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    This document discusses an article by architect Raimund Abraham titled "Negation and Reconciliation". The article argues that time is a process of continuous negation through self-criticism that results in division and separation. Modern architecture began through criticism of prior styles and traditions, rejecting formal speculation as a basis for new styles. Abraham sees the architectural design process as oscillating between negation and reconciliation of ideal and material, idea and image. New icons in architecture can only arise from recognition of our intrinsic ontological limits.

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    This document discusses an article by architect Raimund Abraham titled "Negation and Reconciliation". The article argues that time is a process of continuous negation through self-criticism that results in division and separation. Modern architecture began through criticism of prior styles and traditions, rejecting formal speculation as a basis for new styles. Abraham sees the architectural design process as oscillating between negation and reconciliation of ideal and material, idea and image. New icons in architecture can only arise from recognition of our intrinsic ontological limits.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    54 views9 pages

    Yale University, School of Architecture

    Uploaded by

    Roberto da Matta
    This document discusses an article by architect Raimund Abraham titled "Negation and Reconciliation". The article argues that time is a process of continuous negation through self-criticism that results in division and separation. Modern architecture began through criticism of prior styles and traditions, rejecting formal speculation as a basis for new styles. Abraham sees the architectural design process as oscillating between negation and reconciliation of ideal and material, idea and image. New icons in architecture can only arise from recognition of our intrinsic ontological limits.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Yale University, School of Architecture

    Negation and Reconciliation


    Author(s): Raimund Abraham
    Source: Perspecta, Vol. 19 (1982), pp. 6-13
    Published by: MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta.
    Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567046
    Accessed: 07-12-2015 09:44 UTC

    Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
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    Yale University, School of Architecture and MIT Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
    Perspecta.

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    NEGATION AND RECONCILIATION

    IF WE CONCEIVE processoftransformation
    OF TIME as a through
    continuousnegation,thenthebasis oftimeis self-criticism and itsproducts
    are ceaseless divisionand separation.The formin whichtimemanifests
    itselfis therepeatedinterpretation ofan eternaltruthor an archetype.
    The sensuous and the spiritual The modernage beganas criticism ofall mythologies, and therefore
    which struggleas opposites modernarchitecture is thefirstin historyto predicateitselfnotonlyon the
    in the common understanding criticismofculturalantecedents but also on thecriticism ofartperse.
    are revealed as reconciled Modemarchitecture providedneithera newtreatisenora newstyle.
    in the truthexpressed by art. Instead,it brought abouta radicalbreakin thecontinuity ofhistory.This
    GeorgHegel, On theArts radicalformofcritiqueindicatedthepossibility ofan irreversible
    termination ofstyle:

    Everythingvariesbothwithtimeand byplace, and we can notfixanywhere


    uponan invariantqualitysuchas theidea ofstylesupposes,evenwhenwe
    separatethingsbytheirsetting.But whendurationand settingare retained
    in view,we haveshifting
    relations,
    passingmoments, and changingplaces in
    life.Anyimaginarydimensions
    historic or continuities
    likestyle
    fadefrom
    viewas we lookforthem.Styleis likea rainbow.Wecan see itonlybriefly
    whilewepause between thesun and therain,and itvanisheswhenwego to
    theplace wherewe thoughtwe saw it. GeorgeKubler,TheShape ofTime

    THE TERMINATION OF STYLE becomessynonymous withtherepudia-


    tionofformalspeculationas a possiblegenerating forcefora newbeginning
    in architecture.
    If anything,
    myownworkowes itsoriginto theprincipleofinterven-
    tionand decompositionas thequintessenceoftheprimalarchitectural
    a
    event, principle whichis totallyantithetical
    to anyformofaestheticor
    historicalmanipulation.
    Ort("site")originally
    meant,in theGerman
    language,thepointedend ofa lance and suggestsa gathering together.

    6 Journal,Volume
    TheYaleArchitectural
    Perspecta: 19
    0079-0958/82/190006-08
    $03.00/0

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    RAIMUND ABRAHAM

    IT IS THE CONQUEST OF THE SITE, thetransformation ofitstopo-


    graphicalnature,thatmanifests theontological rootsofarchitecture.The
    processofdesignis onlya secondaryand subsequentact, whosepurposeis
    to reconcileand harmonize theconsequencesoftheinitialintervention,
    collision,and negation. A place in which everything
    I see theprocessofarchitectural creationas one thatoscillatesbe- comes together,is concentrated,
    tweennegationand reconciliation: it is a continuous confrontationbetween the site gathers unto itself,
    ideal and matter,idea and image,intellectual and physiological,technologi- supremely and radically. Its
    cal and spiritual.Morespecifically, architectural space can only defined gatheringpower, gathers in and
    be
    as thecollisionofgeometric and physiological space orofideal and matter, preserves all it had gathered,
    and whiletheideal represents thenotionofinfinity ortheeternal,matter not like an encapsulating shell
    can be regardedas thesymbolicrepresentation ofthebody-its presence but rather by penetratingwith
    and itsabsence. Whileman'sconceptualpowersaspireto theinfinite, his its lightall it had gathered, and
    bodyis essentiallyfragile,temporal,a corpuswhichwillbe laid waste,like only thus releasing it into its
    materialitself,bytheunremitting and criticalactionoftime. own nature.
    MartinHeidegger,
    Everycivilizationis a metaphor of time, a versionofchange. Thepreemi- "On theWayto Language"
    nenceofthenowcould,perhaps,reconcile us withtherealitythatthereligion
    ofprogress, withthe samezeal as the old triedto concealor dis-
    religions,
    guise:thatofdeath. OctavioPaz, "The NewAnalogy"

    ARCHITECTURE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE a


    monument to theeternal,commemorating boththeabsenceand presenceof
    man. Ifthereremainsanyhopeforthereengendering oftheiconicin the
    modernworld,thenthiswillonlyderivefroma reinterpretation ofthe
    archetypal existenceofman;thatis to say,newiconscannotpossiblybe
    establishedon thebasis ofsignsand objectsdrawnor transposedfromlost
    historicalepochs. Newiconsin architecture willeithercomefromthe
    recognition ofourintrinsicontologicallimitsortheywillnotarise at all.

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    ABRAHAM

    Nine Houses: Nine Houses:


    House withPath House withCurtains
    House withInternalizedShadow House withTwo Horizons
    House withThree Walls House withFlower Walls
    Project, 1972-75 Project, 1972-75
    - --

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    ABRAHAM

    Nine Houses: House withoutRooms


    House withRoad Project, 1974- 75
    House withThree Rooms
    House withPermanentShadow
    Project, 1972-75

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    ABRAHAM

    10 Ideas for Venice 10 Ideas for Venice 10 Ideas for Venice


    City of Twofold Vision: City of Twofold Vision: City of Twofold Vision:
    House of the Boats Square of the People, Square of Solitude Square of the Artisans
    Cannaregio, Venice mmmmm

    Project, 1978-80

    10

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    ABRAHAM

    10 Ideas for Venice 10 Ideas for Venice


    City of Twofold Vision: Hospital:
    The House House of Hope, Houses of Birth, Houses of No Return
    S. Girolamo, Venice
    Project, 1978-80

    11

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    ABRAHAM

    House withTwo Horizons Seven Gates to Eden: Gate 1


    Project, 1973 Project, 1976

    12

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    ABRAHAM

    S/ 4

    Monument for the Absence of the Painting Guernica Universal Corner Building for a City Block
    Guernica City, Spain International Building Exhibition, Berlin, 1984
    Project, 1981 Competition Project, 1980-81
    mmmmmmmm

    13

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