Oz

Volume 23 Article 2

1-1-2001

Architecture, Technology, and Change

Rob Kronenburg

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Recommended Citation Kronenburg, Rob (2001) "Architecture, Technology, and Change," Oz: Vol. 23. https://doi.org/10.4148/ 2378-5853.1358

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]. Architecture, Technology, and Change Human Associations with Architecture and the Machine

Rob Kronenburg

“Replicants are like any other machine— Carolyn Grace owns and flies a war- they are either a benefit or a hazard.” time Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX that In this statement from Ridley Scott’s her husband restored before his death: 1982 film Blade Runner, Deckard, the assassin of androids (or android Every time I see the Spitfire it thrills assassin), defines the relationship with me, it’s such a beautiful thing. When the artifacts human beings make in you climb up on the wing and slide unequivocal positive and negative the canopy open you get this won- terms.1 However, in Philip Dick’s book derful, seasoned smell, a mixture on which the film is based,Do Androids of aviation fuel, hydraulic fluid and Dream of Electric Sheep, the character’s oiled metal. The cockpit is very statement is more fuzzy: “A humanoid narrow, and when you climb in, it robot is like any other machine; it can sort of encases you within it. It’s a fluctuate between being a benefit or a very secure feeling. I’ve met many hazard very rapidly.”2 The use of the wartime pilots who describe that terms “fluctuate” and “rapidly” in this same feeling—of becoming one quote are used by the author to reinforce with the aeroplane.3 the variable humanistic characteristics Toyo Ito, Egg of Winds, 1989. Moving images projected onto the city street—in this case the still is from which machines that are intended to Usually though, when people have a Ridley Scott’s film,Blade Runner. ©Toyo Ito duplicate human beings must adopt—the relationship with a machine it is of machine being predictable and constant a curiously dated kind. We believe whilst humanity is unreliable and that machines are a grade above our changing. This paradox lies at the heart tools, that they are like servants, and of the kinetic object—it is defined as and continuity. Out of all human made of the fascinating relationship that people it is hard not to believe that a ser- such on the basis of movement between physical artifacts the building is the have with all the things they make, vant who prevents your tasks being its component parts, and though most longest lasting—it is how we judge the including of course, architecture. completed is not doing this simply to machines are designed to operate in civilizations of the past not because it thwart your ambitions—you become just one place, the most charismatic was their most important achievement Architecture is an artifact, a thing, angry with it, distrustful, resentful. machines of the industrial age are but because it is frequently all that is and yet because of its significance to Similarly a reliable tool/servant is vehicles, which operate from place to left. Even so, architecture can also human beings we frequently assign rewarded with loyalty and affection. place. In many cases the kinetic power of become a hazard—physically, when it with human associations. This People imprint their own personali- machines is amplified by their ability to poorly constructed buildings collapse also occurs with other manufactured ties onto the relationship and identify operate as autonomous artifacts outside or poison their inhabitants, or socially objects, in particular machines, which good performance with cooperation, the immediate control of humans and when poorly designed places exacer- have a semblance of animation and inadequate performance with poor some would argue that it is at this point b a t e u n s u i t a b l e e c o n o m i c , p o l i t i c a l , o r autonomy; for example automobiles, behavior. Though the relationship when Philip Dick’s benefit/hazard line environmental conditions. ships, and aircraft, and to a lesser people have with architecture is related is most usually crossed. Architecture, degree anything that people operate. to this characteristic master/servant it could be argued, is the ultimate However, to propose the categorizations In very special circumstances the one there are significant differences. manufactured manifestation of the of the kinetic machine and the static human relationship with a machine static object—built to last, to engage the building is provocative, as something as 4 may become especially significant. The machine is the ultimate manifestation human need for permanence, stability complicated as technology—the method a machine for dwelling in—however, plants—in other words we serve the lives. We may go to work in an office this core perception of the relationship house so it may fulfil our needs. These or a factory and we are the servants between buildings and people was fun- activities build up an understanding of to the activity that takes place there, damentally wrong. It implies that we the needs of the house and are similar but these buildings also provide the operate a house in much the same way to those we do for our children—feed- venue for our friendships, the source as we operate an appliance. Take for ing, dressing, bathing. In return we of our income and they protect our example the washing machine, a device expect comfort and protection from activities from weather and danger invented in the nineteenth century by inclement weather, from danger and as before. the North American Shakers religious from unwanted visitors. Also it pro- group to remove the worst aspects of vides a refuge, the repository for our Surprisingly, the concept of the build- this largely unrewarding task in order sleeping and waking life. We have an ing being a machine for living in has to improve the life of their community.4 intimate servant/master relation- been adopted most ruthlessly by the The modern automatic washing machine ship in which the roles are switched multi-national companies who have Integrated circuit design for a computer operated carries out this same task in a family around depending on the activity. This attempted to reduce their restaurants, robot—apparently static, the movement is at an atomic scale. ©Franceschini, N., Pichon, J.M. Blanes, situation. We learn how to operate analogy of an alternating servant/ hotels and shops down to a completely C., C.N.R.S. Marseille, France the machine and use it when neces- master relationship operates for the prescribed entity where entry into each sary. When unused it is dormant. If it other buildings associated with our of its outlets, no matter where it is in gives reliable service we are pleased with it but at the back of our minds by which we shape our world—cannot we know that some day it will break really be understood by such simple down and then it will need attention. generalizations. The recognition of the If we want to use it but it is broken, we machine as an object of moving parts are frustrated and annoyed and resign is now completely outmoded in an age ourselves to the extra cost of having it of solid-state electronics and smart repaired or replaced—alternatively we materials where the only things that go to the launderette and rent someone are in motion are invisible electrons else’s machine. From this scenario it is and chemical compositions. And even easy to see that the human relationship permanent buildings contain movable with a washing machine is restricted elements—at the simplest level doors, t o t h e b a s i s o f w h e t h e r o r n o t i t i s a windows, shutters, furniture, at a good servant. more sophisticated level the ability to change size, shape, color—in some Our relationship with a house is dif- specialized cases buildings can also ferent. A house is not operated, it is be physically relocated as required. inhabited. There are activities related to operation, turning lights and taps Comprehension of the comparative rela- on and off, opening and shutting doors tionships humans have with machines and windows, but we also clean it, and buildings is complex. The mod- paint it, and furnish it. We make a Festo “Airtecture” prototype portable active structure building—a computer controlled air-supported ernists maintained that a house was fire, restock the refrigerator, water the structure designed for relocation. ©Festo Corporate Design 5 Montealegre Castle, Vallodolid, Spain.

Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird—beautiful and menacing. the world, is identical. In the case of a our more deep-rooted relationship merce, leisure, and community space. architecture is redolent of the age and hamburger chain restaurant, you can go with architecture. However, though Innovative technology has in the past though undoubtedly challenging, it is there and “operate” the system quickly we can now see that this assertion by resulted in new building types—in not necessarily something that leads and efficiently with a commensurate the modernists was wrong, their fun- the twentieth century amongst others to confusion in our understanding of reward in culinary satisfaction, but damental desire to come to terms with we saw cinemas, motels, garages and what architecture means. It can be would you choose to eat there all the the impact of technology on home and airports emerge. In the twenty-first we convincingly argued that each age has time? You can “operate” a chain hotel work and on life in general was correct. have some new building types such as its architecture and this outpouring room just as easily because you have Innovative technology is at the core of telephone call centers, cyber-cafes and of ideas is commensurate with the been there before, but would you choose the increased complexity of contempo- telehotels but perhaps more challenging emergence of a global civilization. to live in one? You can stock up on rary existence and this has changed the is the removal of building types such basics in a chain supermarket, but is character of building types. In fact one as some conventional retail and travel One way to explore our changing that the place to find a diverse range of simple equation that does seem to hold services which are set to change in the relationship with architecture is to local produce? This reinforces the idea universally true is that new technology near future due to internet sales.6 examine some of the human char- that environments created on a mass- inevitably leads to change. To try to acteristics that can be attributed to produced basis are not as much signs categorize architecture by purpose If the types of architectural function buildings, both negative and posi- of increased efficiency as increased or style seems almost pointless today have changed, architectural form has tive. Negative associations are gener- consumerism.5 because there is such an intermingling become equally diverse. This is partly ated most strongly through fear, for of function and form. Instead of the the result of the wide range of struc- example; aggression and anonymity. If we accept that a house is not a machine more readily defined single roles of the tural systems and material options A castle is an inherently aggressive for living, a factory or office not a past it is now common for new, large to choose from, but it is also due to piece of architecture yet beautiful in machine for working, and so on, it scale, urban buildings to contain a mix an eclectic mix of design philoso- its simplicity. Its walls are austere, 6 makes it much easier to acknowledge of activities including dwelling, com- phies at work. This pandemonium of with carefully devised repetitive, geometric forms. We understand its conceal anything. Anonymous archi- function and the purpose for which tecture has found its best description in it was built, and perhaps its history literature, in Franz Kafka’s The Trial also affects our response to its pres- (1925) and The Castle (1926), where ence. We also appreciate that though the societies have adopted a building this building was once a symbol of style that mirrors the impenetratability perhaps brutal oppression it is now of their social system. The fascist Nazi ridiculously ineffectual in its original architecture of Albert Speer was designed role—mobile military technology has to reduce the individual to a cog in the now surpassed the purpose for which machine of society, vast simple forms, it was built. Its static presence denotes redolent of previous ages, but stripped its emasculation as a weapon of war, down to emphasize scale and mass, to though it still retains substance and oppress the individual and deify the meaning. It is a physical message from state. Stalinist architecture was simply the past as with a little imagination big and repetitious. The image of these it is not too hard to imagine what it buildings is of solid, immovable objects, was like to defend those walls. three-dimensional propaganda herald- ing a permanent, irreversible, authority Contemporary military force is some- that was nevertheless transient. times secret (the ultimate indication of Dystopic design for Gotham’s main street by Anton Furst for the 1989 film Batman. ©1989, Warner Bros. Inc. aggression is the hidden weapon), but If the architecture of aggression and when visible it is mobile, volatile, and autocracy is ponderous and static, mechanistic—the warship, the tank, what is the contemporary image of an the stealth bomber. It is the color of architecture that embraces freedom camouflaged metal, and elements of and possibility? Though it is relatively its form are clearly not structural but easy to find positive human associations there for other sinister, unidentifiable for buildings: welcoming, safe, friendly, purposes. Architecture that uses this grand, stimulating—architecture that language employs technology as an expresses the kinetic opportunity to expression of power. The Oscar win- change might best be associated with ning set design by Anton Furst for Tim the more ambiguous characteristics of Burton’s 1989 Batman movie created a complexity and mystery. Though com- city of such buildings to represent an plexity can be confusing it can also be autocratic empire—in truth, no real intriguing, and one can readily accept commercial power would be foolish that once understood, comprehension enough to so clearly state its intentions and knowledge will be the reward. The in its buildings. Architects fascinated visual attendant to complexity is rich- with the power of these machines seem ness, in ideas, pattern or form. Nature far more likely to transpose them into is full of complex patterns and forms, club interiors, shops, designer houses, and the belief that unravelling the even dental surgeries such as the Ark meaning of these mysterious systems in Kyoto by the Japanese architect will bring knowledge is largely founded Shin Takamatsu described as a “... in experience. In architecture, visual monstrous, primitive, and mythical complexity communicates investment machine [which] ultimately does not in time and effort. In decorated archi- disclose any previous function. It is an tectural forms this may be all that is unknown mechanism, an unidentifi- initially communicated, however, it able object...”7 Interestingly, Batman’s generally fuels the belief that more designer cites Shin Takamatsu as among careful investigation is worthwhile. his influences. Constructional or structural complexity communicates a more instant message. Far more frightening than aggressive A trussed roof has many members architecture is that which is completely working together in partnership, Shin Takamatsu, The Ark, Kyoto, 1981-83. ©Atsushi Nakamichi. anonymous, for the faceless facade can geometry and pattern, expressive of 7 Japan pavilion at Expo 2000 Hanover, Shigeru Ban—a complex recyclable structure made from paper Ernst Haeckel—a print from his 1904 book Kunst- Lloyds Building, Richard Rogers Partnership. tubes, timber, steel and plastic. ©Robert Kronenburg formen de Natur. ©Robert Kronenburg

dynamic tension and compression. complex exposed building patterns uses computers but how they actually It is not necessary to understand the implies the possibility for dismantling, work is a mystery. It is like alchemy, structural forces at work to appreciate for change and movement. Jean Bau- a process with scientific trappings that the intention and the result. Advanced drillard, the French sociologist was leads to inexplicable, magical results. technology frequently makes use of clearly fascinated and maybe a little The best contemporary architecture complex pattern making in delivering rattled by Richard Rogers first major taps into this mysterious quality, using its end result, woven fibers, circuit foray into this territory with partner technology in wonderful subtle ways boards and computer chips being three Renzo Piano, “Beaubourg-Effect... to mirror our relationship with nature, examples at different sizes. Beaubourg-Machine...Beaubourg- in Heidegger’s terms “to bring beauty Thing—how can we name it? The to our relationship with the ground Richard Rogers’s Lloyds building in puzzle of this carcass of signs and and the sky; to accept our movement London with its exuberant external flux, of networks and circuits...the through time and space.”9 Complex, detailing has been compared to the ultimate gesture towards translation of mysterious architecture can heighten flying buttresses of a Gothic cathedral, an unnameable structure...” but comes our appreciation of the achievements his Inmos factory with its complex to some conclusion about what it all of human creativity, make clear the of masted, cabled elements sailing means; “...this thing openly declares relationship it has with natural ele- above the roof, to a harbor filled with that our age will no longer be one of ments that are ever changing though square-rigged ships. Bringing out the duration, that our only temporal mode continuous, such as the landscape, usually hidden elements of structure is that of the accelerated cycle and of plants and light, but still be clear about and servicing provides these buildings recycling: the time of transistors and use and purpose. It gives us enough with an identity, which is culturally fluid flow.” 8 to help us realise who and where we familiar, though one that has perhaps are, but holds enough back so we can not been associated with architecture Though science is on a specific quest to continue to change and develop, and before this. People make their own con- understand the world there is a general perhaps most important, retain our nections and identify with architecture underlying belief that we will never, wonder at the world. in their own way—the expression of no matter how long or how hard we complexity allows them their free try, understand everything. For many interpretation to do this and supports of us technology also has this effect, a conviction that effort has been made we feel we can see the wonder of it to create something worth identifying around us but we will never be able 8 with. To see the “connectedness” of to understand it all. Almost everyone Beaubourg Centre, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. ©Robert Kronenburg Mysterious and beautiful—circus, jewel, or a sailing ship moored on the Cambridge Fens—the Schlum- berger Research Facility by Michael Hopkins. ©Robert Kronenburg

Notes 1. This essay is based on an extract from the author’s book, Spirit of the Machine: Technol- ogy as an Inspiration in Architectural Design, to be published by John Wiley, London, in the summer of 2001. 2. Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, New York, 1996. (First published, 1968). Dick uses these words to draw attention to the question of what makes “human-ness” at the outset of the story. Scott leaves this idea more ambiguous and explores it through the development of the replicant characters in his film. 3. “A Life in the Day of Carolyn Grace,” Sunday Times Magazine, September 3, 2000, p. 54. It has been suggested that when people live in extreme situations their relationship with the machines that protect their existence deepens into an equal partnership where technology and humanity take on a form of symbiosis. See Rachel Armstrong (ed), “Space Architecture,” Architectural Design, Vol. 70, No. 2, March 2000, p. 5. 4. See Herbert Schiffer,Shaker Architecture, Westchester, Penn. 1979. 5. See David Nye, Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology 1880-1940, Cambridge, Mass. ,1990. p. 238. 6. Low-cost European airline Easyjet first introduced Internet sales in 1998. Initially online reservations represented less than 1% of their total business, for the same period in 2000 it had risen to 76%. A telehotel is a building in which Internet-based companies “lodge” the hardware that facilitates their operation with access to constant maintenance and ideal environmental conditions. 7. Botand Bognar, “From Ritualistic Objects to Science Fiction Constructs: The Enigma of Shin Takamatsu’s Architecture” in Paolo Polledri (Ed), Shin Takamatsu, Rizzoli, New York, 1993. Batman was made at Pinewood Studios, England by Warner Brothers in 1989 and directed by Tim Burton. Furst was assisted by Nigel Phelps. Bladerunner also contained another powerful distopian city, the seemingly infinite “Hades Landscape” designed by Lawrence Paull, Syd Mead, and Doug Trumbull in collaboration with the director Ridley Scott. For information on both these films see Dietrich Neumann (ed), Film Architecture: Set Designs from Metropolis to Blade Runner, Munich, 1999. The Ark, or Nishina Dental Clinic, in Fushimi, Kyoto was built in 1981-2. 8. Jean Baudrillard, “The Beaubourg-Effect: Implosion and Deterrence” (1977) in Neil Leach (ed), Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, London and New York, 1997, pp. 210–211. 9. “... ‘on the earth’ already means ‘under the sky.’ Both of these also mean ‘remaining before the divinities’ and include a ‘belonging to men’s being with one another.’ By a primal oneness the four—earth and sky, divinities and mortals—belong together in one.” Martin Heidegger from “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” in David Farrell Krell (ed,) Martin Heidegger, Basic Writings, London, 1993 (first published 1973) p. 351. 9