No. It's a great crowd tonight. You for
coming. I'm Jack Davis, dean of the College
of Architecture and Urban Studies. I'm pleased to welcome
you to the opening keynote lecture of the 50th anniversary
celebration tonight. We're pleased to have Kenneth Frampton,
scholar, author and professor at Columbia University. Professor
Frampton has a long history with our college dating back
to 1979 when then Dean Julio San Jose invited him
for a seminar in 1989. Professor Frampton was the
keynote speaker for the 25th anniversary of the college.
And as such, we're delighted to have him back
again for our 50th. Yeah, and we're already
planning his time schedule for the 75th. We appreciate
his offer to serve at that time. Also,
in getting preparation for the 75th, which I expect
most of you to be present at. Um,
if you have any suggested changes, this would probably
come from the alumni, not from the students.
Sorry. Changes to the timeline. Um, we
have an opportunity for you to write something on a
post it note and put it on that timeline so
that for the future editions of the history Book we
can have that timeline fine tuned. So feel free
to do that. In 1979 one of Professor Frampton
students or future students was attending Tulane University. That
student is Professor Frank winner, Professor Winner later became
a student of Frampton's in 86 87. It's very
appropriate that Professor Frank winner give the introduction for Professor
Kenneth Frampton this evening. Frank. Yeah, thank
you, Professor. Kenneth Frampton sees the world through
the eyes of an architect and is able to transform
what he sees into eloquence. He has given us
along with others like Colin Rowe, a distinctive vocabulary
to teach architecture with. He has a unique capacity
to measure the empirical dimension of architecture, lifting and
subletting that experience to the level of knowledge. If
architecture today has an AL of Minerva to he's the
Owl. Along with and after Sigfried Gideon, Kenneth
Frampton is the leading figure of our generation. I
often left his class dizzy and disoriented. The required
readings were even less helpful. Large doses of Hagel
, Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. The three h is
I wrote my notes as fast as I could,
but never seemed to match the acceleration of his thought
. Slides flash quickly in the background. He would
have a number of books scattered on the floor in
front of him after class and a period of recovery
. My classmates and I would go downtown to the
now closed Yap Reitman Bookshop on Spring Street in search
of the books he brought to class. But it
was not only the lectures themselves, but their aftermath
that has remained with me for the last 27 years
. Professor Frampton has probably caused me to buy about
2000 books. He's a friend of many architects and
teachers around the world, relentless in his pursuit and
discovery of the best in both practice and education.
He has a unique capacity to recall, with stunning
detail the probity of construction, all form and expression
and architecture, from the foundation to the soffit.
I believe he has an Ortho graphic rather than a
photographic memory. He weaves together a labyrinth of seemingly
unrelated occurrences, patiently searching for a larger historical pattern
, holding significance not only for the past but for
the present. He does not merely write history.
He constructs it like an architect. One does not
simply read his writings but must attempt to inhabit them
. Shortly after coming to Virginia Tech in 87 I
returned to Colombia for a visit. I went straight
to Avery Library and noticed Kenneth working at a table
. He was rapidly writing in longhand what she's doing
right now. On a legal pad with a copy
of Robert Carroll's book about Robert Moses. I interrupted
Kenneth and said Hello and asked him how he was
able to be so productive. He looked up to
me and said, I have a schedule. It
was that simple. Of course, he neglected to
add. And yes, it does help to be
brilliant, Frank. When Olivia Fry passed away in
1994 Professor Frampton wrote What perhaps is a single best
remembrance of Olivio. We all wondered how it was
possible that Kenneth could have characterized Olivio so lucidly,
while only being with him for such brief interludes.
They obviously admired each other, he said. Olivia
was a star and not a star, and the
very tectonic soul of epi. Kenneth Frampton is the
soul of the tectonic, which is to say he
has the soul of an architect. So please join
me in welcoming Professor Kenneth Frampton. Mhm. Mhm
. Mhm. So the present self. Okay,
well, yes. You hear me wrong with,
right? Yeah. How is that My car?
Right. And the other thing off. All right
. Um, well, thank you for inviting me
to this 50th anniversary. And thank you, Frank
, for very introduction. Honored to be here,
etcetera, etcetera. And And it feels a bit
bit dreamlike to me. I sort of have this
feeling I'm a kind of and in for a ghost
somehow, because I can't believe it's 25 years since
I've been here. And how did that happen?
You know, Listen, strange feeling it has a
very strange feeling. I mean, you know,
people are very welcoming, but they've also changed.
And I have changed etcetera, etcetera and the embarrassment
of not recognizing people that you once knew. And
then you finally figure it out that this person is
X and and the kind of strange, based out
introductions that I'm not embarrassing. But after a while
, one acclimatize is. And I have to say
I came here, you know, a very long
time ago in in 19. I'm not very sure
. Was it 79 or 80 But anyway, I
was taken to a a retreat so called in Abingdon
. I was invited here by Julia, Julia San
Jose and various luminaries there, like Robert Turner,
who was sitting in front of me and was yes
, it was very likely already, and I don't
think he's at liveliness as far as I could.
He is not really diminished in any respect. And
and Ellen, Bratton and both Olivia Ferrari et cetera
, the dramatis personae of the school at that time
that I would encounter again in 81 then much later
in 89 for the 25th anniversary. So I think
all together I've been here four times, but I
don't remember all of them. They're clearly, and
I like the fact that Frank characteristic me as some
kind of drug dealer, you know, that got
him hooked on books. I don't have any sympathy
because, but now, of course, you know
the digital take care of all of that. We
have other drugs to deal with. It was nice
meeting these figures from the past, particularly Soul Chowdhury
, who, as has weathered extraordinary well, I
mean I mean, I think he's more distinguished than
ever you know? I mean, he is distinguished
, you know, as someone with them, you
know, multi talented. You know, it's he
must have handled that rather well, going from engineer
to architect, too. Photographer. Now, I'm
told a computer nerd and and, uh, you
know, and well, anyway, um, so
I I also want to say that there is one
finger. Here's Scott Gardner who had an enormous influence
on me, and I cite him in That isn't
tectonic culture, you know, And I'm just going
to quote just the beginning of a passage. The
philosophical alienation of the body from the mind has resulted
in the absence of embodied experience from almost all contemporary
theories of meaning and architecture. Yeah. Oh,
the over emphasis on significant ation and reference in architectural
theory has led to a continual a construct role of
meaning, uh, as an entirely conceptual phenomena,
experience, as it relates to understanding, is reduced
to coded messages, etcetera, etcetera, the body
. If it figures an architectural theory at all,
it's often an aggregate of needs and constraints. This
is something he paper he read in 1996 a in
Washington and very much impressed by a great book that
he through that introduced me to, which is Mark
Johnson's The body and the mind. And I remain
convinced about that. And you know about the fact
that you know this question of the total experience of
the body being, you know, in other words
, a kind of a priori, anti Cartesian view
of the world in which the body is not split
from the mine. And so, I mean,
why I welcome that so much. And it appears
in the in. The introduction to studies in tectonic
culture is because it was, you know, yes
. Well, reservation was about the semiotic. I
never quite bought the semiotic, but I never was
quite three of it, either. As perhaps at
the end of this electric shall make clear. And
of course, the next thing I have to come
to is the weird title which tell didn't make any
less clearer by leaving bits of it out. Anyway
, um, it's a beautiful poster. All the
same. The mug shot e he stole from somewhere
blew it up. If I would, you know
, the title is, um if I were to
teach you architecture and then colon a labyrinth memoir and
not quite sure why I yes, very intuitively,
maybe to intuitively happened on this. Um, because
the title has always intrigued me and and also its
origin because it is Look, obviously a, uh
it's a title by Luca Brasi of and now I
don't know whether it was an essay or a lecture
given in the A school of architecture in London in
the round, I suppose, 1937 or maybe even
a bit later. Anyway, it was published.
I can make this thing work in a That's right
. It was published in the, uh This is
an image of the school in London, and this
is the quarterly magazine, as it once was in
the fifties. But this is 1938 and is the
magazine Focus was, which was an architectural students magazine
in the edited by Anthony Cox and, uh,
actually recover was by his Communist brother, Oliver Cox
and and who was a member of the LCC Architects
department or would become a member of the LCC politics
department in the you know, in the in the
years immediately after the Second World War. And so
this is 1938 and uh, it is a certain
spill if I were to teach you architecture with I
mean, I suppose these things were in color.
They're not published in color in the the focus.
But they are, you know, typical kind of
look abuser sketches, probably with crown, you know
, about sort of basic things about architecture, you
know, and about approaching the design of buildings and
also the design of of urban fabric and circulation and
things that disorder a kind of pseudo functional ist approach
to architecture. But the whole thing ends with these
words, which are particularly like you are a drawing
board organizer, not a stylist. Which reminds me
of the Macintosh who somewhere has this remark about expresses
is contempt about the icy perfections of a mere stylist
. You're drawing board organizer stylist. That's a very
hard thing to put across the day since particularly Colombia
, whether after the drawing boards anymore, there's just
screens and and, um, and probably Colombia suffers
from its fair share of style. Is, um
, here I realized there are still drawing boards,
you know? And then I thought I should give
some, you know? Yeah, Frank touched on
it. My architect monkeys status Because, um,
this building which I worked on in 62 63 I
designed everything in this building. Uh, you know
, the entire working drawings, this eight storey block
of flats and reinforced concrete in In in Bayswater,
which is now, as I am a great to
historic monument and, uh, and had a fair
share of complicated sections. They've had details that were
, in fact, borrowed from sorry, hard from
direction. Am I going in? I'm all right
. Barred from no influenced by James Stirling. And
you know this Well, you know, and red
tiles this kind of handrail and also cannot be going
down into the to the main entrance. 48 units
, eight stories high. And then this was borrowed
from my mother whiz kid, but never built in
the LCC architects department. And, uh, is
this very complex section which has three levels, You
know, if you read, uh, summer since
George in London, he points out the fact that
the French live horizontally and the British lived worked vertically
or rather, in the 18th century. They lived
vertically. Georgia in London and the Franks lived horizontally
from the 17th and 18th centuries. In other words
, the British were never out of their staircases.
And this place is full of so many goddamn staircases
because you come from the middle. You know,
it has this kind of inner street. Look,
obviously a unity capitals and Marseille, and you go
down half a level to the living dining kitchen and
you go to high and half a level to the
bathroom underneath the corridor, Negro down half a level
to the bedrooms at the back, facing out over
the garden. And there is the interlocked with an
up going unit in which the reverse takes place.
You go up half 11. That's true. And
while I was in this building was being finished.
I became technical editor of the magazine Architectural design.
And this is a cover designed by me, you
know, featuring in 64 Sterling's Lester, you know
, plan. There are. And I think that
the basement of the building that I've just been talking
about here, you know, also, you know
this insistence this kind of constructivist assistance on cradling,
you know, the pipes and all of that in
a sort of triangle triangular steel clasp. You know
, that is related to the structure of the of
the main concrete trusses that support the building above.
So and I had this very rich period of going
between the building site in the morning and going to
the magazine in the afternoon. This magazine was edited
by Unbelievable presented by, um, one full time
secretary and Streep, part time people Mollick pigeon myself
. Someone called John Brooks, who later became very
distinguished landscape architect and following Theo Crosby are designed all
the colours, covers and in fact, early on
62. This is the beginning of my brief period
there. You know, I collected a lot of
Swiss stuff together, and, uh and this is
a kind of consequences in this particular issue. And
then this of 63 you know, seal of Harland
and, uh, as you know. And that's
the Swiss connection that this school isn't particularly involved with
because it's, um and it's Breck Bullets students,
actually. And yes, in Kabul. Fanatics who
this was based on conversations rock and rob sketch or
cut my town. And it is, I think
it remains absolutely seminal work, you know, low
rise identity by excellence. 1960 Useful thing and and
Of course, they would go on doing that,
and they still do it militarised identity housing. But
perhaps they never achieved quite this quality of, um
, this famous border layer thing looks calm a bullet
day, you know, It is astonishing work,
and it had an enormous influence. And it did
influence the Institute for Architectural Studies, with which I
was altogether mixed, mixed up and and, uh
, and me and and and so, you know
, in 1972 Arthur Drexler, through some kind of
deal with the Urban Development Corporation, put on a
show in the Museum of Modern Art with the title
another chance for housing low rise alternatives which, you
know, in the in. The last analysis,
you know, was still a consequence of the achievement
of Harland. But of course didn't come. And
even their Harlem, you know, also slightly contaminated
by the paranoid ideas of Oscar Newman. Defensible space
, et cetera, you know, but I am
touching in this kind of labyrinthine way on this question
of tradition and my belief, you know, the
traditional innovation cannot be separated. I think there is
no innovation of any consequence of our tradition. And
there is no tradition without innovation. I mean,
tradition is constantly renewed by innovation, etcetera, etcetera
. And I just wanted to say that before I
was kicked upstairs, so to speak. I Bernard
Tschumi, who really got rid of me out of
the studio. Uh, this is what data is
up here in 19. Uh, what is 18
or something I can't read. Yeah, this is
kind of you see tradition and ready traditions funny.
Didn't realize it had that title traditions radical and conservative
. And, you know, it was the era
of typology. You know, it's a the tendency
had had its influence and just one little thing,
Which is this which is a project which I always
gave this project in the housing studio at Columbia.
I always gave a 200 by 600 or 800 ft
perimeter block in Manhattan as a kind of constraint.
And the students had to work really on the units
, of course. And on this inner garden,
you know, as a kind of micro realm microcosm
, you know, and based on the argument that
if you built forth worth because no one cares anymore
, you know, you know, filled in 200
by 600 to 800 blocks. One block and nothing
more would give you a micro world inside the block
two blocks together would give you two micro worlds and
the street between them. You know what? It
was that kind of notion. But in 1993 which
was went on for quite a long time, I
suppose the PhD program was started at Columbia, and
I am Mary McLeod were taken out of the studios
. Sorry. And yeah. So you know,
this is now becoming extremely labyrinthine because I'm jumping around
. Oh, in 1980 1993 now going back 20
years to 73 when with Peter Eisenman and Mario Mandelson
as well, we somehow rather started this magazine oppositions
. And this is opposition. One September 1973.
And in that oppositions I wrote a piece called Industrialization
and the Crisis of Architecture. And in it I
and included this image which actually is at the end
of the first World War. Which of which,
you know, the Centenary is right now, 1918
so called water in the walls in which these tanks
are used for the first time British tanks with these
contraptions, the head of them, the prime purpose
of which is to drop them ahead of the tank
and explode minds, their mind clearing machines actually at
this date. And so you know, I have
these kind of political hang ups which don't go away
. My, my belief that in architecture, politics
can't really be escaped. And, um and no
, neither politics nor poetics can really be escaped.
And then there is this moment which also had a
great impact here, which is the the teacher.
Nas suddenly emerged from yes, out of the doldrums
. In fact, you could say, uh and
and achieve something influenced by the Italians. Of course
, by Rossi Grassy, but probably yes, no
, probably about it. Certainly were able to achieve
things that the Italians couldn't somehow achieve, partly because
of the client. Tell us those partly because all
this black money flowing into Chino, perhaps, But
it was something deeper than that, I think.
And of course, the figures that emerged before people
like we're just not seeing Mario Botta and local Petty
and Libya Facchini, etcetera, etcetera who were featured
in this, you know, very important. This
is the cover of an exhibition, The State of
the Sahara Behinds Runner The date is 1975 two years
after the first opposition one and and it was Heinz
Runner and Thomas Boger together, and they and they
obviously had an impact right here on Olivia Ferrari and
and, uh, and on Julio San Jose.
And I think together they were able to to connect
this school to the Swiss manifestations, so to speak
. And And I, well, you know,
became very are totally fascinated by Mario Botta, this
whiz kid and and this school in mobile interiority and
which is kind of, you know, both of
one at the same time local musician and canyon and
in concrete. And what impressed me, of course
, was this relationship between this Uh huh. It's
Aqueduct like building. I think it's a curious thing
that the kind of an aqueduct like form became,
you know, a what appears in Rossi and early
Rossi building, of course and gallery to see.
But here, you know, I think, actually
taken to a level of refinement that goes beyond the
work of gallery, uh, Rossi and gallery.
And he's also in dialectical relationship to the landscape.
The mountains and so on. It's a kind of
counter principle against the organic and has this great unbelievable
space with dyed concrete. By the way, that
also impressed the hell out of me died concrete,
you know? And actually, of course, Bottle
had been a pupil of Carlo Scarpa. His sense
of dying concrete comes out of Scarpa's polished plaster and
all that, you know, and and it's it's
really a cheap way of of a And then the
other thing that impressed me in in legal NATO about
the same date were 70 to 75. Um,
this this pillar with this banded brick. What it
isn't is not That's the important thing, is not
brickwork. It's concrete block grey and pink again,
with this opening of the living room towards the village
and the closure of the building on the other side
. And this incredible sketch, I think it's still
incredible whether you know, the warplane of the house
is seen as a boundary between the village and agriculture
, you know. So it has this dialectic,
and maybe that's not possible to make that sketch anymore
, not in one's head, either, because things
have so changed. You know, that what you
know. Can one really draw that relationship anymore?
Or project that relationship or realize that relationship? And
then, you know, there's this we had shot
at me in Ellen Bratton's chatting up some student,
of course. And this is saying altogether too much
attention. This is, um, 89 I think
. And, you know, I think I'm not
sure. Anyway, 25th anniversary or something. And
then, you know, I have to introduce these
figures that I met first in. I mean and
then, of course, Olivio Ferrari, who?
I told Ellen Bratton. Hey, that you know
, I finally, you know, on this occasion
, I think I can't remember. Of course,
it was probably 81. He said it took me
on one side with his coterie, you know,
and I was kind of, you know, systematically
. But, you know, gently interrogated, basically
, you know, where did I stand? And
and yes, and so you know. And Ferrari
, of course, brings us to Max Bill,
uh, and so on and to opposition. Three
in which I wrote an essay called a Proper room
and why I was kind of then. You see
, there are two kinds of what divergent. Oh
, Sai One is a bottle of the Chinese and
the other is actually it is on first, I
was very intrigued by all men by Max Bill.
And above all, of course, by Maldonado.
Argentine polymath. Yes, amazing, charismatic person who
I had met in Princeton. He had a big
impact on me, and then I got very interested
in Norm and and, uh, you know,
And then there is this, uh, the the
page that confronts that opens the issue. A proper
warm is this. And there is, of course
, the building down here. And that's the only
cathedral. It still irritates the hell out of me
that Massimo Vignali, who who was recently died unbelievably
brilliant graphic designer without him, the institute just I
mean the debt of the institute profiting from urban studies
. This charismatic shop created by Peter you wouldn't have
flourished and been as well received if it hadn't been
to Vignali's unbelievably graphic skill and his willingness, of
course, to give his skill for nothing. And
so he's responsible for all the, uh, typology
of oppositions and so on. And and But this
is where you know Well, the story is of
course, and it's very understandable that Ferrari writes the
bill and and wants to join the school. And
then he gets involved. I think there was a
character job captain called Morris Gold Ring. I mean
, I can't remember. We had Anyway, you
get involved in the building side, you know,
he actually gets involved in building this building. No
, I'm The whole thing has become too labyrinthine because
what I wanted to say is that, uh,
you see, the the top of the cathedral is
cut off, and that irritates the hell out of
me. Because, you know, I wanted there
to be this metaphor that the cathedral one cathedral still
is there between and then the space to the room
, which is actually the second Bauhaus. And then
you in between invisible, of course, but referred
to if you could get it metaphor. But if
you cut the top of the more difficult you know
that that the Bahamas proclamation of 1918 was, you
know, for the Cathedral of the Future you know
that the artists and architects would come together under the
crystal symbol of a new faith is how the proclamation
ends. This is what clearly that Ferrari came out
of that, and I think it affected his worldview
. However much it was modified. The other figure
who, uh, you know, clearly played much
grief for time. I mean, Ferrari. I
think the dates here are 65 to 94 to his
death. And And Julio son is a, you
know, is here just for a brief time,
1980 81. And and I think he has a
kind of traumatic departure. The details of this departure
are not known to me and maybe unknown somebody,
but it remains somehow a mystery. And he,
of course, was the person who invited me here
in the first place. And yeah, and I
saw him today. I mean, that was nice
. And but I know he lived a very private
life and, yes, kind of Greta Garbo approach
to the the whole thing. Anyway, um,
the interesting thing is that this character had worked for
architects partnership, you know. Therefore, for Anthony
Cox Young, a student who edits focus, you
know. And this morning he told me Cox was
unquestioning, the best designer, and these these guys
, but his co partnership, who we were were
also the teachers in my second year in the air
. I suppose all of this is by way of
showing you that you know the extent to which culture
is and this culture. But all culture, I
think, is woven together, you know? So
this book, which of course you know Yeah.
I mean, this book is, Well, it's
pretty good for the publisher. This book is 1980
published commissioned in 1970. And the embarrassing thing is
my gender. Why is it always know where there
are three books and the third one I will talk
about at the end and still doesn't exist but will
exist. But just the fact is that it took
me 10 years to produce this book. It took
me 10 years to produce studies in tectonic culture,
and it's taken me 10 years to produce this book
that I will talk about at the end. Kind
of. I can't somehow do it in less than
10 years for various reasons. You know, in
the in the case of modern architectural critical history,
very influenced by ran a balance theory and designing the
first between age of 1960 I have to confess.
I've never really. And if I do annuities what
I have to do a new edition. I will
try to correct that. I've never given ban them
enough credit or something that is present in this book
because Barham is the first historian to actually quote the
protagonists of the history. And that gives the I
think the thing an enormous richness. And I would
copy that completely, and I would do it or
right throughout this first edition and thereafter. So it
still survives after all these years. And there will
be a new addition, slightly expanded first to finish
it at the end of this year. But I'm
not going to make it. And and the publishers
don't know yet, but they will, sooner or
later. Uh huh. But the other thing that
always struck me is that this book which has this
title modern official critical history, came out exactly at
the same time as the power of Portuguese, the
Venice Biennale of 1980 same day, You know,
being Ali, in which you know Portuguese. He
plays this slogans, the end of Prohibition, the
presence of the past, you know, and and
the structuring of eczema has all these hotshots doing more
or less historic fists Massage built by the China Cheetah
being operatives, you know, except for the building
by Leon Krier, who insisted over for his ethical
, so to build it out of real materials.
But the rest is all cardboard, and anyway,
it doesn't matter. But clearly it was a different
No, it was a different breakpoint. And it
was a break point in the way that the 1980
I think was a breakpoint and in Colombia was some
break point because, you know, Robert Stern and
I were already kind of, uh, protagonists Discovery
Tweedle dum into, you know, etcetera and,
uh and I realized the students were absolutely buying his
stuff. And I realized also that what was the
hypothesis of the modern movement was no longer that convincing
, You know, it didn't you know what had
sustained the avant garde? And I think you know
, by the way, that that moment ends.
In my opinion, it probably starts around 24 I
think it ends with the Spanish Civil War and the
Second World War. I think it's the end of
the of the of the project of the oven guard
in its most intense. There's a period after the
war where there's an effort to recover that. But
I think, you know, in certain things you
can't could not be recovered and and so out of
this comes, you know I will. Okay,
The other thing out of this comes this because which
is a funny special edition of architecture design called modern
architecture in the critical present. And that came into
existence because Andreas Papadakis, who is now no longer
alive but was then had become the new owner editor
of the magazine. Uh, you know, in
a fit of kind of publishers, end the persuaded
Thames and Hudson to take extracts from modern holiday for
critical history and publish them in 80 and then to
to supplement that with criticism by various people. Rafael
Moneo, Manfredo, Tafuri. I mean, I
chose the people to write the stuff and the criticism
, and it was Alan Calhoun. There was real
criticism, but then I approached to check immigrate important
figure on the London scene, scalable vezelay to do
the same. And he said, You know,
I don't want to do what you talk about has
been covered by Paul Riker, French philosopher, in
an essay called Universal Civilization. Regional Cultures appears in
a paperback, History and Truth, and I went
on the strength of that. I went and looked
that up, and I was very impressed by that
. By this distinction that color makes between universal,
universal civilization, singular and national cultures plural and,
you know, And then when he tries to say
, Well, what does that mean exactly? Because
of the tendency to have us that anonymous use of
culture and civilization, he says, You know,
universal civilization more modest, equals universal technology and culture
is the ethical and mythical nucleus of mankind. This
is the best he could do for culture, you
know. But you can see that ethical medical is
more delicate, fragile than universal. Civilization equaled university
. And somewhere, he says, You know that
, Um, it's the fact that not every year
he puts it in a sort of the colonial izing
situation, he says, You know that not every
nation trying to emerge from uh huh imperial colonial domination
can withstand the impact of universal civilization. That's what
he says, and I think pretty clear. He's
right. But it made me think that this issue
of universal civilization is not just something that applies to
the colonialist nations that applies also to the so called
first World, etcetera, etcetera. And the national
culture culture anyway, altogether may be fragile. So
after this came six points for an architectural resistance and
I was influenced in the title Critical Regionalism. How
fosters 1983 SSN Uh, the anti aesthetic essays in
postmodern culture. I don't know how hell invited me
to, but I'm very happy he did for me
to be in this particular collection. And then the
fact is that this is 83 2 years before in
81 Alex Jones Leander February written an essay in the
architecture in Greece with the title The Grid and the
Pathway. And in that essay they coined the term
critical regionalism in order to go over exclude, you
know, a kind of demagogic regionalism such as the
Heindrich Deal of the Third Reich and other like a
manipulative cultural kitsch. And they this term, the
grid in the pathway is connected to two figures who
had emerged in the fifties having some prominence in in
Greece and one being This is the Acropolis, of
course. And outside the Acropolis there is this area
known as Philip Papa Hill, which had been laid
out by Piquionne's with this extraordinary pathway is actually a
very beautiful photograph, by the way by perhaps,
in my opinion, perhaps the best architectural photographer in
the world by Helen been done unbelievably beautiful. Incredible
Doctor. So Piquionne's finishes this thing, you know
in 59 I actually happened to come back from Israel
through Turkey and Greece in 59. And I see
this thing and I am really impressed also because the
body, by the way, is very much part
one doesn't just see this thing. One feels it
through the ground and the feet body etcetera. And
um, I remember going back to London and going
on about this to Greek friends. They couldn't understand
what I was talking about. Why I was so
enthusiastic about this. Yes, for them Okay.
In peace that deals with the pathway the topographic central
, the other. The grid is the other,
you know, sort of also sort of discovery.
Ying yang was Aris constantly needs where Piquionne's had been
close to the Kiriko and had been trained as a
painter as much as an architect constantly needs have been
trained by something German TV, technocratic education in Munich
. And this is a project of the early eighties
by him for a museum in Yangon A which would
be built but you can see is predicated on the
idea of a rational grid. And earlier, he
had built this holiday house in secure in Greece.
And I love this building because you can almost see
it as sort of pre hurts out the moron in
the way. Sorry, I got I got in
the wrong in the wrong place here. Free house
. That the moron. Yeah, well, you
know, I think that's what tomorrow will eventually get
to the other one. But, uh, yeah
, you know, these this this reinforced concrete frame
. And yeah, you can see what I'm getting
at this stone, which is used with the sensitivity
. It is kind of totally missing in these walls
. And and anyway, and, uh, yeah
, so this is the temporary of their two works
, But there is this beautiful book by Constantine.
It is called Elements of self Knowledge, in which
he shows this incredible Greek vernacular. You know,
this restaurant by the sea Electronic. It's the simplest
and and this, you know, which is a
fence and agricultural fence made out of stone. Most
beautiful book called Elements of Sound Self Knowledge. I
forget the date Exactly. I think it's 75 in
America. And these two guys, in the end
who had opposed positions, had this great feeling for
the otherness of Greek culture, which still was there
, you know, and and, well, now
we don't know the other figure who was important to
me and still is, you know, Alberro,
Caesar in Porto. And it was just I showed
these two images of his work exemplifying critical regionalism.
What I like about this work is this what built
for banker who bought this old vineyard and and,
uh, you know, and and this old house
, which was the vintner's house. And he added
this bedroom wing to this and fiddled around a bit
with the interior and also the swimming pool, which
I don't I'm not going to get into all of
that. But the interesting thing for me is a
number of things. One is, um this This
is the addition to the old building. You know
, and it's lower and deliberately lower. This is
the bedroom wing edition. This is the vineyard,
and so on. This is a swimming pool created
out of the the granite props for the lines.
And but the thing that goes deeper than this is
that the the friends of the banker said, You
know, you cut all these old vines out and
plant oranges because oranges need much less maintenance, they're
much more profitable. Just get rid of the vice
. And he fought the client and finally persuaded the
client to keep the vines, you know? But
this goes beyond, you know. That's what I
like about it goes beyond, um, it goes
beyond any kind of reduction of the of the sensibility
or ideology. If you like the critical sensibility through
a matter of style, you know it, it's
much deeper and or was much deeper and still is
, I think, in his case, however,
in trying to go on about all of this I
met. Of course, these are the universal civilization
, particularly in the United States. Talk, you
know, coming to places like this and students at
some point saying. But there is no regionalism here
and universal civilization and universal air conditioning. It's sort
of taken care of that. You know who needs
it, You know, of course, Now it
comes home to roost a little bit because now,
you know, in l. A this drought.
So all the lovely green lawns of this desert are
now brown, you know, and people are being
encouraged to get rid. In Pasadena, I spoke
to someone just now. Policy in Pasadena is to
get people to get rid of the goddamn lawns and
part plants Succulents. So maybe, you know,
at that level a regional culture that's appropriate, the
climate is coming back. And but because of this
reality of the triumph of university civilization in the six
Points for an Architectural Resistance, which was the subtitle
of that has A towards a critical regionalism, I
oppose this idea of tectonic or poetics of construction.
Who's stenography to the Senna graphic. And I would
hasten to say that I think, of course,
you cannot remove the representational or the image from the
idea of a work of architecture, I think.
But, uh, that's to be distinguished, let's
say from work, which is just completely spectacular and
only has this as its It's on Detrol. You
know, that's the issue, I think, therefore
this question of tectonic as a poetics of construction in
as it were in a dialectical relationship with the representational
aspect. And so this leads to studies and tectonic
culture. And and in the introduction, my quotation
of Gardner and and you know Well, that's because
I was asked in the I think in 85 86
although go to Rice University and give a set of
lectures. And I chose for architects Miss Perry Carter
Woodson as being quote unquote modern architects where the question
of the structure was a structure and construction was a
fundamental part of the of the the ethos of the
work, you know. And then I built on
that four by adding, you know, right and
Schrenko and introductory Shafter and a kind of chapter that
brings the book too close, or Scarpa also appears
there, etcetera. And in the B in the
introductory chapter, I I, uh I make a
fuss about this building of, uh, alcohol.
I think it's one of the most beautiful buildings of
his life, and it's one in competition in 49
built 49 to 52. It's in Oslo City Hall
. It has this high council chamber, and and
and and the the attendant buildings form a kind of
courtyard now, all right, with with a green
heart. And but there's a lot more to be
said about it than I can say in the course
of this lecture. But of course, but the
thing that impressed me, uh, visiting it is
the fact that this staircase is made of brick.
You know, as you go up from the lower
level, this is put you enter here at you
, enter here on stone, monumental representation, and
then you go under this part where you enter the
four year and then you go up the staircase and
you enter and finally you go into the council chamber
. There is no line drawn the year, but
is the point of which you shift from brick underfoot
. And the whole building is actually brick on reinforced
concrete frame. Except for the roof of the council
chamber and the floor of the council chamber, which
is wood as opposed to the brick that's on a
kind of after and has this anyway, real issue
which is sort of direct experience Is that going up
this staircase, you know, field is I mean
, what you feel again is through the body,
the resistance, the friction of the brick against the
movement of the body on the steps up to this
point in plan two. Don't really see, you
know, but you go a bit further to the
visitors overlooking the thing. But at this point,
you can enter the the At this point you can
enter into the council chamber. And when you come
off the break into the council chamber, you know
, your these floor gives under your weight and it's
college, and you don't have the same friction anymore
. So you feel your balance is disturbed. I
think so. In this case, you pass from
the brick to the honorific floor of the council chamber
, you know, and you feel it, not
you see it or individually. But you feel it
, Corporal Lee, and then would is used above
, you know, uh, two you know where
this trust system, you know, And here tradition
comes back because this really you know, in the
end, has to do with medieval European culture that
the trust work, you know, And the explosion
of the trust work gives to the to the space
the honorific aspect. It's interesting that we should have
a shot of it, but I don't, you
know, rain. Sheldon Ian Theatre in Oxford has
a very ingenious trust that he invents, but he
screens it off completely. You know, it's closed
off by a flat ceiling and because he's not a
medieval person anymore, you know, the the syntax
is about something else. You know, it's not
about this. Um, yes. Well, then
I would just want to say, you know,
just two things about teaching and I'll stop. One
is that, you know, the studies and tectonic
culture. I give it as electricals and give it
a seminar. But I want to talk in particular
about electricals because then the guys have to do quite
a paper, right? But I came to the
conclusion. Okay, fine on paper. But,
you know, I started the game of of that
they have an option. They either write a paper
or they make a model and believe you, me
in Colombia, that's quite an achievement. And they
have to, but they have to make a detective
model. They can't make a realistic model. They
have to make a sectional model. And the point
of the sectional model is that it should not.
It shouldn't be. Abstract should be precise. Tectonic
Lee precise. But it should be should deal with
the kind of analog it should make analog for real
materials because most of these models, of course,
are based out. But I would and thin metal
and some carefully plaster. So and then I do
the deal. You know, you make a model
. I know the place is boot camp, so
they're never going to finish finishing it. The Russians
have no interest in me after drawings, you know
, to one is 1 ft or larger of the
didactic model. And we have to agree on what
the directive model is going to be and where the
cut is going to come because they all more or
less have to be sectional model. And And the
deal is that I'll give them an A grade,
no matter what. If they show me at the
end of the semester, the model almost finished.
I will give him the A on the basis of
that and Of course, I get cheated from time
to time. They never finish it. But I
also get good models because now 50% 70% of the
time they finish it. And the university doesn't know
about this. It doesn't matter in any case,
because you know what they learn, what they internalize
, even if they don't finish. The damn thing
is they internalize the They internalize what it is through
that whole process. You know, I just want
to show a few of those. This is a
model of Woodson's. That's the church 19 77.
This doesn't quite come to a sectional model, but
is, you know, a kind of it's an
extraordinary model made by 23 I think unbelievably painstaking Chinese
students of look, obviously is a the fiance top
level of 9 37. Or this is a Gino
Valleys, Um, but only Pordenone. There's a
news director factory important only in 1961. Well,
this is a very early work, an Ting Lu
Con, a kind of early early kind of exploratory
project for the you know, the tower that they
projected for the American Cement and Concrete Association in 1957
Philadelphia. Uh, this is actually writes Freeman House
, where they in this case, they made the
artist, but they made the the blocks. You
know, these these concrete blocks out of they cast
rubber, they made the blocks out of cast rubber
. You know, that's a Freeman house at 24
. And then this is Carper's, um Pappas.
Castro. Thank you. 53 65. So this
is the kind of work they did then. I
just want to touch just briefly on sustainability. Very
briefly is in 1996. I I organized this seminar
. What doing? But there this right technology plays
an architecture, and I got in Jerusalem or the
Muslim seminar. I think extraordinary collection of people came
to it. John Nouvelle Renzo Piano Glenn Market Um
, yeah, there's a amazing bunch of people and
and then just away just trying to complete the labyrinth
. But then this is a little sketch of section
of the Marika altered in house that was built by
market in the Northern Territory Nicola Australia for, uh
, America. And look, she lived with something
called Mark altered, and hence the Marika altered in
the house and is out of timber on a aluminum
frame, I think, uh, and you know
this whole question of yeah, forced ventilation, and
it's close to the sea, and it has to
withstand hurricane forces and and, of course, you
know, changing sun angles. I mean, this
whole thing, this whole obsession of market touch the
earth lightly. You know, not very good at
this, because my wife there's a wonderful, uh
, aphorism, which is a market house. We
have to sail it like a yacht. So I
mean, I talked the talk, but I'm not
good at walking the walk, so I'm not very
good at adjusting things like, you know, like
that. So I have to put up with my
wife saying, and I have not adjusted the air
conditioning or the shading or anything else sale it like
a yacht, you know, embarrassing. Anyway,
uh, So this book, this damn book goes
on and and, you know, this is the
fourth edition of 2000 and seven, and, uh
, that's the thing it says revised whatever. But
of course, nothing has been revised. The publisher
kept on adding no, the chapter because couldn't afford
to, As as the publisher said to me,
we'd like to keep the book alive. Thanks.
So this time I added a chapter in the last
chapter for 2000 and seven. Had this, uh
, on his piece. I mean, it's open
like this. Architecture in the age of globalization,
topography, morphology. What did I say? Sustainability
, materiality, habitat and civic form. I think
I had the idea of, uh, yes,
topography, morphology, sustainability, materiality, habitability and
civility. But then the editor said, Look at
this. Particular civility will never be understood. So
I was reduced to habitat. Seems to be taunt
. But because why did I do that? Because
, you know, we live in such a pluralist
world. I thought, you know, by what
taxonomy can one even begin to cut down and and
sort of give exemplary buildings that are taking a particular
line? And not that the lines are exclusive,
You know that the building could be both in,
Let's say, sustainability and photography. I mean,
I don't know. I mean, I didn't Oh
, I didn't make the mutually excuses. But I
and here the politics come in. This is I
found a book with the title Is capitalism sustainable?
Which was a record of similar to place in New
Zealand. This quote comes from somebody called Martin O'Connor
. Uh, you know, in that, you
know, that's why I stuck it there. And
very beautiful. I mean, somewhere he says,
uh, theoretical difficulties immediately arise as the result of
the fact that this is largely an imaginary integration higher
. Maybe I should be the thing before you,
uh, marks for classical economists of human beings acting
on external nature to produce value rather the images of
diverse elements of nature, including human nature themselves codified
as capital nature is capital. Rather, nature is
conceived in the image of capital. The logic of
the system is thus the sub sumption of all the
elements of nature considers capital to the finality of capitals
. Expanded reproduction, theoretical difficulties in Italy arises.
There was a lot of the fact that this is
largely an imaginary functional integration. The rhetoric stresses harmonization
and optimization. The reality is disorder and conflict.
You know, the quotes, Boudria. Everything is
potentially function functional, and nothing is impact. This
is 1994 and of course, we you know we
can't deceive ourselves. We know you know that climate
change is for sure happening and and we will have
to deal with it, you know? I mean
, O Connor is right. I think in this
little formulation here, and I stuck it at the
head of this thing because I think that's the challenge
. And then soon after this, I didn't illustrate
them. But stop right. Hey, um,
delicate pressure. Yeah, you know, suitable to
the subject matter. Uh, this is REM,
Of course. It's a CCTV building. You know
, it holds 10,000 hardworking Chinese. It produces 250
channels of TV a day. It is at 77
floors in height. There's a 70 m cantilever,
uh, 230 m in the air. And it's
packed with steel, of course, because it's a
totally irrational structure, you know, totally irrational and
totally unethical, you know, totally unethical. And
I'm sorry to say that the at more or less
the same date this thing by herds of the moron
2000 is the same story. It's a use of
steel which is totally gratuitous, totally unethical. And
actually, both buildings are incredibly. They're one liners
, you know, there it's incredible. Actually,
this spectacular craziness, you know, and you know
originality at all costs, you know? No.
Brings me to the last section you'll be happy to
hear. So I have this, uh, apart
from the, you know, teaching this history stuff
. And I'm timing my distant past teaching design.
And also, if I were to teach you architecture
, teaching, you know, the similar and tectonic
etcetera. I have taught one way or another intermittently
, a course called comparative critical analysis of Built form
, which is a long winded title. And the
very brilliant Lars Muller, who will publish the book
, had the idea to call it. So it
doesn't help too much genealogy of modern architecture, a
comparative critique. And if ever there was a contrived
and loaded deductive number, it is this, you
know, because what do I do? I well
, I mean, they the students put up with
it, and I think they get something out of
it, but it's very over determined. It's very
uptight, you know, because I get them to
, uh, compare two buildings which are similar close
in date, close in size, and and,
um, and have the same programmatic content. And
what I will show you now is, uh,
an example which is a comparison between Mrs Tugendhat House
, which I believe was 1930 38 are the dates
of its construction, I think. Finally, I
think I've always thought it was 1930 but I think
it took longer the bill. And this is finished
in 39. The Bill of Maria by Albert Alto
37 39. I think in these two buildings,
uh, as one of the two, as an
example of pears that are compared and they are compared
under the following categories. So, um, yeah
, I did. You know, that's what I
meant over determined. I determined which building will be
compared. Determine the categories, etcetera, etcetera.
And the categories are and they have a slightly,
you know, biological character. One is type versus
the context. So that here, you know,
this is, um you know, this is the
token hard house facing out over Bono's over this declining
landscape in the suburb, and this is the entry
, and this is the view of the entry.
This is the discussion of type this context. And
then, uh, this is the facing page where
this is the house in No, Marco. And
these are early villas by the same Ahlstrom family.
And this is, uh, well, you know
, it's not quite the same image I know,
but I I you know, I did. I'm
developing kind of more, Uh, yes, more
rustic representation of the context in that case, or
even these. And then they are compared at the
level of well, there are still analyze the plans
for the public private, semi private and service space
. So it so that I tell them before we
get into all this, this isn't scientific at all
. It's cultural analysis. There's nothing scientific about it
. It's cultural analysis by inspection and because you don't
visit the buildings. And and And it's also based
on the categories of appear in Hannah Arendt's human condition
, which had an enormous symptoms on me when I
first read it in the mid sixties. And I
will never recover from it, where she distinguishes between
public and private, you know, in a very
marked way. You know, uh, actually relates
it to concepts of work and labor, but I'm
not going to belabor it. But, uh,
so it's a very beautiful thing because she says,
you know, work is that state of affairs in
which that which is meant to be permanent and durable
and that which is produced is not produced for comes
up and labour is that still appears in which that
which is produced is produced to be consumed. And
I think that this opposition can be seen in building
culture and in architecture. And so I asked them
to analyze the building into private and public with the
idea that the public has an honorific character and that
it tries to transcend like function, list categorization or
behaviorist categorization. It simply tries to make the argument
that a particular space we snows upon the subject of
potential, you know, on the subjects potential.
I mean, I the living room is more public
than the bedrooms, etcetera, etcetera maybe somewhat by
now. But anyway, that's how it has gone
. And this is the Villa Maria and then they
also have to analyze it for root goal. So
the route that they take, you know, through
the building to these major spaces, this all being
a public and these being private and this being the
kitchen and then some parts of this service, I
mean, it raises all sorts of funny issues about
, you know, a minimal kitchen is really a
service unit. A living kitchen is can be,
you know, anyway, at least, uh,
semi public. And of course, this is the
main living room, etcetera, etcetera. So the
the book will consist of in the in the human
heart. You know, the the trajectory is rather
different. The morphology of the public spaces different in
relation to the private service space, etcetera and,
of course, with different consequences for the living room
and so on. And then the detailing of the
exterior involves those kinds of considerations. The analysis also
the movement, the analysis of the upper level and
so on. And and then there is this contrast
constantly between one page facing the other, between the
furnishing and the finishes of the two buildings and the
way the stair crashes that up with and the the
entrance itself, of course, in opposition to the
Miss Andrew. And finally, we you know,
they have to try to consider the issue of expression
and suppression structure. You know, all the dialectical
relationship between structure and embrace and the membrane structure of
the membrane. And yes, well, I didn't
go back. Where was I and going back?
Yeah. Oh, here, you know, And
then, you know, the load bearing walls are
picked out in red. In this case, there
is also a certain geometrical overlay, surprisingly enough,
and this is the, uh, the detailing of
the administration of her studio. This is this strange
relationship between the concrete frame and rustic because I knew
vernacular construction, and, uh, and it ends
up, you know, with with the way the
furniture is detailed, of course. And and Mrs
use of the famous Swedish pH lamp at that time
. Sorry. Uh huh. Oh, my God
. Okay, start again. Yeah. The window
wall, which goes completely into the basement. Um
, use of onyx, of course, in relation
to the steel, which is covered in chromium plated
metal sheet metal. And as opposed to this and
then I was I was talking about this. This
surprisingly, this ph lamp comes from Sweden and appears
along with this. This appears in the moral honorific
spaces than this. And of course, they hear
there's a reference to Shinkle country houses and and here
then you know this reference to 18 93 accent Gallon
. Caligula, this finished nationalist painter that you know
the subject matter being the Kalevala and this fireplace,
which is in the, uh, Villa Maria and
can be compared to this white plaster stove fireplace in
the 18. Uh, this is 18 93 studio
house of gallon Colella and then the columns which are
black lacquered and with this very a bound, you
know, to to make again this illusion to vernacular
. But of course it is not. It's not
really vernacular. It's a sophisticated reference to the regular
and I'm showing here, you know, the the
these last two plates are also alone the famous pioneer
chair. But But this, um, this thing
is voices house in Cali would, uh um 18
89. I think and and I'm getting at the
influence of the British Arts and Crafts on Alto,
for example. Um, if I go back,
I mean, that's it's clear that that staircase of
, uh, Boise is This is it. You
know, of course it's not. It's It's a
repetition on different, which is what, Of course
, the whole interchange between tradition and innovation ought to
be about, you know? So, um,
and all of this work is tactile in different ways
. The work of it goes beyond just simply division
of and its cultural references. A complex Because this
is, you know, clearly this sounder with his
turf roof, you know, has this reference directly
to finish vernacular. And this thing here, which
is the latch of a gate that goes out of
the forest, is in fact, the reproduction of
a Swiss traditional farm gate lock. You know,
which is Swiss article assistant, working for alto on
the bill of Maria brought into the into the mix
. And I suppose the Yeah, you know,
I had this crazy idea, I think a little
crazy to make a record of this cost, but
no longer give it. Yeah, I just I
think something else. The time has passed, you
know, But the the aim was to try to
develop consciousness of the way in which value could metaphorically
or directly, can be incorporated into built for,
you know, And, uh But the value comes
who are partly through materials partly through acoustic acoustic manifestation
, partly through the organization of space and partly also
references to tradition. Two traditions that don't necessarily,
you know, they're not necessarily thought of as your
particular tradition. I mean at the time the outer
works on the Villa Maria. He's very close to
the Japanese ambassador. It's clear, you know,
the influence of Japan. But it's not in any
way Japan esque, you know. Now this is
the This is the last book, I guess.
And this is my last word. And I want
to end with just one last. Yes, about
this misspent life, you know? Um, yes
, Actually, Colin Rowe, that name has been
mentioned before, introduced me to a strange book which
I think has the title of the Heavenly City of
the 18th century philosophers written by some character called Carl
Becker. And in it there is the most beautiful
Africa historical mansion. This is so much a habit
of modern thought that one cannot point what the thing
is without referring to what it was before he became
that which it would presently ceased to be. And
the other one is from Ordell, which is about
, uh, about all of us. I think
I think it goes like this is perhaps slightly misguided
. Under the shadows. The pitiful Scrabble tiles are
sleeping moon as usual. The necessary lover's touch and
also a way forward on the tide of history that
never sleeps or dies and held one moment burns her
hand. Thanks, I think. Mm.