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Thinking Architecture through the Traits of Extroversion and Introversion:


Territory as a Question of Environmental Orientation and Autonomy

Article · December 2015


DOI: 10.14621/tna.20150402

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International Journal of Contemporary Architecture ”The New ARCH“ Vol. 2, No. 3 (2015) ISSN 2198-7688
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DOI: 10.14621/tna.20150402

Thinking Architecture through the Traits of Extroversion and Introversion:


Territory as a Question of Environmental Orientation and Autonomy
Arta Xhambazi

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Prishtina


Dardania 6/9 B4, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo, arta.xhambazi@uni-pr.edu

Abstract 1. Introduction

The paper is a result of a broader research project regarding The context of architecture and its discourse in the 21st
theoretical groundings of architecture that will hopefully century recognizes a theoretical meltdown and the vast
recognize relation between culture, theory and design. The number of researchers aiming at “an architectural
“body” of architecture is understood as a concept defined by
theory”. What becomes evident is that is
the relations of its parts and by its actions and reactions with
understandable that a grand theory of architecture is
respect both to its environment milieu and to its internal
milieu. Through the traits of introversion and extroversion the probably a risk and a myth so, a vast number of less
“body of architecture” is explored starting from the limits as detailed terms as mediation, transformation, variation,
physical boundaries, continuing further by widening the affordance, territory etc. are used frequently to describe
horizons through different normative position for explaining the discipline, process and “buildings” of architecture.
meaningful environment and finally introducing the issue of
“territoriality” and how it is related the to the recent discourse In regard of a human body, the traits “introvert” and
in architecture. The discussion of two different philosophical “extrovert” are used in the psychology for describing a
frameworks toward understanding architecture resulted in central dimension of human personality. The terms
reconsidering the notion of boundaries /limits that the traits introversion and extroversion were first popularized by
of introversion and extroversion are linked to. The Territory Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung [1], an influential thinker and
becomes a concept that overcomes dualities through which the founder of Analytical Psychology. Extroversion is
introversion and extroversion as vectors of diversity in understood as "the act, state, or habit of being
architecture can be viewed as a single continuum. In this way predominantly concerned with and obtaining
the question of territory becomes the matter of the autonomy
gratification from what is outside the self" [2] and
of the architectural body, but at the same time the intensive
force that carries it away. introversion is "the state of or tendency toward being
wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested
in one's own mental life" [3].
So within the analytical psychology the terms tend to
describe the human personality, establishing a “Human
Body” to whom the terms intro and extra are addressed.
In order to apply such notions to architecture the very
first questions to be clarified is: What is Architectural
Body?
This question is a central issue of the broader research
project, which through the “self-reflectance” of
architecture tempts to define a whole “the body” as
composed from parts, but with its own contradictory
Keywords: Architecture, Territory, Introversion, elements that are both inside and outside, ordering and
Extroversion, Autonomy, Heteronomy disordering. In this research we will refer to the Deleuze
concept that the “Body” is defined by the relations of its
Article history: Received: 13 July 2015 parts and by its actions and reactions with respect both
Revised: 06 September 2015
to its environment milieu and to its internal milieu [4,
Accepted: 12 October 2015
p.35].

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The paper will argue that in order of understanding Despite, historical interest for the architectural form,
architecture, its existence and evolution, it’s important however it is worth mentioning that when we talk about
to understand its internal milieu consistency ancient architecture treaties, we can distinguish that
(introversion) and what are the relations and actions to they hardly speak directly for the space, but instead
its environment (extroversion). their theory bears upon the physical elements of objects
and their reasoning regarding forms. Debate on space
The goal of this research is that through the terms of
began in early 19th century and the 20th century is the
“introversion” and “extroversion”, to put some light
one that developed architecture as nonfigurative art and
within relations of some parts of the “Body of
space was exactly a part of this development.
Architecture” by comprehensive analysis of postmodern
theory on meaning and appearing contemporary
theories and practices. 2.1. Architectural space and its limits
In order to do so the questions arise as: What does
introversion and extroversion mean in terms of physical One of the most important works of postmodern
appearance of architectural buildings? What do the thought is "Complexity and Contradiction in
terms mean within normative positions for explaining Architecture" of Robert Venturi which was welcomed by
meaningful environments? How do those terms relate the ones who cared for architectural cultural
to the appearing notions of contemporary discourse as development. This work used together examples from
mediations or transformation? different periods, it emphasised especially Modernism,
but the mannerist and baroque corpus constituted the
For answering these questions firstly, we will narrow the primary matter of Complexity and Contradiction [7].
horizons of our research in the terms of physical From this set of buildings Venturi extracted the formal
appearance of architecture. Secondly, the broadening principles characteristic of a complex and contradictory
horizons will be discussed in the framework of architecture, an architecture whose formal richness
normative position for explaining meaningful invites active interpretation. In regard of contrast
environment. Thirdly, we will enter to some “Inside and outside” he states that it can be seen as
philosophical concerns of Gille Deleuze, questioning the major manifestation of contradiction in architecture. For
issue of the “territoriality” and how the concept is him, “designing from the outside in, as well the inside –
related to the recent discourse in architecture. out, creates necessary tensions, which help make
architecture. Since the inside is different from the
outside, the wall – the point of change – becomes an
2. The boundaries architectural event. Architecture occurs at the meeting
of interior and exterior forces of use and space” [7,
Architecture undoubtedly manifests with
p.86]. Taking a stand from more phenomenological
materialization – formal and spatial definition, therefore
perspective, von Meiss states that from these tensions
being introvert or extrovert can be analysed taking into
architectural space is born, from the relationship
account this aspect of physical appearance. Priority
between objects or boundaries and from planes which
given physical object has a long history taking into the
do not themselves have the character of objects, but
consideration the ancient concept of techno, recognized
which define the limits [8].
as the rational basis for the construction of objects, and
medieval ideas of the mechanical arts, which considered So, if we consider the wall, Venturi’s point of change and
built forms as utilitarian objects [5]. The discussion led the limits of von Meiss, the windows becomes a sign for
from the 17th century by Perrault, latter by Boulle, human life, an eye of the building allowing one to gaze
Ledoux, and others tended to establish the new at the outside world without being seen. The window
language of form based on simple geometrical forms - becomes an architectural element through which one
that would enable people to grasp the purpose and could gaze outside world and by this it becomes an
character of buildings. The 19th century introduced the element of extroverted architecture, the one that looks
concept of style through which the form was generated to the outside world. So, one of the fundamental
due to the objective principles from system, structures oppositions which makes it possible to distinguish types
and manufacturing techniques. The structural of architectural space is the fact that they can be either
rationalism was furthermore advanced by Viollet-le-Duc closed – introverted concentrated upon themselves or
which concerned with functional efficiency and the open - extroverted, centrifugal [8]. Where the mass is
honest expression of structures and materials as the more concentrated, the space is more closed. If we want
basis of expression of external appearance of forms. to make the opening of a space toward the exterior,
From here, latter Luis Sullivan expressed the dictum then we tend to create forms with less explicit shapes.
“form follows function”, whose wide currency in 20th The opening of the space is made possible through the
century testifies to the pervasiveness of the of Le Duc’s reduction of the level of definition and the presence of
concept in the context of modern architecture [6]. elements that belong to the interior as well as exterior.
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A. Xhambazi: “Thinking Architecture through the Traits of Extroversion and Introversion: Territory as a Question …”, pp. 11–24 12
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Figure 1. The articulation of a fluid space at the Barcelona Pavilion (drawing by A. Xhambazi)

As an example, the articulation of space at the Barcelona p.86] a geometrical limit that creates the interior and
Pavilion avoids the presence of an angle by realizing it exterior.
with glass, and uses walls that extend toward exterior. Regarding architectural thought, it can be argued that
This really creates spatial tension and compressions that the geometry of architectural form was based through
actually results in shaping a building that articulates s centuries on Euclidean thought and Platonic solids. Even
fluid space (Figure 1). the twentieth century Le Corbusier, in line with these
What the “window” does, actually its relative sizes help earlier ideas, advocated the use of simple geometric
to define the nature of the envelope. The larger the objects that could be easily grasped, in his book Vers une
openings become the more they designate the absence architecture [9]. The cylinder, pyramid, cube, prism and
of the wall. The notion of the pierced wall diminishes sphere were not only considered as essential forms of
and space opens out. The initial materials of the age of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman architecture but, were
industry as reinforced concrete, steel and glass have also universal geometric “primitives” of the digital solid
modelling software of the late twentieth century. But it
made it possible to extend the architectural vocabulary
was actually the fifth postulate of Euclidean geometry
by the elimination of the dependence between
that opened the realm of non-Euclidian geometries. The
structure and opening. The space and façade became
first four postulates articulated by Euclid are considered
liberated and offered the possibility of the new dynamic
postulates of absolute geometry, but the consequence
by the ribbon window, the corner window and the
of the fifth postulate was that through every point there
glazed wall which introduced a new spatial dimension
is one and only one line parallel to any other line. Carl
consciously exploited during Modern Movement. Friedrich managed to successfully demonstrate the
existence of non-Euclidean geometries and afterwards
2.2. Blurring boundaries Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” based on non-Euclidian
geometry, powerfully showed how Newtonian physics,
So, formal appearance as has been already noted has based upon Euclidian geometry, failed in considering the
always been architectural issue. This because essential curvature of space [10].
architecture is build and that means “first of all to So if we turn our discussion on contemporary
create, define and limit a portion of land distinct from Architecture due to the formal appearance, it can be
the rest of the universe and to assign a particular role to argued that they represent the visions of man and
it” [8, p.148]. So, architecture as “wall between the woman of the end of 20th century. As a result of all the
inside and the outside becomes the spatial record” [7, changes and developments happening at the time and

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before, at the beginning of 90s Greg Lynn suggested that adaptive properties of form what is emphasizing
more than mere motion, animation implies the intentionally the shift from “making” to the “finding” of
evolution of a form and its shaping forces; it suggests form.
animalism, animism, growth, actuation, vitality and
In the Un-Private Houses, Terence Riley [11] by taking
virtuality and offers examples of new approaches to
examples of private houses as Cohen’s Torus House, van
design that move away from the deconstructivism’s
Berkel’s Mobius House (Figure 2, up), Stephen Perrella’s
“logic of conflict and contradiction” to develop a “more
and Rebeca Carpenter’s Mobius House, Zaera – Polo’s
fluid logic of connectivity” [10]. His concept manifested
through “folding,” departed from Euclidean geometry of Virtual House (Figure 2 down) states that they all take
discrete volumes represented in Cartesian space, and their primary form and even their names from
employs topological conception of form and geometry topological geometries. Such complex geometries
of continuous curves and surfaces. This new approach resulted as a part of new technologies, new materials
and ideology was at the heart of architectural critique of and new medium of creation creating possibilities of
90s that debated along the expression of geometrical existence of so many projects that simply could not exist
appearance of architectural form as “blobs vs boxes” as few decades ago. So what is so interesting with topology
two diametrical opposition. that has captured the minds of the architects?

So, the 90s were the years when features of topological By taking examples of private houses Terence Riley
figures (Figure 2) where transformed to the architectural makes the connections of between them and broader
concepts. Within those complex forms the architectural cultural issues, stating that the most important
limits blur within the landscape, while the programs questions are not technical but philosophical. He
develop without interrupting the continuous surface showed that these houses have challenged many of
flow. These conceptions appealed for the aesthetic and dialects calcified around the private house during the
technology, in search for the novelty considering the nineteenth century as public/private, male/female,
beautiful and marvellous. The digital generative nature/culture etc. So, topology takes the challenge
processes are opened new conceptual, formal and further by creation of spatial interconnections rather
tectonic explorations, focused on the emergent and than spatial distinctions. As this philosophical attitude

Figure 2. Transformation of the topological figures into the concepts of architectural space (drawing by A. Xhambazi)

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Figure 3. Contemporary revisions of Mies’s work by Koolhaas and Tschumi:


Former with intent of revival of modern principles in the postmodern context and later with reinterpretation of
architecture as a media (diagram by A.Xhambazi)

for using single surfaced geometries can be considered geometry as just a special point on the infinite scale of
non dialectical, then also the differences of what is bending, or folding that produces “flatness” as a
interior and exterior diminish as any other opposition. manifestation of an equilibrium that is established
The smooth surfaces appeared as blurring the among various influences producing the curving of space
boundaries between the physical appearance of in the first place. The “boxes” and “blobs” as
architecture, blurring the notions of physical manifestos conceptions of space can be understood simply as
of introversion and extroversion, and at the same time instances on a sliding scale of formal complexity – a box
creating enormous possibilities for contemporary could be turned into a blob and vice versa by simply
design. Although in the case of housing design varying the parameters of space within which they are
organizational problems could hardly justify complex defined.
geometries, the matter of the physical appearance of
What is said before about geometry of space and the
architectural designs presents broader cultural issues.
study presented by Terence Riley, does not mean that
Another important thing to note is that, as after every architectural form expressed through its geometry
“blob” there is a single sided figure published by Albert doesn’t matter, but that the dissimilar forms are not
Mobius, every box is associated with the cardinal work necessarily ideologically oppositional and vice versa.
of Mies van der Rohe. The reappearance of Mies at the This makes us think that the formal distinctions in
end of the century was dramatic and unexpected, architecture are not the most important ones, even
because thirty years ago his ideas and modernism in though our question about traits of introverted and
general were considered a spent force. We have great extroverted architecture can be analysed due the
contemporary revisions as Koolhaas’s did in Maison à physical appearance of architectural designs.
Bordeaux (Figure 3 – up); Herzog and de Meuron,
The important questions remain the ideologies or the
Koechlin House, Basel (1994) and Bernard Tschumi’s
theoretical frameworks of understanding and
Glass Video Gallery, Netherlands 1990 (Figure 3 – down).
interpretation of architecture itself. When we talk about
They all represent some kind of high European
the blurred boundaries it is not that the only blurred
Modernism but still it does not make them Miesian in
boundaries are the physical ones, but also the
ideologies (Figure 3). Koolhaas puts Mies in postmodern
ideological ones. Obviously Contemporary Architecture
context, Herzog and de Meuron remind us that the
becomes a product of the way of contemporary thinking
architectonics is a visual and ultimately sensual
and “if the problems of Architecture are to be traced to
discipline and only secondarily is a technical one; while
their roots, one should be focused on the thinking and
Tschumi deconstructs and reformulates the Archetypal
the considerations that inform its production” [12].
Glass house, reminding us that architecture is less
material and more media.
Finally, it can be said that from geometrical point of 3. Realms of inquiry of Architecture
view, contemporary architectural form replaced the
singularity by multiplicity and stable by dynamic. The 3.1. Extroverted and Introverted thinking
blurred boundaries of geometrical scale actually have a
scientific argument also. Bernhard Riemann, due to the At the turn of the century, as Neal Leach put’s it the
concept of curvature of space, established Euclidean discipline of architecture has gone through a
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metamorphosis, since there is a “clear shift both in the external influences. The peak of this teaching is
nature of debates within architecture and in its Hegel’s philosophy of dialectic idealism.
relationship with other academic disciplines. Not only
If we take into the considerations that talking about
are architects and architectural theorists becoming
architecture is talking about life (and man/woman), by
more and more receptive to the whole domain of
analogy this means that the question of defining
cultural theory, but cultural theorists, philosophers,
architecture and its “Body” could seek:
sociologists and many others are now to be found
increasingly engaged with questions of architecture and − Getting to know nature (in our case
the built environment” [12]. Of course architecture is environment) within objectively given realities
also interested in this debate, even though sometimes it and
becomes captured in the mystified philosophical
− Getting to know architecture what she is and
concepts and expressing its self-literary as a physical
what he may be.
form.
We will try to crystalize these positions, which are
This interest of architecture to look outside of the
somehow equivalent to the question of autonomous
discipline comes from the fact it is “seeking self-
and heteronomous thinking about architecture,
definition, and for that self-definition it looks outside of
respectively introverted and extroverted thinking in
itself, to see what others say about it” [13, p.4] or said in
architecture.
another way “for architecture, paradoxical as it may
seem, the most complex question is that of self-
determination” [14, p.3]. 3.2. Postmodern dichotomy

So, along with the physical manifestation of architecture Heteronomous architecture


there have always been attempts to describe what
constitutes proper architecture. In 1987 Peter Rowe in The first realm could be considered environmental –
his book “Design Thinking” [15], gave a range of insight extroverted, looking for the truths that lie outside “the
into many theories, and when trying to distinct various body of architecture”. The seek for the substantiation
normative positions that seek to describe what form outside the domain of architecture has tended to
constitutes a proper architecture, distinguished two look toward human behaviour scientist, social sciences,
realms of inquiry. and production technologies and we refer this
− In the first realm of inquiry architecture is seen extrovertness as natural with in the sense that there is a
in relationship to a hypothesized society or tendency to describe reality by concepts of “natural
interpretation of man’s world. One of phenomena” (Berstein, 1976) and legitimating models
fundamental concerns here becomes of knowledge - natural sciences and formal disciplines as
legitimating architecture with a reference to mathematics and logic [15].
“nature” or to a set of events that “lie outside Within this realm, Functionalism and Modern
the architecture itself” [15, p. 153]. Movement are known as complete departures of earlier
− And in a second realm, architecture is seen in architectural orientations. The term functionalism was
relationship to itself and its constituent actually coined in order of describing architecture of
elements with the locus of inquiry that of engineering and planning while being workable,
architectural object. economical and efficient; nerveless it was latter
criticized for the lack of qualities such a cosiness,
When looking for determinates of Architectural Space, individuality, warmth… etc. The spirit of “form follows
as for “elementary question: What is man and what is function” and the preoccupation with new technologies
his place in space?” [16, p.3], Ahmet Hadrović mentions gave way to the international style. Planning Orthodoxy
two parallel and intertwined courses on man’s attempt of the cities emerged with the similar traits to those of
to: modern movement in architecture.
− Getting to know nature or objectively given System approaches as empirical systems were at the
realities “in their own merits” where he assumes heart of the “scientific methods” for interpreting man
that there is nature with a predetermined reality and his world for the design purposes were the concept
where man’s role is essential just as any other of model and the activity of operational modelling. For
living thing’s. (Such teaching greatly feature example there was a common use of behavioural
Eastern Philosophies).
models that aimed to characterize the behaviour upon a
− Getting to know man, what he is and what he variety of environmental circumstances. For example
may be, when he assumes that there is man and Lynch’s on the image of the city gave weight to
there is an image formed as a consequence of empirically determined concepts of spatial conception

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and the idea of “cognitive mapping” became influential (works of brother Krier), which by putting forward
within the urban design. grounding on meaning of architectural work dissembled
the confidence placed in the doctrine or dictums as
Rowe, also distinguishes the alternative positions that
“form follows function”. Nevertheless, also within this
were developed due to the comprehensive and intense
kind of autonomy, problems of interpretation arise as
criticism of the empirical orthodoxy idea of theory and
the questions of the use of “architectural language” or
the possibility of science of the man. One of these
that of confusion of “significance” and “meaning”.
positions was the phenomenological alternative whose
objective was to address questions about the essence of So, this second realm emphasised architectural
the things and Humanist critique who draw the discourse towards the world of architectural objects
distinction between what is “outward manifestation” of referring advocating a kind of autonomous architecture.
human activity and “inward believe” that indicates It is characterized by a tendency for adhering to
directly this activity and structuralism which had rhetorical domain of architectural objects as for
similarities with the theoretical ideals of the empirical organizing compositional principles.
orthodoxy, but still due to opposition to Cartesian and
other mainstream it concerns with the irrational nature
of the man. 3.3. Contemporary environmental orientation
or autonomy?
So, when we speak for the first realm it can be described
as a tendency to sustain to deductive systems of theory Post Modern Dichotomy, elaborated through the two
construction and empirical observation favoured by realms of inquiry can be more crystallized through the
social sciences, by which the horizon of interpretation analyses of David Gissen [17] for the writings of Reyner
and design is designed by a “scientific view” of getting to Banham and Manfredo Tafuri. As he puts it, Benham
know nature (and by this to know the man/woman).This advocated the environmental architecture and Tafuri
realm could be considered environmental – extroverted, architectural autonomy. Banham called for the
looking for the truths that lie outside “the body of architecture that would be a direct outcome of a
architecture”. The seeking for the substantiation form technical and natural environment, aligning the concept
outside the domain of architecture has tended to look of environment with the resource driven, technological
toward human behaviour scientist, social sciences and techniques of post-war period, and in our terms
production technologies. extroverted. In the other hand, Tafuri was advocating
architecture that was restrained from this given context.
Autonomous architecture For Tafuri architecture was perceived as a humanist
discipline and disengagement from the environment
Within the second realm there was a tendency for was understood as the sum of external pressure (human
adhering to rhetorical domain of architectural objects and natural), refusing to become a tool of expanding
and organizing compositional principles. The economic development, in our terms introverted.
proposition for Autonomy of Architecture was a notable
This contemporary Dichotomy continues not only within
shift toward the architectural discourse happened after
the writings but with designs also. In one hand we have
the Second World War, emphasizing the world of
concepts and designs that are undertaken from theory
“architectural” objects and the use of its elements as the
of environment, so the works are emerging form social
primary design focus. The pluralistic thought of
and ecological data, but in the other hand we have a new
postmodern movement undoubtedly was a reaction to
architectural autonomy (mostly digital) that confronts
the avant-garde of the modern movement, with its
any involution with environment. So, dozens of concepts
concentration in abstract formalism and the denial of
of postmodern theory appear in contemporary writings
stylistic references or figural qualities.
and among them the concept of “environment –
Within the autonomy, Michael Graves characterized extrovertness” and the other of “autonomy –
architecture as “invention” that makes up its own “text” introvertness”. The former concept “erects” buildings
from myths and rituals of society – a text that in turn into the mechanics of its settings, and the at the latter
provides impetus to further inventions. This kind of architecture stands as counterpart to its given contexts.
preoccupation is seen as exception since every epoch This means that the environmentally oriented
has had its share of introspective interest in its own architecture attempts to emerge from its natural, social
constituent elements and their meanings. Looking and technological contexts and autonomous
inward, introverted toward the elements that constitute architecture is answerable to itself alone. “One is about
Architecture itself, the different strategies of world, and the other is about architecture” and seen
interpretation evolved as work on the Language as from the contemporary position this autonomy can be
formal and figural interpretation (Eisenman and typified “as architecture’s refusal to integrate into the
Venturi); Bricolage (Colin Rowe) and the Use of Type surrounding conditions of a capitalist world” [17, p.8] at
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the time when expanding economy was transforming Contemporary approaches to architectural design are
nature into a resource, urban environments into influenced and informed by the writings of theorists and
investments and ideas into consumerist spectacle. philosophers. In the 80s architectural theory,
appropriated for the most part from a Continental
Among the ones that are exploring the new dynamics of
philosophical tradition and “if one were to glance back
contemporary architecture is Ole Bauman by advocating
through the archive one would discover structuralist or
“Unsolicited Architecture” [18] and the reason for
semiologically informed architecture, deconstructivist
practicing it is because it keeps architecture
inspired architecture, and folded architecture, after the
autonomous and autonomy is in the drive and not in the
motif of the fold discovered by curious architects in
territory. One of his objectives is to aware architects of
Deleuze’s book The Fold: Leibniz and The Baroque” [20,
the boundaries of their profession meaning that to go
p.110]. The Fold, aimed at describing baroque aesthetic
beyond language, beyond disciplinary frontiers – is the
and thought, by representing the Folding as a concept of
new motto for architectural research. For him the
an ambiguous spatial construct, through the concepts of
dynamics “affect everything that we consider
“a figure and non-figure, an organization and non-
architecture or architectural: its definition, its mandate,
organization, which, as a formal metaphor, has led to
its output, its corpus of knowledge, its education, its
smooth surfaces and transitional spaces between the
inspiration, its legitimacy, its techniques and methods,
interior and the exterior, the building and its site” [10,
its social status, its communication” [18, p.83].
pp.4] that was presented in the first part of this
In summary, we can say that the latest environmental research.
explorations repeat the problems of the postmodern era
Deleuze demonstrated a multiplicity of positions, a
with passive acceptance of settings and in the other
thousand “plateaus” (Mille Plateaux) [21] from which
hand a call for a radical autonomy or a moderated one
different provisional constructions are created. The
as Gissen advocates the “strategic category of thought
manner is essentially nonlinear, meaning that the
in dialogue with key post-Second World War
realities and events are not organized in orderly
architectural debates”. According him, the concepts of a
succession. Such a conception was adopted by a number
territorial architecture attempts to move us out of the
of contemporary avant-garde architects to challenge the
traps of either environment or autonomy in their most
pervasive linear causality of design thinking. Deleuze
recent manifestations; meaning that “territory is both
offered the conceptual framework of the virtual and the
an alternative way of working and a space of thinking
actual. The world according to him is composed of
about architectural things and their socio-natural
virtual forms and actual forms, where virtual forms are
surroundings” [17, p. 8]. Recently, Idis Turato’s speech not just ideals detached from reality, but abstract ideas
for “Designing the Unpredictable” at the recent that are not yet actualized. Owing to their abstractness,
Conference of Architecture and Environment [19], used they can be interpreted in a variety of ways to produce
the notion of Territory, while presenting his work, the a variety of sensible forms. Even though his work was
process of the designing and his understanding of directed primarily towards processes of thought and not
architecture. It seemed like it was appropriate notion for practices of building, “too often his sophisticated theory
describing the overflow of issues regarding the has been appropriated in a simplistic fashion and
contemporary question of Architecture. translated crudely into a manifesto for complex
So what are and what is so interesting about the architectural forms” [12, p.292].
“territories” that Bouman (2009), Gissen (2010) and It is not only that the contemporary discourse is
Turato (2015) talk about? influenced by postructuralist writers and the thoughts of
In order to answer this question we will firstly take into French Philosopher Gille Deleuze. Architecture, in order
consideration some philosophical influence in to grasp within generative means of form making which
architecture and how does this reflect in the discourse are determined by novel design processes, has turned
of contemporary architecture. toward digital tools and rule based procedures, and in
particular the investigations are undertaken coupled
within the computational realms ant the morphogenetic
4. Defining the question of territory researches. Still, by contradiction “the risk of such
exploration involves the possible evacuation or
4.1. Philosophical influence in architecture reification of those elusive and fragile qualities of a life
toward which Deleuze has directed our attention” [20,
From the 17th century onward, Leibniz (1646–1716) to p.110]. Deleuze recognizes that the creation of the
Deleuze (1925–1995), philosophers began to challenge system is the only way for one to live-non-
the transcendental tradition in philosophy and the systematically, that is far from believe that one might
critiques maintained, in one way or another, the return thought to life and overcome the submission to
fundamental distinction between ideas and matter. the system [4, p.5]. In order to understand the
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materialistic theories of Gilles Deleuze’s and Felix − Manifests a series of constantly changing
Guattari corpus, some of the terminologies are further heterogeneous elements and circumstances that
discussed in order of revealing the question of territory come together for various reasons at particular
in architecture. times.
An explanatory abstract diagram of the smooth and
4.2. Deleuze and assemblage in architecture strained space in architecture is shown in Figure 4 on the
left. The same picture on the right adopts the relation of
Space for Deleuze and Guattarii is “occupied by events architecture with other disciplines as defined by Julia W.
or haecceities more than by formed and perceives Robinson [22, p.70, Figure.4.2] in order to illustrate the
things” and thus is more a space of affects or sensations different views on architecture that are as a result of
than properties [21, p.479]. They offer the opposition different fields of knowledge.
between smooth space which has no boundaries and As shown at the diagrams of Figure 4 and Figure 5, the
striated space which is structured and organized, where deterritorialisation should not be understood as the
lines and points designate their trajectoriesii. It is polar opposite of territorialisation or reterritorialisation.
important to note that Deleuze and Guattari, have no In fact, in the way that Deleuze and Guattari describe
generalized concept of space; they tend to foreground and use the concept, “deterritorialisation inheres in a
localized concepts of territoriality over spatiality. territory as its transformative vector; hence, it is tied to
Smooth space according them can be perceived in and the very possibility of change immanent to a given
through striated space, in order to deterritorialise given territory” [4, p.69].
places.
In order to overcome the dualistic framework
The concept of “territory” avoids easy categorization underpinning western philosophy, Deleuze introduces
because [4, p.280]: the notions of assemblage that “swing between
territorial closure that tends to rest ratify them and a
− Rather than being a stagnant place maintaining
deterritorialising movement that on the contrary
firm borders against outside threat, the territory
connects them with the Cosmos” [21, p.337]. The
itself is a flexible site of passage,
concept means the processes of arranging, organizing,
− It exists in a state of process whereby it and fitting together that. Assemblage consists and
continually passes into something else, and develops around two axes that are:

Figure 4. Left: The smooth and the strained space in regard of notions or territorialisation deterritorialisation
as the vectors of transformation.
Right: The abstract map of horizontal assemblage of architecture with related disciplines (diagram by A. Xhambazi)

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Figure 5. The diagram of assemblage in architecture in regard to horizontal axis (of content and expressions) and
vertical axis of territorialisation and deterritorialisation (diagram by A. Xhambazi)

− The first, horizontal axe (Figure 4 on the right) “first state line of assemblage” (Figure 5) would present
where assemblage comprises two segments, a paradigm, a theory or a design (e.g. Green
content and expression. The first as “machinic architecture, computational architecture etc.) that
assemblage of bodies, of actions and passions, operates in certain fields of knowledge, defines different
an intermingling of bodies reacting to one point of view and has certain belief systems.
another….(and second) a collective assemblage
Having in mind underlined concepts of materialistic
of enunciation, of acts and statements, of
philosophy, we can easily understand the Gissen’s call
incorporeal transformations attributed to
for a strategy of Territory which “suggests a role for
bodies” [21, p. 88].
architecture as a strategy of tinkering versus one of
− The vertical axe (shown in Figure 4 on the left accommodation with or refusal of an external techno-
and figure 5) has both, “territorial sides, or natural environment” [17, p. 8]. He resists the notion
reterritorialized sides, which stabilize it, and that nature is “external to architecture and architecture
cutting edges of deterritorialisation, which carry can better emulate or mimic”. According him the
it away” [21, p. 88]. Assemblages are presented modern society, including architecture has reworked all
as complex constellations of objects, bodies, of nature, so what he believes is a new type of
expressions, qualities, and territories that come architecture that uncovers and projects this reality,
together for varying periods of time to ideally doing this through the strategy of Territory. An
create new ways of functioning. important element to distinguish here is “the time”
Using this concept of assemblage we can rethink the which allows territories to expand.
dualism between an introverted and extroverted
architecture. An architectural assemblage (or the 4.3. Territories, boundaries and abstract
architectural body) as a dynamic and consistent machines
multiplicity, swings between territorial enclosure (its
autonomy, introversion) and the deterritorialising Toward Defining Architectural Space (ADS) Ahmet
movement in the other (extroversion). This means that
Hadrović [16] distinguished three basic components:
architecture as the assemblage “involves both territorial
and architectural elements and deterritorialising non- − Environment (ADS1) – with natural and social
architectural elements” [4, p.21]. For architecture each layer

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− Man (ADS2) – to whom the notion space is to the notion of territorialisation of Deleuze’s concept of
related since it only makes since when it is territory and the strained space - a first state line of the
related to man and assemblage as conceptually presented at figure 6.
− Boundaries (ADS3) – that actually enclose but Now, let’s question the notion of perspective (ADS4).
they also integrate man in the states of We introduced the Deleuze’s notions of
environment. deterritorialisation as a movement that inheres in a
territory/boundary as its transformative vector and it is
These components are shown within the Hadrović’s
tied to the very possibility of change immanent to a
diagram presented at figure 6 on the left. The broadest
given territory /boundary. This makes the notion of
prerequisite for space’s existence is gained by adding
perspective tangible to the deterritorialisation by which
the concept of perspective (ADS4). With these
one leaves the territory and transforms the existing
components the conceptual diagram of ADS (figure 6
boundaries.
left) illustrates the “form” of architecture as not defined
statically or said in a better way there are multiple states So, when we question the Architectural Body, we are
of its portrayal as a result of interactions of components actually attempting to recognize a system of an abstract
definediii. machine or using Deleuze term “Body without Organs”,
as it’s defined through its contents and the inner
We will distinguish the concept of boundaries and
relations as well the relations of its environment. As this
perspectives and compare them with the notion of
territory, assemblage and deterritorialisation (figure 6) research went from the physical appearance of
that are discussed previously. architectural object to the notion of assemblage in
architecture and the question of the territory, we can
Hadrović, defines boundaries as states controlled in conclude that “boundaries” of Ahmet Hadrović are the
compliance with man’s need, where states are all same with “territories” of Gille Deleuze.
discovered and undiscovered phenomena in space
affecting man. He underlines that “a question Although the above distinguished notions (Figure 6)
inseparable from the nature of boundaries is the come from two different ideologies they both offer
question of their scope” [16, p.19] since the boundary means of understanding the multiple forms of portrayal
can encompass a more or less of man’s needs. This is the of architecture. They also are an argument that even
reason that a boundary can so turn, from its entirely different ideologies, when attempting to answer
concrete physical determination, into an immaterial complex questions of architecture are not necessarily
suggestion. Because the boundaries “may be oppositional. In search of what constitutes proper
subjectively suggested and observable (from a fixed definition of architecture or what constitutes it’s body,
man’s position) and vice versa: a physically consistent no matter in what realms we inquire, or what philosophy
boundary does not have to be observable (from a fixed strains our thoughts, the results are on the both sides of
man’s position)" [16, p.20]. This makes boundaries close the same coin.

Figure 6. Comparison of “Spatiality and territoriality”.


Conceptual diagram of architecturally defined Space by Ahmet Hadrovć [16, p.75, figure 10] and “Body without
organs” (diagram A.Xhambazi)
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Talking account the materialistic thinking, it is worth getting to know nature. As such the realm is considered
mentioning that 21st century architecture used the environmental – extroverted, looking for the truths that
possibility “of the computer programs known as lie outside “the body of architecture”. The second realm
“genetic algorithms”—evolutionary simulations that emphasised architectural discourse towards the world
might replace traditional design methods and result in of architectural objects advocating a kind of
the “breeding” of new forms” [23, p. 338]. By using autonomous – introverted architecture, which is
genetic algorithms architectural form could be formed characterized by a tendency for adhering to rhetorical
and deformed, folded and unfolded due to the concept domain of architectural objects as for organizing
of an “abstract machine” of Deleuze. With this the signs compositional principles. This kind of dichotomy is also
of creative philosophy began reconfiguring within the evident within the contemporary context. The
discipline and one could argue that the adaption of the environmentally oriented architecture is somehow
generative concepts for the contemporary field of “about world” with an attempt to emerge from its
architecture appears to promise so much within the natural, social and technological contexts and
practice of creative ethos. But in seeking to qualify itself autonomous architecture is about architecture and is
through the inner workings of life as conceived through answerable to itself alone.
the sciences, architecture has to recognize that it also
Taking stance from the discourse and theories of some
unavoidably partakes in so many hidden and revealed
contemporary architects, the concept of Territory is
guiles of power. So, “an ethos of creativity must also
presented and elaborated presenting some insights of
allow for the slow time of contemplation, and in the case
Deleuze’s conceptions. Using his understanding of
of architecture the daily rhythms of inhabitation
“territory” the diagram of assemblage in architecture is
appreciated not in an instrumental fashion but as
produced (Figure 4 and figure 5). Territory becomes a
mundane and simple life.” [20, p. 116].
flexible site of passage, a process whereby it continually
passes into something else and manifests a series of
5. Conclusion constantly changing heterogeneous elements and
circumstances that come together for various reasons at
Even 21st century manifested a theoretical meltdown, particular times. Apparently as such the concept of
still a vast number of researchers aim at an architectural Territory was used by Idis Turato’s at the Conference of
theory. At the same time a number of less explicit Architecture and Environment [19] where the first
notions are used within the discipline coming from version of this research was presented [24].
outside the discipline. So, Territory as concept overcomes dichotomies. It
In the search of what is inside or outside, formal becomes the matter of the autonomy of the
appearance has always been architectural issue since it architectural body, but also the intensive forces that
presents limits between the interior and the exterior. carry it away in new territories. The introversion is about
The research showed that the traits of introversion and the logic, cognition, rhetoric, argumentation and the
extroversion can be analysed due to formal appearance extroversion is about “expending
of architecture although the boarder of what is interior territories/boundaries” for understanding the mundane
and exterior diminishes due to complex geometries of life. In this way the Architectural Body becomes close
temporary – the forms that could not simply exist few with the concept of assemblage that swings between
decades ago. Through the topological understandings territorial closure and a deterritorialising movement
the discourse “boxes” vs “blobs” resulted in that connects with the complexity of Architecture. Even
interpretation of those formal conceptions as instances the parallelism between two different thinking
on a sliding scale of formal complexity. By putting frameworks (phenomenological and poststructuralist)
forward a question of what is so interesting in topology as discussed at subsection 4.3 showed that when it
that captured architects mind, the research showed that comes to complex questions of architecture and its
the most important questions are not technical and body, the results are not necessarily oppositional. This
formal but philosophical, since the dissimilar forms are makes us think that is really important to understand the
not necessarily ideologically oppositional and vice versa. widening horizons of architecture, its expending
This makes us think that the formal distinctions in territories within environmental space. Because of this
architecture are not the most important ones. expansion of territories as a matter of time and intensive
forces, the corpus of knowledge, practice, technology,
As the research points out that the architecture is the awareness, appear intertwined within the both realms,
product of our thinking, in regard of the question of that of autonomy and environment.
“what constitutes a proper architecture”, two realms of
inquiry are distinguished within the postmodern period. As Jung suggested, everyone has both, an extroverted
The first realm tended toward the horizon of and an introverted side, and the research showed that
interpretation and design by a “scientific view” of the use of less explicit notions of contemporary

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discourse (e.g. mediation, transformation, assemblage, [7] Venturi, Robert, Complexity and Contradictions in
territory etc.) are probably considering a more Architecture (2nd ed.), The Museum of Modern
expensive autonomy for more considered environment, Arts, New York, NY, 1992.
and vice versa.
[8] von Meiss, Pierre, Elements of Architecture: From
This actually opens another question: Why are we in Form To Place, Spon Press, New York, NY, 2008
constant search for other theories in Architecture? (1990 first English ed.).
The answer might be because theories act as tools [9] Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, Dover
toward capturing the smooth space in architecture. Publication INC, New York, NY, 1986 (republication
They tend to create a system in order to allow the of the work originally published in 1931 as
creative ethos to live non-systematically. Problem translated from thirteenth French edition).
appears when they grasp within the dictums as “form
follows function”, “the architecture of the machine [10] Kolarević, Branko, ed., Architecture in the Digital
age”, “green architecture” etc., since the meaning of Age: Design and Manufacturing, Spon Press, New
each of the words from the dictionary (nor the syntax of York & London, 2003, p.11.
the sentence) does not reveal the other meaning – that
[11] Riley, Terence, The Un-Private House, The Museum
of the context of architecture. In the age of theoretical
of Modern Art, New York, NY, 1998.
anxiety it is important to “know that” the strained
spaces of architecture are a result of intensiveness of its [12] Leach, Neil, ed., Rethinking Architecture: A Reader
autonomy and heteronomy, rather than “know how” to in Cultural Theory, Routledge, London and New
build strained space whose slave the architecture might York, 1997.
become.
[13] Grosz, Elizabeth, Architecture from the Outside:
Essays on Virtual and Real Space, The MIT Press,
Acknowledgement Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England,
2001, p.4.
This research is inspired by the lectures at the course
[14] Hadrović, Ahmet, Architecture in Context, Faculty
“Architecture in Context” and is a segment of a broader
of Architecture in Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosna and
project of doctoral thesis under supervision of Prof. Dr.
Hercegovina, 2011.
Ahmet Hadrović to whom I express my gratitude.
[15] Rowe, Peter G., Design Thinking, The MIT Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England,
References 1987.
[1] Jung, Carl. G., Psychological Types, Collected [16] Hadrović, Ahmet, Defining Architectural Space on
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Princeton, New Jersey, 1971 (first published in Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and
1921). Macedonia, Faculty of Architecture, Sarajevo,
Bosna and Hercegovina, 2006.
[2] Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Extroversion.
http://www.merriam- [17] Gissen, David, Territory: Architecture beyond
webster.com/dictionary/extroversion , accessed Environment, Architectural Design, 80 (3), (2010,
on August, 2015. May/June), Territory, pp.8-13.
[3] Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Introversion. [18] Bouman, Ole, To Go Beyond or Not to Be:
http://www.merriam- Unsolicited Architecture, [interview: Guido, L.],
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[4] Parr, Adam. (Ed.), The Deleuze Dictionary (revised [19] Turato, Idis, Designing the Unpredictable, Keynote
ed.), Edinburg University Press, Edinburg, Scotland, Speech at the 2nd International Conference with
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Barcelona, Spain and Cambrinidge, Massachusetts, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s creative
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England, 2003. DOI:10.1080/09697250600797971.
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[21] Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Felix, A Thousand [23] DeLanda, Manuel, “Deleuze and The Use of the
Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (11th ed.). Genetic Algorithm in Architecture (2000)” in
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i Deleuze’s detests Hegelianism and is concerned with overcoming dualistic framework underpinning western philosophy
(Being/nonbeing, original copy etc.). His philosophy is a materialistic meaning that “the world exists without us” and he recognizes
“geology” as the beginning of Non-Human Expressivity, seeking for otherness through the disciplines of geology, chemistry and
biology. He applies styles of thinking of evolutionary biologist (the concept of populism – positive idea of variation – difference
of variations), thermodynamics (the concept of thermodynamic – intensive forces – intensives differences drive processes) and
mathematics (topological thinking – differential calculus - Abstract body map, the connectivity).
ii Consider that the concept of strained space becomes more tangible in regard to architectural objects, since it becomes
measurable
iii It is worth to be mentioned that there is a strong influence of phenomenological paradigm, the writings of Heidegger and
Norberg-Shultz, what makes us assuming for the essentialist believes

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