Lebbeus Woods SPACES OFTHOUGHT 1. Given the highly technocratic nature of the existing Technische Rathaus building; Given the designated use of this building, which is to plan/approve the design of buildings and urban spaces for the entire city; Given the desire of officials to add something to the atrium in question which amounts to another dimension of thought and expression (symbolic of what it they hope to bring to the city); It is important that the installation not merely decorate the space with interesting forms, as this would be cosmetic, not addressing the conditions of the building and its activities deeply, therefore effectively; It is important that the installation bring not just new forms, but new life, new ideas, and new energy to the atrium and to the building; It is important that these present new questions, not already answered by the existing building or its ideas; or by the existing policies of the architecture and planning officials; It is important that the installation provide space for new kinds of thought. 2. There are spaces that exist more as a suggestions of presence than as rigidly material facts. These are spaces of thought--half tangible, half imagined--which have the power to provoke new thoughts and questions, to inspire contemplation about what architecture is and might yet become 3. The prospect of proposing an intervention in Munich’s Technische Rathaus is especially challenging. Architecturally speaking, the building is complete. It is entirely consistent in its materialization of a particular philosophy, which itself demands consistency and completeness. It sets a very high standard of architectural realization for the city of Munich, which is appropriate considering that it houses Munich’s departments of planning and architecture. Perhaps its very consistency and completeness opens a possibility for something else. Perhaps it is desirable, from the point of view of the people working here, with their responsibility to embrace the past, while at the same time imagining the future, to have access to spaces that are as yet unformed, not yet complete, which—in a cognitive sense—they can complete. It seems that imagination demands some inconsistency, some gaps to be filled in by thought, by speculation, by decisions that are not yet made. These gaps would be, indeed, spaces of hesitation, of a measured uncertainty. They would be spaces of thought, of reflection and contemplation. 4. First, I decided immediately that I did not want to put a sculptural object in the highly finished and architecturally complete atrium space, as a way of ‘decorating’ it and somehow making it more ‘interesting.’ Vito’s highly intelligent (as you rightly put it) project in the courtyard is a classical euclidean object that makes the courtyard more interesting in an easy to understand way. In the atrium, I am looking for something more ambiguous in form and in meaning. Also, I want to address the space of the atrium by giving it a tectonic texture. The fragments are dispersed irregularly throughout the space, modulating its density. I want to imply that this spatial texture could extend beyond the atrium space—into the building spaces, the offices, the corridors, even into the courtyard. What is happening in the atrium is ‘only the beginning.’ The provisional title of this installation is “The Rain.” Where is the rain coming from? What is raining down? Is it a ‘hard rain,’ or a ‘soft rain.’ Does it nourish ‘the soil,’ or change it? Different interpretations are possible. It can be read both as a critique of the existing architecture and bureaucratic situation, or as an extension of them into new directions. I think of the people working in the offices around the atrium, who, day after day, will be looking into its space. Whatever they see must stimulate them visually and intellectually over a long period of time. Something new must always be there, something they didn’t see or think before. This can only be achieved by an installation that is visually complex—offering new perspectives, the discovery of objects and relationships between objects suspended in the space—that cannot be read in a single glance. Because of the changing light conditions in the space, the arrangement of the ‘floating’ elements will always appear as in some way ‘new.’ Because the spatial field will be seen from so many different points of view, the arrangement of elements will continuously appear to be shifting, every if they do not actually move. The transparency of ‘The Rain’ insures the integrity of the existing architecture and all it symbolizes. The building and its activities are seen through the installation’s evocation of a larger context than before, one that includes unpredictability, spontaneity and surprise Lebbeus Woods STATEMENTS FROM A MANIFESTO 20 January 1995 From each according to ability. To each according to need. What is needed is not the revolution’s “New Man,” but a new conception of space for the person who lready exists. There is nothing for architecture to express anymore, but only the expressive modes of its actions. There must be more walls, more separations that at the same time bring things closer together. This is precisely architecture’s domain. Decay is reformation without desire. Reformation without decay is desire’s final incarnation. Individuality is attained only within community. Without community, there is only isolation. All cities are neighborhoods of one city. What is good or bad for one is good or bad for all. Intervention? For good reason it is a duty, not a right. We are all travelers today, strangers away from home, from any place of origin. Home is today a concept of movement, and origin is only in the mind. We are originals, all of us who live today, within today. We are our own origin, our own point of beginning. Architecture must be original, too. It must always begin again…within itself. Architecture must always be a struggle against--always against--its creators. Only in this way can it affirm the necessity to create. There can be no more types or stereotypes. Nothing that is alive can be typical. For architecture this means the abolition of typologies, and the direct institution of actions. The architecture most needed today is the architecture of crisis. Thisis what is meant by the term “critical architecture.” Architecture does not solve problems. Its distinction, if any, lies in the quality of problems it creates. The revolution never created an architecture. Now it is architecture’s turn…to create a revolution. LA HABANA VIEJA: WALLS A new urban wall is proposed along the line of the Spanish colonial city wall, in order to concentrate the energies in La Habana Vieja, intensifying at the same time the processes of decay and new growth. Other walls--called ‘urban batteries’--contain energy cells and water purification units that can be tapped by adjacent dwellings. Structurally, they support new, spontaneous constructions that are made in the gaps opened up by the demolition of old buildings in the existing cityscape. Their use is not determined in advance but only in the idiosyncratic and always changing ways they are inhabited. As a provocation and an armature for change, the walls do not simply separate spaces, but sponsor new and experimental forms of building and living. EL MALECON DE LA HABANA: TERRACE Design for a new, continuous terrace along the entire six kilometers of the Malecon, the wide boulevard along the Carribean. The terrace, cantilevered over the sea, serves as a public terrace during good weather. During hurricanes, the force of the tide tilts the terrace up to form a seawall against potentially damaging flood tides. METAINSTITUTE Because of its vibrant culture and volatile political history, Havana is an ideal site for the establishment of an institute for the study of the idea and practice of institutions. The aim of such a metainstitute is to devise principles, practices and rules by which institutions (social, political, cultural) can revise and reform themselves. The metainstitute proposed for Havana (explored in three variations) is devoted to the analysis and invention of both stable and fluid urban terrains, the ambiguous, paradoxical, and unpredictable landscapes of the contemporary city that embody forces of change. lebbeuswoods.net/
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 17:08:23 +0000
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