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Performative Architecture Design Strategies for Living Bodies

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Performative Architecture Design Strategies for Living Bodies Performative Architecture Design Strategies for Living Bodies Sam Spurr A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of English, Media and Performance Arts University of New South Wales 2007 i Originality Statement ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date …………………10.01.2008………………………….................. ii Acknowledgements Sincere thanks must go to my supervisors James Donald and Ed Scheer. I am particularly grateful to Ed, where in amongst the caffeined conversations have been your continual reassurance, dedication and inspiration to this changing project throughout the years. I am very grateful to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauch Dienst for the opportunity to live and research several aspects of this thesis in Berlin. I would also like to thank Erika Fisher-Lichte and the Sonderforschungsbereich Kulteren des Performativen Research group at the Free University in Berlin, for their support and welcoming into an inspirational place of research. Thank you to Gabrielle Brandstetter for your innovative introductions to the body in dance theory. Thankyou also to the Bauhaus Archive, Berlin for their interest and help with this project. Thankyou to my persevering editors Roger Dawkins, John Golder and most specifically to the articulate and charming Hamish Ford, for going above and beyond your editorial roles. Thankyou to Justin Tauber for your phenomenological insights and to Kim Roberts for your thoughtful reading. To all the friends who have remained accepting of my moods and absences, and those that have particularly supported me; Samantha Newman for your friendship and home, Charles Rice for your ever wise and calming council, Ben Hewett for the tangible and intangible support of my fragile sanity, and to Toby Winton-Brown for your love and care through these many, many years. Finally thankyou to my family; Mum, Peter, Pam and Michael and my dear father. For all the last minute demands, housing, phone calls and desperations, funding, editing, and continuing, irrational love. iii Abstract Under the title ‘Performative Architecture’, this thesis draws on theories from performance studies and phenomenology in order to look beyond humanist practices that see the body as fixed and static. This thesis addresses two questions that I will be arguing are of increasing significance to contemporary architecture: Firstly, in the context of emerging digital and digitised spaces, how does the living body interact with the surrounding environment?; and secondly, what do these changing forms of human inhabitation and movement mean for the practice of architecture? The time frame spans from the work of Oskar Schlemmer in the 1920s to contemporary built works, examining the different ways that performativity has infiltrated architectural design. The case studies are divided into architectural performances that highlight the living body, and performative drawings that explore how to bring that body into the design process. In doing so a number of emerging paradigms become apparent that find built form in contemporary architectural examples. This approach is used to describe and analyse recent projects by Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, Diller and Scofidio and Lars Spuybroek, and to identify a common orientation through very different types of built environments. Acknowledging the change in both bodies and spaces in the Information Age, this research seeks to make room for the living body in the design of emerging, multi- dimensional, built environments. iv Contents Originality Statement ii Acknowledgments iii Abstract iv Contents v List of Illustrations vii INTRODUCTION 1 0.1 The Body 7 0.2 Performance Studies 10 0.3 Performative Architectures 14 0.4 Justification of Research 15 0.5 Research Methodologies 17 0.6 Key Terms 19 0.7 Thesis Outline 22 ChapterONE: The Space of Architecture 26 1.1 The Situation of Space 27 1.2 Technology and Architecture 29 1.3 Stable Spaces and Moving Bodies 35 1.4 The Space of Architectural Discourse 40 1.5 The Body in Architecture 43 1.6 Previous Connections Between Performativity and Architecture 56 ChapterTWO: Bodies and Drawings 60 2.1 The Creative Body 62 2.2 The Phenomenological Body 65 2.3 The Space between Bodies 74 2.4 Drawing Architecture 80 ChapterTHREE: Architecture Performances 90 3.1 Moving Bodies and Buildings 92 3.2 Making Visible Body Movement: The Ballets of Oskar Schlemmer 93 3.3 Pedestrian Improvisations 114 3.4 Activating Spaces/ Spaces: The Performances of Vito Acconci 120 3.5 Urban Transactions 135 ChapterFOUR: Performative Drawings 140 4.1 Mapping Situations 143 4.2 Losing Perspective 149 4.3 Scripting for Experience: The Masques of John Hejduk 157 4.4 Drawing Dance 171 4.5 Moving Drawings: The Drawings of Bernard Tschumi 178 4.6 Drawing Conclusions 192 v ChapterFIVE: Non-Standard Architecture 194 5.1 Performative Design Processes 196 5.2 The Diagram 199 5.3 New Spatial Structures 207 5.4 Topological Architecture 210 5.5 Bodily Interfaces 212 5.6 Emergent Design Paradigms 216 ChapterSIX: Performative Architecture 227 6.1 Extension to the Jewish Museum, Germany 229 6.2 The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Germany 240 6.3 The Blur Building, Swiss Exposition 250 6.4 The H20 Pavilion, Netherlands 263 CONCLUSION 279 Works Cited 287 Electronic Resources 293 vi List of Illustrations Figure 1 95 Schlemmer, Oskar The Triadic Ballet, 1922. Source: Ehrlich, Doreen The Bauhaus (Mallard Press: US, 1991), p.154. Figure 2 100 Fuller, Loie (photograph), 1894. Source: Kruman, Susan Gillis, The Early Moderns, www.pitt.edu Retrieved 06.06.2007 at <http://www.pitt.edu/~gillis/dance/2.gif> Figure 3 112 Oskar Schlemmer, Slat Dance,1927. Source: Oskar Schlemmer, Slat Dance (1927) The Expressionists, 12.08.2000. www.english.emory.edu. Retrieved 10.03.2007 at <http://www.english.emory.edu/DRAMA/ExpressionImage.html> Figure 4 116 Debord, Guy The Naked City. Source: De Zegher, Catherine, The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond (The MIT Press: USA,1999), p.96. Figure 5 124 Acconci, Vito Instant House,1980. Source: Linker, Kate. Vito Acconci (Rizzoli: New York, 1994), p. 46. Figure 6 127 Acconci, Vito Seedbed (performance), 1972. Source: Linker, Kate, Vito Acconci, (Rizzoli: New York, 1994), p. 46. Figure 7 137 Nuiwenhuys, Constant, Sector Constructie, New Babylon, 1956. Source: De Zegher, Catherine, The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond (The MIT Press: USA, 1999), p.119. Figure 8 145 Debord, Guy, page from Mémoires, 1957. Source: Careri, Francesco, Walkscapes: Walking as an Aesthetic Process, (Editorial Gustavo Gili: Spain, 2002), p.105. Figure 9 150 Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, Le Carceri, plate 6 (second state), 1761. Source: Bloomer, Jennifer. Architecture and the Text: The (s)crypts of Joyce and Piranesi, (Yale University Press: New Haven & London, 1993), p.121. vii Figure 10 151 Libeskind, Daniel, Micromegas 3, Leakage. Source: Libeskind, Daniel. Libeskind at the Soane: Drawing a New Architecture, (Sir John Soane's Museum: Great Britain, 2001), p.9. Figure 11 156 Hejduk, John, ‘Retired General’s Place’ from The Lancaster/Hanover Masque Source: Hejduk, John. The Lancaster/Hanover Masque, (Architectural Association: London, 1992), p.25. Figure 12 156 Hejduk, John Text for ‘Retired General’s Place’ from The Lancaster/Hanover Masque Source: Hejduk, John. The Lancaster/Hanover Masque, (Architectural Association: London, 1992), p.26. Figure 13 178 Tschumi, Bernard, from The Manhattan Transcripts (2). 1978 Source: Tschumi, Bernard. Architecture and Disjunction, (MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1994), frontispiece. Figure 14 190 Tschumi, Bernard, Screenplays. 1977. Source: Tschumi, Bernard. Architecture and Disjunction, (MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1994), p.152. Figure 15 228 Libeskind, Daniel, Extension to the Jewish Museum, 2001. Source: photographs by Ben Hewett. Figure 16 240 Eisenman, Peter, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, 2005. Source: photograph by Ben Hewett. Figure 17 250 Diller & Scofidio, Blur Building, Switzerland, 2002. Source: Diller, Elizabeth & Scofidio, Ricardo, Blur: The Making of Nothing, (Harry N. Abrams: New York, 2002), p. 371. Figure 18 263 NOX Architecture, The H2O Pavilion, 2006. Source: photographs by Toby Winton-Brown. Figure 19 263 NOX Architecture, The H2O Pavilion, 2006. Source: photographs by Toby Winton-Brown. Figure 20 280 Phaeno Science Centre, Germany, 2006. Source: photograph by Ben Hewett. viii Figure 21 280 Mercedes Museum, Germany, 2006. Source: photograph by Ben Hewett. Figure 22 280 Digital image, World Millennium Tower, Busan Korea Source: www.europaconcorsi.com, 04-04-2007. Retrieved 10.06.2007 at <http://www.europaconcorsi.com/db/pub/scheda.php?id=15961> ix ChapterINTRODUCTION 1 This thesis is concerned with bodies and spaces, both singularly and in the way they inter-relate. Entering into the new millennium it has become more important than ever before that we reassess the ways in which bodies and spaces are used to construct our built environment. Human movement in everyday life is now a fluid transition through multiple spaces and geographical co-ordinates are as likely to be defined by mobile phone reception as a road map. These spaces mesh and blur, indifferent to physical boundaries. Technology has created new environments both virtual and material, and to inhabit these terrains the body must re-invent itself.
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