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THE
THINKING OF ARCHITECTURE 40
Years of Critical Architectural Theory
40 Years of Igma
Vol.
13, No. 2, March 2009 |
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Editing:
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Gerd
de Bruyn and Katja
Thorwarth
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Curator: |
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Eduard
Heinrich Führ
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Editorial assistance and Layout: |
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Ehrengard
Heinzig |
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The subject and the articles of this issue
are published in short versions in the journal "Der Architekt",
no. 1/2009; subscriptions are possible via:
Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung
GmbH
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Editorial
Architectural
Theory and Philosophy |
Jörg H. Gleiter |
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"Monument of a Crisis" |
Boris Podrecca |
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Theory laterally |
Kari Juhani Jormakka |
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Disguise the Limit: The
Misosophy of Architecture |
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Architectural
Theory and Science |
Eduard Heinrich Führ |
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The Art of Subjunctive.
A Plea for a Self-Aware Theory of Architecture |
Alban Janson |
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Concrete Theory. Remarks of
a Practising Architect Concerning the Relationship of Architectural
Theory and Science |
Susanne Hauser |
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Architecture,
Research, Knowledge, and Science |
Georg Franck |
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Is Architecture a Science? |
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Architectural
Theory and Zeitgeist |
Annett Zinsmeister |
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Fanning out Jubilantly, Searching Tumultuarily |
Karin Wilhelm |
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"Anything is political".
Zeitgeist and Architectural Thinking around
1968 |
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Architectural
Theory and History |
Philip Ursprung |
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The Architecture of the Empire:
Peter Eisenman's Greater Columbus Convention Center (1993) |
abstracts: |
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Architectural Theory and Philosophy |
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___Jörg
H. Gleiter
Berlin / Bozen |
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Compared to the other humanities,
architectural theory is a recent academic discipline. It is just
40 years since the founding of the Institut Grundlagen der modernen
Architektur (Igma – Institute for the Fundamentals of Modern Architecture)
at the University of Stuttgart saw the institutionalisation of architectural
theory as an academic subject. Like all new academic disciplines,
the paths taken by architectural theory were exhilaratingly intricate,
from the structural models of the 1960s through to Manfredo Tafuri’s
ideological criticism and the re-semiotisation of architecture in
the 1970s. A riot of speculative thought dominated the years of
postmodernism, giving way in the 1990s to a peculiar brand of uncertainty.
Unlike previous technological revolutions, the new digital technologies
are no longer limited to the construction site, but intervene directly
in the design processes, i.e. in the practice of architectural thinking.
The knowledge of theory itself, its methods and objectives are now
at issue. The honeymoon period for this young academic discipline
is clearly over.
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Paper
in German |
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___Boris
Podrecca
Stuttgart / Vienna |
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Um die Bedeutung und Rezeption
einer theoretischen Position heutzutage zu orten, ist es notwendig,
ihr gegenwärtiges Setting zu skizzieren. Architektur wird immer
mehr zu einem Diskurs, bei dem unter dem Druck der Globalisierung,
der Medien und dem Konsumdiktat sämtliche Themen wie Film, TV, Werbung,
Event, Design, Label, Politik als smarte Korrelate miteinander ringen. |
Paper
in German |
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___Kari
Juhani Jormakka
Viena |
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"Thought is primarily
trespass and violence, the enemy, and nothing presupposes philosophy:
everything begins with misosophy," claims Gilles Deleuze
who goes on to argue that "Something in the world forces
us to think. This something is an object not of recognition but
of a fundamental ‘encounter’. What is encountered may be Socrates,
a temple or a demon." To flesh out this thesis, let us
consider Plato’s parable of the cave, his account of the first moment
of philosophical enlightenment. |
Paper
in English |
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Architectural Theory and Science |
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___Eduard
Heinrich Führ
Cottbus |
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This
inquiry on the subjunctive character of a theory of architecture
deals with the questions, whether and how far architecture were
science, what may be the scientific character of the architecture
as a science, furthermore what could be a theory of architecture
in this context, and which functions it could have. |
Paper
in German |
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___Alban
Janson
Karlsruhe |
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Architectural theory should not treat the relation
of various scientific fields to architecture, but has to explore
the nature of architecture itself. Architectural theory that moreover
claims an immediate practical value for architectural design would
have to coincide with the very act of conceiving. Such a theory
has to be examined in respect of its relationship to science. Unlike
sciences, which describe the existing reality claiming general validity,
an architectural theory with relevance for the architectonic practice
has to take into consideration that any architectonic project counts
only for one single situation. Every time it represents something
new that cannot be deduced.
Regarding this it will be proposed to apply to architecture the
method of abduction described by Ch. S. Peirce, besides demonstrating
the scientific character of architectural design (according to Achim
Hahn). In order to ascertain precisely the notion of architecture
being the subject of design its characteristic properties have to
be specified carefully. |
Paper
in German |
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___Susanne
Hauser
Berlin |
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The
paper discusses the situation of architecture in the field of contemporary
academic research and the specific architectural ways of dealing
with knowledge of different types. It suggests that the explication
of architectural strategies in dealing with complexity might be
an important contribution of architectural research, as no other
academic discipline has to cope with complexity to such a great
extent. |
Paper in
German |
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___Georg
Franck
Viena |
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The question whether architecture, as a corpus
of knowledge and a mode of knowledge acquisition, can be addressed
as a science depends on the particular problem it is supposed to
be a solution to. Architecture has to serve needs of physical life
as well as desires of psychic experience. In order to deal with
both these demands problem solving in architecture has to partake
both in scientific research, as conventionally understood, and in
artistic research. Artistic research differs from scientific research
in that it has to do with non-analysable problems and hypotheses
that cannot be tested by measurement. This does not mean, however,
that there are no systematic ways of knowledge acquisition and testing.
There are evolutionary ways of problem solving and there is a process
that selects canonical quality in the long run. The paper goes into
the question of what it means for architecture to effectively and
efficiently make use of its two-fold resources knowledge acquisition. |
Paper
in German |
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Architectural Theory and Zeitgeist |
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___Annett
Zinsmeister
Stuttgart |
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The
article describes Annett Zinsmeister’s creative work in the exciting
contrast of theory. Her work with space is like a tigh-trope walk
between different disciplines and impressed by the handling of different
media supplemented by the reflection about their meaning and conventions.
Her work ranges from drawings and photography, via installations
to built spaces. Theoretical publications come long with her creative
work and relate the artistic practice to theoretical discourse.
By means of three topics (Plattenbau, Media and Folds) Annett Zinsmeister
shows projects within different disciplines and elu-cidate her interdisciplinary
methods that include architectural planning as well as a variety
of art pro-jects and scientific publications. |
Paper
in German |
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___Karin
Wilhelm
Braunschweig / Berlin |
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Around 1968, the profession of the architect became
politicised in the context of a fundamental criticism of society.
The technocratic production logic of the practice of reconstructing
European cities – that hardly reflected upon itself – was now replaced
by concepts of an architectural thinking that dealt with the production
conditions of architecture concerning society as a whole. Based
on a Zeitgeist discourse, as it was represented by Karl Jaspers,
among others, architectural space was conceived as a thought-image
and space of experience, in which the Zeitgeist was visually questioned
as powerfully dominating ‘spirit’. The work of the group Superstudio
is an example of this architecture theoretical response. |
Paper in
German |
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Architectural Theory and History |
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___Philip
Ursprung
Zurich |
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Although, or because, Peter
Eisenman’s Greater Columbus Center in Columbus, Ohio (1993) made
him into a star architect, it is rarely discussed. Yet, it offers
a good opportunity to theorize the relation between globalised economy
and architecture. How is the concept of "topological architecture"
related to the changed perception of the environment, which comes
with the globalized economy? Did architecture articulate an issue
in the medium of spatiality for which there was no theoretical concept?
And how is Architecture (with a big A) related to the speculative
buildings of developers such as John Portman, or the commercial
buildings of IKEA? Portman’s Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles
had inspired Portman for his theory of postmodernist hyperspace.
Does his, and Michael Hardt’s and Antonio Negri’s theories of the
changed temporality and spatiality provide the much needed basis
for a synthetic theory of contemporary architecture? How can the
separated domains of political, economic and architectural theory
be combined? |
Paper
in German |
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The editorial staff keeps all rights, including translation and
photomechanical reproduction.
Selections may be reprinted with reference:
(Wolkenkuckucksheim, Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, Vozdushnyj Zamok >http://www.cloud-cuckoo.net<)
if the editorial staff is informed.
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