Literature Review

Kyle McMindes

 

Key Texts

1.Experiments with Life Itself  by Francisco Gonzalez de Canales

 

“Experiments with Life Itself” is a text that covers 5 separate case studies based on domestic architecture between the years 1937 to 1959. The three case studies of the five which I found most relevant to my investigations would have to be the cases of Ralph Erskine, of Charles and Ray Eames, and of Alison and Peter Smithson. Each of these three cases covered very particular situations regarding Domesticity that was both the generator of and method in which the Architects designed.

Ralph Erskine was a British Architect who had fled Britain and sought solitude following WWII, his initial project discussed within the text is “The Box”. The box is a simple project located in a rural area in Sweden, the box itself was constructed in the style modern-esque style of the time and utilized an open plan, clean forms, and multi-functional spaces. The Box was highly praised for its crisp aesthetics and material composition, however Erskine lived and worked inside it and suffered due to his stubbornness in regards to form. The home was cold, vastly open, and unfit for the site upon which it was placed. He had to constantly patch and repair issues around the house, despite the failures of “The Box” as Erskine’s home, the lessons learned from it changed him as a designer.

He no longer worked in the vain of the time, his next project “House in Drottningholm” was a true master work. Paying acute attention to the details of the site, the active and responsive role of the inhabitant, and a genuine understanding of construction and detail the house came together. He no longer wished to view the beauty of the world, but to intensely engage with it, even the drawings of the home itself included every stone, tree, or contour upon the space. The interior space as well reflected the many sides of human consciousness, a need utility, wonder, incorporation, privacy, light, and movement.

The next case study that of the Eames, was valuable in regards to understanding the value of self awareness and documentation. The Eames passionately documented themselves in almost every circumstance within their home, from drawing, to film, to photography; they knew their personal patterns and interactions with the built world immensely. In some cases they would no longer consider themselves genuinely living, and thought of the house as a set in which they would hire costume designers to outfit them for their “role” that day. This wealth of knowledge surrounding the everyday allowed them to design and propose timeless products, that in many cases outshone the spaces within which they resided.

The final case study is the “Upper Lawn Solar Pavilion” by the Smithsons, this was actually a summer cottage that they and their family would retreat to for relaxation ad recollection. This space is not conversed about in the traditional means of materiality, light, or atmosphere but through the lens of activity and memory. They speak of an old footpath leading from the house, of how the stones that rest their were traversed by a Roman Centurion and how the path itself suggests and sustains his existence, his ghost forever guarding the entrance to the forest. Stories of how their children will put on plays inside of the barn, shakespearian monologues occurring for no one other than the cows, or how they might boat down the creek and follow the path of a late Danish Explorer. This piece embodies space with the sense of wonder and timeless, with the manifestation of imagination and memory, it gives power to our physical surroundings that push far beyond that of utility, practicality, or beauty.

 

2.Strangely Familiar: Design and the Everyday  by Andrew Blauvelt

 

“What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us, we live, true, we breathe, true, we walk, we open doors, we go down staircases, we sit at a table in order to eat, we lie down on a bed in order to sleep. How? Where? When? Why?   – George Perec, 1973 –

The above quote is the embossed onto the cover of this text and acts as the driving force for the collection of work found within. The book is a collection of precedents that all act to question our preconceived notions surrounding that of the everyday, it questions considerations of style, utility, performance, ritual, nostalgia, and beyond. Some key projects are as follows

• The “DO” series: is a series of products that encourage the user to act upon them in an oppositional fashion. A vase that should be smashed so as to pick up a shatter facade, a chair that is sledgehammered into form, and a ceiling light that doubles as a chin up bar
• The “Gardening Sukkah” by Allan Wexler: A small and elegantly crafted dinner cart that provides a space for a nice picnic with fine china, that doubles as a wheelbarrow and also holds onto the various large tools one would need for home lawn care.
• “Upstate” by Constantin Boym: is a play on the artisan dinner plate that holds such a sentimental place in many a person’s home, instead of picturesque rolling pastures and wildlife however, the plates utilize images typical traffic, interstates, and the worse for wear towns that plague our reality.

 

3. Poetics of Space  by Gaston Bachelard

 

The Poetics of Space is an excellent text for reference on how to imagine, describe, and write about the physical world. Excerpts from various french poems usher in layers of intriguing thought with their exceptional use of ambiguity, familiarity, atmosphere, and memory. Bachelard also does an excellent job of personifying spaces within the home, giving them emotions, roles, and life; even acknowledging spaces that one would tend to overlook, such as his chapter on the “Corner”. The piece teaches one how to beyond the physical manifestation of the built world and into its spiritual presence.

Some intriguing quotes –

“In the cellar darkness prevails both day and night, and even when we are carrying a lighted candle , we see shadows dancing on the dark walls”

“And so, when a poet rubs a piece of furniture – even vicariously – when he puts a little fragrant wax on his table with the woolen cloth that lends warmth to everything it touches, he creates a new object: he increases the object’s human dignity; he registers this object officially as a member of the human household.”

In the Corner – “you find countless remedies for boredom, and an infinite number of things that deserve to occupy your mind for all time: the musty odor of the minutes of three centuries ago; the secret meaning of the hieroglyphics in fly-dung; the triumphal arch of that mouse-hole: the frayed tapestry against which your round, bony back is lolling ; the gnawing noise of your heels on the marble; the powdery sound of your sneeze … and finally the soul of all the old dust from corners forgotten by brooms.”

 

4.Maverick Deviation and Visionary Architecture  by Neil Spiller

 

“Maverick Deviations” is a collection of drawn works by Neil Spiller himself, within this book he demonstrates the value of drawing as something beyond the form of expression. He utilizes it as his genuine thought process where the pen and paper become an extension of his own mind and the genuine driving force behind the Architectural proposals. The drawings consist of layers and layers of overlapping and intertwining information, that allows the viewer and its creator to get lost in a world beyond.

In the book “Visionary Architecture” Spiller historically traces the role of the fantastical drawing and modeling and its role within Architecture. Starting with Piranesi and working his way forward to our present generation, he catalogs the work of Imaginative and Theoretical Architects and the role that they have played in shaping the world around us. The book is an excellent reference for drawing techniques, styles, as well as an informative text on how to converse about the draw. Many times work can be weakened or over simplified via the act of conversing about it, this however is not the case with Neil Spiller, he manages to maintain the aspects of mystery, intrigue, amazement, and atmosphere all the while deepening our knowledge of the subject matter.

“For Neil Spiller, drawing is thinking. He does not ‘express’ thoughts already formulated, in which case his drawings would be mere illustrations. Rather, he formulates thoughts through drawing, indeed by drawing. Each line, each tone is a word. Their groupings are sentences. Their total ensemble is an essay, presenting a fully formed thought.”    – Lebbeus Woods, 2011-

 

Citations

 

Bachelard, Gaston, M. Jolas, and John R. Stilgoe. The Poetics of Space. Print.

Barker, Roger G. The Stream of Behavior; Explorations of Its Structure & Content. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963. Print.

Blauvelt, Andrew. Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2003. Print.

Canales, Francisco González De, Dorota Biczel, and Lucy Bullivant. Experiments with Life Itself: Radical Domestic Architectures between 1937 and 1959. Print.

Coates, Nigel. Narrative Architecture. Print.

Ellin, Nan, and Edward J. Blakely. Architecture of Fear. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1997. Print.

Lefebvre, Henri. Critique of Everyday Life. London: Verso, 1991. Print.

Marcus, Clare Cooper. House as Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home. Berkeley: Conari, 1995. Print.

Nicholson, Ben. Appliance House. Chicago, IL: Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism, 1990. Print.

Robbins, David. The Independent Group: Postwar Britain and the Aesthetics of Plenty. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1990. Print.

Spiller, Neil. Maverick Deviations: Neil Spiller: Architectural Works (1985-1998). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Academy, 2000. Print.

Spiller, Neil. Visionary Architecture: Blueprints of the Modern Imagination. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Tschumi, Bernard. The Manhattan Transcripts. London: Academy Editions, 1994. Print.