Prep Book v.1

8/8/2019 Prep Book v.1

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Primary Advisor: Anda French

Secondary Advisor: Ted Brown

Daley Wilson

S O C I A LINFUSIONurban theatre & public space

Syracuse University School of Architecture November 3, 2010


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S O C I A LINFUSION


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Introduction- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 001

Glossary- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 003

Loss of Public Space- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 005

Berlin :: Tacheles- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 011

Programmatic Strategies- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 029

Precedents- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 035

Bibliography- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 043

TABLE OF CONTENTS


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Lewis Mumford de ned the city as a theater of interacting social and physicalforces: The city creates the theater and is the theater. It is in the city, the city astheater, that mans more purposive activities are focused, and work out, throughcon icting and co-operating personalities, events, groups into more signifcant culminations (Mumford 185).


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My thesis will explore contemporary issues of public space in the city as theatre. The city as theatredescribes the nature of urban spaces as spheres of enactment. It is a metaphor for [inter]actions thattake place in the city. There are implications of public-ness when framing the city as an incubatorfor joint experience or solidarity in consuming the spectacle. These actor and audience relationships

amongst urbanites are critical social functions in fast-paced metropolitan life due to the manifestationof late-capitalism. With the increasing loss of public space in our cities due to the privatizationcomponent of digital information and capitalistic endeavors, this thesis maintains that architec -ture can reclaim the public-realm through carefully considered programmatic intentions, in theform of event-making. The design intention is a marriage of architecture and infrastructure for publicbehavior: demonstration, performance, and informal encounters. There is typically a tension betweenthe two; however, they must unite in order to create a true public architecture contrary to paying forpublic space.

As a result of my architectural contention, I have identi ed a site and situation that best represents thecrisis I have addressed above. Berlin, particularly the old Tacheles department store in former EastBerlin, represents a city and culture at odds with commercial development. Squatters have in ltratedthe abandoned Tacheles building (bombed out during WWII, yet remains intact with visible scars), re-appropriating it as a Kunsthaus. Squatters have ourished in post-wall Berlin. The movement galva -nized fresh off the opening of the wall, when East Berliners inundated the west looking for opportunity,therefore emptying many buildings and prompting debates of possession and public domain. Today,most squatters manage activities for artists and political groups in these derelict buildings. Artists atTacheles confront the concept of public domain.

In terms of design methodology, I believe architecture that produces events and program superimpo-

sitions could be effective. Some spaces might be unprogrammed supported by infrastructure, whichencourages a dynamic individualized experience, tailored to ones desires and medium of expression.However, program pairings help with the cohesion of squatters coexisting with commercial. Inher-ently, collage and montage will become valuable representational and design techniques.

This topic has been understudied in the past and is gaining more momentum as people realize dueto urban convergence, cities will serve as mediators by which humanity will be de ned and shaped.

Architectures role is of great importance because we can no longer solely rely upon political agenciesto effectively resolve crisis in our cities. Cities are growing and public space is diminishing.


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Age of Excess - The indulgent product of modernization, which is characterized by alack of concern for function and sustainability, and the disappearance of public spacedue to late-capitalisms promotion of mass consumption of goods and information.-see late-capitalism

Appropriation - The action of taking something for ones own use, typically without theowners permission (New Oxford Dictionary).

Crisis - Crisis is a turning point, a decisive moment when tensions or instabilities peak,and change becomes inescapable. Crisis implies the questioning of beliefs and habits,it demands adjustment in perception and in modes of action doubts regarding currentmodels of urban developmentarchitecture cant carry on as usual. -Verb:Crisis

Event- A social occasion or occurrence, can be planned or spontaneous in order topromote awareness of a cause, agenda, celebration, etc. Event is different that inter-vention in that it is not intervening upon a physical condition. It is merely program, thephysical actions of humans, not in a tectonic sense.

Infrastructure - Physical/Cyber organizational structures used for public operations

Instandbesetzen - German de nition of squatters (combination of two words)i. Besezten - occupyingii. Instandsetzen - renovating

This etymological breakdown suggests that squatters provide an alternative to gentri -cation for improving empty/derelict spaces (Pruit 35).


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Intervention - An action or response as a result of something, a motive or agendain uences this action. Intervention, unlike event, produces a more tectonic result (i.e.infrastructure for an event) where physical actions of humans can be played out in amore planned manner.

Late-Capitalism - Postmodern Marxist de nition of the contemporary economic sys -tem which has produced a new social formation. It signals a post-industrial society,consumer society, media society, information society, electronic society, and multina-tional capitalism. Aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodityproduction generally: the frantic economic urgency of producing fresh waves of evermore novel-seeming goods (Jameson 3-4).

Public Space - Collective spaces where one does not have to pay to be. These spacesare mostly constrained to infrastructure (squares, parks, bridges, sidewalks, streets,etc.). Architecture has failed to engage urbanites in a truly public manner.

Spectacle - = (a) a framing device through which to view something anew; (b) absurd orsurreal attention-seeking display. The type of spectacle desired in this thesis is not oneof icon or image, but one of event or action. A seemingly absurd clashing of programproduces a spectacle.

[Urban] Theatre - A lens or sphere of enactment, a metaphor for [inter]actions in thecity. The city as theatre implies social interaction and actor/audience relationshipsamongst urbanites. With the loss of public space in our cities, this thesis will reclaimthe concept of the city as a theatre through event-making.


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With the increasing loss of public space in our cities due to the privatization component of digitalinformation and capitalistic endeavors, this thesis maintains that architecture can reclaim the public-realm through carefully considered programmatic intentions, in the form of event-making.

Rem Koolhaas named the current urban situation, The Generic City (Avermaete 63). Cities havebecome bland and confused places where social interaction remains low due to the Age of Excess.The Generic City, iPod City, Blackberry City, Corporate City, Private City, Crisis City, etc. is pervadingthe urban experience of human interface. Architecture has fallen prey to this new privatized socialformation. Jrgen Habermas stated that, the opportunity for the public to form their own opinions isa necessary condition of human freedom and emancipation (Avermaete 27).

Over time, the city as theatre has become increasingly watered down. In Inhabiting Space and Time the Loss and Recovery of Public Space, Juhani Pallasmaa clearly compares public space in thehistorical city to the modern city:

The same intense and theatre-like interaction of public social space and individual/mental space can be encountered in the depictions of urban space in countless paintings since theMiddle Ages. In fact, the prime subject matter of most medieval and Renaissance paintings

apart from their mythical, religious or historical themes is the interplay, or unity, of architectural

or urban space and the human character. Yet, the urban spaces of the modern city moreoften than not seem to project a sense of isolation, separateness and solitude. They do not

promote experiences of belonging and togetherness; we remain as separate individuals in these spaces instead of becoming members of a collectively and historically rooted collective body (Avermaete 125).


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DIAGRAMS


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A personal moment of realization of the current state of urban architecture was my visit to 41 CooperSquare by Morphosis in August of 2009. Much media buzz surrounded the completion of this building,

naming it a great civic building. Below is a play-by-play of Nicolai Ouroussoffs New York Times reviewof the building with my rst-hand reaction.

Nicolai Ouroussoff: Well have to wait to nd out exactly what the end of the Age of Excess means forarchitecture in New York. Yes, the glut of high-concept luxury towers was wearisome.Daley Wilson: Yes.

A few sentences later, Ouroussoff goes on to call the building a bold architectural statement of genuinecivic value.DW: Ok, sure.

He then describes the strategy of the building to be social as well as aesthetic: Here the big V-shapedcolumns that line the sidewalk not only support the building, but they also create small pockets ofspace where students can hang out along the streetthe idea is to create a series of interlockingsocial spaces, many unde ned, and to allow for the kind of casual encounter that is a central part ofurban life.DW: That might have been the initial intention.

However, you are more likely to be reprimanded for physically interacting with the building: Like otherradical architects of his age, he is more interested in the dark, hidden corners where people can loiter,

get into mischief, escape from authority.DW: It happened to me.

Mr. Maynes stairs are a standard 11 inches, like a conventional re stairwell. They are hard to sit on,and they gave me vertigo when I began my descent from the third oor. Does this sound picky? Not ina design that is all about the informal use of public space.DW: Sounds like Mr. Ouroussoff started the review with one idea only to realize that, maybe, this

building is just another excessive starchitecture blob..


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Building without public space+ negative reinforcement


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Square/Piazza Park

Street + Sidewalk

Architecture

Public

Private


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Perhaps, the design was initially presented as a building that would encourage informal use of publicspace. In reality, security guards scold people for sitting on the sloped walls and columns. If onecannot get into the hermetically sealed building, can he or she at least play on the exterior? Not inthis case. This is proof that architects and planners cannot always leave things to chance; they mustdeliberately design. I therefore nd myself asking what use this building is to 99.9% of the city? Evenif one could argue that the spectacle of this building is of great civic value to the city, it is not enough.

What happened to functionality, moral responsibility, and social conscious?

Existing public space is constrained to infrastructure (squares, parks, bridges, sidewalks, streets,Internet, etc.), while other somewhat public spaces typically come with a price (monetary or sociallyhierarchical).


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Berlin is a palimpsest or layering of history. It is a collage of pre and post event chaotic schizophrenia.Signi cant political and social crises have plagued the city, particularly in the 20th century. Berlinnever had a moment to exhale between the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War. The citywas physically and politically divided from that point until 1989. With reuni cation, Berlin confronteda city in ruins, which led to uncertainty when it came time for reconstruction.

Many Germans took one of two sides: preserve as much as possible or start a fresh slate and build

new. Fifty percent of buildings before 1940 were destroyed by the war and twenty-three percentwere destroyed by planning decisions after 1940. There was not much discussion of hybridizationor compromise. Many political battles were fought over preservation versus new construction.New construction tended to pit left-wing squatters and politicos against Germanys new capitalism.Ironically, post-war German reconstruction looked a lot like the modernist monumental vision of Hitler.The major commercial center, Potsdamer Platz, was planned by Renzo Piano and built immediatelyafter the wall fell.

Despite early unsuccessful attempts to turn Berlin into a Metropolis, like Potsdamer Platz, the cityhas cultivated an avant-garde arts scene, reminiscent of 1980s New York. This illustrates that thecity does not need to be -and never has been- a dense New York-like city. The city has continuedinto post-reuni cation as a bohemian enclave. A struggling economy, high unemployment, and post-industrial shrinkage have forced city of cials to transition Berlins industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy. New sectors for employment have emerged, including; media, IT, advertising, art,music, fashion, and design (Endless City?). Forward-thinking art and design has a home in Berlin.This anxious and rough persona has become Berlins, historically appropriate, post-wall identity. Thefate of 1980s New York is paralleled with the AIDS epidemic and mostly the Disney cation of thecity by the Giuliani administration. Berlin is in a similar predicament as New York was in the early 90s.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,702856,00.html


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Squatters are the anarchist urbaninterventionists, because top-downagencies fail.

instandsetzen (renovating) + besetzen (occupying)

Counterculture vs. Capitalism

A signi cant example of Berlins tension between culture and commercial is Kunsthaus Tacheles.Tacheles, once a department store in Berlins largely Jewish Mitte district, is just one of over 100,000

buildings that were left empty or in disrepair after World War II and the Cold War (Endless City). It waslater appropriated as a street art gallery. Squatter-artists at the abandoned Tacheles building havebecome synonymous with the active Berlin art scene. Cheap housing and low cost-of-living, due toBerlins stagnant economy, has attracted a large amount of artists to the city. The artists resuscitatethe empty buildings, legally and illegally.

Currently, developers are hoping to turn this sacrosanct site into a major commercial real estate

property. The I Support Tacheles website claims that the building attracts a high number of visitors[and is] an economic cornerstone of the district. They are demanding the small plot of the Kunsthaustransfer by lease to a public foundation Tacheles secure (tacheles.de). Tearing down Tacheles, acultural and even tourist destination, and shifting it to a commercial development further promotes thegeneric city.


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HSH Nordbank is threatening to auction off the vibrant site

= INSTANDBESETZEN (German de nition of Squatting)


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Why intervene?

The Hamburg-based bank, HSH Nordbank, plans to auction off the building, thus forcing the artists toleave. The site is considered prime real estate, largely due to the chunk of undeveloped land on thelot and its location (der Spiegel). The Tacheles upheaval has stirred much media attention and debateregarding control of the large amount of empty properties in post-war Berlin. No one is certain howto proceed in shaping the city: Its a con ict which pits the citys vibrant cultural scene against theinterests of capital and which in uences the public debate in Berlin (der Spiegel). There are manypolitical allies, such as the center-left Social Democrats, particularly Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit.Tacheles is valued as a symbol of the developments of the last 20 years, says Andr Schmitz, thecity-states culture secretary (der Spiegel).

A proposed architectural intervention promotes the savior of the site; it is a political act. The projectionof a possible future demonstrates an alternative to demolition. While the project may not be built, it maypreserve Tacheles and its site. A similar condition presented itself at Factory 798 by Bernard Tschumi.

An artist community was threatened by demolition in Beijing. Tschumi said The project generatedan enormous amount of media coverage since people saw it as a way to keep the old while moving

forward with the new. Maybe in part due to the response to our project, the government decided notto go ahead with the demolition. So maybe we saved the neighborhood but ultimately lost a project(Praxis 8, pg 13). Through programming strategies and spatial con gurations, preservation of existingand addition of new constituents can coexist.


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JohannisviertelMasterplan, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, 2000

One of several proposalsfor the area. While it doesnot demolish the buildingphysically, it destroys it asa functioning kunsthausthrough the design and

programming. The artistswould no longer reside inTacheles if this were built.


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Due to the nature of the project, the site is not necessarily understood through traditionalrepresentational methods. Plans, sections, and elevations are not as effective in describing thesite. Rather, it can be documented and analyzed through a series of photographs or momentsin time. The invention of Flickr has allowed the people to post their experiences online for thepublic. I propose that this system for understanding the events and practices. Photos are thesite. Photos joined with techniques such as collage, montage, and cinemetric diagramming

will be the primary mode of representation to describe the site and future interventions. Thisis an enhanced medium for mapping out actions, behaviors, patterns, and circulations.


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Studios : around 30 studios where over 50 artists from around the world work in (anyone can apply,they just have to send a portfolio and resume which are reviewed by a board of trustees every twomonths, contracts are for six months)

www.tacheles.de

Th Bl S l ( 4305 5 f


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The Blue Salon (room area 4305.5 ft, stagedimension 20ftx13ft, ceiling height 14ft):on the fth oor is a laboratory and atelier.There are partitions that can be adjusted fordifferent event assemblies (performances,theater, readings, music events, etc).

Golden Hall (dimensions 41ft x 82ft ceiling height


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Golden Hall (dimensions 41ft x 82ft, ceiling height20.5ft): on the rst oor and is currently used for varioustypes of performances (concerts, exhibitions, stageperformances, assemblies, parties, etc). It containsa exible assembly system including a stage, seatingfor 125 people, and sound and light equipment. Atone time it was a lecture hall. From 1960 to 1981 itwas a cinema called Camera, one of only a few in theGerman Democratic Republic (GDR).

Galleries : hold major exhibitions


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Galleries : hold major exhibitions


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I am not interested in a utopian vision that ignores the economic state of Berlin. Ideally, it would be

comfortable to disregard the actual situation and imagine that the artists can live happily ever afterthrough the power of architecture. Conversely, this thesis nds opportunities in the dif cult situation atTacheles. The study of programming options in uence on public space is critical for design solutionsin order achieve the desired outcome on this particular site.

Various programmatic pairings support the existence of entities in tension. This system can be modi-ed depending on the speci c temporal, monetary, and required conditions across the site. The varia -

tions I have identi ed for Tacheles includes:

1) Interstitial + Event2) Necessity + Event3) Temporally Adaptive4) Capital + Culture

Event In the Residual


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Interstitial spaces primarily include corridors, elevators, and stairs (circulation/movement spaces).These are the moments of social interaction in architecture. This strategy is one of articulation and/ormanipulation of infrastructure and event. Injections and infusions of event-space in the residual increase

the chance meeting and interaction amongst all niche populations, whether it is the artists, commuters,tourists, or corporate businesspeople. Residual space truly presents a public transformation.

Event In the Residual

Necessity + Event


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Additionally, pairing programs of necessity with a program of cultural implication produces a similareffect. Examples include:1) Toilet + Digital projections2) Subway + Gallery3) Stairs + Gallery4) Caf + Theatre5) Seating + Sculpture

Necessity + Event

Temporally Adaptive


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In terms of addressing the Berlin climate of cold winters and warm summers, the implementation oftemporally adaptive program could activate the site during all seasons. A climatically appropriateexample is a space for ice-skating in the winter, which could transform into a pool in the summer. At

rst glance, this may seem simple, however, this pairing conjures several interesting relationships. Itspeaks to issues of public space, temporality, climate, and play. How does it relate to the issues ofthe site? It attracts a new set of inhabitants who will be forced to engage and populate the site. Howcan developers demolish such a publicly networked site?

IMAGE

Temporally Adaptive

Capital + Cultural


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Perhaps the most critical programmatic pairing, links capital producing program with the existingcultural program. Funding for the arts does not magically happen. While many people agree that thearts are important to society, measures must be taken to secure that the late-capitalist system does

not weed it out as a part of its blind process of money-making. Of course the infamous characterfrom Wall Street and unscrupulous lover of capitalism-, Gordon Gekko, is the clich example of aSothebys art collector. On the other hand, he would be unlikely to fund a street-art facility because itis not a pro table venture. The reality is that some program needs to nancially support Tacheles inorder to prevent demolition.

Capital Cultural


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The effect of clashing program produces a confrontational space. The introduction of a foreign bodyof users onto the site may produce varying outcomes (discomfort, exposure, education, appreciation,etc). However, what is crucial is that these program pairings preserve the existing.

Existing constituents

Artists Squatters Tourists Subway riders

Potential constituents Retail workers Businesspeople Ice-skaters Swimmers

DIAGRAM


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TEXT

ABC No Rio


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-Not-for-pro t artist space, gallery in lower east side, NYC-Went through similar crisis as Tacheles-Hired an architect, Paul Castrucci, to renovate their space http://www.abcnorio.org/

Bernard Tschumi


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Parc de la Villette

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-Superimposition-Decontextualizing-Collage-Transprogramming-Spatial Storyboarding

EventInterventionInfrastructure

Events for Bernard Tschumi af rm that there is no architecturewithout action or without program, and that architecturesimportance resides in its ability to accelerate societystransformation through a careful agencing of spaces and events(Tschumi 11).


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Julia Mandle


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Example: Chalking the city becomes a diagram for understanding urban ows & circulation whilesimultaneously acting as an event with an absurd tone

EventSpectacle

http://www.jmandleperformance.org/


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vs.vs.

The absurd reveals obvious & overlooked truths

Urban interventionist, Julia Mandle, is similar to that of a comedian, la Jon Stewart. Both drawattention in an absurd manner to the obvious. Perhaps that is where the concept of spectacle (orthe absurd) plays into my thesis. Spectacle might become a framing device for understanding and

promoting urban social interaction. Events for Julia Mandle create awareness of ones surroundingsand a sense of belonging in a space due to its interactive nature.


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*These techniques produce potential for the coexistence

of entities in tension

SQUATTERS

INVESTORS/ GOVERNMENT

ARCHITECTURE

INFRASTRUCTURE


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DIAGRAMSTEXT


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THOROUGH FOOTNOTES & CORRECT CITATIONS TO COME!

ABC No Rio,

Appropriation. New Oxford American Dictionary. 2nd ed. 2005. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

Avermaete, Tom, Klaske Havik, and Hans Teerds. Architectural Positions: Architecture, Modernity,and the Public Sphere. Amsterdam: SUN, 2009.

A collection of in uential writings from practicing architects on architecture, modernity, and thepublic sphere. Koolhaass Generic City and the philosophy of Jrgen Habermas have beenreferenced in this abstract, however, many other writings in this collection have in uenced mycontention.

Ballesteros, Mario. VERB:Crisis. Barcelona: Actar, 2008.Urban crisis is explicitly addressed in this boogazine. This publication does not believe crisis onlyinvolves acts of god or failed physical systems. There is a broader understanding that crisis involvesnot just obvious occurences but abstracted tensions.

Bernard Tschumi Architects. Bernard Tschumi Architects. N.p., 2010. Web. 5 Oct. 2010. .

Bernard Tschumi. Event-Cities: Praxis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.Event-Cities presents numerous projects, which engage architecture and event. Several conceptsare presented such as transprogramming and transient events.

Burdett, Ricky, and Deyan Sudjic. Endless City. London: Phaidon Press, 2007.

Der Spiegel Der Spiegel

Flickr (various authors)

Jameson, Frederic. Postmodernsim, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press,1991.

Mandle, Julia. Julia Mandle : Variable City. Julia Mandle : Welcome. Web. 12 Dec. 2009. .

J li M dl i ti t h f b i t ti i g i di Sh i i il


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Julia Mandle is an artist who focuses on urban interventions using various media. She is a primarilyperformance-based artist due to its social and public nature. The exciting characteristic of Mandleswork is that they not only engage a social or political theme, but they become spatial experiences.

She uses a multidisciplinary approach with the city as her canvas to engage the citizenry. She isalso aware of the condition I am trying to address through the Crisis City collaborative. Our overlyprivate culture has even decreased awareness of events around us in cities. The city should bethe incubator for informal/formal shared social experience. Architecture has increasingly failed toencourage this interaction.

Miljacki, Ana, Amanda Reeser Lawrence, and Ashley Schafer. 2 Architects, 10 Questions onProgram: Rem Koolhaas + Bernard Tschumi. Praxis : journal of writing + building 8 (2006): 7-15. Print.

Mumford, Lewis, What is a City?, The City Reader. London: Routledge, 1996, page 185.A metaphor can be drawn to describe a social phenomenon in the city: urban theater. The term isin no way a new descriptor; however, I believe we can study the characteristics and processes thatcontribute to urban theater. When Lewis Mumford de ned the city, he spoke of it as a theater ofinteracting social and physical forces: Without the social drama that comes into existence through

the focusing and intensi cation of group activity there is not a single function performed in the city thatcould not be performed and has not in fact been performed in the open country.

Nicolai Ouroussoff. The Civic Value of a Bold Statement. New York Times 2009, sec. Art & Design:.

Nicolai Ouroussoffs review of Morphosiss Cooper Union project was where I rst read aboutthe Age of Excess. This concept has helped me to validate a turning point for architecture,and subsequently form an argument that economy has created a culture and crisis of extremeprivateness.

Pruijt, Hans. Squatting in Europe, Madrid: La Catarata, 2004, pages 35-60.

Shane, David Grahame. Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design,and City Theory. Chichester, England: Wiley, 2005.

This is the most comprehensive guide to understanding urbanism since Kevin Lynch.

Tacheles

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