The Sharing Tower by Vincente Guallart as an example for the ideological concept of contemporary data-architecture
By: Ulrich Jacov Becker Department of Architecture
Name of the course: "Contemporary " Contemporary theories" Number of course: 7417 Date: August 2009 Handed In to: Prof. Arch. Zvi Efrat ( )פרופ' אדר' אפרת צבי Department of Architecture Bezalel, Academy of Art and Design
0. Index
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….Page 1 2. Associative fields………………………………………………………………Page 1 2.1. Hybridization………….….………………………………………………….Page 2 2.2. New Urbanism and Leon Krier…………………………………………….Page 3 2.3. (File) Sharing………………………………………………………………...Page 4 2.4. Narkomfin Block and Social Housing……………………………………..Page 5 2.5. The New Family……………………………………………………………..Page 6 2.6. The European City (Regionalism and Globalism)…………………….....Page 7 2.7. Conservation……………………………………………………………..….Page 8 2.8. The Middle Ages and Nostalgia...…………………………………..……..Page 9 2.9. Urban Landscape and Natural Influences………………………………Page 10 2.10. Responsive Architecture………………………………………………...Page 11 3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………....Page 12 4. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..Page 13 Addendum……………………………………………………………………….Page 15
1. Introduction The project the Sharing Tower 1 by Vincente Guallart is here presented as the product of a 0F
combination of different associative sources each with their own background, environment, connections and history. The spreading out of this associative field allows a deep and multi-layered view on the concepts, ideas and ideologies behind the Sharing Tower and behind the broader ideology of Guallart and similar thinking contemporary architects. The Sharing Tower is just one project in the larger urban experiment Sociopólis 2 that was planned 1F
near Valencia, Spain around 2004. Vincente Guallart also created the master plan for Sociopolis . The project emerges here as an architecture of our time, an architecture of a global and interlinked age. This is architecture after modernism and post-modernism, which still fights the conflict of an objective or subjective design approach and tries to derive its triggers out of the computerized data world, nature, social thinking as well as history. If and in what way Guallart's maxim that "architecture must thus redefine its aims in the face of the emergence of the digital world " 3 is true, is put to the test throughout the work. 2F
The work does on purpose not enter into a detailed description of the programme and performance of the actual project, but tries to enter the associative backgrounds around it. It should just be said that it is a circular apartment tower which tries to offer its residents – mostly students – a minimal private space and a larger shared space. Furthermore the tower is connected to various public functions in its ground floor, including a plaza. Through a careful combination of all-day living objects like tables, TVs, toilets, etc., Guallart created a matrix of objects and functions that can and can't be shared, and taking them as a basis, developed different ground plans for each floor with different combinations, which all have the common idea of surplus in living quantity through different shaped shared spaces. This work thus tries to show what may lie behind its motives and to which concepts it connects.
2. Associative fields Of course it is hard to decide with which associative concept to start with, since they are not necessarily casually determined and are like autonomous items in a picture, although of course there are connection between them. Also sorting them according to importance would be hard to determine and maybe even take out interest for the later points. I will start with a point that Vincente Guallart names by himself as one of the first about his project which not necessarily needs to be the most important one:
1
See a model in Addendum 1. See a model of the master plan in Addendum 2. 3 Guallart, Vincente, http://www.guallart.com/04mediaMountainsAndArchitecture/default.htm. 2
1
"MediaMountains&Architecture",
2.1. Hybridization On his official website 4 Vincente Guallart prominently speaks of the "hybrid programme " of his project 3F
"that includes 250 rental apartments, an arts centre and a technology centre. " 5 4F
It can be observed that the concept of hybridization or "mixed use" as well in the Sociopólis master plan as in the Sharing Tower is a significant feature of a new data orientated architecture. Interestingly the reasoning given by Guallart for a hybrid approach comes from an association to nature.6 5F
"A neighbourhood or a city is an artificial ecosystem governed by rules similar to those of natural ecosystems. For example, the more different species exist and the more equality there is between them, the more balanced, the more balanced and consistent it will be. " 7 6F
The city, the neighbourhood and the Sharing Tower itself as well as many other single projects throughout Sociopólis contain a hybrid programme. 8 But hybrid components are also very present in 7F
other projects by Guallart - as for example the "multifunctional centre " in the Denia Cultural Park. 9 8F
This emphasis can be seen in relation to a current trend towards mixed use and hybrid programmes of buildings and cities in strong opposition to zoning . Zoning developed on a large scale during the 19th century as a consequence of industrialization and divided the city into areas according to their use (at the beginning mainly in housing and industrial uses) and thus also the buildings itself had only one kind of use (e.g. living or manufacturing). There were approaches as the Garden City Movement (since 1898) and Tony Garnier's Une cité industrielle (1918), who tried to counter negatively felt developments of industrialization by a new design of the city, based on health or social factors, but stayed in the pattern of zoning or advanced it even further. Modernism and the urban plans of Le Corbusier celebrated zoning and the car that often comes with it as a way to urban 'redemption'. In the sixties, starting with the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs in 1961, theoreticians started to critically rethink zoning, openly oppose it and were now arguing that a mixture of uses is vital and necessary for a healthy urban area. 10 Guallart openly criticizes the 9F
"typically North-American low-density city " 11 and is thus in company of the co-author Dietmar Steiner, 0F 1
who confronts the American city, zoning and even the New Urbanism for their middle-class bourgeois character and sets Sociopólis against them, which will be the hybrid social town of Europe, emphasizing his trust in the performance of the hybrid "old European town ". 12 1F
4
Guallart, Vincente, "Guallart Architects", http://www.guallart.com. Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Sharing Tower (2004-2007)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolistower/default.htm. 6 See also 2.9. Urban Landscape and Natural Influences . 7 Guallart, Vincente, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the fu ture, Actar/Architectektur Zentrum, Wien, March 2006, p. 23. 8 "In Sociopólis, each building has a hy brid programme…", ibid. 9 Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm. 10 Jacobs, Jane, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York, 1961. 11 Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis: An opportunity for social innovation", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_v_guallart. 12 Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, European City of the Future", Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, Ed. Vincente Guallart, Actar/Architectektur Zentrum, Wien, March 2006, p. 7. For the European connection see also 2.6. The European City (Regionalism and Globalism). 5
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Guallart's hybrid thinking also connects to several other associative points, as for example 2.9 Urban Landscape and Natural Influences and 2.4 Narkomfin Block and Social Housing since in many cases throughout Sociopólis and in the Sharing Tower green, social and historic programmes are part of the hybrid plan. Diversion is one of the magical words in Guallarts thinking. Diversion of urban and single house usage, diversion of inhabitants, diversion of floor plans in the tower, diversion of green and city and so on. Also the associated architect Izaskun Chinchilla who contributed a theoretical text to the Sociopólis book sees Sociopólis as a city "heterogeneous in programme and spatial configuration " and praises it for being a "hybrid of singular pieces ". 13 Diversion is seen as a one-kind-fits-all solution to 2F 1
contemporary architectural problems. In the quote of Guallart above shows, diversity is seen as a guarantee for balance. It should thus be remembered that the ultimate aim of the project here is named as balance, while diversity (which could also be understood as the direct opposite of balance) is only the tool to reach this condition. Thus the motto is: diversity to reach harmony.
2.2. New Urbanism and Leon Krier The New Urbanism started from a similar critic of the American zoned city and took the European city in parts as a model, 14 but for the architects involved in Sociopólis as Steiner they went not far enough, 3F 1
but stayed to much connected to a façade centered thinking and in many cases did not abolish zoning or the idea of the suburb. 15 4F 1
Actually the thinking of 'Guallart and friends' is much closer to the originally major influence on the New Urbanism movement, which were the writings of Leon Krier, especially in regard to his ideas of the revival of the old European town and his strong critics against zoning. 16 Guallart's critic of the 5F 1
"specialized American city, where the territory is functionally fragmented " and his demand that "each neighbourhood will have to behave like a micro-city ", 17 seem to be taken right out of one of Krier's 6F 1
articles.18 When one reads Krier and compares only the headlines of his articles to the ideology of 7F 1
Sociopólis , it is astonishing, how identical the approaches are: 19 Articles by Krier as "Organic versus 8F 1
mechanical composition " 20, "The city within the city " 21, "Town and country " 22, "Critique of zoning " 23, 9F 1
0F 2
1F 2
2F
"Critique of industrialization " 24 and "Critique of the megastructural city" 25 bring up the same critics and 3F 2
4F 2
supposed solutions as the writings about the Sharing Tower and Sociopólis , only that at Sociopólis 13
Chinchilla, Izaskun, "Sociopolis, Public issue", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_chinchilla. 14 Katz, Peter, The New Urbanism: toward an architecture of community, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1994. 15 Ibid. 16 Krier, Leon, "The Reconstruction of the European City", Architectural Design, No. 54, (Nov/Dec 1984), pp. 16-22. 17 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 24. 18 See Addendum 3. 19 It is thus not clear how it comes that Leon Krier is not mentioned at all by architects of Sociopólis. But if they mention – as Steiner – New Urbanism one could presume that they have some knowledge of Krier's theories, too. 20 Krier, Leon, Houses, Palaces, Cities, Belvedere, Berlin-Tegel, 1980, pp. 110. 21 Ibid, pp.70. Compare to the neighbourhoods as micro-cities of Guallart. 22 Ibid, pp.30. Compare to the concept of "Rurban" by Guallart. See 2.9. 23 Ibid, pp. 32. 24 Ibid, pp. 36. 25 Ibid, pp. 20. 3
there are advanced with new technologies and the virtual component. Consequently also roots for the historic enthusiasm of Guallart, Ito and others are already present in Krier's writings especially as he points towards the medieval and Roman town. 26 5F 2
The prominent dealing with hybridization in Sociopólis ' can also be seen as a connection to a historic urban model, as mixed use is of course nothing new, as also Krier emphasized. 27 Actually it is very 6F 2
ancient and the mixed use movement was only returned by Krier and today Guallart – although in a more sophisticated way – although their basic aim and composition has been there long before the industrial revolution. Ancient towns of the Roman Empire or medieval towns of Northern Europe or the Orient were all mixed used towns, as well in the micro view of buildings (think of the typical Roman insula building with shops on the street level and different income housing in the floors above) as in the macro urban view (although there were also certain strategies of zoning). But although Krier and others built their basis for a return to the hybrid city on ancient models against the Modernist zoned city, Guallart also argues that the architectural shift towards hybridization was only possible through the digital age with its basic hybrid approach.
2.3. (File) Sharing Maybe one could have begun this work with the term of Sharing , since this was chosen to be the name of the project and seemingly it has major importance in the planning associations. Shared spaces and hybrid use are interwoven with each other here. The hybrid functions are demanding a sharing, since every building has something different to offer and only through sharing it with inhabitants of other buildings, everybody can reach an effective usage. 28 Sharing, being also strongly 7F 2
connected to the social associative field, 29 is a basic feature also of other buildings in Sociopólis as 8F 2
for example Toyo Ito's project Apartments for the elderly , where "shared spaces and the terraces have a specially important role " 30. 9F 2
And of course also shared spaces are nothing new, if we just think of the inner courtyard of Roman times that was a meeting, working and living focus of all inhabitants surrounding it, who shared this space. But in Guallart's view only the digital age makes a real shared approach possible, since the virtual world "allowed us to develop the idea of shared resources "31. Guallart namely mentions file sharing in 0F 3
the style of Napster 32 and even quoted this to me via email as the main motivation behind the concept 1F 3
of the Sharing Tower . 33 The idea of internet file sharing is that a person anywhere in the world that is 2F 3
connected to a certain website allows others around the world to copy his digital files from him for 26
Jencks, Charles, “Post-Modernism and Eclectic Continuity”, Architectural Design, No. 57, (1/2 1987). See also 2.8. The Middle Ages and Nostalgia. 27 Krier, Leon, Houses, Palaces, Cities, Belvedere, Berlin-Tegel, 1980, pp. 32. 28 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 23. 29 See 2.4. 30 Ito, Toyo, "Apartments for the elderly", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_edificios&subsec=boton_toyo. 31 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 41. 32 See Addendum 4. 33 See Addendum 12. 4
free. Guallart takes the file sharing reference to create the concept of space sharing, which at the same time also profits from the trend that some physical objects of our lives have been moved to the virtual world (photo albums, folders, telephones etc.). For Guallart this shows that the "public is prepared to give up part of their property so as to be able to do more things and be more efficient. " 34 3F
For Guallart it is "hardly logical " 35 that every person should have all kind of dwelling objects (as 4F 3
washing machine, fridge, TV, etc.) and not to share it, since that way people can " enjoy more space " and "lower the costs ", 36 which mirrors the main principles in his approach: efficiency and rationality. 5F 3
However he does not relate to the morality or amorality of file sharing, since Western society still protects creative property – even Napster has since been forbidden and closed. And even if this would be legal – are people really giving up something from their digital property when they let others use it as well? They have no actual damage from it. Can the digital code of a music file really be compared to a physical kitchen when it comes to sharing it with another person?
2.4. Narkomfim Block and Social Housing Coming from the theory of Sharing, Guallart tries a quite experimental implementation. The project assumes that sharing is possible on a great scale. A person can live on a minimum private space for its most basic needs as sleeping, dressing and hygiene, while sharing a much bigger space for all other activities as eating, socializing, laundry, cooking, watching TV etc.. As an positive example for this kind of sharing Guallart names communist housing in the 1920s in the USSR. 37 6F 3
From the description of large communal kitchens in quoted project he seems to talk of the Narkomfin housing block by Moisei Ginzburg, which he affirmed by email. 38 The Narkomfin block (finished in 7F 3
1932) was one of the revolutionist masterpieces of Moisei Ginzburg – a Soviet constructivist - which he prepared for quite some time and can be seen as a continuation of ideas he applied in the OSA headquarters (1927). Ginzburg called the project an "experiment of new housing type, where individual spaces are combined with a full range of socialized functions (dining room, rooms for rest, kindergarten and day-care rooms, laundry, etc.) " 39. The Narkomfin building took this ideas to a greater 8F 3
scale of a 5 storey block so that "an enclosed walkway at the second level connects the housing to the community building containing a kitchen and canteen, meeting and hobby rooms, and a kindergarten." 40 It is shown that Ginzburg himself was inspired by workers' apartments projects of 9F 3
Ernst May and Grete Schütte-Lichotzky in Frankfurt am Main. 41 Reading this descriptions out of 0F 4
Soviet Russia of the 1930s next to the description about the Sharing Tower one could be confused due to the similarities in terms and arguement. But there is an important conceptual difference: 34
Ibid. Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 39. 36 Ibid, p. 40. 37 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 44. 38 See Addendum 12. 39 Souvremennia Arkhitektura, No. 4-5, (1927),p. 130. See also: Brumfield, William Craft & Ruble, Blair A., Russian Housing in the Modern Age: Design and Social History, Woodrow Wilson Center, Cambridge, 1994, p. 103. 40 Brumfield & Ruble, Russian Housing in the Modern Age: Design and Social History, p. 108. 41 Ibid. 35
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"Yet despite the radical form of the Narkofim block [...] Ginzburg remained aware that such a commune could only be humanly successful if it was induced rather than imposed. "42 Guallart does 1F 4
not refer to any doubts or problems about the applicability of his project. But he does also not plan his tower for the majority society, but for the marginal and socially weaker groups as young, old, lowincome and especially students and thus succeeds to avoid major critics, since such a concept could most possibly be imagined as a kind of student dormitory or social housing. The whole project of Sociopólis is thus also planned to operate on government rent-controlled 43 housing which again 2F 4
connects to the tradition of social housing and socialism. 44 Also the government directed social 3F 4
building can be seen as more characteristic for the European attitude in opposition to the American privatively oriented building. One should also not forget the name of the urban master plan in general: Sociopólis . Not just the master plan, but the separate projects integrate social programmes, as for example the project of Toyo Ito, while for Greg Lynn "community " and "social " seem to be kind of magic words for his planning. 45 And Guallart even calls the basis of his Sharing Tower the "foundation of the collective 46 ". 4F
5F 4
The book Sociopólis deals a lot with socially weak and margin groups and their housing and living conditions, which according to Guallart represent together a large part of society and they take the main role in Sociopólis architecture – again - in opposition to the traditional middle class and traditional family in America. The idea of private property is of course strongly connected to the capitalistic and liberal American idea, while the idea of sharing and communal property, or the blurring out of the difference between private and public space as Guallart describes, 47 is of course a classical 6F 4
socialist feature. This tendency can reach quite totalitarian quotes as " It is the urban space of the citizen, who knowingly plays their role in society, embedded in the social network of power. " 48 And as 7F 4
communism referred to a new family, the approach of Sociopólis , too.
2.5. The New Family Strongly connected to the socialist background is the relation to the family in Guallart's project. Gullart agrees that Communism tried "to destroy the traditional family set-up " via it's shared housing projects (Narkomfin) that he uses as references. 49 His architecture's aim is less to destroy the traditional 8F 4
family, but rather to offer fitting solutions for the in wide parts already destroyed the traditional family of the European society: "The traditional family of two parents and one or more children now accounts for less than 50% of households in many regions of Spain. " But not just that this society has virtually 42
Ginzburg, Moisei, Style and Epoch, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1 982, p. 7. "…fulfilling a much-needed social function, making housing available at a controlled price to a great number of people. " http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm 44 Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis: An opportunity for social innovation", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_v_guallart. 45 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 74. 46 Ibid, p. 53. 47 "…middle ground between the private and the public ground ", Ibid, p. 41. 48 Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, The new European city", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_steiner. 49 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 44. 43
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stopped to reproduce itself and have children, but also the relationships have changed. There are unmarried couples, single mothers and elderly, students or other young singles, 50 that live 9F 4
unconnected to their families in single or communal apartments or dormitories. Guallart and other Sociopólis architects want to offer housing solutions for the disintegrated 'post-family'. And thus also this motivation draws a contrast to the typically American suburb home of a typical traditional family. As the American suburb is shaped according to the ideal American suburb family, 51 0F 5
and the Soviet social block is shaped according to the ideal communist "family", 52 so too the Sharing 1F 5
Tower is shaped according to the ideal family in Guallart's head, and this is the disintegrated European "post-family" that – going one step further - is replaced by Guallart with the "Virtual Family ", "in which peoples of various generations who are not blood relatives behave to some extent as a family, sharing resources or activities."53 2F 5
2.6. The European City (Regionalism and Globalism) Globalism with its interconnectedness of humans, resources, places, knowledge, etc. has created new challenges and questions for contemporary architecture. In recent years different theories were formulated on how architecture should position itself towards this challenge. Should it support a global style or ideology? Should it support regionalist styles and particularistic tendencies? Should it connect both? Should it be critical? Should everything be allowed and no more qualitative judgment be allowed or even possible? A very profoundly discussion was presented by Alexander Tzonis in his thoughts of an Critical Regionalism , emphasizing the adoption of local architectural features, but in a way that does critically approach Regionalism as well as Globalism. 54 While others might favor a 3F 5
globally customer orientated "assimilated" architecture approach, using whatever means to satisfy the economic needs laid out before the architect. This is a kind of uncritical capitalistic approach as presented by Michael Speaks. 55 4F 5
Of course it can be expected that a thinking like in Sociopólis that tries to position itself against an universalist approach of Modernism and modernist urbanism would oppose globalism - at least in the form of an universalist globalism. And thus Guallart and similar thinking recent architects are returning to a certain kind of regionalism. However they do not reject globalism, but see it as two developments happening next to each other, while a developing global society needs in their view, regionalist refuges.56 Their ideal human is a cosmopolitan, but at the same time very locally rooted: 5F
50
"The project promotes the construction of housing that responds to the needs of the new types of family unit (young people, the elderly, single-parent families, etc.)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm 51 "The family is crucial […] to the whole suburban way of life ", Thorns, David C., Subrubia, MacGibbon & Kee, London, 1972, p. 87. See also: Gruenberg, Sidonie Matsner. "The Challenge of the New Suburbs.", Marriage and Family Living, No. 17/2, (May 1955), pp. 133-137. 52 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 44. 53 Ibid, p. 19. 54 Tzonis, Alexander and Lefaivre, Liane, "Why Critical Regionalism today?", Architecture and Urbanism, No. 236, (May 1990). 55 Speaks, Michael, "Design Intelligence and the New Economy", Architectural Record (January 2002). 56 "…, we travel to distant places by high-speed transport systems, but at the same time we affirm the quality of the local…", Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 39. 7
"Faced with an increasingly uniform global society, we need to recognize the specific cultural and landscape values of each territory as fundamental to the quality of life of the people who live there and to asserting a distinct identity that can bestow a competitive advantage. "57 6F 5
Thus here is a connection of regionalism while keeping up the awareness that globalism can't be redone, (similar to Tzonis) while at the same time a design relativism is taken (similar to Speaks), but still preferring a socialist approach against a capitalistic one. In Sociopólis and the Sharing Tower the local identity is European and as mentioned before many features of the project position themselves against a projected American identity. 58 Also 7F 5
characterization of Sociopolis as a "pedestrian city " 59 heads in the same direction. 8F 5
Guallart does not reach a critical deepness as Tzonis in his regionalist approach. As will be shown, he openly and uncritically connects to medieval European themes in a tradition of a Leon Krier. 60 Guallart 9F 5
is critical of an universalist ideology like Modernism, but he is uncritical with a sanctification of diversity. The whole project speaks diversity and hybridization in any kind of view, and thus connects much more to a regionalist romanticism that is however globally interlinked and not nationalistically hostile to other cultures. He favors a kind of all welcoming relativism with many regionalisms living side by side, and that he see as its international potential.
2.7. Conservation It is striking to what lengths the architecture of Guallart and other architects of Sociopólis go, in order to protect and conserve existing conditions. May it be the surrounding of the construction sites, nature or historic landmarks. In his project of Denia Quarry , the "conservation and protection of the castle " and "the protection of the Hort de Morand, which contains the remains of the Roman town " 61 are named as two of the five 0F 6
basic principles or the project. The protective and historic themes take also a very prominent place in the description of the Sociopólis masterplan, where a major care is taken for the "maximum protection for the existing huerta (one of the traditional agricultural zones surrounding the city of Valencia) irrigated with waters from the River Turia by way of channels originally dug by the Arabs some 800 years ago ". 62 1F 6
This is no coincidence. The architecture of Guallart & Co. has a strong aversion to interference in the existing. This becomes such a major concept in their thinking that "to ensure the continuity of the natural networks " they develop the whole new term and approach of "dis-dense " ("a city that is
57
Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis: An opportunity for social innovation", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_v_guallart. 58 See Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 17. 59 Ibid, p. 39. 60 See Krier, Leon, "The Reconstruction of the European City", Architectural Design, No. 54, (Nov/Dec 1984), pp. 16-22. 61 Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm. Note the Roman connection. 62 Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Master plan (2005-2007)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm. 8
discontinues "). 63 Thus the principle of conserving the existing and the rejection of any intervention 2F 6
becomes one of the basic pillars of this architectural thinking. Chinchilla summarizes their rejection of "the kind of aggressive, steamroller urbanism that is based on autarchic structures which impose themselves on the context with a logic external to it. " 64 3F 6
Here it also becomes clear that the reasons for design should be a kind of 'internal logic', something immanent to the project that will lead the architectural process, not certain positivistic or universalist 'outer' approaches. It is a kind of relativism that tries to take its design reasons out of the project itself.65 It should only be noted that in the rejection of a precasted ideology, and positivistic planning 4F 6
as in Modernism, 66 they also distance themselves here from socialism – being a positivistic ideology 5F 6
by itself -, which otherwise very much influences Sociopólis and the Sharing Tower .
2.8. The Middle Ages and Nostalgia But this way of conservatism is not only a rejection against imposing a positivistic design, it also expresses its admiration for history, especially medieval history. It seems strange, but many of the architects connected to this "City for the future" take their very ideas and triggers from medieval models. Guallart himself explicitly compares the Sharing Tower to "the style of a medieval tower ". Toyo Ito describes how the idea for his project in Sociopólis came up: "I was greatly impressed by Vincente's images of medieval gardens " and portrays medieval imagery. 67 And as I asked Guallart via 6F
email, what role he things that medieval references have for his design, he answered me that "the medieval times were very social. The people made cathedrals as a share icon, payed by the city. There were craftsmen designing and making things by themselves. I very much like the medieval times." 68 7F 6
I think that his statement fits perfectly in what has been detected so far. This architecture longs for the medieval times, since they connect a kind of conservative, social image with a European identity, while it stands against Modernism and values associated with industrialism. It is a kind of romantic looking backwards while using the most modern tools. Also landmarks (as the Cathedral) are a positive value in Guallart's Urbanism, 69 as he for example describes in the Denia project. 70 In 8F 6
9F 6
Sociopólis he calls for protecting certain existing buildings and landscapes "like shrines ". 71 0F 7
But not only historic themes and site conservatism are resulting from the negation of Modernism and Positivism, but also a strong emphasize on the design patterns of nature and a strong foible for floral
63
Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 26. Chinchilla, Izaskun, "Sociopolis, Public issue", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_chinchilla. 65 How this should be done is nearer discussed i n 2.10 Responsive Architecture . 66 The explicit rejection of Modernism can also be seen, as Chinchilla names in high favor Latour, B., We Have Never Been Modern, Prentice-Hall, 1993. 67 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 211. 68 I corrected the grammar and spelling a bit. See Addendum 12. 69 Which again is a strong feature in Leon Krier thinking, too. 70 Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm. 71 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 26. 64
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patterns. Fittingly to the floral foible Guallart expressed also an affection for (medieval) craftsmanship, which can be seen as a slight connection to the Arts and Crafts movement.
2.9 Urban Landscape and Natural Influences A strong connection to nature can be seen throughout the Sociopólis project and throughout other projects by Guallart. The master plan of Sociopólis is build around the idea of a hybrid agriculture-city area. Guallart calls this "Rurban " (Rural+Urban): Here the idea of agriculture and conversation are combined, so that existing farm houses and farmlands are preserved and the city is build in their gaps (see dis-dens in 2.7). Thus the existing agricultural structure becomes the trigger for the planning of the whole are. 72 Not just the garden houses of Toy Ito have a dominant green theme, 73 but also the 1F 7
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project of MVRDV in Sociopólis was explicitly planned "in response to the groves of fruit trees in the surrounding area ". 74 The project by Greg Lynn is called Onion Blossom , 75 while Lynn is referring to it 3F 7
4F 7
as "floral architecture "76 and an "agricultural space ", while "the whole project really derives from 5F 7
agricultural, vegetable products of this kind " 77 And finally the Sharing Tower by Guallart – a project so 6F 7
obviously without (real or façade) greenery is described by Guallart as deriving from an analogy to nature, as he seems to refer to a tree-like net: "planned as nature, from bigger shared to smaller private spaces ". 78 Dietmar Steiner names this interwoven natural and city elements the "Urban 7F
Landscape ", which when it reaches its theoretical peak "the town itself is subsequently seen as landscape " while the aim should be " integrating the qualities of the countryside, of agricultural land, in the town itself ". 79 And again Leon Krier's thoughts could be placed alongside: "A charter for the 8F 7
reconstruction of the city is the necessary complement to a charter for the reconstruction of the countryside ". 80 And this seems to be the correct consequence for an architecture that takes its 9F 7
"ideology" and Data out of its environment: It becomes like the environment. And if this architecture is very impressed by nature and natural forms and takes nature as its model,81 it should only be logically 0F 8
that such an architecture would in the end design its cities as woods and meadows, hills and lakes – they would build nature itself. And that is exactly what happens in the most recent projects of Guallart (and others). In the Denia project, which Guallart fittingly names "Howtomakeamountain ", he finds nice words to express that he actually imitates nature: "The geological structure of the hill, on the
72
"Within the neighbourhood has four well-conserved historic farmhouses, and around these will be the focal points for ‘urban farm’ zones cared for by the local residents.", Guallart, Vincente, "Sociopólis Master plan (2005-2007)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/sociopolismasterlan/default.htm. 73
See Addendum 6.
74
MVRDV, "Huerta Tower", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_edificios&subsec=boton_mvrdv.See Addendum 7. 75 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 67. See Addendum 8. 76 Ibid, p. 71. 77 Ibid, p. 73. 78 Ibid, p. 52. 79 .Steiner, Dietmar, "Sociopólis, The new European city", http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_steiner. 80 Economakis, Richard (ed.), Leon Krier: Architecture & Urban Design 1967 – 1992, Academy Editions, London, 1992, p. 16. 81 There even could be a discussion started here in which degree the data architecture of Sociopólis with its admiration of nature as its model can be be seen in connection to Classical Greek design… 10
micro, the medium and the macro scales, offers us rules with which to put forward a mineralogical system that will guide its functioning ."82 1F 8
The best example however may be the "Re-Naturalization of Territory " by Guallart: Giant organic formed structures appear in the city as artificial mountains and woods and landmarks and cathedrals at the same time, what he calls "natural-artificial ". 83 Asked by me via email what in Guallart's view is 2F 8
the connection between Data architecture and nature, he answered that "Nature is a way of Data ". 84 3F 8
That organic forms and a mimesis of nature is a symptom not only of Guallart or Sociopolis, but of data architecture in general, can be seen for example in the Gwanggyo City Center designed by MVRDV, 85 whose data approach is notorious. The project looks very much as Guallart's Re- 4F 8
Naturalization of Territory .
2.10. Responsive Architecture Chinchilla summarized the nature of the here presented " Sociopólis architecture": "Understanding, ordering and structuring the territory is a matter of revealing the hidden laws that nature, logistics and sociology have embedded in the environment ". 86 This is – in my view - the belief of the Guallart and 5F 8
other Data architects in a nutshell. A positivistic, formalist, artistic, ideological or any other approach coming from the architect are rejected. The only way of 'planning' can only be to collect data that will determine the design process. But this data is again not coming from the inside of the architect's brain or other sources, but from the project itself, from its site, its history, its people etc. And it is believed that when one only decodes this hidden secret plan for the project, one actually reaches a kind of objective and optimal design. Thus one can see this approach as a kind of objective design out of relativism and particularism. Everything is seen as determined by its circumstances and understanding the circumstance and designing according to it is seen as the correct way, while an outer impulse or a directing human intellect – not to say the word 'genius' – is firmly rejected. The term Responsive Architecture was coined by Nicholas Negroponte in the late 1960s, when he proposed that architecture would benefit from the integration of computing power into built spaces and structures, and that better performing, more rational buildings would be the result. 87 Since then 6F 8
Responsive Architecture stayed more a label for architecture that knew to react to its environment (especially light, temperature and wind inputs). But the feature of an architecture that is responsive not only to real physical inputs, but also responsive to natural data during the planning and design process is in my opinion what can be found in Sharing Tower and Sociopólis and in a lot of contemporary architecture that is designed according to a data-approach. 82 82
Guallart, Vincente, "Denia Cultural Park (2002)", http://www.guallart.com/01projects/deniaCulturalPark/default.htm. See Addendum 9. 83 Guallert, Vincente, "The Re-Naturalisation of Territory", http://www.guallart.com/11re-naturalisation/default.htm. See Addendum 10. 84 See Addendum 10. 85
86
See Addendum 11. 86
Chinchilla, Izaskun, "Sociopolis, Public http://www.sociopolis.net/web/sociopolis.php?lang=en&sec=boton_textos&subsec=boton_chinchilla. 87 Negroponte, Nicholas, Soft Architecture Machines, MIT Press, 1975. 11
issue",
3. Conclusion Most strikingly, an architecture that declares of itself to be the architecture of the future - being a political correct architecture - and is proud to have found a kind of 'objective' design approach by a strong nature and environment responsive data-approach, has some quite nostalgic, radical and conservative features on a closer look. It praises the medieval Europe, Soviet communism and mother nature as architectural utopias that should be imitated. At the same time it becomes clear that this approach is neither future orientated nor objective, but sanctifies environmental features to which it can be responsive to prevent any conscious and ideological design decision. The ideology here is the absence of ideology – as it should be for a good relativism. But at the same time the architects by themselves prove that even for them a pure responsive design isn't possible and again and again the architects present design triggers, although they might try to make them as 'responsive' and 'natural' as possible as for example the onion in Greg Lyyn's design. The question can be asked, if the age of digital knowledge and virtual spaces was really essential for an approach that basically goes back to the anti-industrial theories of a Leon Krier? In nearly all projects the actual connection to the internet world is quite thin and their mentioning seems to be more to justify a 'future' characteristic of the project, than being a real pillar of the design of the project. Of course the digital world saves physical space, so that a more "efficient " 88 housing as in the Sharing Tower becomes more probable, but 7F 8
Guallart himself makes a perfect distinction between virtual sharing and physical sharing and sets it equal without explaining how this can be done in reality. 89 In my view Guallart's approach fails here in 8F
the same point, socialistic design failed, too: In a insufficient research on the human nature (which should actually have been expected from a data architect). Furthermore I do not agree with Guallart, that blind trust in diversion will lead to a balance 90 and that the imitation of the natural world is the 9F 8
highest level of design possible. An architecture that sanctifies nature and a relativistic automatic responsive behavior has no real values attached to it and will in the end not divide between 'good' and 'bad' design. Everything is possible as long as it is responsive. But when a cook throws everything into the soup that he finds in the kitchen, it does not have to be tasteful. And thus the school of data architecture or responsive architecture even today departs from – in my view - important achievements, as the value of quality over quantity and the critic of the ornament and propagate even in Sociopólis already baroque ornaments. 91 And finally I would summarize that an architecture that 0F 9
sees (relativistic) nature as its perfect model, ultimately believes that nature and the world is a perfect model. I can't see that nature or the world of today is perfect, but that much should be bettered – especially by architects – and you can't better a world when you just copy it.
88
See Guallart's definition in 2.3. Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 67. 90 See 2.3. 91 Guallart, Sociopolis: Project of a City for the future, p. 79. 89
12
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14
Addendum
1. The Sharing Tower , Vicente Guallart
2. Sociopólis, Master Plan by Vicente Guallart
3. Urban planning according to Leon Krier.
Floor with colored shared space.
4. Symbol of Napster.
5. Narkofim Social Apartment Block, Moisei Ginzburg, pictures from the 1930s
6. "Garden Houses" (in Sociopólis), Toyo Ito.1
7. "Huearta Tower", (in Sociopólis), MVRDV. 1
It should be noted that Toyo Ito seems to have pulled back this design from the official Sociopólis website (although it has been published in the Sociopólis book) and replaced it with another project. At other places he seems to have eliminated all records of this project, too.
8. "Onion Blossom" in Sociopólis), Greg Lynn.
9. "Howtomakeamountain", Vincente Guallart
10. "The re-naturalisation of territory", Vincente Guallart.
11. "Gwanggyo City Center", MVRDV.
12. Email exchange with Vincente Guallart Con fecha 10/8/2009, "Ulrich Becker" escribió: >Dear Dr. Vincente Guallart, > >I am an architecture student from Jerusalem and did a presentation one >several of your projects and to your architecture in general for our course >"contemporary theories in architecture" and I am right now writing my >seminary work on your project "Sharing Tower" with a German student. >My work tries to catch a view on the motifs, backgrounds, triggers and >ideologies of your architecture and especially the Sharing Tower. The work >is written around an associative field of all kind of influences you name or >we see that could be important for your progamme. > >I would be very interested and highly delighted by a short answer from you >to the following short questions: > >- What would you name the main motivation behind the concept of the Sharing >Tower?
I USED THE CONCEPT THAT IS USING THE POELPE IN INTERNMET SHARING MUSIC, AND PICTURES. I APLIED THIS CONCEPT TO THE PHISICAL SPACE.
>- In what form was the computerized DATA age essential for the design, or >would it have been possible with "ordinary" architectural methods?
OF COURSE. THIS IS A QUESTION OF ORGANIZATION OF THE SPCE. IN THE BUILDING NARKOFIN, MADE IN RUSSIA IN THE 20 THEY HAVE GLOBAL KITCHENS. I'M NOT DOING A COMUNICT BUILDING BUT AN INFORMATIONAL BUILDING.
>- In what form did communist design and socialist ideas influced the >building?
COMUNIST WANT TO DESTROY THE FAMILY. I CREATE INSTANT FAMILY RELATIONS WITH PEOPLE NOT RELATED WITH THEIR BLOOD. IF YOU HAVE A BUS WITH 40 PEOPLE THIS IS A PUBCLI BUS. IF YOU HAVE A CAR WITH 4 PEOPLE THIS CAN BE A SHARED CAR. IN ORDER TO SHARE THING IN THE PHISICAL WORLD IS CRUCIAL THE NUMBER OF USERS.
>- Do you see your design with its social and sharing components as a >destinct European approach or should this be an example for the whole world?
I'M PRESETING THIS PROJECTS IN NEW YORK CITIY IN SEPTMEBER. SHARING IS GLOBAL.
>- Do you see your design more as an universalist (everybody should design >this way) or relativist (everybody should design his way) approach?
THE NATURE IS GLOBAL AND SPECIFIC SIMULTANEAOSLY. DESIGN SHOULD BE THE SAME. >- Would you say that your design is an objective design that dervies >necessarily from the data research? Is the motto "research in order to >act" mean the the research shows in which way should be acted or is it just >a tool for a free and creative architect to design?
WE NEED TO THINK WHAT TO DO BEFORE TO THINK HOW TO DO.
>- What role play historic and especially medieval connections for the design >(you name the "medieval tower"). In what way has the medieval tower >influenced you?
THE MEDIEVAL TIMES WAS VERY SOCIAL. THE POEPLE MADE CATEDRALS AS A SAHRE ICON, PAYED BY THE CITY. THERE WERE CRAFMAN DESIGNING AND MAKING THINGS BY THEMSELVES. I LIOKE VERY MUCH THE MEDIEVAL TIMES.
>- How do you see the connection between nature and data in your design?
NATURE IS A WAY OF DATA,.
>- In what way were the works "Shopping" by Rem Koolhaas and "Las Vegas" by >Robert Venturi important for your way to start design from Data?
ZERO.
>Sorry for the many questions, but I would also very happy, if you could >answer only to few of them!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST. VICENTE GUALLART
