Pulp fiction

The concept of the workshop was to develop 6 fields of play directed by 6 teams so as to produce a reflection around and on the new lines of thought in contemporary architecture and the contemporary position of the architect in this socio-cultural scenario. A mix between reflection and playing games, thought and action. A hybrid that mixes critics and actions. Finally, a critical action.

We had less than 48 hours to energetically produce a critical and propositive action.

An action-production whose definition was to be open to the individual criteria of the 6 invited production and thought groups, and that could be developed as a punctual action, as an active object , as a giant map or any special or material form of manipulation that activates the positive-critical reflection of the spectator.

The answer was to be festive and/or ludicrous. The aim was to answer the question posed through a process of “productive games”, both intense and rapid (object, action or installation) and to occupy or, in any case, transform a space inside IAAC (6 simultaneous spaces, like a multi-track circus).

The invited teams: 6 fields, 6 teams:

José Maria Torres Nadal and Antonio Sanmartín

Josep Maria Garcia Cors

Juan Alfonso Zapata

Studio G – Mathilde Marengo, Jeannette Sordi and Anna Varaldo

Joan Maroto, Lis Marrani and Ana Martinez

Luciana Asinari and Silvia Brandi

The structures and performances were presented on the 28th through an itinerant multi ring circus presentation party.

Axel Sowa spoke first, with a 5 part presentation revolving around 5 different re-positions in architectural theory history relevant to understand today’s re-position. The division in 5 parts was not a casual choice, as Candide itself is divided into 5 sections: Analysis, Essay, Project, Encounter and Fiction.

But before starting with the 5 parts, Axel spoke briefly about the concept of Re-positioning…In Architecture, theory often deals with the origins, or the myth of this discipline, Architecture Magazines offer a break from this means of dealing with theory…

1_Re-postionaing materials and the making of Architecture.

With industrialization in the 30s architecture is in some way marginalized and therefore is forced to re-postion itself with respect to industrial production. In a way, the Advanced Architecture of the 30s was cast-iron Architecture.
Two main magazines of interest of this period, that both depict this situation well: The Builder, presented in a weekly paper format, that aimed to create a community in which to share knowledge in a neutral way, presenting a new idea of building professional knowledge for architects in the form of a trade magazine; and Le Génie Civil, that, in its first edition, presented the Ecole Centrale, a school that provided its students with a new idea of empirical knowledge.

2_Re-positioning the Future.

This is clearly based on the idea that there is a future, linked with the ideas of making plans, a key element to architecture, which is in some ways a kind of utopian element. Here Axel spoke about Esprit Nouveau by Le Corbusier, a man who built himself as an architect using the media. He was a networker. Le Corbusier presented a 3D version of his magazine, the ”Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau“, at the Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs of 1925. He produced this pavillion as a space projected towards the future, but also a space to advertise his magazine.

3_Re-positioning Affinity.

After the 50s, the first period of modern architecture, a series of “family magazines” that is a magazine based on a network of friends. The magazine becomes a sort of family album, a form of elective affinity, such as Team 10 (Smithson) or Archigram. The later has a very playful relation to the media, preenting the idea of the family as a kind of instant pleasure, there is no tolerance for the long run.

4_Re-positioning the Discipline.

Here Axel spoke of his experience at L’Architecture D’Aujourd’hui where they reconsidered the discipline in a moment in which the star system was starting to flail, focusing on which might be the problems of the next 20 years, such as: Financing, presenting a research on what you can obtain for 1000euro/m2 around the globe; or aging, Europe is an aging continent, how do people live in their space, and how one can make design inclusive…

5_Re-positioning Knowledge.

In this moment Axel invited us to think about the position of journals and magazines in our time, and also to reflect on Architecture theory…is it a science?

For Axel Architecture theory is: first of all an encyclopaedic discipline, rooted in literary traditions and customs; it is constantly evolving; as an academic discipline, it can not rely on commonly accepted methods; and it stimulates curiosity and engenders the construction of questions.

Candide is a direct reference to Voltaire, and even more so to its full title Candide: or, Optimism…Axel is still optimistic, and considers theory crucial in order to produce sound objects.

Ricardo Devesa began his presentation with the Wikipedia definition of Architectural Theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_theory), then asking us to reflect on what it means to build up theory from an architectural magazine. He developed his position through 4 editorial experiences.

1_Quaderns.

Every issue was a different topic revolving around contemporary issues. How do we theorize…through current projects, a conceptual theory frame, links with other disciplines…

2_Verb, Architectural Boogazine.

What is the best way to show and write about a project…photography and manipulation, or extra information added, no longer using common photographic techniques…What does the building mean to the consumer?

3_Basa.

How can we theorize a context, like that of the Canary Islands…How to understand an ultra peripheral territory? How to study this touristic architecture in a cultural way? Why does this architecture work in this context? Through photographs these questions find their answers.

4_DC Papers.

A more scientific academic approach…

In the end the 4 experiences define 4 positions, that can be related to the positions proposed by Axel: Quaderns re-positions the future, Verb re-positions affinities, Basa re-positions the discipline, and DC Papers re-positions knowledge.

Candide and DC Papers are both online journals revolving around the concept of questioning and communicating architectural knowledge.

The Dictionary of Received Ideas wishes to investigate both Practice and Ideas, or Theory and Design, that is ideas that have an effect on your design.

For this project Enrique was inspired by two writers in particular:

Georges Perec, relative to self imposed and volontary constraints, resulting in a different way of producing, in this case architecture;

And Gustave Flaubert, relative to looking at what we take for granted without critically processing it.

This of course applied to the architectural field, that is to examine clichés in the world of architecture, ideas that we take for granted, but with regards to design techniques.

The Dictionnaire des ideés recues by Flaubert, project from which Enrique’s research gets its name, was an inventory of ready made phrases that you had to use in 19^th Century France to be socially accepted. Flaubert wanted people to start thinking before talking. He provided instructions rather than giving definitions.

Enrique aims to chart clichés used in architecture in his Dictionary of Received Ideas…

But what is a Received Idea in Architecture? What is an architectural Cliché?

It is a technique that had intensity and was effective, that then gets used excessively, deleting it of its efficiency through its abuse. Or a solution to a problem that is no longer there.

Through his work Enrique hopes to give new use to these clichés…

Enrique Walker at the IaaC

Enrique Walker is an architect and Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, where he also directs the Master of Science program in Advanced Architectural Design. His publications include, Tschumi on Architecture: Conversations with Enrique Walker (Monacelli, 2006) and Lo Ordinario (Gustavo Gili, 2010).

The Dictionary of Received Ideas is a decade-long project (2006—) whose aim is to examine received ideas—in other words, ideas which have been depleted of their original intensity due to recurrent use—in contemporary architecture culture. Based on Gustave Flaubert’s unfinished project, Le dictionnaire des idées reçues, this ongoing series of design studios and theory seminars proposes to disclose, define, and date—and in the long run archive—received ideas prevalent over the past decade, both in the professional and the academic realm, in order to ultimately open up otherwise precluded possibilities for architectural design and architectural theory.

With some seemingly innocent questions on the Architect Mediator we aimed to establish a strong position.
What is the architect’s position nowadays?
Between what information is it located?
What exactly does this translate into?

Through the presentation of post-tweets, an intellectual positioning from non conventional routes of theory, we mapped out what, collectively, we feel is an architect today, generating an intense debate around this theme.

The map revealed diverse individual concepts (post-tweets) that cluster around common themes (selected keywords) forming densities of ideas and generating an overall view, and our answer to those seemingly innocent questions.