Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Look Again

BDES3011 Architectural History / Theory 3

Assignment 1 – Theoretically Informed Architecture Criticism

By Emily Withford – 510432177

Sydney Modern by SANAA, Woolloomooloo 2015-2022

‘The Production of Space’ by Henri Lefebvre

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Foreword something made by human beings and

societies. This book is a search to bridge the

When thinking about the concept of a
gap between mental space (the space of the
museum, it is immediately clear that it
philosophers) and real space (the place we
describes a space where we preserve
physically exist in). During his explorations,
products of society. Situated adjacent to the
Lefebvre moves through the concepts of the
existing 19 century museum, Sydney Modern
th

production of social space, spatial

is the astonishing multi-levelled museum that
architectonics, and the idea of
was designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning
monumentality. Through this examination, it
architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa
becomes clear that Sydney Modern is an
of Tokyo-based firm SANAA. The French
ingenious architectural landmark, but the
philosophy, Henri Lefebvre, argues in his
question remains, is this museum just another
book, ‘The Production of Space’ (1974), that
building with white cubes of gallery space?
space is not just a neutral container in which

these things, acts, or events occur, but

Figure 1 - Potter, Everett. The Sydney Modern Project by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA.ART GALLERY OF NEW
SOUTH WALES. December 27, 2022. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/everettpotter/2022/12/27/australias-
astonishing-new-sydney-modern-project/?sh=256e27f6149a.

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Social Space created the building to showcase the social

space itself, at the same time as the artworks

The common understanding on the concept of
and sculptures. Michael Brand, the Director of
space in the 1970’s is one stemming from
the Art Gallery of New South Wales, states, “I
Cartesian logic, the ongoing dualism of two
think one of the key things with SANAA is that
finite substances, mind (spirit or soul) and
the interstitial spaces become as important as
matter, thus characterising space as a mental
the gallery spaces.” 1
entity separate from social or physical reality.

However, Lefebvre characterises it as a space

that is created through social meaning,

collectively valuable objects and something

which affects practice and perceptions. He

states that “the representations of space

facilitate the manipulation of representational

spaces”, in other words, the social products,

or art, manipulate the surrounding

architecture, and thus, the social space. While

it is true that Lefebvre never clearly defines

Figure 2 - Emily Withford 'The End of Imagination by
the idea of social space, consequently leaving Villar Rojas' within 'The Tank'. BDES301, University of
Sydney, 2023

room for misinterpretation and vagueness, he

This idea becomes manifested within the
presents interesting queries that relate to the
2,200 square meter exhibition hall called ‘The
Sydney Modern. It can be argued that this
Tank’ (see figure 2), a former second world
meticulously designed building has
war oil underground storage facility, which
revolutionised the idea of social space as they
was designed to meet the evolving

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Potter, Everett. The Sydney Modern Project by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue astonishing-new-sydney-modern-project/?sh=256e27f6149a.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/everettpotter/2022/12/27/australias-
Nishizawa / SANAA.ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. December 27,
astonishing-new-sydney-modern-project/?sh=256e27f6149a (Accessed:
2022. Forbes.
March 20, 2023).
https://www.forbes.com/sites/everettpotter/2022/12/27/australias-

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

expectations of a 21st century society. Within

this large, cavernous space, lives Villar Rojas’

‘The End of Imagination’, where he created

fantastical sculptures evoking the ruins of

ancient civilisations, fossilised artefacts, and

objects from the far reaches of interstellar.

This space plays into Lefebvre’s idea that “an

observer could move around any object in

social space including such objects as houses,

public buildings and palaces - and in so doing

go beyond scrutinizing or studying it under a

Figure 3 - Emily Withford 'The End of Imagination by
Villar Rojas' within 'The Tank'. BDES301, University of
single or special aspect.” By truly immersing
Sydney, 2023

the viewer within this loud, large, and dark

space, we understand that the Cartesian logic

is wrong for our time, instead space is both a

social and mental entity, working together to

create one space. What the architects

succeeded in was created a space that was

opened to perception, to conceptualisation as

the sculptures in this space passed from

objects in space to the concept of space itself.

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Figure 4 - Mario Caporali, Adrian Villar Rojas in His Workshop in Rosario, Argentina with Georgina Burgi at Work on a
Sculpture for The End of Imagination., September 21, 2022, Sydney Morning Herald, September 21, 2022,
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-des

Architectonics to be that the environment

shapeing our existence of space while in

Spatial Architectonics:
constant interaction with the body as it

Lefebvre uses the French Philosopher, Henri amplifies the perception of space through the

Leibniz’s, theories to raise two questions, first, bodily senses. An ingenious example of this is

how does a body ‘occupy’ a space? And outlined above as ‘The Tank’ (see figure 4) is a

second, can a body, with its capacity for showcase of mastery in the manipulation of

action and its various energies, be said to multisensory stimulation as SANAA created an

create space? He proposes there is an incredibly unique, dark, and moody

“immediate relationship between the body environment. Before entering, a warning is

and its space, between the body’s deployment given not to make any loud noises, a fitting

in space and its occupation of space”. He indication of the reverberant soundscape the

pronounces the definition of spatial footsteps and softly spoken words create.

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Lefebvre uses the example of a door, posing

the idea that a door is just a hole in the wall

without its frame. Its surrounds make a door

into an object with meaning that attains the

status of a transitional, symbolic, and

functional space. The same logic can be used

when thinking of the space that SANNA

created within ‘The Tank’, as the artworks

within this space are just a combination of

items without its frame, without the spatial

Architectonics. However, within this dark and

Figure 5 - Emily Withford, 'Dreamhome' by Samara
moody space, the sculptures by Rojas are Golden'. BDES301, University of Sydney, 2023

brought to life, hailing at history and industry contradiction”. This installation is the physical

within a cinematic landscape of this embodiment that through and beyond the

underground world. In the other end of the various effects of the artworks meaning,

gallery remains what appears to be an space is experienced in its depths, as

intimidating, colourful, vertigo-inducing duplications, echoes and reverberations

installation that serves as one of the within the shifting intersection between that

centrepieces for ‘Dreamhome’, stories of Art which touches, threatens, or benefits the

and Shelter by US artist Samara Golden. This body.

brilliant artist created a space that uses

illusion, objects, and material, such as mirrors,

to create a dystopian scale of society and class

that would have delighted the radical

philosopher, Georges Bataille, who stated

“truth has only one face: that of a violent

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Figure 6 - Samara Golden, 'Dreamhome' , December 3, 2022, Art Gallery NSW, December 3, 2022,
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/dreamhome/.

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Monumentality A comment can be made between the

original building, the Art Gallery of NSW

For the past millennia, monumentality took in
(1896) and the new building, Sydney Modern,
all the aspects of spatiality that has been
which characterises the original as being the
identified above. It is the representations of
highly regarded monument it is. While the
space and representational space, as Lefebvre
newly transformed landmark is beautiful and
expresses, and it offers each member of a
very successful in its own right, it is not a
society an image of that membership, an
monument. As stated by Lefebvre, “the most
image of “his or her social visage”. Sydney
beautiful monuments are imposing in their
Modern is the collective mirror for the general
durability” and Sydney Modern neither feels
accepted power and wisdom of our society.
imposing or durable, notably the entrance’s
Only through monument, and through the
pavilion which appears cheap and made from
intervention of an architect, can a
flimsy corrugated fiberglass (as seen in figure
meaningless space be transfigured into a
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living embodiment of our society.

Figure 7 - NSW Art Gallery Facade, December 3, 2022, Art Gallery NSW, December 3, 2022,
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/visit/plan-your-visit/campus/

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Figure 8- Emily Withford, Sydney Modern entrance

Figure 9 - Emily Withford, Detail on the roof, Sydney Modern
Pavilion and 'Here Comes Everybody' by Francis
entrance Pavilion. BDES301, University of Sydney, 2023
Upritchard. BDES301, University of Sydney, 2023

Lefebvre acknowledges that “A monument is

What the original building does best is its
neither an object nor an aggregation of
ability to replace brutal reality with a
diverse objects…, its position as a social
materialised appearance of the beauty and
object, is recalled at every moment, perhaps
creativity in the world while standing the tests
by the brutality of the materials or masses
of time. As seen in image 10, this space is
involved, perhaps, on the contrary, by their
wholly defined by the objects and pieces that
gentle qualities. It is neither a sculpture, nor a
live on its walls and floors as it is the physical
figure, nor simply the result of material
manifesto of the beauty that has come before
procedures.” By these standards, the new
and that will prevail long after, if only in
building’s space should be determined by
memory.
what takes place in there, and consequently

by what may not take place there.

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Figure 10 - Emily Withford, Classics Exhibition Hall in the South Building. BDES301, University of
Sydney, 2023

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

The Taj Mahal, for example, plays into the

fullness of swelling curves “suspended in

dramatic emptiness”, combining acoustic,

gestural, and ritual movements, the spaces

within open onto limitless perspectives,

chains of meanings and it is all organised into

a monumental whole. SANNA’s design, while Figure 11 - Lillie Marshall, September 17, 2017, Inside
the Taj Mahal, India, September 17, 2017,
https://www.aroundtheworldl.com/taj-mahal/.
the white and beige is somewhat more

friendly than the neoclassic exterior of the old

art gallery, still produced the same, closed off

exhibition spaces that are seen everywhere,

sans ‘The Tank’. Michael Brand acknowledged

this fact; “As you walk around, you’ll see that

SANAA has created a beautiful building where

you have the white cubes of gallery space, but

you also have beautiful promenades where

you’re also with art.” In comparison, the

original, beautiful, sandstone art gallery

navigates the various ‘systems’ and codes that

constituted and founded our society, while

maintaining its status as a meaningful Figure 12 - Emily Withford, Sydney Modern Exhibition
Hall in the North Building. BDES301, University of
Sydney, 2023
monument, which inevitably casts an all-

embracing presence of totality, something

lost from Sydney Modern.

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Look Again – Theoretically Informed Architect Criticism

Final Note

A decisive conclusion can be made that, by

Lefebvre’s 1970’s standards, Sydney Modern

is a particularly well-designed building that

embodies nearly all factors that allow for the

true production of space. The design

dismisses the idea that a gallery is just an

empty container, waiting to be filled,

exemplified through the exploration of social

space, spatial architectonics, and

monumentality. To finalise, Sydney Modern is Figure 13 - Emily Withford, NSW Art Gallery in the South
Building. BDES301, University of Sydney, 2023
not just another building with white cubes of

gallery space, but rather a clear, forward-

thinking design that will forever influence the

future of Architectural space.

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