Architecture and Disjunction-book review - Essay Example

Running Head: ARCHITECTURE AND DISJUNCTION-BOOK REVIEW Architecture and Disjunction-Book Review According to Nikos A. Salingaros; an Australian born critic, mathematician and polymath known for his work on urban theory, architectural theory, complexity theory, and design philosophy and a close collaborator of the architect and computer software pioneer Christopher Alexander, the genuine architectural theory must have developed through two ways: the approach based on solutions that work historically and “not surprisingly, this strand turns to traditional architecture, using its typologies in an innovative manner. Architects ignorant of this strand of architectural theory misjudge it, falsely thinking that it merely copies older models, whereas in fact, it is using a well- developed vocabulary to generate novel solutions.” (Salingaros, para. 5). While the second the approach is based on science. “Here, models from biology, physics, and computer science are used to explain how architectonic form emerges, and why human beings react in certain predictable ways to different structures.” (Salingaros, para. 5) Salingaros urges that there can be enough authors, like Christopher Alexander, Leon Krier and Bernard Tschumi, those architectural writings are based on scientific facts and form a nucleus from which the architectural topic can be built and their works can be considered as a genuine architectural theory. Avant-garde theorist and acclaimed as one of the world’s foremost modern architects, Bernard Tschumi is also equally well known for his writings and his practices. Bernard Tschumi was born in Lausanne in 1944, with Swiss and French citizenship. He gained his basic education in Paris and then moved to the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich where he received his degree in architecture in 1969 (Biography, 2005). Although Tschumi is widely credited with leading the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at New York’s Columbia University into the digital age and positioning the school at the forefront of the architectural vanguard yet he was best known for his architectural and urban projects, realized mostly in France and for the emergence of Deconstruction theories in architectural debates, particularly for his proposal of a singular conception of architecture’s definition in the context of a postmodern society and culture. Throughout his career, Tschumi looked into a lot of different fields, and some events, for ideas to incorporate into his own studies. During his fifteen-year occupancy, he always remained busy in designing and building different structures and he adequately and scientifically illustrated all the observations and outcomes. That is why Tschumi is equally well known for his writings and for his practices and his discourse have always been considered radical and disturbing. After Modernism, the query about the precise definition of architecture understanding and explanation of reality set a debate among architect community. The issue was first raised by Bernard Tschumi before1974, when he proposed a change in the relation between architectural practice, representation, and thinking architecture. His proposal suggests a shift whose legacy has yet to be confronted by succeeding generations of architects (Gomaz, 2005, para. 1-2). During the second half of the seventies, Bernard Tschumi wrote a series of articles on architectural space in conjunction with his theoretical research on the same subject matter. In nearly all of these articles he borrowed broadly from sources outside the field of architecture and applied them in his own research and writings. His work developed a different themes in contemporary theory as they relate to the actual making of architecture, attempting to realign the discipline with a new world culture portrayed by both discontinuity and heterogeneity. In 1994, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press published his work in the form of a book with title “Architecture and Disjunction”, which brings together Tschumis essays from 1975 to 1990. “Architecture and Disjunction” is a lucid and provocative analysis of many of the key architectural issues that have engaged architectural discourse over the past twenty years -- from deconstructive theory to the most recent trepidations with the philosophy of events their proceedings. The book gives an insight about Tschumis criticism on modernists objectivity and post-modern reminiscence. The book not only provides a convenient way of studying Bernard Tschumi architecture theory yet it also integrates his work that has previously been scattered in other periodicals and books. This integration “establishes the conditions in which comparisons and contradictions between sequences, events and movements become possible and thus repeats aspects of his theory and practice in print form” (La Marche, 1995, p. 132). The book comprises of 278 pages divided into three main chapters, with thirteen sub-titles. Each chapter deals with unique theme. The introduction of the book addresses Tschumi’s the most recent views, practices of architecture thoughts and designs. Since in his early career, Bernard Tschumi presented his views about the disjunction of conventions in architecture and pleasures of contemporary subject, as a set of theories, hence his disjunctive intention puts him direct in opposition to those who believe and maintain modernist convictions about form following function” (La Marche, 1995, p. 132). The first chapter with heading “Space” is the collection of essays written between 1975 to 1976. This chapter discusses “the paradox of space and its nature. According to Bernard Tschumi etymologically the “space means both to make space distinct and to state the precise nature of space” while architecturally space can be define as “to determine boundaries” (Tschumi, 1994., pp.28-29). At the end of chapter Tschumi elaborates the pleasure of architecture in terms of pleasures of space and geometry: a form of experience ─ “the presence of absence” (Tschumi, 1994., p. 82). The second chapter with title “Program” and it is the collection of work that was done during 1981-1983. The essays in this chapter discuss about architecture its essential elements and its limitations, architecture valance: “a metaphor for the intensity of a relationship between individuals and their surrounding” (Tschumi, 1994., p. 122). Furthermore, Tschumi attempts to expand the discipline of architecture through the transgression of the limits of discipline. He sometimes describes one’s bodies architectural experiences as “cinematic” and he imports the editing techniques of “dissolve”, “montage” and “cross cutting” from film to challenge conventional architectural graphic representations and sequences of spaces. The third and last chapter is “Disjunction”. This part comprises of essays written between 1984 to 1991. Tschumi interests in working at the limits of architecture lead to a strategy of disjunction which includes compression, insertion, transference, superposition, distortion, and de-centering. He achieves critical relations of conflict by resisting the condition of stasis between object, event, and space.The Parc de la Villette (fig. 1) is perhaps the clearest example of his disjunctive ideas. The book concludes with Tschumi’s six concepts as a proposal for new agenda beyond the limit of discipline of architecture. Those concepts include: Technologies of Defamiliarization, the Mediated ‘Metropolitan’ Shock, De-structuring, Superimposition, Cross programming, and Events: The Turning Point. Through these concepts he argues that modernism or classicism must be defamiliarized by understanding and taking the advantage of the use of new technologies in architecture, to give a shock of genuine architectural experience to general public .Fig. 1: The Parc de la Villette (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_de_la_Villette) Bibliography Bernard, T. (1994). Architecture and Disjunction. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. USA Biography. (2005). Bernard Tchumi. FLOORNATURE. Retrieved August 19, 2007, from http://www.floornature.com/articoli/articolo.php?id=89&sez=6&lang=en Gomez, L. (2005). Conversation with Bernard Tchumi. Pumtocero Magazine.1. Retrieved August 19, 2007, from http://www.puntocero.de/content/tschumi.html La Marche, J. (1995). Reviewed Work: Architecture and Disjunction by Bernard Tschumi. Journal of Architectural Education. Vol. 49, No. 2, 32-134. Retrieved August 20, 2007, from http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1046- 4883%28199511%2949%3A2%3C132%3AAAD%3E2.0.CO%3B2- 5&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage Salingaros, N. (2004). Architectural Theory and the Work of Bernard Tschumi. Retrieved August 20, 2007, from http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/001407.html#001407 Read More