Ruptures in Architecture: Toward an Alternative Post-Fordism

Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 2016

The relationship of Le Corbusier with the street is complex and sometimes contradictory. Young Jeanneret seems to be persuaded by certain sites, which we may define as urban scenarios, during his visits to cities like Istanbul in his formative years. Unlike his hometown La Chaux-de-Fonds – identified by a regular set of streets – these places may have been a picturesque counterpoint activated by a significant topography. Streets meandering along a set of ‘Dom-ino’ houses in the Oeuvre Complete, as the tracking rails of a long shot recording, offer a changing viewpoint that may be considered in relation with such casual arrangements. The claim to kill the ‘rue corridor’ made in Précisions, together with his later writings, deeply contrast with his own comments on an empty Paris in the summer of 1942 – as published in Les Trois Établissements Humains – praising the same streets he pretended to erase by means of operations like the ‘Ilôt Insalubre No 6’. The objective of this paper is to highlight and discuss those contradictions, which can be illustrated by the technical machine-streets conceived for the Ville Contemporaine of 1922 versus the V4 streets formulated in 1947 to reconcile with traditional streets. . Xavier Monteys & Pere Fuertes (2016) Le Corbusier. Streets, promenades, scenes and artefacts, Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 40:2, 151-161, DOI: 10.3846/20297955.2016.1194606

Anima Loci, 2021

Productive Universals–Specific Situations. Critical Engagements in Art, Architecture and Urbanism, 2019

The following stage play features a fictional conversation between people of radically different cultural and social backgrounds on the question of living together in the collective high-rise housing of Paris’s banlieues. Its object is Les Espaces d’Abraxas (hereafter: Abraxas), a monumental neo-historic housing complex of about 600 apartments realized between 1978 and 1983 in the new town Marne-la-Vallée by the Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill and his office Taller de Arquitectura. Publicized as one of the first visible manifestations of postmodernism in France1 and subsequently used as a backdrop for several dystopian Hollywood movies—Brazil (1984), The Hunger Games (2015)— the associations related to this building range from a penal colony to a surreal dream. The main subject of this conversation, however, is not the building and its spectacular façade, but the transformation of collective housing during the social and political upheavals that occurred in France and other northern European countries after thirty years of welfare state provision came to an end. Apart from being a postmodern icon, Abraxas is also an exemplary case of the consequences of the debt crisis that ensued in France after the neoliberal reforms of 1977. Its accelerated decline in less than a decade resulted from the mortgage credits with which it was marketed: their flexible interest rates led to the bankruptcy of Abraxas’s housing company in 1985. On the other hand, the building complex conveys intentions of welfare state policies of social redis- tribution and was built by procedures that emerged out of the logic of Fordist production. Its eclectic pillared façade made out of prefabricated concrete panels originates in the mass housing pro- duction of the postwar boom years; and its seemingly excessive monumentality can be traced back to the ambition of the Parisian new town planners of the 1960s to structure the Paris region with modern, thriving centralities that were to fulfill not only a right to housing, but also a the “right to the city. This play confronts the memories of Abraxas’s first generation of inhabitants—which I collected in narrative biographic interviews during a six-month stay in the building in 2012—with the cultural discourse that constructed it and which permeates its social spaces. Taking the lived experience of the inhabitants as a starting point and situating the discussion inside the building changes the viewpoint from which the narrative of the demise of the social housing high- rise is usually told. The resulting polylogue of testimony and stories as well as excerpts from publications explores the emancipatory potential of discourse, which occurs at the moment when this dis- course opens up towards what, for the sake of its functioning, has to be kept outside. Torn out of context, oral statements and fragments of sentences can lose their original meaning, but their reassembly creates new relations between otherwise often incommensurable registers of speech. I have left temporal incongruencies intention- ally unresolved: discursive utterings, which extend over a time span of fifty years, remain in the present tense whereas the memories of inhabitants recalling in 2012 their experience of the 1980s and 1990s are narrated in the past tense. Finally, my own voice as an author is transmitted in the stage directions that transform Abraxas and the new town center of Mont d’Est into a stage set and thereby into a central agent of this piece. “Architecture,” then, becomes an instance that occurs in specific settings and exists only within the simultaneous entanglement of practice and representation within which it makes sense.

2011

In an urban context-there is an increasing need to find adequate architectural responses to urban challenges, where tourism and the experience economy are in focus. New architectural concepts are looking away from modernism's strong attachment to 'form and function' towards 'the sensual and the narrative'. In large prestige projects you often see that new expressive architecture is coupled with old industrial buildings in order to create strong stories about a future; similar art installations and temporary architecture are emerging providing the audience with spatial experiences questioning the way we are using urban spaces and interact in every day city life. This article presents concepts of performative architecture and urban scenography. It draws lines back to the artistic and architectural avant-garde in the 1960s. The aim is to evaluate the phenomenon of aesthetic experience in the urban environment and to look at the artistic methods and architectural tools that are involved in large art installations today. The article pays special attention to the use of temporary architecture in relation to festivals and events. It is an allegation that the temporary architecture provides a special freedom to construct spatial situations that promote an experimental life. Through symbols, ornaments and decorations it is possible create recognizable urban environments in which people can orient themselves, but also experience an aesthetically and bodily challenging environment. Through 'constructed situations' and grotesque aesthetics of temporary architectural design it is possible to create cross-border experiences. The thesis is that it may contribute to reflection and provide new demands to the performance of our urban environments in general.

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM, vol 40(3), 2016

The article proposes to delve deeper in the idea of space in Le Corbusier’s Toward an Architecture (1923), focalizing in its connections with the past and urban design. When in his book Le Corbusier presents his “trois rappels a messieurs les architectes” – volume, surface and plan (in its broad sense) – he outlines the keys to his idea of space. It proves imperative to use Le Corbusier’s original term “Rappel” as its word play transcends any possible translation. Space is therefore defined as a Rappel (call) to architects, but also as a Rappel (reminder, evocation) to multiple theorizations and ideas that have traversed architecture throughout history. Le Corbusier’s argument understands the directions of space as an extension, showing his affiliation with a tradition of French thinking that, in architecture, subscribes since Viollet le Duc to the Cartesian Method, in which spatiality is understood – from the Barroque – both Outside and Inside. It is proven that, in clear continuity with French architectural tradition and drawing inspira-tion from the ideas of Auguste Choisy, Le Corbusier defines with the mass and the void a space in which “the Outside is always an Inside”. Thus, it is demonstrated that not only the links with the past but also the material resources for the definition of such space are common in different scales, from the definition of an inside up to the urban design.

International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS, 2013

Considering architecture as a spatial art, the paper examines the nature of ongoing change in the design of architectural spaces, in accordance with the profound conversion in the nature of social existence on Earth. The study aims to tackle the issue mainly from a morphological standpoint with cross-references to sociological dimension of space. Recently, some started to believe that virtues of modernity were not capable of coping with the emerging diversity and complexity brought by new bodies, who were gradually introduced into the urban scene through democratisation. Therefore, the de(con)struction of the canons of the modernism was the only solution in order to achieve a new phase in the material evolution of humankind. Spatial reflection of such an ongoing social transformation, that is to say, a major shift from „an ideal society centrally controlled by corporate groups‟ to a much more pragmatic one with „flexibility of control systems‟ is of prime concern in this study. In other words, a paradigm shift from „rational and sensible‟ state to a „chaotic, yet, perverse‟ state of human condition, in the name of freedom, is central to the discussion of the evolution of space design. In brief, newly emerging social and corresponding spatial phenomena seem to have took over, our cultural landscape via guerrilla war tactics, and was supported by scholars, who advocated the „death of architecture‟ for the sake of proliferation of low culture. Albeit, an initiative with good intentions of integrating all parties of the community, turned out to be working against the sense of community. Hence, the very same issues of social concerns seem to have shifted from socialist rhetoric towards the hands of a more capitalist rhetoric. Therefore, the new power and her weapons should be disguised in a seducing new skin... Fluid architecture of late 90‟s was the ideal new mediatic solution... In result, values characterised by grace, coherence, consensus, durability, order, have been replaced by pride, unquestioned wealth, corruption, falsification, distortion, humour, irony, nihilism, and „in-your-face-attitude‟ of the new generation of Murat Cetin is with the Kadir Has University, Dept. of Int. Architecture, Central Campus, Cibali, 34083, Istanbul, Turkey (phone: +90-533-344-9003; fax: +90-212-533-5853; e-mail: [email protected]). citizens. Masochistic experience of contemporary urban life, grotesque images of environment, the parasitic and violent character of architecture, yet seductive outlook of their figures have fascinated the minds of the new (yet perverted) urban population. Hence, a fluid, vague, indeterminate archi-tectonic language was becoming politically correct decor for a rapidly eroding society. In fact, this new architecture should be evaluated within the web of concepts like otherness, utopia, fantasy, media, Post-Modern popular culture, consumption, marketability, pluralism, as well as the shift in the conception of “reality and simulation”. In this study, it is argued whether architects, as spatial artists, should shift their focus from the timeless qualities, tectonic virtues and ethical principles of modernism towards transient, ephemeral imagery of this fashionable formalism, simply because, capital is shifting hand from the former-elite towards neo-elite (formerly accepted as underground, grunge, illegal, disapproved, etc.). The decision obviously constitutes a fine line between architecture and prostitution in an age of social hysteria, schizophrenia, fetish, frenzy, disintegration, fragmentation, and thus, perversion. The argument is primarily based on the question of whether new vocabulary of fantastic images is an avant-garde formal jamborine, recurrent trend or fashion-like movement, or alternatively a major breakthrough in the sociological, epistemological, hence architectural frameworks.

Journal of Architectural Education, 2009

In this paper we will see, how the aesthetic contribution of the philosophy of intimate space in Gaston Bachelard is in tune with the creation of a space of "meditation" in Le Corbusier. Our main points will be focused on: 1) Bachelard's poetic space can relate to our everyday life, and 2) Le Corbusier's architecture serves as a concrete example of a philosophical and aesthetic contribution. At the same time, we will see how the man makes space, and consequently, Le Corbusier anthropocentrism, in the examples of the Couvent in Sainte-Marie La Tourette and the Cabanon, is represented by an apparently bare architecture that is revealed only when one inhabits it.

This article examines Le Corbusier's architectural design processes, paying special attention to his concept of "ineffable space". Le Corbusier related "ineffable space" to mathematics, arguing that both mathematics and the phenomenon of "ineffable space" provoke an effect of "concordance". He also argued that when the establishment of relations is "precise" and "overwhelming", architectural artefacts are capable of "provoking physiological sensations". For Le Corbusier, the sentiment of satisfaction and enjoyment that an architectural artefact can provoke is related to a perception of harmony. This article analyzes the reasons for which Le Corbusier insisted on the necessity to discover or invent "clear syntax" through architectural composition. He believed that the power of architectural artefacts lies in their "clear syntax". Particular emphasis is placed on the relationship of Le Corbusier's theories of space with those of Henri Bergson and the De Stijl movement. At the core of the reflections that are developed here are Le Corbusier's "patient search" ("recherche patiente") and the vital role of the act of drawing for the process of inscribing images in memory. For Le Corbusier, drawing embodied the acts of observing, discovering, inventing and creating. This article also relates Le Corbusier's interest in proportions and his conception of the Modulor to postwar Italian neo-humanistic approaches in architecture. It intends to render explicit how Le Corbusier's definition of architecture was reshaped, shedding light on the shift from defining architecture as clear syntax to defining architecture as the succession of events.

The paper sheds light on the status of travel-photography, focusing on a close examination of the photographs taken by the architects John Lautner, Alison and Peter Smithson, and Aldo Rossi during their travels by car, with special emphasis on those taken from the automobile. It explores the hypothesis that the view from the car has reshaped our conceptions of space, revolutionising the way we perceive the city, and significantly transforming the relationship between architecture and the city.

Le Corbusier, 50 years later. International Congress, 2015

Among several urban plans designed for Berlin, we find Le Corbusier`s project for the Hauptstadt Berlin 1958 competition, which aimed at thinking the reconstruction of the city center destroyed in the II World War. Corbusier`s relation with Berlin dates back to 1910, when he arrives at the city to work at Peter Behrens` office. So, for him, the plan for Berlin was a rare opportunity to develop ideas about the city that provided one of the largest contributions to his urban design education, and also to develop ideas he formulated forty years before for Paris` center. Besides that, this project was developed almost simultaneously with CIAM`s crises and dissolution, which culminated in the 50`s with the consequent appearance of Team 10. At that moment Corbusier`s universalist approach to urbanism starts to be challenged by CIAM`s young generation, which had a critical approach towards the design methods inherited from the previous generation, associated with CIAM`s foundational moment. From the beginning of the 50`s on, this new generation balances the universalist ideals inherited from the previous generation with individualist ones they identified as necessary to face the new post war reality. Thus, the main goals of this paper is to analyse Corbusier’s design for Berlin and question whether he, at an already mature point of his career, was proposing a plan that answered only the questions that were important to CIAM and to the canonical principles of modern architecture, or if he had also addressed those that belonged to the new generation and Team 10`s agenda, both of them present in the debates of the moment, largely identified as a transitional period.

Le Carré Bleu, 2018

Y a-t-il de nouvelles utopies pour demain, dans cette période malade actuelle ? Ou le grand succès de la dystopie dans la fiction contemporaine - romans, films, séries télévisées - prélude-t-il à des scénarios de cauchemar pour notre avenir ? L’Italian Institute for the Future a organisé quatre rencontres pour répondre à ces questions : • la première a pris en considération les visions utopiques des nouveaux mouvements politiques et leurs racines dans le passé, puisque la pensée utopique a toujours été à la base du changement sociopolitique. • la seconde rencontre approfondit les représentations du futur dans la fiction contemporaine et leurs « utopies ambiguës », pour reprendre la définition du grand écrivain de science-fiction Ursula K. Le Guin. • dans la troisième, les visions utopiques qui font avancer le progrès scientifique et technologique ont été explorées, du rêve de l'immortalité au techno-utopisme de la Silicon Valley. • dans la dernière, le rôle de l'utopie dans l'architecture et l'urbanisme d'aujourd'hui a été discuté, en gardant un oeil sur les nouveaux modes de coexistence sociale dans un monde de plus en plus chaotique et bondé. A partir de ces entretiens, nous avons commencé à concevoir ce numéro de Le Carré Bleu consacré au thème des utopies de demain. Marco Sorito part des thèmes traditionnels pour les lecteurs de cette feuille historique - le rôle de l'utopie dans l'architecture de Frank Lloyd Wright à Paolo Soleri - pour arriver aux nouvelles visions de Jacques Fresco et Vincent Callebaut. Massimo Pica Ciamarra raisonne sur les utopies « concrètes » dans une courte histoire en images. Emilio Jose Garcia discute de l'urbanisme à partir des scénarios apocalyptiques zombies. Alessandra Dal Secco et Daniele Vazquez proposent une rupture avec les utopies hyper-rationalisées de l'urbanisme, imaginant de nouveaux espaces pour la nouvelle société liquide. Avec Barbara Bisceglia, Michèle Lacriola, Angelo Sidonio et Flavia Palazzi nous entrons dans le champ de la géopolitique et des modèles de fédérations européennes et mondiales. Laura Tundo Ferente reconstruit la réflexion philosophique contemporaine sur le concept d'utopie.Carolina Facioni aborde l'actualité de l'idéologie et de l'utopie classiques de Karl Mannheim. Adolfo Fattori explore la relation entre l'utopie et la dystopie. Riccardo Campa parle de la ville future selon Friedrich Nietzsche. Antonio Camorrino analyse enfin le projet de « la Maison de Salomone » de Bacon et son impact sur la science moderne.