2003.09.08 08:51
Re: Maytag, so
It has also been written that "Less is a Bore."
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Regarding Mies, however, it is true that less [walls] is more [windows]. Very 20th century!
Very 23rd century: less assimilation is more metabolic.
2003.09.26 16:22
metabolism
"On the occasion of the World Design Conference held in Tokyo in 1960, a group of young 30-something Japanese architects proposed "metabolism" as a new 'ism' for architecture and urban planning. Their idea was quite simple: architecture and the city should constitute an open living organism that grows through metabolism, instead of an enclosed, static machine."
--Arika Asada and Arata Isozaki, "From Molar Metabolism to Molecular Metabolism" in Anyhow (1998).
What the Metabolists failed to realize is that metabolism (as a physiological operation) is a creative/destructive duality, hence, metabolism does not define a continuous organic growth, as much as growth integral with equal measures of destruction.
Schumpeter called capitalism "creative destruction," which, if correct, essentially labels capitalism as being metabolic. There is no question that we live in very metabolic times. Unfortunately, most (product) designers today (seem to) remain oblivious to the fact that what is great design today will soon enough be tomorrow's trash.
2003.09.26 16:51
metabolism
The product of catabolism (destructive metabolism) is energy, which in turn induces anabolism (creative metabolism).
Human biological waste matter is largely an end product of assimilation. Uric acid, however, seems to be a by-product of metabolism.
2003.10.21 13:45
Re: hitleresque
...osmotic symmetry here gives way to metabolic duality.
2003.12.17 02:41
architecture and emotion=art?
schizophrenia + architectures part II
from: Ottopia
to: Bottomopolis
again by
the brother metabolic
2004.01.06
epiphanies
The Bottomopolis of Ottopia - a metabolic ichnographia in two states.
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2004.02.13 12:44
Re: of castles, fortifications, etc.
The metabolic urbanism of contemporary Israel.
2004.02.22 16:24
Re: WTC question
Is any architectural project ever "all said and done?"
For example, look at the 'development' of Independence Mall in Philadelphia. The mid-1940's to the mid-1960's is when this area was erased of what was there, and newly designed as a 'national park.' In the 1990s, the design of this park was deemed unsuccessful, if not outright bad. Since 1998, this area is under reconstruction. From my perspective, this ongoing metabolic (ie, creative/destructive) pattern is a completely apt representation of what the USA is (design wise, at least) all about.
2004.03.18 12:51
Re: architecture and nature...
nature of fertility?
nature of assimilation?
metabolic nature?
nature of osmosis?
electro-magnetic nature?
the nature of all frequency?
or merely
the academically stunted nature of imitation? (doctored mimesis)
coda:
visceral reenactment
or merely
reenacting a who or a what
2004.03.21 10:58
party ends with a bang
….to witness the implosion of Veteran's Stadium.
If you have a copy of the book Mutations handy, you can see a nice aerial shot of the now quondam Veteran's Stadium on pages 542-3. The caption reads:
In 1999 American cities saw at least 41 new and renovated sports facilities with another 34 such projects slated for the next 3 years.
Long argued by developers and sports executives as boons toward sustainable urban renewal, economics consistently show that stadiums actually slow the growth of cities and cost taxpayers billions of dollars per decade. "New" stadiums are frequently declared obsolete and are torn down, in favor of yet newer ones, in as little as 7 years. The brutal, perpetual migration of sports teams to ever-newer facilities however can increase their own yearly income by as much as $40 million.
So much for metabolic nature.
2004.03.26 16:57
Re: The history of the destruction of architecture
Imagine how different ancient architectural history would be if there were existing records of all the 'Pagan' temples destroyed in the name of Christianity. For example, where exactly in Greece did the spiral columns within the original St. Peter's Basilica (later reenacted via the baldachin by Bernini) come from? It was Eutropia that first told Helena about these columns and their original locations.
Or what would architectural history be like if all the buildings that were ever erected on this planet were a matter of record?
Again, so much for (the rise in) metabolic thinking.
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2004.09.23 13:34
Happy Birthday Helena Augusta
Was Eutropia at Trier on 23 September 326? Is that when she (metabolically) gave orders for the destruction of the Imperial palace there to then create the enormous twin basilica in its place?
2004.11.08 14:00
Re: Concrete Comedy: A Primer
Perhaps it's just me, but if I were to write (for an 'international' art magazine) about metabolic imagination, for example, I'd (at least try to) do it metabolically, even.
2005.02.25 11:49
Re: [dis]content .1
…thanks for adding references regarding 'reverse salients'. Interesting stuff and seemingly worthwhile methodology.
Funny, when thinking of flaws, I'm also reminded of the 'quest for the flawless' in current popular (mostly American?) culture--the extreme makeover craze, etc. "metabolic slash delivery" indeed!
2005.03.13 11:31
Re: Versialles, sigh
Thanks for the Freud references, B. Lots of food for further thought regarding the Stotesbury story. I have to say, however, that the Freud quotation--
'The Rome Analogy–tries to explain how memory works through the analogy of the preservation of the archaeology of Rome. The problem arises when one tries to imagine a Rome in which every building and statue of each period of Roman history is imagined existing complete and at the same time.'
--more or less describes exactly what Piranesi already did with the Ichnographia Campi Martii. In fact, a quotation from Freud's Civilization and its Discontents--
And now, I think, the meaning of the evolution of civilization is no longer obscure to us. It must present the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction, as it works itself out in the human species. This struggle is what all life essentially consists of, and the evolution of civilization may therefore be simply described as the struggle for life in the human species.
--was prelude to the 1999 presentation (in schizophrenia + architectures) of "Eros et Thanatos Ichnographia Campi Martii". Of course, I see this "struggle between Eros and Death" as nothing more than a reenactment of the metabolic process that keeps every human alive.
What interests me more now though, is the notion of Surreal Architecture and how "Here a Versailles (the original Versailles Palace), There a Versailles (Herrenchiemsee), Everywhere a Versailles (Whitemarsh Hall) Sigh" aptly manifests exactly what Surreal Architecture is.
surreal:
1. having qualities attributed to or associated with surrealism
2. having an oddly dreamlike quality.
surreal:
1. characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions
2: resembling a dream
Versailles Palace as the ultimate absolute monarchy dream existence, and its strange 'place' in Germany's 'rise and fall' history (and don't forget Marie Antoinette was a Hapsburg). And now it's a prosperous tourist destination.
Ludwig II of Bavaria, aka The Dream King, reenacts Versailles on a Bavarian island, even more opulent than the original Versailles. Ludwig really only stayed there for 10 days, and now it's a prosperous tourist destination.
Whitemarsh Hall, the ultimate American Dream Home, turned derelict palace in suburbia, and at least one architect's "first wet architectural dream come true." No tourism here though, because there isn't much left to see.
Like you suggested earlier, B, there is a surreal (architecture) thing going on in "Versailles, sigh."
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2005.03.25 13:13
Ole Bouman quote, strong stuff!
Where does Bouman get his "novel" ideas?]
To: archipol@archis.org
Subject: introduction, etc.
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 19:50:03 -0500
I thus wish to interject one example of metabolic architecture/urbanism. …
I now think of Rotterdam and the Netherlands as also being very metabolic places.
2005.05.05 10:17
modernity/post-modernity
Chronosomatically, the present Zeitgeist is the transverse section of the male and female human body slicing through the lowest two tips of the rib cage. Study the morphology and physiology within that corporal slice (including a developing fetus within the female body) and there's the esssence of the present Zeitgeist. Lots of transverse colon, thus assimilation in the extreme; two kidneys, thus osmosis and some specific metabolism; the very dualistic beginning of a peripheral webbed structural system; etc., etc.
2005.06.26 12:21
Re: question
Ideas have an interesting metabolism in that they seem to nicely feed off each other.
2005.08.16 18:16
the agnostic design of spiritual space
I don't see any need for an imposive cancelling-out. The fact that even your explaination still includes a "both" means the duality is still there.
I haven't read about the physics of light in over 10 years (in Encyclopedia Britannica, so maybe there have been new discoveries since then, but back then, light, under certain laboratory/experimental conditions behaved like a wave, and under other laboratory/experimental conditions it behaved like a particle.
I happen to like dualities, and my favorite is metabolism, create and destroy.
2005.08.18 13:25
Why do you think you're creative?
Last night I was wondering whether my ongoing quest to do things creative stems from the reality that there are always going to be others out to destroy what I create.
2005.08.18 15:49
Why do you think you're creative?
Well, we all operate metabolically, that's for sure. And the operation of fertility is definitely part of our design. That leaves, for sure, assimilation, electromagnetism, osmosis, and then all high frequencies.
They say metabolism is in every cell. That might be true for every living human cell, and even if it's only almost every living human cell that has metabolism in it, imagine then a destructive-creative duality going on in nearly all the cells of your body the whole time you're alive. (This exercise is actually an experiment in first stimulating the assimilating imagination.)
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2005.08.18 18:39
Why do you think you're creative?
Well, the two most prodominant modes of imagination under which humanity presently operates are the assimilating imagination and the metabolic imagination. It will remain that way for almost 200 more years. Then like at least a half century of predominantly the metabolic imagination in operation.
2005.09.29 14:20
Dark Ages
Here's the answer: Creationism and Destructionism
God is all creative/anabolic and man is all destructive/catabolic, althought, like in metabolism, there are traces of creativity in catabolism, hence man is creative in that he, ie, Cain son of Adam, created the first death/murder.
the evolution of death/murder
final lesson: the evolution of brainwashing
Why is this such a big issue?
2006.01.18 17:39
what is the good source to study folding architecture?
….when it really comes down to an architectural design, folding architecture really does boil down to what it looks like. So, as far as I'm concerned, folding architecture is just another form, in the long history of forms, that architecture can take on, and, like jlxarchitect says, "if it can solve my office's project's problem, then it is OK to use."
Otherwise, the notion of "an entire school of [failed?] thought" is stillborn, rather than being something within the evolutionary continuum of architectural design. And just because it's what is taught in school doesn't necessarily make it the truth. For example, the "Metabolist" architects of Japan talked a lot about architecture reflecting "life giving" forms, while at the same time appearing oblivious to the fact that metabolism as a operation is a creative/destructive duality. Likewise, everything Tafuri and Eisenman said/say about Piranesi's Ichnographia Campus Martius is just plain incorrect, yet their mistakes are taught and published over and over again.
2007. 04.21 22:00
...and speaking of random tangents
regarding An American (Wall) in Baghdad:
Subject: Re: city making and city breaking
Date: 1998.12.17
2007.07.11 16:45
Verb: Featured Discussion
Is it all still pretty much operative criticism?
Perhaps architectural criticism needs to begin operating differently where:
some criticisms are extreme
some criticisms are fertile
some criticisms are pregnant
some criticisms are assimilating
some criticisms are metabolic
some criticisms are osmotic
some criticisms are electro-magnetic
some criticisms are total frequency
But maybe that will only happen when (we begin to realize that):
some architectures are extreme
some architectures are fertile
some architectures are pregnant
some architectures are assimilating
some architectures are metabolic
some architectures are osmotic
some architectures are electro-magnetic
some architectures are total frequency
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