lecture 1 theory

7/30/2019 Lecture 1 Theory

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Theory


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Kate Nesbitt: Theory is a discourse that

describes the practice and production

of architecture and identifies challenges

to it

Overlaps with, but differs from,

architectural history - it poses alternative

solutions; it is speculative,

anticipatory and catalytic

Theory deals with architectures

aspirations as much as its

accomplishments

Since the 1960s: pluralist period that is

loosely defined as postmodern

Architectural theory became truly

interdisciplinary


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Types of theory

Prescriptive, proscriptive,

affirmative, critical

Prescriptive theory offers new or revived

solutions for specific problems

Proscriptive theory states what is to be

avoided in design

Critical theory is broader thaneither, it evaluates the built world and its

relationship to society

It is polemical, often expresses political

and ethical orientation and aims to

stimulate change

It is speculative, questioningandsometimes utopian


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Theoretical treatise: defining the scope of the discipline

Theoretical treatises are concerned with the origins of apracticeExample: the origin of architecture is in imitation of nature - mimesis - andmans desire to improve upon it

Basic subject matterof treatises:

1 requisite qualities of an architect (with regard to personality, education,experience, etc.)

2 requisite qualities of architecture (Vitruvius: firmness, commodity,delight)

3 a theory of designor construction method (Abbot Laugier)

4 examples of the cannon of architecture

5 attitude about the relationship between theory and practice (useful,predictable - or not)


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Postmodernism

The 1960s are in many ways the key transitional period in which the newinternational order (neocolonialism, the Green Revolution,

computerization, and electronic information) is at one and the same timeset in place and is swept away and shaken by its own internalcontradictions and by external resistance.

Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism and Consumer Society


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Challenges to theModern Movement inarchitecture

The demolition of thePruitt-Igoe housingcomplex, 1972 (St Louis)

hailed as the failure ofmodern architectures visionfor housing (this example a

bureaucratic application ofmodernist principles)

The aesthetic of modernismwas also increasingly seen asa sign of the corporate,commercial world; the social

programme was lost:

European modernarchitecture was importedto America without itsideological componentColin Rowe


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Architectural theory becomes institutionalisedin this period

In 1967-68 independent think tanks founded, in New York and Venice

Manhattan: Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), similar in its

mission to Londons Architectural Association (AA, founded 1847) was

established by a board of architects (led by Peter Eisenman) in opposition tothe existing education

It published Oppositions and Octoberjournals and a series of bookslike Aldo Rossis The Architecture of the City(1982, Italian 1966)

Italian architects among the most influential theorists of the period

Architectural Institute at the University of Venice (IAUV) important in

particular, but also Rome and Milan

1968 Manfredo Tafuri founded the Institute of Architectural History at IAUV

(Critical theory and Marxism)

School of Venice- a number of important architects


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Mid-1960s: publication ofseveral important treatises

Aldo Rossi,The Architecture of the City(1966)

Robert Venturi,Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

(1966) Christian Norberg-Schulz,Intentions in Architecture (1965)

Christopher Alexander,Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964)

Venturi:the importance of looking at and usingarchitectural history in contemporary design; a manifestofor historicist eclecticism

hybrid/pure, distorted/straightforward, ambiguous/articulated

Communication of meaningon various levels; multipleinterpretations

Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, Learning from Las Vegas(1972)

In a decade, his theory became widespread

Charles Jencks,The Language of Post-Modern Architecture(1977):

Codifies the emerging movement as a style


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1969, conference at the

MoMA; 1972 publication

ofFive Architects from it

Modern Movement-inspired work,

countertendency in

abstraction in relation to

Venturi

Peter Eisenman,

Michael Graves,Charles Gwathmey,

John Hejduk,

Richard Meierbecame

know as the New

York Five

Common ground isformalist: interest in

early Le Corbusier and

cubism


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The Venice Bienalle 1980 - Paolo Portoghesi: The Presence of the Past

Nostalgic and scenographic: negative judgement passed by some critics


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MoMA exhibition in 1988 DeconstructivistArchitecture

Aimed to show a new movement, but the work wasntas related/homogenous as suggested

The term is a combination of philosopher JacquesDerridas deconstruction and RussianConstructivism

Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadidclosest toConstructivism (through formal explorations)

Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumiclosestto philosophical deconstruction (critique anddismantling of disciplinary boundaries)

Frank Gehry, Steven Hall, Coop Himmelblau-not similar to the above (intuition and sensuousapproach to materials)


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Theoretical paradigms

The postmodern period characterised by a number of theoretical paradigms

or ideological frameworks imported from other disciplines: phenomenology,

aesthetics, linguistic theory, Marxism, feminism

1 Phenomenology

This philosophical thread underlies a number ofattitudes towards site, place,landscape and making

More recently, this strand has moved into problematising the bodys interaction

with its environment

Martin Heidegger(1887-1976) Building, Dwelling, Thinking

One of the most influential phenomenological works for architectural theory

Dwelling is defined as a staying with things


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Norwegian critic

Christian Norberg-Schulzinterprets dwelling as being at peace ina protected place

The primary purpose of architecture is hence to make to make a worldvisible. It does this as a thing, and the world it brings intro presenceconsists in what it gathers

Existence, Space and Architecture, 1971 and onwards - exploresarchitecture and dwelling

Phenomenology of architecture: concretization of existential spacethrough the making ofplaces

Finnish phenomenologist Juhani Pallasmaa - psychicapprehension of architecture: opening up a view into a second realityof perception, dreams, forgotten memories and imagination


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Peter Zumthor

contemporary example of architecture

that displays a phenomenological

sensibility


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2 Aesthetic of the sublime

Aesthetics deals with the production and reception of the works of art

The sublime is the principal aesthetic category of modernityandas such carried on afterwards

The effect the work of architecture has on the viewer in the case of the sublime

is visceral

The definitions of the sublime (such as the uncanny and the grotesque) give

shape to the modern aesthetic discourse and coincide with postmodern thought

Scientific strand in modernism suppressed this aesthetic enquiry

Emphasis on rationality and functionmarginalised beautyand the sublime as

subjective issues

Psychoanalytic and deconstructionist models revitalise this discourse

Anthony Vidlerdeals with the uncanny; Peter Eisenman with the grotesque

Uncanny in this context: the return of the body into an architecture that hadrepressed its conscious presence (Vidler)

Grotesque: the condition of the always present or the already within, that the

beautiful in architecture attempts to repress (Eisenman)


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3 Linguistic theory

Linguistic paradigms shaped cultural criticism

Semiotics, structuralism, post-structuralism reshaped many disciplines:

literature, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and all critical activity

This development in the 1960s parallels the revived interest in

meaning and symbolism in architecture

Architects studied how meaning is created in language and applied it to

architecture

Modernism characterised by the belief in a whole, or unity, while

postmodernism introduces the notions ofmultidimensional space and a

methodological field

Poststructuralism is characterised by the critique of the sign

It also represents the shift from language to discourse (Terry Eagleton)


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Kate Nesbitt:

Before structuralism, the act of interpretation sought to discover themeaning which coincided with the intention of the author or speaker; this

meaning was considered definitive. Structuralism does not attempt to

assign a true meaning to the work (beyond its structure) or to evaluate the

work in relation to the cannon. In poststructuralism, it is asserted that

meaning is indeterminate, elusive, bottomless.

Deconstruction (Jacques Derrida) is one of the most significant poststructuralist

manifestations

Tschumi and Eisenman representatives in architecture

The philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) is only now emerging as

potentially extremely productive in the context of culture and architecture in

particular


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4 Marxism

Particularly important for the study of the city and its institutions

School of Venice spearheaded by Manfredo Tafuri particularly influential raisingthe issue ofthe relationship of class struggle and architecture

Tafuri: the crisis of modern architecture[is] a crisis of the ideologicalfunction of architecture

Jameson: grass-roots resistance to the status quo is possible through Marxisttheory

Important poststructuralist working with the questions of the structure of politicalpower: Michel Foucault

The Frankfurt School (Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse) also fuses in aninterdisciplinary approach philosophy, history and psychology in order to explainthe phenomena of culture

Walter Benjamin, although peripheral to the circle, became the most known andis often cited in architectural theory


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5 Feminism

Activism in the 1960s drew attention to the disenfranchisement within

democratic societies of groups defined by gender, race, or sexual orientation

This discourse often goes under the bannerthe critique of the Other

It broadens the discussion of architecture from formal grounds to cultural,

historical and ethical grounds

Feminism is an important instance of this sort of critique


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Postmodern architectural themes

1 Historyand historicism

2Meaning

3 Place

4 Urban theory

5Politicaland ethical agendas

6 The body

Nesbit, Kate, ed. Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, An Anthology of

Architectural Theory 1965-1995(New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996)

lecture 1 theory

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