Architecture as a form of art

Giacometti's "Suspended Ball" 1930-31

 "...Oh architectonic skunks who grub your noses between the pylons of petrified waterlines and the camouflaged font spouts architectonic firewater into the hall from which exudes the smell of the male vagina...Nothing, apart from Dada, is strong enough to stamp this sleepy cucumberarchitecture into the ground     Yes yes      DADA"
I.K. Bonset  "Archachitektonica" 1922

Architecture is an art, those who remain reluctant to renognize it are either blind, deaf, or ignorant, unaware of a historical reality

In order to support such a vision, a vision that may seem outdated today, I will briefly introduce the thesis  entitled: "The Dialectic Form: Avant-Garde & Architecture in Aldo van Eyck and Alison & Peter Smithson (1945-1960)"

The thesis has been developped by Monsieur Juan-Luis Valderrabano-Montañes under professor Juan Herreros (ETSAM School of Architecture of Madrid) and professor Kenneth Frampton (GSAPP, Columbia University, New York). A public PhD jury will take place at the School of Madrid next Monday 13th December 2011  http://www.dpa-etsam.com/

Although the scope of the research has been narrowed down to the post-war years -Van Eyck vs. The Smithsons- the research traces a line between a pre-war and a post-war notion of architecture as a form of art, of the Modern Movement in architecture as an Avant-Garde. Hence it covers from the emergence of Dada in Zurich 1916 to the late 1950s when Aldo Van Eyck and Alison & Peter Smithson rebelled against the CIAM.

voila le texte!

The Dialectic Form: Avant-Garde & Architecture
in Aldo van Eyck and Alison & Peter Smithson (1945-1960)

"Nowadays there is a lack of clarity and consistency in the relation between architecture and art. In many cases, either art is dismissed and architecture is driven only by technical means and analytical thinking, or art is superficially used as an inspiration without an understanding of the aesthetic principles that ground it. This research is an attempt to question our current understanding of the role of art in architecture. It looks back into a paradigmatic moment in recent history, where the question was addressed causing the first big crisis of the Modern Movement: the post-war European reconstruction period (1945-1960), when the criticism drafted by Aldo van Eyck & A&P Smithson to the rationalistic tendency of the late CIAM unveiled the fact that the artistic principles that grounded the Modern Movement were falling into oblivion.

Facing the overwhelming task of the European reconstruction, the CIAM architects were having difficulties defining the role of art in architecture. The mainstream of CIAM was considering only the satisfaction of the material needs, relying exclusively in analytical thinking and technical means to do so. From CIAM 6 (1947) to CIAM 9 (1953), Aldo van Eyck and the Smithsons criticized the approach of CIAM for overlooking the emotional aspects of the reconstruction. If architects focused exclusively in analytical thinking to solve the material aspects, overlooking the irrational nature of human behavior, cities would become inhuman. CIAM was obliterating the fact that modern art had grounded the Modern Movement in architecture, and made architects aware of the limitations of rational thinking in architectural design. Within the early Modern Movement an exclusively rationalistic approach was considered irrational.

Constructivist-Dadaist Congress (Weimar, 1922)

Vaan Doesburg, Lissitzky, Tzara, Moholy-Nagy, Schwitters, Arp, H.Richter,...

Van Eyck’s and Smithsons’ understanding of the role of art and aesthetics made them aware of the limitations of a rationalistic approach in architecture. They shared a vision of modern architecture grounded in art; according to which, architecture should rely in technical and artistic means in order to fulfill both, material and emotional needs- two complementary aspects mixed in everyday life. The artistic principles that grounded Van Eyck’s and Smithsons’ conception of architecture can be traced back to the emergence of modern art: from Dadaism to ‘Art Brut’. They were present in their early work: from the exhibitions designs for Cobra and the Independent Group, to their projects on the city such as the Van Eyck’s playgrounds or the Smithson’s Golden Lane project. Art nourished their work in terms of perception and design: The artists’ perception brought them to consider more the emotional aspects of human behavior and to consider architecture’s potential to give room to such behaviors. In order to do so they integrated the irrational means used by artists, such as sensual knowledge, imagination and intuition, in their design process.

Cobra painting - kids playing - Sandpit from Van Eyck's playground & graveyard in Timoudi

E. Paolozzi's drawing - A&P Smithson Golden Lane project - N. Henderson's photograph

Although this research is grounded in historical facts its approach and goal are operative. It drafts a critical-analysis of the parallelisms and divergences between Van Eyck’s & Smithsons’ projects in relation to art in order to learn from them. At the same time, it tries to point out aspects of modern art that were overlooked and had resulted determinant for architecture’s later development, such as the transformation of art in commodity foreseen by Dadaists like Duchamp. Ultimately it attempts to analyze the relation art & architecture in a paradigmatic moment of recent history in order to awake our consciousness, and establish some criteria regarding potentialities of art and aesthetics in current architectural theory and design" Juan-Luis Valderrabano-Montañes, May 2010

For a depper paper on the topic see: Curro "The Gift of Form: Avant-Garde Art & Architecture, 1947-1960" in Potlatch: A Journal of the Potlatch Lab for Art & Architecture at the GSAPP, Columbia University" nº1, ed. by GSAPP-Columbia University, New York, Fall 2010.
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/event/news-events/events/gsapp-campus/studio-x-global/potlatch-journal-launch