Topic & Background
Architecture began like all writing. It was first an alphabet.
Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
In his novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) [English title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame] Victor Hugo prophesies the extinction of the monument as language: ‘This will kill that.’ With ‘this’ is meant the book; and with ‘that’ is meant the monument. The writer has proven to be right after all; at least in terms of the current prevalence of unreadable architecture:
During industrialization the role of architecture as the carrier of meaning was increasingly replaced by its serving technocratic and functionalistic tasks. Created by an architectural elite the International Style postulated an architecture devoid of any connotations, abstracted to such an extreme in order that it could exist everywhere. Critics claimed that this adaptability was not possible because such an architecture is generally universal, but rather because it simply does not belong anywhere in particular. Subsequently the Second World War and end of Western colonial rule took place and counter movements rebelling against the predominating vacuum of meaning began to appear. Among architects initial responses were articulated in a variety of forms including a return to traditional significance: In a visit to Mali Aldo van Eyck discovered the ‘ensouled’ buildings of the Dogon and tried to transfer their abundance of meaning into his own architecture. As well, renewed interest in historical analyses re-emerged out of the historically rich context of Italian cities leading to typology-centred approaches and methods of design. Influenced by the theories of linguists [langue et parole] and especially by the ‘structural anthropology’ of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Dutch Structuralists searched for a polyvalent form uniting both change and durability. Eventually Christopher Alexander developed his ‘pattern language’, a universal language system to be used in the composition of humane architecture.
Yet all of these attempts have failed – at least this seems to be the tenor of the generations that have followed: Any kind of ‘learning from…’ – be it the Dogon, the ‘vernacular’ or later, popular culture – resulted in a superficial copy of the respective visual language, used as the basis for developing variety, typology became an abstract ideal. Structuralism got stranded in inhumane and ahistorical megastructures and Alexander’s pattern language has proven itself to be rigid and non-transferable to other cultures as well as into built examples.
Contemporary Relevancy & Issues
A foreboding of Claude Lévi-Strauss fifty years ago, the problematic levelling caused by Western global society is increasingly becoming reality. According to predictions two-thirds of all the languages of the world are expected to disappear in the course of the next one to two generations (Florian Coulmas, NZZ, 12 November 2009). A similar process can be observed in the culture of the built environment. At the same time the semiotic approach is nearly non-existent in current architectural discussions. In the context of these background issues and in relation to the respective discourse spanning from the 1950s to the 1970s the lecture series ‘The Language of Architecture’ addresses some of the most basic questions of architecture:
How is architecture read? What is the significance assumed by language in architecture (today) and how is this language actually produced and its meaning interpreted? In what ways and to what extent can there be considered to be a grammar of the language of architecture, which in terms of its rules and structures can primarily serve in generating variety and meaning? Are there universal form[ula]s? Or is meaning only possible within a respectively specific temporal and local context?
Lecturers and Schedule
25 February 2010, Michael Oppitz, Berlin [in German]
‘Indigenous Architecture. Space – Language – Meaning’
Michael Oppitz (*1942) is an ethnologist internationally renowned as one of the foremost specialists on Shamanism. After extensive field research, in particular with a small population of mountain people in northern Nepal, he didn’t ‘settle down’ until 1991 when he assumed a professorship at the University of Zurich and also directed the Ethnographic Museum there until 2007. Oppitz, who has always rebelled against a narrow-minded understanding of scientific scholarship, is not only the author of many influential books contributing to the field of so-called ‘structural anthropology’, but also of photographic and cinematic works, which also have been acclaimed by artists including Joseph Beuys.
18 March 2010, Charles Holland, FAT, London [in English]
‘All you can Eat’
The London architectural firm FAT [Fashion Architecture Taste] was founded in 1995 and is directed by three partners: Sean Griffiths, Sam Jacob and Charles Holland. FAT is considered as one of the few contemporary architectural firms that is proud to call its work postmodern. Inspired by popular culture FAT explores ‘inclusive’ and readable architecture, which is at the same time ironical and profound. In addition to their work as architects, the partners of FAT are also engaged as artists, researchers, architectural critics and teachers, currently as guest professors at Yale University.
www.fashionarchitecturetaste.com
29 April 2010, Sylvain Malfroy, Neuchâtel [in German]
‘The Legibility of the City and Cultural Landscape. The Approach of Saverio Muratori’
Sylvain Malfroy (*1955) is an art historian whose major field is the history of architecture and urban development. His research and publications, in particular concerning ‘typological methods’ of the Italian architect Saverio Muratori and the relationship of the structure of cities and building typologies, represent a significant contribution to the subject of typology in architectural theory discourse. In addition to professorships at the Universities of Applied Sciences in Winterthur and Fribourg, Malfroy is also currently engaged as an independent consultant in urban renovation and historic preservation.
Event Location: Kornhausforum, Kornhausplatz 18, Bern
Starting Time: 07:00 P.M.
Organisation and Contact:
Sonja Lüthi: sonja.luethi@bfh.ch
Bern University of Applied Sciences, Architecture, Wood and Civil Engineering
www.hsb.bfh.ch/ahb/en