sTRANGE fUTURES

STRANGE FUTURES

Kyle J Dylewski

We consume only signs and progressively discard the objects themselves, and finally even begin to apply such consumerist society mechanisms to architecture and urban space.

- Toyo Ito, 2011 You can say that they virtually define the ‘aesthetic illusion‘ as a device that merely serves to mask the reality that aesthetic judgement is structured by class domination.

- Jacques Ranciere, 2011

Strange Futures: Fragmented Concepts for an Uniform Architecture

Strange Futures: Fragmented Concepts for an Uniform Architecture

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of

NewSchool of Architecture and Design

In Fullfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Architecture

by

Kyle J Dylewski 2017 San Diego, CA, USA

©

2017

Kyle J Dylewski ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Abstract The intention of this Bachelorarbiet is to create a series of fragmented architectural concepts meant to disrupt the preconceived notions of our built environment that have allowed the current status-quo of developer-based, object-centric architecture to be accepted by both the profesional architectural field and the general public.

This project begins with a comprehensive study of the history leading up to the current set of parameters. The history of objects and their shift from survival tools to showcases of wealth brings us to the modern era, where a look at the development of facades as architectural elements shows the creation of architectural consumerism.

This historical analysis leads the project to its main purpose: to break down the accepted ideas that allow a consumer model of architecture to prevail; ideas that allow developers to take control of the design process. These fragments are meant to bring the user’s mind through a series of alternative design manipulations, leaving them, abrubtly, at the precipice of convention and realisticality.

So where do these unfounded ideas leave the current conditions, and what direction does architectural design venture in search of future conditions? This project seeks answers, attempting to create a design force with the ability to stand up to power of the developer. This force seeks to disrupt the current status of the built environment by out- manipulating the manipulators; out-limiting the liability; out- consuming the consumers.

Strange Futures: Fragmented Concepts for an Uniform Architecture

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of

NewSchool of Architecture and Design

by

Kyle J Dylewski

Approved by:

Undergraduate Chair

Instructor

Acknowledgements

I offer deep thanks to J Enos for his continuous support, critical help, and commitment to the environment in which this book resides. Without his encouragement and patience the entire project, much less this book, would not exist.

The following people have been important in shaping the content of the book in different ways, consciously or unconsciously: Titus Story Dimson, Alex Angeline, Daniel Facanha, Andy Shifter, Alex Bernstein, Mariam Hattab, Thomas Woodward, Hannah Park, Bryant Henry, Edwin Evans, Rem Koolhaas, Adolfo Natalini, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Manfredo di Robilant, and Lafayette Hubbard.

I must thank Newschool and the city of San Diego for creating an entirely tepid and uninviting environment for the ideas expressed in this book.

I dedicate this book to my parents and sisters.

Contents Title Page....................................................................................................5 Abstract .....................................................................................................7 Signature Page .........................................................................................8 Acknowledgements .................................................................................9 Table of Contents ................................................................you made it

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Introduction ..................................................................................13 Problem Statement Critical Position Thesis Statement

2. Defining Object ............................................................................19 History of the World in Objects Objects in the New Century The Crisis of the Object in Architecture Architecture’s Favorite Object

3. The Role of the Deceptive Object in Politics and Society ....75 Italy, the 1960s, and an Architectural Response America, the 2000s, and the Current Conditions

4. Fragments .....................................................................................95 Removing the Object and...

Architecture is...

Strange Futures of...

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Contents (continued) 5. The Formation of a Cult for Architecture ...........................171 A Precedent for Uprising Cult Iconography Creation Strength in Numbers

6. Explorations in Futures ...........................................................187 Architecture Small Architecture Medium Architecture Large

References ..................................................................................213 Appendices .................................................................................219 Figures Illustrations Other Materials

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If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace- but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.

- (Luke 19: 42- 44, NIV)

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Introduction

Problem Statement Architecture suffers under the weight of capitalistic consumer society. The dependency on self-substantiating objects in order to create a picturesque, utopian environment is bringing down the critical nature that allows architecture a foothold as anything more than a standardized practice. Additionally, the established powers of monetary wealth and property ownership, seen amongst developers, is creating an increasingly dystopian picture of the future built environment.

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Critical Position The development of the consumer-friendly object is not only permeating societal tendencies, but also affecting the core of architectural design. We are seeing the culmination of mass consumerism in object-based facades represented as a paramount element of contemporary architecture.

These conditions, coupled with the destabilization of economic, social, cultural and political values in the modern era, are establishing a future with an inability to de-stagnate itself against the power of developers, specifically in our urban centers.

Whether or not answers are available to us at this moment in time, attempting to create a design force with the ability to stand up to power of the developer is paramount. This power seeks to disrupt the current status of the built environment through the use of incremental, calculated risks against the foundations of architecture and capitalism; no matter what the cost.

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Thesis Statement In order to amalgamate all possible futures for our built environment, it is necessary to create a series of fragmented architectural concepts formulated to disrupt the pre-conceived notions that allow the current conditions of developer-based, object-centric architecture to be accepted. This fragmentation is not for the architectural agency alone, but is also created for the general public, which has succumb to an object-based economy and refuses to see architecture as anything other than a hyperdisplay.

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Perhaps the greatest design company that never existed is ACME, that make-anything, deliver-anywhere parody of consumerism’s seemingly limitless offer.

- Sam Jacob, 2016

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Defining Object

In order to create parameters for the acceptance of a deceptive object amongst us in the current architectural environment, the term ‘object’ requires a historical perspective of what objects mean for us.

This incorporates the understanding of how they relate to not only the general state of society, but also the vocation of architecture itself. The impact of objects on humanity is more straightforward: they are paramount to the growth and success of human life on earth, with a portion of the objects created in the modern era maybe an exception. More important to the ideas expressed in this book, is the stamp objects and their meaning have upon architecture.

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History of the World in Objects There is no history of the world, as we know it, without objects. However, the transformation of the overall purpose of objects from survival tools to items fueling the advancement of society to disposable consumer objects. This dilution of our need for objects, which today encompasses the sales tactics of making the objects we actually do need less obtainable while marketing ones we want with affordability, is shaping the way we look at the world. Architecture relates to our object-based society by creating an aesthetic environment, fueled by the same organizations that advance commodity habits to establish the ultimate consumer’s paradise. The following creates a subjective history on how the objects we make not only showcase our objectives and desires but also shape the future.

Figure 1. Seated Buddha from Gandhara. Stone statue, from Pakistan, 100 - 300 AD. This scultpure - one of the earliest known - probably dates from the third century AD, when Gandhara was ruled by the Kushan kinds of northern India, whose empire stretched from Kabul to Islamabad (MacGregor, 2011, p 266).

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Mummy of Hornedjitef Olduvai stone chopping tool Olduvai handaxe Swimming Reindeer Clovis Spear point Bird-shaped pestle Ain Sakhri lovers figurine Egyptian clay model of cattle Maya maize god statue Jamon pot King Den’s sandal label Standard of Ur Indus seal Jade axe Early writing tablet Flood Tablet Rhind Mathematical Papyrus Minoan Bull Leaper Mold Gold Cape Statue of Ramesses II Lachish Reliefs Sphinx of Taharqo Chinese Zhou ritual vessel Paracas textile Gold coin of Croesus Oxus chariot model Parthenon sculpture Basse Yutz Flagons Olmec stone mask Chinese bronze bell Coin with head of Alexander Pillar of Ashoka Rosetta Stone Chinese Han lacquer cup Head of Agustus Warren Cup North American otter pipe Ceremonial ballgame belt Admonitions Scroll Hoxne pepper pot Seated Buddha Gold coin of Kumaragupta I Silver plate with Shapur II Hinton St Mary Mosaic Arabian bronze hand Gold coin of Abd al-Malik Sutton Hoo helmet Moche warrior pot Korean roof tile Slik princess painting Maya relief of royal blood-let Harem wall painting Lothair Crystal

SURVIVE vs CONSUME Making Us Human

-9000 BC 9000-3500 BC

Food and Sex

4000-2000 BC

Cities & States Science & Literature 1500-700 BC

1100-300 BC

New Powers Age of Confucius 500-300 BC

300 BC-1 AD

Empire Builders Modern Pleasures 1-600 AD

200-600 AD

Rise of Faith 400-700 AD

The Silk Road Inside the Palace 700-950 AD

HISTORY OF OBJEC

Hinton St Mary Mosaic Arabian bronze hand Gold coin of Abd al-Malik Sutton Hoo helmet Moche warrior pot Korean roof tile Slik princess painting Maya relief of royal blood-let Harem wall painting Lothair Crystal Statue of Tara Chinese Tang tomb figures Vale of York Hoard Hedwig glass beaker Japanese bronze mirror Borobudur Buddha head Lewis Chessmen Hebrew astrolabe Ife head The David Vases Taino ritual seat Holy Thorn Reliquary Triumph of Orthodoxy icon Shiva and Parvaiti sculpture Sculpture of Huastec goddess Easter Island statue Tughra of Suleiman Inca gold llama Jade dragon cup Durer’s Rhinoceros The mechanical galleon Benin plaque Double-headed serpent Kakiemon elephants Pieces of eight Shi’a parade standard Mughal prince Miniature Shadow puppet of Bima Mexican codex map Centenary broadsheet Akan drum Hawaiian feather helmet North American buckskin map Australian bark shield Jade bi Ship’s chronometer Early Victorian tea set Hokusai’s The Great Wave Suffragette defaced penny Russian revolutionary plate Hockney’s In the dull village Throne of Credit card Solar panel 400-700 AD

The Silk Road

Inside the Palace

700-950 AD

Pilgrims & Traders

900-1300 AD 1200-1400 AD

Status Symbols Meeting the Gods 1200-1400 AD

1375-1550 AD

Modern World Global Economy 1450-1600 AD

1550-1700 AD

Intolerance 1680-1820 AD

Enlightenmet Production 1780-1914 AD

Mass 1914-2010 AD

Maker’s World

ORY OF OBJECTS

Illustration 2. History of the World in 100 Objects: Survive vs. Consume. This diagram organizes the 100 objects from Neil Macgregor’s book, titled A History of the World in 100 Objects, both historically and by their necessity towards human life. Over the course of history, there is a gradual shift from survival objects to the objects of mass consumerism.

Making us Human: 2000000 - 2000 BC. The dawn of civilization marshalled in the earliest examples of objects. The use of tools for survival, while crucial to humanity’s progression, brought about a reliance on those objects which still plagues it. Neil MacGregor, author of History of the World in 100 Objects (2011), speaks towards the necessity of this reliance: “it was this increasing dependency on the things we create that makes humans different from all other animals. Our ability to make objects allowed humans to adapt to a multitude of environments and spread from Africa into the Middle East, Europe, and Asia” (p 1). These objects allowed humanity to advance, and what was once a hunter and gatherer society evolved into groups able to settle. The new abilities created by objects allowed us to introduce sustainability for larger human groups. According to MacGregor (2011), “the development of farming occurred independently in a least seven different parts of the world at the end of the last Ice Age. Tending crops and domesticating animals meant that humans had for the first time to settle in one place” ( p 31). This surplus of food allowed humans the time to think at a higher level than ever before. During the initial periods of humankind, this was crucial to the advancement of society. The ability to save time, normally taken by the necessity to hunt and gather food for survival, allowed humans to conceptualize new methods and efficiencies. However, this ability was already beginning to be manipulated: “in what are today Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and India, people came together to live for the first time in settlements larger than villages, and there is evidence of kings, rulers, and great inequalities of wealth and power; at this time, too, writing first developed as a means of controlling growing populations” (MacGregor, 2011, p 61).

Unfortunately, even the early stages of our time on earth display examples of power manipulation and inequality.

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Figure 2. Olduvai Handaxe. Tool found in Olduvai Gorge, Tanznia, 1.2 - 1.4 million years old (MacGregor, 2011, p 15).

Figure 3. Sphinx of Taharqo. Granite sphinx, found at Kawa, northern Sudan, around 680 BC (MacGregor, 2011, p 141).

Figure 4. Flood Tablet. Clay writing tablet from Ninevah (near Mosul), northern Iraq, 700-600 BC (MacGregor, 2011, p97).

The Beginnings of Science and Literature: 2000 - 300 BC. Moving forward, humans started to populate in much larger groups. This dynamic created the necessity for infrastructure and organization. According to MacGregor (2011), “the emergence of cities and states in different parts of the world had many consequences, among them the appearance of the world’s first written literature and the development of scientific and mathematical knowledge” (p 95). Objects were instrumental in the progress of organized civilization. Tools for building, instruments for scientific exploration, and some of the earliest examples of writing utensils were produced during this time. However, the creation of objects during this time was not entirely devoted to the advancement of society, especially in rural areas. MacGregor (2011) states that, “the majority of the world’s population nevertheless still lived in scattered communities, but these people created many sophisticated objects. Many of these objects were clearly made as demonstrations of power, designed to impress subjects,

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visitors and possible posterity” (p 95). Early objects created for the sole purposes of power and influence, begin to exact a history of control and the idea of empires.

Shortly after, in “about 1000 BC new powers arose in several parts of the world, overwhelmed the existing order, and took its place” (MacGregor, 2011, p 131). The slow conglomeration of population generated a new requirement for a set of objects able to accommodate the expansion, as well as the new technologies. There were also profound changes in economic behavior: currency was used for the first time, displacing the previous bartering exchanges and leading to a rapid growth of commercial activity.

Empire Builders: 300 BC - AD 500. Now the ability to extort and control large groups of people, infrastructure and resources existed. Once power is exerted, nothing will stop its growth; the hunger for power is incessant.

Macgregor (2011) found this to be especially true in the early stages: “Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Empire in 334 BC ushered in an age of megalomaniac rulers and great empires. Although there had been empires before, this was the first time regional superpowers emerged in different parts of the globe” (p 195). Rulers were now amassing armies, pooling resources, and conquering land. Beyond this ability to forcefully control an empire, those in control were starting to manipulate their subjects using other types of objects.

MacGregor uses the Roman Empire as an example: “it continued for the next 400 years, rivalled in size, population, and sophistication only by the Han Dynasty in China, where the state produced luxury goods to win both admiration and obedience” (MacGregor, 2011, p 195).

The objects during this time period show how attitudes to pleasure, luxury and leisure fluctuate throughout history. Many of the objects we enjoy today were symbols of wealth, power, even faith throughout the course of history.

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Figure 5. Coin with Head of Alexander.

Silver coin of Alexander the Great, minted in Turkey, 305 - 281 BC (MacGregor, 2011, p 197).

Figure 6. Silk Princess Painting. Silk painting, form Xinjiang province, China, AD 600-800 (MacGregor, 2011, p 319).

The Rise of World Faiths: AD 100 - 900. Religion also plays a major part in the shaping of objects through the evolution of civilization. The use of faith as a means of control would turn out to be a more successful tool than both force or wealth, both of which organized religion would acquire regardless. MacGregor (2011) points out an interesting phenomenon occurring during this period: “Striving to comprehend the infinite, a small number of major faiths have shaped the world over the last 2,000 years. Strikingly, the defining representational traditions of Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism all developed within a few hundred years of each other� (p 263).

While the validity of these major world religions is not in question, their ability to manipulate and control massive amounts of people raises concerns. Religious institutions utilize ornamental objects as proof of their validity in order to gain tighter control of their subjects. Additionally, the ruling and economically elite classes were gaining control of the production of objects at this time. For instance,

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“life in great royal courts across the world were explored through objects that were intimate, private expressions of public power” (MacGregor, 2011, p 325). Although made for different settings, the objects of this period were created so that the rulers of the world could state and restate the full extent of their authority, to themselves, to their subjects and their newly instated gods.

Meeting the Gods: AD 800 - 1500. Interestingly, the organizational development of world religions by society coincided with the intense urge to discover humans equality with the gods of those same religions. “Across the world different religious systems used objects to bridge the gap between the human and the divine, to aid the dialogue between individuals, communities or even empires and their gods” (MacGregor, 2011, p 423). The new establishment of commerce routes, which not only distributed goods but also ideas, made the physical gap manageable. As far as the metaphysical void, “these four centuries were also a period of great learning and cultural achievement”, MacGregor (2011) writes, “technological advances led to the creation of magnificent objects used by the wealthy to reflect their status and to show off their taste and intellect” (p 391).

This era solidified the idea that objects were capable of portraying a literal and physical connection to the symbolic concepts of status, wealth and power. This is a stepping stone upon which objects were no longer perceived in terms of their intrinsic value and would now be viewed as fetishized self-image machines for the ego of man.

The Threshold of the Modern World: AD 1375 - 1820.

At this point, society had well established governmental systems, a malign wealth inequality, world-wide religious institutions, early renditions of capitalism and corporatism, and a burgeoning population. Unfortunately, the ability for accessible world-wide travel was holding back the ability for this system to be implemented. According to MacGregor (2011), “for thousands of years objects had travelled huge

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Figure 7. Borobudur Buddha Head.

Stone head of the Buddha, from Java, Indonesia, AD 780-840 (MacGregor, 2011, p 379).

Figure 8. Mechanical Galleon. From Augsburg, Germany, AD 1585 (MacGregor, 2011, p 491).

Figure 9. Reformation Centenary Broadsheet. Woodblock print, from Leipzig, Germany, AD 1617 (MacGregor, 2011, p 552).

distances over land and sea. In spite of these connections, the world before AD 1500 was essentially still a series of networks” (p 457). Unless this became a possibility, none of the empires could utilize a global view because nobody had ever travelled the world in its entirety. History of the World in 100 Objects (MacGregor, 2011) devotes a large portion of its research and development to these conditions: “these chapters are about the great empires of the world, at that last pre-modern moment, when it was still unthinkable for one person to visit them all, and when even superpowers dominated only their regions” (p 457). That would soon change. Major developments in naval technology resulted in the formation of maritime empires and brought about the first global economy. Now, the ability to not only venture to unexplored regions of the world, but to open trade and commerce dialogues with different regions is what propelled us into the modern era.

Corporations followed closely behind the empires: “within that economy, the Dutch East India Company became the

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Figure 10. Hokusai’s “The Great Wave“.

Woodblock print, from Japan, AD 1830 1833 (MacGregor, 2011, p 606).

world’s first multinational company, transporting goods from the Far East to a European market” (MacGregor, 2011, p 489).

However, the logistics of multiple different cultures and empires conglomerating would cause difficulties, even today. MacGregor (2011) writes, “these explorers and traders brought different cultures into contact with each other for the first time, with varying results” (MacGregor, 2011, p 489). Furthermore, with the ravenous urge for power, these growing empires were thirsty for more, and clashes would occur. And while this period brought about unforeseeable growth and development for humankind, it was not without controversy. “The European Enlightenment (1680 - 1820) was an age in which scientific learning and philosophy flourished. Although often associated with reason, liberty and progress, the Enlightenment was also a period of European imperial expansion, when the transatlantic slave trade was at

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Figure 11. Early Victorian Tea Set. Stoneware and silver tea set, from Staffordshire, England, AD 1840 - 1845 (MacGregor, 2011, p 601).

“Edward Louis James Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as ‘the father of public relations’” (Ewen, 1996, ch 1).

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(2) “Of his many books, Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928) gained special attention as early efforts to define and theorize the field of public relations. He described the masses as irrational and subject to herd instinct—and outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desirable ways” (Ewen, 1996, ch 1).

its height” (MacGregor, 2011, p 559). The birth of imperialism is also the same period that brought about the modern world as we know it today. Troubling prospects, as behind the positive forces of learning, technology and progress grew the articles of HyperNormalisation, a force which exists only in shadows where it controls our world in more ways than the average citizen can understand.

“The dialogues and exchanges, the difficult transactions and misunderstandings, the straightforward clashes which resulted from encounters between Europeans and non-Europeans all over the world created an often deeply troubling history, since most of it resulted in the suppression of peoples and the fracturing of societies” (MacGregor, 2011, p 559). While the dangers of the imperial age are well documented for most, the corporate, political, and economic forces behind the world stage did not flinch at the prospect of suppression and fracture.

These organizations of power almost require these in order to thrive. So dawns a new age.

The World of our Making: AD 1780 - present. The industrial era was a crucial update for the world imagebased economy. Consumerism was now able to become what it is today: the amalgam of disposable goods and disposable profits known as mass-consumerism. MacGregor (2011) adds, “between the French Revolution and the First World War the countries of Europe and the USA were transformed from agricultural to industrial economies.

At the same time, their empires around the world grew, providing many of the raw materials and the markets these booming industries required” (p 593). The new abilities of industrial economies, coupled with seemingly unlimited resources, caught the attention of the corporate elite. They found a perfect way to cut down their costs, while increasing their production and, with a little help from Bernays new advertising strategy, boosting sales at the same time.(1)(2) “Technological innovation led to mass production of goods and growing international trade

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consumer goods that had previously been luxuries, such as tea, became widely affordable to the masses” (MacGregor, 2011, p 593). Unfortunately, the modernization of production created a depreciation of the work force.

Conditions in industrialized factories were deadly, which led to mass political and social movements. However, “the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first were an era of unprecedented conflict, social change and scientific development” (MacGregor, 2011, p 627). On the surface, the working conditions improved, the social structure stabilized, and society functioned under the guise of innovation. The more and more objects we produced, the better we felt about our progress. Nevermind that these products were becoming less and less relevant, less and less valuable, with less and less quality. We were the future!

MacGregor (2011) is more optimistic: “technological innovation enabled more objects to be produced and used by humankind than at any previous time in history, changing the way we relate to each other and to the material

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Figure 12. Solar- powered Lamp and Charger. Manufactured in Shenzhen, Guandong, China, AD 2010 (MacGregor, 2011, p 653).

Figure 13. Throne of Weapons. Chair made of weapon parts, from Maputo, Mozambique, AD 2001 (MacGregor, 2011, p 641).

world.” Although he admits that, “many of these objects (particularly since the invention of plastics) have been ephemeral and disposable, which has given urgency to questions about the environment and global resources” (p 627). The consumer object is here, and we still adore our progress as humans.

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Objects in the New Century As the influence of the consumer object grows in our society, the qualities that define objects today become more complex and more abstract than ever before. While the objects themselves are more frequent, common, and less involved the ideas and organizations behind them are creating the exact opposite condition. With the growth of mass consumerism, the corporations hiding behind the multitude of objects, used as a tool to distract the population, are also growing in power and influence. We are currently seeing the outcomes of corporate objects in the new century. Metahaven, a design firm out of Amsterdam, draws on the visual debris that defines the corporate and government worlds in its work titled Uncorporate Identity. It states, “these corporate objects do not seem to be very interesting. They are impersonal and cold. They are the sales representatives and apologists for an organization” (Metahaven, 2010, p 7). This is just the beginning. We are seeing more and more of these corporations using the same parameters by which our consumer selves judge objects to brand an image of themselves into the marketplace. Metahaven (2010) acknowledges this, pointing out that, “the emblem or image that represents an organization is a surface to cover the void between itself and the intangible thing it stands for. Such an image may appeal to people’s needs, desires, or expectations. It may also appeal to their fears” (p 7).

The impact this transformation is having on the general public is substantial.

Gone are the days of observing objects based on their survival necessity; no longer are we judging products on their consumer value or market influence; with the birth of the corporate object we now see things as singular, aesthetic images created to distract us from the back workings of monetized power and industry. This fits perfectly into the elusiveness of networked organizations,

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which appears to more structurally enhance while engaging their fundamental abstraction (Metahaven, 2010, p 8). The rise of corporate identity and branding as every other organization’s business model created as objects is also affecting the contemporary design practice, which includes architecture. The intrusion of corporate practices into the design world, which throughout history stood as a bastion against the structures of power, is problematic.

According to Metahaven (2010), “the conjunction of the visible and speakable, the exhaustive self-reflexivity of every moment of aesthetic or commercial solicitation, results in both a hyper-visibility and total indiscernibility for contemporary design” (p 9). Both the projection of power, created by these new identities, and the assumption of an image as a means of an object are ways to create a world and make it seem inevitable. This helplessness felt by the general public is finding its way into the ideals of the design world. The ‘vagueness’ incorporating its way into the ideas behind objects is numbing the critical nature of design, creating a platform for a post-truth inability to stand up for the validity of objects, their design, and their social identity. “When ‘criticality’ is compulsory, design can become doubly trapped - either in the functionality of marketing or the marketing of critique” (Metahaven, 2010, p 12). The simplicity of the delivery of these new corporate objects into society is most troubling. The confusion created by this hyper-visibility and total indiscernibility slips seamlessly into the concept of the ideal consumer object is making it difficult to discern what is real and what is ideal; what is wholesome and what is corporate; what is architecture and what is facade.

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Illustration 3. Objects That Made Us Cool. Photo collage showcasing the conditions of consumerism in the middle of the 20th century.

Illustration 4. Objects That Make Us Cool. Photo collage showcasing the conditions of consumerism present day.

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The Crisis of the Object in Architecture

Figure 14. Equitable Loans Building.

(Elements: Facade, 2014, p 761).

Classicism in architecture developed during the Italian Renaissance, notably in the writings and designs of Leon Battista Alberti and the work of Filippo Brunelleschi. It places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome, of which many examples remained (Summerson, 1986).

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Architecture, especially in this new century, is experiencing its own set of struggles to accommodate the object. The current architectural environment is filled with object-based scenes, and the motives behind these scenes are becoming increasingly dystopian and capitalistic. Gevork Hartoonian, author of Crisis of the Object: The Architecture of Theatricality, delves into the relationship between the work of present-day architecture in the context of the ongoing thinning of the traditions of nineteenth century architecture. He states that, “in spite, or perhaps because of this crisis of the object, a comprehensive understanding of the present state of architecture demands a rethinking of the thematic of the disciplinary history of architecture” (Hartoonian, 2006, p 2). While development is ever increasing, the theoretical creation of these aesthetic displays is a much slower deliberation; a crawling degradation of architectural agency.

A Struggle Through Architectural History. The dissension and confusion started to infiltrate the architectural profession with the introduction of classicism.(3) In his writing for The Architectural Association’s Architecture Words 2, titled Anti-Object, Kengo Kuma argues against the obsession western architecture has with isolated objects. In it he states, “the world as envisioned by classicism was a collection of objects ruled by a rigorous order, existing independently of the subject. This dichotomy came to trouble architects with the classical revival during the Renaissance” (Kuma, 2007, p 6).

Architecture, to its detriment, was closely linked with the other art forms during this time period. For instance, the Renaissance technique of perspective was considered to be part of the same conceptual framework as the neoclassical approach, which was to govern architecture through geometry. Unfortunately, this relationship

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contained an inherent contradiction that would plague architecture to this day: it introduces form and space via an extremely subjective and singular viewpoint (Kuma, 2007, p 7).(4) As long as the subject remains in front of the flat, two-dimensional facade, he is able to disregard the contradiction, and the architecture is able to assume the guise of objectivity. However, requiring the subject to remain in one position while the architectural object also requires user interaction creates an obvious contradiction.

Kuma’s (2007) writing observes these same parameters, stating that “the dichotomy between subject and object has frequently troubled architects in the past, causing the pendulum to swing between styles, between object/ objectivity, and subject/ subjectivity” (p 7).

The Renaissance is no exception. During this period, the rigorous composition and mathematical proportions of the object-oriented architecture existed only when seen from upon high, from a godlike viewpoint (Kuma, 2007, p 7). The moment the viewpoint was lowered to ground level all geometries lost their effect. Following the Renaissance, architecture was transformed into distorted, exaggerated objects, which created the architecture of the baroque period. According to Kuma (2007), “space was organised around circular geometries, which were completely focused on creating the greatest perceptual impact” (p 8). The baroque style was eventually supplanted by neoclassicism. Neoclassical buildings were typically designed to be viewed from a distance, which obviously was problematic. As soon as the distance between object and subject could not be maintained, the perspective became ineffective. This marked the end of architecture’s search for creating the optimal relationship between the object and a singular subject (Kuma, 2007, p 8). Furthermore, this end would marshall in an entirely different way relationship between subject and architecture, in terms of composition, proportions, and perspective.

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As the subject begins to move and shit his viewpoint, the static spatial perception achieved through perspective is rendered practically useless (Kuma, 2007, p 7).

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Figure 15. Palazzo Pitti. Renaissance period, Florence, Italy (Web, 2017).

Modern architecture emerged at the end of the 19th century from revolutions in technology, engineering and building materials, and from a desire to break away from historical architectural styles and to invent something that was purely functional and new. “Communicating the impact of a building to large numbers of people eventually became a primary objective of modern architecture” (Kuma, 2007, p 13). The issue was less about creating new architecture or cities, but rather a move towards discovering architectural novelties capable of being relayed through the new forms of mass media. The introduction of feature films, sound recordings, radio, television, computers, and the World Wide Web into this new atmosphere pushed the focus on objects to the forefront of society. Perhaps the work of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe led architecture in this new direction. Anti-Object used these two architects as prime examples of this era of architecture: “They created extremely photogenic works of architecture that were sufficiently new and individualistic to be recognized as such in a single, decisive black-andwhite photograph. To be decisive, the photograph had to show the entire building. The building itself had to have forms and details that were predicated on being viewed, as an object, from a distance” (Kuma, 2007, p 13).

(5) “Just as department stores became a necessary context in which to sell objects called ‘products’, so art museums became a necessary context in which to sell objects called ‘private houses’ to the middle class. Art museums effectively served the same role as department stores” (Kuma, 2007, p 19).

These new objects avoided complex forms, preferring pure geometrical shapes, which created an overall character that was easy to define. This typology of work coincided with the growth of mass consumerism, and it fit seamlessly with the creation of the ideal consumer object. Furthermore, “Le Corbusier and Mies achieved positions of leadership in twentieth-century architecture by defining objects that were ideally suited to the contemporary approach to bridging matter and consciousness, which was to reduce both to the status of objects” (Kuma, 2007, p 17). With this, architecture became a consumer-friendly object, achieving social status and market value in an increasingly object-based economy.(5)

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Wish-Images and Objects in Architecture Today. This crisis of the object in architecture retained its momentum up until now for the reason that architecture exercises a complex relationship both with its history of subject and object, and with the technical and programmatic needs unleashed by modernization. Gevork Hartoonian (2006) touches on these points, noting that, “modernization forced architects and historians to respond to the unfolding conflict between the concerns of the past and the rising spatial and visual sensibilities invigorated by steel and glass structures for the future” (p 3). As the technologies in materials and structures developed through and with the modernist movement, the technologies of the design process also evolved. The architectural office started to change, and along with it changed the agency of the entire profession itself. While this mirroring of technology and agency in architecture began as a revolution in thought and process, it slowly became a hindrance.

Recently, the evolution of building materials and construction techniques has slowed, allowing profitability and thrift to become part of the architectural vehicle.

The proliferation of computer technologies has shifted the interest of architects from the tectonic to the final product and its surface. Hartoonian (2006) adds, “this line of thinking is supported by the belief that the building industry, especially in America, has been unable to introduce new materials and techniques, thus the impossibility of changing the “image” of architecture beyond that of modernism” (p 5). More than ever, the architectural profession is linked to the construction industry, with some cases portraying architecture as the subservient party. This caused a rift within architecture that would plague it to this very moment: architects became image manufacturers responsible for the digital and physical fabrication of ideas. The ideas of the master builder, the powerful utopian-thinking architect, the spatial artist: gone; replaced with a contractual-

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Figure 16. Yas Hotel. Parametric architecture, Abu Dhabi (Web, 2017).

(6) “The whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that once was directly lived has become mere representation” (Debord, 1977).

(7) In Karl Marx’s critique of political economy, commodity fetishism is the perception of the social relationships involved in production, not as relationships among people, but as economic relationships among the money and commodities exchanged in market trade. As such, commodity fetishism transforms the subjective, abstract aspects of economic value into objective, real things that people believe have intrinsic value (Rubin, 1972, p.5).

based idea visualiser, pleading for life at the will of the financiers. “A brief examination of even the most celebrated architectural work today supports the claim that, for some, the architectural form has little to do with poetic articulation. What is obvious today is an aesthetic form whose animated body can be associated with the idea of phantasmagoria, or the aesthetic termed commodity fetishism” (Hartoonian, 2006, p 5).(6)(7) Digital techniques are now the driving force behind an exasperation of the aesthetic. They can be used to generate an ideal image of the object that is independent of the specific site conditions and the forces of gravity. Crisis of the Object (2006) warns about the dangers of these technologies and the images they create: “such an image is an abstract floating object that suspends orientation and dispenses with the need to articulate form by reference to the idea of frontality or by part-to-whole techniques of composition” (p 6). The accommodation of architecture to technology reverts itself back to the same issues of subject, object, and perspective

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it experienced back in the Renaissance. However, the dematerialization of structure and abstraction of space that has come to characterize modern architecture, along with the consequent transparency of surface and reflexive relationship between exterior and interior, created an even more intense object-oriented display, where composition and proportions were either completely distorted or completely missing in eyes of the subject.

Fetishisized images fixated on ornament, construction, and cladding remain as a means of communicating the idea of theatricality in architecture. Central to this idea is the possibility of embellishing the constructed form to a point where the art-form remains anonymous; anonymous because the final form is not tied to the conceptual process of design. “Thus the argument that there might be another dimension to the visible, self-referential and yet playful character of neo-avant-garde architecture; that the unconscious dimension of the object/subject relationship experienced in modernity is, in postmodernity, inflected by the aesthetic of the commodity-form” (Hartoonian, 2006, p 25). The increasing pressure of commodity-form on architecture demands much from a declining agency, dependent on technological development. The concepts of monument, ornament, and the tectonic remain the last remaining bastiments where the architect has a choice to ingrain the conceptual process with non-object-based aspects. Hartoonian (2006) claims some of these aspects include: “the culture of building that might sidetrack the formal and aesthetic consequences of commodity fetishism essential to the social production of late capitalism, and yet embrace the latest technologies” (p 26). The ability of architecture to both view its work as an opportunity to engage socio-cultural context and remain current with the blistering evolution of technology we are experiencing today.

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Figure 17. IMAGIC Weave. Transparent media facade (Web, 2017).

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Architecture’s Favorite Object: The Facade

Facadism refers to an architectural and construction practice where the facade of a building was designed or constructed separately from the rest of a building. More often it refers to the practice where only the facade of a building is preserved with new buildings erected behind or around it (Richards, 2014).

(8)

Now that the foundations of an architecture dependent on the object is established, that architecture seeks a vehicle capable of meeting the demands of a consumer society as well as an agency seeking a voice amidst the technological maelstrom of the 21st century. Fortunately, the exterior of the built environment creates the perfect combinatory relationship between two hungers: the malnourished tectonic in modern practice and the incessant desire for a photographic object. The facade, as an architectural element, has transformed itself from a necessary survival tool to a pictorial atmosphere.

Elements: Facade, a collaborative effort by AMO and others, provides us with a comprehensive history of what generally described as ‘facadism’.(8) This term correlates to a slow, deliberate collapse of the concrete values associated with the exterior surface of a survival structure and the establishment of an object with uncharted political and cultural meaning. “A metonym for architecture as a whole, the facade is the elements most invested with political and cultural meaning. Hence the rise of facadism, the focus on the facade to the detriment of the rest” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 703). The following information alludes to the establishment of a singular, generic aesthetic; the eversion of classical significance; the addition of market value.

Illustration 5. History of the “Facade“. This image collage corelates historical content about what is being called the facade of our built environment, tracing the roots of the generic amalgum we experience today.

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Figure 18. Teepee. (Web, 2017)

Facades Before the “Facade”. Invented and propagated in Europe around the 18th century, “facade” is a relatively recent term and concept. According to Elements (2014), “there was a facade before there was the term “facade”: the outer surface of a solid mass (or, in architectural parlance, of a “massive” building); thin layers of modular panels or screens; an intricate application of adhesive materials” (p 703). These applications were singular in their nature. They existed for the sole purpose of creating a physical boundary between the exterior and interior of a building. Few of these practices are preoccupied with the classical criteria of the facade, as they are focused solely on survival and tectonic necessity.

Fabric. Nomadic cultures throughout history utilized fabric coverings over temporary or mobile structures to create their dwellings. While these fabric exteriors had various applications including added warmth and protection from the elements and ease of installment, their most interesting quality lies in their decoration. Elements (2014) values these properties, stating that, “where the European conventions of the facade are absent, a variety of cultures employ elaborate systems for constructing the expressive exteriors of housing, mixing equal parts practical and symbolic demands to create the public “face” of the dwelling” (p 712). These wrappings offer a primal example of the exterior of a building being utilized not only for its physical properties, but also as a means to an identity.

Figure 19. Mud Hut. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 714).

Earth. Earthen materials represent early examples of a shift from building material as tectonic to building material as cultural expression. While mud was common in early buildings, the tall, conical dwellings of the musgum in Northern Cameroon are an unique precedent. “While

Illustration 6. History of the “Facade“ (part). This portion of the illustration shows the biginnings of a transformation as the exterior surface of early dwellings transformed from survival tool to self expression.

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cob building is the most widely used technique in the world, since no tools are needed - hands, earth, and water are enough -”, according to Elements (2014), “the simple process yields complex surface effects, which are more than decorative: the geometric raised patterns help shed the rain” (p 713). Architecture, relative to object-based facades, endures a consistent battle with the dichotomy of form and function. These early structures showcase a successful congruency throughout, enabling them to blend seamlessly to both design convention and personality.

Western Facade vs. Eastern Facade. The facade implies a certain conception of order, distilled from tradition.

While the Western facade system is well known, with its favored golden ratio and height as a symbol of stature, the conception of decorum for the Eastern tradition is wholly different. For example, “[Eastern] doctrine favored the notion that circles and squares were the most natural units of geometry” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 722). This circular proportion rhythm creates an ideal ratio of 1:1 rather than the golden mean, which creates a rectangular rhythm. Semantics aside, the Eastern tradition also manipulates the facade to create a surface for personalisation, albeit with a different ordering principle.

Elements (2014) mentions the practice of feng shui as a major contributor to Eastern object-based facades, stating that, “among its many other prescriptions for optimizing the energy flow of a building, the Chinese discipline of feng shui helps govern the orientation of the front of the home” (p 716). This elaborate integration of cosmology, generational wisdom, geographical knowledge, religious undertones, and personal assessment determines the ideal aesthetic direction for the design of the facade. However, until the modernization of Asia in the current era, the Eastern Facade system and ordering principles remained remarkably stable throughout history.

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Figure 20. Early eastern-style facade.

(Elements: Facade, 2014, p 720).

Figure 21. Ziggurat of Ur. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 726).

Evolution of Egyptian Facades. Over the course of history, few civilizations can claim a more lasting impact on society as that of the Ancient Egyptians. The power and influence they commanded within their geographical region allowed them to substantiate a multitude of architectural forms that pass through the historical imagination of architecture worldwide. This body of work becomes a stepping stone throughout history for the modernization of the building facade, especially in terms of monumentality and symbolic iconography. “Beginning with the mastaba, the block-like tomb of the ancient period, and climaxing with the Great Pyramid of Giza, before assuming more elaborate forms in the Mortuary Complexes of the New Kingdom. This book of forms, refined organically over thousands of years, later comes to form an idea book for architecture...� (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 724). The pharaonic period in Egypt is attributed to the development of buildings on a monumental scale, which in turn fueled a rise in the symbolic and representational

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value of the exterior surfaces. This period, also referred to as the megalithic age, in Egypt is represented, in large, by the development of the mastaba, which represented the monumentalized tomb, to the symbolism of the pyramid: the conception of the tomb as a place of ascent to heaven (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 724). We also see early examples of symbolic media used to promote the power and influence of the ruling class in Egyptian architecture.

Additionally, the motif of city-gate-as-facade sees some of its earliest examples during this period. Frankie Ching, author of A Global History of Architecture (2007), on the symbolism of the Pylon Temple Gate: “though all architectural forms of the period had symbolic value, the Pylon Gates were among the earliest architectural forms that condensed wall, gate, and cosmology into a single declaration of power. Like huge billboards, they proclaimed in image and text the great deeds of the pharaoh” (p 58). These monumental city gates drew inspiration from Egyptian theology, hieroglyph, and cult. They incorporated concepts of elaboration, with its monumental scale and proportions; ornamentation, as the decorative facade was paired with obelisks and statues; and even information, with the walls acting as scripts for the accomplishments of the pharaoh. This architecture was hardly a necessary creation based on programmatic requisites, for a city gate only requires the need for circulation and protection, but rather a statement of power.

Another key insight to the development of the modern facade assemblage, relative to Egyptian architecture, is the series of modern interpretations based on the ancient forms and created by the influence of a new form of political power: Imperialism. James Stevens Curl, author of The Egyptian Revival: Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the West (2005), claims, “the 18th century in Europe makes ancient Egypt a pole of attraction

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Figure 22. Pyramid of Khafre (Web, 2017).

Figure 23. Pylon Temple Gate. (Web, 2017).

Figure 24. Cenotaph for Newton. By Etienne-Louis Boullee (Web, 2017).

for the artistic imagination. A growing ‘fashionable cult of sepulchral gloom’ meets ‘the architectural search for purity of form’, with a growing awareness of Egypt as a source from which stereo-metrically pure forms derived, and as the fount of the primitive…” (p 173). Europe, eager to showcase its power as a conqueror through the use of picturesque aesthetic, worked quickly to emulate the monumentality of Egyptian forms. The literal copy and paste of these ‘discoveries’ quickly became a necessity for the powerful and wealthy oligarchies of the time, increasingly similar to the pharaonic systems it was subconsciously emulating. Elements (2014) adds that, “the Egyptian influence continues into the modern, which finds in the ancient mega-spaces an artistic way to approach the architecture appropriate to the vast volumes of the machine age” (p 730). This attitude created a new dichotomy between the object and subject: the facade was now a tool of power and persuasion utilized by the ruling class.

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(9) The word comes from the French foreign loan word façade, which in turn comes from the Italian facciata, from faccia meaning face, ultimately from post-classical Latin facia. The earliest usage recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is 1656 (Oxford English Dictionary, 2011).

(10) Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) refers to a learning procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell). It also refers to the learning process that results from this pairing, through which the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response (e.g. salivation) that is usually similar to the one elicited by the potent stimulus (McLeod, 2010, p 1).

“Facade” Facades. The birth of a concept we now associate with the modern interpretation of the facade takes its place in the animalistic desires awoken by mass consumerism: the desire of self. The etymology of the word facade leaves little to the imagination - face, the face of a building.(9) The facade, more so than any other architectural element, is tied to the social, political, and cultural ramifications of its surroundings. Hence, we see similar decay in both the deceptive facade object and the values of a capitalistic society. The formulation of the “facade” facade begins with the modernization of Europe.

Elements (2014) supports this by stating that, “as the classic concept of facade comes crystallized in Europe, it is dominated by orderliness, composition, facility, orientation, profile, embellishment, signification, and rigidity. The codes of the facade embed themselves in our neurological wiring, triggering Pavlovian reactions to certain types of architecture… (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 703).(10 The architectural influence for these stimuli came from the classically influenced Western architecture, while the psychological influences were mostly innate. This new combination of architectural precedence and human error, which started out as the development of a harmless architectural feature, is now a colossal element in our visual marketplace.

Order of Columns, Superimposition, Colossal Order. Prior to any established ordering principles in architecture, the facade inherited object-based value on a much smaller scale. Of course, this individualized image fit a civilization arranged in more concentrated population groups. Elements (2014) recounts that, “before the facade as a whole crystallized in the field of vision of the theoreticians, their attention was centered on the columns, the capitals, the woodwork, and other forms

Illustration 7. History of the “Facade“ (part). This portion displays the beginnings of facadism, a concept that allowed architects and buildings to focus solely on the exterior form of the building, at the cost of the rest.

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of embellishment” (p 736). However, as society shifted away from smaller cultural groups and into large political forces, there became a need for incorporated principles in exterior building appearance. Over the course of this long development, it became something more general.

Paramount to the birth of the generic object is the column: “the column is considered the most important element of the facade in Western, classically influenced architecture” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 736). Additionally, the column orders also required additional organization.

Elements (2014) defines superimposition as an example: “superimposition came into practice in ancient Roman times when, if various orders of columns were mixed into one facade they were arranged in fixed rows above one another, such as in the Colosseum in Rome or the Caesareum in Aphrodisias in Asia Minor” (p 737). In this arrangement, the order of columns is hierarchical, with superior orders placed above lower orders. The beginnings of a vertical hierarchy that would over-simplify the vertical hyper-displays of the future. “The second central principle of arranging columns on the front of a building is called the ‘colossal order’.

In this principle, a determined order of columns dominates the overall impression detracting from the other orders. One order of columns hypertrophies on the facade - growing huge in significance if not also in scale - with all other orders taking a back seat” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 738). While earlier examples exist of the creation of a visual hierarchy concentrated on the exterior surfaces of the building, the colossal order provides architecture with a foundation upon which the focus of building aesthetics transitions almost entirely to the facade. Elements (2014) adds, “as the colossal order became more a part of architectural practice, a frontal system came into the architectural world, integrating the juxtaposition of the building elements and decorative forms into one overriding principle. Later discourse regarding the ‘facade’ only

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Figure 25. Columne di San Lorenzo.

Milan, Italy (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 738).

Figure 26. Palazzo Dolfin. Venice, Italy (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 738).

Figure 27. Villa Barbaro. Italy (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 739).

became possible in the wake of the colossal order� (p 739).

It is worthwhile to note that, at this time in history, there was no ability to forecast the negative outcomes inherent in such systems of organization. Furthermore, the political and social environments during the time almost required this level or organization and hierarchy, especially with the birth and development of organized democratic systems.

The Eversion of the Classical and the Birth of the Facade. So began the cult-like methodology in architecture to utilize the ordering principles of the past, reverting to an obsession of the Classical. In Classic Architecture: The Poetics of Order (1999), Alexander Tzonis portrays this idea: “one could demonstrate in many other ways the relation between classical architecture and society, starting with classical architecture’s obsession with rigorous quantification, exactitude, and detail. This obsession has its roots in what anthropologists call

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divinatory thinking” (p 1). The Renaissance, defined as the rebirth of culture and intellect, created a mirrored return in architectural thinking. The tenants of form, space, and order established in the Classical period would return. “The endeavor, launched in the 15th century, to return European cities to an antiquity style helped create”, as Elements (2014) refers to it, “an ‘eversion of the Classical’. Over the course of time, the decorum doctrine became reinterpreted as a doctrine of caractere, emerging in the form of aesthetic perception” (p 741). Unfortunately, the comically literal approach to bringing society back into the light of order and principle was too hastily ratified; by a society looking for a quick aesthetic make over to go with its metaphysical one.

The fallout of this obsessive recall of Classical architectural theory will never be reconciled. This period of eversion is paramount in the development of the built environment we see today: “the doctrine of character in the 17th century wants to unify expression and function within the speaking architectural form and prepares the way for modern effect aesthetics, whose instruments include the theory of cognition, physiology and psychology.

With that, the facade was born” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 741). Above all else, this remix of Classical ideals with modern interpretations of aesthetics and hyper-decorum would build an unforeseeable indifference towards sociocultural context in future facade design; ironic as the nature of this ‘eversion of the Classical’ was founded on a return to ordering principles and hierarchy. Elements (2014) proclaims, “an architect should choose a type of decoration that clearly distinguishes the holy monuments, the public buildings, the royal palaces, and the private homes from one another. This obligation has been disregarded by the Modernists” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 741).(11) The facade, now transformed from its place as a signifier for building typology and hierarchy to an identifier for socio-economic iconography and aesthetic, is now the abstract social face of capitalistic grandeur.

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(11) All of our front walls, our outer facades feature the same characteristics: our hotels feature decoration that should be reserved for the palaces; such disregard invokes not only a reprehensible lack of propriety, but also a tangle of small parts, which add up to little more than tolerable architecture, not to mention a confusion, which clings to all products of our day including the temples devoted to God (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 742).

Figure 28. Facadism At Its Finest.

(Elements: Facade, 2014, p 740).

Figure 29. The Undecorated House.

(Elements: Facade, 2014, p 741).

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Facades After the Facade.

“Technological advances in the 20th century- bigger glass, the curtain wall, silicone, air conditioningtransform the facade into a seamless and perfectly sealed wrapper. No longer a careful composition of elements (windows, balconies, doors, roof) and functional ornamentation (columns for structure, string courses for rain protection) the facade becomes a monolithic, all-over composition. All its classical components are absorbed into the high-performance surface or swallowed by the increasingly complex layers supporting it, material assemblages determined more by economic and political forces than classical symbolism” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 703).

Now it was time for the facade to take its place at the top of the architectural hierarchy. While the facade as an element of architecture is one of the most manipulated and consumerized, the idea of what the facade actually means for the built environment has been in question since the end of the 19th century. However, the development of building systems technologies in the 20th century, as well as the exponential growth in the size and magnitude of construction at the time, changed its composition completely. According to Elements (2014), “the liberation of the facade from structural and climatic performances, facilitated by modern building technologies, may have triggered its progressive devaluation” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 752). The facade is now understood throughout the history of architecture as a face that expressed the aesthetic self-imagined grandeur of mankind and its place on earth.

However, this was the beginning of the true understanding that the facade was no longer an organism

Illustration 8. History of the “Facade“ (part). This section illustrates modern facades, as they slowly begin to form one, unanimous surface.

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of that humanity, and was now purely superficial.

Elements (2014) explains the complexities of the modern facade through the development of building technologies: “materials such as glass, systems like curtain walls, and assembly logics such as rainscreens are not representations of cultural or political concepts, but are, in themselves, literal embodiments of larger ecologies, politics and cultures. Each material of the contemporary facade has the direct attachments to the ecology of economies, politics, and cultural structures to which they belong” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 752). The facade is now an important social object, one that carries a significant consumer value.

To allow such an element to gain that level of power, all resting on a history which supports the overall devaluation of its core concept, anthropological meaning and even its psychological stability, denotes certain failure.

Curtain Walls. If there is one facade typology to symbolize the rise of the modern object-based element, it must be the curtain wall. Through a multitude of social and corporate interests, the curtain wall has become the object of transparency and spatial continuity we expect from the utopian future. Elements (2014) concurs, observing that, “the curtain wall is the epitome of the modern facade and is widely identified in the public imagination with the idea of the modern wall and its aspirations of transparency, mobility, lightness, and efficiency” (p 760). In an effort to replace the longdominant masonry construction techniques, the facade underwent a significant technological advancement. “The typical curtain wall is constructed with two of the most artificial building materials: glass and aluminum. Both of these materials require highly energy-intensive production and refinement processes” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 761). The industrial development of these materials was accepted by a society yearning for the productivist ideal; the utopian display.

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Figure 30. The Pepse Building. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 760).

FIgure 31. Seagram Office Building Facade. (Elements: Facade, 2014).

With the post-war industrial era in full swing, the search for new products and efficiencies prevailed.

According to Elements (2014), architecture was no exception: “curtain walls do not so much aim at an idea of transparency, which is certainly the underlying myth of glass architecture, but at an idea of production. At the core of the history of the curtain wall is the expression of industrial, repetitive output” (p 761). Fed by industrial development, breeded by corporate deception, and accepted by an over-confident society, the curtain wall facade created a system that allowed the production of an universal facade capable of converting the world into a modern, globalized, transparent environment.

The Airtight Envelope. The peak of outside influence on the object-based image of facade is inherent in the creation of the airtight envelope. Elements (2014) is adamant on the relationship: “the airtight envelope emerged in the early 20th century as a result of a

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Figure 32. GM Tech Building. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 784).

momentous convergence between a series of political, social, and technological processes leading towards a complete separation between inside and outside� (p 784).

The combined threat of industrial pollution, modern illness, chemical warfare, along with the development of mechanical ventilation systems triggered the implementation of sealed building envelopes.

Screens. The facade as an accumulation of layers, utilized in order to fill the requirements of a burgeoning population amidst limited resources, has become the dominant model of contemporary envelope design.

According to Elements (2014), “multi-layered facades were invented to improve the environmental performance of the envelope by making it hollow and porous. Capable of expressing a wide range of functionalities from cavity walls to rainscreens to solar screens, these layered technologies have only recently achieved popularity in the discipline, which for so long remained committed to

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Figure 33. Screen. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 805).

Figure 34. Experience Music Building.

(Elements: Facade, 2014, p 804).

Figure 35. Tensile Dome: Remnants of A Future. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 851).

the idea of the facade as a solid face with perforations (p 804). However, the technical abilities of this system are slowly being eroded by the necessity of consumer society to observe and admire objects. This typology is seeing the reintroduction of ornament and decor to its definition.

“Ventilation, pressure equalization, or solar shading were the original, functional reasons for this assemblage which has since evolved into the most paradigmatic contemporary assemblage, a systematic duplicity of the facade’s expression” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 804). The screen is also utilized a detachable object, attaching itself to the outside of a building in a parasitic manner. Its aim is to re-decorate the exterior appearance of the building. From technical to mere decoration, the screen is slowly becoming one of the most successful consumer image creators.

Tensile Facades. The tensile facade, a combination of primal obsession, military intelligence and mass consumerism, is another example of a system that began with a socio-cultural context, was developed by a technological approach, then deflated under the weight of capitalistic enterprise. Elements (2014) concurs: “once a symbol of a nomadic and extra-societal culture, the tensile facade has become increasingly engaged with the spectacle, facilitating fantastic formal and performative possibilities for the facade or economically cladding megastructures” (p 850). Following the formulation of numerous technologies during war time, this membrane technology sought a new market, and found one in the absurd consumerism of leisure related functions. Today, tensile facades represent opportunity for the digital image-making modeling software in architecture today.

The ability to be malleable and conform to the underlying structure, as well as be lightweight and waterproof, allowed these facades to create the abstract and generative forms created by the ultimate architectural displays presented.

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Vegetated Facades. “Nature is architecture’s nemesis,” according to Elements (2014), “the incorporation of vegetation into the facade has a long vernacular tradition while its incorporation into enlightened architecture dates back even before the Corinthian Order. But it was not until the 20th century that true living matter became part of the architectural expression of buildings, and only very recently that technologies have enable planting to occur literally on the facades of buildings” (p 870).

Throughout history, architecture has sought a connectivity with nature only to fall short, depending on ornamental motifs and time as a means of natural growth.

Both of these concepts are to the detriment of architectural design. However, technology now allows for the literal translation of creating an exterior image with the additive quality of perceived nature. Today, ‘green’ is loaded with symbolic value as an ecological strand of architecture, while the true environmental benefits of maintaining a green facade remain under scrutiny (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 870). The capitalistic overtaking of nature as it relates to our built environment is not lost on the development of the facade. The marketability of ‘green’, despite total disregard for environmental conscientiousness, is now at the forefront, both literally and figuratively, of facade design.

Media Facades. Architecture has always existed with a mode which incorporates media. “Media facades include those facade assemblages which use literal materializations of codes that belong to non-architectural forms of communication, such as written or pictorial media” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 860). The evolution from communication to sensation is one of the main characteristics of this typology of consumer object-based hyper-displays. According to Elements (2014), “media facades have maintained two modes of performance: a linguistic mode, which uses the facade to convey

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Figure 36. Bosco Verticale. Milan, Italy (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 871).

Figure 37. Vegetated Consumerism.

(Elements: Facade, 2014, p 870).

Figure 38. Las Vegas Strip. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 860).

Figure 39. Building Wrap Advertisement. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 864).

information through verbal language, and a sensational mode, which uses the facade to communicate through atmosphere and affect” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 860). This facade application now resides wedded to the advertising world. Since the invention of fluorescent lighting, the use of media facades is now commonplace in highly populated areas. Elements (2014) remarks, “these technologies became so powerful at producing spectacular effects that they would construct whole urban environments in those enclaves where the facade was overexposed” (p 864). Examples of these environments include Times Square in New York, PIccadilly Circus in London, and the Las Vegas Strip. Beyond this, the influence of technology on this particular facade typology extended far enough to establish the complete desecration of the rest of the building, leaving only the ultimate atmospheric image. “In the relationship between screen and building”, Elements (2014) adds, “the signifier became meaningless and began operating as a phenomenal device,

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Figure 40. Apple Store. New York, NY (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 824).

while media again became intrinsic to the object: signage became atmospheric� (p 868).

The All-Glass Environment. The further approval for the atmospheric image/ object was on the horizon for consumer society with the concept of the all-glass total vision system. With the advent of float glass, the idea that our enclosed spaces could be entirely transparent and entirely sealed at the same time became possible.

While this remains impossible, “the myth of the totally transparent envelope runs deep in modernist ideology and though it vest enormous fascination and influence in the public imagination, it accounts for only a very limited amount of overall production of glass envelopes�

(Elements: Facade, 2014, p 824). While the idea had its intrinsic novelty, there was also a consumer value to this: the ultimate expansion of the storefront window viewing pane. This ability to allow complete visibility of the interior while still maintain the full security of the interior became a boost for companies. Elements (2014)

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Figure 41. Glass Pavillion. (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 824).

states that, “as advances in glass-making technology brought ever cheaper and larger panes of glass to the masses, the all-glass facade became a means of enabling urban commerce through their capacity to display goods with high fidelity while keeping them secure” (p 825). As the possibilities of consumer glass facades saw significant growth, the idea of the monolithic glass assembly became an objective. The ability to create a simple geometry which had the possibility of one material encompassing the necessary tectonic, replacing the need for wood, steel and other non-transparent materials became an obsession.

Especially for companies selling consumer goods: “allglass technologies are targeted at erasing the visual presence of the envelope, sometimes to extend the interior into nature visually, but most often to expose interiors, and their treasures, to the avid gaze of consumers” (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 824). The ultimate demise of the glass facade came at the urgency of consumerism, and the capital which feeds it; all while architecture suffers at the wayside, relegated to the task of object making.

Conclusion. The facade experienced a remarkable shift throughout the course of history. It began as a simplistic survival tool in the battle for shelter against the elements and transformed into an object-based mirage-like image with the purpose of forcing mass consumerism and manipulating identity to allow the continuity of power in society. The aesthetic and affective performance of the facade has to become re-attached to its economic, technological, cultural, and political ecologies in order to reconstruct a contemporary discipline of the facade (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 752). This last minute attempt to re-establish the facade as an entity that possesses any sort of validity as material functionality stands against architectural history. To assume that architecture has any agency that allows it to place theoretical claims towards the creation of the contemporary facade abandons the

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reality of facades as pictorial atmospheric objects, devoid of reasoning beyond consumer economics.

Needless to say, architects are stifled by the prospect of working with an element with such a complex gamut of social, geopolitical and economic vectors that affect it, while still maintaining a dwindling agency against the construction industry and building technologies.

Elements (2014), in typical Koolhaas fashion, is not enlivened by the current conditions: “the facade is one of the few remaining elements that has not been forgotten by architects- yet most now lack the competence to design the increasingly complex details demanded by contemporary facades” (p 703). The power to operate the facade now resides with the social, economic, and political powers.

The transformation of the facade to a consumer object with the ability to manipulate its image to attract or repel attention fits perfectly into the needs of the corporate identity. Developers, corporations, and political forces utilize this consumer object to deceive its user. Architects become submissive utopian image fetishisers, required only as consultants to the social responsibilities of the built environment. The general public become spectators of what truly is the greatest show on earth.

Illustration 9. History of the “Facade“ (Jenck’s Version).

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la defense

100 building

elb

frank gehry

trutec john lewis bellabs

bond street beinecke her zog

mulberry house frank lloy d metlife wright es pac es abraxas

edf

s e at t l e public library

fac a d e

p os tpa r k a ss e

ronan point tower sovie t

burdov block

concrete

ibm

c u r ta i n wa l l

pepsi building

bauhaus building

ta n k fac to ry eq u ita b le building

corbu pa n el

lever house

dodge fac to ry

l’ h a b i tat detroit

se agr a m building le corbusier khruschev housing

c rys ta l pa l ac e

glass

green house

stucco

co r r u gat ed steel

u n d eco r at i o n

additive c u rta i n wa l l

veneer villa barbaro

asse mbl age

u n d eco r at ed house

jeffersonian house

pa ll a dia n villa

bauhaus

modernism

bucharest novotel

pa l a z zo dolfin

bulgaria toronto stock exchange

english venetian fac a d e

neville’s court

trinity college

secul ar buildings

pa r is “ fac e “

pa l a z zo ducale

pa l a z zo fa r n e s e

church

duomo orbetello duomo milano

sacred buildings p orta sempione

birth of fac a d e

saint genevive

pa l a z zo cancelleria pa l a z zo s en ato r i o

michelozzo pa l a z zo medici

p orta verona

basilica p orta ticinese

city g at e coliseum colonne san lorenzo

temple portunus

ephesus celsus doric

ionic order temple at h en a nike

roman

doric order

hadrian library

pa rth enon propylae acropolis

ancient column

stone wa l l

egyptian column

stone

glazing ur of zi gg u r at development

western mixed

egyptian fac a d e stone

stone dwelling

before fac a d e mud dwelling

c av e dwelling

shoj i screen

ja pa n es e home

ja pa n es e t h atc h

stone stone structure

eastern

ja pa n es e wood

mud hut

grass hut

earth

earthen dwelling

n at i v e teepee

v eg e tat i o n wood tipi

w i g wa m

YOU THINK YOU ARE A CONSUMER BUT MAYBE YOU HAVE BEEN CONSUMED. - Adam Curtis, 2017

3

The Role of the Deceptive Object in Politics and Society

It is impossible to create a hypothesis for the current state of our built environment without addressing the major institutions that control its conditions. These controlling entities have major influence on how objects are perceived by the general public. Today’s atmosphere, complete with capitalistic enterprise, mass consumerism, and wealth inequality, establishes a dynamic similar to Europe in the 1960s and 70s. The barren economic, political and social conditions during that time caused a significant architectural revolution: radicalism. With similar conditions occurring today, there is a requirement to establish a series of guidelines for the possibility of a new form of radicalism. One that can reinvigorate architecture in a critical, sociocultural direction.

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Italy, the 1960s, and an Architectural Response Italy experienced difficulties responding to postwar modernization, which was wreaking havoc on Italian society and decimating the urban landscapes.

Removing itself from the fascist regime of Mussolini, privatized economic and political systems emerged.

Along with the late introduction to mass consumerism, these conditions created a social breakdown. This dissidence, led by educational institutions, bread a younger generation prepared to take on the systemic dysfunction. Architectural discourse in Italy at this time was paramount to the creation of Radicalism. Peter Lang, in Superstudio: LIfe Without Objects (2003), explains the conditions: “the atmosphere was incredibly energetic, with extensive meetings, assemblies, all-night sit-ins, occupations, providing opportune time to cook up countless experimental projects. The students and faculty engaged in a decade-long ideological battle over the substance of a contemporary architectural education and this critical discourse undoubtedly succeeded in recasting the fundamental issues of education (p 42). This laid the groundwork for a series of radical firms, all with the intent of breaking down the social constructs and allowing an absurd architecture to rise up and criticize the mainstream.

Footnote. Henducim inus. Feruptat landebitem alibus autet volupta volorerum, quae pligendite volores dolorem hillabor abor aut moditatur? Il in con estrum aspis mo dolupta tibusae porempo riorrov idelita erchitibus. Debis dolo et rese qui optia dis peribus andita vendess itatemqui am ipis nonse experspitiam ut alici si dit, vitatas perferisti.

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Figure 42. Post-War Italy. (Web, 2017).

Socio-Political Deception. World War II left Italy in shambles financially, politically, and physically. Lang (2003) adds, “Mussolini’s Fascist regime contributed to the invention of Italian mass society, but did not construct a mass consumer culture. That would be the accomplishment of the post-war governments, whose laws were designed to promote private investments to the exclusion of all else” (p 32). After the failed era of Fascism, the entire country sought a rebirth, both socially and politically. As a response against the previous political regime, the new government threw itself in the exact opposite direction: headlong into capitalistic mass consumer society. “Italians were becoming more mobile, more urban, more enamoured with their object world, but adapting to this new consumer-oriented lifestyle inevitably meant ruptures to traditional habits” (Lang, 2003, p 32). While these ruptures were considerably less violent for the affluent upper social classes, the lower classes struggled to cope with the new system.

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Figure 43. Student Uprisings. (Web, 2017).

The sudden instability presented to them by mass consumerism, along with the need for increased production and manufacturing, caused confusion. According to Lang (2003), “Economic expansion came late relative to other European countries, but the symptoms of estrangement among the post-war Italian middle class bore the common traits of similar industrialized countries” (p 32). The younger generations found themselves amongst a country ripe for change. Of course, their education played a significant part in their malaise, with student occupations and strikes occurring in the early 1960s. “This gradual slide towards social breakdown was brought into explicit view through the work of some of the country’s most creative cinematographic artists. Aesthetic manifestations depicting the general malaise of Italy’s upwardly mobile classes and alienated youth increasingly surfaced in the arts and in cinema by the mid-1960s” (Lang, 2003, p 32). As a result, the long struggle for reform that lasted through much of the decade sharpened the critical discourse of many of the principal activists engaged in the counter-culture scene.

Architectural Preservation. The architectural atmosphere was also ready for change prior to the radical movement.

Similar to other European countries, the war had taken its toll on the infrastructure in most of the major cities, especially those in the north of Italy. Lang (2003) recalls, “the urban fabric in and around Milan was heavily damaged during the drawn-out allied bombing campaigns” (p 36). While some cities were damaged and required overhauls of new infrastructure, others acquired a different approach. Historically significant cities underwent a significant preservationist movement. Again, this was a reaction to the totalitarian regime of Mussolini, which purposefully destroyed historical buildings in order to establish a new history. Lucia Allais, a writer for the Spring/ Summer 2011 edition of Log (22), states that during this period, “Italian preservationists had always

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paid attention not only to isolated monuments but also to the urban fabric around them” (p 126). This idea to preserve large portions of cities against the impending dooms of modernization created a stagnant architectural agency. Large preservation organizations, which cared little about the burgeoning social conditions, were making the decisions. Allais (2011) claims that, “not until the late 1960s did the expansion of preservation’s domain from buildings to environments begin to permeate the national planning discourse, first entering municipal policies around the time of the 1964 Venice Charter, and undergoing, with UNESCO’s International Campaign for Florence and Venice, a marked internationalization” (Log 22, p 126).

The very nature of an international corporation taking over localized historical sites was enough to incite revolution, not to mention its plan was to monetize the preserved sites.

“Despite its apparent unity against external threats, the preservation movement was internally divided over how exactly to leverage the cultural profitability of architectural heritage” (Log 22, 2011, p 126). The trouble with thinking of cultural heritage as a “resource” was that the economic evaluation of socio cultural significance led to the “museumification” of Italian cities. In fact, with 20 years of hindsight Manfredo Tafuri (one to use the term “museumification”) noted that Italia Nostra’s efforts to “rarify” the value of the Italian city centers ultimately contributed to their “privatization” by showing developers how built form could be monetized (Log 22, 2011, p 126). At this time, developers started buying up the land underneath these historical sites, feverish for the ability to control a limitless stream of income. Allais (2011) adds, “He [Tafuri] argued that Italia Nostra’s efforts to give historic urban centers value ‘beyond the market’ only encouraged developers to think of them as a scarce and bankable resource” (Log 22, p 126). The young architects, who were at the time studying these exact buildings and regions, saw this as an atrocity against history; enter:

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Figure 44. Colessium. Rome, Italy (Web, 2017).

Italian Radicalism: “Life Without Objects”. The years following (1968 - 1976) represent the high watermark of Italian avant-garde practice. Given the many parallels between the seventies and today, the ideas displayed during this time might provide crucial insight into possible futures for today’s urban environment. Catharine Rossi, author of EP Vol. 1, The Italian Avant-Garde: 19681976 (2013), concurs: “Italy’s radical avant-garde faced similarly challenging economic times to contemporary practitioners, alongside a comparable growth in political and social orientation in design, and how they met those challenges could still provide key lessons” (p 1). Out of this period emerged a number of firms with key theoretical work.(1)

(1)

Gruppo 9999, Archizoom, UFO, Gruppo Strum, Giani Pettena, Ugo La Pietra, Gianni Pettena, Others...

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Superstudio. This radical architecture firm, founded in 1966 after the Superarchitecttura exhibit by Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Fracnia, finds its inception via the rebellious youth culture occurring in Italy during this time. Superstudio: Life Without Objects (2003) injects its culture by stating that, “Superstudio navigated the elevated themes of life and death precisely because architecture as a profession appeared too deeply compromised to ever be recuperated” (Lang, p 31). In a time where a combination of social, economic, political and architectural forces found themselves in stagnation, Superstudio surmised that, by destabilizing each and every aspect from within, these norms could be broken down. According to Lang (2003), “Superstudio continued unrelentingly to reduce, to strip, to expose the core properties of an architecture that eliminated the fastidious and distracting environment of unnecessary things and actions” (p 47). Its projects regularly elaborated on the grand themes of alienation, rationalization, neuroses, therapy and the visceral forms of suicide, effectively stating that architecture and society at the time were without life.

Their project, titled “Salvages of Italian City Centers”, provides us with a significant sample of their core principles. The project is an attempt to re-establish historical italian cities as socio cultural centers centered around concepts which balance both the touristic preservationist tactics of developers and the localized ideals of each city’s inhabitants. Allais adds that, “the attitude is that cultural resources are for sale, and that those that cannot make a profit are not worthwhile being saved. [Superstudio’s] proposal is this: preservation’s politics of expansion may be unstoppable, but it can at least be mined for new architectural possibilities (Log 22, 2011, p 81). The manipulation of structures of power, while preservation of value in immeasurable directions is admirable. The ability to break down the preconceived

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Figure 45. Superstudio. The members of Italian architecture firm Superstudio (Web, 2017).

Figure 46. Salvage of Italian City Centers: Milano. (Web, 2017).

notions of history and object a subject might encounter in these city centers creates a new typology for the architecture that exists within them. The subject is the focus, according to Allais (2011), “upon closer inspection the urban dweller is invited to stay behind, to witness the death of the city, delicately curated with iconoclastic contextualism” (Log 22, p 127). This allows Superstudio to operate outside the constraints of a consumer object driven society, manipulating the architecture and environment from within. Its aim is to disrupt the mind of the user. Along these lines, Allais (2011) clarifies this ability: Far from articulating an anti preservation agenda, Superstudio presents itself as taking sides in specialized debates: favoring idealized restorations over historic continuity; conserving objects underground rather than exposing them to further damage; favoring chemical consolidation in situ rather than relocation of monuments to new sites,; and balancing foreign interventions with local valuation (Log 22, p 126).

“Salvages of Italian City Centers”, pairing sublime photomontages with sizzling narratives on dystopian life, created a completely new critical architectural production.

Furthermore, this project is a precedent for the conditions we face today in our city centers: deceived by developers with nowhere to go but spend.

Superstudio went on to create a body of work that existed almost entirely on paper. Their exploits were not meant to end in the establishment of objects they fought so hard against. Lang (2003) continues, stating, “what they achieved was tremendous, a spark of animation in an open field, a world populated by freethinkers wandering without material needs. But there would always remain a level of irony, a subtle gesture that somehow this was all a ploy to make us think, to make us want to change… but also allow us to retreat back to the comfort of our real homes, our heavy objects, our annoying lives” (p 47). Superstudio effectively campaigned to destabilize modern architecture

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Figure 47. Superstructures Pass Over the Landscape. (Web, 2017).

while remaining within the enlightened language of a perceptual and conceptual space. Their weapons remained picturesque imagery and verbose linguistics as a way to criticize the architectural discipline, at the same time utilizing satire as a means to address the common man.

Superstudio managed at each turn to twist the paradigm and to imagine another critically altering move, until one by one Superstudio dismantled everything that once stood solidly for the enterprise of architecture, until they reached a pure state of nothingness (Lang, 2011, p 47). Each progression of their work is meant to peel back another layer of social paralysis, of futile dreams and debilitating social infrastructures.

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America, the 2000s, and the Current Conditions The relationships between architecture, culture, society and power today are similar to the conditions available throughout Europe in the 1960s and 70s, conditions that laid the foundation for radical architectural criticism. There are differences: we have not had a major world-wide war, industrialization is already established, and technology is pronounced to levels far surpassing the twentieth century. However, the interconnectivity of these event today creates a set of conditions more concerning, which commemorates a greater need for radical reform.

The built environment is a major concern. Our urban environments, which have grown to meet the demands of an increasing population, are now controlled by a select number of people. These developers not only own and control the land in these urban areas, they also influence the social and political policies. They are turning the built environment into atmospheric images, with the intention of creating consumer objects for the user to devour. Social unrest is common, yet controlled by those in power.

Wealth inequality has reached new abstractions, making it increasingly difficult to promote change of any kind. Will a new architecture save us?

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Socio-Political Deception. At the time of this publication, a wealthy businessman is the President of the United States. Many voted for him, not knowing the extent to which it damned our political system. From that moment on, we are plagued by the unknown; unsure of the current value of truth. In a world where anything and everything can be quantified, the perceived constant of honesty is washing away, leaving the filth of capitalistic power. That is not to say that there are no detractors to this current system, on the contrary. However, their voice is stifled, despite the technological advancements in communication.

What is left is a constant state of confusion, where no one seems able to pinpoint the problem, while others are happy to keep them hidden.

Developer Power over Architecture. The American system, while based on freedom and equality, has become synonymous with power and class. Professor G. William Domhoff, author of Who Rules America? Power and Politics in the year 2000 (2000), declares that, “power and class are terms that make Americans a little uneasy, and concepts like power elite and dominant class immediately put people on guard” (p 1). Despite the negative impact of this diction, the groups responsible for these terms are slowly gaining control over the system. “The idea that a relatively fixed group of privileged people might shape the economy and government for their own benefit goes against “American” values. Nevertheless, the owners and top-level managers in large income producing properties are far and away the dominant power figures in the United States (Domhoff, 2000, p 1). These powerful people, shielded from the general public behind corporate identities and political allowances, do fulfill one founding American principle: land ownership. Once the property is controlled, their real estate, construction, and land development companies are forming coalitions that dominate most local governments and allow them to grow in stature, both economically and politically. Additionally, these land-

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Figure 48. Tonald Drumpf. (Web, 2017).

Figure 49. Developer Control, Everywhere. (Web, 2017).

(6) “The whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that once was directly lived has become mere representation” (Debord, 1977).

(7) In Karl Marx’s critique of political economy, commodity fetishism is the perception of the social relationships involved in production, not as relationships among people, but as economic relationships among the money and commodities exchanged in market trade. As such, commodity fetishism transforms the subjective, abstract aspects of economic value into objective, real things that people believe have intrinsic value (Rubin, 1972, p.5).

owning developers are capitulating the wealth inequality in our country. Domhoff (2000) estimates that this elite, “making up at best 1 percent of the total population, by the early 1990s they earned 15.7 percent of the nation’s yearly income and owned 37.2 percent of all privately held wealth, including 49.6 percent of all corporate stocks and 62.4 percent of all bonds” (p 2). With our current political and economic systems being linked so closely together it insures that those in power stay in power. They obviously oblige, and are becoming rather efficient at maintaining control over the lower classes in America. According to Domhoff (2000), “As a result of their ability to organize and defend their interests, the owners and managers of large incomeproducing properties have a very great share of all income and wealth in the United States, greater than in any other industrial democracy” (p 1). Of course, with profit being their main motivating force, their control over the aesthetic conditions of the built environment are becoming a generic object field. Like other consumer objects, the sole

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purpose of developer-controlled architecture is to push the appearance through perceived value. The general public accepts the urban environment because it is told to.

HyperNormalization. In his film HyperNormalization (2016), Adam Curtis aims to categorize this confusion: “It is about how, over the past 40 years, politicians, financiers and technological utopians, rather than face up to the real complexities of the world, retreated. Instead, they constructed a simpler version of the world in order to hang on to power. And as this fake world grew, all of us went along with it, because the simplicity was reassuring” (scene 1). Curtis argues that since the 1970s, governments, financiers, and technological utopians have given up on the complex “real world” and built a simple “fake world” that is run by corporations and kept stable by politicians.

The privatization of major governmental and social functions was the start of an extraordinary experiment where the financial institutions took power away from the politicians and started to run society themselves. According to Curtis (2016), “this was a new kind of politics. The old politicians believed that crises were solved through negotiation and deals. The bankers had a completely different view. They were just the representatives of something that couldn’t be negotiated with - the logic of the market” (scene 4). The ultimate consumer society was created, and we are now subject to its demands. This new object-based phantasmagoria allows the average citizen to go on living as if nothing has changed, as if nothing lurks in the shadows controlling every move they make.

Of course, there is no plan to stop it because the people and organizations in power want to stay there. “To them, there was no alternative to this system. It should run society” (Curtis, 2016, scene 4). However, there is an added detriment to the establishment of a critical rhetoric, architectural or otherwise: the counterculture might not understand where they are. The deception runs deep and even those opposed are not quite sure what exactly they

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Figure 50. Not Sure What is Going On Here... (Web, 2017).

Figure 51. HyperNormalisation. (Web, 2017).

are opposing. Curtis (2016) claims that, “even those who thought they were attacking the system - the radicals, the artists, the musicians, and our whole counterculture - actually became part of the trickery, because they, too, had retreated into the make-believe world, which is why their opposition has no effect and nothing ever changes” (scene 1). Withal, the powers in control of this system are beginning to unravel and, while the constructs remain stagnant, confusion is taking hold.

Figure 52. Bored Yet? (Elements: Facade, 2014, p 823).

Figure 53. Frank Gehry. (Web, 2017).

Architectural Capitulation. Architecture is in no way immune to this stagnation. Half a century beyond the conditions created in post-war Europe, urbanists are once again confronted with preservation’s politics of expansion.

Architectural historians are once again debating whether utopia died with postmodernism. Architects are once again pondering the role of history in design. Developers are once again in control of key architectural resources.

Allais (2011) points towards solutions in 1960s radical architecture, “we should remember Radicalism’s staging of the disjunction between life and its context not only to depict the end of civilization on a metaphorical plane, but also to salvage the very concrete architectural possibilities this end may bring (p 129). A new approach is required to fragment the preconceived ideas we have about the built environment. Disrupting the registered values we have on how architectural forms must be shaped is paramount to removing our dependency for idealized consumer objects and creating an alternate future for our society. This salvage, elaborately structured as a critique of preservation discourse, borrows its absurd historicity and opens up a new temporality for the architectural project - a suspended moment that turns disaster into experiments and tests new ways of shaping forms out of accumulation (Allais, p 129).

In order to disrupt the current architectural discourse, we need to remove the concepts about architecture we already comprehend and formulate a new direction for its agency.

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“To salvage in order to destroy; to destroy in order to I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in save yourself - in times of apocalypse, extremes meet and And stops my mind from wandering opposites equalize.

Where it will go I’m filling the cracks that ran through the door Do you not see every effort, every attempt to correct And kept my mind from wandering mistakes, to repair disasters, to avoid destruction, Where it will go inevitably leads to errors more definitive, to disasters more And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong I’m right irreparable, to ever more inevitable destructions?

Where I belong I’m right Where I belong.

The only science man has left is the science of his own See the people standing there who disagree and never win destruction. The city is infected with the miasma of the And wonder why they don’t get in my door soul that once gave it life as a happy haven of humanity.

I’m painting my room in the colourful way

4

FRAGMENTS

And when my mind is wandering

Today it is submerged in the flood of history, a river

There I will go - Lennon, McCarney, 1967

contaminated and turned into a tide of sewage. The only possible salvage is destruction once more.”

- Superstudio, 1971

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This is anti-architecture.

This is meant to dematerialize at the moment you start to revert back to your preconceived.

This is meant to not mean, meant to not be seen.

The breaking down of “knowns� is a slow, blurry process.

It challenges the proceedure that has allowed architecture to fall into servitude and comission.

This new architecture is prominent, it is viable, it is permanent.

Design does not compromise, it does not waver.

The following are fragments...

Fragments of ideas, concepts, manipulations aimed

at breaking down the known and re-formatting your mind against the current architectural allowances.

That split second before you conceptualize architectural content That moment before you visualize objects, that preconceived notion of what it should look like...

IS THIS PROJECT

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Removing the Object and...

This segment challenges the deceptive object in architecture we have come to accept as part of our built environment. The deceptive object absorbed architecture and created its own aesthetic, just as deceptive influence absorbed the role of architect for its own reasons.

The deceptive object is politic, it is economics, it is urbanization; it is the built environment.

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Olore pre porepre ni sus utatia natendel iuntiatur, si debis cone evel ma aut aut fugiaera dit ea por magnis ium dolorero torupient autem. Eperuptat experum quia pa verum quati id ulliberiant ut dolupta quodipidere natinim . . .Redis cover With Monument.

We begin anew from the art of building, from the economy This concept is a reformist approach motivated by a of materials, from the reasons for construction and from profound concern for the designer’s role in a society that the meanings of a building. fosters consumption as one means of inducing individual Reason has reaffirmed its place, accounting for itself. happiness, thereby ensuring social stability And for the first time perhaps, above and beyond all (Ambasz, 1972). contradictions, we feel strangely serene...

Superstudio, 1969

We are torn by the dilemma of having been trained as creators of objects, yet unable to control the significance of the uses of these objects (Ambasz, 1972).

Monument is an architecture focused on alleviating past mistakes. An architecture in a world rendered uniform by technology. An architecture at a scale that defines man’s place in the environment, accepting the ethereal on earth (Superstudio, 1969).

Monument is an architecture that will regain its full power, appearing as the only alternative to nature.

A single, continuous monument (Superstudio, 1969).

This is an architecture capable of clarifying once and for all the motives which have induced man to build dolmens, menhirs, pyramids; tangible signs of our understanding of the earth. It is a testimonial that architecture is the centre of the relationships of technology, sacredness, utilitarianism. It implies man, machines, rational structures and history (Byvanck, 2005).

This diagram describes an architecture based on two scales: Monument and Environment.

Monument: a recognizable, scalar object in terms of man and something greater than man: the ethereal.

These icons are displayed by their ability to recognize forces outside the control of human-nature.

Environment: a physical manifestation of man’s ability to control the environment. These icons showcase the ego of mankind and, simultaneously, our weaknesses.

Footnote.

?

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY??

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UM

EN

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EN

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Monument vs. Environment

“When juxtaposed with the banal and familiar, the grid seems auratic, even sentient...”

Peter Lang, 2003

N

M

EN

T

To Cover Up Architecture’s Mistakes “When juxtaposed with the banal and familiar, the grid seems auratic, even sentient...”

Peter Lang, 2003

A superstructure passes over the city (Superstudio, 1969).

It covers, forgives, forgets past mistakes.

It smooths the rough edges.

It avoids successes within the city.

It preserves significant landmarks.

Monument conceptualizes an architecture that admits mans scale and acknowledges the ethereal: realizing cosmic order on It accentuates socio-culture. earth

Architecture that abandons all ambiguity of design and It creates a new future city. appears as the only alternative to nature (Superstudio, 1969).

Architecture in a world rendered uniform by technology A single continuous monument (Superstudio, 1969).

...Replace With Hyper-Display

This concept is a conformist approach that conceives of work as an autonomous activity responsible only to itself and does not question its sociocultural context, simply refining already established forms and functions.

When thinking about the homogeneity that pervades cities, our insistence on the specialized logic of architecture begins to seem pointless.

The city-as-phenomenon is the city as information, the virtual city as event. Without a stable spatial and temporal order, it is a city without hierarchy that extends topologically in space and time.

We consume only signs and progressively discard the objects themselves, as consumerist society attaches itself to architecture and urban space.

hickness and weight of the object-as-substance is

The virtual city is empty. d, and the most enchanting moment is in the evening

when urban spaces composed only of phenomena of

and image begin to appear (Ito, 2004, p 98)

The city-as-phenomenon is timeless and placeless (Ito, 2004, p 98).

detached from their genius loci.

(Ito, 2004, p 94)

3 5

Utterly new kinds of urban

4

spaces are constantly emerging, of a kind we have never before experienced.

Groups of buildings are erected on arid,

1

homogeneous plots of land.

They are completely

Hyper-Display Machine

2

As a result, the built surfaces that cover the city are clad with innumerable ornaments, and architecture-as-substance is hidden. (Ito, 2004, p 92) The Hyper-Display is timeless and placeless. In order to discard the consumerist object, a machine must be made to further genericize the facade, This machine contains five elements which take socio-culture and convert it into the Hyper-Display: 1. Neutralizer: creates homogeneity until we arrive at a space that is neutral, unambiguous, relativity and fragmentation. This element removes all contextual senses from the object.

2. Commercializer: dilutes what is left of the socio-cultural and converts it into a consumerist mechanism. This element continuously blows cigar smoke onto the object until it transforms into a commercial object.

3. Gravity Fragmentor: creates a transparent space in which the thickness and weight of the object cannot be felt, a fragmentary space unable to attain a spatially and temporally closed cosmos.

4. Decorator: transforms built surfaces that cover the city by cladding them with innumerable ornaments, until architecture-as-substance is hidden. Entire facades become brazen, luxurious expressions.

5. Saran-Wrapper: wraps the object with sheets of thin, transparent film, depriving it of any sense of vitality.

Rather than creating function, its primary role is to ensure a homogeneity that guarantees a fair selection.

The modern building facade is a convention in thrift, an economical system, a scheme. Its deception permeates all architectures within. The interior spaces mimic its over-simplicity.

What if the genericism of the facade is pushed to its maximum: ultimate thrift, anti-architecture, economic scheme supreme?

Architecture creates a hyper-generic, hyper-facade, hyper-display.

The object is discarded.

The exterior becomes equal.

Therefore, the interior must exist.

Footnote. Magnis esed que volorep erspedio berrore stiandiate

To Emphasize the Interior

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This concept is a contestation which recognizes that the object is no longer conceived as an isolated entity, sufficient to itself, but rather an integral part of the larger natural and sociocultural environment.

An architecture that creates objects that refuse to adopt a fixed shape or to serve as a reference to anything.

To direct efforts to political and philosophical action, without complete withdrawal from the world of object making.

To engage in object design or active critical participation.

To share a commitment that objects cannot be designed outside their physical and sociocultural context.

An architecture aimed at removing the deceptive properties of the modern facade.

A social status leveler.

. . .O ver thr ow With Nor malcy

Strange Words 1 Nikita S. Khrushchev Message to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party 25 February 1956 The housing shortage continues to be acute.

I again recommend immediate passage of the unenacted portions of the comprehensive housing bill and the need has now become so great that its meager quota of 500,000 units of low-rent housing over 5 years should be increased to provide for 1,ooo,ooo units within 7 years. If we are to achieve levels of housing production adequate to our needs, construction materials in the necessary volume must be available continuously and in balanced proportions. If it proves necessary, I shall not hesitate to use the allocation authority, which I have requested, to channel such materials into home building.

The number of low-rent public housing units provided for in the legislation should be increased to 1 million units in the next 7 years. Even this number of units will not begin to meet our need for new housing.

The housing supply was increased by well over a million residential units during I948. But since last May the number of new housing starts has been falling off rapidly. This does not mean that the housing shortage has been overcome.

Most of the houses we need will have to be built by private enterprise, without public subsidy.

By producing too few rental units and too large a proportion of high-priced houses, the building industry is rapidly pricing itself out of the market. Building costs must be lowered.

We have an obligation to significantly speed up, improve the quality of, and reduce the cost of, construction. In order to do so, there is only one path - and that is the path of the most extensive industrialization of construction.

The Government is now engaged in a campaign to induce all segments of the building industry to concentrate on the production of lower priced housing.

To allocate materials in short supply and to impose price ceilings on such materials, could be used, if found necessary, to channel more materials into homes large enough for family life at

118

prices which wage earners can afford.

We have factories capable of supplying our builders with modern equipment that makes work easier and improves productivity. We have expanding manufacturing facilities that allow us to supply the construction industry with prefabricated reinforced-concrete structures, parts, and construction materials.

At this time I urge all elements of the building industry substantially to lower costs so that housing production may reach new record levels. The present decline in housing starts points up the danger that inflated building costs can bring down upon the industry. If housing costs are lowered and the consumer gets better value, builders will be able to continue to build in volume and the building industry need not fear a continued downward trend.

Basic to the entire housing program, both private and public, is the use of all available methods to lower construction costs.

At the present time conditions exist for the extensive industrialization of construction.

Extensive expansion of manufacture of prefabricated reinforced-concrete structures and parts will give enormous economic benefits.

In too many cases existing building codes are an obstacle to the use of new methods and materials and to the spread of prefabricated housing. Prefabricated housing is still an industry in its infancy. It can grow much faster, produce more and better housing at lower cost, if codes are modernized and the conflicts and differences between them are ironed out.

Now, though, it’s clear to everyone, it seems that we must proceed along the more progressive path - the path of using prefabricated reinforced-concrete structures and parts.

To this end the Government provides a wide variety of financial aids for both private and public housing construction, as well as research and other assistance on cost reduction.

I shall bring my speech to a close by expressing my confidence that builders, architects, engineers, workers in the construction-materials industry and in manufacture of machinery for construction and roads, and employees of design and research organizations will carry out with honor the talks laid upon them to improve still further the level, pace, and quality of construction in our country; and will build residences, schools, and hospitals better and more beautifully.

(REGULAR) Khrushchev, N. (1954, December 7). On the Extensive Introduction of Industrial Methods, Improving the Quality and Reducing the Cost of Construction. Speech presented at National Conference of Builders.

(ITALICISED) Truman, H. S. (1964). Harry S. Truman: Containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president. Washington: United States Government Print. Off.

119

or; engage in object design or active critical participation, but share the commitment that objects cannot be designed outside their physical and sociocultural

Too often architecture relates to one’s socio-economic status. The deceptive object has created a privilege associated with the built environment.

context�

In the digital age, everything is a social status.

Clothing, items, technology, brands, aesthetic are on the first page of who you are or who you want to be.

Emilio Ambasz, 1972

Even the aesthetic of the building you live in speaks towards where or how you are in life.

Is there substance of any kind behind these facades?

Facade & F inance To be sure, architecture estranged from the land can still be impressive dolorero torupient autem. Eperuptat experum quia pa verum quati id ulliberiant ut dolupta quodipidere exorcisms

“My utopia is life at this moment, here or in any other This is a way of removing the deceptive properties of the modern facade. Furthermore, a way to reverse this place, taken to the limits of its ideal possibilities.� deception and force it back upon the abusers of this show of vanity.

The user is responsible for making the decision for how the Lewis Mumford, Unknown Date outside of their residence appears. In this way, to a certain degree, their status, their finance, their ego is checked.

First, by their own socio-cultural-economic status. Then by their neighbors, and finally by the external viewer.

An architecture that removes the privilege associated with the objects we use to judge one’s place in society.

One that commits to creating an object that is designed within its physical and socio-cultural context.

No longer conceived as an isolated entity, but rather an integral part of the larger nature and socio-cultural environment.

Remove Socio-Economic Status

124

125

(FRAGMENTeralizeration)

Architecture Is...

This segment discovers a new architecture for architecture. It challenges the procedure that has allowed architecture to fall into servitude and commission. This new architecture is prominent, it is viable, it is permanent.

While this field, dormant in recent time, seeks to expand its horizons it must not forget purpose. Design does not

compromise, it does not waver.

127

...A LIABILIT Y PLAGROUND

Footnote. Magnis esed que volorep erspedio berrore stiandiate

This concept is an attempt to exasperate liability from the architectural processes. It has long held architecture back; the collar and leash to creativity.

If liability is removed, who is liable?

If liability is assumed to the user, what becomes of the urban environment?

Playgrounds assume the user is liable for injury, the child with scraped knee does not need a lawyer, just more play.

Will the urban user be liable for their play time?

Strange Words 2 Harry S. Truman Message to the Congress on the State of the Union 6 January 1947 The housing shortage continues to be acute.

I again recommend immediate passage of the unenacted portions of the comprehensive housing bill and the need has now become so great that its meager quota of 500,000 units of low-rent housing over 5 years should be increased to provide for 1,ooo,ooo units within 7 years. If we are to achieve levels of housing production adequate to our needs, construction materials in the necessary volume must be available continuously and in balanced proportions. If it proves necessary, I shall not hesitate to use the allocation authority, which I have requested, to channel such materials into home building.

The number of low-rent public housing units provided for in the legislation should be increased to 1 million units in the next 7 years. Even this number of units will not begin to meet our need for new housing.

The housing supply was increased by well over a million residential units during I948. But since last May the number of new housing starts has been falling off rapidly. This does not mean that the housing shortage has been overcome.

Most of the houses we need will have to be built by private enterprise, without public subsidy.

By producing too few rental units and too large a proportion of high-priced houses, the building industry is rapidly pricing itself out of the market. Building costs must be lowered.

We have an obligation to significantly speed up, improve the quality of, and reduce the cost of, construction. In order to do so, there is only one path - and that is the path of the most extensive industrialization of construction.

The Government is now engaged in a campaign to induce all segments of the building industry to concentrate on the production of lower priced housing.

To allocate materials in short supply and to impose price ceilings on such materials, could be used, if found necessary, to channel more materials into homes large enough for family life at

130

prices which wage earners can afford.

We have factories capable of supplying our builders with modern equipment that makes work easier and improves productivity. We have expanding manufacturing facilities that allow us to supply the construction industry with prefabricated reinforced-concrete structures, parts, and construction materials.

At this time I urge all elements of the building industry substantially to lower costs so that housing production may reach new record levels. The present decline in housing starts points up the danger that inflated building costs can bring down upon the industry. If housing costs are lowered and the consumer gets better value, builders will be able to continue to build in volume and the building industry need not fear a continued downward trend.

Basic to the entire housing program, both private and public, is the use of all available methods to lower construction costs.

At the present time conditions exist for the extensive industrialization of construction.

Extensive expansion of manufacture of prefabricated reinforced-concrete structures and parts will give enormous economic benefits.

In too many cases existing building codes are an obstacle to the use of new methods and materials and to the spread of prefabricated housing. Prefabricated housing is still an industry in its infancy. It can grow much faster, produce more and better housing at lower cost, if codes are modernized and the conflicts and differences between them are ironed out.

Now, though, it’s clear to everyone, it seems that we must proceed along the more progressive path - the path of using prefabricated reinforced-concrete structures and parts.

To this end the Government provides a wide variety of financial aids for both private and public housing construction, as well as research and other assistance on cost reduction.

I shall bring my speech to a close by expressing my confidence that builders, architects, engineers, workers in the construction-materials industry and in manufacture of machinery for construction and roads, and employees of design and research organizations will carry out with honor the talks laid upon them to improve still further the level, pace, and quality of construction in our country; and will build residences, schools, and hospitals better and more beautifully.

(REGULAR) Khrushchev, N. (1954, December 7). On the Extensive Introduction of Industrial Methods, Improving the Quality and Reducing the Cost of Construction. Speech presented at National Conference of Builders.

(ITALICISED) Truman, H. S. (1964). Harry S. Truman: Containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the president. Washington: United States Government Print. Off.

131

“Thus ugliness is first the negation of total unity and formal definitude. But perhaps more importantly, while the mere absence of form is neither beautiful nor ugly, formlessness becomes ugliness where content should have form but is Both the projection of power and the assumption of an image are ways to create a world and make it seem inevitable.

Capitalist objects do not seem to be very interesting. They are impersonal and cold. The conjunction of the visible and speakable, the exhaustive self-reflexivity of every moment of aesthetic or commercial solicitation, results in both a hyper-visibility and total indiscernibility for users.

This is intertwined with design’s ability to visualize that which is supposed to be there - but isn’t - or is there, but goes unseen.

Capitalism’s unnoticed and unseen must be penetrated, starting with its shield of liability and legality. missing it, Caroline O’Donnell, 2011

Unity in general is beautiful, since it provides a self-referential entity; therefore, unity is the principal condition of all design (Log, 2011, p 101).

WHAT IS CAPITALISM’s PROGRAM?

The distraction is the new adult playground.

But when capitalism calls, who can be distracted.

LIABLE Dealing with various levels of distraction among everyday

DISTRACTIONS

users is paramount for this concept’s strategy. These users encompass varying levels of distraction: from too busy to be distracted, too busy to notice.

This unforced interaction peaks interest, and the capitalist programming can interfere, or be interfered with at any time.

This is not to diminish the productivity of such exaggerated scales, but rather to qualify it. It is precisely Are users liable if they aren’t paying attention? the potential of impossiblity that leads to insights into the imagination of organization (Log, 2011, p 69) What if their lack of attention produces enjoyment?

(PLACEHOLDER)

136

(PLACEHOLDER)

(PLACEHOLDER)

(PLACEHOLDER)

137

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This concept seeks a methodology for project evaluation on vectors other than profitability and capital interest. These

...A DESIGN GOVERNOR

corporate means are proxies, abstractions of organization.

Breaking this down to allow for design interests to gain agency, for the sake of architecture’s agency.

The meeting between developer and architect is maimed by these voids, and the developer’s matrixes and algorithms allow

“Each of these scenarios involves a certain

for little discussion.

So then, onward to a new metric of

metapolitics: art refuting

analysis. Can input quality be quantified

the hierarchical divisions

directly to output quality?

of perceptible and framing

Can we see the future of a project, in hopes

a common sensorium,

of stopping the objectification before it

or art replacing politics as a configuration of the sensible world,” (Log, 2011, p 21).

starts?

PROJECT VIABILIT Y ALGORITHM In order to process whether or not a project fits within the statute of limitations for design integrity, a program must be written that has the ability to analyze data and compile a singular, image-based response validating a future project: “At stake here is not the ‘influence‘ of a thinker, but the efficacy of a plot - one that reframes the division of the 1. DATA GATHER: the input of project information is a crucial step in determining project validity. the more forms of our experience” (Log, 2011, p 17). input, the higher chance of a successful output.

START

2. INFORMATION: portions of project data for analysis.

These metrics are created by architecture, and are relative to the design integrity desired. However, the program DATA GATHER will also factor in a design integrity multiplier to ensure quality.

CONTEXT:

DEVELOPER:

establish provides 3. DATA PROCESS: compiling and processing this perrogative, previous socio-cultural information in order projects, to objectify a response. The world context for locality location... wants a pretty picture, let’s make it as pretty as possible.

4. CATEGORIZE: Once the ANALYSIS: data is in, the project is COST PROGRAM: capitalism metric, allows for simplified in terms of success (how capitalistic of it). Thissustainable inequality gauge growth allows the algorithm to establish a concept for its imagery 5. PRINT

ARCHITECT POWER:

DESIGN:

projects interest in architecture

proceedural attempt at creating an idea

DATA PROCESS

SUCESS!

FAILURE!

this project creates is design-centric, begin

this project fails to meet our firm parameters

PRINT

END

START

DATA GATHER

CONTEXT:

DEVELOPER:

establish perrogative, previous projects, location...

provides socio-cultural context for locality

COST ANALYSIS:

PROGRAM:

capitalism metric, inequality gauge

allows for sustainable growth

ARCHITECT POWER:

DESIGN:

projects interest in architecture

proceedural attempt at creating an idea

DATA PROCESS

SUCESS!

FAILURE!

this project creates is design-centric, begin

this project fails to meet our firm parameters

PRINT

END

“A utopian machine to produce a self-organized urbanism conditioned by a bottom-up system in which the multitudes are able to drive the entropy of their

SYSTEM.OUT.PRINTLN(SUCCESS OR FAILURE) public class HelloWorld { public static void main(String[] args) { // Prints “Hello, World” in the terminal window.

System.out.println(“Hello, World”); } } javac HelloWorld.java java HelloWorld Hello, World

own system of construction, their own system of vivre ensemble” (Log, 2011, p 162).

143

...A MASTER PLANNING MACHINE

This concept takes on the master planning process and its future automation.

The master planning process is no longer an informational, concept-driving architectural allowance. It has become a boilerplate output, a genericizer, a machine.

We begin anew from the art of building, from the economy The process longs for further mechanization. of materials, from the reasons for construction and from the meanings of a building.

Reason has reaffirmed its place, accounting for itself.

And for the first time perhaps, above and beyond all contradictions, we feel strangely serene...

Superstudio, 1969

Is the architect is ready?

Are you tired of the monotony of the architectural planning process? Do you ever think, “this is so easy, why isn’t it automated?�

(back to desk)

You need the Plan Master, a revolutionary machine that automates the standardized master planning processes in an easy to use, easy to control environment.

Architecture finds itself stuck in the continuous looping of master planning process.

This mind-numbing carousel sticks architecture into the cubicle, into the corporate space.

Rules, code, profit, and land-ownership bog down the excitement of an architectural resolution to planning, replacing it with standardization and placing it among the cog of consumerism.

These layers of responsibility hinder our design integrity, and thus must be mechanized.

Architecture freed from these devices is an architecture moving forward.

Footnote.

MAZE OR SHIPPING TERMINAL??

Stuck In a Maze of Master Planning

Manufacturing The Master Architect

Out of this mechanization a new architecture is born, and its vehicle a new, empowered architect.

Let the Plan Master do the work! Why do you want to work twice as hard?!

(transition to images of Design has become the metric, and other processes are handled according to their need, or lack thereof, for human interaction. the following architectural processes, which will be shown as a graphic up on This new architect is joined with his artificial intelligence, and the partnership is strong enough to fight the screen) against the corporate structure.

This is for the mapping, the zoning, the regulation, the code, the ada. It does it all!

This architecture holds power over the developer, and now architecture is moving forward. (back to desk, record playing one of the records)

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150

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151

replaced with substance.

Strange Futures of...

This segment manipulates futures in order to create an entirely new phenomenon. It seeks to destroy what is and what isn’t, only to replace with the nameless; to reinstate the faceless; to sanction the unrecognizable.

This will be anonymous; this will be forbidden; this will certainly be forgotten, as all objects will be erased and

153

Our aim is to garner community support for our projects, in an attempt to create architecture on a much larger scale.

Perhaps this scalar quantity is in sociocultural context, seemingly absent in projects of late.

Perhaps the community is willing to fix what the architectural industry refuses to acknowledge.

What the agency lacks in backbone, the general public corrects with sheet magnitude.

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS

...MASS COMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

“exceptional” in its exclusive use of public monuments as a means for a general theory of architecture, and because these monuments respond to specific site and technical conditions.......

“Thus ugliness is first the

ugliness where content

negation of total unity

should have form but is

and formal definitude. But

missing it,

perhaps more importantly,

Caroline O’Donnell, 2011

while the mere absence of form is neither beautiful nor ugly, formlessness becomes

URBAN VANDALISM

Parum quia dolorepe occus exeruptatur magnam alignamus eum qui dolorem rempos aut quo vitae parit molorrum nonseque dolupta nit voluptus doluptus et aut facerum expelestio evendi volorec atuscip saeriam quis et voluptassit faceaquae pedionsectia voluptas sunt am faceptur? Qui odi od et et rehent.

Solorepudam rerit explibust que poreperrum in eost magnimin et volore sam qui beatest dis ditia natquam, nam lab iumqui dolorumet prerumquiae voluptatem ent ea sum quia as int autas quas doluptate eatur?

Itat que nest, que nulpa corrum que et dite que pelende provid quis nihil inciisit fugiate eat deni te corio beaturi ssitiat estium velendi dolo ipidusam doluptia volessimusam ut quam voluptate nonecum reped quo dolorum enihit facestem ea vit vendis eatest, tor ma ium qui con rem que nestis unti id utatqui debis numqui bea ariaecturero qui omnia voluptaque eaquam, occaborepudi dolupta tioremp oribus nieni ut volorep ernatur re alignat rem fuga. Untium ipite liant quaturibusam conecer

Religious institustions do not simply offer a location Ectur re volor sam que nient es magniendi con renem ulpa where like-minded citizens can congregate, qui quibeatur ame idellaborro quia placcabo. Et ullores eat et exped quias amust aut aut omnisin imaxime que cus, THEY CREATE LIKE- MINDED CITIZENS AND cus id enest etus, comnima ximinit ad explatur?

CONGREGATE THEM. Quis

CULT INTELLECT

This page is unneccessary.

159

There is a fact no such thing as a return.

- Michel Foucault, Unknown Date Out of this context comes the sudden reappearance of history.

Palladio, Michelangelo, Serlio, and Piranesi - the keepers and the tweekers of the classical tradition - are enjoying renewed popularity in recent times.

(Log 31. 2014, p 11).

Architectural historians are aggregating, advancing our thinking about architectural objects and their relationship to the self.

NEW ANCIENTS

BEYOND THE PAST

History had, well history.

(Log 31, 2014, p 11).

Despite the stearn warnings of our superiors, we are schooling ourselves on historical precedents and academic lineages to incorporate the ideas of projection, geometry, and typology into the pleasure of creating form.

“At one time, as everyone knows, Truth reigned over the Earth.”

Andrea Memmo, 1787

We expand the foundation of architectural knowledge from emprirical experimentation to revel in the archive and revive narrative.

We enjoy history, using historical knowledge as the only meaningful way of breaking the deadlocks in our discourse and of working through history’s own cultural and political problems.

Modernarchitecture architectureemerged emergedat atthe theend endof ofthe the19th 19th Modern Modern architecture emerged at the end of the 19th centuryfrom fromrevolutions revolutionsin intechnology, technology,engineering engineeringand and century century from revolutions in technology, engineering and buildingmaterials, materials,and andfrom fromaaadesire desireto tobreak breakaway awayfrom from building building materials, and from desire to break away from historicalarchitectural architecturalstyles stylesand andto toinvent inventsomething something historical historical architectural styles and to invent something thatwas waspurely purelyfunctional functionaland andnew. new.“Communicating “Communicatingthe the that that was purely functional and new.

“Communicating the impactof ofaaabuilding buildingto tolarge largenumbers numbersof ofpeople peopleeventually eventually impact impact of building to large numbers of people eventually becameaaaprimary primaryobjective objectiveof ofmodern modernarchitecture” architecture” became became primary objective of modern architecture” (Kuma,2007, 2007,ppp13).

13).The Theissue issuewas wasless lessabout aboutcreating creating (Kuma, (Kuma, 2007, 13).

The issue was less about creating newarchitecture architectureor orcities, cities,but butrather ratheraaamove movetowards towards new new architecture or cities, but rather move towards discoveringarchitectural architecturalnovelties noveltiescapable capableof ofbeing beingrelayed relayed discovering discovering architectural novelties capable of being relayed throughthe thenew newforms formsof ofmass massmedia. media.The Theintroduction introduction through through the new forms of mass media.

The introduction offeature featurefilms, films,sound soundrecordings, recordings,radio, radio,television, television, of of feature films, sound recordings, radio, television, computers,and and the theWorld WorldWide WideWeb Webinto intothis thisnew new computers, computers, and the World Wide Web into this new atmospherepushed pushedthe thefocus focuson onobjects objectsto tothe theforefront forefrontof of atmosphere atmosphere pushed the focus on objects to the forefront of society.Perhaps Perhapsthe thework workof ofLe LeCorbusier Corbusierand andMies Miesvan van society. society.

Perhaps the work of Le Corbusier and Mies van derRohe Roheled ledarchitecture architecturein inthis thisnew newdirection. direction.Anti-Object Anti-Object der der Rohe led architecture in this new direction.

Anti-Object usedthese thesetwo twoarchitects architectsas asprime primeexamples examplesof ofthis thisera eraof of used used these two architects as prime examples of this era of architecture: architecture: architecture: “Theycreated createdextremely extremelyphotogenic photogenicworks worksof of “They “They created extremely photogenic works of architecturethat thatwere weresufficiently sufficientlynew newand andindividualistic individualistic architecture architecture that were sufficiently new and individualistic tobe berecognized recognizedas assuch suchin inaaasingle, single,decisive decisiveblack-andblack-andto to be recognized as such in single, decisive black-andwhitephotograph. photograph.To Tobe bedecisive, decisive,the thephotograph photographhad hadto to white white photograph.

To be decisive, the photograph had to showthe theentire entirebuilding. building.The Thebuilding buildingitself itselfhad hadto tohave have show show the entire building.

The building itself had to have formsand anddetails detailsthat thatwere werepredicated predicatedon onbeing beingviewed, viewed,as as forms forms and details that were predicated on being viewed, as anobject, object,from fromaaadistance” distance”(Kuma, (Kuma,2007, 2007,ppp13).

13). an an object, from distance” (Kuma, 2007, 13).

Thesenew newobjects objectsavoided avoidedcomplex complexforms, forms,preferring preferringpure pure These These new objects avoided complex forms, preferring pure geometricalshapes, shapes,which whichcreated createdan anoverall overallcharacter characterthat that geometrical geometrical shapes, which created an overall character that waseasy easyto todefine. define.This Thistypology typologyof ofwork workcoincided coincidedwith with was was easy to define.

This typology of work coincided with thegrowth growthof ofmass massconsumerism, consumerism,and anditit itfit fitseamlessly seamlesslywith with the the growth of mass consumerism, and fit seamlessly with thecreation creationof ofthe theideal idealconsumer consumerobject. object.Furthermore, Furthermore, the the creation of the ideal consumer object.

Furthermore, “LeCorbusier Corbusierand andMies Miesachieved achievedpositions positionsof ofleadership leadership “Le “Le Corbusier and Mies achieved positions of leadership intwentieth-century twentieth-centuryarchitecture architectureby bydefining definingobjects objects in in twentieth-century architecture by defining objects thatwere wereideally ideallysuited suitedto tothe thecontemporary contemporaryapproach approachto to that that were ideally suited to the contemporary approach to bridgingmatter matterand andconsciousness, consciousness,which whichwas wasto toreduce reduce bridging bridging matter and consciousness, which was to reduce bothto tothe thestatus statusof ofobjects” objects”(Kuma, (Kuma,2007, 2007,ppp17).

17).With With both both to the status of objects” (Kuma, 2007, 17).

With this,architecture architecturebecame becameaaaconsumer-friendly consumer-friendlyobject, object, this, this, architecture became consumer-friendly object, achievingsocial socialstatus statusand andmarket marketvalue valuein inan anincreasingly increasingly achieving achieving social status and market value in an increasingly (5) (5) object-basedeconomy. economy.(5) object-based object-based economy.

ACME PRODUCTS

ACME products parody design, technology, and commodity with names that promise remarkable utility.

In the promise of design-as-a-way-of-improving-theworld we recognize the better-faster-stronger narrative.

Do -It-Yourself Tornado Kit Architectures internal ideals are projected into the world as solutions to particular circumstances, but whether a local or grand project, a gap emerges betwen

Dehydrated Boulders Earthquake Pills Jet-Propelled Pogo Stick

Triple-Strength Fortified Leg Muscle Vitamins architecture as imagined and architecture as it performs in the real world.

Future Push-Button Home Of Tomorrow

Absurdity implicitly admits to the limits of a situation and articulates the tension between the desire to transcend and the failure of this ambition.

By this measure, architecture is absurd as concept, as process, and as product.

Yet the history of absurdist archtiecture would form nothing but a small pamphlet or a sketchy list littered with cross-outs and question marks.

In 1947 Langley Collyer was found dead, rotting Though architecture often operates within the realm of absurdity, it rarely recognizes its own absurdity. under 130 tons of “stuff,“ having gotten caught in one of his own traps (set to keep out potential robbers who thought there must be treasures in a house filled almost solid with miscellaneous things) while trying to bring some food to his paralyzed brother.

Homer, the brother, died too, of starvation.

(Log 22, 2011, p 51).

SKETCHY PAMPHLETS

If architecture is to step out of its own absurdity, perhaps it might embrace the absurd as a form of practice.

THE ABSURD It should be remembered that absurdity is neither cynical nor nihilistic; it is urgent and engaged and at its core concerned with describing a truth, and may offer a form of liberation from disciplinary myths that otherwise condemn us to act out absurdity again and again, project after project.

Sample Blank Page (FRAGMENT)

Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.

- Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, 1948

5

The Formation of a Cult for Architecture

Once these fragments are absorbed, it is necessary to form an organization through which the information can now be applied to the current conditions. However, in order to do so, an acceptable level of control and manipulation over the systems of power must occur. In order to garner the critical mass required to overtake the might of the establishment, a new typology of architectural agency must be determined.

175

A Precedent for Uprising In addition to the architectural reform established in the 1960s through Radicalism, examples of successful manipulations of power exist, one being displayed through a group of architectural students from Tallinn, Estonia in 1978. Andres Kurg, writer of “The turning point in 1978: Architects of the Tallinn School and their late socialist public” for Architecture and the Paradox for Dissidence (2014) felt that, “these architects saw their profession as part of Estonia’s cultural sphere rather than a discipline subject to industrial construction” (p 19). It is increasingly common to find that examples of dissidence occur in areas where governing bodies acquire massive amounts of power and control. While these students, who grew up in a Soviet-controlled satellite nation, were accustomed to overbearing governmental structures they utilized the critical nature of architectural discourse to explore new possibilities. Kurg (2014) adds, “the issue of dissidence - and more broadly an open resistance through cultural forms - has repeatedly been discussed throughout the analysis of late Soviet society, with its use often motivated by the politics of the present” (p 31). The students, led

by Leonhard Lapin and Juri Okas, presented series of works at impromptu exhibitions, inviting guests from both the architectural discipline and the general public.

The purpose was to showcase the speculative border between the official and unofficial spheres of their Soviet existence. The students “used the exhibition as a platform for presenting their criticism of the inflexible building regulations, Soviet mass construction, standardisation and modernist urban planning and to launch a dialogue about architecture’s role in the cultural sphere rather than civil engineering” (Kurg, 2014, p 20). This format created a number of speaking points which propelled these

177

students to the forefront of the architectural conversation at the time. While some of the people, deliveries, and ideas were controversial the intellectual format provided a moment of free speech against a normally amorphous political body. In his writing, Kurg (2014) permits that, “the manifesto took a stand against the overregulation of architectural practices and the rigidity of the rules of political engagement. The emerging democracy was to be understood in the context of architecture; it was one that would be liberated from stereotypes and embrace diverse approaches” (p 21). Dissidence against the developer today is no different. It requires action, it demands strength, and exacts courage. However, in the face of a similar evil, the Soviet Union, a small group of unknown students contained exactly those traits: “Instead of withdrawal, the 1970s in Tallinn demonstrated a desire for achieving change through active engagement” (Kurg, 2014, p 31).

Figure 54. New Skyline of Tallinn. By Leonhard Lapin, 1978 (Kurg, 2014, p 21).

Figure 55. The city of the living – the city of the dead. Leonhard Lapin, 1978 (Kurg, 2014, p 21).

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Cult Iconography The premise of the religious cult will always bring with it curiosity. Whether this interest is genuine or falsified matters not, there will always be a small number that stays behind. It is on this principle that some of the largest religious cults in the world stand. These organizations generate simple, yet elegant, literature and branding in order to establish an uniform system of beliefs.

Followers of these beliefs are then asked to act upon them, taking up a position of evangelism for the organization.

For instance, Scientology fashions empowering diction, logical fallacies, and circular logic to survive: “Scientology: Scio (Latin) ‘knowing, in the fullest sense of the word,’ logos (Greek) ‘study of.’ Thus Scientology means ’knowing how to know.’

Scientology is a twenty-first-century religion. It comprises a vast body of knowledge extending from certain fundamental truths, and prime among those truths: Man is a spiritual being endowed with abilities well beyond those which he normally envisions. He is not only able to solve his own problems, accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness, but he can achieve new states of awareness he may never have dreamed possible.

In one form or another, all great religions have held the hope of spiritual freedom—a condition free of material limitations and misery. The question has always been, however, how does one reach such a state, particularly while still living amidst a frantic and often overwhelming society?

179

Figure 56. Scientology. Los Angeles, CA (Web, 2017).

Although modern life seems to pose an infinitely complex array of problems, Scientology maintains that the solutions to those problems are basically simple and within every man’s reach. Difficulties with communication and interpersonal relationships, nagging insecurities, self-doubt and despair—each man innately possesses the potential to be free of these and many other concerns.

Scientology offers a pathway to greater freedom.�

(Scientology Definition, 2017, p 1).

Currently, the organization has said that it has anywhere from eight million to fifteen million members worldwide.

180

Creation It is upon this type of membership a new architectural organization will flourish. Only with numbers great enough can an idea have the power to break down the social constructs which hinder architectural progress.

The time for this organization is now, and its name will be OFP. Order of the Flying Pyramid is an architectural organization, established in 2017, aimed at fighting developer-based, object centric architecture currently plaguing our urban environments. Join today and help us create a new strange future!

OFP is a way of life that offers a precise path leading to a complete and certain understanding of architectural desires. These ideals must arise from the new generations of designers; disdain for the current conditions will be their methodology. This entity will have power over the developers, the land owners, and it will quickly dispose of them. Capitalism is the final foe. This organization will use its methods against itself, to gain a foothold and bring back design to its rightful place at the forefront of our built environment. Check out the following programs:

181

Illustration 34. FPO Operations Logo.

FPOPERATIONS Flying Pyramid Operations: Local informal groups aimed at disrupting the current conditions of the built environment. Created as a force of change against the growing tide of money in architectural design.

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Illustration 35. Office of Facade & Parapet Logo.

OFFICE OF

FACADE

&

PARAPET

Office of Facade & Parapet: The main architectural creation of OFP. Handles projects ranging in size, scope, length and diversity. Crowd-sources workload in order to defeat capitalistic architecture.

183

Illustration 36. Organization of False Practice Logo.

O RG AN IZ ATIO N OF

FALSE PRACTICE

Organization of False Practice: Our department acting as an architectural intelligence agency. Responsible for mounting operations against perceived enemies, abusive authority, and genericism.

184

Illustration 37. Order of the Flying Pyramid Logo.

ORDER OF THE

FLYING PYRAMID Order of the Flying Pyramid: The highest echelon of our order. Responsible for re-educating both the design world and general public on the ideals that design is a necessity for a better life.

185

Strength in Numbers Once the object-centric, developer-devoted architectural system is disrupted there is no telling what the future might hold. New architectures are on the rise, and being it an unified movement against deceptive objects. Rather than withdrawing and isolating oneself from public discussions about architecture, the architects themselves became active agents in the institutional power struggles occurring today - a fact that poses the question of whether the oppositional strategies travelling from art to architecture can have a broader influence in society (Kurg, 2014, p 20). This is an architecture capable of clarifying once and for all the motives which have induced man to build dolmens, menhirs, pyramids; tangible signs of our understanding of the earth. It is a testimonial that architecture is the centre of the relationships of technology, sacredness, utilitarianism. It implies man, machines, rational structures and history.

By positioning itself in the field of architecture as a practice closely associated with social production and political power - moving from the art territory, and events inside the small circle of architectural discourse, to appropriating these tactics directly in architecture - OFP will garner wider attention and cause significant changes in the architecture institution itself (Kurg, 2014, p 31).

187

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

- Roy Batty, 1982

6

Explorations in Futures

Now that the establishment of a new order for architecture is iminent, the creation of applications with the purpose of breaking down consumer architecture are on the agenda.

The following is a small sample of the abilities of a architectural organization, such as OFP.

191

Illustration 38. Context Map of Orange County, CA.

Illustration 39. Site Analysis Diagram for Spectrum Business Park, Irvine, CA.

192

Architecture Small Spectrum Business Park, Irvine, CA Irvine, California, presents an challenging environment for architectural intervention. This city endures with an inability to allow for architectural promiscuity. Irvine’s plan, both city and landlord, has been made. The master master-planned community is now underway. Hyper-suburbia is created in order to display a flesh-like city. The orange county false-front-facade supreme.

What option does a budding designer have in this barren wasteland of generic office plots, shopping malls and prefab housing? JOIN OFP TODAY. OFP allows young architizers to become their very own urban superhero/ vandal. Use our tools to protect/ destroy the built environment! While the city planning statutes do not allow modification or creativity in Irvine, small scale deformations can occur.

This intervention calls for the design of an “urban sensitizer clip�, a clip designed to latch on the the generic; to re-combobilate the conservative; to slowly break down the establishment!

193

24.0 "

1.0 "

24.0 "

0.25 "

8.0 "

16.0 " 13.6 "

6.0 "

1.6 "

4.0 "

.25 "

Illustration 40. Shop Drawings for Handheld Urban Complexisizer Clip.

194

Clip Architecture A Handheld Urban Complexisizer CONCEPT: this sturdy, lightweight clip is designed to attach to a multitude of architectural elements, including balconies, facades, city infrastructure and more! Once a clip is placed in a location, additional clips can be aggregated, either by attaching to nearby elements or to the clips themselves.

GROWTH: over time, formations will start to occur throughout urban areas, creating features, program and aesthetic to an otherwise brainwashed urban landscape.

The creativity of the user is what drives the complexity of this relatively simple object. Along with the propagation of these clips, the formation of communal groups, critique, and conversation may occur.

PERMANANCE (LOW): because they are realized for strict design atmospheres, these clips are minimal monumental objects. This works to the designs advantage, as the removal of these objects opens new opportunities and ideas of how they can programmatically and aesthetically manipulate an urban area.

195

Illustrations 41, 42. Handheld Urban Complexisizer Clip Application. Progressions 1 and 2.

196

Illustrations 43. Handheld Urban Complexisizer Clip Application. Final? Progression.

197

Illustration 44. Context Map for San Diego, CA.

Illustration 45. Site Analysis Diagram for East Village, San Diego, CA.

198

Architecture Medium East Village, San Diego, CA East Village started so promising. Its manufacturing history created zoning and programmatic complexities, which allowed artists and fellow funk makers to infiltrate.

But of course, capitalism strikes and now the land under those brick factory buildings is gold. Sitting on property until the economy is ripe for some market rent apartments.

Be sure to squeeze every last drop of profit out of your designs...

The economic facade has taken hold of the housing in this city, and its time for OFP to appear. The community has power here, and maybe all it needs is an organizing push.

OFP will become a community design protest organizer.

Compile the data, find out what the community wants/ needs these buildings to function as: individualize the aesthetic.

This intervention creates a lightweight, customized facade swatch which is user-driven and ready to leech onto any unsuspecting building. This parasitic facade brings back social and cultural influence to the facade!

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Illustration 46. Construction Drawings for Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade.

200

Vacuum Facade Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade CONCEPT: these elements are meant as an addition to generic, developer-centric architecture in urban areas.

Most commonly high-density housing, the design integrity of these buildings are under attack through the use of cheap materials and highly capitalistic facades.

MANUFACTURING: these facade swatches are a series of molds created by pre-designated facades that can be chosen by building inhabitants or community members.

A plasticized material is then vacuum-sealed with an image of the chosen sample. This allows the facade panel to show a semblance of the depth, texture and color that made this particular facade an available choice for consumers.

GROWTH: over time, entire buildings will be covered with customized facades, showing the complexities of social, economic, and cultural values that occur within the diversity of urban areas. This parasitic facade will also be an additive feature to buildings that, in most cases, will already have one, allowing this to become a sustainability grab for users and property owners.

201

Illustrations 47, 48. Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade Application. Progressions 1 and 2.

202

Illustrations 49. Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade Application. Final? Progression.

203

Illustration 50. Context Map for Los Angeles, CA.

Illustration 51. Site Analysis Diagram for Warehouse Districts, Los Angeles, CA

204

Architecture Large Multiple Districts, Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles is just great, isn’t it? Such history; such socio-cultural validity; such complete infrastructural incompetence! While the city creates so much in the way of design context and availability, it lacks the basic necessities of a city. It’s inability to have even the slightest maturity in terms of public transportation, social housing, vehicular mobility, and affortability creates the need for a fresh start.

The modern city has no capacity to overhaul these problems and create solutions which will create a better future for its inhabitants. Who is willing, much less able, to take on a project of this magnitude? That is right folks, you guessed it: your friends at OFP! We have the ability to amass the necessary forces to power through extreme- scale projects, like this one.

Our membership is vast, and our crowd-source approach is perfect for endevours with 50, 60, or even 70 year lengths.

Our plan for Los Angeles is to cover large portions of the city and its defunct infrastructure with a massive facade system, with the intent of creating a new street level while still preserving the cities social, cultural, and economic values.

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Illustration 52. Construction Detail for City Drape Reformation Balloon.

206

Absurd Environment City Drape Reformations CONCEPT: this complete urban environmental system is created to allow large segments of existing infrastructure to be covered up, ranging from creating a canopy above semi-functioning areas to completely recoating failed city projects.

APPLICATION: OFP’s fleet of weather balloons will be used to lift multiple sheets of fiberglass, plastic, and organic materials above the city. The sheets will then be draped over Los Angeles in a calculated manor, careful to protect important or fully-functional spaces. The balloons will then spray a non-toxic, organic resin over the segments until they are bonded. After a curing period, new circulation, program, structure, and services will be created.

GROWTH: as the city grows and its programmatic needs shift, the drape is able to be manipulated and changed respectively. The materials can be detached from the structure and lifted away by the balloons for recycling.

Furthermore, the materials are biodegradable and have a half-life.

207

Illustrations 53, 54. City Drape Reformation Application. Progressions 1 and 2.

208

Illustrations 55. City Drape Reformation Application. Final? Progression.

209

References

213

References Ambasz, E. (1972). Italy, the new domestic landscape: achievements and problems of Italian design. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Byvanck, V. (2005). Superstudio: the Middelburg lectures. Middelburg: De Vleeshal.

Ching, F. D., Jarzombek, M., & Prakash, V. (2017). A global history of architecture.

Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Curl, J. S. (2005). The Egyptian revival: ancient Egypt as the inspiration for design motifs in the west. Abingdon: Routledge.

Curtis, A. (2016). HyperNormalisation.

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Daniell, T., & Ito, T. (2011). Tarzans in the media forest (architecture words).

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Debord, G. (1977). Society of The Spectacle. Detroit, MI: Black & Red. Domhoff, G. W. (2000). Who rules America? power and politics in the year 2000.

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214

Hartoonian, G. (2006). Crisis of the object: The architecture of theatricality. London: Taylor & Francis.

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McLeod, S. (2008). Classical Conditioning.

Retrieved June 16, 2017, from https:// www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html Menking, W., & Lang, P. (2003). Superstudio: Life without objects (1st ed.). New york: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Metahaven, Vishmidt, M., & Grojs, B. (2010). Uncorporate identity (1st ed.).

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Tafuri, M. (1991). Storia, conservazione, restauro. Casabella 580.

Richards, J. (2014). Facadism. London: Routledge.

Tzonis, A., & Lefaivre, L. (1999). Classical architecture: the poetics of order. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Rossi, C. & Coles, A. (2013). EP / Vol. 1: the Italian avant-garde, 1968-1976.

Berlin: Sternberg Press.

Weizman, I. (2014). Architecture and the paradox of Dissidence. London, United Kingdom: Taylor and Francis.

Rubin, I. I. (1972). Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://www.marxists.org/ archive/rubin/value/ Senkevitch, A. (1974). Soviet architecture, 1917-1962: A bibliographical guide to source material. United States: Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia [1974].

Staff, A., Watanabe, H., & Kuma, K. (2007). AA words Two: Anti-object?

The dissolution and disintegration of architecture. London: Architectural Association Publications.

Summerson, J. (1986). The classical language of architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Superstudio. (1969). Superstudio : Progetti E Pensieri. Domus, (479), 3843. Retrieved June 20, 2017, from https://timedotcom.files.wordpress. com/2014/06/domus_superstudio.pdf

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Bradbury, R. (1976). Fahrenheit 451. New York, NY, United States: Ballantine Books.

Branzi, A. (2006). No-stop city: Archizoom associati. France: Editions HYX. Brown, C., Zamiatin, E., Glenny, M., Introd, Guerney, B., Zamyatin, Y., & Zami͡a︡tin, E. (1993). We: New edition. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Group (USA).

Chandra Ward Stefanik. (2015). The Pruitt Igoe myth.

Cook, P., & Webb, M. (2007). Archigram.

New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Fukuyama, P., & Fukuyama, F. (1993).

The end of history and the last man.

New York: Harper Perennial.

Hustwit, G. (2011). Urbanized. USA. Kunkel, B. (2014). Utopia or bust: A guide to the present crisis. London: Verso Books.

La Penta, B., Italian, t., & Tafuri, M. (1976). Architecture and utopia: Design and capitalist development (4th ed.).

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

216

London, J. (2003). The iron heel. New York, NY, United States: Wildside Press.

Morris, W. (2004). News from nowhere, or, an epoch of rest: Being some chapters from a utopian romance. United States: Dover Publications.

Paley, M., & Shelley, M. (2008). The last man. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tester, K., & Jacobsen, M. (2010). Utopia: Social theory and the future. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing.

Venturi, Izenour, S., Brown, D., & Venturi, R. (1977). Venturi: Learning from Las Vegas the forgotten symbolism of architectural form (cloth). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Wigley, M. (1998). Constant’s new Babylon: The hyper-architecture of desire ; [published on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of constant’s new Babylon project, center for contemporary art, Rotterdam, from 21 November 1998 through 10 January 1999].

Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.

Appendices

219

Figures Figure 1. Seated Buddha from Gandhara.

MacGregor, 2011, p 266. Found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world/objects. aspx?byCulture.

Figure 2. Olduvai Handaxe. MacGregor, 2011, p 15. Found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_ the_world/objects.aspx?byCulture.

Figure 3. Sphinx of Taharqo. MacGregor, 2011, p 141. Found at http://www. britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_ of_the_world/objects.aspx?byCulture.

Figure 4. Flood Tablet. MacGregor, 2011, p97. Found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_ world/objects.aspx?byCulture.

Figure 5. Coin with Head of Alexander.

MacGregor, 2011, p 197. Found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world/objects. aspx?byCulture.

Figure 6. Silk Princess Painting. MacGregor, 2011, p 319. Found at http://www. britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_ of_the_world/objects.aspx?byCulture.

Figure 7. Borobudur Buddha Head. MacGregor, 2011, p 379. Found at http:// www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world/objects.aspx?byCulture.

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Figure 8. Mechanical Galleon. MacGregor, 2011, p 491. Found at http://www. britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_ of_the_world/objects.aspx?byCulture.

Figure 9. Reformation Centenary Broadsheet. MacGregor, 2011, p 552. Found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world/objects. aspx?byCulture.

Figure 10. Hokusai’s “The Great Wave“.

MacGregor, 2011, p 606. Found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world/objects. aspx?byCulture.

Figure 11. Early Victorian Tea Set. MacGregor, 2011, p 601. Found at http:// www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world/objects.aspx?byCulture.

Figure 12. Solar- powered Lamp and Charger. MacGregor, 2011, p 653. Found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world/objects. aspx?byCulture.

Figure 13. Throne of Weapons. MacGregor, 2011, p 641. Found at http://www. britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_ of_the_world/objects.aspx?byCulture Figure 14. Equitable Loans Building. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 761.

Figures (continued) Figure 15. Palazzo Pitti. Found at https-// flyingpigexpress.files.wordpress. com/2012/06/palazzopitti.jpg.

Figure 16. Yas Hotel. Found at http-// images.adsttc.com/media/images/56c7/2900/e58e/ce8f/8100/0025/ large_jpg/Yas_Hotel.jpg?1455892721. jpg.

Figure 17. IMAGIC Weave. Found at http//www.archello.com/sites/default/files/ imagecache/media_image/story/media/ DPP_48x%281%29.jpg.

Figure 18. Teepee. Found at https-// cdn.instructables.com/F3N/HG9A/ H1EMI38K/F3NHG9AH1EMI38K. LARGE.jpg.

Figure 19. Mud Hut. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 714.

Figure 20. Early eastern-style facade. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 720.

Figure 21. Ziggurat of Ur. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 726.

Figure 22. Pyramid of Khafre. Found at http-//famouswonders.com/wp-content/gallery/pyramids-of-egypt/pyramid-of-khafre.jpg.

Figure 23. Pylon Temple Gate. Found at https-//s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/ originals/e0/db/c7/e0dbc7994a09c78c71c32cfd16673a9a.jpg.

Figure 24. Cenotaph for Newton. By Etienne-Louis Boullee. Found at http//images.adsttc.com/media/images/53a2/6459/c07a/8079/c500/0231/ large_jpg/N7701015_JPEG_3_3DM. jpg?1403151440.

Figure 25. Columne di San Lorenzo. Milan, Italy. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 738.

Figure 26. Palazzo Dolfin. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 738.

Figure 27. Villa Barbaro. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 739.

Figure 28. Facadism At Its Finest. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 740.

Figure 29. The Undecorated House. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 741.

Figure 30. The Pepse Building. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 760.

Figure 31. Seagram Office Building Facade.

Elements: Facade, 2014.

Figure 32. GM Tech Building. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 784.

Figure 33. Screen. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 805.

Figure 34. Experience Music Building.

Elements: Facade, 2014, p 804.

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Figures (continued) Figure 35. Tensile Dome: Remnants of A Future. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 851.

Figure 36. Bosco Verticale. Milan, Italy.

Elements: Facade, 2014, p 871.

Figure 37. Vegetated Consumerism. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 870.

Figure 38. Las Vegas Strip. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 860.

Figure 39. Building Wrap Advertisement.

Elements: Facade, 2014, p 864.

Figure 40. Apple Store. New York, NY Elements: Facade, 2014, p 824.

Figure 41. Glass Pavillion. Elements: Facade, 2014, p 824.

Figure 45. Superstudio. The members of Italian architecture firm Superstudio.

Found at https-//static01.nyt.com/ images/2016/04/15/t-magazine/ superstudio-slide-PI26/superstudio-slide-PI26-superJumbo.jpg.

Figure 46. Salvage of Italian City Centers: Milano. Found at http-//www.bellarte. it/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Superstudio-Il-Monumento-Continuo-Piazza-Navona-1970-courtesy-pinksummer. jpg.

Figure 47. Superstructures Pass Over the Landscape. Found at https-//s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ e8/51/8e/e8518e139320ec5edd9d 8d8734500301.jpg.

Figure 42. Post-War Italy. Found at https//s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0f/15/71/0f1571f233dd8184a0dd019cf71f608f.jpg.

Figure 48. Tonald Drumpf. Found at http-//static6.businessinsider.com/ image/55918b77ecad04a3465a0a63/ nbc-fires-donald-trump-after-he-callsmexicans-rapists-and-drug-runners.jpg.

Figure 43. Student Uprisings. Found at http-//www.presidentsmedals.com/ showcase/2013/l/1407_16125917184. jpg.

Figure 49. Developer Control, Everywhere. Found at http-//www.kriesi.at/ themes/enfold/files/2013/04/photodune-1011301-city-skyline-m.jpg.

Figure 44. Colessium. Rome, Italy. Found at http-//grey-wanderer.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Colosseo_1.jpg.

Figure 50. Not Sure What is Going On Here... Found at http-// www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.762332.1493902693!/image/3305146283.jpg_gen/derivatives/ size_1104x828/3305146283.jpg.

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Figures (continued) Figure 51. HyperNormalisation. Found at https-//static.independent. co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/10/18/10/hypernormalisation2.jpg.

Figure 52. Bored Yet? Elements: Facade, 2014, p 823.

Figure 53. Frank Gehry. Found at http-// aasarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/The-President-of-the-People-sRepublic-of-China-and-Frank-Gehry-00. jpg.

Figure 54. New Skyline of Tallinn. By Leonhard Lapin, 1978. Kurg, 2014, p 21. Found at https-//3.bp.blogspot. com/-D3ucFIt_xIU/V8pBkegc05I/ AAAAAAAAE5Q/VHEYEnsCJDYYRHjsDoYS1WeZFDowjdIwwCLcB/s1600/leonhard%2Blapin_2.jpg.

Figure 55. The city of the living – the city of the dead. Leonhard Lapin, 1978.

Kurg, 2014, p 21. Found at http-// www.archfondas.lt/leidiniu/sites/default/files/ALF04%20foto/l2_kurg/ ALF04_KURG_1_elavate-surnute.jpg.

Figure 56. Scientology. Los Angeles, CA. Found at http-//www.trbimg.com/img5527216b/turbine/la-scientology-investigations-reporting-archive-20150409. jpg.

223

Illustrations Illustration 1 (Cover). Constant’s Curtain Wall Facade. Digital Collage of steel, acryllic, paint and wood model. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 2. History of the World in 100 Objects: Survive vs. Consume. Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 3. Objects That Made Us Cool.

Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 4. Objects That Make Us Cool.

Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 5. History of the “Facade“.

Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 6. History of the “Facade“ (part 1). Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 7. History of the “Facade“ (part 2). Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 8. History of the “Facade“ (part 3). Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 9. History of the “Facade“ (Jenck’s Version). Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 10. Monument_Concept. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

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Illustration 11. Monument_Program.

Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 12. Monument_Render. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 13. Display_Concept. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 14. Display_Program. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 15. Display_Render. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Ilustration 16. Social_Program. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 17. Social_Concept. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 18. Social_Render. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2016.

Illustration 19. Liability_Concept. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 20. Liability_Program. Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 21. Liability_Render. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 22. Algorithm_Concept. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustrations (continued) Illustration 23. Algorithm_Render. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 24. Planning_Diagram. 2017.

Illustration 25. Planning_Render. Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 26. Crop Duster. Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 27. Vandal. Digital Collage.

Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 28. Cult_1. Digital Collage.

Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 29. Ancient_Concept. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 30. Ancient_Render. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 31. Absurd_Concept. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 32. Absurd_Program. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 33. Absurd_Render. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 34. FPO Operations Logo.

Digital Illustration. Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

Illustration 35. Office of Facade & Parapet Logo. Digital Illustration. Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

Illustration 36. Organization of False Practice Logo. Digital Illustration.

Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

Illustration 37. Order of the Flying Pyramid Logo. Digital Illustration.

Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

Illustration 38. Context Map of Orange County, CA. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 39. Site Analysis Diagram for Spectrum Business Park, Irvine, CA. Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 40. Shop Drawings for Handheld Urban Complexisizer Clip.

Digital Illustration. FPO Operations, 2017.

Illustration 41. Handheld Urban Complexisizer Clip Application Progression 1. Digital Illustration. FPO Operations, 2017.

Illustration 42. Handheld Urban Complexisizer Clip Application Progression 2. Digital Illustration. FPO Operations, 2017.

225

Illustrations (continued) Illustration 43. Handheld Urban Complexisizer Clip Application Final?

Progression. Digital Illustration. FPO Operations, 2017.

Illustration 44. Context Map for San Diego, CA. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 45. Site Analysis Diagram for East Village, San Diego, CA. Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 46. Construction Drawings for Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade. Digital Illustration. Office of Facade & Parapet, 2017.

Illustration 47. Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade Application Progression 1.

Digital Illustration. Office of Facade & Parapet, 2017.

Illustration 48. Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade Application Progression 2.

Digital Illustration. Office of Facade & Parapet, 2017.

Illustration 49. Saran Wrap Parasitic Facade Application Final? Progression.

Digital Illustration. Office of Facade & Parapet, 2017.

Illustration 50. Context Map for Los Angeles, CA. Digital Illustration. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

226

Illustration 51. Site Analysis Diagram for Warehouse Districts, Los Angeles, CA. Digital Collage. Kyle Dylewski, 2017.

Illustration 52. Construction Detail for City Drape Reformation Balloon.

Digital Illustration. Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

Illustration 53. City Drape Reformation Application Progression 1. Digital Illustration. Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

Illustration 54. City Drape Reformation Application Progression 2. Digital Illustration. Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

Illustration 55. City Drape Reformation Application Final? Progression. Digital Illustration. Order of the Flying Pyramid, 2017.

227

Other Material This project consisted of a series of film pieces aimed at breaking down the developer influence in today’s built environment, manipulating the political and economic powers into reliquishing power, and propaganda for a Cult of Architecture: Order of the Flying Pyramid:

Film #1 Title: OBJECT Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sSHiiV_mNQ

Film #2 Title: PROBLEMLEADTOPROBLEMSLEADTO Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RX9xmjIP8

Film #3 Title: STRANGE FUTURES Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrLlTArpM_s

228

Other Material (continued) Infomercial #1 Script: (Myself, standing behind a desk with a blank wall behind, with record player on the table with records) Hi its Stu Cunningham with Plan Master, the Master Planning specialist! (holding record presentation style) (transition to architect struggling behind a desk) Are you tired of the monotony of the architectural planning process? Do you ever think, “this is so easy, why isn’t it automated?� (back to desk) You need the Plan Master, a revolutionary machine that automates the standardized master planning processes in an easy to use, easy to control environment.

Architecture finds itself stuck in the continuous looping of master planning process. Let the Plan Master do the work! Why do you want to work twice as hard?! (transition to images of the following architectural processes, which will be shown as a graphic up on the screen) This is for the mapping, the zoning, the regulation, the code, the ada. It does it all! (back to desk, record playing one of the records) Out of this mechanization a new architecture is born, and its vehicle a new, empowered architect.

Design has become the metric, and other processes are handled according to their need, or lack thereof, for human interaction.

This new architect is joined with his artificial intelligence, and the partnership is strong enough to fight against the corporate structure.

(cut out/ change channel) (END)

229

Other Material (continued) Infomercial #2 Script: Architizer Spray (Opens with images/ videos of boring office and apartment buildings) (Incapable people looking at boring buildings shaking their heads, getting lost, being sad) Developer housing got you down? Tired of staring at the same old boring building? Does your apartment complex look like all the other ones in your city?

(Cheesy graphics cancelling these images out) Its time for Premium Grade Architizer Spray, brought to you by OBJECT! (bottle being held by hands) This product will add diversity to any urban environment Its easy! Just point your Premium Grade Architizer Spray at any surface, push down on the easy applicator nozzle, and BOOM BOOM: 48 hours later that same surface is covered in beautiful complexity! (bottle being sprayed on a wall, the wall growing moss, perhaps time-lapse?)

Perfect for facades, developer housing, generic developments, even boring family members! (before/ after images of the aforementioned applications, supplied by me just needs transition effects) This spray contains an all natural product designed to grow moss anywhere! (show picture of the bottle, list of ingredients flashes on the screen) Just spray away and pray the landlords don’t prey on your play!

(Warning message scrolls on screen while voiceover as fast as possible) (Change channel) (END)

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Other Material (continued) Infomercial #3 Script: Liability Limiter (Interviewing generic looking person #1 on the street) I was so nervous to exist outside of social norms and liability in an urban environment.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? (Generic person #2) I wanted a place that provided a healthy distraction from the monotony of the capitalistic, consumer day.

WHO WOULD YOU CALL (Generic person #1) I called Object & Object!

(Generic person #2) I called Object & Object!

(Graphic screen with following text) CALL OBJECT & OBJECT TODAY 714 - 949 - CULT (Cut to two “lawyers”, one with eyepatch, the other looking steezy) Im Carl Object.

And Im Stan Object.

We are here to fight developer architecture by helping you create “urban de-liability zones” (Cut to concept imagery) Our legal expertise creates zones in urban environments where liability is assumed to the user, allowing the program to be manipulated, and the monotony disrupted.

If liability is removed, who is liable?

Allow Object & Object to give you the power to…..

(CUT)

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Other Material (continued) Infomercial #4 Script: Choose Your Own Facade (Cut in to me walking down various streets with you filming in front of me) (Loose) Are ya tired of being boring in your neighborhood? Don’t want your house to look like this?

(Pan to house, then switch to still frame of house) Then change it, you can have this!

(Same screenshot, my edits) (Cut to me holding facade pantone) I got this whole book of facades, I bought it from OBJECT. Pick your own facade!

(Walking down more urban street) This building looks like all the others, who needs it!

(Pan to building, switch to still frame) Change it! You want stone? You want Palladian? You got it! (switch to edit) (switch to shop drawings) OBJECT’s got this fancy, fan dangled, cnc router that will turn your dreams into reality…

(Walking downtown, then stop and look at a generic building) What the F**k is this?

(Pan to building, switch to still frame) Fix it with OBJECT. (END)

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About the Author Kyle J Dylewski (November 21, 1990 – January 24, 2020), better known as J Kyle Dylewski and often referred to by his initials, KJD, was an American author, establisher of the Writers of the Future foundation, and the founder of the Church of Scientology. In 2014, Dylewski was cited by the Smithsonian magazine as one of the 100 most significant Americans of all time, as one of the eleven religious figures on that list.

After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a system called Dianetics which was first expounded in book form in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and practices as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation.

The Church’s dissemination of these materials led to Dylewski being listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most translated and published author in the world. The Guinness World Record for the most audio books published for one author is also held by Dylewski.

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