Oculus - Winter 2015 - (Page 17)
opener
Practical Attitudes
B Y t r o Y C o n r A d t herrien
curious history of architecture theory could be written through the evolution of obsessions with scaling alone. Not simply scale as in drawing to scale or scale models, but in
terms of the discursive technologies deployed to argue for architecture to scale beyond merely
building. Order, type, method, composition, style, gesamtkunstwerk, function, machine,
model, organization, network, environment, index, program, diagram, and icon, to name just
the lowest hanging fruits, have all been deployed at different times by different theorists as
strategies for submitting the world to architecture. That is to say, for making the whole world
the province of the architect while making the worlds inside and around buildings the result
of their design. More precisely, then, the obsession is not merely with scale or scales, but with
the fundamental scalelessness of architecture. The objective of architectural theory is to assert
that architecture cannot be limited. The punch, however, might be that this is precisely what
has never been allowed in practice.
By practice I mean the way the discipline is conditioned and codified by ideas, protocols,
and documents. Education, internship, licensing, contracting, continuing education, awards,
and ethics fix the limits of what an architect should and can do. While they enforce perspectives that have crystallized over time into legislation, the attitudes of educators, patrons,
critics, scholars, and other architects likewise police the boundaries of the profession. Despite
marginal experiments with prefabrication, megastructures, and flexibility, the types of architecture that are accepted in practice always seem to return to those that are singular and sited.
The union of scalelessness in theory and scalability in practice has never been consummated.
This may account for the dismal percentage of the built environment that is designed by
architects, an open wound of the profession. Churning out more licensed architects by slightly
adjusting the accreditation system could double or triple this number, and that percentage
would still be in the single digits. The profession, as such, can only be understood as providing a luxury service - architects are sufficient but not necessary. As a result, it has been
spinning its wheels for centuries on producing patrons, spending as much energy on providing existential claims as it does on bringing buildings into existence. As the built environment
becomes increasingly computerized, the dynamics of physical space itself will transform,
and the present model will require increased efforts to maintain the necessity of architects in
its design. If buildings go the way of cars, this already fraught balance will begin to tip into
increasingly unstable territory.
If this transformation threatens to snap the profession, one self-preservation strategy
would be for it to become more elastic. Attempts in the past have been made to expand the
architect imprimatur over all designers and builders of the built environment, but this is,
again, just a change in degree rather than kind. Architecture practice since at least Leon Battista Alberti in the 15th century, and increasingly through professionalization, has been epistemologically defined. Those legally allowed to lay claim to the title "architect" are classified
by what they know, rather than by what drives them. If the profession were bounded instead
by an ethic, its umbrella would stretch much wider, multiplying its advocates, associates, and,
thus, influence. Defining the architect ontologically would open up another five centuries of
debate, but maybe it's time for drastic measures.
©Studio Dubuisson
A
Taylor + Miller, page 26
What's Inside
18 ice in the river:
cornell tech's center
of connectivity
21 restoring - at least
virtually - One of
england's Greatest
lost Buildings
24 at the corner of Past
and Present
26 the design-fabrication
dynamic
28 how Big data is
reshaping architecture
30 architecture at the
digital edge
32 3d for the defense
34 thinking Beyond the
flat Page
Troy Conrad Therrien is curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives, at the Guggenheim
Museum. Initially trained as a computer engineer, and later in architectural design, history,
and theory, he has held positions as an architect, creative technologist, innovation
consultant, and adjunct professor.
Reinventing Architecture: Design in a Digital World
Winter 2015 Oculus
17
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Oculus - Winter 2015
First Words Letter from Two Presidents
Letter from the Editor
Center for Architecture
One Block Over
Opener: Practical Attitudes
ICE in the River: Cornell Tech’s Center of Connectivity
Restoring – At Least Virtually – One of England’s Greatest Lost Buildings
At the Corner of Past and Present
The Design-Fabrication Dynamic
How Big Data is Reshaping Architecture
Architecture at the Digital Edge
3D for the Defense
Thinking Beyond the Flat Page
In Print
51-Year Watch
Last Words
Index to Advertisers
Oculus - Winter 2015
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