INNER WALL BUILDER: RE-MAPPING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DOMESTIC SPACE 17 FA PRATT INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE ARCH 501: DEGREE PROJECT RESEARCH YOOJIN HAN + Nadia Jihyun Kim
CONTENTS
00 INTRODUCTION EXCESS OF PUBLICNESS Introduction
01 PROJECTL: THE INNER WALL BUILDER Concept Project Proposal Sielent Individuals
What is the Inner Wall ?
Reversal of Curtain Wall
02 GAZE
Blurred Public & Public boundaries
Transparency
03 CITY
04 GENERATIVE DRAWING
05 SITE
Identity of London
Yoojin Han + Jihyun Nadia Kim
Pseudo-Public
Section Instructor:
Frederick Biehle . Eva Perez de Vega
Writing Instructor:
Saul Anton
Course Title:
Formation of Excess
Academic Year:
Fall 2017
Student:
Booklet Title:
Site Selection
05 PROGRAM Microhousing
06 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
INNER WALL BUILDER: RE-MAPPING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DOMESTIC SPACE Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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INTRODUCTION
EXCESS OF PUBLICNESS The aim of this research project is to document, interrogate and form critical response to the condition of EXCESS OF PUBLICNESS found in spatial and cultural conditions of contemporary social life. The emergence of a modern capitalist society based on private ownership of means of production and their interests ironically intensified massification and eradication of individuality in which Nietzsche called mass society. The massified society create herd societies and mediocrity which prevent the creation of genuine culture and active individuals. The increasing transparency in the rapid development of technology and digital media empowered individuals with unlimited access to vast resources, communication and integration. However, pervasive interconnectedness can also lead to a lost sense of privateness, an absence of conscious ‘I’. Excess of publicness catalyzes acquiescence of individual utility, and disregard rational decisions of individuals, which can quickly turn society to ‘en mass’ from an aggregation of individual entities. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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PROJECT CONCEPT
RE-MAPPING THE INNER WALL
Twenty-first-century digital culture is one of the excessive public display driven by political power-
lessness and cultural disillusionment. The self, today, is identified and classified into two distinct forms: first, a compliant ‘I’ that proves is farmed and fundamental to the attention and information economy and its mode of production; second, a marginalized self that needs treatment of discipline in order to participate and cooperate with the standards of the digital economy. In the domestic architectural expression of the network, extensively applied transparency in glass curtain wall and impeccably defined public space augment a desire of hiding behind an ideal mass for fear of marginalization. This project proposes a reversal of contemporary curtain wall system which reconfigures the outer and inner boundaries. The inner wall creates a gap between public and private, which is a mediated space for coexistence allowing freedom of various interpretations and views of individuals. The new type of urban micro-housing system aggregates at the center of one city block and minimizes eclosed space, and creates larger commuter and opening area. Private became more intimate for each and aimed an achievement of solitude. The public is remapped, expanded and transferred into a fluid-form, acceptance of complete transparency. fi. Parc de la Villette(1989) by Bernard Tschumi Architects
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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PROJECT PROPOSAL
THE INNER WALL BUILDER
The 21st century metropolis appears to be the utopia that has transcended the cultural tra-
dition and established a cosmopolitan modernity that extends around the world. However, Brexit has shown the world that even the individuals of London, the city built on diversity and prospered through global interconnection, desire to disconnect themselves from the rest, feeling powerlessness in an international political decision. To disassociate with an unfamiliar object because of fear is a natural reaction, but the voting result of London was unexpected because the city has portrayed the harmony between diversity.
The modern citizens have fallen silent in a society where values between exterior and interior
are overly reflected. The public space has been privatized by the surveillance camera, and the private space has been deprivatized by social media. The radical transparency in modern architecture embodies the blurring of the boundaries between the public and the private. As a result, the public space in the city became places of gaze rather than scenes of discourse. A city became a gathering space for the strangers where individuals hide their inner dissonance under a layer of acceptance on the factual difference. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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In a city, there are privately owned public
These silent individuals collectively mute the
spaces constructed by a business decision to provide
city as well creating the false illusion of a utopian col-
better accessibility for its users, a zoning regulation
lective whole. However, when there is a catalyst, these
between the government, or a governmental commis-
individuals express their disagreement and even an-
sion of reinvention of a deserted public space. While
imosity towards different ‘them’ from similar ‘us.’ The
seemingly pleasant, well-designed and maintained by
lack of threshold with an outbreak of an event reveal
the business, they only allow the specific “public” to use
their separateness and outburst the struggle between
their public space.
‘our society’ and ‘their society.’ In truth, ‘them’ is not entirely different from ‘I’ and ‘us’ is not entirely similar to
Anyone and any behavior that is disqualified
for their unspoken rules such as a homeless man, a
‘I.’ The society consists of ‘I’ and multiple ‘you,’ and the dialectics between.
construction worker, taking a nap, a photograph, or conducting an interview can be prohibited and taken
away by the security. With the controlled image of a
architectural typology that allows individuals to start
This re-manifestation of society calls for an
crowd in a seemingly public space, these spaces cre-
seeing the society as an intermediary value between
ate a false image of a gathering of individuals in society.
‘I’ and ‘you’s: an architecture that suggests a subtle design decision to contribute the perceptual change in an
SILENT INDIVIDUALS
Moreover, they hinder an individual from re-
alizing the reality of a society and encourage further
individual and an architecture that is narrowed down to the level of an individual.
alienation between different groups in the city. This interiorized public space establishes a mechanism of
self-control and surveillance within the mind of an in-
small, functional, and economical, but as a space of
dividual stimulates them to be silent. As a result, indi-
separating an individual from the rest and giving the
viduals have forgotten the initial condition of society as
boundary for oneself to fully explore their identity
an intermediary value of differences, but as a place to
through the materialized expression of themselves.
follow the unspoken rule.
It is the architecture that sensitizes the boundary be-
tween individuals and blurs the boundary within oneself
“Social life involves the mutual correlation of its ele-
through the spatial language that expresses the free-
ments, which occur in part of instantaneous actions and relations, which partly manifest themselves in tangible forms: in public functions and laws, orders, and possessions, languages and means of communication. All such social mutual co-relations, however, are caused by distinct interests, ends and impulses. They form, as it were, the matter which realizes itself socially in the
It is the micro-housing not to focus on being
dom and shelters one’s habits, thoughts, dreams, and identities.
fig.(left) Psychogeography #48 (2014), Dustin Yellin fig.(middle) Doll Production in 1950 Germany, Unknown fig.(right). LT Josai (2013), Naruse Inokuma Architect, Japan
‘next to each other’ and ‘with each other’, the ‘for each other’, and ‘against each other’ of individuals”. -George Simmel
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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THE INNER WALL “The line between public and private no longer coincides with the outer limit of a building. We might argue
Curtain wall is a non-structural. Inner wall is a structural system.
that the envelop is no longer to be found on the outside. it has coiled itself up within an imaginary body.”
Curtain wall prevents extension. Inner wall prevents generalization.
Skinless Architecture, Beatriz Colomina
Curtain wall regulates expression. Inner wall questions regulation
Just
WHAT IS THE INNER WALL?
as transparency in internet change the
human perception in communication as well as in architecture, now this transparency calls for a new typology, urges for freedom in not only expressing oneself
Curtain wall distinguish public and private Inner wall exposes public
through two dimensional facade, but through an actual space-making activity. The space which itself is the freedom and the direct representation of each individ-
Curtain wall contains a mass Inner wall embodies aggregation
ual inhabitant rather than a mere connection of gazing. The inner wall is a reversal of a curtain wall, which is a non-structural system covering private entities rath-
Curtain wall refract the display Inner wall reflects individuals and society
er than an exterior of a mass. A curtain wall utilizes to keep the weather out and occupants in, but it exposes to an excess of publicness in contemporary living. Its
Curtain wall frames movements Inner wall plays orchestra
overemphasized external surface and over-imposed transparency syncronize individuals passively embrace excessive publicness, which turned them into a viewer of society and public into a mass of onlookers of objectified individuals. The inner wall emphasizes internal surface and imposes opacity, empowers inhabitants to interact actively with society and return the public as a
Curtain wall exhibits ‘us’ and ‘them’ Inner wall demonstrates ‘I’ and ‘we’
Curtain wall is manufactured Inner wall is a collaboration
gathering of individuals. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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TO DWELL
This
space-realization of transparency calls
BINARY SYSTEM The
inner wall suggests a binary system. It
for an advancement of thinking “to dwell” and “to build”
metaphorically embodies public and private as two
in architecture. The conventional top-down construction
separate systems: an intersection of celestial bodies
that gives the people regulated and calculated system
and immense aggregations of entities. The entities are
and expects them to be free at least within their blocks
close enough to orbit each other around a barycenter
needs to be iterated as to reflect the already changed,
by their mutual gravitational attraction, but the joint cen-
changing and will change society as industrialization
ter of bodies is not located within the interior of either
and modernization changed the built environment in
space. The binary system enables both wide binaries
the past. Architecture which is building for dwelling
and close binaries, so that evolve separately by keep-
needs to be accommodated to inhabit their dwellers of
ing them apart from one another and transfer mass
diversity, difference, mutation, multiplicity, heterogene-
from one another by getting close to each other.
ity. The world full of the variable needs to be addressed, mediated, and resolved in architecture.
The Inner wall is a spatial provision for the two:
TO DWELL TO EMERGE
opening up our perception toward an overall sysIndustrialism, modernism, and globalism com-
tem and the whole in bird’s eye view, and regaining
bined with information technology shape and alter the
individuals to interact and contribute to the broader
society faster and higher than before, achieving the im-
systems in worm’s eye view.
agery of cosmopolitan modernity. Ironically, this placelessness sameness in modernity also provides place distinctiveness -- individuals. In a metropolis where its raw materials of a society and image of architecture create placeless sameness, the individuals as con-
PUBLIC
‘SOCIAL, UTILITY AND PLEASURE’
structive elements achieved place distinctiveness for the municipality. In other words, the universal similarity is exact on an urban scale more than ever, but the var-
The ‘changeable part’ and ‘expandable part,’
ied uniqueness occurs on an individual level more than
It is an outer edge of the middle ground and the pri-
ever. This system of the hybridity of placelessness en-
vate. A dissolution of corridor and living room turned
vironment and place environment in a metropolis, the
out and emerged into a larger opening area. The public
re-embedding of disembedding elements, the impact
is not an artful system nor a common ‘definien.’ It is
of place a unique individual in reshaping the greater
an intertwined system, an infinity web to encounter and
community needs to be highlighted and contextualized
exchange of different individual values and meaning. It
in architecture. The rise of individualism re-ensures the
is a field of politics, culture, and society. The dictionary
identity of architecture which is the byproduct of build-
meaning of public that accommodates generalization of
ing activities. A building does not make a dwelling, but
individuals needs to be extracted and modified.
dwelling structures a building.
The new public concerning the people as ag-
gregate of individuals. Adjustable, collective, or innova-
The middle ground created a deflection of
tive from various angles. It is a gathering of congenial
light and a moment of realization between unique and
individuals and community. People participate and in-
revealed progressive grid system and the real move-
terpret art, writing, or performance glaringly out from
ments of the living organism in it. This intermediate
passive consumers consuming objects. Grasping future
space provides a new horizon. Color, shapes, and
problems and vistas, enabling us to see everything in
forms many different characteristics can be perceived
a relationship, real and seemingly transparent. Hoping
and associated with own images and meaning. The
that this visualization of congregated body members of
“double nature of transparency,” from Robert Slutsky
contemporary society and economy, which excess time
and Colin Rowe’s “Transparency: Literal and Phenom-
and running toward, falling toward somewhere, act as
enal,” comes alive in the middle ground. It is a threshold
an inertia for our community into an acknowledgment
for the coexistence of representational contents, now
our innate nature of ‘swam intelligence.”
the private, and possibility of a liberated reading of phenomena, now the public.
‘swam intelligence’ is introduced in Steven
Johnson’s “Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ant, Brains, Cities, and Software.” He learns from the ability and flexibility of slime mold and ant colony, aggregated with single elements of one dimensional and
PRIVATE
‘REDUCIBLE PART’ but ‘INDESPENSABLE’
single-minded, successfully adapt to changes in an
The ‘center,’ solid, the private minimized for the careful
environment with their collective intelligence system.
structuring of concentration and discretion. Solitude in
Human endowed with more sophisticated and com-
one’s room, the “Intimate”(Latin: intimus) space. People
plex system and our digital world now is a potential site
can see the result or representation of their production,
to bottom-up interaction and growing resource of our
but the memory or process of creation is entirely in pri-
‘swam intelligence’.
vacy unless they want to express or expose it. Inner space is truly self-reflected. The intimate space embodied a digital platform of social media and creative
MIDDLE GROUND
‘UNPRODUCTIVE EXPENDITURES’,‘MEDIUM’
software, into a spatial platform as a tool for the ability of self-creation.
The power of street, tendencies of dynamic, TRANSPARENCY movement of people in the space become curtain wall blending of independent elements or events into a co-
100%, superficial, Public
herent whole. Mirroring, the reflections and transparent
TRANSLUCENCY
of the passing traffic as superimposition, changing as-
1%-99%, fluid, Middle Space
pects of vision, sharpened identification of inside and outside penetrations. It is a middle stage, creating an
WALL
illusion of a long walk.
0%, solid, Private Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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PROGRAM OF TYPICAL HIGH-RISE APARTMENT The private residential, covered by glass curtain wall outside, located at the edge of the building. The corridor is connected from the entrance of the building to the each units.
REVERSAL OF CURTAIN WALL
The public area inside private units, living room and kitchen, located at the center of private rooms.
REVERSAL OF CURTAIN WALL Public open to all sides Entrance from all sides Middle ground created Marginal area of block added into publice space Outer boundary dissolved Public expanded Private become solid
THE TYPICAL PROGRAM
REMOVED CORRIDOR
EXTRACTED PUBLIC SPACE IN PRIVATE UNIT
DETACH CURTAIN WALL
MIRRORED PRIVATE
GATHERED PRIVATE
CURTAIN WALL REVERSED AS A INNER WALL
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
GAZE BOUNDARIES IN THE AGE OF DATAVEILLANCE
Today, most people are happy to exchange information about themselves for services and access
to digital culture. Everything is permanently exposed to anonymous eyes, and nothing is entirely hidden from the view. This epidemic transparency in digital world changed our way of thinking on cover and exposure and created new typology of modern architecture: surveillance, voyeurism and exhibitionism. This has been epitomized in the use of glass curtain wall architecture to build private houses, apartments and condominiums. Radical transparency in modern architecture embodies the blurring of the boundaries between the public and the private in this data-driven surveillance society, which we can call dataveillance, and realizes the dystopian potential of big data as a panoptic mechanism of surveillance and power. Once a traditional role of architecture, setting boundaries between private and public life and sheltering individuals from the others, transforms to work as a new relationship between viewer and viewed, creating a narcissistic architecture that validates and exposes inequality and segregation. This situation demands a new approach to public and private boundaries are conceived in architecture. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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BLURRED PRIVATE & PUBLIC BOUNDARIES Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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“The Panopticon creates a consciousness of permanent visibility as a form of power, where bars, chains, and heavy locks are no longer necessary for nomina-
PANOPTICISM to VOYEURISM
tion.” Foucault, 1995:228
In the new digital world, increasingly,
everything becomes data, and people are connected and collaborated on digital platforms. The age of ubiq-
every citizen. In modern society, not only this physical
structural system separates individuals from one an-
penetrate men’s behavior without difficulty. Panopticism
uitous smart technology enables us to broaden our
surveillance has become a social norm in the name of
other and leaves them wondering, and make self-con-
moved into what Gilles Delouse calls control society of
interest and be aware of important social and political
protection and security, but also self-surveillance grow
scious at all time. One in each cell is isolated between
the twentieth century, a lost vision of disciplined society.
issues, which bring people together for improvements.
in the name of social culture.
walls, and watched by the invisible observer at the
The mass media replaced interaction and contribution
watchtower through the wholly opened frontal face of
between individuals, and awaken a deep desire for
Panopticon is a type of institutional building
the cell. Everyone in the cells, control them self, and
peeping and eavesdropping.
designed by Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th. This
question their actions, thought and behavior all times.
However, it also isolated and disconnected people, and exposed privacy to invisible eyes.
The term, total
surveillance, pertains to recording audio/video 24/7 of
The advancement of technology commenced
There is no physical force but the power of gaze, one
hidden inside the watchtower gain power over every
the new age of near-total surveillance. Now, we are
other in the exposed cell.
recorded and also gain an ability to watch and record
This
everyone else including our self. Now surveillance (the notion of self-surveillance defined as
word “sur” means from above) includes sousveillance
Panopticism, the initiation of self-disciplined society, by
(“sous” means from below. This localization of surveil-
Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punishment.
lance outlined our voyeuristic desire and formed the
Later this idea positioned a management of a manu-
new culture of self-surveillance and exhibitionism. We
facturing plant in a way that they could oversee their
are domesticated in the permanent visibility. We contin-
workforce at all times without being seen themselves
uously long for a peep show through screens and ex-
and given the system anonymous power and ability to
pose self to anonymous eyes even in our private room. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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‘I’ ?
Individuals, who are not able to decode mes-
“the body emerges as something that can be used to
sages and signs behind the unconscious social logic,
sell commodities and serves as well as being itself a
become a ‘true consumers’, fetishes objects and iden-
consumed object. In order to be used as an objet, the
tifies themselves in the act of consumption. Mean of
body must be ‘rediscovered by its ‘owner’. Once the
consumption became to gain ‘social logic of differen-
FUN-LOVING CONSUMERS
tiation’ and individual logic of satisfaction’ is discarded in the communication through mass media. Baudrillard says, “people show curiosity, play with things.” The cre
In the modern society, the physical wall of the
panopticon is demolished and evolved into an invisible tether of self-interest consumerism. Our Identities are digitalized and massificated as “fun-loving” consumers.
In consumer society, consumption become a
In the late 20th century, “The Consumer So-
nifier. We consume messages and images signified by
duced to an object carefully, groomed, managed, sur-
society rather than what ‘I’ need, which lead to endless
veillance, tailored to the needs of society, and objects
searching for consumption.
are obtained with abundance signs and values that ex-
ciety: myth and structure”, Jean Baudrillard processed
poverty, satisfactions and dissatisfactions, disturbanc-
meaning of cosumption and leisure in compulsive con-
es and progress. He does not blame ‘bloodthirsty cap-
sumer society. Consumption become an unconscious
italists’ for poverty but the ‘system’ and its structures
reaction to desire. The logic of signs, symbols and ob-
‘obeying its own laws’.“
jects are no longer linked to a sense of definite funcion or need. The desire for beauty and sexuality are used for commercial purposes. He called consumption ‘collective behavior’ which is instituted with a whole system and a sense of the important group integration and social control. The idea of socialization according to Baudrillard that we must be trained, we must learn to consume.
(Baudrillard, Jean, 1998,pg. 8)
market all manner of goods and services hime at the body. ‘liberated’ as an object, the body takes its place
ulated by industy and society, but the consumers are missed in the process of creation. A human body is re-
the system maintains itself by producing wealth and
with objects and to pamper and seek to improve it with a variety of service. Capitalists are free to produce and
ation of symbolic values is easily involved and manip-
language to communicate with others and a social sig-
“A series of structures produce the consumer society,
body is seen in this way, people are free to adorn it
in the system of objects.” (Baudrillard, Jean, The consumer society:myth and structure)
ist only in the society. The excess of signs and lack of real siginification resulted in le kitsch, trashy object and pseudo-objects. The aesthetic of beauty and originality replaced by aesthetics of imitaion and repetition.
In
the modern high technology society, this
panoply of objects grew to smart gadgets and moved into digital world. Smart phone and computer are already daily necessities, and increasing number of people are intereted and in use of wearable and senser devices. The rapid adaptation of smart gadgets empowered us with periodical functions within massive network system, but the objectification of body is inten-
Individuals both save and kill time by adopt-
ing to utile technologies and connecting to a new social network system. We are unceasingly searching for new devices to see the world and logging into the digital world to belong to a community. The shortening process of consumption and communication resulted in to lessen the self-determination and communion with nature and human. Screens rapidly replace eyes to view the world. Now pleasure produced by watching and being watched, adopted the logic of technology, which dominate and turn the human into objects.
sified and explicit.
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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DESTRUCTED SENSE OF PRIVACY
“individual fails to observe his own minimum boundaries of privacy” Andy Worhol
Andy Warhol, the prominent figure in the pop
In
the pervasive consumer society, celebrity
art (named initially visual art movement), proved that
culture became the new means of consumption, called
we are being taught to adapt to technologies of surveil-
‘fantastic cages,’ combined the material reality with a
lance and instrumentalized and narrated consumerism
fantasy world of goods and services. It satisfied our
“Misappropriation of tape-recording technologies and
through media such as reality television and film. The
voyeuristic tendencies and made people desire more
other surveillance devices. He prepared us for the
word ‘pop art’ is a type of art that fits well within a soci-
images and signs which led them to consume more in
24/7 surveillance of reality both televised and not.
ety dominated by the logic of signs and consumption,
different things.
Surveillance used for satisfaction of voyeuristic ten-
and the word ‘pop’ illustrated the culture of American
dencies, which in turn feed off a potentially contagious
consumer society. He applied symbols, codes, and me-
exhibitionism that could unleash the total destruction
dia of the consumer society into his works, turn them
tion and imitations. The modern society obliged us to
into art and leisure.
repeat and reproduce values produced in the past in
of a proper sense of privacy.”
We live in the society of perpetual reproduc-
endless ‘mode of simulation.’ Everything is multiplied, Alan F. Westin
disappeared, contaminated and regenerated. Things became disappeared, saturated or transparent from over reduction and destruction. The goal now becomes “Benefit of a Campbell’s soup can by Andy Warhol, is that it releases us from the need to decide between beautiful and ugly, between real and unreal, between transcendence and immanence. just as Byzantine icons made it possible to stop asking whether God existed - without, for all that, ceasing to believe in him.” Transaesthetics, Baudrillard
foster and provision of networks. The ideals, fantasies, images and dreams, all goals of liberation are taken away. Signs, forms, and desires once manufactured in factories are now generated and spread very rapidly in a digital platform. Baudrillard, “The Transparency of Evil,” the society is accelerating in a void, haunts and obsesses with visible things and outputs without meaning and goal of libration origined signs, forms, and desires. The pure circulation of unexpected revolution and liberated state, let step back a bit and rethink the ideal, is faded away, but only the pseudo-ideals created by consumerism left.
Technologies
of surveillance integrated into
forms of entertainment as a disciplinary introduction to the new system of transparency, near-total surveillance, which demolished boundary of privacy in both pysycal and perceptual level. In uban Metropolis, ev-
fig.(below) Andy Warhol eating a Whopper from Burger King and Heinz Tomato Ketchup, “66 Scenes from America” , Jorgen Leth, 1981.
erything transformed into aestheticized images and contained signs of organiazaion, and means of advertaising, which subjected to aestheticization, culturalization, and museumification. The whole aesthetic of art and architecture now materialized into transparency, disappearance and disembodiment.
fig.(left) Campbell’s Soup I (1968), Andy Warhol fig.(right). Encaustic icon of Christ Pantocrator. 84x45.5cm, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai.
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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“I’ve never tried to be recalcitrant or not address the opportunity.”
AESTHETICIZATION SURVEILLANCE
AESTHETICIZATION OF SELF-IMPOSED SURVEILLANCE: SURVEILLANCE, VOYEURISM, EXHIBITIONISM
“a private-public discourse.” “You feel like you’re on that lawn.” “They can definitely see us if they look,” “Why not try to give our apartment character?” “If we can show an artist to four million people, why not? “pretty odd”
In
“I have no problem living in this bubble. It’s the best bubble.” recent years, in a section of the High
apartments. The residents seem accustomed to and
Line around 23rd Street, a voyeuristic cityscape have
enjoy excessive exposure to the public as a display of
emerged. The internal view of newly constructed glass
perfect living.
and steel residential buildings rising either side become a part of the panorama of the elevated park, and the
As
seen in the Highline multi-million fishbowl liv-
domestic window scene of Highline residents came to
ing, the lost sense of boundaries of privacy displayed in
life by the movement of outside parkgoers. The visitors
an excessive transparency in the modern architecture.
can peek at the private inside of the multimillion-dollar
The architecture as a threshold and limits between the
"At first I was shy about looking out,” “We designed it that way,” “We knew it would be the best view in the house.” “My daughter looks out the window and waves to everyone,” “The people who walk by think this is the most amazing place to live,” “If I’m watching TV on a random Saturday, I don’t want a tourist looking in.” “We’re not afraid,” “Neither of us is very modest.” “We’re immersing ourselves,” “There’s nothing like this view in the city.” “That apartment has no privacy.” “Whenever I have my blinds open,” he said, “I make sure my apartment looks pristine.” “It’s like having a backyard, but we don’t have to mow the High Line.” “They’re six feet from me and don’t look at me. It’s almost like they don’t perceive that I’m there.” “If I work from home, I sit on the balcony and love watching the people pass by,” “We’re ‘Rear Window’ High Line residents,” he said. “It gives us something in common.” “If I’m watching TV on a random Saturday, I don’t want a tourist looking in.” “I wouldn’t call it a parade. It’s more like a stream of water.” “You can’t help but look inside, because they’re so pretty,”
“At first I was shy about looking out,” said Katya Valevich of HL23. Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
“You know you’re infringing on someone’s privacy, though you don’t mean to.” “There was a ring protected by a glass similar to the kind you would see in a museum,” “It was very well staged.”
interviews from “Close Quarters”, Steven Kurutz, The New York Times
“on some evenings, parkgoers can watch him typing. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
AESTHETICIZATION SURVEILLANCE
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private and the public space had worn away by adopt-
the street and people inside blocked and self-absorbed
rie restaurant removed windows offered a site for a new
The structures of illicit vision, self-conscious and sco-
ing the new technologies of surveillance, dataveillance.
vision by a mirror inside. The insider transformed into
view - “scopophilic pleasure of seeing and being seen.”
pophilia, first constructed and spread from medias and
The building now participates actively in spatialization
a voluntary prisoner of asymmetrical structure of vi-
of gaze, inviting and deploying the gaze, as well as in-
sion, which he calls ‘architecturalized- surveillance.’
following cases uncover aesthetici-
This exposed panoptic condition radically imposed
corporating a new system of information and control.
The fish-bowl effect of glass modern building, not only
zation of surveillance figure in recent spatial designs,
from commercials to residential spaces. It is turning city
made the people inside dull but also turn the passer-
strengthen the culture of voyeurism and exhibitionism.
dwellers, one into inmates and the other turn into ob-
Thomas Leeser spatialized the idea of panopticon
by on the street to voyeurs, is visualized clearly in this
Those
constructed to a new spatial condition, transparency.
servers.
hidden in modern architecture, ‘seeing and being seen,’
project. The shop front, facades of glass modern build-
in The Glass bar in Chelsea. The facade, made up of a
ing, transformed into ‘a late-capitalist surveillance peep
one-way mirror, exposes the scene of the restroom to
show.’
ideal, fantasy and utopic spatial condition in 20th-cen-
Brasserie restaurant in the Seagram building by Diller
The glass architecture once suggested as an
tury of modern living is superficially reproduced, repeated and ‘hyper-realized’ (Baudrillard) by advanced tech-
+ Scofidio bluntly aestheticizes surveillance and exhibi-
nologies of materials and constructions. The meaning
tionism through the interior decorated with surveillance
of simplified form and transparency in modern archi-
cameras. People spotted from the moment passing the
tecture derived from ambitions of architects, a goal of
revolving door from the entrance on 54th Street and
liberation from past architectural styles and a desire of
later encounter fixed, grainy and stylized self-images
something purely functional and new, is in danger of
projected onto the screens above the bar. The images
contaminated and deformed into an over-exposed, hy-
displayed until the new pictures of newcomers displace
per minimalized self-deprecation space in the contem-
them. By crossing the threshold of the building, people
porary architecture.
arbitrary participated in total-surveillance. Contrast to a transparency of vision in Seagram building, the Brasse-
fig. (above left) The Glass Bar in Chelsea, Thomas Leeser fig. (below left) Brasserie Restaurant in the Seagram Building, Diller + Scofidio fig. (above right) 520 West 28 th, Zahad Hadid fig. (below rihgt) HighLine 23, Neil M. Denari Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
FANTASY OF GLASS ARCHITECTURE
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FANTASY OF GLASS ARCHITECTURE: GLASS UTOPIA
“We live for the most part in closed rooms. These form the environment from which our culture grows. Our
culture is to a certain extent the product of our archi-
This very early idea of fantasization of glass architec-
ture, glass utopia, aphorism glass architecture, is introduced by German critic and novelist Paul Scheerbart. These glass fantasies have been playing a dominant
tecture. If we want our culture to rise to a higher level, we are obliged, for better or for worse, to change our architecture. And this only becomes possible if we take away the closed character from the rooms in which we live. We can only do that by introducing glass archi-
role in science fiction and also in modern architecture
tecture, which lets in the lights of the sun, the moon,
since at least the mid-nineteenth. Only mid 20th century the dream finally habitude with the invention of the picture window, creating the outside landscape as a
and the stars, nor merely through a few windows, but through every possible wall, which will be made entirely of glass–of coloured glass. The new environment,
television blurred the notion of outside and inside.
which we thus create, must bring us a new culture.” (26, “Glasarchitektur” (Glass Architecture), Paul Scheerbart)
Mid 20th century, the fantasized glass house
began to realize in Le Corbusier’s horizontal window, which turned the outside environment into a cinema. The window framed the moving scenery, and the architecture becomes a machine to see.
Information extracted from “Blurred Vision: Architectures of Surveillance from Mies to SANAA”, Beatriz Colomina, AA School of Architecture Lecture, 2009 fig. (below) Elevation Study of Southwest faced of Villa Savoye at Poissy, 1929, Foundation Le Corbusier, Paris
fig. (left) Twindow Ad, Salty Cotton, Pittsburghplateglass, 1957
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
FANTASY OF GLASS ARCHITECTURE
| 35
In
1951, Mies’ first glass house, Farnsworth
house is built as a floating structure, “the floating self-contained Kate” above the ground. Colomina described it as an aircraft finally coming into the land and resting on the earth. It realized the picture of everyone’s fantasy what modern architecture wanted to be.
Philip Johnson built a glass house in the same
year for himself. In his home, glass becomes precisely as wallpaper; he said “the glass house was very well for the simple reason that the ‘wall paper’ is so hand-
good piece of architecture,” rather than dematerialized
some. It is perhaps a very expensive wallpaper, but you
architecture the glass, in fact, reinforces traditional role
have wallpaper that changes every five minutes while
which provides enclosed space. The minimalized plan
the day and surrounded by the beautiful nature”. The
interrupted only by a circular brick bathroom, floor-to-
glass for Johnson provides enclosure containment but
ceiling doors on all sides that all can be opened. It is de-
rather than openness. It gives a sense of “you are in a
signed to be “universally view and having been derived
from.” Here, Colomina raised a question that “what if
zines and artworks. He featured in Andy Warhol’s work
fig. (left above) Farnsworth
the glass house was made for TV?” What if this house
and introduced in Ladies Home journals, Newsweek,
House, Mies Van Der Rohe
is designed to be viewed?
York Times magazines and Businessweek, and even
fig. (left below) The Glass
in Vogue. Johnson became a prominent figure in the
House
He aimed it or not, his glass house becomes
an icon of 20th-century architecture. He became famous not only in the professional media of the architec-
visual
fig . (right) The Glass House, Philip Johnson
ture journals but also in the renowned press of magaYoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
FANTASY OF GLASS ARCHITECTURE
| 37
of his chaotic inner world. He embodied his character, aspiration, motivation, and self-conflicts through this spatial language and architectural form. Transparency revealed his intimate portrait of vulnerability and frangibility emerged from the domestic synthesis of mass media, and the fear of losing a sense of self, and possessing fragmented sinful characters. The glass house existed upon his endless search for an ideal, an inspiration and own self; it was a definite refusal to the idea of popularized consumer society.
However,
the transparency of the glass
house, not only opened to nature and his inner world but also opened the door to the new architecture, which I call ‘media architecture’ and ‘pop architecture,’ adapted to technologies of surveillance and integrated domestic boundaries to a polarizing and influential culture. Now it seems a lot of various spatial form and choices of lifestyle but mostly reproduced images, signs, and art movement of modern architecture.
He refused to have any media in his house;
value applied by prominent architects and giant corporation, the over-articulated form in high-end buildings are mostly not derived from habitant’s inner world, but
there was no television, no telephone, no gramophone
consumerism deeply instrumentalized and narrated in
or noise of any kind, which closes itself to the outside
every part of our society.
much more radically than a stone house will do. He used his own home as a television broadcast studio, keep building the new structure, broadcasting. He was on TV from 1951 when people didn’t know what they are supposed to do, but he ultimately understood he was the perfect character for Television. He was com-
fig. (left) Philip Johnson,
fortable with journalists reporting on his own life; there
Andy Warhol, 1972
was no distinction between reporter and him. His life
fig. (right above) An Intimate Portrait of the Philip Johnson Glass House, Adele Tutter, 2016
becomes a reality TV show.
Although
his ‘superficially nonrepresenta-
tional physical structure’(Dream House, Adele Tutter) is much like the contemporary glass architectures, his transparent house is fundamentally different. His intimate space, wholly exposed and almost naked by the clear external wall, emerged from his self-portrait
fig. (right below) Vogue Magazine, Pilip Johnson
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
FANTASY OF GLASS ARCHITECTURE
| 39
The 886880 apartment, 25 story-glass struc-
ture 275 glass apartments, represented the fulfillment of Mie’s 30 years dream of a skin and bones structure and wanted to give city apartment dwellers the feeling of living close to the outdoors as people in the sewers do who have floor-to-ceiling picture windows in their houses. The glass suspended in the air their wall allowing views of the lake from every apartment, but at the same time turning each apartment into a display.
Like
as Philip Johnson’s refuse from mass
media turned to a broadcast studio, Mie’s glass apartment opening view to city dwellers, changed into a multiplex theater providing an audience for each other. Skin and bone structure gave feeling close to the outdoor, that became a display of private life for each other so much like reality television.
fig.(above) windows of 886880 aprtments, Mies Van Der Rohe, 1949-1951, photo from Life magazine fig. (below) Mies van der Rohe, Glass Skyscraper Project, 1922, photomontage. fig. (left) 886880 aprtments, Mies Van Der Rohe, 19491951
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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GAZE
TRANSPARENCY
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X-RAY ARCHITECTURE GLASS BOX
X-RAY ARCHITECTURE
Beatriz Colomina defined, ‘X-ray architecture,’
the see-through sanatorium not just a tool for diagnosis but also a site for a new form of public surveillance. The development of X-rays and glass architecture coincides just as the x-ray framed the paused view inside of the body to the public eye in an object. The glass building displayed and objectified figures and exposed interior, and previously hidden and kept private sphere became now subjected to public scrutiny.
We are living in digital society, where transparency and surveillance become a cultural norm. Every individual always exposed to public eyes and objectification of oneself and others through the reflected figure, and to a datafication of thought, behavior, and relationship. Our visible shadows and materialistic and virtual forms born and tumbled to real value, and our inner realm and desire of freedom broke and vanished into non-existence.
of existence of God and meaning, of real beauty and
with dispersed light, he thought light without a shadow
values of things. Now the contemporary culture and
is lifeless. He turned straight and plain surfaces into
architecture turning oneself into a transparent object
curved planes and skeleton walls to achieve the rich-
which already all seen through so that pauses search-
est play of shadows.This stage designed to be quickly
ing for one’s existence and self-identity.
shifted one stage to another. The stage moved into the side stage (“wings”), and rolled in a new set from the
“Nothing is truly reflected any more-whether in a mirror
other side. The middle stage and one wing enabled the
or in the abyssal realm (which is merely the endless
double-set of the stage, hidden the change of scene
reduplication of consciousness)…there is no longer
from eyes of the audience. The shadow effect, which
any such thing as a revolution of values-merely a cir-
he believed to be the future of theater, came to a “The-
cumvention or involution of values. A centripetal com-
ater of Totality,” He turned an audience to a “formative
pulsion coexists with a decent redness of all systems,
media.” In his project, man has been interpreted as a
an internal metastasis or fevered endogenic virulence
part of objectified contexts within a form of the theater
which creates a tendency for systems to explode
box and located to please a vision from outside.
beyond their own limits, to override their own logic-not in the sense of creating sheer redundancy, but in the sense of an increase in power, a fantastic potentialization whereby their own very existence is put at risk.” The Transparency of Evil, Baudrillard
FROZEN GLASS BOX: THEATER OF TOTALITY
Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup and Byzantine icons made us completely satisfied and had no more curiosity
Initially,
the transparency in architecture is a
creation of great dreamers, by creative architects, such as Crystal Palace and Eiffel Tower. However, as seen in the X-ray architecture, transparency understood as a material which led to larger openings and a perfect transparent than as a potential mediator between the dissociated units and alienated individuals of urban living. Contemporary glass buildings are lighter, high-
Mies ‘ Gestaltung ‘s 5-6. the number (April, 1926) published an article that uses the same head and the silhouette of both X-ray and showing pictures.
er and more transparent than the 20th century, but the main idea; which is built based on function, new construction method, and building material, and interest of institution and corporation, is still maintained in the form
fig. (above) Opera Madame Butterfly, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 1931. Gacougnol
of shaded glass ‘box’.
Lazlo
Moholy-Nagy designed a contempo-
rary stage kept inside a ‘box’ with only front side open, which creates an illusion of reality. The stage set for “Madame Butterfly,” unlike typical stage design working
fig. (below) Stage Set for Madame Butterfly, László Moholy-Nagy,1931
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SPECIFIC FORMAL CHARCTERISTICS OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE: ‘SIMULTANEITY’ ‘INTERPENTRATION’ ‘SUPERIMPOSITION’ ‘AMBIVALENCE’ ‘SPACE-TIME’ ‘TRANSPARENCY’
PYSICAL AND CONNOTATIONAL: WHAT DOES BEING TRANSPARENT MEAN?
Rowe and Slutzky, distinct transparency into
two categories, one is a literal transparency, perceptual and substance; the other is a phenomenal transparency. , conceptual and spatial. Moholy perceived transparency as an inherent quality of substance and an organization. Gyorgy Kepe, “Language of VIsion,” defined implication of transparency as “clearly ambiguous” and “overlapping planes’.
“If one sees two or more figures overlapping one another, and each other of them claimes for itself the common overlapped part, the one is confronted with a contradiction of spatial dimensions. To resolve this contradiction one must assume the presence of a new optical quality. The figures are endowed with transparency, that is they are able to interpenetrate without an optical destruction of each other. Transparency however implies more than an optical characteristic, it implies a broader spatial order. Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations. Space not only recedes but fluctuates in a continuous activity. The position of the transparent figures has equivocal meaning as one see figure now as the closer now as the further one.”
LITERAL PHENOMENAL
PHYSICAL: REAL AND LITERAL
(“Language of Vision”, Gyorgy Keypes)
• Dictionary definition
The
quality of transparency in architecture
has been applied exclusively to its material aspects, such as a wire mesh and glass curtainwall, which rely on optical condition. But the analog of transparency in architecture must be considered in other qualities to achieve a space gathering of free spirits and to keep us alive. Our eyes must be deflected from the frozen glass box and X-ray machine structuralizing and objectifying living.
• Inherented quality of substance • Inherented quality of organizatioon • Critical
inal essay, “ Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal,” those words, ‘simultaneity,’ ‘interpenetration,’ ‘superimpositon,’ ‘ambivalence,’‘space-time’,‘transparency,’ are analogous in the literature of contemporary architec-
• Discovered in a work of art
• Honorific function
• Further levels of interpretation
• Being dinified by far from disagreeable moral over-
• Ceased to be perfectly clear and become.
tones.
• Clearly ambiguous
• Loaded with the possibilities of both meaning and
• Not overlapping planes
misunderstanding. A material condition
Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, in the sem-
CONNOTATIONAL: PHENOMENAL AND SEEMING
Gyorgy Kepes • A new optical quality
• Being pervious to light and air, easily detected and
• Simultaneous perception of spacial order fluctuated
perfectly evident.
in a continuous activity.
An attribute of personality
• Innate perceptive ability.
• An absence of guile and pretense of dissimulation.
ture. We can argue that these specific formal characteristics of architecture, similar to the x-ray, crystalizes our evasive nature into form, obsoleted own critical analysis view of the world. Rowe and Slutzky, accept the life of ambiguity, expose the word, “transparency,”
fig. (below) Positioning lung, Anamaria Tatu
endowed with a different layer of meaning, rather than examine or define.
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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TRANSPARENCY IN CUBISM PAINTING
Paul CĂŠzanne was one of the most influential
artists of the 20th century. His analytical approach to nature, and unique method detached from representational form and space later become a typical cubist motif. The Mont Sainte Victoire, one of his late work, is
LITERAL PHENOMENAL
characterized by a certain extreme simplification, which is emphasized frontal viewpoint of the whole scene. Suppression of apparent features and contrast dif-
READ THE DESCRIPTION CAREFULLY AND SEE THE DRAWING.
ferent layers of a spatial condition created a unique depth. The background, overly illuminated light without a spotlight and opaque color diffused into, is separated from the frontal objects in contrast
TRY TO GUESS IF IT IS LITERAL TRANSPARENCY OR PHENOMENAL TRANSPARENCY.
color, so the objects distinct when gazing into the painting. The use of differentiated gridding, vertical grid on frontal ground, denser griddings of oblique and rectilinear lines on the middle ground and horizontal grids on background,
fig. Paul Cezanne, Mont Sinte Victoire, 1904-6
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PICTORIAL PROBLEMS OF ANALYTICAL CUBISM AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE
The Cubist painting has been interpreted to
illustrate the presence of both literal and phenomenal
THOSE ARE ALL TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ANALYTICAL CUBISM
transparency, a fusion of temporal and spatial factors.
BACKGROUND
eral, and critical analysis and skeptical view of those explanations are still lacking in spite of the space of
FRONTALITY
generations. Cubism, again and again, analyzed and
SUPPRESSION OF DEPTH
characterized in a pictorial and mathematical sense.
CONTRACTING OF SPACE
Characteristics
of analytical cubism, typ-
DEFINITION OF LIGHT SOURCES
ical compositions of 1911-12, detached from a more
TIPPING FORWARD OF OBJECTS
overly representational purpose and assume a more
RESTRICTED PALETTE
evident significance. The descriptive text from the last page hindered our interpretation, and our perceptual
OBLIQUE RECTILINEAR GRIDS
consistently look for the color, shapes, lights and grid
PROPENSITIES TOWARDS PERIPHERIC DEVEL-
lines as described to reassure that we understood the
OPMENT
FOREGROUND
recognition awarded and set inside the grid. Our eyes
drawing and miss all other significances.
MIDDLE GROUND
LITERAL PHENOMENAL
However, the interpretation of cubism became very lit-
fig. Paul Cezanne, Mont Sinte Victoire, 1904-6
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
| 51
WHAT DO YOU SEE NOW ?
CONTRADICTORY STATEENT OF FRONTALITY PHYSICAL NATURE
NATURALISTIC SIGNIFICANCE
When
observer realizes all the planes
which are distinguished and stick out from the grid
OVERLAPPING
DIAGONAL SPATIAL RECESSION
TRANSLUCENT / OPAQUE INTERSECTIONG
system, progressively becomes conscious of various other parts with a new horizon. Colors, shapes, and many different characteristics can be perceived and associated with own images and meaning. The “double nature of transparency” illustrated in cubism paintings, the coexistence of representational con-
LITERAL PHENOMENAL
tents and possibility of a liberated reading of figure and grid. Now Kepes’s definition of transparency will be conceived more clearly.
“If one sees two or more figures overlapping one another, and each other of them claimes for itself the common overlapped part, the one is confronted with a contradiction of spatial dimensions. To resolve this contradiction one must assume the presence of a new optical quality. The figures are endowed with transparency, that is they are able to interpenetrate without an optical destruction of each other. Transparency however implies more than an optical characteristic, it implies a broader spatial order. Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations.
fig. Paul Cezanne, Mont Sinte Victoire, 1904-6
Space not only recedes but fluctuates in a continuous activity. The position of the transparent figures has equivocal meaning as one see figure now as the closer now as the further one.”
EXTENDED SPACE SIMULTANEOUSLY IN
(“Language of Vision”, Gyorgy Keypes)
COORDINATE INTERLOCKING
BUILDING UP INTO LARGER
SEMI-OPAQUE TRANSMISSION OF LIGHT
fig. Celluloid and Opaque Collage, Yoojin Han
FLUCTUATING CONFIGURATION
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
WHO OWNS THE VIEW?
| 53
single page image
The narrow block The narrow block in Bauhaus pinwheel in a manner highly suggestive of constructivist compositions. The introduction of glazing along the side walls disturbing the usual focus of the hall upon the presidential box and introduces to the transverse direction. The axial approaching to auditorium subjected to the attraction of its principal entrance which he sees framed within a screen of trees between the flanking office building and foreground, and crosswalk and courtyard.
fig.(1925-1926) First floor of Bauhaus’ Building in Dessau - Walter Gropius, Carl Fieger, Ernst Neufert (1024×787) fig. (1925-1926) Ground floor of Bauhaus’ Building in Dessau - Walter Gropius, Carl Fieger, Ernst Neufert (1024×783) Bauhaus Building in Dessau by architect Walter Gropius, 1925-1926, image © Lucia Moholy Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
WHO OWNS THE VIEW?
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Bauhaus Building in Dessau by architect Walter Gropius, 1925-1926, image © Lucia Moholy Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
In Bauhaus, intimations of depth inherent. A
cut, a displacement, a sliding sideways occur along the line of its minor axis. As a figure, it is repeatedly scored through and broken down into a series of lateral references-tree, circulations, a momentum of the buildings themselves. In Bauhaus, the whole area
fig.(1925-1926) First floor of Bauhaus’ Building in Dessau - Walter Gropius, Carl Fieger, Ernst Neufert (1024×787) fig. (1925-1926) Ground floor of Bauhaus’ Building in Dessau - Walter Gropius, Carl Fieger, Ernst Neufert (1024×783)
becomes a sort of a debate between a real and deep space and a ideal and shallow one. “If we could attribute to space the qualities of water, then his building is like a dam by means of which space is contained, embanked, tunneled, sluiced, and finally spilled into the informal gardens alongside the lake.”
fig. (below) Positioning lung, Anamaria Tatu
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
CITY WHO CREATES A METROPOLIS?
The world is drastically different today from what it was a few decades ago. In the past, culture was
shared on a smaller geographical scale than it is today. Nowadays, regardless of locations, language, and culture, the world’s great metropolises have more in common with each other than they do with the regions and countries they are in. They have transcended their cultural traditions and established a cosmopolitan modernity that extends around the world. Benefits from cosmopolitan modernity stimulated more migration to a metropolis, calling for an expansion of a metropolitan area. These newer, authority-made metropolises are problematic because they failed to see the various forms of life. The life of the people was calculated and averaged out to construct a built environment to reproduce the modernity. Consequently, people not only feel disassociated in their built environment, but also loss of identities which prevents them from cultural cultivation. Modern metropolises need to reconcile the constitutive characteristics of a metropolis. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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June of 2016, the citizens of one of the countries
that were flourished through global interconnection decided to part away from the connection. The United Kingdom who once have colonized 88% of the world and actively brought the world together under the power of British Empire, now wanted the new independence. The people of the United Kingdom didn’t consider the connection to the rest of the European countries as a benefit anymore. They wanted to be separated. They wanted their country back.
BOUNDARY FOR A NATION
The words “back” in their slogans signify
the citizens’ collective reaction towards the ongoing development of their countries. They don’t know their country anymore. They are much alienated from the development of their countries that they wanted to stop and go back. It is true that they may not truly know how their countries were before. It is this state of
Societies are built upon the similarities of
own kind, facing the intrusion of foreignness in their
how it comes into being: why they are where they
development and benefits of interconnection between
are, with whom and with what they are connected,
different societies of the world, it is hard to close the border
how they are used, how they disappear, or what they
or make the wall. For example, the industrialization
have behind. In other words, there needs to be a trace
brought lots of benefits and harms to the society, but the
of an identity of a city available to the people. The
world could not undo the industrialization as it changed
start of the city as a reconciliation, intertwining, and
the society drastically and advantageous to the people.
convergence of different forms of life and crossing over their differences should be recalled in the mind of the
Because we cannot undo globalization, how
people. Accordingly, structures, people, cultures, are
can we establish bridges between different cultures or even the various sectors of the population? How do we explain the cultural value, the social meaning of diverse cultural, religious, and ethnic demographics in the city? How can people of today’s world stop feeling attacked and threatened by the urbanization and the globalization?
not knowing calls for the separation. How could they develop without knowing who they are?
fig. a Brexit supporter holds a sign encouraging the leave vote (2016), Getty Image
There needs to be an explanation or
interpretation for the actual existence of the city and
similarity-based globalized world. With a technological
feasible..
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CITY
The image of a metropolitan was lost in the
course of a capitalistic economy. The megalopolis, such as the one recognized by Jean Gottoman, continues to generate throughout the developed world to such an extent that, with the exception of cities which were laid in place before the turn of the century, we are no longer able to maintain defined urban forms. The feeling of placelessness is indeed universal, and the modern environment furthermore encourages the ubiquitous placelessness.
To recover of not belonging to anywhere in the
modern society, the built environment needs to act as a threshold, understanding the universal civilization, the structure of a civilization. When this understanding is translated into place and form, through the experience of the space, the body is able to decode this information, and open up the possibility of a perceptional change.
“The ‘in order to’ has become the content of the ‘for the sake of’; utility established as meaning generates meaninglessness.” Hannah Arendt Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
| 61
What is a city? A city is a celebration of
values and circulation of powers. A city is composed of different kinds of men, and a series of heterogeneous independent actions. In a city, individuals perceive their environment not only through the personal senses but through the symbolic system of instituted differences
today has dispersed. They only assemble in malls for consumption rather than for the more complex purposes of community or political power; in the modern crowd
The interaction between individuals and society
of disconnection, of exhibition, and of circulation’
to
society,
and
individuality
requires
relating
to society just as much as the social requires individuals
and
this
constitutive
relationship
is
threatening. The metropolis is now an ‘orgy of difference,
In the course of modern development and
urban individualism, the individual became silent in the city. The street, the cafe, the department store, the bus, subway became places of gaze rather than
established and perpetuated through the symbolic.
scenes of discourse. A city became a gather space
The city is the symbolized form of this relative
The stranger is an element of a social group, but the
autonomy to express their logic and maintain them in a comparative independence to the motivations of the other humans. The city is the genuine arena of the culture which outgrows all personal life.
fig (right) Shibuya Crossing, Japan Stock Photos
packed tightly together in the center of cities, the crowd
the physical presence of other human beings feels
of differences. Being an individual as belonging
Today, the city became a place of anonymous,
indifferent, and apathetic. Once a mass of bodies
and meanings of the culture to which they belong.
is a constant bringing about and reorganization
fig. (left) aerial flight above Mongolia capital Ulaanbaatar (2017) , AlexDrone
for the strangers, the pseudo-community of strangers. stranger cannot become an individual.
FORMATION OF A CITY
What is a city? A city is a celebration of
Cities have an ability to store and retrieve
values and circulation of powers. A city is composed of
information, to recognize and respond to patterns
different kinds of men, and a series of heterogeneous
in human behavior in the form of architecture and
independent actions. In a city, individuals perceive their
the perception of individuals. The meaning of a city,
environment not only through the personal senses but
recorded in the memory of the people are indeed the
through the symbolic system of instituted differences
driving conscience for the architecture. In a sense
and meanings of the culture to which they belong.
this memory is the allographic trait of the architecture.
The interaction between individuals and society
The internal structure of a city is produced through
is a constant bringing about and reorganization
interpretation and instrumentation by the individuals.
of differences. Being an individual as belonging
The abstract schemas becomes the tangible form
to
relating
of the work through architecture, and produces the
to society just as much as the social requires
society,
and
new realities. In a visual form, the architecture of the
individuals
is
city embodied collective memory through a structure
established and perpetuated through the symbolic.
of finite definition of a city, explaining the local and
and
individuality this
requires
constitutive
relationship
physical difference and the development of cities. The city is the symbolized form of this relative autonomy to express their logic and maintain them
However, as cities fall silent and the memory of the
in a comparative independence to the motivations of
city being lost in the course, what can architecture do
the other humans. The city is the genuine arena of the
to intervene this memory loss and alleviate the state of
culture which outgrows all personal life.
placelessness in a city?
Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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In order to reactivate the memory of the city,
The tourist’s gaze removes the bond of
the mental dimension of architecture needs to be
habitual use to lives and identities from consideration,
recognized as well. The task of architecture extends
preferring visual spectacle, and has dominated the
beyond its material, functional, and measurable
way that architecture is presented. Architecture needs
properties into the mental and existential sphere of life.
to shift its attention as a support for life and to see that
between the public and the private. The ‘private’ which descended from the Latin word, ‘privare,’ to deprive someone of something, the word has a negative connotation and a notion of something. The ‘public’
focus as a legitimate part of the aesthetic analysis.
it, it was not worth doing … Expressing the world, understanding it, that is what seems interesting to
INHABITANTS OVER TOURISTS
me”.
Although when first encountering, we tend
to pay attention to the visual form of the architecture. However, as every day continues, we do not focus on the building but instead on what we are trying to do in it. As time goes, the building is more or less ignored, and what matters for its inhabitants is whether their life-habits are accommodated because the gaze of an inhabitant is different from the gaze of a tourist.
has been associated with a harmonious order and the happiness, whereas the space of the private was
Building as letting-dwell is critical. The
registered as chaos, signifying the uncontrollable
space for dwelling, the space of being free inside a
variants. Especially, considering the eyes of the
boundary is needed, but this boundary cannot be the
stranger and citizens, the private buildings through
authoritative top-down system. The boundary has to
their diversity, the city can easily be interpreted to be
embody one’s identity, in order to let its individual in-
uncontrollable which is a substantial economic loss in
habit, and cultivate within. Giving people the boundary
a globalized world.
and allowing people to have the dialectics between ones of different boundaries with dissimilar values is the essential identity of a city.
As a threshold, this identity of a city needs to
be encoded in the conscience of architecture to create a new reality through experience within for individuals.
fig. (left) the Inside of termite Mound (2016), Skye fig (middle) Map of Rome (1748), Giambattista Nolli, fig. (right) Office in a Small City (1953), Edward Hopper
CHAOTIC WHOLE
“If a work only expresses the person who created
The city has always been the battleground
fig. (left) a scene from Playtime (1967), Jacques Tati fig (right) Chinatown, New York, unknown
However, in the gaze of the individual, the
citizen of the city, this battleground is the positive dialectics. Letting individuals be themselves, and the city as a collective entity, the public space becomes where the intermediary values of these “chaotic” individuals come together, allowing the further mutation of the norm. When the city loses the anxiety to look good for the gaze of the tourist, but enable the chaotic process to take on between diversified individuals, the city becomes the in-habit space for its citizens.
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GENERATIVE RESEARCH
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RFID MAPPING
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OBJECTIFICATION OF VIEWS
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single page image
single page image
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PROGRAM / CHANGE/ SPACE/ TIME
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THE IDEAL HUMAN
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SITE RESEARCH : UNNAMED OPEN SPACE IN LONDON Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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London has been a place of major settlement
The acceptance of various people and their
for more than two thousand years. From earlier im-
culture made London be the cultural capital as well
migrants such as Celtics, Romans, Saxons, Vikings,
as the world’s largest financial center. Being hetero-
Danes, Normans to modern worldwide immigrants,
geneous, opening up oneself to others, allowing the
London is a cultural melting pot. Today in London, over
freedom of others, learning from their criticisms and
three hundred languages are spoken, and only fifty-five
insights cultivated London to have rich and tolerant cul-
percent of the population is non-white British.
tures where different ideas coexist.
Since the foundation of the city, the citizens
“All the ingredients are equally important. Treating
of London have experienced, opened up, and learned
one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter
from diverse cultures around the world. Also, gener-
unpleasant taste.� - Benjamin Zephaniah, a British
ations to generations, the people have watched how
poet
these multi-cultures have shaped the landscape of London.
LONDON
fig. (left) plan of Roman London (AD190), Cassell and Company 1897 fig (right) EthniCity - James Cheshire, Oliver Uberti Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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According to the Guardian Cities Investigation,
PSEUDO-PUBLIC SPACE IN LONDON
fig (right) Map of Pseudopublic Space conducted by the Guardian Cities Investigation and GiGL
“But cities like London have always had diverse combinations of ownerships, predominantly
privately owned. Why do these pseudo-public spaces
public but also private and semi-private. There’s all
exist? Sometimes, corporates feel the need to provide
sorts of complications and nuances which I think
better accessibility, space for their users, or sometimes
fail to be understood by claims that all privatisation
it is a zoning regulation imposed on the corporates by
is bad, and all public ownership of public space is
the government or governmental commission of rein-
good. I’m not interested in using the issue of privately-
vention of the deserted public space.
fig. (left) Similarities Attract - James Cheshire, Oliver Uberti
there are about 46 public spaces in London that are
owned public spaces as a surrogate for a larger political argument. I think there are many instances
Despite the potential and underlying threat
to the formation of the public in society, it is an
where private spaces are well-used and enjoyed, and contribute socially and economically to the city.”
undeniable truth that it was for a mutual benefit. Indeed, However,
pseudo-public what
these
spaces spaces
are in
universal.
London
are
Matthew Carmona, a professor at the Bartlett School of Urban Planning.
problematic is because they lack transparency.
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Unlike London, cities such as New York,
Toronto, or Rotterdam have produced a comprehensive map of such sites. In these cities, the city authority provides publicly accessible maps to aid citizens to identify pseudo-public spaces as well as categorizes
Until the research by the Guardians, London
has yet to provide an accessible map for public or given out information on these spaces. With the city authority failed to identify the owners of misguiding public spaces, investigate the private rules on the spaces, or administer these regulations for true public and democracy, the imagery and perception of public of London has been controlled by the corporates.
fig. Map and Investigation of Privately Owned Public Spaces of New York, Opened to Public through the City Authority’s Website.
EMERGENCE OF “POPS”
PRIVATELY OWNED PUBLIC SPACE
them separately from the genuine public space. W
Because the pseudo-public spaces are initially
While it is instinctive that visitors want
designed to provide desirable spaces for the people,
spaces without unpleasant elements of society, the
they are built adjacent to an area with a significant
continuous covert establishment of these spaces
number of visitors such as major shopping area, cultural
consequently mutates the view of the city from the
complex, transportation central, tourist attractions, or
gaze of the citizens to the gaze of the visitors..
historical monument.
consequently mutates the view of the city from the gaze of the citizens to the gaze of the visitors..
These private spaces are built to serve the
public to call for more usage in favor of an increase in profit. The main public that is considered and targeted for construction of pseudo-public spaces are the visitors.
fig.Pseudo-public Spaces of London. Among numerous pseudopublic spaces in London, four specific sites are analyzed to illustrate the site conditions behind the emergence of pseudo-public spaces. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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Millenium Bridge
Bankside
Central St. Giles
Shakespeare's Globe
Tate Modern
Covent Garden NEO Bankside
St Martin's Courtyard
ADJACENT TO MAJOR SHOPPING AREA
ADJACENT TO CULTURAL COMPLEX Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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Broadgate Plaza
Bishops Square Exchange Square
New Street Square Finsbury Avenue Square
St. Paul Cathedral
Broadgate Circle
Liverpool Station
ADJACENT TO TRANSPORTATION CENTRAL
ADJACENT TO HISTORICAL MONUMENT Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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To propose an architecture that shows the
genuine public, an area with the most diversified individuals are chosen. The biggest demographic group in London is the 20s. The rich financial and cultural context of London provides a perfect lifestyle for the 20s who are full of hope and desire. These individuals majorly inhabit the central London, the area with countless numbers of tourists and commercial activities as well.
The central London hosts multitudinous
SITE SELECTION
citizens, non-citizens, and undesirable citizens from all over the world with all different backgrounds. However, the built environment of London just like other cities of the world hasn’t reflected this body of nonuniformity yet, in addition to the non-transparent deceitful pseudopublic spaces.
fig. (above) Map of Single Inhabitants of London , James Cheshire, Oliver Uberti fig. (right) Chosen site in London Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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As an attempt to resist the fabricated
publicness and prevent further misconception in a definition of public, a site that has an extensive possibility of becoming a pseudo-public space is
The British Museum
Tourist Attraction
chosen. Within the neighborhood full of nonuniform individuals, a seemingly insignificant open space that The British Museum
satisfies the criteria of pseudo-public space condition is chosen.
This unlabeled space, located along the path
from the British Museum to Covent Garden, is only a few blocks away from Tottenham Road Station. Already a pseudo-public space, Central St.Giles Piazza is built Chosen Site
nearby, and following the clustering nature of pseudopublic spaces, this insignificant empty lot has a huge possibility of becoming the next pseudo-public space.
Chosen Site
Potential Pseudo-public Space
Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road
Transportation Central
Central St. Giles
Pseudo-public Space
Central St. Giles
Covent Garden
Major Shopping Area
Covent Garden
St Martin's Courtyard Pseudo-public Space
St. Martin's Courtyard
fig. Site Analysis Considering the context of the site, this chosen site could be the next “public space� of marginalization Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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As a city that is developed through the course
of time, civilizations after civilizations, the architecture of London cannot be defined as a singular style. Rather, London is a city of composite architecture with various implications.
This eclectic architectural characteristic of
London reflects the formation of a city as well as the public. Architecture of London signifies how elements don’t need to be classified and united into a singularity to achieve harmony. The neighboring buildings of the chosen site are from diverse time periods with various styles as well, offering an appropriate site for an architecture of a public.
Neighboring buildings of the chosen site are
built in different periods with different styles, reevaluating the role of the public in aggregation to define the public highlighted blue in the collage indicates the chosen site that can be also found in the plan on the bottom.
fig. Neighboring Building Analysis Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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PROGRAM RESEARCH : MICROHOUSING
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nARCHITECTS’ Carmel Place is a first micro-
housing apartment in New York launched as part of the Mayor’s administration plan to accommodate the city’s growing small-household population. It provides 55 rental apartments, ranging from 260 to 360 square feet and various shared amenities. 22 units are dedicated to affordable housing, and 33 units are market rate, half of which include furniture and concierge services.
The design goal for the unit interior was
to achieve a sense of spaciousness, comfort, and efficiency even within a small footprint. Except for the
CARMEL PLACE
floor area, other elements such as a ceiling height or a window size was increased. Also, the flexible built-in furnishings that integrate storage, couch, and bed into the layout of about a half of the units were installed. The micro-unit types within the building vary in size and configuration to hold a broader spectrum of households.
fig. (left above), photograph of inside a unit of Carmel Place (2015), Wendy Goodman for Daily Intelligence fig. (left bottom) , interations of a the unit, nArchitects fig. (above). spatial diagram , n Architects Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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Songpa Micro-housing by SsD architects
challenges the problem of urban density and housing costs by mining the discrepancy between maximum floor area ratios and zoning envelopes. Also attempting to obstruct a limit of a housing unit by providing a soft
intersection
between
public/private,
interior/
exterior, and a social fabric between neighbors as well.
14 units allow residents to either claim a
SONGPA MICRO-HOUSING
single space or an additional recombination between blocks for larger configurations. To generate the idea of community, exhibition spaces on the lower levels are spatially linked to the units as a shared living room. The open ground plan is utilized to pull pedestrians in from the street to the auditorium, connecting city and residents in the exhibition and cafe space.
fig. (left above), transitional space, photographed by SsD architects. fig. (right above), entrance on the ground level, photographed by SsD architects fig. (left bottom), ground level plan, SsD architects fig. (right bottom), transitional space from outside to inside , photographed by SsD architects
fig. (above). front facade of songpa micro-housing , photographed by SsD architects fig. (bottom), plan, SsD architects Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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The idea of Le Corbusier in “a house is
a machine for living in” represents the desire for producing the conditions for life. Le Corbusier defined architecture as “the masterful, correct, and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light” and “engineer’s aesthetic.”
However, for Gray, she designed when she
felt a need after carefully analyzing the need. She made shift with the things available to her. The priority for Le Corbusier was primarily the sight whereas Gray’s priority was the body and its habit.
Her sense of architecture was in the life
of the inhabitant rather than in the contemplation of pure and authoritative form. The house is an extension of the person as well as the part of the organism of the person, and cannot be understood without
the
person.
The
consideration
of
the
connection between the dwelling and its occupants provides an ethical dimension for the architecture,
In late 1920, an architect and a designer
not the sequence of spaces and forms in E-1027.
Eileen Gray designed the house E-1027 by the sea. Gray wanted to build a house that allows her to interact with the natural elements around her and built a structure with a constant evolution to follow the relation to the sun, wind, and sea.
E-1027
Gray designed the house so that the inside
“A house is not a machine for living in. It is man’s
and the outside flow together, containing mobile
shell, his continuation, his spreading out, his spiritual
walls, blinds, screens, and windows. These allow the
emanation. Not only its sculptural harmony but its
residents to participate in the movement of nature
whole organization, every aspect of the whole work
at all time. The house was designed to be “maison
combined, come together to make it human in the most profound sense”.
minimum”: simple and efficient.
The
open
and
flexible
design
allowed
the resident to experience the space of life as an
organic
whole
that
encompasses
the
self,
house, and outside environment. The architecture reflects Gray’s sense of intimacy and privacy.
Eileen Gray
fig. (left). view of E-1027 from the sea (1929), photographed by Eileen Gray fig. (right), axonometric drawing of E-1027,, Eileen Gray Archive Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BUILDING, DWELLING, THINKING MARTIN HEIDEGGER In Building, Dwelling, Thinking, Heidegger stresses the importance of dwelling in building and thinking. He urges for the re-manifestation building as indwelling, and space to inhabit. The activity of cultivation and construction takes places when building as a dwelling, and continues to cultivate building that erects building. Then, Heidegger defines ‘to dwell’ as to be set at peace and to remain within the free, the preserve and the free sphere that safeguards each thing in its essence. To let one dwell, there needs to be a boundary, and within the boundary, there is a space where four folds, earth, sky, divinities, and mortals, occur. Thus, as building belongs to the dwelling and receives its essence from the dwelling, the building needs to acquire an attitude of let-dwell.
TRANSPARENCY: LITERAL AND PHENOMENAL COLIN ROWE AND ROBERT SLUTZKY Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky introduce the presence of a new optical quality, which is not only associated with its visual and material condition, but also from interpretation from a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations. The literal approach of transparency in modern architecture interpreted for and pleased a vision from outside which brought loss into the living of dwellers. This literal application of transparency imposed both in a glass curtain wall, and quality of an organization, which refracted the real figures and contexts implied within. The ideal of individuals restrained by the real form and structure, and the deep structure of society as a republic replaced by shallow one. The glass walls initially for “flow into one another” and “blend into each other” is now replaced by “wrap around the building” of contemporary architecture. The extensively glazed buildings now “dematerialized” and represent the “crystalline translucency” of dominating corporation and system. Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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BIBLIOGRAPHY VISION OF EXCESS: THE NOTION OF EXPENDITURE
THE GRID, THE CLOUD AND THE DETAIL
GEORGES BATAILLE
ROSALIND KRAUSS
In the Notion of Expenditure, George Bataille illustrates the unconventional perspective on an honor-
In the work of Agnes Martin, the idea of “abstract sublime” was used. The idea of nature expressed
able loss. Describing such loss, Potlatch where losing a property is a valuable act, and for a greater
through the rigid notational system gave sublimity in her work. Rather than depicting the literal image
cause, Bataille compares it to the contemporary fear of loss in a capitalistic society. Then, he criticizes
itself, Martin used the concept of signified and signifier in the language system, signified the image of
the attitude of a modern society in its materialistic point of view where a property can elevate ones high
nature in the form of notation as a signifier. Doing so, she achieved the atmosphere and truly the im-
above human baseness, associating with the apathetic indifference, and the insulting in a class strug-
pression, thoughts, and emotions one could have while looking at these objects in nature. To read her
gle. Thus, Bataille calls for an attitude reflected in Potlatch through a creation of unproductive values
painting, one needs a phenomenal reading of the work rather than the literal one. The genuine interpre-
and glory to dominate social existence.
tation of the object that Martin depicts in her painting is understood through personal interpretation and by reading the title, moving back and forth to see what is drawn. With the thought process, movement, and reaction each viewer gets, the work of Martin is completed.
IFORTMATION TECHNOLOGY DOMINIQUE BOUCHET A BRIEF GENEALOGY OF PRIVACY: CTRL [SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham In Information Technology, the Social Bond and the City, Dominique Bouchet revisits Georg Simmel’s
CATHERINE LIU
analysis of a metropolis in the early 20th century, updates this study according to social phenomena
She questioned what is at stake in the drive for total surveillance as well as in the struggle to pro-
of today. According to Bouchet, interaction is an expression of the complicated relationship between
tect the right to privacy and theorized in a specific historical context a genealogy of in relationship to
individuals and society and a continuous bringing about and reorganization of differences. Because
rhetorics and new technologies of surveillance. Foucault’s idea of panopticism moved into what Gilles
being an individual as belonging to a community for humans, individuality requires relating to culture
Delouse calls the control societies of the twentieth century. Now the vision is the weapon of discipline
as the society requires individuals. He suggests a different perspective on a metropolis, seeing it as a
societies, hearing the realm of the control societies. The image of The Christian God’s eye, which could
form which acquires a relative autonomy to express their logics and maintain them in a comparable in-
see through the heart of sinners, now disembodied the eyes of the Republic into a ‘public’ eye, which
dependence to the motivations of the human actors who establish them. However, Bouchet also points
not only functioned as a surveillance but also aestheticized watching and observing.
out the current condition of a city on how instead of being the interaction between culture to outgrow all personal life, it became a place of silence. Metropolis transformed into an expression of the desire for material gain and a quest for anonymous and private individuality. He argues that a city has become a gathering of strangers further lacking perception and concern for the others. EMERGENCE: THE CONNECTED LIVES OF ANTS, BRAINS, CITIES, AND SOFTWARE STEVEN JOHNSON
Johnson learned from the slime mold and ant colony, and our brain that its ability of their flexibility and quick adaption to changes in the environment and the collective intelligence of their system, which developed from relatively stupid single elements to a sophisticated and complex intelligent system, called Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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BIBLIOGRAPHY emergence. This swam logic can be applied to the formation of our cities, but it is more higher-level of
are trying to do inside, when the architecture is in use, the simple form of the building is forgotten, and
self-organizing systems strictly formed by local motives and the interactions of intelligent and self-con-
what becomes important is whether the life-habits are accommodated or not. Ballantyne criticizes the
scious individuals. With communications revolution, individuals have access to the enormous amount
perspective of a tourist dominating the way architecture is presented and calls for the attention on the
of data distributed by giant corporations. It enabled simulating and testing various possibilities without
building as a support for life to be a legitimate part of an aesthetic analysis. Because without its inhabi-
“salesman” traveling all over the world, but resulted in killing the salesman-ants, missing the power of
tants investing the dwelling the building becomes the lifeless shell, architecture needs to apprehend an
swam logic. In the digital future, our online interactions are potential to bottom-up power resources of
everyday character of a building and understand it by the habits of everyday’s life.
our swam intelligence. He suggests a fusion of the two: top-down management and bottom-up growth for our future network. We will be living in a world all equipped with bird’s eye view, perceive the overall system and see the whole, and worm’s eye view, interact and contribute to the larger systems. Also, we will encounter with the self-organizing city on smarter and systematic grid systems, emerges from the
METROPOLIS (1927)
micro scales of digital information to a macro scale of collective movement, artificial emergence.
FRITZ LANG Metropolis is a 1920s German science-fiction film about a dystopian panoptic future city, the allegorical representation of political chaos and the future where Germany was heading. It includes the view of
BODY, MIND, AND IMAGINATION: THE MENTAL ESSENCE OF ARCHITECTURE
American modernity exploitation and inequality of power. This film mainly contrasts two different, ex-
JUHANI PALLASMAA
traordinary worlds; the world of citizens, perfect, convenient, lustful and lavish life with futuristic technology and a society of underground-dwelling workers, dehumanized, unified, regulated, and exploited with
In Body, Mind, and Imagination: the Mental Essence of Architecture, Juhani Pallasmaa emphasizes the
no benefit. These two worlds are correctly remain divided by system, and arbitrary monitored through a
role of architecture as a reflection of mental space. Because buildings mediate between the world and
spy, surveillance cameras and telephone by the center tower of Metropolis. Unlike prisoners in a panopti-
our consciousness through internalizing the world and externalizing the mind, buildings obtain mental
con, the workers freed from the prison cells, but isolated and hypnotized as parts of the machine as they
dimensions. Architecture as a materialized expression of human mental space sensitizes the boundary
each located and positioned to work endless hours without any choice. The partition of classes of the
between the world and oneself. Pallasmaa also argues that the mental content and meaning of an archi-
city acknowledged when the one living in meaningless metropolis life physically view the one residing in
tectural experience is a unique, imaginative reinterpretation and re-creation by each. Similar to art, but
hopeless underground life, and this resulted in a mediation of two segregated classes.
architecture is an art of the body and existential sense than of the eye. Also, the architecture provides momentary extensions of the functions of our perceptual systems, consciousness, memory, emotions, and existential understanding through itself. PLAYTIME (1967) JACQUES TATI ARCHITECTURE, LIFE, HABIT
Playtime is a 1960s French comedy film structured in six sequences: the airport, the offices, the trade
ANDREW BALLANTYNE
exhibition, the apartments, and the royal garden, and the carousel of cars, following the view of visitors in the futuristic city of Paris. The sequences move very quickly to catch up the absurd situation and not
In Architecture, Life, Habit, Andrew Ballantyne illustrates the need of seeing architecture as an everyday
allowed a single moment of tranquility, privacy or pause. The peep show like spaces in each sequence
meaningful reflection of one’s habit. Because inhabitants do not focus on the building, but what they
intensifies surveillance, voyeurism and exhibitionism in glass modern building and separation between Yoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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BIBLIOGRAPHY the visitors and the city dwellers, the audience and the actors. The modernization of mid 20th century
scending the rigid medium and presence of architecture, and the representational drawing of architec-
based on consumerism designed city and city dwellers to display standardized and uninformed modern
ture will guide the way to map the unimaginable territory using the existing signifier.
lifestyle to the potential outside consumers.
THE TRANSPARENCY OF EVIL (1970) THE CONSUMER SOCIETY: MYTH AND STRUCTURE (1970)
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
JEAN BAUDRILLARD Our society is accelerating in a void, because all goals of liberation are already behind us, and because In the 20th century, the society, driven by the mass media culture and focused on the consumption of
what haunts and obsesses us is being thus ahead of all the results - the very availability of all the signs,
objects, made the logic of signs, symbols, and objects no longer linked to a sense of their function. The
all the forms, all the desires that we had been pursuing. We are obliged to simulate and replay the
foundation of human being is destroyed and threaten by the monopolization of industry. Human con-
existing structure without its ideals and dreams. The only change is ‘hyper-realize’ through intermina-
sidered and remained as a consumer and a productive worker to keep the public in line in the society
ble simulation. “Nothing is truly reflected anymore...to override their logic-not in the sense of creating
of over-consumption and over-production. Consumers socialized and trained to learn consumption as
sheer redundancy, but in the sense of an increase in power.” The pleasure of pure and simple produc-
a ‘collective behavior’ and as a language. The signification of object and individual replaced by signs,
tion and rediscovery of ideal form is vanishing, but only signs and recycling of forms generated, which
images, and messages, are coded and structured by the system. He urged that we must understand the
led to a “commercialization of the whole world.” Everything is exposed, aestheticized and cultured. The
“level of deep structure,” social dynamics, and decode the hidden logic behind signs and the images.
dematerialization and minimalization of art turned aesthetic of transparency into a disappearance and disembodiment. Images, videos, painting, and products contain no trace, no shadow, and no sequences but only the feeling of margination and departure.
MAPPING THE UNMAPPABLE STAN ALLEN THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ABSOLUTE ARCHITECTURE An architectural drawing is an art form of both autographic and allographic characteristics. According
PIER VITTORIO AURELI
to Stan Allen, allographic art is capable of being reproduced at a distance from the author using notation while autographic art depends for their authenticity upon the direct contact of the author. Archi-
The problem of contemporary architecture now is, reproduced“current self-absorbed performances of
tectural drawing conveys information through its notations. In representational architectural drawings,
iconic buildings” and a redundant making of form as if the real and the most important, which resulted
the expression of an abstract idea incorporating with the concreteness of architecture can be found.
in excessive parametric designs. He suggests “the archipelago” as a counter project for the city against
Because the society has moved away from mechanical society to information society where immaterial
the totality of urbanization, which constituted by the idea and motivations of the city, and called it the
networks and systems dominate, the conventional approach to architecture understanding as mere
possibility of an absolute architecture.
form and program can be considered outdated. As Cubist painters incorporated unimaginable but the actual reality of time and perspectives in their paintings transcending the medium, architecture has to speak in a similar sense. The technology has transformed the urban as fluid, fluctuating anatomy. Similarly, architecture also has to reflect the situation of information society by reflecting aspects, tranYoojin Han | Jihyun Nadia Kim
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