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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 . 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.

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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 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

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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 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. For a discussion on typology throughout the history of architecture, see: , “On Typology”, Oppositions, no. 13 (1978): 23–45.

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1 typological and fragmented scenes in various scales were physically created to 2 sit at the heart of stimulating night-time experiences. These new referential 3 spaces, both narrative and scenographic, were used for discussion and research 4 purposes. The venue presented five nocturnal encounters seeking to examine 5 and reflect upon the spaces, activities and media found in night culture, using 6 evening events and ephemeral sets as the main display platform. 7 Shop. 09.05.2019. 7PM. The Corner Shop may arguably be the ultimate 8 night-time institution. Typically open when other shops are closed, its cheap 9 disruption of the circadian rhythm was explored by proposing a spatial 10 immersion into a reconstructed replica, where sociologist Sukhdev Sandhu and 11 artist Martin Kohout discussed their vision of nocturnal working conditions. 12 Film. 12.05.2019. 8PM. What makes the Film Theatre an extraordinary 13 place is its capacity to isolate the audience from night or day, creating a space 14 of endless temporality. Within an immersive scenography of cinematic boxes, 15 director Matthieu Bareyre presented his latest film L’époque, discussing with 16 Youri Kravtchenko the entanglements between night, space and architecture. 17 City. 18.05.2019. 10PM. The lighting aspect of the city is perceived as a 18 parallel space-time to be experienced through lit and unlit territories. How has 19 artificial light affected nightlife? What influences does light have on safety and 20 night-time activities? This event explored those questions through a 21 presentation by Isabelle Corten, lighting designer, and a nocturnal walk led by 22 the Stalker Collective/Osservatorio Nomade in the city of Lausanne. 23 Club. 24.05.2019. 11PM. The Club both epitomises the nocturnal public 24 agora and constitutes the ultimate laboratory for technological and multimedia 25 experimentation. Ensconced in a one-night club where visitors were 26 encouraged to explore and perform the nocturnal space, architect Pol Esteve 27 reflected upon nightclubs as architectural types while Octave Perrault 28 elaborated on the Cruising Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Biennale. 29 Dinner. 29.05.2019. 9PM. Restaurants and bars are the defining 30 nightlife meeting places, scenes of complex human rituals skilfully constructed 31 through interior architecture. Researcher Julien Zanetta described banquet 32 rituals and associated human behaviours throughout history, the point of 33 departure of a special dinner served on a long banquet table crafted for the 34 occasion. 35 Developed by students in HEAD – Genève’s BA in Interior Architecture 36 programme, the scenography at f’ar Lausanne was not just a backdrop to the 37 exhibition but rather a prop to stimulate and provoke discussions on the 38 proposed topics, envisioning the architecture event as a place to collectively 39 produce knowledge. Capturing fragments of nocturnal images has often been 40 the field of exploration of photography, painting, cinema and literature. At f’ar 41 Lausanne, the proposal was to capture and reconstruct the night in various 42 scales. The production of nocturnal spaces and fragments, whether inhabited, 43 experimented with or observed, allowed to grasp their most subtle properties, 44 not only in the process of research and construction but also in the experience 45 of the spaces thus produced. For each event, students designed a scenography 46 that could change as a prototype of space and vice versa, exploring the night

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1 through tools used in architecture and theatre, such as building models, sets and 2 fragments of space in different scales. The sampling and reconstitution of the 3 scenes was carried out according to three protocols of demonstration: Walking 4 in and Looking at, appropriated from Milica Topalovic’s seminal essay 5 “Models and Other Spaces” 5 , and Catching in, borrowed from our own 6 memories and interests. The proposed methodology was based as much on the 7 process of research/observation of fragments of nocturnal spaces (generally 8 originating from photography or cinema) as on the unifying and knowledge- 9 bearing events they generated. 10 Catching in. This process focused on how collective memory shapes the 11 recollections, emotions and perceptions produced by the built environment, the 12 lived space. It represents the ruin, or part of the space that could be assembled 13 by a nocturnal flaneur. The sampling of fragments is the result extracted from 14 image-spaces, becoming a catalogue of polyphonic elements such as relics, 15 pictures, photographs and documents, which together generate a collective 16 memory of what “night” is. 17 Looking at. Models in smaller scales are uninhabitable and can only be 18 perceived by the eye and the imagination. Models in varying scales make it 19 possible to produce a new image from a miniaturised space, broaching issues 20 such as the relationship between their representativeness and objecthood, their 21 dependence on and potential autonomy from full-scale architecture, and their 22 detachment from the human body and sense of visual inhabitation. 23 Walking in. As fragile as theatre sets, dioramas and art installations, 1:1 24 scale models, also known as life-size models, allow for the creation of 25 observable and experimental three-dimensional freeze-frames in circumstances 26 that simulate night-time reality through the artifice of construction. These types 27 of models to be experimented with are as familiar as they are remote. In this 28 sense, the scenography at f’ar Lausanne was simultaneously representational 29 (directly alluding to iconic archetypes), manipulative (deforming them both 30 visually and spatially) and autonomous (becoming both the content and the 31 objective of their own representation). 32 The scenes, fragments and discussions presented at f’ar Lausanne 33 highlight partial and fragmentary tales of a semantic, physical night of which 34 much remains to be told. From this perspective, the exhibition represents a 35 beginning. The exploration of contemporary and past habits in the use of night 36 spaces is limited to a few cases that can shed but limited light on the galaxies 37 of interiors and constructions that clubs, restaurants, shops, cinemas and urban 38 fragments provide. Our hope is that this essay, and all it does not contain, will 39 inspire those who read it to study these nocturnal scenes and draw stimulating 40 new night-time constellations.

5. Milica Topalovic, “Models and Other Spaces”, OASE #84, Maquettes / Models (2011): 37–45.

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1 El Croquis Night 2 3 “Taking pictures by night is very difficult, because you only have 20 4 minutes, the sun is going down, there is a moment when it is perfect, then it 5 is less perfect, and then you can’t do it, it’s too dark. Because you need to 6 see the outline of the building.”6 7 Richard Levene, founder of El Croquis. Geneva, 2019 8 9 El Croquis is one of the most prestigious architectural magazines in the 10 world. Founded in 1982 by Richard Levene and Fernando M. Cecilia, it 11 publishes five monographs on influential architects every year. Through a 12 series of recurrent features such as the preference for frontality, the display of 13 mirroring photos of interior spaces, plans displaying characteristic linearism, 14 construction details paired with façade photos, and the objecthood and 15 exteriority of architecture models, El Croquis has shaped architectural history 16 over the last 40 years. The volumes dedicated to established Pritzker Prize 17 names like OMA Rem Koolhaas, SANAA Sejima & Nishizawa, Herzog & de 18 Meuron, or Alvaro Siza are considered these architects’ respective oeuvre 19 complète. As opposed to other architecture journals, its editorial line, 20 photography, and layout are the direct result of the decision making of its two 21 editors, who curate everything from the architects featured in the journal to the 22 frame and viewpoint of every single photograph. This creates a unique sense of 23 continuity in El Croquis, both unexpected and uncanny, where architectures as 24 diverse in their idea and spatiality as those of Rem Koolhaas, , 25 SANAA, , or become Croquis-like when they are 26 published in the journal. 27 The entanglements between the editors’ vision, habits, and the mediation 28 of architecture are inseparable. Initially, Levene and Cecilia were simply two 29 architecture students confronted with the challenge of delivering their final 30 degree project at the School of Architecture (ETSAM) in the early 31 1980s, and the first issues of El Croquis were thus a miscellaneous collection 32 of final projects of young graduates, full of construction details that fellow 33 students could use as reference. It was not until issue No. 15, entirely dedicated 34 to the projects of Manuel and Ignacio de las Casas, two lecturers at the same 35 school, with an addendum on student projects, that the monograph format was 36 devised. Further monographs on Rafael Moneo (20), Estudio PER (23), and 37 Viaplana-Piñón (28), introduced by a critical essay and an interview with the 38 architects, would progressively confirm the now well-known format of the 39 journal. The transition from student projects to professional agencies did not 40 mean a total reshaping of the journal. Original elements such as the abundance 41 of construction details, plans printed in large size, and unbuilt projects 42 presented mainly through models remained, yet photography, as medium and 43 episteme, gained unprecedented centrality.

6. Richard Levene, “Inside El Croquis,” interview by Javier F. Contreras and Sven Högger, February 21, 2020, https://issue-journal.ch/flux-posts/el-croquis-a-conversation-with- richard-levene/.

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1 The journal almost never publishes night photography. During a workshop 2 in February 2020, HEAD – Genève invited Richard Levene to create a “night 3 edition” of El Croquis. The workshop focused on the idea that the night is a 4 forgotten paradigm in the construction of contemporary architectural discourse. 5 Students developed an El Croquis Night issue based on the magazine’s 6 photographic and editorial language, spending two weeks photographing 7 prominent contemporary buildings in Geneva under Levene’s supervision from 8 the blue hour in the evening to after nightfall, a material that they later laid out 9 and edited in a virtual edition of the journal. The combination of photographic 10 portrayal, plans, text selection, and editing of the collected material enabled 11 students to understand El Croquis’ working methods. The workshop was both 12 an invitation and a critique. By keeping the format and methodology but 13 reversing the circadian rhythm, a mirror effect was achieved, opening up the 14 following question for architectural media: Is architectural representation 15 diurnal by default? 16 In the case of El Croquis, take the figure of a journey. Most buildings 17 published in the journal have been visited directly by Levene and Cecilia with 18 their photographer, Hisao Suzuki, who joined the journal in 1988. For 19 monographs involving projects in different countries, this implies careful travel 20 planning, in coordination with the architects and the buildings’ users. Building 21 visits are scheduled during the day, with a maximum of three per day, arranged 22 with the architects and the property. This program is rarely altered, never mind 23 whether it is the blue hour or sunshine, regardless of weather conditions or 24 season. For instance, all buildings in the monograph on José María Sánchez 25 García (189) were photographed over three straight sunny days in Extremadura 26 (), whereas those in one of the monographs on SANAA Sejima & 27 Nishizawa (139) show varying weather conditions in different Japanese, 28 European, and American locations. The point of view, carefully chosen, 29 discussed, and agreed by Levene and Cecilia, is executed, not chosen, by the 30 photographer. In the genealogical tree of media, Suzuki would belong in the 31 category of automaton, his principal role being in the execution and processing 32 of photography, not its conception. Pictures from other photographers are 33 included only in exceptional cases, such as difficulties accessing particular 34 points of view, temporary closures, or building deterioration. 35 Night is reserved for dining, in many cases with the architects, and 36 friendly discussions around bottles of wine, where the names of other architects 37 might come up: “Have you seen the work of this architect? Who is the next big 38 name in ?” Following the normal circadian rhythm in this way, however, 39 is unrelated to architectural rhythm. Take Rem Koolhaas for instance. The 40 Seattle Library is mostly used during the daytime, and the El Croquis 41 photographs thus reflect the life of the building in monograph No. 134/135, 42 whereas the Casa da Musica in Porto, mainly an evening building in terms of 43 programming, appears empty, human-less in the same issue. In 2006, Koolhaas 44 introduced the idea of “post-occupancy,” originally a term reserved for the

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1 evaluation of buildings involving user feedback,7 to architectural criticism in a 2 special issue of the journal Domus by looking at four OMA public buildings 3 (including the Casa da Musica and the Seattle Library) through the broader 4 media and cultural context within which they operate, empowering the critical 5 experience of users.8 The issue included abundant nighttime material on the 6 projects portrayed. Long before the social media era, it was key in the 7 articulation—or consolidation—of a radical shift in the point of view through 8 which architecture is regarded, portrayed, and circulated, from the eye of the 9 specialist to that of society at large, giving it new agency in architectural 10 discourse. 11 The resistance to night photography in El Croquis, other than due to habits 12 and trip schedules, is related to the blurring of architectural volumes at night. 13 Atmospheric, diffuse, or blurred would never describe any of its photography. 14 There is a diurnal exteriority in this way of thinking – “Because you need to 15 see the outline of the building,”9 as Levene would claim in a conversation on 16 the history of the journal. Only one night photograph, that of the Rolex Center 17 in Lausanne by SANAA, has made the cover of El Croquis (155). This creates, 18 literally, an image that shapes the rest of the content. There is a recurrent 19 absence of lighting plans, not to mention diagrams, in the drawings. The non- 20 visuality of architecture, i.e., its acoustic, thermal, and lighting qualities, is 21 recurrently rendered invisible, not only by the limitations of photography but 22 also in the choice of the accompanying graphic material. 23 Through photography, El Croquis objectifies – in the literal sense of 24 rendering objects – architectural spaces, particularly from the outside, with a 25 recurrent yet not exclusive preference for the isolated building, be it the small 26 villa or the large public building, surrounded by trees or urban elements, yet 27 bucolic, meteoric in its presence. It is no wonder that architecture models are 28 almost always portrayed from the outside, through a bird’s eye view, as objects, 29 becoming as Levene claims, “pieces of jewelry.” 10 Models are hardly ever 30 portrayed from the inside, and when they are, space is the negative of tectonic 31 elements, floors, walls, columns. This keeps alive the modern dissociation 32 between architecture and the applied arts, prioritizing the empty, human-less, 33 isolated object over the assemblage. 34 Most buildings published in El Croquis are houses or public buildings. 35 Visits are arranged with the architects and the property. In the case of the 36 houses, owners are invited to leave when their interiors are portrayed. Then, 37 Levene and Cecilia perform an instant mise-en-scène: ugly objects of everyday 38 life are removed, hidden. If, in Le Corbusier’s photography, objects construct 39 the fiction that someone was there just before the shoot, in El Croquis this 40 presence is recurrently obliterated, rendered invisible. There are no human 41 beings in most pictures. Sometimes Levene and Cecilia pose, in Hitchcock

7. See: Wolfgang F. E. Preiser, Edward White, and Harvey Rabinowitz, Post-Occupancy Evaluation (Routledge Revivals) (London: Routledge, 2015). 8. See: Post-Occupancy, ed. AMO / Rem Koolhaas (Milan: Domus d’Autore, 2006). 9. Levene, “Inside El Croquis.” 10. Ibid.

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1 cameo style, as passers-by, but never as users. In sports courts they are never 2 playing sports, in libraries never reading books, as if underlining the artifice of 3 the operation. On the published architects’ side, plans are redrawn, models 4 remade (or simply made), projects invented (“for a private customer”), 5 buildings “cleaned,” garbage bins removed, signs temporarily removed, objects 6 of everyday life erased, people invited to leave. If “post-occupancy” was the 7 promise that buildings were to be launched into society and observed through 8 the process of their appropriation by human beings, then El Croquis holds the 9 promise of an architecture never to be occupied or inhabited, where spaces 10 remain pristine, eternally diurnal.

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