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    JENCKS CHARLES - Fragment - Post-Modern Architecture

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    Alexandru Cetea
    jencks charles

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    Charles A. Jencks “Post-Modern Architecture” From The Language of Past-Modem Architecture (ondon: Academy Editions, 197: New York: Rizzoli, 1977) [Architecture theory owes the concept and category of postmadern to Charles Jencks. ‘Though the theoretical “inhibitions” of modemn architecture against past forms and ‘the actual plurality ofits modes had already been developed by Paolo Portoghesi, Jencks, and others, it was the convergence of Jencks’s search for a multivalent or ‘multicoded architecture with certain design practices of the 1970s that enabled the theorization of postmodern architecture as a distinct, articulate, and affirmative posi- tion rather than as merely a reaction formation against modemism or a synonym for the contemporary. In his Modem Movements in Architecture (2973) Jencks had al- ready formulated what would become the foundational condition of postmodern ar- chitecture—an antideterministc, self-sustaining “mulivalence”; Le Corbusier's Unité Habitation was his primary example. Following the precepts of the New Criticism (oarticularly the new critical readings of I. A. Richards), Jencks finds arc bbe fundamentally about human experience and the, organization of such experience ‘obtained through perception and reflection. The use and configuration of a self conscious architectural “language” ~an analog ofthe New Critics’ poetic language— involve structure and pattera together with rhetorical devices such as metaphor, para- ox, and itony, all of which serve to organize the complexity of human experience. A ‘multivalent architecture is thus emotive and cognitive. Jencks ‘The mre one analyses [Le Corbusier's Unité 'Wabitatin), the more one finds tink ater link between the diferent levels of experience and the more experience becomes set valiating a cone discovers not only Le Corbusir’s intentions, but more posible meanings which ae latent ‘thin the architecture ts this poner ofthe mulvalent work to engage the perceiver’ powers ‘of creation whichis significant here. Not only does ths allow the architecture to become alive in diferent wows to each generation and thus result Ina lating architecture, but it aso stinu- lates each generation to reach beyord Is familiar abstractions. Multhalent architecture acts as 8 catalyst on the mind, provoking wholly new interpretations wich, in however small a way. affect the individual. The range, delicacy and complexty of mearings which exist in a mutvalent ‘work have an analogous effect on the mind that interacts with them, Utimately we are trans- formed by what we experience, ané the qualty of @ work is tansferred, even i incirecty, ino organizational states ofthe mind." It is one of the paradoxes of the modem/postmodern relation that the concept of multivalence can then be transfered to the propased postmodern architectural language, where itis modulated by a notion of double-coding: “A Post- Modern building Is .. » one which speaks on at least two levels at once: to other architects and a concerned minority who care about specifically architectural mean- ing, ané to the public at large, or the local inhabitants, who care about other issues concerned with comfort, traditional building and 2 way of life” Such “schizophrenia” ‘was surely part of modemism’s histrical condition as well, but it must be self consciously and ironically exacerbated In order for Jencks to arrive at his semiotics of the nonsynchronous. ricks, sand hes, tor ithe for adal- Unité icism reto jance self. age— para- we lnk ting 35 latent ealve sting: away, fralent tans: ly into Aation vodern \Post- other mean- Issues tenia” Postmodern architecture is concerned with the complex texture of reality (can include usines, decay, banality, austerty, without becoming de- pressing"), yet it avoids all stance-taking (“The particular motivation or ‘interests’ of men are momentarily dropped”) in order to reach its “disinterested fulfillment.” Its function isto create meaning in a balance of irresoivables through related structured levels and a density of connotativeness rather than the random heterogeneity or neat arrangement of individual elements. Meaning must be forged always in tension with ‘other potential meanings, employing explicit denotations, everyday associations, ref- ‘erence to other buildings, and inherent or contrived simile of “seeing-as;"allof which alds communication, While lencks's manner of reading buildings as simites and meta- pphors sometimes results in a kind of architectural Rorschach text ("Now tell me what this reminds you of"), his work aso iitiated a powerful new mode of perception that Fredric Jameson later sursmarized as “diference relates. Together with other efforts like Portoghes's 1980 exhibition “The Presence of the Past” and Heinrich Klotz's The History of Postmodern Architecture* Jencks helped popularize and institutionalize a label that would dominete architecture journals and the academy for a decade. Notes : 1. Paola Portoghesi, Le inbizion’ dell architettura moderna (Bal Later, 197 Jencks, Modern ovement in Architecture (New York: Anchor, 1973). Se also Robert Ven- tur, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966). 2. Jencks, Modern Movements . 26. Charles Jencks, "The Rise of Post Modern Architecture” ‘Architectrcl Assocation Quarterly 7. 20. (October-December 1975), also contains mary ‘ofthe constitutive characteristics found in the 1977 book. 43. Chatles Jencks, introduction tothe third edition of The Longuege of Past Modern Archtec- ture (ew Yor: Rizal, 3981), . 6 4. Fredric Jameson, "Architecture and the Critique of Ideology” In Architecture, Cts, tde- ology Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 985), p86; epinted inthis anthology. 5 Neletch Kotz, Moderne und postmadere: Architektur der Gegenaart 1960-1980 (Br2Un- schwoig:F. Vioneg, 1984, published in Engish as The Mistory of Postriodem Architecture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988); The Presence ofthe Past: Fst Intemational Exhibition of Aechiteture, od. Gabriela Borsano (Venice: Edizion La Biennale di Venera, 198). sae sont (0 ee 197753 | Charles A. Jencks Post-Modern Architecture ‘Recent Departures Several architects are moving beyond modern architecture in a tentative way, either adapting a mixture of modernist styles, or mixing these with previous modes. The results a6 yer are not convincing enough to speak of a toully new approach and style; they are evolutionary, not a radical departure. And it is in the nature of the ‘ase that practicing architecis now in their forties and wained In modernism can ‘only make hesitant, evolutionary changes. When the present students of architec- ture start practicing, we shavld begin to see much more convincing examples of, radical ecleciciem, because its only this group which Is realy free enough to try their hand at any possible style—ancient, modern, or hybrid AA few Japanese architects, Kurokawa, Kikutake and Isozaki among them, have on occasion produced work in several different styles, and single ‘buildings which use various aesthetic systems in a semantic way. Also they hive ‘been able to incorporate a traditional language without necessarily being coy or tronic. Why they, unlike Westerners, have been able to be modern and traditional - ‘without compromising ether language remains something of « mystery. Partly it s explained by the persistence of traditional Japanese ‘culture in all areas, and the absence of a revolutionary avant-garde which establishes its credentials by inverting those of the previous generation. But also itis due to the Japanese sophistication towards signs: they have traditionally absorbed alien cultures, or modified the Chi- nese to their own purposes. Whatever the explanation, the results are there as 2 lesson to pluralist societies. The architect ean design tea-ceremony rooms in 2 straightforward, sensitive way, or push the latest technology to its expressive limits. Kikutake, in his Tokoen Hotel, has used a version of the Torii gate to acknowledge the entrance, and has employed traditional bracket construc- tlon—but in concrete not wood—to articulate the main public areas. The hotel rooms near the top mix tatami proportions and modem architecture; while the restaurant on the roof is under a gentle curve, in blue tle, that manages to recall traditional roof forms and moder hyperbolic parabolas (which in fat itis). Two cifferent structural systems and two aesthetics thus give a legibility and dynamism. aissing in Western modern architecture Kurokawa's Odakyu Drive-In Restaurant is similar in its use of mixed systems. Again the traditional bracket construction is a departure point for the jot, but here the join has exploded to such prominence that it has swallowed the building and, conversely, the building has swallowed the joint. This witty piece of advertising architecture is in the best roadside tradition—a gigantic metaphor proclaiming ts function. The red tens, slung under the top joints, signifies outdoor ‘activities, in this ease a beer garden, while the plug-in capsule of brown steel signi- fies the main dining room. Minora Takeyama, another young Japanese architect, has ‘pushed the use of popular, commercial codes even further in what is perhaps the ‘most convincing Pop bullding yet designed from within the architectural dition. B sig BeRRRGE sevexs | 3977 | 309 ther His Nicban-Kahn makes use of gigancie supergrapbics, optical patterns, written The signs, and combines these commercial codes with 2 geometric discipline and volu- and metric expression more common in the high gime of serious architecture, Archi- (the teers architecture and commercial motif canbe combined without compromising tae cither code: in fact dhele mutual confrontation is a positive gain for both sides. The pana resultant hybrid, like all inclusive architecture, is not easily subverted by an ironic sof autack, an unsympathede viewpoint, because it balances and reconciles opposed ouy meanings, instead of gaining a tenuous integration by denial, by excluding inbar- rmonious meanings in a search for consistency, this inclusive architecture absorbs weak conflicting codes in an attempt to create “the dificult whele.” ingle ‘This phrase, borrowed from Robert Ventur, should not be re- have garded asa file panacea, as bis own work shows, Iti considerably more difficu page to design works which unify disparate material than to unify already homogeneous ie ‘meanings and styles: just asi is more difficult to write a tragedy than a farce. By rs the same token, an inclusive architecture brings much more of our personality and Sehe ‘behavior into focus; just as wagedy articulates a greater wealth of experience than ing any other genre! The rare, inclusive building —as are asthe true tragedy (most are ion melodramas) —does nor sublimate unattractive aspects ofthe world. It can include Chi- ugliness, decay, banality, austerity, without becoming depressing. Ic can confront = harsh realities of imate, oz polis without suppression. It can articulate a bleak ina metaphysical view of man—Greek architecture and tha: of Le Corbusier—without mis. cither evasion or blekness.* The extraordinary power of tragedy when its really ‘Tor tragic, or inclusive architecture when iteally unifies disparate material, sits disin- Bue terested fulfillment. The parccular motivation or "interests" of men are momen- note tarily dropped at they watch a configuration of particularly disturbing events othe uunfold—mnurders, betrayals slow disintegration—they watch these monstrosities ‘eall vwith detached pleasure, a¢ long as they are balanced or reconciled within an overall Two tragic pattern, The catharsis this can produce, irespective of whether itis looked at, ison psychologically (I. A. Richards), or metaphysically (Niewsche). is of a higher order than the reactions produced by other genres. Inclusive architecture and tragedy, seof simply, are the pinnacles of expressive modes: there is nothing else a rch, marare tte and honest towards the complexities of ie wed Having staked out grandiose claims for such work, itis unfor- cen tunate not to be able co illustrate it with convincing modern examples, Bu, again, phor only the first steps have been taken inthis direction, and one doesn't expect them door to,be accomplished or perfect. Certain buildings of Le Corbusier definitely artic ‘gute Jate this kind of experlence, but they do so witha Purist language purged of sym- bolic signs, writing and vulgarity. By conzast, the buildings of Venturi and his team as ‘use an inclusive language without atempting much of a reconciliation between she ‘opposed meanings. Only one architect manages to be convincingly vata vith a yb ngage, Gat but before ssn Me Te heres ore th Pores Ascites, Ui, and Ron Fe, Ones spré879 several examples of this language itself since it isthe precondition for an inclusive architecture tn general terms it can be deseribed as radical eclecticism, or adhocism. Various pars, styles or sub-systems (existing in a previous context) are used in a new, creaive synthesis. Radical eclecticism stresses the aspect that these parts must find a semantic justification; eclecticism in ssefis a senseless shuffling of styles, as Incoherent as Purism, its opposite. Adhocism stresses the aspect that these parts must be unified creatively fora specific purpose (the definition of al oc). Several recent archiceccural examples make it clear what this language looks like. tt varie- gated rather than homogencous, witty rather than somber, messy rather than clean, ing ga the sith sch pre 193 Defi sewers | ag7 | 3. picturesque but not necessarily without a dassical, geometric order (usually itis made from several orders in contrast) " ‘A key ai inc building group, perhaps the largest built to date is e the students’ residence and social zone at Louvain University, just outside Brussels e Designed with the aid of Lucien Krall (wito acted as orchestra leader for the various £ design groupe), this set of structures resembles a childs building-block hill own more than a traditional group of university buildings. The reason is simply that many students participated in its design, and they used small bits of plastic foam in working ‘out a model. They shuffled these bts around, combining various furesions, such as , a individual rooms with restaurant. But disputes arose and the inevitable specialization of teams led to an impossible fragmentation. Kroll reorganized these teams several times, lesing them become more familia with each otker’s problems, until a pos- sible solution was in sight. Not until then did he draw up the plans and sections which made ie workable ‘The resultant bulldings show 2 complexity and richness of reaning tha usually takes years to achieve and isthe result of many inhabitants mak- ‘ng small adjustments over time. The fact chat simulation of such piecemeal tinker- ing and pluralism can be builtin from the beginning through such a process, should not be underrated. takes, of cours, the commitment and understanding that Kroll and his group had from the stat; but the process is definitely generalizable, and similar results have been achieved elsewhere with similar processes of consultation, ifnor parcipation—Ralph Erskine and his team at Byker, for instance ‘Koll’s orchestration even went so fr as allowing the builders 2 certain improvisation while constructing, They changed the siding of one building from rough rubble stonework to brick and tle as the work progressed, so this build- ing seems to grow up from the ground like a variegated tree. The students wished to combine functions while distinguishing them visually, so five different building y3- tems were used—tl, plastic, luminum and glass, wood, and concrete—in a finely- grained patchwork. No explicit semantic modeling was used, as far as T know, but the parts bespeak their use with a certain eloquence and mutual toleration, Perhaps this was due to Kroll himself, as participation won't auromatially produce such sen- sitivity Theze was clearly an aesthetic intention consciously brought co bear om the scheme at some point; and itis this skill, which has been delicately keyed into the process without dominating it, that dissinguishes this result of participation from others, and from the very large self-build movement. Perhaps participation has been oversymbolized. Kroll boasts that zo owo bedroom windows next to each other are che same; and when T was there in 1976 I found parts ofthe building had graffi and political slogans written on them before they were being used. It was as if che street art of May “68 was being prexp- plied down at che factory, Perhaps the scheme may be overartculated and somewhat too fusy in its insistent attempt to humanize and individvalize. ‘Nonetheless, the spirit ofthe place really eapeures the feeling of ‘what adh design can be—a continually renewed improvisation oa themes coming fiom every possible source. There are pitched roofs here which tumble about the zoo scape of an amoeboid community building; other popular signs, such as reli ‘work, greenhouse sheds, and primitive figurative sculpture, punctuate the main blob of the scheme (one has to apply new architecrral terms to these units—perheps “hile” is a beter word). The syncopation of various materials over the surface of these lob-hills can only be described as rich and riotous; cumultuous in the deta and violent in the whole—and yet still very personal and small-scaled.Itis a kind of, language very appropriate fo student fe and desires (at least sme desires). I'm sure certain critics are going to éondemin this asthe totalitarianism of enforced participa” tion, where there is no normalized architectures for the student who just wants to NS | ag77 | be his ordinary, privatized self Indeed, perhaps improvisation has gone 10 fa spread all over the site in every detail. Bu this excess isthe price often paid for innovating ‘anew process of design, and there is nothing inherent in the process which precludes ‘ordinary building for those who really want it. They will just have to make their ‘otoes heard in the future as the university continues to expand. ‘ Muldvalent Architecture e ‘The direction that Kroll and thete oer architects are moving towards i pluralistic i language which incorporates traditional and modern elements, vernacular and high t arc meanings. The Japanese designers, Charles Moore, the Venturi tar, Bruce Goff, b and countess individuals building thelr own handmade houses, do not yet constitute é a single coherent tradition; but they have enough in common to make a very loosely defined group departing from the orthodoxies of the modem movement They find fe support, if not identity of approach, in the emergent philosophies of the ecological i ovement “small is besutfu,” intermediate cechnology, and the general trend to- fe wards decentralization which is being called for around the world. These last move- “3 rents are neutral concerning 4 new language of architeceare, they aren't concerned with the way buildings communicate one way or another, but their underlying plu- ob ralism is to be welcomed rs If this pluralism is going to amount to anything it will really a have to become more tough-minded, The architect will have be tained in four or & five different styles and tained as an anthropologist, or at least a good journalist, to a Tear and be able to use the particular architectural codes that prevail among the s subcultures that persist in any large ciy. Hle will have to learn the particular meta- la phors and symbolic signs which have a shorclved potency, and the slow-changing a tuaditional signs, and use all these with wit and precision. This is not going to be an, easy thing to do because the other part of his taining in the new technologies and es abstract methodologies of planning, will Inevitably remove him, as they have done Ne {in the pas, from the users of his buildings. He will continue to have a professional 7 Sdeclogy induced by the modern movement on a world-wide sale; he will spond a to formal inventions coming from Irly and Japan, theory that emanates from London = and New York, and individual practice coming from everywhere. He wil build for multinational and large corporations and indefnable cients; he will sill love the ait ‘manipulation of pure form and the high game of Architects’ Architecture. All these Go mae oe Pertang Bale, 360 not tene ‘sty bea The wor on the has adjo awa fig seas | 9771 333 forces will alienate him from the people who ultimately use his buildings and there islite hope of changing these forces (barring the collapse of international coment nications and all economies, not a very happy solution). A realistic assessment ofthe situation suggests that schizophre- nia is the only intelligent approach. The architect should be trained as @ radical schizophrenic (everything must be radical today), always looking two ways with ‘equal clarity: towards the traditional slow-changing codes and particular ethnic ‘meanings of a neighborhood, and towards the fst-changing codes of architectural fashion and professionalism. If he doesn’t make this schizophrenia quite explicit and. incorporate it as part of his basic training, then he will be an inadvertent victim of one pressure or the other. (On the other hand, if he does adopt this dual approach, his en- Joyment of architecture might actually increase, as he becomes more responsible for its various meanings. The more he can know about how people will react to the forms he uses, the more he can confidently use and decode them, The pleasure of ‘manipulating various languages will easily repay the effor at learning them. Ultimately however, itis the way alanguage is used that mater, the actual messages sent as much as the particular language used, Obviously if an architect has nothing important to say, his facility with communication is ust going to advertise this fact clearly: o ideology. and ideas, are also preconditions fr effective discourse. A multivalent architecture, opposed to a univalent building, combines ‘meanings imaginatively so that they fuse and modify each other. A moltivalentarchi- tecture, lke the inclusive building, makes use ofthe full asc of communicational mens, leaving out no area of experience, and suppressing no particular code (although of course any building is inevitably limited in range). ‘The only architec could say really uses a pluralist language to produce multivalent works, Antonio Gaudi, has sometimes been classfed as an Art Nouveau designer. The problem with this classification is that it obscures Gaudi's ‘universality, nor to say pecallarity. He was a man, deeply committed co Barcelona's separatist movement, and to “modernism,” its artistic expression, as well as more general socal issues, such as workers’ control and Christian humanism, Gaudi’ version of Art Nouveau was highly inclusive, even can- nibalistc: it swallowed Moorish elements, tiles and domical vaults; it absorbed Gothic motifs, buttesses, pinnacles, and stained glass: it borrowed nature's plants and arimals, metaphors of any living creature; nd incorporated emergent forms of engineering (che parabola and hyperbolic parabola were practically invented by Gaudi. Spatially it lowed and curved around solid elements, while structurally it not only articulated the lines for force, but dramatized them as twisting muscles and tendons, Symbolically, his work followed the local Christin and social meanings ex- Isting in Barcelona at the time. And Gaudi was not even intimidated by vulgarity — ‘ne write various slogans across the tops of his building, early Cubist advertisements ‘There wasn't a communicational mode Gaudi didn't use at least once. His Cosa Bats, finished in 1907, isa particularly multivalent ‘work, where meanings mocify one another. You come upon it near the comer of ‘main boulevard in Barcelona, past a phalanx of plane trees on the Faseo de Gracia, (On one side isa typical nineteenth-century apartment block inthe classical style; on the other, the stepped shops and polychromy of another Art Nouveau building Gaus has filled this hole with a building that respects the street facade and unites the two adjoining structures (or at least did until one of them was added to). He also adopis ‘aration ofthe window treatments on either side. (On inspecting the entrance facade, you can discover & series of ‘metaphors and symbolic signs. The balconies stare back lke so many death masts Or stalls. The middle part ofthe architecture also recalls vegetable and marine meta- ‘hors, wih some people seeing it asa violent blue sea breaking over rocks, which ‘hen turn into kelp (the codes of Barcelona are, after all, sensitive to the sea). “The lower two floors dope a related organic metaphor of skele- tons and bones (the architecture was known as “the house of bones"), and you can see this exoskeleton go internal on two sies ofthe thir floor. A recent designer has incorporated a wandering, blue neon sign suggesting, if we continue the metaphor, chat the “legs have valoose eins”"—a raher ludicrous example of the way multiva- Tent architecture forces meanings to modify each other. Tels quite possible o see these “bones” as tendons, or a ductile metaphor of wax or lava. fa mixed metaphor is more dramatic than a single, obvious one, then it is Gaud’s particular strength to find a multiplicity of meanings for these mixtures. For instance, they divide the architecture into three main fune- tional parts (following the classical convention): a base of two floors with the bone/ ‘wax metaphor which can denote “shops,” “entrance” and “main apartment”; shaft of four fioors in the marine/mask metaphor which can denote “similar aparaments of aesser nature”; finally a capital, 2 roof in the dragon metaphor which can denote “roof garden, water tanks, skylight, mechanical equipment.” Thos strange, regional codes are used to signify different functions and break up a large apartment block into identifiable and personal areas. How fr thisis from the recent practice of anony- ‘ous sb blocks iis not necesary to emphasize ‘The pre-eminent role of the architect isto articlite our emv- ronment, not only so we can comprehend i literal, but also so-we can find i psy-

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