1995.07.24
The Timepiece of Humanity
The present moves in only one direction, a direction wherein the future becomes the past. As the present animates time, it simultaneously transforms an inert future into an inert past. In this sense, the past and the future are the same; one becomes the other, and they both share an inert existence. Time is, therefore, one huge continuum, consisting almost entirely of an inert past and an inert future. The past and future coexist in time, and it is only the present that brings time out of inertia.
1995.08.08
chronosomatic architectures
…a distinction between the architecture of assimilation as opposed to the architecture of metabolism. Renaissance is assimilating. Michelangelo is metabolic, as is Baroque architecture. Piranesi is a great example of how assimilation and metabolism come together, and the early modern movement (Purism, Bauhaus) is a perfect example of the end of assimilation. I will also be able to approach the analysis of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye and the Palais des Congrès à Strasbourg as a move (on the part of Le Corbusier’s design methodology) from an assimilation based design process to a metabolic based design project.
1995.12.12
beginning of the BIA idea
...an introduction to Body, Imagination and Architecture that explains its connection to The Timepiece of Humanity. ...might as well make some comments on the book Body, Memory, and Architecture because of the 2/3 equality in the two titles. Body, Imagination and Architecture will be different in that it addresses the body, the workings of the human imagination, and how the design of architecture relates specifically to both.
1995.12.12
link between Body, Imagination and Architecture and The Timepiece of Humanity
The book will follow the imaginative processes, starting with assimilation and ending with osmosis and electro-magnetism. Fertility and frequency should be discussed as well, but they will not be covered as extensively as the other processes.
...assimilation and metabolism in terms of the Renaissance, the architecture of Michelangelo, and the Baroque...
Like The Timepiece of Humanity, Body, Imagination and Architecture will juggle the connection between specific times and specific parts of the body. There are buildings and designs. however, that fall outside of the strict timeframe, and this issue will be addressed.
1995.12.12
initial outline of chapetrs
1. Introduction
2a. The Renaissance: Assimilation and Architecture
2b. Michelangelo: the First Metabolist
2c. The Baroque and the Enlightenment: Assimilation and Metabolism Together
3. The Metabolization of History I--Learning from Piranesi’s Campo Marzio
4. The Metaboization of History II--the Architecture of K. F. Schinkel
5. Purism as Ultimate Assimilation
6. Towards a Metabolic Architecture
7. Osmosis and Electro-Magnetism: an Outside Inside Architecture
...the (as yet unmentioned) distinction between the profane modes of the imagination versus the sacred modes of the imagination. The sacred and profane division may become the overriding issue.
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1995.12.12
Introduction
1. The connection between the human body and the operational modes of the human imagination.
2. The distinction between the profane modes of the human imagination and the sacred modes of the human imagination.
3. The connection between the operational modes of the human imagination and architectural design.
1995.12.12
Assimilation, Metabolism [and the Combination of the Two]
1. The architecture of the Renaissance as a manifestation of pure assimilation.
2. The architectural texts of the Renaissance as another manifestation of pure assimilation, including the “new” Vitruvian Man.
3. Michelangelo as the first truly metabolic architect.
4. Baroque architecture as an architecture where assimilation begins to combine with metabolism.
5. The architecture of the Enlightenment as an architecture where metabolism takes on a greater role than assimilation.
1995.12.12
The Metabolization of History I--Learning from Piranesi’s Campo Marzio
1. An analysis of the Campo Marzio as it relates to both the ancient past and to Piranesi’s own time.
2. Special analysis of the Area Martis, the Bustum Hadriani and the triumphal route, as a specific investigation of Piranesi’s reconstruction/design process.
3. An analysis of the many building types that make up the Campo Marzio; this will bring up the issue of a new approach towards urbanism.
4. Contiguous elements as generative elements; this will also raise issues concerning Piranesi’s design methodology.
1995.12.12
The Metabolization of History II--the Architecture of K. F. Schinkel
1. An analysis of the design alternatives for the Neue Wache.
2. A reiteration of A. Vidler’s analysis of the Altes Museum.
3. The Greek versus the Roman ideal.
4. The Bauacademie, although I’m not sure whether an analysis and reconstruction of this building will contribute to the notion of metabolizing history.
5. A possible analysis of the three “higher” architecture projects: the Crimean palace, the palace on the Arcopolis, and the Residence for a Prince; these analyses will be related to the gigantism of the Campo Marzio, as well as representing a further manifestation of the idea of building type (which at this point is coming very close to eclecticism).
6. ...look at the old Schinkel notes from the 1980s.
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1995.12.12
Purism as Ultimate Assimilation
1. The relationship between Purist Architecture and Beaux Arts/eclectic architecture; ironically both are assimilation in the extreme, yet purism adds the necessary element of purge.
2. A brief history of Purism? This could address the notion of architectural “style” in that Purism is a deliberate attempt to manifest an entirely new architectural style, (in a sense manifesting an entirely new period in history, if not an altogether new history itself).
3. An analysis of the Villa Stein de Monzie and the Villa Garches, and the introduction of the promenade architecturale.
4. An analysis of the Villa Savoye as both full fruition of Purism and of promenade architecturale.
5. A bibliography of the promenade architecturale...
1995.12.12
Towards a Metabolic Architecture
1. A comparative analysis between the Villa Savoye and the Palais des Congrès à Strasbourg; this continues the issue of “style” and specifically how Le Corbusier provides the key as to how to evolve as an architectural designer; a full analysis of the Palais design.
2. James Stirling’s continuation of the promenade architecturale theme and his contributions towards a metabolic architecture; a full analysis of the Cologne Museum design.
3. A comparative analysis between Schinkel’s Altes Museum and Stirling’s Düsseldorf Museum, plus a critique of Benevolo and Vidler; a full analysis of the Düsseldorf Museum design.
4. Louis I. Kahn and his contribution towards metabolic architecture[?]--destruction of the square; an analysis of the Dominican Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Catherine de Ricci.
1995.12.12
Osmosis and Electro-Magnetism: Outside Inside Architecture
1. The basic rule of architecture: “the inside has to be different than the outside.”
2. A comparative analysis of the Maison l'Homme and Plecnik’s Houses Under a Common Roof and L. Krier’s curvy housing at La Villette.
3. The unavoidable link between osmosis and electro-magnetism or light.
4. Le Corbusier’s Tower of Shadows for Chandigarh and Louis I. Kahn’s Mikveh Israel Synagogue; the issues of positive and negative. (Does positive and negative bring up the issue of polarity, and does this imply polarity as a possible mode of the human imagination?)
5. The Kimbell Art Museum--equalizing the outside and the inside with light.
6. A comparative analysis between the Pantheon and Kahn's Hurva Synagogue.
1997.03.26
Articles at Quondam
...comparison of the Villa Rotunda and Kahn's Goldenberg House.
1997.04.20
various projects
Reading The Wake of Imagination. [Not sure that this is still relevant.]
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1997.05.15
imagination/Piranesi
Piranesi as a potent example of the juncture of the assimilating and metabolic imagination.
Will “capturing more than meets the eye” provide the link between Piranesi and the imagination?
See the “Cologne in Context” article.
1997.05.25
Body, Imagination, and Architecture @ Quondam
...connection to the forthcoming Strasbourg exhibit, Giurgola as pure assimilating metabolist, and Piranesi as the proto assimilating metabolist (although that more Michelangelo). Also a connection to the Stirling/Le Corbusier, and Schinkel essays/ideas, and also Venturi's new theory of an electronic display architecture.
...references to the current metabolic process of the imagination.
...the meaning and symbolism of humanity’s architecture of highest fertility. ...conveying how the Western assimilation of the globe has had a devasting effect on humanity’s most fertile architecture, and how now the only globally ancient architecture to really survive in time and usage are the Greek and Roman models. ...there may yet be a future for a resurrection of the other ancient architectures. ...issue of scale relative to the architecture of highest fertility.
...architecture related to the terms of pregnancy. Are Romanesque and Gothic architecture related to the early months of pregnancy, or is it significant that the Renaissance coincides with pregnancy at three months.
...start thinking about how virtual architecture fits into the imagination--perhaps assimilating / metabolis / osmotic.
1997.05.28
Body, Imagination, and Architecture
Wölfflin and Scott texts.
St. John Wilson article.
Adrian Stokes.
1997.05.29
Body, Imagination, and Architecture
...the body and the inside/outside phenomenon.
Earlier today, I was thinking how Western architecture came to the forefront of world architecture at the Renaissance/navel. Assimilation and purge then began to work in tandem, although seemingly separately. The (early) Modern Movement represents the crest of the purge (assimilation in the extreme) and now that the crest is past, we are in the midst of a metabolizing of the modern movement in architecture. I was thinking how many of the buildings in Quondam's collection are seminal pieces of the modern movement's metabolic phase, as well as some seminal pieces of the osmotic phase.
1997.06.11
ideas
...beginning to wonder whether architecture in the virtual realm is representative of the osmotic imagination.
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1997.06.24
fertile/pregnant architectures
...pre-preliminary research regarding the data of non-western architecture. Some of the “styles/types” fall within the “ages of highest fertility,” which includes ancient Greek and Roman architecture, but not ancient Egyptian architecture. There are, however, many great buildings that arrive later than the “ages of highest fertility”--these great symmetrical complexes of the subcontinent, southeast Asia, and Meso-America (and perhaps even Gothic) are a product of the “pregnant imagination.”
1997.07.11
fertile architecture/fertilized architecture
...reading The Hindu Temple and my instincts are correct in terms of seeking fertility in architecture--the Hindu temple is the prime example. ...the whole notion of successive repetition is at the very core of the temple’s design. (
Given the dates of the Hindu temples, it seems that the history of this architecture begins coincidental with the womb, and its subsequent development then coincides with the first three months of the TPH pregnancy. I am just now thinking of a time line of architectural history relative to the TPH pregnancy. Perhaps the history of fertilized architecture begins around AD 700 with Hindu temples and Moslem mosques. The inner sanctuary of the Hindu temples, in fact, called the womb, and perhaps the repetitive domes of Moslem architecture are also related to the womb (besides the fact that I see Islam as the religion where God is pure conception---a being beyond human comprehension). Perhaps then Gothic architecture also becomes part of the history of fertilized architecture, again because of its repetition (and organic, multi-cell structural formation) and because many Gothic cathedrals are dedicated to Mary, the virgin mother. In a strange way, this initial three month period seems to come to an end right when the architecture of assimilation (the Renaissance) enters the picture--the naval coincides with the TPH pregnancy at three months. (This is a very interesting sequence that I did not see before.)
My initial readings of Hindu architecture also made me realize that there may be a significant difference between fertile architecture and fertilized architecture, and the dates of each type (style?) stem from being above or below the womb. Perhaps Hindu, Muslim, and Gothic architecture are a product of when the womb and the developing fetus are actually in the plane of the present, however, I might also see the Pantheon as an example of fertilized architecture--it may symbolize the fertility of Greek and Roman architecture at the point when it becomes fertilized. (I should also note that I just thought that the Pantheon also fall close to the center of the “ages of highest fertility”.
1997.07.13
Further Deepening the "Natural Imagination"
4416 b c d e
1997.07.13
Hindu temples: fertilized architecture
I am now convinced that the Hindu temple is the prima example of fertilized architecture because it is used ritualistically as a penetration of the womb, and the form of the sanctuary itself combines both the male and female sexual organs--it is the womb on the inside and the phallus on the outside.
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