scrutinize the elements of familiarity to express a notion of unfamiliarity to the users. These elements are the media that speaks the message of the architectural play; resonating to McLuhan’s concept of the medium is the message. Architecture is then articulated through the many details of elements. The assembly of elements through speculative decisions on joints for example hence create a totality of expressive architectural play.13 Rather than just involving a visual identification of architecture, architecture could therefore be appreciated by feelings.
13. Ford, Edward, “The Grand Work of Fiction: The Detail as Narrative,” Architectural Design, vol. 84, no. 4, July/August 2014, 33.
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ACT 2 THE PERCEPTUAL While it is understood that message is important to be narrated in architecture, it thus propose a question on how could a message be sequentially conveyed to the spectators in the medium of architecture.
“Every exit is an entrance somewhere else� Tom Stoppard.14 Scenes in theatrical plays are choreographed with smooth transitions between one and another. The directions and movements each actor takes contributes to the rhythm and overall progression of the changes in sets. This is likewise in designing architectural space. The zones that are usually programmed functionally in architecture should incorporate a notion of sequence. A transitional ambiguity within one and another that blurs the thresholds of zoning allows a perceptual poetic experience for the spectators.
14. Feuerstein, Marcia F and Gray Read, Architecture As A Performing Art (Burlington: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2013), 6.
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The ambiguous threshold creates is captivating.
theatrical
play
It is this application of social and cultural expression in plays that contributes to the conveyance of the message; giving meaning to a theatrical play. This meaning that is derived from a creation of framing play as life and life as play,15 should be applied in architecture too. The narration to be conveyed is neither arbitrary nor personal to an architect. Architecture should be choreographed with a narrative performance that reveals a poetic representation with which users could identify.
15. Feuerstein, Marcia F and Gray Read, Architecture As A Performing Art (Burlington: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2013), 6.
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There is full consideration of all senses in theatrical choreography, which should also be a concern in the framework of architecture. Similar to a play, architecture is a medium with low definition since it engages with all the senses. As it demands users’ participation to perceive with full senses, architecture resembles an organisation of energy. In fact, it is a system that interacts with human events within and the space it locates to give rise to a new definition of architecture.16 Thus, rather than making things, the address of making things happen should be emphasised.17 To accentuate the contextual narrative of architecture, the presence and participation of spectators should be concerned. Senses should therefore be highly integrated in fabricating architecture. Juhani Pallasmaa strongly appeals that architecture is inhabited with the perception of our body, through movement, memory and imagination.18 The conceptual aspects of architecture and the perceptual characteristics of users are consequently interdependent to portray the play.
16. Woods, Lebbeus, Peter Noever, Manuel De Landa, Anthony Vidler, and Christoph a Kumpusch, Lebbeus Woods (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2005), 40. 17. Feuerstein, Marcia F and Gray Read, Architecture As A Performing Art (Burlington: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2013), 5. 18. McCarter, Robert and Juhani Pallasmaa, Understanding Architecture (Phaidon, 2012),10.
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The Archetype of Murder, Advertisments for Architecture by Bernard Tschumi 197619
19. Bernard Tschumi, The Archetype of Murder, 1976, image, http://www.tschumi.com/projects/19/#.
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This engagement of spectators that responds to the actors is thus, what triggers the essence of real architecture. Tschumi’s “The Archetype of Murder” sparks the notion of event in architecture, addressing the importance of creating something to happen with architecture. His emphasis on architecture that cannot be dissociated with events that occurs within, leads to the exploration of human physicality as an interpretation of space. By orchestrating the senses of spectators, architects have to investigate the interrelationship of expressions from psychoanalysis to phenomenology.20 This approach further establishes Tschumi’s concept. The conceptual of the architectural play thus should be carefully curated with the expressions of such for a spatial narration.
20. Feuerstein, Marcia F and Gray Read, Architecture As A Performing Art (Burlington: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2013), 23.
22
Looking at contemporary architecture, perceptual is sometimes weakened.
the
Mario Carpo highlights that technology has altered the way we make architecture, from manual to digital simulation.21 Greg Lynn experiments architecture in ways that could express smoothness in tectonics through the use of virtual form-finding simulations.22 The risk architects encounter now is the drive of computer simulations that are omnipresent. The celebration of efficiency in architecture through prefabricated materials and modular castings results in a loss of sensuous perspective that provides identity to architectural plays. Such process of making architecture flattens the initially intricate architecture into uniform objects. Rather than the fear of architecture being constructed as commodities, it is therefore crucial to bring in emotional engagements that are genuine to create happenings in architecture. Architecture is not a building to be occupied, but a building created for the occupiers and by the occupiers.
21. Carpo, Mario, “The New Science Of Form-Searching�. Architectural Design 85 (5): 2015, 22. 22. Lynn, Greg, Animate Form (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) p. 8 – 43.
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EPILOGUE
Architectural elements that embody expressive energy and humans’ experiences that ignite the happening within are both the key ideas architects should work on to produce a theatrical play of architecture. A deep theoretical discourse provided in each design.
ought
to
be
Treating architecture as a theatrical play results in architecture that speaks, but allowing a spatial freedom for spectators’ own interpretations also creates architecture that listen. It might seem that such an architectural play is like an open work that Umberto Eco defines, yet this does not have any undesired outcome. It echoes the concept of a work is only completed when the viewers interacts with it.23 The many interpretations that the spectators perceive through the curated architectural narrative in fact add to the essence of architecture. After all, architecture is not an object, but a process. Architecture is not a form, but a soul. Architecture speaks and listens. Architecture consists of actors and spectators. Architecture is a theatrical play.
23. Eco, Umberto, The Open Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989).
BIBLIOGRAPHY Carpo, Mario, “The New Science Of Form-Searching”. Architectural Design 85 (5): pp. 22-27, 2015. Eco, Umberto, The Open Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989). Eisenman, Peter, “Strategies of the Void. Rem Koolhaas, Jussieu Libraries, 1992-1993,” in Ten Canonical Buildings : 1950-2000 (New York: Rizzoli, 2008), 200-228. Feuerstein, Marcia F and Gray Read, Architecture As A Performing Art (Burlington: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2013). Ford, Edward, “The Grand Work of Fiction: The Detail as Narrative,” Architectural Design, vol. 84, no. 4, July/August 2014, pp.26-35. Lynn, Greg, Animate Form (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) pp. 8 – 43. McCarter, Robert and Juhani Pallasmaa, Understanding Architecture (Phaidon, 2012). McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiore,The Medium Is The Massage (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967). Psarra, Sophia, Architecture And Narrative. (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2009). Tschumi, Bernard, The Manhattan Transcripts (London: Academy Editions.1994). Woods, Lebbeus, Peter Noever, Manuel De Landa, Anthony Vidler, and Christoph a Kumpusch, Lebbeus Woods (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2005).