Obstruction: A Grammar for the City

Author(s): Pier Vittorio Aureli, Kersten Geers, Martino Tattara and David Van Severen
Source: AA Files, No. 54 (Summer 2006), pp. 2-7
Published by: Architectural Association School of Architecture
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 Obstruction
A Grammar for the City
+

Dogma IOffice
PierVittorioAureli
Kersten Geers
Marti no Tattara
David Van Severen
I
Inthe 1920s formwas supposed to follow function.
In the 60s form was supposed to follow movement.
In the 90s form was supposed to follow programme.
Inthe 00s form issupposed to follow Icons.
The timewill come when formwill only follow itself.

Architectural formwill be there before the conditions which allow a public,

being something, and itwill be there and therefore coherent, utterance
after: hard and unalterable, relentlessly to be made. In a world of incoherent

mocking its own meaning, its function, yet persuasive 'publicity', the role
programme, content, images, style, of architectural form as enabler of
clients, representations, pretensions.... public utterance is critical even under
architecture's current circumstances
II of production and consumption.
In the face of the current, value-free
fetishism of information, analysis, Ill
diagrams, mappings, multidisciplinary Traditionally, a formalist attitude is
discourses and 'research', itseems identified with processes, techniques,
impossible to raise the issue of materials; in short with how: how form
architectural form. Yet a large part is produced and composed.This
of today's architecture isgratuitous awareness of form is important, but
formalism, despite all the it has often been used as an alibi for

programmatic, functional, comfortable neutrality. We embrace

philosophical, sociological and the project of formalismwith a new

technological arguments to the question: why?Why form?And why
contrary. It is precisely for this reason this form rather than another?
that it has again become urgent to Formalism here is conceived as
raise the issue of form. The crucial and public self-reflection by the architects:
only question to answer is: how can the we are the makers of architectural
formal language of architecture be forms; we know them and are

politically and socially relevant from responsible for them; and we must
within itsspecific constraints? continuously ask ourselves, 'Why is
Itshould be stated fromthe outset this architectural form necessary?'
that we are not interested in the
hermeneutics of architectural form. IV

Rather, we are interested in its Crucial forus is the difference

instrumental criticality, in so much between recognition and perception.
as itdefines the realm and the Recognition of an object works through
problems of architecture, in so a given system of conventions, symbols
much as itestablishes a subjective and formulae, while perception is a

way of composing things, inso much dynamic act of seeing and a firststep
as itsets a limitedand precise scope towards the estrangement brought into
forseeing things.The responsibility play by the architect's techniques for
A citywithout landmarks: of the architect coincides with the mobilising what, until then, had not
Proposal for the New of form. Architectural and could not have come into view.
responsibility
Multifunctional
Administrative City in
form iscritical not forbeing the image In the context of late capitalism,
South Korea, international of some hermeneutic paranoia or inwhich aesthetics and culture are the
competition (firstprize). newness per se, but for articulating main productive forces, such a position

AA FILES 54 3

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aims to define a counter-space
of action for the architect, who
is increasinglysubjected to
fashionable aesthetic mainstreams.
Late capitalism intendsto blur design
with the everyday inorder tomake
society itself a 'convincing, and
therefore productive, work of art'.
The relevance of formalism, then,
consists notmerely inestablishing
the autonomy of architectural

craftsmanship but inemancipating

the architect froman exploitative
imagerybyofferinghim the full
awareness of his own position.

V
Architectural form is itselfand nothing
else. But its irreducible absoluteness,
itsbeing inand for itself,does not end
there, in a self-referential loop. The
finite nature of architectural form
defines itselfcriticallyalways both
against and forsomething else.
Architectural form isat once opposed
to and at the disposal of thatwhich
is external to it.Conjecture about
architectural form is really a means
to imaginingconfigurations framed
by architecturewithout predicting
either their content or course.

VI
It isa popular practice inarchitecture
towork with a concept that puts
imagery (function, movement,
programme, data, icons, logos,
diagrams) firstand architecture
second, but this is a mistake,

dooming architecture to a permanent

and hopeless redundancy.We turn
the problem on itshead, reverse the
polarity, and start again from
the beginning.The beginning is
architectural form, in its absoluteness,
seen against the course of life itseeks
to serve and frame.
The essence of architectural form
lies in its obstructiveness. Architectural
formworks as a strategy simply by
existing; it is there to advance its
context, not itself. Itdoes not offer
endless and unfocused possibility,
but establishes limits. Itsdictatorial
framing isonly unbalanced by the city,
whose uncanny nature and contents it
seeks to civilise.

VII
Architecture, in its elementary

constitution, is only form: walls, rooms,

corridors, ramps, floors.... We view this

grammar as the essential political

site for appropriation, inhabitation,

imagination and composition. We are

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 wary of the pretensions of current the design of a new 'multifunctional
architectural discourse, which strikes city' in Korea, and itbecame for us the
us as a terminology of useless to construct a grammar
opportunity
complexity:programme,digital inwhich architectural form isseen
morphing, branding, technological as the programmatic fulcrumof the
fetishism,etc.We believe that only city's invention.

by focusing on the absoluteness of

architecture can one truly(and X
-
honestly) evoke by negative Today many large-scale urban design
-
inference the unpredictable and developments are the result of private
unforeseeable complexityof lifethat investment. Private investment is
will unfoldwithin. capable of optimising sustainability in
very limitedsections of the city,but it
VIII fails to propose values and images of
Ifwe were to summarise life ina city publicness that go beyond itsown
and life ina building inone gesture, interests. What is needed, then, is
itwould have to be that of passing not a mere strategy of programme
through walls. Every moment of our accommodation, but rather a
existence is a continuous movement principle that transcends public and
throughspace defined bywalls. private, towards a new idea of civic
Architects cannot define how communality.
programme changes, how movement Democracy is not absolute freedom

performs, how flows unfold, how but a set of precise principles

change occurs. The only programme guaranteeing equality inthe enabling
that can reliablybe attributed to of individualfreedom.We believe
architecture is itsspecific inertia thatwhile the city is the enabling
inthe face of life'smutability.Life playground for private enterprise,
isthe essence of a city,or ratherof the playground itselfshould be an
its contents. intelligibleset of shared and visible
principles. It isperhaps an old idea,
IX but inour proposal this position is
Architecture isa constructive and reflected inthe overt simplicityof the
theoretical apparatus whose playground's apparent formal

'publicness', inmost cases, is less organisation.

exclusive than that of art. Simply by
being, architecture ismanifesting a XI
definitionof public space. By'public We propose a cityof rooms instead
space' we don't mean a legal definition of a cityof streets.We propose a cityof
that sets itapart fromprivate space frames instead of a city of landmarks.
but a shared space which, given its Citydevelopment will be
collectiveness, defines a formof concentrated inthe flat part of the
coexistence among individuals. For assigned area, with the purpose of
this reason, there is no option but for preserving the integrityof the existing
architecture to express itselfthrough landscape and reinforcinga sharp
a language that is radicallyand contrast between the cityand its
consciously appropriate, that is clear exterior.
in itsgoals and itscause, able to In layoutthe city isorganised as a
represent and institutionalisethe sequence of rooms enclosed by what
business of livingas a value which is, we refer to as city-walls. The city-walls
by definition,at once universal and are cruciformbuildings, and they
singular. Architecture cannot have any establish the space fordevelopment.
goal apart fromthat of relentless They are the basic inhabitable
-
enquiry into itssingularity the very architectural infrastructure at the

singularitybywhich itconstitutes the service of urban space-generation.

city.Architecturemust address the city The city-walls and their resulting
even when the cityhas no goal for rooms act as a framing system, a
architecture. For this reason, the city generator of available space. Just as
isultimatelythe only object forand itused to be forstreets, the city-walls
method of architectural investigation: and rooms are not the conclusive form

conjecture about the formof the city of the citybut rather itsdefinitive
-
isthe onlyway to answer the question, beginning its primary urban datum. Architecture as frame,

'why architecture?' The result isa citywhere the grid isa clockwise from top left:
The city seen from the
We answer this question inthe form built structure ratherthan the server
surrounding landscape;
of a project fora city.This projectwas of building: urbanism and architecture views of two urban rooms,
conceived as a competition entry for are one city section. including a covered room.

AA FILES 54
5

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XII
The choice of the room as the main
the definition of city-wails, intending to I I I I
provide the minimum design necessary
theme of the city ismeant to collapse for urban coexistence to flourish.
the distinction between interiorand
XVI
\
exterior in the urban sections

organised by the enclosing walls. Once we have restricted the design I I I

The room principle organises the of the city to city-walls, the outcome

necessary separation of city units is not a city made up of streets and

and reinforces their communality. plazas, of interior and exterior layouts;
The space of the urban
as the
room the outcome is space. The principle
refuses the old street
+++H
emphasises accessibility categorically
sharing of space rather than as just building syntax of the city.Our proposal
the infrastructural plugging-in of units. addresses a city without streets,
The frame organises the unplannable composed only as an array of spaces ++-H
by providingthe roomswith a fixedand framed by walls. The perception of the

precise (back)ground. In our proposal, citywill be constituted by a sequence

the inhabitable city-walls are intended of rooms inwhich content is staged as
as an urban-architectural
whose purpose
object
is the coincidence
furniture.
inside
Further
the urban
building development
rooms will be visible,
Ff+H
of fixityand flexibility;the city-wall available, playful and, at the same
is intended as
the geometrical place time, overwhelmed by its captive
where the determination of frame condition. The citywill look likea
and the unpredictabilityof content house, inwhich everyday passage
are solved in one form. This form is the through roomsmakes the feeling
experience of enclosure as a primary of the architecture more relevant to
element that unifies and separates our lives and less important in relation
domestic and urban life. to itself.

XIII XVII
A public transport ringestablishes the The construction of our proposal

perimeter of the development area. In depends heavily on the feeble

the initial stage, development takes relationship between two basic

place inproximityto the fourmain components: walls and spaces. Wall

stations that link car traffic from is the servant, space is the master.
outside with the public transport The inhabitable wall acts as a

system. Starting from these poles, servant in a blissful state of innocence

-
development will gradually occupy the giving so much in return for so little.

city's interior. Public transport hubs Such an attitude plays a crucial role,
indicate the priorities for development. since itestablishes a regime of
Inthe place of themore typical equality, the symmetry determining
centre-towards-periphery movement, factors likeplot dimension and
our proposal concerns development serviceable area. The servant is both
from the periphery towards the centre. the enclosure of urban space and the
This principle ismeant to preserve domestic shelf (a building on itsown),
the rigidityof the city's limitswhile which, despite its abstract character, but one: an idea of the city that is
allowing flexibilityof development has enormous spatial offerings. This served/spared by the uncompromising
towards its core. abstraction represents a new conclusion of its own logic.

monumentality always on the Taking walls and spaces as the

XIV verge of dissolution, disappearance. bare essentials of our position, city
The principlewe choose isexplicitly The room (the space enclosed development can be that of a

arbitrary, but once we are committed by the city-walls) acts as a master: bifurcated path along which linear
to such a beginning, the resulting aware of its generic it is can
character, logic and blunt juxtaposition start

organism will follow a natural reluctant to attach itself to a specific to give way to a completely new
evolution. Whether the evolution of programme. The master is a module grammar of the city.
this organism continues or stops will that can stand alone or as a component
-
depend on the use of the principle of a larger unit. Regardless of the XVIII
not as an abstract programmatic arrangement, asymmetry will always The days of systems, mappings,
-
scenario controlled by some diagram, result, due to the sharp disequilibrium random research, complexity of
but as a real and between the room's dictatorial to the status
passionate political framing vulgarity elevated of
-
will to construct a city. and the uncanny nature of the content discourse are over.
systematic
itseeks to civilise. What is needed now is a new
XV Walls as servant and rooms as with rigorously one-sided
beginning,
The image of the city is the non-iconic master together form the only logic. Courage and determination for
appearance of walls. In our proposal essential principle of the city, and it ourselves, and detached irony
we deliberately restrict our design to is one that sets aside all celebrations towards the rest.

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