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Gottfried Semper's Primitive Primitive This innovative edited collection of essays charts the rise, fall and possible futures of the word ‘primitive’ in architecture. The word ‘primitive’ is fundamental to the discipline of architecture in the West, providing a convenient starting point for the myth of architecture’s origins. With the advent of post-modernism and, in particular, post-colonialism, the word has fallen from favour in many disciplines. Despite this – curiously – architects continue to use the word, particularly to reify the practice of simplicity. Primitive includes contributions from some of today’s leading architectural commentators and practitioners, including Dalibor Vesely, Adrian Forty, David Leatherbarrow, Richard Coyne, CJ Lim and Richard Weston. Structured around five sections, ‘Negotiating origins’, ‘Urban myths’, ‘Questioning colonial con- structs’, ‘Making marks’, and ‘Primitive futures’, the essays highlight the problems of ideas of the primitive, engage with contemporary debates in the field of post- colonialism and respond to a burgeoning interest in non-expert architecture. This controversial subject remains, for better or worse, intrinsic to the history of architectural ideas and embedded in both architectural modernism and contemporary practice, and as such cannot be ignored. Considering a broad range of approaches, this book provides a rounded past, present and future of the word ‘primitive’ in the architectural sphere. Jo Odgers is an architect and lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University and previously worked in architectural practice for fifteen years. She is currently writing her Ph.D. on the work of John Wood of Bath in relation to the tradition of occult philosophy. Her next project (with Flora Samuel) is a book entitled Façades. She is an Associate Editor of arq. Flora Samuel is an architect and reader at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. She is currently writing Le Corbusier in Detail for the Archi- tectural Press. She has a particular interest in the narratives implicit within the construction of buildings and was one of the original initiators of the primitive conference from which this book has evolved. She is an Associate Editor of arq. Adam Sharr is a lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture and principal of Adam Sharr Architects, both based in Cardiff. Previously, he was Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Nottingham and worked in architectural prac- tice. He is Joint Secretary of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) and is also Associate Editor of arq (Cambridge University Press). His book Heidegger’s Hut will be published by the MIT Press in 2006. Primitive Original matters in architecture Edited by Jo Odgers, Flora Samuel and Adam Sharr First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2006 selection and editorial matter: Jo Odgers, Flora Samuel and Adam Sharr; individual chapters: the contributors This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Primitive : original matters in architecture / edited by Jo Odgers, Flora Samuel and Adam Sharr—1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical reference and index. 1. Architecture—Language. 2. Architecture—Terminology. 3. Language and culture. 4. Architecture—Psychological aspects. I. Odgers, Jo. II. Samuel, Flora. III. Sharr, Adam. NA2543.L34P75 2006 720.1’4—dc22 2006005423 ISBN10: 0-415-38538-5 ISBN13: 978-0-415-38538-1 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-38539-3 ISBN13: 978-0-415-38539-8 (pbk) ISBN10: 0-203-96744-5 ISBN13: 978-0-203-96744-7 (ebk) For Sylvia Harris Colleague, teacher and librarian Contents Illustration credits ix Notes on contributors x Acknowledgements xvi Introduction xvii Jo Odgers, Flora Samuel and Adam Sharr Part 1: Original matters 1 1 Primitive: the word and concept 3 Adrian Forty Part 2: Negotiating origins 15 2 The primitive as modern problem: invention and crisis 17 Dalibor Vesely 3 Origins redefined: a tale of pigs and primitive huts 33 Mari Hvattum 4 The primitive hut: fantasies of survival in an all-white world 43 Lorens Holm 5 Gottfried Semper’s primitive hut: duration, construction and self-creation 55 Jonathan A. Hale 6 Mineral matters: formation and transformation 63 Richard Weston Part 3: Questioning colonial constructs 71 7 Post-colonizing the primitive 73 Felipe Hernández and Lea Knudsen Allen 8 Notes for an alternative history of the primitive hut 86 Stephen Cairns 9 Reinventing ‘primitiveness’: Henri Lacoste and the Belgian Congo Pavilion at the 1931 International Colonial Exposition in Paris 96 Johan Lagae 10 The radicalization of the primitive in Brazilian modernism 108 Styliane Philippou 11 The need to be critical 121 Robert Brown Contents Part 4: Urban myths 125 12 Practically primitive 127 David Leatherbarrow 13 Giants and columns 139 Nicholas Temple 14 The emblematic city: John Wood and the re-founding of Bath 150 Jo Odgers 15 Alvar Aalto and the primitive suburb 166 Harry Charrington 16 Metaphorical Manhattan – ‘Paradise Lost’ 176 Lorna McNeur Part 5: Making marks 181 17 The perception of self-negation in the space of emptiness: the primitive in Tadao Ando’s architecture 183 Jin Baek 18 The ‘primitive surface’: carving, modelling, marking and transformation 194 Stephen Kite 19 The modern-day primitive hut? ‘Self-building’ with Jung, Aalto and Le Corbusier 207 Flora Samuel and Sarah Menin 20 The wisdom of the sands 221 Simon Unwin Part 6: Primitive futures? 227 21 Digital commerce and the primitive roots of architectural consumption 229 Richard Coyne 22 Primitive and the everyday: Sergison Bates, Lefebvre and the guilt of architectural expertise 240 Adam Sharr 23 Heart of Darkness: air of comfort 251 Helen Mallinson 24 Primitive: from which construction begins 260 Peter Salter 25 The United Cultures of Britain 267 CJ Lim Select bibliography 273 Index 279 viii Illustration credits The authors and publishers gratefully acknowledge the following for permission to reproduce material in the book. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for the permission to reprint mate- rial in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not acknowl- edged here and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of the book. 2 © Dalibor Vesely: Plate 2.5. © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2006: Plate 2.1. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2006: Plate 2.4 4 Plate 4.4 reproduced by kind permission of Norton, and also the British Library and Scott Polar Institute 6 © Richard Weston: Plates 6.1–6.6 10 © Styliane Philippou: Plate 10.3; © Architectural Review: Plate 10.2 11 © Robert Brown: Plates 11.1–11.4. 12 © Tonkao Panin: Plates 12.1. © Photo Carlos Naranjo: Plates 12.2–12.5. © Photo Anna Vortmann: Plates 12.6 13 © Nicholas Temple: 13.1–13.3. © 2005, Photo Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali: Plate 13.4 14 Plate 14.2 reproduced by kind permission of Victoria Art Gallery, Bath. Plate 14.4 reproduced by kind permission of the Wellcome Library. 15 © Harry Charrington: Plates 15.1,15.3, 15.4. © Alvar Aalto Foundation: Plate 15.2 16 Plates 16.1, 16.3, Manhattan section of aerial photograph of the City of New York 1969 used with permission of City of New York Planning Committee. All rights reserved. Plate 16.2: Lorna McNeur with Maria Santeularia Bada 17 © Tadao Ando Architect and Associates: Plates 17.1–17.3. © Mitsuo Matsuoka: Plate 17.3 18 © Stephen Kite: Plates 18.1–18.3. © Sam Lambert, Wilson Archive: Plate 18.5. © Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art: Plate 18.4 19 © The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Photograph Lucien Hervé: Plate 19.3 © Photograph, Flora Samuel, Plate 19.4. © FLC/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2005, photograph Lorna Davies, Plates 19.5, 19.7; © Plate 19.2 Copyright Alvar Aalto Foundation. Photo Eino Mäkinen; © Sarah Menin, Plate 19.6 20 © Simon Unwin: Plates 20.1–20.6. 22 © Adam Sharr: Plates: 22.1–22.3 24 © Peter Salter: Plates 24.1–24.15 25 © CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects: Plates 25.1–25.6 ix Contributors Jin Baek is an architect and assistant professor at the School of Architecture and Community Design, University of South Florida, where he teaches history and theory of architecture. He earned his Master’s degree from Yale University and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on cross-cultural issues between modern East Asian architecture and western architecture. He is currently working on a publication that deals with the concep- tion of Christian sacred space in East Asia as it relates to the Buddhist idea of nothingness. Robert Brown is an architect with over twenty years of experience in community- based projects in the UK, USA, India and Africa, and has published and lectured on participatory design, as well as on architectural pedagogy. He is currently a senior lecturer in architecture at the University of Plymouth, and is also working in private practice with projects in the UK and Japan.
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