Daley Wilson

ARC 505 Thesis Preparation

Crisis City:

Social Infusion
Urban Theatre & Public Space

Primary Advisor:
Anda French

Secondary Advisor:
Theodore Brown

Crisis City Primary Faculty:

Julia Czerniak
Anda French
Brian Lonsway
Brendan Moran
Francisco Sanin
Written Summary, page 1

Lewis Mumford defined the city as a theater of interacting social and physical forces: “The city
creates the theater and is the theater. It is in the city, the city as theater, that man’s more pur-
posive activities are focused, and work out, through conflicting and co-operating personalities,
events, groups into more significant culminations” (Mumford 185).

As a member of the Crisis City collaborative, I will conduct research and share critiques
amongst my classmates in the hopes of producing a unique perspective on the city in crisis. My
thesis will explore public space in the city as theatre. Rem Koolhaas names the current urban
situation, The Generic City (Avermaete 63). Cities have become bland and confused places where
social interaction remains low during the “Age of Excess”. Jürgen Habermas stated, “the oppor-
tunity for the public to form their own opinions is a necessary condition of human freedom and
emancipation” (Avermaete 27). I am reintroducing the concept of the “city as theatre” in order
to address the crisis of the loss of public space, which is a result of excessive behavior (mass con-
sumption). Can superimposition and event-making through the medium of architecture allow
for private to coexist with public? Urban architecture must provide function as well as accom-
modate the offentlichkeit, or public sphere (Avermaete 26). The design intention is a marriage of
architecture and infrastructure for public behavior: demonstration, performance, and informal
encounters. There is typically a tension between the two; however, they must unite in order to
create a true public architecture –contrary to paying for public space. The project will be informed
by an analysis at the scale of the city, the architecture and infrastructure, and the event or small-
scale intervention.
As a result of my architectural contention, I have identified a site and situation that best
represents the crisis I have addressed above. Berlin, particularly the old Tacheles (Yiddish for
plain talk) department store in former East Berlin, represents a city and culture at odds with com-
mercial development. Squatters have infiltrated the abandoned Tacheles building (bombed out
during WWII, yet remains intact with visible scars), reappropriating it as a Kunsthaus. Squatters
have flourished in post-wall Berlin. The movement galvanized fresh off the opening of the wall,
when East Berliners inundated the west looking for opportunity, therefore emptying many build-
ings and prompting debates of possession and public domain. Today, most squatters manage ac-
tivities for artists and political groups in these derelict buildings. Artists at Tacheles confront the
concept of public domain. The site becomes a public space for not only artists but also visitors.
Berlin is a palimpsest or layering of history. It is a collage of pre and post event chaotic
schizophrenia. Significant political and social crises have plagued the city, particularly in the 20th
century. Berlin never had a moment to exhale between the end of WWII and the start of the Cold
War. The city was physically and politically divided from that point until 1989. With reunification,
Berlin confronted a city in ruins, which led to uncertainty when it came time for reconstruction.
Berlin has cultivated an avant-garde arts scene, reminiscent of 1980s New York. Forward-
thinking art and design has a home in Berlin. This anxious and rough persona has become Ber-
lin’s, historically appropriate, post-wall identity. The fate of 1980s New York is paralleled with the
AIDS epidemic and mostly the “Disneyfication” of the city by the Giuliani administration. Berlin is
in a similar predicament as New York was in the early 90’s. Researching New York as a parallel for
a similar condition that has been played out could provide a cautionary tale or reveal a new view
on gentrification.
Written Summary, page 2

Currently, developers are hoping to turn this sacrosanct site into a major commercial real
estate property. The “I Support Tacheles” website claims that the building attracts a “high num-
ber of visitors [and is] an economic cornerstone of the district”. They are demanding “the small
plot of the Kunsthaus transfer by lease to a public foundation – Tacheles secure”. Tearing down
Tacheles, a cultural and even tourist destination, and shifting it to a commercial development
further promotes the generic city.
In terms of design methodology, I believe architecture that produces events and program
superimpositions could be effective. Thus, the study of transprogramming options’ influence
on public space may become critical for design solutions. Inherently, collage and montage will
become representational and design techniques, taking cues from Bernard Tschumi. Urban inter-
ventionist, Julia Mandle, is similar to that of a comedian, à la Jon Stewart. Both draw attention in
an absurd manner to the obvious. Perhaps that is where the concept of spectacle (or the absurd)
plays into my thesis. Spectacle might become a framing device for understanding and promoting
urban social interaction. Events for Julia Mandle create awareness of one’s surroundings and a
sense of belonging in a space due to its interactive nature. Events for Bernard Tschumi “affirm
that there is no architecture without action or without program, and that architecture’s impor-
tance resides in its ability to accelerate society’s transformation through a careful agencing of
spaces and events” (Tschumi 11). Events can become nodes of activity on an architectural site.
They might be unprogrammed space with infrastructure, which encourages a dynamic individual-
ized experience, tailored to one’s desires and medium of expression.
I believe my topic of interest has been understudied in the past and is gaining more mo-
mentum as people realize due to urban convergence, cities will serve as mediators by which
humanity will be defined and shaped. Architecture’s role is of great importance because we can
no longer solely rely upon political agencies to effectively resolve crisis in our cities. Cities are
growing and public space is diminishing.

Glossary:
Theatre- a lens or sphere of enactment, a metaphor for [inter]actions in the city
Age of Excess- the indulgent product of modernization, which is characterized by a lack of con-
cern for function and sustainability, and the disappearance of public space due to late capitalism’s
promotion of mass consumption of goods and information
Infrastructure- physical/cyber organizational structures needed for the operation of the public
Event- a social occasion or occurrence, typically planned to promote awareness of a cause, agen-
da, celebration, etc – different than intervention
Intervention- an action or response as a result of something, a motive or agenda influences this
action, at times an intervention can also be an event
Crisis- “Crisis is a turning point, a decisive moment when tensions or instabilities peak, and change
becomes inescapable. Crisis implies the questioning of beliefs and habits, it demands adjustment
in perception and in modes of action… doubts regarding current models of urban development…
architecture can’t carry on as usual.” -Verb:Crisis
Spectacle- (1) a framing device through which to view something anew (2) attention-seeker (3)
absurd or surreal display
Graphic Summary

Building without public space & negative reinforcement

vs. vs.

The absurd reveals obvious & overlooked truths

TACHELES SITE

Tacheles building and site

Locating Tacheles in its context, highlighting water and rail infrastructure, as well as dense nodal tourist and
commercial areas (Hauptbahnhof, Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust memorial, Potsdamer Platz)
Annotated Bibliography
Avermaete, Tom, Klaske Havik, and Hans Teerds. Architectural Positions: Architecture,
Modernity, and the Public Sphere. Amsterdam: SUN, 2009.
A collection of influential writings from practicing architects on architecture, modernity,
and the public sphere. Koolhaas’s “Generic City” and the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas have
been referenced in this abstract, however, many other writings in this collection have influenced
my contention.

Ballesteros, Mario. VERB:Crisis. Barcelona: Actar, 2008.

Urban crisis is explicitly addressed in this ‘boogazine’. This publication does not believe
crisis only involves acts of god or failed physical systems. There is a broader understanding that
crisis involves not just obvious occurences but abstracted tensions.

Bernard Tschumi. Event-Cities: Praxis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.

Event-Cities presents numerous projects, which engage architecture and event. Several
concepts are presented such as transprogramming and transient events.

Mandle, Julia. “Julia Mandle : Variable City.” Julia Mandle : Welcome. Web. 12 Dec. 2009.
<http://www.jmandlesperformance.org/projects/variable-city>.
Julia Mandle is an artist who focuses on urban interventions using various media. She is a
primarily performance-based artist due to its social and public nature. The exciting characteristic
of Mandle’s work is that they not only engage a social or political theme, but they become spa-
tial experiences. She uses a multidisciplinary approach with the city as her canvas to engage the
citizenry. She is also aware of the condition I am trying to address through the Crisis City collab-
orative. Our overly private culture has even decreased awareness of events around us in cities.
The city should be the incubator for informal/formal shared social experience. Architecture has
increasingly failed to encourage this interaction.

Mumford, Lewis, “What is a City?”, The City Reader. London: Routledge, 1996, page 185.
A metaphor can be drawn to describe a social phenomenon in the city: urban theater.
The term is in no way a new descriptor; however, I believe we can study the characteristics and
processes that contribute to urban theater. When Lewis Mumford defined the city, he spoke of it
as a theater of interacting social and physical forces: “Without the social drama that comes into
existence through the focusing and intensification of group activity there is not a single function
performed in the city that could not be performed – and has not in fact been performed – in the
open country.”

Nicolai Ouroussoff. “The Civic Value of a Bold Statement.” New York Times 2009, sec. Art &
Design: <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/arts/design/05coop.html>.
Nicolai Ouroussoff’s review of Morphosis’s Cooper Union project was where I first read
about the “Age of Excess”. This concept has helped me to validate a turning point for architec-
ture, and subsequently form an argument that economy has created a culture and crisis of ex-
treme privateness.