Semiolo y and Architecture: Charles Jencks

lack the me ntal agility - to say nothing of the maturi ty of attitude - which would 1969 CHARLES JENCKS
allow us to indulge in the fi ne r distinctions and the more subtle reservations per-
mitted by the traditio n of both-and' ...
Semiolog y and Architecture
Contradictory Levels Continued Over the 1950s and 60s, the study of language and signs was increas-
The Double-Functioning Element ingly applied to areas outside linguistics, most notably by writers such
The 'double-functio ning ' ele me nt and ' both- and' are related , but the re is a dis- as Roland Borthes, Umberto Eco and AJ Greimos. CharlesJencks (b 1939)
tinctio n: the double-functioning ele ment pertains more to the pa rtic ul ars o f use was one of the first writers in English to apply it to architecture (he
and structure, while both- a nd refers more to the relation of the part to the who le. studied English Literature and Architecture at Harvard). As port of a
Both- and e mphasizes double meanings over double-functions ... critique of Modernism, Jencks' use of semiology laid the foundation
for the Post-Modernism of which he was a principal champion.
Accommodation and the Limitations of Order
The Conventional Element Meaning, Inevitable yet Denied
A valid order accommoda tes the c irc umstantial contradictions of a complex reality. T his is perhaps the most funda me ntal idea of semi ology and meaning in arc hitec-
It accommodates as well as imposes. It the reby admits 'control and spontaneity' , ture: the idea that any form in the e nvironment, or sign in la ng uage, is motivated,
'correctness and ease' - improvisation w ithin the who le. It to lerates qualifica- or capable of being motivated. It helps to explain why all of a sudden forms come
tions and compromi se. T here are no fi xed laws in arc hitecture, but not everything ali ve or fall into bits. For it contends that, although a form may be initially arbitrary
w ill work in a building o r a c ity ... or non-motivated as Saussure points out, its subsequent use is motivated or based
on some determinants. Or we can take a slightly different point of view and say that
The Inside and the Outside the minute a new form is invented it will acquire, inevitably, a meaning. 'This
Contrast between the inside and the outside can be a major manifestation of con- semantization is inevitable; as soon as the re is a society, every usage is converted
tradicti on in architecture. However, one of the powerful twentieth century ortho- into a sign o f itself; the use of a raincoat is to give protection from the rai n, but this
doxies has been the necessity for continuity between the m: the inside should be cannot be dissociated fro m the very signs o f an atmospheric situation'. Or, to be
expressed on the outside ... more exact, the use of a raincoat can be dissociated from its shared meanings if we
avoid its social use or explicitly decide to de ny it further meaning.
The Obligation Toward the Difficult Whole ft is this conscious de nial of connotations which has had an interesting history
An architecture of complexity and accommodati on does not forsake the who le. Jn with the avant-garde. Annoyed eithe r by the glib reductio n of their work to its social
fact, I have referred to a special obligatio n toward the who le because the whole is meanings or the contamination of the strange by an o ld language, they have insisted
difficult to achieve. And I have emphas ized the goal of unity rathe r than of sim- o n the intractability of the new and confusing. ' Our League of Nations sy mbo lizes
plification in an art ' whose .. . truth [is] in its totality.' It is the di fficult unity nothing' said the architect Hannes Meyer, all too weary of the creation of buildings
thro ug h inclusion rather tha n the easy unity through exclusion. around past metaphors. 'My poem means nothing; it just is. My painting is mean-
ingless. Against Interpretation: The Literature of Silence. Entirely radical.' Most of
Extracts. Source: Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 2nd edition, these state ments are objecting to the ' inevitable semanti zation' which is trite, whic h
The Museum of Modern Art in association with the Graham Foundation for Advanced is coarse, which is too anthropomorphic and o ld. Some are simply nihilistic and
Studies in the Fine Arts (New York/Chicago), 1977. © The Museum of Modern Art. based on the belief that any meaning which may by applied is spurious; it denies the
A version of this text was first published in Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal, funda mental absurdity of human existence. In any case, on one level, all these state-
no 9/10, 1965. ments are paradoxical. In their denial of meaning, they create it. (pp 11 - 12)
42 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 43

The Sign Situation with only two re lations, as critics have found. The perennial questio n of whether
The first po int on which most semiolog ists would agree is that o ne simply cannot a good, bad symphony is better or worse than a bad, good sympho ny is not as it
speak of 'meaning' as if it were one thing that we can all know or share. The a ppears an idle pastime - simply because one adjective acts as the classifier while
concept meaning is multivalent, has many meanings itself; and we will have to be the other acts as the modifier and vice versa ... (p21)
clear which one we are discussing. Thus in their seminal book The Meaning of The other dimension of meaning is conveyed through associations, metaphors
Meaning, Ogden and Richards show the confusion of philosophers over the basic or the whole treasure of past memory. This is often built up socially, when a series
use of this term. Each philosopher assumes that his use is clear and understood, of words conveys the same connotations in a lan guage. But it also occurs indi-
whereas the authors show this is far from the case ; they di stinguish sixteen differ- vidually through some experie nce of re lating o ne sign to another: e ither because
ent meanings of meaning ... (p 13) of a common quality, or because they both occurred in the same context (which
In the usual experience, the semiological traingle, there is always a percept, a would be the common quality, pace be haviourists). Thus an individual might
concept and a representation. This is irreducible. In architecture, one sees the associate blue with the sound of a trumpet either because he heard a trumpet
building, has an interpretation of it, and usually puts that into words ... In most playing the blues in an all blue context (the expressionist ideal), or because they
cases there is no direct re lation between a word and a thing, except in the highly both have a common synaesthe tic centre; they both cluster around further meta-
rare case of onomatopoeia. That most cultures are under the illusion that there is phors of harshness, sadness and depth. The behaviourist Charles Osgood (Meas-
a direc t connection has to be explained in various ways. One explanation is urement of Meaning) has thus postulated a 'semantic space' for every individual
neoplatonic; another is psycho logical. In any case, everyone has experienced the which is made up by the way metaphors relate one to another ... (p22)
shock of eating a thing which is called by the wrong name, or would question the
adage that a rose 'by any other na me would smell as sweet'. It would not smell as Multivalence and Univalence
sweet if called garlic. Whe n one sees an architecture which has been created with equal concern for form,
But the main point of the semiolog ical triangle is that there are s imply rela- function and technic, this ambiguity creates a multivale nt experience where one
tions betwee n language, thought and reality. One area does not determine the oscillates from meaning to meaning always finding further justification and depth.
other, except in rare cases, a nd all one can really claim with conviction is that One cannot separate the method from the purpose because they have grown to-
there are simply connections, or correlations ... (pp 15-16) gether and become linked thro ugh the process of continual feedback. And these
multivalent links set up an analogous condition where one part modifies another in
Context and Metaphor a continuous series of cyclical refere nces. As Coleridge and IA Richards have shown
There are two primary ways to c ut through the e nvironment of all sign behav iour. in the analysis of a few lines from Shakespeare, this imaginative fusion can be
For instance fashion , language, food and architecture all convey meaning in two tested by showing the mutual modification of links. But the same should be done
similar ways: either through opposition or association. This basic division re- for any sign system from Hamlet to French pastry. In every case, if the object has
ceives a new terminology from each semiologist, because their purposes differ: been created through an imaginative linkage of matrices (or bisociation in Koestler's
here they w ill be called context and metaphor. terms), then it will be experie nced as a multivalent whole. If, on the other hand, the
It is evident, as a result of such things as Morse Code and the computer, that a object is the summation of past forms which remain independent, and where they
sign may gain meaning just from its oppositions or contrast to another. In the are j oined the linkage is weak, then it is experienced as univalent. This distinction
simple case of the computer, or code, it may be the oppositions between 'off-on' between multi valence and uni valence, or imag ination and fancy, is one of the oldest
or ' dot-dash'; in the more complex case of the traffic light each sign gains its in criticism and probably enters any critic's language in synonymous terms ... (p24)
meaning by opposition to the other two. In a natural language each word gains its To concentrate first on the univalence of the Semantic Space [see diagram
sense by contrast with all the others and thus it is capable of muc h subtler shades overleaf], one can see how architects tend to cluster around similar areas, which
of meaning than the traffic light. Still one could build up a respectable discourse to my mind constitute groups or traditions. Secondly, my preference for the

technical school is shown by comparing it with my distaste for the formalists. 1970 GIANCARLO DE CARLO
The latter is shown on the negative s ide of all three poles, not because it does not
make positive efforts, but because in my judgeme nt it fail s (this is a diagram of
Architecture 1s Public
pre-judice). Lastly, Corbusier, Aalto and Archigram are fa r out on the positive
side and thus explic itl y show my preference. But this is not a ll. What is a lso A sometime member ofTeam I 0, Giancarlo de Carlo (b I 919, Genoa)
indicates is that my experience of the latter inextricably links matrices which are was an early advocate of participatory design. Reacting against the
normall y dissociated. reductive and authoritarian nature of Modernism, he sought to initi-
ate a broader design process that took account of a wider range of
Extracts. Source: Meaning in Architecture, Charles Jencks and George Baird eds, Barrie & people and ideas. This paper, originally delivered at a conference in
Rockliff: The Crescent Press (London), 1969. © The Contributors and Design Yearbook Liege in I 969, first had the deliberately provocative title, 'Architec-
Limited. ture, too important to be le~ to the architects?'
+ FORM
ICorl>usier In reality, architecture is too important by now to be le ft to the architects. A real
Archtgram change is necessary, therefore, which will e ncourage new characteristics in the
IAjlto
Stirling prac tice of architecture and new behaviour patterns in its authors: therefore a ll
IUtzon Kahn
Johnson barriers between builders and users must be abolished, so that building and using
I Venluri
Miles
Moretci become two different parts of the same planning process; therefore the intrinsic
Yin Eyck
aggressiveness of arc hitecture and the forced passivity of the user must di ssolve
+ FUNCTION
in a condition of creative a nd decisional equi vale nce where each - with a diffe r-
ent spec ific impact- is the architect, and every architectural event - regardless of
who conceives it a nd carries it out - is considered architecture. The cha nge, in
other words, must coinc ide with the subversion of the present condition, whe re to
be an architect is the result of power delegated in a repressive fashio n and to be
architecture is the result of reference to c lass codes which legitimate o nly the
exception, with an e mphasis proportional to the degree to which it is c ut off from
its context. The expedie nt of ' not reading the surroundings' ( used so well by offi-
c ia l c riti cism by means of the technique of uninhabited cut-outs or even trick
photographs; or by the use of a lin guistic ana lys is whic h excludes a ll judgement
on the use a nd consumptio n of the event under analysis) corresponds, in fact, to
an ideological, political, social, a nd c ultura l fals ification which has no counter-
Stont fuller part in othe r disciplines ... (p2 l 0)
We cannot s it waiting ... (in the cave of arc hitecture-as-it- is waiting for the
socia l paJingenesis to generate automaticall y architecture-as-it-will-be ) but we
must immediately change the who le range of obj ects a nd subjects which partic i-
pate in the architectural process at the present time. There is no other way, besides
thi s one, to recover architecture's historical legitimacy, or, as we have said, its
Charles Jencks, Semantic Space of Architects, 1968 credibility ...

The evolution of society toward the abo lition of classes, the population explo- 1972 CHARLES JENCKS
sion and technological development pose enormous problems of organization of AND NATHAN SILVER
the physical environment. In order to preserve its role, architecture must assume
clear ideological positions and operative procedures with regard to these prob- Adhocism
lems ... (p211)
In reality, participation transforms architectural planning from the authoritar- An outgrowth of both the Pop architecture of the 1950s and 60s and
ian act which it has been up to now into a process. A process which begins with Jencks' investigations of semiology, his adhocism exploits the arbitrary
the discovery of the user's needs, passes through the formulations of formal and relation between signifier and signified, between form and function. It
organi zational hypotheses, reaches a phase of use where, instead of coming to a represents a further polemic against Modernist purism and elitism
close, the process is re-opened in a continuous interaction of controls and but, compared to the extremes of Pop, is at once less consumed by
reformulations which feed back into the needs and hypotheses, soliciting their technology and more pluralist.
continual redefinition ... (p212)
The growth and flexibility of an architectural organism are not really possible The Spirit of Adhocism
except through a new conception of architectural quality. And this new concep- Ad hoe means ' for this' specific need or purpose.
tion cannot be form ulated except by means of a more attentive exploration of A need is common to all li ving things; only men have hi gher purposes. But
those phenomena of creative participation which are dismissed as 'disorder'. It is these needs and purposes are normally frustrated by the great time and energy
in their intricate context, in fact, that we will find the matrix of an open and self expended in their realization.
generating formal organization which rejects a private and exclusive way of using A purpose immediately fulfilled is the ideal of adhocism; it cuts through the
land and, through this rejection, delineates a new way of using it on a pluralistic and usual delays caused by specialization, bureaucracy and hierarchical organization.
inclusive basis. In giving the user a creative role, we implicitly accept this basis, Today we are immersed in forces and ideas that hinder the fulfilment of
and in this way the morphological and structural conceptions and all the operative human purposes; large corporations standardize and limit our choice; philoso-
tools which have so far governed architectural production become open to ques- phies of behaviorism condition people to deny their potential freedom; 'modern
tion. T he whole vast set of variables which institutional culture and practice had architecture' becomes the convention for 'good taste' and an excuse to deny the
suppressed come back into play, and the field of reality in which architecture plurality of actual needs.
intervenes becomes macroscopic and complex. Thus only the adoption of clear But a new mode of direct action is emerging, the rebirth of a democratic mode
ideological positions and the application of rigorously scientific procedures can and style, where everyone can create his personal environment out of impersonal
guarantee a legitimate political and technical framework within which new sets subsystems, whether they are new or o ld, modern or antique. By reali zing his
of objectives can give rise, through the use of new practical instruments, to a immediate needs, by combining ad hoe parts, the indi vidual creates, sustains and
balanced and stimulating physical environment. (p2 15) transcends himself. Shaping the local environment towards desired ends is a key
to mental health; the present environment, blank and unresponsive, is a key to
Extracts. Source: Benedict Z ucchi, Giancarlo De Corio, Butterwort h Architecture, (Oxford) idiocy and brainwashing ... (pl5)
1992. © Giancarlo De Carlo. Based on a t ext first prepared for a conference held in Liege
in 1969, then published as an article in Parometro, no S, 1970, t hen in Environnement, no 3, The Pluralist Universe, or Pluriverse
March 1970, under the title, 'L.:A rchitecture, est-elle t rop importante pour etre confiee aux The man-made world is built up of fragments from the past.
architectes?' We live in a pluralist world confronted by co mpeting philosophies, and knowl -
edge is in an ad hoe, fragmented state prior to some possible synthesis . . . (p29)
48 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 4 9

Mechanical, Natural and Critical Evolution Tuo Proposals
Contrary to some theories, both design and nature are radically trad itional; they First, the revolutionary interests should be recogni zed in their actual plurality
work with subsystems whi ch have existed in the past. A ll creations are initially ad rather than limited to o ne of class or group. Second, this plurality of ad hoe o r-
hoe combinations of past subsystems; ' nothing can be created out of nothing ... ' ganization, which always occurs in popular revolution, should be preserved. The
Natural evolution and its few possibilities are not necessarily beneficial to men. groups, or communes, or Rate, are the basic institutions of freedom and civil life;
We must project forward many possible trends, not just mechanical and natural ones, they must be allowed to spring into existence and thereafter be protected by insti-
and then dissect apart their positive and negative consequences, recombining ad tutions and law ... (p89) Charles Jencks
hoe those totalities we desire. Dissectibility is the essence of adhocism and critical
evolution; contrary to the Romantic poets, we murder not to dissect ... (p39) The Adhocist Sensibility
a) The pleasure of unexpected recognition ... b) An appreciation of hybrid forms
Consumer Democracy ... c) Contrived spontaneity ... d) An apprec iation for ' function' . The word is
New techniques and a new strategy have emerged. The electronic techniques of in quotes because actual function need only be supposed ... e) Nostalgia. Old
comm unication now allow decentrali zed design and consumption based on indi- things can be recognized. Old associations are respected, if perhaps confounded
vidual desire. 'You sit there and need - we do the rest. Green Stamps given!' ... by new usage ... f) Identification. Personal fam iliarity is evoked when ordinary
things are recognized ... g) The superiority of the perceiver. Caused by the sup-
The Resource-Full Computer posed humility of the object ... h) The principle you love to hate. One can admire
The new strategy is latent within the do-it-yourself industry, Hippie consumer the subversiveness of adhocism's impurity, or, indeed, the seducti ve allure of all
tactics and space program: the re-use of o ld parts, the recycling of waste ... (p55) of the above . .. (pp 140- 143) Ad hoe choices can be made consciously, for the
sake of style, encouraging rhetorical confrontations and blunt semantic distinc-
Towards an Articulate Environment tions ... Instead of accommodating conflict, adhocism can ignore it, permitting a
Adhocism makes vis ible the complex workings of the environment. Instead of an plain facade to g lide over multiple distinctions or leave disharmonies behind ...
homogeneous surface which smooths over all distinctions and difficulties, it looks (pp 168- 169) Nathan Silver
to the intractable problem as the source of supreme expression. From problems,
from the confrontation of diverse subsystems, it drags an art of j agged, articu- Extracts. Source: Charles Jencks and Nathan Silver, Adhocism, Secke r and Warburg (London),
lated cataclysms that sho uts o ut the problems from every corner. 1972. © Auricula Press Inc and C harles Je ncks.
By combining diverse subsystems ad hoe, the designer shows what the previous
history was, why they were put together and how they work. All this articulation is
pleasing to the mind and allows an experience of a higher order.
Meaning ful articul ation is the goal of adhoc ism. Opposed to purism and
exclusivist design theories, it accepts everyone as an architect and all modes of
communication, whether based o n nature or culture. T he ideal is to provide an
environment which can be as visually rich and varied as actual urban life ... (p73)
The Ad Hoe Revolution

The time is ripe for redefining the theory and practice of revolution - beyond the
vulgar Marxism and liberal reaction of the present ...
Charles Jencks, M adonna of the Future by H enry James plus Elec tric Heater, plus M anni kin, London, 1911

1972 ROBERT VENTURI, DENISE SCOTT Mies refined the details of American steel factories for concrete building_s. Mod-
BROWN AND STEVEN IZENOUR ern arch itects work through analogy, symbol and image - although they have
gone to lengths to disclaim almost all determinants of their forms except struc-
Learning from Las Vegas tural necessity and the program - and they derive insights, analogies, and stimu-
lation from unexpected images. There is a perversity in the learning process: we
Significantly quoting Andy Warhol, Learning from Las Vegas is in many look backward at history and tradition to go forward; we can also look downward
respects a Pop document. The book began as a research project on to go upward. And withholding judgement may be used as a tool to make later
symbolism and commercial architecture in 196 7, the year Denise judgement more sensitive. This is a way of learning from everything. (p3)
Scott Brown (nee Lokofski, b 1931 'Nkono, Zambia) joined the f,rm
of Venturi and Rauch. Taking the Los Vegas strip as on example, the Some Definitions Using the Comparative Method
authors argue for 'ugly and ordinary' architecture and urbanism, and 'Not innovating willfulness but reverence for the archetype.' Herman Melville
introduced the o~en quoted distinction between the 'duck' and the 'Incessant new beginnings lead to sterility.' Wallace Stevens
'decorated shed' - between building as symbol and building with 'I like boring things.• Andy Warhol
applied symbols. To make a case for a new but o ld direction in architecture, we shall use some
perhaps indiscreet comparisons to show what we are for and what we are against
A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas and ultimately to justify our own arch itecture. When architects talk or write, they
'Substance for a writer consists not merely of those realities he thinks he discovers; philosophize almost solely to justify their own work, and this apologia will be no
it consists even more of those realities which have been made available to him by different. Our argument depends on comparisons, because it is simple to the point
the literature and idioms of his own day and by the images that still have vitality in of banality. It needs contrast to point it up. We shall use, somewhat undiplomatically,
the literature of the past. Stylistically, a writer can express his feeling about this some of the works of leadi ng architects today as contrast and context.
substance either by imitation, if it sits well with him, or by parody if it doesn't.' 1 We shall emphasize image - image over process or form - in asserting that
Learning from the existing landscape is a way of being revolutionary for an architecture depends in its perception and creation on past experience and emo-
architect. Not the obvious way, which is to tear down Paris and begin again, as Le tional associations and that these symbo lic and representational e lements may
Corbusier suggested in the 1920s, but another, more tolerant way; that is, toques- often be contradictory to the form, structure and program with which they
tion how we look at things. combine in the same building. We shall survey this contradiction in its two
The commercial strip, the Las Vegas Strip in particular - the example par main manifestations:
excellence - challenges the architect to take a positive, non-chip-on-the-shoulder Where the architectural systems of space, structure and program are sub-
view. Architects are out of the habit of looking nonjudgementally at the environ- merged and distorted by an overall symbolic form. This kind of building-be-
ment, because orthodox Modern architecture is progressive, if not revolutionary, coming-sculpture we call the duck in honor of the duck-shaped drive-in, 'The
utopian, and puristic; it is dissatisfied with existing conditions. Modern architec- Long Island Duckling', illustrated in God's Own Junkyard by Peter Blake.2
ture has been anything but permissive: Architects have preferred to change the 2 Where systems of space and structure are directly at the service of program, and
existing environment rather than enhance what is there. ornament is applied independently of them. This we call the decorated shed.
But to gain insight from the commonplace is nothing new: fine art often fol- The duck is the special building that is a symbol; the decorated shed is the conven-
lows folk art. Romantic architects of the eighteenth century discovered an exist- tional shelter that applies symbols. We maintain that both kinds of architecture are
ing and conventional rustic architecture. Early Modern architects appropriated an valid - Chartres is a duck (although it is a decorated shed as well) and the Palazzo
existing and conventional industrial vocabulary w ithout much adaptation. Le Farnese is a decorated shed - but we think that the duck is seldom relevant today,
Corbusier loved grain elevators and steamships; the Bauhaus looked like a factory; although it pervades Modern architecture ...

The Duck and the Decorated Shed Ugly and Ordinary as Symbol and Style
Let us elaborate on the decorated shed by comparing Paul Rudolph's Crawford Artistically, the use of conventio nal e lements in ordinary arc hitecture - be they
Manor with our G uild House (in association w ith Cope and Lippincott). These two dumb doorkno bs or the fa mili ar forms of existing constructio n syste ms - evokes
buildings are comparable in use, size and date of construction: both are high-ri se associations fro m past experie nce. Such e lements may be carefull y chosen or
apartments for the elderly, consisting o f about 90 units, built in the mjd- I960s. thoughtfull y adapted from existing vocabul aries a nd standard catalogs rather than
The ir settings vary: G uild Ho use, although freestanding, is a six-story imitati on unique ly c reated via original data and artistic intuitio n. To design a window, fo r
palazzo, analogous in structure and materials to the surrounding buildings and instance, you state not only with the abstract functio n of modulating light rays
continuing, through its position and form, the street line of the Philade lphia grid- and breezes to serve inte rior space but with the image of window - of all the
iron plan it sits in. C rawford M ano r, on the othe r hand, is unequivocall y a soaring windows you know plus others you fi nd out about. This approach is symbolicall y
tower, unique in its Mode rn, Ville Radi euse world along New Haven's limited- and functio nally conventional, but it promotes an architecture of meaning, broade r
access Oak Street Connector. and ric he r if less dra matic tha n the.architecture o f expression.
But it is the contrast in the images of these buildings in re lation to the ir sys-
te ms o f constructio n that we want to e mphasize. T he syste m o f construction a nd Against Ducks, or Ugly and Ordinary over Heroic and Original, or Think Little
program of G uild Ho use are ord inary and conventional and look it; the syste m of We should not emphasize the iro nic ri chness of banality in today's artistic context
construction and program of Crawford Manor are ordinary a nd conventional but at the ex pe nse of di scussing the appropri ate ness and inevitabili ty of U&O archi-
do not look it. (pp87-90) tecture o n a wide r bas is. Why do we uphold the symbo lism of the ordinary via the
decorated shed over the sy mbo lism of the heroic via the sculptural duck? Because
Heroic and Original, or Ugly and Ordinary this is not the time a nd ours is not the environme nt fo r heroic communication
The content of Crawford Manor's implic it symbo lism is what we call ' heroic and through pure arc hitecture. Each medium has its day, and the rhetorical e nviron-
original'. Although the substance is conventional and ordinary, the image is heroic mental state me nts of our time - civic, commercial, or reside ntial - will come
and ori ginal. The conte nt of the explicit symbolism of G uild House is what we from medi a more pure ly sy mbo lic, perhaps less static a nd more adaptable to the
call 'ugly and ordinary' . The technologically unadvanced brick, the o ld-fashioned, scale of our environme nt. T he iconography and mixed media o f roadside com-
do ub le-hung windows, the pretty mate ri als aro und the entrance, and the ug ly an- mercial architecture will point the way, if we will look. (pp 130- 13 1)
te nna not hidde n behind the parapet in the accepted fas hio n, all are d istinctly To find our symbolism we must go to the suburban edges of the existing city
conventional in image as well as substance o r, rather, ug ly and ordinary. (The that are symbo licall y rather tha n formalisticall y attracti ve and re present the aspi-
inevitable plastic flowers at ho me in these windows are, rathe r, p retty and ordi- rations of almost a ll Americans, incl ud ing most low-i ncome urban dwelle rs and
nary; they do not make this architecture look silly as they would, we think, the most o f the sile nt white maj ority. The n the a rc hetype Los Angeles will be our
heroic and ori ginal windows of C rawford M anor.) Rome and Las Vegas our Flore nce .. .
But in G uild House, the symbo lism o f the ordinary goes fu rther that this.
The pretensions of the ' gia nt order ' on the front, the symmetrical, palazzo-like High-Design·Architecture
composition with its three monumental stories (as well as its six real stories), Finally, learning fro m popular c ultu re does not re move the arc hitect from his or
topped by a piece of sculpture - o r almost sculpture - suggest something o f the he r status in high c ulture. But it may alter high c ulture to make it more sympa-
heroic and original. It is true that in this case the heroic and original facade is thetic to curre nt needs and issues. Because high c ulture a nd its c ultists (last year's
somewhat ironical , but it is this juxtaposition of contrasting symbo ls - the applique varie ty) are powerful in urban re newal and other establishme nt circles, we feel
of one order of symbols on anothe r - that constitutes for use the decorated shed. that people's arc hitecture as the people want it (and not as some architect decides
This is what makes Guild House a n architect's decorated shed - not arc hitecture Man needs it) does not sta nd much c ha nce against urban re newal until it hangs in
without arc hi tects. (pp93- 100) the academy a nd therefore is acceptable to the decision make rs. Helping this to

happen is a not-reprehensible part of the role of the high-design architect; it pro- 1975 CHARLES JENCKS
vides, together with moral subversion through irony and the use of a joke to get to
seriousness, the weapons of artists of nonauthoritarian temperament in social situa-
The Rise of Post-Modern Architecture
tions that do not agree with them. The architect becomes a jester.
Irony may be the tool with which to confront and combine di vergent values in In the 1970s, Critical Modernist views hod gained sufficient currency
architecture for a pluralist society and to accommodate the differences in values and force to constitute a number ofinchoate partial movements.Jencks,
that arise between architects and clients. Social classes rarely come together, but as both historian and advocate, was one of the f,rst to identify the
if they can make temporary alliances in the designing and building of multivalued preoccupations and range of specific antidotes that were emerging.
community architecture, a sense of paradox and some irony and wit will be needed With this, the f,rst essay on Post-Modernism, he drew these depar-
on all sides. (p 16 l ) tures together into what was to become a major movement in archi-
tecture and the other arts and philosophy.
Richard Poirie r, 'TS Eliot and the Literature of Waste', The New Republic, 20 May,
1967, p21. The title is evasive of course. If I knew what to call it, I wouldn ' t use the negative
2 Peter Blake, God's Own Junkyard: The Planned Deterioration ofAmerica's Landscape, prefix ' post'. It is rather li ke defining women as ' non-me n ' - not a useful or com-
Holt Rinehart and Winston, (New York) 1964, p IOI. See also Denise Scott Brown and p li mentary definition. No doubt modern architecture has e nded as a serious body
Robert Ve nturi, ' On Duc ks a nd Decoration', Architecture Canada, October 1968. of theory - no one believes in it after twe nty years of sustained attack - but it
continues, for want of an alternative, as actua l practice. The only way to kill off
Extracts. Source: Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven lzenour, Learning from Las the monster is to find a substitute beast to take its place and decidedly 'Post Mod-
Vegas, revised edition, MIT Press (Cambridge, Mass), 1977. © 1977 by The Massachusetts ern' won ' t do the j ob. We need a ne w way of thinking, a new paradigm based on
Institute ofTechnology. 'A Significance for A&P Parking Lots, or Learning from Las Vegas' was
broad theory, which enjoys a large consensus. No suc h consensus exists at the
first published in Architectural Forum, March 1968.
mome nt and it is in the nature of the case that suc h things take a long time to
develop - perhaps another twenty years. What we have instead is a series of frag-
me nted alternatives all claiming primary place ... (p3)
Counterattack: the Pluralist City

There are many historical move ments countering the trend toward an abstract and
supposedly uni versal architecture. Each one is relatively minor, but taken as a whole
they amount to a strong movement awaiting fo rmulation as a new paradigm. It
would be premature to name this paradigm; perhaps because of its inherent plural-
ism it can never be named or reduced to a synthesis ... The e ight alternatives:
1 Social realism ... 2 Advocacy planning and the anti-scheme ... 3 Rehabilita-
tion and preservation ... 4 Adhocism and collision city .. . 5 Ersatz and artifi-
cial cities . . . 6 Semiotics and radical eclecticism . .. 7 Radical traditionalism
and piecemeal tinkering ... 8 Political reorganization . . . (pp6-14)
If there is a summary to a list of recipes and palliatives, it must be on a very general

level. The disillusion of modern architects a nd dissatisfaction of the public with the

architecture they produce have now become commonplace ... If a lasting change is 1975 ROB KRIER
to be made, it wi II probably have to be the whole system of arc hitectural production
and this implies a re volution within society. Nonethe less, architects, as a critical
Urban Space
group within society, can make an impact on the situation.
If they were trained as anthropologists, to understand the vari ous codes which In many ways a parallel to Rowe and Koetter's Collage City, Rob
are used by different groups, the n they could at least des ign buildings whic h com- Krier's (b I 938, Grevenmacher, Luxembourg) Urban Space was equally
municated as they intended. Beyond this, they might get closer to the ir actual inPuential. It issues a direct attack against Modernist urbanism as
c lie nts and buildings in a specific way - move into a locale, move o n to the build- proposed by CIAM and its realisation in bastardised form a~er the
ing site, move out of their large teams of co-ordinated experts . The n they might Second World War in the name of reconstruction. Rob Krier, like his
gain a respect for forces whic h they have too long overlooked . To e nsure this, younger brother Leon, turns to the traditional city as a source for
however, an anti-sche me should be started along with the ir proposal, an anti - solutions to the problems of urbanism, countering the Modernist iso-
scheme whic h was fo rmul ated a nd developed by anti -architects (real people). The lated form in space with streets and squares defined by buildings.
resultant schi zophre nia would be charming to see and a lot less costl y than the
one-sided efforts produced now. Alternatively, one could always build every building We have lost sight of the trad itional understanding of urban space. The cause of
twice; once for the architect and once for the use r, but the n there ' d be so muc h this loss is familiar to all city dwellers who are aware o f their e nvironme nt a nd
more to tear down in the future. (p l4) sensiti ve e nough to compare the town planning achi eveme nts of the present a nd
the past a nd who have the stre ngth of c haracter to pronounce se ntence on the way
Extracts. Source: Architectural Association Quarterly, (London) , vol 7; no 4, October/ December things have gone ...
1975. © Architectural A sso ciation.
Definition of the Concept 'Urban Space'
If we wish to clarify the concept of urban space without imposing aesthetic c rite-
ria, we are compe lled to designate all types of space between buildings in towns
and othe r localities as urban space.
This space is geometricall y bounded by a variety o f e levations. It is only the
c lear legibility of its geometrical c harac teri sti cs and aesthetic qualities whic h
allows us conscious ly to perceive external space as urba n space. (pl5)
The two bas ic e lements are the street and the squa re. In the category of ' inte-
rio r space' we would be talking about the corridor and the room. The geometrical
characteristics of both spatial forms are the same. They are differe ntiated onl y by
the d imensions of the walls which bound the m and by the patterns of function and
circ ulation which characteri se them. (p 16)
Typology of Urban Space

In formulating a typo logy of urba n space, spatia l forms and their derivatives
may be di vided into three main groups, according to the geometri cal pattern of
their ground pla n: these groups derive from the square, circle or the triang le.
Charles Jencks, Carnsia Rotunda, Cape Cod Carase Transform ed, 1975-77 (p22)

I have designed streets and squares for the pedestrian , harmonised as closely 1975 COLIN ROWE AND FRED KOETTER
as possible with the existing structure and showing the utmost consideration for
the legacy of the past.
Collage City
ANY PLANNING INNOVATIONS IN A CITY MUST BE GOVERNED BY THE LOGIC OF Despite and because ofthe rhetoric ofModernist tabula rasa urbanism,
THE WHOLE AND IN DESIGN TERMS MUST OFFER A FORMAL RESPONSE TO RE- historic cities such as Rome continued to exercise a fascination over
EXISTING SPATIAL CONDITIONS. (p89) architects. By the 1960s and 70s, that fascination was helping to f,11
the theoretical vacuum le~ by the all too evident failures of Modern-
Postscript for Architects ist planning. Colin Rowe helped to codify the view, taking Rome as a
(1 ) Architects ... It is more useful to imitate something 'old' but proven, rather paradigm for a new urbanism, both political and physical. Rowe had
than to turn out something new which risks causing people suffering. The logical already thrown Modernism into historical perspective in the 1950s
and attractive building types and spatial structures left to us by anonymous archi- with his essays such as 'The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa'. With
tects have been improved upon by countless succeeding generations. They have Collage City he and Koetter used history as a cure for the ills of
matured into masterpieces even in the absence of a single creator of genius, be- 20th-century urbanism - by way of the essentially 20th-century idea
cause they were based on a perfectly refined awareness of building requirements of collage.
using simple means; the result of an accurate understanding of tradition as the
vehicle for passing on technical and artistic knowledge. (p 167) Collision City and the Politics of 'Bricolage'
Every new urban building must obey the overall structural logic and provide a If we are willing to recognize the methods of science and 'bricolage' as concomi-
formal answer in its design to pre-existing spatial conditions ! (p169) tant propensities, if we are willing to recogni ze that they are - both of them -
Knowledge gained over the course of centuries carries a certain conviction modes of address to problems, if we are willing (and it may be hard) to concede
which we cannot allow to go unnoticed . .. There are almost no further discover- equality between the 'civilized' mind (with its presumptions of logical seriaJity)
ies to be made in architecture . In our century the problems have merely changed and the 'savage' mind (with its analogical leaps), then, in re-establishing 'bricolage'
their dimension. T his is often so dramatic that one cannot warn too emphatically alongside science, it might even be possible to suppose that the way for a truly
against hasty, untested solutions. As long as man needs two arms and two legs, useful future di alectic could be prepared.
the scale of his body must be the measure of size fo r all building. That concerns A truly useful dialectic? The idea is simply the conflict of contending powers,
not only staircases and ceiling he ig ht, but also the design of public space in the the almost fundamental conflict of interest sharply stipulated, the legitimate sus-
urban co ntext. (p62) picion of others' interests, fro m which the democratic process - such as it is -
proceeds; and then the corollary to this idea is no more than banal: if such is the
Extracts. Source: Rob Krier, Urban Space, trans Christine Czechowski and George Black, case, if democracy is compounded of libertarian enthusiasm and legalistic doubt,
A cademy Editions (London), 1979. © A cademy Editions. First published in German as and if it is, inherently, a collisio n of points of view and acceptable as such, then
Stadtraum, 1975. why not allow a theory of contending powers (all of them visible) as likely to
establish a more ideally comprehensive city of the mind than any which has, as
yet, been invented.
And there is no more to it than this. In place of an ideal of universal manage-
ment based upon what are presented as scientific certainties there is also a pri-
vate, and a public, emancipatory interest (which, incidentally, includes emancipation
from management); and, if this is the situatio n and, if the only outcome is to be

sought in collision of interest, in a permanently maintained debate of opposites, bull 's head is thrown on the scrap heap. Perhaps some day a fellow will
then why should this dialectical predicament be not just as much accepted in theory come alo ng and say: ' Why there's something that would come in handy for
as it is in practice? The reference is again to Popper and to the ideal of keeping the the handlebars of my bicycle ... ' and so a double metamorphosis would
game straight; and it is because, from such a cri ticist point of view, collision of have been ach ieved.
interest is to be welcomed, not in terms of cheap ecumenicism which is o nly too Remembrance of former function and value (bicycles and minotaurs); shifting
abundantly available, but in terms of clarification (because, in the battlefield en- context; an attitude which e ncourages the composite; an exploitation and re-
gendered by mutual suspicion, it is just possible that - as has been usual - the cycling of meaning (has there ever been eno ugh to go around?); desuetude of
flowers of freedom may be forced from the blood of conflict) that, if such a con- fu nction with corresponding agglomeration of reference; memory; anticipation;
dition of collisive motives is recogni zable and should be endorsable, we are dis- the connectedness of memory and wit; the integrity of wit; this is the laundry list
posed to say, why not try? of reactio ns to Picasso's proposition; and, since it is a proposition evidentl y ad-
The proposition leads us (like Pavlov's dogs) automatically to the condition of dressed to people, it is in terms such as these, in terms of pleasures remembered
seventeenth-century Rome, to that collision of palaces, piazze and villas, to that and desired, of a dialectic between past and future, of an impacting of icono-
inextricable fusion of impositio n and accommodation, that highly successful and graphic content, of a temporal as well as a spatial collision, that resuming an
resilient traffic jam of intentio ns, an anthology of closed compositions and ad hoe earli er argument, o ne might proceed to specify an ideal city of the mind.
stuff in between, which is simultaneous ly a dialectic of ideal types plus a dialec- With Picasso's image one asks: what is false and what is true, what is antique
tic of ideal types with empirical context; and the consideratio n of seventeenth- and what is 'of today'; and it is because of an inability to make a half way ad-
century Rome (the complete city with the asserti ve identity of subdi visions: equate reply to this pleasing difficulty that one, finally, is obliged to identify the
Trastevere, Sant' Eustachio, Borgo, Campo Marzio, Campitelli ... ) leads to the problem of composite presence in terms of collage.
equi valent interpretation of its predecessor where forum and thermae pieces lie Collage and the architect's conscience, collage as technique and collage as state
around in a conditio n of inter-dependence, independence and multiple interpret- of mind: Levi-Strauss tells us that 'the intermittent fashion for "collages", originat-
ability. And imperial Rome is, of course, fa r the more dramatic statement. For, ing when craftsmanship was dying, could not ... be anything but the transposition
certainly with its more abrupt collisions, more acute disjunctions, its more expan- of "bricolage" into the realms of contemplation' and, if the twentieth-century archi-
sive set pieces, its inhibition, imperial Rome, far more than the c ity of the High tect has been the reverse of willing to think of himself as a 'bricoleur' it is in this
Baroque, illustrates something of the ' bricolage' mentality at its most lavish - an context that one must also place his fri gidity in relation to major twentieth-century
obelisk from here, a column from there, a range of statues from somewhere e lse, discovery. Collage has seemed to be lacking in sincerity, to represent a corruption
even at the level of detail the mentality is fully exposed; and, in this context, it is of moral principles, an adu lteration. (pp 138- 139)
amusing to recollect how the influence of a who le school of historians (Positiv- It is suggested that a collage approach, an approach in which objects are con-
ists, no doubt!) was, at one time, strenuously dedicated to presenting the ancient scripted or seduced from out of their context, is - at the present day - the o nl y
Romans as inherently nineteenth-century engineers, precursors of Gustave Eiffel, way of dealing with the ultimate problems of, either or both, utopia and tradition;
who had somehow, and unfortunately, lost their way. (pp 105-107) and the provenance of the architectural objects introduced into the social collage
need not be of great consequence. It relates to taste and convicti on. The objects
Collage City and the Reconquest of Time can be aristocratic of they can be ' folkish', academic or popular. Whether they
. . . We think of Picasso's bicycle seat (Bull's Head) of I 944: originate in Pergamum or Dahomey, in Detroit or Dubrovnik, whether their impli-
Your remember that bull's head I exhibited recentl y? Out of handlebars and cations are of the twentieth or the fifteenth century, is no great matter. Societies
the bicycle seat I made a bull's head which everybody recognized as a bull's and persons assemble themselves according to the ir own interpretati ons of abso-
head. Thus a metamorphosis was completed; and now I wou ld like to see lute reference and traditional value; and, up to a po int, collage accommodates
another metamorphosis take place in the opposite direction. Suppose my both hybrid display and the requi rements of self-determination.

But up to a point: for if the city of collage may be more hospitable than the 1975 JOSEPH RYKWERT
city of modern architecture, it cannot more than any human institution pretend to
Ornament is no Crime
be completely hospitable. The ideally open city, like the ideally open society, is
just as much a figment of the imagination as its opposite. (pp 144-145)
Because collage is a me thod deriving its virtue from its irony, because it seems Joseph Ryk.wert (b 1926) studied under the Modern architectural histo
to be a techn ique for using things and simultaneously disbelieving in them, it is rian Sigfried Giedion. He, like his former teacher and friend. is a critic
also a strategy which can allow utopia to be dealt with as image, to be dealt w ith and historian with a wide view of what is relevant to architecture. His
in fragments without our having to accept it in toto, which is further to suggest essays and books have defined key issues on the importance of myth
that collage could even be a strategy which, by supporting the utopian illusion of to building, the ways the Classical Orders carry meaning. and the
ch angelessness and finality, might even fuel a reality of c hange, motion, action idea of the town (the title of one of his books). Despite having dis-
and history. (p 149) claimed early use of the term Post-Modernism. Rykwert, in this essay
and others. has been a force in renewing an intelligent defense of
Extracts. Source: Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter. Collage City. MIT Press (Cambridge. Mass). ornament, signification and style.
1978. © 1978 by The Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology. A shorter version of the text
first appeared in Architectural Review. vol CLVII I; no 94 2, (London), August I 97S. We must all acknow ledge that, in a negative way at any rate, Loos was right:
ornament, as the nineteenth-century architects and critics understood it, is wholly
dead, beyond any hope of resurrection. We cannot rely on any kind of convention:
the world of tangible form has to be learnt ane w. Architects never th ink of build-
ings as tang ible objects, except at the one direct point of contact, the door-handle.
And yet buildings are not only enclosure; they are also e xtensions of ourselves,
like clothing. But being more stable, more permanent, more important in fact,
they are subject to the importuning demand that they should enhance, enrich,
improve with our handling of them. This, it is increasingly clear, will not be done
as long as there is a gene ral social assumption that reasonable returns is all we
require of products . On the contrary, they must engage our imag ination. And they
wi ll not do so until architects and designe rs have really begun to learn the lessons
which the painters and sculptors have to teach ; and, moreover, have learnt to work
together with them, make use of their work not on ly as analogue, but as adorn-
ment. But such a deve lopment will only be valid if it is seen to be necessary, not
gratuitous : as long as it wi ll be seen not as a problem of orname nt or not orna-
me nt, but as a problem of meaning. (p 101)
Extract. Source:Joseph Rykwert, The Necessity ofArtifice.Academy Editions (London), 1982.

© Joseph Rykwert. First published in Studio International, September/October 1975.
Giambattista Nol/i's Plan of Rome, 1748

1976 ALDO ROSSI inexpressible in words. I believe I have found in this definition a different
sense of history conceived of not si mpl y as fact, but rather as a seri es of
An Analogical Architecture things, of affective objects to be used by the memory or in a desig n ...
The quotation from Walter Benjamin: 'I am unquestionably deformed hy re la-
By the 1980s Rossi attained the position of international cult f,gure, tionships with everything that surrounds me,' mi ght be said to contain lht• ll111111,1 h1
due in large part to his evocative drawings and writings such as The underlying this essay. It also accompanies my architecture today.
Architecture of the City ( 1966) and A Scientific Autobiography There is continuity in this, even though in the most recent projects !,tl' lll' l 111 111111
( 1971 ). The melancholic ambivalence towards Modernism and the personal tensions emerge with g reater clarity, and in va rious drawing:-. lht· 11m·11"
historic city so characteristic of those earlier writings is sustained in ness of different parts and elements can be fe lt to have superimposed i1sdl on lht·
this essay. Quoting Walter Benjamin, he declares: '/ am unquestion- geometrical order of the composition.
ably deformed by relationships with everything that surrounds me.' The deformation of the relatio nships between those e lements su11m111<ling. 11s
it were, the main theme, draws me toward an increasing rarefactio n ol palls in
Although in my architecture th ing_s are seen in a fixed way, I realize that in recent favour of more complex compositional methods. This de formation alf1:c1i- 1he
projects certain characteristics, me mories, and above all associations have prolif- materials themselves and destroys their static image, s tressing instead the ir
erated or become clearer, often yielding un foreseen results ... elementality and superimposed quality. The question of things themselves, whether
Each of these designs has been due increasingly to that concept of the ' ana- as compositions or components - drawings, building, mode ls, or descriptio ns
logical city' about whi ch I wrote so~etime ago; meanwhile that concept has de- appears to me increasingly more suggestive and convincing. But this is not to be
veloped in the spirit of the analogy. interpreted in the sense of 'vers une architecture' nor as a new arch itecture. I am
Writing on that subject, I stated that it was mainly a matter of a logical-formal referring rather to familiar objects, whose form and position are already fixed,
operation that could be translated as a design method. but whose meanings may be changed. Barns, stables, workshops, etc. Archetypal
In order to illustrate this concept, I cited the example of the v iew of Venice by objects whose common emotional appeal reveals timeless concerns.
Canaletto in the Parma Museum, in which Palladio's concept for the Rialto Bridge, Such objects are situated between inventory and memory. Regarding the ques-
the Basilica and the Palazzo Chiericati are arranged and depicted as if the painter tion of memory, architecture is also transformed into autobiographical experi-
had reproduced an actual townscape. The three monuments, of which o ne is only ence; places and things change with the superimpos itio n of new meanings.
a project, constitute an analogue of the real Venice composed of definite elements Rationality seems almost reduced to objective log ic, the operation of a reductive
related to both the history of architecture and that of the city itself. The geographi- process which in time produces characteristic features. (pp74-76)
cal transpositio n of the two existing monuments to the site of the intended bridge
forms a c ity recognizably constructed as a locus of purely architectonic va lues. Extract. Source: Architecture and Urbanism 56, tra nslated by David Stewart. © A + U
This concept of the analogical city has been further elaborated in the spirit of Publishing Co Ltd.
analogy toward the conception of an analogical architecture.
In the correspondence between Freud and Jung, the latter defines the concept
of analogy in the following way:
I have explai ned that ' logical' thought is what is expressed in words directed
to the outs ide world in the form of discourse. ' Analogical' thought is sensed
yet unreal, imagined yet silent; it is not a discourse but rather a meditation
on themes of the past, an interior monologue. Logical thought is ' thinking
in word s'. Analog ical thou ght is archaic, unexpressed, and practicall y

1977 KISHO KUROKAWA is an extension of humanity. This belief contrasts with the Western belief that
modernization is a repetition of a conflict between technology and humanity. (p27)
Metabolism in Architecture Obviously growth of the population and change in the age structure of the
population greatly influence the nature of cities, types of residence and nature of
Kisha Kurokawa (b 1934, Nagoya) was one of the founding mem- architectural spaces. Furthermore, the speed of population growth has made it
bers of the Metabolist Group along with Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko impossible to satisfy housing demand through the ordinary construction methods
Maki, Masato Otaka and Kiyoshi Awazu. Initially formed in 1958 as of the past ... As long as these conditions persist the architect must not accept
a working party to prepare for the 1960 World Design Conference in them passively, as the inevitable results of technological progress. Instead he must
Tokyo, the Group worked together only sporadically a~er the confer- help people to master technology and strive to produce a system whereby changes
ence. Kurokawa was the most active in further developing the ideas occur as the result of human judgement. The architect's job is not to propose ideal
of Metabolism, producing a series of articles and books on the sub- models for society, but to devise spatial equipment that the citizens themselves
ject through the 1970s. can operate ... (p28)
Le Corbusier said that cities consist of li ving spaces, working spaces, and rec-
The Philosophy of Metabolism reational spaces connected by methods of transport. Methods of transport should be
War helped me discover Japanese culture. As I stood amidst the ruins of Nagoya, re-examined as parts of the space in which we live. Here, the important feature is
the third largest city in Japan, there was nothing but scorched earth for as far as not the road, which has the sole function of providing a place for vehicles to pass,
the eye could see. In contrast to the desolate surroundings, the blue of the moun- but the street, which is part of daily-life space and has many functions. (p30)
tain range on the horizon was dazzling to the eyes ... I remember that my father's At the same time that the rapid economic development of Japan began, in 1960,
library contained works o n classical Greek and Roman architecture and many the Metabolist group advocated the creation of a new relationship between human-
volumes by writers such as John Ruskin and William Morris. Reading books of . ity and technology. Thinking that the time would come when technology would
this kind formed in my mind an image of architecture and of cities as entities develop autonomously to the point where it ruled human life, the group aimed at
which are eternal and do not lose their quality even if they are destroyed. (p23) producing a system whereby man would maintain control over technology.
The Metabolic movement ... came into being through the preparations for the Rapid economic growth in an industrial nation such as Japan promotes the devel-
World Design Conference. These preparations lasted for two years, beginning in opment of technology of a kind more dynamic than anything previously known ...
1958; and during the conference the Metabolist group made its first declaration: ln this no thought is given to the social significance of spaces or to value judge-
Metabolism 1960 - A Proposal for a New Urbanism. The people who collabo- ments about providing people with pleasing symbols. The sole consideration is eco-
rated on this book were architects Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Masato nomic efficiency and profit. We advocated the application of metabolic cycle theory
Otaka, and myself, and graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu. as a way of avoiding these conditions. This theory proposed a reorganization which
A key passage in this declaration reads: 'We regard human society as a vital divides architectural and urban spaces into levels extending from the major to
process, a continuous development from atom to nebula. T he reason why we use the subordinate and which makes it easy fo r human beings to control their own
the biological word metabolism is that we believe design and technology sho uld environments.
denote human vital ity. We do not believe that metabolism indicates only accept- By distinguishing between the parts that do not change and the parts that must
ance of a natural, historical process, but we are trying to encourage the active be preserved, it is possible to ascertain the parts that must periodically be replaced.
metabolic development of our society through our proposals.' This is an impor- In o ur plan for a prefabricated apartment building project, we devised a way of
tant element in our declaration for two reasons. First, it reflects our feelings that assembling a number of basic elements so as to create such major spaces as
human society must be regarded as one part of a continuous natural entity that bedrooms and li ving rooms. Capsule units, attached from the outside, were used
includes all animals and plants. Secondly, it expresses our belief that technology for subordinate spaces like those of the kitchen and service units. This kind of

breakdown and recomposition of architecture enables individual expression a nd 1977 KENT C BLOOMER AND
the production of character for the indi vidual rooms and their contents; it estab- CHARLES W MOORE
lishes a kind of ide ntity by means of things that, in the case of buildings in the
modern architecture style, were buried within box-like forms ... (p3 1) Bod½ Memory and Architecture
The relation between society and nature is an open one. Beauty is not c reated
sole ly by the arti st; it is completed by the citizens, the users and the spectators, Taking exception to the moralistic pretensions of Modernism, Charles
who by so doing contribute to its creation. I employ industrialization, prefabrica- Moore (b I 925, Benton Harbor, Michigan, d 1993) responded with
tion, and capsu li zation as ways of evoking this kind of participation ... wit, learning and sensitivity to place. This essentially Post-Modern
I believe that what I call media space (or en-space, a term using the Japanese combination is demonstrated in both his writing and his buildings,
word en, which means connection or re lationship) and in-between space are im- the latter including the Faculty Club at University of California, Santo
portant in making the relationship between architecture, and society and nature Barbaro ( 1968), various houses at Seo Ranch, California ( 1969), Kresge
an open one ... (p33) College, University of California, Santo Cruz (/973) and the Piazza
The principle that architecture should change with time, the principle of d'/to/io, (with Perez Associates and UIG) ( 1979).
replaceability and interchangeability, and the principle of the metabolic cycle, as
well as the belief that architecture, cities and humanity itself are ephe meral, are Place, Path, Pattern and Edge
all in accord with the [Buddhist] doctrines of samsara and laksana-Alaksanatas. The landscape of the human inner world o f la ndma rks, coordinates, hierarchies,
The thought of Me tabolism is theoretical and philosophical. We do not intend and especially boundaries serves, we be lieve, as the on ly humane starting point
to create forms of styles, because these are only the provisional manifestation of for the organization of the space around us, which, more than being perceived, is
thoughts. Forms and styles occur in consequence of historical, temporal, spatial, in habited by us. We propose here to look again at the arch itectural building blocks
material, geographical, social, and sometimes purely pe rsonal conditions ... (p35) in the existenti al space that surrounds us, to pursue them from the boundary of the
I intended my capsu le spaces to be a declaration of war in support of the indivldual body to the first shared boundary (the house), and beyond that to bounda-
restoration of the oriental individuum, whic h has been· lost in the process of ries shared by larger and la rger communities, seeing how they can be a means of
mode rnization (Capsule Declaration, 1969). It is once agai n necessary to reject e xtending inner order outward , o f making a world that is a sympathetic extension
the mystification implanted in such ideas as abstracted universal space. By exam- of our sense of o urselves.
ining spaces for individuals we must seek new re lations between the individual The building blocks that mankind long ago invested with meaning were de-
and society. The capsule space, which is a representation of the oriental individuum, scribed in c hapter o ne: columns, walls, and the roofs between them; porches and
is not a part of the piece of architecture to which it is attac hed. The capsule and arcades; towers to which they stre tc h up; rooms a nd hearths which the wa lls
the building exist in contradiction yet mutually include each other. Architecture e nclose; and doors and windows wh ich re late an inside to the rest of the world .
that is a representation of the oriental individuum would not be a part o f the c ity. These forms have been important to humankind because they accommodated the
Such architecture and cities would exist in contradiction but wou ld mutually initia l human act of constructing a dwe lling, the first tang ible boundary beyond
include another. The same kind of relation should exist between architecture a nd the body, they accommodated the act of inhabiting, and they called attention to
nature a nd between human beings and technology. The philosophy of in-between the sources of huma n e nergy a nd to our place between heaven and earth.
spaces and en-spaces should he lp make possible a change of direction towards Beyond that first bou ndary, the in ventory of pieces available to build the world
attaining such relations ... (p36) does not reall y le ngthen; the variations are c hanges not of form, but of position.
Though the structu res remain the sa me, the choreography of the trip to them can
Extracts. Source: Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, Studio Vista (London), 1977. intensify the ir importance to us ...
© Kisho Kurokawa. We start with the house (or palace or cathedral) staked out in close homage to

the human (or the di vine) body and note how the c ho reography o f arrival at the order in them; if there are definite boundaries to contain our concerns; if we can
house (the path to it) can send out messages and induce expe riences which heighten actuaJly inhabit them, their spaces, taking them as our own in satisfying ways; if
its impo rtance as a place. Far beyond the boundaries of the house lie the edges of we can establish connections in them with what we know and believe and think; if
cites a nd beyond the m the outer boundaries of whole societies. Within those larger we can share our occupancy with others, our family, our group, or our city; and,
boundaries are places to li ve and to work wh ich range from private to shared and importantly, if there is some sense of human drama, of transport, of tension, or of
which include hi ghly sy mbolical public realms as well as unclaimed no-places. collision of forces, so that the invo lvement e ndures.
Monuments marking places of more than private importance will be found most The special, immacul ate collision, in which building or landscape pieces come
often at e ithe r the borders or the heart. And some pattern of connections wi ll be sharply up agaj nst one another without loss of their individual identities or spirit,
laid upon the earth within those boundaries, generally producing a set of inner is especia lly important in the making of memorable places. A c lassic example is
edges upon which our comprehension of the place depends. the gridiron plan of San Francisco, which collides with steep hills in a balance
The inhabited world within boundaries then, can usefully be ascribed a syntax which has not surrende red the identity of the hills, but indeed has strengthened
of place, path, pattern and edge. Within each of these four, architectural ordering their image in the welter of detajled switchbacks which make the grid functional
arrangements can be considered which a re made to respond to the natural land- and more memorable than e ver.
scape as well as to human bodies and memories ... (pp77-79) Architectural design becomes, in such an instance, a choreogra phy of collision,
which, like dance c horeography, does not impair the inner vitality of its parts in the
Human Identity in Memorable Places process of expressing a collective statement through them. Choreography, we be-
If architecture, the making of Places, is as we propose a matter of extending the lieve, is a more useful term than composition, because of its much clearer implica-
inner landscape of human being into the world in ways tha t a re comprehe nsible, tion of the human body and body's inhabitation and experience of place. In another
experiential, and inhabitable, and if the architectural world is rich in instances o f simpler time, perspective drawings taken from a single station-point could describe
this success, what then is so dramatically wrong with the way we build today? the visual intentions of the designer, and ms other intentions were understood. It
Why do people not li ke their houses and apartments? And why have we been seems sign ificant in this connection, however, that the architectural works of
guilty of desecrating or obliterating the landscape perfected by the hand of man? Michelangelo, clearly meant to be experie nced with all the body, were never all
Why, that is, have the insides of our world, the places we make for our own in- drawn in perspective in advance. Really, they couldn't have been. The experience
habitation, which are defensible and free from the c haos or dangers outside, in of be ing in a place occurs in time, is far more than visual, a nd is generally as com-
our century become for many the hostile zone, while ' in wi lde rness is the hope of plex as the image of it which stays in our me mory. To at least some extent every real
the earth. ' And why is the only c hance for the world thought to be for man to keep place can be remembered, partly because it is unique, but partly because it has
his hands off the pieces he has not yet destroyed? affected our bodies and generated e nough associations to hold it in our personal
What is missing fro m our dwellings today are the potential tran sactions between worlds. And, of course, the real experience of it, from which the memory is carried
body, imagination, and e nvironment. It is absurdly easy to build, and appallingly away, lasts much longer than the camera's 111 25th of a second: perhaps the light
easy to build badl y. Comfort is confused with the absence of sensation. The no rm plays upon it, and the shadows move; breezes blow or the air is still; or perhaps the
has become rooms maintained at a constant temperature without any verticality snow is falli ng, blurring the edges like memory blurs ti me itself. The designer of
or o ut look or sunshine or breeze or discernible source of heat or center or, alas, every successful place both wittingly and unwittingly was choreographing all of
meaning. These homogeneous environments require little of us, and they give this. In addition he may have choreographed a collision between his desires and the
little in return besides the shelter of a c ubical cocoon. constrajnts of budget, rules, and an unpredictable clie nt, as well as the sun, rain, and
Buildings, we are certain, g iven enough care, are capable of repaying that care perhaps the occasional shaking of the earth.
(an e nvironmental instance of bread cast upon the waters coming back club sand- The real places on the earth, that is to say, are susceptible to continuous read-
wiches). We wi ll care inc reasing ly for our buildings if there is some meaningful ings, which is to say many readings, which is almost certainly to say complex and

ambiguous ones. It seems to be a characteristic of the m, too, that they have ex- 1978 LEON KRIER
traord inary changeability, sometimes of use, almost certainly of size (as in the
notion of the city as house, and the house as city): each can be seen as a potential
Rational Architecture:
toy, capable of being pocketed in the memory and carried away, or taken out to The Reconstruction of the City
fill for a while the whole of o ne's conscious attention ... (pp I 05-107)
Polemicist, and compelling draughtsman, Leon Krier (b 1946, Luxem-
Extracts. Source: Kent C Bloomer and Charles W Moore, Body, Memory and Architecture, bourg) worked with James Stirling and JP Kleihues in the late 1960s
Yale University Press (New Haven and London), 1977. © Yale University. and early 70s before setting up his own office. The primary target of
his invective has been Modernist urbanism and in 1975 he organised
the exhibition Rational Architecture in London, bringing together the
work of Italian, French, Belgian and German architects with a shared
concern for the traditional city. These excerpts are from the book of
the same title, an extended catalogue of the exhibition.
We want to state very clearly that Rational Architecture is not concerned with the
revival of the Rationalism of the I 920s. It is, as Massimo Scolari explains, primarily
to do with the revival of Architecture ' tout court'. If its theoretical basis is to be found
in the philosophical Rationalism of the Enlightenment its primary concern should
now lie with the re-creation of the public realm ...
The problem of Rational Architecture can therefore not be one of c horeography. It
cannot find its motivation in a 'state of mind', in the fictions of artistic or technical
progress but in the reflection on the city and its history, on its socia l use and content.
The revolutionary e lement of this new Architecture does not lie in its form but in the
model of its social use, in its coherency, in the reconstruction of the public realm ...
Technical Progress and Industrialisation of Building

Modern building technology is still at the level of experiment and an ephemeral
progress leaves us today with a building technology which in many ways is more
primitive than at any moment in Western civi lization. T he recuperation of a dig-
nified mode of production, the reconstruction of an artisan building culture will
Charles W Moore A ssociates, Xanaclune, St Simon Island Conclomini um,Gcorgia, 1972
be the basis of any new collective language.
I suppose that the restriction to a few building materials and the e laboration of
an urban building typology will create a new architectural discipline of simple
nobi lity and monumentality ...
History of Architecture - History of Types

Against the a nti -historicism of the modern movement we repropose the study of
7 4 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 75

the history of the city. The narrow rationalism of modem architecture is expanded 1978 ANTHONY VIDLER
to understand the city in all its typological components. The history of architec-
ture and urban culture is seen as the history of types. Types of settlement, types of The Third Typology
spaces (public and private), types of building, types of construction ...
A/so contained in the extended exhibition catalogue, Rational Archi-
The City Within the City: Urban Life and the Quartier t ecture, this essay by Anthony Vidler provides what is perhaps the
If we repropose as a political choice the dynamism of urban culture as against the most incisive account of the ideas behind the 'typo-morphological'
conservatism of suburbia, this has to be seen as an integral part of a democratic approach to architecture as practised primarily by the Italians such
vision of society. The traffic problems which have been created by centralisation as Aldo Rossi and Carlo Aymonino. A graduate of Cambridge Univer-
on regional and national scale can initially only be resolved on a political level sity School of Architecture, Vidler hos taught at the Architectural
through the new definition of the city with a rational organisation of the territory Association in London, the Institute ofArchitecture in Venice, Princeton
and finally through the reorganisation of the city into units of complex and inte- University and now teaches at Cornell University.
grated functions: quartiers, districts, homogeneous areas (Bologna), functional com-
munities (E Saarinen). Here work, leisure and culture are integrated into compact
urban districts. The size of these districts is both a physical and a social one. It . .. In the third typology, as exemplified in the work of the new Rationalists, there
can only be checked on the historical model ... (pp38-42) is no attempt at validation. Columns, houses, and urban spaces, while linked in an
The street and the square are the only and necessary model for the reconstruc- unbreakable chain of continuity, refer only to their own nature as architectural
tion of a public realm. In this context, we also stress the necessary dialectical rela- elements, and their geometries are neither naturalistic nor technical but essen-
tionship between building typology and morphology of urban space and inside tially architectural. It is clear that the nature referred to in these recent designs is
that dialectic, the correct relationship of monuments (public buildings) and the no more nor less than the nature of the city itself, emptied of specific social con-
more anonymous urban fabric (buildings for private use) ... (p58) tent from any particular time and allowed to speak simply of its own formal con-
dition ...
Extracts. Source: Rational Architecture Rationel/e: The Reconstruction of the European City, The city is considered as a whole, its past and present revealed in its physical
Editions Archives d'Architecture Moderne (Brussels), 1978. © Leon Krier. structure. It is in itself and of itself a new typology. This typology is not built up
o ut of separate elements, nor assembled out of objects classified according to use,
social ideology, or technical characteristics: it stands complete and ready to be
decomposed into fragments. These fragments do not re invent institutional type-
forms nor repeat past typological forms: they are selected and reassembled
according to criteria derived from three levels of meaning - the first, inherited
from the ascribed means of the past existence of the forms; the second, derived
from the specific fragment and its boundaries, and often crossing between previous
types; the third, proposed by a recomposition of these fragments in a new context.
Such 'ontology of the city' is in the face of the modernist utopia, indeed radical.
It denies all the social utopian and progressively positivist definitions of architec-
ture for the last two hundred years. No longer is architecture a realm that has to
relate to a hypothesized 'society' in order to be conceived and understood, no
longer does 'architecture write history' in the sense of particulari zing a specific
76 Theories and Manifest oes Post-Modern 77

social condition in a specific time or place. The need to speak of [the] nature of focus; it refuses all unitary descriptions of the social meaning of form, recogni zing
function, of social mores - of anything, that is, be yond the nature of architectural the specious quality of any sing le ascription of social orde r to an architectural
form itself - is removed ... order; it finall y refuses all eclecticism, resolute ly filtering its 'quota tions' through
The principal conditions for the invention of object[s] and environments do the lens of a moderni st aesthetic. (pp30-32)
not necessarily have to include a unitary statement of fit between form and use.
Here it is that the adoption of the city as the site for the identification of the Extracts. Source: Rational Architecture Rationelle: The Reconstruction of the European City,
architectural typology has been seen as crucial. In the accumulated experience of Editions Archives d'Architecture Moderne (Brussels), 1978. © 1977 Anthony Vidler.
the city, its public spaces and institutional forms, a typology can be understood
that defies a one-to-one reading of function , but which at the same time ensures a
relation at another level to a continuing tradition of city life. The distinguishing
characteristic of the new ontology beyond its specificall y formal aspect is that the
city polis, as opposed to the single column, the hut-house, or the useful machine,
is and always has been political in its essence. The fragmentation and recomposition
of its spatial and institutional forms thereby can neve r be separated from their
received and newly constituted political implications.
When typical forms are selected from the past of a city, they do not come,
however dismembered, deprived of their original political and social meaning.
The original sense of the fo rm, the layers of accrued implication deposited by
time and huma n experience cannot be lightly brushed away and certainly it is not
the intention of the new Rationalists to disinfect their types. Rather, the carried
meanings of these types may be used to provide a key to their newly invested THE UIIIAN BLOCKS AP.ITif£ Af.SULTOF A PATn.R.N OF
STlEl!TS ...,.-o SOUARES. nt£ PAlT'EllN IS TYP'OLOOI-
T1t£ rATIT:_,. OF STRE£TS ANO SOUAR.ES IS THE R.ESULT
OF me ,osmoN Of THI! BLOCKS. THE BLOCKS Altl!
THESTUITS AND SQUAii ES AU PIIECISE FO~AL
TYP£S. llU!S!. P1J8UC AOOMS AR.I! TYl'OLOOICALLY
CAU.Y Cl.ASSIFIABLI!. TYP'OLOOICAUY CLASSIFIABL!. Cl.ASSlF'IABLE.
meanings. The technique or rathe r the fundame ntal compos itional method sug-
gested by the Rationalists is the transformation of selected types - partial or whole
- into entirely new entities that draw their communicative power and potential
criteria from the understanding of this transformation ...
The heroes of this new typology are not among the nostalgic, anti-city utopians
of the ninetee nth century nor even among the cri tics of industrial and technological
progress of the twentieth, but rather among those who, as the professional servants
of urban life, have directed their design skills to solving the questions of avenue, Leon Krier, The Three M0</els to Conceive Urban Spaces, 1972 - the blocks are the result ofa street and sc1uare pattern, the
streets and sc1uares represent the result of the position of the blocks, the streets and squares are precise spatial types
arcade, street and square, park and house, institution a nd equipment in a continuous
typology of e lements that together coheres with past fabric and present interve ntion
to make one comprehensible experience of the city. For this typology, there is no
clear set of rules for the transformations and their objects, nor any pole mically de-
fined set of historical precedents. Nor, perhaps, should there be; the continued vital-
ity of this architectural prac tice rests in its essential engagement with the precise
demands of the present and not in any holistic mythicization of the past. It refuses
any ' nostalgia' in its evocations of history, except to give its restorations sharper

1979 CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER 6 The specific patterns out of which a building or a town is made may be ali ve
or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and set us
The Timeless Way of Building free; but when they are dead, they keep us locked in inner conflict.
7 The more living patterns there are in a place - a room, a building, or a town -
Alexander's pursuit of unselfconscious architecture resulted in a series the more it comes to life as an entirety, the more it glows, the more it has that
of books including The Oregon Experi ment, A Pattern Language, self-maintaining fire wh ich is the quality without a name.
The Timeless Way of Building ondThe Linz Cafe. The Timeless Way 8 And when a building has this fire, then it becomes a part of nature. Like ocean
is the most direct expression of the philosophy behind Alexander's waves, or blades of grass, its parts are governed by the endless play of repeti-
later views on method and at the same time the most forceful repu- tion and variety created in the presence of the fact that all things pass. T his is
diation of the reductive rationalism he hod advocated in Notes on the quality itself.
the Synthesis of Form.Alexander hos produced only a relatively small
corpus of buildings, reaching a wider audience through his writing and The Gate
research. He hos been associated with the School ofArchitecture at To reach the quality without a name we must then build a living pattern language
the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, for the post three decodes, carrying as a gate.
out research through the Center for Environmental Structure. 9 This quality in buildings and in towns cannot be made but only generated,
indirectly, by the ordinary actions of the people, just as a flower cannot be
The Timeless Way made, but only generated from the seed.
A building or a town will only be ali ve to the extent that it is governed by the 10 The people can shape buildings for themselves, and have done it for centuries,
timeless way. by using languages which I call pattern languages. A pattern language gives
l It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be each person who uses it the power to create an infinite variety of new and
attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it. unique buildings, just as his ordinary language gives him the power to create
an infinite variety of sentences.
The Quality 11 These pattern languages are not confined to villages and farm society. All acts
To seek the timeless way we must first know the quality without a name. of building are governed by a pattern language of some sort, and the patterns
2 There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in man, a in the world are there, entirely because they are created by the pattern lan-
town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it guages which people use.
cannot be named. 12 And, beyond that, it is not just the shape of towns and buildings which comes
3 The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central from pattern languages - it is their quality as well. Even the life and beauty of
search of any perso n, and the crux of any individual p~rson's story. It is the the most awe-inspiring great religious buildings came from the languages their
search for those moments and situations when we are most ali ve. buildings used.
4 In order to define this quality in buildings and in towns, we must begin by 13 But in our time the languages have broken down. Since they are no longer
understanding that every place is given its character by certain patterns of shared, the processes which keep them deep have broken down; and it is therefore
events that keep happening there. virtually impossible for anybody, in our time, to make a building li ve.
5 These patterns of events are always interlocked with certain geometric pat- 14 To work our way towards a shared and living language once agai n, we must
terns in the space. Indeed, as we shall see, each building and each town is first learn to discover patterns which are deep, and capable of generating life.
ultimately made out of these patterns in the space, and out of nothing else: 15 We may then gradually improve these patterns which we share, by testing them
they are the atoms and the molecules from which a building or a town is made. against experience: we can determine, very simply, whether these patterns make

our surroundings live, or not, by recognizing how they make us feel. 25 F ina lly, within the framework of a common language, millio ns of indiv idua l
16 O nce we have understood how to discover indi victua l patterns whic h a re a li ve, acts of building will together generate a town whic h is ali ve, and who le, a nd
we may then make a la nguage fo r ourselves fro m any building task we face. unpredictable, without control. This is the slow emergence of the qua lity without
The structure o f the language is c reated by the network of connections among a name, as if from nothi ng.
indi vidual pa tte rns: and the language li ves, or not, as a totality, to the degree 26 And as the whole e merges, we sha ll see it take that ageless characte r which
these patterns form a who le. gives the time less way its name. This c haracter is a specific, morpho logical
I 7 T hen finally, from separate languages for differe nt building tasks, we can c reate c haracter, sharp, precise, which must come into be ing any time a building or a
a larger struc ture sti ll, a structure of structures, evolving constantly, which is town becomes a live: it is the physic a l embodime nt, in buildings of the quality
the common la nguage for a town. This is the gate. without a na me.
The Way The Kernel of the Way

Once we have built the gate, we can pass through it to the practice of the time less way. And yet the time less way is not complete, and will not fu lly generate the qua lity
18 Now we shall beg in to see in de tail how the ri c h a nd compl ex o rde r of a without a name, until we leave the gate behind.
town can grow from tho usand s of creati ve acts. For o nce we have a com- 27 Indeed thi s ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages . T he
mon patte rn la ng uage in our town, we sha ll all have the power to m ake our language, and the processes which ste m from it, merely release the fundamenta l
streets a nd buildings li ve, throug h o ur most ordinary ac ts. The la ng uage, order which is nati ve to us. They do not teach us, they only re mind us of what we
like a seed , is the genetic system whic h gives o ur millions of sma ll acts the know already, and of what we shall discover time and time again, when we give
power to fo rm a who le. up our ideas and opi nions, and do exactly what emerges from ourselves. (ppix-xv)
19 Within thi s process, every indi vidua l act of building is a process in which
space gets diffe rentiated . It is not a process of add ition, in whic h preformed The excerpted text is the detailed Table of Contents from Christopher A lexander, The Time-
parts are combined to create a whole, but a process o f un fo lding, like the evo- less Way of Building, Oxford University Press (N ew York), 1979. © Christopher Alexander.
lution of an e mbryo, in which the whole precedes the parts, a nd actua lly gives
birth to them, by splitting.
20 The process of un folding goes ste p by step, one pattern at a time . Each ste p
brings just one patte rn to li fe ; and the intensity of the result de pends o n the
intensity of each one of these indi vidua l steps.
2 1 From a seque nce of these individua l patterns, whole buildings with the charac-
ter of nature will form themselves within your thoughts, as easily as sentences.
22 In the same way, groups of people can conceive their la rger public bui ldings,
on the ground , by following a common pattern language, a lmost as if they had
a sing le mind.
23 O nce the buildings are conceived like this, they can be built, directly, from a
few simple marks made in the ground - again within a common language, but
d irectly, and w ithout the use of drawings.
24 Next several acts of building, each one done to repair and magnify the product
of the previo us acts, wi ll slowly generate a larger and more complex who le
than any single act c an generate. Christopher Alexander, Eishen Gakuen High School, Pallcrn ofGreat /-/all, 1985-87

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lack the me ntal agility - to say nothing of the maturi ty of attitude - which would 1969 CHARLES JENCKS

42 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 43

44 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 45

46 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 47

48 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 4 9

The Ad Hoe Revolution

50 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 5 1

52 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 53

54 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 55

Counterattack: the Pluralist City

If there is a summary to a list of recipes and palliatives, it must be on a very general

56 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 5 7

Typology of Urban Space

58 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 59

60 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 6 1

62 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 63

Extract. Source:Joseph Rykwert, The Necessity ofArtifice.Academy Editions (London), 1982.

Giambattista Nol/i's Plan of Rome, 1748

64 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 65

66 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 67

68 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 69

70 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 7 1

72 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 73

Technical Progress and Industrialisation of Building

History of Architecture - History of Types

7 4 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 75

76 Theories and Manifest oes Post-Modern 77

78 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 79

80 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 81

The Way The Kernel of the Way

82 Theories and Manifestoes Post-Modern 83

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