Week 9

The underlying theme in “Spaces and Events” reminds me of the quote famously written by Aldo Rossi in his book, “The Analogous City”,  “l’architettura sono le architetture”. Rossi means that all architecture is made of the aggregation of other architectures, ergo, architectural precedent, using typology as a structuring or technical base. It is not obvious how this quote relates to Tschumi’s writing without examining a certain quote from Tchumi’s chapter: “The mixing of genres and disciplines in this work was widely attacked by the academic establishment, still obsessed with concepts of disciplinary autonomy and self-referentiality. But the significance of such events is not a matter of historical precedence or provocation. In superimposing ideas and perceptions, words and spaces, these events underlined the importance of a certain kind of relationship between abstraction and narrative—a complex juxtaposition of abstract concepts and immediate experiences, contradictions, superimpositions of mutually exclusive sensibilities.”(Tschumi 145) Here, Tschumi is demonstrating how he agrees with Rossi’s quote “l’architettura sono le architetture” but not necessarily with the concept. He rejects that architecture is born through precedence, which is an important element of Rossi’s theory, but, he recognizes that architecture is architecture through another lens. Examining another quote “the words of architecture became the work of architecture,” (Tschumi 143) Tschumi is indicating that architecture is about perception and framing and has infinite facets of importance, which leads us to conclude that ‘architecture is architecture’ in the sense that it is so complex that ‘it is what it is’. Rossi wrote the quote in the context that architecture is based on architectural precedent, however, he also indicates throughout “The Analogous City” that architecture is inherently based on context. Both authors emphasize the relationship between architecture itself and how its framed while Rossi focuses on how its framed through historical context and Tschumi focuses on how an architect frames their architecture through alternative mediums such as photography or writing. On the other hand, Rossi would likely agree with Tschumi when he writes, “Architecture ceases to be a backdrop for actions, becoming the action itself.” (Tschumi, 149) Rossi described the concept of propelling permanences in architecture as monuments that impel architectural evolution. He wrote, “permanence I mean not only that one can still experience the form of the past in this monument but that the physical form of the past has assumed different functions and has continued to function, conditioning the urban area in which it stands and continuing to constitute an important urban focus.” (Rossi, 59) This relates to Tschumi through the belief that architecture is a function in itself rather than a product of the programmatic functions. Both Rossi and Tschumi are adamantly opposed to functionalism because of the limitations it sets on the perception of architecture, which, inadvertently or not, is at the core of their theories.

Tschumi, “Spaces and Events” (1981 – 1983)

Rossi, “The Analogous City” (1976)