Observations on architecture and the ‘contemporary city ‘WINTER 2014 37° 00'N, 25° 03! E Antiparos, Greece ‘Take a half-day ferry ride southeast out of Athens ro Paros, then a short trip across the Amfigeio strair and you will land ‘on Antiparos, a hardserabble Cycladic island that in 1981 ‘was the unlikely site ofa project by Elia Zenghelis, then of i the fledgling Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Without | the bigness or urban complexity thas the firm had up to that poine harnessed with vitality mits projects and drawings, the design and placement of 16 villas on the island begged the ‘ereation of some sort of fabric from the ground up} the site ‘a blank canvas awaiting its first brushstrokes: In painter Zoe Zenghelissoil-on- paper rendering of the project, 16 delicate ‘shapes are seattered like confetei across an unearthly ground, barely hinting at the underlying composition by which the villas are arranged, Such a technique of representation led ‘to what the architect roday would call an emblematic image: a visual presentation that illustrates “architectural form __ juxtaposed with progeammatie idealism” and “highlights the ideological feanures without relinquishing the rel life concreteness of'a project” The projet was not realized, but | its image and idea endure. $15.00 JN 1 30>siet developed Dom-ino. he familiar unfamiliar a3 a ntion, This technique was a araged as formalism, and its ir conventional, familiar use. ne realm of the family ~ the miliarity at large as away to edictable forces (the habits, the core of any economic referential sign is chus a way -m as disentangled from the rule or custom that defines orm, Tn the case of domestic of subversion of al of the nastery of the domestic as >aomic categories as home tity, Within Dom-ino, the s.as the locus of architecture atentional redundancies or :asons) demonstrate the de- 1 if we want to decipher the ting the given conventions ino project was both a way ficient che managerial ethos 1 this ethos through a form s. Formal reading is thus a sfinition of these patterns. ject or, worse, a style but a stantly reinvent the world der to pursue this process we rrthe conclusion of the world, entity, bt rather isthe ‘hich even the most elusive ney, finance, globalization, tangible traces. Antaine Picon 1. ee my xy Les ren Sale Er Pia Li -Lacen are Bons de ee, 201), Dom-ino: Archetype and Fiction Like many Le Corbusier projects, Dom-ino appears under two very different guises, depending on the degree of famil. jarity one has with the work of its author. For the layperson, ‘Dorn-ino consists primarily of an image, one of those iconic images that is endlessly reproduced in architectural journals and books. With its three slabs, six columns, and staircase in the background, the picture, a perspectival view of an alleg edly “monolithic” structure, ranks among the most famous illustrations produced by modernist architecture [see page 176]. Because of its pervasive, a times subliminal presence ia architectural discourse, ithas overshadowed the technicalities of the system itself and the various examples of its applica tion given in Le Corbusier's Oewvre complite, The situation is quite diferent forthe student ofthe architect, for whom the system and its applications are also present. There are other examples of chis duality between icon and layered systen Plan Obus for Algiers presents the same two-tiered structure, which explains the highly differentiated reception of some Le Corbusier's projects. In this case t00, a highly emblematic iconography has eclipsed a far more complex and ambiguous proposal than what has been generally retained by architec tural cheorists and historians.’ More than the system, itis the iconic image that I would. like to question here. Where does its power come from! What does ie tell us about the way Le Corbusier conceived its role san author of general or rather archetypal proposals sus~ ceptible to a wide range of applications! As I will argue, the Dosn-ino icon reveals the role played by fiction in the archi tec’s approach. For the drawing is oa large extent rooted in fiction, just like many other spectacular images produced by Le Corbusier. This fictional dimension may prove useful for interpreting other archetypal projects such as Plan Voisin for Paris or Flan Obus. Above all, it could account for their pro ductive character, despite their highly unrealistic features. In the First yohume of che Oevyre complete, the perspec tival view of Dom-ina appears in stark contrast with the other illustrations of the system and its various applications‘Feonrsvece oF Mat Saad: at nerenal Sg cate to individual villa, as well as to collective housing programs. “fhe line is stronger, without the slight waves and distortions that affect some of the other drawings, like the ones show: ingehe application of the Doan-ino system to a manson and ton group of more simple houses. The overall appearance of the gerspectval view is more rechnologcal and precise lke the representation ofan engine by a profesional draughtsman, Toverestingly on che same page cross-sections chat are sup~ poned vo carry extential technica] information on Dom 80 eek this degree of clarity, a8 if che syahetc view were imbued swith a special matter-of-factness “A loser look reveals that this objectiv actually the result ofa careful graphic constuction that owes ator re raditional visual codes of architectural represen tation in addition to its evident debe to carly 20ch-century cavertisement techniques. First, the view is aot axono: acer. The protruding angle and the use of wo vanishing, print are reminiscent of the scena per angola used by various Balightenment-ceneury artists, fom Ferdinando Call da pibbeena to Giovanni Batista Piranesi. The marked contrast between light and shadow seems also indebted ro 18th-con tary graphic techniques. In addition othe importance hey both give ro the frame, othe tectonic, this ih-century touch mecowas forthe frequent parallel made between Dom-ino sand Mare-Antoine Laugier’s primitive hut as represented by French artist Charles Eisen on the frontispiece ofthe second dedition of the Essai sur Varchitecture (1798) In eis regard it jewrorth recalling that Le Corbusier was an avid reader of French tach-century architectural theorists atthe time he was working out Dom-ine. How does one not subscribe a this stage to Peter Eisenman’ penetrating observation regarding the dual characte of he {yatem as both sxoderist ints se referatiality and roored sree more ancient architectural traditiont® This hybrid statos iz conveyed by the Domine image, which blends wo seemt~ ble orientations: a concern for matter-of-fact- pearance is ingly incomp: ness, of objectivity, and illusionistic rendering techniques ike Laugier’ hut, Dom-ino raises multiple problems of constructive interpretation. Historians have shown how the ‘heorization ofthe origins and proper principles of architec ture presented in Laugier’s Etta led toa somewhat contra” dierory teewoaie model in which Greek tabeation met with ‘Gothic struccural interpretation of the overall transmission cf strains in the structure of vaulted buildings. How was one to understand such a Graeco-Gothic modell The problems 17 Logi