Universals IV Literal Architecture Master studio Spring 2018 Oslo School of Architecture and Design Espen Vatn - Assistant Professor Juan Ruiz Anton - Visiting Tutor Jonas Løland - Visiting Tutor Literal City This studio will engage with questions of technology, structure and tectonics in relation to the city and current Later, in his essay “Generic City” (1995), project and driving the budget into the enviable economic realities´ impact on architecture. We will discuss Rem Koolhaas reveals the impact the sedated terrain of the literally, truly cheap.” in what way structure is a carrier of content, addressing homogeneity of the 21st Century city, To further expand this discussion of literalism, questions of construction and serial production within the generating a “hallucination of the normal”. the studio will carefully study techniques contemporary city through the design of a research facility for This normality, understood as the absence of from other disciplines, such as the Oulipo immaterial labor. the special, can be likened to a literal condition group; reading concrete poetry and studying where there is no more than the thing itself. the paintings of Wade Guyton to explore their potential in architectural production. Also in Further Alejandro Zaera-Polo connects the the work of Kenneth Goldsmith we can locate work of Lacaton Vassal to literalism and new forms of artistic production which through cheapness in his essay “Cheapness: No Frills its direct and uncreative way manages to and Bare Life” of 2010: reinvent writing. The studio will begin with the examination of to unfold, where uniqueness is replaced by precedents, studying buildings from late 19th reproducibility. As opposed to the European “Of all contemporary architects exploring Century in Chicago. During 1850-1910 the city avant-garde of the early 20th century, where the idea of value as a projectual argument, of Chicago experienced a radical transformation the structural frame was heavily connected Lacatón & Vassal comes closest to the idea of in its city fabric and economic reality of with ideology, the Chicago frame was not actual bare life, where building is understood architectural production. Following advances imbued with meaning, it was the product of a as an assemblage of systems arrayed in an ad in the development of steel production in the structural revolution without a stable theoretical hoc manner, suspending the representation of rail industry and the advent of the elevator, support. The Chicago Frame was austere and a qualified life in architecture. The buildings the big Chicago fire brought the necessity of a the Chicago architects “frankly accepted the are barely conditioned, austere, and semi- rapid reconstruction that was embraced by the conditions imposed by the speculator”. exterior environments, again using a neo- open minded matter-of-factness of the Chicago Rousseauian aesthetic of community with the entrepreneur and subsequently the architects. Taking these two opposing ways of natural, reminiscent of several aspects of Arte This gave way to new forms of practices in the understanding structure as a point of departure, Povera (and to the installations of Lucy Orta United States and architectural offices grew we will expand this discussion by investigating or the clothing lines of the Japanese brand rapidly from the first professionals in the 1820´s a direct and literal architecture: an architecture Final Home). Unlike Gehry’s cheapness, where to 110 employees in the 1890´s. of matter-of-fact who´s aims and agency is clear double skins, pochéd spaces, and complex and stated. Literalism, as Mark Linder describes geometries produce a sophisticated envelope In his essay “The Chicago Frame” Colin Rowe in his book “Nothing Less Than Literal: with frills at relatively affordable prices, describes the Chicago structural steel frame Architecture After Minimalism”, originated as a Lacatón & Vassals veritable no frills strategy construction as a non-ideological application discourse in art but influenced by architecture, appears to be working more with ephemerality, of its contemporary economic and material which later had architectural implications and transparency, and continuity between inside and reality assembled into a carte blanche for life manifestations in works such as John Hejduk´s outside, lacerating expense across the entire Wall House. Form and Content Research Center Readings References The studio will delve into the relationship of Participants will work on the design on a • Woods, M., 1999. From Craft to Profession • 1879 Leiter Building form and content, creating architecture which research facility in an high density urban The Practice of Architecture in Nineteenth- • 1880 Rand McNally Building serves as a frame that has tolerance for change setting in Chicago, which should hold a sense Century America. 1st ed. Berkely: • 1881 Montauk Building and conversion. of generality to allow for future change and University of California Press. • 1888 Home Insurance Building In architecture, the neoliberal economy has transformation. Learning from Flavio Motta´s • Huyssen, A., 2017. Miniature Metropolis. • 1889 Leiter Building II broken down the relationship between form and recognition of “meaningful spaces with no Harvard University Press. • 1889 Tacoma Building content, as projects are planned and built with name” we will develop architecture which goes • Larson, E., 2017. The Devil in the White • 1891 Ludington Building an unstable future where the twists and turns of beyond function and through that seek new City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the • 1891 Rookery Building global economy render an accurate projection of types of spaces for learning. Fair That Changed America. Vintage Books. • 1891 Schiller Building occupation difficult. Research centers, in this case a space for • Linder, M., 2017. Nothing Less Than • 1891 Fair Building immaterial labour, work on production and Literal. MIT Press. • 1891 Wainwright Building In this world of speculation and rapid validation of knowledge, and students can • Goldsmith, K., 2011. Uncreative Writing. • 1892 Masonic Temple Building transformability, there is a potential for shifting choose to focus on facilities connected to the Columbia University Press. • 1892 Woman´s Christian Temple Building the focus of architecture away from symbolic sciences, political, economic or art research. • Rothkopf, S., 2012. Wade Guyton OS. Yale • 1893 Monadnock Building image making and into a literal domain: Guided by studious curiosity and economic University Press. • 1893 Stock Exchange Building Building is just building and the structural interests, these are spaces that host highly • Koolhaas, R, 1995 The Generic City. in: • 1894 Old Colony Building frame, details, materials and manufacturing is specialized study. O.M.A., Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau (eds.), • 1895 Home Insurance Building the architecture which allows for contemporary S, M, L, XL. Monacelli Press, p.1248-1264. • 1895 Reliance Building life to unfold. In the design of the building we will work with • Zaera-Polo, Alejandro, 2010, Cheapness: No • 1895 Marquette Building the industrial process of productuction to build Frills and Bare Life, Log Magazine, p.15-27. • 1896 Fisher Building “tailor made” industrial products or investigate • Rowe, Colin, 1976, The Chicago Frame. in: • 1896 Guaranty Building the potential of “off the shelf” elements, such The mathematics of the ideal villa and other • 1899 Cable Building as building parts and details. We will then look essays. MIT Press, • 1899 Schesinger-Mayer Building into contemporary modes of construction, • 1903 Chaping & Gore Building slip casting, 3D printing, CNC milling, other • 1905 Chicago Savings Bank Building manufacturing technologies. In their projects, • 1911 Peoples Gas Building students will engage in architectural production through detailed design and crafting of both buildings, employing drawing, model making and writing as essential means to produce architecture. By the end of the semester, the students will have produced architecture which proudly can be pointed to and exclaimed: this is this! .