What Architecture Can Do

Very interesting lecture by Rem Koolhaas talking about urban issues. I didn't watch it completely yet but he seems to explain the role architecture can play by examples of his own designs from the 26th minute on.

Lina Bo Bardi - CESC and MASP

Lina Bo Bardi is was an Italian-Brazilian Architect who made some remarkable buildings in Sao Paol0. I think she managed to build in pure forms really monumental buildings adapted to human size. They relate to the Brazilian urban architecture by there raw, brutalistic appearance but are beautiful in a very subtile way. In the CESC-building she used color in a strategic way to nuance the rawness of concrete. The windows seem to be really sensitive while they have weird forms an seem to be cut out of hard cold concrete.

Doing so I think she managed to use monumentality of forms and material to give the building meaning. People recognize the shape and relate urban activity to its architecture. This is how monumentality should be used nowadays!

This video is a short impression of the CESC. I dont know exactly what this building is for, but there are public sports-fascilities and college rooms or something like that.

Lina Bo Bardi / SESC Pompéia from 0300TV on Vimeo.

This image is of the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). I don't know anything about the interior or the museum itself but the space she created by a span of 70 meters is a well know public interior in Sao Paolo. This building is by its size and mighty span a monument. It offers a very humble but much used public space.

Tegenlicht - De Eeuw van de Stad

Prachtige afleveringen over de hedendaagse stad en de toekomst. In de aflevering over Amsterdam wordt Amsterdam vergeleken met steden als New York, Los Angeles en Frankfurt in de politiek-economische en stedenbouwkundige context.

Links:

Amsterdam Make-over 2040
VPRO Tegenlicht

De Eeuw van de Stad

Lobotomie, Automonument, Wolkenkrabber

Rem Koolhaas noemt in het boek Delirious New York het fonomeen lobotomy. Dit is de chirurchische term in een operatie waarbij de zogenaamde ‘hersenkwab’ wordt verwijderd. Dit wordt gedaan om gedachteprocessen te scheiden van emoties om verschillende geestelijke storingen te voorkomen. Dit proces vergelijkt Rem Koolhaas met het scheiden van het interieur en exterieur van wolkenkrabbers: “In this way the Monolith spares the outside World the agonies of the continuous changes raging inside it. It hides everyday life.” (Koolhaas, 1978) Een wolkenkrabber hoeft nu niet de continue veranderende accommodaties uit te drukken in zijn gevel zoals volgens Koolhaas vaak in Westerse Architectuur wordt verlangd.

In hetzelfde hoofdstuk introduceert Koolhaas de term ‘Automonument’. Hij stelt dat een gebouw met de grootte en het volume van een wolkenkrabber automatisch een monument is. Hij gaat daarin verder en stelt dat het Automonument ‘het monument van de 20^e eeuw’ is en zijn puurste vorm de wolkenkrabber. . . “It is a solipsism, celebrating only the fact of its disproportionate existence, the shamelessness of its own process of creation.” (Koolhaas, 1978)

Door architectonische lobotomie kan de wolkenkrabber puur ‘een container van stedelijkheid’ zijn. (Heynen, 2004). De wolkenkrabber perst onsamenhangende stedelijkheid samen als een condensator. Het kan totaal verschillende functies in zich verenigen die op zich niks met elkaar of de wolkenkrabber van doen hebben. De wolkenkrabber is door zijn grootte autoritair genoeg om onveranderlijk de tijd te doorstaan. De schaal is de schaal van de metropool. De wolkenkrabber geeft een monumentaal 20^e eeuws stadsgezicht. De wolkenkrabber is het betekenisvolle antwoord op de stedelijke chaos van de moderniteit.

Heynen, H. (2004). Dat is Architectuur. Rotterdam: 010.

Koolhaas, R. (1978). Delirious New York. New York: The Monacelli Press, Inc. .

Summary of the introduction on Modernity in the book "Architectural Positions" (Part 2)

This article is the second part of my summary from the introduction in the book Architectural Positions. In this part there is a description of the 'public sphere' and the connection with 'public spaces'. As said before: 'public space' is a major part of the 'public sphere' and therefore the public sphere is very interesting while studying cities of today.

The public sphere – Gemeinschaft in absentia

Marshall Berman writes in 1982 a book on modernity: All That is Solid Melts into Air. The Experience of Modernity. Quote: “To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and at the same time threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.” (Berman, 1982)

Many philosophers refer to the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies who already in 1887 describes the social association Gesellschaft in opposition to Gemeinschaft. In a Gesellschaft people live together without being essentially united as in a Gemeinschaft: “In Gemeinschaft they stay together in spite of everything that separetes them; in Gesellschaft they remain separate in spite of everything that unites them.” (Tönnies, 1887) Further Tönnies states that the association Gemeinschaft is found mainly in rural areas and the association Gesellschaft is found mainly in urban environments. Remarkable detail is that Tönnies addresses the most important means regulation the Gesellschaft are contracts and money. (Tönnies, 1887)

The French socialist Emile Durkheim makes a difference between ‘mechanical solidarity’ and ‘organic solidarity’. Mechanical solidarity exists of a repetition of similar segments with a homogeneous group identity. Organic solidarity is based on the differences between individuals by an increasing process of specialization of social roles, professions and occupations.

The German sociologist Georg Simmel writes on individuality and modernity: “the self preservation of certain personalities is bought at the price of devaluating the whole objective world... It drags one’s own personality down into the same worthlessness. “ (Simmel, 1903)

The American urban sociologist Louis Wirth continues: “Modern urban society is the product of a complex interplay of roles”. This makes it possible to participate in different social circles without truly getting to know anyone. Besides that there are very different people living together in a very small area. This means that one is constantly in the company of strangers. (Wirth, 1938)

According to the authors the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman states about modernity: “The promise of liberation from tradition, of individual freedom, and of self realization, a promise which is an inherent part of modernity, comes at a high price. After all, this freedom goes hand in hand with the loss of security, of tacit, shared opinions, and of social ties and shared sentiments, all of which were central to traditional ways of life.”

Public Space: a new mode of social organization

The debate about ‘public space’ is closely related to the debate on the ‘public sphere’ and the ‘public domain’. The term ‘public domain’ is used in the distinction between public and private domain and refers in the text to actual spaces. The ‘public sphere’ refers also to a specific set of practices and is according to the authors often linked to the debate on the development of Western democracy.

Public Sphere

Freitag, Bauman and Habermas agree that the most characteristic element of modernity is the new public sphere. This public sphere is according to Freitag characterized by a new mode of social reproduction. This means that the traditional symbolic and cultural spheres which regulated society are replaced by a debate about the proper organization of society and the proper form of community. This debate takes place in actual public spaces but is also transmitted by new media: newspapers, radio, television and so forth. (And I think the internet is a very important medium nowadays)

Public domain

During the French revolution there was a declaration made defining the modern public sphere for the first time: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. (Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen, 1798) This document introduces a distinction between public and private domain based on three points:

1. Ownership. The public domain consists of spaces under possession of the government: streets, squares, parks and some public buildings. The private domain consists of private property: land, shops, offices and interior spaces.

2. Accessibility. “The public domain is accessible to all, at every moment of the day.” The private domain is characterized by restrictions.

3. Purpose. The public domain serves the public interest and has a collective purpose. The private domain serves the interests of individuals or a private body like families, businesses and organizations.

But in fact there are many spaces in which the relationship between public and private is more complex.

Berman, M. (1982). All That is Solid Melts into Air. The Experience of Modernity. New York: Penguin Books.

Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen. (1798).

Simmel, G. (1903). Die Grossstädte und das Geistesleben. New York : McGraw-Hill.

Tönnies, F. (1887). Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wirth, L. (1938). Urbanism as a way of life. American Journal of Sociology 44 , 1-24.

De Brakke Grond

www.debrakkegrond.nl

De Brakke Grond is the name of the Flemish Cultural Centre at the Nes in Amsterdam. The Nes is an allay close to Damsquare and Rokin in the historical centre. From the 17th century to the present day the Nes flourish as an accumulation of cultural activities unkown by tourists and visited by a broad, mainly dutch public. The Brakke Grond is topic of my graduation project in which I will reconsider the architecture of this centre, the square, the Nes, and the surrounding historical centre of Amsterdam.

Anthology of Optimism

François Bucher is an Colombian artist, living and working in New York. He was asked by Pieter de Buysser and Jacob Wren to contribute in their 'Anthology of Optimism'. This image is his contribution.

“An Anthology of Optimism is a pre-emptive celebration of a critical optimism we tentatively hope will increase in the twenty-first century.”

This sentence is the opening of the lettre written to Francois Bucher and all kinds of writers, artists, thinkers, scientists, politicians, business people, in which they were asked for a personal reply on the subject: 'critical optimism'. The lettre and the reaction are part of, what they call, an 'Anthology of Optimism' can be found on the website:

www.anthologyofoptimism.com

The show An Anthology of Optimism was also part in short sketches, video and oneliners, of the composed theater performance of the same name at 'De Brakke Grond'. I think they adress the term critical optimism to critic pessimism. They state that pessimism is a defense meganism for humans to not get hurt. The quote someone else in Dutch:

"Optimisme is de rouw van het Pessimisme..."