The Loss of History and the Rediscovery of Origins Author(s): Keith Loftin III Source: JAE, Vol.

33, No. 3 (Spring, 1980), pp. 14-18 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture, Inc.

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Keith Loftin III is an Assistant Professor ofArat Louisiana Tech University. chitecture

THE THE

HISTORY AND OF ORIGINS REDISCOVERY

LOSS OF
period is the notion of the "continuum." As a concept this may be considered to be paradigmatic,and it radicallyredefined the "problem field" for the various disciplines to which it was applied. Ultimately, the redefinition of the problems to be addressed redefined the disciplines themselves. Science, art and architecture all felt the impact.' Einstein's Special and General theories of Relativity, with their postulations of a "continuity" between space and time, matter and energy, destroyed the Newtonian universe of fixed laws, discrete disciplines and specific cases. The universe of eternal laws was replaced by a continuum of relativistic interrelationships.' Picasso, Braque and others demolished the world of Euclidian geometry and Renaissance perspective with the equivalence in cubist compositions of background and foreground, solid and void. The representation of simultaneous viewpoints and multiple light sources rendered the world indeterminate, complex and ambiguous. Schoenberg's serial music replaced the hierarchy of the eight-note tonal scale with an equivalency among a twelve note sequence. James Joyce and Virginia Woolf developed the atemporal stream of consciousness and the internal monologue as a replacement for the temporal sequential narrativein literature. Le Corbusier's "free plan" in architecture was the first indication that the fundamental distinctions of discrete space-making between in and out,

1) Maison Dom-ino

D uring the 1979 ACSA Teachers Seminar at Cranbrook, certain opinions on the significance of the Modern Movement seemed to prevail. Nearly all were negative: a failed messianic vision, an unattainable utopian prescription, an expression of a time now passed, a movement aesthetically dessicated. These opinions resulted in the seldom spoken but often implied assumption that the Modern Movement should be seen as a kind of historical parenthesis, or as a period of general error best overlooked. As a consequence, it was argued that a return to pre-modern imagery should be undertaken to reclaim a historical continuity and a "recognizable"language. This assumption of the parenthesis and the resultant attention to pre-modern imagery is fundamentally in error, involving a misunderstanding of significant historical developments. A repositioning of the Modern Movement in a historical perspective, and an examination of the notion of precedent in relation to this perspective, will reveal the misconception. The events of history are never mere phenomena but things which the historian looks, not at, but through to discern the 14 thought within them. (R G Collingwood in

Eduard F Sekler and William Curtis, Le at [Link], Mass: HarCorbusier vard University Press, 1978, p 221.) While it is true that the Zeitgeist of the Modern Movement has been largely unfulfilled, it must be recognized that certain aspects of the period and of the movement tenaciously remain. One of the most significant of the discovery/inventions of that

2) The raisedgarden, "memory of the world"

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3) Assemblybuilding at Chandigarh

L.

sacred and profane were being replaced by a continuous space, homogenous and extensive. To a large extent these redefinitions are still with us. To deny their existence is to deny much of contemporary thought and culture. The notion that the Modern Movement in architecture should be viewed as a historical parenthesis seems tenuous indeed. Clearly there was a radical break with previous thought at the beginning of the twentieth century, but this does not constitute one-half of a parenthetical notation.3 Rather it is a kind of beginning, an origin. The philosophy and techniques of the nineteenth century, while useful as a background for comparison, no longer served as a base for further development. With the birth of the new world-view the history of the nineteenth century was lost as a source of architectural inspiration. The Didactic Fallacy is the attemptto extract specific'lessons'from historyand toapply them withliterally as policies to presentproblems, out regardfor intervening changes. (David Hackett Fischer, Historian'[Link] York: Harper & Row, 1970, p 157.) To understand the significance of the concept of continuum for architecture, an investigation of its character, meaning and ramifications is needed. It is, perhaps, in the work of Le Corbusier that the concept finds its clearest promulgation. His "Five Points of the New Architecture," published in 1926: Piloti Roof Garden Free Plan Ribbon Window Free Facade are not merely a collection of useful devices but may be seen as carefully or-

ganized "notations" that locate the continuum within the context of architectural discourse. These points redefine traditional architectural elements (column, roof, window, wall) as postulates for the concept of a spatial continuum in distinction to the accepted tradition of discrete spatial units. One of the purposes of architecture has been and still is the making of "place" or "places."This means, in the most general terms, the demarcation, separation and maintenance of"this" (area or space) from "that" (area or space). Pre-modern architecture recognizes "thisness" as being regulated by position relative to a marked center: sacredness becomes more pronounced with proximity to the center. At the other end of the scale, the periphery is the location where "this" and "that"come into close proximity but ultimate dissociation. The wall acts as the primary architecIIA

4VlatCta

-4> Villaat Carthage

(in/out, public/private, active/passive, sacred/profane, etc). The doorway becomes the primary means by which continuity from one realm to another is accomplished. The initial problem that the spatial continuum poses to the architect is how to make a place within it; that is, how to make distinctions when the continuum by definition establishes a homogeneity. The Dom-ino House project of 1914 (fig 1) provides the first clear indications for the answer. Ostensibly designed as a solution to the problem of housing construction after the first World War, its real value lies in the spatial ramifications of the piloti and slab configuration. The piloti, the first of the five points, is no longer a sculptural element in the round nor a reference to the human figure, but rather an abstract point location. The regular arrangement of pilotis forms a Cartesian grid which establishes and measures the continuum as homogenous space. It acts as a contextual referent against which the specificity of plan notations may be made. Plan elements occur as objects within the continuum or as modulators of the continuum; walls "free" from load-bearing considerations make local gestures of accommodation, but no significant distinctions are possible within the horizontal dimension of the plan. This being so, the placement of the roof garden as the second of the five points begins to make architectural sense. The roof garden, established above the level of the surrounding landscape, may be seen as the distinction of a locale, made by its removal from the ground plane. As a "raised ground plane" with its own soil, vegetation, and perambulatories it becomes a memory of the world (fig 2). As a "recreated ground plane" it becomes an image of the world, an epiphany of location. The Assembly Building at Chandigarh, with its mythical landscape on the roof exemplifies this precisely (fig 3 ). The modern concept of the roof garden as a recreated world distinct from the surrounding profane landscape is a replacement for the pre-modern concept of the doorway as the traditional"solution of continuity" between the distinguished realms of sacred/profane, in/out in the horizontal dimension is replaced by the narrative of movement from the ground plane to roof garden in the vertical dimension.4 If the roof garden is seen as the significant and final destination of the narrativeof circulation, an equivalence between it and the center or nodes of Beaux-Arts composition can be appreciated. The partitioning of the plan as a means of denoting progressive sanctity is transferred to the section where floor planes act as partitions in the vertical dimension. The section is now the generator of architectural converse. Whereas Le Corbusier stresses the primacy of the plan in his writings, his work 15

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consistently reveals a preoccupation with the section. In the Villa at Carthage, partitioning in section is significantly more elaborate than the simple boxing of functions in plan (figs 4, 5). The section of the Villa Savoye of 1929-31 reveals the complete narrativeof movement from profane to sacred, in to out, down to up along the central ramp (fig 6). It is interesting to note that the clarity of the vertical narrative is significantly stronger in the composition of the 192931 version than the earlier version of 1928 (fig 7). The elimination of the external stair translates the roof terrace/garden (adjacent to the living room) from a kind of vestibule associated with entry, to a roof terrace conceived as final destination. It may be reasonably objected that in a system utilizing the notion of the continuum as the basic assumption no distinction is possible by definition. Le Corbusier's fascination with the rampbegins to address this objection by stating the continuity of one floor with another. The ramp, as opposed to the incremental sequencing of stairs, is a vehicle of continuous movement. View the ramp as the floor plane sliced and warped, implying a previous alignment between now separate layers. The spatial continuum is reasserted and distinctions are relative rather than absolute. The free facade is the last of the Five Points mentioned and the one with the most potential for further investigation. Traditionally the internal wall has been an interstitial structural partition containing or sustaining a figural space. With the significance of partitioning now assigned to the floor plane, and structuralissues resolved by the piloti, the wall is freed for a new role. Two approaches are possible. The first, and most familiar,is one in which the wall's meaning is substantiallyreduced as a result of becoming a simple element of local space division, a kind of furniture. The second and more interesting approachis to see the wall assuming a figural identity within the spatial field, requiring an internal logic of its own-the wall becomes largely rhetorical. This characterization of the wall as rhetoric contrasts with its revalidation as a record of the events occurring behind it. With the change in emphasis from the plan to the section, the vertical narrative is in direct correspondence with the facade. The wall facade is seen as having both a specific internal or local raison d'etreand a significant referential function. It becomes the potential arena for complex architectural dialog. In his later works Le Corbusier utilized some of the potential and value of the figural wall, sometimes turning walls into buildings (fig 8) and buildings into walls (fig 9). The concept of the continuum radically 16 altered the meaning of most of the primary

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architecturalelements (at least in the work ofLe Corbusier): from roof as enclosure to garden as exposure, from column as sculpture to piloti as non-dimensional point location, from doorway as solution of continuity from inside to outside to ramp as solution of continuity from up to down, and from partition wall as interstice to figural wall as rhetoric. Not only are the elements demonstrably altered, but the syntax of their disposition has been changed from an emphasis on plan notation to an emphasis on section development. Architecture as a discipline with an established rule system underwent a drastic reformulation of that rule system. That change was based upon the development of a new attitude toward the conception of space. The continuum, in a very real sense, was a new beginning, a conceptual origin.
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9) The building asfiguralwall ment within the architectural language of the continuum, and there seems to be grounds for continued investigation. However, the early modern concept of the wall as thin membrane has occupied the attention of architects for nearly 60 years. After so long, the figural wall is a concept for which we are singularly unprepared. This difficulty has been addressed by a renewed interest in architectural precedent. Pre-modern walls, by virtue of their structural and par:itional characteristics, are often far more than modern creations such as the curtain wall or the operable partition. Herein lies a difficulty. The pre-modern wall, while appearing useful to our purposes, is formulated according to the logic of discrete space-making. We view potential precedent from the pre-modern period across a conceptual gulf. A wall "cribbed"entirely out of the context of discrete space-making and transplanted into the spatial continuum may require treatment as a quotation set off from the continuum by appropriate marks; 17

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otherwise, the intent and the reading of intent become potentially confused. For example, the figuralcharacterof the wall in the spatial continuum disallows the doorway as a significant event. The doorway is significant in traditionalarchitecture as the means by which integration between discrete figural spaces is achieved. If a wall under consideration as a potential precedent contains a doorway as a significant part of its composition, that wall as image requires treatment as a quotation out of context; for the doorway as a solution of continuity makes little sense for a space continuously solved internally..The alternative is for the wall to undergo some form of deformation, modulation and/or reinterpretation, becoming a kind of "notation." Then it is acceptable both as specific reference and as active participant in the continuum. Given the new value assigned to the vertical narrative, the section becomes an object of a search for precedent. A rereading of the sections of pre-modern structures for figural or narrativeaspects can be pursued. In the Undine Barge Club by Frank Furness (fig 10), the section reveals the character and significance of the building in a way that the plan does not: the plan is simple, but the section can be seen to contain the image of a boat. The stair tower can be read as lighthouse or dock and the chimney as mast. This then becomes an example for the pursuit of sectional elaboration consistent with spatial continuity. In a similar manner, the examination of facades may reveal the narrativeof ascent. In the Blacker house by Greene and Greene (fig 11) a layering from ground to terrace is evident. But the layering is more than spatial, it is semantic as well. The sequential reading of basement/cave, house/hut, and terrace/world (from bottom to top) elaborates meanings that perhaps describe the evolution of architecture from earliest times to the most recent concept of the continuum itself. The search for precedent becomes a search for appropriate precedent. It becomes a search directed by a schema that specifies significant principles rather than specific characteristics. In the case of con-

I I) BlackerHouse by Greeneand Greene

1965). Figure 6 isfrom W Boesiger,Le Corbusier (Neu, York: 1972). Figure 10 is from The Architecture of Frank Furness by GeorgeE Thomas 'See Thomas S Kuhn,The Structure of Scientific and Hyman Myers (Philadelphia: 1973). Figure Revolutions (Chicago:Unirersityof Chicago I I is from Greene and Greene by William CurPress.1970). rentand Karen Current(Fort Worth:1974).

temporary thought, the spatial continuum ' SeeAlbertEinsteinand Leopold Infeld, The Evodis that schema. lution of Physics(New York:SimonandSchuster, Contrary to the arguments elaborated at 1968). Cranbrook, the Modern Movement, re- 3 RoyMcMullen, Art, Affluence and Alienation (Neu, York:Praeger,1968). sponding to a consistently developing 4 Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane world-view, established principles, raised York:[Link] World. 1959). issues, and asked questions that have yet to (Neube fully elucidated. The spatial continuum, with all of its relativities and ambiguities, is still very much with us. To deny it is to deny much of our culture. Perhaps the 1, 2, 4, 7, 8 and 9 are reprinted Modern Movement, still responsive to the Figuresnumbered current world-view, may be entering a new from Le Corbusier, Ouevre Complete 1910and far more significant phase of investiga- 1929, W Boesiger,ed (Zurich: 1943). Figure 5 is from the Ouevre Complete 1957-1965 (London: tion. References

18

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