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SCÈNES DE NUIT – Excursus Into Nocturnal Obliteration In 2021-4185-AJA 1 SCÈNES DE NUIT – Excursus into Nocturnal 2 Obliteration in Architectural Media 3 4 SCÈNES DE NUIT is a research project that explores the role of night in the 5 construction of contemporary cities and societies, illustrating how, still today, 6 architectural theory and critique are associated with sunlight and diurnal paradigms. 7 It is structured around the hypothesis that, since the 19th century, night has 8 transformed not only night-time but most importantly daytime activities and 9 architecture forever. The project addresses the technologies, networks and forms of 10 design deployed in nocturnal architectural spaces and their associated communities, 11 engaging with both local and global audiences through a broad network of 12 practitioners and theoreticians in architectural and night design, as well as experts 13 from different fields, such as sociology, economics, philosophy and media studies, that 14 are relevant to understanding the intersections between space, night and society at 15 large. Scènes de Nuit presents nocturnal encounters seeking to examine and reflect 16 upon the spaces, activities and media found in night culture, using evening events and 17 ephemeral scenography as the main presentation platform. Research is conducted in 18 various formats, temporalities and conditions, focusing on nocturnal architectural 19 spaces through, but not limited to, inhabited scenography, performative exhibitions, 20 international conferences, debates and screenings. Scènes de Nuit proposes that there 21 is no difference between format and content, between the production of nocturnal 22 knowledge and the scenography of night. 23 24 25 Exhibition at f’ar Lausanne, May 2019 26 27 For centuries, architectural theory, discourse and agency have been based 28 on daylight and solar paradigms. References to the night in Vitruvius’ De 29 architectura (30-15 BC), widely considered the founding text of Western 30 architectural theory, are residual, and they are similarly absent in the most 31 influential Renaissance treatises, i.e. Leon Battista Alberti’s De re aedificatoria 32 (1452) and Andrea Palladio’s I quattro libri dell’architettura (1570). Likewise, 33 the seminal writings on modern architecture rarely refer to the night-time 34 environment, which can be evaluated both textually and photographically. In 35 this sense, Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock’s The International 36 Style (1932), the @ resulting from the MoMA exhibition that introduced 37 modernism to America, illustrates a clear preference for daytime images, 1 38 noting that “the photographs and the plans were for the most part provided by 39 the architects themselves”2. This diurnal rationale is further discernible in the 40 books that established the intellectual ethos of architectural modernity, i.e. 1. Only 4 images out of 83 photographs show artificially-lit spaces: Alvar Aalto’s Turum Sanomat building, Uno Ahren’s Flamman Soundfilm Theater, Marcel Breuer’s Berlin apartment, and Jan Ruhtenberg’s living room in Germany. See: Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style, New York – London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1932/1995. 2. Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style, New York – London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1932/1995: 9. 1 2021-4185-AJA 1 Nikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936) and Sigfried 2 Giedion’s Space, Time and Architecture (1941), where less than 5% of the 3 images are purely nocturnal, understanding the term in the circadian sense of 4 absence of daylight. Accompanying texts only help to emphasise this nocturnal 5 obliteration. Likewise, the canonical architectural history books published in 6 the last sixty years, such as Leonardo Benevolo’s Storia dell'architettura 7 moderna (1960) and Kenneth Frampton’s Modern Architecture: A Critical 8 History (1980), have institutionalised the diurnal episteme in architectural 9 media. 10 In the second half of the 20th century, authors such as Reyner Banham, 11 Venturi and Scott Brown, and Rem Koolhaas corrected to a certain extent the 12 invisibility of the night in architectural theory with influential books such as 13 The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment (1969), Learning from 14 Las Vegas (1972) and Delirious New York (1978), which partially examine the 15 role of technology and the night in the construction of modern domesticity and 16 leisure culture in Western architecture. From apartments to offices, casinos to 17 nightclubs, movie theatres to theme parks, these texts emphasise how the 18 identity of contemporary human beings and their associated domestic, 19 professional and cultural spaces are inseparable from the night. In the 80s, 20 extensive audiovisual and written research was carried out on the “night as a 21 heterotopia”, as illustrated by the in-depth investigations of dystopian cinema, 22 such as the films Escape from New York (1981) or Blade Runner (1982), which 23 explore the qualities of darkness, indefiniteness and the uncanny aura of 24 architecture in the absence of sunlight. Night is somehow seen as an “other” 25 (hetero) space, i.e. disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory, and 26 transforming the regular condition of the human habitat. In recent decades, 27 significant contributions have been made by John A. Jakle in the book City 28 Lights (2001), Dietrich Neumann in Architecture of the Night (2003), Edward 29 Dimendberg in Film Noir and the Spaces of Modernity (2004) and Jonathan 30 Crary in 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (2013). In the latter, 31 Crary explores how sleep, through its very existence and progressive reduction 32 in recent decades, has become the last remaining bastion of resistance to the 33 increasing monetisation of human activity in market economies. In the same 34 vein, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings openly declared in 2017 that “we are 35 competing with sleep, on the margin, it is a very large pool of time” 3 , 36 envisioning human biology as the biggest challenge to his company’s market. 37 These references typify the extent to which the identity of contemporary 38 human beings and their domestic, professional and cultural spaces are 39 inseparable from the night. However, as of today, contemporary architectural 40 media, including the most influential magazines such as El Croquis, 41 Apartamento, or A+U, still present theory and photography where more 42 than 90% of the pictures are taken in the daytime. Accompanying essays 3. “Netflix's biggest competition is sleep, says CEO Reed Hastings”, April 19, 2017, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/netflix- downloads-sleep-biggest-competition-video-streaming-ceo-reed-hastings-amazon-prime-sky- go-now-tv-a7690561.html 2 2021-4185-AJA 1 rarely refer to night spaces, not to mention night-time activities and associated 2 behaviours. Of all the architecture biennials held worldwide since the Venice 3 Biennale was inaugurated in 1980, not one has been dedicated to the night, yet 4 the night has been the most important laboratory of architectural 5 experimentation since the invention of artificial light in the 19th century, 6 prompting an endless intensification of human activity that has forever 7 transformed the means of material, cultural and spatial production. 8 Scènes de Nuit aims to examine and contest the obliteration of night in 9 architectural media. The exhibition held in May 2019 at f’ar (Forum d’ 10 architectures) in Lausanne explored the role of the night in the construction of 11 contemporary cities and societies, illustrating how architectural theory and 12 critique are still nowadays associated with sunlight and diurnal paradigms. The 13 venue addressed the technology, networks and forms of design deployed in 14 nocturnal architectural spaces and their associated communities, engaging with 15 both local and global audiences through a broad network of practitioners and 16 theoreticians in architectural and night design as well as experts from different 17 disciplines relevant to understanding the intersections between space, night and 18 society at large, such as the arts, anthropology, sociology, economics and 19 media studies. 20 The approach was typological, namely understanding types as forms of 21 continuity and specificity running through the history of architecture. If type 22 was associated with natural forms by Quatrèmere de Quincy in the 18th century, 23 with geometric and tectonic elements by J.N.L. Durand in the 19th century, and 24 with programs and functions by Le Corbusier in the 20th century4, can we 25 admit the specificity of night types and explore their implications for 26 architectural discourse in the 21st century? Further still, contemporary technical 27 conditions no longer aim to artificially replicate a “natural” night. Instead, they 28 create “night scenes”, i.e. new living environments that are more than a simple 29 imitation of diurnal life. The exhibition sought to address the architectural 30 issues arising from these “night scenes”. 31 The venue at f’ar Lausanne was only open for five evenings, proposing a 32 mutable scenography that changed according to the night types to be discussed, 33 explored and performed. The five scenes—Shop, Film, City, Club and 34 Dinner—recreated spaces generating practices and night-time rituals on the 35 topics of “consumption”, “cinema”, “urbanity”, “party” and “food”, becoming 36 experimental laboratories to gather data and question the relationship between 37 architecture and the night. Research was developed through events in various 38 formats, temporalities and conditions, focusing on nocturnal architectural 39 spaces through, but not limited to, inhabited scenography, performative 40 exhibitions, international conferences, debates and screenings. The project 41 contended that there is no difference between format and content, between the 42 production of knowledge related to the night and the scenography of night. The 43 above-mentioned night types were directly tested at actual events. In the 44 manner of Period Rooms that reconstruct interiors from a specific period, 4.
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