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Theory
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Kate Nesbitt: Theory is a discourse that
describes the practice and production
of architecture and identifies challenges
to it
Overlaps with, but differs from,
architectural history - it poses alternative
solutions; it is speculative,
anticipatory and catalytic
Theory deals with architectures
aspirations as much as its
accomplishments
Since the 1960s: pluralist period that is
loosely defined as postmodern
Architectural theory became truly
interdisciplinary
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Types of theory
Prescriptive, proscriptive,
affirmative, critical
Prescriptive theory offers new or revived
solutions for specific problems
Proscriptive theory states what is to be
avoided in design
Critical theory is broader thaneither, it evaluates the built world and its
relationship to society
It is polemical, often expresses political
and ethical orientation and aims to
stimulate change
It is speculative, questioningandsometimes utopian
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Theoretical treatise: defining the scope of the discipline
Theoretical treatises are concerned with the origins of apracticeExample: the origin of architecture is in imitation of nature - mimesis - andmans desire to improve upon it
Basic subject matterof treatises:
1 requisite qualities of an architect (with regard to personality, education,experience, etc.)
2 requisite qualities of architecture (Vitruvius: firmness, commodity,delight)
3 a theory of designor construction method (Abbot Laugier)
4 examples of the cannon of architecture
5 attitude about the relationship between theory and practice (useful,predictable - or not)
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Postmodernism
The 1960s are in many ways the key transitional period in which the newinternational order (neocolonialism, the Green Revolution,
computerization, and electronic information) is at one and the same timeset in place and is swept away and shaken by its own internalcontradictions and by external resistance.
Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism and Consumer Society
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Challenges to theModern Movement inarchitecture
The demolition of thePruitt-Igoe housingcomplex, 1972 (St Louis)
hailed as the failure ofmodern architectures visionfor housing (this example a
bureaucratic application ofmodernist principles)
The aesthetic of modernismwas also increasingly seen asa sign of the corporate,commercial world; the social
programme was lost:
European modernarchitecture was importedto America without itsideological componentColin Rowe
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Architectural theory becomes institutionalisedin this period
In 1967-68 independent think tanks founded, in New York and Venice
Manhattan: Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), similar in its
mission to Londons Architectural Association (AA, founded 1847) was
established by a board of architects (led by Peter Eisenman) in opposition tothe existing education
It published Oppositions and Octoberjournals and a series of bookslike Aldo Rossis The Architecture of the City(1982, Italian 1966)
Italian architects among the most influential theorists of the period
Architectural Institute at the University of Venice (IAUV) important in
particular, but also Rome and Milan
1968 Manfredo Tafuri founded the Institute of Architectural History at IAUV
(Critical theory and Marxism)
School of Venice- a number of important architects
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Mid-1960s: publication ofseveral important treatises
Aldo Rossi,The Architecture of the City(1966)
Robert Venturi,Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
(1966) Christian Norberg-Schulz,Intentions in Architecture (1965)
Christopher Alexander,Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964)
Venturi:the importance of looking at and usingarchitectural history in contemporary design; a manifestofor historicist eclecticism
hybrid/pure, distorted/straightforward, ambiguous/articulated
Communication of meaningon various levels; multipleinterpretations
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, Learning from Las Vegas(1972)
In a decade, his theory became widespread
Charles Jencks,The Language of Post-Modern Architecture(1977):
Codifies the emerging movement as a style
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1969, conference at the
MoMA; 1972 publication
ofFive Architects from it
Modern Movement-inspired work,
countertendency in
abstraction in relation to
Venturi
Peter Eisenman,
Michael Graves,Charles Gwathmey,
John Hejduk,
Richard Meierbecame
know as the New
York Five
Common ground isformalist: interest in
early Le Corbusier and
cubism
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The Venice Bienalle 1980 - Paolo Portoghesi: The Presence of the Past
Nostalgic and scenographic: negative judgement passed by some critics
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MoMA exhibition in 1988 DeconstructivistArchitecture
Aimed to show a new movement, but the work wasntas related/homogenous as suggested
The term is a combination of philosopher JacquesDerridas deconstruction and RussianConstructivism
Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadidclosest toConstructivism (through formal explorations)
Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumiclosestto philosophical deconstruction (critique anddismantling of disciplinary boundaries)
Frank Gehry, Steven Hall, Coop Himmelblau-not similar to the above (intuition and sensuousapproach to materials)
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Theoretical paradigms
The postmodern period characterised by a number of theoretical paradigms
or ideological frameworks imported from other disciplines: phenomenology,
aesthetics, linguistic theory, Marxism, feminism
1 Phenomenology
This philosophical thread underlies a number ofattitudes towards site, place,landscape and making
More recently, this strand has moved into problematising the bodys interaction
with its environment
Martin Heidegger(1887-1976) Building, Dwelling, Thinking
One of the most influential phenomenological works for architectural theory
Dwelling is defined as a staying with things
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Norwegian critic
Christian Norberg-Schulzinterprets dwelling as being at peace ina protected place
The primary purpose of architecture is hence to make to make a worldvisible. It does this as a thing, and the world it brings intro presenceconsists in what it gathers
Existence, Space and Architecture, 1971 and onwards - exploresarchitecture and dwelling
Phenomenology of architecture: concretization of existential spacethrough the making ofplaces
Finnish phenomenologist Juhani Pallasmaa - psychicapprehension of architecture: opening up a view into a second realityof perception, dreams, forgotten memories and imagination
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Peter Zumthor
contemporary example of architecture
that displays a phenomenological
sensibility
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2 Aesthetic of the sublime
Aesthetics deals with the production and reception of the works of art
The sublime is the principal aesthetic category of modernityandas such carried on afterwards
The effect the work of architecture has on the viewer in the case of the sublime
is visceral
The definitions of the sublime (such as the uncanny and the grotesque) give
shape to the modern aesthetic discourse and coincide with postmodern thought
Scientific strand in modernism suppressed this aesthetic enquiry
Emphasis on rationality and functionmarginalised beautyand the sublime as
subjective issues
Psychoanalytic and deconstructionist models revitalise this discourse
Anthony Vidlerdeals with the uncanny; Peter Eisenman with the grotesque
Uncanny in this context: the return of the body into an architecture that hadrepressed its conscious presence (Vidler)
Grotesque: the condition of the always present or the already within, that the
beautiful in architecture attempts to repress (Eisenman)
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3 Linguistic theory
Linguistic paradigms shaped cultural criticism
Semiotics, structuralism, post-structuralism reshaped many disciplines:
literature, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and all critical activity
This development in the 1960s parallels the revived interest in
meaning and symbolism in architecture
Architects studied how meaning is created in language and applied it to
architecture
Modernism characterised by the belief in a whole, or unity, while
postmodernism introduces the notions ofmultidimensional space and a
methodological field
Poststructuralism is characterised by the critique of the sign
It also represents the shift from language to discourse (Terry Eagleton)
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Kate Nesbitt:
Before structuralism, the act of interpretation sought to discover themeaning which coincided with the intention of the author or speaker; this
meaning was considered definitive. Structuralism does not attempt to
assign a true meaning to the work (beyond its structure) or to evaluate the
work in relation to the cannon. In poststructuralism, it is asserted that
meaning is indeterminate, elusive, bottomless.
Deconstruction (Jacques Derrida) is one of the most significant poststructuralist
manifestations
Tschumi and Eisenman representatives in architecture
The philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) is only now emerging as
potentially extremely productive in the context of culture and architecture in
particular
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4 Marxism
Particularly important for the study of the city and its institutions
School of Venice spearheaded by Manfredo Tafuri particularly influential raisingthe issue ofthe relationship of class struggle and architecture
Tafuri: the crisis of modern architecture[is] a crisis of the ideologicalfunction of architecture
Jameson: grass-roots resistance to the status quo is possible through Marxisttheory
Important poststructuralist working with the questions of the structure of politicalpower: Michel Foucault
The Frankfurt School (Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse) also fuses in aninterdisciplinary approach philosophy, history and psychology in order to explainthe phenomena of culture
Walter Benjamin, although peripheral to the circle, became the most known andis often cited in architectural theory
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5 Feminism
Activism in the 1960s drew attention to the disenfranchisement within
democratic societies of groups defined by gender, race, or sexual orientation
This discourse often goes under the bannerthe critique of the Other
It broadens the discussion of architecture from formal grounds to cultural,
historical and ethical grounds
Feminism is an important instance of this sort of critique
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Postmodern architectural themes
1 Historyand historicism
2Meaning
3 Place
4 Urban theory
5Politicaland ethical agendas
6 The body
Nesbit, Kate, ed. Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, An Anthology of
Architectural Theory 1965-1995(New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996)