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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Architecture of Information at Plateau Beaubourg A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture by Ewan Edward Branda 2012 © Copyright by Ewan Edward Branda 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Architecture of Information at Plateau Beaubourg by Ewan Edward Branda Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of California, Los Angeles, 2011 Professor Diane Favro, Chair During the course of the 1960s, computers and information networks made their appearance in the public imagination. To architects on the cusp of architecture’s postmodern turn, information technology offered new forms, metaphors, and techniques by which modern architecture’s technological and utopian basis could be reasserted. Yet by the end of the 1970s, when computers and networks fully appeared in the workplace, schools, and even homes, architects had all but abandoned information technology as a source of architectural ideas, relegating computers to a supporting role in architectural practice where they performed only the most mundane of tasks, one from which they would emerge only two decades later. This dissertation argues that architecture in the 1970s did not in fact retreat from information technology but rather that the changing nature of information technology ii demanded new modes of architectural thinking that destabilized the traditional discursive function of the machine underpinning modern architecture. It examines various ways in which information technology influenced architectural thinking during this troubled period of transition through the historical treatment of a single case study, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (or Beaubourg, as it was and is still known). It considers on the building’s role in a more general program of social and cultural reorganization in the information society, from the original conception of the building as an enormous information processing machine to the reception of Piano and Rogers’ building in the years following its completion. In chapters examining the informational ideas in the competition brief, the architectural responses to the competition, the sources for the winning scheme by Piano and Rogers and its relationship to technological utopianism in British architecture, the development of the final building and its challenge to the megastructure paradigm, and the privileging of the user in new techniques of architectural programming first deployed in a cultural building at Beaubourg, this dissertation tries to identify a broad spectrum of modes of engagement between architecture and information technology beyond the tool-based approaches prevalent today. iii CONTENTS List of Figures iv Acknowledgements vii Vita x Publications and Presentations xi Abstract of the Dissertation xii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Genesis of the Brief 31 Chapter 2: A Live Center of Information 82 Chapter 3: The Twilight of Megastructure 125 Chapter 4: From Functionalism to Functionality 174 Conclusion 206 Figures 223 Bibliography 269 v LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Diagram of museum as information centre, from UNESCO conference. 223 1.2 Poster uncovered during Paris métro renovations, 2008. 223 1.3 Diagram showing the role of the CCI in the process of industrial design. 224 1.4 Program diagram from the competition brief. 225 1.5 Catalogs from CCI exhibitions at the Halles de Baltard (1970-71). 226 1.6 Site plan from competition brief showing connections to infrastructure and underground access. 226 2.1 Piano and Rogers competition entry. 227 2.2 Piano and Rogers competition entry – plan. 227 2.3 Piano and Rogers competition entry – West (plaza) elevation. 228 2.4 Piano and Rogers competition entry – section and site plan. 229 2.5 Piano and Rogers competition entry – model. 230 2.6 Piano and Rogers competition entry – model. 231 2.7 Piano and Rogers competition entry – model. 232 2.8 Piano and Rogers competition entry – model. 232 2.9 Piano and Rogers competition entry – structural details. 233 2.10 Piano and Rogers competition entry – network diagrams. 234 2.11 Jean-François Séris et al. (project 88). 235 2.12 Kisho N. Korokawa (project 456). 236 2.13 Ken Maher, C. Stewart, C. Burton, R. Apperly (project 539). 237 2.14 Dennis Crompton, Nora Kohen, Will Alsop, Julius Tabacek (project 535). 238 vi 2.15 Raimund Abraham, Friedrich Saint-Florian, et al. (project 585). 239 2.16 Michel Ducharme et al. (project 353). 239 2.17 Erickson and Massey (project 466). 240 3.1 Piano and Rogers, First Avant projet sommaire. 241 3.2 Piano and Rogers, First Avant projet sommaire. 241 3.3 Piano and Rogers, First Avant projet sommaire. 242 3.4 Piano and Rogers, Second Avant projet sommaire. 242 3.5 Piano and Rogers, Projet définitif. 243 3.6 Piano and Rogers, Development of West elevation. 244 3.7 Piano and Rogers, Projet définitif – section. 245 3.8 Piano and Rogers, Projet définitif – section (detail). 246 3.9 Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) – piazza installation. 247 3.10 Mies van der Rohe, Concert Hall Project (1942) 247 3.11 Ezra Ehrenkrantz, SCSD Prototype, Palo Alto. 248 3.12 Norman Foster, IBM Pilot Head Office, Cosham (1970). 248 3.13 Ezra Ehrenkrantz, SCSD Prototype, Palo Alto. 249 3.14 Ezra Ehrenkrantz, SCSD Prototype, Palo Alto. 249 3.15 Ezra Ehrenkrantz, The Modular Number Pattern. 250 3.16 Ezra Ehrenkrantz, SCSD schools. 250 3.17 IRNES, RAS project. 251 3.18 Programme spécifique, kinakothèque. 252 3.19 Centre Pompidou, kinakothèque. 252 vii 3.20 Peter Rice, gerberette detail. 253 3.21 Norman Foster, IBM Pilot Head Office, Cosham (1970). 253 3.22 Title page from Martin Pawley, Architectural Design (November 1970). 254 3.23 Peter Cook, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton, “Instant City” revisited. 254 3.24 Norman Foster, IBM Pilot Head Office, Cosham (1970) 255 4.1 Beaubourg programming team. 255 4.2 Lombard in conversation with Piano and Rogers. 256 4.3 Programme spécifique –Diagram of library functional ensemble. 256 4.4 Programme spécifique –Diagram of museum functional ensemble. 257 4.5 Programme spécifique –Diagram of reception functional ensemble. 257 4.6 Programme spécifique – Interfaces. 258 4.7 Programme spécifique – Interfaces. 258 4.8 Programme spécifique – Telephone systems in library. 259 4.9 Programme spécifique – Telephone systems in museums. 259 4.10 Programme spécifique – Flow of audio-visual material. 260 4.11 Programme spécifique – Flow of mail. 260 4.12 Programme spécifique – Flow of painting and sculpture. 261 4.13 Programme spécifique – Flow of garbage. 261 4.14 Harold Horowitz, Proximity diagram. 262 4.15 Jean Cousin, Topological representation of spatial relationships. 262 4.16 Jean Cousin, Topological representation of spatial relationships. 263 4.17 Topological compared to geometrical representation, from Cousin. 263 viii 4.18 Programme spécifique – schematic section – flow of objects by activity. 264 4.19 Programme spécifique – schematic section – flow of objects by activity. 264 5.1 Study of visual perception of the building in the site. 265 5.2 Jean Widmer, signage for Centre Pompidou. 266 5.3 Jean Widmer, Logo for Center Pompidou (1976). 267 5.4 Study for exterior signage (1976). 267 5.5 Jean Widmer, Studies for the logo for Centre Pompidou (1976). 268 5.6 Paul Rand, Logo for IBM (1962) 268 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the support of my committee at UCLA. My advisor, Diane Favro, consistently offered the sage advice, criticism, and inspiring conversation needed to shape this study and to navigate a complicated institution, along with consistent support in research projects that, although not directly part of this dissertation, provided both theoretical ideas and financial support. Sylvia Lavin, Dana Cuff, and Jonathan Furner provided valuable direction early in the process. I am particularly grateful for Professor Lavin’s insights and generosity in the early stages of this work. Our Graduate Advisor at UCLA, Jim Kies, on more than one occasion cheerfully lent his considerable knowledge of the institution. I am deeply grateful to those in Paris who made this work possible and enjoyable, in particular the archivists at the Centre Pompidou—Henry DeLangle, Monique Chardet, Jean Charlier, Jean-Philippe Bonilli—who were unflaggingly convivial and helpful. Patrick O’Byrne and Hélène Dano-Vanneyre shared their recollections of their experience in the Études et programmation group as well as their astonishing graphic material. I thank Patrick in particular for consistent hospitality in otherwise unfamiliar surroundings. Germain Viatte and Claude Mollard took time out of their busy schedules to share their experiences as members of Beaubourg’s founding team, and Richard Rogers generously shared his thoughts on the project, while Jo Murtagh at his office made that possible. Dennis Crompton at the Archigram Archive in London was gracious and helpful. I also thank Chris Dawson for his willingness to discuss at length his x experience on the project and for providing valuable background information. Michel Bezman in Texas and Guy St-Pierre in Montréal shared their experiences with the Ford EFL research. Simon Sadler offered insights early on in the process that proved central to the final dissertation, and Tim Anstey provided a forum at the Society of Architectural Historians Annual Meeting in which I could test some of these ideas in a friendly setting. Fellow PhD candidate Todd Gannon offered lively conversation and insights, and Paulette Singley, Mary Lou Lobsinger, John Welchman, and Michael Reibel offered advice throughout the process. My collaborators Joseph Tabbi, Anne Burdick, and Davin Heckman have over the years provided both inspiring conversation and a lively intellectual context outside architectural culture against which to measure my hypotheses. I am grateful to the donors of several fellowships and awards that directly and indirectly supported this work: from UCLA, the Chancellor’s Fellowship, the QGE grant program, the Edgardo Contini Award, the Leon Hoffman Award, the Graduate Research Mentorship and Summer Mentorship programs, and from the Society of Architectural Historians, the Scott Opler Award.
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