ro | en
Argument › No. 14/2022

Strands Towards an Architecture

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.54508/Argument.14.03

  • / Prof., Arch. RIBA and Filmmaker, Production structure Essay Street, FR

Abstract

Focusing on the pedagogical aspect of an architectural experiment, this paper presents the process and the result of a decade of project-making in the Master studio that I have led at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture of Paris-La Villette. The work evolved through measured architectural drawing and scale models in order to explore fundamentals of architecture. As architectural thought is expressed through drawings and models, this paper contains an important number of composite plates prepared for explanation and publication. The studio was based in Paris, yet the studies took place in various European cities, of distinct physical and cultural characteristics. Collaborations, through residencies in partner schools of architecture, were an important aspect in the development of the research. The evolution of the studio over the period covered here (2011-2019) can be observed in the working method and in the production of the studio. A variety of original projects were produced, recognised as such by our local partners. It gave the students taking part a way of working in architecture that goes beyond stylistic or non-architectural orientations, based on both the foundations of architecture as a practice and theory and on contemporary exemplary architectural thought. These are qualified by an awareness of the structure and functioning of the natural world, as well as by the observation of the transformative qualities of space in all its dimensions through philosophical reflection.

Keywords

architecture, fundamentals, master-section, measured drawing, models, smooth and striated space, exemplary projects database

Download

References

  1. Alberti, L.B. (1992). On the Art of Building in Ten Books. (J.Rykwert, N. Leach, R. Tavernor, Trans.) New Haven and London: MIT Press.
  2. Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
  3. El Croquis magazine (1982-) El Escorial. Madrid. 
  4. Emmons, P. (2019). Drawing imagining building: embodiment in architectural design practices. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
  5. Latitudes (2011-2018). Ateliers internationaux. Paris: Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-La-Villette
  6. Le Corbusier (1966). Mise au point, Éditions Forces Vives, Paris.
  7. Le Corbusier (2006). Oeuvre complète (Complete Works) (originally published 1929-1970). Basel: Birkhäuser.
  8. Koolhaas, R. (2018). Elements of Architecture. Köln: Taschen.
  9. Romero, C. (2003), El Relieve de Lanzarote, Rubicon, Servico de Publicaciones, Cabildo de Lanzarote.
  10. Scarpa, A. (2019). César Manrique, acupuntura territorial en Lanzarote. (Spanish edition with English summarized translation), Cabildo Insular Lanzarote.
  11. Williams, K. (2019). Daniele Barbaro’s Vitruvius of 1567. Cham: Birkhäuser.
  12. Žaknić, I. (1997). The final testament of Père Corbu: a translation and interpretation of Mise au point by Ivan Žaknić.  New Haven and London:  Yale University Press.