Gilles Deleuze and the project of architecture: an expressionist design‐research methodology Stefan Robert White 21/08/14 Thesis submitted for PhD by Architectural Design The Bartlett, UCL Word count 100,165 ‘I, Stefan Robert White confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis.' This thesis has taken a long time and I mean it when I declare that the support and extensive assistance I have received has not only been generous and inspiring, but also steadfast and enduring. Firstly, I have to thank Jonathan for both seeing the potential in my proposal and keeping faith, Peg for unerringly steering me towards completion when I might otherwise have wondered off the course. Robin Durie for being a 'friend to thought' and connecting it to communities. There are numerous people who have been made 'collateral supporters' ‐ just helping me continue through life while hearing tell or fearing mention of 'the PhD' ‐ supporting me by valuing such an abstract activity without any evidence of its use or necessity over such a long period. A great number of people have contributed to the design‐ research on which this work is based, however, the work in Manchester simply would not be happening without Helen Aston or Paul McGarry and latterly Mark Hammond and Chris Phillipson. Even more steadfast in this long‐term campaign have been my family. Thanks Mom for your courage and determination, a small part of it rubs off on me every time I see you. To Sarah, I began this all before I knew you but I would not have finished it without your love and deadline enforcement. I am looking forward to making it up to us. Lastly, I dedicate this to my Dad who would have been very proud of the anger at injustice and inequality it expresses, and my son who would not be precisely who he is without it. For Bob and Gilles Acknowledgements_ Abstract_ Gilles Deleuze and the project of architecture: an expressionist design‐research methodology This thesis analyses the potential of the Deleuzian philosophical concept of 'expressionism' in accounting for and driving architectural design and research. An expansive literature considering the import of Deleuze in architecture is characterised by his simultaneous use in both poles of debates concerning Critical architecture at the centre of mainstream practice and as foundational source for minoritorian approaches to both design and research. Identifying this contemporary vacillation as a reiteration of traditional reductions of design to products or processes, and seeking development of an alternative trajectory, I propose the architectural project as an 'embodied' epistemological and ontological third term of an expressionist account of architectural design‐research. A series of critical encounters between philosophy and architecture exploring the accounts and practices of Robin Evans, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman and both professional and pedagogic design‐research undertaken by the author, articulate six key principles of a non‐representational, expressionist methodology for design and research in architecture. First 'expressionism' insists on a substantive distinction between nominal and real denying any essentialist component to architectural products or production. An encounter with Evans shows how architectural bodies both produce and are constituted by 'projective relations' external to architect, drawing and discipline. Koolhaas and Eisenman's divergent positions then demonstrate how projective distinctions are always embodied in two actual forms which select content and express an exterior. Fifth, a design for a non‐ Abstract_ human 'client' makes explicit the parallel and serial nature of processes of selection and projection. Sixth, community‐engaged design‐research demonstrates that active speculation towards positive change (outside of self and social habit) is a mechanism for the serial production of simultaneously ethical and aesthetical affective relationships. Extending and sharing the production of capabilities and powers of expression beyond the architect and architecture demonstrates the overarching principle of expressionism ‐ affirmative speculation is correlative with the creation of ethical joy. 301 Abstract_ Gilles Deleuze and the project of architecture Contents_ Abstract_ ...................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction_ A triad with two forms ................................................................................. 9 Part 1: The architecture of expressionism .................................................................. 40 1_The expressionist diagram ............................................................................................ 41 1 The difference Deleuze makes ................................................................................................. 42 2 Attributed knowing .................................................................................................................. 53 3 The sense of a diagram ............................................................................................................ 74 2_Translating expression .................................................................................................. 85 1 Evans, Deleuze and the Critical project of architecture........................................................... 87 2 Theory in pictures .................................................................................................................. 103 3 The affect of projections ........................................................................................................ 116 Part 2: The two forms of non‐representational practice ......................................... 128 3 _Common knowing ...................................................................................................... 129 1 Contested distinctions ........................................................................................................... 129 2 Originally common ................................................................................................................. 150 3 Patent irony ........................................................................................................................... 159 4_Formalising affects ...................................................................................................... 179 1 Previous form ........................................................................................................................ 180 2 Critical histories ..................................................................................................................... 208 3 The desiring‐subject of diagrams ........................................................................................... 216 Part 3: Making sense ................................................................................................ 233 5 _ Species of affect ........................................................................................................ 234 1 Mechanisms of judgement .................................................................................................... 239 2 Compositional ability ............................................................................................................. 258 3 Specifying affects ................................................................................................................... 285 6_Projective encounters ................................................................................................. 302 P1 The architectural project ..................................................................................................... 305 P2 Embodying projection .......................................................................................................... 322 P3 Doubly articulate ................................................................................................................. 331 P4 Forming relations ................................................................................................................. 341 P5 Making differences .............................................................................................................. 354 P6 Critical diagrams, joyful speculation .................................................................................... 362 Endnotes_ ........................................................................................................................ 380 Bibliography_ ................................................................................................................... 391 Contents_ Gilles Deleuze and the project of architecture Figures_ Figure 1_Diagram of an embodied epistemology / relational ontology (in parallel) ............ 25 Figure 2_Diagram of a two–form, triad (in series) ................................................................ 25 Figure 3_Diagram of infinite attributes of substance ............................................................ 63 Figure 4_Deleuze's diagram of double articulation as a lobster ........................................... 75 Figure 5_Diagram of the three kinds of knowledge .............................................................. 77 Figure 6_Diagram of expressionism in architecture .............................................................