Le Corbusier, Koolhaas and the

Surrealist Legacy

Bien Casllo
z3459578
BEIL6005 Art, Architecture + Design
Semester 1, 2016
CONTENTS

 Abstract  1

1 Introducon 2

2 Le Corbusian’s Subconscious Tendencies 3

3 Koolhaas and the Paranoi

Paranoiac-Crical
ac-Crical Method 9

4 A Superior Reality: The New Paradigm 13

5 Conclusion 17

Endnotes 18

Bibliography  21

Image Sources 23
Bien Casllo

ABSTRACT

To examine the relaonship between Surrealism and architecture, the Surrealist

perspecve must be considered. What is the subconscious desire of the

subject? How is this funcon of the mind materialised? What landscape

formalises this experienal arena? Perhaps, the essence of an architectural

Surrealism is the arculaon of space. Perhaps, in the ideology of Dali, this can

only be characterised through a paranoid state. Aer all, for Breton, a Surrealist

physically expresses the funcon of thought in response to a convenonal

reality, with the absence of exerted control and reason. It is the belief in a

superior reality, with the omnipotence of the dream-state. This leads to the

deconstrucon of mechanisms, which is then substuted as the soluon of the

principal problems of life. In relaon to architectural thought, is this not the

underlying principle of tweneth century Modernism?

 Le Corbusier, Koolhaas and the Surrealist Legacy

1. INTRODUCTION

Through Salvador Dali’s paranoiac-crical method, this paper is an exploraon

of the underlying Surrealist principles of tweneth century architecture. It

presents a unique Surrealist examinaon of the century’s more prominent gures

that seldom acknowledged a subconscious desire. Le Corbusier is one such

gure. Perhaps, it was an accident, a coincidence through which he conceived

his unconvenonal “house as a machine for living”. Then there is the recurring

theme of discovery. Just as the Dadaists and Surrealists were fascinated with

objet trouvé (found objects), Le Corbusier was fascinated with an experienal

discovery, both in Beistegui’s penthouse on Champs d’Elysees and the decaying

Villa Savoye. Bernard Tschumi embraces the laer for its surreal values. For the

Beistegui apartment, one might also summon a Magrie-esque juxtaposion.

Perhaps, it is best to appropriate this under Rem Koolhaas’ 1978 commentary

on “Manhaanism”. Here, he presents a dichotomous narrave of Salvador

Dali and Le Corbusier’s polemic adventure to New York, which is personied

through their contrasng response to the sudden confrontaon of the Surrealist

irraonalies and raonal intenons of Modernism. Both subjects characterise

the “paranoia” that Dali oen referred to in his painngs; the same paranoia

that informed the early works of Koolhaas, as well as the direcon of post-

modernism in the 1980s and 1990s, and culture of 21st century architecture.
Bien Casllo

2. LE CORBUSIER’S SUBCONSCIOUS TENDENCIES

Thus, as premature as it sounds, space becomes the elemental device to idenfy

a Surrealist presence in tweneth century architectural pracce. It is the most

ambiguous of all elements that can only be contained by a raonal archetypal

form. Aer all, for architects, space can only be dened by the architecture that

contains it, as well as the architecture that is contain ed within it 1. For Surrealists,

space was more of a tangible reality, whereby the focus was to destabilise

it, rather than simply contain it; to challenge to the architectural paradigm2.

Thus, to simply retreat to describe the inuence of Surrealism on architecture

becomes intangible, as its presence is oen challenged, and even restricted by

Andre Breton’s response to Le Corbusier’s Modernist principles. In agreement

with this, Le Corbusier has seldom acknowledged a Surrealist presence in his

work. Despite this, whilst it might be a coincidence, Le Corbusier has ironically

demonstrated neutrality towards Surrealism, and even a consciousness for the

subconscious. He describes this relaonship as “inmate knowledge”, which

implies an unconscious obsession with a more transcendent reality. In “The

Ghost in the Machine”, Alexander Gorlin describes it as an unintenonal direct

reference to the “decadence of Surrealism.”3

Whilst his early projects demonstrate a strong depicon of white architecture,

there is a irtaous dialogue between raonal and “an-raonal” imagery. For

instance, as controversial as it sounds, his Vil la Savoye unintenonally quesons

the perfecon and meless permanence of pure Modernist principles 4. Prior to

its late tweneth century restoraon, the villa was abandoned during the post-

war period and subject to decades of degradaon and decay – a demonstraon

of temporality as a consequence of me. Through Rene Burri’s photographs,

in conjuncon with its Modernist intenons, this srs images of transgression;

the same transgression that surrealists Salvador Dali and Georges Bataille oen

alluded to5. Bernard Tschumi, as a follower of the laer, denes this in his

1976 manifesto as a “perverse act that never lasts”6, another emphasis on the

architectural discourse of me.

Bien Casllo

3. KOOLHAAS AND THE PARANOIAC-CRITICAL METHOD

Rem Koolhaas pledged an allegiance to Le Corbusier’s Modernism – whilst

other post-Modernists opposed the “an-diversity of form”, Koolhaas (with

OMA) added to it26. It was a credible response for a formal expression during an

opmisc post-war period that simply could not nancially fund an argument

against the ecient Modernism of Mies van der Rohe. Koolhaas realised

the necessity of a post-modern gesture, without neglecng the Modernist

fundamental approach to necessity27. This was a  paranoia  of Koolhaas, a

theorecal challenge of organisaon (as opposed to ornamentaon) to enhance

the spaal experience of architecture within the constraints of necessity, whilst

aaining the pleasures of excess. Thus, Koolhaas turned to the “paranoiac-

crical method”; Salvador Dali’s theorecal approach to construct new ideas28.

According to Dali, the simulaon of paranoia induces a systemased state of

confusion that undermines all thoughts of raonality – to “discredit the world

of reality.”29 It is an extension into the realm of visual connecon to arculate

links between images that are not raonally linked:

“For instance, one can see, or persuade others to see, all sorts of shapes in a

cloud: a horse, a human body, a dragon, a face, a palace, and so on. Any prospect

or object of the Physical world can be treated in this manner, from which the

 proposed conclusion is that it is impossible to concede any value whatsoever to

immediate reality, since it may represent or mean anything at all” 30

Marcel Jean

Simply put, through this method, Dali portrayed another method of viewing

the world. For others (non-Surrealists) me was linear, a regular progression

that stemmed from an established beginning, middle, and end. But, in

accordance with this method, Dali proposed me as a labyrinth of processes,

with a multude of realies that evolve simultaneously, both dependently and

independently from each other. Whilst some begin, others may end, or even
 Le Corbusier, Koolhaas and the Surrealist Legacy

progress throughout. Thus, the paranoiac-crical method became the tool to

visualize these realies, with the hope of provoking the viewer’s imaginaon 31.

For Andre Breton, this was an “instrument of primary importance,”   with the

ulmate success of being able to be “applied equally to painng, poetry, the

cinema, the construcon of typical Surrealist objects, fashion, sculpture, the

history of art, and even, if necessary, all manner of exegesis.” 32

Koolhaas interprets this Dalinian method in Delirious New York. For Dali, the

method aempts to transform unconscious, dream-state images into a tangible

reality. For Koolhaas, this becomes synonymous with concrete – “innitely

malleable at rst, then suddenly hard as rock.” 33 Thus, in Delirious New York,

he ulizes this ideology to view Modernism from the perspecve of a Surrealist.

The conict between the two ideologies is personied through the paranoia

of Le Corbusier and Salvador Dali during their rst visit to Manhaan. For Le

Corbusier, it was “urbanism with no metaphor…unseducve.” 34 For Koolhaas,

this was paranoia – Dali’s paranoia – as Le Corbusier felt mocked by the successful

“Manhaanism” that undermined his own ambion of a skyscraper city 35.

Except his seemed boring and banal. Le Corbusier needed juscaon that

his vision transcended the already-exisng high-rise skyline, thus became the

“paranoid detecve who invents vicms, forged the likeness of the perpetrator

and avoids the scene of the crime.”36 He was forced to visualize a parallel reality

 – an unconscious act of Surrealism.

For Koolhaas, this became the vehicle through which to translate the Dalinian

method into a tangible, architectural form. From “Manhaanism”, Koolhaas

likened the paranoiac-crical method to reinforced concrete – it is “innitely

malleable at rst, then suddenly hard as rock.” 37 For Dali, the method was

applied to transform “innitely malleable” dream-state images, into a tangible

reality. Thus, Koolhaas reposioned postmodernism as a direct response to its

predecessors, through a combinaon of historical and ambiguous references

to catalyse bouts of cricality and paranoia38. His 1991 Villa dall’Ava was the

rst demonstraon of this. Perhaps, for Koolhaas, the paranoia is derived from
Bien Casllo

his own conicons between Modernist inspiraons and Dalinian tendencies. Fig. 8. Salvador Dali, La Sommeil (Sleep), 1937.

Aer all, from the outset, the Dali inuence is obvious – Villa dell’Ava, a house

supported on slender slts; and Dali’s “Sleep”, a face supported on slender

crutches39. Thus, it is through this that Koolhaas captures the tension between

the two conicng ideologies. As in Dali’s painng, the slts become a

prominent element of balance. In “Sleep”, the visually heavy head is supported

by several lighter crutches; suggesng that the head will collapse if one were

removed – “For sleep to be possible, a whole system of crutches in a psychic

equilibrium is essenal. If only one is missing, one would wake up and above all

the lile boat would disappear immediately.”40 For Dali, “sleep” (or the dream-

world) is supported by the crutches of reality – “When the crutches break,

we have the sensaon of falling.”41 Curiously, in Villa Dall’ava, several slender

slts structurally support the Corbusian Modernist box to maintain a sense of

equilibrium – in the same way as Dali, if the slts were removed, the box would

crash. Is this Koolhaas’ statement of Surrealism as a foundaon for Modernist

principles?
 Le Corbusier, Koolhaas and the Surrealist Legacy

- Mical, Thomas. “Introducon.” In Surrealism and Architecture, edited

by Thomas Mical, 1-10, New York: Routledge, 2005.

- Mosley, Jonathan and Rachel Sara. “Architecture and Transgression:

an Interview with Bernard Tschumi.” Architectural Design 83, no. 6 (2013): 32-

37.

- Museum of Modern Art. “Parc de la Vilee Project, Paris,

France.” Last accessed May 23, 2016, hp://www.moma.org/collecon/

works/363?locale=en.

- Museum of Modern Art. “The Peak Project, Hong Kong,

China.” Last accessed May 23, 2016, hp://www.moma.org/collecon/

works/202?locale=en.

- Nagaele, Daniel. “Le Corbusier and Physically Innovang Space.”

 Architecture Conference Proceedings and Presentaons, no. 49 (2009): 45-53.

- Penner, Barbara. “Surrealism and the House: Dream Homes Should

Stay as Fantasies.” The Architectural Review 226, no. 1362 (2010): 33-37.

- Rice, Louis and David Lileeld. Transgression: Towards an Expanded

Field of Architecture. New York: Routledge, 2014.

- Rinella, Tiziano Aglieri. “Le Corbusier’s Uncanny Interiors.” PhD diss.,

Al Ghurair University Dubai, 2015.

- Vidler, Anthony. “Fantasy, the Uncanny and Surrealist Theories of

Architecture.” In Papers of Surrealism, no. 1 (2003): 1-12.

- von Moos, Stanislaus. Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis .

Netherlands: 010 Publishers, 2009.

Bien Casllo

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