scture et concepts ture and Concepts concepts, matériaux,contrantes rohitectureinvente des concepts et les mate fallgeenes transformant en espaces physiques ten matériaux construit. Elle se distingue autros domaines pare langage qu'elle vtilise tebetonet lo verre, Cespace et alumi, temouvement ete programme ~ par opposition fur motset aux phrases, aux hifres et aux Squations, ov encore a lamélodieet au rythme, par exemple, Ce qi dstingue te Concept en architecture du concept en philosophie ou en mathema- tigues, cest quit impique une materia Taeapacité a inventer des onceptesétend bien a-dela de taphtosophie, comme en temoignent Teconcept de montage chez Sergvet Eisenstein, au cinéma, ov fereadymade, de Marcel Duchamp, Gang es arte pastiques. Ces ancepts, quits aint ou non &t6 coneretises dans des coves Spectiques, ont eu uneinfuence determinant sur fart de notre temps, De manire analogue, des oncepte tle que le plan bre Gee Gorbusier ou Nason sans finde Frederick Kiestrantjout un foleaesra dane évolution dela pensee en architecture. Linvention Geconcepts est ce qui faitde farenitecture une forme doa Cannalssance pu®t que la simple connaissance de afrme teat par consequent arbitrate de fedutetarcitectore au sou art Golaconstruction: architecture Seutartae construire ds concepts Aindos ecpaces et dos matériaus Us concept architectural ne po Shue cependant pas de matérilité eRSorretun concept ne dot pas are confondu avec la fagon dont i est materia toe Onpeut utter deux matriaux detinets Hee et bamer te meme concept, mas ils produ font dene ce cas dos resulatscifforents Dela meme maniére, architecture ne peut the socio ds procesnus ot contaites, ti aecompagnent a pratique. Ls concepts SKemtecturaux ne natasont jamais dune abs traction nf une tabula rosa de a pense Gaat elt grave ot des forces physiques que Fasc eg calgnnes et los arches: 1 murs raeeeracuitant gune nécessito Se DroteEer des incempéries. de innovation technol0g We Concepts, Materials, Constraints Architecture invents concepts and materializes them by turning them into physical spaces and constructed materials. Its distinguished from other fields by the language it uses: concrete and ‘glass, space and light, movement and program, {8 opposed to words and sentences, numbers ‘and equations, melody and rhythm, and soon What distinguishes o concept in architecture from ‘a concept in philosophy or mathematics is its implied materiality. The invention of concepts extends far beyond philosophy, as Sergei Eisenstein’s concept of mon~ tage in film or Morcel Duchamp's readymade in the visuol orts demonstrate. These concepts, both in and outside of their realization in specific works, hhave had a major influence on the arts of our time. Ina similar manner, concepts such the plan libre by Le Corbusier or the “endless house" by Frederick Kiesler have been crucial to the development of architectural thought. tis the invention of concepts that makes architecture 1 form of knowledge rather than mere knowledge of form. Itis therefore arbitrary to reduce orehitecture to simply an art of construction: architecture is the art of building concepts through spaces and materials. Nevertheless, an architectural concept inand of itself has no materiality, and a concept should not be confused with the way in which itis. materialized. Two different materials can be used to express the same concept but will generate different effects. Ina similar manner, orchitecture cannot be sepa~ roted from the processes and constraints thot ‘accompany its making. Architectural concepts tre never born out of abstraction or from the tabula rasa of thought. Gravity and physical forces ‘gave birth to columns ond arches; weather protec~ ton, new technologies, and specific economic constraints resulted in curtain walls. Architectural ‘concepts are alwoys anchored in a practical or “real” domain. Architecture vs. Building ‘Architecture is not only “the magnificent play of ‘volumes brought together in light,” as Le Corbusier defined it, nor sit specifically about contempla- tion or communicetion. These terms con apply to other artifacts and activities, from outdoor sculp- ture to body building. Again, architecture is the art of inventing concepts in space through materials. Form is its offshoot or accessory. The making of concepts is the justification for architecture; otherwise, functional buildings with attractive shapes would suffice. Concepts differentiateparles conventions du dessin d/architecture IIfallait prendre une distance. Entre jfetais a Londres, a (Architectural dans un contact trés fertile avec les polémique de 'époque. Mais pour moi, ace moment, le véhicule a d'abord été l'écriture, On peut penser architecture par d'autres moyens que pare construit ou le dessiné. architecture est une forme de connaissance avant détre une connais~ sance de la forme, Je cite toujours « Introduction a lanalyse structurale des récits », de Barthes, ‘0 iLest facile de remplacer le mot « littérature » par le mot « architecture » pour avoir un texte théorique qu'aucun architecte n'a jamais écrit, Lorsque l'on pose la question des limites, des marges d'une discipline, on touche aux marges de architecture. Dans cette espace de no man's and, dans ce terrain vague qui ne fait pas partie des disciplines instituées, ily a des endroits extraordinaires. Bataille — et c'est la grande qua~ lite du livre d'Hollier que de le montrer ~, en fai- sant cette distinction entre ce qui est concu et ‘ce qui est vécu, c'est-a-dire entre le concept et Pexpérience, a travers des métaphores architec turales (la pyramide et le labyrinthe), parle direc tement a larchitecte. architecture ne peut plus ttre simplement un mode de bien cadrer des fespaces. C'est aussi un mode d'expérience, de traniére de vivre. ILy a un dialogue incontournable ntre le concu et le vécu. Et crest le point de départ dde toute une recherche. Crest le moment ou [a notation est apparue ‘Gomme une problématique de vos recherches. Crest également le moment ou vous donnez 2 vos tudionts de Architectural Association des textes de littérature de Jorge Luis Borges et de, fumes Joyee, pour nourrirdifféremment le projet, ‘et changer toute l'idée du programme et de ‘sa temporalité. Comment s'établit le projet de Joyce's Garden ? Dans Vidée de notation, ily avait deux choses Gifferentes. La premiere était une question de. fangage : si vous voulez changer quelque choses it faut parfois changer ta maniere d’en pariey augndwittgenstein et Jameson parlent de 1a pPrgon-house du langage, est parce quo s| 0" Mtilise des axonométries en architecture, Ute tement on va avoir des couvres qui proce eront des axonometries. Par consequent, (eat se poser la question dela angue qu urlise evinscre, est la premiere question, valde iravaille en nume= encore aujourd'hui lorsque "or Finue. Lutitigation du numerique va-telle Parmettre de changer architecture ov va. 1-0" Parana la meme chose mais en ajoutant de surfaces a double courbure ? Larnotation vise également & do Gepects qui navaient jusque-ta pas ete a pee nits Varchitecture, cest-a-aire e mOUve- prone des corps dane espace. action, ce Tonits, Quand on est architecte, 0" “260%, dos programmes avec tant de metres cor" cee ed cela, Ces metres carres rerletent Ges 2 form of knowledge before being a knowledge of rm. always cite Barthes’ “Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives,” where i's easy toreploce the word "literature" with the word ‘architecture” to produce a theoretical text such ‘asnoarchitect has ever written. When you raise the question of limits, of the margins ofa disci pine, that takes you to the margins of archite ture. And there are extraordinary places to be found in the sort of *no-man's land,” the unbuilt ond that folls outside the recognized disciplines. When Bataille makes the distinction between thought and experience, that is, between concept ond experience, using architectural metaphors {the pyramid and the labyrinth) he is saying some: thing to architects, and it’s the great virtue of Hollier’s book to have shown that. Architecture ‘can no longer simply be a way of framing spaces: {tis also a mode of experience, a woy of framing aspects of life. There's an inescapable diologue between the conceptual and the lived. And that's the storting point for a whole program of research. ‘That's when notation emerged as a problematic ‘your architectural research. {t's also when you gave your students at the Architectural ‘Aesociation literary texts by Jorge Luis Borges ‘nd James Joyce in order to inform an architec {ural project in a new way, to change the whole idea of a program and its temporality. How did the Joyce's Garden project come about? There were two different things in the ideo of nota Trae The first was 0 question of language: if you rant to change something, you sometimes have Wahange the woy you tolk about it. If Wittgenstein to gameson speak ofthe “prison-house of [an- (quage," it’s because ifyou use axonometric projec seem architecture, then inevitably you're BOIME toend up with work based on axonomettics. Soyou hove to consider what language the archi Packie going to use. That's the first question. ond tect sti valid today, when we're using digital tech Siques. Is digital going to enable us to change niatecture, or are we going to carry on doing She ome old thing with the addition of double- curved surfaces? ‘na notation was also intended to document those aspects that had until then not been fore- post ded in architecture, that is, the movement a enadies in space, action, conflict. When you're an cranitect, you're presented with programs speci fying so mony hundred square metres ofthis, Dine ny ofthat. These quantification are often sections of cultural facts. Literature forms an ‘etegra part ofthe culture that in turn influences ees said to myself, rather than giving my stu- vents square metre counts, Il give them extracts con itgrory texts. A story, 2 fiction by Edgar Allan pom eitolo Calvino raises new questions. You have [oretormutate the ideo of architecture, or the Woy ou interpret some cultural phenomenon. Having veone this three or four times, lasked myself,1oe siécle sont devenues le « parc du xx" siecle » Les points-lignes-surfaces, les mouvements des vecteurs dans l'espace, sont devenus le pro- jet du pare Unnouvel état de la notation est apparu, beau- coup plus complexe, qui va croiser le chemin de ‘Jacques Derrida. S'est esquissée une autre idée du négatif, ou architecture se déconstruit, se déstructure. Avec l'idée de la gramme, qui vient de Derrida, et celle du point ~ du point rouge -, ils‘agit de comprendre comment se dispense le ‘sens, quelest le sens de architecture. La Villette ‘permis de passer 4 une autre idée de la notation de Vécriture architecturale, et 6 ce qui va s’appe- ler la déconstruction en architecture. Comment ‘s'établit cette plateforme d'une architecture ‘comme déconstruction ? Ele nest pas déconstructviste du tout La ques tion our Derrida je vais peut-tre la développer ‘parti du mot que vous avez utilise le négatt ame méfio un peu du négatif J utilserais plutot {snnotion de questionnement, celui que Derrida a toujours souleve & propos des dualismes qu font partie dos clichés de notre maniere de penser. architecture en regorge: le pleins ot les vides. Tinterieur et Cexterteur etc. Dans le cas dela Villette, par exemple, eaucoup de gene 8 epoque ont surtout vues points. Mais es points ne powwatont pas exster sans esvides. Catat Tedialogue entre les points et le vides, était IS fensbnentre es points et Les ignes quit alait GpSerwor Ce qui faisatte parc, etait existence Srttinanée et autonome des points, des lignes Gomouvement et dee surfaces, Cest-a-dire de Girterones types cactivite avec teure supports stupectita, th ce sens, les textes de Derrida eiEttimportante parce quilsinterrogeaient ee taltames. Quand a invite Derrida a vent cee tontrer ot ai expiqué inert que nous Mrrtione a'gon travail, ia oxprime son tonne: rorya se demendant pourqual ies architectes Metbtosesiont ala deconstruction alors quelle Satantavme antierrehietanituctre Seiatairoponau que cétat précisement POU aia igen Derrida, avec une generosite ide Fettble a accepte de dessiner un jardin vec cree seamen, auquel avai propese de fare eeuipe aveeTe pitozopne. Une serie do débats sere muivi qui ont eich ta discussion Son ee Mas ne sagisait pas cutout de auto i eyiame, puteeun questionaement ‘Avec a publication de La Case vide, pour lequel Derrida écrit un texte, «Point de folie Mointenant architecture 07 225° 21.07 une plateforme eritique stabilisée, originale Guideptote une nouvelle écriture. Est-ce une Dose Dour s'engoger dans une veritable pratiaue La trame ponctuelle, utilisée a la fagon une abstraction ~ ce n'est pas du tout une chose, formelle, cst un diagramme ~, ciest peut étre that are the clichés of our thinking. Architecture is full f them: solid and void, interior and exterior {and so on. In the case of La Villette, for example, @ lot of people at the time saw only the points. But the points couldn't exist without the voids. It was the dialogue between points ond voids, the tension between points ond lines that you were meant to pick up on. What constituted the park was the simultaneous and independent existence of points, lines of movement, and surfaces, that is, of different kinds of activities with their respective supports, It was in that sense that Derrida’s writ- ings were important, because they put such dual- isms into question. When | asked to meet Derrida ‘and explained my interest in his work, he expressed his amazement, wondering why architects would be interested in deconstruction when it was onti- form, onti-hierarchy, and anti-structure. | told him that that was exactly why. Derrido, with his unfail- ing generosity, agreed to design o garden with Peter Eisenman, to whom | had suggested teaming up with him. A series of debates followed thot ‘hriched the discussion around the Pork. It wasn't at allo deconstruction, but rather an interrogation. With the publication of La Case Vide, for which Derrida wrote the essay “Point de folie Maintenant Carchitecture,” one has arrived at ‘settled and original critical apparatus that deploys anew way of writing architecture Was it this that provided a basis for embarking onconerete practice? ‘The point grid, used like on abstraction ~it isn’t G formal thing at all, it's 0 diagram ~ it's perhaps because this modernist point grid attracted so much criticism that there had to be something Interesting about it. ]came to understand then thot the grammar that had been used for the Park raid be extended far further. When Alvin Boyarsky, the wonderful chairman of the Architectural ‘Association, suggested that we should do.a book, ain of portfolio, with drawings that went beyond Lavillette, | did a series of lithographs exploring this next stage. At that point, at my invitation, Derrida wrote an important essoy ~ important Doth in respect of the projects I wos working on ‘ond also in respect of architecture in general How do you connect this period when your archi tocture was based on what you called generative Sractivating principles with this idea of a Synamic architecture? rehitecture is not just space, but also action and fmrovement. The common denominator is always: the movement of bodies in space. There is no Orchitecture without a concept, but there's, ho architecture without content or context either, though context doesn't imply contextualism. Itwos necessary to reaffirm that context and program were architectural materials, just like floss and conerete. You can monipulate the pro- rom just as you can manipulate metal or gloss.