Critical Architecture (Critiques: Critical Studies in Architectural Humaities)

369 Pages·2007·4.97 MB·English

by  Rendell Hill Do

Critical Architecture
Critical Architecture examines the relationship between design and criticism in archi-
tecture. Placing architecture in an interdisciplinary context, the book explores architec-
tural criticism with reference to fields such as art, cultural and literary criticism, and
considers how critical practice in design operates through a number of different
modes: buildings, drawings and texts.
With 36 chapters by an international cast of leading academics and design-
ers, organised under four thematic headings, Critical Architecture brings together a
diverse range of projects and writings that challenge the view that the terms ‘design’
and ‘criticism’ should be divided.
Introducing key debates in contemporary architectural criticism through text
and designs, this accessible single-source publication is ideal for undergraduates and
postgraduates studying the practice and theory of art and architecture, as well as all
those interested in contemporary architectural discourse.
Jane Rendell is Professor of Architecture and Art and Director of Architectural
Research at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Jonathan
Hill is Professor of Architecture and Visual Theory and Director of the MPhil/PhD by
Architectural Design programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Murray Fraser
is Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminister in London. Mark Dorrian
is Reader in Architecture at the School of Arts, Culture and Environment, University of
Edinburgh and Co-Director of Metis.
CRITIQUES: Critical Studies in Architectural Humanities
A project of the Architectural Humanities Research Association
Series Editor:Jonathan Hale (University of Nottingham)
Editorial Board:
Sarah Chaplin (Kingston University)
Mark Dorrian (University of Edinburgh)
Murray Fraser (University of Westminster)
Hilde Heynen (Catholic University of Leuven)
Andrew Leach (University of Queensland)
Thomas Mical (Carleton University)
Jane Rendell (University College London)
Adam Sharr (Cardiff University)
Igea Troiani (Oxford Brookes University)
This original series of edited books contains selected papers from the AHRA Annual
International Conferences. Each year the event has its own thematic focus while
sharing an interest in new and emerging critical research in the areas of architectural
history, theory, culture, design and urbanism.
Volume 1: Critical Architecture
Edited by: Jane Rendell, Jonathan Hill, Murray Fraser and Mark Dorrian
Volume 2: From Models to Drawings: On Representation in Architecture
Edited by: Marco Frascari, Jonathan Hale and Bradley Starkey
Volume 3: The Politics of Making: Theory, Practice, Product
Edited by: Mark Swenarton, Igea Troiani and Helena Webster
AHRA provides an inclusive and comprehensive support network for humanities
researchers in architecture across the UK and beyond. It promotes, supports, develops
and disseminates high-quality research in all areas of architectural humanities.
www.ahra-architecture.org.uk
ii
Critical Architecture
Edited by Jane Rendell, Jonathan Hill,
Murray Fraser and Mark Dorrian
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2007 Selection and editorial matter, Jane Rendell, Jonathan Hill, Murray Fraser and Mark Dorrian;
individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Critical architecture / edited by Jane Rendell … [et al.].
p. cm. – (Critiques–critical studies in architectural humanities)
Includes index.
1. Architectural criticism. 2. Architectural design. I. Rendell, Jane, 1967–
NA2599.5.C75 2007
720.1–dc22 2007002166
ISBN 0-203-94566-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-41537-3 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-41538-5 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-94566-2 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-41537-8 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-41538-1 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-94566-7 (ebk)
Contents
Illustration credits viii
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xviii
Introduction: Critical Architecture: Between Criticism and Design
Jane Rendell 1
Criticism/Negation/Action 9
Introduction: Criticism/Negation/Action
Mark Dorrian 11
Criticality and Operativity
Andrew Leach 14
Unfinished Business: The Historical Project after Manfredo Tafuri
Teresa Stoppani 22
Architecture as Critical Knowledge
David Cunningham 31
Passing through Deconstruction: Architecture and the Project of Autonomy
Andrew Benjamin 40
A Critical Position for Architecture
Hilde Heynen 48
Militant Architecture: Destabilising Architecture’s Disciplinarity
Daniel A. Barber 57
Architecture’s Critical Context: The Athens Activist Experiment
Maria Theodorou 67
Criticism in/and/of Crisis: The Australian Context
Naomi Stead 76
v
Contents
Architecture-Writing 85
Introduction: Architecture-Writing
Jane Rendell 87
The DROWNING METHOD: On Giving an Account in Practice-Based Research
Rolf Hughes 92
The Poetics of Urban Inscription: From Metaphorical Cognition to Counter-
Representation
Laura Ruggeri 103
Critical Action and Active Criticism
Paul Shepheard 112
Film as Spatial Critique
Patrick Keiller 115
Architectural History, Friendship and Filmed Conversations
Igea Troiani 124
Image, Text, Architecture: The Presence that ‘WAS HERE’
Robin Wilson 129
Fluttering Butterflies, a Dusty Road, and a Muddy Stone: Criticality in
Distraction (Haga Park, Stockholm, 2004)
Katja Grillner 135
Memoirs: It will have happened already
Sharon Kivland 143
Site-Writing: Enigma and Embellishment
Jane Rendell 150
Criticism by Design 163
Introduction: Criticism by Design
Jonathan Hill 165
Centuries of Ambiguity: Sublime and Beautiful Weather at the Farnsworth House
Jonathan Hill 170
Immediate Architecture
Philippe Rahm 182
Alvin Boyarsky’s Delicatessen
Igor Marjanovic´ 190
Out of the Salon – with Natalie Barney towards a Critically Queer Architecture
Katarina Bonnevier 200
Writing about Things and the Doing of Them
Ben Nicholson 206
Quilting Jakarta
Stephen Cairns 215
vi
Contents
Where is the Project? Cedric Price on Architectural Action
Tim Anstey 220
The Fall: The Allegorical Architectural Project as a Critical Method
Penelope Haralambidou 225
On Drawing Forth, Designs and Ideas
Victoria Watson 237
The Cultural Context of Critical Architecture 247
Introduction: The Cultural Context of Critical Architecture
Murray Fraser 249
‘I Mean to be Critical, But . . .’
Kim Dovey 252
Critical Post-Critical: Problems of Effect, Experience and Immersion
Charles Rice 261
A Critical Architectural Icon and its Contextual Argumentation
Elisabeth Tostrup 269
Three Scenarios for a Critical Architecture of Desert Mobility
Gini Lee 279
The Responsive City
Ana Betancour 288
China as a Global Site: In a Critical Geography of Design
Jianfei Zhu 301
Critical Practice
Sarah Wigglesworth 309
Architecture for an ‘Active Edge’: The Gateway, Derby
Steve McAdam, Fluid 318
Neuland: Disenchanted Utopias for Tel Aviv
Alona Nitzan-Shiftan, Ganit Mayslits Kassif and Udi Kassif 325
Beyond Koolhaas
Murray Fraser 332
Index 340
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Illustration credits
Maria Theodorou (2002) 73
Laura Ruggeri (1997) 106; (2006) 108
Patrick Keiller (2003), insets courtesy of the BFI (1902) 116, 118
HAPPENinc. (2004) 126 (all), 127 (all)
Nigel Green and The Architects’ Journal(2002) 130
Warren and Mosley (2002) 132 (all)
Katja Grillner (2004) 137
Sharon Kivland (2002–6) 143; (2005) 149
Penelope Haralambidou (2005) 158
David Cross of Cornford & Cross (2006) 159
Yeoryia Manolopoulou (2004) 172, 175
Philippe Rahm Architects (2005) 184 (all), 185, 186, 187 (all); (2006) 188
The Alvin Boyarsky Memorial Trust, London (1985) 191
Igor Marjanovic (2004) 197
Marie Carlsson (2004) 201–3
Warta Kota(2003) 216 (all), 217 (middle and bottom)
Stephen Cairns (2005) 217 (top)
Cedric Price Archive, Collection Centre Canadien d’Architecture/Canadian Centre for
Architecture, Montréal 220, 221 (all), 222
Marianne Mueller, Mueller Kneer Associates, Architects 223 (top)
SHoP Architects (2003) 223 (bottom)
Penelope Haralambidou (2004) 229
The Louvre Museum, Paris, and Philadelphia Museum of Art (1998) 233
Victoria Watson 242, 243
Frode Larsen (2005) 272
Nils P. Lotherington (2003) 274
Gini Lee (2002) 280, 282, 283, 284, 284, 285, 287
A+URL 291
City Mine(d) through Tom Deforce, Barcelona 297
viii
Illustration credits
Atelier Feichang Jianzhu (2006) 304 (top)
OMA/AMO Rotterdam (2006), © OMA/Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren 304 (bottom)
Paul Smoothy (2001) 309, 312 (all), 313, 314 (all), 315, 316, 317
Fluid (2002) 319 (bottom); (2003) 320; (2004) 319 (top), 321, 322; (2005) 323 (all)
Hélène Binet (2004) 322 (all)
Domino Press (1975) 326
The Zionist Archive 327
Ganit Mayslits Kassif and Udi Kassif 329
Don Koniak, Karina Tollman, Philipp Misselwitz and Philipp Thomanek; photograph:
Jorg Glascher (2004) 330 (1)
Galila Yavin and Tamar Zacharovitz 330 (2)
Gaston Zahr, Noa Pasharel-Haim, Alasdair Ross Graham, Oded Kidron, Birgit Glaetzel
and Omer Weissbein 330 (3)
Tamar Navon, Ifat Hollender-Emmer and Michael Ilan 330 (4)
Roee Hemed and Jonathan Dror 330 (5)
Maor Roytman and Oren Ben Avraham 330 (6)
Peter Barber Architects, Donnybrook Quarter, London (2006) 336–7
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