[courses]

Architectural Theory, (2007-After), SCI_Arc

[09.2007]

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* Programs for Practices, (2007- after)
An Intensive Survey of Recent
Architectural Theory, Practices and Design Agendas;
required for all incoming advanced graduate design students.

Benjamin H. Bratton
2GX Seminar, SCI_Arc
Fall 2007



As a seminar for incoming advanced design students, this course selectively surveys the last 25 years of critical architectural practices as a guide or map-in-advance (or inverted map) of the next 25 years of practices; of their forms, strategies, techniques, obsessions, successes and productive missteps.

As advanced students prepare for their practices, how has the agenda of a practice defined the work it produces? How have the structures and profiles of practices defined the object of design, and how has this framed their collaborations, their methods, and how are these models for the next generation of practitioners? This is, in this respect, a course in self-fashioning.

From the immediate past, what should be shuttled forward, and what is subtracted? In effect, what is the architecture of the architectural practice for the rest of the 21st century? What does it do? For who does it do this, and when, how, why? While there is no definitive answer, nor can the question go unanswered by these students. And so, the goal of the seminar is not only to augment the training advanced students in contemporary techniques for design, but also in the deliberateness with which they may design their own professional agendas.

The seminar will map the contemporary issues within architecture as it encounters new formats for negotiating its immediate predicament: how architecture can be (in a world programmed by forces over which the architect currently claims, nor can perhaps ever possess any professional mastery, and yet which constantly solicit from him or her input) an agent of spatial conditions. Is architecture in or out? Of what?

Maybe the real question doesn't even come from architecture, but is one that from culture-at-large is asking architecture to answer; namely, "is there actually a future, and if so what does it look like?"

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Six Two Week Sessions, Plus Introduction and Conclusion Sessions

NOTE:::*These are possible topic points to be addressed, not necessarily readings assigned, NOT FINAL!!!


Introduction: The One Big Question
What will Architecture (architectural education, architectural theory and architectural practice, architectural forms) look like in 25 years, and why?

Required Reference Texts:

• Multiple Authors, The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture (2005)
• Jeff Kipnis, ed., Perfect Acts of Architecture (2002)
• Van Schaik and Macel, Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations, 1956-76 (2005)

Recommended Reference Texts:
?    K. Michael Hays, ed.,  Architecture Theory Since 1968  (2000)
?    Kate Nesbitt, ed., Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture (1997)
?    Braham and Hale, ed., Rethinking Technology: A Reader in Architectural Theory (2006)
?    Rem Koolhaas & Hans Ulrich Obrist: The Conversation (2007)
?    Miessen and Basar,  Did Someone Say Participate?: A Global Atlas of Spatial Practices (2006)
?    K. Michael Hays, ed., OPPOSITIONS, Selected Essays 1973-84 (1999)


 
1.) Diagrams: The Rise, Eclipse (and Rise?) of Theory as Generative Discourse
 
Peter Eisenman

The seminar begins with difficult and delicate role of theory (and Theory) during this period, its hierarchies and promiscuities, and in how interdisciplinarity, emergent rendering tools, and the demands of globalization have shifted theory's "portfolio," perhaps emptying it, perhaps amplifying its command.

Lecture and Reading Topics:
....Architectural metaphors, symbol and assemblage.....Internality, externality and critique..... Historicizing on the fly..... The gender of Modernity..... The fate of utopia, dystopia, and atopia!Eisenman's critique of functionalism.....Speaks and design intelligence....Somol and Whiting's projective practice!technics and pragmatism!.criticality, post-criticality, and hypercriticality!utopias, latent and manifest...

--One lecture, One interview. Dora Jones

Readings:

?    Georges Bataille, "Architecture," (1929) Encyclopedia Acephalica, Atlas Press. 1995.
?    Peter Eisenman, "Post-Functionalism" Oppositions 6 (Fall 1976).
?    Mark Wigley,  "The Translation of Architecture or the Production of  Babel" Assemblage 8. (New York,1989) Pp. 7-21.
?    K. Michael Hays, "Introduction" Architectural Theory Since 1968, ed. Michael Hays (New York, 1998), x-xv.
?    Stan Allen, "From Critique to Construction" + "Uncredited Editorial Cartoon" from Sites and Stations, Lusitania 7. (New York, n.d.)
?    Robert Somol and Sarah Whiting, "Notes Around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism" Perspecta 33, Yale Journal of Arch. (2002)
?    Michael Speaks, "Design Intelligence: Thinking in Architecture After Metaphysics" AD-Versioning, ed. SHOP, October 2002.
?    Hilde Heynan, "Utopia, Critique and Contemporary Discourse," Lecture presented at the symposium Contemporary Discourses in Architecture, Lebanese American University, Beirut, 13-14 May 2004.
?    Bruno Latour, "Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?" Critical Inquiry, Vol 30 no. 2 pp.25-28 (Winter 2004)


Online Videos:
See:
http://www.projectivelandscape.nl/   (click "lectures")


 
2.) Addition and Subtraction:
Program v.1, Program v.2,  and Program v.3
 
Walter De Maria/ OpenOffice/ Robert Irwin

We then consider the shifting profile of "program," from the classical plan in whose image the order of things would be disciplines to its modern coupling with Functionalism.  As architecture became again a medium for the conception of social forms radically other than those known, program became a tool to design indeterminacy, narrative and even violence. Today its seems that forces of habitation have sped past partitional norms, such that program becomes a discourse around which architecture discusses how it can catch up, with people, with objects, with software (or indeed slow them down.)

Possible Lecture or Reading topics:  Modernism, Postmodernism and Supermodernism.....assemblage and complexity..... Fourier and Foucault! Deconstruction/ Wigley's Translation of Architecture !the High-Drama of Functionalism...the function of the oblique redux....Koolhaas's program as active indeterminacy.....Superstudio and the infinite model..... Tschumi's program as active conflict, narrative...Rowe's program as diagram (vs. paradigm)....GLynn's critique of Rowe.....the end of the plan and the rise of the section.....Vidler's Toward a Theory of program..... Stan Allen on MVRDV....transprogramming and the disappearing partition.

--One lecture, One interview. Ed Keller

?    Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi, "2 Architects, 10 Questions on Program," PRAXIS 8, Re: Programming (2006)
?    Anthony Vidler, "Toward a Theory of  Architectural Program" October 106. (Fall 2003) Pp. 59-74.
?    Hans Ibelings, Supermodernism: Architecture in the Age of Globalization. NAi Publishers. (Rotterdam, 2003)
?    Colin Rowe, "Program vs. Paradigm," Cornell Journal of Architecture 2 (Fall 1983), p. 11
?    Colin Rowe and Robert Slutsky, "Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal" from Mathematics of an Ideal Villa. (MIT Press). 1982. 159-183
?    Greg Lynn, "New Variations on the Rowe Complex" in ANY Magazine no.7/8: (New York: Anyone Co., 1994) pp. 38-43
?    Jos Bosman, "Form Follows Fiction: From Mega-city to Mega-City (on MVRDV)" in Reading MVRDV, NAi Publishers (Rotterdam, n.d.) pp. 88-103.
?    Peter Weibel, "From Location to Non-Location, From Presence to Absence," in Disappearing Architecture: From Real to Virtual to Quantum. Georg Flachbart and Peter Weibel, ed. Birkhauser. (Basel, 2005) pp. 264-271.
?    John Urry, "Dwelling" in Sociology Beyond Societies: Mobilities for the 21st Century. Routledge (London and New York, 2000) pp. 131-160.


 
3.) Iconicity in the City:  2 Cases (Art and Sport/ Museum and Stadium)
 
Kohn Pederson Fox

Third we examine the role of mass media in the retraining of experimental formalism into populist iconography. Here the utopian projects of years past provide a useful lens into the Beaubourg Effect and the ... a conspiratorial homology between architectural practice becoming more about the production of complex images, one the one hand, and the complexity of interest paid to images of architectural form by which pop culture, totalitar ian regimes, museum corporations, and the like. We examine in some detail the museum craze of the 90's and the sports stadia craze of the 00's as complementary and contradictory developments in this.

Possible Lecture or Reading topics:  Archigram and the utopian section.....Rowe collage city....cedric price and Constant.... the end of the section and the rise of the animated render..... Beaubourg and Giant Pickles..... Stadia Globalism (Beijing, Phoenix, and beyond) !implosion!free floating gimmicks!finger-wagging.

--One lecture, One interview. Peter Zellner

Readings:
?    Charles Jencks, The Iconic Building,  Rizzoli, (New York, 2005)
?    Jean Baudrillard, "The Beaubourg Effect: Implosion and Deterrence" October 20 (Spring, 1982) pp. 3-13
?    Michael Sorkin, "Brand Aid; or the Lexus and the Guggenheim" Harvard Design Magazine, no. 17. Fall 2002/ Winter 2003.
?    Michael Speaks, "Individualization Without Identity" from City Branding: Image Building & Building Images, NAi Publishers, (2002)
?    Keller Easterling, "Franchise," from Enduring Innocence. MIT Press (2007)

Reference Readings:
?    Chalk, Cook, Crompton, et al. Archigram. Princeton Architectural Press (1999)
?    Venturi, Izenour, Scott-Brown, Learning from Las Vegas, MIT Press. (1977)
?    Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage City. MIT Press (1984)


 
4.) Yes, Thank You: "Irony and its Opposites"
   
Unknown, for McDonald's, FRoche, parking lot, Japan.

Next, we examine the role of "irony" in the production, distribution and reception of architectural forms, objects and people (sic). After Postmodernism (both critical and conservative) irony became a more presumed (even infrastructural) component of cultural operations, including, if not especially, architecture. This is a serious game, a high risk bluff. Is the project serious? A serious commentary on the conditions of its own commission? A serious commentary on the reception of its condition by design culture? Who's zooming who?

Possible Lecture or Reading topics: After Postmodernism..... Found objects and drole sculpture.....the bad faith of branded space.....Emmanuel Petit and Metaphysics' gravity....defying tyrannies of taste..... Eisenman and classical irony.... SLavin on Neutra....Food, clothing and product design (that I live in)....NBourriaud's post-production!clever Dutch spoons!funny parking lots!collages from the 50's!drole installations!fun palaces.

--One lecture, One interview. Jeffrey Inaba

Required Readings:
Rem Koolhaas, "Junkspace"  October 100  (Spring 2002) pp. 175-90

Students Pick Two of the following:
?    Constanin Boym, Curious BOYM: Design Works. Princeton Architectural Press. (2002)
?    Nicholas Bourriaud, Postproduction (2005)
?    Andrew Bolton, The Supermodern Wardrobe (2002)
?    Droog Design, Simply Droog, Droog. (2004)
?    RSIE/Francois Roche, Corrupted Biotopes (2005)
?    Thomas Kinkade, Home is Where the Heart Is (1998)
?    Robbins and Baas, ed., The Independent Group: Postwar Britain and the Aesthetics of Plenty. MIT Press (1990)
?    Diller + Scofidio, Scanning, Whitney Museum. (2003)
?    Stanley Mathews, From Agit-Prop to Free Space: The Architecture of Cedric Price. Black Dog. (2007)
?    De Zegher, and Wigley, ed., The Activist Drawing, Constant's New Babylon. MIT Press (2001)

 

5.) Affect, Intensity, Detail, Material
 
Detail of Herzog and De Meuron's Munich Stadium

Fifth, in many cases, architecture's attempt to come to terms (or not come to terms) with its own autonomy (or lack thereof) has been a refocusing on the intensity and intricacy of spatial affect and its associated formal and material expertises.  Here the pursuit of almost pre-modern literary or painterly experiences --elegance, horror, sublime, etc.-- also drives a relentless appetite to identify and adopt from the outside, the most contemporary materials, techniques, and formal profiles.

Possible Lecture or Reading topics: Kipnis and the intensity of affect... Rahim and elegance... from collage to pixel....Herzog and de Meuron as relational aestheticians....Animate tween and iterative modeling......digital fabrication......biotech materials.... GLynn and intricacy + SLavin and color!sensation and aesthetic politics!totemic detailing!prickly feelings.

--One lecture, One interview. Hernan Diaz Alonso

Required Reading:
Jeff Kipnis, et al. Mood River. Wexner Center for the Arts. (2002)

Recommended Reading:
?    Ali Rahim and Hina Jamelle, "Elegance: introduction to AD issue" Elegance. Academy Press. (2007)
?    Sylvia Lavin, "What Color is it Now?" from Perspecta 35: Building Codes. MIT Press. (2004)
?    J. G. Ballard, Super-Cannes. Picador. (2002)
?    Philip Ursprung, Herzog and De Meuron: Natural History. Lars Müller Publishers. (1999)
?    Delueze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. Univ. of Minnesota Press. (2005)
?    Benjamin H. Bratton, "El Processo" (handout)
?    Brian Massumi, "The Autonomy of Affect" from Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Duke University Press. (2002)
?    Jacques Ranciere, The Future of the Image. Verso Press. (2007)
?    "Tissue Culture Project" in E. Kac, ed.,  Signs of Life: BioArt and Beyond. MIT Press. (2006)


 
6.) The Aesthetics of Logistics: Visible and Invisible Data
 
Flight patterns into and out of the USA modeled in Processing by Aaron Koblin

Next, through the lens of the 'network,'' and the globalization of software systems, we look at the city as an already-continuous monument, an already hyperintegrated singularity, all foreground no background. We examine the ways that architecture anticipated the software society, has directly made us of it, and has also ignored its demands upon professional designers of space.

Possible Lecture or Reading topics: Wigley and Network Fever, Ibelings and Supermodernism, software cultures in design....from CAD to cinema... from representation to simulation... from formalism to fabrication...Software Urbanism, digital cities, and pervasive computing...design tool isomorphism... Supply-chain and logistical cities...visualization, modeling, analysis...open-source scripting.

--One lecture, One interview. William J. Mitchell

Required Readings
William J. Mitchell, ME++: Cyborg Self and the Networked City (2003)
Benjamin H. Bratton, "Logistics of Habitable Circulation"
Mark Wigley, "Network Fever"

Recommended Readings
Paul Edwards, The Closed World: Computers & the Politics of Discourse in Postwar America (1997)
Martin Heidegger, "The Thing"

Google the following:
Gilles Deleuze, "Postscript on Societies of Control"
Lev Manovich, "Database Aesthetics"
Manuel de Landa, "Meshworks, Interfaces, Assemblages"

 
Conclusion: "Bringing Society Back In": Other Routes for 21st Century Architecture Theory
 
Sleeping mob, Paris.

Globalization is just beginning, be happy...architecture for things matters as much as architecture for people...architecture does not equal architects...formalism is a waste (but is this good or bad?)....Why Actor-Network Theory is very good for you ....Mouffe's post-political models of space....Deleuze and Guattari's Geophilosophy... Why subtraction matters as much as addition.... Why "green" is the wrong color for ecological philosophy.. the return of the section.. iconic program.

Students Each Pick One of the Following:

?    Nicholas Gane, ed. The Future of Social Theory. Continuum Press. (2004)
?    Georg Flachbart and Peter Wiebel, ed.,  Disappearing Architecture. Birkhauser Press (2005)
?    Rem Koolhaas/OMA/AMO, Content. Taschen (2003)
?    MVRDV, Excursions on Capacity, Actar (2006)
?    Manuel Gausa, ed.,  OPOP: Operative Optimism in Architecture, Actar (2006)

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Assignments and Grading

Take home Midterm Exam, 50% of grade
    Date to be determined.
    Written exam

Final Paper, 50% of grade.
    Topics to be distributed

An Oral History of the Immediate Future

?    Lectures and Interviews will rotate weekly.

?    Interviewees will be architects from both inside and outside the SCI_Arc community.

?    A control set of questions will be begin every interview, so students can index the nuance of different approach to these; and then each will develop in its own way toward its own ends as it does..."What kinds of things will architecture do in ten years that it doesn't do now? Who will be doing it?

?    Seminar is held in the Library, which will give the seminar more of a symposium feel.

?    Video and audio recorded by TA,  posted to Google Video (Can be cross-linked to sciarc.edu by this saves the school streaming costs and logistical overhead.)


Additional Texts in Course Reader:
TBD, based on tracing the historical development and the current theoretical/practical tensions of each.

Tags: architecture, sci-arc, theory

Published: 09.23.2007

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