The Journal of the School of Architecture University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Reflections

The Journal of the School of Architecture University of Illinois at Urbana-Ghampaign

No. 10 Spring 1995 Board of Editors 1994-1995

R. Alan Forrester, Director, School ofArchi

Paul J. Armstrong, Chairmaii and Managing Edil

Kevin Hinders

Anne Marshall

Jory Johnson

Lisa Busjahn Copy Editor

Mark Witte Graphic Design

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Printed in the USA 1SSN:07399448 Contents

Architecture Between Tradition and Progress 4 Andrzej Pinno

Invasion of the Building Snatchers 22 A Contemporary Architectural A-vant Garde and Its Heritage

Thomas L. Schumacher

Architecture of Liberative Movement 36 A Design Thesis 1992-1993 Benjamin K. Nesbeitt

What's Behind the Wall 50 Why Progressive Public Memorials are Designed for Private Commemoration Jhennifer A. Amundson

Learning and Labor In Architecture 66 A Pavilionfor Virginia Park Jefferv S. Poss

Projections 70 Kevin Hinders

Movement" Cover: Master Architecture Thesis Project "Architecture of Liberative by Benjamin Nesbeitt. Henry Plummer, thesis critic. See page 36. Architecture Between Tradition and Progress

Andrzej Pinno The paper discusses the present debate between modem and postmodern architecture in University of Texas terms a conflict inj^rained in human nature: a conflict between structure evolution, at Arlington of and traditiim and pro^i^ress. It tries to show the inevitability ami indispensability of such a

conflictfor architecture and, at the same time, its apparentflitility. It gives a briefoverview

ofsome ideological battlesfor and against progressfought since the Industrial Rcvoluti(m,

presents examples of their interweaving through history and how, for better or worse, they

have influenced the evolution of architecture. It sees the present architectural struggles

blurred by the plurality of various trends, lost in esoteric philosophical and aesthetic

concerns, and mostly directionless. It links the causes of this malaise to the impasse of the once progressive tradition of Enlightenmeiit and suggests that the emerging Ecological

Revolution may, as the Industrial Revolution before, change the hierarchy ofvalues and, in

this way, refocus ami redress the never emling conflict between the old and the new in

architecture.

Modern science and technology progress with In such a schizophrenic society, various fields

frightening speed. New achievements in of human endeavor try to define their

biology or medicine, physics or information character anew. Architecture, too, seeks a

multiply ever faster, and together with global relevant role for itself and in this process

economy, intercontinental communication, oscillates among diverse trends. Some idolize

or supersonic travel open new possibilities high technology, others indulge in historical

for man. At the same time, however, the very forms and popular culture, and still others

achievements of Western Civilization destroy agonize over the ambiguities of language.

traditional structures of societies. Ethics is The progressive architects believe that it is

helpless in the face of the alleged objectivity the future, especially the technoscientific

of science; families disintegrate, and the future, that can offer what the present is

individual is lost in the ambiguity of moral unable to deliver; the conservatives beUeve

precepts. Knowledge is replaced by infor- that a return to the past can give us back the

mation, books by TV, dignity by success. lost values; while a third group shows

Examples like these abound and force us to indifference toward the outside world and

ask whether progress can be stopped and concentrates on the internal order of

whether tradition can be disregarded. architecture, on architecture for its own sake. Amonji the progressives and the of thinking, two ways of looking at the world. conservatives, as Aldo van Eyck su^ests, The moderns believed in the logic of rational the technocrats sentimentaHze about the thinking, in the power of science: in progress. future, and the antiquarians sentimentaUze Their adversaries, the ancients, sought about the past. But our attitude toward the knowledge among the authorities of antiquity future and toward the past is more than a and history. The progressives heralded the question of sentiment: it is a conflict deeply rise of the Enlightenment and, thus, built the ingrained in human character. Although we foundations of modern, rational civilization. live in the present we plan for the future and The conservatives believed that Plato and remember the past. We cannot ignore either, Aristotle had more to offer than the assertions and, thus, are condemned to a life between of science and, thus, defended wisdom and these two poles. Can we, however, find a tradition against an uncritical science. Today balance between the future and the past, this quarrel seems to be losing direction. between progress and tradition? ('an we Rationalism, the tradition of Enlightenment, rationalize this situation? and scientific thinking are under attack and

there is nothing available to replace them.

To answer this question we must turn to histopi' The so-called pluralism of ideas and opinions which, in spite of our present irreverence for reflects the existing situation in which its truths, can still offer us some insights and nothing is clear, univocal, or decided. teach us, for example, that the battle between Western Civilization, threatened by its own the old and the new is old itself. successes-the ecological crisis or the nuclear

threat for example-tries to reevaluate its

Toward the end of the 17th century a famous very foundation and wonders whether quarrel between the "Ancients" and the progress promises a paradise on earth, or

"Moderns" took place in France. Thequerelle leads to ruin; whether tradition is a panacea des ancients et des modernes, as it was for today's ills, or an escape from the called, pitched against each other two types uncertainties of the new.

.Inhn Ruskiu. "Rinfkin Windiiw." Oxford Museum Conflict between these two approaelies in not only new solutions in architecture, but architecture has a long history. Riiskin and also suggested new ways of thinking.- Their

Paxton, Sitte and Sant'EHa, Aspkmd and Le social consciousness and sensitivity to social

Gorbusier, \'an Ryek and Woods, N'enturi injustices lead them to belie\'e that the and Eisennian are some of the architects character of man was shaped by tlie human who have represented these opposite environment. (Consequently, they directed positions and whose role in this conflict is their attention to the relationship between still being disputed. But the debate is not architecture and morality. They thought that over. It will go on from generation to the depressing and unhealthy dark, narrow generation for, as Leszek Kolakowski says in streets bred poverty and degeneration; and to

Modernity cm Endless Trial: eliminate them, an environment of sun, air

and greenery had to be created. To achieve

The detail between the ancientand the modem this goal they declared that the continuity of is probably everlasting and we will never get space must take precedence over the rid of it, as it expresses the natural tensifjn continuity of buildings; the continuity of voids between structure and evolution, ami this over the continuity of solids. Thus, the existing tension seems to be biologically rooted; it is, urban fabric with its narrow streets was put to we 7nay believe, an essential characteristic of trial; the isolated buildings-objects in space- life. It is obviously necessaryfor any society gained significance, and, consequently, a way to experience theforces both of consei-vaticm was paved for the future Modem Movement- and of change.' a way lasting some one hundred years. ^ Today

we can wonder whether their true legacy lies

The hidustrial Revolution caused such a clash in their intentions or in the consequences of through unprecedented changes which it their intentions, whether they contributed to introduced in almost all domains of social and the modern world through their dreams of individual life. The speed of their succession creating a new and a better society, or through was of such a magnitude that the society of their ideas which lead to streetless and, those days could hardly comprehend their unfortunately, incoherent cities. meaningand significance. Thenewcivilization suddenly faced new problems which required When the 19th century Mctorian England and generated new ideas and solutions. Some celebrated the glory of the Industrial of them were Utopian, others remedial; some Civilization- the "golden age"- it also promoted revolutionary thinking, others witnessed a steady disintegration of its introduced piecemeal reforms. Saint Simon, society. This complex situation polarized

Fourier, Owen, and later, Godin-the Utopian opinions and generated new struggles socialists-belonged to the first group. Being between the ancients and the moderns. In great critics of their civilization, they were architecture these contradictory attitudes aware that the old cities, its centers, were existed side by side and fought for domin- unfit for the new industrial society. They were ance. On one side, John Ruskin, hostile to convinced that these cities, often of medieval progress, and on the other, his contem- origin, could not serve well the new society, porary, Joseph Paxton, expressing it so well and concluded that new communities should in the Crvstal Palace. be established. In this spirit they introduced Ruskin was aware of the changes which appreciation of beauty, on the other, he industrialization ushered into Western seemed to slow down the growth of welfare

Civihzation, but one may wonder whether and a healthy human environment. he was able to appreciate their true signific- ance. His reaction to them was simply one Paxton, on the other hand, was a practical of regret. He deplored the railroad, the man of action who based his work on different smog, the pollution; he despaired of the new premises; he searched for systematic and society with its constant rush and stress; he comprehensive solutions to problems he hated the new hectic life style which confronted and the Crystal Palace presented prevented people from living a dignified life for him a unique opportunity. Since it was and distanced them from beauty and art. In not to be a great civic building but an other words, he preferred to ignore the exhibition pavilion, he was able to experiment emerging new world order and was unable, with technology and select a method of or unwilling, to fight its symptoms. He was construction best suited for this clearly not interested in social problems to the defined objective. Perhaps this limited goal extent Owen and Fourier were but helped him in achieving such a forceful object. submerged himself in the beautiful with the In a very short period of time, Paxton's office

sublime. Within these constraints he "turned out. . .hundreds of sheets of exquisite advocated the superiority of the Gothic and entirely original details" and, thus, over classical style, and glorified its created "the first miracle of pre-fabrication... rationality and its bond with nature. But which for nearly one hundred years, was the Italian Gothic advocated by him, besides without sequel."'^ But the Crystal Palace, its aesthetic qualities, had practical reasons Joseph Paxton. Crystal Palace too. It "included convenient floor plans and the ease of relating facades to internal structure... [it ]could unite generous window- openings with the much-desired sense of massiveness...[it] created the opportunity for almost continuous fenestration." The i propagation of these functional values of the Gothic constituted, however, only a side effect of Ruskin's activity, "for the problem so important in the 1850s and

1860s (was] of expressing Victorian aspirations in great civic buildings. "* Thus, the role played by Ruskin in tracing new directions for architecture seems ambivalent. On the one side, he was slowing down the victory of mediocrity brought about by progress, modernity and their utilitarian concerns, on the other, he was ushering in new and advanced functional ideas; on one side, he deepened the ^s^^ ^^v ,

at the same time, contributed to the shattering

of its old cultural meaning. Theeontriliution

of these two men to the evolution of

architecture will lie discussed for years to

come. Vet it seems oinious today that what

Colin Rowe and the brothers Krier owe, at

least partially, to Ruskin; Foster, Piano, and

Rogers owe to the work of Paxton.

Similar situations developed when Camillo

Sitte, in the^Ji de siecle Vienna, ignored the

advances of technological society and, some

fifteen years later, Sant'Elia revolted against

tradition and the "old" culture which he

considered obstacles to progress. The first

wanted to protect the spiritual and cultural

heritage of mankind,' the second dreamt of

moving humanity forward to a better future. Camillo Sine. Votive Church Plaza. Vicini,, Sitte wrote in the introduction to his book that: although not the first building of iron, was

"the first structure to attempt seriously the perhaps lit] will permit us tofind the means transference of metallic building from the ofsatisfying the three principal requirements purely 'utilitarian' field to that of 'architecture' ofpractical city building: to rid the modem

-where the whole building was not just system of blocks and regularly aligned ornamented but was an aesthetic concept."" houses; to save as much as possible of that

Here one can see the pioneering role of which remains from ancient cities; and in

Paxton in establishing the roots of a modern, our creation to approach more closely the universal and efficient way of building which ideal of the ancient models.'^ at the same time, was anonymous and culture- blind. To what extent the Crystal Palace is an P"or Sant'Elia art of building and to what extent archi- tecture, is still being discussed. the problem posed by Futurist architecture

(was) not... a question of finding new

The example of these two contemporaries mouldings and frames for windows and illustrates the complexity of the conflict. doors, of replacing columns, pilasters and

Although their intentions were clear, the corbels with caiiatids, flics and frogs... We roles they played were much more complex. must invent and rebuild the Futurist city

One protected old cultural values from like an immense and tumultuous shipyard, erosion and disintegration but also helped to agile, mobile and dynamic in every detail; articulate the architecturally functional a nd the Futurist house must be like agigantic needs of a new society; the other, in an machine. The lifts must no longer be hidden ingenious and precursory way, lead away like tapeworms in the niches of architecture toward a new civihzation and. stairwells; the stairwells themselves. rendered useless, must be abolished, and a new dimension with the participation of the

the lifts 7nust scale the lengths ofthefacades Prince of Wales in England and the in-

like sei-pents of steel and ghuss." \'olvement in the grand travmwc in Paris of

President Mitterand. As the debate widens,

P'or many years it seemed that Sitte had lost the question of its deeper meaning seems to

the battle. The Futurists, the revolutionary be gaining importance. To elucidate it further,

Russian architects, the heroes of the Modern let us turn to another debate: to an argument

Movement, all were eager to build a new world between utility and spirituality.

ofmechanization, efficiency, and speed. They

considered themselves radicals, progressives Wliile utility is closely related to technology

and x'isionaries, and such was their and material progress, spirituality thrives on

contribution to contemporary architecture.

Their rational thinking, their concern with

function and structure and their devotion to

honesty in formal expressions cannot be

belittled even by the fact that, in reality, they often compromised their revolutionary' ideas

for the sake of aesthetics and often, like many others, served the auto industry, greedy developers, and big business. Not surprisingly,

however, the time has come when Sitte's sensitive and contextual proposals influenced postmodern architects and restored to a full

respect all that Sant'Elia and the Moderns despised and hated: the context of the

traditional city, the arcaded plazas, the ceremonial axes, the romantic squares and courts, and the ornate buildings that fit those plazas so well. Slowly, the oversimplifications of the Modern Movement became recognized and lead to a reaction-to the understanding

that the complexity and richness of life require tradition and feeds on art. Wliile the flrst is more than rationality and efficiency. But based on the secular world, the second traces again, as often happens in life, some of the its roots to the mystery of the sacred. Both wonderful dreams of Ruskin and Sitte tinned are governed by different laws and bloom in

into bad dreams of Walt Disney. different forms. Architecture embraces both

thereby obtaining its complex and ambiguous

The controversy between tradition and character. Paul Ricoeur, in his essay Ihii- progress still goes on. The science-fiction of •ver.sal Civilization and National Cidtures, iVrchigram and Metabolists gave way to the suggests that "everyone experiences the pastiches of postmodern historicism, which tension between the necessity for the free

in turn fights for dominance with Decon- access to progress and, on the other hand, struetion and High-Tech. The conflict takes the exigency of safeguarding our heritage."'" The necessity of prot-ress is basically served efficiency, or progress. Creativity cannot be

by the logic of scientific thinking, while the planned and can be recognized only in

safeguarding of heritage is largely fulfilled by retrospect; to know beforehand what to create

imagination, creativity and the arts. The would negate the very act of creation. An

first results in universal civilization, the artist, in his lonely effort destroys old

second in unique, national cultures. Ricoeur appearances and cliches and creates things

says that science and technology develop which -although initially incomprehensible-

and contribute to progress through the later become an "authentic expression of

accumulation of means and tools, and through his people."

their constant improvement. The successes

of a civilization stem from the continuous Thus, the struggle of an artist is of a different

defeats of its previous shortcomings and from character than the effort of a scientist,

an uninterrupted replacement of old tools by although both share creativity and discipline.

new ones. They are improved step by step It is not a sediment of layers of ideas and

but, as Marshall McLuhan used to say, the in\'entions but an unceasing rebirth of

moment they work they become obsolete. culture. Hence, Phidia cannot be displaced

Thus, within this process, the old means- by Michelangelo, as Michelangelo cannot be

theories, inventions, or tools-cease to have displaced by Rodin, and Rodin by Brancusi.

practical value and, like the theories of Rembrandt's paintings are today as much

Newton or the inventions of Edison, belong part of a living culture as the paintings by

today to history. Nevertheless, without Monet or Picasso; and the architecture of the

generations of great scientists and without Parthenon, Chartres, and Ronchamps.

their contributions to the growth of scientific

thought, there would be no Einstein, no Can this distinction between civilization

Heisenberg, no quantum theory, no and culture, utility and spirituality shed

electronic revolution and no progress. some light on the role of architecture in

society? Can architecture be reduced to

Culture, on the other hand, or, more art, to "art for art's sake" or, on the other

precisely, cultures, develop in a different hand, to sheer utility?

way. According to Ricoeur, "unlike a set of

tools which accumulates, sediments, and The idea that architecture belongs at the

becomes deposited, a cultural tradition stays same time to the world of material progress " alive only if it constantly creates itself anew. " and to the world of spiritual values-to the

Culture, as he says, is based on "fidelity and world of techno-science and to the world of

creation." An artist must be faithful to the art, to civilization and to culture-although

culture of his nation and, at the same time, in questioned by some, not only persists but

the name of this very culture, must constantly still gives architecture its ambiguous

tear it down and build it again. But as character and its tendency to oscillate

civilization increases the efficiency of means between art and engineering. Reyner

and stores away layers upon layers of the old Banham, in The Architecture of Well-

ones, cultures grow by creative leaps and tempered Environment called it "the

bounds, in a spontaneous and intuitional infantile fallacy that architecture is

10 manner and without any concern for utility, necessarily divisible into function and form, and that the mechanical and cultural parts of neglect of material progress and prosperity.

the arts are in essential opposition."'- Yet ,the And it is this richness and ambiguity of

same Banham, a few pages later, sujigests that: architecture that forces us to say that all of

them were at the same time right and wrong.

the point of studying Las Vegas, ultinuucly, would be to see an example of lio-w far When formulating "revolutionary ideas" no environmental technology can be driven one can judge them and no one can predict

beyond the confines ofarchitectural practice their long term impact on society. History by designers who (for worse or better) are

not inhibited by the traditiims ofarch itectimic culture, training and taste.''

Does, then, the "fallacy" stem from the architects' inhihitions and the traditions of architectural culture? Paradoxically,

Banham seems to be confirming the existence of the conflict between these two forces by aligning himself with one of them: with technological progress and against architectural "traditions." Ten years later,

Colin Rowe, who subscribed to the other side of this conflict, ridiculed in Collage U Cdrlmsicr. Plan Voinin. Paris City "...the architect as an athlete in a race pro\idcs us with examples of eonser\'ativc with time and technology, beloved by ideas leading to progress, and revolutionary

Ilannes Mayer and Reyner Banham...."'^ ideas producing no good besides harm and

pain. As Kolakowski says, "It is trivially true

But it is Franeoise Choay, who in The Modern that very often the blessings and horrors of

City: Planning in the 19th (Jentury progress are inseparably tied to each other, distinguishes two models of spatial as are the enjoyments and the miseries of organization as manifestations of two traditionalism.""" This seems to be the case legitimate visions: of architecture, too. Colin Rowe illustrated

it well when comparing the project for the

One of these models, looking to the future Stockholm Ghancellary by Asplund, with Le and inspired by a vision of social progi-ess Corbusier's revolutionary Plan Voisin. He we shall call progressist. The other, nostalgic pointed out that the attention to context, to in outlook, is inspired by the vision of a the fabric of the city displayed by Asplund cultural community and may therefore by represented a more subtle and penetrating

"' called cidturalist. attitude toward architecture than the

progressive, but in reality "destructive," ideas

In this light one can approve or disapprove as of Le Corbusier. On the other hand, who much of the battles fought by Sant'Pvlia and can blame Le Corbusier for trying to relate the Modernists against tradition and its architecture to the radical social, economic, spiritual \alues, as of Ruskin's and Sitte's and political changes occurring in the Western W'oiki at the he,i;imniij;<)t' tlie 2()tli language, masks in this process the true

century? Today one can wonder whether meaning of what it expresses. Ilcnce,

the Plan Voisin or the Ville Radieuse are abandoning the search for meaning, the

merely layers of techno-scientific solutions deconstructionists concern themselves with

or, like the project of Asplund, a lasting the order and structure of architecture.

contribution to urban culture. The conflict Although the question whether architecture

of the old and the new goes on, but the can be considered a language is too broad to

present pluralistic world makes it more lie discussed here, it suffices to say that this

complex and our inquiry more difficult. It idea limits the deconstructionists' concept

generates e\'en a trend that would like to of architecture and reduces its social role to

deprive not only this conflict, but mere self-referentiality. Consequently, the

architecture as such, any meaning deconstructionists reject the nf)tion of

whatsoever. complexity and depth of architectural

problems, concentrate on perfecting formal

solutions, and limit architecture to the

technicalities of "how" to aehiexe them-to

mere virtuosity. Indeed, their fascinating

projects, prepared often with the aid of

computer graphics, show an extraordinary

exuberance of inventiveness and forms but,

alas, a lack of content and purpose.

In the search for suitable means of expression

the deconstructionists reclaimed from history

the architectural vocabulary of Russian

Constructivism. They ignored, however, the

fact that theirs and the constructivists" aims

belonged to opposite worlds. While

Guunar Aspluml. Stockholm Clninccllaiy constructivism was a movement rooted in

social revolution, deconstructivism in

Let us turn in this search to a group architecture is a style based on linguistic

representing such a trend which seems to theory. WTiile one tried to change the world,

avoid the snares of commitment: a group the other decided to ignore it. ^\^^ile one

concerned with architecture as such, and sought solutions to satisfy the needs of a new

indifferent to its social and environmental society, the other lead architecture away

implications. Its members are influenced by from socio-political and economic reahties

a presently fashionable linguistic theory and into a wonderland of language games,

literary criticism, deconstructionism. Some textuality and narratives. But is decon-

representatives of this group, often called struction innocent? And is it really as

deconstructivists, claim that architecture, indifferent to the outside world as it claims to

like language, is an independent of reality be? As the constructivists wanted to be part

system able to express accurately only itself. of the communist society, so the decon-

Unfortunately, they add, architecture, like structionists are part of the consumer society ( represented mainly by wealthy clients, elite their conviction (in spite of their belief in

patrons, and glossy journals and magazines). pluralism) that theirs is the truth.

They do not attempt to "build a new world"

and do not intend to criticize the existing There is yet another side of deconstruction

one. Simply, as Mark Wigley says, "they that requires attention. Eisenman tries to

produce a devious architecture. ..in which transfer the newest developments in science

form distorts itself in order to reveal itself to architecture. He uses fractal geometry,

anew."'' Thus, they go on producing new Bolean cubes, and DNA as inspiration for his

forms, interested in mere novelty or, to put forms and, in this way, situates himself at the

it differently, in "otherness." This benign cutting edge of science and progress. But is goal masks, however, their complicity in the he? Wlien the constructivists, who were

non-ideological workings of the "free market," overwhelmed by the spate of unprecedented

in the struggle for dominance of sleek technological inventions, used airplanes and

publications, of media recognition, and of engines as inspiration for their forms, they

.lukcv Chcrnikhov. Fantas ,

Bernard Tschumi, Park dc la ViUcttc

searched not only for ways of expressing the their historical mission, of participating in

new epoch but also for ways of bringing the making of history. The decon-

about the dreams of the new society. No structionists, on the other hand, seem to

matter how superficial their efforts were, reflect, what some would call, the "twilight of

how little they were concerned with the the West." Unlike the constructivists who

workings of airplanes and engines as belie\'ed in science and technology and their

inspiration for their forms, they searched power to improve the world, the decon-

not only for ways of expressing the new structionists witness the inertia of a techno-

epoch but also for ways of bringing about the science devoid of direction and goal. They

dreams of the new society. Their main witness a drastic change in the meaning of

objective was to move the society forward cultural production and abandon the

and to express it in new forms. For Eisenman "senseless" and shapeless postmodern world

the newest achievements of science are as not worthy of their attention, reflection turn sources of new forms too , but for architecture and interpretation. Consequently, they

which he understands "as an independent inward and concentrate on a world they

discourse, free of external values."" Here we build for themselves. In this situation the

seem to witness the irony of history. The enthusiasm which accompanied the efforts

Russian constructivists, in spite of their of the constructivists has been replaced by

diverse points of view described, for example, the disenchantment, cynicism and nihilism

14 by Catherine Cooke,''' were well aware of of the deconstructivists. The fact that these Frank Gchry, Office Building, Venice, California

two moments in history generated formally There exists another movement which, in close and yet ideologically distinct contradistinction to deconstruction, and to approaches to architecture seems only to a lesser extent to historicism, concerns itself confirm the idea that architecture cannot be with the present reality. It wants to solve the separated from the outside world. problems of contemporary society with the

help of technology, and is considered by

But what has happened in the meantime to some a spearhead of teehno-scientific thought the historicists? The serious concerns of in architecture: the "High-Tech" of Late-

Ruskin, Sitte, or Asplund have been replaced Modernism. The movement sees the world by the frivolous populist imagery, pastiches with optimism, and believes that the advances of historical forms and Disneyland fantasies of technology derived from the studies of of such architects as Graves, Moore, or NASA and the aerospace industry, for

Venturi. Although their architectural example, can make a positive impact on the languages differ substantially from each built environment. Martin Pawley, an other, their general attitude is the same. enthusiast of what he calls "technology

One wonders where this attitude may lead. transfer," gives examples of the possibilities

And, looking at the Seven Dwarfs facade of offered to architecture by the Disney headquarters in Burbank,

California by Michael Graves, one wonders industriesfar removedfrom construction: whether this could be the icon of the solvent-welded PVC roofing derived historicists' approach. Can we consider it a originally from swimming-pool liners; contribution to the conflict between flexible neoprene gaskets using a material tradition and progress or rather, as Charles developed originally for cable-jacketing;

Jencks seems to suggest, to a conflict adhesive-fixed glazirig transferredfrom the between culture and kitsch? -" automobile industry; superplastic 15 mechanism whose \ alidity is reduced to mere

efficiency and adaptability. From this point

of view, Pawley seems to chastise such

ruchitects as Norman Foster and Richard

Rogers for compromising High-Tech and for

abandoning the ideal of total flexibility: the

ideal of Buckminster Fuller, Arehigram, Yona

Friedman and the Metabolists. lie seems to

forget, however, that already Team X

concerned itself with flexibility, change and

adaptability, and was defeated (for now, at

least) by the forces of life. The Free University

of Berhn by Candilis, Josic and Woods, an

instrument ofadaptability and change which

magnified these notions to almost symbolic

proportions, is all but forgotten today.

Yet at closer inspection High-Tech seems to

be another case of ambiguity in the

understanding of architecture. The question

arises to what extent High-Tech belongs to

Canditis. .losic. Wooch: Flue I'nivursiry. Berlin the sphere of civilization and represents

another layer of technological sediments,

aluminum panels and metallic fabric and to what extent it is part of the world of fireproo/ing from aerospace; tensioning culture-a constant renewal of the timeless

devices from trailer sidescreens; raised- heritage of mankind. Is, for example, the

floor systemsfromjetliners; photochromatic Lloyds of London a "historical document"

glazing from jet bombers.-' representing a distinct level of technological

de\'elopment at a particular time in history

Architecture cannot lightly ignore such or an object of culture which will make a

possibilities. But to be able to take full lasting imprint on the skyline of London?

advantage of the ever progressing achie\'e- Must architecture choose between art and

ments of technology it must pay a price: it technology, culture and civilization? And if

must relinquish its traditional role in society so, where does the Eiffel Tower, for example,

as an agent of culture and must expedite belong? Should we consider it a "historic

society's adaptation to the world yet to come. contribution of permanent architecture," or

Along this line of reasoning Pawley suggests an example of 19th century technique whose

that "unlike the 'historic' contribution of time has passed? Should we, as Pawley does,

permanent architecture, the architecture of describe architecture as "an occult world of

the future must be in continual transition. "-- ignorance and obsolete mystery,"--^ or should

Here is an unequivocal position in the conflict we be less orthodox and more broad-minded?

between tradition and progress: architecture The problem certainly is more complex than

16 is no more; what is left is a utilitarian Pawley would like us to believe. The De Menil Museum by Renzo Piano in society grows, so the traditional meaning of

Houston offers an example of architecture architecture diminishes. But this symptom that goes beyond High-Tech. It respects of our times indicates a deeper problem: a context and local character and in scale, danger that the spirit of techno-science will material and color relates with great subtlety spread across the globe and create its own to its residential surroundings. As far as high anonymous and transitory civilization technology is concerned, it uses it sparingly. deprived of any character, identity, and

On the other hand, the Hongkong and meaning. And such will be its architecture.

Shanghai Bank by Foster which, one must Can our present rational, scientific and admit, fits equally well into the skyline of technological mode of thinking overcome its

Hongkong's Central Business District, is an own limitations and reach beyond itself? exercise in the most advanced technology. Can the value judgments, excluded from the

Its technological splendor achieved at an world of science, gain legitimacy again? exorbitant cost seems, however, to question its real meaning. Is it, like the Lloyds of Richard Rogers reached, perhaps, the heart of

London, an experiment in technology the matter when he said that "what has failed is condemned to obsolescence and demolition, not modem architecture but our ethical system. or a contribution to the financial culture of Science and technology have outstripped our the late 2()th century? Will the bank become capacity to deal with them. This we must a lasting monument to human aspirations, to redress."-^ Yet we cannot escape the vicious human creativity-to culture, or, in the name circle of intentions, compromises and results. of the endless flow of inventions, is it destined In his hands, as in the hands of other High- to the dustbin of history? As the significance Tech architects, technological efficiency has of science and technology in the present been transformed into its mere symbol, into

show-pieces of corporate clients. Here lligh- Rithanl Riificrs. Lloyds ii/Limdon Techjoins forces with historicism: the Lloyds

of London by Rogers and the Hongkong and

Shanghai Bank by Foster, like the New York

AT&T Building by Johnson, or the Humana

Building by Graves, are all aesthetically

different, yet all belong to the same category.

Can the conflict between tradition and

progress, between material well-being and

spiritual values, between civilization and

cultures be declared invalid? The skeptical

mind will always question and attack the

Utopian one- the one that seeks a perfect

world; the progressive mind will always revolt

against the complacency of the conservative

one - the one that sees in the good old days an

image of the future. Without this conflict, to

quote Kolakowski again. the victory ofUtopian dreams would lead us ethics they seem to forget that to "refuse to

to a totalitarian nightmare and the utter acknowledge the inevitability, or even the

downfall of civilization, whereas the reality, of evil, is also to kill or weaken the

unchallenged domination of the skeptical will that is needed to triumph over matter."-'

spirit would condemn us to a hopeless It is no wonder then that those architects

stagnation.-'^ who set themselves apart from the present

undefinable world escape into the sphere of

Thus the conflict between these two forces aesthetics and, in essence, surrender to a

seems to be our only hope. What constitutes consumer society and to its aims of publicity

danger is the attitude of those who declare and profit.

indifference to "all that takes place within

civilization," who consider architecture an Perhaps for a consumer civilization - the

independent of reality system, and who logical child of Enlightenment - it does not

abandon the battie for a better environment. matter whether the old or the new triumphs.

Those architects, although immersed in Perhaps for technology only efficiency

contemporary problems, dilute them in matters. And perhaps for language nothing

language games, whimsical aesthetics and matters at all. But for architects the problem

novelty at any cost. They concern themselves still remains the same; even the most daring

with such esoteric notions as "futile inventions of the human mind will not change

permanence," "errant signification," or the human spirit and the human heart. Man

"indeterminate signifieds," but stop short of lives today surrounded by electronic codes,

critically assessing problems of our society and signs, images and gadgets but he also carries

our civilization . This attitude is understandable. with him the weight of a biologically based

But is it commendable? As David Harvey inner nature. He may employ the most

writes in The Condition ofPostmodemity "In powerful computers in the pursuit of material

period of confusion and uncertainty, the turn well-being, but he will never cease searching

toaesthetics [ofwhateverform] becomesmore for his roots, for sources of his dignity. And

pronounced." Later he adds: it is culture that provides him with a link to

his past, with the understanding of who he is.

The experience of time and space has

changed, the confidence in the association Perhaps, as some say, there is no role for

between scientific and moraljudgments has architecture in the contempory society;

collapsed, aesthetics has triumphed over perhaps architecture has no future; perhaps

ethics as a prime focus of social and it is a remnant of the past. But, if that is not

intellectual concern, images dominate true, why should architecture abandon its

narratives, ephemerality andfragmentation cultural and spiritual role in society?

take precedence over eternal truths and Likewise why should architecture prevent

unified politics....-^ man from moving forward, from trying to

improve his lot? This is the dilemma of

Although this condition may be a passing architecture, its essence and its soul. The

mode, architects who thrive on it ignore its struggle for this soul will continue with every

temporality and act as if theirs were the final new generation of architects imtil archi-

18 truths. By turning to aesthetics and ignoring tecture ceases to exist. r.V.s,,, I'cIIl Ciihiry Whuif. London

proportion and concerns everybody But it is not only architecture whose existence global of place, age, and race: the poor is threatened today. The world itself is independent the old, the threatened. The real danger to both comes and the rich, the young and

ignorant. It may give new now from a new source. It comes from the educated and the with nature-** ecological crisis caused by our fragmented meaning to our coexistence

interdependence. If that and directionless civilization. And perhaps, and to our mutual will have to be ready for like the Industrial Revolution centuries ago, happens, architects conflicts. the Ecological Revolution today may change new challenges, new tasks, and new the face of the world again, for the threat is of .

1. Leszek Kolakowski, Modernity on Endless Trial 7. See Carl E. Schorske, Fin de Steele Vienna: Politics (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago and Culture, (New York: Random House) 1980. Press, 1990) p. 4. 8. Camillo Sitte, The Art of Building Cities- City

2 See Nicholas Riasanowski , The Teaching ofCharles Building According to its Artistic Fundamentals, Fourier, (Berkeley: University Press, 1969) Jonathan Hyperion reprint edition, (Westport, Connecticut: Beecher and Richard Bienvenu, editors, The Uto- Hyperion Press, Inc., 1979) p. 2. pian Vision ofCharles Fourier, (Columbia: Univer- sity of Missouri Press, 1983) Robert Owen, A New 9. Antonio Sant'Elia, Manifesto of Futurist Architec- View of Society and Other Writings, (London: J.M. ture 1914, in Umbro Appolonio, editor, Futurist Dent & Sons Ltd., 1949). Manifestos, (New York:The Viking Press), 169, 170. See also Donald Drew Egbert, Social Radicalism 3. Francoise Choay, TheModem City: Planning in the and the Arts, (New York: Alfred Knopft, 1970) 19th Century, (New York: George Braziller, 1969) pp. 279-280.

10. Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth , (Evanston: North- Michael W. Brooks, Ruskin and Victorian Arch itec- ern University Press, 1965) p. 271. ture. New (Brunswick and London: Rutgers Univer- sity Press, 1987) p. 192.

Robert Foumeaux Jordan, Victorian Architecture, 12. Rayner Banham, The Architecture of the Well-tem- (City: Penguin Books, 1966) p. 130. pered Environment, (London: The Architectural Press, 1973) p. 265. 6. Ibid., p. 131. 20 13. Ibid; p. 269. 21. Martin Pawley, Theory and Design in the Second Machine Age, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1990) Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage Cit\\ (Citv. p. 153. The MIT Press, 1978) p. 98. 22. Martin Pawley, "Technology Transfer," The Archi- Choay, The Modem City, p. 31. tectural Review (September 1987) p. 35.

Kolakowski,Mo(r/t'ni!t.v on Endless Trial, p. 12. 23. Ibid., p. 39.

Mark Wigley, Deconstructivist Archl 24. Richard Rogers, Directions in Current Architec-

ton: Little, Brown and Co., 1988) p. 1 ture, (New York: London/St. Martin's Press, Acad- emy Editions, 1988) p. 10. Peter Eisenman, "The End of Classical," Perspecta 21, The Yale ArchitecturalJoumal, 1984. p. 166. 25. Kolakowski.MorferMit.v im Emllcss Tried, p. 145.

, Catherine Cooke, "Professional Diversity and its 26. David Harvey, The Cotulition of Po.stmodeniity, Origins," The Avant-Garde, Russian Architecture (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1989) p. 327, p. 328. in the Twenties, Architectural Design Profile 93, (London: Academy Editions, 1991) pp. 9-21. 27. Kolakowski, Modernity on Endless Trial, p. 28.

, Charles Jencks, "Post-Modernism Between Kitsch 28. Magdalena Abakanowicz, Arboreal Architecture, and Culture," Post-Modernism on Trial, Architec- catalogue of the exhibition at the Marlborough Gal- tural Design Profile 88, (London: Academy Edi- ler\' in New York, Summer 1992. tions, 1990) p. 27. " "

Invasion of the Building Snatchers A Contemporary Architectural Avant Garde and Its Heritage^

Thomas Schumacher "Thefuture is always the same; it's the past doxy of diagonal intersections, glass shards, University of Maryland that changes. -Beniaminn Plucido and asymmetrical unbalance into the single

category of DEGONSTRUGTIVISM. Many

"...criticism is a device to detect false corporate and commercial firms have been

claims. -Thomas McEvillev influenced by Deconstructivist projects.

Some have even been able to combine the

language of Deconstructivism with that of

In Architecture schools and in magazines Postmodernism.

around the globe, the new architecture of

DECONSTRUGTIVISM heralds the eclipse The term is already in widespread use and we

of Postmodernism. The new style is can easily recognize the duck when it appears

everywhere, from Seattle to Atlanta, London in a full-color magazine spread. I will,

to Venice, Tokyo to Buenos Aires. Few however, not employ the "D-word" here with

schools of architecture (outside of a broad brush to include all buildings,

Switzerland) have resisted. Fueled by the projects, (and architects) with a similar

publishing industry (three DECON- quack. Rather, I am interested in discussing

STRUGTIVISM issues of the London-based those architects who maintain that the new

Architectural Design have appeared to date) style goes ineluctably and irrevocably with

the new style also announces the eclipse of the times. 1 will question the premise that

the old modernisms, from the International Deconstructivism is more 'in step' with our

Style and the New Objectivity to the New time than any of the other architectural

Brutalism. Neo-Rationalism and virtually all styles around.

the other movements of the last 70 years are

also ousted. Except Futurism and The new architecture is the architecture of

Gonstructivism. angst, pain, and turmoil; Peter Eisenman,

one of the 'movement's' most vocal

Deconstructivism, or DEGON, is most proponents, has called it the architecture of

certainly a misnomer, like the term the post-nuclear/post-holocaust age. This

'Rationalism' used to denote the Italian avant- new architecture which seeks to replace an

garde of the 20s and 30s, and it would be ancien regime. That ancien regime is

unfair and oversimplified to lump all the Postmodernism, but the new architecture is

22 buildings and architects of this new ortho- not the old modernism. It is rather an .

architecture grounded in the specific The new architecture is propelled by an

reahties of today; it is hyper-modern. intellectual fuel composed of an elan vital, a

pure symbolic essence. Its legitimization is

As such, Deconstructivisni has pulled off a based on its capacity to represent today

terminology coup. Like the Red Guards through pure charisma. What this may

during the Cultural Revolution, the mean in historical, intellectual, and logical

Deconstructivists are 'more modern than terms is interesting to consider. In this

thou.' Like the 'hawks,' who commanded the essay, I will first examine the basis of

American flag during the Vietnam war, Deconstructivism's self-justifications. I will

modernity has become the exclusive domain then question some of Deconstructivism's of those architects who use multiple avowed purposes, in particular its need to diagonals, tilt-out walls, and plan-rotations. reflect a presumed contemporary Zeitgeist

This coup parallels an earlier one by the of angst and uncertainty. I will conclude original Modern Movement architects of the with what I rekon is Deconstructivism's real

'20s and '30s. Like their counterparts in the essence: a highly decorative style, less inter-war period, Deconstructivist archi- revolutionary than most of its proponents tects and their apologists have usurped the would like to admit. Most important, I will term 'Modern.' 'Decon' is now the only argue why Deconstructivism would better be modern game in town. Other modernist called Neo-Futurism. architects, including those who would

subscribe to many of the original tenets of 1 . During the period Reyner Banham called the Modern Movement, are retardataire 'The First Machine Age' the German

They are made to feel as if they aren't modem philosopher and economic theorist , Max Weber, enough. In the thirties, architects were made wrote a book called The Theory of Social and to feel the same way by the proponents of the Economic Organization.- In it he set out a

International Style. Architects like August simple set ofideas for howgovernments, regimes

Perret, Paul Cret, Gio Ponti, Peter Behrens, and socio-economic systems justify their very

W.M. Dudok, and Eliel Saarinen were modern existence. Weber identified what he called 'the architects, too. pure forms of legitimate authority.' They were

the rational, the traditional, and the

Deconstructivism is avowedly not a revival charismatic. Nations, peoples, and govern- of the modernism of the '20s in terms of ments consider themselves to have legitimacy, social agenda, the organization of space for Weber argued, because of rational or use, and the role of advanced technology. It traditional reasons, or via the charisma of rejects the nationalisms and regionalisms of their leaders or their ideologies. This is not the '30s. It abjures the Neo-Realism of the difficult to illustrate, although the pure forms

'40s, the optimism of the '50s, the social are hard to find in almost any particular determinisms of the '60s, the Postmodernism governmental system, especially in this and Neo-Rationalism of the '70s, and the century. The 'Divine Right of Kings,' an bourgeois formalism of the early '80s. The extreme version of the traditional, no longer new movement has brought back the human passes muster in most monarchies. The British body, we are told (was it ever missing?), but Royal Family may retain a traditional right to this revival gives us the body 'in pain.' the throne, but not to govern. 23 ,

In the modern worki the pure forms of architecture needs nourishment from each: legitimate authority are intertwined; they the ratioiud, traditional and charismatic. resemhle certain chemical elements ( sodium Like Vitruvius's Firmitas, Commoditas, and for example) which exist free in nature hut Vcnustas, (FIRMNESS, COMMODITY, and only in compounds or ores. Western DFLIGIIT), "well building" requires at least democracies are widely accepted to he sontcthiufi of all three. primarily rational systems, with certain strong traditions (like the Anglo-yVmeriean Out of all the influential architectural legal system), exuding a modicum of movements of our century. Futurism was the charisma. But these governments never most charismatic. This helps us to under- possess so much charisma that it over- stand the relation between its founder, shadows the rational. F.T. Marinetti, and Benito Mussolini.

Constructivism, while proposing a kind of

Tradition still dominates in eoimtries like rationalism, was also heavily charismatic.

Saudi Arahia. Fascist Italy and Nazi Ger- Neither of these movements had much

many relied heavily on charisma and interest in tradition . Architects closer to the discarded tradition. Rationality was almost mainstream of the Modern Movement, non-existent. In Italy under Fascism, the architects like Gropius, Le Corbusier, famous dictum "Mussolini is always right" Mendelssohn and Oud, tended to balance serenely demonstrates such lack of ration- the three pure forms of legitimate authority, ality. Socialist societies have sought to although the traditional was dragged along, balance the rational and the charismatic; the out of sight, way back in third place. While traditional has no part in the operations of the protagonists of the Modern Movement the system. That is, in theory, at least. tended to play up the ratioiud, which, in

their eyes, would make their architecture

Weber's lens can be placed neatly over the charismatic , they also downplayed tradition phenomenon of architecture. Certain styles, in the polemical writings of the propaganda periods, or movements are heavily rational, war. And for good reason. Wliat combatant others are primarily traditional or wants his enemies to think they share even charismatic. Renaissance protagonists part of his ideology? History has taught us elaborated the rational in a parade of that such pamphleteering portrayed an treatises. They also blatantly paraded a love incomplete, if not systematically distorted for tradition. Palladio, for example, wrote portrait of the architecture of the '20s and

that because the Ancients made such beautiful '3()s; the traditional was much more

temples we should study them in order to important to those architects than they

know how churches ought to be built. originally admitted.

The Greek revival of the early 19th century Postmodernism was an attempt to infuse the

was short on the rational, but very long on rationalism of modernism with a height-

the traditional. Viollet-le-duc tried to ened sense of tradition. This is not to say

rationalize the charismatic. Without pressing PoMo lacked charisma. Movements cannot

the point too far, it might be reasonable to be launched without charisma, whether it

that a balanced, deep, and significant be proffered with the statesmanlike control of Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction, accurately, students at least get a good or as a call to arms like Le Corbusier's descriptive geometry lesson. And these

Towards a New Architecture. Decon- studios are tame).-* structivism has now pushed the pendulum in the other direction. It is a self-proclaimed Parallel to these methodologies is the interest anti-rational movement, at least in terms of in drawing and representation as an end in architectural rationality as we have itself, what Robin, Evans called a, "... hitherto known it; Deconstructivism consumability [that] has most often been purports to reflect the times: chaos, achieved by redefining [drawings'] ...role as uncertainty, unclarity, a foreboding Zeitgeist. similar to that of early twentieth-century

It overtly rejects tradition, at least in its paintings, in the sense of being less concerned theory. A deconstructivist might well argue with their relation to what they represent that the exclusion of the traditional and the than with their own constitution. And so the rational is exactly what makes the movement drawings themselves have become the so unique and unprecedented. We should repositories of effects and the focus of not forget Futurism, however. attention, while the transmutation that

occurs between drawing and building remains

Deconstructivism, like Postmodernism, was to a large extent an enigma."^ hatched in the academic communities of

Europe and America, and its anti-rational This sort of method and its attendant agenda is well represented in numerous fetishized drawing-objects are purveyed as design studio projects and methodologies an antidote to the 'false rationalism' of within academe. One of the more popular programmatic bubble-diagrams or nine- methods is for students to make 'conceptual' square grids, typical of traditional plan

(albeit physical, that is, real, i.e., palpable, generators. Behind it is a very modern what 1 mean here is 3-D) of architectural concept; the acceptance of the relativity of ideas deriving from fantasies about, say, all initial architectural decisions. The literary or filmic themes, or the LA freeway method, which assumes that all points of system. Copper, brass, wire mesh, wire origin are equally valid, might well be the

glass, etc. , are employed to make 'conceptual' ultimate DEGONSTRUCTION (as compared models. These models are not intended to be to deconstructivism). Deconstruction, the literal depictions of buildings; they are not literary theory from which some of the scale models, but rather the adumbration of principles of Deconstructivist architecture

'ideas,' 'meta-models.' Figuration portrays flow, holds that all interpretations of 'texts' abstraction. Brass in the model doesn't are equally valid. A building, like a poem, is mean brass in the building, it just means a 'text.' As the deconstructors of literature brass in the model. (In the past, students tell us, no one person can hold the key to the used abstract models to portray real spaces 'proper' interpretation of any text. and buildings.) Students then carefully draw Interpretation is open to interpretation. If shadow-renderings of the model. The shadow interpretation is open to interpretation, then pattern becomes the initial parti, or why not the generation of 'text'? So goes the organizational idea, for the building. logic; meaning anything goes in the logic.

(Assuming they cast their shadows Mere is where we enter the world of Big Julie 25 from Damon Runyon'sGimsam/Do/Zs. lie's whom architectural creativity is analogous

the gambler-hoodlum who shoots craps with to Action Painting as it is to technocrats who

his own dice, from which the dots have been dream of creating an everlasting urban Utopia

removed. "I remembers where the dots was," within five years.""

he tells his associates.

In practice, the formal repertory of the style

Post-Structuralism, the movement of which closely reflects the vocabulary of Futurism

DEGONSTRUCTION is but one mani- and Constructivism, with even less interest

festation, tends to assert multiplicity of in establishing geometric, spatial, and social

meanings, individual accessibility, and the order than the Futurists and (especially) the

ultimate subjectivity of all understanding. Gonstructivists had. The relationship

The viewer puts his/her own interpretation between our present 'avant garde' and

into the act of 'reading.' Post-Structuralism Futurism has been underplayed; the style

abjures elitism. Railing against modernist might be better called "Neo-Futurism," or

criticism, the post-structuralists might be "Futurist Revival." Futurism, like Decon-

better placed alongside the architectural structivism, but unlike Constructivism, was

radicals of the late 60s, in particular those nihilistic. Like Deconstructivism, Futurism

behaviorists of the so-called 'user-needs' took an essentially passive and uncritical

movement. role towards the excesses of urban squalor

and unbridled technological pollution, with

Post-Structuralism is, in fact, aligned with its acceptance of virtually anything that

Postmodernism in literature and art. The industrial development and science fiction

connection which architectural DEGON- have tossed in our path. Marinetti argued

STRUCTIVISM has assumed to exist with for, among other things, the destruction of

post-structuralism of other disciplines is a Venice. Violence was the catchphrase of his

paper connection, existing solely in the minds Manifesto: "We want to glorify war-the only

of the architectural deconstructivists. Like cure for the world -militarism, patriotism,

postmodernism in art and literature, the destructive gesture of the anarchists..."'

Postmodernism in architecture was a pluralist { Marinetti literally went into the streets with

idea, allowing for multiple interpretations of his squads in acts of symbolic violence.) A

the modern world, while Deconstructivism contemporary parallel can be found on

is a single-interpretation theory, assuming Donald Bates's flyer for his architecture

an overarching technologicalZeit^eist which program at the Le Gorbusier Unite at Briey:

eclipses all other interpretations. The single- "This endeavour is... a speculation on the

Zeitgeist doctrine marches in step with the mode of working which anticipates that the

anti-rationalism of the movement. Such grasping of understanding be seen as a

anti-rationalism is typical of theories which particular act of violence. This potential

exude univalent, totalitarian ideas of how brutality is found readily in that apparatus of

things ought to be done. Rationalism, by thought and experience named

contrast, is moderate, as Peter Collins has 'architecture'."

explained.^ "Rationalism has always been

essentially a tolerant doctrine," writes Marinetti's attitude toward his craft is shared

26 Collins. "It is as uncongenial to those for by certain protagonists of the new architecture. The following description of logical inconsistencies-indeed, perhaps

Marinetti's Futurist Variety Theatre by James because of them-c/iarisma seems to be the

Joll might do for a few contemporary name of the game, as it was for Futurism. personalities.

2. Is modern life truly chaotic and unstable,

"Everything must be absurd: the actresses and if so, is architecture an appropriate would have green hair, violet arms, blue vehicle to express our atomized society? If bosoms, and orange chignons: glue would be we consider the half-century since the end of placed on the seats of the theatre and the WWII, our evaluation must be mixed. On the same seat sold to two people; itching and one side, we have had a nuclear threat, a sneezing powder would be scattered among global population explosion, a depletion of the audience: free seats would be offered to natural resources, terrorism, and the notorious eccentrics, and so on.'"* greenhouse effect; in 1961 we teetered on

the brink of nuclear holocaust.

Like the Deconstructivists, Futurist apologists attempted to claim certain architects and On the other side, we have also witnessed other artists as part of their movement, over the past 4-1/2 decades one of the most

"...attempts were made to claim Stravinsky prosperous periods of economic growth in and even Richard Strauss as the true Futurist history. Advances in agricultural science, musicians."" Frenk Gehry has been medicine, and domestic technology have appropriated by the Deconstructivists, made much of the world a more productive despite his lack of interest in their agenda. and more prosperous place. It might even be

argued that after Nuremburg our moral fibre

In the 6()s Archigram, Archizoom, has improved. (Most civilized nations have Superstudio and other neo-futurist even outlawed the Death Penalty.) movements stood for a technological

Zeitgeist, but these architects were not simply Modern life, in the West at least, is more interpreters ofthe status quo. Their schemes predictable than it ever was. (None of the and dreams were not merely reflections of Deconstructivists has asserted that the new the apparent technological /social /cultural architecture expresses the angst of East conditions. They were rather statements Africa.) We can reasonably expect to live to

about what ought to be . how people ought to a ripe old age and not get cut down by live. Today the squalor of 'Blade Runner' communicable diseases like plague, becomes a paradigm for a 'new urbanism.' diphtheria, or polio. We have pensions for

our old-age, seat-belts and air-bags for our

The revival of these seventy year-old cars, even the Heimlich maneuver to avert

architectural standards and theories casts accidental suffocation on an errant chicken

suspicion on the idea ofthe Deconstructivist bone. We can avoid the roulette of sex: birth

(read: Neo-Futurist) rejection of tradition control or abortion to prevent or terminate a

and proves once again that the Emperor's pregnancy, and 'safe' techniques to prevent

clothes cannot be tailored without employing disease. We can even replace some defective

an existing bolt of conceptual cloth (or is it a organs. And much of our future is in our own

conceptual bolt of cloth?). But despite such hands: we can choose not to smoke or eat 27 saturated fats. Such knowledge and There is another side to the 'chaos' inter-

techniques were unavailable to Raphael, pretation, however. This is the 'uncertainty-

Mozart, Schubert or H.H. Richardson. in-science' principle: the fact that scientific

certainty was shattered over and over again

WTiere are the uncertainties and insecurities during the 20th century by Einstein,

of modern life? The Gold War is over. The Heisenberg, and more recently by scientists

real possibility of a nuclear holocaust-that who speak of 'chaos'—rather than order—as

dark cloud hanging over the generation of the normal state of the Universe. Today's

the 1960s-recedes from consciousness as architects who wish to make a parallel

world tensions ease. Those 1960s architects architectural theory should remember what

were committed to represent the potential happened when early 20th century theorists

stability of modern life through 'rational' and made similar connections to the science of

structurally stable forms. There were even their day. Theo Van Doesburg believed that

attempts to extend rationality into design 4-dimensional, non-Euclidian estimates in

methods, as witnessed by the work of space-time would make everything "very

Christopher Alexander and others. WTiy easy." The resultant Space-Time concept

didn't those architects interpret their age as became the watchword for several genera-

unstable, and 'express' that instability in tions of architects. The most strident of

their designs? One possible answer is that these architects and apologists fooled

they didn't think of it, they who were so themselves (and many others as well) into

moralistically engaged in making a "better thinking that the Mies's Barcelona Pavilion

world." 'Chaos,' it would seem, can be expressed dynamism and spatial simultaneity

connected to the rational only tenuously, better than-rather than slightly differently

and to the traditional not at all. Yet it from-the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles or the

attaches itself quite easily to the charismatic. Mosque of Cordoba. As Giorgio Grassi

explained in 1983: "It is actually pathetic to

But to give 'chaos' the benefit of the doubt let see the architects of the 'heroic' period

us for the moment accept that the 'chaos' ...trying with difficulty to accommodate

interpretation is but one among many themselves to. ..'isms' [cubism, suprematism,

acceptable interpretations of the essential neo-plasticism]; experimenting in a

Zeitgeist of our time. The 'order' inter- perplexed manner because of their

pretation would be another. By what measure fascination with the new doctrines, measuring

is the 'chaos' interpretation better or more them, only later to realize their

accurate than the 'order' interpretation? ineffectuality. ..."'"

Viewed through a deconstructor's lens, the

'order' interpretation of modern society is Numerous Avant-Garde architects, and

just as valid as the 'chaos' interpretation. If untoUed students enrolled in American

the point is at best moot, then it seems architecture schools, would like architec-

patently absurd that an architectural style ture to behave like certain other artistic

purporting to represent either interpretation disciplines. Many purveyors of these

could claim to represent the Zeitgeist of disciplines examine the 'underside' of

contemporary life. Yet Deconstructivism contemporary life; the nitty gritty and the 28 claims such hegemony. unpleasant. The architects are envious of playwrights, and novelists, filmmakers, and Deconstructivist projects and buildings are

performance artists. This is perfectly extraordinarily picturesque. They are directly

understandable. Various artists evoke the accessible to a generation raised on TV, Star

uncertainties, chaos and atomization of Wars-style special effects, and abstract art

modern life, just as artists from Velasquez to movements. The forms are, in short, nothing

Brecht to Godard have done. Moreover, new. The architecture is pretty, the way

artists whose work mirrors the brighter side driftwood is pretty. In a society inured to

of modern life are usually dismissed as shock and jaded by an overload of stimuli,

saccharine and sentimental. It's difficult to the architectural projects of the avant-garde

imagine, however, that Brecht would have are probably more dangerous physically than

wanted his house to do what his plays did. culturally. (Teachers of architecture might

consider getting a tetanus shot before

Further, it is eminently possible that liter- handling their students' models.) This new

ature, performance art, theatre, film, etc., architecture is not shocking; it does not test

are naturally more conducive to expressing our assumptions or our sensibilities; it does

our collective angst than are the applied not question our 'norms' and our bourgeois

design disciplines of architecture, urban lives. It simply titillates. Futurism and Dada

design, landscape architecture, civil are part of history. Their revival is the

engineering, or industrial design. Should ultimate in sentimentality.

automobile designers design unsafe cars?

Should refrigerator designers create units Assuming we can intuit the essence of an

which periodically malfunction so that we 'age' while we are still living in it . does it

may better understand the life cycle of growth matter whether architects are self- and decay? Computer programs that crash consciously interested in expressing it? without warning would certainly call Won't their products express their age-at attention to the 'best laid plans of mice and least after the fact-whether they like it or men.' To be made aware of the ultimate not? Nobody, even a layman, will mistake fragility of all human existence doesn't the work ofMcKim, Meade and White for that dictate that those who are innocent of its of Bramante. Nor will most persons mistake causes should physically suffer for it. Perhaps the work of Leon Krier or Michael Graves for architects should admit that architecture that of Paul Cret, or even the buildings of portrays angst rather poorly, and rather Richard Meier for those of Le Corbusier. cheaply. A disintegrating masonry wall, a distorted and rotated frame, and an The 1920s is often called the Jazz Age. It was unfathomable zig-zag mass, are paraded as also the First Machine Age, as Banham called the emblems of an age of anxiety. These it; the Age of Political Ferment; the Age of gestures pale as anemic trivialities compared Greed, the 7\ge of Nationalism, etc. How do to the themes of alienation which inhabit the architects choose which Zeitgeist novels of Gunter Grass, the films of Werner designation|s] to follow? If recent events in

Herzog, or the plays of Samuel Beckett. Eastern Europe are any indication.

Nationalism and regionalism might well be

There is a wonderful irony here. Despite the the victorious Zeitgeist of the 1990s. For rhetoric about angst-ridden modern realities. architecture, this might imply all manner of 29 , .

vernacular and traditional revival, hardh Longhena, He md I'alladio, amoiij; consistent with the Deconstructivist agenda scores of othei

It is difficult to imagine that Jay Gatsby The Zeitgeist is not a ventriloquist, with would have been a more representative architecture and other cultural artifacts as character of his era had he lived in a house by its dummies (this is a variation on British

Gropius, or even Behrens. If Gatsby's neo- historian Eric Hobsbawm's idea that

Renaissance villa in East Egg could neatly economic development is not a ventriloquist,

. represent the Jazz Age ( and the Age of Greed ) with the rest of history as its dummy ) " Even then what artifact doesn't symbolize its age? if contemporary architects could accurately

The revival of Gatsby-era tweeds in the 1980s, intuit the Zeitgeist and convince it to speak enhanced by the popularity of numerous through their buildings, would this be so films set in the '20s, is as emblematic of the wonderful? Designers in other disciplines

'80s and '90s as the personal computer. are somewhat more sanguine about such

Subtle changes in fabric and cut, like the temporal specificity. They seek timelessness differences between the architectures of and 'classical' continuity. Certain auto-

Lutyens and Soane, make it unlikely that mobiles from the '3()s-but not all-are deemed

Ralph Lauren's clothes will ever be mistaken CLASSICS. The Citroen DS, first introduced for the 'originals.' And if they are, so what? in 1957, looks remarkably modern even

When the tower of St. Mark collapsed in today. The designer of the 1990s generation

1902, the Venetians rebuilt it dove'era Mercedes Benz SL roadster was recently com'era, ("where it was, how it was") by interviewed by the editors of an American decree of the mayor. But the new tower was automobile magazine. He described his new built of reinforced concrete and equipped coachwork as not having "too much with an elevator. Despite the reservations of Zeitgeist" [sic], because with "too much some of the foreign press of the time, the Zeitgeist"' the car would age too quickly.

Venetians decided that the expression of The Porsche 911 has passed the quarter

20th century technology was less important century mark with only cosmetic changes, a than the continuity of culture. To interpret fact that undoubtedly makes Dr. Porsche artifacts as the representation of aspirations very happy. Even considering the short life- and nostalgia, not reality, is an accepted span of today's buildings, annual aesthetic norm of historiography. obsolescence might not be desirable for most

architects or their clients.

Further, many historians chronicle the decline of the Republic of Venice well before Most architects have big egos. They want the creation of many of her greatest palaces their imprimatur on the buildings they design churches, and paintings. Veronese's and They want everyone to know who designed

Titian's paintings came at a time when them . But the more their buildings represent

Venice's cultural and economic influence their age, the less they are identifiable as the was already on the wane. In order to work of an individual artist. The works establish an instrumental connection become anonymous. This was ardently between Venice's glory and much of its art, desired by some of the more radical architects then, we would be forced to deny Carpaccio, and theorists of the '20s and '30s, from Hannes Meyer to Massimo Bontempelli. "You wouldn't have us wear a toga, would

Today's architects and students most you, Signer Ugo?" Ojetti replied, " Palladio

certainly do not want anonymity. The more didn't wear a toga." Mussolini got his arches

their buildings share the Zeitgeist, the less and columns.

the architects share the glory.

There is another, and rather comical, parallel

Thirty years ago Aldo Van Eyck lamented to these attitudes within the Futurist

that architects had forgotten about those movement, albeit late in the movement. In

aspects of contemporary life which were 1930, at a banquet to launch the Futurist essentially the same as they were decades Cookbook, Marinetti railed against the staple

and centuries ago. The contemporary avant- of the Italian diet: pastascuitta. "Futurist garde might do well to heed Van Eyck's cooking," claimed Marinetti, "will be liberated

remark. I recently heard a story about a from the ancient obsession of weight and student who could not allow himself to design volume, and one of its principal aims will be a building with a courtyard because the abolition o(pastasciutta. Pastasciutta, courtyards are an architectural configuration however grateful to the palate, is an obsolete from the past. An astute critic asked the food; it is heavy, brutalizing, and gross; its student if he was against drinkinggin because nutritive qualities are deceptive; it induces gin was medieval, or against drinking skepticism, sloth, and pessimism."'^ Here champagne because champagne was we have Pasta, defying the Zeitgeist.

Baroque. '- What about buttons or shoelaces?

Should we 'button' our shirts and 'tie' our Courtyards, octagons, vertical windows, shoes only with velcro? As if the student's mouldings, etc., are among the myriad of courtyard would ever be mistaken for a architectural devices and forms which are medieval cloister or a Renaissance cortile; as allegedly inconsistent with a highly

if Alvar Aalto's courtyard at Saynatsalo would particularized - and doctrinaire - architects' ever be confused with the monastery of Le view of the contemporary world. These

Thoronet. I have more than once heard proscriptions are corruptions of some of the students claim that the geometric figure the more 'fundamentalist' Modern Movement octagon represents a pre-modern era. Yet beliefs concerning the appropriateness or octagons would exist even if humans didn't. inappropriateness of particular forms and

formal relationships. The most common

In the early 1930s a controversy erupted offender is symmetry. Why symmetry should

between two influential figures in Italian have born the brunt of the modernists' frontal

architecture, Marcello Piacentini, the most attacks is easy to explain, and refers to the

powerful Italian architect of his day, and Ugo charismatic. Classicism required symmetry,

Ojetti, the most influential art critic. The therefore, modern architecture, in order to

polemic was over whether Classical Roman express the non-classical view, must deny

arches and columns were required for an symmetry. Contemporary symmetrical

appropriate official Italian Imperial buildings are unnatural, improper, even

architecture. Ojetti said yes; Piacentini, deranged. How, then, can we account for the

taking an uncharacteristically modern fact that the two types of structures most

stance, said no. After all, Piacentini argued. conspicuously emblematic of modern life- 31 skyscrapers and bridges-are almost always charismatic idea into something more

symmetrical? F"urther, they are symmetrical palatable and ideologically neutral. He seems

in two or more axes, and those which are not- to be playing Dudok to Peter Eisenman's (or

like Michael Graves's Humana Building in Daniel Liebeskind's) Van Doesburg.'^ One

Louisville -often represent a return to more has the impression, however, that the

traditional forms. Deconstructivists might cladding of Koolhaas's Dance Theatre could

also look to some of their own heroes from the be easily removed for a renovation. If the

early 20th century, like Antonio Sant'Elia, building were renovated in Gropius's style of

Ivan Leonidov, and the brothers Vesnin, the 1950s, would that be an intolerable

architects who designed symmetrical buildings exercise in reactionary taste?

in the name of a technological avant-garde.

Deconstructivism has continued the Modern/

3. Like any Avant-Garde, Deconstructivism's Postmodern debate at the same scale and at

successes have brought it closer to the the same level of discourse. And judging by

mainstream, blunting its sharp edges (in the similarities of decorative excess, both

some cases literally). To date we have seen POMO and DECON share a common

precious few Deconstructivist buildings ornamental point of origin . They differ merely

actually executed, but many of those we in the source material of their applique.

have seen, like Bernard Tschumi's Pare de Despite all the talk of a technological Zeit-

La Villette, are follies; they are 'fun' geist, they are both architectures in the

constructions which don't require heated scenographic, rather than the tectonic

rooms and weather seals. And they are quite tradition, as Kenneth Frampton has shown.

wonderful, to be sure. Other Deconstructivist For Frampton, "...building remains

buildings are rather small. Still other built- essentially tectonic rather than scenographic

works are interiors; they do not have to shed in character, and, it may be argued, that it is

rain or snow. (Is this starting to sound like an act of construction first, rather than a

the Modern Movement around 1930?) One discourse predicated on surface, \'olume and

of the larger public examples of the 'new plan,. ..."'" Modernism was primarily tectonic

architecture' which I have had seen is Rem and eschewed the scenographic, at least in

Koolhaas's Dance Theatre of the Netherlands its original theoretical professions. Futurism

in the Hague. What surprised me about this was one of the few styles of modernism that

building was how traditional it is in every was predicated on scenography, as well as

respect except its exterior surfaces. The site charisma.

plan completes a traditional square; the

groundplan is a rather orthodox modern But the Neo-Futurists do share a few ideals

assembly, with cleanly flowing spaces; the with mainstream modernism. One is the idea

interior is composed of standard modern that buildings should not be 'veneered.' Veneer

spaces, halls, lobbies and auditoria. Like hides the 'truth' of the construction process.

Venturi's idea of the 'decorated shed,' this But for most building tasks, in most climates,

'ordinary' massing is overlaid with cladding, using most contemporary installations,

only this cladding is composed of zig-zags of covering the skeleton is as normal and as

metal and glass. Koolhaas has transformed important as covering the frame of an 32 an extremist and 'pure' version of a automobile, an airplane or a motorcycle. Projects in schools of architecture make the urban scale, little of that theory has been

Deconstructivism appear to be constructed put into practice; Postmodernism was an with the most advanced technology; almost wholly stylistic movement. It is proponents argue that such technology is 'the possible to make good cities using modern way we build today.' Actually, at the level of architecture, as the Amsterdam School detail these projects are presented, they would proved back in the 1930s. If Dutch architects be extremely expensive, hand-made buildings, could plan and execute a modern city back more like the Space Shuttle than the latest then, one which continues to function robot-built automobile. In reality, the way we beautifully in the face of the technological build today is not all that different from 100 or changes of the past 60 years, then we should

400 years ago, not to mention how the Romans be able to do it now. built: strong, cheap and plentiful materials underneath. Durable, fancy and expensive There is good news, however, for those materials on the outside. We build like the mainstream modernists, post-modernists or ancient Romans, only thinner, and with more 'independents' who are put off by Neo- plumbing. (Actually, compared to the Romans, Futurism's lack of social agenda, its disdain with not even that much more plumbing.) for all varieties of tradition, its lack of order,

But whatever the relationship may be bet- its self-proclaimed absence of rationality, ween old and new construction methods and and especially its anti-urbanism. Like pure materials, the exigencies of the construction sodium when it's exposed to the air, pure industry are not what has generated the forms charisma has a short life span before it literally of Deconstructivism, no more than it gener- burns up. Or else it combines with other ated the forms of the original Futurism of elements (like sodium with chlorine) and it

Sant'Elia and Ghiattone. becomes something as innocuous as taffle

salt, something that gives a little more flavor

If this talk is a plea for anything it is a plea for to an already established recipe. better balance among the traditional, the rational, and the charismatic. The antidote Conclusion: to the charismatic excesses of Decon- Much of my argument here is prompted by structivism is not Prince Charles's the fact that architects and critics in

Romanticism, any more than de Stilj was the architecture schools are engaging in antidote to Eclectic Classicism, or POST- activities which take them away from the

MODERNISM was the antidote to the 1960s original object of their studies: the building concrete bunkers in oceans of parked cars. and the urbanism which groups of buildings

In the end, most of the stylistic bickering among create. This is not to say that the influences architects is painfully parochial and trivial. on architecture and design that arise from

other disciplines-be they history, anthro-

The difficulties and problems caused by pology, literary criticism, etc.- ought to be

modern architecture are urban , not styUstic . avoided. An enormous amount has been

The Postmodern reaction to modernism learned from these disciplines, and others, should have been at the urban scale, not the in the past quarter century, and 1 have scale of details and claddings. While some of myself engaged in research using both literary the theory of the past 20 years has focused on criticism and sociology. 33 At a recent internal symposium at Princeton form."'' But even literature has its 'pragmatic'

University involving Professors of Archi- side. The literal sense of a novel - the story -

tecture and Art History, a teacher of Art supports the allegory, interacts with the

History asked the architecture faculty to define allegory, informs the allegory, and it is not

architecture. The first response by an simply the inadequate sustenance of an

architecture professor was, "Architecture is a allegory that we could dispense with if only

system of representation." The historians our audience were sophisticated enough to

response was, "I always thought of architecture not require an understandable story to hold

as Baukunst: the Art of Building."'" its atavistic attention.

Architecture is the art of building, however, In this regard let me briefly return to some

before it is a system of representation. Were research I did a few years ago on Giuseppe

it only a system of representation we would Terragni and his methodological inspiration,

not have to teach technical courses in Dante Alighieri. Terragni, I believe, under-

professional programs; but, more import- stood the difference between the 'art of

ant, we would not have to worry about the building' and 'a system of representation,'

relationship of literal to allegorical modes of and between the literal and allegorical senses

thinking; they would be manifest, or at least of both Dante'sDTOnie Comedy and the project

more transparent then they are, as in he dedicated to that great poem and poet.

literature or painting. But the inability of

architects and students to distinguish the Terragni relied on his source, Dante, for a

literal from the allegorical has perhaps been method of dissecting his own architectural

the cause of much of the academic, unreal allegory, and to explain the relation of the

(in more than one sense of the word) design corporeal, literal 'sense' of his building to his

work of the past decade. allegory. Dante in his turn, using a long-lived

and well-worn tradition of Medieval "Fourfold

Worse, many architecture students today Exegesis" explained his Divine Comedy to

seem uninterested in any dialogue between his patron, in a famous letter called the

the literal and the allegorical, between the "Epistle to Can Grande della Scala."''' What

"art of building" and a "system of is central to both Dante's and Terragni's

communication." They desire pure com- allegorical meaning, is that it is constructed

munication, as if this actually occurs in any upon the literal meaning. The building is a

other discipline which can be regarded as a building before it is the embodiment of

system of representation. This anxiety over Dantesque compositional criteria or Fascist

the pedestrian and pragmatic essense of one's allegorical ideals.

discipline is not solely the deformation

professionelle of the architect. Even writers Too many students, professors, and architects

share it. E.M. Forster once wrote about the today do not understand this very simple

novel: "Yes - oh dear yes - the novel tells a necessity. My purpose here has been to show

story. ... That is the highest factor common to that nothing is new. This stuff is old hat,

all novels, and I wish it was not so, that it but is apologists are either trying to pull the

could be something different-melody, or wool over unsuspecting eyes, or have a ver\'

34 perception of the truth, not this low atavistic poor grasp of history themselves. ,

1. My thanks to Steven W. Hurtt, Andrea Ponsi, Janet 11. See Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, New York:

Zweig, and Patricia Sachs for criticisms and Vintage Books, 62: "Economic development is not a

comments on this essay. sort of ventriloquist with the rest of history as its dummy." 2. See M.Weber, The Theory qfSncial and Economic OrHunizutUm (New York, The Free Press, 1<)47). 12. The incident occured at Cornell University. The * critic was Colin Rowe. 3. hi the Princeton University Student Course Guide

tor 1992 the following entrj- is recorded for the 13. Quoted in E. Da\id, kalian Food, llarmond.sworth:

Sophomore Studio: "Project #1: Design a religious Penguin, 1954, p. 93. experience for a smurf and a duck in two dimensions, with four colors, a baseball bat, and a sheet of 14. W.M. Dudok was an extremely talented and aluminum foil. Draw a section of the experience and successful architect in Holland in the '20s and '30s,

relate it to your interpretation of Senator Kennedy the designer of the Bijenkorf Department Store in as a symbol of purity. Drawings should be at a scale Rotterdam and the Hilversum Town Hall, among

of r=2 million feet." (p. 3). Observers not privy to numerous other fine works. He was awarded the the Princeton scene have been confused as to AIA Gold Medal, one of two foreigners to receive that

whether this is in fact tongue-in-cheek. award in the pre-\VWll period (the other was Sir Edwin Lutyens). In Space, Time and Architecture 4. Evans, Robin, "Translations from Drawing to Siegfried Giedion dismissed Dudok as 'sentimental.' " Building, London, AA Files, 12, Date?, p. 5. It seems that Dudok used bricks and, sometimes, pitched roofs. He wasn't avant-garde enough for 5. Peter Collins, Architectural Judgement, Montreal, Giedion. McGil-Queen's University Press, 1971, 42. 15. Frampton, K., Rappel "a L'Ordre: The Case for the Tectonic," in AD, The New Architecture, London: Academy Editions, 1990, p. 20. F.T. Marinetti, "Futurist Manifesto," inLe Figaro,

20 February 1909, translation in J. Joll, Three 16. Re-told to the author by Professor .lohn Pinto. hitellectuals in Politics. New York, Pantheon, 1960. EM, Aspects of the Novel, New York, 8. .lull, op. eit.,p. 150, Harcourt Brace and World, 1927, 1955, paperback,

ed., 1965, p. 25-26.

9. ,Joll, op. cit., p. 147. IS. See Toynbee, Paget, Dantis Alaghcrii Epistolae,

. Grassi, G., "Avant Garde and Continui London, 1907.

Opposition.s 21, p. 2d-27, Architecture of Liberative Movement: A Design Thesis 1992-1993

Benjamin K. Nesbeitt Mo\'ement is the creative poetry of liberty, revery of our liberation from the immobility

University of Illinois . ,. , . ,. . , eni''"ating from the expression ot inherent of infancy. However, we are then conditioned Urbana-Chmnpaisn

mobility; it is a manifestation of the graceful, to avoid risk. We employ ever diminishing

Henry Plummer vibrant tensions between equilibrium and degrees of creativity in motion. With the Thesis Critic imbalance, safety and risk, gravity and levity. passage of time, the memory of excited

exploration grows faint, or submerges into

The Architecture of liberative movement is a amnesia. This progressive restraint and loss

thesis aimed at generating a built of motivation is analogous to atrophy, only

environment which engages that dynamic here it pertains not only to strength and

mobile nature of man - an environment which agility, but also to those creative sensibilities

invites participation and investigation, which might infuse built environments with

challenges mental and physical abilities, and activation.

allows users to be interactive with

architecture. Users of this architecture can Some rediscover what was known and natural

then become participants. By endowing in childhood through reviving movements

these participants with opportunities for and imaginations. This is exemplified by the

choice, spontaneity, and creativity, diverse physical techniques and mental

architecture gains vital freedoms, becoming gymnastics required to solve the planar relief

ali\'e and liberative. labyrinths of rock climbing. In the climb, an

entirely different sense of balance, alien to

The need for such an architecture is definite the horizontal world, is engaged. The ascent

and unmistakable when traced to the more allows one to become free, to be vertically

inventive stages of human mobile life. As intrepid, to vulnerably inhabit another terrain

children we are explorers of an expanding apart from conventional topography.

world, probing the tactile environment and Climbing has been compared to a tense

testing gravitational limits. Ingenuity defies vertical ballet. Sequence is critical to this

convention. Precarious places are reached dance, whose choreography is in part

through remarkably resourceful sequences suggested by the features of the cliff

of physical effort. We are free to ascend formations and in part improvised and

vertical rock faces if we dare. This inventive discovered by the climber. The challenges,

clambering and grappling is part of play and choices, and creativity of rock climbing make

discovery; it is a curious, sometimes ecstatic it perhaps the strongest analogy for an

-UJln H|Jjfe|j Vertical Section

architecture of movement because it is these security. If one is to participate in a free quahties which imply participation with the arena of motion, both safety and risk should environment. These mobile and tactile be available as choices to the mobile freedoms-the liberative essence of climbing- experimenter. For architecture to depart can be imparted to architecture. from its sedentary status quo does not imply

the seeking of danger, thrills, or sensation.

Architecture, unfortunately, has done little Rather, it suggests an architecture which re- to revive the creative interplay between man engages the potentials of the body and the and the physical world. The majority of the faculties of the mind in an extensive and built environment currently offers few integral way. It calls for involvement-not opportunities for creative motion, instead only of the legs and feet, but also the torso, maintaining level, predictable, pedantic arms, hands, and eyes-in an ongoing act of circulational patterns. The liberative architecture. movement advocated here is arguably counter to what is safe and buildable The goals of a mobile, liberative architecture according to codified regulations presently may thus be defined as creative movement, in use. Although liberative possibilities spontaneous movement, and freedom of certainly exist within the letter of the code, movement, achieved through participation some precedents studied would not comply. with architecture. For creative movement to

This is largely due to the proliferation of ever occur there must be multiple choices or tightening restrictions, which can be paths. These should offer variation in excessively hmiting-and which should at topography and difficulty, and should require times be subverted. Without ignoring the exploration and creativity from participants. welfare of participants, it should be stated Because of this diversity, participants are that vulnerability is the counterpart of freed to act spontaneously. They are granted ,

the liberty to improvise. Freedom of

moN'ement is the liberty of movinj;

innovatively (aswellaseonventionally). It is

the possibility of participating with space in three dimensions, both climbing and

traversing at will.

Participation may be defined as interaction

with architecture in either of two ways.

The first is an interaction whereby the

built environment is able to elicit physical

responses from users-the building acts

upon its occupants, and they "participate."

The second is a reversal of the first such

that inhabitants act upon architecture to

alter the physical environment, and as

such, are able to participate In the ongoing generation of that architecture. It is these

two modes of participation which can recall

childhood's probing and testing of the environment.

It is here that I return to the analogy of rock

climbing as one of the most experimental of

all movement activities. Climbing implies a

range of creative motions which activate

the entire body in participation, fluctuating

among balance, strength, and sequencing

skills. The language of movement that

evolves from the activity of ascension,

combined with the vocabulary of numerous

architectural precedents (see bibliography ) can be used to generate liberated

architectural design. The sense of wonder

found in exploratory environments can be

regained, and the childhood freedom to experience them creatively can be

recovered. Static, prescriptive architecture which rigidly determines modes of

movement gives way to liberated, challenging environments. The result is an architecture of participation and vitality. In exploring the liberative possibilities of offers choice and multiplicity while deviating movement there is an implicit critical from the typical ascent. For some parti- approach to convention. There is a need to cipants in requires thought; for others, it is depart from lifeless and sedentary terrains intuitive. The varied treads and risers which are almost inhumanely monotonous. comprise a continuous vertical terrain like

But it should be realized here that the that of a cliff face, only more accommodating experience of any terrain is just that—an and less strenuous. The phenomenon of experience that should be tested irregularity is paired with phenomenon of experientially. Experiential testing can yield stability, as embodied by periodic ledges in

feedback otherwise unobtainable . Participants a rockscape. Broader treads provide for a can raise questions and issues, and can be stance at mid-climb and at the crest, while genuinely informed as they articulate their asymmetrical rails provide aid at the

perceptions on the movement which they beginning and end of the journey . The ladder encounter. This rationale clearly directs the stair is constructed of light-gauge folded design investigation toward a method of full- perforated steel, evocative of ideas of terrain scale experimentation. To conceive ideas on and of lightweight "free" climbing. The stair the activity of motion solely on paper, or also uses vertical displacements to represent through reduced-scale models, would be to energy, rhythm, and grace of movement. It suffer from the illusion that one can know the thus begins to explore the psychological ascent of a cliff by viewing its face. phenomena of invitations made by flotation

and decollage.

This full-scale testing began in the P'all of

1992, with the construction of an actual The lessons of this piece as a full-scale size "detail." The one-to-one experiential design experiment lead to the pursuit of character of the project became an asset in thesis work through further full-scale perceiving movements from a realized (not constructions, expanding the exploration imagined or simulated) perspective. The to larger choreographies and sequences. piece is fully usable and deals with several phenomena. In selecting a site for experimentation, two

types of potential may be considered. The

A steep, ladder-like stair was chosen to first is its direct potential, in which a location embody key theoretical ideas, which involve geometrically, volumetrically, or otherwise the entire body in the activity of ascent. suggests passage and movement. In this

Drawing upon precedents of battlement case, movement is inherent and awaits stairs and ships' ladders, its treads are augmentation through architecture. A alternating trapezoids, suggesting an second, indirect potential exists in static, energetic rhythm of climbing. The ladder lifeless sites which are at first contradictory can be used in multiple ways: It can be to the intended design activity. In being climbed using an ordinary rhythm; climbed contrapuntal, such a site may offer, if not more quickly and athletically; or descended invite, the rigor of improbable trans- by sliding down its right rail, somewhat like formational workings. It is a base \'oid, a the descent down a ship's ladder. Thus, it dead cavity awaiting an infusion of life. The challenge of this second avenue was sions were considered expandable. The aging chosen in the form of a workable full-scale floorboards rest on top of four feet of cinder site. A construction/installation site within fill, which could be partially excavated to an existing building envelope was sought, allow level changes and descent in the space. requiring minimal footprint area, but favoring iMthough the space is devoid of fenestration, high volumetric spaces which permit laterally closed except for an exterior door movement in the third dimension. Such a and three interior doors, the site suggests the

possibility of opening the ceiling upward to

the sky. This raw and ruinous space was a

seemingly latent site, brooding with

anticipation.

An experimental studio, or architect's atelier,

was selected as a functional scenario for the

investigation, stemming from the notion that

experimental design work is generated in

creative and interactive environments. The

experimental studio can also serve to educate

a public unfamiliar with the possibilities of

such an active, participational realm. It

should be noted here that participational,

multivalent architecture has a tendency to

resist functional typology and obvious pragmatics. Although the space may be

designed with an aim toward a specific

scenario (the studio), its nature (experi-

mental) allows it to surpass any singular

functional capability. The work is instead

made and remade, according to the will and

desire of the participants, in a process of being and becoming.

The aim was, thus, to make a radical but space was graciously made available at 811 indeterminate intervention in the icehouse.

N. State Street, Champaign, Illinois, for the Early models began to study a "building work of this thesis. within a building" concept with sloped,

hinging, transformable floor and wall

The site is a vacant, time-worn room in a topographies. The wall and floor became a brick and concrete icehouse dating to 1916. continuous folded terrain, and a curving

The space is a mere 700 square feet, but system of screens began to speak of the offers a ceiHng which slopes from seventeen notion of the swing or radius of a folding to eighteen feet, suggesting multi-level hinge. The sloping wall became a stair, and possibilities. Moreover, its vertical dimen- as cladding of the wall eroded, shelves of the reference library ambiguously became stairs. new construction, simultaneously

Wall and floor pieces also could be emphasizing important pathways in the main transformed to become work surfaces, and a wall. The balance of the construction process mobile flat screen was allowed to descend saw modifications to virtually every element into a vertical projection position from behind of the design, from excavation and subfloor its arcing parent. The parallelogram-like to the overhead screens and entry piece. The geometry of the porous inner building was eroded configuration of the wall received used to perspectivcly emphasize diagonal dimensions, creating the illusion that the completed space is larger than the original space of the site-a demonstrable contrast whenjuxtaposed with the unaltered (identical volume) workroom adjacent to the site.

Layering added to this effect, through depth and indeterminacy of distance at the edge.

Levitation and aeration of the architecture brought a sense of weightlessness, making psychological invitations to participate in an active place -a free zone.

With many elements of design not finalized, construction began in early February, 199v^.

The building process was also a design process during which numerous alterations occurred.

Movement sequences were refined and expanded. Details and mechanisms were developed and tested. Idiosyncrasies of the existing structure were accounted for. All of these modifications were essential to the maturation of the work, and often were arrived at serendipitously. The greatest such case arose as a reaction to the structural failure of the aged concrete beams, which bore gaping cracks at their inboard ends, thorough study, as did the steel railings, their thin steel tendons straining. Before the which became increasingly three-dimen- designed excavation or framing could begin, sional and multivalent. The making process footings were placed, and two steel columns continually gathered speed, culminating in were retrofitted to insure the safety of the substantial completion on April 21, 1993, existing roof structure. In a sense, they the date of the on-site final review. inter\'ened in the intervention, yet became an asset in many ways. Their assertion of and The experimental studio truly is an arena of connection to the pre-existent order of the participation, both through interactions with site created a powerful intersection with the kinetic elements of the architecture and one reaches a second threshold, defined by a

virtual door overhead (a skeletal, unclad

screen frame) and by a gap which one

descends into or bridges over. This moment

calls for either a jump or a downward step: a

choice between travel to the highly active

inner building or to the more sedate

peripheral zones.

Once on the main floor, several trans-

formable pieces are found. A wall panel and

a floor panel fold outward and upward to

symbiotically form an adjustable drafting

station, whose seat might be a similar fold of

the wall or floor. The manipulation of these

pieces exposes shelves behind the wall/

tabletop, allowing storage or ascent to upper

levels. A lifted panel of floor becomes a

conference table, where the legs of seated

participants occupy the interstitial space

between floor and subfloor. Hinging panels

of floor give access to storage or flat flies, or

become theatrical trapdoors. In essence,

the floor becomes an immense cabinet for through one's own mobile reactions to its the participant to discover, explore, and interior terrain. The choreography of this even inhabit. activated terrain is initiated outside, while still in the parking lot. Arrival begins with a Cloth screens overhead are an immense hybrid ramp/stair climb to the loading dock; filter of natural light, diffusing the sky a foretaste of discoveries beyond the through the transformed space. The large threshold. The ramp/stair is a fragment of flat projection screen is lowered by hand the floorings to be found inside, and foretells into the vertical projection position where the configuration of the floor-to-wall it serves for presentation or theatrical events. transition. Crossing the existing threshold, The lowering of this piece requires exertion at the hands, arms, and back, gradually laterally, and also through the wall. The easing at the end of actuation. When the flat wall becomes the site of numerous, screen is lowered it further defines the unpredictable activities, including child- conference area and a gallery passage behind hood games. A group of students had the itself. With the screens in place, projection impulse to chase one another on and around viewing can occur from many locations. In this structure, illustrating a recovery of particular, the sloping floor allows spontaneous play. The steel rails further participants to sit in groups, or to lay back promote this improvisation, becoming not on the incline; images may be projected on only vertical handholds, but also treads,

the vertical screen in front, or on the cur\'ed footholds, and horizontal traverses. The ceiling screen above. These screens can rails step in at the mezzanine level, also serve theatrically for backdrops, or for facilitating transitional movements. The shadow plays, or as a play of solar and right-hand rail then bends into the mezz- atmospheric events. They are amazing to anine, behind the wall. It becomes a curved watch in a lightning storm. backrest at the top of the stair, forming an

elevated perch, which allows one to sense

The sloped floors, varying from four and the elevation attained by the climb. one-half to fourteen and one-half degrees,

are activators of muscles and sensitizers of Rests such as this are a necessary counterpart

balance. They call for response and to movement if authentic freedom is desired,

adaptation, suspending notions of the level and such choices of stillness are a stabilizing

datum in favor of an awakened climb. After factor amidst vulnerability. Many points of

traversing and ascending this ramping floor, rest can be improvised. The tread/shelves of

an ambiguous wall is reached. On the wall, the wall dissipate to broader intervals at

the birch plywood cladding of the floor higher elevation, creating niches large

erodes progressively from frontal to rear enough to be used as seats. The erosion of

mounted position, then into absentia. The the wall creates a window from which one

revealed shelves become treads, and one may securely lean out. Raised fragments of

questions whether the stair is a wall or the floor in the mezzanine create seats,

wall is a stair. One is able to move vertically. encouraging reading, viewing, or conver- 45 satioii. The subtle inelined cant of the floors A "diving lioard" (in a metaphorical sense

allows the mezzanine itself to ser\'e as a linked to the "lifeguard chair" atop the stair)

seating area (with the right-haiui rail as cantilevers from the mezzanine to the far

footrest). In the case of the corner loft, left of corner of the space, oscillating with a sense

the screens, the floor is low enough to invite of airiness. It floats, quivering and resonating

participants to sit, legs dangling over, while under footfalls, just above the loft which is its

still allowing passage beneath. All of these destination. Although its pine plywood

rests call one to stop and become a voyeur of surface is smooth, its motion yields tactile

events in the studio-in participating, one is feedback, imparting a vital sense of terrain.

also an audience. These many possibilities The crossing of the bridge begins with a

r T

to rest as well as to move throughout the wooden rail (the structure which carries the

work defeat any sense of crowding, even at plane) on the right, which drops away just as

gatherings of fifty people. The architecture a steel rail is encountered on the left. The

simply becomes activated as its multiplicity crossing may certainly be made entirely

is invoked. without the aid of rails. This is often the case,

as travelers respond to the piece by jumping

Various vertical passages exist, in addition to energetically to the corner loft. From the

the stairs of the wall. Other vertical con- corner loft, still more vertical passage

nections might be constructed within the possibilities exist. They are sometimes less

framework because the floors "breathe," than obvious avenues, such as sliding down

floating away from the walls, and the unclad the steel rail, or climbing its brackets through

studs suggest an armature for future the floor of the loft.

modifications. Likewise, holes in the existing

masonry can become an improvised ladder Several feet above that loft is another loft, a

for reaching the mezzanine. This is definitely nest behind the screens. Access to the nest is

among the more difficult movements, but it a return to childhood, requiring one to

is an intimate connection to the rugged clamber up and onto its floor, and only

envelope, and is one of the least expected partially allowing an upright stance once in

46 routes of ascent. it. Low clearance of beams overhead rein- forces the already present sense of altitude, practiced to its full potential, surpassing the making invitations to sit, crawl, or lie down; limitations of functional and technical the space implies the assuming of mental problem-solving approaches to design. Such and physical postures of rest. The nest is an approaches invariably result in little more elevated haven, cradled yet exposed, invisible than missed opportunities. In contrast, the yet commanding of views. It is a perch among experimental studio, by accounts of critics cloth and branches where one can regenerate. and visitors, verifies that a conceptual agenda

After all the mobile activities of the studio, can indeed be concretized, yielding this is a still and contemplative place in the experiential readings-both instinctual and light-a place of repose. intellectual. This is then a question of agenda.

In retrospect, it seems that a full-scale design Architecture of liberative movements posits study is an almost requisite method for the making of interactive places, as a catalyst investigating freedoms of movement. The of vitality in built environments. The experiential nature of the experiment allows conceptual design activity is approached decisions and learning to occur which would phenomenologically, the intent being a be otherwise impossible. The built work tangible choreography of the adjectival may be short lived, but the forceful qualities of mobile, participational events. implications of its transient happening have bearing on the nature of work to come -this To achieve this implies a questioning of is but the beginning of a synthesis. process and limitations. The experimental

studio was the result of a conceptual process

The implications are both broad and specific. and a making process which were never

Some may seem obvious, others left to be considered to be separate activities or inferred. As Thom Mayne stated, "This is a sequential phases. This made the process, as rather positive shock.... This is an aggressive well as the result, immediate and particip- demonstration ofa conceptual agenda." This ational. Many of the participational devices thesis attempts to manifest the poetics of created sought to overcome the limitations movement. This is also an implicit illustration of convention or type, leading to a multivalent of the need for architecture to be taught and ambiguity. The questioning of function and 47 typolojSy, as well as the subversion of their primaey, is not then a rash rebellion, but an opening of poetie possibilities. The c|iiestioninK of codified limitations, and resistance t(j their constraint, has been previously discussed. The built work of the thesis was necessarily set free of such restrictions, thereby raising the issue of safety. On this subject, Herman Hertzberger, affirming the sensitized engagement of the body which occurs in such a free zone, said,

"You should invite children here, and also the building officials-so the officials can see that the children do not fall."

In adopting such critically questioning yet pro-active stances, the architect takes on a highly political role-an act which itself interrogates current convention. Archi- tecture of liberative movement, as a thesis, advocates a blurring of conventions and roles.

The architect moves beyond typical capacity to become both a maker and a participant; while the client or user becomes a participant, with uncharacteristic involvement with and impact upon architecture. Through this expansion, the architect takes on the role of an educator whose work is a continual activity of straining to expand potentials of design while striving to open society to a more vital architecture.

It is my hope that in this built thesis the world of architectural education may be seen as integrated with that of professional practice. It has, to be sure, deeply affected both my teaching and my work. It is also my hope that the experimental studio, though now dismantled, has imparted some liberative life here. To me, it is a powerfully latent space, capable of intense energy or absolute silence. Selected Bibliography

Carlo Scaqfta. A+U Extra Edition. Oct. 1Q.S5.

I'liimmer, Henrv: "Stairway." -V+f. Aug. V)Hh pp. 75-79,81, "83-84,85,89.

Plummer, Henry: "Prismatic Space." A+U. May 199] pp. 10-74.

"Strata Via: The Street as a Mode of Existence." Book review bv Henrv Plummer. Journal ofArchitectural Eilucation. Summer 19S8 vol.41, pp. 58-64.

Ndrberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius Loci: Towards a I'hetiomenolo^' ofArchitecture. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.

Anchoring. Steven Holl Selected Projects 1975-1991. Jrd edition. New York, Princeton Architectural Pres

Hines, Thomas S. Franklin I). /.sriiL-/ Projects New York. Rizzoli Intern: Inc. 1992.

Coop llimmclblau. El Ooquis. June 1989 no. 40,

Ed. Tokvo, A.DA.

1 Hertzberger. A+U 1991 Extra Editioj

49 What's Behind The Wall Wliy Progressive Public Memorials are Designed for Private Commemoration^

Jhennifer A. Amundson The study of memorials stems from an interest the first settlers. As the country grew in Unteed Nelson Slack in the human need for remembrance. It is a wealth and materials, people in the new Anderson Ltd. Champaign, Illinois natural reaction in all of us to immortalize nation copied the art forms and techniques

our own accomplishments and memories in of their European homelands, even when

permanent forni: photo albums, family Bibles, commemorating the patriots of the

yearbooks, ticket stubs and love letters are Revolutionary War. This trend corresponded

tools by which we all act as historians, if only to a reliance on European architectural styles

on a personal and modest scale. The necessity for American homes and public buildings.

for a collective memory across a group of For over one hundred years memorial design

people is served by the erection of public for the strong, courageous, male leaders of

memorials, which make our landscape itself this country was predominated by the neo-

a record of our common achievements, and classical and Beaux-Arts styles; American

a mirror of our values as Americans. Both patriots were immortalized in forms once

the values embodied in monuments, and reserved for Roman emperors.

their physical expression, have changed

dramatically in the last thirty years to reflect These commemorative sculpture pieces were

the diverse memories of our pluralist society. large-scale reminders of greatness, glory,

An obvious formal distinction can be drawn sacrifice, and leadership; the subjects of

between early nineteenth-century, veneration were patriotic events and national

classically-inspired monuments of white heroes, usually holders of high political or

marble, and late twentieth-century geometric military office. By the early decades of the

compositions hewn from dark granite. nineteenth and through the beginning of the

However, the difference between the two is twentieth centuries, they were sculpted by

much more than cosmetic: aesthetic artists who had studied the vocabulary of

evolution in civic monuments was preceded classical forms during a grand tour or study

by a change in the character of contemporary abroad, or who were at least familiar with the

designers, patrons, and viewers. monuments of antiquity through published

folios. Either means was an intellectual

The history of American monuments mark of distinction which the artist shared

developed concurrently with that of the with his upper-class patrons. Although at

country itself.- Small scale folk crafts like times "Americanized"- for example, the

50 quilts were a memory-inspiring comfort to substitution of corn cobs for the acanthus, or Linciiln Mt'imirkd. Washinfiton, D.C.

the inscription of states' names in the frieze and which cultural icons' contributions were of the Lincoln Memorial-the classical deemed meritorious enough for eternal imagery was probably best understood by celebration. As a result, an under-represented those Americans who had enjoyed classical segment of the country was without a voice educations. While most nineteenth century not only in the writing of America's history

Americans viewing a work like Baltimore's books, but also in the tradition of monument-

War of 1812 Monument would be impressed maldng. This group includes not only women, by its artistry, size, and materials, a minority racial and religious minorities, but also rural would understand the greater significance of inhabitants who composed the majority of the column's form taking its precedent from the American population for decades, and ancient Rome's Column of Trajan. had little contact with the great marble works

being erected in the cities.

Typically in this period, government bodies and wealthy individuals supported the During the City Beautiful movement, a construction of monuments. These patrons response by Beaux-Arts planners to the were of similar learning and economic increasing concentration of people and backgrounds as their objects of veneration. building in growing cities, classically-inspired

In effect, through their financial support one mommients in city parks, boulevards, and segment of the American populace decided squares were a means by which the ever- which memories were worthy of being kept, inereasingly urban lifestyle was beautified. 51 H'a.s/iiii^roii A/o(i!(»iciit, Baltimore, MD Washington Mojiument, Richmond, VA

In this period and the following decades, see not just an end to this non-functionalism

three of the country's most prominent in civic building, but conversely, a turn

monuments were constructed or completed towards functionalism in the act of

in the nation's capitol: the Washington commemoration, due to the Modernist

(1885), Lincoln (1922) and Jefferson (1943) disdain for classical traditions and a lack of

Memorials marked the great axes first funds resulting from the Depression and

envisioned by Pierre-Charles L'Enfant in his wartime. Wliere the desire to commemorate grandiose baroque plan of 1791. The great America's heroes was greater than the funding

Beaux-Arts monuments are amplified available for it, a more pragmatic type of

versions of the common nineteenth-century commemoration was borne by bridges,

neo-classical obelisk and column. Effigies of highways, and sports arenas.

two past presidents are housed in their own

temples, just as the great Greek gods were, Since that time, and especially within the

making no small analogy for the prospering past three decades, monuments have again

Republic. emerged as a prominent building type as the

pace of their construction has increased.

With the World Wars passed the first great The new aesthetic which has appeared during

phase in American monument construction, the past generation draws from recent

during which millions of dollars were spent developments in sculpture and landscape

on large-scale, totally non-functional design. The sixties and sc\-cntics ushered in

buildings- save the function of veneration.' a new appreciation for outdoor art , as modern

The waning of Beaux-Arts customs, especially sculpture pieces were positioned in plazas

in the construction of momuncnts, would across the country. Artists rejected conventional, realistic forms and worked at McKim, Mead, and White hemicycle at the large scales and with architectural materials, entry to Arlington National Cemeter>' as its making sculpture which engaged the viewer site. On the one hand, it is impressive that physically and defined space, rather than this under-represented group will finally gain existing simply as an object for viewing. This well-deser\'ed recognition. On the other,

"Plop Art" was the '7()s counterpart to the one may well wonder if the siting of their earlier Beaux-Arts park decoration, although monument at this prominent location may its only aim was to be site specific and be misleading.^ In any event, this project is aesthetically pleasing. Landscape design too representative of the kinds of minorities became more architectural in a sense, the finally receiving their due largely because of use of abstract built forms accentuating and recent efforts towards inclusion and political framing an otherwise organic design. The correctness. growing alliance between professionals in architecture and landscape design which The past decade has seen a second crest in began with building and planning projects the history of American monuments as was applied to monument design. The dozens of proposals were made in Washington blending of disciplines developed new kinds D.G. alone, many of which seemed designed of monuments which engage the landscape to be either a consciousness-raising effort or and define processional spaces. This a catharsis to American denial. Painful events prevailing memorial aesthetic is more like Vietnam and the 1970 demonstrations appropriate to contemporary needs for at Kent State have been gaining overdue commemoration, although not as much in acknowledgement as smaller groups of stylistic terms as in the manner by which citizens speak out on behalf of their own events and people are remembered. heroes, so that they may join the ranks of

more typically venerated historical figures

^Vhile this country has its very roots in a who enjoy more wide-spread recognition. diverse mix of races, creeds, and interests, The patronage of commemoration, typified homogenous views were expressed by public in the nineteenth century by the elite building memorial sponsorship until recently when memorials of people from their own ranks, is the under-represented segments of the no different; it is the patrons themselves population organized themselves as patrons who have changed, and therefore, the kind of to support the commemoration of happenings hero and event commemorated. The sheer and individuals outside of the mainstream. numbers of new patrons has also expanded

This trend reflects a curious kind of nostalgia greatly, as seen in the variety of monument and historical revisionism, which, in some projects which are proposed annually. cases, more than compensates for the discrimination of earlier decades. For Just as classical traditions were not altogether example, Arlington National Cemetery is replaced by the Modern movement, certain crowded with memorials to various memorial customs are present today as well. individuals and groups who served in the Small-scale obelisks and statue groups guard military- mostly men. A recent competition city halls across the country; traditional for a memorial honoring the service of women heroic monuments featuring cannons and in the military claimed the Beaux-Arts eagles have been erected since the 194()s to Astro7iauts ' Memorial honor veterans of the World Wars. These are black granite bill board-like screen, which is still erected in courthouse squares for those positioned on a mechanical armature who bask in the light of undisputed pride, engineered to continually track the path of such as veterans of the Gulf War. Formally the sun across the sky. Computer-operated speaking, these traditional monuments dishes behind the screen reflect sunlight typically consist of an object of artistic focus, through the names engraved in the black a symbol of the country's strength or the stone of astronauts who have died on NASA soldiers' valor, while the soldiers' names are voyages; lights in the dishes compensate for placed on great tombstone-like plinths to the overcast days and nighttime. side or beneath the message-bearing emblem.

The view is directed to the symbol of strength, Like the more traditional monuments courage, and valor. positioned or focused on historic

battlegrounds and harbors, recalling the

This basic pattern can be seen even in one of place of sacrifice for those they honor, this the most visually innovative monuments of monument continually mirrors the clouds this decade. Although completed nearly fifty and tracks the heavens where the astronauts years after the close of World War II, the perished. An inspiring, noble, and

Astronauts Memorial at the Kennedy Space indisputably heroic monument, in high-

Center is very much in the tradition of great tech attire it celebrates the men and women monuments like the Washington Memorial, to whom it pays tribute as proudly as any although clad in a high-tech, ingeniously marble obelisk. Like those traditional engineered pretense which obscures its monuments, it dictates a message of valor conventional format.' Selected in a which all viewers are expected to share. competition of 1987, the design features a Appropriately, a runner-up in the com- petition, which is displayed in the nearby path of discovery. These experiential spaces visitors' center, is a resin obelisk with encourage touch, and a pause for reflection, aerodynamic features recalling the allowing for personal interpretations. silhouette of a space shuttle.

This change from expressive element to

As visually impressive as it is, the Astronauts' space-defining form would not have occurred

Memorial is flawed in the same way as the without a shift in the kinds of events and more intricate of the neo-classical people being commemorated. Some monuments are, in that the acknowledgment contemporary heroes, such as veterans of of the skill of the engineer/artist risks particularly successful military endeavors, subordinating the recognition of the sports figures, and authors, are held in the astronauts' achievements, goals, and same regard as their counterparts of several sacrifice. Certainly, many viewers spend at generations ago, and therefore often receive least as much time admiring the construction similar treatment in their memorials. Several and mechanics of the kinetic monument, all contemporary conflicts demand a different of which are exposed, as they do approach due to the wider audience now contemplatingthe lost lives further removing participating as patrons and viewers who the commemoration from those who died. bring a greater variety of opinions to the

Critics have even suggested that the commemorating process. This is especially monument was meant to reestablish faith in true of those events which form the rather the machine, which was crucial to NASA dark pages in American history. after the explosion of the Space Shuttle

Challenger and as public and federal support Memorials constructed to honor Vietnam for space missions diminished with the fading veterans are some of the most powerful, of the Cold War." and most divergent of war monuments.

When one considers the lack of enthusiasm

Truly ambitious contemporary memorial which met the returning veterans, it is no designs are separated from their traditional surprise that few, if any, memorials were precursors by more than just a new visual constructed to commemorate those aesthetic. One of the prominent differences soldiers' war in the years immediately between progressive and traditional following their return. Local and federal memorials is a shift from objects (as seen in government agencies had no intention, or both the Battle Monument and the need, from their non-supportive const-

Astronauts' Memorial) to 'experiential ituencies, to erect monuments to this spaces.' Unlike sculpture pieces to look at conflict. To deny its presence on the and walk around, the more imaginative physical landscape would aid in abolishing designs are more architectural in character it from the collective memory. and, at the same time, highly site-specific.

Like the better examples of modern outdoor The period following the close of the Vietnam art, they embrace the landscape rather than War was ripe for grass roots groups to claim sitting on it. Often sequences are a part of their roles as patrons in monument-building the memorializing process, as the project is efforts. The partial erosion of national pride designed to guide the visitor on a particular due to this unsuccessful war effort, bolstered 55 by the incru.-ised political aeti\isni of the neutralizing rank, race, creed, and gender,

sixties and seventies, and increasing distrust all who served in the war received equal

of the government duringand after Watergate, treatment, listed chronologically in the order

set the stage for individuals outside of the they died or were reported missing. Rather

traditional power structure. They organized than glorifying a war effort, as earlier

themselves to champion their own causes memorials did, the Wall honors the .service

and heroes; to ensure that through built form of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for

the memory, good or bad, of this important their country in Vietnam. No unfurled flags,

turning point in American history, and the galloping horses, gallant soldiers or soaring

thousands of lives lost for it, would receive its eagles, nor a single star or stripe grace its

fair share of the collective memory. severe lines. Void of all imagery, the Wall

was meant as a statement on the finality of

In 1971, the first memorial for Vietnam the sacrifices made in Vietnam, portraying

veterans was erected in New Mexico by parents dutiful service and death as equalizers.

of a killed soldier with the proceeds from his

life insurance policy.^ In addition to erecting The black slabs set into the earth were a

a monument for an unpopular war, the family jolting proposition in a city filled with white

introduced the idea of private sponsorship sculptural pavilions and gilt equestrian

taking an active role in enlarging the scope of statues; the now infamous controversy began

events which had previously been acceptable long before the memorial's dedication in

for public commemoration. What would 1982. But the non-object, place-making

become a massive movement to comm- quality of the memorial is its strength, and

emorate the Vietnam, Korean, and other that which makes it important, appropriate,

neglected wars and events, began with this and ambitious. Not a symbolic entity for

personal effort, free from traditional patrons. veneration, the Wall marks a deep, quiet

crevice in the otherwise active Washington

News of the tribute in New Mexico reached Mall. Maya Lin was the first in a series of

Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs, and inspired designers to provide a place, rather than a

him to establish the Vietnam Veterans Memorial symbol, for memory.

Fund for the sole purpose of erecting a national

monument.** The Fund sponsored a comp- It is difficult, if not impossible, to just walk

etition which attracted 1,421 entries; the jury past it. Visitors slowly stroll along its length,

selected university student Maya Lin's project leaving photographs, and flowers, reading

of two black granite walls set deep into the letters, and constantly reaching out to touch

earth at an obtuse angle. The memorial's only the granite surface. It was designed to seek

ornament was to be the list of the more than completion by visitors- physically, with the

58,000 dead or missing soldiers' names. ubiquitous reflections of passers-by on the

mirror-like surface and with flowers, photos,

In this simple, striking gesture, Lin not only and other mementos, as well as emotionally.

deleted all traditional military symbols and Rather than expressing an artist's or patron's

other patriotic elements, but also elevated opinion, the memorial collects all feelings of

infantrymen by making them the focus of the grief, anger, hostility, shame, pride, peace,

56 memorial, rather than its backdrop. By and dignity. Its design enforces an uninter- rupted procession during which one's concentration cannot be distracted from the symbol of sacrifice, loss, and service. The linear path demands one's attention, and the physical act of walking its length is just as important as reading the names. F'acing these personal feelings is as much a part of the memorial as the person's reflection on the thousands of names it will pass over. In the midst of a great public monument, the personal process of commemoration is an integral part of the memorial itself: it embraces the visitors' varied reactions and the memories they conjure. Lin's design is considered to inspire such potent reactions that a visit to the Wall is a culmination of several counseling programs for Veterans." The Wall defines a place, and holds the time, for personal reflection and the memorializing process.

It thereby seeks to heal the wound in the fabric of American history which was rended by Vietnam.

Once the National Monument proved successful and acceptable to the majority of visitors- Lin's Wall has become the most- V'icm«»i and Korean Memorial. Morris. IL visited monument in Washington D.(].- Sprierigen. Dedicatory blocks and an eternal smaller-scaled initiatives to honor Vietnam flame bowl are flanked by the state and veterans were made across the country.'" national flags at the head of the memorial,

One of the most successful regional which is composed of a 100 foot ring of 64 memorials built in honor of Vietnam, the low plinths. The bench-like segments Maryland Vietnam Veterans Memorial support triangular blocks, which are

(1988), is as sensitive to its waterfront site inscribed with the names of the 1,046 dead as the Washington memorial is to the Mall. and 38 missing soldiers from Maryland.

Removed from the commerce and tourism Sixteen light posts, one for each year of the of Baltimore's Inner Harbor and poised on a war which lasted from 1959-75, stand like slight hill in Middle Branch Park, the sentries around the ring. memorial overlooks the Patapsco River.

Screened by shrubs, a ramping path leads The memorial is shielded with thick visitors on a circuitous route around the e\ergreens from the adjacent busy street and insulated memorial before opening into the hospital parking lot, but also provides views open field designed by architect Paul across the harbor and to the green of the 57 park. Visitors ha\e a natural tendency to The great equalizing effect of Maya Lin's

circumambulate about the gently peaked, Wall was aesthetically and ideologically grassy center; when they pause to sit on comproihised by concessions made by its

the bench-height segments, their gaze is patrons to critics who interpreted it as being

directed toward the empty green. The anti-heroic; government meddling at the

absence of a physical marker at the center National Memorial prompted the designer

of this introverted, centralized space is an to disassociate herself from the project. In

important aspect of the design. The arch- an effort to alleviate the discontent the

". itect described the memorial as . . an Senate approved a bill to add a traditional

inward kind of place" with the outside sculpture of troops to the design. ^•^ The

world all but unseen. Many citizens' groups bronze figure group of three male soldiers,

lobbied to have a sculpture or flag placed at which placed third in the original

the center point, but Sprierigen was competition, is now positioned near the

successful in his argument that the center entry to the monument in such a way that it

must be left open and empty, because is not visible from the Wall itself. Ironically,

"that's where the memories go." The this "solution" only exacerbated the

memorial is meant to adapt to visits by controversy surrounding the memorial, and

individuals and families, as well as group on two fronts. An outcry was heard from

ceremonies. Like the national memorial supporters of Lin's original idea who

before it, the Maryland Vietnam Veteran's criticized the imposition of bureaucracy on

Memorial is not so much an object meant the artist's work and questioned the rights

to identify allegorically with the war as a of government to alter memorial designs

place for personal reflection and tribute. without the artist's consent. Women's

Void of "trivial symbolism," according to groups also joined the fray. \Vhile the

the designer,'^ the memorial offers freedom soldiers in artist Frederick Hart's sculpture

for interpretation without overt political represent a variety of racial types thereby

or military connotations. including men of all races, the Vietnam

Women's Memorial Project argued that it

Increasingly devoid of heroic and realistic ignores the service of the 10,000 women

figure sculpture, the abstract forms of who served in Vietnam. In response, another

contemporary memorials allow a broader Senate bill resolved to add yet another

interpretation of the artist's intent, but also sculpture depicting nurses at the aid of a

serve an important function in what could be male soldier.'^

termed a more culturally aware, if not more

diverse, period in American history. The A similar case of intervention to "correct"

demand for inclusion, tolerance, acceptance, the original design of competition winners

and political correctness is met in these has been the subject of a recent law suit. The monuments more readily than more Korean War Memorial, under construction

traditional forms and symbols which incur directly opposite from the Vietnam Memorial,

problems associated with gender- or race- raised further questions about proper

specifics. The importance of these issues is memorial form and the creative rights of

clearly illustrated by a number of altered designers whose work is government- monuments. sponsored. The original competition of 1989 was won by an entry submitted by Penn agencies. Sited at a metro stop, the memorial

State faculty members.''' The design features blends well with the activity passing through a large-scale landscape work in which lines it and is still an effective place of congregation of larger-than-life soldiers march along a for gatherings or for individual visits. At the

120-yard path toward an allegorical field of time of its dedication, 12,901 names of officers peace from one of discord. In the original who had died in the line of duty since 1794 design, the bronze figures were conceptual were engraved. A scriptural passage from and meant to present a mood and define the Proverbs was the inspiration for the sculpture: visitor's path rather than present a taxological "The wicked flee when no man pursueth but depiction of actual infantrymen. Once the the righteous are as bold as a lion." The design was accepted, a committee suggested that the figures be made realistic representations of the various ranks and races of soldiers who fought in Korea, which will detract from the original concept of the design as accepted by the jury.

Both of these examples illustrate the futility of including realistic representation- except, of course, in cases where a memorial is dedicated to one distinct person. They also argue the suitability of abstracted forms for contemporary memorials, since they avoid gender- and race-related conflicts, which is especially important in our increasingly anxious and sensitive society. Both the

National Vietnam and Korean War memorials as first designed provided absolute inclusivity Kent State Memorial by avoidance of particulars. Unfortunately, figural pieces chosen by architect Davis the impact of bureaucracy has proven to Buckley cleverly avoid race, rank, and gender inhibit the popular success and artistic issues; sets of courageous and alert lions and integrity of these memorials. lionesses guard their unaware cubs.

The National Law Officers Memorial in In addition to their comprehensive nature,

Washington D.C., dedicated in 1991, abstract forms also allow public monuments succeeds in being both inclusive and dedicated to an event over which public inoffensive through allegory rather than opinion is divided to be interpreted by various abstraction. The site is a handsome urban points of view. This aim was accomplished at park in Judiciary Square with two tree-lined, the National Vietnam Memorial, and also for semi-elliptical "pathways of remembrance" a memorial at Kent State University. The bordered by low cur\'ing walls inscribed with student-National Guard confrontation of May the names of fallen officers of all ranks of 4, 1970, at Kent State has been described as federal, state, and local law enforcement an event with no clear antagonist or victim. 59 disperse when commanded, nor on members

of the National Guard for firing into a crowd

when they had no orders to do so.

Without a clearly-defined group to condemn

or celebrate, school officials were at a loss

when pressured by students and families of

the slain to permanently commemorate the happenings which have been memorialized

by candle-lit vigils since 1970. Meanwhile,

many residents of the town of Kent and

university administrators-still bitter over

what they saw as an event which tarnished

their town's image and marked their

administration as inept- wanted the incident

to be forgotten, and certainly did not want to

reinforce the memory of radical student

activists. The urgency to erect a memorial

peaked in 1977 when the construction of a

gymnasium over part of the site of the protest

and shootings was planned. This proposal

prompted the formation of the May 4

Coalition, whose 200 members formed a tent

city to halt construction. The student group

organized to collect funds for a permanent

memorial, while opinion was divided on the

issue of its dedication.

Abraham and Is :o)i (Rcjcvtcd Kent State Memorial)

Bending to the growing popular support, in

Preceded by several days of rallies and violence 1978 the University commissioned a small

following President Nixon's announcement of memorial sculpture by George Segal. His

an "incursion" into Cambodia by U.S. troops, offering, "In Memory of May 4, 1970:

on May 4 the Ohio National Guard was Abraham and Isaac," based on the Old

summoned to police the campus. Tensions Testament story, met with great hostility.

peaked as protesting students and the Guard The bronze piece portrays a bound youth

converged on the campus commons; after kneeling before an adult holding a knife;

refusing to leave the area, the students were which could be understood as parental

tear-gassed. Following a brief period of sacrifice for an abstract cause, or as a

confusion, the Guard opened fire into a crowd metaphor for generational conflict.''^

of students-some protesters, some spectators- Although somewhat open to interpretation,

killing four and wounding nine others. In the realistic pose and attitude clearly leave

subsequent court decisions, blame has been the youth at a severe disadvantage; the

laid neither on the students for refusing to clenched fist holding a knife is a jolting image of an authority figure. The sculpture from the earth. These simple forms and their was deemed too hteral, powerful and violent, arrangement in a non-axial line make vague and was refused by Kent Statu admin- references to bullets, grave stones and the istrators.'" number of slain students, but without a

definite metaphor. The ambiguity allows for

In an attempt to a\'oid a painfully specific, personal interpretations. The threshold controversy-attracting monument, the which separates the main path from this

Uni\'ersity launched a competition which plaza is inscribed with the words "Inquire, insisted that e\'ery proposal be an "artistic Learn, Reflect," in hopes of prompting incident" harmonious with the site, "neither individual commemoration. Designed to heroic nor accusatory."'' The jur\' was in a contain an experience, the memorial is difficult position to select a design which politically neutral and non-committal. In would appease the varying viewpoints; they the designer's desire to remain conceptual, favored projects which entirely avoided the none of the students' names appeared on the violent imagery of the Segal sculpture. The original design; there is no mention of the memorial as built"* is a combination of plaza National Guard.''' and landscape sculpture. Dedicated at the

1990 anniversary, and designed by Chicago Although its designer avoided symbolizing architect Bruno Ast, the project is simply the grief, anger, and confusion of any of the entitled the "May 4, 1970 Memorial. " Avoiding several parties involved in the tragedy, the commentary on any group's role in the tragedy, memorial provides a locus for the sharing of it simply honors the memory of the day. grief and loss. Its arrangement provides a

space for contemplation and gathering of

Placed on the top of a hill, the memorial participants for the annual vigils. It is also an overlooks the commons where the protests educational device, encouraging passers-by- began and the parking lot where the four especially today's Kent State students, most students died. Measuring roughly 70 feet by of whom were not yet born in 1970- to

22 feet, the area is scaled to accommodate consider the past's conflicts and misunder- individuals and small groups, and be the standings. Like the National Vietnam focus for the annual vigils. Defined by Memorial before it, the Kent memorial relies orthogonal walls in two corners, the plaza is on the ambiguity of abstract forms to refrain vaguely crescent-shaped and well-suited to from a didactic message; but it takes a step the steep incline of the hillside, planted farther in avoiding particular commentary. with daffodils numbering the death toll of Both memorials are silent, allowing for the war. This area is separated from the personal reflection, but the Kent memorial adjacent sidewalk by two low granite walls. doesn't e\'en include the loss of students as a

The walls and paving are alternately smooth part of the design. Engaging the landscape and jagged to indicate abrupt interruption which twenty-five years ago erupted in of normalcy. confusion and tragedy, it is wholly concerned

with the incident to which it is dedicated, and

Within the plaza, four circular paving stones thereby includes all who were involved in it. lie in a line reminiscent of trajectory paths, Maya Lin's success in memorial design was continued by large monolithic blocks rising exhibited again at one of the most poignant memorials built in the last ducadc, dedicated inscription engra\ed on the cur\'ing black

to the struggle for civil rights on November 5, wall, from King's "I Have A Dream" speech,

19(S9. Representing a movement of which reads, "...until justice rolls down like

remarkable conflict and courage, the water, and righteousness like a mighty

memorial is located at a traditional hub of stream."

racial strife in Montgomery, Alabama, in

front of the new Southern Poverty Law The bubbling and splashing noises and

Center, which commissioned it.'" Amidst promise of tactile coolness are appealing and

this historically tense atmosphere and in the enticing. The water encourages inspection

extreme Alabama heat, the Civil Rights of the memorial on this cramped urban site,

Memorial stands, like its patron, as a cool where Lin was prohibited from making a

oasis of hope and compassion. sweeping gesture or experiential promenade

for visitors to move along. Instead, it is the

The memorial consists of three main monument itself which is active. Even more

elements. Separating the elevated agency than the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in

porch from the street level, a nine-foot tall, Washington which Lin designed with the

curving black granite retaining wall is intention of encouraging visitors' touch, this

inscribed with a quote by Dr. Martin Luther memorial invites physical interaction. In

King, Jr. A stout cone set on its point is the glaring Alabama heat, the sight and sound

positioned off-center in the street-level of splashing water invites curiosity. The

plaza; its table-height top is inscribed with slow-moving water which bubbles onto the

major events and names of men, women, top of the table stands thick over the events

and children who lost their lives in the and names and can be pushed, almost

struggle for civil rights. Each entry on the shaped, through touch before it slides over

table is arranged in the attitude of hour the edge of the table; on the cur\'ing wall one

markings on a clock face, as these individual can trace King's words under a cool, sheer

sacrifices each indicate an important passing sheet of water.

moment in the long history of the civil

rights movement. The fact that the deaths The addition of a kinetic element to the

of these non-violent, "ordinary" people are composition also enhances the meaning of

given the same emphasis as King's own the monument. Not technically dedicated to

assassination, which is the last "mark" on the movement of the fifties and sixties, for

the dial, fulfills his prophesy of 1963 that which starting and ending events might be

"One day the South will recognize its real defined, and from which period the inscribed

Heroes." The third design element is water, events have been chosen, the memorial

which is pumped up through the cone, commemorates the ongoing stniggle for civil

bubbles from a hole on its surface, and rights. Through the wording of King's

sweeps down its sloping sides before quotation, ''until justice rolls down like

splashing onto the concrete pavement. It water," and the inclusion of active water

washes over the inscribed names of the itself, Lin emphasizes the idea that the

forty honored individuals, and references struggle is still in progress; the passing of

the forty days and nights of the Biblical time is represented by the monument's

62 flood. This metaphor is continued with the moving element. The memorial is an animated composition which invites which gave birth to events like the fight for interaction and encourages further thought civil rights, the Vietnam War, and Kent State on the progressive nature of the cause it are products of the changing cultural commemorates. Lin's simple geometric landscape in America which demands a new forms, coupled with a kinetic element, attitude toward the designs to memorialize commemorate not a leader, or specific these particularly twentieth-century martyrs, but a series of events within a long- occurrences from different points of view. lasting struggle. Late twentieth century America, at least on

...UNTIL JUSTICE Rpll,$ DOWN LIKE WATERS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE A MIGHTY mm

^^^«^^\\'» V'/V^^^

Civil Rights Memorial, Montgomery', Alabama

The change in forms visible in memorial its surface, as seen through its monumental design is not as much the function of aesthetic building efforts, is coming to terms with considerations as it is the result of patron superstition and prejudice.-' and audience motivations. The breakthrough design, Lin's National Vietnam Memorial, in Contemporary designers who work with its form as well as the way it was funded and landscape features and in conceptual built brought into being, set a pattern for form recognize that each of us responds subsequent memorials dedicated to divisive differently to the dedicatory subjects events. The abstracted forms allow a variety represented, and by presenting a neutral of interpretations on the part of the viewer, judgment themselves, facilitate the visitor's and aid the artist in avoiding editorializing. free thought about the subject. Since old

The difficult decades and conflicting interests obelisks and new granite slabs alike will be 63 "

noticed and tlierct'orc take the initial step at

L- Long Traveling commemoration, tliese progrcssi\'e Fellowship CommittL- research on east coa,st memorials. Than obertOusterhout, memorial designs offer not so much a new tor his helpful oomme- »f this paper. way to memorialize people and events but For another discussion ol the historical development of memo- rials see Nicholas Capasso. "Constructing the Past: Contempo- also encourage remembrance through a rary Commemorative Sculpture," Sculpture (November/De- cember 1990): pp, 56-63. richer, more personal and active experience. .V The City 1

projects of great i By avoiding direct symbolism and realistic theatres. also figures the memorials avoid the 4 For details concerning the selection process in this competition see Douglas E. Gordon, "Military Woman's Memorial Winner complexities associated with our increasingly Announced," Archilccttire (January 1990,): 28, and Thomas Vonier, "Two More D.C. Memorials," Progressive Architecture culturally aware society. This approach is (August 1989): p. 22. especially appropriate today, when every 5. For further description of the Astronaut's Memorial see "Astronaut's Memorial," Progressive Architecture (January faction is demanding to have its own objects 1989): pp. 68-70. of veneration indelibly marked on the public landscape. 7, For more on this early memorial in Angel Fire, New Mexico see Melissa Brown, "Memorials, not Monuments," Progressive Ar- chitecture (September 1985): pp. 43-46.

The movement in contemporary monuments 8, A competition for a suitable memorial was launched, open to all depends to a great degree on the interaction that the motnimrrii

who died (.r uci. i of the people who historically were outside of the ring of patrons and artists. To this new inclusion we owe the Vietnam memorials and the May 4, 1970 Memorial, and current proposals commemorating sacrificial groups which range from Black Revolutionary War

Patriots to American Housewives.

Contemporary memorials aspire to become a more accurate representation of our diverse values. A vital distinction between these and older monuments is that it is no longer bureaucratic agencies which determine the events and persons to be commemorated: the people who experience the conflicts most acutely make the decisions to choose which memories are to be represented. We -the patrons, financiers, audience, and historians of our own time- are called upon to fill in the gap between happening and history, between private memory and public commemoration. . 1

19. Since the time of the memorial's dedication University admin- Hennessey, Christine. "Nineteenth Century Saw Explosion in U.S.- istrators have added an unobtrusive plaque bearing the names Made Sculpture." Satje Outdoor Sculpture! Update (Spring of the dead and wounded near one of the ends of the plaza. 1992); published by the Smithsonian Institution.

20. Note. Historical Montgomery incident and the last building "Living Memorial." rtmc, October 1992: p. 21. occupied by the agency, which habitually monitors the actions and movements of the KKK, was burned to the ground.

2 1 Even the wrongs done to several seventeenth-century Massachu-

setts men and women have been righted as a memorial for the "The May Fourth Site and Memorial: Inquire, Learn, Reflect." Salem Witch Trials Tercentenary was dedicated last vear. informational brochure published by Kent State Universitv, first in May 4, 1980. Text by Glenn W. Frank, Thomas R. Ilensley, and Jerry M. Lewis.

23. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Moreno, Elena .Marcheso, "Proposed Additions to Vietnam Memorial Sp:irU Cimlniversy ".Architecture (May 1988,): pp. 4«-9.

e to Vietnam Memorial. "jArchitecture Braman, John K. "Monument for Miners." Frostburg State Unii

Brown, Melissa. "Memorials, not Monuments." Progressive

Capasso, Nicolas. "Constructing the Past: Contemporary Com- memorative Sculpture."Scu/p(u re (November/December, 1990): pp. 56-63.

"Prospect V-III; Monument for Miners," Department of Art and Art Education, Frostburg State College, Maryland. Informational booklet- Crosbv.Theo, T/ieAVi Reynolds, Donald Martin. Monuments and Masterpieces. Macmillan,

I Task." The Boston Globe, (25 May

Fisher, Thomas, Gavin Hogben, and Jeffrey Kipnis. "Case Study: Holt, Hinshaw, Pfau, Jones." Progressive Architecture, (July

1991,): p. 71-79 ff.

Sprierigen, Paul. Various unpublished sketches and documents for the Maryland Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Middle Branch Park, for the Maryland Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commis-

' Freiman, Ziva. "Saitowitz Wins New England Holocaust Memorial sion, April 14, 1988. Progressive Architecture. (August 1991): p. 24.

ial Design Chosen", Progres

"With a Little Help From My Friends: Quilts of the Gulf War." aid, Lisa. "Facing the Wall," Li/e, November 1992, pp. 24-36. Decatur House, a museum property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Leaflet.

Ilartt, Frederick. A History o/ Art.

Davis, Dustin and Urbas, Anton J, Interview 26 June 1992, MD.

Sprierigen, Paul. Interview 1 July, 1992, Washington, D.C

65 Learning and Labor In Architecture: A Pavilion for Virginia Park

Jeffery S. Poss This summer session studio project involved the design, construction, and erection of a University of Illinois at small pavilion in Virginia in St. Louis, Illinois. Urbana-Champaign Park East The studio consisted offourfourth and fifth year architecture students, a research assistant and the author as studio critic. Summer, 1994 The pavilion that was ultimately constructed was the result the whole studio's creative Studio Participants: of Wembo Annios thinking. The pavilion was thefirst visible evidence ofa comprehensive master planfor the David Greenwell Auro Salam dilapidated park, designed concurrejitly by members of the Department of Landscape Robert Wilson Architecture at the University of Illinois.

Research Assistant: Leigh Jerrad The co-sponsors of this project were the East St. Louis Park District and the University of

Illinois East St. Louis Action research Project, a consortium offaculty and studentsfrom the

School ofArchitecture, Department ofLandscape Architecture, and Department of Urban

and Regional Planning at the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The aim

of the Action Research Project is to unite the ideas and energies of the university design

community in order to help identify and initiate improvements in the impoverished East St. Louis community.

The objectives of the studio were to: phases of a design project, from conceptual

- Develop teamwork as an essential design to construction.

component of the design process. - Explore the possibilities of whole-to-part

- Emphasize design as a social activity where design relationships into an actualized

the designer has a responsibility to the building project on a specific site.

environment, to the people, and to the

community in which the design activity is A master plan for the placement, budget

taking place. and scheduling of site improvements for

- Sensitize the student to the phenomenon Virginia Park was developed concurrently

of architecture: space, light, materials, by Professor Gary Kessler and his Research

and their connections; how the material Assistant, Mindy Cohen, both of the UIUC

presence of a structure can relate to our Department of Landscape Architecture.

emotions and to all of our senses; how Their ideas, the result of earlier meetings

these materials, when thoughtfully brought with the East St. Louis Park District, were

together, can express an important idea. presented several times to the architecture

66 - Recognize that creativity can occur at all studio at the beginning of the design process. Out of these presentations, several master Designs were to avoid the use of shingles plan concepts were developed. because they have been used as frisbees. Any furnishings should be of heavy

The entire design team then met with park construction, or integrated into the district officials, city council members, and structure; in the past, movable or chained

East St. Louis residents to discuss the master picnic tables have been stolen. plan concepts. As a result of these Metal should not be removable; any metal discussions, four sites were identified as will be stripped off and re-sold. possible locations for pavilions. The Park District is open to a variety of

formal and programmatic ideas.

The East St. Louis Park District established The park is heavily used on summer

the following criteria for the pavilions: evenings and on weekends for the following

- A total construction budget of S2,5()0 activities: family picnics, church gatherings

was made available through a IIUD Block and Softball games, basketball, children's

Grant awarded to the Park District for play, and passive activities. The pavilion

this project. designs should address these activities, as

- Any park structure needed to be designed well as proposing additional uses.

to withstand punishment. 67 There arc two methods ( known t( ) this autlior) The final design iiUegrates a large table and for developing a desiiiii-huild project in a benches seating up to 16 adults with a studio setting. translucent canopy of corrugated fiberglass.

The interlocking 2x4 structure combines

The Yale Model: delicacy with strength. The organic, tree

A design competition is conducted in the inspired form nestles well into the tree

studio. The winning solution is constructed. filled site.

The Bedanes Model: Design Development and (Construction

The studio members generate a series of design prototypes, periodically exchanging the Because of the short period of time available

prototypes, so that each solution is a result of for development, construction and erection

the group's effort, (suggested to the author by (three weeks), portions of the selected

Steve Bedanes of Jersey Devil Architects) project-foundation, structure, and roof- were developed by individual team

In order to emphasize the objective of members. Meanwhile, the structure was

teamwork, the cooperative Bedanes Model critiqued by a professor of structural design.

was followed. Each of the four students The construction sequencing and materials

selected a different site to begin the design list were developed to insure that the project

exploration. Each site proposal tested was within the budgetary guidelines.

program requirements, structural concepts, The pa\'ilion components were shop

and site forces. After three days, the schemes fabricated by the students at the School of

were discussed, exchanged, and improved, Architecture in order to take advantage of

and then discussed, exchanged, and impro\'ed the studio workshop. The construction was

again. After two weeks of this process, the supervised by Leigh Jerrad, Wood Shop

projects were presented to the park district Resource Assistant, who served as Research

and residents of the Virginia Park Assistant on this project. The truss

neighborhood. The selected project was then configuration was laid out in masking tape

ready for design development. on the floor, the pieces cut to size and bolted together. This process was repeated for the columns and table components.

The components were then hauled to the site

170 miles away. Meanwhile, a backhoe dug the foundation for the pavilion. The following day, the components were unloaded, prepared, and assembled on site with the help of members of the Alternative Offenders

iVFimM]

Work Support Program, supervised by the

St. Glair County Sheriffs Department. Tiiis second work day was complete when the ready-mix truck anchored the pavilion firmly to its site. On the final day, the roof panels were attached to the structure.

Three days after construction was completed, the pavilion served as the center-piece for a large family reunion. With the success of this project, the East St. Louis Park District is enthusiastic about the continued involvement of the entire design team in developing the park's master plan, and in constructing specific features of that plan. "

Projections

Kevin Hinders "T/if projection of images onto the court- The creation of a full scale element to be University of Illinois screen Buell Hall has the placed in the Buell courtyard after the Urbana-Champaign yard of Temple new potential to be very important in the spirit of building's completion allows for students to

Architecture 371-374 the School of Architecture. School and investigate a wide variety of form determin- Summer Studio 1994: Ashley Black campus wide communicatioji of ideas, ants. The concentration is on the design Scott Flannagan sharing of studio investigations, outdoor and construction of the projector/projection. Chriss Froramell Susan Haggis lectures and presejitations are but afew of Duk Kim the possibilities. This project is rife with "The projection booth - this eleinent is to George Lapa Jyh-Mei Lee potential. The communication benefits of enclose and protect a projector rack holding Kirsten Olson this element will be the design three carrousel slide projectors. Require- Jeremy Paris tremendous if Stephanie Ritz and execution is carried out in an out- ments are relatively simple: Dominador Ruiz " Janet Yuan standing manner. 1) Copper and a related building system

- an excerpt from the course syllabus will be comprise the building materials.

2) The projectors must be elevated + 6'-S"

above adjacent grade to facilitate the

movement of persons in front of the

projectors without disturbing the projected

image. Vertical circulation as necessary

must be incorporated into the design.

3) The projectors must be made safe from

theft and the elements (including both

moisture and overheating).

4) Students will construct the edifice to be

placed at a later date.

- excerpt from project description

Representatives from the Copper Develop-

ment Association agreed to have the GDA

provide both technical and monetary support.

Perkins and Will and Associates and the

University Campus Architect agreed to assist 70 and review work produced.

Tlic process reciuircs di;il<)j;uc and yiowtli tliroujih experimentation, exchange ami discovery. Twelve individual investigations mo\ed

to three projects chosen by the students for design development. After development and review one project was selected for design and construction. A practical process as designers come to consensus.

The materials themselves are a major focus of the design investigation. Copper as a building material

is examined, questioned and interpreted to inform the making of the object. The students work the

material to understand its properties and its potential.

"He had rolled in money eccentric projection like pigs in vwd, Till it the system of muscular sensations of mo\'ement seem'd to have entered and the system of visual sensations are combined into his blood By to develop our perceptions of objective space and occult projection." its three dimensions.

Hood:Miss Kilmansegg st.ll o o o o o o o o o o O O O O O €4 O (tr,-C"6-;9 o .0_d)|.0..0.:(b.Q O (pi ^ ^ ''<^' ^

O (

O ( o 6' o uiy o n^JQ-^l^ 060600O 000000 000000 inform 1. to tell (a person) that of which he had

no knowledge before; 2. to give form, shape, or

vitality to; to imbue with life and actixity; fashion, mold or shape.

Students build the edifice. The methods of con- struction and tools used substantially influence the manner in which metal can be cut, bent and connected along with the construction of backup systems. This process of making - the hands on process - informs the project. Changes are made to accommodate construction. New ideas spring from the act of making.

The studio investigation budget was supported with both monetary funding and supplied materials. Economy became a part of the design process, greatly affecting design decisions. The project sponsors include the Copper Develop- ment Association, Revere Copper Inc., Chris Industries, Advanced Sheet Metal and Roofing and the School of Architecture. The height of the projector-the image. The

projection that this edifice could benefit the

spirit of place. The height of the passerby versus

the lamp and the carousel. The need for security.

The School. ..How does it breathe?

The studio is indebted to Mr. Mike Cain and insight 1. Power or faculty of immediate and

Advanced Sheet Metal and Roofing for their acute perception or understanding; intellectual generous support through the use of their facilities. discernment; intuition whether that power is

regarded as a general inner faculty, a special

capacity for a particular field of view or the gift of

mystical vision. 2. The perception of the inner

nature of a thing; also the act of such inward

apprehension. 3. Mental engrossment in regard

to something. 4. An inspection; a scrutiny.

incite To rouse to a particular action; move to act

by inducement or persuasion; urge onward; stir

74 up; instigate; stimulate.

Reflections

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