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Architecture and communication

Author(s): pela HUDNIK


Source: Urbani Izziv, Vol. 14, No. 2, Podoba mesta v popularni kulturi / The image of city
in popular culture (december 2003), pp. 104-108
Published by: Urbanistini intitut Republike Slovenije
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/44180498
Accessed: 08-07-2017 07:53 UTC

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HgD
URBANI IZZIV
vol. 14, No. 2/03

pela
te constructively - it is possible, according to HUDNIK
an optimistic
prognosis, to decrease the elemental force that is present
in space at the moment. Architecture
and communication
Assist, prof. Tadeja. Zupani Strojan, Ph.D., architect,
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of architecture, Ljubljana
E-mail: tadeja.zupancic@arh.uni-lj.si
Matev Juvani, architect, Arhiteka d.o.o., Ljubljana
1. Introduction
E-mail: matevz.juvancic@kiss.uni-lj.si
Ideas about popular culture are tightly connected to theories
of mass culture. The latter even more so with Marchall Mc-
For sources and literature turn to page 43.
Luhan's legendary quotations: the media is a message
Notes: and the world is a global village, which are being unstop-
HI W. M. Eysenck, M. Keane, 2000: 244. pably and quickly achieved with the ongoing revolution in
electronics. Richard Hamilton, the British pop-artist descri-
I2! K. Rattenbury, 2002:1
bes the new aesthetics of the sixties - pop culture - as po-
l3l A. Perez-Gomez, 2002: 3.
pular, transitional, consumerist, cheap, massive, youthful,
I4! H. Hertzberger, 1991.
funny, sexy, glamorous and commercial. The sixties were
I5! K. Rattenbury, 2002: XXI, XXIII.
therefore the time that had the strongest influence on the vi-
i6l A. Voigt.et.al., 2002.
sion of the future. It was a time that bridged the gap bet-
m G. Ucelli et al, 1999:539. ween architecture and other artistic fields. It was the time of
I8] A. Obeid in A. F. Ibrahim, 1999: 33.
popular culture that was full of symbols and metaphors, new
l9l P. Bosselman, 1998. visual sensibility, which demanded changes, pleasure and
l1] T. Zupani Strojan, 1999: 107. novelties. New technologies evolving from completed pro-
i11! T. Dierckx et.al, 2002. jects by NASA, development of the media, science fiction
and pop culture influenced the mergence of futuristic fas-
Illustrations
hion, design, art, music, city planning and urban regenera-
Figure 1: Conceptual presentations tion. The terms mass society, communication and consume-
The group of conceptual presentations usedrism in were given significance even in architecture. This was
the research (Presentations prepared on thethe in-first time that an entire generation of artists and archi-
ternational urbanism workshop in Komen 2001, tects worked globally and despite geographical differences
supplemented, and alternated for the needs(London of - Archigram, Vienna - Coop Himmelblau, Hollein,
the research). Missing Link, Haus-Rucker-Co, Florence - Archizoom, Su-
Figure 2: Experience based presentations perstudio, Tokyo - Metabolits etc.) offered common visio-
The group of experience based presentations nary concepts about cities and architecture. Influenced by
used in the research (Presentations preparedAndy on Warhol, Cleas Oldenburg, Roy Liechtenstein and Tom
the international urbanism workshop in Komen Wesselmann, the most distinguished representatives of pop
2001, supplemented, and alternated for the art, they projected their visions by various media (collage,
needs of the research). film, performances, installations, newspapers, posters). War-
Figure 3: Architects choice: hol reproduced millions of icons of the media society and
The group of presentations according to the choi- became the trademark of Coca Cola, Campbell, Brillo and
ce of the planner - a mixture of conceptual and other commercial products. In the film Barbarella (1967), di-
experience-based presentations (Presentations rected by Roger Vadim, Paco Rabanne dressed Jane Fon-
prepared on the international urbanism workshop da in a metal dress. A fantastic world of sensible, sensitive
in Komen 2001, supplemented, and alternated and tactile surfaces and soft organic plastic forms was offe-
for the needs of the research). red by Olivier Mourgue and Andr Courrges for the psyche-
Figure 4: Research - questionnaire delic landscape in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space
Interviewees were faced with a web questionnai- Odyssey (1968). The Poster Dress with Bob Dylan as its
re. The left side contained a group of presenta- motif, the modular system of chairs and interiors by Verner
tions, and the right a group of closed, and semi- Panton, Pierre Cardin's space-age hat and spherical TV sets
open, questions. and chairs, designed by Eero Aarnio, represent innovations
that are founded on technological promotion of the consu-
merist society. Consumerism and technology became the
providers of human needs and desires.

Today Velvet Underground and Nico are replaced by new


pop-icons on the music scene: Madonna, Bjrk, Bowie.
Martin Margiela, Maria Blaisee, Hussein Chalayan, Issey
Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier are fashion designers of tech-
nological membranes, message bearers, interfaces bet-
ween bodies and architecture. Jeff Koons popularised Cic-
ciolina, Martin Creed created soft, mobile environments and
Jenny Holzer wrote art on electronic displays. She creates
media spaces and searches for limits between information
and propaganda. Even architecture is entering electronically
stimulated environments. Mass consumerism and icons of

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QEED
The image of city in popular culture WK
vol. 14, No. 2/0

pop-culture are being euphorically


gastructures and produced
complex relations in various
between particular cells,
worlds and Las Vegases as mobile
simulatedunits and forms.reality Japanesethat sup-
Metabolists introduced
ports dynamic flows of capitalprocesses of biological metabolism,
investment, whiledynamic offering urban flows
concepts of media membranes, that are the theoretical
soft rationale behind material
architecture, and ener- and
fluid
gy metabolism, with hyper-bodies
trans-liquid architecture, hyper-surfaces, projects, such as coils,etc.multi-di-
mensional matrix and levitating factory.

We use the word metabolism in the widest sense, which


2. Landscape of megastructures
includes growth and metamorphosis. Biological metabolism
pertains
The sixties were strongly marked byto changes and exchange of
the concept of substance within li-
multi-di-
ving organisms. We manage relations
mensional relations, expressed with mobile, communicational between intertwined
flows of human
and biological urbanistic concepts, as information
well as patterns, things and basic
changed energy (en-
ergy metabolism) and spatial units
principles of living i.e. comfort and satisfaction, enabled by
of separated service and
technological advancement and living cells with respect
growing to differing rhythms
possibilities of of metabolism
indi-
vidual mobility. In such society of megastructures and mobi- ex-
(material metabolism). Systems of growth that include
pansion of structure
lity the analogy between anatomical quantity show themselves as metamorphosis
and architectu-
within the whole form of the system, i5!
re, intertwined with communication flows of transport and
media, manifests itself by concepts of: temporality, flexibility,
translation and transition. Multiplication Dispersed dynamic flowsof inspace
transport isand communication
in the
function of slanting planes, whose mutual interaction sup-
networks, active invisible processes, cease to be external
ports continuous , fluid motion communication
that forces systems, bodies
but merge with or penetrate
to adapt to the
architectural
instability, ... to create a sensory relation with architecture^ 1.
body, intervene in its internal structure and
It is the time of simultaneous individual and social bodies. enable the transformation of particular structural systems.
Following ideals of the automobile or mobile home, the inde-
pendent living unit thus became Fuller's Dymaxion House
2.3 Anthropological module
(1942), a mobile entity of increasingly more automated indu-
strial production ... that has to be as a human, as indepen-
The anthropological model of the capsule and expansion of
dent and self-maintaining as possible, with its own character,
psycho-physiological body functions for extra-terrestrial ex-
pride and beauty or harmony I2!. It becomes a transitory and
periencing of limitless space were undertaken through the
temporary consumer product, which incredibly resembles media and directly by architecture that substitutes the
the idea of continuous changing of clothes I3!, a hybrid of
physical plan with a psychological one; there are no walls;
architecture and transport as the mode of mobility that spaces
is re- are pulsating balloons; the heartbeat becomes spa-
peated on the dynamic organism's grand scale - the ce; mega-the face is the faade. l6l Proposals by Coop Him-
structure, which is composed of construction grids of particu-
melb(l)au's group and Haus-Rucker-Co see internal struc-
lar units locked into infrastructure systems. Colonisation
turesof of bodies, together with their organs and organisation
these huge, extreme, antigravity, empty spaces thus influen-
as Utopian projects of pneumatic and inflatable structures.
ced radical transformation of the body and architecture. Spa-
Architecture assumes the form of transparent, sensitive bo-
ce emerges as the alternative living space, which demands
dies of complex media systems and technologies, with at-
symbiosis of body and technology for survival. tributes of temporality and communication.

We are people from the eighteenth and nineteenth century


2.1 Communication flux
but we have to live in environments of the twentieth and
twenty first century, i7] The dynamism of constant social
Constant growth and transformation of systems with small,
changes radically reaches into interiors of extant individual
rapidly changeable cells or capsules correspond to growing
envelopes by introducing various media (telephone, radio,
personal mobility or autopia, the concept by Archigram -.
television), thus completely changing human perception of
The automobile city and individual transportation vehicle,
space. They offer experiences and test reactions of bodies
which isn't only a transportation mode, but a way of life ...
in media and audiovisual spaces.
representing freedom, choice, mobility, status symbol, ...it is
a communication mediumii. Their projects: Plug-in City, In-
The idea about minimal individual dwelling as a form of
stant City, Walking City, are metropolis travelling on telesco-
electronic attire was most radically expressed in the pro-
pic hydraulic appendages or air cushions that travel and of-
jects Cushicle and Suitaloon by Mika Webb, which provided
fer new media universes and mobility in packages. Space as
all necessary services: a) motion, b) enlargement of the
a self-regulated mobile hydraulic machine with autonomous
envelope, c) energy ... the possibility for two people to live
mobile capsules, programmes limited in time with changeab-
in one envelope or links to other envelopes & I.
le contents and multi-level diagonal communication systems
are reactions to constancy, rigidity and psychological surfa-
ces of security. Properties of megastructures, such as mobi-
lity, communication, sensitivity and flexibility, are 3. Nomadic landscape
diminished
properties of microstructures, while abilities to adapt to pro-
cesses of change are properties of the body. The nomadic landscape is a landscape of media and mi-
gration flows. It is a vast network of variable relations, knots
emitting and receiving various dynamic information flows.
2.2 Metabolic flux The homogenous, hierarchical structure is replaced by a
transitional, faceless, blooming media space. Public and pri-
Biological systems of growth and change are formed by become a hybrid between body and landsca-
vate spaces
transgression in scale from particular functional cells
pe,tobody
me-and architecture, architecture and landscape. Car-

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CSHgD
^1 URBANI IZZIV
vol. 14, No. 2/03

tesian axes, To build the identitygeometry


of private nomadic space during pro-
tractors. cesses The archite
of changing speed, efficiency and marketing, the
them as points
body buys fashionable technological novelties offrom the glo- ev
points of bal market.
maximised
hermore, they are
flows of Capital
large corporations become part of their living environ-
corpor
and die, while their
ment, working and metabolism. The function and emotional
hind large significance ofvoids,
living space change. Personal space of new inv
that materialise forms of economic power transform into a hybrid unpr of public
space and private identity - personal suitcase. When the
Arjun Appadurai suitcase becomes a room or as Elisabeth Diller put it: mo- def
(people, technology,
bile unit of home and suit - room for the body!13!, it is the
landscape form ofof mobile, temporary,irregula
changeable and adaptable arc-
characterised by
hitecture, which a society in transition needs. It is aninte
archi-
tures become tecture that changes identity, needs and taste and changes
imperso
cal and global transf
its exterior and interior. The assembled and folding environ-
as a landscape's face
ment of furniture and clothes becomes the mobile personal
the modern space of the nomadic body.nomad It researches interfaces bet- p
mads operate ween the object and body, which in erase limits between
com the
material) body
on and space. Theplatform
personal space becomes a momen-
ture is becoming the
tary event on the common territory of the transit network -
and leisure space as a consequence of changes in time people, material and information. It becomes a diagramma-
and spatial dimensions as put by the Dutch theoretician tic model of time. The suitcase becomes a merged architec-
Roemer van Toorn.l11! They constantly travel on the main ture of material, construction, circulation and programme.
arteries of global economy, running between London, New Its interior becomes the exterior of public media images of
York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. They don't have a control, communication and business strategy. It becomes
permanent or actual address. information that is accessible, controlled and transformed
from anywhere in the world .I14!
Changes in content of nomadic landscapes and bodies that
are in constant transition become key stimuli for achieving
architecture, whose durability of form dissolves into spatial
vibrations.
4. Psychedelic landscape
Architecture and culture are becoming models of the spa-
tial-time global network and network algorithms. This im-
3.1 Media screen
plies redefinition of architectural proportions, which cease
to correspond to proportions of the body, but to information
The architectural surface is becoming an important media,
and time. Values of the material and virtual systems are in-
bearer of information that enables experiences, tegrated
knowledgein one organisational structure.
and evaluation of the world. Light displays are not only instru-
ments of communication, representation and consumerism,
The psychedelic landscape is becoming a liquid data struc-
but also a system of landmarks, markers and signposts. They
ture, architectural tectonics information and the brick a pi-
are changing into screens, techno-pictures, as put
xel by the
.I15] It is a data-backed home of constructs of changeab-
media, theoretician Vilm Flusser, they reach andleprogram-
situations that are not only objects but also three-dimen-
me us in colours .I12 This new form of changeable surfaces
sional interfaces. They can be stretched, elastic, mobile,
establishes the physicality of numerical processes adaptable
and fore- and interactive net structures. Architecture with its
casts the translation of sensory, dynamic and communicatio-
programmed electronic interior and external elastic surface
nal human properties into constructed environments.
stretchesThe
and contracts like a body's muscle in a multi-user,
surface acts as a skin, neural system, as an acoustic or vi- net environment and enters real space.
multi-sensory
sual membrane. Space ceases to be a vacuum inhabited by
solid bodies, but becomes a media for the diffusion of infor-
mation. Transformation of walls into hyper-surfaces doesn't
4.1 Hyper and info-morphic body
separate the body from the environment, interior from the ex-
terior, but becomes a surface for different relations The and mu-
architecture of electronic components of artificial intelli-
tual ties that behave as systems of change, in which gence archi-
that solve algorithms of spatial and corporate prob-
tecture exceeds its limits of formal manifestation. lems is forecasting a trans-modern way of life of hyper- and
info-morphic bodies. The hyper-body designed by the Dutch
architect Kas Oosterhuis is a body, which feeds on informa-
3.2 Private space tion, digests and excretes them in real time. It is a construct
that communicates with itself and the world. Part of the body
The modern nomad that has expanded one's bodily functions exchanges internal information to maintain the body's perfec-
with digital appendages stops relating through forms but tion, part of the body exchanges information with other bo-
through landscape, transport and architectural information dies in the external world to define its own position .I16l
codes, i.e. desists from the utopia of the transportable, mobi-
le environment of the Walking City or autopia of the motor Marcus Novak's info-morphic bodies are morphologically in-
car as the communication media and enters info-topia. Exi- dependent bodies that fluidly transform and are indepen-
stence as such is expanded into various worlds of material dent of the world's physical substance. They are intelligent
and immaterial networks seen as material-digital suits. entities. He defines the concept of fluid and trans-fluid arc-

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IlgD
The image of city in popular culture
vol. 14, No. 2

hitecture as the architecture re of radicalof effects


changes by variables,
brought by the development of media
rithmic concepts, prototypes, and space-age technology,
interactive information technology
homes, and tel
sence and tele-communication electronic language.
that They present
create understanding
a new of newcont
between real and virtual space
processes in
of thought the
and living, sense
which constantly of adapt
transform
conditions of constant transformation achieved in virtual into new dynamic time and spatial contexts. Mass use of in-
space and constant ties to physical space, f17l formation technology, consumerism and advertisements
that offer worlds of illusion refer to emotional and visual
sensitivity of the individual. In the name of capital they con-
4.2 Bio-electronic bodies vince us with attractive, idealised, unattainable pop-icons
on screens. In his novel 2.999 SIT I21!, Frederic Beigbeder
Bio-electronic bodies, a combination of mechanicalwrote:
and pro-Wherever you look, my advertisement reigns. The
gramme equipment are becoming a system of real and vir-
terrorism of novelty helps me in selling voids. If I stick yog-
tual liquefacation of events, thus becoming an interacting
hurt on ani-
the walls of your city, rest assured, you would buy
mation of environments and bodies. These responsive and of course that the right of choice is yours, but
it. You think
elastic systems that can stretch and contract, grow someor day ex-
you will recognise my product on a supermarket
pand, change their morphology in real time, areshelf spaces
and of
simply buy it, just to try it, believe me, I know my
mutation of a body's biorhythm, its internal and external mo-an advertiser.
job ... I'm
tion and external influences. The interior of architectural
membranes is steadily becoming more organic, sensitive, fle-
Thus confrontation and critical dialogue with new scientific
xible and interactive. It is aware of inherent changes and
andres-
technological inventions, which still don't have massive
ponds by activating specific behaviour. It assumes theeffects
form on reality, is necessary, before they become an evo-
of translation of sensual, dynamic and communicativelutionary
pro- fact.
pertied of the body into constructed material environments.

We are experiencing extreme liquefaction of the world,


Dr. pela Hudnik, Ph. D., architect, Monochrome - Centre for
languages, sexes, our bodies ...We have entered a world
architecture and new media, Ljubljana
where everything is mediated, where all things andE-mail:
spaces monochrome@archnewmedia.org
merge with their media image, where all forms mix with in-
formation stated Lars Spuybroek and continued Body,
architecture and technology are becoming a plasma of con-
Notes:
crete and flesh, in which we can respond dynamically.^
Ml Lucan, J.: Introduction. In: Johnston, P. (ed): The Function
of the Oblique. The Architecture of Claude Parent and Paul
4.3 Bodies of population genetics Virilio 1963-1969. AA Publications, London, 1996, p. 5.
l2l Krausse, J., Lichtenstein, C. (ed): Your Private sky. R. Buck-
By introducing information into development systems with minster Fuller. Art Design Science. Lars Mller Publishers,
Baden, 1999, p. 127.
unlimited possibilities for mutation they are no longer bo-
dies of symmetry and proportion, bodies are no longer
l3l AD: A Guide to Archigram 1961-74. Academy Edition, Lon-
don, 1994, p. 66.
parts of the evolution process, where living creatures mo-
dify their information and demand others, but become I4l live
AD: A Guide to Archigram 1961-74. Academy Edition, Lon-
organisms designed and inspired by information. Ac- don, 1994, p. 262.
i5l Kurokawa, N.: From the Machine-analogy to the Living-
cording to Greg Lynn, the embryological and morphological
process defined by genetic parameters, which begins in thething Analogy. In: Pettena, G.: Radicals. Design and Archi-
tecture 1960/75. Il Ventilabro, Firence, 1996, p. 268.
fertilised cellular core and continues into the fully develo-
ped body, becomes an unending topological surface []that
Coop Himmelblau: The Medium as a Construction Material.
doesn't duplicate forms, but shifts them into various con- In: Ars Electronica 94: Intelligent Environment. PVS Verle-
texts of selection, mutation, migration and isolation. It isger,
an Vienna, Partv 1 , 1 994, p. 58.
embryological architecture of undetermined, unrepeatablePI Schmiedeknecht, T.: The Ephemeral in the Work of Haus-
morpho-genetic models of self-organised form uniting Rucker-Co.
ge- In: AD: Ephemeral/ Portable Architecture. Aca-
nes, monstrous hybrids, architectural theory and cybernetic demy Edition, London, Vol. 68, No.135, 1998, p. 38.
science fiction I20!, which don't grow in days, weeks l8l AD:
or A Guide To Archigram 1961-74. Academy Edition, Lon-
don, 1994, p. 207.
years, but in the electronic environment of the digital time
process of interacting changeable information flows. I9l Hudnik, S.: Moderna telesa. Mednarodni festival arhitektra
in novi mediji - bionini teritoriji. In: AB: Preobrazba/Trans-
formations. Ljubljana, Vol.. XXX , No. 149-150, 2000, p. 72.
The symbiotic and metabolic balance between body and
environment is taken over by the electronic space of [11 Appadurai, A.: Modernity at Large. Culture Dimensions of
simu-
Globalisation. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,
lated reproduction of form with variable genetic codes.
1996, p. 33.
I11l Hudnik, .: Moderna telesa. Mednarodni festival arhitektra
in novi mediji - bionini teritoriji. In: AB: Preobrazba/Trans-
5. Conclusion formations. Ljubljana, Vol. XXX, No. 149-150, 2000, p. 72.
I1 21 Flusser, V.: Digitalni videz. tudentsk zaloba, Ljubljana,
The effect of science, technology and capital strategies2000,on p. 9. (Koda)
changes in traditional forms and definitions of space, archi-
l13l Diller, E., Scofidio, R.: Flesh. Princeton Architectural Press,
tecture and body can be seen in cross-sections of three New York, 1994, p. 205.
landscapes: the landscape of megastructures, nomadic
l14l Grether, R.: Breakthrough to the World Code: Etoy's Con-
landscape and psychedelic landscape. During the last cept
fourof Net Architecture. In: Koolhaas, R., Boeri, S., Kwin-
decades all have offered illusions of the world but are awa- ter, S. Et al.: Mutations. Actar, Barcelona, 2000, p. 98.

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3BD
URBANI IZZIV

vol. 14, No. 2/03

Roberto ROCCO
l15l Novak, M.: Transmitting Architecture. transTerraFirma/Tids-
vagNoll v2.0. In: AD: Architecture in Cyberspace. Academy
Edition, London, No. 118, 1995, p. 45.
I16l Oosterhuis, K.: Research survey. In: Hudnik, .: Mobilna ar-
The image of the city Sao
hitektra in monosti njene uresniitve v relnem svtu,
doktorska disertcij, Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za ar-
Paolo - Identity and crisis
hitektra, Ljubljana, 2003, p. 181.
I17l Novak, M.: Transarchitectures and Hypersurfaces. Opera-
tions of Transmodernity. In: AD: Hypersurface Architecture.
Academy Edition, London, No.133, 1998, 1. Introduction
p. 87. - Brazil builds
I18] Zellner, R: Hybrid Space. New Forms in Digital Architectu-
re. Thames&Hudson, London, 1999, p. 112. In 1943, the MoMA of New York opened a spectacular pho-
l19l Rifkin, J.:The Biotech Century. Phoenix, London,
tographic 1998, p.named
exhibition 188. Brazil Builds: Architecture New
I2] Lynn, G.: Folds, Bodies & Blobs. La Lettre
and Old Vole, Bruselj,
1652 -1942. Organised by architect Philip Good-
1998, p. 170. win, of MoMA International Relations Commission, and G.
I21! 99 Francs (French edition); 14.99 Euros (EU edition),
E. Kiddersmith, one of9.99
the greatest photographers of archi-
pounds (English edition). tecture in the XX century, the show introduced to the world
what was then one of the most resourceful and original arc-
For literature and sources turn to pages 51 and
hitectural 52. in existence.
movements

Figures (page 46 and 47) It was not a small surprise for art and architecture critics to
1. Coop Himmelblau: Villa Rosa, 1968 find out that one of the largest and most paradigmatic mo-
2. Yuri Gagarin, 1968 dernist architectural projects had been carried out in Rio de
3. 2001: A space Odyssey, 1968
Janeiro. In 1936, young architect Lucio Costa, closely assi-
4. Pierre Cardin: Space-age helmet hat, 1966
sted by Le Corbusier himself, had designed the building of
5. Coop Himmelblau: White Suit, 1969
the Ministry of Educationf completed in 1944. It contained
6. Marilyn Monroe, 1962
all elements Le Corbusier claimed for a modernist architec-
7. A space Odyssey, 1 968
8. Deep Blue ture, such as the pilotis, the toit-jardin, the brise-soleil and
9. Screen for direct transmissions the pan-verre (Frampton, 1992: 254)
10. Open air cinema
1 1 . Perception of speed Brazil Builds introduced a whole new generation of young
12. Kisho Kurokawa: Helix City, 1961 architects working feverishly somewhere else than Europe
13. Kisho Kurokawa: Floating Factory Metabonate, 1969 and North America: Oscar Niemeyer, Lucio Costa, brothers
14. Kisho Kurokawa: Box - Type apartments, 1962 Marcelo and Milton Roberto, Afonso Reidy, Gregori Warc-
15. Haus-Rucker-Co: Environment transformer - Yellow Heart,
havchik, Roberto Burle-Marx, Rino Levi, Alvaro Vital Brazil,
1968
among others. The architecture being made in Brazil beca-
16. New Media
me known as the Brazilian School and its exponents
17. Exhibition: Vision of Japan, 1991 were distinguished by specialised critique as a different
18. Pepsi Blue Launch Environment branch of modernism (Segawa, FSP: 30.09.2003).
19. Exhibition: Vision of Japan, 1991
20. The advertisment World
As Frampton (1992) brilliantly summarises: In Brazil, mo-
21. Stephen Perrela: Hyper-surfaces - The Haptic Horizont, 1995
dern architecture had its origins in the mid-20's partnership
22. Toyo Ito: Egg of Wind, 1988-91
23. Advertisment for IBM of Lucio Costa and Gregori Warchavchik, en migr Rus-
24. Media Metropolis sian architect who had been influenced by Futurism during
25. Suitcase - personal space - public image of information his studies in Rome and who had been responsible for the
26. Hussein Chalayan: Coffee Table first cubistic houses in Brazil. With the revolution headed by
27. Matrix Getlio Vargas in 1930 and the appointment of Costa as
28. Distribution head of the schools of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro in 1931,
29. Migration Flows modern architecture came to be welcomed in Brazil as a
30. Fashion show: Brave New Unwired World 2000, Charmed matter of national policy (Frampton, 1992: 254).
Technology - model Lizzy As World War II drew to an end, Brazil woke up from the
31 . Electronic artificial limb turmoil of Getlio Vargas dictatorship and emerged as the
32. Chocolate tablet
country of the future. A spectacular economic growth was
33. Marcus Novak: Data - Driven Forms, 1 997-89 starting to come into view. Brazil would soon plunge into a
34. Greg Lynn: blob period of remarkable prosperity and lasting democracy. Mo-
35. Kas Oosterhuis: transPORTs 2001
dern Architecture was intimately related to the project of
36. Recombined body by genetic engineering
modernisation of the country. This culminated in the con-
37. Space suit
38. Maria Blaiss - Kuma Guma
struction of a brand new capital city, Brasilia, in the vast
39. Kas Oosterhuis: transPORTs 2001
unoccupied lands of central Brazil.
40. Scene from the film Lawnmowerman
41 . Lars Spuybroek: Fresh Water Pavillion
Brasilia, planned by Costa, was erected from the scratch in
42. Kas Oosterhuis: Saltwater Pavillion a remarkably short span of time in the second half of the
43. Lars Spuybroek: Fresh Water Pavillion 50's. Its main buildings were commissioned to another
44. Recombined body by genetic engineering young architect who had come into partnership with Costa
45. Greg Lynn: Digital embriologica! models during the construction of the Ministry of Education in Rio,
46. John H. Frazier: The Interactivator Oscar Niemeyer. Frampton recognises that Brasilia, with its
47. Blasteroid inhuman monumentality and intrinsic class separation, led

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