HOW

ARCHITECTURE
LEARNED TO SPECULATE ............................................. 5

I
SPECIOUS SPECULATION    
PLAYING VALUE: FAD, FASHION, FEVER .............................................................................   15
DEVALUING VALUE: CONFUSION, CRISIS, COMPENSATION .........................................   19
RATIONALISTIC HYPE ...................................................................................................... 26
STYLISTIC FIGHT ............................................................................................................... 28
WILLING VALUE: HISTORICITY, LOCALITY, RELATIVITY ................................................. 32
COSMIC TO COSMETIC ................................................................................................... 39
CAPITAL TO CREATION ................................................................................................... 44
MOBILIZING VALUE: INSTABILITY, VOLATILITY, FRIVOLITY ......................................... 52
SPECULATION AND FASHION: MODERNS, FRIENDS, FOES ........................................... 60
FASHION TO FASHION: SELF-REFERENCE, AUTO-MOTION, NON-SENSE .................... 68
FASHION AS FICTION: RADICALITY, RISK, REALITY ......................................................... 80
FASHION AND TIME: YOUNGEST OLD AND LATEST NEW .............................................   102
FASHION AGAINST FASHION .................................................................................................   113

II
MAGIC MEDIA   
GLAMOUR SHOTS .....................................................................................................................   119
MAGIC TRANSPORTATION: TRANSFORMER, MATERIALIZER, VISUALIZER ................   123
CONNECTION, CIRCULATION, COMMUNICATION ...........................................................   133
MAGIC TICKER ..................................................................................................................   137
PERFORMANCE AND CHARLATANRY ..................................................................................   147
GRAMMAR AND GLAMOUR ...................................................................................................   158

III
SPECTACULAR SPECULATOR    
SPECTACLE, CROWD, SUBJECT ..............................................................................................   175
PASSIVE SPECTATOR ................................................................................................................   182
ACTIVE SPECULATOR ...............................................................................................................   187
SPECTACULAR STRATEGIES, ANTI-DESIGN, CONTRARY THINKING .............................   189
THE OTHER ........................................................................................................................   193
MEDIA BURN ..................................................................................................................... 204
SPECTACULAR STRATEGIES, ANTI-THEORY, CONTRARY WRITING .............................. 212
SPECULATION TAKES COMMAND ............................................................................... 214
SPECULATION WITHOUT SPECULATORS ................................................................... 219
BORN COPIES, DIE ORIGINALS ..................................................................................... 228

COPYRIGHTS & CREDITS ......................................................................................................... 239

INDEX .......................................................................................................................................... 242

Contents 1
Speculative Postcards  http://www.flickr.com/photos/dutchct/3092191922/

in Iwate  http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/LiveImages/Nette%20Dola%C5%9Fanlar/Bun-

lar%20sadece%20T%C3%BCrkiye%27de%20olur/00.jpg in Diyarbakır 

http://englishrussia.com/ in Moscow  http://feels.ru/ in

Omsk  http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/LiveImages/Nette%20Dolasanlar/SendeYolla10/

araba.jpg in Giresun  http://englishrussia.com/ in Mos-

cow  http://filipefreitas.net/blog/?p=138 in Istanbul  http://fotogaleri.hurri-

yet.com.tr/LiveImages/Nette%20Dola%C5%9Fanlar/Bu%20karelere%20bakmadan%20

ge%C3%A7meyin/508.jpg in Izmit  http://img77.imageshack.us/1851/

in Omsk  http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/ in

Buca  http://bsk.kpgs.ru/2008/231008/original in Tolyatti  http://bsk.kpgs.

ru/2008/231008 in Ufa

2
How Architecture Learned to Speculate
Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illus-
trations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machines or similar means,
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© Stuttgart 2009 by igmade.edition – D93

Published by Gerd de Bruyn
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3
4
 HOW
ARCHITECTURE
LEARNED TO SPECULATE
If architecture is still in search of a theory, then this theory
should focus on questions of strategy: strategy behind any form
and any program, behind any procedure and any argumentation.
Because, it is strategy that mediates between work and world,
between intention and attention and that decides on success or
failure of any effort. It is strategy that – as Foucault has shown – is
realized as improvising tactics, but that most certainly implies a
subject (an author, a designer, or a curator), a public, and specu-
lation. It is strategy that suggests Rem Koolhaas being “perpetu-
ally torn between realism and a kind of speculative fervor,“1 but
not in an idealistic way. Rather in the competitive and elitist way
of a modern culture, regarded as economic, with all post-isms be-
ing episodes or cycles of the same dynamic. Russian philosopher
Boris Groys describes this dynamic as an economy of culture:2
economy, not in depending on money or in treating expensive
projects of ‘bigness’ – that would be banal –, but in handling cul-
tural gain. Cultural gain has to do with recognition and atten-
tion not for economic, but for cultural values and for those, who
represent them. In modernity, however, these cultural values are
notionally as mobile as financial values. In modernity, as French
philosopher Paul Valéry advances Nietzschean ideas, mobile
values are not only an economic procedure, but they become
a form: a form that submits the total of contemporary life under
the control of volatility, in the end, under the control of fashion.

Speculations: The speculative régime3 is at the heart of the

endless modernity, and it confuses the conceptual oppositions
that stabilize rationalism. It constitutes a life of global networked
interaction, in which circulation or exchange is the main field of
action.  It makes few win and most lose. It connects uncertainty to
expectation and mixes up the serious and the play. It compromises
the most patient work of calculated plan with the most risky and
frivolous bet. It dissolves the distinction between the true and the
1  In this quotation Koolhaas refers to himself
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=1615
2  Boris Groys: Über das Neue. Versuch einer Kulturökonomie (1992),
Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2004
3  Jean-Joseph Goux: Frivolité de la Valeur. Essai sur l‘Imaginaire du
Capitalisme, Paris: Blusson, 2000

Introduction 5
fictive, between the real and the unreal. In the end, it might gran-
diosely fail, or gloriously succeed. 
French anarchist Pierre Proudhon already discovered the
speculative paralogisms relying on the mobile value and turning
all great antinomies of science and philosophy into ambiguities
of modernity.4 With speculation, the opposite between the eco-
nomic order and the feverish game, on which is founded the the-
ory of George Bataille, becomes untenable. It is in economic spec-
ulation that the sciences of modern times have found their limits
at first. It is here, where decisions cannot be based on knowledge
alone. In this ‘alchemy’5 operational success is favored over (sci-
entific) trueness.
We suggest that modern culture, above all, architecture, is
also such a region of speculation, of mobile values, of risk and
gain, with strategic bears and bulls, and with magicians.6 It calls
for a theory, which shows how modernity actually implies spec-
ulative strategies: speculation, not as a form of contemplative
and philosophical reflection, but of strategic and risky acting that
produces differences,7 parallel to price differences of the stock
market. Architecture calls for a theory that treats architecture not
with regards to content – content is value, is mobile –, but with re-
gards to strategy. 

In recognizing cultural values as mobile, we recognize them

as fashionable. Modernity means the mobility of formerly sta-
ble value; value represents concepts that used to firmly distin-
guish between right and wrong, good and evil, beautiful and
ugly – such as the classical canon in architecture. Modernity in
architecture starts with the destabilization of this canon, it starts
with a kind of mobility, which we define as fashion. 
The classical canon that actually constituted a hierarchy of
formal values, that is, a rhetoric system defining the unity of con-
tent and form, becomes void around 1800. It becomes mobile,
what has been regarded as highest value: architectural trueness,
we could also say architectural objectivity, honesty, or beauty.
That the mobility of trueness actually means its end, shows, how
modernity includes the figure of crisis from the very beginning.
A crisis, which naturally becomes acute only through risky – in
terms of fashion: risqué – speculation. Crisis means the radical
devaluation of established values and in architecture the certain
end of a fashion. Argues Ernst Gombrich: “Competition for atten-

6
tion can lead to the unintended consequence of simply lowering
the value of what you have been doing before.”8 
Only an abstract figure of fashion can explain speculation as
a subjective strategy that produces difference. Fashion is a meta-
disciplinary concept describing the cultural economy of chang-
ing values. Georg Simmel is the first to recognize this general
phenomenon. Fashion is the up and down, the in and out of
values that is mainly known from the stock market. Feverish
states can, however, be observed in all fields of modern society.
Simmel describes the volatile processes of fashion as a symptom
of the immediate, fast, modern life. These processes run outside
of natural causality, and they produce an artificial system of val-
orization, which has little to do with functional considerations,
questions of content, or cause and effect. Fashion is rather about
moods, irrationality, and the bias for the break, which estab-
lishes new and demotes old values. The paradoxical is that fash-
ion makes claim to leadership, but, at the same time, commands
disobedience. The break means difference, revaluation of values,
it means the new in contrast to the old, and it does not recog-
nize any borders. Fashion actually is the violation of its own rules.
It is permanent revolution that does not pursue a goal, but that
relativizes every goal. Fashion – this is arguably the reason for its
rejection –, in its feverish change, challenges the society and its
fundamentals of durability and continuity. Its autonomous logic
calls with no reason, let alone good reason, for continuous varia-
tion and for the novel. The more radical the speculative variation
is, the bigger will be the spectacle. 
Fashion is a form of continious, fantastic change; it is ­fiction,
which is not bound to any object, but which relies on (mass)

4  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: P.J. Proudhon‘s Handbuch des Börsen-

Spekulanten (1853), Hannover: Carl Mener, 1857
5  George Soros: The Alchemy of Finance. Reading the Mind of the
Market, New York: Wiley, 1994
6  Thus, notes American author Washington Irving: “Speculation
is the romance of trade, and casts contempt upon all its sober
realities. It renders the stock-jobber a magician, and the exchange
a region of enchantment.“
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Irving
7  Gregory Bateson calls this a difference, which makes
a difference.
Gregory Bateson: Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in
Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology, Chicago:
University Of Chicago Press, 1972
8  Ernst Gombrich: The Logic of Vanity Fair, in: Ideals and Idols. Essays
on Values in History and Art, Ernst Gombrich, Oxford: Phaidon, 1979

Introduction 7
 medial realities. It is actually based on the mobilization by
mass media. With the help of modern broadcasting media,
transporting image and text at the same time, modern culture
becomes fashionable at first. We could even claim that the
mode-rnization of architecture results from the transmission and
distribution of its images.
Without fiction there is no speculation.  Only the fictive al-
lows the constitution of a subjective and individual position, from
which an author can enter the speculative competition at first.
We will see that speculation is a form of ‘self-authorization’, of
an author claiming for authorship. And modern architecture is
architecture, if there is an author to it. We could even radicalize
that in modernity architecture is architecture only insofar as it is
‘authorized‘. The modern author, pronounced dead by post-struc-
turalism, is actually at the origin of any pronouncement at all; it
is reborn, not as genial creator, but as strategist, who – if success-
ful – becomes spectacular9 and a member of an elitist club typi-
cal to modernity.

Modern culture includes the spectacle of speculation, which

turns out to be a figure of showing, rather than of seeing (a fu-
ture to come). Its Latin root ‘speculari’ has included both mean-
ings. We treat spectacle, in contrast to Guy Debord, as a question
of how the subject can manifest itself to the others.10 A subject
that is the responsible author of its own visibility within a society
of the spectacle, that does actually not allow contemplation. The
author has nothing to do with passive consumption, but rather
with subjective strategies of authorization and practices of spec-
tacle. These speculative strategies aim at the striking, the novel,
the surprising; in other words: at the distinction from the ‘mass‘,
the background, or mainstream fashion. Since, it is the distinc-
tion from the background that renders the figure visible at first.
And visibility is the main task in the modern mass society. 
Speculation, as a field of subjective strategies of difference,
occurs within economic theory, where the spectacular specula-
tor has to act against the mass. In modern art and architecture,
this strategy is linked to the avant-garde. We call it anti-design or
anti-fashion, since the aim at difference constantly makes the au-
thor negate established positions.
Strategies of permanent negation and deviance have re-
placed the figure of permanent trueness. Fashion has replaced

8
any stable notion of truth. And speculation can be understood
as subjective manipulation of values in order to revaluate them.
It is strategies of difference that provoke the break and that pro-
vide the new in contrast to the old. Old, that is best shown at the
classical modern architecture of the 1920ies, does not mean an-
tiquity, but the directly preceding fashion, in this case, the fash-
ion of art nouveau. In the sixties, there is no denying the fact any
longer that modern culture is about the spectacle. In the course
of time, the contents have changed from modernist open lamen-
tation to ironical attempts of subversion; the strategies, however,
remain speculative. They consist of the continuous, fashionable
revaluation of values. 
Of course, fashion is not restricted to the practical fields of cul-
ture, but also extends to theoretical and curatorial discourses. The
collection, presentation, and discussion of others‘ works are them-
selves works, embodying the aim of an author at becoming spec-
tacular. They are also forms of speculation, which is always stra-
tegic or medial, not only stating. Again: it is a matter of showing,
rather than just seeing. It is a matter of fashion and anti-fashion.
Actually, as authors, we are all fashion makers and essentially
engaged with becoming visible; in the end we are all engaged
with self-fashioning and self-design through our works, within
the ‘modische Moderne’.11

9  The author becomes a ‘magician’, in the words of Irving, who is

thought of as male. As there is no female magician, it is obvious
that there is neither a female speculator in the discourse.
The contrary is true: at the stock market the speculator wins out
over a female majority, over emotion, hysteria, and panic.
Speculation theory is a subject theory of the male speculator,
who beats the market that is imagined as female. Proudhon
explicitly talks about woman’s organs in the brain and in the
stomach being impotent by birth.
We observe architecture as a mainly male discipline. For this reason,
this text only uses the third person masculine singular pronoun.
10  Boris Groys: The Obligation to Self-Design
http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/6
11  Boris Groys: The Obligation to Self-Design
http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/6

Introduction 9
From a trek in the Andes mountain
range, media artist Michael Najjar brings
the photographic material for his project
‘high altitude’. The series visualizes the
development of stock market indices
over the past twenty to thirty years. The
highs and lows of the charts re-shape the
mountains, creating – out of the photo-
graphs – their own summits, crests, and
chines. It is a “shared biography” of
mountain and market, of ups and downs
of value differences and the strategic
handling they imply.
‘high altitude’ is the perfect emblem to
the following argumentation, picturing
that, in modernity, speculation – as stra-
tegic acting – is applied to all values, be
that economic, political, or aesthetic. Pic-
turing that speculation, normally referred
to the stock market, is actually embodied
in every valuation, in every play with
high and low, in every fever for the first
ascent, and in every attention for a sup-
posed hero (author, architect, artist, de-
signer). There can be gained a lot, but
only in taking another route than before.
a  Michael Najjar: high altitude,
(hybrid photography),
dax_80 – 09, 2008 /9
b  Michael Najjar: high altitude,
nasdaq_80 – 09, 2008 /9

10
 a

Introduction 11
a  Michael Najjar: high altitude,
nikkei_66 – 09, 2008 /9
b  Michael Najjar: high altitude,
dow jones_80 – 09, 2008 /9

12
 a

13
14

COPYRIGHTS & CREDITS
I system/2008/02/25/009240071.shtml
SPECIOUS SPECULATION
10 –13  Courtesy of Michael Najjar
http://www.michaelnajjar.com/
18  http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Fichier:F%C3%A9licien_Rops_001.jpg
30 – 31 a  http://www.daylife.com/photo
/04zj1fj7z45C2?q=Japan+Fashion+Week
30 – 31 b  Courtesy of Matthieu Laurette
http://www.laurette.net/
30 – 31 c  http://www.wallpaper.com/
gallery/­fashion/­fashion-show-
venues/­17050154
30 – 31 d  Copyright StyelCartel Dona
http://stylecartel.wordpress.
com/2008/06/08/my-paris-moment/
30 – 31 e  Copyright Jurgen Bey
http://www.jurgenbey.nl/
30 – 31 f  Copyright Dries van Noten
http://www.showtex.com/project/­
dries-van-noten-spring-2005.html
36 – 37  Courtesy of NL architects
Photograph Hertha Hurnaus
http://www.nlarchitects.nl
38  Courtesy of Universitätsbibliothek
Heidelberg
Gottfried Semper: Der Stil in den tech-
nischen und tektonischen Künsten oder
Praktische Ästhetik, 1860, p. 575 – 582
42 – 43  Courtesy of PARA-Project
http://www.para-project.org
46 – 47 a  http://www.citsnj.com/­
attractions/show_info_7838.html
46 – 47 b  Copyright Weng Fen
http://msjankido.wordpress.com/­
2009/03/04/mocataipei/
46 – 47 c  http://citylife.house.sina.com.
cn/detail.php?gid=23089
46 – 47 d  http://www.luxuo.com/­
watches/house-of-voila-awarded.html
46 – 47 e  http://house.focus.cn/­
news/2008-07-29/509127.html
46 – 47 f  http://bbs.club.sina.com.cn/­
thread-274-0/table-31544-1127-4.html
46 – 47 g  http://bbs.club.sina.com.cn/­
thread-274-0/table-31544-1127-4.html
46 – 47 h  http://bbs.e-bq.com/redirect.p­
hp?fid=152&tid=46387&goto=nextoldset
46 – 47 i  http://www.dgcn.com.cn/­
gdarts/index.htm
46 – 47 j  http://bbs.eq88.net/­
baixinglicai/jixie/22538.html
46 – 47 k  http://images.china.cn/imag-
es1/200711/412438.jpg
46 – 47 l  http://bbs.club.sina.com.cn/­
thread-274-0/table-31544-1127-4.html
46 – 47 m  http://goods.pclady.com.cn/­
Copyrights & Credits
mp3/0802/254856.html
46 – 47 n  http://3n.zjol.com.cn/­05sn/
50  Copyright visiondision through An-
ders Berensson & Ulf Mejergren
56 – 57 a  Copyright occupant­
productions
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
occupantproductions/422326914/
56 – 57 b  Copyright Perpetual Tourist
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
petrick/70924598/
56 – 57 c  Copyright John (Gianni)
Raineri
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
goodimages/130197512/
56 – 57 d  Copyright miskan
http://www.miskan.com/2005/06/­
kuwait-stock-exchange.html
56 – 57 e  Copyright David Buckley
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
11189692@N07/3276897612/
56 – 57 f  Copyright Ryan Lawler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/­
File:NYSE127.jpg
62 a  Copyright Joshua Simoneau
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
27655859@N06/3693926677/
62 b  Copyright Muesse
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/­
File:Otto-Wagner-Villa_II_0058.JPG
66 – 67 a  Copyright Rogner & Bernhard
Verlags GmbH & Co. Verlags KG, Berlin
Grandville: Das gesamte Werk,
Vol. 1 +  2 / Die Mode, 1969, Image 13
66 – 67 b  Punch; or, The London Chari-
vari, 1 September 1877
66 – 67 c  Punch; or, The London Chari-
vari, 1 September 1877, p. 77
66 – 67 d  Courtesy of Eva (aka Valley
Violet or the Digital Changeling)
http://www.digitalchangeling.com/sew-
ing/periodResources
66 – 67 e  Courtesy of Eva (aka Valley
Violet or the Digital Changeling)
http://www.digitalchangeling.com/sew-
ing/periodResources
72  http://www.spamula.net/blog/­
archives/000531.html
76 – 77  http://commons.wikimedia.org/­
wiki/File:Corset1896-1906-1914-1917.png
78 – 79  Courtesy of MVRDV
Client: Gemeente Almere | Year: Decem-
ber 2006 | MVRDV: Winy Maas, Jacob
van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries with Stefan
Witteman, Jeroen Zuidgeest, Hui-Hsin
Liao, Martine Vledder, Mikkel Thisted,
Simon Persson, Weiping Zhang | Land-
scape Advisor: Roel van Gerwen | Plan-
239
ning Advisor: Edwin van Uum | Financial
Advisor: Bouwhaven, Ruud Ghering
84 – 85 a  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Tulip_mania
84 – 85 b  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Flora%27s_Malle-wagen_van_­
Hendrik_Pot_1640.jpg
84 – 85 c  Earl Thompson: The tulipma-
nia: Fact or artifact?, 2007, p. 101
90 – 91  Courtesy of Aristide Antonas
http://www.aristideantonas.com
96 – 97  Courtesy of David Schalliol
http://www.davidschalliol.com
100 – 101  Courtesy of Kevin Bauman
http://www.kevinbauman.com/
108 a  Patrice de Moncan: Les Passages
Couverts de Paris, Paris: Les Editions du
Mécène, 1995, p. 179
108 b  Copyright de Clicsouris
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/­
Passage_Choiseul
110 – 111 a  Courtesy of Bibliothèque
nationale de France
110 – 111 b  Courtesy of The Fine Art
Society
110 – 111 c  Courtesy of The Fine Art
­S ociety
110 – 111 d  Courtesy of The Fine Art
Society
110 – 111 e  Courtesy of Bibliothèque
nationale de France
110 – 111 f  Courtesy of Bibliothèque
nationale de France
116 – 117  Courtesy of FAT, Sam Jacob
http://fashionarchitecturetaste.com/
II
MAGIC MEDIA
122 a  Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust.
Used with permission. Julius Shulman
Photography Archive, Research Library at
the Getty Research Institute (2004.R.10)
122 b  Copyright Frederick Barr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
modern_fred/2482039046/
124 – 125 a  Volume No.1, 2005
124 – 125 b  Frühlicht, 1921
124 – 125 c  Junk Jet, No.2, 2008
124 – 125 d  L’Esprit Nouveau, No.17, 1922
124 – 125 e  G - Zeitschrift für elementare
Gestaltung, No.4, 1926
124 – 125 f  Shelter No.4, 1932
124 – 125 g  Shelter No.4, 1932
124 – 125 h  Copyright Mimi Zeiger
loud paper, Volume 1, issue 1, 1997
124 – 125 i  Bau: Zeitschrift für
­A rchitektur und Städtebau, No.1, 1969
124 – 125 j  Bau: Zeitschrift für
­A rchitektur und Städtebau, No.1/2, 1968
240
130 – 131  Copyright (Waffle Iron
Heights, Oil Can Residence, Stand Mixer
Mews, Iron Apartments, Sprinkler House,
Coffee Pot Towers, Hole Punch Flats,
Measurement District) by David
Trautrimas courtesy of the artist.
134 a  James W. Sheep: World’s Colum-
bian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, p. 235
134 b  Courtesy of Jeffery Howe, Fine
Arts Departement Boston College
Van Brunt & Howe: Interior of Electricity
Building, Chicago, 1893
138 – 139 a  http://en.wikipedia.org/­
wiki/File:Tesla_colorado_adjusted.jpg
138 – 139 b  Nicola Tesla: The Fantastic
Inventions of Nikola Tesla, Adventures
Unlimited Press, 1993, p. 205
138 – 139 c  Nicola Tesla: The Fantastic
Inventions of Nikola Tesla, Adventures
Unlimited Press, 1993, p. 148
138 – 139 d  Nicola Tesla: The Fantastic
Inventions of Nikola Tesla, Adventures
Unlimited Press, 1993, p. 149
138 – 139 e  Nicola Tesla: The Fantastic
Inventions of Nikola Tesla, Adventures
Unlimited Press, 1993, p. 147
144 a  http://commons.wikimedia.org/­
wiki/File:Stock_ticker.jpg
144 b  National Archives
http://narademo.umiacs.umd.edu/cgi-
bin/isadg/viewitem.pl?item=49443
148 – 149  Courtesy of JODI
http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/
152 a  http://commons.wikimedia.org/­
wiki/File:Tuerkischer_schachspieler_­
racknitz1.jpg
152 b  http://commons.wikimedia.org/­
wiki/File:Tuerkischer_schachspieler_­
racknitz3.jpg
156 – 157  Courtesy of Bernard
Gigounon
http://www.bgigounon.be
162 a  Paul Maenz: Die 50er Jahre.
Formen eines Jahrzehnts, Stuttgart, 
1978, p. 63
162 b  http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Expo58_building_Philips.jpg
164 – 165 a  Eugen Dietrichs (ed.):
Jahrbuch des Deutschen Werkbundes,
Jena, 1913
164 – 165 b  Le Corbusier: Vers une
Architecture, Paris: Les Éditions G. Crés
et C(ie), 1923
164 – 165 c  Le Corbusier, Stanislaus von
Moos (ed.): L’Esprit Nouveau. Le
Corbusier und die Industrie 1920 –1925
Berlin: Ernst, 1987, p. 39
164 – 165 d  L’Esprit Nouveau,
Vol. 6, 1921
172 – 173  Courtesy of Ralf Schreiber
http://www.ralfschreiber.com
III
SPECTACULAR SPECULATOR
178 a  http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Kleingartenanlage_Nützenberg_
Schrebergarten.jpg
178 b  http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/
dewiki/1256867
178 c  http://herold.twoday.net/topics/
menschen/
178 d  http://www.pictokon.net/
bilder/2008-03-bilder/kleingartenmuse-
um-leipzig-05-schrebergarten-anlage-his-
torische-gartenlauben.html
180 a  Courtesy of Gitta Gschwendtner
http://www.gittagschwendtner.com
180 b  http://images.travelpod.com/us-
ers/katenjosh/katenjosh-world.11364956
40.14_bats_outside_the_bat_house.jpg
180 c  http://www.flickr.com/photos/
charleywally/124063414/
180 d  http://i337.photobucket.com/
albums/n380/batmad_08/DSCF9101.jpg
184 – 185  Courtesy of Pascual Sisto
http://www.pascualsisto.com/
196 – 197 a  Courtesy of Kenneth
Rougeau
http://synchronicity313.etsy.com
196 – 197 b  Copyright Chad Kellogg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
kymtyr/1368976322/
196 – 197 c  Copyright Chad Kellogg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/­
kymtyr/1368976322/
196 – 197 d  Copyright Albertina,
Wien, ALA2138
196 – 197 e  Adolf Loos: Das Andere. Ein
Blatt zur Einführung abendländischer
Kultur in Österreich, No.1, 1903
196 – 197 f  Adolf Loos: Das Andere. Ein
Blatt zur Einführung abendländischer Kul-
tur in Österreich, No.2, 1903
202 a – c  Courtesy of Darlene Charneco
203 d  Courtesy of Rob ‘t Hart
Project by MVRDV
Client: Family Didden | Year: 2002 – 2007
MVRDV: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs,
Nathalie de Vries with Annet Schurink,
Marc Joubert, Fokke Moerel and Ivo van
Cappelleveen | Structure: Pieters Bouw-
techniek, Delft NL: Jan Versteegen | Stairs:
Verheul Trappen, Montfoort NL | Blue
finish: Kunststof Coatings Nederland B.V.
Zevenhuizen NL | Constructor: Formaat
Bouw, Sliedrecht NL
203 e  Courtesy of Seyed Alavi
http://here2day.netwiz.net
Copyrights & Credits
203 f  Courtesy of Helmut Smits
Photograph Jeroen Wandemaker
http://www.helmutsmits.nl
208 – 210  University of California,
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film
Archive. Purchase made possible through
a bequest from Thérèse Bonney, by
exchange, a partial gift of Chip Lord and
Curtis Schreier, and gifts from an
anonymous donor and Harrison Fraker.
216 – 217 a  Sigfried Giedion:
Befreites Wohnen, 1929, Image 1
216 – 217 b  Sigfried Giedion:
Befreites Wohnen, 1929, Image 83
216 – 217 c  Sigfried Giedion:
Raum, Zeit, Architektur, 1941, p. 502
216 – 217 d  Sigfried Giedion:
Befreites Wohnen, 1929, Image 66 – 68
220  Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery,
New York
224 – 225 a  Bernard Rudofsky: Architec-
ture Without Architects, 1964, Image 118
224 – 225 b  Bernard Rudofsky: Architec-
ture Without Architects, 1964, Image 142
224 – 225 c  Bernard Rudofsky: Architec-
ture Without Architects, 1964, Image 136
224 – 225 d  Bernard Rudofsky: Architec-
ture Without Architects, 1964, Image 150
224 – 225 e  Bernard Rudofsky: Architec-
ture Without Architects, 1964, Image 149
224 – 225 f  Bernard Rudofsky: Architec-
ture Without Architects, 1964, Image 92
224 – 225 g  Bernard Rudofsky: Architec-
ture Without Architects, 1964, Image 91
226 – 227 a  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Syncretia/35/145/22
226 – 227 b  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Burning%20Life-Denio/68/108/38
226 – 227 c  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Burning%20Life-Zero%20Mile/31/81/38
226 – 227 d  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Burning%20Life-Calico/208/248/24
226 – 227 e  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Versailles%20Architecture/132/126/30
226 – 227 f  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
RMB%20City%201/134/107/139
226 – 227 g  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Burning%20Life-Calico/124/114/24
226 – 227 h  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
St%20Louis%20Island/52/147/66
226 – 227 i  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
RMB%20City%201/111/44/97
226 – 227 j  http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Juree/147/156/87
232 – 234  Courtesy of Caspar Stracke
http://www.videokasbah.net
236 –237  OMA Images courtesy of
the Office for Metropolitan
Architecture (OMA)
241

INDEX
A Content  6, 7, 9, 24 – 27, 40, 54, 68, 73,
Active  33 – 34, 187 –188
Adorno, Theodor W.  49, 105, 111–115,
154, 207, 212
Agamben, Giorgio  187 –189
Alavi, Sayed  202
Alchemy  6, 70 – 72, 136, 151, 190
Amateur  121, 136, 221
Anonymous  221– 223
Ant Farm  206 – 211
Anti-design  8, 189, 190, 193 –195, 198,
204, 211, 214, 231, 235
Anti-fashion  8, 9, 114, 192, 204
Antonas, Aristide  90 – 91
Appearance  15 –18, 39, 41, 48, 66, 81,
115, 141, 150, 160, 170, 181, 183, 186,
188, 194
Aristotle  181, 182
Attention  56, 74, 89, 102, 114, 115,
123, 135, 137, 140, 141, 145, 146, 158,
175 –181, 191–193, 202, 205 – 207,
211– 213, 235
Author  5 – 9, 34, 55, 68, 82, 119, 123,
128, 129, 135, 142, 146, 147, 154, 160,
161, 170, 171, 188 –191, 200, 202, 207,
211–215, 218–228
Automat  93, 95, 140, 143, 147 –153
Avant-garde  8, 48, 55, 59, 65, 68, 71,
103, 115, 124, 132, 141, 146, 179, 181,
190, 193, 196, 200, 201, 204, 205, 211–
222, 228 – 235
B Distinction  5, 8, 54, 58, 59, 69, 71, 74,
Bachelier, Louis  59 – 61
Bachtin, Michail  40 – 41
Bacon, Francis  88 – 89, 158, 170, 181
Banham, Reyner  161–163
Baroque  81– 82, 102, 106
Barthes, Roland  35, 121, 128, 146
Baudelaire, Charles  17, 19, 40, 41,
105 –107
Baudrillard, Jean  93 – 95, 98 – 99,
154 –155, 186 –187, 193
Bauman, Kevin  100 –101
Bears and Bulls  6, 231, 235
Benjamin, Walter  15 –19, 31, 35, 61, 83,
98, 104 –112, 132 –133, 147 –152,
170 –171
Bentham, Jeremy  20, 21, 88, 89
Blumer, Herbert  48, 49, 99
Bourdieu, Pierre  59, 170 –171
C Fiction  8, 12, 34, 60, 68, 80 – 83,
Canon  6, 22, 24 – 26, 34, 40, 42, 82,
103, 106, 123, 188, 211– 213, 229
Capitalism  5, 21, 23, 44, 45, 48, 49, 51,
55, 68, 69, 114, 143, 183, 187, 207, 228
242
Chanel  28, 51, 170, 171
Charlatanry  147
74, 86, 92, 115, 127, 128, 132, 186, 188,
192, 205, 223
Contingency  17, 19, 32, 34, 59 – 60,
70, 74, 75, 80, 87, 103
Contrarian  198 – 205, 211, 212, 231,
235
Contrary thinking  189, 198 – 204, 214,
223
Cosmetic  15, 35, 39 – 44, 169
Cosmic  39 – 44, 159
Crary, Jonathan  137, 125
Creative destruction  40, 49 – 51
Crisis  6, 17, 19, 24 – 27, 59 – 61, 88, 92
Crowd  71, 83, 84, 109, 137, 147,
175 –181, 190 – 204, 207, 211
Crump, Arthur  176 –177
D
Dandy  161, 170, 171, 191–196
de Bruyn, Gerd  159
de la Vega, Don Joseph  20, 21
de Saussure, Ferdinand  27, 52, 61
Debray, Régis  119, 123 –133, 140, 142,
146
Deleuze, Gilles  23, 33, 61
Delusion  81, 83, 84, 88, 168, 175 –178,
190, 191
Derrida, Jacques  41, 44, 45, 61, 127
Difference  6 – 8, 25, 36, 52, 54, 58, 61,
70, 73, 75, 98, 102 –103, 114, 146, 168,
190, 193, 200 – 201, 204, 229 – 231
80, 142, 154, 169, 186 –190, 195, 198,
200, 204, 211, 230
Distribution  8, 48, 119, 124, 129,
135 –135, 146, 166 –177
Durand, Jacques-Nicolas-Louis  26 – 27,
35, 38, 44, 153
E
Edison, Thomas  134, 136
Electricity  133 –136
Enchantment  7, 151, 168, 170
Esposito, Elena  83, 87, 92 – 95, 98 – 99,
102, 103, 191, 229, 213
Exchange  7, 20 – 24, 49 – 59, 75, 82,
92, 99, 104, 115, 123, 137, 142 –144,
176 –177, 187, 228
F
FAT  116  –  117
86 – 99, 176, 181, 190
Fischer, Friedrich Theodor  5, 45
Flux  16, 48
Foucault, Michel  5, 23, 31, 140, 147
Franck, Georg / Dorothea  69, 123,
212  –  214
Freud, Sigmund  158, 177
Frivolity  19, 52, 80
Functionalism  25, 27, 153
G 153 –155, 175
Giedion, Sigfried  63, 214 – 219, 223
Gigounon, Bernard  156 –157
Glamour  25, 41, 109, 119 –123, 158,
160, 166 –172, 222, 235
Gombrich, Ernst  67, 114 –115, 192, 193
Goux, Jean–Joseph  5, 23, 52, 53, 54,
55, 59, 60, 69
Groys, Boris  5, 9, 35, 64, 95, 99, 102,
103, 136, 137, 154, 155, 167, 188 –189,
193, 199, 222 – 223, 229 – 230
Gschwendtner, Gitta  180
H Mystery  59, 120, 154, 170
Haussmann  15, 106 –107, 112
High and low  12, 114, 154
Historicism  24, 25, 31, 35, 44, 89, 121
I Neill, Humphrey B.  198 – 201
Imitation  30, 48, 69, 80, 81, 169,
177 –181, 229 – 232, 234
Innovation  48, 51, 73, 81, 111, 128,
134, 160
Instability  16, 52, 54, 60, 90
Instrument  89, 93, 120, 137, 140, 183,
224
Irrationality  7, 70, 80, 146
Iser, Wolfgang  89, 195
Madness  83, 84, 88, 175, 176, 190
Magic  6, 7, 9, 41, 44, 72, 99, 106, 109,
120 –177, 189, 214, 215
Mainstream  8, 48, 27, 146, 177, 192,
196, 199 – 205, 211, 228, 230, 231
Manipulation  8, 50, 92, 142, 148,
Marx, Karl  21, 44, 45, 48 – 49, 177, 183
Mask  40, 41, 44, 65, 169, 181, 205
Mass media  7, 123, 133, 137, 146, 160,
163, 178, 205 – 207
Mattes, Eva / Franco  220
Message  123, 126, 129, 133, 135, 140,
148, 158, 159, 186, 194, 201
Micro-architecture  178, 180
Mobility  6, 52 – 61, 80,
Modische Moderne  8, 26, 80
Muthesius, Herrmann  35, 63
MVRDV  78 – 79, 202
N
Najjar, Michael  10 –12
Negation  8, 74, 92, 212, 228 – 229
Neoclassical economics  20 – 24, 32,
33, 52, 71
Neutra, Richard  119 –122
Nietzsche, Friedrich  5, 31– 34, 44,
51– 53, 59, 61, 80
NL architects  36 – 37
Noise  50, 137, 182
Novelty  45, 48, 59, 64, 65, 68, 73, 87,
102 –106, 115, 121, 190, 191, 215

J O
JODI  148 –149 Objectivity  6, 45, 70, 81, 119, 155
Journalism  123, 175 Occult  135, 160, 161, 168
OMA  235 – 23
K Originality  98, 99, 114, 190, 229 – 230
Kempenaers, Jan  202 Otherness  194, 229
Keynes, John Maynard  198 –199
Kipnis, Jeffrey  41 P
Kitsch  204 PARA-Project  42 – 43
Koolhaas, Rem  5, 40, 41, 124, Paradox  7, 16, 30, 53 – 54, 64, 71, 71,
230 – 231, 235 81– 83, 99, 106, 110, 146, 191, 194, 195,
207, 212, 229, 230
L Passive  8, 94, 177, 182 –183, 186, 189
Latour, Bruno  142, 143, 147 Péguy, Charles  19
Laurette, Matthieu  28 Pérez-Gómez, Alberto  25
Le Bon, Gustave  177, 191 Performance  18, 48, 66, 147, 153, 160,
Le Corbusier  41, 61, 64, 71, 124, 154, 169 –172, 176, 181, 182, 208, 228
159, 160 –167, 200, 214, 215, 234 Perrault, Charles  25, 27
Loos, Adolf  63 – 65, 71, 92, 95, 169, Perrault, Claude  25
193 – 205, 211, 212, 223 Pevsner, Nikolaus  214, 218 – 219, 223
Popularity  112, 132, 141, 170, 175 –176,
M 205
Mackay, Charles  82 – 84, 175, 176, 189, Preda, Alex  140 –143
190, 198 Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph  6, 7, 9

Index 243
R T
Radicality  80, 94
Rationalism  5, 26 – 30, 70
Reproduction  132, 160, 166, 170
Risk  5, 6, 12, 15, 19, 23, 30, 61, 65, 68,
80, 86 – 87, 92, 93, 167, 177, 191, 211,
228
Rudofsky, Bernard  219 – 224
S Transformation  39, 49, 51, 68, 96, 106,
Schalliol, David  96
Schreiber, Ralf  172 –173
Schumpeter, Joseph  49 – 51
Second Life  226 – 227
Secret  58, 145, 148, 150 –153, 158,
168, 170, 193
Self-design  9, 51, 188, 189, 193 –195,
199
Semper, Gottfried  26, 35, 38 – 41, 44,
64
Sender receiver  123, 126, 140
Shannon, Claude  150 –151
Shock  16, 17, 99, 104, 194
Shulman, Julius  120 –122
Simmel, Georg  7, 44, 46, 68 – 75, 80,
87, 105, 169, 229
Sisto, Pascual  184 –185
Sloterdijk, Peter  32 – 35, 53, 59, 89,
111, 126, 127, 133
Smits, Helmut  202
Sombart, Werner  44 – 45, 49, 51
Soros, George  7, 70 – 71, 151, 153
Spectacle  7 – 9, 53 – 55, 83, 99, 104,
112, 123, 153, 160, 169, 171, 175ff
Spectator  3, 182, 183, 186, 235
Speculation  5 –10, 15ff, 60ff, 83ff,
175ff, 187ff, 228ff
Stäheli, Urs  87, 137, 141, 143, 145, 175,
191, 199, 201
Stardom  48, 119, 120, 191, 200, 206,
207
Stock market  5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 15, 22, 23,
52 – 54, 58, 59, 68, 70, 75, 80, 82, 86,
115, 137, 141, 142, 145, 151, 168, 175,
176, 230, 231
Stock ticker  119, 136, 137 –146, 177
Stracke, Caspar  232 – 234
Strategy  5 – 8, 42, 71, 151, 189, 190,
195 – 200, 204, 207, 211, 212, 222, 223,
228, 230 – 231, 235
Style  15 –16, 18, 25 – 27, 30 – 31,
35 – 40, 44, 58, 64 – 65, 74, 104,
114 –115, 192 –194, 218 – 219
Subjectivity  20, 22, 34, 52, 68, 89, 98,
147, 182 –189, 200, 214, 218, 219, 228
Subversion  9, 187, 188, 205
Surprise  81– 83, 86, 102, 103, 110, 160,
191–192
244
Tafuri, Manfredo  49
Tarde, Gabriel  176 –181, 234
Taut, Bruno  124, 166 –167
Teaest  50
Television  141, 205 – 207
Tesla, Nicola  136 –138
Timelessness  34, 105, 111
Transfer  38, 70, 71, 84, 121, 123, 198
123, 126, 167, 182
Transmission  8, 121–138, 141
Transportation  119, 123, 126, 128
Trautrimas, David  130 –131
Trend  18, 49, 59, 66, 86, 93, 146, 163,
168, 190, 191, 198 – 200, 204, 214, 231,
235
Trueness  6, 8, 24 – 27, 31, 44, 70, 81,
89, 94, 114, 119, 128, 166
Tulip mania  82 – 84
U
Uncertainty  5, 61, 78, 80, 86 – 89, 155
Uniqueness  45, 58, 102, 182, 229
Universality  22, 24, 26, 31, 64, 72, 82,
99, 159, 168, 221, 228, 130
Utopia  49, 64, 124, 221, 228
V
Vaihinger, Hans  87 – 89
Valéry, Paul  5, 34, 52 – 61, 115, 132
Valorization  2, 7, 34, 44, 88, 103, 192,
212 – 215, 218, 228, 230, 235
Value  5 –7, 10, 15ff, 19ff, 32ff, 48ff,
58ff, 64ff, 73 – 75, 80, 86 – 87, 92 – 95,
100, 104ff, 112 –115, 126 –128, 140, 146,
154, 169, 175 –176, 181, 186 –189, 212ff,
226ff
Veblen, Thorstein  45 – 49, 168, 169,
200, 229
Venturi, Robert  36, 228
Visibility  8, 26, 39, 40, 49, 98, 180,
145, 160, 166, 186, 189, 205, 207
von Moos, Stanislaus  166, 167, 215
W
Wagner, Otto  61– 62, 111
Walras, Auguste  22, 23
Walras, Léon  20 – 24, 52
Weber, Max  25
Wigley, Mark  39, 41, 61– 65, 71, 124
Winckelmann, Johann Joachim  30 – 31
Winkler, Hartmut  119
Wittgenstein, Ludwig  87
Wright, Frank Lloyd  63, 122
Z
Zola, Émile  15 –19, 56, 175, 190
Speculative Postcards  http://www.flickr.com/photos/dutchct/3092191922/

in Iwate  http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/LiveImages/Nette%20Dola%C5%9Fanlar/Bun-

lar%20sadece%20T%C3%BCrkiye%27de%20olur/00.jpg in Diyarbakır 

http://englishrussia.com/ in Moscow  http://feels.ru/ in

Omsk  http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/LiveImages/Nette%20Dolasanlar/SendeYolla10/

araba.jpg in Giresun  http://englishrussia.com/ in Mos-

cow  http://filipefreitas.net/blog/?p=138 in Istanbul  http://fotogaleri.hurri-

yet.com.tr/LiveImages/Nette%20Dola%C5%9Fanlar/Bu%20karelere%20bakmadan%20

ge%C3%A7meyin/508.jpg in Izmit  http://img77.imageshack.us/1851/

in Omsk  http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/ in

Buca  http://bsk.kpgs.ru/2008/231008/original in Tolyatti  http://bsk.kpgs.

ru/2008/231008 in Ufa

245
INCLUDING
SPECULATIVE PROJECTS BY
MICHAEL NAJJAR .....................................................................................................................   10
MATTHIEU LAURETTE ............................................................................................................. 31
NL ARCHITECTS ........................................................................................................................ 36
PARA-PROJECT .......................................................................................................................... 42
VISIONDIVISION ....................................................................................................................... 50
MVRDV ....................................................................................................................................... 78
ARISTIDE ANTONAS ................................................................................................................ 90
DAVID SCHALLIOL .................................................................................................................... 96
KEVIN BAUMAN .......................................................................................................................   100
FAT ...............................................................................................................................................   116
DAVID TRAUTRIMAS ...............................................................................................................   130
JODI .............................................................................................................................................   148
BERNARD GIGOUNON ............................................................................................................   156
RALF SCHREIBER ......................................................................................................................   172
GITTA GSCHWENDTNER .........................................................................................................   180
PASCUAL SISTO .........................................................................................................................   184
DARLENE CHARNECO ............................................................................................................. 202
MVRDV ....................................................................................................................................... 203
SEYED ALAVI ............................................................................................................................. 203
HELMUT SMITS ......................................................................................................................... 203
ANT FARM .................................................................................................................................. 208
0100101110101101.ORG ........................................................................................................... 220
SECOND LIFE ............................................................................................................................. 226
CASPAR STRACKE ..................................................................................................................... 232
OMA ............................................................................................................................................. 236

ISBNISBN
978-3-00-029876-9
3-00-029876-2

9 7 8 3 0 0 0 2 9 8 7 6 9

Contents 246