Abstract Mediation and Strategy ‘When confronted with an sibaniste program, an architect may ether 4 Designa masterly construction, an inspired architects gesture (a composition} b. Take what exists ll in ehe gaps, complete the text, scribble in the margins a complement) & Deconsiruct what exits by erealy analyzing the is: torical layers that preceded it, even adding other layersAesived from elsewhere—from other cites, oer parks (a paimpsest) 4. Search for an intermediary—an abstract system to me: diate between the site [os well as all given constrains] and some ather concept, beyond city or program [a mediation) During the Pare de la Villette competition, thought had been given toemployingasa methodology either ‘the polimprest or the sbstract medistlon. The compesition and complement were rejected outright, the one for its sub scription ool architectural mychs, the other fritsHimiting ‘pragmatism. Yet the palimpsese [which had been explored in the 1976 Screenplays) was not pursued, for its inevitably Sguratve or representational components were incompat- ble wit che complexity ofthe programmatic, technical and political constraints that could beforesen, Furthermore, the object of the competition was both to select chief architect ‘who would be in charge of the masterplan as well a of ‘construction of the park's key elements, and to suggest, 6 ordinate, and supervise possible contributions by other ert- ists, landscape designers, and architects. The numerous unknowns governing the general economic and ideological context suggested that much ofthe chief architece’s role ‘would depend ona strategy of substitution. Iwas clear thst the elements of dhe program were interchangeable and that budgets and priorities cou bealtered, even reversed, atleast ‘over the course of one generation Hence the concer, zeinforced by recent de velopments in philosophy, at and literature, chat che atk propose « strong conceptual framework while simults: neously suggesting muiple eombinstions and substitu dons. One part could replace another orabuilding program be revised, changing (to use an actual example) from restau ‘ant to gardening center to arts workshop In this manner, the park's identity could be maintained, while the circum. stantial logis of state or institutional polities could pursue ‘heir own independent scenarios. Mareover, our objective was also to act upon a strategy of ifferenes: if ther design- ers were to intervene their projects diference from the Fl: Jes ot divergence from the continuty of the cinematic promenade would become the condition oftheir contrib sions, The general circumstances of the project, then, were to find an organising stractte that could exist independent of vse, a stuctute without centr or hierarchy, «structure that would negate che simplistic assumption ofa causal re lationship between a program andthe resulting architecture. ‘Recourse to the point grid as an organizing struceure was hardly without precedent. The concept of an abstract mediation had been researched earlier in Joyce's Garden|1977),in which alerary text, Pianegans Wake, was ‘used as the program for a project involving a dozen cont ‘butions by different students oma “real” site, London's Cov ‘ent Garden, The intersections of an ordinance survey grid became the locations of each architectural intervention, thereby accommodating a heterogeneous selection of build:ings through the regular spacing of points. Moreover (and pethaps more imporeant),the point grid functioned as a me- lator between two mutually exclusive systems of words and stones, betwcen the literary program {James Joyce's book) ‘and the architectural text. Joyce's Garden in no way at tempted to reconcile the disparities resuling from the su perimposition af one text on another it avoided synthesis, ‘encouraging, instead, the opposed and often conflicting log Jes of the different systems. Indeed, the abstraction of the ‘id as an organizing device suggested the disjunction be ‘tween an architectural signifier and its progammatic signi ‘ed, between space and the se that is made oft. The point ‘id became the tool of an approach that argued, against fonctionalist doctrines, that there is 90 cause-and-lfect relationship. between the two terms of program and schitectare, Beyond such personal precedents, the point ‘rid was alo one of the few modes of spatial organization that vigorously resisted the stamp ofthe individual author: its historical multiplicity made it a sign without origin, an image without "fist image” or inaugurating matk. Never- theless, the grid's serial repetitions and seeming anonymity made it a paradigmatic twenteth-centuy frm. And just a8 Lr zesated the humanist claim to authorship, soit opposed. the closure of eal compositions and geometric dispositions. ‘Through ts regular and repetitive markings, the rd deBined «potentially infinite field of points of intensity: an incom- plete, infinite extension, lacking cente or hierarchy. ‘The grid, chen, presented the project team ‘with a series of dynamic oppositions. We had to design « park: the grid was entinatre. We had to fulfill a mumber of functions the gud was antifunctional We had tobe realists: the grid was abstract, We had to respect she local context: the grid was anticontextual. We had to be sensitive to site boundaries: the grid was infinite. We hed ro take nto account political and cesnomic indeterminetion: the grid was deter: ‘minate, We had to acknowledge garden precedents: the grid had no origin, s opened onto an endless recession into prior images and earlier signs Superimposit It should be noted thatthe point grid of La Villette could just as well have taken the form ofa random distribution of points throughout the ste, Only for strategic, rather than concep- tual, reasons was the regular point grid selected, Iti also {Important to recall thatthe point grid ofFoies (the "system of points constitutes only one ofthe projet’s components; the “system of lines” and the “system of surfaces” are as fundamental asthe "system of points” ach epresents a diferent and autonomous system (a tex), whose superimposition on another makes Impossible any “composition,” maintaining diferences and refusing ascendency of any privileged system or organizing clement, Although eich is determined by the architect as "gubjec,” when one system i superimposed on another, theoor subject—the architect—is erased. While one could object thatthe same architect continues his controlling authority, by staging the superimposition (and hence thatthe park re ‘mains the product of his individual intentions), the compe: tition requirements provided a means to relatvize the presence of such a masterminding subject by stipulating as in any large scale urban project, that other professionals in tervene, Another layer, another system could then be inter pred among the preceding chee layers in the form of ‘occasional consinictions juxtaposed to several Poles, or of experimental gardens by differen designer inserted into the sequences of the cinematic promenade. Such uxtapositions ‘would be successful only insofar as they injected discordant notes into the system, hence reinforcing 2 specific aspect af the Park theory. The principle of heteropencity—of multiple, dissociated, and inherently confrontational elements—is aimed at disrupting the smooth eoherence end ressuring stability of composition, promoting instability and program- matic madness" Folie". Other existing constructions eg, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Grande Mlle} add futher tothe calculated diseontinulty. Cinegram ‘To the notion of composition, which implies a reading of urbanism on the basis of the plan, the La Villette project, substitutes an ides comparable to montage (which presup- poses autonomas pars or fragments). Film analogies are convenient, since the world of ehe cinema was the fst to inroduce discontinuity segmented world in which each feagment maintsins its own independence, thereby permit- ting a multiplicity of combinations. In film, exch frame (oF photogram is placed in continuous movement. Iscribing ‘movement through the rapid succession of photograms com stitutes the cinegram, ‘The Park is series of cinegrams, each of which is based on a precise set of arhltectonic, spatial, ot programmatic transformations. Contiguity and superimpo- sition of einegrams ate two aspects of montage. Montage, a8 4 techaique, includes such other devices as repetition, in- version, substitution, and insertion. These devices suggest sn art of rupture, whereby invention resides in contrast— even in contraction. Deconstruction Is the Pare dela Villette a built theory o theoretical build ing? Can the pragmatism of building practice be allied with the analytic igor of concepts? Ancarler series of projects,published as The [Manhottan Transcripts, was simed st achieving a displace ‘ment of conventional architectural categories through a the- retical argument. La Villeete was the built extension of a comparable method; it was impelled by che desire to move “izom pure mathematics to applied mathematics.” In its case, the constreints of the built realization both expanded land restricted the research. They expanded i, insofar as the ‘very real economic, political, and echnical constraints ofthe operation demanded an ever increasing sharpening of the ‘theoretical argumentation: the project became beter 35 dif culties increase, But they restricted itinsofarasL Villette Ina to be bull: the intention was never merely to publish books or mount exhibitions, the finality ofeach drawing was ‘building: except in the book entitled La Case Vide, there were no theoretical drawings for La Villete However, the Pare dela Villete project had specific sim: to prove that it was posible to construct @ complex architectural organization without resorting to ta itional rules of composition, hierarchy, and order. The prin ciple of superimpeition of three autonomoas systems of points lines, and surlaces was developed by reecting the totalizing synthesis of objective constraints evident in the majority of lage seal project. Infact, if historically archi tecture has always been defined as the “harmonious synthe sis" of cost, structure ve, and formal constsintsvenustas, fomitas,utlita), the Park became architecture against it selfs dis intepation. ‘Our alms were to displace the rational op position between program and architeceure, and to extend ‘questioning of othe architectural conventions through op: ‘erations of superimposition, permutation, and substitution to achieve “a reversal ofthe classical oppositions and a gem cal displacement of the system,” a Jacques Derrida has ‘written in another context, in Margs. Above all, the project directed an attack against cause-and-effect relationships, whether between form and function, structure and economics, or (of course) form and progcam, replacing these oppositions by new con- cepts of contiguity end superimposition. “Deconstructing” ‘piven progtam meant showing thatthe program could chal- Tenge the very ideology it implied. And deconstructing ar- chitecture involved dismantling its conventions, using concepts derived both from archicecture and fom else- ‘where—fom cinema, literary criticism, and other disci= pins, For ifthe lnts beeween different domains of thought have gradually vanished in the pase ewenty year, the same phenomenon applies to architecture, which now entertains relations with cinems, philosophy, and psychoanalysis (co cite only few examples) in an intertextuality subversive of, modemist autonomy. But its above all the historical split between architecture and its theory that is eroded by the principles of deconstruction, eis not by chance thatthe diferent systems ofthe Park negate one another as they are superimposed oa the site, Much of my eneier theoretical work had questioned the very idea of structure, paralleling contemporary research on literary texts, One ofthe goaleat La Villette was to pursue this investigation ofthe concept of structure, as expressed fn the respective forms ofthe point grid, the coordinate axes [covered galleries) and the "andor curve” (clnemati prom nade}. Superimposing these autonomous and completely logical structures meant questioning their conceptual status es ordering machines: the syperimpestion of cree coherent structures can never resule in a supercohevent megastric- ture, but in something unéecidable, something that is the ‘opposite ofa totaiey. This device has been explored from1976 onward in The Manhattan Transcripts, where the over: lapping of abstract and figurative elements [based on "ab: tract” anchitectonic.tansformations as much as on “figurative” extract fom the selected site] coincided with ‘a more general exploration of the ideas of program, scenario, and sequence. “The independence of the three superposed structures thus avoided ll setempts co iomogenize the Park {nto a totality, I eliminated the presumption of spreestab lished causlity between program, architecture, and signif cation. Moreover, the Park rejected context, encouraging lntereextulity and the dispersion of meaning It subverted context: La Vliet is anticontextual. thas uo relation to ins surroundings. ts plan subverts the very notion of borders ‘on which “context” depends Nonense/Novmesning “The Pare dela Villette project thus ean be seen to encourage conflict over synthesis fragmentation over unity, madness ‘and play over earful management. It subverts a number of feals that were scrosanct tothe modern period and, inthis :mannes it ean be allied to specific vision of postmodemity ‘Bat the project takes ise with a particular premise of ar- chitecture—namnely, its obsession with presence, with the fee ofa meaning immanent in architectural strictures and forme that dicots its signifying capacity. The latest resur sence of cis myth has been the seeuperation, by architect, fof mesning, symbal, coding, and “doublecoding,” in an cclectic movement reminiscent of the long tation of "re ivalisms” and “symbolism appearing thoughout history. ‘The architectural postmoderssim contravenes the reading evident in other domains, where postmodernism involves an sssaule on meaning of, more precisely ejection ofa well- defined signified that guarantees the authenticity ofthe work. of ar To dismantle meaning, showing that its never twans- Parent, but socially produced, was a key objective in a new critical approach that questioned the humanist assumptions of style, Instead, architectural postmodernism opposed the style of the modem movement, afering as an alernative nother, more platable style. Its nostalgic pursuit of coher ence, which ignores today’s socal, political, and cultural Aissocations, is frequently the avatar ofa particularly eon servative archieectural mile ‘The La Villete projec, in contrast attempts to dislocate and deregulate meaning, rejecting the symbolic repertory of architecture os a refuge of humanist thought For today the term park ike architecture, science, oF lite rare} as lost its universal meaning, itno longer refers to & fixed absolute nor to an ideal. Not the oreus canclusus and not the rplice of Nature, La Ville i «term in constant production, in continuous change, itsmeaning never Sxed ‘ue is always deferred, difered, rendered imesolute by the multiplicity of meanings it inscrbes, The project aims to ‘unsetle both memory and eontext, opposing many contex~ ‘waist and contnualist deals that imply tha he architect's intervention necessarily refers ta typology avg, or dees ‘mining signiled. Indeed, the Park’ architecture refuses %0 ‘operate as the expression of apreexttng content, whethersubjective formal, or functional. Just a it does not answer tothe demands of the self [the sovereign or “creative” archi- tect), soit negates the immanent dialectic ofthe form, since the later is displaced by superimpositions end tansforma- ‘ons of elements that always exceed any given formal con- ‘guration Presence postponed and closure deferedaseach ‘permutation or combination of form shits the image one ‘step ahead. Most important, the Park calls into question the fundamental or primary signified of architecture—~its tem dency [as Derrida remarks in Le Gase Video be “in service, and at service," obeying an economy of meaning premised ‘on fuetional use n contrat, La Villete promotes program. matic instability, fanetional Folie. Not «plenitude, but in- steed “empey’” form: lee cases sont vides. La Villette, then, aise at an architeceure thet ‘means nothing, an architecture ofthe signifier eather than the signified—one that is pure tace or play of language. tna [Nicteschean manner, La Villette moves toward interpretive Infinity, forthe effect of refusing ixiy is not insignifiance ‘but semantic plurality, The Park's three autonomous and ‘superimposed systems and the endless combinatory poss bilities ofthe Folie give way toa multiplicity of impressions Each observer will project his oven interpretation, resulting in an account that will again be interpreted {according to psychanalytic, sociological, or other methodologies) and so ‘on, In consequence, there is no absolute truth tothe ach ‘tectural project, for whatever mesning le may have is fone tion of interpretation: te 8 moe resident in the objector Hence, the truth of red Folles is not the object's materithe truth of Constructivism, just asthe truth of che system ‘of points a not the truth ofthe system of lines. The aditon of the systems intemal coherences is not coherent. The ‘excess of rationality isnot rational. La Vllete looks out on fnew social and historical circumstances: a dispersed and ifereniated reality that marks an end tothe wtopi of unit. Program and Distanciation [At La Villette or anywhere else, for that matter] dere is no Tonger any relationship possible between achitectare and program, architecture and meaning. Ichas been suggested, in Aiseuasing La Villete, that architecture must produce a dis: tance between itself and the program i fulfils. This i eom- parable to the effect of distancation first elaborated inthe performing ats asthe prineiple of nonidentity between actor fand character. Inthe same way, It could be sad chat there ‘must ben0fdenificaion between architectue and progsam: ‘bank must not look like a hank, nor an opers house ike an ‘opera house, nora patk like a park. This distanelation can ‘beprodced either through calculated shifts in programmatic expectations or through the we of some mediating agent— absteac parameter that acts asa distancing agent beeween ‘the buile realm and the user's demands (at La Villette, this agent was che pid ofFolies "The concept of progtam, however, remains increasingly important. By no means should it be eliminated (a "pure" architecture or reinjected atthe end ofthe devel: ‘opment ofa “pure” architectonic elaboration. The programs plays the same rle as narrative in other domains: ¢ can and ‘must be veinterpreted, rewritten, deconstructed by the er hice, La Villette, inthis sense, is dysnerrative or dys- programmatic: the programmatic cootent i lle with cal culated distortions and interruptions, making fora ety fag- ‘ment in which each image, each event strives towards its very concept Of course, there are further ways to explore the impossible relation between architecture and program. “The following examples ae an indication of such afield of research, CCrossprogramming: Using agiven spatial configuration for ‘program notintended for it, Ut is, using church building for bowling Similar to typological displacement: rown ell Inside the spatial configuration of a puso or 2 museum inside a carpark structure. Reference: crossdressing. ‘Transprogramming: Combining eo programs, regardless of their incompatibilicies, together wih their respective spar tial configurations. Reference: planetarium + rollercoaster Disprogeamming: Combining ewo programs, whereby a1e- quired spatial configaration of rogesm A contaminates pro gram B and B's possible configuration. The new program B ‘ay be extracted from the inherent contradiction contained in program A, an B's required spatial configuration may be applied to Aar te dd 1, Disjunedion and Culture “The paradigm of the architect passed down tows through éhe | modem period is that of the form-giver, the creator of bier | chil and symbolic structures characterized, on the ane ‘hand, by their unity of pars and, on the ther, by the trans areney of fom to meaning [The modemn rather chan mod mist, subject of architecture is referred to here 50 as €0