Chamber music was written Musica in Porto, Portugal,
to be performed in intimate 2005, though of another
spaces, often made of wood. scale, refers to that tradition
The interior of the Sala and the resonant qualities of
Suggia in OMA’s Casa da a wooden music box.
Indices 10 Materials
Materials carry meanings through embodying
traditional materials, methodologies, and Blocks of locally hewn granite its surfaces, transforming a 98 99
rituals of construction as well as through the form the cubic mass of prosaic and unremarkable
less tangible aspects of the uniqueness of Ensamble Studio’s Musical constructive detail into an
place, program, and culture. Studies Center in Santiago de essential ornamental motif.
Compostela, Spain, built in The material is converted
Site 2002. The hydraulic drilling into a didactic tool, an index
A material often operates as an index to a techniques related to the to a fast-disappearing quarry-
particular site. The use of wood from a local stone’s extraction are ing technology.
forest not only inextricably links the work to expressed and celebrated on
its immediate physical context but to those
projects that share a similar material source.
The ways in which materials are connected to
each other can further reiterate a context by
referring to traditional building techniques.
Program
Often, the performance requirements of a
particular function will motivate material
selection. A wood railing carries with it
material warmth that is smooth to the touch,
or a stone staircase will withstand centuries
of wear.
Cultural
Materials often carry symbolic expectations,
as in a granite tomb or a marble city hall or
a wood cabin. Granite implies eternity,
marble alludes to grandeur, and wood to a
natural primitiveness. It does not necessarily
mean that all tombs should be granite, but
it is important to be aware that traditional
associations exist, and they may be unique to
each culture in which a work might be situated.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Space encompasses the stage for human
activity, the cadence of our movements,
the duration of our experiences.
11 100 101
space
Space may be the principal defining characteristic of architecture and what distinguishes
it from the other arts.
Wallace Stevens’s poem, The Snow Man, concludes
with what might be a good definition of the distinction
between a void and what might be considered
architectural space: the “… Nothing that is not there
and the nothing that is.” If a void is the nothingness
that is absent, space might be understood as the
nothingness that is present.
As Constantinos Doxiadis has Propylaea at the entry to the
famously diagrammed in his complex. This conception of
Architectural Space in space might be described as a
Ancient Greece, one can “site of perceiving,” in that
understand the organization the objects arrayed about the
of the structures of the Acropolis are perceived in
Acropolis as being based on a their relative positions—hori-
series of uninterrupted visual zontally and vertically—as
scans, radiating from a distributed across the site.
position at the portico of the
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Architectural space provides the range
across which our gazes pass before resting
on objects, surfaces, and other people. Space Giambattista Nolli’s 1748 elegantly demonstrates the
encompasses the stage for human activity, map of Rome is remarkable way that public exterior
the cadence of our movements, the duration not only for its accuracy, but spaces—such as piazzas and
of our experiences. Space contains that it endures as an example of courtyards—and public and
which is within our physical grasp and that the spatial equilibrium that semipublic interior spaces—
which may be “graspable” only through occurs during the experience such as the Pantheon and
perception, comprehension, and memory. of a city. The contrast various churches—become
between the darkened fabric equal participants in
It was probably August Schmarzow who, in of the city and the white, establishing a pedestrian’s
1898, first argued that the manipulation of figural spatial elements perception of a city.
space is the principal defining characteristic
of architecture and what distinguishes it from
the other arts, such as sculpture. This is not to
say that architectural space did not exist
before 1898—certainly the Pantheon exists as
an emphatic spatial volume—only that its
identity had not been adequately described.
There is also that conception of space as a
“site of perceiving.” In this sense, space is the
range within which a person, located at a
point, apprehends his or her environment,
actually constructing this environment based
upon prior knowledge, experiences, and
techniques of observing.
(continued on page 104)
“Phenomenal Transparency”
in the Spaces of Le Corbusier
In the twentieth century—the century the spatial implications of modern art and Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret: Villa Savoye,
roughened by unimaginable wars, yet of Cubism, in particular. Based on Gyorgy Poissy, France, 1928–31
emboldened by velocity, stream of con- Kepes’s notion—presented in his Language
sciousness writing, nuclear fusion, motion of Vision (1948)—of the Cubist-based phe- through the horizontal slot and then above
pictures, jazz, Futurism, and Cubism— nomenon whereby two or more overlapping the roof, to emerge both upon the terrace
there was an impulse to construct a concept figures claim the overlapped zones with and on the roof above; both outside and
of space that was as unique to architecture equal priority (as opposed to the fore- within the volume of the house, the green-
as the century was to its predecessors. ground figure occluding the background), ery’s ambiguous presence is emphasized by
“transparency” connotes “a simultaneous the setlike walls (orange) that alternately
Sigfried Giedion’s Space, Time, and Archi- perception of different spatial locations,” act as frame and backdrop.
tecture, based on a series of lectures given imparting a continuous oscillation of spa-
at Harvard from 1938–39, proposed a for- tial definitions. Rowe and Slutzky introduce Here, one finds the spatial depiction of the
mulation of Einsteinian space–time as an the distinction between literal transpar- twentieth century fully realized.
intrinsic aspect of the new architecture. ency—which simply involves a clear layer,
Although ultimately more of a metaphor as vision through a film—and phenomenal
than a scientific validation, Giedion’s transparency, in which multiple and simul-
theory introduced Cubism as a form of spa- taneous spatial interpretations are evoked,
tial research, with important architectural and “the transparent ceases to be that
implications. which is perfectly clear and becomes
instead that which is clearly ambiguous.”
Bruno Zevi’s Saper Vedere L’Architettura (page 23) And Rowe and Slutzky find that
(1948, translated as Architecture as Space: such “clearly ambiguous” transparencies
How to Look at Architecture) came later, are especially evident in the work of Le
arguing that the history of architecture Corbusier.
was largely a history of architectural space,
by which he meant especially enclosed The view from the terrace of his Villa
space. Like Giedion, Zevi also argued that Savoye in Poissy (1928-31), for example,
time was an important component of the affords numerous such spatial transparen-
newer concepts of spatial definition, incor- cies (fig. A). Beneath the roof of the outdoor
porating the experiments of the Italian pavilion, one already participates in several
futurists, for whom speed was a Muse. He spaces: that of the pavilion itself, of the
promoted a version of “organic architec- exterior spaces, and of the shaft of space
ture,” a compilation of theories founded on that moves directly into the house (see the
gothic architecture and the work of Frank blue zones, fig. B). A band at the horizon
Lloyd Wright, stressing spatial ambiguity, line (yellow/orange) extends from the ter-
with an indefinite flow of spaces often race through the interior, circumscribing
crossing functional boundaries. the peripheral “frame” of the house; and a
large exterior space (reddish) open to the
Then, combining their expertise in archi- sky moves from the center off toward the
tecture and the fine arts, Colin Rowe and right. Figural, in a more painterly way, is
Robert Slutzky’s Transparency (1955), pro- the band of greenery (green, fig. C), which
posed a more articulate argument regarding begins beyond the house on the left, visible
Just as a street can exhibit where there was once over
spatial qualities, both formal 130 arcades, the very
and experiential, an arcade is successful Passage des
perhaps the most spatial Panoramas (bottom of plan,
form of street. Developed 1799) was followed by the
primarily in the early first metal and glass arcade in
nineteenth century, arcades the city, the Passage Jouffroy
utilized the previously (center and photograph,
inaccessible inner blocks of designed by François-
large cities, increasing the Hippolyte Destailleur and
quantity of commercial Romain de Bourges, 1845),
properties while providing and the Passage Verdeau
safe routes independent of (top, 1847).
the crowded streets. In Paris,
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Spatial Zones
One of the most important aspects in the
formation of architectural space is the concept
of definition. Just as the space within a
deflated balloon is difficult to grasp, and that
within an inflated balloon is clearly intuited,
in order to grasp a spatial figure—or spatial
zone—a sense of boundary is necessary.
However, it is possible that several spatial
zones might overlap, and that it is possible to
occupy several of these zones simultane-
ously. The complexity of such spatial
overlaps is resolved perceptually, with the
viewer understanding one set of boundaries
at a time, perceiving additional zones
through movement and shifts of viewpoint.
We can usually understand the relative Artist Rachel Whiteread’s and the protrusion of the
dimensions of height and breadth simply by Ghost (1990) is the solid hearth in the foreground.
standing within a space. Depth, however, casting of the interior of a Essentially, Ghost is space
requires at least some movement into or London room. One can see made solid.
around that space. This movement permits the imprint of the fireplace
us to extrapolate approximate depth, based
on our understanding of the relative In this plaster model from his Church of Santa Maria of the
locations of surfaces and objects within our “Structures and Sequences of Divine Providence in Lisbon,
angles of vision as we establish focus and Space” in Spazio 7 (1952–53), Portugal (shown in partial
understand our movement in relation to time. Luigi Moretti constructs as plan on the left). The
Because movement across a distance is an solid the principal spatial solidification of space makes
essential facet of spatial experience, many sequence in the interior of its intangibility immediately
theorists find that time is an inextricable Guarino Guarini’s baroque graspable.
component of space.
One of the most effective methods of Spatial Illusion Pietro da Cortona’s design for compression, all within a 11 Space
promoting the understanding of depth is by The development of linear perspective the exterior of Santa Maria depth of just 5 to 10 yards
means of the rhythmic organization of affected many aspects of architectural della Pace (1656–67) presents (4.5 to 9 m). In this low relief
surfaces: the columns lining a cathedral’s nave, design. It altered the ways in which space a façade that suggests a model by Jonathan Negron
the beams of a ceiling, or the patterns in a was represented in architectural renderings. round, temple-like object (faculty, Jerry Wells), one
floor. The measures of repetition are essential It provided architects with a tool for under- nestled within a semicircular can easily understand the
in understanding the depth of a space. standing what might be visible (or hidden) concavity. Located in a very spatial depths implied by
from specific points of view. The mecha- confined alley in Rome, the the warping, overlapping,
While traditional architecture generally nisms of perspective—horizon, vanishing architect, a master of illusion- alternatively convex and
establishes spatial organizations axially upon point, picture plane, and pyramid of vision— istic perspective, uses forms concave sequence of mildly
our introduction to a space, modern architec- not only assemble an illusory space within a composed of elliptical objects curved surfaces.
ture would often promote entry into the frame, but also “locate” a viewer in a space in various degrees of
corners of spaces, so that our first glance constructed in front of the frame: the viewer
would be diagonal. In order to emphasize becomes an implicit subject of the work.
this concept of spatial depth, architects such
as Le Corbusier frequently utilize the “long Linear perspective also permitted the actual
dimension,” essentially the diagonal view that construction of illusory space in architectural
penetrates a space or across multiple spaces. design. While height and breadth are clearly
Renaissance artists would charged, three-dimensional
often supplement space. The low horizon, the
constructed perspectival strangely located vanishing
depth with gridded surfaces, point, and the clear distinc-
such as paving patterns and tions and resemblances
ceiling coffers, as in Piero between the foreground and
della Francesca’s Flagellation background scenes not only
of Christ (c. 1457). The contribute to interpretations
repetition of a grid of squares of the painting’s themes but
receding in depth assists in also serve to imply the viewer’s
the location of figures within location within the space in
an illusory, and symbolically front of the painted panel.
104 105
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Vincenzo Scamozzi’s set the theater’s backstage. From
designs for Oedipus Rex the abstract interior space of
understood when viewing a surface, an (1585), have been perma- a theater that evokes impres-
object, or into a volume, the spatial nently installed since the sions of a grand outdoor
dimension of depth can potentially be inaugural production in amphitheater, one looks into
constructed through more painterly means: Andrea Palladio’s Teatro the spaces of an idealized
through the visual illusions of a perspective Olimpico in Vicenza. Cons- and imaginary ancient city,
construction combined with the memory’s tructed in a false perspective, to eventually return to the
allusions to previously experienced spaces. the sets represent the seven real streets and spaces of
This is a technique that was developed most roads of Thebes within the Vicenza as perceived through
effectively in the architecture of the late relatively limited depth of fresh eyes.
Renaissance and baroque periods, where one
can find numerous examples of relatively flat themselves called panoramas or cycloramas—
or gently molded surfaces invested with appeared in cities throughout Europe and
waves of implicit depths. the United States, and are continuing to be
constructed throughout Asia. As a tool,
Building on these developments, a new form panoramas changed the way designers could
of perspective—the panorama—was developed see and interpret urban space, allowing the
in the late eighteenth century. Rather than viewer to move casually through a 360-degree
simply present an illusory depth on a flat environment.
surface, the panoramas of the nineteenth
centuries enveloped their audiences with their Eventually, panoramic paintings gave way to
massive scales, multiple vanishing points, and similarly constructed photographs, and finally
epic themes, transporting their viewers into panoramic cinemas developed popularity,
the midst of another time and place. Buildings although all forms are currently being revived
that housed these artificial worlds—often as interest in immersive representation is
increasing. The rapid development of video
games, in which the viewer is an active
participant in a virtual three-dimensional
The Lower Roadway of New design. This sunken roadway of Historic Places, it is a environment, complete with audial and 11 Space
Jersey Route 139 (William is naturally ventilated and lit, unique spatial invention— additional sensory (haptic) effects, will
Sloan, Fred Lavis, Sigvald open to the sky along its a cathedral of sorts—a deeply certainly influence both the interactive
Johannesson, and the New northeast edge, with its beamed concrete nave nature of modeling and presenting architec-
Jersey State Highway southeast flank a series of alternating stroboscopic tural projects, and the development of
Commission, completed in arcades exhibiting, sequen- shafts of daylight with the spaces in which the mobility of the viewer
1929)—born of the postwar tially when leaving the city: a ghosted diagonal traces of is an integral factor.
necessity for the efficient, chasm of concrete light wells, cross streets above and a
exclusive accommodation of rough rock formations, and series of rugged “side In the early twentieth century, people were
vehicular traffic—was impromptu thickets of trees. chapels” casting variegated exposed to spaces that were previously
unprecedented in scope and Listed in the National Register light onto the roadway. unthinkable, spaces initiated by internal
combustion, witnessed through auto glass
and dedicated to velocity, the combination
of distance and time. New concepts of
spatial definition emerged, enveloped in
structures of heroic massiveness and rhythms
of increased rapidity. New types of architec-
ture appeared, not only highway construc-
tions themselves, but also the buildings and
spaces that began to materialize along these
new roadways, such as toll plazas, rest stops,
fueling stations, and so on. Perceived at high
speeds and sited on or along roadways, these
buildings address the highway and its
expanded vistas with spaces configured by
rates of acceleration and deceleration,
vehicular turning radii, driving lanes, and
viewing pyramids constrained by automotive
design and increasingly favoring the oblique
over the frontal. The result is an elongation
of spaces and the development of an
anamorphic architecture, one in which
landscapes, spaces, and volumes are
distorted in compensation for the visual
foreshortening and condensed observations
prompted by the highway.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel was mobility of the viewer around below, then strolling through 106 107
highly skilled in the construc- and through an urban space the upper vestibule, which
tions of panoramas and with frequent opportunities provides a vantage point as in
illusionistic stage set designs, for retrospection is an a panorama: elevated above
and, as historian Kurt Forster important aspect of spatial the plaza, with columns
has demonstrated, applied organization. His famous 1831 framing fragmented views of
this knowledge to his rendering of the main an urban panorama of an ideal
architectural designs for staircase of his Altes Museum Berlin that vies for attention
Berlin. For Schinkel, the shows figures ascending from with the works on exhibit.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE When it comes to scale, buildings are
eternal chameleons—shifty characters,
they thrive on belonging simultaneously
to multiple and interlocking scales.
12 108 109
scale
Scale can be fleeting or even imaginary, relational or perceptual.
Size is how big something is—its actual dimension.
However scale is relative, it can be defined only in
relation to something. That something can be the
whole—in other words, a door has a scale in relation
to the surface in which it is located—or the perceived,
as in the position of the observer, from where (what
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Álvaro Siza’s Santa Maria entry door abnormally
Church in Marco de enlarged, at a scale
Canavezes, Portugal (1996), appropriate to the ritual of
manipulates scale in relation procession. Once inside, a
to multiple contexts. From long, low horizontal window
the square below, it appears at the eye level of seated
to be a modest church atop a parishioners returns the
hill, with a traditional window structure to human scale,
indicating its nave (although emphasizing the expanse of
this window is, paradoxically, the horizon and the valley
unseen from the interior). beyond.
Upon the hill, one finds the
distance, what orientation) he or she is The profile of Alvar Aalto’s acoustical necessities of the
located. Scale is dependent on context, a ceramic-clad volume of auditorium that it encloses
context that can range from the smallest the1968 Nordic House in and the mountainous
nanoparticle to a vast landscape. Scale is Reykjavík, Iceland, is shaped silhouette of the distant
fleeting, as a building for example can simultaneously by the Mt. Esja beyond.
simultaneously belong to multiple scales.
And, finally, there is the imagined scale—
where the mythology of the object has
established a scale greater or smaller than
the actual. How many times have we come
upon something that we have always read
about or seen in images and think, “Oh, how
much smaller (or larger) it actually is!” where
its “reality,” once contextualized, is vastly
distinct from its imagined scale?
BODY Aldo Rossi’s Teatro del
The body is a powerful determinant of scale. Mondo, constructed for the
It has the ability to generate measure through Venice Biennale in 1979,
either its necessity to physically engage an endlessly manipulates our
environment at multiple scales and at multiple perception of the existing
speeds (be it a handle, a car, a parade) or context. As this temporary
through locating its eye in relationship to that structure literally floats into
environment (a window, a vista) so that it can proximity with the city’s
be perceptually experienced. great churches, their scale is
suddenly transformed from
Physical monumental and massive to
The height of a stair riser, the height and pavilionesque and fleeting.
profile of a handrail, the proportions of a
chair are all scaled to interact with the
dimensions of the human body. The body’s
(continued on page 112)
Gerrit Rietveld
and the Scales of Art
“De Stijl” was the name chosen for the col-
lective efforts of a group of loosely
organized creative people in the Nether-
lands in the early twentieth century. The
work of this Dutch group coalesced around
the musings published in an eponymous
magazine. During its brief period of publi-
cation, De Stijl showcased images of
architecture, painting, sculpture, and
furniture-making amongst literary musings
that trended towards a heady sociocultural
cocktail of transnationalist politics and
universalist metaphysics. The second issue
of De Stijl, published in 1918, set out the
group’s manifesto. Painting was singled out
as the seminal visual discipline capable of
expressing a floating, unbounded spatial
continuum. Initially, there was resistance
to the inclusion of architecture due to its
obligation to address structural and func-
tional needs. The painter Piet Mondrian
noted within the pages of volume five,
“What was achieved in art must for the
present be limited to art. Our external envi-
ronment cannot yet be realized as the pure
plastic expression of harmony.”
In the face of the skepticism of Mondrian Gerrit Rietveld: Schröder House, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1923–24 Gerrit Rietveld: Berlin Chair, 1923
and others, Gerrit Rietveld’s Schröder exterior and interior
House was a remarkable achievement. The
house forcefully made a case for the expres- creating territories of use in place of tradi- windows, partitions, and furniture—are
sive capabilities of architecture and became
a canonical representation of the spatial tionally defined rooms. Throughout the conceived and executed under a rigorously
continuum admired by the De Stijl group.
The interior and furniture of the Schröder house, rectangular surfaces are singled out consistent regime. The geometry, surfaces,
House is beholden to the same conceptual
thinking as the building shell. Walls on the at a variety of scales and finished in bright and color of all of these components were
exterior are simple rectangular surfaces
that in many cases appear to float in defi- primary colors. This consistency of treat- carefully considered and controlled by
ance of gravity. Inside, walls are movable
partitions (thus literally achieving the ment extends from large architectural Rietveld. While providing a reasonably
aspect of “floating” implied on the exte-
rior). In the open position, interior surfaces, such as a balcony wall, to small accommodating domestic environment,
partitions allow space to flow unimpeded,
details, such as the end of a chair’s arm. he organized the house as a singular
declarative representation of the princi-
The Schröder House is a curated environ- ples of De Stijl.
ment where a variety of normally disparate
components—roofs, balconies, walls, —Steven Fong (University of Toronto)
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Michael Webb’s 1966–67 its various appliances; in its
Cushicle is a “nomadic unit” open position, it is an inflated
that provides self-sustaining “domestic” skin. Both
functions to one individual. positions are scaled to the
In its closed “skeletal” human body’s proportions
position, it is carried on a and range of motions.
person’s back and supports
proportions and range of motion determine In Torino, Italy, the Fiat
the scale of physical form that operates as an automobile factory, designed
interface between a body and its ability to by Giacomo Matté Trucco
comfortably occupy and navigate architec- (1921–23) juxtaposes two
tural space. This scale of engagement is most scales, one motivated by the
discernable within domestic spaces whose movement and turning radii
primary responsibility is to house the body of an automobile test track,
and is critical in accessible spaces that the other by the repetitive
accommodate specialized user needs structural frame dimen-
(disabled, geriatric, children, and so on). sioned by the large machines
and assembly lines of the
Perceptual factory floor.
The eye of the observer locates the origin of
the gaze that establishes both the horizon
line and the cone of vision. As this gaze is
superimposed onto an infinite picture plane,
the near and the far can be brought into
immediate relation to each other, giving
scale to an otherwise scaleless environment.
If site lines used in determining the locations
and dimensions of apertures, frames, and
Conceived and perceived as 12 Scale
two enormous rocks
grids through which views and light pass are buttressing the banks of San
carefully calibrated to the origins of both Sebastián’s Urumea River,
static and animate gazes, then these devices Rafael Moneo’s 1991–99
have the ability to register the scale of the Kursaal Auditorium and
human body. These foregrounds introduce Congress Center exists at the
scale to distant backgrounds and horizons by scale of the surrounding
juxtaposing them alongside the scale of the landscape. Yet, as one enters
body, establishing a tangible relationship the lobbies of each volume, a
between the human body and the context in picture window frames that
which it is located. distant landscape,
transforming the San
THE NEAR AND THE FAR Sebastian bay and the
Buildings are eternal chameleons—they are mountains of Mount Urgull
shifty characters that thrive on belonging and Mount Ulía into
simultaneously to multiple and interlocking projected still lifes that
scales. As one views the Eiffel Tower from a appear to be drawn onto its
distance, it is a marker, an orienting pin that interior surfaces.
protrudes from a once homogenous Parisian
skyline. Yet as one approaches, its scale Adolf Loos’s 1922 compe-
transforms to a monumental one, an upward tition entry for the offices
thrusting demonstration of engineering of the Chicago Tribune is,
ingenuity that dwarfs the observer. And on one hand, a 120-meter
finally, from within its rooftop restaurant, it is (131 yd) high office building
an instrument, a camera lens, scaled to the scaled for human occupancy
body, with which to frame the city below. and, on the other, a singular
and monumental column
made of black granite.
112 113
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE From 1556 until 1573 a approach, with a constantly mounting this terrace, one’s
pentagonal fortification in changing juxtaposition of ele- eyes move upward through
Caprarola, Italy, was ments: At first a loggia over a the villa’s various floors as
transformed into a villa by modest entry door, then as a they shift in scale until the
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. heavily rusticated base upon uppermost floors, where the
He also reconstructed the which an intermediate floor diminished windows cause
main street through the appears below the loggia, and the bulk to appear to have
village, so that the new Villa finally as a massive swollen to enormous
Farnese could be experienced pentagonal construction proportions.
at a variety of scales upon upon a generous terrace. On
Multiple Scales Scale is relative—and it is the various The independence of the responsibility and this
One might ask—what scale must a work be? contexts from which buildings are experi- primary steel structure from independence is reiterated
A work can be of a more familiar and enced (and to which they are attached) that the exterior and interior wall at the scale of the sliding,
intimate scale or of a monumental, larger- inform the various scales. As the cone of panels of Pierre Chareau’s folding, and rotating screens
than-life scale, one that impresses or awes. vision is reduced, as the building begins to 1931 Maison de Verre in Paris, that choreograph a series
But regardless, the scale of a building is lose its relationship to its broader context, France (with Bernard Bijvoet of transforming interior
informed by the scale of the context in which new references are established, ones that and Louis Dalbet), results in experiences that allows for
it is located, by the scale of the context from more directly engage the body and the an open and continuous simultaneous, yet indepen-
which it is experienced, and finally the scale sensual. For example, when considered spatial experience. Here, dent, programmatic and
of operation that it serves. And these scales through the wide-angle lens of an urban walls are freed of structural spatial interpretations.
are often at odds with each other. A building, skyline, like a Morandi bottle or a Cézanne
for example, exists at the scale of a city apple, a building’s responsibility is to interact
where it interacts with urban infrastructures with its “neighbors,” the collection of buildings
of public thoroughfares, spaces, and vistas. It that constitutes the city. Here, exaggerated
exists at the scale of the street as it interacts proportions and crisp profiles allow this
with adjacent buildings. It exists at the scale relationship to become legible at the scale
of the body, which allows an occupant to of the city. That very same building, however,
access it and interact with it both physically approached from a lesser distance and
and spatially. at street level, might take on a much more
defined scale—where proportions, color,
material, and textures become important
characteristics in defining its relationship
to its immediate surroundings.
Carlo Scarpa’s 1958–64 concrete floor slabs to the The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, structure that marks the site 12 Scale
renovation of Verona’s glazed enclosure walls sliding designed by the architect of the 1764 origin of the city
Castelvecchio is conceived as independently of the existing Eero Saarinen and structural and shifts to an imagined
an independent programmatic, stone walls, to the bridges engineer Hannskarl Bandel, scale as gateway to an
material, and circulatory that extend the circulation transcends its status as a expansive western landscape.
overlay onto the ancient between buildings. Here the
medieval twelfth-century architecture operates as
fortification. This concept of intermediary device that
separate but connected bridges the intimate scale of
systems informs the design the body and the enormity
of the building at multiple of the ancient fort structure.
scales—from the floating
Interlocking scales Kurt Schwitters’s 1923–37
Like the nesting of Russian matryoshka dolls Hannover Merzbau was
whose theme informs the painting of each constructed as an entire
successively scaled doll, an architectural environment whose scale and
concept informs the development of a content fluctuated almost
building at multiple scales. In other words, a daily. Constructed from
detail, a door, a room, a building is devel- scavenged detritus, it was
oped as variations of an overriding concept simultaneously full-scale
that informs the totality of a work. room and model of the world,
one that housed an incrus-
Quotidian versus Monumental tation of talismanic traces
Buildings, cities, and landscapes are and imaginary narratives.
experienced at an everyday scale: the familiar (Reconstruction by Peter
of the daily and the prosaic. It is through Bissegger, Hanover, 1981–83)
making this scale unfamiliar, seemingly larger
or smaller than the familiar in relationship to a 114 115
specific context, that monumentality is
achieved. But they can also have a larger-
than-life scale—one that operates at the scale
of the imagination. And while these
“monuments” are often large in size, their
power resides in their ability to convey
meanings that transcend the quotidian.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE It is the manipulation of form through
an understanding of the shadows that
are cast that registers the generative
presence of light.
13 116 117
light
Le Corbusier has said that “… light for me is the fundamental basis of architecture.
I compose with light …” (von Moos, page 98).
Imagine if one were to begin with a box, a dark box—
or a surface, a dark surface—how might light be intro-
duced into that space or onto that surface? How might
light structure a space or surface so as to bring order
to it—bring it scale, bring it texture, bring it hierarchy?
As light is incrementally introduced, objects and
Light is given a spatial
presence in this 1970
Sculpture Gallery by Philip
Johnson in New Canaan,
Connecticut, as it structures
the surfaces onto which it is
cast. Its traces not only help
to define the dimensions of
the works exhibited but
transform the gallery itself
into a work of art.
The introduction of natural the brick courses and
light at the perimeter of Eero geometries of the undulating
Saarinen’s 1955 Chapel at walls are surfaces that are
MIT in Cambridge, Massa- activated by the filtered light
chusetts, accentuates the that is reflected off of the
plasticity of its interior exterior moat that surrounds
surfaces. The roughness of the chapel.
surfaces are articulated as they come in and Spatial Transformation The church at Le Corbusier’s moving light, where one’s
out of focus and it is the dialogue of this Light is temporal and as it moves through a Sainte-Marie de La Tourette gaze is continuously
light with the surfaces that it illuminates or space it has the capacity to transform it. As monastery complex in Eveux, refocused to sequentially
passes through that produces an expanded surfaces come under the spotlight, they can France (1956–59), is a large illuminated focal points, but
spatial experience—a continuous transforma- alternately advance and recede from view, concrete volume whose the sanctuary itself
tion of form. and the space through which light moves can apertures obscure the direct transforms spatially as the
expand and contract along its path. Materials source of natural light. Not surfaces alternately flatten
Yet, it is not the light, per se, that creates can appear altered as their textures transform only are the church’s rough and advance as the shadows
the space—it is the shadows that are cast and volumes can seem distorted as their concrete surfaces animated come and go.
that construct the space, for as Louis Kahn proportions appear to change. by kaleidoscopic patterns of
said, “All material in nature, the mountains
and the streams and the air and we, are Textures
made of Light which has been spent, and The surface onto which light is directed not
this crumpled mass called material casts a only becomes hierarchically more significant
shadow, and the shadow belongs to Light.” than one that remains in relative darkness, but
(Lobell, p. xx) Thus, it is the manipulation it amplifies its presence through the shadow
of form through an understanding of the that it casts. Textures can be revealed and
shadows that are cast that registers the exaggerated through exposure to light, just
generative presence of light. as they can be smoothed and made flat.
(continued on page 121)
Steven Holl’s Sculpting of Light
Steven Holl’s architecture is one that Steven Holl: The Chapel of St. Ignatius,
deeply engages the senses, and it is through Seattle, Washington, 1997
the interplay of light, color, shadow, and views of exterior and interior
time that he choreographs an architectural
experience. One could even say that his Le Corbusier: Notre Dame du Haut,
built forms are a result of the sculpting of Ronchamp, France, 1954
light, and that it is this light that con- interior and exterior views of light towers
structs the space of his architecture. His
works are perceived as compositions of Giorgio Morandi: Still Life, 1952
light that are literally experienced as one
is drawn from space to space and further
enriched as the gaze is guided toward the
imagined spaces created by distant illumi-
nations appearing within the surfaces that
define the very same spaces through which
one is moving.
In his Chapel of St. Ignatius, completed in
1997, it is the sculpting of light that not
only produces the three-dimensional forms
that emerge from the rectangular shell of
the chapel, but it is the light that these
forms in turn produce that renders tangi-
ble St. Ignatius’ foundational guidebook
and teachings: the necessity for moving
between and making decisions amongst
constantly shifting “lights and darknesses.”
Spatial complexity is subsequently pro-
duced within an uninterrupted interior
volume through a series of spatial zones
that are choreographed by these light-
producing forms. As with Le Corbusier’s
light towers at Ronchamp and his light can-
nons over the priests’ altars of La Tourette,
Steven Holl’s “bottles of light” continue
the modernist tradition of constructing
light as a primary generator of both archi-
tectural form and architectural space. And
not unlike Morandi’s still life paintings
of the 1920s that construct a canvas of
(exterior) spatial relationships, the collec-
tion of St. Ignatius’s “Seven Bottles of
Light” represent a canvas of volumes that
have been carefully selected to devise an
interior space of “gatherings of different
lights.” (Holl, Cobb, page 9)
Here, continuous yet spatially distinct
three-dimensional spaces are constructed
through the projection of these volumes of
light onto surfaces that are as if perma-
nently imprinted by the transmitted light,
resulting in a series of abstracted interior
canvasses. The necessity of fixed three-
dimensional form gives way to continuously
transforming spatial compositions that are
defined by these intersections of surface
and light.
In the expansion to the Nelson-Atkins Steven Holl: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Museum of Art, the introduction of light Kansas City, Missouri, completed 2007
occurs at multiple scales. At the scale of view of exterior light boxes
the landscape, the enormous buildings of
light that serve to illuminate the embedded
galleries operate by day as sculptural pavil-
ions around and between which leisure
activity occurs, and by night as luminous
lanterns that suggest imagined worlds
lurking below the surface.
At the building scale, these volumes create
Piranesian spaces of light and shadow that
draw the visitor to the galleries below.
And, finally, at the infrastructural scale,
the fusing of structure, air, environment,
and light produces the optical instruments
that can be precisely calibrated to experi-
ence the collection of art.
In Holl’s architecture, light is the protago- Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Untitled etching (called Steven Holl: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
nist in the production of a relentless merging The Smoking Fire), plate VI from The Imaginary Kansas City, Missouri, view of interior
and blurring of architectural space. And it Prisons (Le Carceri d’Invenzione), Rome, 1761 edition
is in the construction of the softness of
these volumes that one experiences the
pleasure of his architecture—that one
inhabits the glow.
Steven Holl: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, Missouri, view of light structure
13 Light
Light reinforces the spatial symbolically and physically, Tadao Ando’s Church of the presence. The minimal In Sauerbruch Hutton’s multicolored ceramic rods
order of the Pompeian house. this central space of light was Light in Ibaraki, Japan dimensions of these 2002–09 Brandhorst combine to produce a
The atrium is the first room the heart of the household, (1989), is conceived as a apertures exaggerate the Museum in Munich, the continuously fluctuating
into which one arrives, above around which guests and concrete box that is contrast between the sunlit polychromatic façade façade that alternately
which is centered an aperture families would meet and subsequently incised to exterior and the dark interior, connotes its program. It intensifies and fades, and
that admits both natural water would be collected. introduce natural light to its while the profiles of the stands as a three-dimensional solidifies and dematerializes,
light and rainwater. Both interior. Here, light has both incisions simultaneously Pointillist painting whose as one experiences it from
a physical and spiritual convey religious meaning. independent layers of close and afar, frontally
bicolored sheet metal and and obliquely.
Chiaroscuro within a fairly shallow space. Volumes can of an object from each other.” (Goethe, 120 121
Establishing contrast between light and dark appear flatter or more three-dimensional page xxxviii) And as all color perception is
serves to delineate spatial and programmatic and dimensions can appear increased or both relative to the eye of the observer and
boundaries. The crisp profile lines that decreased. Spatial sequences are introduced to the (often colored) context in which it is
render legible contrasting patterns of light as one is drawn from dark to light. Alternately, perceived, it follows that an understanding
and dark, control the effect of this duality. boundaries between spaces can be blurred as of color in architecture introduces a potent
Extreme contrast can be achieved by the light becomes more uniformly distributed. symbolic and dynamic dimension to
introduction of light through a controlled This play of light cannot only produce architectural form and space.
aperture where the profile of the cut is simultaneous and shifting spatial readings—
important in demarcating the amount of light but it also challenges static programmatic Symbolic
that enters a space, allowing the imagination relationships, where unique behavioral Colors have traditional meanings associated
to complete that which is left in darkness. patterns emerge as occupants’ gazes and with them—meanings that shift, depending
movements seek shade and/or light. on the culture in which they are located. Red
Distortion is a symbol of luck in Asian cultures and often
Spatial experience can be intentionally Color the color worn by brides, yet in South Africa
transformed through choreographing the In his Theory of Colors, Johann Wolfgang it can symbolize mourning. Colors are also
relationship between a light source and the von Goethe writes “The eye sees no form, thought to produce certain environments that
surface onto which it falls. As darker spaces inasmuch as light, shade, and color together can alter perception and behaviors.
tend to recede and brighter spaces advance, constitute that which to our vision distin-
three-dimensional depth can be exaggerated guishes object from object, and the parts
The color of Luis Barragán’s The dining-pool room at the
Casa Gilardi (1976) in rear of the house introduces
Tacubaya, Mexico, not only an almost mystical source of
recalls Mexican textiles and light where color, through its
pottery, markets and sun- palette, reflectivity, and
drenched street walls, but intensity, creates the illusion
illuminates the interior of infinite spatial depth.
spaces of an elongated site.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Perceptual
Certain materials and colors reflect light,
others absorb it—effects that can accentuate
formal relationships. For example, spatial
depth can be exaggerated within a shallow
field by juxtaposing a lighter colored surface
against a darker background. Or a white
volume against a black background will
appear larger than a black volume against a
white background: The perception of scale is
always a function of the interplay between
forms. Color can compensate for light or
darkness and provide solace or destination or
it can animate an otherwise uniform surface.
Instrument
Entire buildings can operate as instruments
for light, and nowhere is this more evident
than in the Pantheon in Rome. Its 27-foot (8 m)
diameter oculus dramatically illuminates—
spiritually, literally, and temporally—the vast
space over which it presides, and as the Sun
moves across the sky, its sculpted light is cast
onto the dome’s spherical surface. The
building is an instrument that produces a
visible measure of the passing of time.
Devices that capture or filter light can The cinema and ballroom of
become a dominant, sometimes singular, the Café Aubette in
characteristic of a project. Often, these Strasbourg, France, designed
optical devices motivate exaggerated forms by Theo van Doesburg, Hans
that are capable of directing or modifying Arp, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp
generic light for a specific interior condition. and opened in 1928, deploys
color as a device that negates
any sense of materiality while
simultaneously blurring the
boundaries between floor,
walls, and ceilings. The
diagonal compositions are
inspired by van Doesburg’s
own paintings, an exploration
in creating a corresponding
three-dimensional colored
“atmosphere.”
The façade of Jean Nouvel’s 13 Light
Center for the Arab World in
Paris, France, is an optical The painted corrugated-metal containers of passing
instrument constructed of siding of the houses in freighters, these colored
thousands of individually Valparaiso serve to delay panels introduce a vibrant
calibrated lenses that their inevitable rust in this palette to this hillside
respond to changing lighting Chilean seaport. Reputed to community.
conditions. This mechanical have come from the shipping
brise soleil (sun breaker)
retracts and opens its lenses
as the sun intensifies or
fades, the resulting spatial
(and audial, as the metal
shingles click open or closed)
effect being one of flickering
shadows and changing
landscapes.
Höweler + Yoon Architecture’s
2004 installation in Athens,
Greece, constructs a space of
illumination and sound. As
individuals move through a
field of optic rods and floor
speakers, emitted light and
sound register their
movements, producing a
constantly transforming—
and fleeting—spatial field.
Louis Kahn’s 1972 Kimbell light to enter and be
Art Museum in Fort Worth, reflected back upward to the
Texas, is an instrument for underside of the smooth
producing light. The parallel concrete vaults by aluminum
rows of the iconic concrete reflectors that are attached
cycloid vaults that distinguish beneath the skylights.
the building’s form are a The now indirect light is
function of Kahn’s desire to subsequently diffused
introduce indirect natural downward along the curved
light to illuminate the gallery surfaces of the concrete
spaces. Skylights located vaults into the gallery spaces
between the extruded shells below, where the artworks
of concrete allow natural are displayed.
122 123
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE It is movement that transforms an
otherwise monosyllabic and inert
architecture into an endlessly complex
and animate one.
14 124 125
movement
Like a symphony, an extended sequence often has an identifiable theme that begins with a
whisper and concludes with a bang, exploring along the way variations on the central theme.
Movement through a building or a city is a way of
organizing one’s experience of it, of orienting the
body in relationship to something outside of itself.
And while architectural and urban form and space are
typically static, it is one’s movement through them
that constructs a continuously changing environment.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Le Corbusier, in his 1929 Villa
Savoye in Poissy, France,
constructs a series of archi-
tectural compositions that
subsequently choreographs
the movement through the
building and landscape. The
relationship of volumes and
surfaces in space and light
creates a series of still lifes
that the observer passes
through as he/she navigates
the building. A ramp carries
the gaze diagonally through
the building, from the entry
vestibule up toward the raised
courtyard and, finally, toward
the sky.
As relationships between forms and spaces Curating Space Processional
transform, and as one perceives these spaces Choreographing the movement through The reliving of a memory or the reenactment
and forms from multiple points of view, an space constructs formal relationships and of an historical event can be embedded in the
otherwise monosyllabic and inert architecture reveals concepts. The order in which elements architectural works that mark that route. Like
is transformed into an endlessly complex and are experienced and the way in which they the Stations of the Cross that line cathedral
animate one. And it is the structuring of are framed become powerful lenses through walls and religious walks and are used especially
these relationships through a variety of which a work is given meaning. during Passion ceremonies, architecture can
movement systems that choreographs and thus preserve the fleeting event as a
defines that experience. A stair can collapse Filmic permanent memory. At a larger scale, there
vertical relationships between spaces while Le Corbusier coined the term “promenade are, for example, several pilgrimage routes
a ramp might construct a more elongated architectural” where architectural elements that traverse Spain and end in Santiago de
unfolding of the architectural experience. are not experienced from a single point of Compostela, where the apostle St. James is
Regardless, it is the introduction of space view but from multiple vantage points as one entombed. El Camino de Santiago is marked
through time that produces a series of spatial strolls through the architectural landscape. In with Romansesque churches with enormous
and formal relationships, a fourth dimension this case, architecture can be thought of and portals designed to accommodate vast
to architecture. experienced as a series of spatial stills or numbers of pilgrims and that, during much of
filmic frames that together constitutes a the year, serve as a reminder of the now
complete spatial experience. largely touristic but once ecclesiastical ritual.
14 Movement
Richard Meier’s 1975 Wabash River, moves through
Atheneum in New Harmony, the building’s interior ramps
Indiana, is essentially a and stairs, ending with a
viewing machine that uses its stepped ramp that gently
circulation to constantly deposits the visitor at the
reorient the visitor to its entry to the historic village.
historic site: first to the The central ramp further
modern town, then to its maps the formal and spatial
location next to the river, structure of the building
then to other nearby as it adjusts and resolves
structures, and, finally, to its shifting geometries so
the historic village of New that it addresses the
Harmony. The sequence elements contained within
initiates from the edge of the its historical narrative.
Narrative In Lina Bo Bardi’s SESC 126 127
Architecture can tell a story—real or Pompéia São Paulo
imagined—about an individual, a place, an Recreation Center in São
event. The circulation can operate as an Paulo, Brazil (1977), a spatial
armature that collects and frames the visual web is constructed by a
icons that render the narrative legible. continuous circulatory scan
as athletes pass between the
Theatrical changing-room tower and the
Architecture has the ability to frame the sports facilities—as if actors
relationship between its various occupants on display for the audience
and, in so doing, either establish or below and yet afforded a
reinforce various behaviors. Movement privileged view of those who
through space continually reframes the are, in fact, watching them.
occupants’ visions, constructing roles that
shift from actor to audience.
Sequence Circulation and gallery space
The type of movement and the speed in are fused in Frank Lloyd
which a work is revealed defines the Wright’s 1959 Guggenheim
architectural experience. A sequence can Museum in New York City.
be highly choreographed and follow a Here, an enormous ramp
specific (physical and spatial) itinerary or defines the space of circula-
it can be intentionally random and allow for tion, of art gallery, of interior
a multiple—virtually infinite—variety of court, and of building form.
encounters. It can be defined with a clearly It allows for both near and
articulated path (as with a bridge, stair, or distant views of the displayed
ramp) or it can be constructed through works, with the movements
formal and spatial relationships, where one of the visitors defining the
moves toward a source of light or toward and space of the interior.
between figural forms (as through a row of
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE columns or between two volumes). Tethered to the hillside by a
light metal bridge, Mario
Continuous Botta’s 1971–73 single-family
An uninterrupted sequence creates a fluid house in Riva San Vitale,
and continuous spatial experience with each Switzerland, collects both
space unfolding into the next. This sequence distant and near views of the
is often associated with ramps or generous landscape, beginning with
staircases, where the speed of movement the bridge and continuing as
allows for an extended gaze that scans and one descends the central
collects the near and the far. staircase. Each level radiates
from this spiraling stair,
Attenuated which in turn registers
Like a symphony, an extended sequence openings in the perimeter
often has an identifiable theme that begins walls that reveal the forested
with a whisper and concludes with a bang, landscape and lake beyond.
exploring along the way variations on the
central theme. It often responds to contex-
tual conditions—a narrowing of the space,
an elevational difference—and occupancy—
a trickle of wanderers versus a crowded
stampede.
Adalberto Libera’s 1938 Casa
Malaparte in Capri, Italy, is
an extension of the rock
from which it appears to
seamlessly grow. Its majestic
staircase triumphantly
extends the circuitous rocky
ascent that is initiated in the
sea far below it, culminating
the sequence with the view
of a distant horizon.
14 Movement
Each of the eighteen National route’s own particular history For example, along the Senja Throughout the archeological from the Roman Legion’s and Questioning—are
Tourist Routes in Norway has and character. These Route, Code Arkitektur’s park at Gigon Guyer’s route along the ramparts, to distributed throughout the
a unique constellation of fragments are discovered at Tungeneset rest stop (2006– Museum and Park Kalkriese the Teuton’s positions as they park, points in a landscape
service buildings and access unique moments along each 07) extends the island’s in Osnabruck, Germany advanced and retreated, to between which multiple
infrastructures (bridges, paths, route—constructed traces perimeter road, gesturing (1999–2002), a network of a nonmilitaristic neutral encounters and trajectories
parking) that reference a that render each route visible. downward to the sea. symbolic paths represents layer of park trails. Three can occur.
various layers of occupation, pavilions—Seeing, Hearing,
Guy Debord’s psycho- Interrupted
geography (1955) develops The experience of a building or a landscape
the idea that a thoughtful need not be continuous—in other words,
understanding of the city is fragments of primary spatial experiences
developed by an aimless can be collected and reconstituted in one’s
wandering, one driven by memory as a comprehensive, if not
impulse rather than order, continuous, experience.
where one can construct a
series of narratives that is Random
unique to each itinerary. Here, the accidental encounter is privileged
over the controlled, where the movement
through a building or landscape is intention- 128 129
ally unstructured. This creates an experience
that allows for a continuous recombination
of architectural experiences, with each
combination producing a unique reading
of the work.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE The building volumes of Zaha networks of meandering
Hadid’s 1996–99 Landscape circulation paths, creating a
Formation-One in Weil am three-dimensional spatial
Rhein, Germany, are an weave and obscuring the
extension and transformation distinctions between
of the park’s existing architecture and landscape.
Dialogue Studio Labics and Nemesi Italy. The distinct material
Movement through space is often a distinct Architetti Associati and dimensional layer
system that establishes a dialogue with a (1999–2004) overlaid a introduces an independent
particular context. It can either amplify and, system of steel bridges, circulation system that allows
in so doing, render legible an existing ramps, and thresholds onto the visitor to navigate the
infrastructural network or it can overlay a the archeological ruins of traces and remains of the vast
distinct spatial, material, and temporal Trajan’s Market in Rome, 113 CE brick structures.
dimension. The dimension, geometry, and
material of movement systems often
demonstrate their occupants’ requirements,
from turning radii (automobiles), to angles
of incline (accessibility), to minimum widths
(egress safety).
Amplification
Movement systems can originate within the
context in which the work is situated. They
can attach themselves to existing circulation
networks, amplifying their presence into
three-dimensional form, thereby blurring the
boundaries between exterior and interior,
landscape and architecture.
Interface
Systems of movement can operate as
material and spatial mediators between
distinct conditions: between past and
present, between two scales, between two
programs, between two materials, between
two speeds. Often, they introduce the
human being into a liminal space between
two conditions, establishing a critical
dialogue that allows one to be understood
from the lens of the other.
Multiple movement systems Multiple/ Parallel 14 Movement
define the architecture of Simultaneous or parallel sequences reveal
Centre Georges Pompidou, alternate architectural experiences: The short
designed by Richard Rogers and sweet is distinct from the long and
and Renzo Piano and leisurely, the honorific from the prosaic, the
completed in 1977 in Paris, once a year from the every day. The
France. Be it the movement enormous central brass doors to the Vatican’s
of air, water, electricity, art, St. Peter’s open on special occasions, allowing
or people, each system is for an axial procession up the stairs and into
given a clear expression that the central nave, versus the everyday
defines the form of the perimeter doors that provide access to the
building. The city of Paris is local and the touristic. Courthouses also have
displayed as a picturesque multiple sequences—one for the accused, one
canvas as one moves up the for the public, and a third for the judiciary—
exuberant, and now iconic, each demonstrating various scales of access
escalators that traverse the and security that reflect the special circum-
exterior of the building. stances of each group.
The form of the 2008 formed and deformed as a each layer, introducing yet 130 131
Automobile Museum in function of the automobile’s another dimension and
Nanjing, China, by 3Gatti external upward spiral, operation to the folded plates
Architecture Studio is a transforming the car from as the inner surfaces adjust
function of the building’s prosaic machine to exhibited to the human scale. An
independent, yet intertwined, object as it navigates the elevator adds a third means
circulation trajectories. ramped surfaces. The of navigating the structure—
The building’s paper-thin pedestrian’s inner descent a direct route back to the top
concrete floor wafers are ramps back down through layer of parking.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE It is through dialogue that everyone
becomes an architect.
15 132 133
dialogue
A work is constantly renewed by its encounters with new perceptions, new works.
Most works of art—including, of course, architecture—
are evaluated by their capacity to “live” beyond their
boundaries. That is, a work is seen to have an enduring
artistic value when it repeatedly transcends its superfi-
cial subject matter, and to engage others in an ongoing
exchange of observations, understandings, and even
The Vietnam Veterans a transitory bolt of lightning, supplement the wall with a
Memorial wall in Washington, a timeline, an arrow, a mute realistic sculpture repre-
DC (designed by Maya Lin, tombstonelike symbol of senting three male soldiers
completed in 1982) is a death, a vibrant mirrorlike and, later, another depicting
complexly dialogical con- reflection of life. Here, the three female nurses and an
struction that has evoked construction of memory—and injured soldier, explicit
countless, occasionally meaning—is wholly the task representations intended to
contradictory interpretations: of the individual visitor. delimit the range of possible
a wound in the ground, However, concern over the commemoration.
a ditch, a bulwark, a “V” unpredictability of inter-
(Vietnam or victory?), pretation led politicians to
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Rafael Moneo’s El Greco irregular system of Ragnar Östberg’s Stockholm affinities. Additionally, (like the crescent moon to the
Congress Center (2012) “buttresses” that resonates Town Hall (1923) is a festival details such as the right of the large window),
establishes a clever dialogue with other externally- of dialogues, from the occasionally aberrant and intentional misalign-
with the fortified walls of supported ramparts that were historic to the internal. Its column—only one in the ments, Stockholm’s Town
historic Toledo, Spain, but reinforced by necessity over Riddarfjärden façade is loggia being octagonal for Hall keeps the viewer’s eyes
incorporates the traditional time, are in reality, hollow composed of bands of instance—signal their varying dancing and mind speculating
rubble construction within ventilation shafts serving the windows that seem to follow roles within the circulatory on its countless layers of
bands of concrete, and the subterranean parking garage. their own rhythms, remini- paths of the building. meaning and elusive systems
scent of the Doge’s Palace With its blind “windows,” of order.
in Venice, an allusion to apparently erratic apertures,
Stockholm’s maritime subtle brick hieroglyphs
behaviors that can persist long after the work worlds. This work insists on the unambiguous Architecture also approaches the status of
is complete, even after the author and the singularity of its meaning and resists—occa- a monologue when it is designed with a
original audience are no longer present. Such sionally fears—multiple interpretations. It is singularity of intention (perhaps a work
works initiate an open-ended, dialogical the unequivocal voice of authority. Monu- intended as a manifesto) or one in which the
engagement with their world. Indeed, much ments will often adopt a monological tone, designer is determined to make an autobio-
of a work’s meaning and identity is developed lest the subject of their commemoration be graphical or otherwise private statement,
by an audience’s past and present experiences subject to unanticipated interpretations. with the identity of the author being the
as elicited by the work, and of their percep- Also, buildings considered to be primarily predominant message. Works of limited
tions of the work’s relationship to other works. utilitarian might operate monologically capacity for dialogue include those that
A work is constantly renewed by its encoun- (factories, water towers, electrical substa- simply mimic another work—like someone
ters with new perceptions, new works. tions, and grain silos), but this does not who annoyingly repeats another’s words—
preclude them from being overlaid with or those that merely negate without rebuttal,
A monological work, on the other hand, has imposed interpretations, or for these a “no” without any positive assertion.
no intention of engaging its audience in a functions to be accommodated in a design
new or transformed understanding of their that has more expansive aspirations.
Left: In converting the ruined the thinness of the steel. Above: The minimally Fernando Távora’s Pousada 15 Dialogue
Santa Maria do Bouro Fragments of now irrelevant punctured wall of a wing of Santa Marinha in Guimarães,
Convent in Amares, Portugal, masonry protrude along the the former convent’s cells Portugal (1984). Viewed from
into a hotel (1987–97), clean, scarred wall, joined by serves as both a background above, this new wing appears
Eduardo Souto de Moura uses rust stains leaching from the and a primary rhythm for the to be a simple terrace; it is
contemporary materials to newly inserted balcony. syncopated rhythms of the both literally and figuratively
articulate the modern new, highly fenestrated wing a new ground for the convent.
occupation of the structure of hotel rooms in this part of
while scrutinizing its former
status both as a once grand
convent and—perhaps more
compellingly—as a ruin.
Highly reflective, frameless
windows simulate the empty
apertures of a ruin,
pretending to reveal sky
within. A weathering steel
panel traces the window’s
proportions while displacing
it in space, underscoring the
massiveness of the wall with
The architectural designer has numerous experiences, and by seeing architecture’s are dialogically open ended; they have no
resources for the production of a work that capacity for shading the memories of past determinate past and can have no fixed future.
engenders dialogue: program, site, various experiences and establishing a framework The role of the architect is to facilitate the
forms of representation, other buildings for future observations. discursive aspect of forms, and by engaging
(adjacent as well as unseen or even unbuilt), various types of dialogue, to allow the
materials, forms (basic and compound), Inevitably, architectural forms invite a certain continuous redefinition of a work’s meanings
personal experiences, memories, and the amount of discourse. No architect can be fully by all of its observers and all of its contexts.
participation of a cadre of others. The role aware of the meanings that have accumulated
of these others—instructors, critics, collabora- in even the simplest of forms, forms saturated In the more dialogical works of architecture,
tors, clients, users, historians, and casual by centuries of history and the countless everyone has an opportunity to “construct”
observers—is essential to the continuation recollections, world views, and experiences of the work, to assign it values and meanings,
of a work’s capacity for dialogue, not just individual observers. For this reason, most both internally and in relation to its
through active critique, but also by placing forms—from spheres and cubes to petal- environment. It is through dialogue that
a work in the context of other works and shaped roofs and insectlike substructures— everyone becomes an architect.
The façade of Francesco bulge at the Oratory; the belt 134 135
Borromini’s Oratory of the across the Oratory’s middle
Filippini on the left aligns with the church’s
(completed 1650) both lower cornice and frieze;
translates and analyzes its the capitals of Borromini’s
neighbor, the Chiesa Nuova pilasters are reductive
(façade by Fausto Rughesi, versions of those at the
c. 1605); to gaze at one is to church; and while the church
interpret the other. The steps forward at its center,
Oratory’s segmented gable the Oratory’s façade presents
refers to the subtle layering an emphatic concavity.
of that on the church; the The main entry to the new
small arch of the church’s complex is through the small
upper window becomes a door in the gap between the
flattened half dome in the façades, duplicating the
Oratory; the shallow arch dimensions of the church’s
framing the church’s central side doors.
doorway sponsors a shallow
Giuseppe Jappelli’s Caffé porch motif with its largely fabric (although the “gothic” of these motifs are used as Within a former cloister near by excavating a carefully
Pedrocchi (1831–42) in the blank background story with structure to its left is actually bookends terminates in the entry of the Santa delineated “window” into the
historic center of Padua, a single door and embedded a later addition by the same another piazza in which two Marinha Convent in wall, making the viewer aware
Italy, is triangular in plan frieze sits alone in one piazza, architect, engaging his own of these porch/pavilion Guimarães, Portugal, now a of the building’s complex past
and uses the same motif to establishing a center to the building in a complex, motifs are subordinated to pousada, Távora reveals the while establishing the case for
establish multiple dialogues space while appearing to be a time-bending dialogue). framing a large central bay, building’s promiscuous history its current transformation
in varying contexts. The pavilion embedded in the A street façade in which two sheltering an outdoor café. of repeated reconstructions into a hotel (completed 1984).
Forms of Dialogue orthogonal forms, figural components within Redirection
One of the most effective techniques of background field conditions. It is also Redirection can also be a means of engaging
interpreting forms is to measure them possible for an element to develop evolving a work or form in a dialogue. This can occur
against other forms, not just through understandings when understood in dialogue by means of reprogramming, as in the case
similarities but also through differences. with an environmental or temporal phenom- of a doorway becoming a window, a factory
enon. For example, a form can be under- becoming a museum, or a garden becoming
Contrast stood alternately as opaque, translucent, or a roof. It is possible to directly supplement
The dialogue between two contrasting transparent, based on the time of day, the meanings of a form by adding or
forms is especially powerful, in that contrast changes in location of the Sun, the engage- subtracting details or characteristics.
provides a relational means of defining a ment of screens, or the transitions between Examples of subtraction include cutting into
form. To perceive something as being small, external daylight and internal artificial light. buildings in order to reveal aspects that
it is necessary to perceive it in relationship might have been previously unconsidered,
to something else that is big. Heaviness Enrichment to open views previously inaccessible, or
is understood in its relation to lightness, The enrichment of meanings can also arise to introduce new sequences that retell a
roughness to smoothness, oldness to from a dialogic engagement. For example, a building’s narrative.
newness. Without a sense of one of these design can elaborate on the meanings of an
terms, the value of the other remains existing building or site by highlighting—by Addition
undefined. Moreover, each term carries framing, isolating, or uncovering—previously Addition may produce an expanded or
within it a remnant of its opposite: The underemphasized or hidden aspects of the unexpected interior within the implied
concept of “natural” always retains traces of previous forms. volumes of an exterior, bring new emphasis
“artificial.” In each case, further dialogue can to one component in a series, or suggest
lead to a reorganization of these terms, with Dialogue can arise from the reiteration of further meanings by presenting a form or
something heavy, for example, suddenly forms, supplementing meaning by resituating motif in an alternative material (what was
understood as being weightless. or reframing other forms in differing contexts. brick becomes stone) or shape (one in a
A form—just as a phrase—transplanted into row of round columns is hexagonal instead).
A work can also develop through a series of a different context absorbs new inferences,
internal dialogues: unique versus repetitive new potential meanings, that reflect back
elements, curvilinear as opposed to onto the original.
a population’s shared memory. Many public
buildings (especially courthouses throughout
the United States) have made reference to
the Parthenon when they attempted to appeal
to a sense of monumental importance.
Similarly, a work might recall a local building
technique or typical materials and utilize
these resemblances to develop a design that
establishes a dialogue with a vernacular.
As much because of his suggests a portal composed As the façade of the result is a clever formal Scales of Dialogue 15 Dialogue
unique style as because of of a thin roof draped over two Michelangelo’s Palazzo dei conversation that challenges Architectural dialogues can occur at multiple
his brilliant application of logs supported by four bulls, Conservatori at the the viewer to interpret the scales: at the level of the city, of the building,
complex forms, Jože Plečnik’s but it is, in effect, a covered Campidoglio in Rome wraps surface and its components— or of the detail. It is even possible for a dialogi-
interventions in the Castle of stairway descending to the the corner of the building, its pilasters, railings, frames, cal relation to cross over scales: for a building
Prague suggest an indefinite garden from a courtyard, elements incrementally brackets, apertures—in to engage a city, or for a detail to consider
chronology while suggesting revealing a large gap to a merge with the medieval contrasting sets of the entirety of a building in microcosm.
possible systems of green space opened beneath fabric of the earlier building. implications, depending on
symbolism. His “Gate to the the heavy walls of one wing Whether this resolution was whether one reads from the The City
Garden of Paradise” (1925) of the castle. originally intended or not, left or from the right. Urbanistically, a design can engage an
aspect associated with its city—a canal or
Indexing a boulevard—presenting it in a unique way.
Some facets of dialogue are derived from the A building can reiterate the massing or
concept of indexing, whereby there is an silhouettes of other structures in its vicinity
indirect, relational aspect between a form while introducing a new pattern of usage. Or
and the perception of its meanings, often a building can open unseen vistas into some
one that has been learned from experience. of the unobserved crevices of its urban
fabric, suggesting through a dialogical
engagement those conditions and traits that
introduce new perceptions of a city that had
once been known in a very different way.
In transforming the remodel. A sunken door Just as smoke seen rising from a chimney is an The Building 136 137
Monastery of the Lima beneath an asymmetric index of a fire inside, certain forms have had A design can engage another existing
Refóios into the Agrarian window is reorganized into a either a general (to a population) or specific building in a new dialogue, superimposing
Graduate School of Ponte de balanced composition with (to an individual) relation to meanings. For new modes of understanding on a once
Lima, Portugal (1987–1993), the forceful interruption of example, the typical image of a house form— familiar structure or condition. Such
Fernando Távora clearly the new window. More than a a rectangular box with a gabled roof, a single engagement can reinforce another building’s
indicates his newer door and window, the result is door, and possibly a chimney—is a standard role within a community. It could also subvert
intervention, but with no a trio of diverse voices. index of “home,” despite being as historically previous understandings of a building to
attempt to simply restore or associated with classic Greek temple forms suggest new values and significances.
and traditional barn structures as with any
actual residences. In the world, very few The Detail
individuals actually lived in buildings that Or a design can address specific details of its
looked like this “house.” Nevertheless, works precedents: a roof shape, a traditional system
that incorporate such a form may resonate of joinery, an entry condition. Dialogical
with some viewers as having a cozy, familiar, engagement of details can focus attention on
domestic impression, despite being perhaps aspects of craftsmanship, can reinvigorate
institutional or commercial structures. forms that have become overly familiar, can
overwrite previous implications, or can even
A work can also index other works, usually infer new or forgotten social or cultural
historical, that may or may not be an aspect of interpretations.
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Tropes build connections between
many aspects of our world, proposing a
relativity between the knowable and
yet-to-be-known phenomena we observe.
16 138 139
tropes
A trope may be employed in order to instigate fresh understandings of something that
has become conventional.
Conceptions founded on rhetorical figures—especially
the tropes of metaphor, metonymy (and synecdoche),
hyperbole, irony, and personification—have been instru-
mental in the design and reception of countless artistic,
scientific, and even cultural constructions. Ubiquitous
in every branch of the arts and sciences (one thinks of
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE Commercial architecture successful, due largely to Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight to ticketing to boarding. One
often indulges in overt their conspicuousness and Center at John F. Kennedy of the most exhilarating and
metonymy, with restaurants the mock monumentality of Airport in New York City iconic airport designs ever
shaped like chickens or their gigantic derby hat cum (1962) sought a formal produced, its layered
flanked by lumberjacks, and dome. The hat suggested vocabulary that could metaphors conjure an elegant
corporate headquarters associations with Western represent “the spirit of raptor just before flight, and
configured as their products. heroes and outlaws, as well flight,” as well as embody a a weightless sense of soaring.
The famous Brown Derby as famous Hollywood fluid efficiency from arrival
restaurants in Los Angeles characters such as Charlie
(the first was constructed in Chaplin’s Tramp.
1926) were extremely
the atom as a miniature solar system, or the Types
“flow” of electric “currents”), tropes are There are many types of tropes, with many
frequently assimilated so completely they classes and subclasses. But certain tropes
often go unnoticed. Buildings, for instance, have appeared with greater frequency
are described as “sitting” by the road, throughout architectural history and continue
“facing” the park (both personifications), to have a value in the design of buildings
“cascading” down a hill (metaphor), or “the and the education of architects.
White House announced …” (metonymy).
Metaphors The oversized vitrine of is analogous to the same
At first, a trope is evasive—the actual subject In a metaphor, something that is potentially Bordeaux Law Courts characteristics in the law,
is temporarily absent, replaced by something unfamiliar or less known is elaborated by a (France, completed 1998), by but the building’s seven
else—creating a diversion that initially reference to something that is known—a the London-based Richard wooden casklike courtrooms
defamiliarizes the original subject, distancing similarity is established. This usually involves Rogers Partnership, not only metonymically refer to
it from the observer. But upon realizing a removing one component from its literal argues metaphorically that Bordeaux’s preeminence as
connectedness to the original subject, tropes meaning so that it can stand for something the transparency and a wine region.
ultimately prove to be devices for familiariza- else. When, for example, Jimi Hendrix sang accessibility of a courthouse
tion. Architecture, for instance, usually (in 1967), “And so castles made of sand fall in
constrained by its own internal language of the sea, eventually,” he was not discussing
forms, is made familiar by its association with castles, sand, or seas but, instead, aspirations,
more universally recognized forms or ideas. time, and fate.
Tropes build connections between many Aristotle argued that metaphors were the
aspects of our world, proposing a relativity greatest tools of the poet, and that they
between the knowable and yet-to-be-known instigate learning in their audiences. Kenneth
phenomena we observe. Burke saw the analogical extensions we develop
through interpreting metaphors as essential
in shaping our perspectives of the world.
The use of tropes was “speak” directly to its 16 Tropes
especially pervasive in the audience (architecture
architecture of eighteenth- parlante). Étienne-Louis The summer house that The entire house is built
century France, when a Boullée’s metonymic design Françoise Racine de Monville as a fragment of a colossal
reaction to the exuberance for a Cenotaph for a Warrior designed for his estate at the column, implying the
of the late baroque led to a (c. 1780) proposes the Désert de Retz near Marly, imaginary presence of a
reductive classicism and an monument as a colossal France (1774), is an example gigantic temple that has
attempt to make architecture sarcophagus. of a synecdochic architecture. since collapsed in ruin.
Words and images accumulate metaphorical Metonymy
values through time, occasionally displacing With metonymy, there is contiguity between
their objective identities—think of “storm,” the original and its substitution, which is
“willow,” “snake”—evoking instead emotional, often an associated icon. The classic example
behavioral, mythological, and even ethical is, “The pen is mightier than the sword,”
associations. In the same way, after thousands where “pen” stands in for writing and “sword”
of years, most architectural forms have been for combat. Related to metonymy is the
overcome by metaphor: hearth (heart of the synecdoche, in which a whole is replaced by
home, warmth of family), thickened wall one of its parts, or a part is replaced by a
(protection, security), gabled roof (shelter, whole. Most movie criminals seem to be
homestead), lighthouse (forewarning, named synecdochically, as in Louie “the Ear”
guidance), gateway (initiation, transition). or Bertie “the Chin.”
Because, as with most poetic language, If there is an intrinsic romantic poeticism to Jean-Jacques Lequeu’s arcade to a Palladian pavilion
metaphors usually exceed their boundaries, metaphor, metonymy is basically realistic. project for a Rendezvous at in the attic of a composite
their analogous relationships can bring new While the series of possible analogs Bellevue (1777–1814) villa, and so on. The project—
insights to otherwise insufficiently observed accompanying a metaphor often extends represents the other aspect a rendezvous of forms—is an
phenomena. At the same time, because they beyond the initial presentation, in metonymy of synechoche, in which the argument for the idealization
are susceptible to layers of interpretation, there is a focus on a singular condition, with parts are composed of of episodic architectural
often based on individual experiences, an abridged, delimited perception. In wholes. Here, a Greek temple events and the potential
metaphors can occasionally spin out of synecdoche, this abridgement can even lead becomes the lantern of a harmony of eclecticism.
control. (For example, Romeo’s “Juliet is the to a sense of surrealism, as with Nikolai Renaissance tower that is, in
Sun” hardly means that she is yellow or Gogol’s “The Nose,” in which a minor turn, attached by an Islamic 140 141
round, although to some of today’s audience, official’s nose surpasses its owner’s social
it could mean that she is “hot.”) prominence. Architecturally, metonymy can
be employed as a type of shorthand,
providing immediate recognition of a
structure’s function or character.
Irony Oswald Matthias Ungers used As in Shakespeare’s version,
While there are many forms of irony, they Shakespeare’s retelling of the wall is also a character in
all share the characteristic that what is Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe” Ungers’ design, with the
presented has some opposition to what is myth as the central theme for house bisected into a work
intended. Jonathan Swift’s famous essay, a house in West Berlin (c. cube and a residential cube,
“A Modest Proposal,” in which the author 1976), not far from the Berlin connected only through a
seems to advocate the eating of children as Wall, on a site once single aperture in the thick
a solution to rural poverty, is considered to containing a medieval wall. wall. More than a house built
be a masterpiece of ironic writing. The story tells of two lovers on personification, Ungers’
from neighboring estates, Pyramus and Thisbe develops
Irony is one of the more difficult tropes. An forbidden to meet by their a metaphor and eventual
audience unaware of the ironic intent (usually feuding families. Their only commemoration for the
indicated by a larger context or a subtle communications occur divided Berlin.
“wink”) may understand an assertion at its through a crack in the wall.
face value. Irony constantly fluctuates
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE between seriousness and jest, between
positive and negative poles. While Swift was
not advocating cannibalism, for example, a
simple understanding of the opposite—that
cannibalism is bad—would also miss his point.
In architecture, ironies are most effective in The Barrière du Trône (1787), exaggerated voussoirs
challenging beliefs that may be entrenched, comprising two identical surmounted by a pediment
or in overturning formal complexes that have pavilions and two giant shouldered by inflated
been overcome by facile interpretations. For columns, is one of Claude brackets—leading to a
this reason, one finds that many memorials, Nicolas Ledoux’s tollhouses remarkable understatement—
especially those that remind us of painful at the gates to Paris. The an unassuming doorway.
historic events—such as acts of genocide— pavilions combine a Hyperbole denotes the
employ ironic formal devices: Determined to hyperbolic monumentality—a structure’s civic pomp while
be noticed, they invert traditional monumen- massive façade containing a understatement connotes the
tal forms such as obelisks and stelae or tease grandiose arch with civic functionaries within.
with an act of disappearance (as in the
Monument to the Deportées, chapter 20).
Hyperbole Frank Gehry’s Nationale-
Hyperbole is an obvious exaggeration, Nederlanden building in
intended to emphasize a specific characteris- Prague (1996) is known as
tic or condition, as in “waited an eternity.” “the Dancing House.” Its
forms originated in part as a
The architectural hyperbole is often personification of the famous
incorporated when the designer wishes to dancing duo of Fred Astaire
introduce a new form-type (a cone in place (the portion with the more
of a dome), to emphasize the uniqueness of vertical deportment) and
a feature (bulbous protrusions on a rectangu- Ginger Rogers (the more
lar block), or to underscore a characteristic dynamic). The dancing meta-
(as with exaggerated classical motifs on a phor is especially approp-
design grasping at monumentality). riate, given the building’s
proximity to neighboring
One occasionally finds hyperbole’s opposite, baroque structures,
understatement, incorporated in architecture extending their regularity
that attempts to recede into an urban texture, with its fanciful distortions.
where conspicuousness may be considered a
liability—as with certain clandestine clubs or
utility buildings, for instance.
16 Tropes
Carlo Mollino’s Teatro Regia contours of a female torso, a reference to womb and
in Torino, Italy (completed in figure the architect held in royalty, with the stage’s
1973) incorporates a subtle the highest esthetic regard. proscenium intended to
form of personification with The auditorium volume itself suggest the shape of a
its plan assuming the is a deep reddish-violet, a television screen.
Personification process progresses, often overcome by Jože Plečnik wanted his symbol in Christianity, 142 143
With personification, animals, natural additional design concerns or by other Church of the Sacred Heart in incorporating the nobility of
phenomena, abstract concepts, and conceptual investigations. To some extent, Prague (1932) to incorporate Christ and, because the
inanimate objects are given human traits. every diagram is an operative trope. a brick pattern that suggests ermine’s coat becomes
Personification is very common in fables, the texture of an “ermine darkened in the summer to
fairy tales, and mythologies. An expressive trope is central to the design’s cloak.” The metonymy here is lighten again in the winter, a
concept and, when understood by the a reference to the traditional reference to resurrection.
Personification can also have a double observers of a work, provides them with tools cloak of royalty and a central
reading, in that while a fox might be for expansive interpretations. A trope may
presented as a man, there is the implication instigate a range of fresh understandings for
that men can be foxlike. Personification can something that has become conventional. An
be a technique for representing architecture’s architect might also use an expressive trope
abstract characteristics in a way that can be to introduce an audience to an unfamiliar or
understood on a “human” level, as with ineffable program that has no established
Lequeu’s attempts to apply physiognomy to formal language.
façade design. It has also been quite prevalent
in architecture that addresses the human body There is, however, an inherent danger with
as a source for the organization of space. tropes, for both the designer and the
observer: one can become lost in the endless
Values and Perceptions analogs of the metaphor, the fragmentation
In the design process, there can be both of metonymy can permanently obscure the
operative and expressive tropes. An operative whole, or one might become content with
trope is used primarily for motivating the the absence of the actual subject.
design process and is usually “buried” as the
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE The goal of defamiliarization is to prompt
others to actually perceive for the first
time something that has perhaps already
been seen on countless occasions—to
grasp the extraordinary in something that
has, until now, been routine.
17 144 145
defamiliarization
By introducing unfamiliar sources of conjecture as well as unfamiliar techniques of observ-
ing, of conceptualizing what is observed, and of describing what has been conceptualized,
the architect is able to cultivate a set of enhanced sensibilities.
Just as a building is expected to provide shelter, facili-
tate our day-to-day activities, and give us a sense of
comfort and familiarity, architecture may also on occa-
sion lead us to question what we believe about the
world, to contemplate what has become customary or
habitual, to reevaluate what makes us comfortable, to
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE From its exterior, the Mãe city’s primary source of fresh
D’Água Amoreiras Reservoir water. Occupation of the
in Lisbon (constructed 1834 interior had been limited to
from designs by Carlos the perimeter, with a grotto-
Mardel), seems to be an like cascade announcing the
elegant urban monument, water’s grand entrance into
perhaps even a temple. The the city. The Mãe D’Água
roof is a public plaza, Reservoir diverts notions
providing vistas of the city. of building and landscape,
Inside, however, the structure inside and outside, rustic
is full of water, being the and urbane, even floor and
termination of an eighteenth- wall from the realm of the
century aqueduct, once the expected.
This pencil drawing by a of an animated model that challenge what we think we know. Similarly, in Device,” published in 1917. He saw
first-year student illustrates may later be used to propose the education of an architect, evoking the defamiliarization (his term was ostranenie)
an interpretation of the a structure capable of turning unfamiliar is an essential technique for as a technique, central to many of the arts,
defensive movements of a itself inside out. motivating the creative process and going whereby the reader or observer is given
vampire squid. While not an beyond mere reiteration. By introducing a more indirect perceptual route than in
anatomical representation, Student: Allison Wills unfamiliar sources of conjecture as well as everyday presentations. The goal is to
the record of these (faculty: Val Warke & unfamiliar techniques of observing, of prolong the act of perception in a poetic
movements is already Jim Williamson, teaching conceptualizing what is observed, and of work, to make it less automatic and
anticipating the construction associate: Larisa Ovalles) describing what has been conceptualized, the more thoughtful.
architect is able to cultivate a set of enhanced
sensibilities. An architecture that results from While we may feel close to the familiar, such
this process can provide the observer with an closeness may obscure the genuine object.
exceptional way of comprehending the world, Defamiliarization distances the object from
and consequently an expansive, intensified its observer, opening a space of cognition
way of living in the world. that requires thoughtful navigation. But there
is more than poetry in this gap. If there is a
“Defamiliarization” was first evoked by the comfortable stability to what is familiar,
literary theorist Viktor Shklovsky in “Art as defamiliarization ultimately discloses the
instability lurking within—the variability of
observations across times and cultures and
from individual to individual—as well as
exposing the opaque veil that “familiarity”
often constructs around a subject, preventing
one from seeing its deeper significance.
This acrylic, glass, steel, and development of a design for a
wood model illustrates structure capable of physical
concepts derived from a expansion as it adapts to
drawn analysis of the variable site configurations
expansion of a cheetah’s and circulation routes.
spine and the lowering of its
body as it accelerates. This Student: Lisa Zhu
model represents an (faculty: Val Warke and
intermediate stage in the Jim Williamson, teaching
associate: Larisa Ovalles)
17 Defamiliarization
Le Corbusier’s de Beistegui its cornice, a croquet lawn as There are consequences to defamiliarization: Even the tools of design can be redefined: 146 147
Penthouse (completed “carpet,” and the “fireplace”— when practiced by the producer of a work, an one can challenge the implications of
1930) was located atop a which appears to “smoke” understanding of the unfamiliar is inevitably representational conventions (a photograph
nineteenth-century when steam is exhausted and eventually practiced by its perceiver. might be interpreted as a plan, a silhouette
apartment building on the from a flue behind the as a basis for a model), or unlikely objects
Champs-Elysées in Paris. wall—as an Arc de Triomphe, Operations can be incorporated in a representation
It is an essay on surrealist suggesting simultaneously Defamiliarization can play many roles in the (children’s toys in a model, anatomical
defamiliarization in that the Arc de Triomphe is design of a project and especially in the illustrations in a section).
architecture, whereby one a fireplace (that does not education of an architect. An architect may
term partially displaces function) and that every sketch a mountain silhouette that later It is the discovery of a fluid relationship
another. In this view, a fireplace might aspire to becomes a roof, dissect a fruit cart in a local between things—forms, contexts, functions,
rooftop “room” has the sky as being an Arc de Triomphe. market that later becomes a preschool, translate and scales—that consistently renews our
its ceiling, the hills of Paris as the translucent tessellations of a Paul Klee understandings of the world around us,
painting into an urban design, or apply a pig’s suggests new questions, answers previously
penchant for wallowing to a design for desert unresolved problems, and initiates one of
structures. Mining the unfamiliar often results architecture’s most powerful discursive
in an expanded inventory of forms, contextual capabilities.
and environmental responses, and analytic
and representational techniques. Subversion
Another technique involves the “overthrow” of
Appropriation a form or formal complex’s traditional values
Architectural concepts can be derived— or relationships, perhaps by upsetting its
through analysis and conceptualization—from hierarchical status (a kitchen might supplant
virtually any artifact, even those that are not a living room’s predominance, an electrical
explicitly architectural (such as a tree, a beetle, substation might be a civic monument), by
a crinoline, a periscope). The appropriation of making it nonfunctioning or dysfunctional
forms, operations, or representational methods (a gabled roof is filled with holes, a staircase
from the investigation of such sources is one goes nowhere), or by distorting its customary
of the most common techniques a designer social value (a shunned subject is framed as
can employ in defamiliarizing a design process if an object of reverence, a private space is
during its early stages. made very public).
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s In these instances, the designer, critics,
German Pavilion for the 1929 and observant colleagues should remain
International Exhibition in receptive to the serendipitous potential such
Barcelona (rebuilt 1986), “accidents” might provide for defamiliar-
introduced modernism to an izing and reinvigorating a process. While
unaware audience using “accident” is often considered an antonym
simply walls, columns, a floor, of “design,” many schools even attempt to
and a ceiling. Large, polished promote the occurrence of such “accidents”
planes of glass and marble as valuable opportunities for expanding a
appear to wander, unadorned student’s repertoire, an important aspect
throughout the pavilion, of self-education.
touting the virtues of an
THE LANGUAGE OF ARCHITECTURE independent column grid Reception
and “free plan” space. The work that proposes a defamiliarized view
Defamiliarized by reflection of the world often fosters in its observers a
and controlled illumination, modification of their familiar world, although
marble surfaces dematerialize it would be incorrect to say that reception
before our eyes as glazed is an exact mirror of production, since
surfaces solidify. The thickest cognition is always personal and temporal.
wall in the pavilion is actually Nevertheless, there is an illuminating force
a well of translucent glass; behind defamiliarization, one that permits
milky and luminous, it casts designers and observers to consistently
no shadows. And as the glass exchange roles.
wall symmetrically disposed
between the black pool and Accident Receptivity
carpet within fluctuates Occasionally, during a design process, an Since all forms have promiscuous and
between being a vitrine and a “accidental” understanding emerges from the unknowable pasts—no one can know all of
mirror, the carpet seems to misinterpretation—intentional or not—of a their liaisons and manifestations—the
ripple while the Georg Kolbe representation: solids might be interpreted acceptance of cursory, preconceived
sculpture dances inside as voids, paving as ceiling, a detail or an interpretations is the most efficient path for
the structure. urban plan “mistaken” for a building. This the observer. The viewer of a defamiliarized
could even be the result of misreading site formal complex must be willing to reconsider
More than a simple inversion, the subversive or program data: An incorrect scale, an forms within the entirety of a new context
operation in design may permanently and exaggerated or inverted topography, a and to disengage some of these forms from
even retroactively reorient an observer’s demolished building may be absorbed into their prior, more superficial denotations. Since
interpretation of a form as well as of all a proposal. many of these forms are fully present only in
similar forms. memory, the effect may be retroactive.
Alternatively, an actual accident might foster
De- and Recontextualization alternative understandings: a drawing may be Wonder
Because much of interpreted meaning is damaged, reversed, or misprinted; a model Whenever one encounters something for the
derived from the context in which a form is fractured, incomplete, or inverted; a “wrong” first time, especially when that thing is
situated, relocating a form or system into a word might be used in a verbal presentation. somehow extraordinary, there is inevitably a
new—and possibly resistant—context will By disengaging intention from execution, the sense of wonder. Since the goal of defamil-
inevitably defamiliarize the original. When assimilation of such accidents can inspire a iarization is to prompt others to actually
an opera house is placed beneath a highway, designer to consider an approach outside a perceive for the first time something that
one’s biases regarding the status of the familiar method. has perhaps already been seen on countless
institution may be altered, taking with them occasions—to grasp the extraordinary in
the material aesthetic sensibilities of the something that has been routine—the
project. When a tenement becomes observer’s first reaction may be one of
isolated in a park, it begins to assume a wonder. The emotional tingle of wonder is
monumental presence. generally followed by an inquisitive urge
and, eventually, a critical sensibility.
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The Language of Architecture 26 Principles Every Architect Should Know by Andrea Simitch, Val Warke
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The Language of Architecture 26 Principles Every Architect Should Know by Andrea Simitch, Val Warke
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