Controlling the Des ign Process: A Modernist Obsession?

If there is one notion architectural historians are united in view-ing as poisoned, it is "functionalism." Functionalism fell into dis-repute early on, as if even those architects who had called it into being quickly turned their backs on it. In the preface to Alberto Sartoris' Gli Elementi del/'architettura Junziona/e, for example -written at the author's request- Le Corbusier censured the nar-rowness of the term "functional" and ironically criticized "those who lose themselves in the study of a window handle or a kitch-en drawer." Was ever another book, intended as the anthological manifesto of a particular direction, already refuted by its own preface?r Yet functionalism was to encounter still other grave-digger amcng the architects' ranks. When Henry Russell Hitch-cock and Philip Johnson presented modern architecture to the American public in 1932 as the embodiment of a new style- the "International Style" 2 - a genuine "epistemological caesura" in the Bachelardian sense had occurred.

Hitchcock and Johnson did in fact free modernism from its ideological, theoretical and methodological premises. These pre-mises, however, claimed to be politically enlightened and pro-gressive, oriented above all to the functional and technical quali-ty of the building; they disputed (at least in part) the legitimacy of aesthetic intention and most certainly excluded the possibili-ty of creating a style. We should recall that in 1928, the first In-ternational Congress of Modern Architecture (ClAM) in La Sar-raz refused to incorporate Le Corbusier's "Five Points for a New Architecture" into its program, precisely in order to avoid any formal priority.3

The "humanistic" impulses of Team X, the pragmatism of Robert Venturi and his companions, the "rationalism" of Aldo Rossi and the neohistoricism of Leon Krier and Maurice Culot have discredited the "functionalist" argument to the point that historians no longer feel the need to study or investigate- aside from a few isolated studies since the war that have attempted to describe the origins and motivations of the aforementioned

6

functionalism; here I am thinking particularly of the work of Ed-ward Robert de Zurko or the essay by Sebastian Miiller.4

So what is this functionalism, the whipping-boy of modern and contemporary architecture? First of all, it is not a movement, as the ending "ism" might lead us to believe. In Der modeme Zweckbau of 1925,s Adolf Behne distinguished between the "ra-tionalists" and the "functionalists," as represented by Hugo Hi:iring and Hans Scharoun respectively; yet this distinction, as subtle and fruitful as it may be, refers to only one facet or section of the functionalistic world. Nor can functionalism be reduced to the architects and theorists of "modernism" who, in the name of a supposedly scientific method of design, sought to exclude any autonomous artistic approach- such as the editors and readers of the Swiss magazine ABC,6 Hannes Meyer, Karel Teige? and many others.

In actual fact, "functionalism" is still largely an unexplored continent, one that offers many lessons for the immediate future of a disoriented profession. In the following, I will limit myself to one component of the functionalistic legacy, an aspect that has gone largely unnoticed and has remained without mention in the writings of countless enemies of functionalism. I am speaking of the theories and methods, the strategies and applica-tions devised and employed in an effort to come to terms with the design process itself and to direct it in a rational, critical way. For "functionalism" was not only a particular conception of the object, manifesting itself in a specific architectural poetics. In an aspect as yet little researched, it also applies precisely to the ar-chitect's modus operandi and consists of the attempt to apply scientific methods to th e design process itself. In its effort to en-sure objective correspondence between product and plan and liberate creativity from the arbitrariness of artistic practice, this method resembles the inventive work of the technician or scientist. One might even go so far as to speak of a paradigm shift taking place in architectural culture at that time. This shift, to be

Bruno Reichlin

DAIDALOS 71 1999

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7

general work procedure to ascertain a rational apartment, in: "GrundriBbild~~g und Raumgestaltung von Kleinwohnungen und neue Auswertungsmethoden in: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Berlin 1928, #34/34

whole, the variety and quality of the spatial effects and ab_ri~~ements produced by the planimetric organization. The sensibihty for space he thereby manifests is extraordinarily modern and_ at first glance unexpected, in view of the seemingly conservative (neo-Biedermeier) character of his architectural prod~ctwn ..

His approach, however, contains an add1twnal mnovat~on, one that, in my opinion, has not yet received sufficient attentwn: namely, a genuine method of design. That is, his prop_osal for a "general method for the study of functional dwellmg ty~ologies"ro is not aimed _ or at least not directly - at the reahzatwn of dwellings, but rather the development of suitable instruments for the optimal organization of the intellectual work on which the production of dwellings is based. His I 7 phases of pro~uc_t development _ in particular the definition of need, the st~tlStJ cal, psychological and technical data, the programs, the ch~Ice of types the selection by means of questionnaire and graphic me-

thod~, the tests on the model, all the way to the serial building method _ represent a true obstacle course, a challenge presented in the name of scientific objectivity and the critical distance which, with the help of qualitative criteria, selection tables, and control instruments, is to be established between designer, user

sure, came to naught- whether because its protagonists posse~sed neither the means, concepts, nor terms (the meta-language, If you will) to describe and communicate their intuitions and thus to expose them to a critical self-consciousness, or because they were and remained outsiders, or even because the cultural, Ideo-logical and political crisis of the years I930-1940, together with the war, presented architects with other problems.

Functionalism rethinks the architect's work Alexander Klein's studies of the housing8 financed by the Reichs-forschungsgesel/schaft for Wirtschaftlichkeit im Bau- und v.:ohn~ngswesen land us at the heart of "distributive functwnahsm, the version that offers the most criteria for evaluation. The systema-tic approach to optimizing dwelling types - according to the depth and breadth of the plan, the number of rooms, the ~epara tion of functions and paths (day and night), the dimenswns of the furnishings and its possible arrangement- gives a foretaste of the most refined design methods of the post-war period, devel-oped particularly in the field of engineering an_d industrial de-sign.9 In its graphic method of quality control, t~Is ~pproa~h ~lso includes the-visual comfort of the dwelling, wh1ch IS not hmited to the supervision of the children or the view from the window. In fact, Klein brings an aesthetic-psychological element to the

Dessau-Torten development, plan for the rational foundations of the build ing site, year of construction 19 26, in : Gropius, Bauhaus Bauten Oessau

Dessau Torten development, model of the construction scheme 1926, in: Gropius, Bauhaus Bauten Oessau

and product. Klein's method proceeds from the fundamental assumption that the way to improve the product is to make its creator more competent.

The function of "production" In the experimental housing develop-ment Torten in Dessau, erected by Gro-pius in a number of stages from 1926 to 1928, "production" becomes the object of functionalist thought. " Here, function-alism applies not only to the object, but above all to the improvement of the pro-duction cycle: now, the concern is to save time and to budget resources and manpower. Modern architects have often invoked Taylorism 12 : the plan of the Frankfurt kitch-en, for example, is based above all on the behavior of a housewife preparing a meal. In general, the functional articulation of the architectural object is oriented to the analysis of the processes underlying the organization of Ford factory assembly lines; in Dessau, however, the entire design of the housing development -from the "scientifically organized construction site" to the urban and architectural form - follows the Taylorist model for organiz-ing time and resources. Thus, the broadening of the street at the entrance to the development, at first glance a beautification in the tradition of the garden city, in reality provides the space ne-cessary for the production, drying and storage of floor beams. In the same way, the width of the street accommodates the short-term storage of steel girders and the motion of the cranes that lift them into position. The garden side accommodates the produc-tion, drying, and storage of hollow bricks. The cement is brought

.:. M O NAT

in cartloads, so that the requisite quantity of bricks can be produ-ced in front of each house and after drying, stacked within reach of the masons. The light weight of the bricks and the metal fra -mes of the windows, which serve as templates, ensure that the walls go up quickly. In orthodox Taylorist fashion, every phase of the work is entrusted to a specially trained brigade and the time frame precisely established, while rotation ensures continuous work. '3 In essence, this is a lesson in Taylorism, applied to build-ing.

The book Bauhausbauten in Dessau by Gropius, published in 1930 in the impressive series of Bauhaus books, describes the hi-story of this construction site, documented with numerous dra-wings and photographs. There, for example, we see a diagram of installations, the schedule (a hourly chart regulating the con-struction phases of the shell work), the assembly operations pic-ture-by-picture, the now-famous axonometric section explaining the "modular building system," etc. In its final, rather disappoin-

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DAIDALOS 7 1 . 1999 BRUNO REICHLIN CONTROLLI NG THE D ESIG N PROCESS : A M ODER NIST O BSESSIO N? 9 8

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above: Dessau-Torten development, organized construction site, year of construction 1926 from the plan, in: Gropius, Bauhaus Bauten Dessau bottom: Dessau-Torten development, tower crane used to relocate the rapid ceil ing beams and armored cement beams (1927), ibid.

10

ting form, the development shows only few traces of this entire process, such as the banal color distinction between the dark bearing elements and the white filling material. The expensive protocol book thus reminds us that the appeal of the Torten de-velopment consists first and foremost of the concept on which it is based and in its process of production. In other words, the aesthetic message has been transferred from the object to the procedure, a development which may prefigure the poetics of more recent conceptual art. 14

Creation under control The competition entry submitted by Gropius in 1929-30 for are sidential complex for elderly women in Kassel,rs a project fi nanced by the Marie-von-Boschan-Aschrott-Stiftung, clearly illu strates the architect's critical distance from the product, achie ved by means of strict evaluation criteria. Gropius submitted a design and seven successive variations on which he commented from various points of view and then discarded in favor of the chosen solution. In his plans, he takes account of the orientation of the plot as well as the existing buildings, i. e. the shade, the di stance between individual buildings, the view, the length of paths on the interior, the relation between usable floor area and traffic patterns. On the one hand, such a procedure serves as an almost provocative illustration of the distance maintained by the modern, scientifically neutral architect between the "affec tivity" of the creator and his "creation"; on the other hand, one wonders what the purpose of the seven variations was. Perhaps it was only a trick, a way to provide the jury with a broad and con sidered selection of criteria for use in rejecting rival designs. In a neck-and-neck race, Gropius took second place behind Otto Haesler and Otto Volkers.

Functionalism in the "School of Doubt" In I 93 I, the brothers Heinz and Bodo Rasch- who had assisted in the construction ofWeissenhof and assembled the technical doc umentation - published the book ZU OFFEN- Tii.ren und Fen ster.r6 In the preface, they bluntly announced that '"window' and 'door' are imprecise terms" and suggested subsuming them un der the broader term "isolators," which would include all outer shells functioning to isolate the building. The authors then pro vided a systematic and detailed analysis of the elements of an "isolator": as "movable and mechanical isolators," doors and win dows are subdivided into fixed and movable elements according to motion, or "valves and slides" according to type of motion, rna terial, and hinge. The importance of this analysis in the present context is that, above and beyond its practical significance of dis tinguishing the movable isolators that ventilate but block the view from fixed and particularly transparent isolators, it dis mantles the false self-evidence of the object of everyday use, breaking it down into its basic elements and functions with the goal of arriving at new and more functional combinations.

"We must tear the object out of the context of conventional associations," states Victor Sklovskij in his theory of prose.I 7 He

continues: "The poet removes all the signs from their places; the artist is always the driving force in the revolt of things. With the poets, the things revolt, throw off their old names and take on a new meaning with their new names.( ... ) We perceive the object as something new, since it occurs in a new context" (V. S., Theorie der Prosa, Frankfurt I966, pp. 75f.).

Modern architects, too, sought to "remove the signs from their places." The Rasch brothers were not the only ones who wanted to describe things according to their function rather than call them by name. When the German Werkbund organ-ized exhibitions of interior furnishings in the 193o's, one of them was called "Seats" (and not "Chairs"), another "Drinking and Eating" (instead of "Glasses and Dishes"). 1 8 In order to break free from established formal and ideological conceptions-pre-judices that hindered the perception of functional value and all development in favor of a broader instrumental usage - the "old names" were abandoned. Modern architects, zealous (if perhaps also ignorant) pupils of what Paul Ricoeur calls the "School of Suspicion"19 with reference to Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, contri-buted to the unmasking of these traditions, articles of faith, and fetishes; for these "objects of feeling," as Jean Baudrillard puts it, still resist "the lived design of a technological society": this

would consist in "forgetting the origins, prescribed meaning, and 'essences' which traditional furniture still concretely symbol-ized" in favor of a world that is "no longer given, but produced-dominated, manipulated, inventoried, and controlled, i.e. appro-priated."20

The cunning of"demonstrative reason" in the radical functionalism of Paul Nelson The clearest and most original method of functionalist design is doubtless that of the American architect Paul Nelson.21 When he presented his "general program" for the new Columbia Broad-casting System headquarters on October 13, 1936, he considered it "essential" to precede it with a "short description of the archi-tect's working method," a method that "underlies and defines the program" and is predicated on the assumption that Colum-bia wants to "write a radically new chapter in the history of ar-chitecture."22 The method is divided into three phases: "First phase: the non-architectural analysis. Second phase: the transla-tion of this analysis into an architectural program. Third phase: the architectural synthesis, i.e. the design."

According to Nelson, the first phase involves the analysis of material and intellectual functions independent of a specific ar-chitectural structure. The contribution of philosophers, poets and artists is as important as that of engineers and financial ana-lysts, for in reality, function is dependent on life in its totality, not on a specialized abstraction. In a text published shortly thereafter presenting the design for the Palais de la Decouverte (I938), Nelson explained that in the first phase, "all preconceived notions of the solution should be excluded with total objectivity and no architectural drawings prepared."23

left: domestic Taylorism in the apartment of the Bauhaus master. (Fitted cabinets from W. Gropius and M. Breuer), ibid. right: settlement Dessau-Torten, rotating tower crane used to relocate the armored cement relief beams. The photos suggest a perfectly synchronized production process., ibid.

DAIDALOS 71 . 1999 BRUNO REICHLIN CONTROLLING THE DESIGN PROCESS: A MODERNIST OBSESSION? II

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A second strategy, likewise aimed at the transformation of ~is own cognitive horizon, was the deconstruction of perspect1ve space through the practice of painting and the criticism of cub-ism. Like the "puristic" experience, "Apres le cubisme" and other texts written together with Ozenfant constitute the "rech~rche patiente" that Le Corbusier was later to describ~ unhes1t~t_mgly as "la clef demon labeur." In this regard, he mentwns speoflcally that only the daily exercise of drawing and painting o_penedup to him "the secrets of form, developing the spirit of mventwn like the acrobat who daily trains his muscles and self-control." 28

From the range ofLe Corbusier's entire research on efficiency in the design process, I w~uld like to focus on the "plan libre," be-cause it is the result and de facto consequence of consideration of the "differentiation of functions" which, according to scientists of "technical thought" such as Simondon, represents the indis-pensable prerequisite "for the concentration of diverse functions into a single structure, and which constitutes the essence of a synergetic redesign of the concrete technical object." . .

"The further development of the technical object." wntes Sl-mondon in 1969,29 "occurs through the inner redistribution of functions into compatible units. This replaces chance or the an-tagonism of the original distribution; the specialization o~curs not 'function by function,' but rather 'synergy by synergy. The synergetic group of functions ( ... ) forms the subcomplex in the technical object. ( ... )The concrete technical object is one that 1s no longer in conflict with itself, in which no secondary effect harms the functioning of the whole or remains outside this func-tion."

14

This generalized statement occurs in a text of great importance written by Le Corbusier and Jeanneret in the far-off year of 1929, when they explained to their CIAM colleagues their und~rsta~ding of the application ofTaylorism to the design of dwellmgs m order to avoid the "confusion of capacities" and the "hybnd pro-cesses" of traditional planning. They write:

"If we do not distinguish between two independent events -on the one hand the articulation of the dwelling space and on the other the building of the house; if we do not separate two functions _ on the one hand an organized system of circulation and on the other a structural system; if we maintain the tradi-tional methods in which these two functions are mixed and de-pendent on one another, then we will persist in the same inflexi-bility:

the general scheme of attack for new C. B.S. building

ing

non-architectural analysis

architect ural analysis

architectural synthesis

buil ding and decor a t i on

DAIDALOS 71 1999

left page above: Paul Nelson, methodica l work plan for architects, in: ders., General program of new building for the Columbia Broadcasting System, page 2 Typescript, October 10, 1932 left page below: Paul Nelson, general scheme of attack, ibid. right: Paul Nelson, proposed operating re lationship, ibid.

a) Industry will not be able to make use of the maison minimum (minimal house).

b) The architect will be unable to make plans adapted to the modern economy. Society, caught up in the process of social transformation and marked by a dangerous lack of housing, will not be able to use the maison minimum."3 (Considerations that make the brothers Heinz and Bodo Rasch seem like industrious epigones.)

In the Villa de Mandrot in Le Pradet, designed during the fate-ful years of 1929-3 r, at the same time as the Villa Savoye, Le Cor-busier experimented with a new planning strategy, one that in a certain way combined the poetics of the "open work" with there-petition in modern architecture of the pragmatic "piece by pie-ce" typical of certain types of building, such as Mediterranean everyday architecture.

In other words: once the building function and distributive elements were separated from each other conceptually and oper-atively, the composition of the "puristic" "plan libre" resulted from the subdivision of a given space or "pure" prism. The desi-red distribution solution is attained through the successive coor-

!assistant research !o engineering creative ideas

-tpractical ;application

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dination of the entire spatial complex in plan and elevation and, proceeding from an initial topological scheme, gradually be-comes more precise. The type of "open" composition anticipated in the Villa de Mandrot, on the other hand, results from addition and subtraction, from the combination and displacement of sim-ple cells or modules, which are always the same or at any rate are based on identical and immediately identifiable spatial, con-structive and material features: square or rectangular modules, inverted or open-ended modules, etc. If, at first glance, the over-all form eludes a priori sculptural or volumetric definition, its formal coherence is based on both the tectonic and formal char-acteristics of the basic module and the rules of combination.3 1

This "open" character of the work finds its exact correspon-dence in contemporaneous tendencies in painting and sculpture as well as in music and literature, as Umberto Eco insightfully di-scussed toward the end of the r 9 so'sY

This inventory, albeit a brief one, should not close without mentioning the design strategies to which Le Corbusier applied the neologism "to architecturize" (architecturer) in his Difense de /'architecture of 1929,33 since they directed the specific arrange-ment of those elements that secu.re the self-reference of the ar-chitectural message, i.e. the "elegant solution."34

B RU NO REICHLIN CON TROLL ING TH E D ES IGN PR OC ESS: A MOD ERNIST OB SESS ION? 15

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The downfall of "efficient" designing? f

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Alvar Aalto and "the courage o 3:00a.m. Strategy- and method-supported creativity in design seemed to face a bright future in the fourth decade of a century onented entirely to scientific achievement and technologic~! effioency. Yet, perhaps due in part to the ideological chaos leadmg to World War II, this goal remained nothing more than the obsessiOn of a few intelligent outsiders. Among these were such eccentnc but ingenious figures as Frederick Kiesler and his theory of "correa-lism" or the Danish architect Knud Lonberg-Holm, co-author of the Time-Saver Standards, which according to historian Marc Dessauce represented "the first handbook of general architectu-ral efficiency"36; to be more precise, it contained a large n~mber of technical specifications and research notes previOusly published in The Architectural Record and The American Architect.37

. To be sure, in the period immediately followmg the war, there was widespread conviction that innovation in architecture could also be found at the bottom of a glass, and there was no

. . . . 7 lack of confirmation for this temptmg hypothesis. But IS It true.

In an openly autobiographical text written in 1947 for Dam-us Alvar Aalto unhesitatingly reveals his "method" of approach-in,g the most difficult themes and programs. With t~e "courage of 3:oo a.m." and in the confidence that in the meantlme, .the un-conscious has stored "those thousands of often contrastmg ele-ments that play a role in architectural planning," he forgets the "unbelievable jumble" of social, human, economic, and psycho-logical requirements "that no rational or mechanical method can disentangle," becomes a child, and draws: "I draw, led by m-

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above: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Villa de Mandrot in Le Pradet

1929 - 1931. Drawings FLC 22293/FLC 22297. First sketches for the fmal version of the villa project with changes originating from the additions of square cells.

below: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Villa de Mandrot in Le Pradet 1929 - 31. Drawing by the author (B. R.) synthetizing the development of the plans for the villa during the design process and illustrating the principle of

"open" composition.

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DAIDALOS 71 199

stinct alone; I leave every architectural synthesis aside, and sometimes come up with quite childish compositions. In this way the main idea originates gradually, as an abstract basis, a kind of point of departure which I can then successfully use to harmonize the countless special and contradictory problems."

Thus far Alvar Aalto.38 Now, however, we have at our dispos-al the elaborate volumes published by the Alvar Aalto Founda-tion with reproductions of countless sketches and drawings by the master, encouraging us to test his thesis. The dormitory pro-ject on the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass.,39 seems to me to be one of the most successful results of Aalto's "method," which supposedly consists in following the pencil with childlike, trust-ful - and brilliant - instinct, from flourish to flourish by a

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Villa de Mandrel in Le Pradet 1929-31. Modell, 1987

straight route to the masterpiece, when reason -long obscured by the umpteenth cigarette and the last whiskey- dozes in the gray of dawn. And what do we discover? A series of axonometric projections that systematically revolve around the data of the problem: optimal number of rooms, orientation and view of the river, protection from weather, intimacy, rational division, loca-tion of central facilities such as cafeteria, etc.- just like Gropius when he designed the above-mentioned retirement home in Kas-sel. The genius of 3:00a.m., therefore, essentially consists in seek-ing a form capable of embodying the results of precise, methodi-cal research in a sculpturally powerful, engaging and synthetic sign.

"The designer looks critically over his own shoulder" Since the war, the banner of methodological and systematic re-search has been upheld perhaps only at the Hochschule fur Ge-staltung in Ulm; yet, as the protagonists themselves admit, much has been said on methodological discourse that has yet to be ap-plied.40 The outstanding teaching of Gugelot, Bonsiepe and com-

rades did nothing to change this situation. La speranza progettuale, Tomas Maldonado's appealing title for a reflection on the "revolutionary function of applied rationality,"41 certainly sparked the imagination of the younger generation, though we are still waiting for the volume on its application; it also pointed the way to the "Notes on the Synthesis of Form," published by Christopher Alexander in 1964. The distinction between self-conscious culture and culture that is not helped us novices to understand the workings of various pedagogical models, while functional separation-the distinction between specific and de-pendent variables, physical and functional goals, etc.-served to structure the approach to complex programs and awakened a certain "critical awareness of procedures." To quote the system

theorist Horst Rittel, designers were urged "to look critically over their own shoulder."42 The proceedings of the "Conference on Sy-stematic and Intuitive Methods in Engineering, Industrial De-sign, Architecture, and Communication,"43 held in London in 1962 at the Aeronautics Department of the Imperial College, fa-miliarized its scanty readership with "morphological tables" and "brainstorming" and once again confirmed the outstanding ex-perience of interactive group work. On the whole, however, the project of "project-making" lost ground, both in teaching and in journalism.

BRUNO REICHLIN CONTROLLING THE DESIGN PROCESS: A MODERNIST OBSESSION?

The typological approach: a strategy appropriate for a product with such a strong social meaning like architecture? Interest in the meta-discourse of design declined to the point that almost no one realized that the typological approach of the architecture of Canella, Rossi, Grassi or even the Muratorian School, apart from a rediscovered continuity and the historical contextualism of its architectural language, actually concealed a strategy of great efficiency. Based on the systematic study of spaces and types charged with historical and social significance, the typological approach guaranteed the re-utilization and con-trolled transformation of forms and resources thoroughly tested by experience, without falling into mechanism, abstraction or reductionism, the greatest dangers of the more radical "function-alism." In view of the resistance to technical progress encount-ered with industrial products "charged with powerful psycholo-gical and social significance" (Simondon)44 such as the car, it may seem surprising that postmodern architects have not taken more advantage of the capital of experience afforded by a histori-cally and socially grounded, typological approach. But since the 197o's, the architect - who views himself as more of a cicada than an ant - no longer condescends to such crude utilitarian considerations. And so away with the handbooks, the petty pas-sion of the "needy" architect. Does this mean that as the intellec-tual paternity of ideas grows ever more uncertain in such a com-plex, networked society, the creative orgasm is reduced to "cogi-to interruptus"?

"Demonstrative reason" versus "cunning rationality" If we take the multi-phase design strategy proposed by Paul Nel-son and reduce it for the sake of convenience to the core it shares with Gropius, Klein and others, it typifies a linear conception of the creative process, proceeding stepwise from the collection of initial data to the solution, from the general to the particular (although Nelson, as we have seen, is to some extent an excep-tion). The preparatory phase is essentially analytical, documen-tary, and quite lengthy, striving as it does to provide planner and designer with all the information assumed to relate to the pro-posed task in any way, shape or form. For Ezio Manzini in La ma-teria dell'invenzione,4s this rational, optimistic programming of the creative process is a product of what he aptly terms "demon-strative reason"; it sets the epistemological horizon (and perhaps also the "obstacle"46) within which the modern design process is inscribed. In the field of industrial design - though not (yet?) in architecture- observation of the creative processes of design has yielded the following insights:

18

Genuine innovations are frequently concentrated at the end of the process. Here, chance, subjective intuition and reaction often play a primary role; thus, Manzini suggests, one should really speak of the design process in terms of "heuristic strategies."47

Initially, it is helpful to start with even a rough design for the product, drawn up on the basis of provisional knowledge. Com. parison with specific demands, tests, ceaseless revision and even the questioning of the initial question, the process of "trial and error" involving the use of intuition, image and metaphor48 will. at the end of a sometimes uncertain process, guarantee the pro duct's adaptation to the demand and sometimes the opposite as well.

According to Manzini, the "heuristic strategies of invention" presuppose that, in the beginning, the designer has at his dispo sal only "a part of the information, drawn from his cultural back ground and the totality of his previous experience; on this basis, he develops an idea and sketches an initial conceptual structure of the theme, from which he gains an overview that can gradual ly provide him with new information." For this reason, "he can find himself facing a technical challenge which, in order to be completely grasped, forces him to question even the initial image and the approach he had used at the beginning." What is needed is an "open representation of the problem, developed ina process of constant adaptation.

The quality of the designer consists precisely in the quality of these representations, in their degree of success in making a pro blem locally comprehensible while still permitting interaction with other representations and models"49. In the end, Manzim concludes, one must admit that always and in every cas~ "chance, subjective intuition, and the variability of the frame of reference influence the final result of the designer's cognitive process and help define the outcome of the design procedure Even the patchwork of specialized knowledge that constitutes the designer's technical training is not generally acquired as an element of formulaic, transparent rationality."

The "heuristic strategy" is a mixture of intuition, common sense and chance, which we may describe as "cunning rationali ty" and which the ancient Greeks called metis. "In Hesiod's Theo gony," Manzini continues, "metis is the mother of Athena, the goddess whom Zeus took as a wife and then swallowed in order to lay hold of her sagacity. In normal usage, the word me tis evok ed a complex of mental gifts such as shrewdness, acumen, or ver satility; it was used for flexible or unstable concepts without pre cise measurements or strict logical conclusions."so Today, whl are the happy possessors of "cunning rationality"?

Bruno Reichlin is an architect and architecture historian and teaches at the lnstitut d' Architecture of the University of Geneva.

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~I Alvar Aalto, Senior's Dormitory (Baker House), Cambridge, Mass. 1946 - 49 . Drawing preserved at the "Aivar Aalto Foundation", Helsinki 'lne of many tables most like ly used to systamatically analyse the For ana Against of a massive typo'ugicalalphabet.

DAIDALOS 71 199 BR UNO REI CHLIN CON TROLLIN G THE D ESIG N PR OCESS: A MODERNIST OBSE SS ION? 19

Notes : Le Corbusier, preface to Alberto

Sartoris, Gli Elementi dell'architettura funzionale, Milan: Hoepli, 1932. Fairly enough, in the introduction to the book Sartoris published the letter that Le Corbusier had written to him on June 7, 1931, criticizing his choice of title. 2 Henry Russell Hitchcock and Ph dip Johnson, The International Style: Architecture since 1922, New York: MOMA, 1932. 3 See Martin Steinmann, ed., ClAM Congres internationale d'architecture moderne. Dokumente 1928-1939, Basel/Stuttgart: Birkhauser, 1979, p. 16 and n. 6, p. 17. 4 Edward Robert De Zurko, Origins of Functionalist Theory, New York: Columbia University Press, 1957; Sebastian Muller, Kunst und lndustrie - ldeologie und Organisation des Funktionalismus in der Architektur, Munich: Hanser, 1974. 5 Adolf Behne, Der moderne

Zweckbau, Munich/Vienna/Berlin: Drei Masken Verlag, 1926, pp. 42- 53. 6 See esp. the program "Bauen," Bauhaus, Zeitschrift fur Gestaltung 4 (1928). "Everything in this world is a product of the formula 'function through economy,' but not everything is a work of art: all the arts are composition, and thus are not subjected to a particular purpose . All of life is function, but not everything is artistic." ABC- Beitrage zum Bauen 1924-1928, ed. Emil Roth, Hans Schmidt, Mart Stam. Among others, we should recall the text by Karel Teige, Mundaneum 1928," Stavba 10 (1929), to which Le Corbusier responded emphatically with his Defense de !'architecture (1929)," written for Stavba and published in Musaion 2 (1931), and reprinted in Werk and in L'architecture d'Aujourd'hui. 7 See the Teige/Le Corbusier polemic in the texts mentioned in the previous note.

AI ar Aalto, senior's dormitory (Baker House), Cambridge, Mass. 1946-49, view from the river, photo: Martin Steinmann, Zurich above right: from the series of design sketches. The final form already stands out.

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8 "Alexander Klein, Lo studio delle piante e progettazione degli spazi negli allogi minimi," Matilde Baffa Rivolta ct. Augusto Rossari, ed., Milan: Mazzotta, 1975; a collection of essays by A. Klein from various German magazines including Die Baugilde, Moderne Bauformen, Wasmuth's Monatshefte, etc. 9 Cf. the proceedings of the conference on Systematic and Intuitive Methods in Engineering, Industrial Design, Architecture, and Communication, organized in 1962 at the Aeronautics Department of the Imperial College in London. 10 Alexander Klein, "GrundriB-bildung und Raumgestaltung von Kleinwohnungen und neue Auswer-tungsmethoden," Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung 33/34, Berlin 1928. 11 Walter Gropius, Bauhausbauten Dessau, pp. 152-200; Ch . Kutchke, Bauhausbauten, pp . 39 - 52. 12 Le Corbusier, "Pour batir, standardiser et tayloriser," supplement to Bulletin du redressement francais (May 1, 1928). in M. Steinmann, ed., ClAM, n. 15. 13 Walter Gropius, Bauhausbauten, p. 172, diagrams. Gropius' detailed instructions for the course of work, the division of labor and the specialization of the groups are a pure and simple paraphrase of the German edition of the book by Frederick W. Taylor, Die Betriebs-leitung, Berlin 1909. Most helpful for an understanding of the ideological context is the introduction, "Das Experiment der Siedlung Ti:irten." Cf. also the very interesting essay by Winfried Nerdinger, "Walter Gropius - vom Amerikanismus zur neuen Welt," in: J.-L. Cohen and H. Da-misch, Americanisme et modernite -L'ideal americain dans /'architecture, Paris: EHESS Flammarion, 1993, pp. 147-170. 14 Cf. my article on a sculpture by Max Bill that never went beyond the project stage, presented at a competition for a monument to work in Zurich in 1939: B. Reichlin, "L'art

concret au travail," Faces 15 (1990) pp. 18- 21 . 15 "Aitersheim in Kassel," Die Baugilde (1930). pp. 115- 117; Otto Vi:ilkers, "Aitersheim der Aschrott-Stiftung in Kassel," Moderne Bauformen (1932), pp. 133- 159; Winfried Nerdinger, Walter Gropius, Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1985, pp. 126-127. 16 Heinz und Bodo Rasch, ZU OFFEN- Tilren und Fenster, Stuttgart, Wedekind, 1931. 17 Victor Chklovski, Una teoria del pro sa, Bari: Laterza, 19 66; orig. ed. Moscow, 1929, chapter on "La costruzione del raconto e del romanzo"; here quoted from the German edition, Theorie der Prosa, Frankfurt/M 1966, pp. 75f. 18 He refers to the exhibition "Wohnbedarf" ("Accessories for Living") organized by the Werkbuna in Stuttgart in 1931. "Seats," "Eating," "Drinking," were the titles of the various sections. In October 1932, a standing division was created for each of them for an entire year. 19 Paul Ricoeur, De f'interpretatior Essais sur Freud, Paris: Le Seuil, 1965. 20 Jean Baudrillard, Le systeme de. objets, Paris: Gallimard, 1968, p. 34-35) . 21 Joseph Abram, "Paul Nelson 1895-1979," AMC 15 (March 1987' The April1989 supplement to the Bulletin d'information architecturale 130 is devoted to Paul Nelson; see esp. the article by B. Reichlin, "Le fonctionnalisme radical de Paul Nelson," p. 15-16. 22 I am grateful to J. Abram for providing me with a copy of the dra of the "General Program." 23 Paul Nelson, "Le palais de Ia Decouverte," Les Cilhiers d'arts (Paris 1940) . 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Christopher Alexander, Notes the Synthesis of Form, President an Fellow of Harvard College, Harvard