Rem Koolhaas:
Field Trip A(A) MEMOIR (First and Last...) The Berlin Wall as Architecture, 1993 AA,1 London, early seventies. "Famous" students present megastructures made o sugar cu!es to universal approval o grinning Archigramesue Archigramesue# teachers. 3 $eter %mithson &al's in ( he &ears a lo&ered shirt ( &inces, and turns !ac'. )edric $rice* pontiicates on architectural modesty rom interchangea!le cards ( early r andomi+ed discourse. enc's, - a dandy, is seen to assem!le ( according to amateur terrorist hand!oo' ( the irst elements o the semiotic eplosion. A sulurous Boyars'y Boyars'y / eposes )hicago0s inrastructural under!elly. %chool in upheaval a!out mystic ta'eover plat. Theory there is only a limited amount o 'no&ledge in the &orld &hich should therefore therefore not !e spread homogeneously or democratically ( it &ould get too thin. 2no&ledge should !e communicated to chosen e& only. lia 4enghelis 5 perpetua6ly threatens to &al' a&ay rom it all... A monstrously idealistic appearance !y Louis 2ahn.7 8ever again... Tschumi, Tschumi,9 reuently in periphery o my vision, already a perectly ormed typology ( a teacher... teacher... %uperstudio1 appearing on the hori+on... 6ncompara!le miture, in other &ords, o )eltic :or is it simply Anglo(%aon;< !ar!arism and intellectual erment. 6 there is a plot, in any school, it is the eternal one ( simple =ar&inian imperative may!e ( o each generation trying to incapacitate the net under the guise o educational process. >ere it is very noticea!le and very epensive. :6 &as &riting movie scripts to cover the costs.< 6n this anarchic anarchic assem!ly, assem!ly, one o the rare remaining remaining ormal o!ligations o!ligations or a diploma diploma is so(called so(called %ummer %tudy %tudy the documentation :measured dra&ings, photographs, analytical studies< o an eisting architectural item, usually in a good climate ( $alladian villas? @ree' mountain villages o complicated, yet to !e deciphered geometries? pyramids. 6ntuition, unhappiness &ith the accumulated innocence o the late sities, and simple ournalistic interest drive me to Berlin :!y plane, train, car, oot; 6n my memory, 60m suddenly there< to document The Berlin Wall as Architecture. That year, the &all cele!rates cele!rates its tenth !irthday !irthday.. y irst impressio impression n in the hot August August &eather the city seems almost comple completel tely y a!ando a!andoned ned,, as empty as 6 al&ay al&ays s imagin imagined ed the other side to !e. Cther shoc' shoc' it is not ast ast Berlin Berlin that is imprisoned, !ut the West, the "open society." society." 6n my imagination, stupidly, the &all &as a simple, maestic north(south divide? a clean, philosophical demarcation? a neat, modern Wailing Wall. 6 no& reali+e that it encircles the city, paradoically ma'ing it "ree." 6t is 1/- 'ilometers long and conronts all o Berlin0s conditions, including la'es, orests, periphery? parts o it ara intensely metropolitan, others su!ur!an. Also, the &all is not sta!le? and it is not a single entity, entity, as 6 thought. 6t is more a situation, a permanent, slo&(motion evolution, some o it a!rupt and clearly planned, some o it improvised. As i time is an accordion ( a =isney 11 archaeology ( all o its successive successive physical maniestations seem simultaneously present in this this desert deserted ed city city :holid :holiday ay; ; eile; eile; atomic atomic threat threat;<. ;<.ln ln its "primi "primitiv tive" e" stage stage the &all &all is decisi decision, on, applied applied &ith &ith a!solute a!solute architectural minimalism concrete !loc's, !ric'ed(in &indo&s and doors, sometimes &ith trees ( implausi!ly green ( still in ront o them. The scale o this phase is heroic, i.e., ur!an, up to * meters high. 6n the net permutation, a second &all ( this time o rough concrete sla!s hurriedly piled on top o each other :!y orced la!or;< ( is planned ust !ehind the irst. Cnly &hen this &all is inished is the irst &all :the old houses< ta'en do&n. %ometimes, adding insult to inury, the street level ( a portico, orever(empty shop &indo&s, the striped poles o noneistent !ar!ers ( is let as a 'ind o decorativ decorative e pre(&all. pre(&all. This second second &all is also unsta!le. unsta!le. 6t is continuou continuously sly "perected" "perected" through construct construction ion techniue techniues s ( more and more prea!ricati prea!rication on ( that inally inally give it ultimate ultimate orm the smooth, smooth, mechanical, mechanical, designed designed &all ta'en do&n # years later. Topped Topped !y an endless ro& o hollo& concrete cylinders, it is impossi!le to grip or those &ho might &ant to escape. =irectly !ehind the second &all sand, treated li'e a apanese garden. Belo& the sand invisi!le mines. Cn the sand antitan' crosses ( concrete intersections o the three(dimensional aial cross ( an endless line o %ol LeWitt 1# structures. Beyond this +one an asphalt path, !arely &ide enough or a eep. :=o they avoid each other in the mined +one;< Ater that a residual strip &here @erman shepherds pace !ac' and orth, patrolling the "par'," !aying at non(events. Beyond that, @ehry(li'e 13 chain(lin' encing. Those are the linear elements. )losely spaced together are natrium street lamps, their orange glo& turned to&ard the West? then, &ider apart the architecture o the standardi+ed doghouses. %till &ider apart guard to&ers emanating a visi!le military presence even &hen apparently unmanned? guns po'ing through narro& slits. Finally, inevita!ly at irregular intervals the sections through the entire system represented !y the !order crossings. This &as the schematic proile. But in acts o o!vious realism, it &as not imposed on the city as consistent ormula. The &all s&elled to assume its maimum identity &herever possi!le, !ut along more than hal its length, its regularity &as compromised in a series o systematic adaptations that accommodated eisting ur!an incidents or dimensional conlicts. %ometimes the parallel layers o the &all &ould separate, s&allo&ing, or instance, a church. %ometimes the encing &ould surround, li'e a tiger cage in a circus, a orlorn satellite o Westernness so that a nine(year(old could !icycle to school every morning. That &as not all? there &as a "high" &all ( as in "high" culture D and a "lo&" &all. The irst &as maniest at the most "ur!an" locations :mostly on the line that divided the ormer center in t&o<. There it &as at its most conrontational, at its most consciously sym!olic sym!olic in its shameless imposition ( on a Western enclave that !ristled &ith pseudo(hypervitality ( o a linear ruin
ininitely more impressive than any artiicial sign o lie. Along other, orgotten :orgetta!le;< sections, the &all assumed a casual, !anal character :shades o >annah Arendt;<. 1* 6ts architecture relaed. 6 had not seen such a tet!oo' demonstration o dialectics since &itnessing the drill o the guards at Lenin0s tom! on Eed %uare a antastically intimidating goose step ( legs lited higher than those o chorus girls ( that disintegrated meters in ront o the 2remlin gate into a motley group o loose( lim!ed $etrush'as.1Cn each side, the &all had generated its o&n sidesho&sparaphernalia? on the Western side, a regular series o vie&ing platorms :early models or >edu'0s 1/ masues;< !rought the pu!lic as close as possi!le to the &all. %ometimes these ric'ety &ooden structures &ere all that remained o a ormer ur!anistic apotheosis li'e Aleanderplat+? sometimes their positioning seemed utterly random, dissociated rom an y recogni+a!le point o the city. Cn the other side, the &all seemed the rontline o a slo&, gangrenous erosion o the good :astern< part o the city. But in this desultory year D 1951 ( the &all &as normali+ed, its apparent permanence dulling part o its ormer touristic glamour? the platorms ( thrusting voyeuristic positions o ideological gloating ( &ere mostly empty. The greatest surprise the wall was heartbreakingly beautiful. ay!e ater the ruins o $ompei, >erculaneum, and the Eoman Forum, it &as the most purely !eautiul remnant o an ur!an condition, !reathta'ing in its persistent dou!leness. The game phenomenon oered, over a length o 1/- 'ilometers, radically dierent meanings, spectacles, interpretations, realities. 6t &as impossi!le to imagine another recent artiact &ith the game signiying potency. And there &as more in spite o its apparent a!sence o program, the &all ( in its relatively short lie ( had provo'ed and sustained an incredi!le num!er o events, !ehaviors, and eects. Apart rom the daily routines o inspection ( military in the ast and touristic in the West ( a vast system o ritual in itsel, the &all &as a script, eortlessly !lurring divisions !et&een tragedy, comedy, melodrama. At the most serious level o "event" the &all &as deadly. )ountless people ( mostly young men ( had died in more or less disorgani+ed attempts at escape shot dead !eyond the !ar!ed &ire, the sand, the mines? caught theatrically at the top o the &all. A particular cruelty in the &all0s permanent transormation rom line to +one &as that the distance that had to !e crossed !ecame longer and longer, eponentially increasing the ris', provo'ing ever more premature attempts at escape. Cn a more premeditated level, there had !een more antastic attempts that relied either on hiding in vehicles that &ould cross the &all at the notorious chec'points :eerily, it seemed that the most amous metropolitan crossings, such as )hec'point )harlie, eercised the greatest attraction or those &ith the least interest in !eing discovered< or on circumnavigating the &all itsel ( either in the air or, in a more traditional voca!ulary o prison escape, underground D using se&ers, digging tunnels, starting rom living rooms that seemed unchanged since the Third Eeich. :What architect ( ho&ever Bataille(soa'ed 15 ( could !oast o its transgressive perormance, o the sheer radicalism o its eistence;< The &all &as the transgression to end all transgressions. Reverse Epiphanies This &as a ield trip that spoiled the charms o the ield? tourism that let a 'ind o scorched earth. 6t &as as i 6 had come eye to eye &ith architecture0s true nature. 1. 6n the early seventies, it &as impossi!le not to sense an enormous reservoir o resentment against architecture, &ith ne& evidence o its inadeuacies ( o its cruel and ehausted perormance ( accumu6ating daily? looking at the wall as archilecture, it was inevitable to transpose the despair, hatred, frustration it inspired to the fieId of archilecture. And it &as inevita!le to reali+e that all these epressions ( the anaticism o the tunnel diggers? the resignation o those let !ehind? the desperate attempts to cele!rate conventional occasions, such as marriage, across the divide ( &ere inally all too applica!le to architecture itsel. The Berlin Wall was a very graphic demonstration of the power of archilecture and some of its unpleasant consequences. Were not division, enclosure :i.e., imprisonment<, and eclusion ( &hich deined the &all0s perormance and eplained its eiciency ( the essential stratagems o any architecture; 6n comparison, the sities dream o architecture0s li!erating potential ( in &hich 6 had !een marinating or years as a student( seemed ee!le rhetorical play. 6t evaporated on the spot. 2. The wall suggested that architectures beauty was directly proportional to its horror. There &as a dreadul "serial" !eauty to the &all0s systematic transormation rom an invisi!le line on a map to a solid line o soldiers :that made it maniest<, to !ar!ed &ire dropped on the line, to the irst cementing o !loc's a atality o "development" that perversely echoed, or instance, the sophistication o %chin'el0s 17 thematic variations on architectural themes at %chloss @lienic'e. . !n the same level of negative revelation, the wall also, in my eyes, made a total mockery of any of the emerging attempts to link orm to meaning in a regressive chain"and"ball relationship. 6t &as clearly a!out communication, semantic may!e, !ut its meaning changed almost daily, sometimes !y the hour. 6t &as aected more !y events and decisions thousands o miles a&ay than !y its physical maniestation. 6ts signiicance as a "&all" ( as an o!ect ( &as marginal? its impact &as utterly independent o its appearance. Apparently, the lightest o o!ects could !e randomly coupled &ith the heaviest o meanings through !rute orce, &illpo&er. There &as no point in constructing the grammar o this ne& type o event. Ges, one could loo' at the irst sections o the
deinitive &all, read ino them a style or a language ( a 'ind o Clivetti 19 aesthetics ( connect them to modernism, declare them !oring, imagine rantic layers o mimetic devices as compensation. But on the eve of postmodernism, here was unforgettable #not to say final$ proof of the %less is more% doctrine.. . 6 &ould never again !elieve in orm as the primary vessel o meaning. !. In my eyes, the wall also forever severed the connection between importance and mass. As an o!ect the &all &as unimpressive, evolving to&ard a near demateriali+ation? !ut that let its po&er undiminished. 6n act, in narro&ly architectural terms, the &all &as not an o!ect !ut an erasure, a reshly created a!sence. For me, it &as a irst demonstration o the capacity o the void ( o nothingness ( to "unction" &ith more eiciency, su!tlety, and lei!ility than any o!ect you could imagine in its place. 6t &as a &arning that ( in architecture ( a!sence &ould al&ays &in in a contest &ith presence. ". The &all had generated a catalog o possi!le mutations? sometimes the ne& o!ect+one slashed mercilessly through the most :ormerly< impressive parts o the city? sometimes it yielded to apparently superior pressures that &ere not al&ays identiia!le. Its range from the absolute, the regular, to the deformed was an une&pected manifestation of a formless %modern% " alternately strong and weak, imposition and residue, 'artesian and chaotic, all its seemingly different states merely phases of the same essential pro(ect. 6 had not 'no&n &hat to epect on this ourney. 6 had hoped to "do" the &all in a day and then to eplore the rest o the cit:ies<. 6t &as so endless, 6 &ould say, that it could not !e measured. But its attraction &as hypnotic. 6t made me a serious student. Three months later my irst pu!lic presentation. They &ere all there #, 3, *, -, /, and 5, in a mood o semiestive, semicynical epectation :this school &as nothing i not un<. The images that appeared on the screen ( ormer conditions, concepts, &or'ings, evolution, "plots" ( assumed their positions in a seuence that &as gripping almost !eyond my control? &ords &ere redundant. There &as a long silence. Then Boyars'y as'ed ominously, "Where do you go rom here;" 1## 8otes 1. Architectural Association %chool o Architecture :ounded 17*7< the "oldest and largest" architecture school in the H2? notoriously independent? student !ody *- :5/I rom over - oreign countrieserron, =ennis )rompton, ichael We!!, Warren )hal', =avid @reene<. 3. %mithson, $eter :!.19#3< and Alison :19#7(93< ormer AA teachers? ounders o Team J? they had ust pu!lished Action and )lan :London %tudio Kista<. *. $rice, )edric :!.193*< architect o $otteries Thin'!elt, &hich insinuated a ne& university in a derelict +one o redundant Kictorian inrastructure? also o "8o $lan." -. enc's, )harles :!.1939< $h.=., London Hniversity? &or'ed &ith @eorges Baird on "eaning in Architecture," an early eploration o architecture and semiotics, memora!le or its ormat, in &hich each contri!utor could comment in the margins on the speculations o the others. /. Boyars'y, Alvin :19#7(9< ater a "revolution" &as chairman o the AA rom 1951 until his death and &as most responsi!le or the school0s prominence. 5. 4enghelis, lia :!. 1935< AA teacher? later CA partner :until 197/<. 7. 2ahn, Louis 1. :!.191, Baltic island o %arema? 19-, immigrated to $hiladelphia? d.195*, $enn %tation, 8e& Gor'< American architect and teacher? proessor at Gale and later at Hniversity o $ennsylvania? had ust completed the $hillips eter Academy li!rary and the 2im!ell Art useum. 9. Tschumi, Bernard :!.19**< %&iss(French architect o $arc de la Killette, $aris? dean o )olum!ia Hniversity %chool o Architecture. 1. %uperstudio :ounded 19//< 6talian avant(garde architects :6 had !een very impressed &ith their )ontinuous onument and had organi+ed lectures or Adolo 8atalini at the AA<. 11. =isney, Walter lias :191(//< #th(century genius? creator o ic'ey ouse, =onald =uc', etc.? planner o =isneyland, Anaheim, )aliornia :opened 19--<, and Walt =isney World, Crlando, Florida :opened 1951<. 1#. LeWitt, %ol :!.19#9< American conceptual artist 'no&n or his &all dra&ings and structures? once &or'ed as a dratsman or 6. . $ei. 13. @ehry, Fran' C. :!. 19#9, Toronto, Cntario< )aliornia architect &ho !ecame &orld amous &hen he enced in his LA house and dismantled it !ehind the ne&, notional enclosure. 1*. Arendt, >annah :19/(5-< @erman(!orn H% political scientist and philosopher 'no&n or !rigins of Totalitarianism :19-1<, &hich related the development o totalitarianism to 19th(century anti(%emitism and imperialism, and or *ichmann in +erusalem :19/3<, &hich emphasi+ed &hat she vie&ed as the cooperative role o e&ish community leaders in acilitating 8a+i etermination o the e&s during World War 66. 1-. $etrush'a Eussian marionette &ho in %travins'y0s !allet :1911< leads his o&n lie, independent o the puppet master. 1/. >edu', ohn . :!. 19#9< 8e& Gor' Five architect &ho !ecame increasingly interested in allegories? director o )ooper Hnion, the "other" architecture school. 15. Bataille, @eorges :1795(19/#< French philosopher, novelist, poet, and critic inluenced !y surrealists, A+tecs, 8iet+sche? developed theories on "proane" human &orld o order vs. "sacred" animal &orld !ased on disorder, cruelty, ecess. 17. %chin'el, 2arl Friedrich :1571(17*1< @erman architect &ho invested eclecticism &ith intellectual rigor ( an a!ility that &ould later resurace in the architect C. . Hngers. 19. Clivetti :ounded 197< 6talian type&riter and computer actory 'no&n in the 19/s or its irresisti!le designs.
