Oz

Volume 14 Article 2

1-1-1992

Destroy Experimental Architecture!

Lebbeus Woods

Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/oz

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation Woods, Lebbeus (1992) "Destroy Experimental Architecture!," Oz: Vol. 14. https://doi.org/10.4148/ 2378-5853.1229

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oz by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Destroy Experimental Architecture!

Lebbeus Woods

Several years ago, following the acquired by attacking "paper archi­ experience what questions to ask and modern stream of consciousness, Research Institute for Experimental tecture") writing in a journal (which have the expertise to address them. but-fortunately-very little ofthe Architecture (RIEA) First Conference I will not name, for the same reason) To ask students who have little or actually constructed world. Never­ on Experimental Architecture, I wrote responded to my statements with a no background in architecture to theless, it is a disease that could be­ the following statements: frontal attack. An excerpt: conduct serious research or experi­ come terminal, because its destroys mentation is a mistake. They can respect for the nobility of architec­ Experimental architecture propels I thought ''paper architecture" was contribute nothing to the field of ture, and takes up too much space architecture as an activity and result a problem. Well, there is a new dis­ architectu~e as it is actually prac­ in architectural publications. Stu­ into unknown realms, without sanc­ ease attacking the profession ofarchi­ ticed, simply because they have no dents are seduced by self-proclaimed tion, justification, or the promise of tecture. It is called "experimental understanding ofit. In attempting to "experimental architects, " the most usefulness to anyone. While one can architecture. " This disease is being be "experimentalists, " they only waste virulent bacilli of the disease now argue that experimentation is nec­ spread by a group ofpseudo-archi­ the time they could be spending threatening architecture. The future essary for progress in any field of tects who have arrogated to them­ learning important architectural is to some extent threatened, because thought and work, one is then re­ selves a kind ofautonomous author­ fundamentals, such as functional students are always looking for some quired to state in advance a goal ity to play in the fields ofarchitec­ planning and solar orientation. way to avoid the drudgery of hard that is progressive and essentially ture, as though it were their personal but really valuable architectural optimistic. The presence of goals property. This play, so seductive to While this clever fellow makes many work, and they have been given a prejudices experimental efforts, and young people who have a serious innuendoes, recalling the disreputable convenient way out by these archi­ the necessity of optimism ties them . desire to become architects, has now techniques employed by Pietro tects, many of whom must make a to a chain oflogic that corrupts their begun to infect the architectural Aretino in his attack on Michel­ living teaching, having no profes­ actual purpose, which is experi­ schools. Some of these "experimen­ angelo's Last Judgement, I decided sional work whatsoever. It is high mentation for its own sake. The tal architects" have been invited by not to write a rebuttal, but simply to time the profession takes this infec­ experimental architect claims for well-meaning deans and chairper­ let my statements stand or fall on their tion seriously, this experimental himselfand herselfa .freedom to pur­ sons to teach design studios, where own merits. Within weeks of this first architecture, and dispenses with it sue ideas and work limited only by they spread a gospel of "resistance" attack, the critic repeated (quite liter­ once and for all. their internal possibilities. This or "liberation. "Resistance to what? ally) his tactic, this time in a foreign claim puts the experimental architect Liberation ftom what? More to the journal of normally good repute. An The threat implied in this last state­ at odds with the profession ofarchi­ point, liberation to do what? The excerpt: ment seemed double-edged, aimed at tecture, and most especially with the answer is: be irresponsible and waste me and my experimantalist colleagues, schools that supply the profession time with improbable dreams of There is a new disease in architec­ but also at the students who might with new architects. For them, what architecture "might be, "there­ ture today, and it goes by the name venture into experimental ways of architecture is a service to client and by ignoring what architecture has "experimental architecture. " There is thinking about and making architec­ community, not to architects, and always been and irrevocably is, and a historical basis, or one might say, ture. The whole tenor of these criti­ even less to architecture. To the still needs to be. No one will deny a pathological history to this type of cisms recalled the chilling pro­ experimental architect, architecture that architecture, ifit is to progress, architecture, running from the nouncements of the Nazis about "ver­ is autonomous. needs serious research and responsi­ Futurists, through the Surrealists min" and "bacilli" that must be exter­ ble experimentation. But this can (this was the real impetus behind minated "once and for all." Images of Some time later, a critic (who I will only be accomplished by architects Expressionism), to Archigram, a vir­ Salman Rushdie also came to mind. not name, simply because I do not with substantial professional expe­ ulent strain of hyper-imagistic In America (and Europe?) of the con­ 4 want to increase the fame he has rience, who understand from that ''paper" architecture that pollutes the servative, right-wing late '80s, would we-who represent a minority of an era that promises much more. To the principles they offer are no longer haps in no other time before, the fun­ architects, at best-be denied even whomever might still desire dreariness valid, but that they no longer (if they damentals of living, and therefore of our right to work in the manner that and "drudgery," as a cross to bear for ever did) address the real mission of architecture, are not about static and suited our restless dispositions? Would the manifold sins of mankind, or for education-the asking of questions. timeless verities, but are instead con­ we in fact be ostracized even more less noble, more pathological reasons, In the end, they amount to rote learn­ cerned with the fluidity of things, and than we already are, being hounded I can say nothing at all. ing, however many variations one therefore with the achievement of a from school to school, from loft to might make on east-south orientations kind of dynamical balance, a poise in loft, from exhibition to exhibition? I It is difficult to imagine a more de­ or the rotations of a cube in space. the midst of continual, often tumul­ decided to make a rebuttal, which the manding and critical task in architec­ Yes, we must learn to read and write, tuous and confusing change. The fun­ editors of Oz have been sympathetic ture today than teaching young archi­ but whoever thinks that the equiva­ damentals are concerned with living enough to present here. tects. Given the fast-moving archi­ lent of these civilizing tasks in archi­ and working affirmatively in the midst tectural scene, with its trends, fash­ tecture is or can be acquired by the of uncertainty, even of doubt, even of It is true that many experimental ions, tendencies and general tumult, learning of pre-digested procedures questions which never stop coming, architects have no commissions to any architect-experimental or oth­ forgets that both the substance and and for which the answers seem indef­ build. Serious clients have yet to erwise-is hard-pressed to offer to stu­ mission of architecture today is to cre­ initely postponed. Experimental archi­ emerge for "landscrapers," "suit-a­ dents anything that might in fact seem ate a resonance between the built tecture, like experimental living, is not loons", "subtle bodies," "optigraphs," coherent to them. There are always world and human beings of today. an option in the present world, but a "renegade cities," "cactus buildings," the trends, but if one is a follower of And what are the "fundamentals" of fact of existence. or "aeroliving-labs." It is also true that such things, their propagation through such beings? Perhaps the good critic these architects often earn their living teaching is merely a rear-guard action. (and other "fundamentalists") would The following course description and by teaching in schools of architecture. The students know this better that the wish they were as simple as having the commentary depicts an experimental While the phrase "those who can't teachers who, steeped in the latest morning sun at the breakfast table or project for a Third Year Options Studio do ... teach," is particularly resonant in architectural journals, pass on the fash­ distinguishing one cubical shape from at the Harvard University Graduate America, I shrug off the stigma that ionable ~forms and techniques of the the next. As a teacher and architect­ School ofArchitecture . The project is some would attach to teaching. It is moments, oblivious to the fact that as a human being living in the world entitled Boston Free Zone, in which also true that some students are the publication of anything is already of today-I would rather ask whether Lebbeus Woods is a critic. intrigued enough by the possibilities of proof of its passing. Or, the teacher there needs to be breakfast tables at experimental thinking in architecture may attempt to teach the timeless ver­ all, or even breakfast. I would rather Course Description to make some intriguing explorations ities, the oft-cited "fundamentals" of ask, is the reiteration of cubic forms of while they have the time and the lib­ architecture. The good critic's "solar any kind anything more than a reas­ The concept of "hierarchy" dominates erty to do so. The period of one's edu­ orientation" and "functional plan­ suring sign of conformity? Regardless architecture and urban design, enforc- cation-in the modern sense of the ning" are of this noble category. So of the answers-and they will be var­ ing systems of authority that work word-is meant to be a privileged are all the "foundation" courses based ious-their asking confirms the flu­ from the top down. However, as tech­ time of asking questions for which no on the famous Bauhaus example, idity of contemporary life, and aims nology frees individuals from the con- one knows the answers. Otherwise, it which was authored by stalwarts like at an architecture resonantly flowing trol mechanisms of mass culture, by will only be a period of rote learning, Paul Klee and Johannes ltten. The with it, or dissonantly against it. increasing mobility, choices and access the type of authoritarianism of ideas former offers the promise of pragmatic to information, lateral systems of that may have been acceptable in ear­ verisimilitude, the latter aesthetic In the end, one can only teach a way authority are developing within exist- lier, more authoritarian epochs, but integrity. The problem with both of of thinking, and-by example-a way ing hierarchical structures. In cyber­ leads only to a dreary conformity in these approaches is not so much that of living and working. Today, as per- netic terms, these are "heterarchies," 5 whose continually shifting forms are of architecture. New ideas often find deterministic and free geometries re­ The free-zone of John McLaughlin derived from the continually evolv­ root in previously neglected soil. sults, in his design, in a complexity also occupies the airspace over Boston: ing performances of the individuals that is conceptual as well as visual. the space defined by the ephemeral comprising the heterarchical system. James Braam's free-zone was the air Applied at the scale of the sky over energies of decision-making along a traffic control space over Boston. He Boston, or a more human-scaled land­ corridor of corporate media head­ The "free-zone" is the spatial mani­ researched this existing, if invisible, scape within the city, this architec­ quarters extending from the Back Bay festation in the urban landscape of structure of large dimensions which ture defines a space of understanding to Cambridge. His project takes on a the "heterarchy." It is comprised of involves certain aspects of heterarchy. and a form of knowledge. These struc­ decidedly political dimension. Into distinct spaces-" frees paces" -inhab­ In particular, the decisions to assign tures are built, as mental and physi­ the intricate webbing of electromag­ ited by individuals participating in an specific airspaces-approaches, takeoff cal constructs. I, for one, will never netic lines of thought and communi­ urban heterarchial network through and landing patterns-to specific air­ fly into Boston without passing cation generated along this corridor, both direct, physical and indirect, craft cannot be predicted in advance, through Braam's zones of decisive McLaughlin insinuates an architec­ electronic means. Free-zones and free­ because of the continuously shifting uncertainty. His is an architecture of ture of dynamic forms and spaces, as spaces require a wide range of indi­ conditions of weather, wind direction, an age of realities both invented and if to forcibly, but subversively, occu­ vidual design interpretations. and air traffic. The interweaving of found, parallel zones of tangibility. PY a territory between those rigidly

The project for this studio is the design of a free-zone for the city of Boston and an exemplary freespace structure. Each student will work independently, but it is hoped that a heterarchical spirit will prevail in the studio.

Commentary

The nature of the project given to the studio was conceptual, not pragmat­ ic. The point of beginning was a set of ideas, without a clue as to how they might be realized, if at all, in building. Heterarchy, free-zone, and freespace fohn McLaughlin are concepts without historical prece­ dent in architecture, except the very recent history of three projects of my own, which are at this point devel­ oped only to a very schematic level. I considered it appropriate that the stu­ dents in this studio should conduct genuine research, seeking possible answers to questions not previously asked in architecture, giving them the opportunity to learn something new from the inside out, and to make a contribution to the development of specific ideas within the scope of architectural interest.

The work produced by this group was, in a number of cases, of a very high level. Of particular interest were projects which interpreted the given concepts in terms of space not previ- 6 ously considered to be in the domain James Brahm controlled by corporate policy and Yutaka Miyazaki subtly transformed ing light the space of its natural program for use. Smith's city is a process. The aerial equivalent of a the city of Boston into an entirely presence, rather than rising to meet four-dimensional armature of move­ computer virus, this architecture of different city. He looks at the pre­ and challenge it. Miyazaki's is a ment, the joints of which offer resis­ instantaneous presence commands sent city through a series of views beatific Boston, an alternative his­ tance, and therefore provoke accre­ its zone of ethereality in the name of as a stranger would, and finds it tory to culture, a critique of all that tions. It could be an architecture continuous transformation, both stranger than one might expect-a demands too little of thought and seen only by aid of a microscope, or physical and epistemological. By continuum of fragments joined into commitment in architecture and one on an interplanetary scale. The feeding back into the corporate world an endless visual field. On this he existence. issues of inhabitation it addresses are (in waves crossing the dimensions of constructs a city-an Urwelt-obey­ urban in essence: density, complex­ space and thought), this architecture ing only the commands of celestial Beginning with the permutations of ity, variation and finally, diversity. finds the cracks and seams and opens light to have surfaces on which to a simple pattern generated by com­ The determinism of a geometrical them wider. The breakdown of mo­ become incarnate. From a primor­ puter, Mark Smith constructed pure field reaches its climax at the limits noliths and monologues can only in­ dial mass, the city is carved, rather architecture. While some would of predictability. The webbings of voke heterarchy and the dialogues of than modeled. Carving is the disci­ argue that architecture cannot exist matter finally forming space tran­ open communication. pline of hermetic philosophy, giv- without a site, or scale, or a definite scend the system that spawned them.

Yutaka Miyazaki Mark Smith 7 Editor's note: a little inspiring, to think that these stu­ pie-students must be allowed the would do them or anyone else. Even dents-working under some of the best chance to exercise their imaginations. worse, they might imagine that architects Lebbeus Woods sent us this manuscript, architects in the US-would one day But the schemes in question proposed to are in some way responsible for propos­ which he called "incomplete'; with a brief soon be building in the real world. somehow materialize quite invisible or ing ideas way beyond their scope as ser­ note, stating that he didn't want to say Charlie Gwathmey, Bob Stern-move intangible things in the air-radio vice professionals-really crazy, "experi­ more than this. He sent with this piece the over! waves, thought waves, patterns of air mental" ideas that, if built by some fluke, works ofseveral ofhis students in the Third traffic and the like-and present them could actually affect the way people live Year Options Studio at Harvard this past Just as I was leaving, I came across a as architecture. When asked by one and think and work. What would the Fall semester, including a synopsis ofhis room on the first floor, a little out of astute student observer, whether or not profession of architecture-or the program for them. That would have been the way. In it a review of the students these aerial "architectures" could actually world-be like, it that attitude were to the end ofthis story, but for a strange twist. ofLebbeus Woods was going on. I rec­ be inhabited by people, the answer given get around? Frightening. Experimental Two weeks after receiving this material ognized a few of the guest critics. They . was "yes, in the sense that their spaces architecture is a disease. Together, we can we received a fax from the architectural were the familiar band of"experimental can be experienced in thought, through purge ourselves of it. We shouldn't be critic that Lebbeus Woods refers to in his architect." One of them, Michael Webb, the drawings and models." Everyone afraid of what we have to do. Let's begin essay. The critic asked that his article be is mentioned rather favorably in Ken was so stunned, I suppose, or so bored by adopting this simple motto: destroy used in place ofthe essay we had received Frampton's Modern Architecture: A by the whole affair, that the natural fol­ experimental architecture! from Lebbeus Woods, but we decided to Critical History, but the rest are not. low-up question never came: but is it, print them both, out offairness. then architecture? The answer, no I watched for a while from the open doubt, if given by Woods or his col­ It's Getting Worse doorway, unobserved. One after the next leagues, would be a loud and noisy, Critic the students presented their projects, "yes-experimental architecture!" I've while a throng of other students looked heard this kind of answer before. I had occasion recently to visit Gund on. Perhaps they were as thunderstruck Teachers like Woods have seduced these Hall, the building housing the Graduate as I was by the works being presented, poor, gullible students into thinking that School of Design at Harvard University. and by the comments of the reviewing thought is a substitute for flesh-and­ It is, by the Way, a great modern build­ "experimentalists." One after the next blood experience. ing. The semester was finishing up, and projects of a completely fantastical there were some final reviews underway. nature were displayed in the most I left the doorway at this point, walk­ There was a lot of fine work on dis­ abstract drawings and models I had ever ing out of Gund Hall with feelings of play-housing projects modeled on the seen. These were discussed by the anger and depression. It's a pity that the great projects of the '40s in New York reviewers with portentous seriousness fine educational experience those stu­ and London, but with some odd curves leavened occasionally by their outra­ dents had been privileged to enjoy at and angles that gave them the look of geous jokes and sometimes vulgar laugh­ Harvard, evidenced by the work I'd seen today, some urban squares and piazzas, ter. I want to be specific. earlier that day, had to end on such a some really sensitive projects for an addi­ false note. While most of them will tion to the Cranbrook Academy of Art Two or three of the student projects had probably forget this "experimental" non­ by Eliel Saarinen, and a few beach hous­ to do with the design of aerial spaces sense, no doubt some will actually go es that went far beyond the things being over the city of Boston. One could have out into the world with the idea that done in the Hamptons a few years ago. accepted schemes proposing balloon­ they will be able to "materialize the 8 It was really stimulating, and more than supported megasrructures, for exam- intangible," for whatever good that