On Continuity

"Thus throughout this house [Le Corbusier's Villa Garches] there is that contradiction of spatial dimensions which Kepes recognizes as a characteristic of transparency. There is a continouous dialectic between fact and implication. The reality of deep space is constantly opposed to the interference of shallow space; and by means of the resultant tension, reading after reading is enforced" (1).

Academic Study. Trevor Patt. Fall 2006, Critics: Toshiko Mori, Thomas Schroepfer.

Last weekend's MMFX symposium a hosted by Ball State University raised a number of interesting discussions--profession v. craft, experience v. design, and automation v. labor--but one of the most vexing questions was how one ought to judge the quality of the projects shown. Which, if any, of them were good? Most of the panelist struggled to define the characteristics of a good project in a non-self-referential way. In fact, too many parametrically designed projects are satisfied with simply realizing their own definitions.

In the context of this discussion it was asked whether the new 'non-standard' architecture had lost touch with traditional ways of understanding and interpreting architecture. Does the tendency to produce objects, ignore the potential for multiple readings afforded by Rowe and Slutsky's literal and phenomenal transparency?

ReD. Coneplex part of the M.City exhibition, Graz Kunsthall.

I think that the question is being posed too narrowly. In ReD's M.City exhibit design for the Graz Kunsthaus, for example, one would find difficulty constructing "multiple readings" of the cones or even of the floorplan, sections, or elevations. However, analyzing the exhibit with regard to a three dimensional spatial experience yields a number of ambiguous readings. First, the architects preserve the existing space of the gallery, a clear span shallow dome. This universal space is specifically marked off by careful preservation of the ground, untouched and unbroken. At a certain height, however, the cones do indeed separate certain localized spaces, circular and centralizing, from the gallery at large. Within these 'rooms' the orientation of the projection screen then establishes an axis and gives these local spaces directionality, which creates a larger procession when it interacts with other cones and the encompassing space of the gallery.

Within a spatial (and temporal) experience of the space, these systems set up a series of progressive differentiation: symmetry-breaking (and remaking) operations. The affects of the space rely on both the lack of definable boundaries--the continuity of the effects--and the dynamic unfolding of information within time. Notably these are the qualities which architectural drawings, being synchronic and defined entirely by hardline boundaries, are especially incapable of conveying.

That being said, I don't believe that critical tools developed on 'traditional' architecture are invalid, at the level of their own diagram they are still implementable. But they need to be actualized in new ways. They need to gain an independence from the mechanisms of plan, section, and elevation (one of the strong, unspoken themes of the symposium was the uselessness of 'architectual' drawings for almost all of the projects shown, and in fact the poverty of representation, whatsoever, in comparison to the physical, material experience) which tend to reinforce definition through reference to architectural typologies. Such an essentialist perspective not only strips the invention from a building like S.Carlo alle Quattore Fontane, but also strips the importance of any element which does not conform to one or another historically established model.

Academic Study. Trevor Patt. Fall 2006, Critics: Toshiko Mori, Thomas Schroepfer.

Few contemporary projects conform to typological models, or even aspire to. In fact, many significant projects, like dECOi's Hyposurface, possess a complexity which has no historical precedent within its typology to which it might be compared. Rather than differentiating between external models, designs are increasingly interested in creating internal differentiation. The strategies of today's architects--seams, osculation, inflection--are all ways of working within, but also against, a universal continuity, establishing and ambiguous relationship between global and local space. So too, is an individualizing deformation within a set or pattern of topologically identical elements (another weak point of architectural representation).

If not method and if not reference, what then is the useful kernel which we can pull out from the traditional modes of analysis? The diagram for this investigation is the "continuous dialectic between fact and implication." (1) In the examples above, the dialectic might be between the effect of continuity created by the composition of discontinuous parts, the effect of discrete identity within a mass of continuous material, or the effect of a procession within an undirected, smooth space. Regardless of the particular discussion, the analog experience (of either representation or material effects) is important for the formation of those multiplicities at the foundation of "that which is clearly ambiguous" (1).


1. Rowe Colin and Robert Slutsky. Transparency. Perspecta v8 1963. p51, p45