t+ AForumforldeasand Published for The Institute

Criticism in Architei.ture for Architecture and Urban Studies

By Wittenborn Art Books. Inc.

Oc.tt)ber 1974

Editorial Alison and Peter Smithson :

Kenneth Frampton : The Space Between
On Heidegger
Documents
Kenneth Frampton : Karel Tbige's Mundaneum,1929
George Wittenbom,1905-1974 and Le Corbusier's
In Defense of Architecture, 1929
0ppositions Introduction by George Baird
Peter Eisenman :
Real and English Luigi Moretti :
The Values of Profiles,1951
History Structures and Sequences of
Robert A.M. Stem: Spaces, 1952
Yale 1950-1965 Introduction by Thomas Stevens

Mimi Lobell : Paul Rudolph :

Kahn, Penn, and the Philadelphia Alumni Day Speech: Yale School
School of Architecture, February 1958

Theory Reviews, Letters and Forum

Emilio Ambasz :
A Selection from Working Fables
 A Forum for Ideas and Published for The Institute
Criticism in Architecture for Architecture and Urban Studies

By Wittenborn Art Books, Inc.

October 1974

rlnnr`eslFTiriNfi 4
Editorial Alison and Peter Smithson:
Kenneth Frampton : The Space Between
On Heidegger
Documents
Kenneth Frampton : Karel Teige's Mundaneum, 1929
George Wittenborn,1905-1974 and Le Corbusier's
In Defense of Architecture, 1929
0ppositions Introduction by George Baird
Peter Eisenman :
Real and English Luigi Moretti :
The Values of Profiles,1951
History Structures and Sequences of
Robert A.M. Stern: Spaces, 1952
Yale 1950-1965 Introduction by Thomas Stevens

Mimi Lobell : Paul Rudolph:

Kahn, Penn, and the Philadelphia Alumni Day Speech: Yale School
School of Architecture, February 1958

Theory Reviews, Letters and Forum

Emilio Ambasz :
A Selection from Working Fables
Editors Oppo8ttto"s 4: $9.75
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Editorial Statement On Reading Heidegger

T'he na;tare Of build;ing ks letting d,wel,l,. It becomes increasingly clear, as the irreducibility of this fact, fatally after
Build;ing accompti8h,es cts noutwre in the utopian hallucinations of the the event.
rch8ing of I,oca;ti,on8 by i,he joining of Enlightenment fade, that we have long
L,hei,r spaces. Only if we are capa,ble Of been in the habit of using too many As with that which we would fain
twckling, o!Iiuly t,hen can we bwil,d. synonyms; not only in our everyday idealize in the projection, so with that
speech but also in our more specialized which we would rationalize after the
VIa,riin Haldegger languages. We still fail, for example, to misconception and here we find that
3uilding Dwelling Thinking make any satisfactory distinction the ironic mystifications of Candide
between architecture and building, have much in common with the
despite the fact that we are, at the deception of our own more recent
same time, inconscionably aware that ideologies. Surely this was never more
such a distinction should be made. We evident than in, say, Daniel Bell's
know, for instance, that Mies van der presumptuous announcement of the
Rohe was at pains throughout his life end of ideology or in Melvin Webber's
to recognize this distinction and that in ingenious celebration Of the "non-place
his own work he asserted the urban realm"; that apotheosis of late
mediatory realm of Bcic4ha"st (the "art liberal capitalism posited, not to say
of building") , a Teutonic term for "deposited," as the existing paradise of
which there is no satisfactory English Los Angeles. In this last context, we
equivalent. All of this would be mere are supposed (according to the
etymological speculation were we not received program of the idealogues)
constantly being reminded of the issue not only to recognize but further even
by those cultural and operational to welcome with enthusiasm the
discrepancies that invariably arise utopian advent of this "community
between the generation of built form without propinquity,'' to quote yet
and its reception by society. This another appealing phrase of more than
!cLps"s is sufficient to suggest that a decade ago.
these everyday disjunctions must have
at least some of their origins in our The intervening lapse of time has done
persistent failure to make such a little to neutralize such
distinction in building practice. There, rationalizations. The actual phrases
in the physical realm of the built world, may have passed from our lips but the
we seem to be presented with dramatic mental sets largely remain and it is
proof of the paradoxical Heideggerian these that unavoidably condition us as
thesis that language, far from being we go about our work. Should we
the servant of man, is all too oft,en his choose, through some inner inadequacy
master. We would, for instance, or protracted sense of responsibility, to
invariably prefer to posit the ideal of eschew autonomous art or the
architecture-the monument in every liberating promise of the poetic
circumstance be it public or private, intellect, then all too often, we will find
the major opus -for situations that ourselves conflating in the name of
simply demand "building" and we are populism the objects of elitist culture
commonly led to realize the with elaborate rationalizations of the
environment as found. In such a vein, ubiquitous "non-place" we Against this, it would seem that the
we will seek to sublimate the congratulate ourselves regularly on apparent universal triumph of the
frustrations of utopia with the sadness our pathological capacity for ``non-place urban realm" may only be
of suburbia or with the enervations of abstraction; on our commitment to the modified through a profound
the strip; and while we will self- norms of statistical coordination; on consciousness of history and through a
consciously appeal, by way of our bondage to the transactional rigorous socio-political analysis of the
justification, to an illusory vemacular, processes of obj ectification that will present, seen as a continuing
the true nature of our Western admit to neither the luxury nor the fulfillment of the. past. We have no
predicament will continue to escape us. necessity of place. We exonerate the choice but to reformulate the
Between the Charybdis of elitism and strip, ever fearful to admit that we dialectical constituents of the world, to
the Scylla of populism, the full might have eliminated, once and for all, determine more consciously the
dimension of our historical dilemma the possibility of ever being anywhere. necessary links obtaining between
will remain hidden. We vaunt our much prized mobility, pza)ce and prod"ctto", between the
our "rush city," to coin Neutra's "what" and the "how." This
Nowhere are the turns of this innocent phrase, our consumption of reciprocation of ends and means binds
labyrinth more evident, as Heidegger frenetic traction, only to realize that us to an historical reality wherein the
tries to make clear, than in our should we stop, there are few places €cLb"jcL rais¢ fantasies of the
language, than in our persistent use of, within which any of us might Enlightenment lose a deal of their
say, the Latin term "space" or significantly choose to be. Blithely, we authority. With the manifest
"8pcLtt.".in "instead of "place" or the
exchange our already tenuous hold on exhaustion of non-renewable resources
Germanic word "Rcl"77t ''-the latter the public sphere for the electronic the technotopic myth of unlimited
carrying with it, as it does, the explicit distractions of the private future. progress becomes somewhat
connotations of a clearing in which to Despite this, outside the "mass" discredited and, at this juncture, the
Oe, a place in which to come into being. engineered somnambulism of production of place reharns us by way
We have only to compare the television, we still indulge in the of economic limit not to architecture
respective Oxford English Dictionary proliferation of roadside kitsch -in the but to BCL"fo"72,st and to that which
definitions to appreciate the abstract fabricated mirage of "somewhere" Aldo Van Eyck has already called the
connotations of "space" as opposed to made out of billboard facades and "timelessness of man."
the socially experienced nature of token theatrical paraphenalia -the
"place"; to confront construction t"
fantasmagoria of an escape clause from Accepting the limits of our historical
e#te"8to with the act of significant the landscape of alienation. In all this, circumstance and the perennial conflict
containment. the degeneration of the language of ends with means and of freedom
speaks for itself. Terms such as with necessity, that which remains
This, again, would be empty "defoliation" and "pedestrianization" critical is the process by which decisive
speculation could we not point directly enter everyday speech as categories priorities are established; for in the
to our present all but total incapacity drawn from the same processes of last analysis, as Jurgen Habermas and
to create places; an incapacity that is technological rationalization. With Giancarlo De Carlo have reminded us,
as prevalent in our architectural "newspeak" overtones, they testify to design goals, as the motives of our
schools and in the monuments of the a fundamental break in our rapport instrumentality, may only be
elite, as it is in "motopia" at large. with nature (including our own) , they legitimized through the activation of
Place now appears as inimical to our speak of a laying waste that can only the public sphere-a political realm
received mental set, not only as find its ultimate end in ourselves. that, in its turn, is reciprocally
architects but also as a society. In our dependent on the representational and
physical embodiment of the collective. sensitive resonance of a place -to wit essence of the 7.es p"bztccL applies with
Place, at this juncture, irrespective of its sensate validity gwci place-depends equal force to the "catchment" limits
its scale, takes on its archetypal aspect, first on its stability in the everyday of public transportation. All discourse
its ancient attribute which is as much sense and second, on the on the built environment that does not
political as it is ontological. Its sole appropriateness and richness of the make at least a reference to these
legitimacy stems, as it must, from the socio-cultural experiences it offers. kinds of basic contradictions, between
social constituency it accommodates the so-called short and long term
and represents. Production, on the other hand, clearly interests in the society, tends towards
has its own laws, which are tied into a a mystification of the historical
The minimum physical pre-condition reality that none of us can escape. But circumstances in which we work.
for place is the conscious placement of the margin of choice that always
an object in nature, even if that artifice remains, demands to be fully exploited, At the more specific level of built form,
be nothing more than an object in the less we arrive by default at the production considered solely as an
landscape or the rearrangement of government of nobody, at that so- economy of method has the
nature herself. At the same time, the called utilitarian tyranny of technique. unfortunate tendency of inhibiting
mere existence of an object in and of Since the "what" is fatally tied to the ra.ther than facilitating the creation of
itself guarantees nothing. The cyclical "how," everything resides in how and receptive places. A case in point is the
processes of modern production and to what end we choose to modify the universal tendency towards
consumption seem to be more than relevant optimal sub-categories of stereometric high-rise flat slab
adequately matched for the exhaustion production, not only those of the built construction where economy in
of every resource and for the laying form itself, but also those structurally erection is granted absolute priority
waste to all production irrespective of productive forces that implacably over any other morphological
the rate at which it is generated. To shape the built environment as consideration. By a similar token, the
rationalize this so-called optimization elements in the general economy of our industrialization or rationalization of
in the name of human adaptability and relations to nature. building, as the unavoidable
progress is to ideologize the self consequence of the inviability of high
alienation of man. One has to recognize A state of affairs, in which on the craft production in a mass society,
the dialectical opposition of place and threshold of famine large amounts of should not be regarded as beneficial in
production and not confuse the one prime agricultural land are continually itself, particularly where such methods
with the other, that is, ends with lost to urbanization and mining lead, through an abstract optimization,
means. For where p!cLce is essentially without the exercise of adequate to a manifest impoverishment of the
qualitative and in and of itself concrete restraint, can hardly be regarded as environment. And here, in this
and static, p7.odwctt.o7t tends to stress economic in any fundamental sense, hypothetical confrontation between
quantity and to be in and of itself just as the proliferation of suburban the .rna,cro -scaled enviro'n;mental
dynamic and abstract. sprawl can have little significance dest.7.cibtz{tgr of urban containment and
beyond stimulating land speculation mi,cro-seal,ed, envi,rorv:mendel
Place, as an Aristotelean phenomenon, and maximizing the amortization of w7ac!esjraLbtztt" of high-rise
arises at a symbolic level with the investment in certain lines of consum'er construction, we have perhaps a
conscious signification of social production. Certainly the creation of convenient if highly schematic example
meaning and at a concl.ete level with place, in both an ontological and of what one might regard as a)"
the establishment of an articul.ate political sense, is generally ill-served ermiroirrmeutal dialecti,c Of prod;ueti,on,
realm on which man or men may come by our persistent policies of laissez- that is, a state of affairs wherein the
into being. The receptivity and faire dispersal, and what is true for the quantitative and qualitative gains at
one level should be evaluated against The present tendency to polarize the
the quantitative and qualitative losses quintessence of built form as though it
at another. were of necessity one single thing
appears to my mind to be nothing other
The necessary relations obtaining than an ideological refusal to confront
between plo,ce, produetioin, cmd na,tore historical reality. The building task
implacably suggest the biological intrinsically resists such polarization.
concept of the "homeostatic plateau," It remains fatally sit-uated at that
wherein the energy feedback loops of phenomenological interface between
an organic metabolism serve to sustain the infrastructtiral and
the steady state of its overall system- superstructural realms of human
the "zero-growth" feedback syndrome production. There it ministers to the
in nature. Comparable structural self-realization of man in nature and
models in the field of the built mediates as an essential catalyst
environment have long since been between the three states of his
posited at varying levels of detail from existence: first, his status as an
N.A. Miliutin's linear agro-industrial organism of primal need; second, his
city to Ralph Knowles' metabolic status as a sensate, hedonistic being;
profiling of the built environment, as and finally, his status as a cognitive,
though it were a climatic and self-affirmative consciousness.
topographic extension of the landscape Autonomous artistic production
itself. The rooted ecological nature of certainly has many provinces but the
such otherwise abstract models finds task of p!aLce crecLtto", in its broadest
its reflection in the direct recycling of sense, is not necessarily one of them.
body-waste for the purpose of The compensatory drive of autonomous
horticultural production, or in the art tends to remove it from the
conservation of the overall energy concrete realization of man in the
required for the tasks of heating and world and to the extent that
cooling. It should come as no surprise architecture seeks to preempt all
that up to now, despite the current fad culture it consciously divorces itself
for solar energy studies, short-term from both building and the realm of
interests have effectively inhibited historical reality. This much Adolf
anything but the most limited Loos has already intimated by 1910,
application of such models and one may when he wrote with characteristic but
take it as a reflection of these interests understandable overstatement : "Only
that architectural schools have largely a very small part of architecture
ceased to concern themselves with such belongs to art: the tomb and the
matters. monument."

This aloof critique of current design Kenneth Frampton

praxis and its pedagogical substance
brings us to the question once again of
the full nature of the art of building.
 `.A
REa<s¢°6if#!P§ii°°iH
digiv
 George Wittenborn,1905-1974

Kenneth Frampton Kenncth Frcunpton i,s a Fellow o`f t,he

Inst,viute for Architecture a,nd, Urban
Studies, New Ylork, and, Associ,ate
Pro`fessor at Col,unbi,a Univerrsity, New
Yiork.

2 'The inpkou8 mouin±a,inthat nonsense k8 Like many others whose destiny it was twenties, the cultural matrix of its
nor'mal in the Library and t,h,at t,h,e to migrate to the States in the 1930s, time. There, Wittenborn, working for
Tea,sona,ble (curd, even, humble curd, pure George Wittenborn was very much a the bookseller Carl Buchholz, became
ccherence) i,s can a;inost mi,rcLculous man of his time, conscious always of at once immersed in the avant-garde
exception. Th,ey spea,lc (I haow) of the the period he had lived through and of artistic milieu of the capital city;
"feverish Lthrary wh,ose ch,cunce how he had been shaped, so to speak, acquainted with the circles of De7.
vol,unes a,re consta;ndly in dan,ger Of by the vicissitudes of history. The most Stwr'm 8Ind Der Bla,ue Recter, and
changing into cithers and aJ:f trm, casual of conversations with George frequenting the famous Romanische
negate a;in,d corrfuse everything like a always led at once back to the past. Cafe on the Kurffirstendamm, where,
del,i,riou8 divinity." The present, with which he struggled in his own words, one "played either
like Sisyphus, the books piling ever chess or discussed love affairs, art or
Jo8e Luis Borges higher about his head, was always read literature."
The Library of Babel by him, without nostalgia, in terms
1945 that were largely retrospective. For Literature, in any event, seems to have
George the crucial past was always been George's instinctive first love. In
that period between the late 1920s and reminiscence he was to confess to
early 1940s, in which his own having had a youthful taste for Rilke
essentially obdurate personality ha'd and Hesse, while later he seems to have
been finally formed. He was and turned, no doubt very casually, to read
always remained, despite his the celebrated authors of the
migration, a man of continental twenties -amongst them Gide,
Europe -an ewze"sptege!{ch figure Lawrence and Ehrenburg. Apart from
drawn from the prime port of the his personal tastes, these were the
Hanseatic League, Hamburg, the city authors that later he vividly recalled
in which he had been born in 1905, as as`having prominently arranged, along
heir to two generations of booksellers with Chekhov and Joyce, in the
who had traded there under the name Buchholz window on
of wittenborn & S6hne since 1871. Kurffirstendamm -a shop window that
always displayed DCLs KcbpttcLZ to the
To continue in the style and pace of a left-hand side and Me{7? Kcb77tg2/to the
traditional family textbook and right.
stationery business was not a cut to
suit the young (then Otto) This consciously provocative display, in
Wittenborn's self-image, and following an overheated political climate, found
an apprenticeship in Altenau, Prussia, its reflection in the street hooliganism
in what he later described as "a very of the period and the forces of grass
aristocratic bookstore where only the roots reaction, which had long since
military people came from the garrison conspired to murder Liebknecht,
there" ; a store wherein he learnt the Luxemburg and Rathenau, and which
trade, "from packing to serving were equally disposed to smash the
generals ..., " he went, via a brief stay Buchholz window or to give a "1iber~
in Bremen, to Berlin which was to be ated cosmopolitan" like Wittenborn
for him, as for many others in the the fortuitous beating of his life.
 Street. In the late thirties Wittenborn from Bernard Karpel, was a series of 3
These experiences in the fall of 1932
were sufficient to drive Wittenborn spent a good deal of his time travelling original and by then, seminal, texts by
out of Berlin, first to Leipzig where he up and down the East Coast selling Apollinaire, Mondrian, Moholy-Nagy,
initially toyed with the notion of books out of the back of an old car. Soon Kandinsky, Arp, Ernst and
after, however, through his friendship Kahnweiler. Tb cap it all, in the heyday
printing and publishing books, and
then to Paris where he joined forces with the art dealer Curt Valentin, he Wittenborn started another rather cLc!
with Ferdinand Ostertag in opening a became reunited with a former fooc series entitled P7®ob!e77os o/
bookstore near the Rue Vignon bearing colleague and friend from his Berlin Co"te77opo7.cL7." Art with texts by
the name Au Pont de 1'Europe-a days, Heinz Schultz, with whom he was Vantongerloo, Herbert Read and
phrase that consciously alluded to the to form Wittenborn/Schultz, Inc., a Alexander Dormer; it was a venture
ideal of a united Europe. This firm which opened in the early forties that included the one and only issue of
bookstore, with its small art gallery at 38 East Fifty-seventh Street and the magazine Poss{btztttes, edited by
above, brought Wittenborn into continued to trade there under that Robert Motherwell, Harold Rosenberg,
contact with the then-already famous name, until Schultz's untimely death in Pierre Chareau and John Cage, with
Parisian 6cole of Braque, Picasso and an air crash in 1952. other contributions not only from
"insiders" but also from Joan Miro,
L6ger, and many others from this
circle who frequented the store. Some Throughout the war and its immediate David Smith, Mark Rothko, Richard
of these men, such as Jean Arp and aftermath Wittenborn/Schultz was the Huelsenbeck, Edgar Var6se, and Paul
Max Ernst, were later to become his New York refuge for a displaced Goodman. This overall pioneering
lifelong friends. This store was also the intelligentsia, and men such as Piet effort in documentary and critical
occasion of his meeting with the young Mondrian, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, publication was suspended in the early
English writer and translator Joyce Edgar Varase, Richard Huelsenbeck, sixties and taken over and extended at
Phillips, whom he married in 1934. A Josef Albers, Pierre Chareau and the close of the decade by the current
year later, fearful once again of the Hans Richter frequented on a regular Viking series, now issued as the
rising wave of political reaction, the basis the Fifty-sevemh Street store Dooumeuts Of 80th Century Art.
Wittenborns left Paris, and after a with its famous ``one-wall" gallery.
brief stay in Portugal, migrated to the There they mingled with the habitu6s The late forties was without doubt the
States, where Wittenborn turned of The Club in Cedar Street; with climax of Wittenborn's career for he
naturally to his vocation, working first those bibliophiles of the abstract had at this one moment realized his
for the international department of expressionist generation -men such as double ambition of being both
Brentano's, and then organizing his Stuart Davis, Barnett Newman, Mark publisher and bookseller, and his desire
own mail order business out of his Rothko and Robert Motherwell. And it of running both a bookstore and
apartment near Columbia University. was, according to Wittenborn, gallery at the same time. This was the
Motherwell's incessant complaints golden moment that was only to be
This, for Wittenborn, was the about not being able to read German broken by the sudden curtailment of
pioneering period, when there was still material that led to the translation and his association with Schultz, who was
a relatively small market for art books publication of a series of mostly foreign as much a bosom friend as he was a
and when the only other outlets were texts. These, issued as the Docw77te"ts business partner. The rest seems in
Brentano's or Wittenborn's colleague o/Mode7'`7'a Ark from 1947 on, ran finally many respects to have been a long
and fellow countryman, Erhard to some seventeen volumes with most journey out. The removal of the store
Weyhe, whose Magdeburg "arts and of the covers by Paul Rand. Included in 1956 to Madison Avenue was in a
crafts" shop front still adorns within this pioneering venture, sense a move closer to the library of
Lexington Avenue above Sixtieth directed by Motherwell with assistance B.abel, to that point where the traveler
4 crossing after centuries sees, "the came the essence of the art, the culture of Manhattan and none who
same volumes repeated in the same deliberate but casual ``alienation" of came to this city could miss its
disorder . . ." that order which, for the clientele. For the proprietor was, presence for long; just as none who
Wittenborn as for Borges, was as he once confessed, an "ironist." How worked here in the visual field could
"organically disordered."
else could one go on stocking the output fail finally to know George. For
of a complex international industry and Wittenborn & Co. was always more
To even the most casual visitor in the continue to hold it for years, against than a bookstore. It had, in the end, all
mid-sixties, it was at once clear that the day that some cryptic soul should the attributes of a miniature ga}j!e71.a}, a
the proprietor was as complex and ask for an arbitrary fragment of an secluded 7.es pwbztca} one floor up from
unfathomable as the contents of his infinite repository. the bustle of the city, presided over by
store. Wittenborn & Co. was a a generous, irascible, but always ironic,
labyrinthine world, ever resounding Fate accords to the bookseller as to the Kcipezzmet.ste7: As Rudolf Arnheim
faintly or loudly with a discourse of librarian a Faustian destiny, that is, of wrote shortly after Wittenborn's death
Dadaesque confusion; conversations giving one's life to books but never in October last year, "It was only days
that lapsed from French, to German, to reading them. For the professional ago that George sent me one of his
English and back again for no evident bookseller, to whom bookselling is an cheerfully scribbled notes, by which he
reason save ironic effect; telephonic obsession rather than a vocation, to made even a bill for books into a human
forays with a stone deaf external enter once into the substance of the document of good fellowship."
universe that always seemed to be on merchandise would be to arrive at an
the verge of having or not having instant prejudicial dead end. In the
dialed the "wrong number''; sot€o a/oce event the bookseller fortunately only Figure Credit
incantations, enriched with obscene has the time to scan the headings, Photograph by Jane Frank
invective (but sufficiently audible for glance at the illustrations, the author
the browsing customer) that and the index, and race on into the
ritualistically proceeded George's vortex of the world. Such was the
arduous search for that arcane destiny of Wittenborn, citizen of
magazine or definitive work of seven Hamburg, and such was his gift to the
years standing-a Pavlovian rite that port city that crowned his career. For
sent the appointed members of the great cities, in the end, stand and fall
staff to their arbitrary battle stations by their institutions-their cultul`e
like the crew of some grounded forged by those unique individuals that
submarine. All the while this "rite" only they in their grandeur have the
was in process, and it was for the best necessary cultural gravity to attract.
part of any working day, Geol.ge would This law applies as much to
continue to administer like Vishnu, antiquarianism and fashion as it does
with more arms and heads than the to bookselling and haute cuisine and
average human, to the needs of more one cannot appraise a "capital" city
than one client at once. Ho77t77te cZ" without looking to those individuals
tfa6af re pcLr e#cezze7oce, replete with and institutions that are the essence of
bow tie and an ever changing mask, the its spiritual fabric. For a brief instant
air of a Berlin cabaret from the Schcl!Z (and brevity is all that is left when
w"cZ f3clwch era never quite left death finally seals the past) ,
Wittenborn's, and with it of course Wittenborn & Co. summed up the
Oppositions Real and English: The Destruction of the Box.I.

Peter Eisenman

" GescL772,t'm,o7t,w77Le7tt" when the

In this painstaking analysis of an becomes transparent and the process is
apparent architectural syntax, the revealed whereby a self-conscious processal nature of the program so
author offers a fresh interpretation of modemism, in seeking to reestablish an explicitly excludes (save for the
one of the canonical works of the autonomous field for architecture, lecture halls) any sympathetic
Brutalist movement -the Stirling and finally succeeds only in sequestering representation of the public realm?
Gowan Leicester Engineering itself. Thus, despite the apparent These questions return us to the
Building, completed in 1963. claims of the opening paragraph, we subterranean issue of production, not
Responding independently to one are nowhere to be enlightened as to the only to the forbidden topic exhumed
aspect of a theme broached by way in which an iconography or, for from the ground by Thfuri, namely
Manfredo Thfuri in Oppos¢tto7}s 3, that matter, an iconic structure may be production as the implacable
Eisenman attempts to uncover the seen as reflecting prevailing social transformation of physical r.eality, but
precise manner in which Stirling has attitudes, nor later are we to be also in that other sense of determining
rewritten the "words" of modem informed as to the overall cultural significant, sensate relations in space,
architecture. context within which the various as the realm of an enacted hedonism
rewritings of the language of modern open to all.
By concentrating on mass, surface and architecture (first Stirling's and then K.F.
volume-to the willful exclusion of any Eisenman's) have been made.
adequate consideration of the plan and Peter Eisenman is an architect and
its spatial system-Eisenman Not to put a fine point on it, the Director of the Institute for
demonstrates that we may well regard processes of mannerism (although Architecture and Urban Studies in
Leicester as a reactionary exercise in never mentioned as such) are here New York City. He has taught at the
the manipulation of a rec.eived blindly asserted as the sole universal University of Cambridge, Princeton
tradition; a tradition compounded as procedure by which any architecture University and at present at the
much out of the compositional sets of worthy of the name is to be made. All Cooper Union. In addition to a series of
Cubism and Constructivism, as it is out else, we are assured, directly or by single family houses which he has
of specific syntactical references to implication, is the mere trivia of designed and built, he has worked on
either the industrial past or to the circumstance-thecategorical several urban design proj ects -one for
rationalism of the Modern movement. opposite, we may take it, of Umberto the Manhattan waterfront which was
Eco's argument that what imparts exhibited at the Museum of Modern
It is clear from references within the meaning to architecture "does not Art in 1967. .He also collaborated in the
text that this analysis has been made in belong to architecture." design of a low-rise housing prototype
conscious opposition to the so-called for the New York State Urban
culturalist interpretations of Stirling's And here once again we have the crux Development Corporation.
work, and there is little doubt but that of the issue-the deliberate self-
'The a,whcle was first pre8euted, in
this point is well taken and that such an isolating sophistries of the
analysis can only serve to enrich our intelligentsia versus the cultural and I,ectwre for'm at Coaper Undotn in the
understanding of the expressive range economic production of the world. How Spring Of 1973 and ago;in at Y7al,e
of form and its potential for rigorous can one impute, either as architect or dwhng the 8prirbg Of 1974.
development. critic, a monumental role to a building
in a given society when its place in that
There are however a number of society is so manifestly non-
occasions in this text when the fatal monumental? How rpay one
nature of a reductionist exclusion convincingly invoke the existence of a
Figure 1. Bristol Wcurehouse by
Ed,wcurd Reynolds. Architectural
Associ,atkotn st,udent project, bth year,
1957. Roof plcun.

Throughout the history of architecture it has been possible to

identify certain contemporary cultural phenomena through
the examination of individual buildings. From the many
building campaigns of Notre Dame in Paris to Le Corbusier's
Villa Savoye at Poissy, there are examples of buildings with a
level of concern for iconography which, because this concern
transcends the idea of a building as either a functional con-
tainer or an aesthetic object, provides a mirror for prevailing
social attitudes, often more revealing than the written word.

It is more than ten years since many people were struck with
the simultaneous appearance in the professional press of the
Leicester University Engineering Building] and Paul
Rudolph's Yale University Art and Architecture Building.
Both were seen to be counter to the Modern movement, and
since both were one-off buildings-one very European and
the other very American-they could be seen as examples of
a return to the nineteenth-century idea of a building as a
GesclmtA;w"stwewl;. However this term in itself is hardly suffi-
cient for our purposes here, since it fails to account for the
contradictory nature of these buildings with respect to the
Modern movement. For while a Gescb772,€fo"7}stwe7.k in the
literal sense had pictorial and sculptural components, it
represented a more comprehensive and more totally environ-
mental attitude than that displayed at Yale or Leicester. It
will, as I hope to demonstrate, be more to my purposes if we
think of both of these buildings as ``gesamtmonuments"2;
first, because they are both self-referential, that is, their
system of signs and gestures has its own internal structure
which gives their particular forms meaning and significance
and second, because they both have an extraordinarily con-
densed iconic impact, necessary to the very idea of a monu-
ment.

Because of the need to create an iconic charge which can be

recognized and in a sense known, a monument is often forced
to draw on references stemming from previous periods; thus
a monument has been by definition eclectic ever since the six-
teenth century. It is in this context that Leicester is most cer-
tainly a monument-an eclectic assemblage which the initi-
ated have recognized. The lecture halls suggest Melnikov's
Rusakov Club in Moscow; the roof structure over the shed
space pays a certain homage to Brunel's Paddington Station;
Figure 2. Sketch, "I a;in a, monument."
Robert VIeruturi.

2.
the banded towers recall Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax the idea, monument, polemical. Such an attitude would not 7
Building; the battered brick bases have been compared to have been possible prior to, say, 1880. But now it is possible to
medieval bastions and Scottish castles; the axonometric with take an eclectic repertoire and invert it, so that by virtue of a
its gantry-like elements to Cape Kennedy and early contradictory use of the iconic elements by which a monu-
Archigram and, with slight adjustments in the glazing pat- ment is constituted in the first place, invest it with a good
tern, to aspects of Edward Reynolds's pl.oject for a deal more than the intended meaning or surface significance.4
warehouse (fig.1).3 And because so much has been written For example, Robert Venturi's sketch of a building with a
and said during the intervening decade, the weight of this sign "I am a monument" is at a very simple level exemplary
iconographic interpretation has almost obscured the build- of such an attitude. Here he reverses or distorts the tradi-
ing's particular cyittccLZ validity; so that today it seems neces- tional notion of the appropriate form for the iconic content of
sary to reexamine the evidence itself. a monument (fig. 2).

Any building with so conspicuous a pedigree must in due It is within this context that the difference between the Stir-
course face up to a series of comparative judgments which 1ing and Rudolph buildings becomes clear. Where the Art and
Architecture Building is merely iconic, the Engineering
could be leveled at it. One of these is its "eclecticism." As with
the word "rionument," this term should not be taken as a Building is polemical in that its self-referential iconography
term of abuse, for in a period where one is inundated with is critical; its par.ticular internal system being a commentary
novelty for novelty's sake, it may be argued that it is this on other similar systems of signification. It is precisely
very eclecticism that may serve to consolidate and enrich the because of this critical dimension that the Leicester Univer-
vocabulary of a tradition. And it is exactly the eclecticism of sity Engineering Building affords such an excellent vehicle
Leicester which both reveals what can be best described as a for the examination of a more general situation, for it seems
predicament of modern architecture today, and at the same to reveal an attitude towards the Modern movement which up
time might at least be considered a valid alternative if not a to now has not been evident. The thrust of the argument
necessary antidote for that predicament. below will be that the Leicester Engineering Building in-
vokes a similar critical and thus, polemical, intention as Ven-
Certainly one of the most unique aspects of the Modern move- turi, but does so in a different and perhaps less traditional
ment was the intensely polemical dimension of its iconogra- manner-by distorting the form of the iconic st7."ct"7"e as op-
phy. And it is the particular nature of that polemic which has posed to perverting the form of the iconic co7}te7®t, as is the
created a situation whereby the movement may be now seen case with Venturi. It will be argued here that Stirling pro-
as being a self-fulfilling dead end. Firstly, because the duced this building as a very definite though less-than-con-
polemic was anti-academic, it required the abolition of pre- scious reaction to the mainstream Modern movement and in
cisely those inherent rules which ultimately must provide for particular to Le Corbusier. In his need to clear a kind of
``turf" for himself, Stirling had to take on not only Le Cor-
the basic continuity of any vocabulary. Secondly, because the
polemic invested the machine imagery of the period with ethi- busier but also the received interpretation of Le Corbusier
cal value. With the elimination of any academic rule and the provided by Stirling's own tutor, Colin Rowe; and he wanted
disassociation of ethical content from machine form, any to take them on, on their own ground-that is, in the vertical
eclecticism involving a reuse of such rules or forms is divested plane.5
of that polemic and thus cannot by definition be considered an
aspect of the Modern movement. In order to understand the depth and consequences of such a
seemingly aberrant statement in light of Stirling's buildings,
Given the polemical iconography of the Modern movement, it it might be necessary to fabricate an historical fantasy about
is possible to make a monument today by drawing on these Leicester, to speculate on another interpretation of its re-
iconic references and perverting them, thus in a sense making ceived history and in doing so, of the Modern movement.6 One
 Figure 3. Malso!n Dom-ilo. Le Figure 5. Mch8on Dom-ilo. Dia,gra;in
Corbusi,er a;in,d, Pi,erre Jea;unerct, 8h,owing vent,ical sl,Of .
architects ,1914. Dkagrcun sh,owim,g
horizontal eat,en8kon. Figure 6. Vi,I,I,a Stein, Gorches. Le
Corbusi,er an,d, Pierre Jecuneret,
Figure 4. Mar,son Citrohcun. Le arch,itects, 1927. magra;in sh,owing
Corbusi,er a;in,d Pi,erre Jea;rmerct, ralahionsh,ip Of deep a;in,d, shah,low spa,ce.
arch,itects ,1920. magrcrm 8h,owing
v erti,car, d,crfu,in.

8 of the most crucial documents of the Modern movement, Le

Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture, clearly affected the
organization of the canonical modern building of the 1930s.
These points contain two apparently contradictory proposi-
tions: the free plan and the free facade. In the first instance L_?
the horizontal plane is a reference for an infinite extension of
space in lateral vectors (fig. 3), and in the other, the vertical
plane is a datum for layered, frontal space (fig. 4). Colin
Rowe, in some unpublished notes, given as a lecture under the .`-

title "The Wall," describes the free plan postulated in the

Maison Dom-ino as being "one of the basic data of modern 3.
architecture ,... a memorable abstraction . . . which seems to
establish the idea that space is built in horizontal layers . . .
and seems to invalidate the idea of walls." Yet this seems to be
not quite the case, for while Dom-ino placed primary empha-
sis on the floor, it inferred, as did the Five Points, the counter
proposition of the vertical datum (fig. 5). Setting the column
grid back from the edge of the horizontal plane, and providing
a dominant sandwich-like characteristic to the space, also
freed the vertical surface from the structural unit, and
allowed it to be seen potentially as a pure conceptual referent, 4.
that is, as a plane which records or structures the formal
strategies employed in deep space. No longer was the vertical
section restricted by the need to support the horizontal floor
slab. This separation of wall and column allowed for the space
in some instances to be layered in the vertical section, and
thus for a dialectic between deep and shallow space to be
recorded on the frontal plane (fig. 6) . If Dom-ino was to serve
as a model of horizontal spatial layering in al.chitecture,
Maison Citrohan could be seen as its opposite. In the same lec-
ture Rowe said, if Don-ino was a floor style, Citrohan was a
wall style-the principal datum being the vertical surface. Le 5.
Corbusier himself said, "with this house one turns one's back
on architectural conceptions of academicizing schools as well
as modern ones."7 Although such ideal constructs were never
realized fully in built form, sufficiently powerful approxima-
tions may be found in Le Corbusier's work-in the Villa Sch-
wob at La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Villa Stein at Garches, and
the Salvation Army Building in Paris-to sustain Rowe's
argument. Within such an interpretation it might be possible
to say that one canon of the orthodox Modern movement was
concerned with the latent or virtual capacity of the vertical
plane to imply space, and to the extent that previous architec-
 Figure 7. First Uwi,ta,rian Church,
Roche8t,er, N.Y. Lowis Kchn, architect,
1959-63. Plan sh,owing plaid, grid.

7.
Lures could be seen as block-like and volumetric, modern response, which may be seen initially as a return to what the 9
architecture proposed not only a stylistic but also a concep- free plan and the free facade challenged some forty years
tual challenge to such an orthodoxy. earlier. However, any building such as Leicester, which may
at first seem to summarily dismiss two of the basic canons of
I`he reaction over the last twenty years to Le Corbusier's modem architecture, must be carefully examined. It will be
3onception of frontal, vertically layered space, by many post- argued that Leicester implies the potential for presenting the
World War 11 architects who never fully understood its im- vertical plane as a dominant spatial datum, while using a
plications, has taken many forms. The basis for their critique vocabulary which runs counter to the by-now-traditional
was that they could not accept the neutrality of structure dematerialized cubist aesthetic. Leicester no longer conceives
which, although patently more technologically rational, was, of planes as datum referents, such as the white, tautly
with the spatial flexibility provided through the introduction stretched surfaces of Poissy or the frontal intensity and -
Df the frame, `an anathema to their sense of architectural in- peripheral stress of the thin layers of both Garches and the
tegrity, formulated in terms of sectional clarity and struc- Salvation Army Building. Rather than dismiss this architec-
tural consistency. It was an argument which said that there ture, as might be thought on first impression, Stirling in fact
must be spatial recognition and definition of the horizontal provokes a head-to-head confrontation. He poses an alterna-
plane, with a section defined by a real display of structure. tive that without Ztte7®cl!!y destroying the volumetric box in
Underlying their complaint, in many instances, was a basic the manner, say, of a Van Doesburg, and more recently in the
distrust of any construct which could be thought of as an wall decompositions of John Hejduk, destl.oys it co`)'acept"cbzz".
ideal, and their retreat was from the utopianism of this model Stirling does not begin from a single box, but rather from an
which was thought to be a rather wistful I.eminder of this essentially multi-volumetric composition. He erodes this con-
prewar idealism. Instead, this group was looking for what ception in such a way that it produces a datum plane, as a
was 7.ecLZ-something they could get their hands on, tough and fulcrum element that implies not the original multi-
corporeal-as opposed to the cool, Platonic abstractions of the volumetric conception but rather a single box. The conception
International Style. of the resultant box is neither a dematerialized object in the
cubist sense nor a series of volumes in the constructivist
Much of the work of Louis Kahn, which proposes a classical sense. Rather the actual boxes are conceptually "destroyed,"
alternative to a modern eclecticism, can surely be seen in this and at the same time the virtual quality of a single box is pro-
light. Kahn takes modern forms and uses then} in a classical duced by the way the object itself is eroded.8
manner. His was a return to a form of Beaux Arts planning in
its use of a plaid grid (fig. 7) , where the interstices of the grid Such a procedure seems to reverse Le Corbusier's notion of
are taken. up as circulation elements between the main the implied or virtual referent, which relates objects in deep
spaces; the column is no longer neutral but is used to delimit space to a frontal plane. This is revealed in Stirling's almost
space and ultimately function in a very rigid way. The meticulous preoccupation with articulating a vertical surface
development of the "pavilion-type" space articulation must in a building that otherwise exhibits no concern for space in
be seen as the primary plan influence on the paired towers at the cubist sense of the word. This is not to say that Leicester
Leicester, via the De Vore and Adler houses, the Trenton was either conceived of by Stirling in the manner just
Bath Houses and the Richards Medical Research Building. In described, nor is it to say that the building exists in fact in
essence, Kahn proposes a condition of almost pre-modern this way. It is rather to present an alternative interpretation,
architecture; a return to the structure as the order and a way of seeing this building within another conceptual
definition of the spatial unit. framework, which in turn may act as a means to stretch
one's capacity to conceive of any architecture.
Beneath the many stylistic variations represented by
Leicester and other buildings by Stirling is a similar Our attention is drawn to this contrasting attitude by the way
 Figure 8. Lei,cester Univer8ittl
Engineering Build,ing. Jcunes S±irling
cund Ja,meg Gowon, architects,1963.
Laboratory tower, view from the
south,east,. 'The tower cam be concei,ved
of as a soli,d, brick bl,ock with no frontal
dcrfum-nopreferredviewpoin±-itks
t,o be seen in the round.

in which Stirling seems to be almost uninterested in an:

abstraction using a vertical plane. Yet, one can point to si
many instances, specifically in his pairing of materials ant
their volumetric juxtaposition, which must be consideret
either curiously contradictory or almost incomprehensible i
one clings to an identification of a traditional role fo
materials, that one is led to pursue this apparent disinteres
further.

Clearly the most striking and consistent factor abou

Leicester is the use of glass,9 and in particular the oppositiol
of opaque and transparent glazing. It keys the reading of th
other elements of the building. Since the transparent glasi
will often seem substantial, and opaque glass as the reverse
the nature and meaning of the other dominant pair o
materials-brick and tile-is called into question.10

Brick, a dense solid material, is traditionally used in Englan(

to support loads, not as a surface. Thus, even when Le Cor.
busier, who rarely used brick, employs it at Maison Jaoul, it it
used not as a surface or planar material, but rather as €
structural wall, where its function is real rather thar
metaphoric.]] At Leicester the brick and tile are presented ir
such a way that their respective load bearing and surfac(
qualities, while apparently functional,12 are actually ofter
reversed; their recLZ substance is suppressed for their rea
value as a 77aetcLpfao7tcciz substance. But let us examine tht
building itself to see how Stirling challenges the conception o:
the vertical plane, received from the Modern movement
through his ¢7oue7.ted use of these two pairs of materials.

In the laboratory tower there is a very careful concern fo]

detail which initiates this idea (fig. 8). On first appearance
this tower, especially when seen against the office tower
seems to be a brick block. But Stirling is not content to hav€
the tower remain a solid volume of brick, to appear botl
literally and conceptually as solid. He first cuts into the solic
with thin horizontal windows, thus turning the brick int(
Mendelsohnian bands that are still read as solid because the)
actually seem to be compressing the glass. But this conceptior
is reversed, and the surface nature of this plane is restored b)
projecting the glass beyond the brick and treating it as a
prism, making the glass seem solid, crystalline, horizontal and
8.
Figure 9. The la,boratory tower, view Figure 11. Low shed block. Datcul. Vi,ew
from the south,ecLst sh,owing the from the east showing the cha;mfered
rala;hionsh,kp Of the calunns t,o t,he ed,ge cor'ner cund the ra,king course at the
Ofthebrick. base.

Figure 10. Low shed, block, vi,ew from Figure 12. La,boratory tower.
the south, sh,owing the rna,ss -li,ke brick rna,gra;mma,tic concaption Of a, second
walz at t,h,e bcLse. reversal where the brick a,ct,s a,s a
membrane wh,kch conda,ins curd,
compresses t,h,e space in8kd,e. J2.
non-planar. It can be argued that now that which appears to 11
be the most volumetric, solid, and formed, are the windows.
By virtue of their projecting raked shape, they appear to
have material substance as opposed to being merely a
membrane or even a void-yet they are literally transparent.
And as these glass prisms become the dominant elements, the
brick takes on characteristics of a continuous yet partially
suppressed vertical plane. Not only does the brick take on
planar characteristics because of this shift, but it also
becomes recessive or negative (fig. 12) .13 So the brick, which
was first seen as literally solid, positive and horizontal, can
now be read as the negative segments or residue of a vertical
plane, sliding behind the glass.

But there is a further reversal of the traditional notation. In

all cases except for one-where solid meets ground-solid is
rendered in brick, and when it is elevated, it is rendered as
tile-the one iconically load bearing, the other obviously a
surface material. The one exception when brick appears
where it is not in contact with the ground is in the laboratory
tower. Here is a second cue to the idea that the brick is to be
seen iconically as something other than a load bearing
material. The brick is reduced from its solid mass-like
volumetric quality to something which is paper-thin by the
fact that it is discontinuous with the ground, ending on a
series of vertical columns which are suppressed within the
volume of the tower (fig. 9).

This reverse notation will appear in many different forms

throughout the building. For example in the low laboratory
block the same reversal occurs, but through a different set of
juxtapositions. In Figure 10 there is what appears to be at
first a mass-like brick wall. It is chamfered at the corner (fig.
11) in a way that one associates with something solid. It also
recalls the raking of the glass on the laboratory tower, which
cued a solid reading and in a similar fashion will also cue the
chamfered corners of the office tower.14 Instead of repeating
the layered motif of glass and brick, the base element of the
shed is continuous brick, articulated by a canting course at
ground level. While Stirling seems to be saying that the brick
in the tower is merely a skin of little depth and volume, here
in the low shed the substance of brick is made obvious. But
again this initial reading is reversed. We are asked to aban-
JJ.
Figure 13. Lei,cester Universittl
Engineering Building. Jcrmes Stirling
curd, Jcunes Gowan, architects, 1963.
Early study mod,el, ccl,. 1959.

don our predisposition to look for metaphoric imagery-to

forgo an assessment or a comparison to the battlements of a
medieval bastion. Instead, the entire proposition of the bear-
ing nature of the wall is under'cut by a deep and continuous
horizontal slot which separates the brick mass from the con-
crete beam and the roof superstructure, which it is sup-
posedly supporting. Again the slot is not.so much a stylistic
gesture as an iconic cueing device. Once the gap in the con-
tinuity from brick to concrete is accepted, when the concept
of mass, i.e. as support, which is cued by the brick volume, the
chamfered corner, and the canted base is undercut, the brick
is no longer seen as mass-like and supporting; one must
revert to a previous cue, recalling the brick in the tower, to
brick as a surface skin, and thus conceptually as a plane.

The idea of brick as skin is reinforced by the reading given by

the roof system over the shed. It is glazed and greenhouse-
like, but instead of being planar and transparent as the tradi-
tional glass enclosure of such structures, the glass is treated
i.n a prismatic, volumetric and opaque manner. The first read-
ing is of a series of mass-like crystalline solids. The intention
to have the glass read as the most volumetric and most solid
element can be seen in the way the lateral edge of the
skylights is developed from the early studies.

In the model of an early scheme there is no diagonal gridding

(fig. 13) . In a subsequent drawing there is diagonal gridding
in the skylight truss system (fig. 14) , but two cases which will
be seen to change later-the second story overhang on the
shed space and the lateral edge of the skylights-are still
brought into the orthogonal plane; in the former case, by a
column which continues the line of the upper, overhanging
plane to the ground; and in the latter case, by shearing the
diagonal of the skylights at the facade. One must also note the
plane supporting the lower tower which reinforces the still-
dominant cubist conception of frontal, layered space. In the
axonometric drawing (fig. 15) and the perspective sketch
(fig. 16) , the vertical columnar and planar supports are gone.
Instead there is a cantilevered strut supporting the upper
portion of the shed, introducing a diagonal in a facade which
is now no longer layered vertically. And the plane supporting
the tower has turned into a horizontal podium element with
two cross walls now supporting the tower. Still the skylight
Figure 14. ACRonomeinc d,rowing Figure 16. Perspective drawing d,ated, 9
sh,owing an early stage Of d,e8kgn, ca,. May 1960. Th,i,s drawing plo,ces t,he
1959-1960. d,ate Of the t,wo a,ttonomewhcs iff gs.
14,15) at un ea,rti,er time beccouse of the
Figure 15. Aceonormet,ric dra,wing further developrltLeut of the shed Too.f
sh,owing a, l,ater stage of d,eskgn, ca,. glaeing. Tmvil,e it ks sthl foush t,o t,h,e
1960. Not,e i,he relationship o`f the plcune plane Of the facede it ks now d,ctcLched,
of the wall wh,kch engages i,h,e vol,une Of .from t,h,e salt,d, base system.
the skytighis in a more traditional
"scLwlooth"fashion.

J5
 Figure 17. A communitu cen±er by Engineering Build,ing. Jarmes Stirling
Jcune8 Stifling. Liverpool University a;in,d, Jcunes Gowan, architects,1963.
Sch,oat Of Arch,itecture, Thesis, 1950. Roof. plow Of un ecirly scheme. Note
Fa,ca,d,e drouwing. compcinso!n t,o the E. Reunalds roof
plow, ifbg.1,.
Figure 18.. Sh,ef :f teld, University
compctwhon. Jcunes S±irling , a,rch,itect, Figure 20. Low sh,ed, block, vi,ew from
1953. Faca,d,e drawing. south. Here the 8l,Of k8 seen, to separate
t,h,e brick bcL8e from the 8kytighi
Figure 19. Lei,ce8t,er Urndversity superst,ructure.
14

J7.
 Figure 21. Attono!Itnctric dra,wing
shou]ing vol,unet,ric development Of the
skytighis.

•oof elements are cut flush to the facade, giving in the 15

)erspective sketch a reminder of the incipient diagonals
Which appear in Stirling's thesis in the form of cross bracing
fig. 17) , and in his Sheffield University competition drawing
n the form of lecture theaters (fig. 18) . However, the lecture
heater volumes at Sheffield are not expressed as projecting
rom the facade but rather are contained and compressed by
he virtual nature of an implied vertical surface. It is in-
eresting to note that this is conceptually similar to the origi-
ial disposition of the lecture theaters at Leicester (fig. 14) . In
his early study both volumes turn their diagonal thrust in-
ward, contained again by a vertical surface. In the perspec-
ive drawing (fig.16), the volumetric nature of the skylights
s still caged in a vertical plane. It is only in the plan (fig. 19)
Lnd in the axonometric (fig. 21) that the skylights become
rolumetric and break out of the vertical plane. This
rolumetric projection will be seen to be crucial to the concept
)f the vertical plane as a fulcrum which will be developed
)elow. The volumetric development of glass further reduces
he brick planes to non-volumetric applique forms even
hough their surfaces are not rendered in tile. Through this
'eduction an implied vertical plane is established. When the
Lotion of bearing-and thus volume-is undercut by the
iteral slot (fig. 20), the concept of an abstract plane as op-
)osed to a literal volume is introduced. Thus one has induced
n brick volumes a conceptual vertical datum which was prev-
c)usly only made apparent in Le Corbusier's white surfaces.

There is a third interpretation of the vertical plane presented

hrough a dialectic of materials which can be seen in the office
ower. Our received idea of a glass box from the orthodox
utodern movement is of a transparent surface containing a
)ositive spatial void which is in turn pressuring the sul.face, 2J.
ausing it to be seen as a membrane. However, studying the
iffice tower indicates that no such traditional enclosure of
pace is intended. There is no space in the conceptual sense.
The office tower can be conceived of as a solid chunk of
}1ass-a conceptual solid.15 In this sense it is possible to see
his tower as having existed in some pre-physical or concep-
ual state as a primitive crystalline solid; a glass cube which
vas eroded and chipped away to reveal its present configura-
ion-which is merely some fragmentary or partial state in
bs evolution in time. And because the glass is placed outside
 Figure 82. Lei,cester Universitu Figure 23. Diagrcun showing t,he glass Figure 25. O`f`fice t,ower frorm the
Engineering Building. Ja,mes Stkrling i,n the Of:.face t,ower set back from the fa,c€ northwest. 'The t,ramsparenl glaring i,s
and, Ja,meg Gowcun, architects,1963. o`f t,h,e ti,le cornice. here reading a,s a, soitd,.
magra;rm showing on alter'native
conception o`f the o`f :f tee tower with Figure elf. Dkagra;in 8h,owing i,he o`f :f ice Figure 26. The base o`f t,h,e Of`f ice tower
horizontal band,ing si,mi,I,a,r t,o the i,ower ecepressed, ci,s a cage with equal from t,he nori,hwest showing t,he
la,b oratorry tower. horizontal curd vertical structural col,unns marking a vald.
el,emends on the sci;me sur`face a,s i,h,e
glass.

16
 Figure 27. Of:face tower `from the west
showing t,h,e profile of the glass
projecting forward of the til,e cornice.

)f the exposed concrete floors (fig. 25), it seems to be a more 17

substantial material even though it is obviously tl.ansparent.
[t takes on the appearance of being some solid piece which is
3ither pushed forward of the concrete frames or wrapped
around them. One could imagine that the glass plane could
}lso have been continued on the same surface as the tile cor-
iice rather than projecting slightly beyond it (fig. 27) , or that
;he floor slabs might have been faced with brick, or brought
Forward and turned up into spandrel panels (fig. 22) . Another
}1ternative would have been to set the glass back from the tile
3ornice so as to be literally recessive and conceptually void
(fig. 23) . Or finally the entire tower could have been treated
ls a plane; the columns could have been brought forward to
;he surface and expressed as a cage (fig. 24). But none of
;hese alternatives was chosen. In fact, the only place where
;he concrete frame is brought into line with the exterior sur-
face is at the base of the tower (fig. 26) where it marks an ac-
;ual void. In this situation the columns are a positive mark.
When they disappear behind the glass above they become
iegative. This reinforces the reversal in the conception of the
glass from void to solid. So it is not only when the frame is ac-
;ually expressed on the surface of the building, marking and
lefining a void that this reversal is conceptually active, but
ilso when it is suppressed behind the glass. It is interesting to
Tote that both the glass and the tile cornice are chamfered in
;he office tower, as opposed to the laboratory tower where
)nly the glass is treated in this way (fig. 32) . In both cases the
glass is read as solid but the brick and tile readings are
reversed. In the office tower, tile, the surface material, is
}hamfered and reads as a volume. Conversely, in the laborato-
•y tower, brick, the volumetric material, is banded and
:inished square at the corners, and reads as a surface. Again,
n the view of the office tower from the northwest, the glass 97.
;akes on the quality of a solid (fig. 31), primarily because of
ts relationship to the diagonal form of the haunch. This form
Lppears initially to be the most mass-like, but when the
launch is seen in relationship to the glass, which is
leliberately set forward, the haunch seems flat and planar.

I`his conception seems similar to the play of solid and glass at

he Salvation Army Building (figs. 28,29).16 Yet there is no
|uestion that Le Corbusier's conception of the vertical plane
s absent from the vocabulary of Leicester. In fact, each of
Figure 28. Sa,I,vcdion Ar'rny Building. Figure 31. Lekcester University
Le Corbu8i,er cnd, Pi,erre Jecrmeret,, Engineering Building. Ja,meg Sterling
arch;itect,s ,1932. rna,grcun, ea,rly study. cund, Jcunes Gowan, architects,1963.
Office tower frorm the nort,h showing
Figure 29. rna,grcun, final project. glass projecting forward Of the h,cwrvch.

Figure 30. Vi,l,la, Sowoye, Pchssy, Le

Corbusi,er cund, Pi,erre Jea;rmerct,
a,rchviects,1929. magrcun 8h,owing t,he
I,ateral eutenskon Of glass.
 Figure 38. Dctaal vi,ew frorm the east,;
la,borctorry tower on the lef i, Of:f tee
tower on the right.

Stirling's devices seems to be an attempt to both destroy our

received notion of the vertical datum as a paper-thin surface
and to suggest another conception of a vertical plane. For, in
many respects, each visual cue is drawn from a mass-like
architecture which is conceptually volumetric as opposed to
planar. In fact there is hardly any presentation of an unar-
ticulated vertical plane. All such potential planes are cut,
chamfered, or splayed to imply depth in volume. When Le
Corbusier is concerned with a vertical datum, he postulates it
as a literal analog-in a flat, tenuous surface, made visually
available, for example at Garches and Poissy, through the
location of banded windows and their extension to the lateral
edges (fig. 30) . Thus the abstract construct-plane is set with-
in a very literal plane, its virtual sense being established in a
frontal, and dematerialized vertical referent. In contrast, at
Leicester, there is no literal analog-the plane is never real.
It emerges for us only in a conceptual process by an elaborate
unravelling of a series of visual clues. In this context,
Leicester is a commentary on the Le Corbusier/Rowe concep-
tion of the vertical plane, and ultimately an assault on any
modernist conceptions of plane.17 This attack on modernist
sensibilities also brings us face-to-face with Leicester as a
critique of Constructivism;18 the direct constructivist
references in Leicester being more difficult to refute.

First, constructivist architecture can be seen literally as a

series of solids-solid. volumes juxtaposed about a vertical
axis (as opposed to a vertical plane), which acts as a fulcrum
for these volumes which are seemingly in collision or strain-
ing to pull apart from a centralized vortex of dense,
centripetal pressure; the whole creating dynamic visual con-
figurations (fig. 34). Second, these solid volumes, while
literally containing real space, exhibit no tension between the 32.
bounding surfaces of volume and the contained space. No vir-
tual pressure is exhibited on the exterior plane which would
imply an intention to confer positive animating charac-
teristics to the space inside; they seem as a limp mass of air
maintained by four walls (fig. 33). Third, Constructivism is
an architecture of articulation. It uses these solids in an addi-
tive, as opposed to a subtractive, compositional mode (fig. 37) .
All three of these dispositions display a common attitude
toward a subtle yet unmistakable concern for total figural
composition. In a certain sense, these asymmetric balances
Figure 33. Palace o`f the Soviet,s Figure 34. Pro;rda Tbwer, pro`ject. A.,
competition, 3rd prize. A. and V L., cund V. Tiesnin, a,rchitect8,1983. The
Ve8nin, a,rchitects, 1923. The pro`ject displays a;in, asymmetric ounti,-
f enestrandon, the engaged, colunn8 , curd gravitational dyncunic, bctween
the protruding fooor sl,a,bs Seem to deny balcmce curd, collapse. A reverse
cuntl d,yncrmic between the internal pyrarmidal composition which, appeals
space cund the surface. to the sensorial as opposed t,o t,h,e
rati,onal.

serve only to conceal a more traditional attitude to the ob-

ject.19

If there is any link in Stirling's work to the first of these

aspects of constructivist architecture, it lies in the fact that
he takes the compositional attitude of Constructivism, rather
than its vocabulary and brings it into some sort of dialectic
with the conception of layered space and ultimately with the
concept of the vertical plane in Le Corbusier. Naturally such
a process involves a transformation of the Corbusian
paradigm since unlike, say, the Dom-ino or Citrohan houses,
the vertical plane is used as a fulcrum for both vertical and
horizontal elements. This can best be seen in the southwest
elevation of the shed building (fig. 35).

Here we again have a simultaneous sequence of reversal upon

reversal; a play between the diagonal facets of the glass
skylights, the vertical planes of glass, and the diagonal, can-
tilevered struts which support the overhanging volume. Ob-
viously the most void-like and spatial aspect of this facade is
the particular triangular void that is bounded and marked by
the diagonal struts (fig. 36). In one interpretation, we can
read the diagonal braces as solid and supporting. Yet since
their angle corresponds to the angle of the glass skylights
above and since we have already read these particular tr.un-
cated shapes as solid in the lower shed, then, in another read-
ing, this long triangular space can be read as a solid piece,
especially when seen as a continuation of the diagonal ele-
ments of the triangulated roof. In this context, the vertical
glass plane of the cantilevered rectilinear volume reads as a
void in the relationship solid-void-solid (fig. 38). However,
the reverse condition can be posited if the triangular space is
read in its literal condition as void. Then the vertical plane
which is glass, and opaque, can be read as a conceptual solid;
the truncated skylights in this interpretation are read as
void. In other words, because of the particular juxtaposition
of triangular-vertical-triangular elements, the triangular
space can be read either way. Thus we can read, simulta-
neously, literal void and conceptual solid. If the space is con-
ceptually a solid, then the vel.tical plane, which is literal solid,
becomes conceptually void (fig. 39). And the lower vertical
plane, which is recessed but is also opaque glass, is read as
void when it is read against the conceptual solid of the actual
Figure 35. Lei,cester University Figure 37. Plcunetcinun, M.oscow. M.
Engineering Build,ing. Jcunes St,irling Borsch curd M. Sinkowshi, architect,s,
an,d, Ja,mes Gowcun, architects,1963. 1987-1989. El,ement,8 crdd,ed, i,o a central
Vi,ew from the south, o`f the sh,ed form type in such a way as i,o foreclose
building. cony reading o.f erosion.

ELgure 36. Dctal,I view `from i,he

northwest looking ap under the shed,
l)wilting.

35.

37.
Figure 38. Lchcester University
Engineerim,g Building. Jcunes Stirling
and, Jcunes Gowcun, arch,itects, 1963.
Dkagrouitn sh,owing first reversal -
schd-void,-soitdrea,ding.

Figure 39. rna,gra,in showing second,

8oitd-voi,d-8oitd reversa,l wi,th the
diagotnal plo;me a,s i,h,e datun.

40.
 Figure 40. Saynatsalo Ci,vi,c Center.
Al,van Aalto, archviect, 1952. Dka,grcrm
sh,owing the cowhyord 1,evel wh,kch a,cts
as a, horizontal datwm mediating the
slope Of the site and, i,he pitch, Of t,he roof.

Fkg'ure 41. Vi,ew from the north at the

ba,se Of t,he erttry ra;mp sh,owing t,h,e
rela;hionshkp Of the oud,itoriwm curd, the
ra,mp a,bout the podivm level,.

void. In both cases the ambivalent reading is produced by a

vertical plane acting as a fulcrum element to the two triangu-
lar volumes, or conversely by a diagonal plane (of the struts)
ELcting as a fulcrum for the vertical volumes. Thus a planar
iatum is articulated as a fulcrum element, oscillating be-
bween a vertical and diagonal position.

At this juncture there is a second conceptual fulcrum

developed, using the horizontal plane; a device that is in fact
3loser to the neo-plastic horizontal datum than it is to the
pivotal and frontal concerns of Constructivism and Cubism.
This datum appears in the podium element which acts as a
plane of reference for the contrapuntal diagonal vectors of
bhe underside of the auditorium and the entry ramp (fig. 41) .
[n. this case the three elements function in much the same
manner as the angled roof, the courtyard plane, and the slop-
ing site of Aalto's Civic Center at Saynatsalo (fig. 40) .20 In its
Lise of both vertical and horizontal fulcrums, Leicester em-
bodies a dual relationship of planes to volumes absent in Le
Corbusier's work.

The two lecture theaters, which seem to be most construc- 4J.

bivist in their mass-like volumetric form, are in fact the occa-
sion of another major distinction between Leicester and
Orthodox Constructivism. Expressed as diagonally projecting
forms set at right angles to each other under the asymmetric
bowers, they are reminiscent of Melnikov's Rusakov Club in
Moscow. However, the mass-like elements of the Rusakov
Club in no way seem to compress or extend the external space
by the influence of their bounding surfaces (fig. 44) ; in es-
sence there is no vertical or frontal plane as in the Maison
Citrohan, and without such a frontal datum there is no im-
plied or virtual depth in space. While the lecture theaters at
Leicester are obviously volumetric elements, they are tile-
clad in such a way as to read as surfaces containing space.
Furthermore through their relationship to the vertical ele-
ments they begin to activate the external space in a way
which is absent from the Rusakov Club. At Leicester there is
EL further play between space and surface which serves to
ELugment the idea of fulcrum. The larger volume on the left
(fig. 43) appears to be restrained under the weight of the
brick tower. The following relationship between surface and
the space contained seems to be operative in this juxtaposi-
Figure 48. Lei,cest,er University Figure lf 4. Rhiscthov TMorkers' Club,
Engineering Building. Jcunes Stirling Moscow. K. Melndkov, arch,itect,1928.
curd Jcunes Gowcun, arclwh,eats, 1963. Soli,d,s juntapo8ed, a,bout a d,omincun±
Lower level entry from t,h,e northwest. central avi8 ; the vend,cat dot,urn
'The wighi view shows the glass
re.feren± can be seen as euter'nal t,o the
elements Yea,ding as concept,uar soli,d,s. object.

Figure 1+3. Vi,ew Of curd,itorium vol,unes Figure 45. Vi,ew from 8outhea,st to rear
from above the entry ra,rm,p. of en±ry lobby.
ion. First there is the literal dialectic between the towers,
Which we have discussed above. Against this we have to con-
:ront a glass tower which is transparent but conceptually
Solid and the brick tower which is solid but conceptually void.
[t follows that the brick tower which apparently rests on the
ecture theater (fig. 45) cannot fully express itself as a coun-
}erweight because it is conceptually void and therefore
weightless. The reverse is true of the glass tower, which is
3onceptually solid but appears to be held up by the
;ransparent glass box.21 Thus it is not the towers but an un-
seen vertical axis which acts as the stabilizer of the composi-
;ion-as a kind of fulcrum stabilizing the cantilevering
volumes.

I`he relationship of the pair of columns to these volumes is

}lso foreign to any constructivist articulation (fig. 42) . These
3olumns that support the canted underside of the auditorium
io so in such a way as to establish the vertical edge of this
volume as the first of a series of vertical layers. A second
layer is established by the plane of the lower level entrance
lobby. However, since the entire thrust of the diagonal under-
side of the tiled volume appears to come down on this plane 45.
which is literally transparent and planar, this plane is read
metaphorically as a solid supporting the brick. But further,
since the first layer in the sequence is a void with no glass, the
rear plane with glass is again r'ead as a conceptual solid.

We have a further set of contradictions (fig. 47) which refer

to a third break with a basic lexical attitude of constructivist
ELrchitecture-its additive mode. While Constructivism uses
solid elements -volumes which appear solid and are aggre-
gated in time, ultimately displacing space-the office tower
was seen above to reverse this strategy, and because of the
visual evidence we saw an eroding or chipping from some
larger solid enclosure. The spiral staircases-a motif which is
repeated three times at Leicester-are a second key to the
conceptual difference between additive and subtractive
volumetric articulation at Leicester and in Constructivism.22
The spiral stair, in and of itself, is the essence of an additive
element because it visually connects two horizontal planes
through the device of a non-planar, volumetric element. The
spiral staircases at Leicester seem to come directly out of
Golosov's Workers' Club in Moscow (fig. 46) . However, in the
 Figure 46. Workers' Club, Moscow.I.
Golosov, architect, 1928.

Fkgure 47. Lei,cester University

Engineering Build,ing. Ja,meg Stifling
cund Jcunes Gowan, architects,1963.
Vi,ew from nort,h,west showing the
spiral stair in the cutout volume Of the
sh,ed.

26
Golosov building no dialectic or ambiguity seems intended. In left of the picture), also works in a similar fashion. It plays 27
fact everything is almost doubly, but literally, articulated. with the reading of the stairs in the shed space as well as with
The square horizontal elements are distinguished from the the tiled volume above. This spiral staircase is treated in
circular vertical elements. And further, the horizontal ele- transparent glass; the other two spirals are in opaque glass.
ment is solid; the vertical element is glass. Rather than com- Since the latter two are read as conceptually solid, the former
pressing the readings so that there is a visual ambiguity, the must be a conceptual void. Yet two aspects of the way this
elements are purposely pulled apart. staircase is detailed mediate against this simple interpreta-
tion. First, it has a faceted geometric form which tends to
In both the west (as shown in Figure 47) and the south cor- give a solid reading to its surface; second, it is the only one of
ners of the shed, the rectilinear form seems initially cut in the three circular stairs which is actually fully enclosed (i.e.,
such a way so that the resultant volume of opaque glass solid) albeit in totally transparent glass (i.e., void). Further,
panels are read as conceptually solid. This creates the fir.st while the tiled volume above is actually supported by two col-
reversal-a glass plane, albeit opaque, being read as solid. umns, they seem to have had their supportive material, the
Within the cut out volume a very solid looking spiral stair brick, stripped away. They seem very thin when compared to
baluster is revealed. However, upon closer inspection, the faceted circular stair which in this context seems to be the
because the baluster is treated in the same material as the more substantial of the elements. However, there is a further
glass panels of the vertical surfaces, it creates the condition reversal; for the stair, far from supporting the auditorium
for a second reversal. The glass planes of the rectilinear volume, seems to punch through it.
volumes are literally opaque; they can be read as solid. Since
the spiral stair, which is both literally volumetric and concep- In both cases where glass is presented as offering a literal
tually volumetric, is treated in the same material as the glass transparency-in the circular stair and in the lower entrance
volumes, it`causes the rectilinear volume, which is less foyer, as at the main block of the Bauhaus-we find it to be
literally volumetric than the cylinder of the stair, to be read conceptually consider.ed as a solid, that is, it is virtually opa-
as planar. In other words, because the glass of the rectilinear que. Thus it can be seen that this dialectical play of opaque
volumes is not treated initially as a skin, it reads as a solid glass to transparent glass becomes a dominant reference in a
block which is cut out and eroded. The rectangles are not seen marking system, which reverses the additive and volumetric
initially as plane or surface but as a ``chunk of stuff." Thus, canon of Constructivism. In fact, in essence, Leicester
the object-like cylinder stairs can appear to have pre-existed reverses the notational or cueing system of the Modern move-
in the block and to have been revealed by some subtractive ment in which glass was rendered as transparent, thin and
process. In this conception, two disparate form masses are layered, to one where glass can be seen as solid and opaque;
given initial object-like properties. And then because one where instead of being layered, it is eroded. To understand
form-the stair-is more object-like and is treated in the the referent system proposed at Leicester, one must first
same materials as the volumes, then these block-like volumes detach Stirling's notation from its historical context, to begin
reverse and become planer. If, for example, the stair were as it were with a notational zero and attempt to build a new
treated with a brick facing or with clear glass, there would be lexicon. Rather than attempting this, many of the critics
no ambiguity. But because both are in the same material- merely reduce Leicester to a set of metaphors, and minimize
and opaque glass at that-there exists the possibility for a in such a judgment the significant distinctions between
reversal. So that far from treating glass as dematerialized Leicester and its two sister buildings, the Cambridge History
and transparent in either the literal or virtual sense, glass is Faculty Building and the Oxford Florey Building.
here again found to be conceptually solid (fig. 48) .23
Despite these recent critical pronouncements, which would
The third spiral staircase (fig. 49), that connecting the have us place Leicester, Cambridge and Oxford in an histori-
podium to the underside of the auditorium volume (seen at the cal continuum, it is my contention that Leicester remains
48.
Figure 48. Lei,cest,er University together to produce opposite read,ings of
Engineering Build,ing. Jcunes S±irling sol,i,d am,d vof,d,.
cund Jcrmes Gowam, arch,itects, 1963.
Det,all view of sh,ed, `from t,h,e south. Th,e Figure 49. View from the northwest.
ndghi view gives a, further d,i,mansion to The base of the a;ulj,t,oriwm showing i,he
t,h,e cunbigwity between soti,d, conception relcwhonship Of t,he ci,rc'ulor star,r t,o the
cl,s a, propert,y Of sh,ape as opposed, t,o a;in, and,erskd,e Of the curd,itoriurm and t,o t,he
aspect o`f materials . Here sini,la,r col,unns.
rmaterials con,d, di,ssinklar shapes play

29
30 seminal and singular in this context. In all three we are pres- archetypal "stuff" of architecture, in the same manner that
ented with a too-easy similarity-a lineage in brick and glass any gesture does that moves away from a rigid,-stylistic or
developed in a repertoire of molded, pyramidal and canted classical vocabulary. What is being argued is that one of the
shapes. And while it is unfair to the quality of both ways one operates as a designer is to explore and expand the
Cambridge and Oxford to dismiss them summarily, within the potential of space to be manipulated in differ.ent ways in
limited context of this discussion they do not seem to be ad- order to develop a lexicon out of the innate-rather than the
dressing the same issues critically. That is to say, the gestures proscriptive-intrinsic formal vocabulary of architecture. In
at Leicester seem to be invested with a rationale and the sug- one sense this is an activity of architecture that can be seen to
gestion of an alternative position that a similar analysis of be continuously an internal critique of architecture; the
materials and volume relationships at Cambridge and Oxford nature of such a critique being: one, the examination of the
might not reveal.24 essential nature of architecture itself; and two, the ekamina-
tion of the nature of our predispositions in the way we look at
For example, if we compare the small cant strips in the brick that essence. Such a critique questions how much of our per-
surfaces at Cambridge or the pyramidal glass roof over the ception is culturally conditioned and thus not open to any ex-
reading room, they do not have the same conceptual value as ploration beyond what we know, that is, beyond what is iden-
at Leicester. They seem to exist as perceptual embellish- tifiable and easy for us to grasp. And I believe that it was
ment-as the marks of a personal, albeit evocative, style- precisely Stirling's subconscious reaction to Le Corbusier and
rather than as a challenge to the conceptual heritage of the Constructivism that produced what must be called an cLpe7.-
Modern movement. And in the context of my initial remarks, tw7.cL in the predicament described at the beginning; that is, as
Cambr.idge and Oxford are not polemical. They seem to be an alternative to an eclecticism using cubist and construc-
merely borrowing on the iconic charge given by the use of tivist elements as €he vocabulary of the fundamental modes-
similar materials and building methods developed at subtractive and additive-of forming space. Stirling has pro-
Leicester, and collaging them in a way which in and of itself duced a potential form-giving process that had been neither
deprives them of their polemical quality. While one can argue manifest nor realized before. In Leicester this process is
that every first gesture will always be deprived of this funda- brought to a level of conscious concern in the vertical plane.
mental quality of originality by being repeated, and thus de- First, by bringing together the vertical plane and the
prived of the polemic of the initial moment, one should not ex- volumetric displacement of space into some sort of dialectic,
cuse Cambridge and Oxford on these grounds. Nor should one he introduces the concept of the vertical plane as a fulcrum,
say that it is not possible to continue putting forth polemical as something other than a datum for layered space or as a
imagery in the monumental type. It is simply that Cambridge surface membrane containing space. Le Corbusier used the
and Oxford are not in their compositional attitude invested vertical plane to define and contain; Stirling uses the vertical
with the same relational structure. And if one need make a plane to displace space. Second, by using the juxtaposition of
further point to clarify the earlier comparison, one might say mass elements in a second dialectic mediated by the horizon-
that Leicester is European and Cambridge is American.25 tal plane, Stirling again uses this element to displace rather
Leicester demand.s the existence of the Modern movement, than to mold or to form space.
confronts a major tenet of its theoretical base and transcends
it. Cambridge pretends, as does much recent American archi- Leicester stands some ten years on as an example of the la-
tecture, that the Modern movement did not exist; that the tent potential in architecture to make manifest in physical
nineteenth century without any formal caesura can continue form certain ideas which in themselves stand continually as
into the future.26 critical agents to all of our activity. It challenges us to throw
over the way we want to see in favor of what we might see.
The point that is being made is that the Leicester Engineer- And in an era where functionalism was offered up as a
ing Building operates on the level of what might be called the substitution for ideal content, Leicester reaffirms the need
for the continuity in the evolution of the formal vocabulary of 31
architectul.e.

But further, Leicester stands against an increasingly vocal

group of architects concerned with hard data, recycling
materials, and inflatable structures, who would think of this
building (and this criticism) as irrelevant, precisely because
of its manifest lack of involvement with the positivism of
these technologies or the apparent social commitment of such
an empirical attitude. But from these, this building must be
defended. And while this is not to suggest the opposite, that
the polemics and the visions of the 1920s are either applicable
or relevant today, and therefore should be resurrected, it is
rather to say that the theoretical implications of modern
architecture, which must ultimately affect any architecture,
and the implications of the abstract logic inherent in space
and form, must yet again be a subject of investigation. Even
fifty years after Maison Citrohan, the lessons inherent in
such conceptions can still be learned and explored.
 Notes

32 1. While I have no intention of continuing the Stirling and true `archaeology of the present.' " The operative idea for
Gowan debate over the paternity of certain drawings, it what will follow is Thfuri's concept of "rewritten." In my
seems quite clear from the record of projects completed since terms there will be two rewritings: Stirlin.g's rewriting of.
the dissolution of their partnership-in particular the Histo- modem architecture and my rewriting of this received in-
ry Library at Cambridge and the Florey Building at Ox- terpretation of Stirling's work.
ford -that the co77apost.tt.o7ocLZ ¢ttttwcze being discussed in this 7. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Oewu7Ae co77tpz6te,
article seems to be a continuing preoccupation of James Stir- J9JO-J929, vol. 1, ninth edition (Zurich: Les Editions
ling's (as it had been in his Sheffield University project of d'Architecture,1967), p. 31.
1953) . I will therefore only refer to Stirling in the remainder 8. Kenneth Frampton caught this same idea when he said
of the text, while acknowledging that the Leicester Engineer- that "Stirling's reaction of 1959 from mass to light was ac-
ing Building was a product of their partnership. companied by a strong feeling for the erosion and disillusion
2. This term, which combines both the nineteenth-century of form pe7® se." (Kenneth Frampton, "Stirling's Building,"
idea in the use of the term "gesamt" with the iconic intention A7.cfottectw7.clz Fo7'.e477o, November 1968.) His use of the term
"erosion" applies to the cLct"Chz 8hcipe of the building; my use
of the term "monument," was first suggested to me by Kurt
Forster in conversation. of the term is concerned with the co7ocept{o7'a of that shape.
3. While a range of such metaphorical attributions are com- 9. Here Kenneth Frampton speaks of Stirling as having
"consistently exploited patent glazing as a 772,cLtje-re whose
monly placed on buildings of this temperament, one must ask
how they help us to understand what will be seen to be a spectacular qualities are to be most effectively revealed,
rather unique exploration of a formal vocabulary present in through draping it like a giant curtain over a configurated
this work. If we are to believe Manfredo 'fafuri, that Stirling shell; a seductive form of material expression on occasion ,...
rejects such analogies as ``fishing for references" (Thfuri, irrelevant to the intrinsic syntax of a particular structure."
"L'Architecture dams le Boudoir," Oppos{t¢o7os 3, May 1974) ,
(Frampton, "Stirling's Building," p. 45.) The problem for me
it is possible that such metaphorical attribution tends to in Frampton's prose stems from his attempt to place the idea
obscure such an understanding. It is in fact possible to sort of an "intrinsic syntax" in a cultural context by his use of the
through the visual evidence to build an entirely different term "irrelevant." Since relevancy does not seem to be a
pedigree, iconography and ideology for this building. quality of ``intrinsic," there is a suggestion in his use of "ir-
4. This argument was developed with Kurt Forster in con- relevant" of a certain attitude, for example, with respect to
versation. the relationship of surface to structure -which may not be in-
5. It has been argued that this emphasis on the vertical plane trinsic but merely an attitude of modem architecture.
can be seen to be culturally determined, that is, as a northern Something which may not seem within the canon of the Mod-
European as opposed to a Mediterranean manifestation. My ern movement may not be irrelevant to the idea of an intrinsic
argument is based on an opposing notion, not concerned with syntax.
vertical e77®pfocbsjs, but rather on the use of the vertical plane 10. Stirling himself seems ambivalent on his intentions vis-a-
as a datum and as a co7oceptwcLZ 7®ecesst.tey in architecture (see vis brick and tile. At one time he says, ". . . bricks are low in
my "Notes on Conceptual Architecture Ill." Unpublished.). cost, need little maintenance, and can also be the structural
Equally there are enough culturally based examples which support. These seem to me to be very good practical reasons
tend to contradict the former assertion. Maison Citrohan is for using brick. I never select materials emotionally; they are
nothing if it is not Mediterranean and when comparing two chosen entirely at a practical level ...." (James Stirling, "An
similar interior spaces, Gunnar Asplund's Stockholm Town Architect's Approach to Architecture," RJBA Jow?'7'acLZ, May
Hall and Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio at Como, the 1965, p. 240.) This seems to contradict the architect's own
former (which is northern) is horizontally layered; the latter statements to me about the need to send to Holland to find a
(which is Mediterranean) is vertically layered. tile with a color which would match the particular brick that
6. Manfredo Thfuri has also speculated on a possible in- was being used.
terpretation of Stirling's work in "L'Architecture dams le 11. It sho.uld be pointed out that when Le Corbusier used or
Boudoir.'' "The parabola which Stirling has followed has a expressed "natural" materials before the war, he did so in a
high degree of internal consistency. It indeed reveals the con- way which questioned their "natural" qualities. For example,
sequence of a reduction of the architectural object to pure the rubble stone in the house for Madame de Mandrot and the
language, yet it wishes to be compared to the tradition of the Pavillon Suisse is framed in concrete and thereby made to ap-
Modern movement, to be measured against a body of work pear paper thin.
strongly compromised, in an antilinguistic sense. Stirling has Critics, such as John Jacobus, who now argue that Stirling's
`rewritten' the `words' of modem architecture, building a use of brick is a return to English tradition or to a pure Mod-
ern movement functionalism, forget that the white rendered published Ph.D. thesis "The Formal Basis of Modern AI.chi- 33
walls were never intended to be so much /w7tctto7tcLZ as they tecture," Univ. of Cambridge, 1963, p. 81.)
were sy?7tboztc. In the degree that Le Corbusier's work was 17. It should be understood that the attempt here in the dis-
not so much a style, or a set of abstractions, but an attitude cussion of Leicester is to speculate on formal conceptions em-
toward building, he did not use natural materials in a natural bedded in the nature of architecture other than those notions
way because it was thought iconically to represent a return to such as phenomenal transparency developed by Colin Rowe
the soil, and to something which was very close to the German and Robert Slutzky in their Pe7.spectcb articles. (Colin Rowe
Expressionist ideology. As Le Corbusier commented on stone and Robert Slutzky, "Thansparency: Literal and Phenomenal.
in the de Mandrot House and in the Pavillon Suisse, so does Part I," Pet.spectcL 8, 1963; idem, "Thansparency: Literal and
Stirling comment on brick here. It has nothing to do with Phenomenal. Part 11," PerspectcL 13/14, 1971.)
Stirling's own smokescreen concerning his use of brick. 18. See among others Alvin Boyarsky's penetrating article,
"Stirling `Dimostrationi'," A7.cfo€tect247®a)Z Dost.g7o, November
12. Stirling himself makes an argument something like this:
that the particular use of brick in one place and tile in another 1968. If Constructivism is an architecture of mass and form
is based on purely functional reasons; that the tile is used as a and if Kenneth Frampton is correct when he said of Leicester
veneer only on structural in-situ concrete surfaces. To dis- that it was "a deliberate turning away from an architecture
tinguish these from other conditions of concrete, he uses of mass and form, to one composed of the dynamics of reflec-
brick. Again, the use of tiles with the same coloration as the tion and the luminosity of light" (Frampton, "Stirling's
brick seems to suggest an ambiguous or dual reading, beyond Building," p. 45) , then we must see Leicester with some other
one of mere functional distinction. litmus. In this context Frampton is of little help, for in fact he
13. It is also possible to imagine the brick continuing ver- traps us in a metaphorical web with his pronouncement that
tically up and down at the corners or the skeletal column-slab Leicester is an architecture of "literal transparency." For, as
structure brought to the vertical surface which in both cases we shall see, it is possible to build an argument for its
would have literally restored the vertical surface. pedigree which inyolves a totally opposite interpretation and
14. In this context it must be remembered that the readings conception of the glass. And in the end while it has the tex-
are simultaneous. None are held more strongly than any other ture of Constructivism it is conceptually more Corbusian. It
and they do not have to be read in any particular sequence. should be pointed out that one is here talking about Construc-
For the chamfered brick can be seen as the initial cue to read- tivism in its formal as opposed to its iconographic sense. For
ing the glass in the laboratory building as solid or vice versa. the differences between Cubism, De Stijl, Constructivism,
15. While Frampton has correctly pointed to the obvious and this building are not so much in their social rhetoric as in
dialectic of the brick tower and the glass tower (Frampton, their formal strategy.
``Stirling's Building," p. 46) , he does not comment on a second
19. In this sense, constructivist architecture shares a similar
and more subtle opposition. The brick tower volume can be set of preferences to De Stijl in its concern for asymmetric
seen to be conceptually a membrane, and conversely the glass balances and its overall tendency to pose a set of outward ex-
tower "membrane" is read as volumetric. ploding yet composed vectors. But it differs from De Stijl in
16. Two attitudes toward the vertical plane as a datum seem that its formal components were not planes so much as they
operative at the Salvation Army Building. One is the concept were solids made all the more mass-like through the introduc-
of a shifting or ambiguous vertical datum; the other is the tion of diagonal shapes. It should be noted that in De Stijl the
concept of the vertical datum as a potential fulcrum. This can diagonal is only implied in the juxtaposition of planar ele-
be seen in the changes made by Le Corbusier from the early ments and never made literal as in Constructivism.
project to the final project. In the early project the vertical 20. See my unpublished Ph.D. thesis, "The Formal Basis of
datum is not clearly established but neither is it purposely Modern Architecture," p. 110.
ambiguous. There are three possible locations for such a 21. A similar argument is developed by Joseph Rykwert in
datum. The rear plane of the slab block; the rear raised por- "Un Episodio Inglese," Do77ows, June 1964.
tion of the slab (this conception is particularly active if one 22. For example, the circular stair in Constructivism seems a
reads the lower front portion as a volume) ; or the front plane vehicle for a literal expression of articulation. Stirling's use of
of the slab. When the roof level storey is changed from a flat the same element, while for similar expository purposes, pro-
plane to a serrated volumetric form, it provides for two read- duces different results. Both of these attitudes can be dis-
ings: first, it fixes the front plane and the rear plane as shift- tinguished from Le Corbusier's use of the circular stair
ing references; second, it causes the front plane of the slab which, as Colin Rowe has noted, is often the central animating
block to be read as both a proscenium and a fulcrum relating and organizing device for the space. See, for example, the
the ground level volumes to the roof projections. (See my un- Spiral Museum or the Pavillon Suisse, where, as Rowe says,
34 the stair acts as "a spiral or turbine eroding a plane and Figure Credits
reducing it to a turbine." (Colin Rowe, unpublished notes.)
23. This kind of potential reversal within the physical data Figure 1. Protects .. Archi,tectura,I Associ,ati,on 1946-71, James
again points up the fallacy of the too-literal, easy, perceptual Gowan, ed., A.A. Cahiers Series No. 1., p. 42.
analogy. In this context one must question the usefulness of Figure 2. Robert Venturi, Demise Scott Brown, Steven
such metaphors as "over the heavy teaching labs there foams, Izenour, Leor?'at7og/7~o7" LCLs VegcLs (Cambridge, Mass. : M.I.T.
like suds from some cubist detergent, a good head of angular Press,1972), p.100.
north-light glazing ...." (Reyner Banham, "The Style for the Figures 3-6,12,22-24,28-30,38-40. Diagrams by Peter Eisen-
Job," Ivew Std)€es77tcb7o, 14 February 1964.) Or again as ". . . a man.
crystalline sea flooding across the top of the heavy lab area Figure 7. Lowts Ka}fo7t (Zurich: ETH,1969).
and erupting in diamond breakers over the solid walls on ev- Figure 8. Photograph by Richard Einzig. Courtesy James
ery side of the podium." (Reyner Banham, "The Word in Bri- Stirling.
tain: Character," Architect"7.ciz Fo7'.et'77t, Aug.-Sept. 1964.) Figures 9,13-16,19-21,25-27,32,36,42,48,49. Courtesy Jame
24. Stirling himself contends that this is not so. He says that Stirling.
the difference is not so much in the architecture but in the Figure 10. Photograph by Y. Futagawa. Courtesy James
limitations which are placed on the architecture by the inten- Stirling.
tion of the program which is different for Leicester than it is Figures 11,31,35,41,43,45,47. Photographs by John Donat.
for Cambridge and Oxford. Courtesy James Stirling.
25. This conflicts with Kenneth Frampton's argument when Figure 17. Ja)meg Stt7®Zt7og (London: R.I.B.A. Publications
he says that "its true spiritual affinity lies well within that
Ltd.,1974), p. 4.
great romantic American tradition that stems from Frank Figure 18. Jcl77®es Sttrzt7og (New York, Oxford University
Lloyd Wright and remains most vividly alive today in the Press,1975), p. 29.
work of Louis Kahn." (Kenneth FTampton, "Leicester Figures 34,37,44,46. Anatole Kopp, V€Z!e et ROT;oj"€¢o7o (Edi-
University Engineering Laboratory," Archttect"7.cbz Des?.g", tions Anthropos,1967).
February 1964.) Even the pairing of Wright and Kahn is an
oversimplification. In the context of my argument, Wright
could be seen as European and Kahn as American.
26. If an historical precedent for such a conceptual gap is
necessary then one only need compare Frank Lloyd Wright's
work after the success of the Wasmuth Publication of 1910
with his houses of the previous decade.
History Yale 1950-1965

Robert Stern

`a-vis Yale and other East Coast 35

This article is the first in a series which
will attempt to uncover the major educational institutions.
philosophical currents in American
architectural education over the past This initial and highly partisan view of
twenty-five years. Other articles on a particular American school is surely
similar themes, such as the "Philadelphia sufficient to open up a retrospective
School", the "Texas Rangers," Harvard, dialogue about American architectural
and The Cooper Union, will follow. education as a whole. It may well be
that this nostalgic and exclusive
What is apparent from Robert Stern's account is after all an accurate portrait
very careful research is the curious of Yale during these years. If this is so,
absence at Yale of any polemical bias then are we not prompted to question,
either for or against the Modern for the future, the effect of such a
movement. When compared with some picaresque approach to both
of its academic counterparts during architecture and architects on the
the fifties and sixties, Yale seems to vigor of American architecture as a
have been strangely placid, whole?
particularly in light of the fact that its P D.E.
graduates from that period seem to
have achieved a certain hegemony in Robert Stern was born in New York in
the professional world of the East 1939 and received his M.A. in
Coast. For these graduates and architecture at Yale University in
presumably the Yale School at that 1965. He has taught at Columbia
time, the question of the relevance of University since 1970, at Yale
any European notion of modemism, or University during 1972-73, at the
conversely the deficiencies in any University of Houston and Mississippi
"pure" American position, did not State University in 1974. He has been
seem to be at issue. Stem's own in private practice with John S.
format, relying heavily on quotations, Hagmann since 1969 and their built
seems to be indicative of a rather self- works include a residence in Montauk,
indulgent Yale, disengaged equally from New York (1972) ; a duplex apartment
polemics and theoreti-cal speculation. in New York City (1973) ; a
remodelling of a roof-top apartment in
Mimi Lobell's comments, originally New York City (1973) ; and a residence
written for a different context, add a in Washington, Connecticut (1974) . His
further dimension to this judgment and published works include Ivew
as such make a fitting and reflective Dt7.ectto`)'as j" 47.chitectwre (1969) and
postscript to Stem's piece. Its George Howe : 'Ibwa,rd, a, Modern
inclusion here also sheds light on the A77oericcL7® Arch¢tec£"re (1975) . He has
so-called "Yale-Philadelphia axis," a been President of the Architectural
superficial term which tends to blur League of New York since 1973 and is
rather than sharpen certain necessary a Director of the Society of
distinctions which have to be made vis- Architectural Historians.
 Figure 1. Hypofh,etical bea,ch, h,ouse by --ti: `,

Ja,mes Ja,rrct±. 1st Yleor, 1950.

-i--I-==_====:---= _---------i.I----i`8

I.
36 This account of the Yale school of Architecture between 1950 innovation, had never really accepted anything more than
and 1965 covers the period between the respective arrival stylistic variation within the continually evolving context of
and departure of the most significant heads of the depart- post-Renaissance architectural form-making.
ment, namely George Howe at the beginning and Paul
Rudolph at the end.1 Prior to this era, that is, throughout the Charles Sawyer, Meek's successor on his retirement in 1947,
twenties and thirties, the leading American schools of archi- was not an architect.7 A new post, that of chairman of the
tecture, namely those at Yale and at the University of Penn- department, was therefore created and this was awarded to
sylvania, organised their courses after the Beaux Arts Harold Hauf, a professor of architectural engineering.8
model.2Yet, while Penn possessed a solid core of distinguished Although Hauf was admired for his administrative abilities
teachers focused around the great progressive classicist Paul he was not a designer and criticism in the design studios, the
Cret, Yale, always hardpressed to obtain first-class architects core of any architectural program based on the Beaux-Arts
who would be willing or able to teach and practice in New model, as Yale's continued to be, was put in the hands of a suc-
Haven, developed under Dean Everett V. Meeks a visiting cession of senior critics, including Edward D. Stone, who was
critic system which brought a continuously changing succes- associated with the school as chief critic in architectural
sion of distinguished practitioners to the university.3 Thus, design from 1947-1950.9 Despite the presence of such strong
the school's attitude to stylistic issues was to remain flexible personalities, the program failed to enjoy the esteem of Har-
and between 1920 and 1940 it was to shift from the vard's, probably because there was no strong design talent at
progressive historicism of Otto Faelton (chief designer for the head to provide a focus for the department.1° Nonetheless,
the James Gamble Rogers office who reigned in association one should note that the idea of a strong administration com-
with Lloyd Morgan), through the "Art Deco" modernism of prising the dean and his senior critics, first under Meeks, then
Raymond Hood (who dominated the school from 1930 until his under Sawyer and Hauf in 1947, and then under Hauf's suc-
death in 1934), to the "International Style'' modernism in- cessor Gibson Danes in 1958, was to become the established
troduced by Wallace Harrison during his tenure between tradition at the school. These critics and chairmen were to be
1937 and 1940.4 Within the framework of a curriculum closely more specifically responsible than the dean for the teaching
modeled on that of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the school was and the staffing of the various disciplines.11
able to shift the emphasis of its design philosophy during the
1930s from that of an archaeologically-based eclecticism to Student work at Yale in the late 1940s derived its form and
one more closely tied to the Modern movement in general, philosophy partly from Gropius and Breuer and partly from
though not always to the orthodox International Style. Frank Lloyd Wright. As Herbert MCLaughlin wrote in 1958,
it largely featured "irregular angles, within the buildings
The manpower demands of World War 11 naturally disrupted themselves and in their layout as groups. There was a definite
the normal processes of the school, more so than at Harvard, sense of the building as being a series of related but separated
where Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer continued to teach functional areas, each to be expressed individually. This was
(owing to their ages and nationality) and where women were often done by actually separating these `zones' but usually by
encouraged to fill the places normally occupied by male stu- fenestrating them differently. This style was influential in the
dents.5 By the end of the war, Harvard's Graduate School of school to the point that the type of project selected was gen-
Design6 had become the preeminent American school because erally domestic in scale and thus favorable to this type of
of its brilliant design program which was firmly rooted in the work."12 James Jarrett's first-year project of 1950 for a beach
esthetic and philosophical preferences of the Modern move- house shows this clearly in its combination of Marcel Breuer's
ment. On the surface at least, Harvard was heir to the so-called butterfly house, then recently displayed in the
brilliant Bauhaus scene of the mid-1920s. Yale, on the other garden of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, with a
hand, like so many other schools at the time, was pretty much circular pavilion of vaguely Wrightian origins (fig.1) .13
without direction in design; Dean Meeks, while he tolerated
On Hauf's resignation in the spring of 1949, George Howe, wisdom, his experience, his charm, and what Wilder Green, a 37
then sixty-three years old and residing at the American former student, has described as his "constructive cynicism
Academy in Rome, was called out of his semi-retirement by and sophistication."16 Tb a faculty rent by conflict, much of it
Dean Sawyer to assume the chairmanship.14 Louis Kahn, who reflective of the indecisive state of American architecture at
as senior critic had instigated this move, felt that the luster of the time, he was able to apply the soothing balm of
Howe's reputation would establish a new tone, bringing to aristocratic geniality-often at the expense of a genuine solu-
Yale an American architect of first rank who had been associ- tion to the problems at hand.
ated with the Modern movement. Howe was an architect with
an international reputation and, though a confirmed mod- Coincident with Howe's arrival, came a series of events in the
ernist, he was not in any specific way associated with the school which assured its preeminent position. One of these
Bauhaus scene, neither in Germany nor in its various Ameri- was the recognition, under Christopher Thnnard's direction,
can transplantations at Harvard, at the Institute for Design of city planning as a degree-giving program housed in the
in Chicago or at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. architecture department.17 Another was the appointment, in
Yet Howe did in fact command the respect and friendship of June 1950, of Josef Albers as chairman of the art department
the Bauhaus "set" as well as that of Mies van der Rohe and (Albers had been a visiting critic since October,1949) . Albers
Frank Lloyd Wright. With the appointment of Howe, then, it reorganized the departprent of fine arts as the department of
seems clear that the Yale School was destined to carve out a design, a title which, like Gropius' creation of the Graduate
pedagogical position for itself that was different from Har- School of Design at Harvard, was filled with anti-fine art
vard's but of equal caliber. In selecting as its chairman an references like those programs with which Albers had al-
American-born, Beaux-Arts trained convert to modernism, ready been associated both at the Bauhaus and Black Moun-
Yale seemed to be not only making a solid commitment .to tain. Albers, in turn, appointed Alvin Eisenman to the faculty
modernism but also to be departing from Harvard's specific in September of 1950 and initiated Yale's program in graphic
direction. Howe represented, in a sense, a reaffirmation of design under the leadership of Eisenman, with Norman Ives
that eclectic pluralist outlook that had characterized the and Alvin Lustig playing important roles.18
school under Meeks.
The excitement of Albers' new teaching techniques and the
hostile reaction of the vestigial Beaux-Arts faculty in the
Part I: 1950-1955 design department were complemented, less dramatically, by
Howe's innovations in the department of architecture. As he
George Howe was the first major American architect of the subsequently indicated, Howe was critical of the state of the
Modern movement to be offered a position of administrative department as he found it on his arrival in 1950. He found
and philosophical importance in American architectural that "the first-year students were being neglected" and that
education.15 He came to Yale not only as the first modernist they "were working under great difficulties" within the con-
architect to have influenced governmental policy from within straints of a program of the ``direst and most unimaginative
but also as the designer of a handful of remarkable buildings, kind." At the same time, "the second-year students were
including the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society of being projected into a planning program of the crassest two-
1926-1933 (designed in association with William Lescaze), dimensional nature," and their discontent was spreading to
Fortune Rock of 1938-39, and the Carver Court housing of the first year to such a degree that many of them, in 1951,
1942-44 designed in partnership with Louis Kahn and Oscar declared "they would rather go to another school than into
Stonorov. the second year at Yale." In the third and fourth years, things
were even worse, with students "incapable of three-dimen-
Howe not only brought to Yale the extraordinary benefits of sional thinking and prone to slap on an elevation at the last
his experience as traditionalist turned modernist, but also his minute.''19 The sheer magnetism of Howe's presence seemed to
38 infuse new life into the school. After lectures or juries he €w7.cLj Jow77ocLZ, which Howe helped found in the same year.23
would usually invite a group of students to his rooms for an Using the same title that Charles Herbert Moore, his teacher
informal session of conversation and drinking. These he called at Harvard, had used thirty years before, ``Thaining for the
"meetings of the Digressionist Club." Wilder Green, Peter
Practice of Architecture," Howe spoke of his intention to
Millard, James Jarrett, and Earl Carlin were among the stu- develop a "course of training . . . peculiarly Yale's, based on no
dents who constituted its membership. Avery Faulkner, doctrine or theory but worked out from day to day by experi-
whose career as a student paralleled Howe's tenure as chair- ence." Howe reiterated his belief in the duality of imagination
man, regarded Howe as being an "effective and powerful and intellect, going on to define the practice of architecture as
[influence] as a `design master.' [His] experience in "the occupation, with intent to create significant form, of pro-
Philadelphia . . . and his experience at the American Academy ducing designs for and producing the execution of, any and
in Rome gave us a scholarly and `fatherly' chairman of great every sort of work constructed for the use of man."24 For
critical abilities. His historical reference for contemporary Howe, style was not to be made but discovered. Another lee-
design was clearly the Italian Renaissance and Italian Baro- ture, possibly his most important, was delivered before the
que. He stressed the role of history as a reference for all third-year class on 5 October 1953 as an introduction to their
design.„20 first major design problem (a bank) that term. It contained
the key to that philosophy of design which he had been
Howe's preferred method of communication with the students developing since the 1930s and which he came to describe as
was the formal lecture, delivered from time to time during "the path of the feet and the eyes." This doctrine was an ex-
the school year.21 Shortly after taking office, Howe addressed plicit criticism of Giedion's conceptual emphasis on spatial
the alumni as to the duality of imagination and intellect and flow, the core of the G.S.D.'s philosophy of architectural com-
as to the conflicting roles of the architect as artist and as position under Gropius. It, and Howe's philosophy as a whole,
technician. Howe's talk established the basis of his program were soundly based on faith in the perceptual capabilities of
at Yale-a program that insisted that architecture was an ar- architects and ordinary people alike.
tistic discipline involved with issues of administration, plan-
ming, technological competence and simple problem-solving. In order to more fully inculcate the students with the notion
He said, "We must not lose sight of the fact that the primary of the "path of the feet and the eyes", Howe, together with
purpose of architectural schools is to create architects, not to Eugene Nalle, whom he chose as the principal focus of his
prepare draftsmen for office work.''22 Howe went on to argue teaching program, devised a problem in which a pavilion was
that an architectural school had to find a mean between tech- to be designed as an expression of clearly articulated spatial
nical studies and design. sequence along a route (figs. 2,3). Nalle had worked as an
architect and as a general contractor in 'fexas. He was recog-
Thus, as under Meeks, Yale's architectural program was to nized at once for his almost obsessive dedication to architec-
remain firmly based in the humanities and not in the natural tural education, with the result that Howe made him "the
or social sciences. Yale's department of architecture, reflect- foundation stone" of this "teaching structure."25 Nalle's
ing the character of the university as a whole, was to be a method has been recently credited by William Huff, a former
place in which abstract theory was always to give way to student, as a way of keeping the students "innocent and
pragmatic observation, in which social concern was to be open."26 Unfortunately, his Zen-like primitivism of approach
assumed to be the responsibility of an individual's life experi- seemed slowly to degenerate into a somewhat mindless aping
ence and not something to be taught in a classroom. Howe of Frank Lloyd Wright, although throughout his tenure Howe
elaborated his empirical non-utopian approach to architec- continued to rank his support of Nalle as among his most im-
tural education in a talk delivered before the department of portant contributions to the school. In retrospect Howe
architecture in September 1951, and reprinted in the first claimed a certain responsibility for initiating both the tenor
issue of the student magazine, Pe7.8pectcL, tfae yaize Arcfotlec- and the subject matter of Nalle's first-year course.
Figure 2. Pa,vi,ti,on by Jcunes Jarrctt.
lsd Yleor, 1950.

Figure 3. Pl,can.

Figure 4. Open-ouir rna,rket by Hcurol,d,

Fredenburgh,. 1st Year, 1954. Section.

Figure 5. Powthotn by Jcunes St,ewart

Pol,sh,ek.1st Year,1951.

Yet Howe's dependence on Nalle, with his obsessive teaching 39

techniques, which seem so alien to his own aristocratic view of
life, may well have been an expression of his own desperate
inability to go beyond his own words in this direction, to
translate his concerns into a program of his own.

In his teaching, Nalle placed tremendous emphasis on the in-

terrelationship between small elements of building fabric.
The expression of joinery became a fundamental concern in
the design process. The emphasis of Nalle's method was in
what Harold Fredenburgh, a first-year student in 1954-55,
recalls as "stick and stone architecture." Thus, as can be seen
in drawings made by Fredenburgh for Nalle's studio, build-
ings were seen as "built things, an articulate assemblage of
elements" (fig. 4). There seems little doubt that Nalle's
method was a compulsive one-but it was, as FI.edenburgh
recalls, "a remarkable discipline .... Almost from the start
we drafted (ever so precisely) details of materials being put
together. This is quite different in approach, say, than design-
ing a house with 2 x 4s and wood siding wherein, however
Simple the program, the structure is obscure."27

W'hile Nalle's inarticulateness and uncommunicative nature

`zA````-`=`` were regarded by some as indications of remarkable depth,
his mystical devotion, to quote Tim Prentice, "did not so much
rd -, , - , - =ifr==i`` i ```I1111
involve the students in a craft or art or service to society, as
in a religion."

In addition to Nalle's specific strengths and limitations in the

-,-I --- --a. .-..-I -
studio, his and Howe's attitude toward the relationship be-
tween a professional program in a university and the univer-
sity as a whole was a critical one. Howe and Nalle sought to
mediate the exposure of architecture students to disciplines
outside design by establishing special courses in which these
disciplines would be presented to students in the context of an
overall architectural approach. Their position, which many
regarded as fundamentally anti-intellectual, was articulated
by Howe in his final report to President Griswold wherein he
argued for a highly individualistic approach to the teaching of
design; a Dewey-like program close, at least in principle, to
that of the early Bauhaus whereby ". . . the student is freed
from the excessive number of variables . . . and can develop
his own interpretation without reference to precedent of any
5.
 Itgure 6. Park shelter, Bald,win, Long Figure 8. Wzley House, New Camacun,
Isl,curd. Jcunes Stewcurt Polsh,ek, Cormectkc'iut. Philip Johmson, arch,itect,
a,rchitect, 1966. 1953. Section.

Figure 7. House project by Jcrmes Figure 9. Co.in.municcdi,o!n8 center btl

Ja,rrett. 2md, Year,1951. Sechon Ja;meg Ja;"ctt,. Jith Yleow., 1954.
through the living room.

40 kind, ashis ownpersonalityunfolds."28As anumberofNalle's ;*,I ' `

students have since testified, the course with its obsessive
elliptical terminology, such as referring to a post office as a
"mail depository," was designed to eliminate as far as possible
"all traces of memory overlay." And yet, despite all the criti-
cism of Nalle, for some students such as James Polshek he was
a remarkable and powerful influence. One of Polshek's stu-
dent projects (fig. 5) and an early building (fig. 6) by him
rely, by his own admission, heavily on Nalle's teaching. While
testifying to the importance of Nalle in his education, Polshek
recalls Nalle's first year as combining the mysticism of
Thliesin with the Prussian rigor of Mies at I.I.T.
There was an unbalanced set of allegiances with practically
all my energies, attentions, and loyalties revolving around
Eugene Nalle . . . who was the super guru of the student
avant-garde. The various sets of experiments that were un-
dertaken centered around our class. It should be stressed
that these were not random or irresponsible and each was
tested during the summer preceding our coming by Nalle.29
Aside from this, the Nalle method not only had the effect of
eliminating the need for separate courses in drafting and
perspective but was also oriented towards the immediate in-
volvement of students in the principles of wood and masonry
construction-an aspect of the course which many regarded
as being prematurely pragmatic.

Equally radical and completely opposite to Howe's en-

couragement of Nalle was his decision to appoint Philip
Johnson as visiting critic. Following hard on the completion of
his Glass House, Johnson was still very much the e7o/cL7tt te7"rz-
bze of the architectural establishment and he certainly had no
reservations about "memory overlay." Johnson proceeded to
assign a house design problem in a daring, provocative way-
1imiting the students' freedom of formal expression to the
personal styles of either Wright, Mies, or Le Corbusier; in
other words, contradicting Nalle completely. According to
William Huff, Johnson came to Yale and "demolished" the
Wrightian bias and romanticism of the school "overnight,"
answering the lackluster spirit of the late 1940s and the pri-
mitivism of Nalle with a personal advocacy not only of Mies
but also of Le Corbusier, thereby returning architectural
education to the "realm of design." At the same time, Johnson
£a;;ri;:d kahh's -reputation°and urged him to' greater Ssein
 Figure 10. Art Gallery amd Design
Center, Tlale University, New Haven,
Cotrun,ecti,cut. Lowi,s Kchn, architect,
1951-53.

JO.
achievement, all the while encouraging Howe to back Kahn ship of each part of the building fabric to the next, Howe's 41
for the Art Gallery commission of 1951.30 Johnson called the firm insistence on the reliability of direct personal observa-
attention of students, architects and critics alike to Kahn's tion, Johnson's reverence for classicizing form, and Fuller's
work, and in 1960 he was instrumental in The Museum of Mod- persuasive explorations into large-scale structural decision-
ern Art's decision to have a one-man show of Kahn's Richards making.33 All these can be seen as well in Jarrett's com-
Medical Laboratories. Johnson's implicit opposition to Nalle munications center project, done under Kahn's direction in
manifested itself in a display of erudition which ranged over a 1954 (fig. 9). Here the struggle in Kahn's own work between
wide area from classical philosophy to political, cultural and particularization of shape and strong geometry is brilliantly
architectural history. Employing his remarkable cultivation reflected in a startlingly in.ature student project.
as a means for assessing the work of both his students and his
contemporaries, Johnson brought to Yale a concern for Certain of Howe's achievements at Yale were to enjoy a last-
classicism in design and an impulse to reintegrate the com- ing influence: among them, the founding of Pe7.specta), and the
positional theories of the International Style within the tradi- securing of the Art Gallery commission for Louis Kahn (fig.
tion of western classicism. 10). Pe7.spectci's first issue appeared in the summer of 1952.
Generously underwritten by Howe and others, it immediately
Johnson's impact can be seen in the work of James Jarrett, exhibited a professionalism that has come to distinguish it
probably. one of Yale's most sophisticated students of the from other student magazines and even from the so-called
period Jarrett's house project of fall 1951 (fig. 7) is remarka- professional journals.34 Pet.spectct's origin, according to
bly similar to Johnson's Wiley House, then under design (fig. Howe's preface to the first issue, seems to have grown out of a
8), while his thesis, a high-rise office building, is involved need, first expressed in his "digressionist" meetings, for the
with the same Miesian issues as an unbuilt project of students to have a medium of expression for themselves. In
Johnson's for an apartment house in New York. his preface Howe wrote: "The first number of Pet.spectcL is
but a beginning. It proposes to establish the arguments that
Aside from introducing such critics into the school as revolve around the axis of contemporary architecture on a
Johnson, Kahn, Kiesler and Buckminster Fuller, Howe also broader table, encompassing the past as well as the present,
encouraged Vincent Scully, then just beginning his teaching and extendable to the future. 'Ib all architects, teachers, stu-
career, to participate actively in the life of the department. dents, PerspectcL offers a place on the merry-go-round."35 This
Thereafter Scully, with his passionate concern for American reference to the "merry-go-round" was, of course, a conscious
(as well as other) architects, was fated to become for many reiteration of the pluralism which had since become Yale's
students the single strongest influence in the school; a force most valuable asset in architectural education. And it is in-
which, within Howe's permissiveness, was to encourage in teresting to note in this regard that no other architecture
many students, such as Evans Woolen, "a degree of freedom school has been able to succeed for so long in the publication
from formal, personal, stylistic pressures in favor of social, of a first-rate joumal of ideas, presumably for want of this
programmatic, and environmental issues as a basis for archi- pluralism of approach leading to a broad outlook, and for
tecture.'J3i want of students of sufficient brightness and sound basis in
humanistic education to assemble and edit material on so high
Although Kahn had preceeded Howe to Yale, Howe was now a level. Pe7.spectcL enabled the school to take some public
in a position to not only advance Kahn's role in the school but measure of itself. This was never more marked than in the
also his career.32 It can be claimed, as Scully did at an informal second issue, where an article entitled "On the Responsibility
talk at the Architectural League on 1 May 1974, that in of the Architect" recorded fragments from a series of infor-
Kahn's writing and work of the period all the disparate ideas mal seminars, involving such figures as Louis Kahn, Paul
then prevalent at Yale came together-Nalle's obsessive Weiss and Vincent Scully. These sessions soon became a regu-
dedication and his tremendous enthusiasm for the relation- lar feature of the school and on various occasions one might
 Figure 11. Urba;in, ch,urch by Wtlticun S.
Hwf f. Ba,ccal,a;ureate the8k8 ,1952.
Rectory, ground fooor.

Figure 12. Si,te plan and, west elevation.

Figure 13. Ch,urch project, Tlecuneck,

New Jersey. Pcnd Schwethher,
architect, 1955.

42 find any of a number of the school's visiting or permanent

luminaries, men such as Scully, Johnson, Pietro Belluschi and
Eliot Noyes, locked in highly animated and often heated
debate.
EHE- I
Howe's tenure as chairman was circumscribed by Yale's com-
pulsory retirement age of sixty-eight, and in 1952, two years
before he was to retire in February 1954, he suggested that
Paul Schweikher, who had taught intermittently under Hauf
and Howe, be invited to succeed him. Schweikher rejoined the
IIIIIIIIB
faculty in 1953, first as critic and then in 1954 as chairman.36
Schweikher was a man of very different temperament from
Howe. He was at once brusque and impatient, formidable and
dogmatic. Schweikher's complex personality did not take
easily to the faculty that Howe had assembled. He was capa-
ble at one and the same time of being in awe of Albers and in
competition with a man like Kahn. At the same time his prac-
tice was growing and he was out of New Haven a great deal
of the time. Nonetheless, given the interest of Schweikher's
work at this time, Howe's choice of his successor seems to
have had a certain validity.

No one was more appreciative of the interesting challenge

offered by Schweikher's move away from his Wrightian
origins towards a more structural Miesian approach than
Scully, when he wrote that:
Beyond the superficial level . . . it becomes clear that Sch-
weikher's present wor.k represents a more integrated stage
of the kind of design toward which he had apparently al-
ways been moving. His experiments with plank and beam
construction in wood during the thirties-experiments
strongly influenced by Japanese architecture-were con-
cemed in essence with values rather apart from those of
Wright, although many of his houses certainly owed much
to Wright's example. Yet the plank and beam system's
skeletal insistence, like that of the nineteenth-century
"stick-style," is basically different from the "flesh-
covered" continuities of most of Wright's work.37

William Huff's thesis project, an urban church (figs.11,12),

completed in the spring of 1952, not only reflects many of
these developments in the work of Kahn and Schweikher, but
also suggests the nature of their separate influence, the one
J3.
 Figure 14. Nuclear Yea,ct,or, Rehovot,
Isra,el,. Ph,tlfro Johnson, architect,1960.
Pl,a;in,.

J4.
poetic the other pragmatic, on such students as were willing with the diversity of experience generally deemed appropri- 43
and able to be subject to it. Huff's completed design, with its ate for the undergraduate in Yale College. Thus, the introduc-
references to Piranesi and to the neo-Palladian classicism of tion of Nalle's methods to undergraduates appeared to com-
Johnson, was extremely assured and sophisticated, anticipat- promise the humanistic basis of architectural education at
ing Schweikher's church project for 'leaneck, New Jersey of Yale as Howe and others had outlined it earlier, although
1955 (fig.13), Johnson's roofless church at New Harmony, Howe himself failed to see this. If Nalle's methods had been
Indiana, and his nuclear reactor at Rehovot, Israel (fig.14), confined to graduate students, much of this might not have
both of the early sixties. happened. But, as reported in the ycLze DCL¢Zgr IV6ow8, the criti-
cism made by the undergraduate majors of Nalle's first- and
While Schweikher continued to rely on Nalle to run the second-year design program was fourfold: " (1) inadequate
studios, he lacked Howe's ability to modify Nalle's single- criticism by instructors; (2) arbitrary grading of creative
mindedness. Not surprisingly, in November 1954, just five projects by one man; (3) absence of diversity and depth
months after his retirement at Philadelphia and in response within the course; and (4) insufficient number of instruc-
to a general decline within the department, Howe was asked tors."40
by Dean Sawyer to come back to New Haven to prepare an
independent report on the state of the school. The principal In the 1955-56 academic year, the National Architectural Ac-
criticism voiced by Carroll Meeks and King-Lui Wu amongst crediting Board visited the department and cast a disapprov-
others, was focused on Nalle, whom, according to Howe's re- ing eye on the entire situation and especially on the undue
port, the faculty regarded as "dictatorial, unfair and vindic- scope of Nalle's teaching responsibility. The Board's reaction
tive, confused, narrow, psychopathic." In response to these to the situation left university provost Edgar Furness "with
charges, Howe cited instances of student enthusiasm for the impression that more funds should be directed to the
Nalle, although he did not dignify the accusations with a department."41 Despite Schweikher's implied support of Nalle,
direct refutation. As to claims that the "whole method of in- the students and some of the faculty demanded administra-
struction evolved by Mr. Nalle, at my suggestion, is too tive reform, which was to include reinstatement of the open-
analytical, not free enough, distorted, unhumanistic, contraryjury system in the third and fourth years and use of a grading
to the Yale ideal of the free exchange of ideas," Howe ven- committee in the first and second years. In addition, more in-
tured total disagreement, going on to claim that the principle structors were to be hired as a matter of university policy,
of "integrated teaching in various fields, under the leadership thereby reducing Nalle's teaching load and his influence as
of architecture, in an architectural school" is thoroughly well.42 Thus the issue of the mystique of Nalle's teaching,like
sound and should be continued by whatever means possible.38 that of Johannes Itten at the Bauhaus thirty years earlier,
was never openly aired and the real reasons for his departure
Howe knew, of course, whereof he spoke. It had been his from Yale became camouflaged by administrative reform.43
charm and commitment to excellence which acted as the
bonding agent. Now, with it gone, everything began to fall The desire of the university to gloss over departmental con-
apart.39 Bickering among the faculty was a reflection of the flicts was aided by Howe's death on 16 April 1955. Without a
limitations of Howe's pragmatism, dependent as it was on his champion, Schweikher's position was immeasurably
personality. It was also a reflection of the limitations of the weakened. For Nalle, the agony of reflection must have
resident design faculty which lacked the obsessive focus become almost unbearable when his authority over the first-
which characterized Nalle, whose temperament made him in- and second-year program was ended. In 1956 Schweikher
flexible and intolerant toward his colleagues. resigned and Nalle was to depart shortly afterwards.44
Schweikher's fall from grace led to Charles Sawyer's resig-
More importantly, I think, Nalle's attitude toward the studio nation in September 1956 to accept a post at the University of
as the focus of all education in architecture was in conflict Michigan, and by 1958 the School of Fine Arts was com-
 Figure 15. Low-rise high,-d,en8ity
urban h,ousing by Gkovorwi Pasa;nella,.
Ba,ccala,ureate thesis,1958. Pl,con.

Figure 16. Sechons.

Figure 17. Gra;in exchange btl Hcurol,d,

Roth. Baccala;ureate the8k8, 1957.

44
pletely reorganized, emerging as the School of Art and Arch-
itecture with a new dean, Gibson A. Danes, and a new chair-
man for architecture, Paul Rudolph, under whose direction
Yale was propelled into a position of international prominence
in architectural education.45

Possibly the most beneficial outcome of the Schweikher/Nalle

controversy was the establishment of Yale's architectural
program at a graduate level, ultimately making it possible to
shorten the course from four to three years and to raise the
status of the degree granted from Baccalaureate to that of a
Master's in Architecture. Given a higher initial level of un-
dergraduate education it was not possible to enlarge on the
idea of architecture as a humanistic discipline.

The ensuing void between the departure of Schweikher and

the arrival of Rudolph was filled by the acting chairmanship
of Henry Pfisterer presiding over an executive committee
that was nominally responsible for the direction of the school
throughout the period of the interregnum. Under the aegis of
this faculty committee, the school not only recovered its
status with the Accrediting Board, but also assumed an air of
professionalism that had been absent throughout the previous
decade. This aspect found expression through a renewed in-
terest in the rigors of programmatic design; particularly
with the incorporation into the studio curriculum of the Mag-
nus T. Hopper Fellowship in hospital design. Aaron N. Kiff,
the visiting critic in charge of the 1957 hospital problem,
could write with some amazement of the positive reception he
received in that year, where contrary to his expectations, he
not only found an intense interest "in the hospital as a plan-
ning problem" but also the proof of this interest in a level of
studio work which one would normally expect ``from experi-
enced and specialized designers."46

Harold Roth and Gio Pasanella who were students at the time
characteristically combine the attitudes instituted by both
Nalle and Schweikher (that is, love for the building as a con-
structed object) with a concern for big scale urban problems
that were then to be more closely associated with Kahn and
Rudolph, men who became dominant towards the end of their
careers at Yale. Pasanella's thesis was an "unfashionable" one
for the period-a low-rise, high-density urban housing
scheme. His drawings of it (figs. 15,16) were in the manner of their work and which Scully himself discusses in a recent 45
established by Nalle yet, probably because of the influence of long essay.49 In addition, Scully's writings about Greece
King-Lui Wu and Edward Larrabee Barnes, his thesis crit- brought to life for most students at Yale a subject that had
ics, Pasanella seems to have given as much attention to the been previously buried in the dreariest pedantry.50
design of the house/apartment as to that of the architectural
composition. On the other hand, Roth's project for an office/ To a I.emarkable extent, Scully's perceptions have influenced
Bxchange building (fig.17), with its emphasis on the form of those of all the best Yale graduates. These men have found
giant prefabricated structure and an ambivalence towards Scully's splendid lectul.e style, his passionate personality and
bhe user, already reflects the influence of Paul Rudolph. his powerful convictions central to their own concerns for
architecture. At a deeper level Scully's influence is based on
Despite this professionalism and this new found "maturity," his feeling for the interrelation of man, building, and place. In
which Clovis Heinsath has attributed to the presence of a seeing architecture whole, Scully is capable of articulating
large number of veterans from the Korean war, there is little powerful relationships across the boundaries of time and
question but that this was a time of great richness and unset- culture. Through the richness of his conceptions he ex-
tling transition. For many students, such as Roth, Pasa- emplifies the pluralism that has long since been Yale's
nella, Jaquelin Robertson and Robert Kliment, it was a strength.
period in which, to quote one of .their colleagues, Harold Fre-
]enburgh, ". . . not much was leaned after that first year Nowhere has the particular pluralism of this period been bet-
(under Nalle) . The emphasis afterwards (1955-1958) was not ter characterized than in the words of Jaquelin Robertson:
ln teaching, but on critique. I can't exclude, however, the im- . . . you could in a day experience young Vincent Scully, a
pact of Scully's lectures .... That perception of a singular and kind of demonic Irish firefly darting back and forth before
powerful relationship between landscape and temple had huge flickering images of White and Sullivan and Peter
perhaps metamorphasized [sic] itself into the concern to see Harrison, and Richardson and Wright-literally, a man on
Duildings as an active part of a framework layer other than fire; or discover the mystery of seeing for the first time
:hemselves."47 your own hand at work exploring (with eraserless pencil)
the differences between paper and stone, under that
Fredenburgh's observations serve to emphasize once again hawklike unrelenting gaze of Albers, always half afraid of
;he unique importance Vincent Scully has had, not so much on your own clumsiness yet excited at the magic of self-
;he day-to-day running of the school-though he has been in- revelation and the power of the teacher; or wander into one
nuential there-but on the intellectual lives of the students of those paper-strewn late afternoon sessions high above
)oth in the college and in the department itself. Much more the glowing reddish court and listen to the funny, little,
}han the ``Architectural Spellbinder" he was characterized as white-haired, pock-marked man, Louis Kahn, sometimes so
)eing by David Mccullough in his 1959 article for A7.chttec- clear, sometimes opaque, who talked so lovingly with his
}w7.¢! Fo?'i4m, Scully has been an inspiring scholar and critic.48 hands about the ``idea of architecture"; and sfaowecz you by
[n the late fifties he embarked on that career as historian and the building you were in that he had built, that somehow
}ritic that has done so much to recast our view of American that idea co"Zd survive, at least in part, its translation
lrchitecture not only in terms of its own history but also in "from becoming into being." Kahn also reinjected into
;erms of its interaction with Europe. His researches in Amer- architecture the "sense of place"-long before we'd heard
can domestic architecture have not only given us an enduring of Aldo van Eyck-and a profound respect for history. He
lescriptive term and image for a period of unique importance Was a cultured man.51
}o the history of American architecture, namely the "Shingle
Style," but have also spawned an attitude among an entire The richness of the architecture teaching program at this
generation of his forlper students which affects every aspect time cannot be separated from the university's building
46 program or, for that matter, from the astonishing urban ularly in the areas of art and architectural history, painting,
renewal activities of the City of New Haven, spearheaded by and graphic design; a small tenured faculty in architecture-
its mayor, Richard C. Lee, and Edward Logue, its director of a situation which emphasized visiting personnel and a
urban renewal. At the same time it should,be noted that, diversity of viewpoints, with the chairman as intellectual ar-
although Howe was the decisive figure in influencing biter; and, finally, a sophisticated student body, not only at
Griswold's decision to hire Kahn as architect for the Art Gall- the undergraduate level but also, and critically so for the
ery, he was by no means a trusted consultant in these matters architecture department, in the graduate program.
in the way that Saarinen and Rudolph were later to become.

Saarinen became the advisor of Griswold around 1953 and his Part 11: 1958-1965
own first assignment, executed in association with Douglas
Orr, was the preparation of the site plan and preliminary 0n assuming the duties of chairman in February 1958, Pau]
designs for the Gibbs Physics Laboratory, which was to Rudolph was a passionately outspoken and brilliant designer
become Paul Schweikher's only commission at Yale.52 who was just on the threshold of an incredibly fertile period ir]
Regrettably, both Saarinen's and Schweikher's work on this his career. He had been a guest critic at a dozen or more
project is quite mediocre, though, as Scully has pointed out, universities since entering practice in Sarasota, Florida,
Schweikher pushed his building to one side of the axis of in 1947, and was generally regarded as a most inspiring
Hillhouse Avenue, thereby leaving it open for Johnson to teacher. His analytical abilities with regard to desigr]
place the "agora of the Kline Science Center on axis and issues were (and continue to be) remarkable. At the age ol
thereby permit the space of Hillhouse Avenue to sweep on forty he was little more than ten years the senior of many ol
uninterrupted."53 his students and he shared in their rebellion against business-
man architects, pseudo-functionalism and all other "isms"
While .Whitney Griswold was a remarkably intelligent and which were so often offered up as substitutes for genuine
enthusiastic patron of architecture, he was to rely for advice, design insight. Furthermore, Rudolph's style of administra-
in matters of taste, on a series of consellors drawn from the tion and teaching and, indeed, his whole persona were vir-
alumni or the teaching staff. On occ.asion Scully became a tually the opposite of Howe's and Howe's successor, Sch-
prominent advisor to Griswold in these matters; most notably weikher. His style was not the methodical, painstaking drive
in an attempt at modification of Douglas Orr's banal designs for gentlemanly elegance and perfection that prevailed in the
for Helen Hadley Hall and in the defence that he and some of early fifties but a direct, brash, refreshing brusqueness, com-
his colleagues prepared in support of Saarinen's design for bined with genuine shyness, ingenuousness and a willingness
the Ingalls Hockey Rink.54 to work. Nevertheless like Howe, Rudolph did not have a
theory of architectural education nor, would it appear, was he
By the late 1950s, Griswold had focused a great deal of the intent on developing one. At the same time Rudolph's prag-
administration's attention on the building program, thereby matic approach was able to provide students with that sense
insuring that the distinction of the great campus expansion of of urgency through which the education process was to
the 1920s and early 1930s would be matched in his adminis- become more stimulating, tense and intense than it had prob-
tration. By the beginning of Paul Rudolph's career as chair- ably ever been before. Despite Rudolph's immediate capacity
man of the architecture department in February 1958, all the for balancing the conflicting sensibilities of both the resident
pieces of the mosaic were in place: a university president so and visiting faculty together with those of an intensely com-
convinced of the role of architecture in the university that he mitted and articulate student body, he was unable to avoid a
was prepared to commission the finest architects and to back conflict with Kahn. Despite this, Kahn continued to teach the
them with a well-funded program; a heterogeneous faculty in thesis and masters classes until the end of the 1958-59
the arts comprising superb scholars and practitioners, partic- academic year, when he assumed full teaching responsibilities
 Figure 18. Fourth year jury, 1960.
Frrout row, left t,o right : Phitip Jchnson,
Pa;ul Bud,alph, , Vincend Scully.

Figure 19. Frorit row, left to right: Jean

Pout Carlhian, King-Lwi Wu, Gord,on
Bunshaft, Junes Baker (stud,ant) .

18. 19.
at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had been a mem- somewhat remote (a few dinners, a crit but little personal 47
ber of the teaching staff since 1956. Although Kahn was contact) . It was in the end Paul Rudolph who dominated the
probably hurt by the university's decision to withhold the school. So many of the other faculty now sound like a bum-
chairmanship from him for a second time, his clash with ble bee with a head cold in comparison. His enthusiasm, the
Rudolph would surely have arisen out of pedagogical incredible fertility of his imagination, his love of building,
differences and out of Rudolph's need to establish himself as and his personal honesty made the school. Unlike much of
the dominant teaching and administl.ative force.55 the other faculty, he built buildings, he made statements-
we hated them or loved them, but we reacted.57
In contradiction to Kahn's line, Rudolph was to maintain the
Howe legacy of eclecticism of which Craig Whitaker has In a time before so-called student power, it was often the stu-
written: dents who proposed the visiting faculty and it was always
Despite his own strong personal style, he was able to teach they who suggested names of guest critics for the thesis and
one how to design a "Mies" building as opposed to a ``Cor- other important juries. The resident design faculty, by and
bu" building or any other current style. The school rejected large, was used more for its ability to handle the day-to-day
an cL p7|.own polemical position as a basis for design. In this administrative chores of the department than as a source of
sense . . . [this] period at Yale is almost "book-ended" be- guidance.58
tween the functionalism of the Harvard School of Design of
the late forties and early fifties and the sociological rele- Rudolph's personal commitment to architectural education at
vance which became the vogue in architecture schools in this time was the result of his
the late 1960s; whereas the student at Harvard had first to belief that action has indeed outstripped theory and that it
lean about back-to-back plumbing and the student of the is the unique task and responsibility of great universities
late 1960s had to go to live in the ghetto, Yale concentrated such as Yale to study, not only that which is known, but far
almost exclusively on problems of design .... Rudolph's more important to pierce the unknown. My passion is to
greatest contribution was his talent for helping a studentparticipate in this unending search. Theory [Rudolph con-
analyze his work purely in formal terms.56 tinued] must again overtake action .... Architectural
education's first concern is to perpetuate a climate where
Rudolph's chosen antidote to his permanent staff was the im- the student is acutely and perceptively aware of the crea-
portation of a certain amount of outside talent, often from tive process. We must understand that after all the building
Europe: Wilhelm Holzbauer, James Stirling, Colin St. John committees, the conflicting interests, the budget considera-
(Sandy) Wilson, Frei Otto and Bemard Rudofsky. All came tions and the limitations of his fellow man have been taken
and brought a mixture of views. Many other illustrious names into consideration, that his responsibility has just begun.
were added to the visiting critic roster throughout Rudolph's He must understand that in the exhilarating, awesome mo-
tenure, including Mies van der Rohe, Ulrich Franzen, Craig ment when he takes pencil in hand, and holds it poised
Ellwood, John Johansen, Edward Bames, Ward Bennett, above a white sheet of paper, that he has suspended there
Serge Chermayeff, Walter MCQuade, Ralph Erskine, all that will ever be. The creative act is all that matters.59
Romaldo Giurgola, Robert Venturi, and Alison and Peter Rudolph's interest in broadening the bases of education not
Smithson. Not surprisingly it was as John Copelin writes, only led him to support Pe7.specta), to which he was a frequent
people, not ideas, that dominated during this period .... contributor, but also to encourage student-organized exhibits
Certainly, Vincent Scully championing Wright, Mies, Cor- such as the ones devoted to the recent work of Mies van der
busier, and then Louis Kahn and [Scully's] dramatic lee- Rohe and Philip Johnson. It is this attitude of Rudolph's
ture on the Parthenon was a catalyst for Yale undergradu- together with the university building program that had the
ates leaning toward architecture. Working in Louis Kahn's effect in the 1960s of making Yale a major focus for the atten-
building, his presence was always felt-inspirational -but tion of architects all over the world.
Figure 20. Pi,ersoin Sa,ge 8ckence
complete by Chcurl,es Gwa,thmey. bth
year, 1962. Modal.

Figure 21. Dor'rn;itory a;in,d, dining

factldy, S.U.N.Y. at Purcha,se, New
Ylork. Gwouthmey lskegel, architects ,
1973.

Figure 22. Ervtra;mce level plan.

Rudolph invigorated the masters class, sharing respon-

sibilities for it first with Kahn, and then with a succession of
visiting critics. At the same time, in alternate semesters, he
gave criticism in the third- and fourth-year Classes of the
baccalaureate program. His approach at both levels was often
to set programs with which he was professionally involved.
'lypical of this was Rudolph's Blue Cross/Blue Shield building
in Boston which he assigned simultaneously to the fourth-
year baccalaureate and masters class students.

While the masters class grew in size under Rudolph, and

often attl.acted mature students from the profession, the stu-
dents in this program almost inevitably seemed to emulate
their teacher rather than learn from him. Thus, to a consider-
able extent, the masters program of these years may well
have been a failure, particularly as measured against the so-
called undergraduate program leading to a B.Arch degree,
which had been confined since 1957 to students already hold-
ing B.A. degrees.60 These baccalaureate candidates were on
the whole more intellectually aware-and therefore more in-
dependent and resourceful-than the masters class students.
They and not the masters class provided the student leader-
ship of the department's intellectual and artistic life.

However, ther.e were exceptions to this, particularly the

masters class of 1960-61 which included such remarkable stu-
dents as Rurik Ekstron, K. Sam Scheele, Marvin Hatami, and
Stanley Tigerman. While Kempton Mooney and Alexander
Tzonis, amongst others, lent distinction to the masters class
of 1962-63, the 1961-62 masters class was dominated by a
remarkable group of English students including Eldred
Evans, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers. In the fall of
1961 the Foster/Rogers design for the Pierson-Sage science
complex introduced to Yale and perhaps to America a first
glimpse of that megastructural approach that has come to be
associated with the Archigram group. The astonishing grasp
of urban scale which this scheme (drawings for which are
regrettably lost) embodied can be appreciated if one refers to
Charles Gwathmey's solution to the same problem (fig. 20)
which is, in itself, a remarkable anticipation of American ten-
dencies in large-scale campus planning in the late 1960s, in-
cluding the work of his own firm at the Purchase campus of
the State University of New York (figs. 21,22).
2¢.
Figure 23. Lunury h,ousing by Stcunley
Thgermam. Ba,ccala;ureate thesi,s, 1960.

Figure 24. Fl,oor plan.

However, of all the masters students of this period, Stanley 49

Tigerman was probably the most outstanding since, attracted
by Rudolph's reputation, rather atypically he came to Yale in
his late twenties, after extensive experience with Skidmore
Owings and Merrill, in Chicago. Ironically, it was not his
•x# I Ifnd work in the masters class but that in his one year in the bac-
calaureate program in 1959-60 that is memorable. His bac-
calaureate thesis,61 a luxury housing project for Chicago's
:#ml£E IllH lake front (figs. 23,24), brought the classicized rectangle of
dff-E I-I
'IJEdl I
the mid-fifties, the so-called Yale Box,62 to a new sculptural
level, despite its urbanistic inadequacies, characteristic in
"ill-E IJ||H many respects of the department's philosophical stance at
that time.63 Photographs of this project and of the jury
l=EfaTl I assembled to review it, along with other fourth year projects

ill_E II II
Ill mark a return to the practice of the mid-fifties when dis-
tinguished figures would make an annual trip to participate
I"|=E in what had become the department's equivalent of the
"Academy Awards" (figs.18,19).

1960-63 may be seen as the apogee of Rudolph's positive in-

fluence on the department. The period coincides with the in-
tensive effort Rudolph expended on the design and construc-
tion of the Art and Architecture Building, which was to unite
the various departments of the school under one roof for the
first time.64 Throughout this period, the students and Rudolph
were the only constants in the department. The visiting criti-
cs were constantly being changed, since they were usrially at
the school for only six weeks. At the same time, the resident
faculty was able to exercise little influence over the design
work in the department. The effect of Rudolph's charismatic
and highly competitive influence may be readily assessed
from reminiscences of the period. Thus, as Etel Kramer has
written :
. . . Undoubtedly the richness of exposure we had to the
famous architects of the day was valuable as well as
fascinating. I was very critical of their performances and
found only Rudolph to be consistently astute and enlighten-
ing. I thought that [the] visitors' work was better than
their words. Our building of Kahn's affected me very much
with its loving attention to detail and warmth and anima-
tion of the drafting room, even empty on Sunday morning.
But when Kahn came to speak, his sermons seemed foolish.
The architects I admired were students. I was dazzled by
24.
 Figure 25. Blue CrosslBlue She,el,d office
building by Ja,quelin Roberison. bth
year, 1960.

Figure 26. Secti,on.

Figure 27. Mu8oum in Ford Worth, by

Der Scutt. Ba,ccalcwreate thesis,1961.

50 D. Sam scheele's imagination, by Jaque Robertson's BCBS

project and by his seemingly two hour preliminary thesis
jury, by Charlie Gwathmey's slick proficiency, by Der
Scutt's thesis, a.nd by anything Dave Sellers did. The school
was a hothouse of ingrown energy and personal relation-
ships and a total absorbtion in ourselves.
Kramer is equally informative about the emphasis placed on
the individual act at Yale when she writes:
I arrived at Yale from beneath the waterfall of Henry
Russell Hitchcock's method of total immersion in all the
building of most of the architects of Europe and America of
the last 150 years .... Yale was a shock. Suddenly life was
the drafting room cardboard and yellow paper; and this
was to be taken seriously. The anti-intellectualism I felt
was reinforced everywhere: Scully's assumption that we
had no critical faculties but wanted to be told what was
good architecture, especially his phrase "act, love or die"
exalting the elemental God-architect; Peter Millard's at-
titude that nothing was to be learned from the past, we
must learn it all from our own actions; Rudolph's incredible
intensity and commitment to building bright ideas. These
attitudes delighted me and slowly, feeling guilty, I grew to 25.
assume that it was right to make my own way in as original
a manner as I could. I did not want to design anything
Sllc'l`I()l\' .\-..\
resembling any building I had ever seen before.65 5cela 3',8.

If one looks for an explanation for this competitive self-con-

sciousness, one must look not only to the emphasis on the in-
dividual act, which seems to pervade the Yale attitude (wit-
ness Scully's insistence that we "act, love or die," his quota-
tions from Camus) but also, with specific regard to the archi-
tecture department, to that unspoken belief, supported by
Carroll Meeks but tacitly shared, to a varying degree, by
most of the faculty, that the admissions process should include
among its judgments a determination of the candidate's po-
tential for success as an architect in the marketplace.

Looking at this period, one sees not only Tigerman's B.Arch

thesis and Robertson's Blue CI.oss/Blue Shield project (figs.
25,26) but also a number of other more than merely interest-
ing student efforts. Der Scutt's thesis project of spring 1961
for a museum adjoining the site of Philip Johnson's Amon
Carter Museum in Fort Worth (fig. 27) was noteworthy in its
26.
27.
modesty-one of the earliest so-called nonbuildings, all They were also interested in issues of planning and saw 51
planted terraces and garden walls, a probable source for them in design terms .... And, they were never anti-in-
Kevin Roche's winning entry in the Oakland Museum com- tellectual; on the contrary, they were highly articulate and
petition of 1961.66 Scutt's scheme is also notable for its clear historically conscious.68
articulation of "servant" and "served" spaces, a reminder
that even among the most devoted of Rudolph's admirers, as In any event it is not clear why such a virulent reaction
with Rudolph himself, many of Kahn's most important against Rudolph should have set in, just at that moment when
lessons, ironically enough stemming from the Beaux-Arts, his work on the Art and ,Architecture Building and his in-
were heeded faithfully. Jaquelin Robertson's thesis for a dor- terest and commitment to the university and the department
mitory on the Old Campus at Yale (figs. 28,29) , also of spring were at their most intense. M.J. Long writes that ``Peter
1961, may be seen as a complement to Scutt's. It took an even Millard, the critic most associated with this group of students
more "nonheroic'' stance with regard to its site and in revolt against Rudolph, was more an example, and not nec-
program.67 Robertson, in his very selection of the program, essarily a cause, of this situation. For that offshoot group (or
was departing from the normal building typology of thesis perhaps it was the majority) , `gut reaction' was the cry, even
projects. It was housing, and it was involved with larger though the term had not been invented in those days."69
issues of urban design and historical context, issues that had Millard's situation at the school was an especially complex
hitherto been ignored at Yale as in our architecture at large. one at this time. He had taught there continuously since his
graduation and while in many ways the opposite of Nalle,
In the next year, 1961-62, the conjunction of James Stirling's Millard nonetheless brought to the 1960s that mystique-laden
return as a critic (after his first visit at Rudolph's invitation uncommunicativeness and insistence on self-determination
in 1959) and the presence of a number of English masters stu- which had added so much to Nalle's teaching style.70
dents, was remarkably influential on the direction of the
department. The English seemed to offer an alternate way Peter Gluck assigns responsibility for the disenchantment of
of looking at things. Despite their admiration for the the students with Kahn and Rudolph not to their philosophical
uninhibited formal exuberance of the American scene, the position, the "basic premises" of their professional positions,
English, according to M.J. Long, afforded th.e nexus of a but to the "actual results," to the buildings which the highly
countervailing criticism against that which Long has since mobile Yale students were able to see firsthand in the early
described as ``the forced and rather blousy monumentality sixties. The functional limitations of the Richards Medical
prevalent at the school." For many, the arrival of the English Laboratories and the Art and Architecture Building were
critics at the school was a breath of fresh air; for others it only too well-known to them.
was reversion to weak, diagrammatic design or to a form of
militant anti-intellectualism. The emergence around 1962 of Edward Bames, first as a
The English used ``humble" materials (brick rather than design force of significance, later as campus planner and as
concrete) and displayed a natural reticence which architectural a.dviser to Griswold's successor, Kingman
sometimes emerged as anti-monumentality. They talked Brewster, was also related to the shift away from Rudolphian
about Aalto as much as about Corbu. "heroics" to what appeared to be a lower-keyed, more self-
They showed that it was not necessary to resort to anaemic effacing attitude toward form. Though Barnes's work ap-
form as an antidote to overblown form-their buildings at peared to many to be associated with that of the English and
best had a kind of animal toughness and boniness. It was a even with certain of the Philadelphia architects, its diagram-
set of images which we could use and it took hold, just matic quality was firmly rooted in those Intemational Style
before Moore and Venturi pointed to the possibilities in tra- orthodoxies first expressed decades before by Gropius and
ditional American wood buildings and gave to others of us a Breuer at Harvard. Barnes was appointed campus planner in
similarly usable altemative set of images .... 1964. In that year, Kingman Brewster succeeded Whitney
Figure 28. Dormitory building om the
Old Ca;mpus at Ylale by Ja,quelin
Robertson. Ba,ccala,ureate thesis,1961.
Section.

Figure 29. Pl,am.

Figure 30. 'Thck House, Prickly Mowat -

can,, Ver'rnorut. Dowkd Sellers, architect,
1966. Eleva,ti,on8 , sechon and pbcun.
Griswold as president, and the direction of the university's Finkelstein, and James Rosati.72This new pr.eoccupation with 53
policy toward building paralleled the shifts in concern of the size is I.eflected in the student as well as subsequent work of
faculty and students in the school. As Myles Weintraub puts Robert Mangold, Richard Serra, Nancy Graves, and Chuck
it, "the University's policy of hiring a `big name' firm for each Close, all of whom were enrolled in the art department at this
of its new building commissions . . . was beginning to seem an time. The situation was resolved by making available, to the
inadequate response to the wrong question." advanced students, large-scale spaces in early nineteenth-
century houses owned by the university and then being held
Irrespective of this, Barnes was uniquely qualified to guide for future development. Thus, even at the outset, the unity of
Yale's building policy, which included complex town-gown the arts under one roof at the Art and Architecture Building
relations and involved such volatile issues as car parking and was not achieved, while as Whitaker notes, "The demon-
a controversial ring road then threatening to bisect the Yale strations which attended the opening of the new building
campus. Apart from his qualifications as a campus planner almost presaged the Gotte7®dcL77t77te7'-cwag which took place in
Barnes was able to attract to his office a lion's share of Yale's 1969 when the building was burned ...."73
recent graduates including Pasanella, Weintraub, Robertson
and Gwathmey. In the revised edition of his book Mocze7'.7'a A7.cht.tectw7.e Scully
observes that the completion of Rudolph's Art and Architec-
The completion of the Art and Architecture Building in 1963 ture Building, virtually coincidental with the assassination of
marked "the watershed," of Rudolph's career at Yale, as President J.F. Kennedy, can be seen as the starting point of a
Craig Whitaker suggests. "For many students, the new, ``tragic" age, one of "irony." Scully writes that
camaraderie and spirit of investigation which were fostered ``Rudolph's mood at that moment was one of heroic confronta-
by the spare lean spaces of Kahn's Art Gallery disappeared in tion; he was at last ready to take the European masters on ....
the new and more extravagant building."71 The succession of Over the decade since its completion, most of its students
events surrounding the school's moving into the new Art and have rightly or wrongly come to regard it as the prime sym-
Architecture Building in September 1963 and the formal bol of an unnecessarily competitive attitude toward people
opening ceremonies which followed in November, with the and things. It clearly demonstrated, at least, some of the
hoopla of the enormous dedication party, took a hard toll on programmatic limitations of the sculpturally-active mode of
the energies of the school and on Rudolph. In the weeks pre- building.»74
ceding the dedication ceremonies, the painting and sculpture
students picketed in front of the school in protest over the Rudolph's shifting attitude toward the department at this
cramped quarters designed for them at the top and bottom of time can be seen in his decision to bring Serge Chermayeff
the building. These protests, which now seem so mild to us from Harvard to Yale on a half-time three-year teaching con-
after the riotous activities of the late sixties, caused no end of tract. At Harvard, Chermayeff had been a dominant and
consternation at the school and were screened as far as possi- highly controversial member of the teaching staff since 1953,
ble from the press. The complaints of the painting and but by the early 1960s itriras clear that his influence in
sculpture students about the size, quality, and orientation of Cambridge was waning. There seems little doubt that
their work spaces were caused, in part, by the fact that since Rudolph's decision to bring Chermayeff to New Haven was a
the building had been programmed there had been a shift in complex one. It was at once a gesture of friendship to a
emphasis not only in the teaching in the art department but revered elder colleague whose position at another university
also in the conception of art itself-a shift from the small-size was under considerable attack from both students and
canvas or sculpture such as was favored by Albers and his faculty; more significantly it marked a loosening of the reins
successor as chairman of the art department, Bernard Chaet, on Rudolph's part, a first indication of a willingness to have
to a gigantism of gesture represented in the work of such someone else share the focus of debate. What it resulted in
newer faculty members as Jack Tworkov, AI Held, Louis was a growing divisiveness of approach to architecture, an
 Figure 31. Pan A.in building bu Pcter
Gluck. Ba,ccala;ureat,e thesis, 1965.

Figure 32. Interior perspective.

Figure 33. Wh,itmey Musewm by Robert

A.M. St,er'rv. Baccalouureate t,h,esis ,
1965.

54 argument rather than a debate or discourse; worst of all, it

implied a blurring of lines between the two schools which had,
since Howe, come to stand for different ideas. This debate be-
tween what might be described as "functionalism" versus
"formalism," as if the two were mutually exclusive and even
of equal measure, reached its fullest expression under
Charles Moore, who surprisingly chose to renew Cher-
mayeff's contract.

The fullest enthusiasm for what has been described as

Rudolph's "blousy monumentality" was reflected in a number
of thesis desigris of the mid-sixties. Most dazzling of these
was Robert Mittelstadt's thesis for a monastery in 1964;75
while David Sellers's thesis project for a new Macy's coming
at the same time embodied a strong reaction against that
very thing. Sellers had taken a year off to design the
prophetic Tack House at Prickly Mountain in Vermont (fig.
30), which was to revolutionize ski house design and, more
importantly, was virtually to give birth in the process of its
making to a whole new lifestyle.76 This act was to be of impor-
tance to the future of the department itself for it set the stage
for a new direction in the school which would prevail in the
late sixties under Rudolph's successor, Charles Moore. As
Sellers recounts it: "After the 2nd year . . . I took a year off to
build a house .... The remainder of the time at Yale I operated
a construction company simultaneously building two houses,
remodeling a ranch house and building a tree house for some
kids."77 Upon returning to New Haven in the fall of 1964,
Sellers produced as his thesis (a pre-Portman urban vision) a
department store with a great cavernous public space and an
exciting system of escalators, motorized conveyors to connect
rapid transit, existing streets, and shopping floors above.
When I finished my thesis in February, graduation was
four months away. [Sellers continues] I decided to go to
Vermont in the meantime and build a house out of ice
sprayed over weather balloons. I arrived, there was no
snow or ice, so I looked into the possibilities of doing some
building in Vermont. This evolved into lengthy discussions
on the virtues of vacation-house building versus going into
the cities where the action was. The conclusion was that if
continuing education after architecture school involved one
in actual construction (which was my opinion) that elimi-
mated the inner city.
3J.
After much discussion and economic forecasting, the Mad
River Valley was selected as the field of action-in fact, ``a
nob at the foot of the valley with a fifty-mile view looking up
the valley to a double mountain in the distance (Scully would
have puked when he heard us comparing it with the temple
sites in Greece, though the comparison is real) ."78 Ultimately,
numerous other Yale students participated in the Prickly
Mountain project, as it came to be known, and after an article
in P7.og7.esstue A7.cfottect"re in May 1966 "dozens of students
from all over the country came up to work on the houses."79

Despite all the apparent anti-intellectualism in his work,

Sellers has deep appreciation for the existential richness of
Yale.
I found myself not being (even now ten years later) in con-
flict with the vibrations and vitality and searching which
started at Yale. In fact, that is what allowed me to get in-
volved in research, politics, education and community
development. The more you have a basic understanding of
what it is to be alive, the more you have a solid foundation
on which to live. The more firm this is, the more you can
venture from it. The real content of the Yale experience for 3€.
me wasn't form or design or structure, but being. Cher-
mayeff, Engman, Millard, Chris Argyris, Paul Weiss,
Kahn, Scully, Woody, all talked about this.80

In the next year, 1965, Peter Gluck was able to pick up on the
direction implied by Sellers and proposed as his thesis a
redesign of the Pan Am Building (figs. 31,32). Gluck's design,
ironically, brings us back to the complex geometries of Kahn,
not only as manifested in his Art Gallel.y but as seen in his
tower projects of 1953. My own thesis, the design of the
Whitney Museum (fig. 33) (Breuer's scheme had not yet been
published) , was presented before the same jury as Gluck's. In
it, I attempted to combine the idea of the museum-as-monu-
ment (the three towers for the permanent collection) with the
museum-as-warehouse, the loft-like background building
which was expandable in two directions. Venturi's criticism
was invaluable in shaping the design, and refining the argu-
ment and such bold strokes as the single column in the loft
space and the oversized lettering along the diagonal "street"
were the direct result of his suggestions.
33.
56 This last thesis jury of Rudolph's tenure, held in May of 1965, ministration, and Yale with a chairman, Rudolph, whose
was in many ways a kind of ritual marking of the shifts tak- strengths like Cret's were in design.
ing place not only in the Yale scene but also in our architec-
ture as well. The critics Venturi, Johnson, Rtidolph, Cher- Moore's arrival brought with it sweeping changes in cur-
mayeff, and Cobb, included representatives of both sides of riculum as well as dramatic alterations in the Art and Archi-
that debate between heroic form-making of the late Intema- tecture Building even before the devastating fire of June
tional Style and the more semiological architecture that was 1969. In this regard, for example, the celestial visiting critics
emerging. suite was converted to a student restaurant; the double-
height exhibition space was turned over to a more-or-less
Within two years everything would be different-students permanent lighting extravaganza prepared by PULSA, a
building community centers in Appalachia in the manner of group of students interested in electronic communication ; and
Sellers and Charles Moore (fig. 34), Moore and the Venturis the chairman's office was provided with doors, conventional
suggesting new formal attitudes or at the very least giving furniture, and other commonplace paraphenalia of
new ideological focus to old ones, together with students bureaucratic administration.
analyzing Las Vegas and Levittown, and asking architects to
learn to love these places and learn from them as well. And While Moore's tenure as chairman is outside the time frame
then in June 1969, fire at the Art and Architecture Building, of this article, it is important to note that, particularly in its
the nightmare culmination of the protests of students against early years before June 1969, much of what he set out to
its strong forms, protests which had been a continuous threat achieve in terms of curriculum reform was intended as direct
since its opening in 1963.81 What had begun as an issue of form comment on the department's direction under Rudolph. Prin-
versus functional accommodation had expanded and matured, cipally, Moore attempted to broaden the focus of concern of
frighteningly, into the deepest ideological controversy of our the design process. Attempting to be as "inclusive" in his ap-
time-to the question of elitism in culture (fig. 35). proach to design education as Rudolph, he renewed Cher-
mayeffs contract, encouraged the Venturis and Stirling in
Charles Moore's appointment as chairman was announced in having them share the Charlotte Shepherd Davenport chair,83
May 1965. Paul Rudolph, by his own choice and unlike Howe, reshuffled the composition of the permanent faculty, and
had not taken an active role in the selection of his successor. diversified the thrust of the curriculum. Under Moore the
Robert Venturi and Romaldo Giurgola had also been con- curriculum ranged from actual building projects, such as the
sidered for the position. Interestingly enough, the work of Community Center at New Zion, Kentucky, which students
all three had formed the collective focus of the double designed and built in the spring of 1967,84 to a conference on
issue of Perspectci, numbers 9 and 10, which was published in computer technology held in April 1968;85from the Las Vegas
April 1965. Venturi and Giurgola had each taught in the and Levittown studios,86 to an ongoing student-designed
school for brief periods in previous years, but neither had renovation of the Art and Architecture Building, which
made strong impressions on the students, faculty or adminis- became one of the decisive monuments of the so-called super-
tration until 1963-64; in fact, the so-called Yale/Penn axis, graphics of the late 1960s.
which Colin Rowe and others refer to, did not seem to exist at
this time to its presumed participants.82 It is interesting to
note that the peak of Rudolph's influence in 1960-63 coincided
with that of G. Holmes Perkins at Penn and that, though the
presumed rivalry between Penn and Yale in the early 1960s
can be compared with that of the 1930s, the tables were
tuned after a fashion-Penn having in Perkins a dean whose
strengths like Meeks's at Yale thirty years before lay in ad-
 Figure 34. New Zion corn;munity
center, Appalachia,, Kenrfucky, by Yale
architecture st,ud,en±s. Cl,a,ss proj eat,
1967.

Figure 35. Art cund Arch,itectwre

Build;ing, Yale Urviversity, New Howen,
Con,in,ectic'ut. Pa;ul Rulalph, , architect,,
1963. After the fire Of June 1969.

35
 Notes

58 1. Portions of this article are included in my book Geo7.ge A7.t Dtgest 12 (July 1938), p. 28; and "Yale Plans to Move
Howe: 'Ibwcurd, a, Mod,ern America;in, Architecture (NewForward in a 'Ifuly American System of Architecture Educa-
Haven: Yale University Press,1975) . An abbreviated version tion," Mcbgae{7oe o/A7.t 31 (August 1938) , p. 487. According to
of the whole text was delivered before the Society of Archi- Huff, in his 1957 paper (see note 3), it was Harrison who
tectural Historians at New Orleans in April 1974 and before brought to Yale "for short periods Ozenfant, Nitschke, and
the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, Columbia Albers."
University in September of the same year. 5. C.L.V. Meeks, "Defense Work in the Department of Archi-
2. See "Yale Scores Another Victory in Prix de Rome Com- tecture," Pe"ctz Pot7ots 22 (April 1941) , pp. 285-88. For a dis-
petition," A7.t D{gest 6 (15 May 1932), p. 32; `.`Yale School cussion of the role of women at Harvard in this period, see
Scores Another Victory in the Prix de Rome Competition," "The Education of Women Architects: a history of the
A7®t D{gest 9 (June 1935) , p.11; "Yale's Method," Art D{gest 9 Cambridge School," A7.cfa{tect"7.e PZws (December 1973) , pp.
(August 1935), p. 24; "A 1'Universit6 de Yale," BecL"#-A7.ts 30-35.
(23 August 1935), p. 41. 6. For G.S.D. student work in this period, see Paul Rudolph,
3. "Arbiter of the Arts. A Beaux-Arts dean has reigned over ed., "Walter Gropius et son 6cole (the spread of an idea),"
Yale's architecture, painting, sculpture and drama for the L'A7.chitectwre d'A"/.o"7.c!'faw{ 20 (February 1950) , pp.1-116.
past quarter of a century," A7.cfottectw7.CLZ Fo?'.et77} 86 (June 7. "Appointments," A7.cfattect"7.clz Fo?'`c4m 86 (April 1947) , p.
1947), pp. 74-76, 152, 154; Everett C. Meeks and C.L.V. 62; "C.H. Sawyer Appointed Arts Division Director and Fine
Meeks, ``A Center for the Stimulation and Development of Arts School Dean," Ivew yorfo r{7wes, (3 March 1947), p. 23.
Creative Ability in the Several Arts," 824Zzet¢7o o/tfae BecLw#- 8. Hauf's appointment was announced on 9 October 1947. As
A7.ts J"sttt"€e o/Destg7o 16 (January 1940), p. 2. Dean Meeks a means of supplementing the visiting critics, Yale was to in-
died in 1954. According to a prevalent rumor, the visiting vite a number of {`critics in residence," each of whom stayed
critic system had been established by him as a remedial at the University for a period of five weeks. Hauf was
measure when practically the whole faculty resigned just assisted by first, Edward D. Stone, who was initially "Senior
prior to a new school year. William Huff, in an incomplete Critic in Residence" and then ``Chief Critic in Architecture
paper prepared in 1957 for a class of Max Bill's at Ulm wrote Design" (see note 9) and later by Louis Kahn who was ap-
the following based, as Huff now believes, on "a letter from pointed chief critic in 1948. William Huff writes in his 1957
C.L.V. Meeks" which is now missing from Huff's files: ``Orig- paper (see note 3) that Sawyer and Hauf "formally organized
inally, the Department of Architecture was conceived and the visiting critic system . . . in the realization that busy arch-
created by Everett Meeks .... He was steeped in the Beaux- itects would come to Yale for six weeks but not for life."
Arts tradition, and under him the Yale Architecture School 9. Huff, in his 1957 paper, writes: "Edward Stone acted from
enjoyed a golden era when it won most of the glories the 1948-52 as chief design critic, who was responsible for outlin-
Beaux-Arts system had to offer'. The Prix de Rome became ing the programs arid theses of the upperclassmen." Stone
known, for instance, as the Prix de Yale. Though this grand was replaced by Louis Kahn, upon Kahn's return from a long
gentleman of the Arts was never really convinced by the new stay at the American Academy in Rome. Edward Stone
era of art, he recognized its existence and was deeply dis- writes of his tenure at Yale in his autobiography, Z%e Euo!w-
turbed." See letter to author, 12 December 1974. For a dis- t¢o7o o/ cL" A7.ch{tect (New York: Horizon Press,1962), pp.
cussion of Cret and his influence at Penn, see Vincent Scully, 36-37.
£o"¢s I. KCLfo7o (New York: Braziller,1962), passim, and Theo 10. Charles Sawyer writes, "Harold Hauf was an excellent
8. White, Pciwz Pfotzt.ppe C7.et (Philadelphia: Art Alliance, administrator-manager of the department; but he was not an
1973), passim. innovator and some of our alumni in architecture and mem-
4. For Hood, see Walter H. Kilham, Jr., f3cL"77to7od HoocZ, bers of the Council Committee felt that our department
Architect (New York: Architectural Book Publishing Co., lacked the image and specific identity of Harvard or M.I.T."
1973). Though Kilham does not deal with Hood's tenure at In a letter to author, 9 February 1974, Sawyer noted that
Yale, he does touch on the retirement from active practice in
there was general agreement that the School needed to move
1931 of Hood's partner, Frederick A. Godley, and Godley's away from the Beaux-Arts tradition which had been its
decision to join the architecture faculty at Yale (p. 73) . Meeks
hallmark in the previous administration. See George Howe
articulated his visiting critic policy as an attempt to "assimil-
Collection, Avery Library, Columbia University, New York.
ate school training and office practice in one procedure." See
11. It should be noted that George Howe (1950-54), Paul
``Yale Will Follow American System," Pe"ct.Z Pot7tts 19
Schweikher (1954-56), Paul Rudolph (1958-65), and Charles
(August 1938), p.18. See also "Yale Goes Native: Appoint- Moore (1965-71) were each, in turn, department chairmen
ment of Wallace K. Harrison to the Architecture Faculty,'' and that only in 1970, when the School of Art and Architec-
ture was split into two separate entities, the School of Art 20. Avery C. Faulkner, letter to author, 21 March 1974. 59
and the School of Architecture, did Moore become the dean 21. See George Howe Collection at Avery Architectural
(1970-71) of the latter. See ``Yale A and A: restructured and Library, Columbia University, New York.
still going strong,'' Arcfojtectw7.CLZ Recorcz 147 (March 1970), 22. George Howe, untitled lecture, quoted in Yale University
p. 37. News Bureau, Release #479, 22 February 1950.
12. Herbert MCLaughlin, Jr., ``Style of Education," 23. Howe had been interested in so-called ``1ittle magazines"
P7.og7.esstue A7.chttect"7.e 39 (July 1958), p.11. since his involvement with U.S.4., I-SgwcLre, and Sfaezte7. in
13. For Breuer's house, see "Manhattan's Museum of Modern the early 1930s. See Stern, George Howe, especially chapter 6.
Art presents house designed by architect," A7.ch¢tectw7.CLZ 24. George Howe, ``'Thaining for the Practice of Architec-
Fo7"77o 90 (May 1949), pp. 96-101. ture," Pet.specccL 1 (1952), pp.1-5.
14. Sawyer recalls in letter to author, 9 February 1974, that 25. By 1953 Howe had established a combined professional
Kahn had initially suggested Howe. Howe seems to have ac- course for Yale students, leading to a B.A. and B.Arch.
degree in six years, and in entrusting the first two years of
cepted the invitation somewhat reluctantly having previously
decided to live in Europe and write. See letter, 31 August the architectural program, that is to say, the junior and senior
1949, George Howe Collection, Avery Library. See also ``G. years of the Yale College major's career, to Nalle's direction.
Howe Succeeds H.D. Hauf as Architecture Department See George Howe, ``Annual Report to the Chairman,
Chairman," Ivew yo7®fo rt.77}es, 15 September 1950, p. 30, and 1952-53," 3 June 1953, typescript, George Howe Collection,
"George Howe Named to Yale Post," A7.chjtecttt7ACLZ Recorcz Avery Library. For the Howe and Sawyer restructuring of
106 (October 1949), p.154. the Yale College program, see Charles Sawyer, letter to Dean
15. Without wishing to deny the importance of Raymond William C. De Varie, 29 October 1952, a copy of which is on
Hood one should note that .Hood played a more modest role at deposit in the George Howe Collection, Avery Library.
Yale probably because Meeks was very much in command at 26. William Huff, letter to author, 26 February 1974.
the time of Hood's tenure and, more importantly, because 27. Harold Fredenburgh, letter to author, 13 March 1974.
Hood's concern with the Modern movement seems to have 28. For a student's view of Yale during the term following
been less committed than Howe's. Howe's retirement but just before the dam burst, see Edwin
16. Witnesses of this period such as James Wilder Green and A. Kent, "Graduate Schools: V. School of Fine Arts, New
Thomas R. Vreeland testify to the fact that Howe, with his Thends.'' ycize Dcb¢Zgr Ivews, 310ctober 1954. The closest one is
gentlemanly style, left a distinctive mark on all those Yale now able to come to Nalle's own philosophy of design is his ar-
graduates who came in direct contact with him. ticle "Whole Design," Pe7®specccL 1 (1956), pp. 6-7.
29. James Stewart Polshek, letter to author, 15 March 1974.
17. See A7.ch{tectw7.CLZ f3eco7®d 107 (April 1950), p.186. 'I\in-
nar.d had been head of the section in city planning in the The perfect expression of Nalle's technique can be seen in the
department of architecture since 1945. See also AmerjccL7o house Fred Lyman, Nalle's former student, designed for his
Ctt" 65 (April 1950), p. 5, and Yale University News Bureau, own use. See Esther Mccoy, "Young Architects in the U.S.,''
Release #481, 26 February 1950. Zoczt.cLc 8 (1961), pp.166-85.
18. The department of graphic design was grouped with 30. The original Art Gallery, as designed by Egerton Swar-
painting, sculpture, and architecture within the School of tout, was only partially completed. Its expansion was a fre-
Fine Arts. See "New Department of Design," A7.cfattectw7.CLZ quently discussed project throughout the 1930s and early
j3eco7.cZ 108 (August 1950), p.194; "Design Department Set 1940s. See "New Exhibition Gallery," ycLze Assoct.a}tes
Up, Fine Arts School," Ivew yowl; I?.7"es, 16 July 1950, p. 52; 824Z!et?.7® 8 (June 1937), pp. 27-29; ``Art Gallery Extension,"
and "A. Eisenman Appointed Lecturer in Graphic Arts, Fine ycLze Assoct.cLtes Bwzzeft.7t 10 (December 1941), pp.1-3; "Plans
Arts School," Ivew yorfo rt77aes, 16 September 1950, p. 10. For Addition to Art Gallery," A4wsew77t Ivews 19 (15 January
a notable early by-product of Yale's entrance into the field of 1942) , p. 2. In 1950 the gallery expansion project was revived,
graphic design, see "Museum of Modern Art and Yale Art keeping the scheme first prepared by Philip Goodwin in 1941.
Gallery Symposium on Signs and Lettering on Streets and See "To Add to Its Building," Mwsew77t Ivews 28 (May 1950),
Buildings," Ivew yowl; rtmes, 21 November 1953, p. 10. p.1; "Plans to Add a Three Story Wing," J7o€e7|.o7.s 109 (July
19. George Howe, ``Memol.andum to Dean Sawyer," 4 1950), p.10; "Yale Plans Addition to Art Gallery Building,"
November 1954, George Howe Collection, Avery Library. A7.cfajtectw7.CLZ f3ecorcz 107 (July 1950), p.196; "To Erect a
Peter Millard, who was then a student and has since the New Three Story Addition to Its Present Art Gallery," CoZ-
mid-1950s been a teacher in the department, largely con- Zege A7^t Jo%mciJ 9 (1950), pp. 423-24; "To Build Art Gallery
firmed Howe's assessment of the situation in conversation Wing," Ive„ yo7.fo rimes, 8 April 1960, p. 15. By the time
with the author, 17 January 1974. Kahn had been designated architect, restrictions imposed by
60 the Korean war, preventing the construction ofall but essen- yowl r{77oes, 23 February 1956, p. 25; Peter F. Hannah, "A
tial classroom space at universities, forced the university to Year's Progress in Yale Architecture Controversy: Results?"
include classroom and drafting room space for the architec- ycLze DCLtzy Ivews, 16 March 1956, p. 16; "Dr. Danes Names
ture department, then housed in a variety of buildings around Dean, P. Rudolph Architecture Department Chairman," Ivew
Weir Court and along Chapel Street (though it was always yowl; rimes, 12 June 1957, p. 29; ``Yale Gets New Dean, New
intended that the gallery would eventually occupy all the Chairman, New Rating," A7.chttect"rcbz Fo7'`e477t 107 (July
space). See "Yale Design Lab Constructs Building," fl4w8ew77t 1957), p. 6; "Dean Smith to Retire; G. R. Danes Successor,"
Ivews 30 (15 October 1952) ; "Art Gallery and Design Center Ivew yo7.k r[77oes, 30 December 1957, p. 10. Nalle was replaced
Cornerstones Set," Ivew yo7®fo rb77tes, 8 November 1952, p.15; as head of the first year at the end of the 1954-55 academic
"Art Gallery and Design Center Designed by L.I. Kahn
year by T. Gorm Hansen. See Calvin M. Thillin, "Committee
Described," Ivew yowl r{77oes, 1 November 1953, p. 217; Sanctions Architecture Revisions," ycLze Dcb¢Zgr Ivews, 31 May
``Center, 1st University Building in Modern Architecture
1955, p.1; "Architecture Report to Get Official Study," ya}Ze
Dedicated; R. Lehman Speaks," Ivew yorfo rz77tes, 7 Novem- Dcit.Zgr Ivew`s, 12 May 1955, p. 1.
ber 1953, p. 2. 45. Boyd M. Smith succeeded Sawyer. He had been appointed
31. Evans Woolen Ill, letter to author, 6 February 1974. associate dean of the architecture school on 30 October. His
32. Huff, letter to author, 26 February 1974. See also Scully, appointment as dean was an interim one. See Yale University
Lo"¢s I. Kclh7t, passim and Stern, Geo7.ge Howe, especially News Bureau, Release #216, 29 November 1956. See also J.
chapter 8. G. Fritzinger, Jr., "Arts Division Replaced in Major Read-
33. Huff, in his 1957 paper, testifies to Kahn's interest in justment," ycLze DCLtzy Ivews, 18 October 1955, p. 1.
Fuller. He writes, "Recently he [Kahn] has been experiment- 46. "Yale's Hospital-Design Fellowship," Prog7.ess€ue 47.cfat.-
ing with the translating of many of the experiments of tect"7.e 39 (April 1958) , pp.115-7. The award-winning project
Buckminster Fuller into meaningful architecture." by Martin Kirchner and the 1957 award-winning scheme by
34. Howe started the magazine with a contribution of $2,500 John Houk reveal a diagrammatic approach to design more
toward its first issue. From the outset it was widely recog- involved with broad functional decisions than with the issues
nized as an important journal of architecture. of structure and space-making they imply; the 1958 hospital
35. George Howe, preface, Pe7.spectcb 1 (1952), p,1. schemes by Martin Kirchner and Marc Goldstein indicate a
36. See ``Schweikher Appointed Professor Architecture," change of emphasis shifting from issues of diagrammatic
Yale University News Bureau, Release #871, 22 June 1953. planning to those of form, no doubt a direct reflection of the
37. See Scully, "Archetype and Order in Recent American change of direction in the department caused by the arrival of
Architecture," A7.€ t7t A77ter{cci 42 (December 1954), pp. Paul Rudolph. See "Master's Thesis and Magnus T. Hopper
251-61; Ian Mccallum, A7.cfottect"re USA (London: Archi- Fellowship Thesis," P7nogresstue 47®cfot.tectw7.e 40 (October
tectur.al Press,1959), pp.108-9; Vincent Scully, 7%e Sfat.7tgze 1959), pp.180-85.
Steyze cL7®d tfoe Stjcfo Stgrze, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale Univer- 47. Harold Fredenburgh, letter to author, 13 March 1974.
sity Press,1971). 48. David Mccullough, "Architectural Spellbinder," Arch¢-
38. Howe, "Memorandum to Dean Sawyer." tectwrcLZ Fo?'.c477t 111 (September 1959), pp.136-37,191, 202.
39. See Calvin M. Thillin, "Architecture, Yale's Latest Con- 49. Vinceut Scully, The Shingle Style Tlod,a,y, or Th,e
troversy," yclze DCLtz" Ivews, 3 March 1955, p. 2. Hjsto7ici7o's f3eue7Lge (New York: Braziller,1974).
40. Calvin M. 'Thillin, "Students, Faculty, Hit Architectural 50. Vincent Soully, The ECLrih, The Tlemple, and the God,s
School," ycLze. I)cL€Zey Ivews, 18 February 1955, pp. 1,4. (New Haven: Yale University Press,1962).
41. Quoted in "Regimented Approach? Controversy Sweeps 51. Jaquelin Robertson,letter to author, no date, 1974.
Architecture School," unsigned editorial, ycLze DCLtz" Iveous, 22 52. "Physics Building for Yale," A7.cfottectw7.CLZ j3eco7.d 114
February 1955, p. 2. See also "Architectural School Listed by (September 1953), pp. 141-47. See also Vincent Scully,
"Architecture and Man at Yale," So}tw7ndcLgr Z3eut.ew o/
Accrediting Board on Provisional Basis, 56-57," Ivew yo7Afo
r€77tes, 6 January 1957, p. 73. Ljte7.citwre 47 (23 May 1964), pp. 26-29.
42. Calvin M. Thillin, "Architecture Students Win Grading 53. See ``Locus for Gown, Focus for Town," P7nog7.esstue
Reforms," ycLze DaLt.Zey Ivews, 25 March 1955, p. 1. 47.c%t.tectwre 48 (February 1967), pp. 90-97.
43. See 'Thillin, "Architecture, Yale's Latest Controversy," p. 54. For an account of the art history department's role in ad-
2. vising President Griswold, see Vincent J. Scully, Jr., ``Ingalls
44. See ``Schweikher to Submit Resignation from Top Ar.chi- Rink. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ..., " Yale/Harvard Hockey
tecture Post," ycLze DCLt.Zgr Ivews, 8 Februal.y 1956, p.1; ``Sch- Program (New Haven: February 1974) , no page mos. See also
weikher Leaves as Architecture Depal.tment Head," Ivew Walter MCQuade, "Yale's Viking Vessel," 47.cfajtect"7®cLZ
Fo7.win 109 (December 1958), pp.106-11, and "Yale's Hockey in an existing context. 'Ib that end, most of the Yale group is 61
Rink," A7.cfa€tectttrci! Z3eco7.cZ 124 (October 1958) , pp.151-58. building imposing monuments of enormous striking beauty,
55. William Huff writes in reference to Rudolph's early totally isolated from the community" (statement, 15 Febru-
ary 1974).
ieeiRruedo:Shihd%£ariTino:u#ah°nn)(ywhkon£¥m°:ttahtethcerRS#s¥c]bs):aY 64. The decision to go forward with the construction of the
tion on that particular return trip from Yale), when he Art and Architecture Building was officially announced on 18
[Rudolph] plaster-boarded and black vinyl-based over the June 1960, Yale University News Bureau, Release #515. At
bricks, blocks and concrete of the AI.t Gallery (while Lou the same time the Beinecke Library was announced.
crited [sic] on the top floor) and of his later unconvincing flir- 65. Etel Thea Kramer, "Notes on the Yale School of Archi-
tations to have Lou I.eturn as critic" (Letter to author, 26 tecture, 1960-63," ca. March 1974, typescript.
February 1974). 66. In 1974 Scutt stated that, "The Amon Carter program
56. Craig Whitaker, "Reflections on the Yale School of Arch- was expanded to develop a more complex problem with more
itecture," no date, ca. Feb. 1974. One is reminded of the lec- and different functions than required of Philip Johnson."
ture Philip Johnson gave at Yale in which, as Scully recalls it, Scutt went on to speculate that: "I would be curious to know
Johnson stated, "I'd rather live in the nave of Chartres if Roche and Dinkeloo saw the model and drawings which
Cathedral with the nearest john three blocks down the street were on exhibit the entire summer of 1961 at the Yale Gallery.
than in a Harvard house with back-to-back bathrooms." . . . There is an extraordinary likeness in concept between my
57. John K. Copelin, letter to author, 19 February 1974. thesis and their Oakland project. The section, steps, "brise-
58. Gibson Danes, the dean, was preoccupied with the rela- soleil,"and massing are remarkably similar in some det;ils ...."
tionship between the varying departments in the school and (statement,15 February 1974).
with the relationship of the school to the other professional 67. Etel Kramer writes: "An awareness of the glamorous
schools in the university, Yale College, and the university ad- project, what would sell to juries, was a valuable awareness
ministration in general. to acquire .... It showed itself particularly in the choice of
59. See Paul Rudolph, "The Architectural Education in thesis projects; buildings of social concern or with spatially
U.S.A.," Zoczjclc 8 (1961), pp.162-65. Portions are quoted by unrewarding programs were politely received at best. I
Russell Bourne, "Yale's Paul Rudolph," A7.cht.tectw7.ciz Fo7"m remember only Robertson surviving a housing thesis, but he
108 (April 1958), pp.128-29,192; see also Rudolph's "Six De- proposed the radical rebuilding of Yale's Old Campus ("Notes
terminants of Architectural Form," A7.cht!ect"7.CLZ J3ecord 120 on the Yale School of Architecture,1960-63").
(October 1956), pp.183-90, in which Rudolph castigated the 68. Long, letter to author, 11 February 1974.
"early theory of modern architecture" for its limited focus.
69. Ibid.
See Rudolph, "Changing Philosophy of Architecture," A77te7.- 70. For further discussion of Millard, see Robert A. M. Stern,
i^c_an_^In8ti!ute Of Arc_h,ite_cts J_ourmal 22 (ALugust 1954) , pp. "The Office of Earl P. Carlin," Perspectci 9/10 (1965), pp.
65-70 and also, Rudolph, "Regionalism in Architecture," 183-98, and Peter Millard, "Some Remarks on Architecture,"
Perspec€cL 4 (1957), pp. 12-19. For varying assessments of Pe7®specfcl 9/10 (1965), pp.179-82.
Rudolph as an educator see Peter Collins, ``Whither Paul 71. Whitaker, "Reflections on the Yale School of Architec-
Rudolph?" P7.og7.esst.t;e Arcfat.tectwre 42 (August 1961), pp. ture.„
130-33 and Henry Russell Hitchcock, "The Rise to World Pro- 72. Albers retired in June 1959 and was succeeded by Ber-
minence of American Architecture," Zodtclc 8 (1961) , pp.1-5. nard Chaet. See "B.R. Chaet Names Art Department Chair-
See also, 47'cfa¢tectw7®cLZ Reco7.cZ 131 (January 1962) for an in- man," Iveow yo7®fo r{77®es,11 March 1959, p. 23. Chaet was suc-
terview between Jonathan Barnett and Paul Rudolph. ceeded by Jack Tworkov in 1963; see "J. Tworkov Named
60. See interview between Jonathan Barnett and Paul Art Department Chairman, Art and Architecture School,"
Rudolph, Arcfattect"7.CLZ f3ecord 131 (January 1962), pp.12, Iveow yo7.fo rimes, 8 April 1963, p. 44. See also Henry Russell
62, 74, 84. Hitchcock, in his "Connecticut, USA, in 1963," Zod?.clc (1964) ,
61. Tigerman's project is published in "I+avaux d'6laves` a pp.5-25.
l'universit6 de Yale," L'47.cfattectw7.e d'A"/.ow7.cZ'fa"t 35 (Sep- 73. Whitaker, "Reflections on the Yale School of Architec-
tember 1965), p. LVI. ture."
62. For a description of the "Yale Box," see Herbert 74. See Vincent Scully, Mode7'7'a A7.cfat.£ec€w7.e-77ae 47.chttec-
MCLaughlin, "Style of Education," P7.og7^ess?.a/e Arcfot.€ec€%re t"re o/De77?ocrcLcgr, rev. ed. (New York: Braziller,1974) , p. 50.
39 (July 1958), p.11. 75. Mittelstadt writes: "My thesis was a last chance to do
63. Der Scutt writes: "Yale was weak in stressing the impor- something far out and experimental before becoming tied up
tance of urban compatibility of [sic] planning structures with- to the world of practicality for good. It was, therefore,
62 founded on irrelevance. I regarded it as a serious effort, York: Braziller,1969).
Serge Chermayeff's apoplectic fit notwithstanding. It repre- 85. "Architects and computer experts confer on use of com-
sented a full lockup with the formal principles of Paul puter graphics in architectural planning," Ivew yowl; rt77tes,
Rudolph as I interpreted from then current work, notably the 28 April 1968, sec. 8, p. 1.
Boston Government Center" (letter to author, 28 March 86. See "Yale Dissects Vegas," Prog7.esstue Archttect"7.e 50
1974) . (March 1969), p. 50; also, Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour,
76. See F. Kapler, "Thee-house, Ski House," Lt/e 62 (24 LecL?'`?'at7og /ro77o LCLs Vegcbs (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press,
March 1967), pp. 84-87. 1972) .
77. David Sellers, letter to author, ca. March 1974.
78. Ibid.
79. C. Ray Smith, "Architecture Swings, Like a Pendulum Figure Credits
Do," P7.ogress¢ue Arcfattect"7.e 47 (May 1966), pp.150-57.
80. Sellers,letter to author, ca. March 1974. Chris Argyris, a Figures 1-6,9-13,15-20,22-35. Courtesy the author.
professor of industrial administration at Yale, studied the Figure 7. Drawing by Robert Cole.
studio teaching and jury review process at Yale from the Figure 8. Drawing by Gregory M.S. Gall.
point of view of social interaction and conditioning. Figure 14. Reprinted from Pfat!tp Joh"so7o.. Arch¢€ec€wre
81. See "University community, partly because of provaca- J949-J965 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,1966)
tive broadsheet distributed on campus with question `Why Figure 21. Photograph by Bill Maris.
Yale has gone up in smoke?' view with suspicion recent fire
that caused unofficial $500,000 damage at Art and Architec-
ture School ..., " Iveow yowl r{mes, 27 June 1969, p. 39; "New
Haven Fire Department says it found no evidence of ar.son
after 6 week probe of blaze that resulted in $900,000 damage
for Art and Architecture Building; rules cause of fire `un-
determined,' " Ivew yorA; r{mes, 29 July 1969, p. 39; "Arson
Suspected in Fire at Yale Art and Architecture Building,"
A7.cfa¢tectw7.cL! f3eco7®d 146 (July 1969), p. 36; ``Fire in Yale
University Art and Architecture Building," A7.ch{tect"7.CLZ
Fo7.w77o 131 (July 1969), pp. 41-42; "Yale Art and Architec-
ture: Restructured and Still Going Strong," A7.chttectw7.CLZ
Reco7.d 147 (March 1970), p. 37; and Paul Goldberger, "Yale
Art Building-Decade of Crises," Ivew yorfo rtmes, 30 April
1974, p. 48, deal with the impact of the fire on subsequent
developments in the school.
82. To the best of my knowledge, Colin Rowe first coined this
phrase in a talk delivered at the Architectural League in the
spring of 1974.
83. Initial announcement of this novel arrangement was
made by President Brewster on 16 March 1966, Yale Univer-
sity News Bureau, Release #292. In connection with this ap-
pointment, Moore stated: "Stirling is a great architectural
designer as well as a famous thinker; Venturi is one of the
world's leading architectural intellectuals as well as a superb
designer.... It was not until 1969 that Demise Scott Brown
Venturi joined her husband and partner as an official occu-
pant of the Chair.''
84. Yale University News Bureau, Release #1, 2 July 1967.
See also Mark Ellis, "Yale Goes to Kentucky . . . An Account
of the Lower Grassy 'Thace Branch Community Center Pro-
-A. M.
ject," Stern, New
J7ote7riors Di,rections
128 (December in1968)
American Archtiecture
, pp.136-47; INow
also, Robert
Postscript: Kahn, Penn, and the Philadelphia School

Mimi Lobell Mi,rmj, Lobell ks am a#chit,eat and, t,ea,che8

ct Pralt In8ti±ule School Of
Arch;itectwre. Sh,e ks co-cw,thor (with,
John Lobell) Of a;in, articl,e o!n "The
Ph,tledalphia, School" which wall
cbppecl7. ?.7} Oppositions t.7t J976.

There have been many references lately to a ``Yale-Penn Aldo van Eyck with Kahn and Venturi. As well as having a 63
Axis." As a graduate of the Penn coordinate of this alleged coherent philosophical core centered around Kahn, Penn, dur-
axis, I must say that the link never occurred to me, nor has it ing G. Holmes Perkins's deanship, was a place of seren-
occur.red, to my knowledge, to my fellow colleagues of Penn's dipitous meetings, paradoxical insights, and evolutionary fer-
"golden age" which is generally thought to have ended by the
ment.
mid-sixties when many who were teaching there went off to
become deans or heads of other schools. The Penn architectural education differed greatly from
Yale's. When I was there we saw no connection between the
I think more in terms of the "Penn-Point," if you will. The two schools whatsoever. A Penn building was evaluated for
point is that the University of Pennsylvania and the the quality of its contribution to human experience and for its
Philadelphia School were a focus of that once-in-a-lifetime sensitivity to the surrounding contextual fabric, not for its
energy and creative expansion that result from a convergence visual or formal gyrations. A Penn student was encouraged to
of sympathetic minds on all levels: administration, faculty, become an "anonymous architect" in the best sense. Geddes's
students, community, and city government. Not that all was dormitories at the University of Delaware, Kahn's Exeter
smooth or that the ambience was without jealousy, political Library, and Venturi's Yale Mathematics Building are exam-
manipulation and misunderstanding; but there was a synergy ples of visually modest buildings which fit comfortably with
beyond the norm in Philadelphia in the early sixties that can their neighbors while being outstanding works of architec-
be seen as a model for architectural education, professional ture. Being a great work of architecture has little to do with
practice, individual growth, and municipal policy working short term "user need requirements" (the thrust of Robert
together toward achievements in architecture that transcend Gutman's critique of the Richards Medical Research Build-
the sum of the parts. The dramatic importance and lessons of ing). It has more to do with perceiving the universalities of
this model have, I believe, been overlooked in the attempts to being, experience, and institutions as the genesis of architec-
aggrandize individual architects and universities. ture-a sensibility that is little understood outside of the
Philadelphia School. Kahn's ability to sense these univer-
One of Penn's weaknesses, which is why I haven't been so salities and give them form are what made him a great archi-
critical of the idea of a "Yale-Penn Axis," is that Penn people tect-and his buildings far from mute. ,Vincent Scully's insis-
aren't very good at promoting themselves (the Venturis and tence on the muteness of Kahn's buildings attests only to
two editions of VIA notwithstanding) . There is a classic story Scully's deafness.
about Carles Enrique Vallhonrat, a principal in Kahn's office
and then chairman of the school, who upon being called up by While Penn was educating anonymous architects, Yale was
P7®og7.essjue Archttectw7®e for an interview responded: grooming virtuoso formalists and highly visible "stars" like
"Prog7®esst.ue A7.ch€tectw7.e? I don't think I know that maga-
Paul Rudolph, Charles Moore, Jaquelin Robertson, Bob Stern,
zine .... No, we don't give interviews." Jonathan Barnett, and Vincent Scully. I think that the cur-
rent attempts to identify a "Yale-Penn Axis" have been
For years Romaldo Giurgola was reluctant to publish his grossly one-sided. They have been attempts to channel Penn's
firm's work. As yet few people know about Karl Linn's unique synergy into Yale's personalities thereby making very
pioneering of vest-pocket parks, Robert LeRicolais's or strange bedfellows of Charles Moore and Louis Kahn, George
August Komendant's advanced work in engineering, Edmund Howe and FTank Furness, or Bob Stern and Bob Venturi.
Bacon's ideas and successes in urban design, or the innovative Perhaps all that Penn gets out of it is publicity.
ways that Venturi and Giurgola taught history. Not to men-
tion the impact of Dr. Humphrey Osmond (the psychiatrist Everytime I go down to Philadelphia and talk to Steve
who introduced psychedelic drugs to Aldous Huxley) as a- Izenour, Ed Bacon, Robin Friedenthal, or any of the other
visiting critic in Bob Geddes's studio, or the interaction of Penn people who have stayed in Philadelphia, I go into a kind
64 of culture shock. The shock is in seeing the parochial con-
centration on politics and promotion in the New York archi-
tectural community while there are extremely important
things going on in the Philadelphia School that will never
reach a larger public or professional awareness simply
because the people involved have neither the gift for, nor the
interest in, the kind of promotion that is cultivated in New
York.

In sum, I think that as an historical phenomenon, as a model

for creative synergy on all levels relevant to architecture,
and as a survey of some of the most important arcriitects,
planners, and engineers of our time-the Philadelphia School
warrants further attention.
 Theory A Selection from Working Fables :
A Collection of Design Tales for Skeptic Children

Emilio Ambasz ©1974

Texts in architecture are not merely a just a new development of meanings or poetics. Ontheonehand,theymightbe 65
neutral agency serving as a register of content but fundamentally a work seen as a witty and provocative view of
useful information for the design and centered in the parallel development of the present; on the other, they might
construction of buildings. They are a content and expression. be seen as a metaphor of the way in
primary part of the c7aecLttue and which society uses the seductive force
prod"ct?.ue architectural apparatus There is another potential role for of poetry as a mask by which to
taking a different role according to the texts which may perhaps help us to a facilitate the consumption of its
place they have in the process of design better understanding of these fables; economic, political or ideological
and interpretation of architecture. this is the ideological/political role. products.
Mol.eover, in extreme cases, these This role, often implicit and M.G.
texts, like architectural drawings, superimposed on the other functions of
become entities having their own text, always has as its goal to maintain Emilio Ambasz was born in Argentina
theoretical or aesthetic value which and reproduce the status quo, rather in 1943 and received his architectural
corresponds to their own internal than to create a new situation. This is education at Princeton University.
structure, establishing in this way a precisely the case of these fables. The Since graduating he has taught at
reality that is autonomous from the gender "fable" implies that a general Princeton and briefly at the
building seen as the "natural" product principle of conduct is suggested Hochschule fur Gestaltung at Ulm.
of architecture. through the presentation of specific While a Fellow at The Institute for
examples of behavior. Here, different Architecture and Urban Studies, he
Emilio Ambasz's fables neither aim to ideological utopias developed in the directed a study into "Institutions for a
be part of the creative process nor to sixties, be they formal, Post-Technological Society" ; a project
be theoretical explication. They belong communicational or related to a co-sponsored by The Museum of
to a literary gender characterized by a systems approach, are implicitly Modern Art. In 1969 he became
particular structure that encourages presented as examples for the Curator of Design at The Museum of
the reader to look for meanings hidden interpretation of some specific urban Modern Art and in this c.apacity he has
beneath the literal surface of the environments and their institutions. been responsible for a number of major
fiction. This metaphoric structure, in But this resultant interpretation also shows.
its play with the substitution of an contains important political
absent meaning that has to be found, implications. In one instance, the
produces an aesthetic pleasure similar difference between New York -the
to the one produced by poetic texts. In imperial metropolis -and Buenos
this sense, these fables do indeed have Aires-the dependent city-seems to
a strong poetic/w7oct¢o" in that they be erased; in another, the political
form a discourse centered in itself content of the texts and the reasons for
without any obvious practical function. the violent actions of those living in
However, they do not possess a poe€t.c "La Citta del Disegno" are suppressed.
st7"cttt7®e. This is only discernible in Elsewhere we are confronted with the
cert cLt7a discourses which are inevitable co7ose7.t/cLtt.a/e role of the
characterized by a play through which Univercity, which is supposed to
they create, in language, structural maintain an existent ideology.
equivalences between expression and
content. In other words, poetic Ambasz`s fables are published here as
discourses, unlike these fables, are not an example of the ideological use of
 La Citta del Design,1973

66 Italy has remained afederation of city- which define the streets. For that
states. There are museum-cities and purpose, they march along chanting
factory-cities. There is a city whose invocations, or write on the walls
streets are made of water, and another words and symbols which they believe
where all streets are hollowed walls. are endowed with the power to bring
There is one city where all its about their will.
inhabitants work on the manufacture
of equipment for amusement parks, a There is one group whose members sit
second where everybody makes shoes, on top of the buildings. There they
and a third, where all its dwellers build await the emergence of the first leaf of
Baroque furniture. There are many grass from the roof that will announce
cities where people still make a living the arrival of the Millenium.
by baking bread and bottling wine, and
one where they continue to package As of late, rumors have been
faith and transact with guilt. circulating that some members of the
Naturally, there is also one city group dwelling in the streets have
inhabited solely by architects and climbed up to the buildings' roof-tops,
designers. This city is laid out on a hoping that from this vantage point
gridiron pattern, all city blocks are they would be able to see whether the
square, and each city-block is totally legendary people of the countryside
occupied by a cubic building. Its walls have begun their much predicted
are blind, without windows or doors. march against the city, or whether
they have instead opted for. building a
The inhabitants of this city pride new city outside the boundaries of the
themselves in being each I.adically old one.
different from the other. Visitors to the
city claim, however, that all
inhabitants have one common trait:
they are all unhappy with the city they
inherited; and moreover, concur that it
is possible to divide the citizens into
several distinct groups.

The members of one of the groups live

inside the building blocks. Conscious of
the impossibility of communicating
with others, each of them in the
isolation of his own block, builds and
demolishes a new physical setting
every day. To these constructions the
members sometimes give forrhs which
they recover from their private
memories; on other occasions, these
constructs are intended to represent
what they envision communal life may
be on the outside.

Another group dwells in the streets.

Either as individuals or as members of
often conflicting sub-groups, they have
one common goal: to destroy the blocks
Anthology for a Spatial Buenos
Aires,1966

The Mythological Foundation of Limits Sky

Buenos Aires

It seems to me a tale that Buenos Aires Buenos Aires has as limits the Rio de la TheArgentinesky? Yes, thesolegreat 67
ever started : Plata to the East, the Brook to the consolation. For I have seen this sky
I judge her as eternal as the water and South, the Pampa to the West, and the from the limitless Pampa, punctuated
the sky. Viceroyalty to the North. Two sides of here and there by a few weeping
water, one of past, one of future. willows, unlimited, shimmering in the
Barges, Cuadermo Sow Ma,rtkn day as in the night with a blue
Sides? She has only four, for there are transparent light or swarming with
only four cardinal points. Four faces stars. This celestial countryside is on
and two doors. Through the door of the four horizons.
earth the country enters, through that
of water, he goes out. Le Corbusier, P7.e'ctst.o7os

Martinez Estrada, LCLs Ce4cLt7.o CcL7ACLs

 Pampa River The Memorable Horizontal

68 Pampa, Indian voice for space, land First he was believed to be a sea: the All at once, above the first illuminated
where man stands alone as an abstract sweet sea; now we.know that he is the beacons, I saw Buenos Aires. The
being who would have to recommence estuary where two rivers come uniform river, flat, without limits to
the history of the species-or to together. Tomorrow, it will be said that the left and to right; above your
conclude it. he is still the Pampa that here becomes Argentine sky so filled with stars; and
water, in the same manner as in other Buenos Aires, this phenomenal line of
Martinez Estrada, "Los Seriores de la parts he becomes roofs or sky. light beginning on the right at infinity
Nada'' and fleeing to the left toward infinity.
Martinez Estrada, CcLbezcL de GoZ¢¢th Nothing else, except, at the center of
the line of light, the electric glitter
Yearning plain, dematerialized; which announces the heart of the city.
Metaphysical peace. Divine geometry Other beautiful rivers The simple meeting of the Pampas and
Of abstract horizons and stripped land. have various colors . . . the river in one line, illuminated the
Landscape of the space, dreams of the night from one end to the other.
firmament Other, are deeper,
Glory of solitude in savage ambits other, bluer, run Mirage, miracle of the night, the
Mane, wings, and clouds for the winds' along delicate gardens simple punctuation regular and infinite
joy. and magnificent forests. of the lights of the city describes what
Buenos Aires is in the eyes of the
Larreta, "La Pampa" You, sea of dark waters, voyageur. This vision remained for me
wide pampa of copper, intense and imperious. I thought:
give distance nothing exists in Buenos Aires; but
to man's daydream . . . what a strong and majestic line.

You, Rio de la Plata, Le Corbusier, P7.e.cds¢o7os

have the horizon.

Yunque, "Loa al Rio de la Plata"

Twilight Roofs Streets

The hour of Buenos Aires is the London and New York are metropolises Buenos Aires is the faithful image of 69
afternoon, the hour of the desert. It is symbolic of two islands. Buenos Aires the great plain that, encircling her, has
then when the city acquires her has been engendered and conceived by its straightness continued in the
cosmical aura. the plain. Horizontal surface: this is rectitude of the streets and houses. The
the key word. New York is all facades. horizontal lines overcome the vertical.
Twilight of the dove Buenos Aires is all roofs. From the sky The perspectives-of one and two
Did the Hebrews call the beginning of New York is a honeycomb of masonry storey dwellings lined up and facing
afternoon . . . icicles. Buenos Aires is plains and sky. one another for miles and miles of
In the same manner as one has to see asphalt and stone-are too easy to be
In that hour of fine sandy light, the Pampa from below because it believed. Each crossroad intersected
My roaming met with an unknown continues until it fuses with the by four infinites.
street, firmament (and it can be said that it is
Open with the noble ampleness of a more sky than land) , one has to see the Borges, ``Las Calles"
terrace city from 1,500 kilometers high (for
And revealing on cornices and walls the real facade of Buenos Aires are her
Colors as soft as that same sky roofs) . Streets of Buenos Aires, designed for
That stirred in the background. the long vista, all the way to the
The city is an immense roof, carefully horizon. Through those straight
. . . and the environs of the twilight! gridded, as if it were a pavement. A infinite streets, along those gutters,
Gigantic sunsets occur exalting the floor was laid over the earth, on top of the country empties into the cities, the
depth of the streets, scarcely contained this another, and thus the land gets cities empty into Buenos Aires, and all
by the sky. To have our eyes whipped built resembling the layers of pampean of them empty into the river.
by the sunsets' rigorous passion we earth.
must resort to the outskirts which Martinez Estrada, "Pampa y Techos"
oppose both "pampas." Martinez Estrada, "Desde el Cielo"

Faced with the metropolis' indecision,

the houses at its edge assume a
challenging role in front of that
absolute horizontal, where the sunsets`
promenade gradiosely like wandering
steamers.

Borges, "Fervor de Buenos Aires"

 Plazas Patio Ideal City

70 Iwanttotalkabouttheplazas. In With the evening The man of the interior has stripped
Buenos Aires the plazas-noble pools the two or three colors of the patio Buenos Aires of any materiality and
overstocked with freshness, congresses grew weary. transformed her into a formidable
of patrician trees, stages for romantic The huge candour of the full moon emporium of the best that exists in our
rendezvous-are the stillwaters where no longer enchants her habitual reality and in our imagination. Thus,
the streets resign their persistent firmament. Buenos Aires is the center of a
geometrical flow, break formation, and Patio, channel of sky. circumference formed by the most
joyously disperse. The patio is the window populated points and cultivated by the
through which god watches souls. interior. They are all at the same
Borges, ``Plazas" The patio is the slope distance. They are periphery as she is
down which the sky flows into the center. As in Borges' "Pascal," where
house. nature is space, Buenos Aires
Serene. remained, "an infinite sphere with a
Eternity waits at the crossroads of center in all parts and a circumference
stars. nowhere.''
How beautiful to live in friendship wi`th
the shade She is a kind of "civic divinity," the
of a porch, eaves, and a well. federal district that twenty-one
provinces have envisioned as the other
Borges, "Patio" city; the other life; the certainty of
greatness; ``the ideal city."

Martinez Estrada, ``Civitas"

Manhattan: Capital of the Xxth
Century,1969

Manhattan, unencumbered by organization, the capacity of its input- 71

permanent memory, and more output mechanism, and the versatility
interested in becoming than in being, of its control devices-as the most
can be seen as the city of that second representative urban artifact of our
technological revolution brought about culture.
by the development of processes for
producing and controlling information, Freed in this manner from its current
rather than just for energy. It has, limitations, we may, to further this
after all, incorporated the worship of transfer operation, remove
communication with the idolatry of the Manhattan's infrastructure from its
industrial product and, by so doing, present context and place it, for
provided the ground for supporting example, in the center of Sam Francisco
any infatuation with the now-as-the- Bay, on the plains of Africa, among the
ultimate configuration of reality. chateaux of the Loire Valley, along the
However, seen in a different light, Wall of China . . .
Manhattan may reveal an unforeseen
potential for conceiving of a quite Manh.attan's infrastructure, thus
different notion of city. liberated, belongs to all. But an
infrastructure, though necessary, is
Manhattan is, in essence, a network. If not sufficient to make a city. The next
beheld as an infrastructure for the step is, then, for all to undertake the
processing and exchange of matter, postulation of its possible structures.
energy, and information, Manhattan The methods may belong either to
may be seen either as the overwrought remembrance or to invention, for,
roof of a subterranean physical grid of conceived as the idea rather than as
subway tunnels and train stations, the actual configuration, Manhattan's
automobile passages, postal tubes, infrastructure provides the framework
sewage chambers, water and gas pipes, in which all crystallized fragments
power wires, telephone, telegraph, rescued from the city of the memory,
television and computer lines; or, and all figments envisioned for the city
conversely, on the datum plane of an of the imagination may dwell ensemble,
aerial lattice of walking paths, if not by reasons of their casual
automobile routes, flight patterns, relationships (since no reconstruction
wireless impulses, institutional is hereby intended) , then by grace of
liaisons, and ideological webs. In any of their affinities. The outcome of such
these roles, the points of Manhattan's undertaking may be agitational, and
network have been repeatedly render, if not actual proposals of
charged, on and off, with different structures, at least an explicit
meanings. Entire systems and isolated Inventory of Qualities of urban
elements have been connected to and existence toward a yet to be defined
"City of Open Presents."
processed by these networks, only to be
later removed and replaced by new
Ones. In a first, 7.et7"ospectjue phase, we may,
as one of many possible approaches,
Were we willing, for the sake of assemble in a piecemeal manner any
argument, to suspend disbelief, forget surviving fragments of the memory of
coordinates, and imagine that all the infrastructure :
present structures have been
completely removed, Manhattan's Bologna's arcades,
infrastructure would emerge -in all Osip Mandelstam's St. Petersburg,
the complexity of its physical John Nash's Regent's Park,
72 Gabriel's petit Thianon, It is by this reiterative process that the
Katsura's promenades to observe the envisioned structure would assume
sunset, constructive powers. Insofar as they
Mies' Bar.celona Pavilion, would question the context of the
Wallace Stevens' wind on a wheatfield, Present, they would assign to it new
John Soane's house, meanings; insofar as they would
Frank Zappa's Los Angeles, propose alternative states, they would
Baudelaire's fleeting instants, re-structure it.
Debussy's submerged cathedral,
Michael Heizer's landmarks,
Joan Littlewood's Fun Palace,
Ray Bradbury's brown clouds,
Le Notre's Gardens of Chantilly . . .

This tearing of the fragment from its

former context, this rescuing of the
irreducible word from its decayed
sentence, involves not only the usual
process of design by discriminate
selection but suggests, moreover, a
process of bringing together where,
instead of establishing fixed
hierarchies, the fragments rescued
from tradition are placed on the same
level in ever changing contiguities, in
order to yield new meanings, and
thereby render other modes of access
to their recondite qualities.

In a second, p7"ospectjue phase, the

form of any structure to be assembled
on the infrastructure is to come from
the domain of invention.

But envisioned qualities do not come in

wholes. They are to be apprehended as
they rush by-partial denotators of an
inversed tradition, of possible states
which may become; and once grasped,
they are to be dialectically confronted
with the many meanings which can be
temporarily assigned to our
fragmentary experiences of the
Present.

As the meanings of these structures

can only be interpreted in the context
of the relationships they establish with
other structures, this process would
generate new meanings which in turn
would require further interpretation.
The Univercity (draft) ,1972-74

To culminate this long tenure in a land speculation, Univercity and its to take place. No one has yet been able 73
fitting manner, the Governor of the surrounding countryside were to to establish exactly in what manner
North-Eastern Region conceived of remain the property of the North- and why, but it is suspected that some
creating a new city. Intent on Eastern University. Land for of the experiments on which
minimizing the political and financial industrial use could only be leased, Univercity was based got out of
struggles which in the past had while to further experimentation in control, generating totally unexpected
invariably deformed the destiny of social groupings, housing leases would secondary and tertiary consequences.
other cities, he proposed that the new be signed not by a family, but by each
city be designed and managed by the of its members as individuals. It would seem that the beginnings of
University of the North-Eastern the change were subtle and, in turn,
Region. Another branch of the University, its gentle. It is assumed that it all began
Urban Planning and Development when, in opposite corners of the city,
This University had been established Institute, was put in charge of altars to Revolution and Redemption
more than a century ago, to contribute designing the city, supervising its were built. Although no one actually
solutions to the problems of an evolving construction, and managing the new believed in gods, playing off the
rural society. Having fulfilled its task city's infrastructural services. It was divinities one against the other was
with a modicum of accomplishment, the also to supervise some of its perhaps a useful device for gaining
University was, nevertheless, superstructural aspects, especially as terrain for their own human goals.
becoming increasingly aware that the they pertained to educational, cultural
main areas of intellectual speculation and leisure activities. Later, the citizens established a
and artistic imagery had been shifting cemetery in the center of the city. The
from an anxious observation of the The new city's physical plan was to be Future was buried there several times,
natural milieu to an anguished inquiry based on the concept of open-ended only to be exhumed periodically by a
into the nature and praxis of the man- systems. It was to provide an urban few who felt they could not go on
made environment. The Governor's system capable of interacting with its without its forwarding image. In
intentions suited the University's need surrounding context, and of receiving another part of the city, members of a
for intellectual expansion, and the new or removing old sub-systems much different group devoted
proposed task was accepted. without unduly affecting the rest of a themselves to exorcising the guilt of
the city's processes. The technicians of history by making collective gestures
The new city was to be the the interdisciplinary design team endowed, they believed, with the
University's laboratory for urban and hoped that the city resulting from such power to obliterate individual
institutional innovations. Preventive a dynamic model would foster the memories. These seem to have been the
health care, personal and mass maximum of social communication. same who decided their newborn
transportation systems, different babies should be considered 120 years
forms of neighborhood government and A varied and representative cross old. It is surmised that they did so not
communal living and new working and section of the Region's population so much hoping that the ever-present
leisure patterns were just a few of the willingly settled there, once knowledge of the end would prevent
ideas the University intended to test Univercity's concepts and goals their engaging in harsh longings or the
there. became known. In a few years, the pursuit of vainglory, but rather
population became stabilized at wanting their children to grow up with
The Grant Act which once had 100,000 inhabitants, and in a relatively the awareness that any wager against
sponsored the creation of the original short time, it became the much talked- mortality was an insane challenge.
University was unearthed. By about showcase its founders had hoped
carefully stretching some of its for. Naturally, in its first stages, As generations changed, uncertainty,
original meaning, the Regional Univercity underwent the normal which in olden times used to dress itself
Legislature granted the University adjustment problems, but on the whole up as language, gave way to purposeful
large extensions of public land. The it prospered as had been projected. silence. Music and mathematics
University's financial arm-the Bank became Univercity's form of mystical
of Univercity, as the city was to However, as time passed by an experience and epistemological
become known-issued bonds on this indefinable yet perceptible shift in tl.ansaction. Words, forgotten and
land to finance construction. To avoid Univercity's goals and behaviors began aimless, roamed the city, gradually
74 returningto the chaos towhich they task is severely hindered by the fact
had once belonged. that almost all records of the history of
Univercity itself have literally
On festive occasions, the days blended vanished.
into the nights as the inhabitants
gathered to promenade their feelings Numberless hypotheses are brought up
and dance their passions. The rest `of about the end of Univercity. There are
the time they remained in the quietude those who maintain that the Regional
of their places, making objects or Government at first tolerated the
turning thoughts. With these unexpected turns Univercity had been
creations, they hoped to reconcile their taking, rationalizing it as a useful
desires with their fears. It was felt experiment which they could well
that the power of these creations afford, as long as it remained
depended on their meaning not circumscribed. But later, as its
becoming known until they had become influence began to pervade the ways of
form, and the most powerful constructs perceiving and acting upon reality of
were assumed to be those which the people of other cities in the Region,
remained clammed up in their the Government decided that it was
recondite condition until ready to imperative to bring Univercity to a
reveal themselves. Stones and water- fast and thorou.gh end.
and all examples of real and imagined
creation-were revered as inner forms The speculative variations on the
which had not yet revealed their signs. possible reasoning behind such a
decision are immeasurable. While some
Those without a gift for numbers and sustain that it came about because
deaf to sound dedicated themselves to Univercity taught a subversive
architecture. At one end of town they alternative to the prevailing
delineated a parcel of land in the conditions, others believe that it was
almond shape of an eye, digging until becoming increasingly evident to the
water level was reached. With the people of the region that Univercity
earth that had been removed, they could only remain the exemplary model
built a square platform at the opposite as long as they were willing to continue
end of town. On it they drew an toiling to maintain an ideal they
orthogonal grid, building at every themselves could never hope to
crossing square towers ten steps wide become.
and one hundred steps high. The first
tower was made of sandstone and the Whenever a few of us risk gathering in
last of ice, but all seemed to be of the secret to evoke its unbearable absence,
same material, so subtle was the series we quietly tell each other that
and so large the number. Univercity is still somewhere in the
Region, transparent and silent by its
At this point, however, even conjecture own will. For us, Univercity is still
must stop, for none can claim to know here, waiting for none, but willing to be
turned once more into a fable by the
i°£¥h°trh¥€gbue:LV£::i:¥ig]S:E3::ri%8.[t passing shadow of those who may unite
some of the changes which took place in for a perfect instant to bring its image
Univercity by observing to light.
transformations which also occurred
around that time in some of the
neighboring cities which survived the
disappearance of Univercity; but the
The Space Between

Alison and Peter Smithson

This poetic fragment was written many essays, singly and jointly, and 75
shortly before the death of Louis Kahn. their books include Pot.t7.a;tt o/the
Female Mi,nd cLs a Yioung Girl (Chatto
As a gesture to Kahn, the Smithsons & Windus, 1966) ; UrbcL7a Sty"ctw7.j"g
sent this article to us and it is printed (Reinhold Publishing Corp.,1967) ; 7%e
here in that spirit. The Smithsons see Euston Arch curd the Growth of i,he
the basic contracts of American London, Mi,dia,in,d, and Scot,tish,
urbanism as one of the space between Z3aLtzwciey (Thames & Hudson, 1968) ;
buildings. Their thesis is that while the Ordina,riness amd Light (:NIL.T. Press,
Modern movement in Europe and 1970) ; BCLth.. Wci!fos Wztfot7t WcLZZs
America stressed the object-like (Adams & Dart, 1971) ; and Wztfoo"t
quality of buildings and that Z3faetoy{c (M.I.T. Press, 1974) .
traditional European urbanism was
concerned with the continuous quality
of building, American urbanism has a
tradition of the "space between." If
modern architecture can have any
effect on future building it must be
looked at for the capacity of its ideas to
be regenerative. One of those ideas i§
the potential mediation of new
buildings with old through what can be
called the "space between."

The implied lesson for Americans is

that rather than looking to the
European traditions for models of
future urbanism, we might.look to our
own American spatial hierarchies for
such clues.
P D.E.

Alison and Peter Smithson were born

and educated in northern England.
Their past work includes Hunstanton
School, Norfolk (1951-54) ; The House
of the Future at the Dcit.Zy Mcltz Ideal
Home Exhibition (1956) ; the
Economist Building, London
(1960-64) ; and Robin Hood Gardens,
Tower Hamlets, London (1963-72) .
Since starting their architectural
practice in 1950 they have written
Figure 1. The Fa,ery Ring, Djerba,, Figure 4. De Vote h,ouse, prroject.
Twhj,si,a. Plo;nding in t,he scund,. Lowis Kchn, architect,1955. Kahn
h,ouse-ti,ke-a-bcrm.
Figure 2. Urvf ;irish,ed temple, Segesta,
Skcdy. 424-416 B.C. Figure 5. Th,e Seoretary's of:face,
Chelsea Hospital, London. Sir John
ELgure 3. E.mpty ba;rn, Low Mi,d,d,I,ctoin Soane, arch,itect,1818-19.
o!rv the River Tlees, Couruty Durha;in,
England. Figure 6. Blenhei,in Pala,ce, Woodstock,
Oofordshire, England,. Sir John
Vanbrugh, cund Ni,ch,ol,a,s Ha,wksmoor ,
arch,itects, 1705.

Figure 7. Cu8t,o.in House, 1844, wi,th

dock Of:f tees al right, c.1853, West
Hartlepool, Couruty Durha;in, Engla;nd.

Figure 8. Figures on a, roof. Event

near Lincoin, Mas8achusett8.

The most mysterious, the most charged of architectural 77

forms are those which capture the empty air. The faery ring
(fig. 1), Stonehenge, the standing columns of the temple
whose cella walls have gone (fig. 2), the empty barn (fig. 3),
the Kahn house of the square brick columns (fig. 4) , the chim-
neys of the English Renaissance (fig. 5) . . . such forms are
double-acting, concentrating inwards, radiating buoyancy
outwards. The drama is set up by the I.ing of chairs at the
round table before the knights arrive.

The chimneys of the English Renaissance can also be read as 6.

architecture's own break with Rome; the center simply gone,
and in place of the all summating dome the play of almost-
equals making magical emptiness in between and creating
imaginary answering turrets beyond. In the case of Vanbrugh
this may not be too fanciful a picture of the working of his
geometric and symbolic imagination (figs. 6,7).

It is Whig architecture.

By this interpretation of the play of chimneys and of turrets

and towers, the English Houses of parliament are correctly 7.
housed. The feeling one has for the cluster as an ideal urban-
form for the English city can be seen as one not unsupported
by the fact of the common reading of the turretted form. For
the Houses of Parliament form-decision was made by a politi-
cian not an architect.

To return to the list of those architectural forms which cap-

ture the empty air-leaving aside the faery ring and
Stonehenge-the power of the groups of columns through
which one sees the sky, or the landscape beyond, as at Sunion
or selinunte town, is entirely different from that of the com- 8.
plete ring of columns as at Paestum or Segesta. We are aware
at once of the mysterious empty air inside the ring. Unlike
Kahn we may not hesitate to enter, but we know as we pass
between the columns that we break into a solemn and
mysterious place. That a barn-a roof on open columns-
should be mysterious too? Is it that we think of it as a temple,
or that we feel that something that when full is a block, a
solid, a mass, then suddenly a void, then a void anticipating a
mass, is a mysterious event? For after all, the substance of
house or office is very infrequently removed, the roof over
78 only remaining, with clear air under and the landscape and
the sky beyond. Or do we feel for the barn as we do for the
renewal of a tree by the seasons? Perfect when in leaf-a
mass-in summer, perfect when veined air in winter.
Especially perfect if we feel winter' and emptiness as a cleans-
ing, and spring as a renewal, a miracle every year. Maybe a
barn is like that.

But how do we see the Kahn brick-columned house-like-a-

barn? Why did that seem so moving when it was first drawn
(and not only to us) ? Did we then feel it as temple, and temple
as empty, and empty as barn, and barn as tree?

The Kahn house of brick columns was a brutalist place for the
intellect . . . not barn . . . not temple . . . free of the wheel of
seasonal labor . . . free of gods or ritual.

A frame in which a contemplative owner could camp out com-

fortably and appreciate nature, and by moving his screens see
stars or moon as spectacle without himself becoming
another's spectacle.

Before this house design, bricks had been unthinkable . . . and

still were (even still are), but here and onl.y here bricks
became a brutalist tool. (Jaoul brickwork, for all its "natural-
ness" of Algerian laying, its texture could pass straight into
decorative expressionistic Banham-brutalism ...,
"Banhamalism" or the Myopic's brutalism.)

But it is not possible to read those chimneys so seriously (fig.

8) . We are happy with them in a far more lighthearted way.

Figure Credits

Figures 1,2,3,5,7,8. Photographs by Peter Smithson.

Figure 4. PerspectcL, 3, 1955.
Figure 6. Vitruvius Britannicus, Vol. 1, Plate 57.
Documents Karel Teige's Mundaneum,1929
and Le Corbusier's In Defense of Architecture,1933

Introduction by George Baird

It is possibly no accident that the uncomfortably remains: ``The 8aLchztcfa 79

argument formulated by Manfredo I do not even discuss, conceding it to be
'Thfuri in his "L'Architecture dams le evident, primary, inevitable,like the
Boudoir" (Oppostt¢o"s 3) finds a bricks with which one builds a wall.
certain reflection here in this But what wall ? "
documentation of a forty-year old K.F.
debate between the Czech critic and
writer Karel Teige and Le Corbusier. George Baird was born in 'Ibronto in
These two texts, hitherto unavailable 1939. He studied architecture in
in English in their complete form and Toronto, and in London, where he also
recently translated for us by George taught at the Architectural
Baird and his colleagues in 'Ibronto, set Association School of Architecture and
the stage for an argument that is by no the Royal College of Art. He is co-
means concluded. I am referring to this editor (with Charles Jencks) of
apparent opposition (ultimately denied Meowing i,n Architecture a,nd also o£
by Le Corbusier) between industrial Azt;cLr ACLzto. He now teaches and
production and instrumentality on the practices in 'Ibronto where his firm has
one hand and composition and memory recently prepared two major urban
on the other. Formulated in these designs for the City Planning Board.
general terms of course, the more
exacting aspects of this argument tend
to become diffuse and in fact Teige's
discourse only seems to become truly
rigorous, in those infrequent moments,
when he questions the necessary limits
of formal manipulation in respect of
the program. Rhetoric aside, Le
Corbusier's response to this s.cLcfaz¢cfa
attack on the retrogressive
monumentality of the Mundaneum is
remarkable for the cogency of
argument and the wit and poetry of its
delivery. Despite the special pleading
frequently involved, this is surely one
of the most touching and frank texts of
his whole career. And for all that the
Mundaneum was evidently an
idealization of an ideal program
projected by the mind of a bourgeois
intellectual, at once both cosmopolitan
and liberal, a program and image more
imaginary than "real," the paradox
posed by Le Corbusier's last words
 Architecture and Politics: A Polemical Dispute
A Critical Introduction to Karel Teige's "Mundaneum,"
1929
and Le Corbusier's "In Defense of Architecture," 1933

George Baird

80 Amongst the premiated submissions to the 1927 competition a public issue of the divergence of opinion between himself,
for the League of Nations at Geneva, were projects by both Hannes Meyer, Mark Stain, etc. on the one hand, and Le Cor-
Le Corbusier and Hannes Meyer. It is well known that the busier, Sigfried Giedion, etc. on the othe.r. Thus the Mun-
jury's decisions were set aside, and that the building commis- daneum serves as the vehicle for Teige's attack on what he
sion was instead awarded-by a committee of diplomats-to sees as a reactionary formalism which threatens the future
a group of Beaux-Arts architects. The storm of indignation coul.se of modern architecture.
which this event causedamong the advocates of modern arch i-
tecture, was one of the major factors leading to the founding That Teige's attack makes into a public split what had earlier
of CIAM in 1928. Historically speaking, this well-known been only a divergence of opinion amongst allies is interesting
event has obscured, until recently, the fact that there also ex- enough. That Le Corbusier decided to compose a reply2 is
isted at the time, a profoundly important divergence of opin- even more interesting, given his characteristic tendency,
ion within the camp of the modernists. The divergence sur- throughout his long career only to engage in public polemic
faced at the 1928 CIAM conference, in which both Le Cor- aloof, detached, and strictly on his own terms. Here we dis-
busier and Meyer played significant roles, but it was not yet cover a tone which is not aloof, but intimate, not detached, but
divisive enough to prevent the conference from producing a deeply implicating, even conciliatory (except in the firmness
unanimous manifesto. Still, it had been implicit in the work of of the conclusions to which he finds himself ``driven"), and
those two figures, among others, for some time previously. which begins from terms of reference set up not by Le Cor-
Through comparative analysis of Le Corbusier's and Meyer's busier himself, but by Teige's mentor, Meyer.
submissions to the League of Nations competition,1 Kenneth
Frampton has shown that this divergence, which he has The explicit terms of criticism which the reader will en-
characterized as "humanist" versus "utilitarian" was already counter in the text are not` political ones. Teige praises
manifest in the two celebrated 1927 projects. rigorous functionalism, an exclusive respect for material
reality, and precise correspondence of program and building
In 1928, having succeeded Walter Gropius as Director of the form. He attacks archaism, abstract metaphysics and formal-
Bauhaus, Meyer published in the BCLwhcLws Ze{tsch7|#, the ism. In response, Le Corbusier accepts a large part of the
manifesto which began with the now-familiar words, "all thrust of Thige's argument, but insists that it doesn't really
things in this world are a product of the formula: function apply to him. To the extent that he rejects Teige's position, he
times economics." It is this declaration of Meyer's which is the relies on a highly rhetorical use of the term scbcfaztch and tries
point of departure for the dispute between Karel Teige and to demonstrate the ultimate theoretical shortcomings of the
Le Corbusier which follows. Teige, although relatively concept of ScLch!¢chA;ett as the sole, and all-encompassing gen-
unknown nowadays, was an important critic in the European erator of architectural form.
avant-garde in the twenties and thirties. He was editor of
MSA, a Prague-based international journal of modern archi- Nevertheless, the politics of the dispute are not that difficult
tecture, and of Red, a radical monthly cultural review. At the to discern between the lines. Teige's critique virtually makes
same time, he served for several years on the editorial board explicit the leftist, materialist stance from which it springs.
of Stowbcb, a more locally oriented Czech architectural maga- As for Le Corbusier, his pcL7.tt p7is is less clear (that this is so,
zine. The specific occasion of Teige's dispute with Le Cor- is, of course, a part of Teige's criticism) but, throughout his
busier was the publication in 1929, in StcLt;bcL, of Le Cor- text, there is apparent evidence of his vitalist, as opposed to
busier's Mundaneum project-a "centre of world thought" materialist view of life, and of his inclination to invoke the
"great man" conception of historical progress. (Paul Otlet,
proposed to be erected close to the League of Nations site.
Although he had stood firm with Le Corbusier in 1927, in the the cultural and political entrepreneur and promoter of the
modernists' protest against the Beaux-Arts take-over of the Mundaneum proposal, appears to have been another of the
"great man" reformers, with which Le Corbusier sought to
League of Nations competition, Teige decided in 1929 to make
associate himself throughout his career.) situation, consider how easy it is to imagine a left-materialist 81
critic more militant than Teige in 1929 (someone, for example,
Now this might seem to suggest that the dispute could be in Moscow in 1931) mounting a critical expose of Meyer's
summed up as progressive versus liberal, revolutionary ver- Peterschule or League of Nations projects for secret "monu-
sus reformist, or simply as leftwing versus rightwing. And it mental" and formalist tendencies, notwithstanding their
is true that the political fate suffered by many of the pro- author's functionalist avowals. On the other hand, one need
tagonists of the modern architectural battles of the thirties not agree with the precise formulation of Teige's critique of
would lend credence to these schemata. However, as noted the Mundaneum to share his conviction that a critique was in
above, Frampton preferred to characterize the split as order. For there js (in this observer's view) about the Meyer
``humanist" versus ``utilitarian," and this subtler schema
projects done up to 1929, not a functional directness of ex-
would appear, especially in a long historical perspective, to be pression, but rather a conceptual astringency which the
a more astute one, especially if our concern is with those poli- monumental Mundaneum scheme clearly lacks. And reflec-
tical dimensions of human experience which arise in architec- tion on the painful and problematical series of discussions of
tural form itself, and are not merely reflected through archi- monumentality within modern architectural commentary
tecture. (This being, of course, one of the methodological during the thirties and forties only confirms one's hunch that
points of difference between Le Corbusier and Teige in the Teige's conviction was sound.
texts which follow. Le Corbusier, incoherent though his politi-
cal position may be, compared with Teige's, places his central Following the arguments of Arendt, we can say that the most
emphasis on architectural concerns which embody, but also important role of architecture is to create "a home for mortal
transcend politics, while Teige's commitment is to get the po- men." And this is a role which "instruments" by themselves
1itics correct first, folloiving which the architectural problem are incapable of fulfilling. But the fact is that no architect, no
then becomes one of ensuring a perfectly precise correspon- critic, and no social commentator has yet formulated theoreti-
dence between the ideological point of departure and archi- cal propositions which place monumentality and instrumen-
tectural end product.) tality in a satisfactory ci7.cfo¢tectwr¢Z relationship to each
other. Ironically enough, we now practice in a period when the
``Instead of monuments, architecture creates instruments,"
mainstream architectural vernacular comprises a
argues Teige. This is surely the key to the dispute, and to its thoroughgoing instrumentality which is itself monumen-
ultimate political significance. For Teige assumes that talized (think of any, average, corporate office block). And
"monuments" oppress men, and that "instruments" will liber-
the putative leftist opposition to this mainstream tendency in-
ate them. While there is some truth to this assumption, in the creasingly retreats to an anti-industrial craft building pro-
long perspective of two centuries of industrial society, it ap- cess.
pears to be a truth of limited validity, both historically and
conceptually. (It is surely worthy of note that pre-Marxist For those among us to seek to re-establish a subtler, and more
commentators on industrial society such as William Cobbett complex role for architectural thought, it seems eminently
and Samuel Coleridge and late or post-Marxist ones like sensible to re-explore the substantive, detailed arguments of
Jurgen Habermas and Hannah Arendt both view the poten- the protagonists in this historic, engaged, and reciprocally
tial of pure "instrumentality" in human affairs with profound considerate dispute. By this means, it is intended to open
reservations.) anew a fruitful discussion of the kinds of roles the concepts of
instruments and monuments might play in architecture and
Yet if "instrumentality" is a more ambiguous phenomenon in politics today.
architecture than Teige acknowledges, the poignant progress
of modern architecture since the thirties shows that "monu-
mentality" is no less so. To appreciate the full irony of this
 Notes

82 1. Kenneth Frampton, "The Humanist v. the Utilitarian

Ideal," 47'ch€tectwrciz Des{g7®, vol. XXXVII, n. 3, March 1968.
2. Although, according to Le Corbusier, his reply was writ-
ten for StowbcL, I have been unable to find it published in that
magazine. The text which follows is a translation from the
French publication which appeared in L'47.cfo{tect"7ne
d'Au`j ourd'hul, 1988.
Mundaneuml

Karel Teige

'Thanslation by Ladislav and Elizabeth Holovsky,

and Lubamir Dolezel

Introduction cannot secure world peace and international cooperation. As 83

Paul Otlet has shown, the League is a union of governments,
Mundaneum: it is a project to be built near Geneva, on inter- not nations-an alliance of treaties, not of cultures. Its base is
national territory, on the lakeshore and at the foot of the Jura political, not cultural; it appeals to force, law, and compulsory
mountains-a city of world culture. It is a city which should, means rather than to inner conviction and clear opinion.
in the first instance, comprise the five traditional institutions Peace, which is supposed to be the main occupation of the
of intellectual creativity: Library, Museum, Scientific League of Nations, is a universal concern, not just a political
Societies, University and Institute. Besides these, it is in- one or, to put it another way, the preservation of security re-
tended to be a center for professional, scientific, philosophical quires a "wider League of Nations," of which the present
and artistic unions, social and artistic movements and the League is perhaps just one part. Otlet understands by a
``wider League of Nations" an "internationalist union" of
headquarters for educational and hygiene groups, and
archives. scientific, economic and industrial associations and `federa-
tions, several hundred of which currently exist throughout
The Mundaneum, the idea of which was formulated and pro- the world (the first international association was founded in
moted by Paul Otlet, and the architectural design of which 1842). The aim of these international unions would be to es-
was prepared by Le Corbusier, is intended to be a center of tablish, in conjunction with the League of Nations, a center of
the modern world, a home for a "wider and more realistic world intelligentsia. This center would be the "Mundaneum."
League of Nations." It is supposed to be a great work of peace
after war, "when the new epoch comes in the history of na- Otlet worked out an ideological outline for the Mundaneum
tions and civilization," distinguished primarily by cos- which could be a monument to contemporary man. In his
mopolitanism, internationalism, and mondialism, appropriate view, it would be the modern equivalent of what the
to a time when world-wide measures and opinions dominate Panathenaea, the Biblioteca and Museum at Alexandria, An-
the lives of nations and individuals more than provincial and cient Chinese encyclopedias, medieval monasteries, abbeys
personal ones do. The condition predicted by leading spirits and cathedrals, universities, kings' courts, escorials, Ver-
for decades, and even centuries, has happened after six sailles, the French academy, the Russian academy of science,
millenia of known development of mankind: the universal in- the encyclopedists and Port Royale were in their times. It
terdependence of collectivities and individuals across the bor- could be an extension of the present highest institutions of in-
ders of nationalities and states, an internationalism of culture tellectual and cultural life, such as the Institut de France or
and civilization, a victoriously progressing cooperation of the the British Museum, and the scientific institutions of Berlin,
two billion people on the globe. Leningrad and Washington. The Mundaneum as a center of
modem world culture would be realized gradually; in the
Concurrent with the development of mankind over and above beginning, it would be necessary to build the buildings for the
natural physical and biological life, during the advances of world museum and library, which could provide a temporary
civilizations, occurred the economic, political and intellectual residence for the university and international unions. The ex-
life which is, today, entirely of an international nature. The isting International Labor Organization could join the Mum-
League of Nations, which originated after the end of the daneum (its present building on the Wilson Promenade of
greatest war in history, is an experiment in organizing and in- Lake Geneva could, according to Le Corbusier's plan, form an
troducing order and permanent peace to a world-wide society. entrance to Mundaneum). The approach would be from
It is indisputably an incomplete organism. It includes only Geneva. The Olympic committee, Society for Intellectual
fifty-four of about sixty states, and it is a diplomatic and poli- Cooperation, the Pan-American or Ibero-American Societies
tical organization. Great international professional societies etc. could also be housed there.
and economic and intellectual unions have subsequently
joined it. As only a political and diplomatic union, the League The construction of the Mundaneum could initially be fi-
 Figure 1. Mundcuneum, Geneva,. Le Figure 3. Worl,d Mu8eun. Coneeptwal
Corbusker and Pi,erre Jecunnerct, 8kctch, sh,oujing the free disposwhotrv Of
archilects, 1929. Si,t,e layout. echthwhon panels and, i,h,e coutinMous
8piralling circula,hion.
Figure 2. Worl,d, Museun,
Mund,amewm. C onceptwal sket,ch
showing access poin±s at ea,ch, I,eval to
star,rcases a;in,d, elevators.

1. TNIorld Museum
2. The Hdrls of Mod,eir'n Tines
3. Buildings for Indeir'na,hional
Associ,ation8
4. Lthrary
5. Undver8itu
6. University living qunriers
7. Sta,diu'm
8. Sports center of:f tees
9. Echthwhon hcths (corn,tineuts,
nati,one and ct,ti,es)
10. Hot,el, a;md, rest,d,endi,al disinct
11. Rchlway : interma,tional t,errri;ious,
parking and t,owist ceruter
12. mghway. Gen,ova-Lcunsanme, Bern,
Zwich`
13. Ferry port
lJ+. Harbor
15. Indeir'na,hional La,bor Orga;ndzcndon
16. Leghi tower
17. Bot,a;wi,car and.mineralogical
gardens (euten8kon of the Aria;in,a,
ga;me-preserve)
18. REghway t,o Fro;mce through, La,
Fou,ctlle, Zinking to Qual Wi,I,son
19. Qual Wi,l,son linking Geneva with
the Mund,ameum (Ci,t,6
inf,ermati,onale)
20. Si,t,e for a;irpori cund radio st,cdion
21. Reserved, site

I.
 9. 3.
nanced by donations from wealthy individuals, governments, road from Geneva to Pregny and Grand Saconnex-this road 85
municipalities, and from the funds of interested societies and is being rebuilt, and leads also to Ariana, past the future
institutions, in the same way as world exhibitions are created. mineralogical and botanical park. Finally, the highway
The territory of the Mundaneum, an international city, of through La Faucille, in the direction of France, will lead to
course has to be international. Switzerland could donate this the airport and to the radio station which will be built on the
territory and give the inhabitants of the Mundaneum perma- other side of Grand Saconnex. The railway station is proposed
nent extra-territoriality, which would increase substantially to be built on the open circu.Iar plaza in front of the ILO
the world significance of Geneva which, at present, as the Palace. The railway passes underground through the Mum-
seat of the League of Nations, and the International Labor daneum. A round building for parking and autoservicing, a
Organization, is visited by 250,000 foreigners a year. It is now port for ferries, and a harbor for yachts and motor boats are
the seat of forty international unions and religious move- located on the same plaza.
ments.
The Mundaneum itself is located on top of a plateau and has in
addition to the main buildings, a large open area for future
Description of the ProjeA,t expansion. Light towers which illuminate the whole architec-
tural complex at night are located at the corners of the south-
The architectural and planning scheme for the Mundaneum east side.
was worked out by Le Corbusier (fig.1). It is situated be-
tween Grand Saconnex and Pregny, on the plain which domi- The following buildings would be included within the Mun-
mates the whole Geneva countryside and which offers a daneum precinct proper:
beautiful view in all directions. This plain slopes gradually to I. World Museum. The purpose of the World Museum, accord-
the lakeshore; there, a hotel district could be built which ing to Otlet, would be to demonstrate the present state of the
would adjoin the great game preserve of Ariana with its world, its complex mechanism, the community and interde-
parks. The whole of Mundaneum could be an international pendence of the individual phenomena of life, and the general
park including the present park Mom Repos, the garden of the and permanently important problems of life. Here the world
Palace of the League of Nations, and the International Labor would be divided into three categories according to location,
Organization (ILO) and could be connected to Geneva by the time, and type. Besides these, there would be' sections for the
Wilson Promenade. The Mundaneum not only offers beautiful organization of the world, for art, and for education. The
scenery, but also can be seen from all directions-from museum would be arranged as follows: (1) National and
Geneva, from the lake and the mountains. The plan involves Geographical sections: a composite picture of the territories,
the extension of the Wilson Promenade and a connection with topography, natural resources, population, economic and
the road to Lausanne, near the present ILO Palace. At a cir- social circumstances of individual countries, politics and laws,
cular plaza, the Lausanne route would separate into two and intellectual life; a picture of the contributions of coun-
branches, a pl.omenade along the present old road, and a high- tries to civilization and to culture and their borrowings from
way for quick communication, which would ascend via a semi- these; (2) Scientific sections: nature, man (physical, intellec-
circular ramp, up over a parking structure. This highway is tual and moral), society, intellectual life, politics, infinity
designed as an elevated structure above and along the pres- (philosophy, religion) ; all divided according to geographical
ent Geneva-Lausanne railway. and national types; and (3) Historical sections giving a syn-
optical view of the development of mankind: a short
The main approach to the Mundaneum goes from the ILO reconstruction of civilizations, a synthetic universal history,
Palace through the middle of residential hotel districts more detailed representations of the nineteenth century,
towards the stadium and the Mundaneum precinct itself. The ideas of revolution, industrial progress, colonization and the
avenue is connected behind the hotel district to the original twehtieth century, world war and revolution, and new social
 -€f#f

4.
86 problems. The section concerning world organization would the "Sacrarium," something like a temple of ethics, philoso-
show the structure and a picture of the League of Nations and phy, and religion. A great globe, modelled and colored, in a
its activities. The section on art could show a universal histo- scale 1 = 1,000,000 with the planetarium inside, is situated in
ry of artistic creativity, the developinent of aesthetic concep- front of the museum building.
tions, the techniques and social mission of art. The section on
education could show details of school systems. 11. The Library of the Mundaneum is intended, according to
Otlet, to be the world center of books., an institution to aid in-
The overall conception on which the World Museum would be ternational cultural cooperation; at the same time it is sup-
based is completely new, differing from the programs of other posed to catalog all "problems of ideas," to establish archives
museums; it would be a synthesis of existing geographical, for all those problems, and to be a modern documentary en-
historical, technical, commercial and social museums. The cyclopedia (figs. 5,6). The Library is intended to contain a
only things in common with the traditional idea of the selection of the most important books of the whole world,
museum would be that the collections would be on view at any stored in the safest place away from the thunder of wars, to
time and would be accessible to everyone. The museum would be accessible in all its areas at all times, notwithstanding the
collect vernacular and characteristic things, not rare and cos- fact that some of its books may be prohibited or confiscated
tly objects; copies, casts, facsimilies and reproductions would by some states. Thus the Mundaneum Library could preserve
suffice. Its aim is not preservation, but systematic exposition for mankind books and ideas censored even in their own coun-
and demonstration, an encyclopedic and composite museum, a tries, and could give them an assured outlet. At the same time
tool and aid for research and scientific work, the collections of it would be a temporary asylum for the libraries of states
which are accessible at anytime (like school collections). It whose territories are the scene of war. To be organized by in-
would be under continuous critical review and could be ternational unions and scientific societies, it could collect the
reorganized any time, so that its usefulness could really be following: (1) all official state publications; (2) publications
maximized. This whole museum is supposed to be a sort of of scientific, social and pedagogical societies and institutions;
"idearium"; a picture of the thoughts that are hidden under (3) journals; and (4) the most important daily newspapers.
facts. The library could obtain these documents free of charge. In
addition, it could require one compulsory free copy of every
Le Corbusier worked out the design of the World Museum in book for which exchange is made by the international ex-
accordance with this program for.mulated by Otlet (figs. 2,3, change service; it could get authors' copies, duplications from
4) . The basis of the museum is threefold in character (catego- libraries, bequests, gifts, etc. As well as collections of books,
ries of place, time and kind) , therefore a triple aisle unwinds the Library could have records of laws, lists of inventions,
in a spiral. The top of the spiral is the prehistoric epoch; des- statistics, manuscripts, modern archive material, sheet music,
cending, it becomes wider and so incorporates more and more photography, phonograph records, films, etc. Le Corbusier
space for the detailed collections of recent centuries. designed the Library building as a large prism standing on
Designed in the shape of a graduated pyramid, the building pilotis, the main floor being entirely given over to two
has no staircase. Unless one uses the elevator, one enters by entrance halls, one for employees and one for visitors. The in-
spiral ramps 2,500 meters in length from the ground level to side of the prism is empty, and there, steel shelves, glass
the top. The visitor enters the museum from the top, and as he cases, conveyors, a freight elevator, pneumatic chutes, etc.
comes down, the collections unwind before him in chronologi- are installed. The elevator and ramp for visitors are located
cal sequence. The museum halls open onto balconies which in a sort of glass cage. The reading rooms are located on the
give a panoramic view of the mountains, of high and airy free top floors of the building, as are the administration offices,
space. Across from the doors to the balconies are located changing rooms and a restaurant with a terrace.
doors which open into the interior space of the pyramid-a
great vault with bearing columns. Located at the bottom is Ill. The Building for International Associations is intended
Figure 4. World Museum,
Mund,ameu`m, Geneva. Le Corbu8i,er
and Pi,erre Jea;rmerct, architects, 1929.
Secho!rval sketch, showing the
in±egratkon Of the echi,bwhon "spirals"
with an euter'rval servkcing tra,ck.
Arch,ive storage i,8 incoii.porated under
ea,ch gallery bevel,.

to be a building to house the permanent secretariats of sequence of small amphitheatrical classrooms which are lo- 87
various international associations or their representative cated on several floors, one above the other.
offices; it is a building for congresses, conferences and meet-
ings. It is the palace of the ``estates of culture," housing, at V. Exhibitions (permanent and temporary) of continents, na-
one and the same time, artists, scientists, educators-a build- tions, and cities would be accommodated in five pavilions in
ing of peace and social work. During individual congresses, parks surrounded by trees. These would be enclosed by
the Mundaneum could organize "world weeks." This building another range of buildings containing study rooms, offices,
is a large structure with permanent offices and a hall for com- etc. These pavilions al.e built in the center of sorts of court-
missions and committees. The building is directly connected yards, in the col.e of large exhibition halls which are covered
with a congress hall for 3,000 people, which is designed ac- by shed glass roofs. International exhibitions of various
cording to laws of acoustics (formulated by Gustave Lyon) human cultural activities, for example, exhibitions of archi-
and visibility. Here, Le Corbusier has taken advantage of his tecture and urban planning (up till now mostly incomplete
experience in working on the project for the Palace of the and very expensive, arranged in the big cities of Europe and
League of Nations at Geneva, and the theater hall for the America) could here be put together economically, com-
Palace of the Soviets in Moscow. Interior circulation is pl.o- prehensively, and in some cases permanently. For eventual
vided only by elevators and ramps, not even this building has expansion of these exhibitions or for semi-permanent
staircases. pavilions, there are free garden spaces to the southwest of the
exhibition buildings within the Mundaneum precinct. The
IV. The World University is the center of international Halls of Modern Times, which are designed for exhibitions of
university studies; it is intended to be the world's highest contemporary cultural creativity, and which are supposed to
educational institution, for the purpose of educating students give a changing picture of present creative activity, are situ-
fr.om around the world. The idea of this university was pro- ated northwest of the World Museum.
posed already in 1920 by the Confederation for International
Student Cooperation. It could be a university of international In addition to these halls, in front of the university there is an
vacation courses, open to all, without reference to previous oval space reserved for buildings, the need for which may ap-
education and certificates. The prime interest of the univer- pear at a later time, such as the Directory of World Security
sity would be science and education, with special emphasis on and Peace Service. In addition to the buildings designed by
questions of international significance, such as diplomacy, Le Corbusier, Otlet suggested a world institute which could
economics, sociology, labor relations, journalism, and welfare. be a synthesis of existing university institutes, technical
In addition to this university, it would be necessary to estab- laboratories and offices of social work. It would be a center of
lish in the Mundaneum other international schools for all composite knowledge whose aim would be a synthesis of
degrees, from preparatory school on up. Incidentally, there is learning, bringing together the sciences, by means of com-
at present in Geneva an International Institute for Advanced parative study and criticism of different I.esearch methods; it
Studies and an interesting experimental international school would study plans of social reorganization and transforma-
for children. tion, searching for means of their implementation.

Le Corbusier has situated the university in the middle of the Outside the Mundaneum precinct itself, Le Corbusier located
Mundaneum precinct as close as possible to the museum,libr- a stadium and playing field to be the center of physical
ary, exhibition halls, congress and international association culture, equipped for all eighteen sports which are included in
building, and stadium. The university has a large garden sur- the Olympic games. The offices of the Olympic Committee
rounded by a high wall, with a promenade which opens on to a would be situated nearby; in addition, there would be a
large lecture hall. In addition to this lecture and theater hall, botanical and mineralogical garden (with eventual zoological
concer.t hall and cinema, the university building comprises a pavilions) , an airport and radio-telegraph station. Connected
 5.
88 to the Mundaneum would be hotel and university quarters. the sun, moon and stars; holy places of individual gods; grad-
The hotel quarter is situated on the slope below the main pre- uating pyramids and terraced palaces with architectural ob-
cinct and is divided by the avenue which is the main approach. jects conceived in basic geometrical shapes of cube, cylinder,
The hotel buildings are spread symmetric'ally through the prism and pyramid, the main axis of which is symmetry with
gardens. Below them, not far from the lakeside, are com- emphasis on horizontality. Le Corbusier's architecture for the
munication points such as a railway station, a bus station, taxi Mundaneum project is not, of course, decorated with masks,
stands and the harbor. ornaments and sculptures as the Mexican ruins are. It uses, of
course, modern construction techniques and apparatus; but
how can a work of modern architecture so strikingly resemble
Criticism of the Project an American "antiquity''? Where do the roots of the non-
modern, and in fact archaic, character of Le Corbusier's
When we study closely Le Corbusier's and Jeanneret's im- Mundaneum lie? Th what origin should we attribute this
posing project for the Mundaneum, we can recognize in the architectural error and delusion? Actually, in our view, the
whole concept the many well-conceived architectural details first root of this misconception of the program lies in the
of individual buildings (especially in the astonishing solution program, the idea and theory of the Mundaneum. This idea is
of the university with its amphitheatrical, tiered classrooms not alive, it doesn't originate from a vibrant, felt need; it is
and large lecture hall) , which have gained for Le Corbusier's the fruit of the abstract and rarified speculation of intellec-
work the admiration and esteem of an international public tual coteries within the League of Nations. The Mundaneum
and have secured him a leading place in the history of inter- will not, for precisely this reason, be realized in this form. In
national modern architecture. However, the whole concep- respect to architecture, the League of Nations showed its real
tion, as we can read from the site plan, gives a puzzling, face with its controversial decision concerning the Palace of
archaic impression. The museum building in the shape of a Nations, and rejected, against the protest of all international
pyramid has no functional justification and produces an effect authorities, and against all sense of honor, of loyalty and law,
of an old Egyptian, or rather old Mexican atmosphere. The Le Corbusier's design, consenting instead to the most im-
spiral organization of spaces, giving ever-increasing areas of possible of academic monsters. Thus it isn't reasonable to ex-
space to more recent periods, is achieved at the cost of ending pect that the project for the Mundaneum, even if designed in
up with a dark interior hall (the Sacrarium makes a virtue of a more historical and archeological character, would be ac-
this necessity) and at the cost of extremely difficult access cepted today with greater enthusiasm.
from the top, by means of long ramps, and inadequate eleva-
tors. Then too, the proposal gives light to the collections by The whole ideological scheme for the Mundaneum, as ex-
slit windows which are disposed without respect for the com- plained by Otlet, is an illusion, a vain wish, a utopia; a music
pass points. of the future about which the only certainty is that if it does
happen, it will happen differently than Otlet. and Le Cor-
An axonometric view of the Mundaneum gives the effect of an busier have imagined. This is not the place to outline in detail
aerial photograph of an archeological site-Egyptian, the errors in the ideological program for the Mundaneum: To
Babylonian, Assyrian, ancient American (Mayan and Aztec) ask how a "Sacrarium" got into a town of modern science
or Peruvian. These historical reminiscences are striking. (could it just be that the idea of the pyramid led to the idea of
Remember the important building works of the Mayas, who a sanctuary?): To ask how Otlet imagines international
were the zenith of ancient American civilization. These well- cooperation to be a solution to questions of political, diplo-
known ruins (Uxmal, Chichen-Itza, Palenque on the Yucatan matic and vested interests of individual governments, of mili-
peninsula, and Copan in Guatemala) represent a "metaphysi- tary and national rivalry: To ask how a world institute under
cal architecture" of special cities of religious cults and burial the supervision of the League of Nations, created from states
grounds, cities of rulers and priests; pyramids, cathedrals of having different social systems, could elaborate plans for the
Figure 5. Li,brary, Munda;in,eun, I II

Geneva. Le Corbusker and Pierre

_ _ i_ __ . --
Jeanmerct, architects, 1929. Plo;in, Of ---i--.--

typi,car sta,ck level.

11

Figure 6. Lthra,ry. Secti,o'n. Access into

111'

i,he Livrary ks divi,bed between stouff to I

the left, books in the center a;in,d pubhc 11

to t,h`e right. 11111 \

-
6.
social transformation of the world. We can only mention that nomic life. The only aim and scope of modern architecture is 89
this ideological proposal of Mundaneum does not have a con- the scientific solution of exact tasks of rational construction.
crete rationale or a realistic chance of realization, as long as An artistic solution of a metaphysical, abstractly speculative
the League of Nations is a society of governments, powers, task, by means of monumental composition is the wrong ap-
diplomacy and armies, and 72,ot a "wider league"; a union of proach, as is shown by the Mundaneum project. The error of
nations, "ot a government built up on the basis of cultural Le Corbusier's proposal is the error of monumentality (a
work; above all, not an international political alliance of mod- monumentality different from and less brutal than the Ger-
ern mankind, that being a conception which is completely man monumentality of the architecture of megalomania) , the
unknown and which is probably not even in the program of error of the "palace." It reveals the danger (exposed already
the League of Nations, as Otlet and Le Corbusier seem to in Le Corbusier's book U„e rna)tso7t, U7o pcLZcLjs) of the defini-
realize. tion that a palace is a house, a ``machine for living in" which is
endowed with a certain dignity and architectonic potential.
Not having an opportunity to analyze more .closely the Le Corbusier sins against harmony; having formulated such a
ideological program of the Mundaneum, I will try to analyze clear and comprehensible notion as the ``machine for living
it as an architectural project. It is an oft-repeated and con- in," he depreciates it by adding vague attributions of dignity,
firmed experience that the al.chitectural investigation of harmony and architectonic potential, through which he can
problems and programs which are ideologically unclear, then embrace all aestheticism and academicism (I mentioned
falsely stated, or moribund, cannot produce works of elemen- in a review of U"e 77tcL¢so7}, U70 pCLZcbt.S in Stclubcb, VII, 6, that
tary clarity and purity. If the architect doesn't know what to the slogan "house-palace'' can lead to serious error, to the
make of a program, it cannot result in anything other than a neglect of physical and concrete needs in favor of more or less
half-baked product and compromise leading to mystification. fictional requirements). In its obvious historicism and
Modern architecture was born not from abstract speculation, academicism, the Mundaneum project shows the present non-
but from actual need, from the dictates of life, not the viability of architecture thought of as art. It shows the failure
patronage of some academy or official group. Real need fur- of Le Corbusier's aesthetic and formalistic theories, which
nished programs: factories, bridges, railway stations, offices, we, from the point of view of Constructivism, have always
housing for workers, schools, hospitals, hotels and apart- fought against: the theories of the Golden Section and of
ments; from a fundamental understanding and shaping of geometric proportion. In short, all those cL p7i.o7i aesthetic
these problems pure modern architecture was born. Today we formulae which have formalistically been deduced from
have no architectural solutions for churches, palaces or cas- historical styles, in our times are unproven and unsupported.
tles, which, in the purity and precision of their creative con-
struction, can match the architecture of modern needs (the Wagner and Le Corbusier, in spite of their understanding of
Club for New Prague opposed the construction of a great new the importance of practical and utilitarian requirements, see
theater in Prague on the legitimate grounds that as long as the ultimate aim of architecture, which they believe to be
the ideological program of the modern theater was not stated "queen of the arts," to be to erect some cathedral or sanctu-
from the director's point of view, it was thereby unimplemen- ary; they ponder this cathedral whenever they are not
table for the architect as well) . Monumental and votive archi- employed in the solving of concrete problems. Or they ponder
tecture, dedicated to whatever memol.ial of I.evolution and "palaces." Poelzig wants to build "for the Lord"; there, it is
liberation; all present-day triumphal arches, festive halls, said, is the beginning of architecture. Meanwhile, Gustave
tombs, palaces and castles result in monstrosities. Examples Eiffel, for example, despite his mistrust of all aesthetics,
of concrete and utilitarian architecture, as well as omens of a believes that he will equal Phidias, and that it is much more
new metaphysical, monumental architecture both show significant to be a great modern engineer than a craftsman of
clearly that, at the present time, architecture will fail in so the past. In our century of machine civilization, which has no
far as it is not dictated by the actual needs of social and eco- time for "art" and monumental architecture, any intention to
90 make art instead of houses, and monuments instead ofschools, particular end.
leads to hybrid shapes and impoverishes that work of natural all life is function and therefore not artistic.
and modern beauty which is characteristic of real, perfect the idea of the "composition of a dock" is enough to
things. make a cat laugh!
but how is a town plan designed? or a plan of a
Measure the proportions of both sides of the rectangle of the dwelling? composition or function? art or life?????
Mundaneum's main precinct and you will find that they form
a Golden Section. Moreover, all other propor.tions within this The Mundaneum is composition; the expression of ideological
rectangle, for the sake of monumental unity and harmonic and metaphysical imagination. For this visual metaphysics,
proportion, also form Golden Sections. Then too, the four cor- which aims at "the highest things, the things of the spirit," at
ners of the World Museum's pyramid point exactly to the four the "Godly mission of architecture," practical utilitarian
points of the compass. The rational orientation of the windows aspects mean very little. The rectangular main precinct in the
of the museum halls, with respect to daylight, is sacrificed for proportions of the Golden Section; major communication
numerical and astronomical symbolism-and this pyramid routes creating axes also in Golden Section; the pyramid
rises as dominant on the highest point of the Mundaneum. In marking symbolically and monumentally the points of the
its entirety, the Mundaneum is regulated by major axes compass (the huge mass of the museum is supposed to have
whose point of intersection is the top of the museum pyramid; the function which can be performed by a pocket compass) ;
these axes again exhibit the proportions of the Golden Sec- all this shows that cL p7io7i aesthetic speculations were at the
tion. The university's great lecture hall is the symmetric root of the architect's work, rather than analysis of real con-
equivalent of the volume of the congress hall of the ILO buildr ditions. This is the composition of a city, not a solution of it. It
ing. The university quarters are planned on the axis of the is false to build a castle in the form of a hexagram, the plan of
university, the reading rooms and the stadium, i.e., on the axis which constricts movement in the house and the lives of the
of the main avenue which symmetrically divides the residen- people in it, which does not respect lighting and compass
tial and hotel quarters. The prisms of individual buildings in points, just because the wife of the contractor was the Coun-
their proportions and the whole Mundaneum in its rhythm, tess Sternberg. But that is no more false than it is to solve the
are dominated by the Golden Section, the measurements of problem of a city of modern culture without regard for its
which, as current art history still believes, determined the practical functions, by means of the Golden Section, which art
harmony of the most famous works. Thus the Mundaneum is historians consider to be the formula of antique and Renais-
Retssb7®ett-o?'.?'acL77oe7otjfo, a project born not from real and ra- sance beauty.
tional analyses of the program (because this program would
not be capable of such an analysis and solution) but from cb Life is neither, of course, symmetrical nor triangular nor
p7io7t aesthetics and abstract geometric speculation, follow- star-shaped, nor is it in Golden Section. Le Corbusier, by
ing a historic stereotype. It is not a solution for realization lengthening a side-front of the villa in Vaucresson, and pro-
and construction, but a composition. Composition: with this jecting two small, non-bearing slabs on the front facade, so as
word it is possible to summarize all the architectural faults of to satisfy his "regulating lines," behaved just like Leon Bat-
the Mundaneum. tista Alberti (De re a)ed¢/ZccLto7i) when he established the
dimensions of the windows from the proportions of the facade
Hannes Meyer wrote: and spaces without respect for their individually designated
all things in this world are a product of the formula: purposes; and when he described the staircase, for example,
(function times economics) as an element of chaos in the good harmony of construction.
Architecture as "art" cannot free itself from the He77omw"g
so none of these things are works of art: of antiquarianism. It remains in the tradition of Michelangelo.
all art is composition and hence unsuited to a It looks to historical architecture for formal conceptions. It
uses the Golden Section and other compositi.onal recipes, and all the dangers of the slogan "house-palace," and thus ofutili- 91
draws these proportions in small reproductions with lines so tarian architecture with an artistic "addition" or "dominant."
thick that in fact they can make several meters of difference From here it is possible to go all the way to full academicism
to the harmony of such proportions. This technique could have and classicism, or on the other hand, to return to the solid
created the perfect schematic harmony of the facade of Notre reality of the starting point demonstrated so precisely by the
Dame, but what if the present street in front is much higher motto, the "house as a machine for living in," and from there,
than that for which this facade was composed? According to once again to work towards a scientific, technical, industrial
Le Corbusier, architecture as art believes that its mission architecture. Between these two poles, there is space only for
begins where construction ends, namely with the rational half-baked projects and compromised solutions.
solution and products of the engineer. It aspires to eternity,
while the engineer responds to actuality. According to
Poelzig, architecture as art begins where it does not submit to Note
any practical purpose; building /%7. de7t Ztebe" Gott. In short,
according to this argument, to become dignified as architec- 1. "Mundaneum" was originally published in St¢ubcL, vol. 7
(1929), p.145. An edited version was published in Le Co7®-
ture, there must be added some "plus" to the rational solu- b"s€e7. t7t Pe7.specttue, ed. Peter Serenyi (New Jersey: Pren-
tion. Now this "plus'' can either help purposefulness and tice Hall, Inc.,1975).
strengthen function, in which case it is simply purpose and
function and is not a ``plus," or hinder it, in which case it is of
course a minus. Further, it can neither help nor hinder, in Figure Credits
which case it is superfluous and unnecessary, and that is a
minus as well. The criterion of puposefulness: The only relia- Figure 1. L'A7.clot.±ectw7.e V€ucl7ote, Summer,1929.
Figures 2-6. Le Corbusier, Le Co7.btts¢e7. e€ Pje7.re Jeci"7oe7®e€..
ble criterion of quality in architectural production led modern
Oe"t;7®e Comp!e`te jgJO-J929 (Zurich: Les Editions
architecture to discard "mammoth bodies of monumentality" d'Architecture,1964).
and to cultivate its brain; t"stecLd o/mo""77oe7tts, cL7.cfajtect"7.e
c7.ea}tes ¢7bst?'re477te7ots. If aesthetics intervene in the production
of utilitarian results, there follows imperfect.ion in architec-
tural creation, and this is its mark. It obscures the material
aspect, it is added to material values (such as comfort, tem-
perature, stability); this being viewed as a necessary
sacrifice which up until now people have felt obliged to make,
due to cultural tradition, although it is proved that objects
which mix practical function with an autocratic art form in
one or other respect (more often both) are not gratifying.
Only where no ideological-metaphysical-aesthetic intentions,
but only the dictates of practical life direct the architect's
work, does the affection for art stop.

If we have occupied ourselves so carefully with the Mun-

daneum project, it is because we believe this work, whose
author is a leading and foremost representative of modern
architecture, should serve as a warning to its author and to
modern architecture generally. The Mundaneum illustrates
the fiasco of aesthetic theories and traditional prejudices, of
Figure 1. Mundaneun, Geneva,. Le
Corbusker amd, Pierre Jeunneret,
architects ,1929. Perspective.

Figure 8. Panorcunvic view.

-==-X
- i<>--_
_=se=.:-
-_-fgr~:-

2.
In Defense of Architecturel

Le Corbusier

'Thanslation by Nancy Bray, Andr6 Lessard,

Alan Levitt and George Baird

all things in thi,s worl,d, ci,re a, prodM,ct Of the for'rrula,: On the way i,o Moscow, 1929. 93
ifunchon, ti;meg economics)
My dear Thige;2
8o ro'ne Of these things are works Of curt: I have decided to answer your long architectural dissertation
cth cwh k8 composwhon a;in,d hence unsuited to a, which appeared on the occasion of the publication of my plans
pa,rdoular end,. for the Mundaneum in Std;t;bcL in 1929. It is the first time that
all life i,s function a;in,d therefore rot cwhisti,c. I have replied to criticism; God knows nevertheless that I am
the i,d,ea, Of the "composwhon Of a dock" i,8 enotugh, to the target of it every day! I am taking advantage of the situa-
•make a, cat bough,I tion and am entitling these notes: "In Defense of Architec-
but how i,s a tou]'n plan designed? or a plan Of a, ture," a very G7.cL7ocZ S¢6cze title, I admit. Will you make Ze
dwelling ? composwhon or f;unckon? art or fife? ? ? ? ? G7.a)72,cZ StGcze synonymous with academicism too? (You
wouldn't be entirely in error). I would like to show very
Ha;ymes Meyer clearly what have been my continuing motives and the
quoted by Karel 'feige, StcwbcL. reasons why I persevere in the researches which are truly the
1989 cause of the joy I experience daily in my work. Today, in the
avant-garde of the 7oe"e Scbcfaz¢chfoett, two words have been
killed: BCLwfo"7ost (architecture) and Kw7ost (art). We have
replaced those by BCLwe7o (construction) and by Lebe7t (life).
Two notions which have been refined by the effect of cultures
and now need to be returned to an original mass infinitely
vaster and more imprecise as well; there is in this a loss of
clarity, but one accepts this, to tell the truth, in the desire to
rediscover the pure origin of a line of thought that is con-
sidered to be distorted today. One would like to rectify this
distortion. That having been done, it would then not be possi-
ble to talk objectively of the question without using the per-
fectly comprehensible terms "architecture" and "art." In
1921, in L'Esp7it IVowuecLw, we too had gone back to zero in
order to try to see things clearly. But if we did go back to
zero, it was with the intent not to stay there, but only in order
to reestablish our footing.

Your study, let me tell you, ought to have been directed to M.

Nenot, a member of the Institute, and presently the architect
of the League of Nations, rather than to me, because I believe
I know the meaning of words in architecture and because
your arguments, which (objectively speaking) having the
same interest as my own as expressed in I 'Esp7|.± IVo"t;eon, in
my books and works, obviously find in me a convert. In taking
up anti-subjectivity you indulge in a very fashionable game;
and to tell the truth, you speak in a way that contradicts your
thought and suggests the opposite of what you really are: a
poet.
94 If since 1921, the czechs have shone so brightly in the emerg- economy of a nation, progress is an event which is imposed
ing sky of the new times, it is largely because of you people, and obligatory, an event from which one may escape only by
your magazines, your manifestos, your poems, people such as starving to death. Essentially, progress is not an end but a
Teige, Nezval, Kre6jar, etc.; all of you who know so well how means. It is in essence changeable, each day replacing the
to make a stay in Prague captivating. And this not through tools of the preceding day. Every tool of progress is perisha-
erudite and profound discussions on the scLcfoz{ch3 of existence, ble, especially any tool which is considered to be reduced to its
but by the vivacity of your reactions to the problems which specific utilitarian function. Hannes Meyer's formula applies
preoccupy us all, and by means of this impulse-I would even here very rigorously: function times economy.
say these wings-which lift the wellborn above the earth-
bound, permitting them to distinguish, to predict, to draw the Now, any tool, whatever it is, is conceived by a human brain.
ongoing line of evolution. To facilitate the argument, let me adopt this concise
classification: a man is a brain and a heart, reason and pas-
Thus, I suppose that you, like many others among the best of sion. Reason knows only the absolute of current science, while
the protagonists of the new architectural cycle, insist on play- passion is the vibrant force which tends to attract whatever is
ing hide-and-seek with words. If one deprives words of their at hand.
meaning, no further dialogue is possible, and confusion
results. In your case, it is dilettantism of a new romanticism, I think that any man in conceiving anything at all is moved in
a romanticism of the machine. With the others (the practi- the search for a solution. Why is he moved? By definition, ac-
tioners), it is a police measure which is perhaps opportune tion equals movement equals impulse equals propulsion. To
(blinkers to keep people from losing their way, or better, satisfy his fundamental egotism: to perform better than his
blinkers with which to fix the eyes of the masses, so that they neighbor, to create something which is less expensive, more
can be pushed like a flock of sheep into a new adventure with beautiful. This notion of perfection (in any sense at all) is an
which they are not yet comfortable, but one which, according aesthetic notion.
to the practitioners, will be good for them, even indispensable
for them). And as with words, notions with an admittedly Let us talk about tools. Functions must be resolved, an end
sentimental base which link those masses to the past, such as must be attained; that is to say, the functions must be
"architecture" and art"; there will be attempts to get them to realized; the manner in which they are realized will permit
admit that the machine age has ineluctably abolished art and the formulation of an order among diverse solutions. Given
architecture. Now if you adopt the attitude of the leader of equal efficiency, order arises in the realm of "elegance"-the
"elegant solution" of the mathematician, the engineer. An ex-
the people, perhaps you are right also to acquiesce in
measures of martial law. But as for me, I who claim fiercely to clusively aesthetic notion. I have written in U7oe J14cLtso7o-U7t
preserve my freedom in its entirety, my artistic or creative Pcizcits that all human acts tending toward the solution of a
spirit, I intend to remain in my anarchy (in respect to your given problem imply the function of architecture; so that to-
police measures) and to pursue day after day a passionate day, when mechanization has brought us to an enormous
quest: the quest for harmony. productive capacity, architecture is everywhere: in the bat-
tleship (Hannes Meyer), in the conduct of war, and in the
Let me tell you then, without further delay, that in my opin- form of a pen or of a telephone. Architecture is a phenomenon
ion, aesthetics are a fundamental human function. of creation which follows an order. Whoever talks of ordering
talks of composing. A composition is the essence of human
I would add that this function surpasses, in its effect on the genius; it is there that man is architect and there indeed is
governing of our existences, all those benefits which have the precise meaning of the word "architecture." Why, since
been brought by progress. Progress supplies tools. 'Ibols are M. Nenot organizes modem functions badly, while insisting
only weapons with which to overcome a competitor. In the on using old tools, does it follow for you that composition is
the opposite of architecture? Is it because the obtuse exegetes and finally, endow everyone, through an ordering of all their 95
have exhausted the term "composition" in designing these daily activities, with the capacity to think and dream about
kinds of academic products? If the pr.oduct is impure, it is the things. And you will grant me that it is this capacity, to eat
fault neither of the word nor of the function that it expresses. every day his spiritual food-as meagre as it may be-which
helps him to tolerate the hard life of ScLcfo!tcfofoejt and which
Do you think that because of mechanization, born with the gives him hope of a release, a sense of creation, a motive,
locomotive, man, who traces himself back to the pithe- which enables him to create, to conceive an idea. It is there
canthrope, has changed his basis? Do you think his basis is that the reserve resistance of man exists, his human pride . . .
transformed because one day he suddenly acquired countless or at least the illusion of it, if you want to be skeptical.
tools? Let us say simply that the harmonies to which man was
secularly accustomed are now disrupted, and that he is him- ``Machine for living in" was the succinct term with which, in
self disrupted and in confusion; that he doesn't see clearly any 1921, I challenged the academies. It is a reproach that I should
more and that you, yourself, are in the process of forging him address to M. Nenot, not one that you should put to me.
a catechism which will enable him to cross to his destination; Because, setting aside the dispute with the academies and
you are constructing him a pontoon bridge. returning to our own, I immediately ask myself the question:
``for living in-faow?" I pose here, simply, the question of
Right now I. am crossing the plains of Poland. Peasants in- quality. I can find it resolved only in composition, that is to
habit wood shanties as old as the world itself. Men and say, in the manner in which the creation of scLchz¢ch objects
women, in certain places, are pushing plows similar to those has been conceived; such objects constituting the whole of my
of the time of the shepherds; they walk barefoot. They problem however small it may be.
couldn't care less about Scbcfa!tcfafoett, because, in their simple
minds, they don't understand in what way it would be prefer- Having thus defined architecture in this purely spiritual
able for their country, defeated in international competition, event of composition, I can see easily why the followers of the
to sow by machine ten times more crops than they would need ScLcfoztcfaA;et.t are so inaccessible to my arguments. It is that, in
for their own individual consumption. But they don't care general, they operate at levels where it is thought admissible
about this; their houses are made as well as possible within to be a great architect of music or of poetry but where, for
their conception of beauty; the women even like to wear a some reason too complex to pursue in depth here, there is felt
scarf adorned with multi-colored flowers. You know very well no imperative necessity of being scLch!tcfo in architecture, in
that on Sunday they go to church (which is a form of respect to the objective conditions implied in plastic art (the
aesthetics), to dances, and that they sing, which does them whole visual question) . You will grant me that architecture is
good because it serves no purpose other than expressing their a plastic thing, if for a moment, I limit myself to designating
passion by pursuits of a purely sentimental nature. thus the ensemble of forms that our eyes perceive, because
they are forms revealed by light. You know the statement
Sa[cfaztcfafoet.£ (an opportune police measure perhaps) , implies with which, in 1920, in L'E8p7rit IVowt;eciw, I opened a series of
in the spirit of its inventors an incompleteness. If one wanted architectural studies; a statement as "cleansing" or as police-
to be completely scLcfozt.cfo, one would say: this works; but I like as Hannes Meyer's definition. It is so on another level:
"architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of
expect it to please me, to satisfy me, to quench my thirst, to
interest me, to titillate me, to overwhelm me, etc. Because, masses brought together in light."
poet, I ask you: what is the motive that restrains men from
throwing themselves into revolution, from pillaging every- These forms are generated by a plan and a section. And we
thing and then starving to death in their ruins? It is that one come here to the heart of the debate: the masterly, correct
can and one must consider as liberating only those tools which and magnificent play generated by the plan and the section.
facilitate first, keep one abreast with competition, save time,
96 I am no longer speaking of the things that exist in a house, but This can serve as a summit of ScLch!{ch¢ett, but as a summit,
of the way in which those things have been put together, that also, of architecture.
is to say, the way they have been "ci7.cht.tecfw7.ed." For we
must not confuse an army with a battle. The army is made up And thus, there lies in this paradoxical example the solution
of those things constituting the house. The battle is the archi- which you and I search for sincerely: there can be no archi-
tecture of the house. I grant that objects necessary and suffi- tecture until problems are posed; but there is architecture
cient to make the house have been assembled, as I grant that the instant a human begins to pursue a creative end, that is to
soldiers, cannons and munitions have been assembled to join say, to order, to compose the elements of a problem to create
battle. But I don't confuse my trade as an architect with those an organism. At this point, there opens before us the
whose work it is to install heating, furnish materials, unlimited field of quality. You, poet, and I, architect, we are
linoleum, or plumbing fixtures. both only interested in the means that lead to the purest
quality. Because-1et's not play hide-and-seek again-we
This is the crucial issue regarding the house. During these know perfectly well, looking at ten solutions, the one which is
last decades, houses and palaces that are practically unusable elegant, and we will applaud it!
have been built (and it is not my fault) , but now an awakening
has occurred: the ``machine for living in" (a rectification of a After all, let's empty the bag of S¢ch!jchfoejt completely. Its
moral order due to many heroic generations, from Ruskin on- equivocal basis rests on the postulate that is as affirmative as
wards) . It concerned itself with the revision of the basic func- it is doubtful: "that which is useful is beautiful"-that same
tions of a house or palace, with the assembling of useful equip- old refrain. (You will not contradict me if I reveal to any unin-
ment. It was posing the problem. It was already a revolution. formed readers that such is one of the supreme rules of the
But you will, of course, agree that in our milieu these things neue S a,chhchkeat.)
are now understood and that this formulation of the problem
no longer surprises us. Last year, upon completion of the drawings of the Mun-
daneum project (which I will discuss further on) , there was a
The current situation is this: what we now look to, what we minor revolt in our studio. The younger members of the group
now criticize or admire, is the resolution of a problem which criticized the pyramid (which is one of the elements of the
has been posed. project). On other drawing boards, the drawings of the
Centrosoyus for Moscow (fig. 4) were just being finished and
It is there that the game is being played, that we gain ground, had received everyone's approval. They were reassuring
that we applaud or mock ourselves. It is there that the spirit because that scheme was clearly a rational problem of an
takes delight. It is there that the shocking sensations arise, office building. Nevertheless, the Mundaneum and the
that matters of proportion emerge, that their inevitable in- Centrosoyus both emerged from our heads during the same
fluence operates on us, and that emotion bursts forth. We are month of June.
gladdened or discouraged, merry or sad, enraptured or
depressed. Are you going to try t{o convince me that your real All of a sudden the descisive argument popped out of a mouth :
sympathies do not lie there? That they are found instead in "what is useful is beautiful!" At the same moment Alfred
the objective equipment of your houses? In that case, take Roth (of such impetuous temperament) kicked in the side of a
your argument to its logical conclusion: a millionaire's house wire mesh wastebasket which couldn't hold the quantity of
with all its technical opulence and its admirably functioning old drawings he was trying to stuff in. Under Roth's
heating, lighting and appliances will easily thrill you. energetic pressure, this wastebasket, which had a technically
scicfaz{cfo curvature (a direct expression of the wire netting) ,
Thus, you will destroy Diogenes' bowl; Diogenes, who threw deformed and took on the appearance shown in the sketch
away his bowl because the hollow of his hand was sufficient. above (fig. 3) . Everyone in the office roared. "It's awful," said
Figure 3. Irowi,c sketch,es on the theme
Of for'I'n v ersu8 instrurnenlodity ; the
w asteb a,she± f orcivly tram,sf or.med, f tom
a;in, object Of rna;thema,hical elegance to a
foir'i'nle88 ca,ge of increased capacky.

Fkgure Jf. Cerutrosoyus Pala,ce, Moscow.

Le Corbu8ker and Pi,erre Jecunnerct,
arch,itects ; 1927. Secti,on cund el,evati,on.

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98 Roth. "Ah, but this basket now contains much more," I Om, t,he way i,o Pcin8, rcturming from Moscow, 1929.
replied; "it is more useful so we could say it is more beautiful!
Be consistent with your principles!" Let's come now to the "Mundaneum," which was conceived on
all the most rational bases of modern architecture-of rein-
This example is amusing only because of the circumstances in forced concrete and of steel, and in the strictest spirit of ob-
which it arose so opportunely. I immediately reestablished jectivity with respect to the individual development of each of
equitable balance by adding: "the function beauty is indepen- its buildings.
dent of the function utility; they are two different things.
What is displeasing to the spirit is wasteful, because waste is To begin with, let me remind you that if today I declare
foolish; that is why the useful pleases us. But the useful is not myself for architectural lyricism, it is because my profes-
the beautiful." If we leave the realm of the plastic arts to in- sional labor has driven me for fifteen years to the discovery of
vestigate the effects of Scicfaz{chA;et.€ on the benefits of com- certain architectural laws drawn from the very source of
fort, that is to say, to see to what degree we are satisfied by technology, which I formulated in five concise points, in 1927.
the progress of mechanization, I would argue as follows: In 1914, I invented the Dom-ino houses (standardization,
mechanical luxury is not at all a direct function of happiness. Thylorization, free plan, free facade, roof garden) , but only in
Think of those rich people who possess everything; they auto- 1929 (the Loucheur Laws) could I put into practice the prin-
matically adapt, deriving no pleasure at all from their posses- ciples which I had clearly seen fifteen years previously.
sions. Those who lack everything are rendered slaves of their
destitution; that is another matter altogether. The matter of In 1925, it was the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion that put forward
ScLcfaztchfoett, the present theme being proposed to contempor- (with the proofs of realization) a systematic architectural
ary architects, is obviously this: to equip a country with what unity (technical and aesthetic), which could become an object
is necessary and sufficient. A timely and urgent theme for for use in the plan for the Center of Paris. Note that I had
which an immediate solution is indispensable; this is the transgressed (and how that cost me!) every rule of the ex-
socializing theme of the present age. But is architecture to be hibition, in rejecting any decorative art objects in our
subsumed in this theme entirely? No! Granted that the pavilion. But I included works by Picasso and Leger, con-
leaders of some countries invite architects to apply them- sidering them to be undeniable necessities. In keeping with
selves to it. Thus the question presents itself more clearly: an works of architecture that manifested pure human creation, I
urgent and temporary measure. Yet, even then, there is no also exhibited evidence of natural phenomena there: but-
known way to avoid architecture altogether, since it is the terflies, geological and geographical documents, etc., as well
quality brought to a solution containing precisely those po- as a number of "objective" objects, veritable standards of
"reason" and of the "heart," with which to provoke thought.
tentials of architecture: order, composition, and so on.
It was to this pavilion that Auguste Perret, vice-president of
As far as I am concerned I am personally deprived of all com- the Jury, refused to award the highest prize "because there,"
fort. But I do create and I am perfectly happy. I appreciate he said, "there was no architecture! " You see where we are in
this happiness even more, and I am tempted by other things this battle of words and tendencies: it is with Perret's
even less, given that, carried along by life for such a long time weapons that you today assault my Mundaneum.
now, I have suffered such deprivation.
In 1926-27 it was the Palace of the League of Nations. Accept
If adaptation to the benefits of mechanization is automatic, this confidence: after three months of strenuous labor with
and, following that, the joys that it procures, ephemeral, theten draftsmen, three days before the project was to be
fulfillment of spiritual joys is permanent, particularly those shipped to Geneva, I designed the two elevations of the
joys we owe to harmony. Palace, devoting exactly three hours to them-one and a half
hours to each-all the plans and sections having already been
finished and inked. The elevations emerged quite naturally, in accordance with the same principles. Do you remember 99
the architecture being totally generated by the plans and sec- how, at the close of that conference, at three o'clock in the
tions. moming, in a nightclub, Nezval, the poet, shouted from a ta-
ble-top, "Le Corbusier is a great poet!" I was denounced!
In 1928 it was the Palace of the Centrosoyus in Moscow, an
edifice housing the work and recreation of 2,500 people. But You have jumped to the same conclusion regarding the Mun-
at that time, other desks in the studio had drawings of the daneum, and you exclaim, "How can there be a Sacrarium in
Mundaneum on them. The same architectural germs in- the heart of a city of Modern Science?'' The word, in effect, is
habited the whole atmosphere of our studio. Yet you want to awful. Modern science is made up of the knowledge of the
persuade me that the Centrosoyus, headquarters of the ad- past, and this Sacrarium, as conceived by its promoter (Paul
ministration and soviet club, is modern architecture, while Otlet) is designed to show (in what fashion, that is the key)
the Mundaneum, center of intellectual enquiry, is academic. how great geniuses have, in their time, incamated the general
Both of them were strictly based on the famous five points of current of ideas and have convulsed the world. For new
modern architecture, that is, pilotis, roof garden, the indepen-things haven't convulsed the world, new ideas have: the
dent skeleton, the free plan and the free facade. But of course, things being merely the manifestation of the ideas. An idea is
from your point of view, one is the essence of contemporary the evidence of a fire which, lacking explanation or science,
lyricism, the other merely the musty smell of old rulebooks. agitates the multitudes. And as we are now right at the birth
The Mundaneum is academic for two reasons: first, the mat- of a new agitation, the study of history is a useful activity.
ter of program, second, the matter of form!
You say "needs pose programs: factories, railway stations,
Before going any further, let me remind you that in 1925, I and not churches or palaces; at the present time, nothing can
published the book I 'Arf Deco7.a7€€/ cZ'A"/.ow7.d'faw{ in which I become architecture which is not dictated by social and eco-
tried to break certain attitudes of that time, in chapters en- nomic needs." I have never believed, nor written anything
titled: .``The Lesson of the Machine," "Respect for Works of else; and to show you the subtlety which can animate this
Art," "The Time of Architecture," "The Law of Pure White belief, let me tell you that last year I refused, very politely, to
Paint," "White Wash," etc., and I ended with "The Spirit of build a very big church, even though I was authorized to ap-
'Thuth." Today one still encounters such attitudes. Remember
ply the most modern methods to the project. I felt that rein-
that last year at Prague, seeking to counter your fears, your forced concrete simply couldn't become a true expression of
"mechanist" languors, I proposed a title to you for the con-
a Catholic cult, which is formed by the dense stratification of
ference that was improvised in the theater: "Technique is the secular usages which derive their vitality as much in the prin-
Foundation of Lyricism." Before your compatriots, I covered ciple as in the form that has been conferred upon them, and
a 7-meter long by 1.25-meter wide roll of paper with draw- which our memory has retained.
ings in red and blue pastels. First I drew three circles. In the
first one I wrote, "construction techniques, statics, strengths Let us now take a look at the promoter of my Mundaneum,
of materials, physics, chemistry''; in the second, I wrote, and the reason why I could make common cause with him. He
"sociology, changing needs, contemporary building is one of those ardent youths with grey hair. His intellectual
programs"; and in the third I wrote, "economy, standardiza- awakening dates from 1870; thus he has traversed the whole
tion, research on types, and Thylorization." range of social and economic phenomena in which we, the
young, find ourselves facing already formulated tasks.
This fresco is kept, is it not, at the Architectural Academy of
Prague? Perhaps, I can use several of those elements to These tasks, which we are already forgetting, others formul-
clarify the present text for you, and to convince you that the ated before us. They were the visionaries, the organizers of
``suspicious" project for the Mundaneum is really formulated ideas, the generators of magnetic currents, the receivers and
 Figure 5. Munda;noun, Geneva,. Le
Corl)usker curd Pi,erre Jecunnerct,
architects,1929. The layo!ut Of t,he mouin
carmpu8 orgonkzed, in accorda;nee wit,h
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emitters of waves. It was twenty years ago that Paul Otlet measure how high thought has led us, how low mistakes can 101
founded the Union of International Associations and drew up drag us down. Man alone, creator, prestigious source of
the statutes of the League of Nations. Last November, he energy or light! That is what we want to understand; to get
submitted to Geneva a proposition regarding an international to know man well, to grasp his works, manifested across
bank for the liquidation of debts. This spring, the principle of history in images, graphics, etc., and in the settings in which
such a bank having been accepted, he submitted a list of pro- they were created and existed, through iconography.
jects which this bank could undertake, a program involving
interpenetration of the entire world, dissolving obstacles Then, in anticipation of inevitable conflicts, would arise the
wherever they are presently hidden. At Brussels, he created study of a new international law profoundly rooted in a con-
the World Museum, a stimulating assembly of witnesses of sciousness of both the historical and contemporary elements
human history, visualized by methods devised by him, and of our present situation-a "University of International
which, in their moving material poverty, provoked fertile ex- Law.„
citement among those who understood things, and above all,
among those who wanted to learn, and among those who are Finally, brought together in a particular place, unique in the
destined to make decisions upon which depends the fate of the world, could be a bibliographical and reproduction center to
multitudes. It was a clear, quick, striking exposition of the assemble books, establish dossiers on diverse subjects (docu-
facts of history which could elicit in creative minds a direc- mented and indexed), and by modern techniques (photo-
tion to follow or, at least, a lesson. This is philosophy? Indeed graphs or microfilm) to make available the specific elements
it is. The mo.tivating force? But isn't this an architectural of documentation-a World Library.
debate, if I grant that architecture consists in the manner in
which the elements of a problem are assembled, if I admit A connection with the separate League of Nation's "Palace of
that architecture is a battle, which can be lost or won, that it Nations" would be acknowledged. 'Ib establish a relay-sta-
is a manifestation of order, a quality of thought? tion, conceived like an international railway station, is simple
good sense. A "hotel-city" would be realized, since the
The thesis of Paul Otlet is as follows: in order to heal a world phenomenon already established at Geneva has now filled
being re-made (whereby mechanism imposes itself upon us that city with visitors. In conclusion, a city in which to accom-
whether we like it or not) , it is indispensable to know the com-modate the workers of the Mundaneum, or better still, of the
parative states of nations, peoples, races, and cities which to- World City, would be built.
day participate in that worldwide process: ``co?'att7oe7at8,
states, c{t{es, b"tzdt.7tgs," that is, "rbcb7ots'77t-all that men Since 1928, the date on which the plans of the Mundaneum
united in society, in peoples or in communes, have realized were established, we have prepared schemes for the Cite
under the sign of cooperation, of solidarity. Following from Mondiale, planning for the urbanization of the district of
this, it is necessary that organizational efforts, new theses, Geneva, the creation of an airport, a vast railway station and
coalitions against egoism, and works of human collaboration finally the construction of a Cite Economique (trusts) and of
become known, that their authors become known to each a Cite Financi6re (the International Bank and its possible ad-
other and have an opportunity to work together, to share a juncts) .
common location as a condenser of ideas, a repository and
center of action. Following from that, a Center of Interna- Do you see a little, my dear 'leige, to what extent these things
tional Associations. At the moment, certain facts are known; are reasonable, saLcfa!¢cfa, founded in technical, sociological
certain desires, propositions, and contemporary tendencies and economic phenomena, and in no way academic?
have been demonstrated and brought together. Now it will be
useful to review human history, to lean what man has done, But let us pass on to the academicism of forms, for which you
to activate this knowledge, to endow it with courage, to reproach me personally. Let's go to the heart of the question:
102 the pyramid of the Mundaneum. It is your most serious disap- circle? I claim the right to do my work precisely and neatly
pointment. Then let's go to the setting out of the Golden See- by means of regulating lines.
tion, another crime of "ZGse-ScLchztcfaA;ett."
It is precisely those aerial views that you call puerile waste
In 1928, the concept of the Mundaneum was only a provisional which will, on the contrary, be masterful, dazzling, beautiful
image destined, through its iconography, to work its way into like a pure crystallization. You must believe that the experi-
the minds of those who had the means or interest to occupy ence of architecture from an airplane exists; it is clarity it-
themselves with it. In 1929, the Cite Mondiale brought its self, an impeccable reading; we have only just begun to go up
complementary elements (particularly urban planning, and in airplanes! I have in fact published notes on the regulating
traffic organization) . Nevertheless, from its beginning, it was lines of the Mundaneum (and of other projects) in the volume
concerned with pure building types rigorously appropriate to that was devoted to us by L'A7.cfattect"7.e V€uay72,€e5 and I
each specific function,4 an.d to their realization in the econom- described there my short thesis concerning the possible im-
ics of development and construction. pact of regulating lines on horizontal space.

How were these buildings brought together? By chance? Not Now we come to the academicism of forms-the pyramid. No
at all! Tb start with, the site was chosen for many reasons, of one accuses the cube of academicism; we consider it rather as
which one (you can be sure) was the splendor of the views the definitive contemporary expression of architecture. I
that it commanded. We thought that we would be able to take share some responsibility for this, having designed roof gar-
considerable advantage of these views in attaining our estab- dens as early as 1914, having established the theory of flat
1ished goals. The site was divided on two axes; axes which roofs (with rainwater drainage via the interior) , and having
represented something-they didn't just come out of advocated the elimination of comices (the conference of the
"New Spirit in Architecture," Sorbonne,1923).
nowhere -in that they established the four principal planes of
the composition. The buildings were grouped in logical,
reciprocal relationships that seemed normal. These relations The cube is modern because it maximizes the usage of a plan
having been established, the organization having been ren- for a place of work or a dwelling. It is "contemporary"
dered "functional," coherent, we then overlaid upon it because, in our climate, only the recent advances of rein-
regulating lines based on the Golden Section (fig. 5). Oh, forced concrete have permitted its realization. In any case, it
apostasy of Scichztchkett! You really are peculiar in your is a beautiful pure form.
hostility towards regulating lines, You see in them-and you
are not the only one-a satanical power, a universal solvent. But if a precise, undisputable function requires that spaces be
But look, you admit that an architect uses on his drawing organized along an axis that unfolds as a spiral, should I deny
board what we call a set-square and a T-square. These two myself the architectural consequences of this function simply
instruments establish lines that are exactly parallel, and because the cube is contemporary? I have allowed a spiral
define angles that are rigorously true. They compensate for staircase (very modern, and also timeless) , spiral ramps (the
the inadequacies of the hand. They effect the most precise ar- same vertical circulation as the Centrosoyus in Moscow-
ticulation. That much is admitted. very modern and also very old!) ; I have allowed the museum
of human creation to follow a spiral, not to be "the last word
Well, I don't consider regulating lines to be any different. in fashion," but to assure, through this unique means, the ab-
They are purifiers. They render composition precise and solute continuity of events in history. I cannot see any other
clear; they are tremendously scbchztch. Consider the fact that way of doing it. If, on this spiral, I raise the standard ele-
the ``scLcfaztchs" accuse me of being a romantic because of my ments of a tri-partite nave to organize the programmatic ele-
regulating lines, while the bohemians consider me as an ments of object, place and time, I am creating, by means of
engineer because of my regulating lines! Dilemma? Vicious the spiral, a constant, continuous, and optimal overhead light-
Figure 6. TMorld Musou'm,
Mund,a;mean, Geneva,. Le Corbusi,er
and Pi,erre Jecrmerct, architect,s, 1929.
Plan, sechon a;in,d, eleva,ti,ons.

103

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6.
104 ing condition for all places. If my windows face north, south, avenues so dear to the Grande Si6cle or to Rome. It is an inti-
east or west, it is easy to arrest light which, from time to mate mingling of nature and geometry. There are unexpected
time, is too bright. At the same time, underneath the whole views to the far distance, to the incredible horizon. Nature
floor area of the spaces enfolding along this spiral, I have penetrates the core of this heroic, geometrical gesture. You
gained warehouses, storage rooms, and areas for temporary know that I enjoy this stance; in the comfort of home, to reign
sorting which will delight future curators. Each cell of the in masterful geometry; then to cast a glance beyond, to the
museum will have its own adjacent storage space below it; charm of nature in which we have imperishable roots. In U7o-
each of these storage spaces, thanks to the spiral, is in con- bcL7ots77o, and in the Plan Voisin, I have proposed to make the
tinuous contact with an access route on tracks outside, hidden center of Paris into a garden for our eyes and our lungs. At
from sight, thus permitting the handling of objects as easily the same time I have quadrupled the density in order to facili-
as in a freight yard, without disturbing the visitors. tate our business affairs. I wrote that when one builds one
must plant trees (the lesson of the Thrks): this shows how
In the interior of the tri-partite nave, I will not, following es- much I love nature.
tablished precedents, have walls placed between windows in a
way that creates glare, or offers only one surface for display. If a visitor to the museum wishes to, he will be able to make
Instead, I will have freestanding partitions arranged like his way outdoors in fresh air, up the 2,000 meters of spiral
screens or windbreaks. This will create spaces that are very tiers following the route laid out on the roof of one of the
small or extremely large, separated one from another, or parallel naves. What the devil will he do there? He will
directly or subtly linked. In this way I am free; I can do as I survey the countryside. He will appreciate the four aspects of
wish; I can create a museum with innumerable perspectives this prestigious site. When he arrives at the top, he will have
that are all different, and where each area can be sized to suit felt the force of those four views; on the elevated platform, he
what it is meant to accommodate. Each partition or screen will have the whole territory to himself.
will offer two sides for hanging. Do you find these double sur-
faces in traditional museums? Given this arrangement, the Listen, Teige, let's talk seriously. I think that this fellow will
building has taken the form of a pyramid. Its spiralling tiers be prepared, made ready; during his ascent he will gradually
recall Nineveh or Mexico. The spiral pyramid is academic. All have shed the small, expedient, and immediate preoccupa-
the gains made by modern architecture so far are wiped out tions of his existence, he will have stopped worrying about the
by this reactionary event: pyramidal form has occurred! press of his pants or his digestion.

I note in passing that the dictionary of architecture has al- At the top he will enter the hall of pre-history. Teige, you are
ways been limited to the geometry of Euclidian forms, and a poet. The ScLcfazjcfafoett of a poem exists in the manner of the
that the cube, the sphere, the cylinder, the pyramid, and theplacing of the words; not, exactly, of new words, of "the last
cone, are our only, uniquely architectural words. word in fashion"; on the contrary, of timeless words with pre-
cise meanings, of pure words. A poem is successful (therefore
In fact, the rough sketches you know of the Mundaneum could scLchztcfo) when the quality of the arrangement of words is
not really have put you in the place of a spectator strolling in good.
the Cite Mondiale. Imagine a mountain with its peaks, slopes
and valleys spread out before you. The sterile plazas in the And there I am, where I always end up. You have led me
drawing are in reality undulating lawns scattered with mag- there. There I am ....
nificent trees. The palaces are up in the air, raised on pilotis,
under which air and cooling breezes circulate, and where im- But let us conclude. You have given me a pretext to partici-
mense spaces take command. The ground is a rolling sea of pate in the architectural debate that has currently been
lush greenery. There exist here no visions of those grand opened in leftist circles. You have even given me the oppor-
Figure 7. Mundcuneum, Geneva,. Le
Corbusi,er cmd Pi,erre Jeanmeret,,
arch;itects ,1929. Site layo'iut.

tunity to reply; for I have for a while nowbeen politely called 105
a romantic, and less politely, an academic, by an avant-garde
that is ten years younger than I am. I have just come back
from Moscow; there I witnessed an attack conducted with the
same intensity against Alexander Vesnin, the creator of Rus-
sian constructivism (a great artist). Moscow is torn between
constructivism and functionalism. There too, intolerance
reigns, sectarianism rages. If Leonidov, the poet and the hope
of Russian architectural constructivism, in his twenty-five
year-old's enthusiasm, calls for functionalism and rails
against constructivism, I will readily explain to him why he
does so. The reason is that the Russian architectural move-
ment has been a moral shock, a manifestation of the soul, a
lyrical outburst, an aesthetic creation, a credo of modern life,
a pure lyrical phenomena, a clear and confident gesture in one
sense, a decision.

Ten years later, the younger generation, having raised a gra-

cious, charming, yet fragile edifice of their own lyricism on
the work, on the production of their elders (Vesnin) , they now
feel all of a sudden the urgent necessity to do their school-
work, to leam techniques: calculations, chemical and physical
experiments, new materials, new machinery, the approach of
Thylorism, etc., etc. Absorbing themselves in these necessary
tasks, they curse those who, having already mastered such
things fully, are occupied in making architecture, that is to
say, occupied with the manner of bringing such things
together.

We are also scichztcfo! The drawing boards in our studio accept

only disciplined construction drawings. But there reigns in
the air there a will towards architecture which is the driving
force, giving coherence, creating organisms. This will is the
expression of a sentimental notion. It is an aesthetic. Reflect
on the comment made by an American working on the Voisin
plan for Paris in 1925: "In a hundred years the French will
visit New York and see romantic skyscrapers, and the Ameri-
cans will come to see rational Paris."

My dear 'feige, would you also ponder on your own

enthusiasm for the Eiffel Tower-a constructive phenomenon
which you deem exclusively scLcfaztcfo? Remember that in
1889, the Eiffel Tower was used for nothing; it was a temple
7.
106 to calculation (a temple, a palace, a castle of calculation). It Preoccupied with architectural phenomena, you come to
was an aesthetic manifestation of calculation. It was only the Paris, seeking by instinct your well-being in places of har-
war of 1914 that gave it a use; the T.S.F.6 mony, and not in the places where ugliness reigns.

But more than this. Eiffel, whose recent death has turned at- It is beautiful, is it not, when things are organized in
tention to his pioneering work, is the subject of research, of deference to order? Where does organization stop? To ex-
biographical studies. Eiffel, whose skill in calculation was actly what necessity is this deference to order appropriate?
masterful, defended the tower as follows: as an exceptional Where is the definition, the basis, the axis of this question? In
manifestation of architectural beauty, of the aesthetic of iron. the conveniences of existence or in the emotion of the commit-
"The tower is beautiful! " he affirmed. And the biographers of
ted?
Eiffel reveal that in all of his work, his superiority arises
through the manifestation of his artistic sense, by the clear Organization is itself the key, virile substance that guides and
brilliance of his sense of proportions and by his plastic inven- corrects all that is sa7cfaztch, all that is muscle and bone. But
tiveness (the Garabit bridge and others). Eiffel himself, at what intention does this organization have? The 8a;chz¢cfa I do
every point in his life, insisted on this. not even discuss, conceding it to be evident, primary, inevita-
ble, like the bricks with which one builds a wall. But what
I realize that the words I have used in these present notes will wall?
be exploited to launch accusations against me, will be put in
quotation marks by academics here and by avant-gardists And I promise you sincerely-a fact that reassures me-we
there. But I assert that we are driven by something other are all, at this moment, at the foot of the same wall.
than material events; that we are led-led almost by the
nose-by the imponderable. I assert also that in the end the Le Corbusier
vehement and gifted apostles of Scichzt.chfoett think and act the
same way we do. If I am a little overwhelmed by systems of
proportions, I find them a little overwhelmed by mechanism.
In fact their attitude is very useful.

I pose a question: Why, all of you, why do you come to Paris,

you, practical Americans, you others from the east, passion-
ate devotees of oZJj7.ecttt;{ty? You come to breathe in the
streets (the women, the shops, the cars), the beauty, the
grace, the proportions, the plastic inventiveness. You come
looking for the especially tender caress of the Parisian sky.

Not one of you will go to see the cruel places of hard work, of
ruthless Thylorism, out in St. Denis, at St. Ouen. Modern
labor is pleasant to watch only when a happy chain of circum-
stances has ordered all factors to the benefit of sensibility,
only when a chain of circumstances, that is to say, architec-
ture, orders the forces in effect harmoniously. A dam, an
electrical substation, that is what you, yourself, call architec-
ture.
Notes

1. "In Defense of Architecture" was originally published in decision quickly followed by explanations: "the genius of the 107
StowbcL 2, Prague, 1929, and reprinted in French in people was definitively expressed by Athens and Rome."
I 'A7.ch{tectw7.e cZ'Aw/.owrcz 'fe"{,1933. Le Corbusier dedicated Henceforth, Rome and Athens will supply the models, not in
his essay to Alexander Vesnin, founder of Constructivism. spirit (but to the letter: columns, capitals and sculptured
-Ed. pediments). The Russian people reclaim sculptured pedi-
2. This article, which appeared in 1929 in StcwbcL in Prague, ments. The USSR also can build palace-palaces. Thus were
is today very moving. What roads have been travelled! What resuscitated in revolutionary USSR, the dying forces of the
adventures! W'hat troubles-even more than ever! academies! Even there! I was not disconcerted, I simply pon-
In June 1929, I went to Moscow to defend my definitive dered the cold fact: the simple and cruel manifestation of the
scheme for the Palace of the Centrosoyus, the construction of fatal snail's pace of evolution.
which ought to have been completed in record speed. To older observers, it isn't an entirely unforeseen victory. The
By virtue of an enormous productive capacity, Germany disarray is among the young. Even the author of the text at
dominated the architectural scene. The foundation of CIAM, the beginning of this article, Hannes Meyer, coming to the
the International Congress of Modern Architecture, at La West in 1932, puts to us the perfect coherence of the decision:
"the people demand it!" Pci%js et c{7.ce7?ses./
Sarraz, in 1928, had been the occasion of a harsh battle. The
German delegates were on the offensive, strong supporters of Now it is 1933. Now there is Hitler. Henceforth, in Germany
innumerable so-called modern houses. I led a combat in which all modern architecture is forbidden, regarded as a
what was at stake was a coherent line of force, a line which manifestation of Communism. There are martyrs, wretched
would lead the congress towards useful tasks. They blocked victims.
the way, calling us ``poets, utopians"! And that was an insult! But there are the Latins whose time has now come. Italy has
I spoke of "reason" and "objectivity," but I wouldn't accept made a great turn towards modern architecture recently.
definitions which left architecture under a shadow. 'Ibday, the Then too, revolutionary Catalonia has consciously opted for
resolutions of the fourth congress (at Athens, 1933) make ap- the spirit of the times.
peal to the eloquence of architectural splendor. And France, having struggled for a hundred years (steel and
The Germans created ScLcfaz{chfoett in 1928 because their reinforced concrete, aviation and automobiles) , France now
efforts, which bore fruit and flowered too soon and too sud- joins the final battle. The chambers of commerce and trades,
denly, prompted them to begin to sense technical uncertainty now in decline, spend their last pennies on a campaign to dis-
opening under their feet .... credit the endeavors of the older generation-Labrouste,
But another factor emerged. After the insult to the modern Eiffel, Perret. Thinking themselves adroit, they even claim to
world made in 1927, by the League of Nations allying itself take with them Auguste Perret, who was always against the
status quo.
¥#£c:h:facNafte£Fnys|tchre]£:n::°¥£:S¥6:ev_ee:pt#.:8£SLgfc°hf:I: I asked Moscow three times for permission to go to defend
League of Nations now in 1933 begins to feel the mortal con- and explain our project for the Palace of the Soviets. It was
known that I was the troublemaker. The Marxists in Paris ac-
:a:::3£e]%saonrfuf3]rsi¥the£:fa#o:)°,Wth%a#SsS°Raapcpeer:::nd:=t:a: cused me of being an expression of the bourgeoise and of
eastern horizon, enacted the construction of the largest build- capitalism. . . !
ing undertaken by the new regime, a building which was sup- People are crazy? No! Private interests, ignorance, technical
posed to manifest the spirit of modern times. In Moscow, this failures, aesthetic doubts, the absence once again of an ethic,
created great enthusiasm in the circle of the young. Every- all these together block the way. The outcome is not yet ap-
where, it was like a call to the Soviet Revolution. A famous parent. The world is suffering a crisis of conscience. It is a
propaganda strike, perhaps unconscious! profound individual verdict which is missing. We don't know
Three years passed, years of benefit to the USSR and to the which belief to commit ourselves to.
architectural world. In 1931, Moscow addressed itself to the In the thick of these incoherent attacks, caught in the cross-
professionals of the world, to build its Palace of the Soviets, a fire between academicism and extremism, for five years, I
giant edifice to crown the Five Year Plan. A monument that have persisted in this unique declaration, "I am an architect
would become a symbol .... and urbanist." Such is my profession of faith. My statement
Then-thunder clap, about-face, betrayal? The defeat of lies in my work. The plans are the dictator: the techniques of
modern times and the lyricism of the eternal human heart.
:#¥ttinsgn:]E:s¥:::do¥:::ifi:£nT?]teriecEua?|cdee:f°:hs:rs:£v°£:t°s: 8. Sachlkch, means "chjective", neue Sachti,ch,kei,i (`the now
chosen from among the three hundred projects submitted, objectivity") is the recent banner behind which the avant-
will be constructed in Italian Renaissance style! A costly gardes of Germany, Holland and (in part) Czechoslovakia
108 have grouped themselves.
4. See how I am more scicfaz{ch than you are: For the Con-
gress of Associations, for the University, and for the Assem-
bly of the League of Nations, I needed three lecture halls. The
laws of acoustics recently formulated by Gustave Lyon,
burfggmh!?Foe„t##o£,nags?fp:%3]¥fi:#}ecbr£::?¥+Coa::#sarne::%::,
I. designed three similar rooms. For this you reproach me
severely! But I disposed them with variety. Would you prefer
that "for variety's sake," two of these halls should be
acoustically inferior?
5. L'Archt.tect"7.e Vzt/cL"te, Summer,1929.-Ed.
6. T.S.F.: re'!6pfao7o¢e sa;7t8 /t.Z.. Wireless telegraph.-'Thans.

Figure Credits

Figures 1,4,5,6,7. L'47®cfattect"7.a Vt.ucL"€e, Summer 1929.

Figures 2,3. I 'Archttectwre cZ 'Aw/.ott7.cZ 'hwt, 1933.
 The Values of Profiles
Structures and Sequences of Spaces

Luigi Moretti

Thanslation and Introduction by Thomas Stevens

It says something for the rough justice Luigi Moretti (1907-1973) was an 109
of history that Wolfgang Pehnt's Italian architect and urban planner.
Ency alopedia, Of Modern Architectwre , His early work includes the urban plan
with over thirty international of the Foro Italico in Rome (1934-40)
contributors, carries no reference and his entry for the E.U.R.
whatsoever to Moretti other than competition of 1937. After the war he
Giulia Veronesi's aside that he was one founded and contributed to the
of the more whimsical members of the magazine Spaejo. His postwar work
school of Rome. This northern includes hotels in Milan (1947-50) ;
viewpoint should not surprise us since Casa Girasole in Rome (1950) ; the
the six Italian contributors to Pehnt's Watergate complex in Washington
book were drawn from either Milan or (1959-61) and the Stock-Exchange
'Iurin. But apart from the prejudices of
Tower in Montreal (1962-67) .
histor.ians there is no question but that
Moretti was of considerable import not Thomas Stevens was born in England
only for his work as an architect but and graduated in architecture at the
also for his contribution as a Architectural Association School of
theoretician. Thus while his Casa Architecture, London. He has worked
Girasole is a.ssul.ed of its place in in the Housing Division of the Greater
modern architectural history-as the London Council and during the last ten
baroque counterpart to the rationalism years has taught in England at the
of Como-his essays do not as yet Architectural Association and in the
enjoy even a fractional part of the United States at Syracuse and Cornell
reputation they deserve. Universities. He has also written
numerous reviews and translated
Apart from Moretti's magazine Spclzto many articles for the A.I.B.A. Jo"7'.7'acl!
of the fifties, his thought vis-a-vis the and the A7.chttect"7.CLZ Assoc{cLtto7o
semiological dimension of that which Qucwherly.
he called "parametric architecture"
was given a succinct formulation in his "'The VcchJ,es Of Prof res" was published,
essay of 1954, "Form as Structure" as "Va,I,ori d,ell,a, Mod,an,a,two," in
(Arena.. Architectural Assoctati,on Spalz,±o 6, Dec.1951-April 1952.
Jo"77tciz, June 1967) . Twenty years ago " Stractwres a;in,d Sequences Of Spaces"
Moretti envisioned a highly wci,s pubitsh,ed cL8 "Strutf,are e Sequenee
"structural" architecture relieved by
di Spank," i,n Sp8Iz,±o 7 , Dec.1952-April
``the absolute liberty of fantasy itself
1953.
where the roots of the equations cannot
be determined .... '' At the same time,
he looked to the evolution of a new
rigorous criticism based on an analytical
understanding of the processes of
formation and transformation.
K.F.
 Introduction The a;ulhor i,s indebted, to Professors
Mcwio Valma,rcma, a;md, Pool,o Pol,hicea,
Thomas Stevens (Morettj,'8 assoal,ares in i,he d,eskg'n Of
t,h,e Watergate build,ing) for t,her,r h,elp
in providing dctal,I,s Of hi,s prewar and,
post,war a,ctivitie8 .

110 Luigi Moretti's name is perhaps better known as that of the tects, a position for which he was doubtless both envied and
architect of Watergate and of a Montreal office block, than as disliked, and which did not exactly endear him to the powers
that of an important Italian architectural critic. Nonetheless, that came to the fore with the ending of World War 11.
between the late forties and the early fifties he edited and
published the magazine Spaeto from his office in Rome, in He enjoyed the particular friendship of members of the
which a great many articles on the aesthetics of architecture mathematics faculty of Rome University; and pioneer work
appeared over his signature. The general import of these arti- by these people in military operational research led to the for-
cles is summed up in a brief notice entitled "Researches in mation by Moretti in 1943 of the Societa per un'Architettura
Architecture" which appeared towards the end of Spaeto 4 Parametrica. Indeed, Moretti's understanding of exactly
and which runs as follows: what Functionalism could mean also led him to attack the
In recent years architecture, like painting and sculpture, deductivist functionalism which is implicit in much left-wing
seems to have become casual, and interesting only for the German work of the twenties, especially that associated with
claims which it time and again makes for its validity. Its the name and propaganda of Hannes Meyer, Gropius's suc-
technical latitudes do not seem to coincide with clear, cessor at the Bauhaus.
decisive, and above all exhaustive expressive needs. At a
certain moment, for example, it strikes us that a Mies van Moretti's prewar architecture would seem to have oscillated
der Rohe apartment block in Chicago is certainly an exact between a "metaphysical" neoclassicism, for instance, in an
enough mechanism, but that its reasons for existence do not unexecuted project for the 1942 E.U.R. which owed much to
seem to be much more justified than those of any other Roman monumental models-the term "metaphysical" here
more or less correct building; and so we must ask ourselves carrying the significance with which it was loaded when it
if that sense of cLbsozwte "eces8ttgr we have in looking at was applied to the earlier work of Giorgio di Chirico and the
earlier architectures comes, as we believe, from their later work of the former futurist Carlo Carra; and a
different substance, or from our secular habit in looking at somewhat heavy Mendelsohnian modernism, as in his 1937
them, which has inadvertently transformed them into har- Rome Fencing Academy.
monious fossils.
His postwar work, which first brought him to the puzzled and
From now on, modern architecture must be based on con- wiorried notice of International Style architects and critics,
elusive results, or have the strength to ascertain its limits, included the luxury apartment block Girasole in the Parioli
and in such cases, to forget and no longer invoke the lost district of Rome, and the interesting low-cost apartment
paradise. Spaet.o in its next numbers will devote a series of ar- block Casa Astrea, also in Rome, as well as a number of more
ticles to clarifying this problem. recent sumptuous private apartments and houses for various
members of the Italian facLwte bow7.geo¢s€e and nobility. There
The articles that preceded and followed this introductory are also two large blocks, one of apartments and one of
note included the two final ones: "The Values of Profiles" and offices, which represent Moretti's brief incursion-as head of
"Structures and Sequences of Spaces," which are here repub- a real estate venture which subsequently collapsed-into
lished in English translation for the first time. Milan, former stronghold of Italian "rationalism."

Moretti was born in Rome in 1907 and died there in 1973. He Of course, in all this activity, constructional no less than criti-
was trained there as an architect, and as a very young leading cal, Moretti was being not so much the political reactionary
member of Mussolini's "Giovinezza Italiana" rapidly ac- that his enemies have considered him, as the critic of that
quired, by contacts within the Party and the ecclesiastical school of thought which treats all architecture in the twen-
hierarchy, a position of considerable importance, with the tieth century either as the automatic by-product of the
power to advise his patrons on the employment of other archi- zeitgeist, or as the ideally automatic by-product of a fully
socialized technocracy, these two frequently seen as one. categories of representation, also means that we can still 111
Moretti's understanding with his colleagues in the Rome treat architectural end-products in terms of their "cosmetic"
mathematics faculty led him to realize that the results of criteria, as Le Corbusier sometimes did, and as Moretti con-
what we ideally regard as an optimization process frequently sistently tried to do.
result not in one unique end-product, as in a purely deductive
discipline such as Euclidean geometry, wherein necessity and
sufficiency of the initial postulates determine a series of un-
ique and uncontradicted theorems, but in a related family of
end-products which may contain, theoretically, infinitely
many topologically equivalent members, equivalent to all the
points in a finite plane, rather than to just one of them. This
means, quite simply, that after all the research has been un-
dertaken to determine what kind of an entity the given
program "wants" the building to be, we are still left with the
onus, this time enlightened by manifold technical considera-
tions, of choosing from among the family of possible solutions
that one which its designer "wants" it to be. As Alan Col-
quhoun has made clear in his article "Lo storicismo e i confini
della semiologia" ("Historicism and the limits of semiology,"
Op.ctt., No. 25, Sept.1972), there can be no effective reduc-
tion of architecture to a merely accidental and temporary
coincidence of functional index and natural sign, although in
this matter functionalists and expressionists join hands round
opposite edges of Alice's mushroom, neither growing much
nor shrinking in the process.

A classical case in point, never mentioned by Moretti, is Le

Corbusier's six or more sketch solutions for the Palace of the
Soviets in 1931. These six solutions are seemingly econom-
ically and technically, very similar, since superficial inspec-
tion suggests that their constructional, running and servicing
costs would be similar, but each solution "reads" differently,
by the rotation of one or more auditoria, of which there were
to have been four, through ninety degrees. In other words, we
are not concerned with physical reality, but with ideal repre-
sentation, and are unfortunately back with Alberti and
Vitruvius, and the fact that, to quote Moretti, every building
is both a physical reality and an ideal representation
together, only if the will to form be present in the designer.
The satisfying of necessity alone is a very small thing if the
result should appear as a shapeless and ill-conceived mass,
says Alberti; and the fact, however distressing to deter-
minists, that one category of necessity can lead to several
 The Values of Profiles]

Luigi Moretti

Thanslation by Thomas Stevens

112 Provoked by the assertion of rational architecture, the begin- Even if it had been the case, this derivation from the objec-
nings of model.n non-figurative art coincide in time with the tive must not mislead us, because its importance is that the
exclusion from the world of living forms of cornices and initial starting figure was immediately surpassed and forgot-
profiles, the most evidently ``abstract" elements of ancient ten in the re-elaborations of the plastic imagination. Here an
al.chitecture. At least two reasons may be relevant to this important fact is to be noted, a characteristic catalyzing pro-
singular phenomenon: one is that by way of academic cess for all new forms in architecture: these forms arise from
neoclassicism, or the contorted deviations of a st,ill vel.y the energetic stimulus of an objective reality, they always
robust Art Nouveau, profiles had been reduced to a stupid need an impulse, however casual, which supports the catego-
drawing of shapes, an empty repetition of forms; and those ry of their new structures and concordances. In architecture,
powerfully expressive complexes of long and straight, or in- it is extremely difficult to create new forms and spaces com-
curved cfo?:cLro.8c?t7.o, of flights of light and shadow, of the ap- pletely out of nothing. A starting scale, an objective support,
pearance and withdl.awal of the material which were the an- is always necessary: the ruins of antique Rome for the
tique profiles and cornices, represented no more than a ver'bal Renaissance, Mannerism for the Baroque, Gothic and Greek
concept "cornice" by the fir.st quarter of the twentieth cen- for neoclassical architecture, and for early rationalism, in-
tury, and belonged no less than a tree or a figure to a tired ob- dustrial constructions and abstract graphic art.
jective landscape. The other reason arises from the peculiar
type of modem artist or architect, especially in Europe, of The constant presence in ancient architecture of cornices and
prevalently intellectual cast of mind, who judged profiles and profiles shows us that these elements were required to carry
decorations in general in nineteenth century terms and out basic and unequivocal formal and expressive functions;
values, and reasoned with literary logic and terminology on for when in a language a mode of syntax stays alive and domi-
facts of architecture; thus formulating the as-though-ir- nant for centuries, this is to say that it is congeneric with the
reparable opposition of "rational" and "decorative" without intimate structure of the language itself. Certain of these
realizing what erroneous and banal meanings were being tasks and functions, that is, of the values of profiles, seem to
given these two phrases. me to have been singled out, as I shall presently mention.

It is curious that in the various disputes on abstract art, no For clarity of the discussion, it may be as well to distinguish
one, even afterwards, ever notices that profiles together with at the outset those profiles which dominate the principal
the corrugations of certain rusticated surfaces are the unique figure of a building, running throughout it and embracing its
nonfigurative surfaces of ancient architecture. A pilaster, an entire structure; and which are the cornices properly so-
architrave also represent and "figure" a function no less than called, from those profiles which are applied to discontinuous
a leg or an arm in drawing. A cornice only figures itself, it is a architectural elements, and thus have only a single part to
pure form, abstracted from objective references. The an- play, such as pilasters, columns, structures of partial closure,
cients had known that the form of a cornice, conditioned in its windows, which are in fact called base and cap mouldings,
general design by the formal plan of the building, was etc., or even because of the contour of the aperture, equally
resolved in detail by certain scale relationships among its ele- cornices. Cornices of the first order have the principal aim of
ments, that is, as a pure 77twstccbz form.2 The abstractionists outlining and clearly stressing the geometrical skeleton of the
might very well have taken as the noblest ancestry for their building-figure, the ``group" of maximum invariance for
works at least certain pieces of cornice which carry famous every possible viewpoint.:i To constitute the geometrical
signatures. Neither should one object to a figurative deriva- skeleton of an architectural space which is always metrically
tion of profiles, leaning on those fin de siecle philologists who conspicuous means also, in live reality, to scan the temporality
sought the origins and the framework and profiles of the of its vision, outlining its single beats. Thus cornices have the
Greek orders, by comparing them with archaic wooden con- value of elements of transition, of conjunction, between one
structions and analogous stone constructions in Asia Minor. time and another, among one space and another. Naturally,
VALORI DELLA MODANATURA

di LUIGI MORETTI

I,.ini7.io (lell.€irte moll fig`irati`a mo.lel.Ii.1 (`oiiici(I. iiel tempo con

I.e`e|uinzioiie (lal moll(Io (lell. forliie `i`e, I)I.o`.ocat.1 (I.ill.affer-
imil.``i (lell.arcliilettm.a r.izioli.ile. .lellc. cornici `e .lelle mo(l€i-
iit]liire. ele]iict)tj I)ale.`e]iiente « ii.<tr.itti u .lel]..irchitett`tt.a c[as`cLic:i.
Due r.ii!ioni alliieno |jossono i`ile`arsi ilel cingolare fenonieno.
L.`In{i si a che ,ittr.i`ei.so l'.icc;`tleiiii.1 tlel neocla``eico o le tle`.ia.
/.ioni orecc]ii.1(a t]el ii(Ire I.o]iLt`<tissiitio li]ie].t}'. Ic liio.]anat`ire `i
e[..111o I.i(lotte a `nlo st.i]ii(lo tii.tir. tli Sairollie, a iina `'`iota ri|)eti-
zioli. ili forllie: e t|`Iei colliplessi iiotelitemeiite esiiressi`.i, tli
hin+rlii e I.ettilinei o incur`.ili cl`i€`I.o``cui.i. <c.ioi tli liice e oml)ra.
Ie`.:ii.si e ritr.irsi .lella IIi.ilei.I.1. clie e`.ano le mo.laliat`ire e ]e
col.nici anti.he, nel I)I.iliio qii.irto (lel h'o`ecenlo non ra|)I)reseii-
t,i`..`no clie lfl realli`` rlel .oncetto `erl),ile w col.nice tt. ai)|t.irtene-
`'tlno a `ino ``tanco I).iesai:trio oLrLre"i`o non llleno (li `ln ,1]l)ero. (li
iilia fiir`il.:`. L'alti..1 I..iLrione lia``ce (Ial |iai.licolare tipo (lell'artista
0 .loll..ii.cliitetto motlei.no. ``itecie e`iropeo, a strtitliira |]re`.alen.
Ieiiiellle intelletlll{`le. (`Ilc Lri`l(licb IIlo(lallat`Ire e tlccorazione in
geiiei.e nei si:.Jnificati a `.alol.i oltocenleselii e I..igion6 con logica
e tlizioni « lettel..ii.ie » sii f.ilti tl.arclii`etliira: cosi' il.1 foriii`ilare
coiiie Ills.inaliile 1.op|josiziolie « r(i=i.o/I/./tJ-t/.tt`or/I=I.otl.Li. selizi`
ii.`(`ol.Lrel.si (|llali el.rate e I)anali aecezioni si (I.1`.ano a q`iesle
(llle \,oci.
a t.`u`ioso coiii`mt|iie cl`e nelle `.irie (lisp`ite s`IIP<ii.le .istratla non
`i ``i{i liiai. anclie tlo|io. rile`.ato clie le mo.lan.|t`Ire, assieme ai
{`oi.I.ugallienti tli eel.te s`i|ierfici « a r`istico tt. sono le `ini(.Ile fol.mc

|Jla`li(`lle lloll fif!`lrati`.e .lelFilrchitetl`ira antica. I-n pilastro. IIn

iH.(.hill.a`'e. I.a|)I)resentano, o fig`irzino » anclie llm f`lnzione non
Ill.Ilo (.hf. Iiel .lis.gno, `lna LJaml)a o un I)I.at`cio. [-Il.1 t.ol.nice non fi-
Lriii`a t.lte `<e sles``:I. a `ina I`orliia ii`ii.a ii`lr.|tta tla I.ifel.iliieliti ogi!e``i-
`i. 4i:li aiitichi (|`ie§lo era co¥nito: I.I forliia {li lln€i (`ornice. (`on.
•liz.iollala llel ```io .liseLrno generale all'iiii|iiiinto forim`Ie .lell.etliri.
(`io. .I.{i risolla nel I).irticolam (.on cerli I..ii)I)ol.ti .li iiiis`il.e Ira i
``iioi eleiiienti. cioa coliie p`ir:` foi.iiia imisicalc 11 ). Gli .isti.attisli
ii` I.eliltci.o ben |iotiilo assiiii`ere .ollie as.eli(lenza nol)ilissiiiia .lelle
lol.o o|iet.a a[)iieno .et.ti I)ezzi {li col.nice che I)ort.ino filiile fa]tlose.
`-(.. `i .le`.e ol)ietlal.e `ina (leri`.azione « fiLrura`i`..1 u .lelle mo(I.1-
nilliii.a a|)i`og¥ian(loci a qilei filoloi!i f» cJti sl.(`ic/a The `.erifica`.ano
le ol.iLrini .lelle lllelllhr.it`lre e lllo(I.inattlre (1eLrli orilini greci. col.l-
ii.ii.antlolc con le arc.iiclie Slr`in`Ire liirnee e le analogiclie str`it-
tiil.a in pietr.1 .lell.Asia }Jinol.e o (lell'F,gi0o. Qiiesl.1, se ci fosse
<t.1t,1. (lel.i`.flzione (lall'ogLretli`.o, non (]e`Je trtirre in inganno,

|tert`l`; l'iiii|iorlante a clie fu Siiliilo s`iitel..it.1, nc.ll.1 riclabo.

I.:`7.ion (le[la f.in(asia I.lastira. I.e\.entLia]e fiLrtira (li I).irtenza.
E ri`ii .I.1 lilt.`.are iin I.ilto importante, `in |iroce`so c!iratterislico
tli .{it{`lizzazione |ier liioe le n`io`.e foi`Iiie tli al.cliitettiira: .ssc
roiiii. n:ist.ono itcr lo >liiiiolo enei.Lreti.o tli una realta ol]iet.
Ii`.i. I`{itit)o s.iiiiire lii`<oi(]io .li `tiii` .<iiinti`. t.oiiie i`he `cia cas`ia]e.
(.1`® ```l<(.iti la ..1tegoi.ia ilelle loi.o n`lo`.e con[`or(lanze e strutt`lre.
Ill {ii.cliitett`ii.a a e``trem.iliienle .lifficile creare n`io`.i spazi e
foi.iiie. completamenle r.`.-/il./II./a. I necessario seniiire `in sostegno
o#Jetti`o. `ina iiiisiira tli I)ai.lcnza: le I.o`ine (lella Rom.1 .intica
itci. il Riliasciiiienlo. il Cinq`ie.Onto |ter il Seicenlo. il .lassico I)er
il n.ocl.is<ico. Ie .ostr`[7.ioni in(]`isti-iali . i grafi.isnii astr.itti |7er
i[ I.I.iiiio r.izionalisitio.
L.1 iii.esenz.1 .o<l.inte nell..il.cliileo`ii..1 .inlir.1 .lelle cornici a .lelle
iiio.I.`iialiire ci iii.li.`a clie q`ie`ti f.leiiienli ilo`e`.aiio ascol`ei.. f`in-
z,ioiii esiii.e`csi`.a a fol.Iiiali ine(iiii`.ocl`e c foml.iiiientali. Poicli6 in
`In lin=`l.if!i:io (ftian.]o Ltn:i ilio.1€ilitii `cintaltica riman. `.iva e
•loiiiimillle |iei. ``e(.oli. ``iol .lil.a rlic t`| .oiinat`ir.ita alla str`it.
I(ii.a i]`tiiii.i tle] li]i¥Lii`i{i!io itie(l.`iiiio. Al.ilni tli q`[e`ti .oiiiiii`i e
I.uiizioiii. (.ioa .lei `-{iloi.i .I.llc` iiiotl€imiliir.. semlun ii iiie il.a`.erli
in.1i`.i(l`iitti t.oitie .iiiiii.e`so <. Ilo f{` rcnno.
F. I)enc iiilii]nzi tLttto tlistiiii"ere, ii.I. 18 c]li€ii.czz.` .lcl tlis(`oi.So,
(iiielle moll.lil.`liii.e (.lie tloiiiiii:ino lil figiir:i |u.im.i|rale t]i `in
a.liri.io .oi.I..Ii.lo t.ontinii. ci ``ei.I..iiirloii. I.intel.ii `tt.iiltur€i. ci t.he

in.Oin.i:uitentp `.Ilo .lelte .O[.nit-i. .litll. IIiotl:uii`ttii.. t.Im ``i ti|iiioii-

i!,,I,o iti!li .h,,,enti i ,,.,. I,i,."o,,i(,i ,,i>(.o[,,i ,,,, i . (I"im ,,,, i ,.,, o,o
114 the spaces/times of a building, not being only, as in a purely
plastic work, determined by the lyrical logic of the form, but
being conditioned clb €mo by a substratum or at least a con-
structive suggestion, have also to coincide with the spacings
of structural significance. Thus cornices outline a precise
punctuation which determines the unique syntax of the archi-
tectural space.

In classic fabrics, the parallelism of the cornice bedding

planes was always respected, evidently as expressing the law
and unity of direction of gravity, and the ordering by levels of
equal weight of the principal framework of a building; so that
when in the Baroque a cornice breaks and unfurls in every
direction, this only happens at the summit of a building
(where the underlying material, being already laid out and
locked in .its order provides a residual kind of force) which,
having no obligation to support extraneous weights, erupts as
a pure plastic form, free of duty. Only a few artists, excep-
tional in their almost esoteric composition of ideal structures,
broke and curled a cornice even in the heart of a facade (for
instance, around the figure of a saint), as though to signify
the collapse in a certain space, the almost magical disap-
pearance there of the limiting forces and of the forms con-
strained by them.

The parallelism of the principal cornices, opposed as it is to

the direction of gravity, allows the ascendant and basic
rhythm of an edifice to be read with ease. The classical archi-
tects and writers, from Alberti to Guarini, seem to have in the
mind's eye, as something absolute, the sequences of horizontal
planes traversing the changes of form of the architectural
figure: they worshipped a`kind of metaphysical stratigraphy
of forms.

But the cornices of an architecture have another and

weightier office: the ability to condense to the utmost the
sense of the concrete, of existence, of objective reality. Let me
clarify this idea. After repeated observations and examina-
tions, I believe myself to be fully aware of a phenomenon
which, when announced, ought at once to seem obvious. That
is, a work of art is such, inasmuch as it conveys and condenses
in itself a sense of reality and concreteness that no other ele-
ment in the world of nature succeeds in possessing; I should
singolare, quali pilastri. colonne, 8trutture di parziale chiuaura, fi-
nestre, che appunto 8ono chiamate modanature di base, di capitel-
Io eec., o anche, per il contorno delle aperture, ugualmente comici.
Le cornici di primo oi.dine hanno lo §copo principale di 8egnare
e ribadire con chiarezza l'oss8tura geometrica della figura del-
)'eclificio o del]o spazio architettonico. di co8tituire. di certi rap-
porti di questa figura, il gruppo di massz.mo I.nt)arz.a"za per ogni
po88ibile punto di visione (2). Costituire l'ossatura geometrica
di uno spazio architettonico, che 6 sempre metricamente cospicuo,
vuol dire, ne]]a viva realta, 8candime anche ]a temporali(a di
visione, segmndone le singole battute. La cornice ha co8i il valore
di elemento di transito, di congiunzione tra un tempo e l'altro,
fro uno spazio e l'altro. Naturalmente i tempi.8pazi di un edificio,
non essendo come in un'opera di pura pla8tica determinati sol-
tanto dalla logica lirica della forma rna condizionati ab ..mo a
un 8ustrato o almeno a una 8uggestione costruttiva, dcbbono coin-
cidere anche con le spaziature di 8ignificato strutturale. Le cornici
8egnano co8i una punteggiatura precisa che determina la sintassi
unica dello 8pazio 8rchitettonico.
Nelle fabbriche cla8siche il parallelismo dei piani di giacitura
delle cornici fu sempre ri8pettato. Evidentemente come espres-
8ione dells unita di direzione e di legge del peso e dell'ordi-
n8mento per livelli di uguale carico delle membrature principali
di un edificio. Co8icch6 nel barocco quando si apriva e scrosciava
per ogni direzione urn cornice, que8to avveniva soltanto al son.
mo dell'edificio, ove cioe essendo la materia sottostantc gil legato
e chiu8a nel suo ordine, residuava uno specie di forza, uno 8hncio
che non avendo obbligo di pesi estranei da sostenere, erompeva,
pura forma pla8tica, per ogni dove. Solo alcuni artisti eccezionali
nel loro comporre, quasi esoterico, di strutture ideali, spezzavano
e accartocciavano, anche nel cuore di una facciata (a e8empio
intomo alla figura di un 8anto), uno cornice, come a 8ignificare
in un certo 8pazio il crollo, ]a 8parizione quasi per magia, della
limitazione delle forze e delle forme da esse forze costrette.
11 paralleli8mo delle cornici principali consente di leggere con
facilita il ritmo ascendente di un edificio, il ritmo fondamentale,
avverso come e alla gravita dei pe8i. Gli architetti clas8jci e i
trattati8ti, dall`Alberti al Guarini, 8embrano avere negli occhi,
come qualcosa di assoluto, Ia sequenza dei piani orizzontali pas-
8anti per i mutamenti di forms del]e figure architettoniche;
veneravano uno 8pecie di 8tratigrafia metafisica delle forme.
Ma un altro e piri podero8o valorc hanno le cornici in una 8rchi-
tettura : Ia capacita di addensare al ma8simo il senso del concreto,
il 8en8o di e8i8tenza, di realta obiettiva. Preciso questo pen8iero.
Dopo iterate o8servazioni e rilievi credo di aver piena coscienza
di un fenomeno che detto dovrebbe sembrare subito ovvio: cioe
un'opera d'arte a tale per quanto convoglia, addensa in 86, un
sen8o di realta, di concretezz8, co8i acuto quale nessun elemento
del moDdo delta mtura rie8ce a po8sedere; ad eccezione direi
de]]e figure amate.
116 say, with the exception of certain loved figures. Innumerable
examples of this phenomenon can be recalled: Michelangelo's
Brutus, the faces of the Thrquinian banqueters, the face of the
Gioconda, Mantegna's rocks, can stand for all of them-all of
them exist with a power which the direct vision of nature does
not offer us. I regard this quality of potently existing, of con-
densing reality, as significative of art. A representation, in
order to be justified as art in the economy of the mind, that is,
outside didactic and contingent assumptions, must release a
density of energy very superior to real life. Now, in architec-
ture more than in any other art, the power and the will to ex-
ist beyond the natural and the useful is a fundamental quality
distinct from the simple fact of building. Architecture arises
as a terrible act of existence, and everlastingly remains and is
justified only in this sense. Here it is enough to recall certain
pieces of megalithic and Doric architecture: the Proleek Dol-
men in Ireland, or the Thula of the Torre Thencada in Minorca,
or the corner of the west front of the Temple of Poseidon at
Paestum.

In ancient architecture it was known by sensibility and culti-

vated experience that a wall in itself is an usurious reality,
uninspiring and dull, and that if one wants to quicken and ex-
press it, it is necessary to operate on it in some way, to excite
and evoke its forces, to cause gestures and corrugations to
erupt from it which exalt its presence. Cornices and profiles
are in fact the elements where the reality and concreteness of
an architecture seem to be revealed with the greatest force.
They condense the sense of existence because they alert to the
utmost our visual awareness with their neat and rapid se-
quences cutting bands of distinct frequencies and differences.
Their space is vivid, packed with signs, and carries our atten-
tion to greater levels. Cornices erupt where material or wall
structure seems most compressed, or in some way mute the
direction of its forces, just as the sea disrupts in fragments
upon the rocks or exhausts itself at last upon the shore.

The Greeks, because they were a people lively and sensitive

to the real world, and, moreover, immersed in a very vivid
nature, necessarily had to attain in their works of art the ut-
most density of the concrete. So they had the courage to
superimpose colors-red, turquoise, orange and violet-on
the stupendous marbles of their statues and temples, thereby
adden8are la realta, come la significativa dell'arte. Una rappre-
scntazione per essere nel]a economia dello spirito giustificata
colne arte, fuori cioe da as§unti didascalici e contingenti, deve
s|)rigionare una densita di energie I)en su|)eriore al vivo vero.
Ora nell'arclii(et(ura, piti c]ie in altra arte, la po(enza, ]a vo]onta
di essere oltre il naturale e l'utile, a `ina qualita fondamentale di-
stintiva dal semplice fatto del co§truire. L'architctt`ira nasce come
alto terribile di esistenza e |]erli`anc i]erennemente ed a giustifica-
ta solo in questo senso. Basti qui ricordare certi pczzi di architet-
tura megalitica o di architettura doi-ica: il Dolliien di Pro.
leek in Irlanda o la T¢w/o di Torre Trencada a Minorca o
l'angolo del frontone ovest del Tem|)io di Poseidone a Pesto.
L'architeltura antica seppe I)er sei`si])ilita e coltivata esperienza
che un lnuro di per s6 a realta usurata, non toccante, §ciall)a, e
che se lo si vuole far vivere, es|)rimere, fare denso di esistenza,
I)isogna operarvi §opra in q`ialchc modo, eccitare e`Jocare le sue
forze, far da esso erompere gesli e corrugamenti chc ne esaltino
la presenza. Le cornici, le modanature, sono appunto gli ele-
Inenti ove la realta, la concretezza, di una architettura sembra
rivelarsi nella sua ma§sima forza.
Le corllici addensano il senso di e§istenza perch6 si impon-
gono al massimo all'avvertilnento del nostro senso visivo con la
loro sequenza rapida netta tagliente di frequenze distinte e cioe
di differenze; il loro spazio a vivido, denso di cenni, convoglia al
lnaggior grado la nostra tensione. Le cornici scoi)piano ove
la materia del muro o della struttura sembi.a I)ii.I com|)re§sa o
comunqiie muti la direzione delle sue forze. Cosi come il mare
che dirom|]c in frangenti contro le rocce o all'esaurirsi in fine
8ulla spiaggia.
I Greci, perch6 I)opolo fresco e sensitivo verso il ii`ondo del reale
e per di piri ilnmer§o in una vividissima natura, dovevano per
necessita raggiungere nelle opere d'arte la ma§sima densita del
concreto. El)I)ero I)er questo il coraggio di sovrapporre il colore,
rosso turchii`o arancio viola, sugli stupendi marmi (lelle statue
e dei teln|)li onde farne scattare la §truttura I)lasticci ollre il suo
gia altissimo ]imite, sino all'estrelna tensione del I)ossil)ile. A
noi moderni con sem|)re nelle o§sa la didascalica pal.lizione delle
arti secondo le materie esi)ressive, incomunical)ili e quasi o§tili
tra loro, selnl)ra un fenomeno leggil)ile con difficolta un pan.
neggio in viola, una lrabeazione di|)inta: rimaniamo stupiti nel
sentire delle pitture di Nicia sulle statue di Prassitele o di
apprendere dagli inventari del teiiipio di Delo le allusioni alla
•/.6o[`1|ol5 delle statue di Artemide e di Hera. Ma se riusciamo a
lil)erare la nostra visione dal filtro dei pregiudizi, dal]a opacita
dell'al)itudine, ci possono apparire pezzi abbinati di colore e
plastica, di non coi]]une l]ellezza. Certo a che le cornici dei
templi greci scattate per aggetti `7io]enti (Ia trabeazione rimase
selnpre di spirito omerico) per oml)re dense, per co]ori puri e
cantanti, dovevano raggiungerc un grado di esaltante esistenza
quale noi con difficolta |]ossiamo immaginare.
Le cornici sono g]i s|)azi di una architettura ove la ma§sima realta
si addensa, e cid non Solo per virtti della loro propria figura, rna
in quanto contrappo§te a spazi lil)eri privi di modanat`irc. Natu.
ralmente gli spazi quieti, ove la concretezza non 6 accesa ed esal-
tata, a§sumono l'aspetto, appunto I)er questa loro « diminuzione
di densita » e §pecie se estesi, di realta tra§parente, cri§ta]lina.
Solo cosi. a §piegal]ile la §traordinaria liiiipidezza, i] nitore di
diamante che hanno certe superfici e certi vo]umi arcl`itettonici
del Q`iattrocento e del primo Rinascimento. 11 nitore (li q`iesti
spazi e assoluto, si pensi al fianco del S. Sel)astiano in Mantova o
alla fronte del S. Pietro in Montorio di Baccio Pontelli, ed 6, si
noti I)ene, un )iz.!or€ p"roiiieiile /ormaJc, non di materia. Alcuni
maestri del prii]io razionalismo -e quanti discepo]i - credevano
di raggi`ingere, e§aurire o comunqi.ie risolvere la loro spinta verso
un lnondo puro, cri§tallino, con la materia ste§sa del cristallo, col
vetro. Slittavano co§i inavvertitamente dalle esigenze del lin-
guaggio plastico alle esigenze, |}er omonimia, della dizione ]ette-
raria. L'a8pirazione a una implacabile nettezza formale che a
vanto dello spirito moderno si confuse. nell'esi)rimer§i, con la
nettezza effettiva del materiale, con il lucido o tra§Iucido de]le
superfici, ignorando il rigoi.e di una legge formale I)er la qua]e

1. Nicola Pisano con Arnol|o di Cambio e aiuli: Per8amo del Duomo di

Siona (1265). archelto lrilobo, parlieolare. 2. Voherra, Museo Guarnacci:
Urna cineraria elrusco-romana, parlicolare. 3. Michelaiigelo: I}usto di Bruto,
parlieolare (circa ls40), Fireri=e. Museo nil=ionale del Bargello. 4. Louth,
Irlanda= Dolmen di Proleek. Ne\18 poB€" ti lror.`e= Gian Lorenzo Ber.
1lini: S. Andrea al Quiriliale in Rorlia (1678). Focciala, par.ieolare
118 propelling their plastic structure beyond its already highest
limit to its most extreme possible tension.. To us moderns, who
have in our blood a didactic partitioning of the arts according
to expressive materials mutually uncommunicating and
almost hostile, a phenomenon like a violet drapery or a
painted trabeation seems legible with difficulty. We remain
thunderstruck on hearing of the paintings by Nicias on
statues by Praxiteles, or on learning of the Kosmesis of the
statues of Artemis and Hera in the Delos temple inventory.
But if we succeed in freeing our vision of the filter of pre-
judices and the opacity of habit, there may appear before us
pieces of uncommon beauty worked in form and color. Surely,
the Greek temple cornices, launched by violent projections,
dense shadow (the trabeations always remained Homeric in
spirit), and by pure singing color, must have reached a level
of exalting existence which we can with difficulty imagine.

Cornices are the spaces of architecture where the greatest

reality is condensed, and this not only in virtue of their own
figure, but insofar as they are counterposed to the free spaces
void of profiles. Naturally, the quiet spaces, where the con-
creteness is neither attained nor exalted, assume by this
diminution of density, and especially if extended, the aspect of
a transparent and crystalline reality. Only thus is explicable
the extraordinary limpidity, the adamantine neatness of cer-
tain surfaces and architectural volumes of the gwcLtt7.oce7o±o
and early Renaissance. The neatness of these spaces is ab-
solute, one thinks of the flank of Sam Sebastiano in Mantua or
the front of Sam Pietro in Montorio, and it is, be it noted, a
purely formal, not a material neatness. Certain masters of
early Rationalism, and how many disciples, thought to`attain,
exhaust or somehow resolve their drive towards a pure,
crystalline world, with the very material of crystal itself,
glass. They thereby inadvertently tumbled from the exigen-
cies of plastic language into the exigencies, by homonymy, of
literary diction. That aspiration towards an inexorable for-
mal neatness, which is the pride of the modern spirit, became
confused in its expression with the effective neatness of the
material, with the lucidity and transparency of the surfaces,
ignoring the rigor of a formal law whereby the most flayed of
Palladian walls may be neat. The changeable cfatcL7®o8cw7.o of
the profiles, the eruption of splendid streaks and the clouding
of the bands in shadow are alive, and attract as do the rapid
r+
I C»
120
movements of a young man. The variations of light on a cor- masters, the level ofquality is so exalted as to flood the entire 121
nice reveal the everlasting palpitations of an ancient facade, building with heroic ideal energies. In such a way do marble
diverse from hour to hour, as the sun's course shapes it in har- lintels three millimeters thick in the Medici chapel resound
mony with the world. Each single cornice becomes an ex- like steel cuirasses.
traordinary song in a different key, from morn `till night.
There are exceptional pieces which astound us by their Everything is visible and communicates with us by its sur-
volatile quality: the passionate biblical cornices of faces: the chant or discourse of a surface of ancient architec-
Michelangelo hewn out of primordial magma, the black and ture is concentrated between the pauses of the quiet spaces.
dark edges, the everlasting restlessness of Borromini's in the profiles and in those geometrical corrugations. like the
shapes, the impassive mouldings of Alberti, extending and flutes of a Doric column. or in very free form as in the won-
exuding, impassive perhaps in a truly Porphyrian calm so derful embossments of the Palazzo Colloredo at Mantua.
grave as to be melancholy, the panic lordliness of Bernini's where the corroded material swirls like a dark torrent.
projections, the punctilious throbbing and continuous sen-
suality of the Gothic mouldings. The form of a cornice con-
veys the reasons for a facade, and reveals it vehemently.

Profiles applied to the discontinuous architectural elements-

pilasters, columns, doors` windows, etc.-take on the function
of clarifying and scanning the individuality of the single ele-
ments. and of coordinating them in a common spatial law. If
one imagines a classic building despoiled of mouldings in its
frameworks. its harmonic order would fall into plastic and
structive confusion. With its base and cap mouldings` the
pilaster is visibly detached from the wall, even if it scarcely
projects. and it assumes its distinct role of support. The cop-
rugations of shadow in the cornice around a window formally
solidify the edges and cut the void with greater vehemence.
Profiles quieten or exalt each single element always in virtue
of that ideal structure which corrugates or condenses the sur-
faces by which it is revealed. Naturally the plastic ex-
pressiveness of a profile can be exhausted in its task of scan-
ning the form. just as it can be driven to participate fully in
the ideal constructive effort of the element to which it
belongs; just as in an old painting one can find draperies ex-
traneous to the tragedy of the figure. or tormented as though
partaking in it. The Gothic mouldings, those of Michelangelo
and Borromini` have a pathos which goes to the root of the
role of the framework: the fronts of the Greek temples have
the extraneity and serenity of Zeus' forehead. Finally. an an-
cient profile will declare in its metrically smallest elements
the utmost possibilities of working the material in which it is
cut. This declaration rarely corresponds with the real physi-
cal qualities of the material. More often` and with the great
 Notes

122 1. This text may legitimately be treated as an extended foot- ct7td t7}e Jrmcigt7ocLt?:o" may be consulted by those who wish to
note to Le Corbusier's chapter in Vers w"e A7®cfa{tectw7®e, en- pursue these matters further. -Thans.
titled "Architecture: a pure creation of the mind." I have
translated "Valori della Modanatura" as "The Values of
Profiles," but while "valore" can mean "value" or "virtue"
according to context, and is almost synonymous with "pur-
pose" or "function" on the one hand, and with the ancient
Greek concept of "arete" or the Roman use of "virtus" on the
other; "modanatura," here translated simply as "profile," is a
romance language technical term for which the English
language provides no exact equivalent. Mr. Frederick
Etchells, in his translation of Le Corbusier's Ve7®s w"e A7.ch¢-
tectw7.e translates the French equivalent, "modernature," as
"profile and contour." Both Le Corbusier and Moretti seem to
be here concerned with ontology than with either novelty or
antiquity. In their architectural writings, Le Corbusier's
English and German translators have considerately furnished
him with an implied interest in newness, rather than such-
ness, which is not to be found in the title. I was under no
temptation to do the same with Moretti. In general I have
sought to reduce somewhat the rhetorical prolixity of Moret-
ti's original text, without losing the substance of his many ad-
jectival qualifications. Had my text been French, I should
have had the opposite problem for a literal translation of Le
Corbusier's ironical, laconic and peremptory French would
read like a telegram or a military command.-Thans.
2. "A /Z7t¢7"e7oto as we know it is a certain correspondence
among lines among themselves by which quantities are
measured. We shall take the whole rule of accomplishment
from music for the benefit of those perfectly acquainted with
these numbers." L. 8. Alberti, Dez!cL A7.cfo¢tett"7®a), de!ZcL P{t-
€wrcL e cze!Zo Stcbt"a), Chapter V, Book IX.
3. The parallels enjoy the properties of straight bands; so
that all sections conducted on them and parallels between
them maintain the same linear relations and the same cross-
ratios. In general, certain behavior of these relations should
be noted: between spaces A1, A2, nan and L1, L2, |jn,
there occur oon-21inear relations, which in case n=36 are CIA1

:1|u,S(ac22%iuE`u:3g3#aq:alR,oiiodri#nccoe-:#c2eenqt:al:rr:
CIC2-(Clal C2a2)/a3) as well as n-2 harmonic ratios of the

#seLd/]a/2a_12/Pa]gse8:£is2oP,]*Shg::aa33e]%uaa|Sa2inaosnl:rri::tnaB::w]:::
al and a2. For n±3 there are also to be considered the cross-
ratios and their functions or ratios, whose importance resides
in their invariance in every perspective representation; one
of the most significant expressions of the cross-ratio is (al +
a2) (a2 + a3)/ala3.
The above formulae refers to enumerative geometr.y and pro-
jective geometry respectively. H. S. M. Coxeter's J7?troc!%c-
t?:oya f,o Geome*y" and Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen's Geo77tetry
Structures and Sequences of Spaces 1

Luigi Moretti

'Thanslation by Thomas Stevens

An al.chitecture is read by means of the diverse aspects of its could be taken with greater tranquility than the others, even 123
figure, that is, in the terms in which it is expressed: in isolation: I mean the internal and empty space of an archi-
chta)7.oscw7.o, constructive fabric, plasticity, structure of the tecture. Indeed, it is enough to observe that the other ex-
internal spaces, density and quality of the materials, pressive terms-cfo{cL7.o8ow7®o, plasticity, density of material,
geometrical relations of the surfaces and others more remote, construction-are each formal or intellectual aspects of the
such as color, which may from time to time be asserted ac- material in its physical concreteness that is put into play in an
cording to the ineffable laws of resonance. Every one of these architecture, and they thus form a "group" of a certain
terms has such a conjunction with the others that one cannot homogeneity, and in their complex are strongly representa-
easily remain satisfied with it alone and only in its terms tra- tive. Now it is known that the empty space within an archi-
verse the building, in that vivid, unstable and oscillating but tecture is exactly counterposed to this "group" as its mirror,
always identical act, which is the vision of an architecture. symmetrical and negative value, like a true negative matrix,
and as such is capable of resuming both itself and its opposite
All the facts, and, I would say, all the metaphysical entities terms. Especially where the internal space is the principal or
which compose it, intervene in our colloquies with an archi- even the direct reason for the birth of the fabric, as it is for
tecture, each one chanting in its own tongue, whether of light most, it can be defined as the richest seed, mirror, and symbol
or of weight or of scale or of matter, or of empty space, now of the entire architectural reality.
calling the others, now repeating them and now contrasting
with them, with an ever changeable expressive concatenation This was very clear to the ancients; for centuries, from the
like light and men, but with a final congruence, an immutable Roman to the Romanesque, from the Gothic to Brunelleschi,
destiny which is then the created order of their relations, tfae from Bramante to Guarini, the conquest and resolution of in-
structure of the work. Naturally, if in an architecture each ternal spaces coincide with the conquests and with the very
expressive aspect, every aspect of its figure is coordinately history of architecture itself. Modern criticism has many
bound to the others, for instance, the tissue of the chda}7.o8c'24ro times pointed to internal spatiality as the determinative,
to the plastic organism or to the apparent organism of the resumptive and uniquely directive (and in this it is in error)
construction, it would seem permissible as a basis for the crit- aspect of architecture. It is sufficient here to think of
ical analysis of a work to take one of these aspects in abstrac- Friedrich Ostendorf, Schmarsow and the limpid Brinkmann;
tion from the others, and consequently conduct on that basis more recently, it has been Bruno Zevi's merit to declare the
reasonings valid for the entire architectural reality. It may question neatly, in spite of the nebulosity of much recent
seem allowable, but in fact the results of such a critical pro- architectural criticism, navigating most uncertainly between
cess are occasionally excellent as they are often disastrous. It opposite points of view. It is also true that critical enuncia-
suffices to think of the exact points and also the gross errors tions on internal stereometry have never been deepened into
criticism has perpetrated, in disserting on pictorial or plastic a true analytical research, neither as pul.e theory nor as
language, or on the constructive organism of a work. Cer- philological analysis of determined works of architecture.
tainly, the one or the other result depends on the fineness of
analysis with which the chosen aspect is evaluated, but above The bonds between the internal space and the other elements
all on one's being aware or not that one is working with the of an architecture are infinite and very rigid; it is enough
symbol of a terribly much more complex reality. However, here to recall that an internal space has, as surface limits,
even these unilateral critical soundings do sometimes finish that integument on which are condensed and legible the facts
by flourishing that famous integral reading of the work, and energies which consent to it, and whose existence the
whatever may have been their starting point. space in its turn generates. But the internal volumes have a
concrete presence on their own account, independently of the
There is, howev.er, one expressive aspect which resumes the figure and corposity of the material embracing them, as
architectural fact with such notable latitude that it seems it though they were formed of a rarified substance lacking in
124 energy but most sensitive to its reception. They have, I composition; that is, their type and the reason for the
repeat, qualities of their own, of which four are defined: the differences among the volumes and their enchainment. This
dimension, understood as quantity of absolute volume; the differential research has a fully justified logical basis,
density, depending on the quantity and distribution of per- because it does not descend from absolute interpretations of
meating light; and the pressure, or energetic charge, accord- the spaces, but from their comparison by means of
ing to the more or less incumbent proximity at every point of parameters which once assumed always remain the same, ex-
the space of the bounding constructive masses, and of the act or not as they may be. However, once having fixed the
ideal energies they set free: a quality, this, comparable to the four qualities or parameters of the internal volumes, the anal-
pressure in a moving fluid, varying in function of the obsta- ysis will turn solely on them. That is, we shall examine the se-
cles and restrictions it encounters, or even comparable to the quences among the component volumes as they are revealed
field potential in a space, in virtue of the electric charges in- by geometric form, absolute quantity of volume, and
"pressure" or energetic charge. We are alerted to the first
fluencing it.
two by intellectual routes, the second two we are aware of by
But in these short essays, it is not my intention either to their intellectual and psychological order.
sound the bonds and the order between an internal space and
the entire work of architecture, nor to analyze in a space con- If we think of the Thermae of Diocletian, of Brunelleschi's
sidered in isolation the permutations of combinations possible Santo Spirito, of St. Peter's, it will seem clear to us that the
among the four qualities mentioned; still less to seek from internal spaces of these fabrics in which the great act of arch-
among these combinations those privileged for presumed ex- itecture is summed up, an act destined for the widest number
pressive excellence. One would risk falling into that of men, should be by this their very premised universality cut
metaphysic of absolute values to which not much consistency into the quick of the human spirit, the more they have of the
can be attributed, just as it cannot be attributed to dis- elementary and constituent. And so a study of the composi-
cussions concerning a surface more or less beautiful in itself tion of these spaces, and the emotional trends their sequences
according to its proportions. Although actually this assertion excite in us, can perhaps bring to light certain points of that
in respect of the internal volumes would seem to be con- obscure law that universally guides the human spirit, thus
tradicted by a long series of observations by writers of driving great minds in the composition of such extraordinary
treatises fr.om Vitruvius down to Alberti, Palladio, Serlio, architecture that it even moves the minds of the simplest
Viola, Guarini and Milizia, who defined or clarified the beholder. From this, the sovereign morality of architecture
geometrical relationships most appropriate to the beauty of a comes to mind, its unique social and human example, which is
surrounding. It is however to be well noted that these obser- that of communicating equally with all men, both humble and
vations did not leave the didactic ambit in which they were powerful.
rightly formulated for the purpose of guiding architects of
less foresight towards solutions balanced as structures and Greece did not have in her architectures internal spaces of
moderately secure in their formal order. the scale and significance that the Romans promoted. The col-
umns of the Greek temple enclosed rectangles with their
But leaving this field of researches, I want to limit the essay blades of shadow, which seem to surround and form inviolable
to the spatial unity formed by the internal volumes which cells, born of the bowels of the earth. Greek architecture was
compose it in a certain order, and which constitute in their an algorithm of light and also of the shade of unknown forms
succession with the changing perspective effects and in rela- where the gods hid. The high plane and the luminous vault of
tion to the routes and times possible and necessary for view- the heavens are the marvellous extraverted spaces which the
ing them, a true sequence in the actual meaning of the term. colonnade pylon of the temple supports. The Hellenic house,
Of these volumes coordinated into unity, I mean to clarify the on the elementary framework of repose and shade for man,
modality of their succession and thus the structure of their distributed in its domestic surroundings various densities of
STRUTTURE E SEQUENZE DI SPAZI

di LUIGI MORETTI
126 light, from the obscure Oeci to the penumbra of the Peristyle
and the brilliance of the Viridarium, scanned in that meter on
which was to be extended for centuries the Roman and
Renaissance verse of the house no less than that of the Baro-
que and the nineteenth century; that is, wherever a grey
entrance opens onto a bright courtyard. In the penumbra of
'\`:I,#FTREin"flLth,
the Greek house, there flashed at every ray and reflection
domestic objects or the crests of helmets, the Chlamydes and
the bronzes of Alceus, like the glasses, the red hangings and
the black and white pavements in Vermeer's Flemish houses.

The great spaces of architecture arise with Rome and are the
magnificence of it. United with superhuman vaults, and with
walls of incredible strength, instinctively breathing the in-
destructible military works that ruled them, they express the
conscious power of a community. These sovereign spaces open
up and are bound to proud theories in which the measured
order seems to render sensible that clarity of mind and the
consciousness of that clarity that is the majesty of the Roman
people. The sequences of volumes in the basilica, and
especially in the Thermae of Titus, Agrippa, Diocletian and
Caracalla, must have reached unsurpassed effects by the
variety of their components and the routes possible through
them. On the ruins of the walls indicating these volumes, from
Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, Renaissance and Baroque space
was born, and with it the sense of the grandiose in the new po-
lity of the west.

In order to evaluate in their complexity the sequences of

volumes in the Thermae, it is opportune to begin observations
on some more elementary sequences which can be met with in
certain examples of the same Roman architecture, and in cer-
tain Renaissance constructions. Among the fabrics of the
Villa Adriana, most silver mirror of all the inflections of an
imperial eclecticism, interesting models can be picked out
from the simplest to the most elaborate. The triple group of
the Poekile entrance, square aula and circular natatorium,
can be taken as an example of a sequence of volumes whose
vividness and solemnity are exclusively based on differences
of geometrical form between the elements of the group.

The three volumes follow one another in the natural order of

traversing them: a rectangular prism with a dominant
zionc {lagli altri, coiiic ill(]i(.c (lcll'o|)era 8`cssa e, in ``onscg``en?.a,
su c§.`o con{](u.rc I.iigionai]icnli validi |}cr I.intera rcatt.i arclii-
tcLto]`ic.a. Seitilii.:i lci.ilo I)ia ()i fatto i ris`Ilta`i (li `in talc [ii.ocesso
ct'itii`o bono all.Linc voltc ec(.cllcnti, conte `ante ql(rc ]iessinti. Basti
iicnsiii.c ii t|iiali ii`inli cs{1tli c insielne a q`lali gros``olalii ei.I.ori a
|icl.vcn`]ta la critica (.[lc tli§cetta sul linguagLrio |iittol.ico o [}Ia-
stico o ancl`c s`Ill'ol.¥iinisiiio costi.Li(tivo (]i `in.oiiera. Di|)cntlono
i:li `ini a i{li allri I.isiiltali cci.tall`ente (lalla finez7.a (li iinalisi con
I.Lii t.! vai!liato l'€isiiclto |H.cscelto, tiia Sot)I.attiit(0 tlall'avei.c 0 non
(.osi.ici`za .Iic si o[ici.i` s`i `In siml)olo di `tna i.call:` tei.I.il)il]iicf`tc
I.i`.l colti|)lc§sa. Col]iun(|Llc alicl`e questi a|}iirofon(liliicnti c..itici
`i]iili`terali. qual`inq`Ie nc siano Lrli a|)I)rodi, finisL`ono |ier gio-
vare a][a fa]ttosa lctt`It'a illtegrale (lelle oi)ere.
Vi {. |iei.b `in asiictto csin.essivo clte riassume con `ina li`tilLL(Iitic
coal. notevole il fatlo i`rcliitettonico cl`e §eml)ra |iotei.si a§s`ili`e-
).c, i`ncl`e iso]atalllente, con I)iaggior tranquillit{i (lei:Ii i]Itt.i: in-
tc]i.Io {t.a.nnare alto siiiizio interno e `'`Ioto (li `ina ai.cliitet(Lira.
Jnf.itti l}asLi o§sel.vat.c cl`e alc`ini tei.mini cs])I.essivi - .l`iai.o.
§i`Llt.o, ]ilas(ici(:`. (lcnsit:` (li ]iiateria, costi.`izione - si iialcsal`o
(|`Iali as|)etti, forliiali o intel]ettivi. (lella « iliatei.ia i), nclla
s`la fisica concrctezza iiicssa in gioco ne]l'at'cl.itet(Lli.il a rot.-
iliano I)ercib `in ill.LIL)I)o t]i `tna cci'ta oti`oLJeneith e net s`io co]ii-
|7lcsso fortemente I.aii]n.esentativo. Ore si no(i clLe ]o siiazio
vuo(o (]eg[i interni (li `tna arcl`i(etlura si con(rat)I)one esaL(a-
Inente a qucsto gruit|)o collie valore si)ec`ilare, simmetrico e nc-
i!ativo, collic ul`a vci.a ii`ati.ice negativfl, e in qiianto lale col)ace
ili riassumci.c insicii`e. sa stcsso e i termini s`ioi o|)i}o§li. Si)ccial-
I`ienlc ove lo s|i.izio inlci.Ilo i` la ragionc |irincii)ale, o ai](liritt`ira
I.tigione tli nasci]ticnto .lclla fahhrica. coltie a |7er lo [ii`i. esso
si |talesa co]ite il setiie. Io s|ieccliio, i] simbolo |7iri I.icco dc[]'in-
tcL'a i.call.i arc[`itc.ttonic.1.
Cid f`I |ier Lrli anticl`i .llial.issiltlo e |7er sccoli! (lai I.oll`.1ni ai l.o-
)tlanicj. (tai f!otici al BI.Linet[esc]li. {]a Braltlan`e al GLiarini. Ia
conq`ii.i(a c I.;sol`i7,ioiic .lei:li si)azi inlet.ni coincise .on [e conq!ii-
ste c la storia stessa (Iell'arcl`itettura. La critica nlo(lel.na l`a I)iti
volte I.tlnt.ito, tlii.e(taliiente o non, s`illti si)aziali`a inte`.ioi'e con`e
{`sitclto (1eterliiinanle. I.iass`in`ivo, a(I(lirittura unico /e qucsto
a `in ci'i'ot'e) i]ell'.ii.cliitctt`ira: ha8ti qiti ricot.(Ia`.c FI.ic{]ricl`
Osten(lorf,1o Scl`m.irsow, il ]impido Brinkmann. PiL'i I.e.cn(emcn-
tc, Bi.lino Zcvi lia av`ilo il merito di (licl`iarare niti(]amente la
(|uc.slionc. itiii.a ncllii ncliillosita tlella critica ai.cl`itetlonica tli qiic-
sti ``ltimi anni, navigan`e incer`issilna Ira i iiiti op|iositi ca|`os.il(]i.
Tl;i ancl`e vero I)era clie lc cn`inciazioni criticlie su]1e stereometrie
inteme non fiirono ii`ai a|)profondite in una vera ricerca ana-
litica n6 come I)`Ira tcoi.ia n6 come analisi filologica s`i deternli-
nate oi)ere di .ircl`ite`t`lra.
I legamenti fr.1 lo sr)azio jnterno e gli altri elementi di `in'arcl`itet.
t`ira sono infinili e rii:i(]issiilii: basti pensarc che `ino si)azio intcr-
no l`a co]I]e s`ii)ei.ficic limilc quella scorza su c`ii si condensano e
si leggono le energic e i I.itti che )o consentono e ]o formano e dei
qLiali esso s])azio .1 sLia vol(a genera ]'cf`i§tenza. Ma i vol`m`i in-
terni hanno `ina coi`ci.et.1 I)resenza di per se ste§si, indi|ien(1ente-
mente t]a]Ia figura c coriio§ita delta ttiateria clie li Tinsel.ra, qLlasi
che siano fori``ali IIi `ina sostanza rarer.itta iiriva lli energic liia
sensil)ilissima a ri.evci.ne. Hanno .joe rlelle q`iali(<i a ]oro pro.
Ill.ie (]i c`li, I.itenLro, s. ne I)a]csano q`iattro: la forltla Lreo]t`ctrica,
§emp[ice e comiilessa rlic sin: ]a (littiensionc. intcs.1 come q`ian-
ti`.i tli vol`IIne ,`ssol`ito; Ia tlensila, in tlipent]enza t]c]la q`i.intita
e (listt.ih`izione {]cll.i Ill.a clio li I)erttiea; 1a tt [7re§sione )) o tt ca-
rica energetica >), `sccont]o ]a I)ros§jtiiita I)iti o tlieno incottihentc,
in ciasc`]n i)ur]to .lcllo s|)azio. (lelle i)ia`sse costrLlttive li])iinari,
(lclle cnerL.ic i([eali rhc (la es``e si)rigionano. Q`ialita, qtiesta,
coitiiiaral)ilo alla iircssionc clie in `in fliii(Io in ii`oviit)Onto co-
stante varia in tliiient]en?,a Ilegli ostacoli, oi)]iosizioni. rastrettia.
zioni clie in.ontra; o anclie al I)otenziale i]i `ino s|)azio in f`m-
zione (Ielle masse eletlriclie clie ]o inflllenzano.
`(a in q`testi I)revi .enni non si inten.1e n6 a])[irofont]ii.a i lci!a-
iiienli e la ]oro or(lin.inza fro lo si)azio inlei.no e I'intci.a oii.ru ili
arcl`itctturfl n6 analizzare in ilno spazio isolatal,lenle consi(]eralo,

\. _Tiuoli. Villa Adrinnrl. Piilntri del coniT)les.so.. A iiorli(o llo|)I)lo del « Pe.
cite y+` 8 r\IIla qil(Itlrri deltn dei filosofi. iirobal)ilmenle br\sillcrl. C. Iiatr\lorio (ir-
col(Ire (RIlieui di rllon(lel a Winni|eld\. I Ire elenienll (oslililisc.ono .Inn caral.
Ieri.sllcu sequen-.a I)er tllff erenze rii |ornin. 2. 3. G. n. Pirnnesi. Villa Aririnnn.
4111« q\IIIllru e n\IIro (li .s|)llin (let dot)I)io |iortico, r\cqiie|orli. 4. T'illri Ailrirlnrt.
Sea.ien=a de#li .s|Itl=i inlerni.. norlico. nillu q.I(idra nbsidnla a iil.Inlorio
tom|>oslo (ltll ileribolo |iorlictllo. tlalla |iiscinn I.n.ilnre` drlrisoth. Mo(lello. S.
6. 1'e(llrfe orloRomli in riinl.In e in nlzrllo det uolllmi della `seqilen=rl. 1. 8. 9.
Pro.silniiliili vr\lori rerlll rdel Ire srinzi delta sea..eii=rl. modelli. Portico drlll'in-
gresso ouesl` (Iiila (|Iiiltlra dtll I)assagglo di congi.ili-.ioiic col portico. nalalorio
128 longitudinal axis, cube and cylinder. The volume of the por-
tico, a true gallery with an inexorably long flight, is broken at
its end by a lightly curved wall, and flows by the vein of a
passage of limited dimensions into the very high square aula.
The cubicity of this, after the subtle fracture with the portico
and its very long and human flight is raised to an empyrean,
abstract and most solemn scale. From the majesty and dig-
nity of the aula, you proceed through two narrow passages
excavated in the thickness of the wall (one of them, like a true
unforeseen iris closure, long and dark) into a very vast aerial
portico of limited height, which embraces a great piazza of
sky and surrounds a basin of water within which, isolated,
arises a fragile round island, enchanted with niches, columns
and friezes.

The cylindrical space after the cubicity of the great room

must have seemed vivid by reason of the succession of circles
of peristyle and islets mirrored and refracted many times in
the water in an incandescent gyration, which to us today does
not seem remote from the vortex of the te77optetto of Sam
Pietro in Montorio, with the intended resonances of its portico
about it.

The sequence of the three surroundings is played out on three

forms as elementary as they are precise and sure in their
effects: the long flight of the portico, the aulic pause, and the
cylindrical rotation of the natatorium. The diversity of
geometric forms is scanned by the double strett€ of the
passages, which are like sluices to the waves generated by
one's traversal of the surroundings, a rhythmic pause, one of
those terminal verse cadences of equivocal duration which the
Greeks placed in order to shorten or lenthen the gap between
two verses. The 8trett¢ arise as passages, forcibly limited in
metric scale through being hewn out of the wall; but gradu-
ally one becomes aware of them also, even in their mysterious
and suggestive dimensions, in their natural and exasperated
counterpoint with the very vast spaces. There thus arise
those adits of human dimension whose spatiality suffers a
maximum of compression through being excavated in the
nuclei of energy in buildings, lyrical caesuras between
spaces: passages which the Gothic was to exhaust or forget in
another direction, and which the High Renaissance would
deny, but which, after Michelangelo, the sixteenth century
5

3
4

\. Andrea Pallndio. f'ic.en=a. Ptllazzo Thiene. Pianta (da A. Paltodio-. « I qunl.

Iro libri delYarchileltilrri r>). In colore a indicala uno delle sequenze per difle.
Ten--e dl |orma geoTnetrica e dl Volume. 2. Rappresema=ione delta sequen=a
in(llcnla. 3. S|ere eq.iivalenli ai uolumi delta sequen--a a I)arlire (datt'alto) dal.
Iu sala sllcce.ssiua alYinFresso. 4. Sea;ioni delle s|ere corrispondentl ai volumi
ilella sr\la al.sidala (in alto)` (lella mediana e delta oLlaBorra. Le sezioni hanno
due langenti comlini cio6 i volunii corrispondenli sono ir. i]roiezione prospet.
Iica. 5. A. Pallndio e aiuli. Vicenzli. « La Rolonda ». Cupola dellu sala con.rate

t]inati in unit.i, si intende chiarire le modalita del loro seguirsi

e quindi la struttura della loro compogizione, cioe tipo e ragione,
delle differelize tra i volumi e del loro concatenamento. Que8ta ri.
ccrca « differcnziale it a in §cde logica piemmente giustificata
I)oich6 non discende da interpretazioni a88olute degli 8pazi rna
dal paragone di essi mediante parametri che urn volta a88unti
I)ermangono, esatli o memo che siano, 9cmpre uguali. Pet.tanto
fis8ate le quattro qualita, o I)arametri, dei volumi interlli su e8§e
§oltanto verter;` l'analisi. Esamineremo cioe le 8equenze nelle
tlifferen7.e cl`e, tra i volumi clie le compongono, 8i rivelano per
forma geometrica, q`ianLita as§oluta di volume, den8i(a, « pres-
sione » energetica. Le |]rime due sono differenze avvertite per
via inte]lettiva, le secont]c due i]ei. un ordine intellettivo e psico-
logico.
Se I)ensiamo alle terme di Diocleziano, al Santo Spirito del
Brunel]esclii, alla Basilica di S. Pietro, ad alcune chiese del Gua-
rini, ci semhra chiaro che gli spazi interni di que8te fabbriche in
cui si assomma il grande alto dell'architettura, alto destinato al
|Jiti esteso numero di uomini, siano, per questa loro preme8sa uni-
versalita, tagliati 8ul vivo dello §pirito umano in quanto ha di pi`'l
elel]`entare e costitutivo. E allora uno studio sulla composizione
130 was to re-elaborate in all their drama, in the junctions be-
tween the chapels and the large spaces of the churches or in
the vestibules of the palaces.

If the Poekile, the aula and the natatorium can be taken as an

example of a sequence played out principally on differences of
geometrical form, in the Renaissance one can pick out se-
quences sculpted with extreme subtlety by differences of
dimension alone, among volumes which maintain similar or
identical geometrical forms. Here I want to indicate two ex-
amples of this sort of sequence in the Ducal Palace at Urbino,
precisely one which runs from the guest rooms to the throne
room, and the other which takes in the four surroundings of
the Jole apartment. The pure rectangular prisms of the
rooms, rendered vivid in the vaults by the diamond shaped
squinches of the lunettes, succeed one another in both the se-
quences of spaces by constant dilations of their volumes
through always increasing in length and height. This con-
tinuous increase on a constant formal monotone scans the two.
most lovely crescendi of sequences which reach their
triumphal maximum in the throne room and the Sala della
Jole. It is interesting to note that the sequences are not by
constant but by always greater differences, a sort of pre-
mature logarithmic scale, until the final and decisive move-
ment of the two terminal volumes; and that in both sequences
there is a room which arrests the rhythmic precipitation. It is
unthinkable that this volumetric dilation should be accidental.
It is fairer to consider the two sequences as a rare example of
purely quantitative spatial modulation; perhaps even as the
first instance in which space is considered as something real
in its own right, formed of a substance as labile as it is sensi-
tive and concrete. The volumes of the Ducal Palace in limpid
perspective inversion-are they one more bivalent signature
of Laurana and di Giorgio? -define a research into a growing
emotivity up.to the attainment of an acme, which is what it is
by its very high tone and by its conclusive position in the dis-
course.

The Renaissance had, as its ideal, spaces which by their form

and density of light should give that sense of happy rapture,
of contemplation, which only the wol.ld of closed structures,
withdrawn from every contingent element, allows. The
research was focussed on the famous central plans whose
131
132 symmetrical, undifferentiated and imperturbable spaces, like
crystalline essential organisms, satisfied the dialectic of pure
relations. But in the sequences at the Palace of Urbino, a see-
ond and unmentioned mode of spatial abstraction seems to be
revealed, by exhaustion, after a growing rhythmic cadence,
by a kind of exhausting of every residual visual desire. It is
the quiet contemplation which supervenes when a crescendo
attains a definite weighed level of power, a limited tension in
miraculous suspended equilibrium.

Sequences obtained by growing volumetric dimensions can

also be brought to light in, among others, a project of Palladio
for a building at Verona. But one must (and would expect to)
find the most complete examples of musical geometry of in-
temal spaces in the genius of this architect, infallible
measurer of abstract relationships; neither is it otherwise
imaginable.

A sequence by differences of geometric forrh, and also by

differences of volume, is delineated by the chain of volumes in
the Palazzo Thiene at Vicenza; a chain which unknots with
the splendor of a necklace of variously cut diamonds; a most
pure chain, whose differences rebound mirrorwise in four
nodes of symmetry as the cadences continually advance and
invert-

In their pure dimensions` the sequences can be represented

graphically as circles whose radii are proportional to the
sphere corresponding in volume to each surrounding, and
whose center coincides with the center of gravity of the
volume itself, and is marked at the distance which in propor-
tion this center has from the base plane of the spaces, that is,
from the level of the plinth. Now it is really surprising to note
that in the Thiene the sphere volumes corresponding to the
central oblong and apsidal room, the intermediate room and
the corner octagonal room, have a common tangent, that is,
they are in a quantitative perspective as abstract as it is
rigid. The three volumes dilate according to a precise
geometrical law.

But in that mirror of architecture, the Rotonda, the lyri-

cal concatenation of the internal spaces, as it is legible in
the engravings of the I qual,two I,i,bri, dell,'curchi,i,ctt,ura which
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134 reflect more closely palladio's original idea, reaches a degree
which the ancients would have had the courage to call
sublime. Scamozzi profoundly upset the s.cheme of the inter-
nal volumes, lowering, as is well-known, the cupola, and what
is equally serious but less noticed, enlarging and heightening
the adits which lead from the four porticos into the central
hall. Thus the quantitative differences between the round
room and the vestibules became diminished in the act of ex-
ecution, thereby eliding that resounding scansion which is
audible in the Palladian project. I computed on the basis of
the engravings the quantity of the three volumes-portico,
vestibule and round room-which make up the basic sequence
repeated in rotational symmetry, and by reducing these
calculations to spheres for sensible comprehension, I dis-
covered that their radii were in the ratio of 3:2:5. The same
order of ratios divides up the basement, excluding the plinth,
the colonnade, the architraves and the fascia and attic. With
Palladio there was naturally nothing calculated in such reso-
nances; only a state of grace, an incredible presence of
rhythm and harmony. Finally it is to be noticed that in den-
sity of light, the volumes go from portico to hall in the order
of maximum to minimum, while in dimensions the order is
medium, least, greatest.

So the key sequence of the Palladian Rotonda has been con-

ducted by differences of shape, of absolute volume, density of
light, and in the middle room, pressure. In it are present all
those yeasty ferments of spatiality of the great fabrics of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which have in the
Basilica of Saint Peter, the mirror of every magnificence. The
history of the walls of St. Peter's is the history of the con-
quest of its internal spaces; nor could it be otherwise, because
it was raised in the hope of enclosing the largest space in the
world, an empyrean of power and charity. No one architect,
however great he might be, could possess in his reality all at
once spaces which remain in absolute value, beyond the
human scale. Spaces were consigned to Raffaello, Sangallo,
Bramante, Michelangelo and Maderna, each one conquering a
sphere of them, until finally the whole space was mastered
and rendered integrally sensible and alive, a quality which all
recognize and which constitutes the irradiating force of the
basilica. The model of the internal volumes of St. Peter's is a
mechanism of surprising clarity, a hydraulic system of
i que8ti 6pazi e 8ugli andamen(i emotivi che le loro sequenze ci su-
citano, pud for8e far balenare alcuni capi dell'o8cura legge che
uida univer8almente lo spirito umano, che cost 8pinge i grandi
nimi nel comporre tali straordinarie architetture come com-
nuove anche i piri semplici spiriti che le guardano. Viene in
nente, da cid, che la moralita Bovrana de]l'architettura, l'unica
ua autentica istanza 8ociale, anzi umana, a que]la di comuni-
are egualmente con tutti, umili e potenti.
a Grecia non ebbe nelle sue architetture spazi interni della mi.
ura e del 8ignificato che i romani promo8sero. Le colonne dcl
empio greco chiudono nei loro rettangoli lame d'ombra che sem-
}rano nascere dalle vi8cere della terra a involgere e formare gli
nvalicabili sacelli. L'architettura greca fu algoritmo di 8trutture
)attute da] Sole, fu una logica de))a luce e in8ieme ombra di igno.
e forme ove albergavano gli dei. L'altipiano, la lumino8a volta
let cielo sono lo 8p8zio estrover8o, mirabile, che il pilone colon-
iato del tempio 8orregge.
a ca6a ellenica, su]la trama e]ementare del riparo e dell.ombra
ier I'uomo, distribuendo nei domestici ambienti den8ita di luce
iverse, dagli oscuri oecf alla penombra del peristilio, al brillio
el viridario, scandi quel metro su cui 8i di8te8e per 8ecoli il verso
omano e rin8scimenta]e delta casa non memo di quel]o barocco e
ttocente8co, ov``nque cioe un andito grigio si apri88e su una
hiara corte. Nella penombra della casa greca, 8plendono a ogni
ifle88o o raggio, i dome8tici oggetti a le criniere degli elmi, ]e
lamidi i bronzi di Alceo, come i cris(a]li i rossi parati gli scacchi
iianchi e neri dei pavimenti ne)le case fiamminghe di Vermeer.
grandi 8pazi dell.architettura na8cono con Roma e ne sono la
iagnificcnza. In uno con le sovrumane vo]te e con ]e mura, d'in.
I.edibile forza, con un re8piro istintivo di inabbattibili opere mi-
itari, che le reggevano, sono l'esprcs8ione della cosciente potenza
i una comunita. Que8ti spazi Bi aprono sovrani e 8i legano in tea.
ie orgoglio§e in cui il mi8urato ordine sembra far 8ensibile la
hiarezza di mente e la coscienza di questa chiarezza, cioe ]a mae-
[a, del popolo romano. Ice sequenze dei volumi ne]le ba8iliche e
pecialmente nelle terme, di Tito di Agrippa di Diocleziano di
:araca]Ia, dovevano raggiungere per ]a varieta degli elementi che
} componevano e dei percor8i po8Bibili, effetti insuperati. Sulle
Dvine delle mura che segnavano que8ti volumi, dal Brunelle8chi
Michelangelo, nacque lo 8pazio rina8cimentale e barocco e il
3nso del grandio8o nella nuova civilta d'occidente.
'er valutare nella loro comple8sita ]e 8equenze dei volumi nel]e
3rme a oppor(uno iniziare ]e os§ervazioni su que]le sequenze piri
lementari che po88ono ri§contrarsi in alcuni e8empi dells 8te8sa
rchitettura romana e in alcune costruzioni rina8cimenta]i. Tra
) fabbriche di Villa Adriana, 8pecchio argentati88imo di tutte ]e

'.,i:
iflessioni del)'ecc]etti8mo imperiale, 8i po8sono individuare inte-
3s8anti mode]li di sequenze dalle piri 8emplici al]e piri elal]o-
ite. 1] gruppo ternario de] portico del Pecile, dell'aula quadra
etta dei Filo8ofi c del tt natatorio » circolare, pud a88umer8i come
3empio di una 8equenza di vo)umi ]a cui vivezza e 8olennita a
Dggiata e8c]u8ivamente 8u]]a differenza delle forme geometriche
•a gli elementi del gruppo.
tre volumi, ne]l'ordine naturale di percorso, portico - au]a
-natatorio, si 8eguono con le loro diverse figure geometriche:
risma ad as8e dominante longitudinale, cubo e cilindro. 11 volu-
Le del portico, vera galleria con fuga lontana inderogabile, si
'ange al 9uo (ermine 8u una pare(e ]eggermente arcuata e riflui-
!e per un vano di pas8aggio di limitate dimen8ioni nell'au]a qua-
ra e alti8sima, la cui cubiciti al contrappunto dells 8ottile frec-
a del portico e del suo percorso lunghis8imo e umano, 8i alza a
ria misura empirea. a8(ratta. 8olenni6sima. Da]la mae9ta e di-
iiti dcll'aula, per due stretti pa8saggi, 8cavati nel]o spe8sore del-
l mur8, uncr dei quali oscuro e non breve, vera chiusura di iride
nprowi8a, 8i prosegue in un aereo portico circolare di limitata
tezza rna vasti8simo, che abbraccia una grande piazza di cielo
circonda un bacino di acqua entro cui, i8o]ata, nasce una
agile isola rotonda, incantata di nicchie di coloune di fregi.

Antonto da. Sat.Rallo il g. e Michelangelo. Palaezo Farnese. Roma. Rappre-

n!azione d_ei volumi in.erni della sequenza vestibolo - por.leo . cortile.
Pompei, Casa deb poela tragico (A 8 C D, |auces. atrium, arldror.. perisli.
im\. 3. Schema delta seauenzti vestibolo. cor.ilo propria alrarchite..ura
issic.a (|auci e a.rial e alt'architeltura patrizia. dad Rinaseimenlo alrot.
-.eT\£o. 4. S. Fologrammi dalha sequenea finale del filri «VarieL6r) di
A. Dui)on... Iiberaztone e ai)er.ura deha por.a della prigtone. 6. Spaz;to
turale, disegr.o dl L. F. Cassas` inciso da Leu6e. \802 (dalla Civica raccoita
lie s.ami}e A. Bertarelli. Milano).1.8. Guarino Guarini. ProBelto per la
ie3a dl S. Maria della Divina Prouuider.za in Lisl)o"i. uianto (da G. Gunri.
•. « Archite.tura civile »\ a rup|)resenta2ione uolunielrica deBli spar:i interni
tari quanto precise e sicure nei loro effetti: lo scatto lungo del
portico, la pausa au]ica. il ruotare cilindrico del natatorio. La di-
versita tlella forma gcometrica a scandita dalle doppie strettoie
dei I)assaggi che sono come uno chiiisa alle oiide generate dai per-
corsi ncgli aml)ienti, una i}ausa ritinica, una di quel]e cadenze
{]i fine verso che i grcci I)onevano di equivoca durata I)er raccor-
ciare o allungare il (listacco di (lue versi.
Le strettoie note coliie itassaggi, limitati forzatamente nelle mi-
surc metrichc |ier csscrc cavati cntro le lnura, a |}oco a poco ven-
nero awertite anclie nella loro (]imensione suggestiva e misterio-
sci, nel ]oro naturalc Contrapi}`into esas|)erato Con i vastissilni
spazi. Nascono cosi quegli antliti di dimensione umana, la cui
sp.izialit:` soffre di `in massi)iio (]i pressione I)er essere scava(a
nei noccio]i di energia deg]i edifici, ces`ire liriche fra spazi; pas-
saggi clle i gotici dimenticl`cranno o csauriranno in altro §enso,
che il rinascimento |iieno vorr:I negare e che, da Micl`elangelo, il
cinqiiccen`o c il seicenlo rielal)orcranno in tutta ]a loro dram-
mflticita ne]Ie congiunzioni ira le cap|)elle e negli atri delle chiese
o nei veg(il7oli dei i7alazzi,
Se il portico del Pecile l'aula e il natatorio I)ossono a§sumer8i
col))e csetni)io di `ina scqLienza gioca(a princii)a]mentc per diffe-
renze (]i formc geometriche 6 nel Rinascilnento cl`c I)ossianio in-
(livid`iare sequcnze cavate con e5trcma sottigliezza I)er differenze
soltanto (li dilnensioni tra volumi che ]iiantengono identiche o
simili forlne geoilietriche. Si vogliono qui indicare d`ie sequenze
(li q`iesto gencre ncl I)alazzo ducale di Url)ino e precisamente una
clie corre dalle camere degli ospi`i ana sala del trono e l'altra
che, prende i quattro amliienti dell'appartamento della Jole. I
iniri |trismi rettangoli delle sale, resi vividi nelle volte dalle sca-
gliaturc (liainantine dellc lunettc, si seguono in ambedue le ca.
tene di s|)azi, dil{itandosi §em|)re pi`i di volume per la loro cre-
scen`e dimen§ione in lunghezza e altezza. Questa maggiorazione
contin`ia §cnn(]isce, sulla costante IIionotona]c della forma, i due

!'{e|';{S::'i.irjt::I:Sieei,da°s':,:I:I::t::::Cenzdee]:i`:airaa%ge!ii:gl°o::.irn:::
ressante notiirc con`c le sequenze siano non |]er differenze co8tan-
ti rna |>er difrercnze scm|]re maggiori, una si)ecie di scala loga-
ritmica avanti lcttera. sino allo scatto finale e decisivo dei due
`'olun`i tcrminali; c come nell'una e ncll'altra seq`ienza vi 8ia una
§ala clie arres`a il I)recipitarsi (lel ritmo. i fuori luogo I)ensarc
the la dilatazione dei volumi sia casuale: a pith giusto conside-
rare le due seqiienze colne un raro esempio di modulazione pura-
iiiente quantilativa i]i s|)azi; anzi forse come il primo e§empio
ncl q`iale ]o spazio a consitlerato come qualcl`e cosfl di realc, con
una si]ecie {li |tla§lici`a per suo conto, formata in una materia
altretlanlo ]al)ilo quanto sensil}ilc c concreta. I volumi dclle Sale
del Palazzo DLicalc, in ljmpida inversione pros|)et(ica, qualc fir-
rna ancora una volta I)iva]entc e per il Laurana e per Francesco
di Giorgio?, italesano la ricerca di una emoti`.ita crc§cente sino
a raggiung.rc un acme che 6 tale per il suo altissimo tono e per
la I)osizione concl`i§iva nel discorso.
11 Rinascimcnto el)I)e comcj ideale spazi interni che per forms e
(lcnsita (li l`ice dessero q`icl scnso di felice raitimento, di contem-
I)lazione, clle solo il mondo delle str`itture conc]`iuse, aslratte
(la ogni elenlento conlingente, p`i6 consentire. 11 fuoco della ri-
cerca si I)os6 sullc I,imo§e I)iante centrali i cui spazi simmetrici,
indifferenziati e imi)ci.t`ir])al)ili, soddisfacevano, quali organismi
cri§tal]ini, essenzia]i, alla diale(tica dci puri rapt)or(i. Ma nel)e
§eq`ienze del Pa]a7.zo (li Url)ino sembra rivelarsi un secondo e
inedito mo(lo (li astrazione dello s|)azio: per esaustione; dop.o

::,ne``ntcoa('(:tnzoag::]t"r`::lad,c,:es€::;`de;r'£):rdT:i:jpoenc:.egj]T;::rnatteom:)s]aaunrt';
quicte che soi}rawicne allora che un crescendo raggiunge un
certo pon(lcrato livello (li potenza, una tensionc ]imite in equili-
l}rio lniracolo9o, gospen8ivo.
Seq`Ienzc ottenute per dimensioni crcscenti dci vol`imi si pos§ono
I.ilevarc Ira l'altro in `in I)rogetto (lel Palls(lio per una fabl}rica a
Verona. Ma nel genio (li questo architetto mis``ratore infallil)ile di
astratte relazioni si (lel)I)ono trovare, n6 pua pensarsi diversa-
Inente, gli escmpi pith compiuti della geometria mu§ica]e degli
s|iazi interni. Uno scqucnza per (lifferenza (]i forme geolnetriche
sluices, shells and basins which seems to cover an entire The structural ladder of the sequence as to the value of the 137
region; and nothing of the building's secret history escapes. immediate and elementary emotional trends which it sup-
For example, if one looks at the square bastion serried about ports and so composes can be summarized as follows:
the dome, it at once tells us more than any exegesis how terri- pressure (access doors) , limited liberation (atrium), opposi-
bly alive Bramante still is in Michelangelo's plan. Carlo tion (atrium walls) , very short pressure (basilica doors) , total
Maderna, a very great architect, extended the basilica with liberation (traversal of nave) , final contemplation (space of
those elements of more human scale, approximating the ab- central system). The differentials of the sequence up to the
solute and intellectual space of Bramante and Michelangelo to cupola are by way of form, quantity and incumbent energy. In
universal comprehension by way of a chain of passages. The a certain sense, the central zone does not have differentials;
model clearly shows it. the natural route through the volumes is, as we have said, in
reverse order to their birth, from the seventeenth century
The principal sequence of volumes in the basilica unrolls in drama back to Bramantine crystals.
direction inverse to the actual sequence of birth of the
spaces-a kind of immersion in the centuries, a plumbing in The universality of the basilica comes from the portentous
reverse from the time of Bernini to that of Bramante. Five elementarity of its sequences, from the chain of pendular
doors open in the front of St. Peter's, in fortress bastions held effects of opposition and liberation on which they are prim-
among formidable columns, an ideal echo of the cipally woven. This pendularity has so dominant, exclusive
Michelangelean Prdnaos, which by the thickness of the walls and inexorable a rhythm that it seems to reveal the move-
they are cut in, and the incumbency of the megalithic cylin- ment, the very breath necessary to the structure of the
ders of the columns, constitute the st7.ettt, the spaces of first human mind. Of all the arts, architecture is the most univer-
pressure in the sequence of volumes of St. Peter's. By these sal, perhaps because it makes these oscillations immediate
doors one is liberated into a great atrium, open and luminous, and sensible, unconsciously repeating the oppositions and
which seems suddenly to give quiet and breath: but almost liberations of spaces which, originally in the hostilities and
immediately its front wall cutting transversely opposes us hospitalities of nature, and so always, will constitute one of
like a decisive warning barrier. 'Ib the instinctive and alerted the formative aspects of the foundation of the human mind.
sense of longitudinal flight, the very long transverse wall car- Caves, stockades, and open country. The course of the second
ries a sense of release, augmenting the tension toward the Faust comes to mind, the two symbolic flights which open and
liberation we know to await us beyond. Finally, three close the anxious journey of Melville's hero in the mythical is-
passages opening in the barrier give the final constriction and land of 'I}rpee; or the liberation from prison, when the great
difficulty. door opens on to a plain beaten by a wild wind in a sequence
from the film VcL7ri6t6.
Then the rhombus of the immense nave suddenly erupts, un-
foreseen, its volume dilated already beyond the exceptional All the same, the internal spaces of St. Peter's remain a com-
limit premised and ponderated by the counterpoint of atrium position of elementary volumes, individually separable and
and passages. From now on the basilica is traversed in a con- accorded with one another by elements of passage or by other
tinuous perspective crescendo until the empyrean of the spaces. One has to come down to Guarini by way of
cupola bursts. There the sense of human scale is released in Michelangelo's last designs for Sam Giovanni dei Fiorentini,
the symmetry, dimension, the evanescent and glorious or better, the interior of Sam Carlino, to encounter the utter-
luminosity of the spaces. The sequence of volumes is con- most point in this whole process of modulating internal
ducted with a maximum of emotivity, concentrated between volumes and their sequences achieved in attempting to sur-
the accesses to the basilica and the atrium, to the contempla- mount the juxtaposition of spatial singularities in an all but
tion of the abstract space of the central system. continuous body.
138 The two models of internal spaces which we have taken from a strictly unitary spatial modulation which plays wholly on
engravings of projects for churches at Casale and Lisbon the entire scale of parameters of light, dimension and form.
clearly voice the most precise concatenation of the volumes, The experiences of Mies van der Rohe offer a particular in-
the minor scansion of the passages, the effulgence and at- terest, at least for didactic reasons, if we want to single out
tenuation of light as a distension and unfurling or unfolding of once again in this architect the dissociation of a unitary space
the spaces. In the designs for Casale and Lisbon, the volumes by means of screens and diaphragms.
are modulated by emotive and intellectual differences, as we
have already encountered in St. Peter's or other examples, The ancients, in composing their sequences of spaces, took ac-
but with less sensible caesuras; a species of condensed con- count of those elementary geometrical figures which permit
tinuous poetry, metrically extended with strophe cuts. Spaces possession of the form in its entirety, even when only a single
are conquered by way of a slow elaboration of purely tract of it was being dealt with, in such a way as to allow that
geometrical worlds, governed by a surprising lyrical logic. intellectual simultaneity of vision, noticed by Adrian Stokes
The play of stereometrics in Guarini is always extraor- in its decisive importance.2 Mies van der Rohe, by starting in-
dinarily adherent to the great constructional play; the inter- stead from a constructive volume of irregular geometrical
sections of volumes coincide with the lines of force necessary profile, dissociates space from it, preventing the integral and
to sustain them. One finally arrives at the metaphysical direct reading of it, the only one his form makes possible, by
game, never attained even by the Gothic, of arches which ex- inserting in it free walls and diaphragms which thus come to
plain their power of support, although being completely support unforeseeable and uncertain boundary spatial sec-
warped, with the keystones out of plumb with the piers. tors. It works, that is, in such a way that the space not
Guarini's spatial system is so unitary and absolute, every directly visible remains elusive in intuition. It is easy to see,
point is so bound to the others in a formal and constructive for example, that in the 'I\igendhat house the sequence of
spaces that cut down the great room is on a double chain in a
sense, that his fabrics seem incapable of suffering ruin; if one
cupola were to collapse, the entire edifice would be wiped out.certain sense: one for the spaces in direct vision, the other
It seems that no ruin could remain of these regal veils or constant and monotonous for the spaces which beyond this vi-
parasols, which extend and unfold, forming spaces of such sion remain indefinite. Every volume of the room has an area
rigor and fantasy as the petrified flower intended for the well centered in focus and an unfocussed field: a species of
Casale church testifies. fogged spatiality, of crude visual positivism indurated in a ro-
mantic formal mist. Even succussive traversals of the
It seems that we moderns have forgotten the laws of the se- volumes always leave an equivocal margin, in which everyone
quences of internal volumes. We shall have to conquer space inserts those accords and resonances which he imagines can
as a lively, sensible element, and that not by faithful ex- be drawn from the principal forms. It is evidently one more
trapolation of graphic symbols. From now on, the errors mod- proof of the elusive and romantic stage of modern, and in par-
ern architecture has committed through ignoring spaces in ticular, of rational architecture a stage which, besides, seems
their concreteness can be judged in truth, naturally assuming the characteristic and proper one of our age even more than
that modem architecture will live on truth, and never hen- of the nineteenth century, and which even in music and the
ceforth be translated into its two-dimensional symbols, draw- plastic arts is based on analogous structural equivocations,
ing and photography. There hcit;e been certain spatial se- and is to be considered a weariness of the mind, if we still
quences and modulations which in wholly modern tension take believe that we can once again reach the lyrical clarity of the
us back consciously or not to Guarini and the classicists. Ob- classics, or which is henceforth our natural state, if this
serve in this connection Frank Lloyd Wright's Mccord clarity be regarded as an unrepeatable fact.
house: two flat cylinders are separated by a profound liberty,
but equally by a profound and thoroughgoing intercalation.
The fencing academy at Rome was one of the first attempts at
Notes

1. This text and its accompanying illustrations introduced 139

Moretti's use of three-dimensional negative figure-ground as
an analytical tool. This tool seems to me to make distinctions
of kind which in their own way al.e quite as valid as those in-
troduced by the discussion of sensible and surmized
transparency.-Thans.
2. The probable source for this reference to "intellectual
simultaneity of vision" is an important essay on the 'lempietto
Malatesiano, which appears in a recently republished com-
memorative volume of Adrian Stokes's writings edited by
Richard Wollheim, entitled 7%e Jmcbge {7o Fo7772,.-'Thans.
Alumni Day Speech: Yale School of Architecture,
February 1958

Paul Rudolph

The publication in this issue of to have found a place central to much 141
Opposttto7as of the hardly known architectural education, least of all at
address by Paul Rudolph, given on the Yale. It is this contrast between
occasion of his assuming the Stem's account and Rudolph's passion
Chairmanship of the Yale School of Art which certainly must form one of the
and Architecture, makes an apposition questions raised by this difference.
necessary to a fuller understanding of Where are the committed architects,
Robert Stem's view of Yale during such as Rudolph, in relationship to the
Rudolph's tenure. educational processes and
proscriptions that now direct many of
What emerges upon reading both our most prominent schools?
Rudolph and Stern-the one polemical, P D.E.
the other historical -is the necessary
distinction between Rudolph and Yale. Paul Rudolph was born in Kentucky in
For the interaction between the two 1918 and received his Masters degree
entirely different energies while from Harvard University in 1947. He
catalytic in many respects during the was a partner in the architectural firm
time remain suspended to this day. of Twitchell & Rudolph, in Sarasota,
from 1947-51, since then he has had his
In fact, one might say that the own practice in Sarasota, Cambridge,
attempted union in many instances had Boston, New Haven and New York. He
negative consequences for both if we was Chairman of the Department of
are to sift through the evidence of the Architecture, Yale University from
last ten years; in particular, the 1958-65. His built works include the
isolation of Rudolph from the current Art and Architecture Building, Yale
debate-a role which does not suit his University (1958) ; the Southeastern
style and temperament if we read Massachusetts University (1963) ; and
carefully the meaning of his initial many built multi-family and single
address. family projects. His current work
includes an office building in Madrid,
For here is Rudolph in 1958 asking for the New Haven Government Center,
answers to questions which only now and four buildings for the Staten
seem to have come into focus for many Island Community College.
of us. His call for theory to overtake
action, his description of the awesome
moment of taking pencil to a white
sheet of paper mirrors a dual attitude
that could only have been honed from
the hours of drawing and thinking
which were the activity of his
particular architectural education.

His four points even today do not seem

142 The ever evolving cycle in human affairs is at that point concept of New York's Park Avenue, that of a great walled
where action has outstripped ideas and theory. And so it is in street leading to a gateway to the city, Grand Central Sta-
architecture. The last decade has thrown a glaring light on tion, was probably a superior one to the haphazard redevelop-
the omissions, thinness, paucity of ideas, naivety with regard ment currently going on. This is not a plea for a return to the
to symbols, lack of creativeness and expressiveness of archi- Ecole des Beaux Arts' concepts which no longer work, but a
tectural theories as they were developed by the 1920s. In- reminder that architects have traditionally determined
terestingly enough the laymen, especially the cab drivers of three-dimensional design on the largest scale and this is still
America, recognize this more forcibly than many an archi- our responsibility.
tect. We have yet to import a legion of cab drivers as archi-
tectural critics. We need desperately to relearn the art of disposing our build-
ings to create different kinds of space: the quiet, enclosed,
This is certainly not an attack on the great twentieth century isolated, shaded space; the hustling, bustling space, pungent
architects who evolved what we now call modern architec- with vitality; the paved, dignified, vast, sumptuous, even
ture, for their efforts in retrospect seem superhuman indeed. awe-inspiring space; the mysterious space; the transition
It €s to say that modern architecture is still a gangling, awk- space which defines, separates, and yet joins juxtaposed
ward, ungracious, often inarticulate, precocious, adolescent spaces of contrasting character. We need sequences of space
thing, which has not yet even begun to reach full flower. which arouse one's curiosity, give a sense of anticipation,
There are those who would have you believe that we are not which beckon and impel us to rush forward to find that re-
tired of those great early precepts, and that we are now at the leasing space which dominates, which acts as a climax and
brink of mannerism. Fortunately this is not true. We are in- magnet, and gives direction. Most important of all, we need
credibly lucky, for we have yet to see a Golden Age. those outer spaces which encourage social contact.

Many have asked why I should come to Yale. It is because I The new scale given by the quickly moving vehicle (they will
believe that action has indeed outstripped theory and that it double in fifteen years) , and the whole relationship of vehicle
is the unique task and responsibility of a great university to the space between.buildings, to the building itself and to
such as Yale to study, not only that which is known, but far the human, presents a complex problem which cries for un-
more important, to pierce the unknown. My passion is to par- derstanding. The architect's unique contribution has been the
ticipate in this unending search. Theory must again overtake manipulation of inner and outer space. Our traditional con-
action. cepts of space have been shattered by the automobile and the
shear bulk of our building requirements, but we should not
We, in truth, do not know how to do many things which other retire to nostalgic, romantic, admiration of the European
great periods of architecture have known. Foremost is our square, which.it is currently so fashionable to do. We have
lack of a coherent theory with regard to how to relate one something to contribute, and our current abdication to every
building to another, and to give meaning to the spaces be- new specialist is demoralizing and unworthy of our profes-
tween. The Ecole des Beaux Arts did have theories with sion. We must find ways of rendering our cities fit for
regard to this, although they have little relevance to our humans, and develop the aesthetics of change. This will be our
problems. For six decades now, we have damned the Chicago first concern at Yale.
Fair of 1893, but they cztd have a comprehensible way of
creating a whole. Indeed, if one compares the gyrations now Second, we will search for more eloquent relationships be-
being indulged in at Idlewild Airport, or the collection of the tween the conceptual aspects of building and techniques. The
works of the world's greatest architects at Berlin's "Inter- range of concepts is limited now to goldfish bowls, buildings
Bau," one's vote must go to the damned Chicago Fair, no mat- on stilts, and the efforts of the structural exhibitionists. The
ter how brilliant may be the individual gems. The original feeling and respect for materials elude most students, and one
fears, some architects. The unique forms inherent in any the student is acutely, perceptively and incessantly aware of 143
given material and the construction process must become the creative process. We must understand that after all th.e
more clear. In this case, learning by doing probably has little building committees, the conflicting interests, the budget
validity because of the number and complexity of the various considerations and the limitations of his fellow man have been
trades involved. During the next decade the question of taken into consideration, that his responsibility has just
whether or not the ultimate form for the steel frame has in- begun. He must understand that exhilarating, awesome mo-
deed been found must be considered anew. We have almost ment.
everything, including the industrialized structure which was
such a romantic favorite of the theorist of the International When he takes pencil in hand, and holds it poised above a
Style, but we seldom know what to do with our wealth. Driv- white sheet of paper, that he has suspended there all that has
ing down Park Avenue is rather like flipping through the gone before and all that will ever be.
pages of Sweet's Catalog. The 35 percent of our budget which
we often spend on mechanical equipment needs reassessment.
We should receive more from it than just keeping hot or cold.
Structure has caught our imagination but the mechanical
equipment has ruined many a fine scheme, turning our build-
ings into Swiss cheese. There is perhaps too much concern in
architectural circles about peripheral matters and too little
understanding of age-old concepts, such as fine proportions,
how to get into a building, relationships of volume to volume,
how to relate a building to the ground, the sky, etc.

Third on our list of forgotten fundamentals is the concel.n for

ujs"cL! perceptto". An architect should be concerned with how
a building looks in the rain, or on a summer's day; its profile
on a misty day, the different treatment required for that
which is close at hand vs. that which is twenty stories
removed, with angles of vision, symbolism and content.

Fourth and last on our list will be a renewed concern with

visual delight. This is indeed the architect's responsibility, for
other specialists can do everything else that he does and,
quite often, much better. The public is confused as never
before about the exact function of an architect, for we have
gone through a long period where the specialists talked only
of social responsibility, techniques, economy and the architect
as a coordinator. We have even apologized for being con-
cerned with visual design. This fact is demonstrated again by
the difference between a drawing, a model or a photograph,
and the actual appearance of so many of our buildings.

I look forward to participating in your program at Yale. It

will be our first concern to help perpetuate a climate where
 Reviews On Martin Fr6hlich's Gottfried Semper Ro8emcine Ha,a,g Bl,etter tecLch,e8
a,rchitectwral histor'y at Colurm,bi,a
Martin Fro.hlich. Gott/ined Se77tper.. University, New Ylork.
Ze±chneri8cher Nachl,ass cur der ETH
Zitrich'
K7i€t.8cfae7. KcbtcLJog. 1974, Stuttgart,
Germany, Birkhauser Verlag. 310 pp.

Rosemarie Haag Bletter

146 Martin Fro.hlich's Got€/ined Se77oper is an an-familiarity that was an aspect of the Chicago
notated catalog of Semper's architectural School's high regard for German culture. If
designs in the Semper Archive of the Semper is less well-known today than
Eidgen.dssische Technische Hochschule, Viollet, it is because our understanding of
Zurich. It is the first of a series of volumes modem architecture was strongly colored
on unpublished material by Semper (a pro- by Nikolaus Pevsner's and Sigfried Gie-
jected second one will be a catalog of his dion's emphasis on a machine aesthetic;
drawings at other archives, and a third one their belief that new structures and new
will contain his correspondence and frag- materials yielded the style of twentieth-cen-
ments of essays on architectural theory). tury architecture. Such ideas tended to per-
Fr.6hlich's large and well-illustrated catalog petuate Viollet but not Semper (although
is then itself a fragment of a more thorough Pevsner has recently written an essay on
future overview of Semper's work. It is to Semper) .
Semper's credit that he was prolific both as
architect and theorist, but this has served as The subtlety of Semper's thought, together
his nemesis as well; because few writers with the convolutions of his German, has
have found it possible to summarize his made his theory the subject of severe
architectural and theoretical output in one misrepresentation. A clear understanding of
book, we have instead a piecemeal approach his concepts is further obstructed by the fact
which has led to the creation of ``Semper that De7. Sttj is incomplete. Semper had
mythologies" that do not interlock to fo]m a planned to write a third volume which,
complete picture. presumably, would have clarified and syn-
thesized the content of the first two. Thus.
Figure 1. Gofrfried Semper, 1834.
Semper (figs. 1,3) was the most admired the full and coherent development of his
architect in Germany for the post-Schinkel ideas must often be surmised from earlier
generation, and his major book, the two- essays and from suggestions made in the
vohame Der Stil, i,n den t,echrrrisch,en and t,ek-prolegomena to De7. Sttj. Four standard in-
t oni sc,h,em Ki.unst en oder prcht,1,sc,h,e Ast,het,1.k
correct classifications have emerged: (1) to
("Style in the Industrial and Structural see him as a utilitarian materialist; (2) to
Arts, or Practical Aesthetics," 1860-63), see him as a Darwinian evolutionist; (3) to
shows Semper to have been one of the most see his analysis of architectural archetypes
prescient theorists of the nineteenth cen- as examples of "first origins";, and (4) to
tury. His writings are not affected by the oc- use his general theory as a handbook for
casional parochialism of a Viollet, Pugin, or building.
Morris. He was in every sense of the word a
European, he received his training in Ger- Semper's participation in the 1849 revolu-
many and FTance, he made a three-year tion in Dresden may serve as a clue to his in-
study tour to Italy and Greece, and worked terpretation of architecture. Semper was
as an architect and teacher in Germany, the director at the Bauschule of the Royal
England, Switzerland, and Austria. His in- Academy in Dresden, a post which he had
fluence reaches into the twentieth century received on the recommendation of Schinkel.
and can be found among such a wide-ranging In 1849 he was engaged in several royal
group of architects as Bernard Maybeck, commissions. Thus, when he joined the side
Otto Wagner, Hendrik Berlage, Walter Gro- of the republican revolutionaries-among
pius, and Bruno Taut. them was his friend Richard Wagner-he
had much to lose. Some historians have at-
For Central European architects Semper tempted to play down this episode by sug-
assumed the kind of position Viollet-le-Duc gesting that Semper became implicated as a
had in Western Europe. His writings were revolutionary by supervising the construc-
also well-known to such American architects tion of a barricade only because he wanted to
as John Root and Louis Sullivan, a protect his nearby house. In a letter in the
Semper archives, which he wrote to one of However, he returned briefly to Dresden there. The multitude of skeletons, exhibited 147
his brothers in May 1849, Semper reported only in 1870. His Dresden opera house had in no particular order (Cuvier believed in a
that as a sharpshooter of the militia he was burned in 1869, and after some administra- fixist, not in an evolutionary theory), pro-
not involved in much direct fighting at the tive resistance to grant him the commission duced in Semper the desire to find the un-
outset. But on the fourth day of the uprising for its reconstruction, public outcry brought derlying similarities and relationships, to
he came home to rest, exhausted after about the award; but in the meantime too produce some coherence in what appeared to
several sleepless nights. He was awakened, much of his time was taken up by his pro- be random creations of nature. In the same
however, when he was ordered to build a jects in Vienna so that the local supervision way, he believed, human artifacts, especially
barricade in his street, "J7® pa)rt to protect of his second Dresden opera house was car- architecture, seem to present a chaotic pic-
our house from such near danger, e8pecjclzj", ried out by his son Man fred. To insist that ture, but one in which some order might be
h,owever, to sh,ow obedience iowa,rd a powerSemper's role in the 1849 events was am- found. He sought in architecture the kind of
wh,kch h,ad to expect obedience, if it wa;nded to biguous is a half-truth at best. For whatever synthetic unity Goethe had assumed existed
out7}, I accepted this commission and erected uncertainties he felt were resolved in his in nature. Semper's quest fo.r archetypal
at the end of the Neugasse a strong bar- decision not to remain passive-a decision built form is analogous to Goethe's search
ricade within three hours." (italics mine) . In that haunted him throughout his career. for the archetypal plant. This direction
the same letter he added, ``Evel.yone must Semper was to.take was perhaps indicated
know what a sense of duty demands and act It is against this background of strongly by Schinkel, who had included references to
accordingly. In any case, halfhearted things held political beliefs that his convictions Goethe's U7T2fla}7}ze in the didactic ornament
are found frequently among us cultured about architecture become comprehensible. of his Berlin Bauschule. In an essay on a
classes who, even when they side with a par- Beginning with one of his earliest essays system of comparative styles of 1853,
ty, do not want to give up anything. In short, (1834) about the use of color in ancient arch- Semper wrote that he wanted to establish a
I feel free of this accusation." itecture to his last essay (1869) about archi- taxonomy comparable to Alexander von
tectural styles, Semper insists that style be Humboldt's De7. Kos77tos, which like
It is understandable that he thought of his seen as a reflection of sociopolitical condi- Goethe's work in the natural sciences, is a
house and the consequences of his actions for tions. He often compared, for instance, the unifying study of the physical universe.
his family; nevertheless, there is no doubt formalized processional route of Egyptian Idealism for Semper, as for Goethe and
that he was committed to what he had temples with the nonaxial, open approach to Humboldt, was tempered by a degree of
begun. In fact, it was to affect him for the Greek temples. The former is taken as an pragmatism. For instance, before he
rest of his life. He lost his job, commissions, example of a rigid, priestly class and a published the ideas (at the time still con-
and most of his possessions. When the stratified society, the latter as an example of troversial) on the use of color in classical
royalists were victorious, he had to flee the a democratically structured people. His architecture, Semper visited ancient sites,
country and he lived for a time in Paris, con- greatest admiration was always reserved had scaffoldings erected to check out re-
sidered emigrating to America, but then he for Greek architecture, not because he mains of color, and had them analyzed by a
received an invitation from London to par- thought it sublime, but because he thought chemist. His approach then borrows from
ticipate in the design of the Great Exposi- he could accept its social implications. At the that tradition of the natural sciences which
tion of 1851. Subsequently he taught at the same time, he expressed his distaste for the was not simply interested in cataloging the
School for Practical Art at Marlborough Gothic and Baroque styles because to him random phenomena of nature, but which
House. In 1855 he accepted a professorship they exuded church hierarchy and sought rational constructs that would at
at the Polytechnical School (today the ETH) aristocratic authority respectively. once synthesize and explain an apparently
in Zurich, becoming its director later that meaningless multiplicity of forms.
same year. Between 1869 and 1876 he was During his exile, at the outset of which he
involved in the supervision and design of had few commissions, he began to concern Semper divided all built form in his 1851
several Vienna Ringstrasse projects. He himself with more general, theoretical prob- essay into four types. The hearth is the first
died in Rome in 1879. lems. In 1851, in an essay called "The Four element, the communal prerequisite for
Elements of Architecture," he made his first architecture. It represents for him the basic
Throughout his period of exile he had hoped attempt to classify systematically all archi- social nucleus, the gathering point for family
to return to Germany, where he continued to tectural forms as a kind of typology of archi- and tribe and as such, the germ of civiliza-
be considered a fugitive from justice until tecture. The initial inspiration for this had tion. The hearth is the central element
1863. The warrant against him was res- been Georges Cuvier's exhibit of animal around which the other three group them-
cinded so that he could travel to Hamburg to skeletons at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, selves to provide the more traditional archi-
consult on an architectural project. which he had seen during his student days tectu.ral concept of shelter, for both man and
 Figure 2. Project for a, Za;undry 8h,iv.
Got,ofried Semper, architect, 1862.

148 hearth. The second element is the substruc- chronological sequence. He was too aware of church altar was a relic of the place used for
ture, or platform, used to raise the hearth the complexity of human history to assume burnt offerings, hence ultimately of the
off the damp ground. The third element is that he was describing the "first" building. sacred hearth.
the roof to protect the fire against rain. The His was not the naive positivism of a James
roof is treated as a unit together with the Fergusson, for example, who assumed an in- Through his exposure to the advanced state
framework on which it rests. The fourth and exorable progress from simplicity to com- of industrialization in England, ' Semper
last element is the enclosure to keep out plexity. Semper knew that primitive forms became aware of a general breakdown of
wind and cold. The latter, Semper saw as a can coexist with more evolved forms (the normal evolutionary processes of all ar-
generally non-1oadbearing filler made of Caribbean cottage, though transplanted, tifacts, as stated in his "Wissenschaft, In-
hides, textiles, wattle, etc., placed between was as much part of a living tradition as the dustrie und Kunst" (``Science, Industry, and
the posts supporting the roof. Crystal Palace in which it was housed) , and Art") of 1852. However, he believed that no
that periods of high civilization can be suc- corrections could be undertaken until these
What is exceptional in Semper's schema of ceeded by a regression to primitivism. His processes were understood, and to under-
classification, is that he begins with a non- categories must, therefore, be interpreted as stand and clarify them was the goal of De7.
architectural element-the fire-an element archetypal concepts, not chronological data. St¢!. In Der S€€Z he turns to a study of in-
without spatial dimension but one which dustrial arts as the prerequisite for the com-
bestows social significance on the site. The He believed that these four elements are prehension of architectural processes of
other three elements follow in logical se- subject to transformations, separately or change. For he now supposed that the in-
quence from the first. His postulation of the together. While one element may undergo dustrial arts constituted more basic types
hearth as the generator of substructure, extended technical development, another than his four architectural elements. He
roof, and enclosure leads him to a further one may persist only in symbolic form. Since linked his four elements of architecture with
unusual categorization. The roof with its his schema is not time-specific, it cannot be four categories of industrial arts: the prod-
supporting posts is read as a continuous unit, attacked by pointing to building types that uction of ceramics and metallurgy are re-
and his fourth element, enclosure, repre- do not seem to be covered by his categories. lated to the hearth (because they require
sents the final (non-structural) step in For instance, the Dogon house or the Eskimo heat), industrial arts of stone are linked to
dividing outside from inside. (The Indian igloo do not have frameworks supporting a masonry and the substructure, woodwork
tepee and wigwam might be considered as roof nor do they treat enclosure as a discrete with the frame and roof, and textiles with
succinct examples of a continuous frame and entity. Although Semper did not deal with the enclosure. In De7. Stt! Semper also gave
roof covered by a thin enclosure.) Semper these particular examples, one could answer his categories a new sequence. One would
does not use the more readily perceivable- expect metallurgy and ceramics first and
at least in Western architecture-elements, ::srt:i:etho:t:::¥{#rge:::¥a:]nydp::;fp:ith£:sin; textiles last. Instead he begins with textiles,
wall and roof, nor does he choose to follow in continuous unit. That the roof and its sup- and continues with ceramics, carpentry,
his analysis conventional nineteenth-century port have in these cases also absorbed the masonry, and concludes with metallurgy. In
construction methods which would have fourth element, enclosure, could be under- placing them in this particular order which
presumed a wall-roof sequence and which stood as a transformation to accommodate runs from soft to increasingly harder
would not have allowed him to see the extremes of climate. Further, we know that materials, he gives the impression that he
enclosure as a non-loadbearing zone. Semper the Dogon house reflects aspects of Moslem has shifted from his former social-ordering
found his system confirmed in a Caribbean architecture. The Dogon house is, then, a principle to one in which materials and their
cottage shown at the Great Exhibition in case in which an apparently.primitive build- properties dominate the schema. However,
London. It had a hearth elevated on a plat- ing retains echoes of a high culture in which the hearth is still referred to as "the oldest
form, poles supporting a roof, and woven the four elements had presumably been inte- symbol of society," and in his introduction to
mats suspended between the poles. This sug- grated. Of course, Semper's whole system is the specific discussion of materials, he wrote
gests that Semper's four elements describe a construct and its "correctness" depends concerning the "Classification of Industrial
primitive building, not architecture; he him- only on the workability of its model of archi- Arts" that his new categories are to be
self stressed this point. In a more evolved tectural transformations. In this regard, it is treated inclusively, not exclusively. That is,
architecture, according to Semper, these no different from any scientific law man has while he sees clay as the archetypal
four elements became integrated so that invented to understand the workings of material, U7'sto#, for vessels, he intends to
they could no longer be read as separate nature. Semper himself borrowed some of include in his examination vessels made of
categories. And although the four elements his terminology from natural science, partic- glass or wood as well. On the other hand,
were categories more explicit in primitive ularly his notion of vestigial form in archi- there might be ceramic objects such as tiles,
building, Semper did not attempt to imply a tecture. He believed, for example, that the certain terracottas, or any ceramics that are
 £.
primarily used as thin coverings, which remarks in his prolegomena are taken practical aesthetics; a usage intended by 149
might be more appropriately discussed seriously. Alois Riegl, the Viennese art Semper but one difficult to carry out since
under textiles. His categories are really historian, as early as 1893 in his St{!/rcbge" the last volume of De7® Sttz (the one which
functional ones, materials do not seem to be ("Questions of Style'') found it necessary to would have dealt with architecture) was
used in a purely materialistic sense. defend Semper against overly materialistic never completed. Like Wagner, Berlage
intexpretations. He wrote that those pur- believed construction to be the generator of
A further evidence of his desire to see ar- porting to be Semper followers have as little architecture. In his GedcL72,foe7a dibe7. St{! t7t
ti facts grouped by function, not materials, in common with Semper as Darwinism with de7. Bcb"fo"7ast ("Thoughts About Style in
was his criticism of existing museums in his Darwin. Architecture") of 1905, he named Semper
essay on a comparative system of styles of and Viollet-1e-Due in one breath as theoreti-
1853. For example, Semper thought that lit- AI.chitects, too, were beginning to superim- cians he intends to follow. Berlage's desire to
tle could be learned by comparing a piece of pose their own predilections upon Semper's see these two figures' ideas as being of a
metal armor with a metal vase. For him it theoretical framework. Otto Wagner, for ex- piece is an indication of Berlage's construc-
would have been much more revealing to a,mp\e, in his Die Boukunst unserer Ze±t tivist vision. To Berlage, the most urgent
compare a metal vase with a glass vase, etc. ("The Architecture of Our Time'') of 1894, question for architects was to evolve a new
In the same essay he defined style as a for- while paying tribute to Semper, went on to style. 'Ib do this, he suggested tuning to
mula taken from integral calculus: Y = F point out what he saw as his shortcoming: prototyp.es in nature. Just as the hide of
"Semper did not have the courage, like Dar-
(x,y,z ,... ) , where Y is the artifact, F is the animals never seems to conceal their skeletal
function of the object, and x,y,z ,... are thewin, to complete his theories upwards and structure, so, he believed, a building should
theoretically infinite number of components downwards and he made do with a symbol- always reveal its construction. Berlage's
which interact in the production of Y. ism of construction instead of designating literal analogy with animals reflects quite
Semper saw in this formula the confluence of construction itself as the germ cell of build- closely Viollet's conviction that "forms not
a stable and of a variable set of influences. ing.'' Semper's theory was, of course, determined by structure should be spurned."
Function is posited as a constant element; something more than the symbolic utili- It does not, however, conform with Semper's
the shape of a drinking vessel` no matter tarianism Wagner cited. It also dealt with stylistic principles. Semper's Caribbean hut
what its material` would primarily be deter- religious, social, and political function. For may have revealed structure, but it was seen
mined by its function to contain a liquid. In- Wagner, for whom every architectural form by Semper as an example of building, not
fluences that are variable, the coefficients ultimately derives from construction, this architecture. It was an archetype used to
x,y,z ,... he subdivided into the following point was lost. Similarly, Semper's "failure" describe the evolution of architectural ele-
three classes: (1) materials and techniques; to adopt a Darwinian model of evolution is ments, but it was not proposed as a model to
(2) local and ethnological influences such as quite consistent within the context of his in- be followed by contemporary architects. In
religion, politics, climate, or the specific site; tentions. He, in fact, was familiar with Dar- more highly developed architecture, Semper
and (3) personal influences such as those of wLn's work (Origin Of the Specte8 wa,s believed that the separate architectural ele-
the artist or his patron. It is clear from published in 1859) and apparently read it ments become fused and integrated and no
Semper's formulation of style that function with interest. However, by 1859 Semper had longer reveal construction in a direct way. In
has a more tangible effect on design than already written most of his essays, and the fact, in his introduction to Der St¢Z, Semper
materials or the artist's idiosyncrasies, the bulk of Der S€tz (certainly its basic concep- wrote that his conception of basic forms and
latter being only subcategories of an infinite tion) must have been completed by the time their origins has nothing in common with the
number of variable coefficients. he read Darwin. The only direct reference materialistic understanding of building in
Semper n}pde to Darwin is in one of his late which architecture is "nothing more than
Despite the comparative precision of this essays, ``Uber Baustile" ("About Architec- evolved construction, an illustration and il-
aspect of Semper's ideas, by the turn of the tural Styles'') of 1869, in which he stated lumination of statics and mechanics, pure
century he was already radically misun- unequivocally that Darwin's theory of revelation of material, as it were."
derstood. He was generally seen in the light natural selection, particularly the axiom
of the prevailing materialist and Darwinian that nature makes no leaps, is not transfera- It is essentially Wagner's and Berlage's view
attitudes. Indeed, if Der Sfj! is scanned ble to the creation and development of ar- of Semper which has come down to us. It
rapidly, its chapter headings, organized by tifacts, be they crafts or architecture. was passed on, for instance, in more or less
materials (textiles, ceramics, carpentry, this form by Franz Boas, the German
masonry, and metallurgy), might suggest Hendrik Petrus Berlage, who had studied at anthropologist, who established
just such a reading, a misinterpretation the Federal Institute of Technology in anthropology as a serious endeavor in Amer-
avoidable only if Semper's introductory Zurich, often referred to Semper's theory as ica, and who trained a whole generation of
150 American anthropologists. Even in recent oldest and apparently the most primitive aspects of Sullivan's ideas to those of
Semper studies, his place vis-a-vis Darwin- cultures we may be able to pinpoint, would Semper. It would appear that Sullivan's
ism is not made clear. Leopold Ettlinger, for probably turn out to have been a vestige of a eurythmic organization of a building into a
example, in his essay "On Science, Industry, yet earlier higher culture. The attempt to fix clearly perceivable and forthrightly reada-
and Art" (Arcfa¢tectwrcLj f3eut.eon, July, origins in time, he, therefore, found a thank- ble Ges€¢!t (an organization of the exterior
1964) , after acknowledging that Semper did less task. In the same way, he wrote that he that expresses symbolic functions more
not transfer Darwin's method fully to the cannot determine which one of the various clearly than structural-mechanical ones) can
arts, added that ". . . he firmly believed that crafts came first in time. The reason he com- be associated with concepts found in
the principle of Euozwtto7i-in the strict menced with textile crafts is that it ap- Semper's prolegomena to Der Sttz. Sullivan's
scientific sense of the term-could be ap- peared to him, from all available evidence, ornamental emphasis of a building's
plied to the arts and to architecture." Et- that textiles bore the origin of many oma- entrance and termination is also comparable
tlinger substantiated his depiction of mental types and symbols found in other to Semper's analysis of the design principles
Semper as an evolutionist by referring to crafts. He referred to textiles as U7.fow7ost, a found in a Greek hydria, discussed in
the latter's interest in Cuvier. Cuvier, basic art form which seems to have provided Semper's essay "Keramisches" ("On Pot-
however, had been a great defender of "fix- typological models, but not necessarily one tery'') of 1852-5. Semper wrote that the or-
ism" and had nothing in common with evolu- which was first in time. nament must emphasize the characteristics
tionary concepts. Further, there is not now, of each part, as well as its relation to the
and never was, a principle of evolution in a A different sort of illustration of the still whole object and the surrounding environ-
"strict scientific sense." The nineteenth cen-
prevailing misconception of Semper is the ment. In both the foot and the neck of the
tury was confronted by a variety of compet- current historical view of his relation to the hydria Semper saw conflicting directional
ing scientific theories. Even today, when Chicago School. Architects working in forces at work. The foot is the receiver of
Darwin's version is the generally accepted Chicago in the eighties and nineties were the belly which seems to press down on it
one, new definitions and revisions of his without doubt exposed to his writings. In but, at the same time, it rests on the ground
theory are being put forward. For example, 1880, the Ame7ica}7t A7®cfajtect, as part of its and holds up the vessel. The counter forces
Darwin's belief in a gradual adaptation to obituary of Semper, recommended De7. St¢! run upward and downward and this Semper
changing conditions is questioned as a to its readers and gave a bibliography of found was usually expressed by vertically
universal explanation for changes in nature. several essays by Semper published in arranged, vegetable ornament. The orna-
Some scientists have suggested that great various foreign periodicals. This advice mentation of the neck, he wrote, is informed
cataclysmic events, such as the impact of seems to have been effective, for in the late by the action of filling and pouring out liq-
meteors which may have altered climate and eighties, a more general interest in Semper uid. The opposing forces here also move up-
caused the mutation of genes, may have can be documented. In 1887 the J"Zcb"d ward and downward and this is signified by
been responsible for the more drastic shifts A7.cfa€tect Published a discussion held by the ornament similar to that used on the foot.
in evolution. Thus, the concept of evolution Illinois State Association of Architects in The hydria's belly, which Semper saw as a
itself is continually undergoing an evolution which Louis Sullivan and John Root had par- container in complete hydrostatic balance, is
also and it is, therefore, not very meaningful ticipated, and in which the German-born a neutral zone without directional forces,
to speak of evolution in a "Strict scientific Frederick Baumann quoted from Semper's usually reserved for pictorial representa-
sense." essay "Uber Baustile." Then John Root, with tions. Elsewhere Semper showed how this
the help of Fritz Wagner, edited and transl- type of an analysis can be transposed to
Joseph Rykwert, in his recent book, 0lyo ated this particular essay and it appeared in form an understanding of architectural
Adam's House kn Paradise, in contra,st to serialized form in the December 1889, and Gestcb!t. A comparable dynamic interpreta-
Ettlinger, is careful not to portray Semper the January through March 1890 issues of tion of ornament would have allowed
as a materialist Darwinist. He does, the J"ZcL7ac! A7.cfot€ect. Dankmar Adler, Sullivan to see the entrance, where the
however, believe that Semper in De7. Stt! is Sullivan's German-born partner, apparently greatest activity between inside and outside
describing the origins of architecture rather was fond of reciting quotations from occurs, similar to the neck of Semper's hy-
than conceptual archetypes. Because Semper. The evidence that Sullivan was dria. The hydria's neutral belly can be
Semper dealt first with textiles, Rykwert familiar with Semper's ideas is, therefore, associated with Sullivan's conception of
suggests that for Semper the first artifact quite substantial. office floors, which, in his essay "The Tall
was a knot, that the origin of the house coin- Office Building Artistically Considered" of
cided with weaving, and that the first house While most historians of this period of 1896, he described as being all identical, and
was a tent. In his introduction to the chap- American architectural history acknowledge therefore a kind of neutral zone between the
ters on textiles, Semper stated that even the Semper's influence, none has traced specific perceptually active basement and entrance
and the forcefully stated termination at the Architecture" (published in EuoZ"tto7icL7ry which had been used for the textile 151
cornice level which helps to set the building F7aowght t7t Ame7.tca), 1956), explained enclosure may be used on the masonry wall.
off from its general background and also Semper's importance for America by refer- Or, if swags of garlands were used in sacred
helps to make it readable in terms of ring to him as if he were a Darwinian evolu- buildings, references may be made to these
Semper's principles regarding a visual field. tionist, "Semper conceived art to be a in a later development as painted garlands.
special process of development . . . and thus So, while the original pattern may have been
Frank Lloyd Wright, who worked in of evolution. For this reason he dealt affected by its medium, in its subsequent
Sullivan's office in the late eighties and especially with the principles of style in transformations the material on which it oc-
early nineties, could also have been familiar their adaptation to new inventions. He in- curs is no longer of primary significance.
with Semper. In Wright's work one might vestigated structure from a genetic point of This aspect of Semper's theory accounts for
point to his ceremonial emphasis of the fire- view, and explained it as derived from the the traditionalism that prevailed before our
place, which often, as in his Willitts and specific nature of the material, from the own age in the usage of forms. Semper dealt
R.obie Houses, seems to generate the plan it- nature of the tools and methods of construe- with form that evolves slowly and gradually,
self. It is clear, though, that Wright's per- tion and also from the nature of the use to which goes through traceable transforma-
sonal belief in the importance of the family which the structure is to be put." Semper's tions comparable to the processes of change
has much to do with this particular symbolic functionalism is submerged in Eg- in language. This gradual process of change
organization of the house. However, bert's primarily materialistic explication. allowed for the conservation of symbolic
Semper's description of the hearth, as the language, a process Semper found usurped
most elementary social nucleus of a building, Similarly, Albert Bush-Brown in his Low€s by industrialization. Industry's ability to
would have reinforced Wright's own at- Sc4Zztt;a)" of 1960 quoted from Semper out of produce many forms out of many materials
titudes. context to show how his ideas are sup- meant that symbolic content could be
posedly Darwinian. And Carl W. Condit in transferred from one artifact to another
In a discussion of the general relationship of the Chicago Sch,ool Of Architecture o£ 1964 that is functionally quite different, thereby
Semper to the Chicago School architects, completely sealed Semper's fate as a Darwi- rendering meaning meaningless. For
one might also investigate the origin of the nian, "The organic theory of architecture Semper, a constant barrage of neologisms in
term ``curtain wall" as it was used to that was rising in Germany under the in- designed form, just as in language, would
describe the thin envelopes of Chicago fluence of Darwinism came to be known defeat the central purpose of any com-
skyscrapers. And, by extension, Wright's originally through Root's translation in 1889 munication, to be understood.
sources for the "textile" blocks of his [sic] of Gottfried Semper's `Development of
Califomia houses might be explored further Architectural Style.' " It seems that none of Semper was interested in comparative
and compared with the textile effects of the these authors checked Semper's essay to see linguistics; he had high hopes for its useful-
Coonley House tiles, a device used by whether he did, in fact, propose a Darwinian ness in tracing the origin of forms. A word,
Wright long before he tuned to the more model of evolution. through its stem can reveal its original
literally "woven" effect of the hollow con- meaning and place of origin even after many
crete blocks. This may perhaps have been an Further proof, if more were needed, that transformations. In the same way Semper
adaptation of Semper's fourth architectural Semper was not a materialist or a Darwi- wanted to find in the names of architectural
element, that of a thin, fabric-like enclosure. nian, is his so-called Sto/Towechsejtfaeo7ie parts evidence of their origin. He gave as an
Semper himself would not have advocated (untranslatable, but something like theory example the German words "fl4a)we7" and
such an application of what he regarded as of change in materials) and his interest in " WcL72,cZ." Both mean "wall," but the second-
an archetypal element, although the attempt linguistics as a potential model for the evolu- ary meaning of "Mci"e7" is "battlement,"
to use Semper's theories as a handbook tion of man-made forms. The Sto//- and "WcL7td" can also mean "screen."
would be rather typical of his influence on ouechseztfaeo7|.e describes his conviction that Semper saw evidence in these words for his
architects. In any case, Semper's relation- formal patterns have been taken from one division of architectural elements into the
ship with the Chicago School is obviously a medium and reused in another, sometimes substructure and its relation to masonry and
rich one and bears further investigation. with slight changes, sometimes with strong the enclosure and its derivation from a thin
Yet, most historians have reduced, rather symbolic transformation. For example, pat- skin. " Wci7t,d" he thought of as being related
than expanded, our understanding of this terns devised for textiles may reappear first to the word "Geowci7?d" ("dress''). Modern
connection. as wall ornament on a textile enclosure. If etymology actually relates " Wa}"d" more
buildings which had such textile enclosures directly to the verb "ow{72,de72," (``to braid''),
Donald Drew Egbert, in his essay on "The become more permanent, the wall may be and gives the original meaning of " Wcb72,d" as
Idea of Organic Expression and American done in masonry but the same ornament having been "wickerwork" or "wattling."
 Figure 3. Gctrfried, Semper, 1878.

152 However, this still supports Semper's theo- simplicity exists. Semper probably shied
ry of the primitive wall as filler. away from adopting a Darwinian model
because iri the evolution of nature there is no
Semper's Sto#wecfase!tfaeor{e, together with return to old forms-it is unlikely that there
his etymological approach, were confirmed will be another age of dinosaurs-but in ar-.
in more recent scholarship by Karl tistic change a return to older forms is in-
Lehmann. Lehmann traced the image of the deed possible as is a complete coexistence of
dome as a symbol of heaven to temporary old and new forms. Semper did not see
Greek canopies embroidered with stars. The human history and the creation of crafts and
symbolic function of such canopies is sup- architecture as a simple progression.
ported by their name, "7.a)"jscw8. Or, one Development of forms was evolutionary to
might consider the term "reredos," usually a him only in the sense of continual change,
synonym for "retable", a structure forming not in the sense of a progression from lower
the back of an altar. The secondary meaning organisms to higher forms of life. The more
of "reredos," however, refers to the back of conceptual models of Goethe and Humboldt,
an open hearth or fireplace, a relationship also devised for the study of natural science,
that bears out Semper's connection of were clearly more directly applicable to his
hearth and altar. own endeavors.

Semper stated in De7. S€¢! that established Considering the frequency with which
meaning and symbols in architecture may Semper's analysis of archetypal form in
not be ignored or willfully altered without architecture was adopted as a handbook for
loss of context. He continued. "The obser- building by later architects, one wonders
ving public and the rna.iority of active archi- whether for Semper himself the theory was
tects follow these traditions rather un- discrete from his architecture and whether
consciously. But the same advantage, which some relationship exists between these two
comparative linguistics and the study of areas.
archetypal relationships give the rhetori-
cian, will accrue to that architect who recog- Martin Fr6hlich's Gott/ined Se77aper provides
nizes the oldest symbols of his language in no answer to this question and probably did
their original meaning .... I also believe that not intend to do so. Since it is a catalog of
the time is not far off when the study of drawings only, it does not even always give
linguistics and that which is concerned with us a full analysis of each of Semper's build-
forms in art will enter a reciprocal relation- ings. It is, nevertheless, the first good pie-
ship. From such a relationship the most torial overview of Semper's wide-ranging
curious mutual discoveries in both fields works, since none of the earlier books on
must emerge." Semper had been adequately illustrated.
Each series of chronological sections on
Semper, then, while influenced by taxonomic Semper's life and works is preceded by
studies in the field of natural science, was useful lists of buildings by other architects
not strictly a materialist, nor was he strictly comparable to those designed by Semper. It
a utilitarian functionalist. Materialism for is regrettable that maps are presented
him stood in a reciprocal relationship with somewhat too schematically to follow
idealism, and utilitarian functionalism with Fr6hlich's discussion of Semper's larger
symbolic functionalism. His discussion of schemes with any ease.
evolution is not linear, progressivist, nor
Much of Fr6hlich's interpretation is con-
does it deal with first origins; rather he
cemed with Semper's supposed method of
deals with the complex transformations of
archetypes comparable to the changes inorganizing plans into centralized, cruciform,
language-another artifact, in which no or serially arranged spaces. Fr6hlich's
clear progression from complexity to schematic drawings showing one of these
types of plans, paired with specific designs Figure Credits 153
projects, i.e. museums. They may be seen as
by Semper, do not always look convincing, people's palaces. Museums are not just
since some of the plans by Semper exhibit a public buildings of any sort. They provide in- Figures 1,2,3. Reprinted from Martin
combination of these types and cannot be tellectual and artistic instruction, a function Fr6hlich, Gott/rfeec! Se77tpe7., 1974, Stuttgart
reduced to a single one. Comparatively little which in the nineteenth century would cer- and Basel, Birkhauser Verlag.
is said about Semper's choice of architec- tainly have been regarded as being higher
tural styles. Semper usually decided on a than other types of public buildings, such as
specific style early in the planning of a build- railway stations. Perhaps for this reason
ing, but the spatial organization often went also, the "aristocratic" Baroque style may
through a series of transformations; this have seemed appropriate.
developmental aspect, revealed in the
various drawings stages, is clearly transmit- One of the problems the nineteenth-century
ted by Fr6hlich's presentation. However, architect faced was the emergence of a large
one is left to wonder why certain stylistic series of new building types which had no
modes were chosen in the first place. Why do clear precedent in older architecture. Often
Renaissance forms predominate in his the solution was to choose that style or
designs when he had reserved his highest building type from the past which seemed
admiration for the Greek style? The answer functionally the most correct, without,
would seem to be that Renaissance buildings however, any attempt to transfer the sym-
provided more suitable functional pro- bolic aspects of the prototypes. Thus, for his
totypes for the multi-story building types of designs of a railroad station and a stock
the nineteenth century. Or, why were Baro- market, Semper alluded to the forms of
que and Gothic forms used in his buildings Roman baths-good prototypes for large
when he had disdained them in his writings? halls containing a variety of utilitarian
A Gothic style, for example, was chosen for spaces. For a laundry ship, a type without
his project of a town hall for Zurich. It would clear genealogy, Semper devised a magnifi-
appear that, while he had little use for cent Pompeian wall decoration. Its linear
church-Gothic (even though he did admire and billowing flat panels were perhaps
individual Gothic churches) , when the build- meant to suggest laundry on a line, but in es-
ing type in question could properly refer to sence a Pompeian style in this context was
the bourgeois town halls of the later Middle no more appropriate than several other
Ages, he was willing to use this style. He styles would have been (fig. 2).
could accept the Gothic when it sprang from a
non-hierarchic context. In a similar vein one Together with the problems created by new
might ask why Semper used Baroque forms building types, there were often quick shifts
for his museums in Dresden and Vienna, a in the kind of commissions Semper re-
style he had rejected along with the Gothic ceived-from royal patronage to bourgeois
in his writings. Here we come to the conclu- patronage, from an old order to a new
sion that the museums first of all are, in fact, order-and such ambiguities could not al-
royal commissions and are extensions of ways be resolved. The illustrations in
Baroque palaces. This style is then perhaps Fr6hlich's book give us new insight into the
used simply for the sake of political and for- uncertainties and complexities of a period.
mal continuity (a continuity much admired The book helps us understand why Semper
by Camillo Sitte who had seen in these pro- wanted to write an architectural typology,
jects coherent principles of city planning why he wanted to clarify on a theoretical
that stood in sharp contrast with, for exam- level what was perhaps not soluble in prac-
ple, most of the other projects along the tice.
Ringstrasse in Vienna, in which each is
treated as a separate monument) . A second-
ary meaning of the Baroque style may possi-
bly be revealed by the building type of these
 On Max Bill. A review of the Albright-
Knox Exhibition catalog.

MCL# Btzz, eds. Max Bill and James N. Kenneth Frampton i8 a Fel,low Of the
Wood. 1974, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo Institute for Archi,tecture and Urba,n
Fine Arts Academy and Albright-Knox Stwdies, New Y7orlc, and Associate
Art Gallery. 198 pp., $14.00. Profe88or at Colunbka, University, New
yo7.A;.
Kenneth Frampton

154 More than a catalog but less than an oe"u7.e Although this catalog and indeed this purpose of art is to give an aesthetic
co77?pze`te, this publication, produced for Max retrospective did not in fact treat with Bill's measure."
Bills's retrospective which travelled to three career as a designer, something demands to
major cities in the States between the fall of be said at this point about his attitude to The implicit monumentality of this asser-
1974 and the spring of 1975, is to be valued building since this casts his whole work into tion, which appeared in 1967 in a short
primarily for the fact that it places within a particular light which may be of conse- polemic against kinetic art published under
one cover not only an illustrated synopsis of quence to the future of architecture. Above the title "Art as Non-Changeable Fact," had
his painting and sculpture but also a number all else, it is this artist's attitude to reduc- already been rendered as a cogent argument
of his seminal texts. In this context, where tion that we need to acknowledge, for if we some fifteen years earlier, when, in 1952, he
they appear one after another separated by assume, as we are often vulgarly urged to had defended his monument to the Unknown
appropriate intervening works, one can do, that reduction pet. se necessarily means Political Prisoner (fig. 3) in terms that were
hardly fail but be impressed by the consis- loss of content, then we will have little explicitly monumental: "Certain objections
tency and lucidity of the thought and its ex- chance of transcending a certain endemic have it that the materials I propose are `not
pression pal.ticularly when one remembers primitivism which today largely fills the modern,' that the media I suggest are
that these texts were compiled over a long cultural void with degenerate "noise," in the al.chaic in contrast with those of the con-
period of time, from the earliest piece en- Max Bense sense of that term. One may structivist projects. I gave this problem my
titled "Concrete Art" of 1936, written when almost think of the whole of Bill's work as careful consideration and this is my conclu-
the author was only twenty-eight, to last being contingent on a certain level of inten- sion: if an idea is considered worthy of a
year's short statement transcribed with tional lucidity as a necessary pre-condition monument, the monument should be dura-
touching fidelity to Bill's inimitable Eng- for the transmittal of information, whether ble. Construction and materials must be able
lish. this information is aesthetic or not. And this to withstand the deteriorating effects of the
lucidity, which is intrinsic to the work itself, elements. A construction such as that of the
Perhaps the single most significant aspect of must first be limited as to its initial Eiffel Tower, or a similar one employing so-
Bill's whole achievement is that, while it has parameters by a clear understanding of the called modem materials is therefore out of
come to embrace a scope of undeniably status of the object within a given socio- the question. For this reason the outer sur-
humanist dimensions, it is relatively free in cultural context, whose implacable character faces of my monument are of granite and the
each of these areas, be it industrial design, is as much historical as it is determined by inner surfaces of white marble, both of
architecture or art, of any specific content material sources and the means of prod- which are materials capable of withstanding
that could be legitimately regarded as uction. One is nicely reminded at this the influence of time. The stainless steel col-
humanist. One only has to think, for exam- juncture of an unknown stone carver in the umn remains unchanged over a long period
ple, of Bill's perception of the role played by Ticino who has apparently worked for Bill of time.„
perspective in the evolution of western throughout his career and of whom, hearsay
painting, to realise that for all of its depen- has it, Bill has remarked, that when this man Such quotes, when set against other state-
dence on logical structure his own work was dies he will not be able to make another ments by Bill with regard to the intrinsic
never formulated in extension of humanist stonepiece. '' nature of architecture and design, tend to
values. In 1949, in his essay "The reveal the subtlety or even perhaps the per-
Mathemathical Approach in Contemporary Bill's writings on the various aspects of his sistent naivety of his position. Nothing to
Art," he was to argue with succinct convic- work appropriately serve in the catalog as a my mind is more revealing of the complexity
tion that, "Perspective certainly presented key to the complexity of his overall cultural of his attitude than a brief appreciation that
an entirely new aspect of reality to human position. Thus we find him writing in his he wrote of the architecture of Amancio
consciousness, but one of its consequences maturity of the role of art in human culture Williams in 1964, since, while acclaiming the
was that the artist's primal image was in the following terms: "I say that it is the brilliance of this work, he identified at the
debased into a mere naturalistic replica of scope of art to create a kind of non-changea- same time the nature of his own cultural
his subject. Therewith the decadence of ble elementary truth. A kind of truth which preferences: "Just as opposites attract one
painting, both as a symbolic art and an art of can be interpreted differently but which re- another, I am fascinated by Amancio
free construction, may be said to have mains nevertheless the same. Though the Williams' architectonic structures. I feel the
begun." This distancing of perspective and environment and the onlooker are subject to same way when I look at the constructions of
with it the whole of the humanist legacy is change, this does not go for the aesthetic ob- Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. I am
an aspect of Bill's thought that has yet to be ject. This shows why essentially the subor- overwhelmed by a sense of astonishment at
fully appreciated, despite the fact that it is dination of plastic art to the laws of change such architectonic perfection, at the creation
evident in almost every level of his activity. contradicts the meaning of plastic art. The of new form, which often seems an end in it-
 Figure 1. Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Ulm.
Matt ELll, architect, 1955. Axonometric.

Figure 8. First fooor plan.

Figure 3. Project for a monument to the

Unlmown Poll,tical Prisoner. Matt Bill,
architect, 1952. Si,t,e plcun.

self. Even where this vision is technically

motivated, it achieves a perfection that
recalls Konrad Wachsmann's projects (as
yet unrealized unfortunately) on the
aesthetic plane. I am touched by Amancio
Williams' conception of architecture, even
though, personally, I have no penchant for
idealization and seek more functional, and
human, solutions."

What Bill meant (or would mean still were

he active as a designer) by the term "more
functional, and human, solutions" was
perhaps to be seen most clearly in his own
architectural work at the time. I have in
mind of course his pavilion for "the art of
living, education and creation," erected for
the Swiss National Exhibition of 1964 at
Lausanne, a structure which was obviously
conceived as a homage to those for whom
"building" rather than "architecture" had
always been a more proper description of
their appointed task. For the Lausanne
pavilion, comprising a galvanised steel
superstructure variously clad in glass,
aluminum and asbestos cement, was a pre- 2.
cise and articulate building system whose
cultural aspirations led back to Paxton's
palace of 1851, via the work of two men
whom Bill had always admired-the Swiss
Hannes Meyer who had been his master and
mentor in the Bauhaus and Konrad
`W:a,chsmar[n whose Th,rming Point Of Bwild-
t.7}g, published in 1961, had clearly been a
source of profound inspiration in the actual
development of the Lausanne system. And
here we have the proof, if you like, of Bill's
capacity to differentiate between building as
mo"w7%e72,t (as outlined in his text of 1952
quoted above) and building as proc!wcttue
p7.oce88,. the morphology of the second being
subject as in all forms of normative prod-
uction-be it machine-made or hand-
crafted-to the necessary constraints of the
produkrform.

Form as "aesthetic measure," form as

"cipher for collective value, i.e. memory,"
and form as "product''; these three aspects
seem to characterize the triadic division of
Bill's achievement at a more profound level
Figure 1,. Varicndon 5. The ci,rcunscribed Figure 5. Fifteen `uariati,orbs on a Single
circles of the polygons ore connected t,o Theme. Mow Bill,1934-1938. This is t,he
those I,ines o`f the polygons omit,ted in t,he basi,c theme consz8ting o.f the continuous
theme. 'The polygons for}'n 8ur`f a,ces whose d,evelopment f tom a;in, equilateral triangle
smal,I,er sid,es develop in t,he scone rhythm to a regular octcLgon. 'The resultant `ftgure
a,s t,he theme. ks a spiral cormposed o`f straight I,ines o.f
equal length.

than the respective and more conventional

categories of art, architecture, and building/
design. That Bill has attempted throughout
his life to differentiate clearly between
these three states of form places him well
within that long, but still underground, tra-
dition of cultural re-definition that was first
lucidly initiated in the writings of Gottfried
Semper and Adolf Loos (particular.ly in the
latter's essay "Architektur" of 1910), since
extended into the present via the prod-
uctivist wing of the 72,e"e SocfaztchA;e€€ (the
ABC Group) and the aesthetic logic of Van
Doesburg's Ark Co7®cret.

Both Lawrence Alloway and James N. Wood

are patently aware of the distinctions that
Bill habitually draws between the socio-
cultural domain of art and the socio-cultural
task of the p7.oc!"¢t/o7'7')'a. In their respective
introductions to the catalog they each
characterize Bill's capacity to sustain such
distinctions with exemplary clal.ity. Thus
Alloway writes: "The weakness of earlier
approaches to the Ges¢77ttfo"7ostowewh via ra-
tional planning is that the artists held too
simple and too elitist a view of the inter-
relations of art, the arts and society. It was
assumed to be sufficient to apply art-
derived principles to the rest of the environ-
ment. However, looking at, say, Bauhaus
products we can see that although individual
pieces were admirable, no unified aesthetic
emerged on the basis of extrapolated art
principles. It is important not to confuse
Bill's numerous activities with this
aestheticizing mode. He considers the
different tasks as different kinds of opera-
tion. The kinds of decision that are appropri-
ate in painting a picture are not of a kind
that can be transferred to, say, the layout of
a catalog. There is no assumption of one
universal design principle, elastic and om-
nivorous, that can engulf all artifacts. On the
contrary, Bill works so well in his wide field,
because of his exceptional grasp of specific
objectives and of the costs or resources to be
used in achieving them. There are functional
differences between the various tasks."
James N. Wood complements this assess-
ment by writing of the art itself: "The result
5.
is works of art with two primary intentions; sidered necessary for the accommodation of dematerialization by light corresponds to 157
first, as concretions of symbolic information the public realm or the celebration of the the immaculate skin of optically active color
for the pleasure and spiritual use of in- ge"ws Zoc€ of the site. At this specific break in the paintings. The factual basis of Bill's
dividuals and, second, as prototypes for a in the composition one is about as far art has never inhibited his extra-ordinary
broader social use-for as Bill has re- removed as one possibly can be from that sensibility to zones of ambiguous visibility
peatedly stressed, he is convinced that the structural neo-classic lucidity sustained by and complex color."
Fine Arts are the primary formative in- Mies under comparable site conditions; in
fluence on all design." say, his office complex projected for Krupp Should one immodestly attempt to assess in
at Essen in 1964. Here, one is surely closer brief terms the sum of Bill's potential con-
But of course the general critical question to the "organicism" of Hugo Haring's 7oewes tribution to the future of our visual culture,
remains as to which of the relative criteria B¢we7t, as exemplified in his Gut Garkau one would surely have to stress this feeling
are to be given priority and thereby allowed complex of 1924. The anti-humanist ra- for zones of ambiguous visibility, which are
to determine the overriding properties of tionality that has always been latent in Bill's capable of imparting infinitely rich effects to
the form. In concrete terms one still has to vision seems here to acquire sufficient force plastic phenomena which in all other
ask which aspect has the most weight and to to depart with impunity from the con- respects are reduced to an extremely simple
what degree and in what context-the logic straints of both p7.odwfot/o7'`7?'} and aesthetic order. For the rest one could do no better
of aesthetic measure derived from pure art rule. This point is made all the more dra- than to take this last-this structural
or the means of production? And the matic by the way in which the system lucidity of Bill's formal concepts-as a nec-
paradox is that this kind of question attains becomes at once modular and normative essary referent for all of our creative work,
its full measure of criticality, not in the beyond this specific conjunction; the providing that one remembers, as he has al-
relatively autonomous fields of fine art or workshops and the housing being exemplary ways striven to do, that each design task has
product design, however different they may exercises in the objective production of its own specific role within the culture. For
be, but there in the field of building where rhythmically controlled form. today we need, as never before, to perpetu-
the autonomy of the object is restricted by ate, as the Smithsons have reminded us, an
its integration into a particular site and a But the Hochschule and the Lausanne architectural and design aesthetic that is
specific social program. Pavilion may be contrasted to each other consciously without rhetoric; a kind of
from the point of view of nuances that are of degree zero or subdued formal hierarchy
This problem was never more evident than more general significance; most notably in which while it is suitably differentiated from
in the major op"s of Bill's career as an archi- the respect of the emphasis that each gives task to task, remains globally restrained by
tect-namely his Hochschule ftir to the intrinsic value of the material and its t.he overriding need to provide a calm but
Gestaltung, Ulm, designed between 1950 architectonic. Thus, where the one stresses rich and responsive context for the conduct
and 1954 (figs.1,2). Unlike his monument to materiality, mass, and surface, the other em- of life.
the Unknown Political Prisoner of 1952 or phasizes immateriality, volume, and joint;
his building system for the Lausanne where the one is permanent and in certain
pavilion of 1964, there is here a decided split respects implicitly monumental, the other is Figure Credits
between building as the manifestation of a impermanent and explicitly systemic.
productive system and building as the em- Figures 1,2. Ca)scLbe!ZcL259, Jan.1962.
bodiment of symbolic form. This split at Ulm These nuances of material expression that Figures 3,4,5. Reprinted from MCLa? B¢ZZ
occurs both literally and conceptually at that arise out of the substance itself, return us to (Buffalo, New York: Buffalo Fine Arts
singular point where the complex simulta- the intrinsic quality of Bill's fine art where, Academy and Albright-Knox Art Gallery,
neously breaks in section and changes in for all of the objectivity of the concept, the 1974) .
direction, presumably out of a response to a phenomenological attributes of the material
marked displacement in the fall of the land. itself are exploited rather than suppressed.
Here in the public core of the school-com- Such sensuality has been evident in Bill's
prising the entry, the main stair, the library work from the first sprayed canvasses and
and the canteen-the greatest deformation the earliest gilt brass ``mobius" sculptures of
is imposed on the orthogonal modular logic the forties. As Alloway has written of this
of the overall system. All concern for p7®o- aspect: ". . . high polish is a constituent of
d"A;t/o77?'a or for the logic of aesthetic the conception of the work; the sleek mirror-
measure seems to be sacrificed at this like surfaces condense a maximum of reflec-
juncture to those distortions as were con- tions from their surroundings. Their partial
 On Arquitecturas Bis

47Aqwttect"rcis Bts. Oriol Bohigas, Federico

Correa, Lluis Dom6nech, Tomas Llorens,
Raphael Moneo, Helio Pifi6n, Manuel de
Sold-Morales, Enric Satu6, Editorial
Consultants. Rosa Regas, Editor and
Director. La Gaya Ciencia, S.A., Alfonso
XII, 23, Barcelona 6. One year (6 issues)
$5.

The Editors

158 A7.a"ttecfwrcLs Bts is to be seen as part of a

new phenomenon that has appeared in the
context of architectural publications in the
last three years; namely, the simultaneous
emergence of the ``little magazines" in
AF=3VITE places as dispersed as Barcelona (A7.gwt€ec-
t2ArcLs Bts), Zurich (A7.cfat.tfaese), Milan
(Lottts) and New York (Oppo8j€to7os). It is
now nearly fifty years since the last spon-
taneous proliferation of such publications,
spawned as they then were by the interna-
tional polemics of the incipient Modern
movement. There the resemblance ends
however, for these counterparts of the se-
venties have neither the graphic style nor
the content of the pioneer period. Instead,
their distinction lies, to different degl.ees, in
their critical and theoretical development of
architectural ideas; that is, in their common
attempt to recreate architectural culture it-
self.

A7®qu¢tectw7.cbs Bts represents an important

event in the limited world of Spanish archi-
tectural magazines. It is possibly the first
Spanish publication, since the Argentinian
IVwet;ci V€sto7t of the fifties, to transcend
EN LA MUEFITE DE MELNirov both the parochialism of the profession and
pt! Oriol Bchigas ar,to
the xenophobia of national interest, and to
deal with the evolution of ideas rather than
with the description of facts.

Since May 1974 A7.qttt€ectw7.a)s Bts has

published an impressive series of highly in-
formed critical articles, beginning in the
first issue with two critical pieces on
Richard Meier's Twin Parks housing in New
York by authors of very different displaced
backgrounds-David Mackay, a Scot from
Barcelona, and Roger Sherwood, an Orego-
nian from Los Angeles. One cannot help but
remark on the significance of this opening
editorial gesture; on the fact that an archi-
tectural group, that had hitherto given ev-
ery indication of being preoccupied with the
work of Kahn and Venturi and with the ex-
tension of the Philadelphia School into
American populism, should now, at the mo-
ment of publishing, declare an interest in an
American work whose ultimate antecedents
seem to lie in the high European tradition of
4.
continuous urban form (Sitte). These and and Baroque monuments. The overall ironic freshness of Argwftec- 159
similar transatlantic preoccupations were tw7.cis B{s is brilliantly reflected in its news-
possibly most poignantly expressed in the While the fifth issue may be regarded as paper-like format and unpretentious design
first issue in the editorial homage paid to moving even closer to a critical perspective, and in its tongue-in-cheek headlines such as,
"James Gowan respected avant-gardist," or
Louis Kahn on the title page-a notice given particularly in Xavier Sust's study of the
on the occasion of Kahn's death. ideological role of the skyscraper in the in its delightful play on the Martini/Rossi
States (in contrast, that is, to the official label, featuring Gregotti and Rossi in a simi-
Issue two was to veer from this line to Eng- monumentality that was the substance of lar logo (fig. 2). At the same time, the
land-to present an analysis of the work of both National Socialist and Soviet architec- energy of the editorial may be directly felt
James Gowan by Lluis Dom6nech, David ture in the thirties), the sixth issue brings through the quantity of its own contribu-
Mackay and Oriol Bohigas. These articles the editorial line to a critical head in a tions and in the editors' spirited habit of
were to stress in common the connection be- retrospective assessment of the work of presenting three different views of the same
tween Gowan's work and the English ver- Josep Lluis Sert (including his most recent work, each by a different contributor.
nacular-a link that still seems to be work in Barcelona) ; a piece by Rafael Moneo
regarded in Barcelona as being somehow ex- ironically entitled, "Si te dicen que cai . . . " In this manner, aside from its informative
emplary of the maturity of the Modern (the reference is to an old Spanish war song, function, A7.qutlecttt7.cLs Bt.s has already es-
movement. The third issue featured a re- revived in the Civil War, carrying the tablished itself as a serious forum for ideas
evaluation of the Catalonian "Mod- refrain "If you hear that I have fallen . . . ") . and we sincerely hope that this priority will
ernista''-a recurrent theme in subsequent Aside from finding Sert's work over the last be maintained not only because of the high
issues-with |gnacio de Sols-Morales i forty years to be nothing but a long decline level achieved in the discourse to date, but
Rubi6 exposing the myth of Gaudi as an isol- from the high point of the Casa de la calle also because of the large natural audience
ated genius, in an article treating with the Muntaner, built in Barcelona in 1932, Moneo that exists for this dialogue; an audience
wol.k of Rubi6 i Bellver (fig.1). argues that if there is one architecture that which not not only includes Spain but also, at
surely now needs restoration it is modem least potentially, the entire Spanish-speak-
By the fourth issue, however, a certain har- architecture, since a pristine physical integ- ing world of Latin America.
dening, so to speak, was discernible in the rity is an essential part of its conception.
editorial line-a shift in stance that was
more consistent with the ultimate develop- Moneo's critique of Sert is complemented by
ment of a truly critical perspective. This a piece on Kasimir Melnikov and the Spanish
emerging awareness, announced primarily Melnikovians by Bohigas (fig. 4), by a criti-
through essays dealing with the recent work cal report by Helio Pifi6n on the first semi-
of Aldo Rossi and Vittorio Gregotti by otic congress held in Milan last year, and
Rafael Moneo, Jos6 Quetglas and Oriol finally by a set of articles by Pifr6n and
Bohigas, was to represent a move from a Moneo that attempt an assessment of the
prior infatuation with American populism work of the British architects, Alan Col-
and a conscious return to the important quhoun and John Miller-this last stresses
theoretical contributions made by Italian somewhat invidiously Colquhoun's particu-
architects and theorists over the last fifteen lar contribution to both theory and design.
years. Are we to see in this a somewhat bel-
ated acknowledgement of that "under- Despite this hardening of the editorial line
ground" dialogue in which the continual there still remains in A7.qt4ttect"7.cts Bjs a la-
translation and publication of Italian tent concern for the creative conflation of
material has made such a strong impact on American populism with the Catalan folk
the intellectual life of Barcelona? Mean- heritage; a juxtaposition strongly in evi-
while, the heterogeneous, yet "retrospec- dence in the fifth issue, where we find the
tive," tendency of the editorial was revealed Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown
here in an article dealing with the essay, "Functionalism, Yes. But ..., " signifi-
reconstruction of Warsaw by Federico Cor- cantly accompanied by a republication of an
rea-an ironic reportage about the famous extraordinary text by Lluis Dom6nech i
rebuilding of that historical center, now Montaner of 1886 dealing with the Catalo-
covered with replicas of Gothic, Renaissance nian tradition of tented construction (fig. 3) .
 Letters

160 TotheEditors: Five -Or Their Critics, The Five on Five," only change from cultural circumstances-
Although the following was written as a Mr. Goldberger emphasizes the similar, economic, political-not from formal
specific response to Italian friends' contemporary comparison, not contrast, ideology.
enthusiasm for a certain American between Richard Meier, Peter Eisenman,
architecture, its general content should Michael Graves ,... and Robert Venturi, For the Heroic Generation-the ones Who
interest all Oppos{tdo7cs readers. Romaldo Giurgola, Charles Moore .... eschewed history, the first (and last)
Both "sides" design primarily single "moderns" and their disciples, our
Do you Europeans care about a $500,000 family detached houses, asymmetrically teachers, such as Team 10-the twenties'
textile-mill owner's house on Long Island? complex, of wood, and equipped with the intended correlation between modern
latest American gadgetry. (He also notes architectural form and social content still
A7®cfa{€ect"rcij f3ecord published in the that both sides teach on the East Coast, renders its image sacred and the
spring of 1974 an article by Iveow yowl write about their work-exceptional in vocabulary untouchable, precluding any
Ft.meg architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, America-and he infers that they socialize {pso/cicto adaptation to just any social
which restates an observation made by in the same New York "inner circle" -a context. An America that has always used
Vincent Scully twenty years ago. This congruence which certainly merits further "foreign" formal images with its own
coincidence does not imply that history exploration!) content shows that this is not the only
repeats itself ; rather, it points at strategy for our generation. In a relative
something more peculiar and constant in When properly placed within this world, we are free to embrace stylistic
American culture. particularly American, social and pluralism, using formal lessons from the
technological, cultural context, what does twenties as one might use other historical
In his "Doldrums in the Suburbs" the Five's formal st"Z{7og mean? This styles.
"expressive" question cannot be avoided,
(reprinted in Pet.spect¢ 9/10) , Mr. Scully
examined two "modern architecture," as it illuminates the essence of American As the latest European fashion import for
American houses-an East Coast, neo- (and all other) architecture. And in spite of Long Island suburbia, following Petite
Mr. Eisenman's assertions to the contrary, 'Thianons, Loire Chateaux, English Manor
Bauhaus, International Style, by Breuer in
Lincoln, Massachusetts, and a West Coast, painfully contrived in CcLsa}bezza), he will Houses, and 'Thscan Villas, Le Style Corbu
"Bay Area," stick and shingle style, by never realize "pure form." As his built simply continues America's tradition of
Harwell Harris in Los Angeles. As I geometries exist within a context- purchased images for its ex-urban
interpret, his essential point is something geographical, historical-they are not habitats. At its formal best, as with the
like the following:
"value free." As realized, all architecture is "indigenous" shingle style, this domestic
not only form, as it is neither pure architecture convinces as an obL7.et d'a)7.£,
The "machine-like," inorganic image of the technique; literally, architecture at its transcending expensive, doll house kitsch.
former and the rustic, organic image of the most "meaningful" is its hypothesized, Then the Five's professional formal
latter usually lead to the consensus that social point of view. maneuvering cannot be denied (though
these two architectures are "polar'' -a neither can the technical gymnastics
kind of "classic versus romantic," German From its flip adaptation of the twenties, needed to hide the true "nature" of its
W61fflinian, art history dichotomy. On the Marxist modern architecture by the post- wooden materials!) Then their
contrary, Scully asserts their essential war, corporate state, to the Fives and architecture rationalizes the twentieth
social sameness; both being American Venturis today, twentieth century America century vocabulary as impressively as any
single family houses, occupying a private shows all too well that this expressive role other epoch's reworking of the classical
plot of land and located in a suburban of architecture is not "inherent" in the language, reminding us that all
setting. Furthermore, as to building forms themselves, but results from the architecture is an art. This is one possible
technique, both are of wooden construction precise function contained within. The reason to care about the Five.
with a "functionally expressive" early modern movement mistook such
asymmetrical plan. Finally, both contain associations for cL p7iorz constructs, But the American cultural context must
the latest technological hardware. In other reasoning that by ignoring architectural enter here. What the Five are also doing
history, one could also forget cultural "naturally," as a consequence of their free
words, the aesthetic styling differs, but
their social substance and physical stuffing history, and begin anew with a new replication of formal gamesmanship,
correspond. society-content as well as form. Contrary parallels the acts of the Bay Area
to this environmental determinism, architects and even the transplanted
In his "Who Cares About the New York America shows all along that social values Europeans of a generation ago -Mies,
Gropius, Breuer, and Neutra. That is, they To the Editors : Week Seminar in October, 1963. The 161
not only imply that architecture is art, but Kenneth Frampton presents in editorial notes of Bonsiepe acknowledge
also they infer that architecture is socially Opposjtjo"s 3 a brave and valuable critical that I had "participated" in Maldonado's
status quo. They serve to reaffirm the analysis of the twists and turns in the Gr247bd!efa7.e (1956-57) and that in "1963
existence of the society and its power-in curriculum of Ulm's Hochschule fur and 1965, [1] gave guest courses in basic
this case, the American establishment Gestaltung, principally shaped and design at the HfG" -a pattern of yearly
occupying eastern Long Island back reshaped by Tomfs Maldonado. He has visits that continued until the School's
through the Great Gatsby to the taken to himself a task that many of us closing in 1968.
Vanderbilt days. Thus if and when it exists, who had any involvement with that school
architecture's utopian, social vision comes would want to avoid for its great Further, it is in order here to review
from the patron, the architect only complexities. Bonsiepe's other words on basic design in
expressing his intention in physical form. this 1965 w!77t.. "Basic design, known since
We have, of course, amongst a variety of the Bauhaus by such other terms as
Thus it seems that the Five are not honest official and quasi-official documents, the preparatory course or foundation course, is
in their false intellectualism, as when twenty-one "Zm Jow?'7'icLZs (the five plus one of the cL7®de7t±jgr czt.sc"ssed subjects of
Eisenman appears to assume cultural sixteen) with their running, but far from design education. We are still lacking a
freedom through formal expression. He is complete, record of the more serious (survey) and a historical documentation of
a social victim too! (Significantly also, vagaries on Ulm's (if not Maldonado's) the widely spread material concerning the
Meier, the best formalist of the lot, is the curriculum; and we should hope for yet various contributions. To clarify this
worst verbal justifier.) In contrast to another go-around of this history from the subject we publish an article written by an
Europe again, architecture in America has source fatmsez/ But, in this instance, architect-educator who studied at the Ulm
always been an anti-intellectual and "Apropos Ulm: Curriculum and Critical School of Design. This article is illustrated
business-oriented profession. Its unique Theory" is a task well done by one who has with student exercises, although they were
contribution has been in its images that certain advantage of distance. not made at the HfG; for they are aiming
rendered possible by its technology, as in a direction shared by the HfG. We
with domestic Richardson and Wright, Those of us who find ourselves somewhere intend to conti,nue this subject rna,±t,er in a
skyscraper New York and Chicago, and between ffae djs€o"ce and tfae sowrce are later i,8sue of ulm. We wi,ll publk8h, material
vernacular grain elevators, prone to picking over this and that detail concerring th{e specrfec contribution Of the
superhighways, and Cape Kennedys. for correction or expansion or reemphasis HfG, at wh,i,ch, t,he first foundcdion course
Perhaps then, the Five's reversed or such another modification-a sometime wi,th, a synthesis Of perception theory,
playback to Europe is the ultimate diversion that is oftentimes of small 8yi'i'unetry theory cund topology was given
perversity, for it is not unconscious and matter. Still, there is one matter, quite j7L J955." (Italics mine.)
they know better. close to me, which I should like to
readdress. In w!m I 7/J8 (June, 1966) Bonsiepe kept
Most certainly in any case, the Five his promise to continue the subject of basic
epitomizes America's historical Frampton writes, ``by then it would be design, especially as presented in his own
noted that the foundation course, or "Results of Teaching: 3-D Non-Functional
nonchalance in mixing and matching
culturally-loaded forms, whether this be G7'?47®d!ehre, had been discontinued, after Projects" but also in Lindinger's "Results
for mass-produced, tract housing, or the Maldonado had been appointed as head of of Teaching: Visual Communication
custom-designed estate. Such is "style" in the industrial design department with the Department, 1. study-year."
America, as with the rest of its high reorganization of 1962" (p. 27) .
"culture," a fashion purchased. There will Prior to (and overlapping) 1955, there was
be others after the Fives. Thus I ask again I'm afraid this can leave the wrong a Max Bill G7'.t4"c!Zefare that approximated
my title question. If affirmed, I must impression, if one is led to understand that a Bauhaus revival of the course and
further inquire as to the contemporary role the discipline, basic design, or G7'i4"czzefa7®e, included visits of Albers, Peterhans, and
of style here, in Europe. Yours faithfully, a perennially sensitive issue of nearly all Itten. Maldonado, who effected the second
Robert L. Hartwig design schools, was abandoned. basic design revolution (see "j77t J2/J3 the
Rome, Italy first revolution by Albers) , constructed his
"Z77t Je/J3 (March, 1965) printed my paper, version, "the specific contribution of the
"An Argument for Basic Design," HfG," essentially during the two school
originally given at the Hochschule's Mid- years spanning 1955 and 1957. Then there
162 came an aberratedperiod, the most years) . Each department (now numbering basic design to visual communication,.then
disruptive period, when the "scientific" three) could concentrate on those on to industrial design, and eventually into
leadership, the "methodologists," directed fundamental design elements more architectural pedagogics (pedcLgog{cs,
the G7'.w7cd!efa7.e, as well as the School, in a relevant to its discipline (e.g., color and 2-d des€g7t pedcigogt.cs, of course, being central
maximizing of analytic procedures. This patterns particularly in Visual to all his applied scholarship) , I am
produced a body of students who could Communication, polyhedra in Product persuaded that the nostalgia of the 1955
scarcely design, i.e., give physical presence Design, folded surfaces and grids in and 1956 G7'`t47tc!Zehre" did not leave
to their splendidly framed programs, and Building) ; yet the exercise of the varying Maldonado himself untouched.
provoked Maldonado's self-critical assault material was consistantly linked to the William S. Huff
on "methodolatry" in "Science and common body-information of symmetry, S.U.N.Y. Buffalo, New York
Design" (%J7% JO/JJ) . "We have taken topology, and perception theory. At the
three steps forward; now we must take one same time, each department was to assign
step back," Maldonado confided at the in the first year its own simple, To the Editors:
time. Consequently, with the introductory projects in applied design One really hates to raise objections to a
reorganization of the sixties under a new (e.g., a poster, a flashlight, a wall panel magazine which has succeeded in bringing
constitution, and thereby the joint) -another innovation by Maldonado a greater ser{ows"ess to architectural
reestablishment of ci (though up-dated) in his overall redesign of the first year and discourse, but that very seriousness
Maldonado order, the essential Maldonado of the total school. requires debate to maintain itself; not that
G?'.tt7td!eh7®e was renewed through the this letter will do more than suggest
persons of Bonsiepe, Schnaidt, Lindinger, I believe it not an enhancement to assert certain oppositions. So here goes.
Zeischegg, Ohl, Schmitz, myself (most of that Maldonado's G7'.e47}dzefa7.e" of 1955 and
whom were Maldonado trained) and, of 1956, during that critical period of the Italian architecture : one hears on various
course, Maldonado himself. Hochschule's history when the grip on the occasions promise of unmined gold to be
School was being wrenched from Bill, in found in Italy, but so far there has been
The main feature of change, then, was not many ways constituted the model of the little shown-except pyrite. A recent issue
in the thematic nature of basic design, and school that was eventually to come under of the Japanese magazine A + Uillustrated
certainly not its dissolution, but in the Maldonado's guiding hand. It was the Libera's Malaparte house on Capri. This is
structural nature of the first year. In the testing ground for much of the material true gold, which I had been looking to find
School's early years, every entering that was unique to the HfG curriculum illustrated since seeing it in Godard's
student (even those already certified in (unknown at the time to any other school Co7®te77}p£. If this is characteristic of
design) was obliged to participate in a of design) , from the abstract symmetry architecture in Italy, then one wants more,
and topology to the not strictly basic but if the article by Thfuri is characteristic,
grand, monolithic, yet many faceted,
course, namely the G7'.c47tdzefare, which design areas of semiotics and ergonomics. then, thank you, but that is enough.
verged on being, in the School's original
organization, a department in itself. Each But, if the model became the school and the Perhaps if the article had been translated
first year student was, in fact, a candidate model then, as a model, obsolete, into E"gztsfa, its meanings would have been
for, rather than a confirmed matriculant Maldonado did not closet or discard it; he clearer, at least to me. Whatever language
of, one of the design departments, and had merely recycled its exceedingly that was didn't make comprehension easy.
not only to complete his G"7tdzeh7.e recycleable parts. Far from ditching basic Having looked at other architectural
successfully, but had in addition to bid for design, Maldonado ever sought to establish writing from Italy, it may not be possible
"the bridge" between pure and applied to render it into English. Italians seem
acceptance into one of the (then) four
disciplines. But under that subsequent design. He often remarked on the nostalgia bent on complication, as if their obvious
reorganization, central to the issue at that students in advanced design held for love for luxury objects can be reconciled
hand, each department was made their early days in basic design, and he with dialectical materialism only by the
responsible to present its own brand of programmed for them new exercises in greatest effort. Recent housing in China
basic design, tailored to its particular basic design, interspersed with their would seem more compatible with
needs-usually listed by the course title, practical design work -the inverse to the Marxism.
"Einffihrung in die Gestaltung/ applied exercises of the first year. And, as
Introduction to Design" (see the annually Maldonado forayed from one field to What about Ken Frampton's article on
another (remember, he came to Ulm as a Ulm, which raises similar issues? How is
printed "Lehrprogramm/Teaching
Program" of the School's last several painter and sometime publisher!) , from one to take it seriously; since it is written
c!ea}7®!gr, and since it is understandable, one Art is human artifacts, whether made of To the Editors: 163
can argue with its faith in rationality, or sounds, sticks or whatever, for which no I have spent several years now hanging
challenge its assumed definition of the replacement exists, which is why we try to around architects and schools of
rational, or one could question the kitsch preserve them. One assumes that someday architecture. As a kind of beachcombing
phobia it displays. Italian writing, at least Marx's ideas will seem as remote as historian I must have thought that there
the example you published, forestalls Moses', whereas La Tourette or Guild was more to be learned there than
objections by being, at least in part, House will still stir some passersby, or not, elsewhere. However, at times I also
meaningless; all objections are futile. One as a change of taste leaves a work without experienced some difficulties in my
can only disregard it. admirers. Art is either alive or nothing, contacts with the world of architects, and
whereas ideas are superseded but remain browsing through the last issue of
In this article Signor Thfuri varies his important in the chain called progress. For Oppo8€t{o7c8 (Oppose.t{o7ts 3, May 1974) has
strings of slogans with name dropping: art, it's all or nothing. Modernism's hope brought back to my mind some of these.
Stirling, Mies, the Smithsons, the Venturis lay in the power of art to make a new Why have architects a tendency to be more
and so on. If one desires architecture to human, not in reforming him. pompous than lawyers, economists, or even
contribute to political ideas, why instance sociologists or psychiatrists, not to talk
designers who obviously aren't interested? In ending this, the principal wonder I feel about plain, ordinary people? Why these
The obvious answer is for their prestige, is how such confirmed formalists can be so academic gestures of scholastic superiority
their glamour. If a reader browses through left wing? Isn't it a bit paternalistic? Since in Opposttjo7ts ' editorial statements and
an article illustrated with the work of the school at Ulm is closed, Fred Koetter's comments-such as when, for instance,
these prestigious architects, he may be release from having to own "designed" Mario Gandelsonas gives his instructions
``how to perform the work of writing," or
attracted to read it, but if it were consumer goods came just in time. Now if
illustrated with work appropriate to such a he rerea,ds Learning from Las Vzegas a. when the Editors explain their
theme, the browser would pass on by. couple more times, he may understand it- dissatisfaction with Charles Moore's
or.is his misunderstanding a pose to avoid article, which turns out to be, together
How architects, who must come to terms the issues? Best wishes, with the article on Ulm, among the really
with the ``establishment," can hope to Tom Killian readable pieces in this issue? Some of the
further the revolution is beyond me. One New York, New York writing in (but not only in) Oppos{€{o"s
could say the same for establishment sounds as if the world, or at least the world
magazines supported by Exxon, etc. who of science, would be lingering hungrily for
surely realize such writing is harmless, To the Editors: the last utterances from the mouth of
permitting the writers to feel committed In my opinion Oppos{t€o7os is a public architectural wisdom-while indeed, as we
while not threatening these centers of forum supported by not only a series of probably agree, "discourse," so elaborately
Power. schools of architecture but also by over 100 ornated with garlands of important names
individual architects. As such, I feel that it from philosophy, linguistics and sociology,
I find at present two divergent points of has a responsibility to continue its is of highly relative relevance if compared
view: those for whom "art is art" (Ad development and intellectual climate of to the realities in, and outside of, the
Reinhardt) , that is, sufficient as an end; opinion in architecture. To this end, I was profession.
and those for whom it is merely grist for deeply disturbed by several letters which
their ideas. To me, this latter is appeared in your last issue (Oppos€t?.o7}s 3, Oppos{tjo"s is perhaps by now the most
Philistinism. Art remains alive, May 1974) which seemed intent on using important periodical on architectural
stimulating ever new ideas, while the ideas this public forum for their personal theory. As far as I am concerned, I am at
which generated the art fall into oblivion. aggrandizement. It would be sad if such times not sure whether it is more
In Luxor or Isfahan, looking at All Saints, petty bickering which has taken over such fascinating as a platform to be consulted
Margaret St., or the Villa Stein, it is the journals as the Ivew yowl Z3et)t.ew o/Boofos and used or as a phenomenon to be studied.
thing itself which stirs one's feelings, while should be allowed to erode what up to now In other words, whether its contents (or
the beliefs of the builders seem remote and has been a purposeful and promising some of its contents) are more interesting
irrelevant. For ideas and knowledge beginning. With all respect, if taken at face value, or if understood as a
progress exists. One reads Aristotle with Stanley Tigerman complex and partly cryptic "meta-
admiration but not belief. But for art there Chicago, Illinois language" (sorry) of the great crisis-a
is no progress. Recorded thoughts which "meta-language" communicating a
haven't been superseded w(i call poetry. situation Oppostt¢o7cs has in fact helped to
164 elucidate; a situation characterized by the in the later years-no artists at all. How Errata
fact that the architectural profession has much more sparkle is there in the Bauhaus Th,e Editors o.f oppos;Itious profound,ly
lost some time ago its established role in things-compared to the Vorkurs in Ulm. regret t,h,at 'Ibmas Gonda was rLof
our system of production. It is therefore Yours sincerely, atf,ri,bated, for t,he graphic design Of
highly understandable, sociologically as Stanislaus von Moos "Symmetry" by Willkcun S. Hw.ff a,s
well as psychologically, that it has gone Cambridge, Mass. reproduced i,n facsinile i,n Opposit±ons 3,
through pains in developing mythologies Ma,y 1974.
and behavioral defenses that would either
cope with or conceal that state of affairs. To the Editors:
The para-bohemian "doer"-type architect Oppos¢t€o"8 3 caused considerable concern
who likes to perform his "creative task" among some of my colleagues at Cooper
with as little intellectual or critical input as Union. Much to my dismay they seemed
possible was one offshoot of that crisis- disturbed by the Marxist overtones of the
slightly comical by now perhaps. However, editorial statement and the article by
who knows whether the spectacle offered Manfredo 'fafuri. My reading of the
more recently by the architect- somewhat muddled position explored in
philosopher-gurus, whose mere vocabulary Oppos¢tto7}s 3 was one in which a
is so breathtaking as to prevent any superficially Marxist position was used as
straightforward dialogue, is really that a smokescreen for an authoritarian right-
much less comical-or indeed tragi- wing position. It was this that concerned
comical. me, as I fear nothing more than
reactionary elitism. Sincerely,
It may be a mere coincidence if these Michael Wurmfeld
thoughts come to my mind while I am The Cooper Union, New York
innocently browsing through Oppos€tjo7os
3. Be it as it may; excuse this little
philistine o (p)position which I find easier
to take on your relatively neutral territory
rather than in my own backyard, i.e.
cL7.chttfaese, where, at times, it would be
perhaps almost equally justified.

I forgot to say how interested I am in Ken

Frampton's article "Apropos Ulm," rich in
very relevant information. It goes deep
into the complexities of the matter. I would
perhaps be more critical with regards to
the utopian philosophy of the Ulm-
protagonists, including 'Ibmfs Maldonado,
for it is not so much neo-capitalism pet. se
but the protagonists' implicit expectations
of an ultimate salvation through design
that wrecked -had to wreck -the
enterprise. Also, besides some interesting
questions of theory (about which there
exist a number of statements by Max Bill
which may have been underplayed) , the
great difference between the Hochschule
fur Gestaltung and the Bauhaus was, it
seems to me, that there were only a few
relevant designers in Ulm, and possibly-
Forum Forum: Stocktaking Wi,I,I,i,oum El,l,i,s fs oun Assi,sta;nd Professor of
Architect,are at City College Of New Yiork, a,
William Ellis VIsiting Lecturer at Th,e Cooper Union,
New Yiork, a;md a Fell,ow of the in8t,itute for
Archi,tecture curd Urb con S±udi,e8.

Intervi,ewer: "Mr. Morgcun, wh,at do you ece- ming-with the idea of both doing it and not 165
peck wall h,a,ppen to the market,?" doing it.
J.P: "It wall fouctwate, young rncun, fouctu-
ate.„ Professor Moore's remarks were full of the
self-effacement and gentle irony for which
The first Oppost.tto7os Forum made a ritual we know him so well, and they provided a
of the past. For this reason, its pronounce- thorough display of his capacity for in-
ments and assumptions were clear, if irrele- elusiveness. He was able to "subscribe to,"
vant. The second one attempted to come but "disagree with," at the same time. He
directly to grips with the present, thus its admired theory in general and the Institute
content was virtually unintelligible. One in particular for its interest in pursuing a
thing, however, was clear. The Modern theoretical discourse through Oppost.tjo"s.
movement is taking a nosedive on the Amer- He subscribed to Stravinsky's dictum on the
ican market. If the evening was any indica- value of excluding "reality" in the prod-
tion, bearish attitudes towards the Modern uction of art. Nevertheless, he felt that art is
movement have penetrated even the New the production of an order o/reality (like a
York architectural syndicate. Ironically, the play), but that a populism is needed to
panic sale took place at the IAUS which is develop order ?.?t reality-the one leading
considered by most people to be sitting stub- •from the other. And while the one seemed
bornly on preferred shares purchased before fine for a period that tried to invent a whole
the Great Depression. new way of doing things, the other now
seems "more fine." Having got past modern
The Forum's device for confronting today architecture, it is now time for reality, time
was a "Counter-Critique" by Charles Moore to make connections. Thus he admired Ven-
of Stuart Cohen's article in Oppostft.o7}s e, turi's concept of "almost" and "as if" as
"Physical Context Cultural Context: Includ-
being "more perfect than perfection"; John
ing It All." Cohen's piece had pointed to Hejduk's Bye House because it borrows
some inconsistencies in the inclusivist vs. ex- from Piero della Francesca's pallette; and
clusivist argument. It suggested that both above all, colonial Williamsburg because of
camps are actually inclusivist in that they its rich connections, both historical and ver-
are both attempting to revise the nacular. And this somehow allowed him to
millenialistic tenets of the Modern move- equate Williamsburg with Californian ver-
ment. They simply focus on different nacular.
aspects: the inclusivists emphasize cultural
symbols ("local color'') while the ex- In essence, Moore accepted Cohen's thesis,
clusivists concentrate on the physical and Cohen in turn avowed he had in fact
organization (local "pattern"). But even this come around to a version of Moore's brand of
division is not so distinct. Therefore the two inclusivism. Both wished all those slogans
sides should get together, stop all this "would go away." So much, apparently, for
misleading chatter and admit their com- the counter-critiques.
monality: "contextualism" as a strategy to
revise modem architecture. From that point the evening took on a be fud-
dled air characterized mainly by a confusion
Moore's counter-critique, followed by as to whether the argument had in fact been
Cohen's counter-counter-critique, were settled. In his role as principal for the eve-
more antiphonal than argumentative, as ning, Moore continued with a series of
they themselves admitted. They set a tone remarks concerning the importance of popu-
for the general exchanges which followed, list imagery that suggests the conciliation
most of them notable for their lack of in- might have been an event to decorate the
clination to "draw blood"-a phrase used affair rather than a substantive fact. Yet
almost continuously throughout the eve- since this was obviously not the case, one
 Figure 1. Mcino GcundelsoncLs, Charles
Moore curd Pet,er Eisenman.

Figure 2. Mcino Gcundelsonas and, Ch,arl,es

Moore.

Figure 3. Sean West Sculley cund, Stuart

Coh,en.

Figure I+. Joh,n He`jd,wh.

166
was left wondering whether the remarks you can do whatever you like, there seems level, they do represent a cross section of the 167
were made out of habit rather than convic- no need for theory. Why even go to school? most active and influential teachers and
tion. If it was agreed that modem architec- Just apprentice yourself to a builder, and practitioners in the United States. Thus it is
ture is dead, there still seemed to be some get on with it. The Williamsburg image is a development that should be recognized and
question whether or not to stomp on its likely to make us forget theory." He sug- studied for its implications on the course of
grave. For Moore, the images of popular gested that modem architecture had a architecture in the near future. But
American culture were still the jackboots fit theoretical structure, and whatever the whatever the relation between theory and
for the job. possibilities for theory at present, he doesn't image, it still seems to be a question of which
want to lose the idea of it because it im- theory and which image. It seems clear that
It seems regrettable in retrospect that his pinges upon what he believes is really im- when Moore was talking about
assertions were not more clearly tied to portant: architecture as a critical agent in Williamsburg he really had in mind the im-
what it is in modern architecture he has society. age of its vernacular buildings; say, the gcLo!,.
come to hate. Since modem architecture can while others, if they were to come around to
be seen to have been at once elitist, utopian, There followed a series of exchanges around Williamsburg at all, might focus on the
machine-symbolist, and theoretical, such regionalism, the vernacular, eclecticism, Governor's Palace-in short, a matter of
connections would have been interesting and product orientation, theory, modern archi- style.
useful and would have helped to clarify tecture and forums like these, all of which
Moore's apparently ambivalent attitude left the relation between theory and image But after noting this, questions arise about
toward theory. This causes us to reflect that distinctly unclear. Bamett ended the dis- the success of the forum itself. It seems to
although the Forum is entertaining-even cussion when he suggested the question was have problems, mainly in the inability of its
fascinating at a certain level-its function not a matter of theory vs. no theory, but format to deal with delicate advances and
should properly be to uncover not only the rather one analogous to the stock market. retractions of cultural musings such as
"Architects with `heavy positions' in the these, which are its only potential product.
ultimate attitudes of the participants, but
the reasons for those attitudes. Instead, one Modern movement have heard a rumor that It fails to channel those New York architects
gets a string of apparently ruminative ex- the Morgan Bank has liquidated its holdings. who tend to talk about anything and every-
changes that leaves us wondering what is They are beginning to see that some people thing. It fails to encourage students and
really being said. For example, after a dis- they respect, like Charles Moore, may be younger architects out of their cowed
cussion of the possibilities for an emerging quietly selling their shares. This makes them passivity. Instead, it produces only wander-
period of eclecticism, Jonathan Bamett sug- nervous." Charles Moore responded that he ing, forced exchanges.
gested that "since Art Deco is back in vogue had sold out years ago.
there is almost nothing left we can't admire.
So colonial Williamsburg has to be the next Barnett's Wall Street metaphor could be ap- Figure Credits
avant-garde position." But then he added plied to most architects in any period. But it
that he was not so sure avant-garde is good. is interesting in its implication that images Figures 1-4. Photographs by Richard
Moore: "That's why I'm going back [to come first, theory afterwards; an implica- Perlmutter.
California] where buildings are buildings. tion typical of most remarks made that eve-
They don't think of a style but of practical ning, however strenuously disguised. That a
method. Image-making is too much of a proper fheo7'.e/ for today has anything to do
strain. There is no strain in making anything with the images of the Modern movement is
you like." At the same time, he wished there certainly open to question. So it is not
were more strain -"more suffering" -to ac- surprising that a consensus should be
company his avant-garde position. reached on the obsolescence of modernist
images; Le Corbusier not only predicted it,
The difficulty of responding to remarks that he instituted it. But that theory communi-
reflect themselves in so many mirrors as cates with and connects to society at large-
these last ones is formidable but Peter even in the populist sense-seems less open
Eisenman made the attempt. He suspected a to question. So it is at least interesting when
certain contradiction in Moore's having ex- theory seems to have receded almost into in-
tolled theory and pragmatic eclecticism at significance in the attitudes of a group like
the same time. He suggested that theory this. Because although most of those present
also connects with and affects society. "If may be anonymous on, say, an international
168 0PPOSITIONS 4
Typography by the Composing Room inc.
in Century Expanded, Century Bold and
Century Italic.
Printed by Halliday Lithograph Corp.
Color silkscreened on
Champion Colorcast cover stock.
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