Quart Publishers Laurent Stalder and Sandra Bradvic, Foreword 14
Caumasee Project , Flims 14
Laurent Stalder, Fifty-five Images 20
Office Valerio Olgiati, Flims 20
Medical Center, UAE 38
Residential Building Ardia Palace, Tirana 44
Residential Building Zug Sd Schleife, Zug 50
National Palace Museum Taiwan, Taipei 54
PERM Museum XXI, Perm 62
Community Center Bckerareal, Zurich 68
School Building Paspels, Paspels 70
Bruno Reichlin, This is not Das Gelbe Haus 74
House K+N, Wollerau 80
Das Gelbe Haus, Flims 96
Studio Bardill, Scharans 110
Extension Museum Rietberg, Zurich 124
Mario Carpo, On Both Sides of the Fence 128
Projection Room Gornergrat , Zermatt 128
Learningcenter EPFL , Lausanne 134
Master Plan Cuncas, Sils 142
Residence Sari dOrcino, Ajaccio 146
Municipal Museum Aarau, Aarau 152
Office Building Binz, Zurich 158
Multifamily Residence K , Zurich 164
National Park Center, Zernez 170
Laurent Stalder and Sandra Finally the texts, which arise from the BradvicForewordTo begin at the architectural work, are illustrated with small beginning: classical architectural theory puts format pict ures from the architects Iconog ra the drawing at the beginning. Due to its phic Autobiography, which as a personal abstractness and universality the drawing is compilation of mental images in turn served the most obvious adjunct to the idea and is as a basis for the projects. Each different therefore laced at the beginning of the design viewpoint allows a different beginning: it is process, whereas other forms of the text that stipulates the order of the representation such as perspectives or projects; it is the illustrations from the modelsanticip ations of built realityare Iconographic Autob iogr aphy that are updated intended as a means to examin a building and in the projects; it is the plan that precedes its compon ents prior to their realization. The the digital images; it is the renderings that call stages of a design project , from an idea to a into question the visual reality of the realized building, are in this way hierarchically photographs; and it is also the content that and chronologic ally fixed. The individual determines the books form, and the books projects presented here may be read in this form that organizes the content . Mental and same seq uence. Abstract graphic real images; photog raphs and plans; illustrationsground plans, sections and illustration and model; text and image; elevat ionsare followed by the illusionistic support and medium; all of these constantly forms of representationrendering or photo change sequence depending on the authors graphy. And the same applies to the sequence viewpoints, and force the reader to perman of the accompanying texts. They lead from ently redefine the beginning. This is therefore the analysis of the design process through not a book that retros pect ively summarizes that of the individ ual buildings, up to the the architects designs but first and forem ost theoretical classification of the work. This an indep endent object that invites arrangem ent , which organizes the interre exploration. If this is illustrative then only in lations hip between drawing and photography, that it demonstrates a method for precisely illust rations and text , still repres ents only investigat ing the foundations of a project , and one possible approach. Yet to shift ones for re-imagining the latters structure. To find perspective and regard the book, not as an the beginning therefore means, also for the illustration of a design process but as an reader, to adopt a perspective from which to independent object , is to open up a variety of query a project . Insofar one never stands at approaches. Thus the illustrationsplans, its beginning nor at its end but alwaysas is renderings, but also photographsare without the case right nowsomewhere in the middle exception newly created digital images that of it . allow the supposedly imagined world of drawing to merge with the reproduced world of photography. The projects in turn do not follow an order based on chronology, typology or scale but are subo rdin ate rather, to the argumentation in each individual text . Laurent Stalder Fifty-five ImagesThe specific buildings, artworks and placesvery term iconographic autobiography under different hiera rc hies of space (Column which, in 2006, Valerio Olgiati published a Palace in Mitla), for example, non-modular collection of 55 small pict ur es which (Barnett Newman, Onement 1, 1948), cultic accompanies the essays in this present project ion of the universe (Monte Albn), volumesays more about what the collection infinite wealth of possibilities of is not than about what it is.1 It is not a handy interpretation (Sigurd Lewer entz, Church in guide to iconogr aphy in the sense of a Klippan, 19621966), or static calcul at ions systematic encyclopaedia that might serve as (Eladio Dieste, Centro Comercial, 1985) a work of reference on architectural issues which scrutinize each pictures subject matter, and motifs. On the contrary, the collection one also finds remarks with a person al touch defies inclusion in any single category, be it such as magic beauty (Fatehpur Sikri), on the basis of type, topic, med iu m, content happy man [with a] hands ome must ache or the place or period of origin: archit ect ural (Indian miniature, c. 1760), or appar it ion plans (12), photog raphs (30), prints (2), oil (Taj Mahal). Other illustrations such as the paintings (6), waterc olors (1) and film- stable of the Olgiati family in Flims, the clippings (1) alternate in a seemingly arbitrary small landscape painting of the Palazzo sequence. The architectural images origina Odescalchi by Jean Dubois, which hung near ting from Europe (14), Asia (11), America (10) Valerio Olgiatis cot , or the five houses and Africa (1) const itute by far the major part designed by Tadao Ando, Kazuo Shinohara, of the collection yet a number of landscapes John Lautner, Villanova Artigas or Paolo (8), genre paintings (2), abstract compositions Mendes da Rocha, which the author would (2) and a single still life (1) also feature. Of live in also evid ently have biographical the 36 illust rations of monumental and connot ations. Anot her part of the collection anonym ous architect ure, only eight buildings comprises photographs or mement os of the date from the 20 th century. The captions that archit ects travels: pictures of the grounds of accomp any the pictures at first seem equally Crathes Castle or Fatehpur Sikri, for cryptic: Zevreila reservoir is referr ed to as example, or the aforementioned Indian minia an artificial lake for example; an ture. Neverthel ess, the collection neither illumination by the Limbourg brothers as an constitutes an autobiogr aphy in the sense of a abstract and ideal illustration; and the pictorial recollect ion of the architects life proportions of the Palazzo Strozzi are nor is it to be valued simply as an attempt at described as demons trating an extrem e invent ory. Although the images reflect the displacements of meas ures. Elsewhere praise authors personal experience, their purpose is given to architect ural craftsmanship such as by far exceeds any mere accumulat ion of the absolute or inconceivable precision person al souvenirs. Valerio Olgiatis intent in of an example of a Japanese dovetail joint or collating the Iconographic Autob iog raphy is of the masonry of a wall in Cuzco. Yet nor more fundam ent ally to demonstrate an is the collection an autobiography in the authoritative and hence superordinate order sense of an illust rat ion of the authors life. in architectural thought , which underpins his Certainly, alongside factual descriptions of own work. To interpret the Iconog raphic Autob iog raphy merely as a design instrument mist and merge with the surroundings as an means to decipher its signs, 2 of which the atmosp her ic entity, dependent on weather individual images already signify a multitude: and time. It is no coincid ence that the cloud the comp osit ion of the Ionic temple plans with its elusive, immat erial, indefinite shape refers to those of organiz at ional struct ure; so ubiquit ous in the Iconograp hic Autob iog the cross-section of Borthwick Castle to raphyhas in Western painting repeat edly those of spatial hiera rchy; the shaded color represented the bounds of that which can be drawing of San Cataldo cemetery to those of repres ented, the dissolution of form in favor metap hysic al imag ery; the detail of a terra of the enigmatic. 3 In the Iconog raphic cotta faade to those of craftsmans hip; the Autobiography, too, atmosp here describes film still of Brigitte Bardotpresuma blyto that for which no terms of description exist . those of wishful thinking. The individ ual Beneath a travel sketch by William Hodges imag es can be endlessly rearranged to form stands the caption, This is what the world innumerable new connect ions, which, given one did not know looked like. Similarly, the the enigmatic capt ions, can lead to ever new Iconographic Autob iography refers to the Taj interp ret at ionsand, in the absence of clear Mahal as an apparition whilst the light- guidelines, also to misinterpretations. These flooded space of Sigurd Lewer entzs St . signs, which account for the Iconog raphic Peters church is praised for its infinite Autobiog raphys coherence, referin a wealth of precise possib ilities of interp re simplified manner and to an increasing degree tation. Indeed, atmos phere in architecture of abstractionto three possible levels of begins where const ruct ion ends. It describes interpreting the collection: a transient one vibrancy in terms of the color, light , odor or that encomp ass es the atmosphere of the humid ity by which a building establishes its imag es; a compositional one that conc erns outward appear anc e. 4 Being thus commit ted quest io ns of geo metry; and a concept ual one to a tradition that understands architecture as that relates to its inner structure. Origi the art of illusion, it ranges from the trompe- nally, atmosphere describes the gas lil of the Bar oque to the unc onsc ious surrounding a solid. In the three late 18 th and alphabet of metaphysical architecture, or the early 19 th cent ury oil paintings reproduced in meticulously docum ented moods of the Swiss the Iconog rap hic Autob iography it dissolv es Analogen. It is that which determ ines the at dusk in a yellow-green or blue haze the surfaces confining a space, which mediate silhoue tte of ships in the harbor of Sevasto between a building and its surroundings by pol (Ivan Konstantinovich Aivas ovsky, Great means of struct ure, text ure, material, color View of the Harbor of Sevastopol, 1852), the and ornam ent . In Olgiatis built work it is the horizon line of the hills of Tahiti (William interior wall of the school in Paspels, shaped Hodges, View of Point Venus and Matavai Bay, like a folding screen; the rosette faade of 1773), or a vista of Venice (Francesco Guardi, Linard Bardills studio in Scharans; or the Gondola on the Lagoon, 1765). In the photo exterior stone wall of Das Gelbe Haus in graphs of Fatehpur Sikri (as well as in Valerio Flims, stripped of its plaster coating. Signs of Olgiat is competition drawings based on atmos phere thus desc ribe what is ephemeral, them), the edges of build ings are obscur ed by particular or mutable in the world of architect ure, such as light or weather Onement 1 (1948) and the floor plan of conditions on a glazed wall, the desire for Parpan Castle; the central triangular figu re of play with geometrical ornam ents, the marks the Japanese dovetail joint of the Fujiyama of time inscribed in an exposed wall. Atmos and the drawing of Aldo Rossis cemetery in phere is fleeting and extrinsic also in the Modena (19711983); and the physicality of figurat ive sense. Its mean ing is relative; one the cent ral motif in the illustrations of the that ephem eral circumstance may only briefly Palazzo Strozzi and the cliffs of the Stromb o fix in an image. Conversely, it can anticip ate licchio. If there exists a development in the in the preliminary drawing an idealized world Iconog raphic Autob iog raphy, then only that that has not yet begun to exist . It is no of variation on the geometric pattern, be this coincid ence that the same hazy mood chron ol og ic ally determined, as in the shrouds a shot of Fatehpur Sikri and the sequential development of Ionic temples competition drawings for the Learn ing Center betw een the 8 th and the 4 th century B.C .; in Laus anne or the National Palace Museum in syntactical, as in the variations of Donald Taipei. In the desire to control even that Judds courtyard house s; or proportional, as which lies beyond the building, the magic in the synoptic chart of Doric columns in beaut y of the Indian site has there long since Delphi. The individual image thereby spread from the single structure to its entire constitutes not a conc lusion but rather one surround ings. While the first realm of the episode within the endless variations on a Iconographic Autobiog r aphy is that of atmos simple basic geom et rical shape, which is phere, the second revolves around geometry. described in the captions as abstract and While the former manif ests on the surface, ideal, clear, absolutely precise or the latter finds its expression within the artificial. Seen from this perspect ive, the object: in the building itself, in furniture, or ideal build ing types of the classical tradition even in the picture frame. It is their geom etry comprehensively featured in the Iconog raphic that bonds the rigid, underlying grid of the Autobiog r aphy, from the Greek temple Iconographic Autob iog raphy, the rect ang ular (Erechth eion), the Renaiss ance palace or square picture frames and the individual (Benedetto da Maiano, Palazzo Strozzi, 1489 images as a single entity, the legitimacy of 1539), the Neoclassical patrician house (Carl which is constituted, beyond its specific visual Friedr ich Schinkel, Feilner House, 1828 cont ent , by a variety of regular shapesthe 1830) and the Modernist high-rise (Louis triangle, square and circleand variations Sullivan & Dankmar Adler, Guaranty Building, thereofexpanded, doubled, added or 1894 1895), through to the rationalist divided, along their symm et rical axis, dia g infrastruct ure-complex of the 1970s (Aldo onally, or proportionally. It is geometry that Rossi, San Cataldo Cemetery, 19711983) links the most diverse illust rat ions: the square can be easily linked by the criterion of picture format of the miniature of the Lim simplicity to the great monuments of world bourg brothers from Les Trs Riches Heures architecture: the Temple of Dendera, the du Duc de Berry (14121415) and Robert Mitla, the Izumo Taisha Shrine or the Taj Rymans Winsor 5 (1965); the non-modular Mahal. Removed from their histor ical or division into three parts of Barnett Newmans geographical cont ext , these examples refer to a self-referent ial formal debate within an structure link them in terms of their inner architectural repertoire that is understood to coherence. Struct ure does not belong to the be autonomous, the methodology of which is realms of surface or body (even though it oriented toward its geometric coher does not exclude these), but rather to the ence. 5 To unders tand archit ect ure as a realm of architectural conception. This is problem of geom etry means to unders tand expressed in the captions to the pict ure archit ecture as an autonom ous disc ipline, the collection in terms such as spatial gramm ar of which is aesthetic, regard less of hierarchy, static calculations, or fantastic any changes in the technical, social or construction, which characterize the spatial economic world. 6 In this respect the sequence of the Column Palace in Mitla, the Iconographic Autobiog r aphy follows a load-bearing structure of Eladio Diestes phenomenolog ical tradition that ascribes department store in Montevideo or Aldo corresponding physiolog ical and psychological Rossis analogue des ign method for the laws of perception to the laws of form. 7 It cemetery in Modena. 8 As a static principle, a finds its correlat ion in architectural theory in means of spatial organization or an access E. L . Boulles effets des corps, Le Corbu system, it brings toget her the diverse parts of siers motion suprie ure, Minimal Art a building in perpetually new meaningful representatives gestalt sensations or in the units. 9 Furt her sequences might be forme forte of the Swiss School of the established in terms of cons tructive, 1990s, all of which connect ed the simplicity typological or thematic relations hips. The of geometrical shapes with the materia Iconographic Autobiography accordingly lization of an ordering princ iple. In this disting uishes itself by presenting a number of tradition stand those signs of geometry viewpoints or conc ept ual models that expressed in Olgiatis collection of images supersede the atmospheric or geometric and in the grammar of his entire uvre, with ordering of things in favor of multi-layered its countless variations on the square, rec abstract links and connections. The signs of tangle or circle and, in certain cases, also on structure belong thus to a world that builds the triangle: the cube of House K+N in on the conceptual coherence of its const antly Wollerau, doubled in the Nation al Park changing relat ions. This ambiguity also Center in Zernez; the cylinder of the Medical characterizes the captions written beneath Center in the United Arab Emirates or the individual images in the collection. In several elliptic roof aperture of the Studio Bardill in instancesincluding, sign if ic antly, some that Scharans; the pyramid-shaped roof of Das epitomize classical architectural traditionthe Gelbe Haus in Flims or the triang ul ar figures archit ects subversive regard challenges esta of the exhibition pavilion spaces at the blis hed systems of classification; the caption Expo.02 in Biel. The third level of the auto for Palazzo Strozzi, for example: Invisible biography is that of struct ure. Whilst the blind storeys oriented toward the inner signs of atmosphere unify the individu al court . Extreme displacem ents of meas ures on images in terms of their color mood and the the exterior; for Schinkels Feilner House: signs of geometry connect them in terms of The sequenc e of rooms can only be their compositional regular ities, the signs of understood on the plan; or for Shinoharas Tanikawa House: This house appears unruly, architectural think ing is follow e d a few lines although it is compos ed of three equal parts. later by the demand for a more universally Here, a comprehensive and unifying reading valid order: he wished to move beyond these of the architectural object has been abrogated imag es, sufficiently far beyond them for his in favor of a variety of divergent perspectives, archit ecture to become non-refer ent ial. Yet , which according to the viewers standp oint already in the next sentence he had to can continually disclose new rules.10 In this concede that this wasnt possible, and there respect , the Iconograp hic Autob iography is fore conclud ed: This contrad iction forces me also the expression of a more fundamental to think, to select , and ultim at ely to des ign questioning of Moderni sms classification an archit ecture that in the end is merely systems and their attributesuniformity, abstract and theref ore, if possible, dense and simplic ity, auton omy and elementary character, rich. The confrontation with the past here for examplein favor of a more mobile, describ ed is an individ ualist ic one, in which individual view. This questioning also informs an architectural designunders tood as a Olgiatis designs: the slight distortion of the creative actcan ultim at ely ensue solely and cube in Paspels; the increasing deformation of exclusively from the juxtapos it ion of images the regular ground grid by vertical and stored in the mind and the concrete building horizont al forces in the upper storeys of the task at and. Alone this approach makes it projects in Lucerne, Lausanne or Taipei; 11 the possible to overcome a priori judgem ents of a symmetrically arranged windows of the historical, social, or technical nature and to National Park Center, the views from which use the singular structural order of every new are however render ed distinctly asymmetrical project to attain the essential difference: by the build ings spatial organization.12 The namely, to transc end mere repetition of a viewers shifting vantage point , as revealed in certain atmosphere or form and radic ally the personal character of the collection, thereby reconst ruct its every aspect. Such confront ation not so much expresses desire for a subjective may indeed be a subjective, individualized form but ratheragainst a background of affair yet it is simult aneously a universal one, fundamental distrust of any ideological pre in that such an undertaking fosters essent ial ceptmore comp rehensively reflects a shift reflect ion on the rules of the disc ip line, from the architect ural object and its a priori above and beyond the concrete condit ions of order to the designer and his personal en any indiv id ual building task.13 Thus, if the count er with the entire context . Olgiati had picture collection can be spoken of as an explicitly stated this point in his brief Iconographic Autobiography, then only be introduct ion to the collection: the illust rations cause it illustrates a path to cogniza nce, which were about images stored in his head; these was followed individually: 14 For about a year pictures were always somehow present during Ive tried, in convers ations with my staff, to the process of designing or inventing; choose only images that had a distinct and they form the basis of his projects because, determin ing significance for our, my work. for him, it has always been a matter of building Even if these images belong to the archit ects something related to these imag es. However, personal trove of unique experience, they this concession to the individuality of areas the basis of a des igndirected at the present , not fixed on the past: Theyre (1970s) or economical (1990s)it revolv es present when Im sitting in front of a blank around demands that architecture and its sheet of paper, so to speak. The collection rules and regulat ions be reliably codified and striv es to be the opposite of an histor ical institut io nali zed.16 However, in parallel to the narrat ive. It is much more an expression of history of modern architect ure as the history the authors reflecting, select ive and hence, of architecture as a medium can be traced an observ ationalin its etymolog ic al sense of equally continuous history that refers to a theorizinggaze.15 Liberat ed from their fundam ent al rational (1930s), indexi cal historical and geographical contexts, the (1970s) or diagramm atical (1990s) archi pict ures follow a systematic course that is tecture, beyond the image and its cultural perpetually being newly defined: I always conventions. In the juxtapos it ion of Robert want to build something that is somehow Rymans white, horizont a lly striped Winsor 5 related to these images. The Iconog raphic (1965) and Helmut Federles golden Autobiography testifies to this path to under monochrome Untitled (1990) with the stand ing, in the course of which the structural correspond ing picture captions, it repre compos ition of individual images is actualized sents nothing and it represents in every building: the static struct ure of the everything, the two poles in this debate on Izumo Taisha Shrine in the Office Valerio the role of the image have been aptly descri Olgiati in Flims; the spatial organiz ation of bed in the Iconographic Autob iography and the Column Palace in Mitla in the house in also reconciled. Indeed, the polem ic nature Corsica; the geometric order of Donald Judds of debates has tended to push into the courty ard houses in the elev at ion of Das background endeavors to establish how Gelbe Haus; the archaic charact er of Fatehpur significant images may be for architectural Sikri in the concrete faade of Studio Bardill; designwhether these are drawings or photo the motif of the floor covering of the Taj graphs, real or envisioned. Yet it was Mahal in that of the Medical Center. What is precisely this highly nuanced confront at ion intere st ing in such correl ations is not so with the image that took center stage in much the personal relations hip to individual Modernist texts: in Schultze-Naumb urgs images but rather how pers onal memory is Kultura rbeiten, for example, Le Corbusiers dealt with gener ally in architect ural design, travel journals and writings, Robert Venturis between repetition and difference, model and studies of Rome, Las Vegas or Levittown, type as well as image and concept . Thus, Aldo Rossis Scientific Autob iography, Oswald beyond its particularity, the Iconographic Mathias Ungers Morphology: City Metaphors Autobiog raphy also specifically addresses the or, in Switzerl and, in Miroslav Siks Analoge value of the image in architect ural design Architektur.17 It is also in this tradit ional (and between a suspicion of and depend ency on here updated) context of architectural theori images. Given the growing signif ic ance of zingone that seeks to comp rehend visual visual media over the last century, this debate sequences as the result of cogniza nce and not pervad es the entire history of modern archi merely as portraya lsthat Valerio Olgiatis tect ure. In the light of varying methodolog ic al Iconographic Autob iography must be approac hesformal istic (1930s), semiological understood. Notes 1 Valerio Olgiati, Iconographic Autobiography, Archithese, 32, 6 (2002): 34 37. Conzett speaks about 2G, 37 (2006): 134 141. The collection has to date been custom- designed solutions. 13 Cf.: Ignasi de Sol- published in English and Spanish only. All quot ations are Morales Rubi, Difference and Limit , in Differences: t aken from the unpublished German version of the Topographies of Contemporary Architecture, ed. Sarah Iconographic Autobiography, which is held in the architects Whiting (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997), 106 115, here, archive. 2 Regarding the relationship between Rec herche 110. 14 Cf. Cornelia Zumbusch, Wissenschaft in Bildern. du temps perdu and Recherche de la vrit, see: Gilles Symbol und dialektisches Bild in Aby Warburgs Menmosyne Deleuze, Proust et les signes (Paris: Presses universit aires de Atlas und Walter Benjamins Passagen-Werk (Berlin: Akade France, 1970), 710. 3 Hubert Damisch, A Theory of mie Verlag, 2004), 98 120. 15 On the discriminating look Cloud: Toward a History of Painting (St anford: St anford of the traveling architect: Joan Ockman, Bestride the World University Press, 2002), 189/190. 4 Cf. Mark Wigley, The Like a Colossus: The Architect as Tourist , in Archit ourism, Architecture of Atmosphere, in Daidalos, 68 (1988): ed. Joan Ockman (Munich/Berlin/London: Prestel, 2005), 18. 5 Ignasi de Sol- Morales Rubi, From Autonomy to 160/161. 16 Cf. for inst ance: Werner Oechslin, Untimeliness, in Anyone, ed. Cynthia C . Davidson (New Kulturgeschichte der Modernen Archit ektur, in Oechslin, York: Rizzoli, 1991), 185. Cf. also: Peter Eisenman, The End Moderne Entwer fen. Architektur und Kulturgeschichte of the Classic al: the End of the Beginning, the End of the (Cologne: Dumont , 1999), 11 43, here specific ally, 35 43; End, Perspect a , 21 (1984): 154 173, here specific ally 167 Philip Ursprung, Build Images Per forming the City, in Ima 169. 6 Cf. among others: The Harvard Architectural ges: A Picture Book of Architecture, eds. Ilka & Andreas Review, 3 (1984) [Special Issue: Autonomous Architecture], Ruby, Philip Ursprung (Munich: Prestel, 2004), as well as Michael K . Hays, Critic al Architecture. Between 4 11. 17 Valerio Olgiati studied from 1984 to 1986 and Culture and Form, Perspect a , 21 (1984): 14 29. 7 Martin graduated in 1986 from the class of Fabio Reinhard and Steinmann, La forme forte. En de a des signes, Faces, 19 Miroslav Sik, whose assist ant he was between 1986 and 1987. (1991): 4 13. Cf. the corresponding reply by Bruno Reichlin, Rponse Martin Steinmann, Matires, 6 (2003): 32 43. 8 These three examples interestingly refer to a triple spatial, constructive and analoguetradition that has decisively influenced Swiss architecture in the last thirty years. 9 Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings: A Voc abulary of Modern Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson, 2004), 276. 10 de Sol- Morales Rubi, op. cit ., 182. Also: Rosalind Krauss, Minimalism: The Grid, the /Cloud/, and the Det ail, in Detlef Mertins, The Presence of Mies (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994), 133; Hal Foster, The Crux of Minimalism, in Individuals: A Selected History of Contemporary Art , 19451986, ed. Howard Singerman (Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art/New York: Abbeville Press, 1986), 162183. 11 Patrick Gartmann, Structural Report: University of Lucerne, 2G, 37 (2006): 96 99. 12 On the informal, cf. Cecil Balmond, New Structure und das Informelle, Archplus, 139/140 (December 1997/January 1998): 129, 133/134. Jrg Conzett , Techn ik und Kunst . Notizen zu einigen Stichworten, Bruno Reichlin This is not Das Gelbe although the architect is intentionally vague Haus In early 1996 I found myself, equip about this design stagehe was tempted to ped with a drafting T-square (with magnetic manipulate the schools layout , until then guides!), set squares, a doub le-sided ruler, a based on precise orthog onal lines, by tugging huge number of French curves, a 6B pencil, and dragging these very gently on the and drawing pens, bent over a drafting table computer. The modifications seemed minimal, and designing my way through a furniture but the results were remark able. In the built collection: designs destined, as it turned out , version the effective deviation from right to remain in a drawer. At the same time angles amounts to only a few degrees, yet it Valerio Olgiati sat in his Studio near the affects the entire plan and layout of the Zrichb erg and clicked. His eyes glued to the rooms, particularly in the transit zones. Each screen, he gripped the mouse with which he of the four corridors which lead to the traced indecip hera ble flourishes on a DIN classrooms is now deformed into a funnel A4 -sized, probably grey mouse pad. Now and shape, and displaced in relation to the again he typed something on his keyboard, others. Depending on the observers certainly similar in some respects to the location and direct ion of movem ent , the Olympia Carina 2000 on which I usually type buildings space is shortened or extended, my papers. Valerio Olgiati was completing the made broader or narrower, higher or lower. It competition project for the school in Paspels, seems as if it has given up its objective and which he subsequently won. The proposed stable geom et ric properties to become living building was compact , but featured sizeable plastic matter, ambiguously influenced by the covered recrea tion areas, as is advisable in subjective percept ions of viewers. Observers mountainous regions, and had a particularly are obliged to realize that they are no longer refined layout . On the ground floor a large, merely spectators, but are part of what they bright entrance hall extended to its entire are seeing or think they are seeing. And all depth to receive pupils. It could ideally be this because of an infinites imal mechan ical connected to the existing schoolhouse by an manip ul ation! New Swiss architecture, as underground passage. On each of the two has been assert ed with more or less upper storeys were three classr ooms, a convincing argum ents, has finally freed itself preparation room, and a spacious hall with a from referentiality. Olgiati goes beyond this view on the Piz Beverin mountain. The in Paspels: he exorcizes it , makes a fool of it . rationality of the layout nevertheless allowed The crown of the building follows exactly the variat ions. From the ground floor, stairs led mount ain slope, giving the schoolhouse a upwards from the center of the hall. Thanks rhomb us-like abstract shape. So abstract that to the well-conceived layout , the hall opened one forgets that the roof is nothing but a to the left in the first upper storey, while to normal sloping one. Does this subtle strategy, the right on the next floor up. The corridors which uses provocative methods to confuse leading to the classr ooms provided light and the senses and the intellect , betray an views on all four sides. Valerio Olgiati artistically sublim ated form of mental would later confess that this project was cruelty? In a neighborhood of villas and straitlaced. While reworking his plans single-family houses in Wollerau there are many people living on small plots of land that stretching across the buildings entire length. enjoy an unrestrict ed view of the section of Another transit ion room is found on the Lake Zurich between the Goldkste and left-hand side and finally, after a long and Seedamm. Buildings stand to their right , left , snaking pathway, one reaches the living room and down the hill, and the street runs behind from the front . The customers were them, yet the view remains undist urbed thrilled with this solution. An unusual, and because the slope drops sharply down for this project fundamental, archit ect ural towards the lake. Despite this enviable arrangement had been achieved. In the final situation there are clearly not many alter version the vestib ule is no longer an natives: how should the living quarters be laid independent room placed in front of the out? Should they be on the upper floors, stairwell, but instead is integrated into it , where the view is less obstructed, or below lengthening and complicating it with a bend to ensure direct access to the garden? How to the left before continuing straight ahead can privacy be preserved to the right and and diagonally to the right (which seems inex left? It is no surprise that Valerio Olgiati plicable for visitors who still have the carefully weighed the alternat ives. In his first buildings cubic exterior form in mind), and draft the living room was located upstairs, a then winding downwards around the stairs square prism resting on a type of stylobate ending on the landing, which offers a side (the ground floor with the bedrooms)a access to the living room. At this point the Miesian project reminiscent of the minimal visitor has changed direction by 360 house designs based on a 50 x 50 cm grid. degrees. The lack of any visual link to the One month later the square space featured outd oors, the unity of the material (the four blind corners and four centrally placed ceiling, floor, and walls of the hall are made of windows, all of equal size and arranged smooth white cement) andin my opinion opposite one another. Out of considerat ion even more misleadingthe rounded corners, for their neighb ors, the customers declined combine to disorient the visitors. Usually, the archit ects sugg estion of a two-meter-tall right angles and the differ ence between concrete perimeter wall, yet the veget at ion floors, walls and ceiling help the observer to on all four sides of the building testifies to unders tand archit ecture on the basis of their desire for privacy. This quest for construction, with slabs extending from one solitude within ones own four walls gradually wall to another. Rounded corners instead reveals itself through other choices. The suggest the subtraction of material, or the living spaces were shifted to the ground floor method of burrowing and excav ating. Thus and Valerio Olgiati then planned the greatest the hallway with its skylights feels like an spatial and psychological distance between underground room. The stairs, furthermore, the public space, entryw ay, and the sleeping appear to lead down into a mass of grey, areas. The plans, completed at the end of compact cement . This turns the visitors path September 2001, show that the entrance into a peripeteia, the goal of which is a from the street leads into a vestibule. This is sheltered elsewhere, a microcosm. The followed by an extended transit zone with a living room, located on the ground floor, long stairc ase leading straight down and gives the impress ion of being dug into the hill slope and is the second unusual feature of windows then begins to dominate. A differ House K+N. Against all expectations four ence, however, remains: the three concave large windows, each placed across from corners remain in shadow, while the walls of another, allow views in all four directions. the convex corner reflect the incoming light . This layout follows the traditional One gradually notices further irregularities: architectural doctrine for sites dominated by the bulk of the stairs hinders the view landscapejust as Palladio devised the four towards the lake; the kitchen wall extends loggias of the Villa Capra La Rotonda to outwards at the height of the left window enjoy all-around beautiful views. This jamb. At a second glance one notices that the solution had already been adopted in the first wall with the fireplace is slightly askew, and version of the design, where the living room that its window jambs are irregular and had been planned on the upper level. The thicker than the others. One also becomes brightest opening looks onto the broad pano aware that ones eye subconscio usly views the rama of the lake. On the opposite side an wall as being in the place where it should almost vertical texture fills the room, standas happens with certain cubist somewhat like Monets Water Lilies, in green. paintings by Picasso which, as Leo Steinberg To the left and right one gazes out across a perceptively remarked, force ones mental few meters of lawn, with bamb oos growing levers to push a rising reclining figure back on one side, and perennials on the other. The into place. Coexist ing in the living room of blind corners of the living room and the the house in Wollerau are various types of proport ions and dimens ions of the openings rooms that alterna tely reveal themselves avoid the panorama effect , which would according to ones position and perspective. disperse the observers view and attention. Furtherm ore, if one opens the large sliding The surroundings are thus controll ed, windows, the living room chang es into a large reassure, and vary accord ing to the ever garden house. Das Gelbe Haus was a three- repeating rhythm of the days and sea storey master builders house built in the sons. The impression of a centrally second half of the 19 th century. The main symmetrical room suggested by the entrance, located in the center of the street arrangement of the windows is so strong that side faade, was approached by way of two the living room seems square in ones short converg ing ramps, and protected by a memory, while in reality the clean geom etric small balcony supported by two columns. The shape has been disturbed in various ways. house was located in the center of Flims and Only three of the living rooms corners are surrounded by recently renovated buildings, concave, while the fourth (where the kitchen new buildings in a discrete traditional style, a and bathr oom are located) is convex. Because few still-preserv ed stables, and another of this protruding corner, one cannot see the similar building preserved more or less in its entire room from the bottom of the stairs. original condition. Today Das Gelbe Haus is Only when one moves beyond this protrusion still very visible, especially since the hedges, and into the middle of the room, it no longer small gardens, and perennials have given way interf eres with the sightlines: it is neut ralized to the asphalt of the parking areas. Valerio because the crossways arrangem ent of the Olgiatis father, the architect Rudolf Olgiati, had bequeathed the building to the is blinding in the blazing sun, cold and pale municipality of Flims together with a when thunders torms threaten. Yet the collection of local cultural artefacts. In the building would be inconc eivable in the public deed of donation he stipulated that the space of Flims without the magical power of buildings conversion into a museum had to this white, which transforms the spare walls be carried out in accordance with the into a rich, vibrating, and glowing fabric that principles of his own archit ect ure. In parti encompasses the objects gigantic mass more cular, the faades were to be painted white. than covering it . Here one experiences the The radical renovation carried out by his son extremely reifying, wonderfully misleading, deserves to be defined as brutal. The and immensely effective power of color in plaster has been comp let ely removed; the architecture: all it takes is a small amount of windows, reduced in size, resemble small, mater i alno more than a millimeterapplied black, deep holes, and all look the same; the (or sprayed on) by a house painte r. The most entryway and gable on the street side faade modest of the building trades can here claim have disappeared. Viewed up close, the to belong to the Areopag us of modern building has neither roof nor rain gutters, and architecture. The strength and weakness of at the top it appears to be enclosed by a color in architecture is present ed here in the continuous ribbon, like a bandaged forehead. buildings very name: Das Gelbe Haus [the This band is a cornice of reinforced concrete yellow house] is white! One could ask oneself which holds the exterior walls together, the whether knowledge of this name, which the only elem ents still remaining from the old local population had originally given the building after it was completely hollowed out building, chang es anything in ones perception to create space for the new museum. In this of the white. We know that the smooth and state the building does not give the sometimes only nomin ally white plasterwork impression of being unfinished, but rather of of many incunabula of avant-garde having suffered violence, and this impression architecture of the first half of the 20th is increased by the contrast with the smooth, century are better viewed as forerunners of finely finished window jambs. Removal of the future improvements. In reality, plasterwork plaster allowed a rudimentary masonry and color stretc hed a fragile veil over the structure to emerge, testifying to thrift and bricolage of materials, and over the looking as irregular as the patched and technical inexperience of builders, craftsmen, repaired Riegelfachwerk (lath and plaster and architects, whose ambitious technological work) of the second upper storey. The plaster ideas exceeded their means. Das Gelbe had once lent it the dignity and stature of an Haus, in contrast , is a palimps estin white. urban building, as had also the entryway and The fact that it caused a sensation is gable in the center of the street faade. understandable, for it is one of the rare, truly Perhaps it is the sacrif ice of these traces of iconoc lastic pieces of architecture of the late skilled labor which allow us to see the 20 th century. To quote Calvino: Gli ha messo building as a martyred body, like the cruelly una pietra soprait put the matter to flayed figure of Marsyas, as recently very rest . With Studio Bardill in Scharans, aptly evoked by a comment at or. The white Valerio Olgiati once again explored the alluring power of color. This time red is the three different sizes can be found on all of color that eman ates from the mass of the interior and exterior walls: a reinforced concrete, coloring the entire geometrically exact star with six petals or building inside and out . In accordance with rays, inscribed in a circle and form ed by the building regul at ions, the studio and its exten crossing of arcs of equal radius with their sions had to recreate the exact volumes of pivot point on the circles circumference. This the former stable, regardless of the intended is a frequently found motif: as a pattern on extension of the living space. This at least butter, or as a carving on the implem ents of partially explains the pleasant complementary alpine shepherds, on chests, chairs, and relationship between the floor plan and ceiling beams. In Studio Bardill it is in relief, elevations of studio and courtyard. The because it was carved with hammer and chisel boundary between the two spaces was deter into the boards used for the concrete form. mined by the price per constructed square The raised height of the pattern is minimal meter and the total cost stipul ated by the but effective. Depending on which side of the customer, which wasnt to be relief is lit , or whether a ray of light creates exceeded. Valerio Olgiati explained that the shadows and animates the irregularities of the brick-red color had been a diplomatic figures hand-carved profile, the motif decision, to increase the acceptability of the becomes more or less recognizable. In the architecturally exposed concrete. But there past great emphasis was placed on the are other reasons for which this red can also expressive ambiguity of concrete surfaces, be found in accurate render ings of more which bear the marks of wood and take on its recent competition projects. It is the red that appearance. A few purists actually came up one encounters in the fascinating royal capital with smooth forms without this side effect . In Fatehpur Sikri, built under the Grand Mughal Scharans one feels this material ambiguity is Akbar. Under the alpine sun the red, washed- part of the concept . The six-pointed motif out , slightly uneven concrete, with the imprint can be found, for example, on the wooden of the wooden forms, creates a complementary walls of the stables, and the red of the relationship with the green of forests and concrete is reminiscent of the paint made meadows, a relationship that has been explo with ox blood which once protected the red and treasured by painters for many wood from parasites. Yet geometric generations. It also marries with the browns ornamentation on wood can only appear as a of chalets and stables, as well as with the carving, as a negative form, while a relief stone greys of walls and houses. In the half entails a casting technique, and thus explicitly shadows of the courtyard and studio this red refers to the concrete. This rhetorical figure, takes on the warm tones of a velvety fabric, sustained by the conflict between perception blunting sharp edges and angles. The space is and cognition, is typically modernist , at least no longer outlined and defined by the clear in the sense of Clement Greenberg who lines that subdivide the walled enclosure, but viewed discipline-inherent criticism as the instead transforms itself in mood, in colored essence of modernism. In Scharans this is depth, as occurs in old sepia photographs. not the only instance in which trompe-lil But there is more. A decorative element in illusionism is revealed by cognit ive ration ality. Depending on their size, light affects the admirer of Michelangelo and Borromini) had flower ornaments in different ways and allows viewed this as une architecture autre, as a one to see unsuspected depth in the red prophecy of his own spatial experiments, concrete wall. Closer observation again which he viewed as being in harmony with breaks up the walls material flatness and contemp orary informal painting and its leads to a spatial visualiz ation reminiscent , gestural and material provocations. Valerio for example, of Joseph Albers windows Olgiati is one of those architects who (1929), where the same schematic window wholeheartedly approve of computers being shape was repeatedly rendered in various used in all phases of a project . He therefore dimens ions and colors, thereby producing an makes use of some of their most relevant odd levitation effect against a dark advantages, such as the ability to deform background. A third optical device is due to three-dimensional, hollow objects (like the elliptical opening in the horizontal architectural ones) without distorting concrete slab above the courtyard, sheltering topological relationships. Until recently, the pathway that leads along the exterior wall orthogon ality in architecture was actually to the studio entrance. The courtyard was viewed as a part of human destiny, as conceived as a slightly irregular trapezium (a described by Le Corbusier in his Pome de little longer than wide). The covered spaces langle droit , for example. This point of view in the courtyard are balanced because the could also be explain ed by the design and ellipse, the foci of which lie relatively close cons truction tools available at the time. together, has a round e d shape. The sharp, Computers swept away this dogma and its bright shape created by the ellipse also draws associated constraints. We architects now the viewe rs attention. This ambig uous shape view those forms, which once used to require negates any unified, central viewp oint , and its a great deal of time and effort and were dynamic nature domin ates the perception of drawn using a pair of compasses at a drafting any viewer strolling along the exterior walls. table, as childs play. Some have taken advan It is difficult to say whether, and at which tage of this manna to discover unusual, point , the rounded ellipse becomes a skewed, slanted, and oblique forms, bent in circle. It is easy to understand how this the most unthinkable ways. When doxa and motif has attracted the interest of those who norms were thrown out the wind ow, a since the Renaissance questioned classical bestiary of unclassifia ble and incomparable thought and whose investigations lead to objects was created. Whet her one day, when multiperspective Baroque space, and, from the exhilaration of novelty has passed, these there, to the paradoxes of Caramuel y creations shall seem unrecognizable and Lobkowitz Architectura obliqua. One would therefore also completely unimportant , is still like to assert that sooner or later Valerio an open question. Others such as Valerio Olgiati would have to come to terms with this Olgiati have not forgotten that archit ecture classic example of distortion and of trompe- builds upon the habits and the perceptual and lil, which was the origin of many cognitive const raints of visual culture. It experiments. Luigi Moretti (who had always seems to me that the originality of Olgiatis attempt ed to be a step ahead and was a great architect ural research lies in the exploration of the conditions under which one views an Mario Carpo On Both Sides of the architectural object , the materiality, the Fence Authorship, Precision, and Other color, the elementary geometric Anomalies in an Age of Variable Objects It is arrangements, the minimal deviations from a celebrated hallmark of Valerio Olgiatis supposed rules, and the viewers buildings that as soon as you step into them disorientation. An indication of this is his you feel that something is not quite right . You fascination with Alberto Giacomettis figures may get the same feeling from outside, from a and busts. Circling slowly around these distance, or even from a computer rendering. fleshless, flat , and brittle forms allows human The anom alies may be more or less countenances, appearances, and expressions conspicuous; most of thembut not allare to suddenly and surpris ingly coalesceand it subdued, allusive, or indexical. One is is uncertain whether this takes place in the induced to be curious, to invest ig ate, and to objects thems elves, between us and them, probe or ferret out the problem, whatever or immediately before our eyes, or simply within wherever it may be. The delicate our heads. They last just as long as our geometrical distortions in the plans of attention holds. Olgiatis archit ecture can also Olgiatis famous school of Paspels have best be savored while strolling; casually already sparke d much scholarly disc uss ion. As turning ones attent ion here and there, until they are experienced from the interior of the somet hing forceful arises. This is often a building, they are only part of a larger cinem at ic experience, in which we ourselves scheme, which includes the double bending of are the impetus. an underground corridor (almost an initiatic journey) and some misleading proportioning both inside and outs ide the building, where again a number of perceptual tricks (such as the scale and position of the main central stairway and of the sparse, monum ent al openings in the faades) delib erately confound any attempts at sizing up the overall dimensions. Here the eye and the body are meant to run counter to one another, as what you see (from a distance) is not what you get (when you get there)or, as William Ivins might have said, what you see is not what you touch.1 At times the quirks are more showy: in the Studio Bardill at Schar ans, the external size and profile of a traditional Alpine barn (which already existed on the site) conceals an internal cylinder of contextua lized emptiness, a stripped-down peristyle half- way between French revolution ary classicism and a Matta- Clarkian cut (had Matta- Clark been more conversant with Platonic geome two centuries big structures have often been tries, which he was not). Olgiatis build ings design ed and built as assemblies of bi-di also challenge other sets of tectonic, visual, mensional, stand ard ized units. Much of nine and haptic expect at ions. Through thousands teenth-century and twent ieth-century of years of architectural history, we have structural engineer ing was made of (or was grown used to the notion that vertical loads conceived as) sequenc es of trilith elements; are best discharged along vertical lines. and post-and-lintel structures, as the name Various scientific theories (from Galileo and indicates, are based on simple parts, Newton onwards) appear to corroborate the junctions, and iteration. On the contrary, daily experie nce that buildings, as well as the Olgiatis buildings are marked by a relentless human body, may best stand up in the erect pursuit of struct ural and visual contin uity. At position. But in Olgiatis high-rise designs a smaller, almost demonstrative scale this is (none built to date) vertical lines are few and most evident in the House K+N in Wollerau, far between. Some of these buildings actually where all the detailing (from the frameless lean, like the tower of Pisa, notoriously not doors and windows to the curving walls of an example of successful structural design. the corr idor to the steps of the internal Conseq uently, the plans and elevations of stairway) is designe d, with pains tak ing Olgiatis high rises are discordant and disso accuracy, in order to emphasize the nant , and so are the variances in their monolithic nature of the build ing. The feat of structural components (some pillars taper actually building the house as a monolith of weirdly as they rise, as floor slabs become reinf orced conc rete cast on site is already thinner). The slanting strut on the top floor legendary, and it has entered the annals of of Das Gelbe Haus is perhaps all too easily building technology. Olgiatis treatment of noticed, as a statement of sorts, or a surf aces and materials is an integral part of declaration of principles, but in Olgiatis own the game, and in the case of the iconic Das new office building in Flims, the discreet Gelbe Haus, the foremost and most visible indentations at the extrem ities of the slab of one. But even when Olgiati does not inten the main floor will reveal only to an alert tionally transmogrify his materials, some obs erv er that the floor is in fact cantilevering lesser degree of deceitf ulness is always latent . from a system of pillars, the main one at the The concrete of some of Olgiatis high rises core and one on each side of the build ing. has deep chthonian colors, and the first time I Once again, what you see is not what you get , saw a picture of the Studio Bardill in and the building stands up in a way that belies Scharans, with its decor at ive patterns of the evidence. Historically speaking, the traditional Alpine rosettes, I thought the three-dimensional grid underlying the whole brown building was in timber. It is in structure of many tradition al high-rise concrete, of course, and the rosettes are buildings has found its aesthetic equivalent in reliefs, not intaglios. Their orig inal mold was a tecton ic logic of structural repet ition. Even cut in wood, but their imprint now protrudes though reinforced concr ete, for example, from cast concrete walls. What does this works better in continuous forms, rather varied panoply of tricks portend? Perspect ival than in discrete modules, for most of the last anomalies in art , as in architecture, tend to emphasize the conflict between visual was Unzuh and enheita term which, in the represent ations and physical experience. This digital age, we could perhaps more adequat ely rift is inher ent in all technolog ies of translate as denial of serv ice. Seen from representation: by definition, all ima ges are this vant age point , Olgiatis build ings provide meant to repres ent something that is not plenty of breakd owns; and they deny plenty there. But the pers pectival grid bears an even of services. The disrupt ion of the perspect ival heavier responsibility in the history of feed-back loop (between object , vision, and Western archit ect ure and of Western experie nce) brings to life the nuts and bolts architectural thought . By its Renaissance of the pers p ect ival machin ery, often taken for pedigree, the rise of geometrical perspe ctive granted when the machine runs smoothly. On is tied to the history of early-modern quanti the cont rary, a technical hiccup will draw our fication. Perspect ival or otherwise, the grid attention even more than a complete from Albertis window to contemporary breakdown would, as in the former case we digital rastersis essentially a measuring are left to deal with a machine that may or device, and as it was put to use by early- may not work, or that appears to work modern artists and archit ects, it was meant to capriciously, and asks for repairs. To fix a partit ion and to measure space. Alberti may machine one needs to learn something about have stopped short of including infinity in his it , and so it goes with the experience of pantom etric project , 2 but his successors were places and space. Some archit ect ural devices less cautious, and infinity would become a engage the observer in a learning experie nce, usable mathematical tool soon therea fter, in and in the process they turn the observer project ive geometry as well as in calculus. into a participa nt , and the archit ect ural object According to contempor ary Heideggerians, into a catalyst , or gatherer of events. The and to some extent to Heidegger hims elf, this same pattern may be applied to other, non- scientif ic ambition was the beginning of the perspectival sets of visual and tectonic fall from grace of humankind, and one conventions, and in this sense, some of notorious aspect of this fall was epitomized Olgiatis buildings may be described in pheno by the shift from a traditional (Aristotelian) menological terms, and indeed they often notion of places to the modern mathematical have been. 5 For the record, Valerio Olgiati definition of space. As architecture deals with himself is not a reader of Heidegger (or so he both places and space, this argument still is a told me). This may of course be irrelevant , as fertile source of insp ir ation for many of Heideggers critique of techn ology is ubiqui todays architectural phenomen olo gists. 3 tousparticu la rly in archit ectural circlesand Olgiatis anom alies and incid ents (perspectival it is, generally speaking, in the spirit of our or otherwise) invite an additional time. Moreover, there is no need to read Heideggerian refer enc e. As a part of his Heidegger to realize that a machineany celeb rated tool analysis (first outlined in machine, in the broadest possible sensemay 1927) Heidegger famously argued that many call for our attention when it doesnt work, technic al objects come to life, so to speak, more so than when it does. Indeed, the only when they break down. 4 Heideggers practical and cultural awareness of a machine original term for this sort of revivifying failure we are using probably climaxes right when that machine stops working, or when it sends sion, apparently warranted by the architect signals of an imminent breakdown. Many of himself, that some of Olgiatis celeb rated Olgiatis works post similar warning signs, and freaks are in fact perfectly rational architectural history offers plenty of operations. They are rational if they are seen illustrious antec ed ents, perfectly unrelated to from the vant age point of another logic, twentieth-centu ry phenomenology. However, which is the logic of a new technical all processes of change can be obs erved from object . The three-dimens ional grid men two opposite vantage points, and many events tioned above, traditionally the standard that appear to be anomalies in one system pattern for the design and the construct ion of can be perf ectly regular when seen within big struct ur es, until recently was less a choice another one. Ind eed, some degree of than a necessity. Structural calc ul ations creative destruction is inevitable in times of outside the conf ines of two-dimens ion al change, and contemporary architectural diagrams used to be exceedingly complic ated objectsin so far as they are dependent on and time-consuming; consequently, the the technicity of some des ign and production almost inevitable short c ut for several toolsare bound to embody, and at the same generations of structural engin eers was to time to represent and interpret , the shifting conv ert a three-dimens ional structure into a status of todays techn ical objects. This set of many two-dimensional ones, and then transformation is as drastic as it is prof ound, calcul ate the interactions between them and it is too early to grasp the many impli somehow. Under these condit ions, a regular cations of this revolut ion in the making. For three-dimensional grid of posts and lint els example, albeit evid ently unrelated to and flat slabs is more easily resolved than the tectonic or perspect ival issues, a similar structure of Brunelleschis dome, for critique of the neotechnical object underpins example. This approach further presupposes the work of one of todays most acclaimed that building mater ials should have standard haberdashers, Belgian fashion designer Martin and uniform mechanical behaviors. This holds Margielaa most enigmatic global icon, whose true for industrial products, such as steel, but spect ac ular rise to stardom no cultural critic not for natural materials, such as wood, nor has so far managed to explain. The analogies for artisanal construct ions, such as brick-and- between Margielas and Olgiatis games of mortar walls. 7 Likewise, the mass-production skin-deep legerdemain and indexical of identical structural compon ents generated anomalies are probably deeper than the visual econ om ies of scale (both in the product ion distance between the two would suggest and in the assembly of the parts) that more text iles are bound to be somew hat more than made up for the inevitable waste of supple than conc retebut they fall outside material inher ent in the stand ardiz ing the scope of this brief essay. However, as process. By definition, if the cross section of Olgiati has referred, at least indirectly, to an I-beam is constant for the entire length of some aspects of the ongoing shift in the beam, its resistance will match the stress architectural technologies, his stance on the in only one section, and all other sections will matter must be taken into account . 6 If we do, be overs ized, i.e. they will use more stuff we may come to the almost inevitable conc lu than needed. Mies van der Rohe may not have liked to acknowledge it , but a uniform grid of and size that are requir ed, even when specifi standardized I-beams, either vertical or hori cat ions are unique to each comp on ent , or zontal, stands for dumb engineer ing, build ing may vary for each individual item in a on the cheap, and waste. Stresses resulting series. This way of making things was from the forces to which a building must common when objects were individ ua lly stand up are neither regular nor uniform nor crafted, because econom ies of scale have a constant in a three-dimensional space. In limited effect on trad itional handicraft: a Miess time, given the computational and cobbler can make one hund red different pairs manuf act uring tools that were available to of shoes, or one hund r ed pairs of identic al him, the grid, standardized compon ents, and ones (if he manag es without getting too oversizing were in many cases inevit able. This bored) more or less at the same unit cost . is no longer the case. Three-dimens ional Within limits, this may become true again in digital modeling now enables structural engi the new world of digital manuf actur ing, foste neers to work on much closer approx ima ring a new gener ation of technical objects tions of actual spatial objects, thus making that are smarter and cheaper, indust ria lly unnecess ary the brutal simplifications (and mass-produced yet made to measure, all planar reductions) that engineers of the similar yet each one of a kind. The grid, a slide-rule generations had come to accept as paleotechnogical standard, was a one-size- inevit able. Admittedly, gravity still is a fits-all technology. The new standard is an vertical force (except in the case of earth elastic one, and it allows every structural case quakes). But it appears that in many cases, the to be studied on its own merits. When best structures to resist non-vertical forces skewed lines and irregular geometries are the may, not surp risingly, feature a variety of best answer, nothing more stands in their non-vertical lines. Irregular plans and sites, way. Complex three-dimensional structures site-specific or unique const raints, and can now be designed, calculated, and built . variable or non-symmet rical loads (such as After all, nature offers plenty of examples of natural loads, snow, and winds) can now be irreg ular structural design, at all scales. Tree precisely factored in, and in many cases the growth follows no modul ar logic nor simple most economical struct ural solution (the one geometry, yet trees stand up against the wind, that uses the least material) may likewise turn in structural terms, more econom ically than a out to be a unique, irregul ar, site-specific, Greek temple, or than the Seagram Buil and asymmetrical struct ure. Moreover, as ding. Likewise, the digital turn is fast replac digit al file-to-factory technolog ies are seam ing perspectival image-making technolog ies lessly applied to the entire des ign and (such as photog r aphy) with new, immersive manufacturing cycle, different items in the and intera ctive environm ents, where both the same mass-prod uc ed series may increasi ngly vantage point and the represent ed object can be obtained at little or no addit ion al costa seamlessly morph and changeanother process often called mass customiz at ion. instance of the ongoing demotion of the once As the costs of designing and producing ubiquit ous modern grid. And digitally variations diminishes, structural compon ents controlled manufacturing machin es are at may be made precisely to the shape and form their best (in the present state of the art) in rolling out monoliths, either milled or with intera ctivity in its various forms, and molded, and obtained by diminution or by with responsive environments; others have accretion, but always coming from, or been investig ating organicist metap hors, or resulting in, a single block of mater ial. developing a post-decons tructiv ist style of Junctions must still be laboriously hand- contested geomet ries, 9 some more crafted, as a close-up examin ation of some of cerebral, some more garish and vastly more the most celebrat ed buildings of the digital popular. Olgiati has built a few exq uisitely age does not fail to prove, sometimes detailed buildingsmonum ents to an almost painfully. Unlike the structural arguments obsessive pursuit of precisionbut buildings ment ioned above, neither the visual nor the where one always feels that somet hing, here manufacturing issues inherent in the present or there or all around, is not quite right . And techn ological change are mentioned, nor one reason for this relative Unzuhandenheit , explicitly endorsed in Olgiatis uvre, yet the and the uncann iness it insp ires, may be that circum s tantial evidence is meaningful. In many there is one major point where Olgiati and ways, Olgiatis buildings appear to comment the cont emporary technology he is using are upon a new classand possibly a new drastically at odds. In his recently publis hed ontologyof post-mechanical objects, Convers ation with Students, Olgiati describes industrially made and individu ally crafted at his design proc ess in vivid terms.10 Olgiati the same time. New technic al objects merge does not sketch; discussion takes plac e on aspects of the post-indust rial and of the and around a design (mostly represented by pre-industrial age. Digital manufact ure is line drawings or comput er render ings), and closer to handicraft than to the logic of the decisions can be made or changed in talks assembly line, and digital makers revive among the archit ects staff or between the aspects of pre-industrial craftsm ans hip. Like architect and the client , and, presumably, medieval artis ans, they can conceive and betw een the design ers team and engineers make at the same time. 8 Olgiatis high-tech and contract ors.11 But , as Olgiati emphas izes, buildings are exceedingly individualized, each there comes a point in time when a line must proudly exh ib i t ing its nature as a pice be drawn in the sand, and from that point on, unique, specific to one place, one prog ram, what was designed must be built without and one technology. Their standoffish, change. This ideal cut-off line, or point of monolithic nature corr oborates their status no return, was first theoret ically defin ed by as one-off, unrepeatable events. Their Leon Battista Alberti in his treatise On coloring (but other details as well) singularly Building (circa 1452) and, since then, it has emphasize their hybrid, high-tech and archaic been the principal notional instrument used look. For the last fifteen years or so, digital in the West to determine the authorial status techn ologies have mostly spawned various of the architect , and to estab lish the generations of folds, blobs, and single- architects authority upon the final act of surface, pliant structures. Moving from a building. The architect is the intellect ual similar critique of contemporary techn ology owner of a building not because he or she has (more or less similarly concept ualized) some physically made it , as a craftsman would, but contemp orary archit ects are experimenting because the architects design of that building has been executed without any change. The Once their des ign is completed, they may not build ing belongs intellectually to the architect be built if not verbatim, as it were: as in a because the architect has authorized it (in the digital print-out , bi-dimensional or three- etymological sense of the term)having dimensional, once the print key has been author ized its transl ation into a three- pushed, the game is over. Of course, buil dimensional object from the design he had dings cannot be printed out this way (not yet , first conceived in the mind, then at least , and not for some time to come), and expressed through drawings and models, in this is, I suggest , the real meaning of Olgiatis Albertis words.12 In Nelson Goodmans monolithic monuments to precision in terms, this is what marks architectures building. In the classic al and Albertian tradi transition from autographic to allog raphic, or tion, the mechanic of construction is ideally a notational art .13 But this is also where the non-event . In practice, fabricat ion may still classical tradition and the neotechnical object represent a titanic endeav or (it cert ainly does (and, accord ingly, the neotechn ical object and in Olgiatis work); but in Olgiatis theory, it Olgiatis work) must part comp any. A new carries no intellectual added value. Its only class of variable technical objects will also purpose is the faithful transl ation of an idea inevitably prompt new kinds of more generic, into a three-dimensional object . Precision is and less authorial, objects of design. its only raison dtre, and its only possible Interactivity implies some degree of partic i representat ional valuethe only thing it pation in the design and construction pro stands for. Hence it would appear that what cesses, and intera ct ion, negot iation, and Olgiati may be up to is a recapit ulation, and a open-ended variability will inevitably dimin ish final recast of one of the most essential cultu the extent of the authors control over the ral acquisit ions of the architecture of end product . This goes counter to the humanism, and of the classical tradition in the Albertian paradigmthe author ial principle West: the autonomy of the architects upon which most of early-modern, then authorial stance. He is doing so by using some modern archit ecture in the West has been of the technical and conceptual tools that predicated. In an algorithmic environm ent , may in time bring about the demise of that design does not bear upon an individual same socio-technical authorial status. The rift event , but on a generic form (in the inherent in this predic a ment is at times Aristotelian sense). This generic forman apparent in his work, and more often delibe open-ended, generat ive, algor ithm ic matrix rately and point edly shown. The classical can be declined and instantia ted in endless tradition has a long history of speaking versions, possibly without and outside its against itself (visually, conceptually, or both). authors control. In a diffe rent technical This is one reason for its longevity. context , this is what Alberti, fighting against the medieval tradition, tried to avert (history proved his attempts successf ul); and this is what Olgiatis work today emphat ically nega tes. Olgiatis monoliths most evid ently cannot admit of any adjustmentlet alone variations. Notes 1 See in particular the definitions of t actility and ed. Anthony Vidler (Williamstown, Mass.: The Clark Art visuality in William M. Ivins, Art and Geometry: A Study in Institute; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008), Space Intuitions (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ ers ity 127143. 9 The term is borrowed from Preston Scott Press, 1946). 2 Albertis definition of the recession in Cohen, Contested Symmetries and Other Predic aments in space of the vanishing point (which he actually c alls punto Architecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, centrico) is famously only almost to infin i ty, quasi 2001). 10 Valerio Olgiati, Conversation with Students, ed. persino in infinito (and in the Latin version, also Albertis, Markus Breitschmid (Blacksburg, Virg.: Virginia Tech quemadmodum paene usque ad infinit am dist antiam). Leon Architecture Public ations, 2007), 4754. 11 According to Battist a Alberti, De Pictura , I, 19, in Alberti, Opere Volgari, an uncertified oral tradition, some structural decisions are ed. Cecil Grayson (Bari: Laterza , 1973), 36 also made on the phone, in t alks between Olgiati and his 37. 3 Heideggers st ance on the mathematization of engineering consult ants. Under this respect , it appears that modern space is best epitomized in his Modern Science, the most advanced interactive software for building Met aphysics, and Mathematics (1962). The source of much information modeling c an only hope, at best , to rec apture of contemporary architectural Heideggerianism c an be the per formativity of the gesture and of the word (use of the traced to that essay and to two equally famous pieces, telephone would exclude the former, Building Dwelling and Thinking and The Question evidently). 12 Alberti, De Re Aedific atoria , I,1, 3; see Concerning Technology, which were originally published as Alberti, Larchitettura (De re aedific atoria), ed. and trans. parts of Heideggers Einblick in das, was ist (1949) and Giovanni Orlandi (Milan: Il Polifilo, 1966), 20 21. On Vortrge und Aufstze (1954). 4 First published in Being Albertis quest for the identic al replic ation of the authors and Time (1927). For a contemporary rec ast of Heideggers archetypes (in building, and in all kinds of media objects and tool analysis see the recent work of Bruno Latour, in technologies) see Mario Carpo, Albertis Media Lab, in particular Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Perspective, Projections and Design, eds. Mario Carpo and Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern, Critic al Enquiry, 30 Frdrique Lemerle (London and New York: Routledge, (Winter 2004): 225248; see also Graham Harman, 2007), 47 63, and Mario Carpo, Monstrous Objects, Heidegger on Objects and Things, in Making Things Public: Morphing Things, in Perspect a , 40, Monster, ed. Jacob Atmospheres of Democracy, eds. Bruno Latour and Peter Reidel et al. (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, forthcoming Weibel (Karlsruhe, Germany: Center for Art and Media; 2008). 13 Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art: An Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2005), 268 273. 5 See Approach to a Theory of Symbols (Indianapolis: Bobbs- in particular Jacques Luc an, Textured Spatiality and Frozen Merrill, 1968; 2nd ed., 1976). Chaos, 2G, 37 (2006): 4 11, and Kenneth Frampton, Olgiatis Almost Nothing, A+U, Architecture and Urbanism, 4 (2002): 64 69. 6 See Patrick Gartmann, Structural Report , University of Lucerne, 2G, 37 (2006): 96 100. 7 See Manuel DeLanda , Material Complexity, in Digit al Tectonics, eds. Neil Leach, David Turnbull, and Chris Williams (London: Wiley-Ac ademy, 2004), 14 22. 8 See Mario Carpo, Pattern Recognition, in Met amorph: Cat alogue of the 9th International Biennale dArchitettura , Venice 2004, vol. 3, Focus, ed. Kurt W. Forster (Venice: Marsilio; New York: Rizzoli International, 2004), 44 58; and Non St andard Morality: Digit al Technology and its Discontents, in Archit ecture Between Spect acle and Use,
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