Zeitschrift
archithese 6.2015
Tradition Adaption Innovation
The evolution of architecture in the 20th century can be read as a history of alliances. Associations like the Werkbund, CIAM, Team 10 or the Texas Rangers acted as reform movements with a political or pedagogical agenda to spread their ideas – and finally also push them through – with the joint force of the collective. Our young millennium currently sees a renaissance of collaborative concepts and the establishment of unprecedented networks facilitated and expedited by digitalization and globalization. Can traditional structures still keep pace with these developments?
What is the general framework of these new collectives – open community, secret society or lobbyism? It is time to take a look under the surface and explore the mechanisms of these associations. How do they work, what keeps them together, and what powers them?
The recent crisis has thrown the architectural profession into economic and professional angst, and one could see a parallel in this to the previous century. Might it be that this uncertainty has led the architect – the great individualist – back into the collective? Isn’t the main purpose of alliances protection? But against whom?
The present issue of archithese examines these underlying structures of architecture on various levels. Architects like Max Bill, Le Corbusier or Esther McCoy developed their own strategies for reaching their goals and operated from their own networks. While Bill entered parliament as a politician to directly inject his idea of environmental design into the political discourse – a commitment that is rare amongst designers up to today – Le Corbusier’s upbringing in a Masonic milieu significantly expedited his career. Even today, some architects’ careers would not have come very far without a certain amount of external support, just think of SuperDutch or New Wave Denmark. In retrospect, many heroes of the American scene owe their legendary reputation to the architect and writer Esther McCoy, who, despite her achievements, has been largely forgotten by architectural historiography.
A fate similar to that of the young generation of contemporary architects in Southern Europe, who are already being called the „lost generation“. The dramatic slump of the Spanish and also the Italian construction industry has forced young architects, most of all, to question the traditional idea of the egomaniac artist-architect and to find new definitions as agents of society with social competence and community spirit. They thereby rediscover long-forgotten potential and areas for themselves and know how to make creative use of the possibilities of the 21st century to digitally connect and organize collective projects. But how does politics react to this new situation? While architectural associations used to mainly promote the interests of their members, they now for the first time in history face serious competition in the form of architectural trade unions in countries like Denmark or Spain. May it be that the profession felt their interests weren’t sufficiently represented anymore? Have the associations become tools of the economy and the construction industry?
A classic example of successful lobbyism can be found in the strategic methods of the Hamburg-based corporation ECE with its foundation „Stiftung Lebendige Stadt“ (Foundation for a Living City) for the major project MILANEO on the Stuttgart 21 area. The fusion of economy and politics achieves a certain blur here. And thus the economic lust for profit dominates the public good – which should customarily be protected by politics – thereby turning the city into prey. Lobbyism is no longer a pariah; it has become part of the establishment. We can at present already observe the emergence of new forms of dependencies, for example in the area of copyright legislation for new contracting forms like the Australian Project Alliance or in the transferral of estate archives, as is the case with the Barragán archives. So, what is the current state of the profession? – The time has come for new alliances.
The Editors
03 Editorial
12 Kontexte und Kollisionen. Visionen und Revisionen der spätmodernen Stadt | Ákos Moravánszky
22 Das Kollektive ins Zentrum rücken | Peter Märkli im Gespräch mit Jørg Himmelreich und Daniela Meyer
32 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Über adaptive und transformative Architekturtendenzen in Deutschland | Frank R. Werner
40 Kultur der Transformation. Raumwissen als Grundlage des Entwerfens | Aita Flury
48 Causa Austria. Zur Emanzipation einer Architektengeneration | Harald R. Stühlinger
56 Re-Evaluations. Notes on the Work of Christian Kerez | Irina Davidovici
68 Vom mimetischen Vermögen der Architektur. Scharouns Berliner Philharmonie als «moderner Klassiker» | Axel Sowa
76 Prekäre Gleichgewichtszustände System, Konzept und Komposition in der Architektur von Pascal Flammer | Michel Frei
84 Zürich-Konferenz. Eine Rückschau auf die Veranstaltung «Zürich – Räumlicher Stand der Dinge» | Richard Zemp
RUPRIKEN
88 archithavolata. Der fsai bittet zum Tischgespräch
92 Neues aus der Industrie
What is the general framework of these new collectives – open community, secret society or lobbyism? It is time to take a look under the surface and explore the mechanisms of these associations. How do they work, what keeps them together, and what powers them?
The recent crisis has thrown the architectural profession into economic and professional angst, and one could see a parallel in this to the previous century. Might it be that this uncertainty has led the architect – the great individualist – back into the collective? Isn’t the main purpose of alliances protection? But against whom?
The present issue of archithese examines these underlying structures of architecture on various levels. Architects like Max Bill, Le Corbusier or Esther McCoy developed their own strategies for reaching their goals and operated from their own networks. While Bill entered parliament as a politician to directly inject his idea of environmental design into the political discourse – a commitment that is rare amongst designers up to today – Le Corbusier’s upbringing in a Masonic milieu significantly expedited his career. Even today, some architects’ careers would not have come very far without a certain amount of external support, just think of SuperDutch or New Wave Denmark. In retrospect, many heroes of the American scene owe their legendary reputation to the architect and writer Esther McCoy, who, despite her achievements, has been largely forgotten by architectural historiography.
A fate similar to that of the young generation of contemporary architects in Southern Europe, who are already being called the „lost generation“. The dramatic slump of the Spanish and also the Italian construction industry has forced young architects, most of all, to question the traditional idea of the egomaniac artist-architect and to find new definitions as agents of society with social competence and community spirit. They thereby rediscover long-forgotten potential and areas for themselves and know how to make creative use of the possibilities of the 21st century to digitally connect and organize collective projects. But how does politics react to this new situation? While architectural associations used to mainly promote the interests of their members, they now for the first time in history face serious competition in the form of architectural trade unions in countries like Denmark or Spain. May it be that the profession felt their interests weren’t sufficiently represented anymore? Have the associations become tools of the economy and the construction industry?
A classic example of successful lobbyism can be found in the strategic methods of the Hamburg-based corporation ECE with its foundation „Stiftung Lebendige Stadt“ (Foundation for a Living City) for the major project MILANEO on the Stuttgart 21 area. The fusion of economy and politics achieves a certain blur here. And thus the economic lust for profit dominates the public good – which should customarily be protected by politics – thereby turning the city into prey. Lobbyism is no longer a pariah; it has become part of the establishment. We can at present already observe the emergence of new forms of dependencies, for example in the area of copyright legislation for new contracting forms like the Australian Project Alliance or in the transferral of estate archives, as is the case with the Barragán archives. So, what is the current state of the profession? – The time has come for new alliances.
The Editors
03 Editorial
12 Kontexte und Kollisionen. Visionen und Revisionen der spätmodernen Stadt | Ákos Moravánszky
22 Das Kollektive ins Zentrum rücken | Peter Märkli im Gespräch mit Jørg Himmelreich und Daniela Meyer
32 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Über adaptive und transformative Architekturtendenzen in Deutschland | Frank R. Werner
40 Kultur der Transformation. Raumwissen als Grundlage des Entwerfens | Aita Flury
48 Causa Austria. Zur Emanzipation einer Architektengeneration | Harald R. Stühlinger
56 Re-Evaluations. Notes on the Work of Christian Kerez | Irina Davidovici
68 Vom mimetischen Vermögen der Architektur. Scharouns Berliner Philharmonie als «moderner Klassiker» | Axel Sowa
76 Prekäre Gleichgewichtszustände System, Konzept und Komposition in der Architektur von Pascal Flammer | Michel Frei
84 Zürich-Konferenz. Eine Rückschau auf die Veranstaltung «Zürich – Räumlicher Stand der Dinge» | Richard Zemp
RUPRIKEN
88 archithavolata. Der fsai bittet zum Tischgespräch
92 Neues aus der Industrie
Weiterführende Links:
archithese Verein pro archithese
