2000.05.19 23:56
notes on the imagination
As you were mentioning the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili on the phone, I had a feeling I knew what you were talking about. As it happens, this text and an online version of it were called out among the letters within Quondam's "coming apart at the seamless" conference.
When the link was first made known to me in January of this year, I went to the site but only looked at one or two of the reproduction pages, and did not venture into the accompanying thematic explanation pages. After looking under the particular architecture and Eros heading, I can well see why you brought up this text in our conversation (and if you look through 'coming apart at the seamless' you'll see the connection there as well--a connection I did not make at the time). In all honesty, I had no prior knowledge of this text. I imagine that some within the design-l email group may think that I've secretly been using the Hypner... as an inspiration for my own work. Perhaps you more than anyone I now know can well understand that work similar to what oneself is doing may indeed exist somewhere else simultaneously on our planet without there being a mutual knowledge between the two parties. It's that 'wavelength' thing again.
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2004.05.19 12:29
REPORTAGE- Rhythm & Gender
The dates I used were of the specific Doric temples of which there are remains (ref. Fletcher). I included eastern Greece because I think Delos is an island off the east coast—I might be wrong though.
The proof of communication are the temples themselves.
The proof of trained builders are the temples themselves.
The proof of 'architects' involved are the temples themselves.
The proof of a unified religious system are the temples themselves.
You're asking for physical evidence, and physical evidence is exactly what the Doric temples are!
Are all modern-day questions automatically answered by the physical evidence of the finished temple? Of course not, but that doesn't mean that the temples didn't answer the questions the ancient Greeks asked of them.
Remember, before any Doric temple was finished and polished and painted, its place was a construction site, and that's where and when the communication occurred. [In the 1980s archaeologists published the discovery of 'architectural' drawings directly related to temple construction. The drawings were actual size, on stone, and at the temple site itself.] Much communication occurred at quarries as well.
Furthermore, the notion of a migrant labor force is very, very ancient. And don't forget the availability of slave labor, which had no control itself of where it specifically worked.
Then there is the question of what role the religious priests played in providing guiding information and the making of design decisions.
There is also the question of how far back the existence of "trade secrets" go? For example, we will probably never know the trade secrets that built the Pyramids because those that knew the 'secrets' well also (and obviously) knew how to keep them well.
2004.05.19 14:47
REPORTAGE- Rhythm & Gender
Doric Temples are a specific set of religious buildings.
Ancient Rome was an enormous(ly populated) metropolis, and a cosmopolitan capital city.
As a city, ancient Rome was an ongoing construction site of reenactment. Important buildings were often rebuilt (like Hadrian rebuilt the Pantheon that Agrippa built first), and older buildings were dismantled and reused for parts in newer constructions (like the Naumachia of Domitian was undone to repair the fire damaged Circus Maximus). This reuse, reenactment, and reinvention of older architecture in the construction of newer architecture is not proto Post Modernism, but you could in far-removed 20th century retrospect say that Post Modern Architecture is an unwitting and highly flawed reenactment of what went on architecturally in Rome, especially during its imperial age.
More than a religio-political system, ancient Rome was a gigantic military machine, thus the widespread presence and influence of military engineering on the art of Rome's architecture.
The Campus Martius was not originally within the walls of Rome. Only Roman citizens were allowed within the walls of Rome, thus ancient Rome's (huge) foreign population lived in the Campus Martius. It was within the Campus Martius that ancient Rome's 'eclectic' architecture was largely created. The Tomb of Augustus (perhaps built with help from some Indians) is in the Campus Martius. The Porticus of Nations was in the Campus Martius. The Temple of Isis (with its many smaller obelisks)was in the Campus Martius. Hadrian's Pantheon (circa 100 AD) is in the Campus Martius! etc., etc., etc., etc.....
Not until the reign of Aurelian (270-275 AD) were the walls of Rome rebuilt and the Campus Martius incorporated within Rome proper.
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2005.05.19 13:01
why don't architects know how to work the media?
There's marketing/advertising architecture, and there's marketing/advertising one's services as an architect. I think too many architects feel they have to market/advertise architecture in general before they can advertise their architectural services.
If I were marketing/advertising my architectural services, it would be Quondam this and Quondam that, as opposed to Architecture this and architecture that.
2005.05.19 13:22
why don't architects know how to work the media?
Just remain mindful of the distinction between publicity and marketing. Granted, any publicity today boils down to marketing (like what isn't product placement anymore?), but, if I were marketing, I'd make damn sure that it is MY "values and principles" that the target audience takes note of and remembers. Why should I waste my time marketing architecture in general, which boils down to marketing all architects. That would be like advertising for the competition, wouldn't it?
2005.05.19 15:36
why don't architects know how to work the media?
Maybe some of the problem stems from the (educated?) notion that architecture is some sort of homogeneous product (like milk or beef), where, in reality, architecture is extremely diverse in its many manifestations. Maybe what the public really needs is to see how many architectures are really available to them.
2008.05.19 18:28
Now try taking it to court.
Regarding Charles Sanders Peirce, see Anthony Vidler's "What is a Diagram anyway?" in Peter Eisenman: Feints.
e.g.:
"Perhaps the most penetrating examination of the nature and role of diagrams was undertaken by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), in context of his general theory of signs, his semiology. For Peirce, all thinking took place with signs, things which served "to convey knowledge of some other thing", which they were "said to stand for, or represent."
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2008.05.19 20:47
The Official Paradigm Shift thread
After reading "Shifting Paradigm Part I" and "Shifting Paradigm Part II" (which really didn't impress me), Koolhaas's "Typical Plan" text came to mind. I'll read it again more carefully. I feel there might be some connection to 'generic-ness' and the decorated shed. Maybe not.
some great quotes though:
Typical Plan provides the multiple platforms of 20th-century democracy.
Typical Plan is minimalism for the masses.
Typical Plan knows what European architecture will never learn.
...it is architecture as mantra.
I'm secretly working on Plan Atypical.
09051901 IQ section 8 Museum for Nordrhein Westfalen 2226i12 b
13051901 Casa Collage 003 plan scan 225ci01
13051902 Casa Collage 004 plan scan 225di01
13051903 Casa Collage 005 plan scan 225ei01
14051901 Calder Museum plan 22002 in situ 2369i04
14051902 Hurva Dormitories plan 22002 context 2375i04
14051903 Infringement Complex Plus Ultra plan 22002 context 2376i04
14051904 Gooding Trice House plan 22002 context 2377i05
14051905 Gooding Trice Villa plan 22002 context 2378i02
14051906 Working Title Museum 005 plan 22002 in situ 2379i02
15051901 Steven Holl Architects Hunters Point Community Library New York
18051901 OMA Kanal Chengdu Brussels
19051901 Hadrian's Villa @ iq38 museum collecting 206ki13
19051902 Palace/Park of Versailles Hadrian's Villa @ iq44-45 plans museum collecting 2092i44
19051903 Berlin 1958 iqq18 plan work 217ii17
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