Urban
Archi-Scape As a Concept from the Eye of World Known Architects
To
understand the term “Scape” and the interrelation between architecture and
landscape architecture within the Urban Context through the examples from
Bernard Tschumi
Beliz Arpak
Tobb University,Faculty of Fine Arts,
Department of Architecture, Ankara Turkey
Abstract
Within the developing technology and the
changing society, the needs and the understanding of urban design, landscape
architecture and architecture itself have to change accordingly. In order to
specify the changes and the need of these changes, these disciplines should
work coherently and they should come up with different aspects then the well
known ones such as Kevin Lynch “Image of a City” Aldo Rossi “City Architecture”
Rob Krier “Urban Space” or Ventury “Learning from Las Vegas”. There is an
emerge of re-identification of city centers because cities have changed and
architects cannot maintain reading them with the existing urban terminology.
Therefore world known architects come up with new concepts like “scape” and
“archi-scape”. This paper will evaluate these terms through the perspectives of
Ram Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi and then the examples within the book “Event
Cities 1,2,3 and 4” by Tschumi will be examined. According to Ram Koolhaas
“Architecture alone cannot handle the problems of City” which creates an
opportunity to work with other disciplines. However, every discipline has its own
territories and profession so it is a necessity to come up with a concept and
discuss the city throughout this concept. This paper also gives clues about how
to design the urban land in terms of scaping, what kind of cities we have and
what can be done in order to re-organize the cities without neglecting the
background of a city and without neglecting the change in the paradigm of
landscape. This article criticizes the blurred lines in between the
architecture and the landscape architecture of a city. It also gives an
emphasize on what should be done and what should be avoided during designing a
city. Last but not least, the article includes the interpretation on landscape,
archiscape and conceptualizing the word through examples. It is important to
understand how to read a city and how to convert it into another concept.
Keywords
Urban Archi-scapes, Bernard Tschumi, Rem Koolhaas, Scape,
Event Cities , Parc de la Vilette, Architectural Urbanism in Konsai-Kyoto and
Lausanne, Tokyo Opera, Strasburg Country Hall, Karlsruhe Center for Art and
Media, Glass Video Gallery
Contact:
Beliz Arpak
Tobb University Faculty of Architecture
Notes: This article was made under the consideration of
Prof.Dr. Nur Çağlar during the lecture M505 Urban Archi-scapes in Tobb
University, Department of Architecture
Acknowledgement: Sincerely thanks to Sn. Müge Cengizkan for
her help during the process of writing.
Introduction
During
many years cities are changing and evolving so it becomes harder and harder to
read the cities of 21 st century with the existing urban terminology.
Therefore, world known architects come up with different aspects in order to
understand what is going on. Until the concept of Archi-scape emerged there are
a few books that an architect should read and know which are “The image of the
City” by Kevin Lynch, “City Architecture” by Aldo Rossi , “Urban Space” by Rob
Krier, “Learning from Las Vegas” by Ventury. In the lead of these books and the
aspects emerged within them , architects maintained to understand the cities
but the conditions have changed and it became impossible to read cities as an
architect so there is a need of an interdisciplinary work. Since, reading of
city became an issue Ram Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi came up with the concepts
“Scape” and “Archiscape”.The term “Scape” means describing a wide view of a
particular type such as landscape, seascape, cityscape and townscape.
On the other hand within architectural context, according to Koolhaas, “Scape”
implies a reading of urban territory as landscape, it indicates a strategy of
distancing oneself from traditions, is idiom for the edgeless city, in which
the distinction between center and periphery, between inside and outside, between
figure and ground is erased last but not least, the city is understood as a
continuous, topologically formed field structure whose modulated surface covers
vast extensions of urban regions . Another point of view from Bernard Tschumi is
that the term scape which refers to an overall sight vision that modifies the
object referring to land in its representation the landscape, these new scapes
indicate on the horizon a new way of seeing, designing and inhabiting space
through the interpretation of the work as a complex system of connections,
interchanges and retro-actions, always open, flexible, modifiable.The
consept of Archi-Scape refers to an interrelation between architecture and
landscape. It is impossible to think about the architecture without its
surrounding and its also impossible to think landscape without any
architectural element within city. According to Bernard Tschumi, “At Archi-scape
our practice of architecture endeavors to create memorable buildings and spaces
that are at once an integral part of their location”.
Actually, it is interesting that within the book “Event Cities 1 “ Tschumi came
up with the concept of Archiscape , it iş not noticed until Koolhaas mentioned
it again with small changes. So that the aim of this paper is to evaluate the
concepts “Scape” and “Archi-scape” in terms of urban planning and development,
the changing societies and the changing needs of cities. Then the examples of
Bernard Tschumi will be discussed accordingly with the four topics he listed
within his book “Event Cities” . These examples will lead us in terms of their
design processes and the interrelation between theory and praxis. The main
problem is understand the conditions of
today’s cities and making proposals on what should be done and what should be
avoided. On the other hand, there is a
reality about architecture that it is impossible to imagine a city without architecture
and the architecture without a city. Last but not least, the main aim of this
paper is reading and designing a city needs to be an interdisciplinary process
which covers architects, landscape architects and material engineering and
rules of design should be renovated and re-invented.
Exploring The
New Concept Through The Design Examples of Bernard Tschumi
First of all, it is important to
understand the design approach of Bernard Tschumi in terms of architecture and
landscape architecture. He argues that architecture is as much about the events
that take place in spaces as about the spaces themselves moreover, the cause
effect relationship sanctified by modernism by which form follows function
needs to be abandoned in favor of promiscuous collisions of programs and spaces. In
order to understand his design approach, his book series called “Event Cities”
will be useful.
This book is about composing the theory and the praxis within
architecture, it aims an argumentation about several projects made by Tschumi
which creates a great potential about extensive and accurate theoretical texts
of recent years. The argumentation has three aspects; praxis that includes the
details about conceptual process composed with the actual making of
architecture, cities which argues that all architecture should have a relation
with our urban condition and lastly, events that claims there is no
architecture without action and during creating careful agencing of spaces and
events architecture speeds up the process of society’s transformation.
“In Event Cities , realism is what counts
, but only the sense of something that is realizable: every praxis is an action
towards a result. If theory is only responsible to theory, a praxis can only
project itself towards the constructed, social, economic and political reality”
.
In Event Cities the important concepts are shown with the ideograms and
construction drawings of projects and the concept of form and style play an
undeniably important role. The goals of these projects can both be abstract
theories or design it aims to establish several conditions for new urban
events. These events also has a relationship with the term archi-scape in terms
of the interaction between human and nature, human and architecture and lastly
it creates its own scape within cities.
It is impossible to imagine a city without architecture and the
architecture without a city. Within this book there are four types of projects
which are argued. The first type is related with the urban planning that
includes the organization of the territory is ahead of the definition of any
specific program. The example of this type is the Parc de la Vilette which
emphasizes the event dimension, the dimension of action, in what makes up a
city. In Parc de la Vilette in terms of form the park has designed as a series
of three specific systems lines , points and surfaces but they are not
integrated to each other they superimposes to each other which creates more
opportunities when they are distort and clashed with one other.
(http://robertocioffi.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/form-body-technique-space.pdf)
In terms of design “this weakening of architecture, as Tschumi calls it,
is an altered relationship between structure and image and structure and skin”.
There are three diagrams about design which is shown below. Diagram 1 shows a
simple representation on the proportions of territories which are the building
to covered area and to open space. Diagram 2 shows three parts which passed
several processes such as explosion, fragmentation and deconstruction and
lastly diagram 3 is a re-composition of the element.
(
http://robertocioffi.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/form-body-technique-space.pdf)
One of the layers of the park is lines that are composed of two major
perpendicular axes running parallel to the orthogonal grid and these forms the
major walkways throughout the park which consists of steel and iron.
(
http://robertocioffi.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/form-body-technique-space.pdf)
The other layer of the park is points which are created by repetition,
distortion, superimposition and fragmentation.
(
http://robertocioffi.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/form-body-technique-space.pdf)
The last layer of the park is the
surfaces which are covered with earth and gravel and other free forms are made
of metal and concrete but on the other hand the landscape was removed from the
picture entirely and according to Tschumi “The landscape elements, formerly the
most important aspects of any urban park, have become the infill between the
built structures that organize the project spatially and functionally”.
So that the idea of park seems as if it is a building, it is an architectural
element.
The second type of projects is related with
the city generators and architectural systems that are actual catalysts for
every kind of activity or function, independent of the form they take. In such
city generators, functions and programs combine and intersect in an endless
“disprogramming” or “crossprogramming” .
The first example city is Kansai with its linear airport. The aim of the
airport is to create a new type of metropolis by extending the airport into an
event that includes exchange, business, commerce and culture. It is also
designed to become a counterpoint to city of Osaka just not only for the
traveler but also for culture and recreation that acts as a new urban segment.
This airport has two districts which are the linear city and the deck. The
first part, linear city which has three lines; double strip that contains all
airport transfer functions, the wave that contains a mile long entertainment,
cultural and sports center and the slab includes two hotels with 1000 rooms and
also an office center.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/28/#)
The other example city is Kyoto with its railway station that is
suitable with the characteristics of hybrid megaprojects during 20th
century of Japan. The project should be coherent with the historic background
of the city but it also needs to be a leading project for future. Tschumi began
by decomposing the overall program into its main constituent elements and
aligning them with the Kyoto grid which includes a block for cultural center,
two for the hotel and convention center, two for the department store and two
for parking. After listing the necessities of the station they subdivided the
blocks into organizational strips respectively with a three meter gap between
them to allow natural light into the center of blocks.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/55/#)
“On one level, the scale and unprecedented density of the new center
station of Kyoto is enough to create an “event”. However, it is in the montage
of attractions, or programmatic collision, that the importance of the project
resides”.
The last city which is an example of architectural systems is Lausanne that
concerns particularly with the displacement of a typology that provides the
conditions for a new urban act. The
project had a concept of “The Bridge City” which includes a series of bridges
over the Flon Valley and there should be a new transit transit station which
has two phases. The first phase was a light rail station characterized by red
printed glass, a new pedestrian bridge and connections to the valley at the
place de l’Europe. The second phase was to create a ticket counter, excalators
and a subway station as a part of transit hub complex.
This example may be the most impressive one which explains the concept of
Archi-scape because it is created by juxtaposing both architecture and landscape
architecture and it changes the typical aspect on rail station.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/59/#)
The third type of project is related with
the confrontation with the specific programs which are defined in space and
time. These types of urban architecture suggests a new type of city in which
the notion of the event that happens in them is as important as that of the
street or a square through their political and cultural ambition.
There are four examples which is related this type of architecture which are
Tokyo Opera, Strasburg County Hall and Karlsruhe Center for Art and Media and
National Library of France. The first project is Tokyo Opera which is
constructed as an opera house and cultural center. There are several
programmatic strips which begin with a glass avenue that provides direct access
from the subway, parking lot and buses. Its mezzanines create a vertical
spectacle on the other hand its ground floor creates a gathering place that
makes use of different public services. Within this Opera there are also
encompass coatrooms, box offices, bars or buffets, suspended gardens, VIP
rooms, lavatories and other services. A strip contains the backstage area,
assembly hall, rehearsal and workshop spaces which are provided with daylight.
Last but not least, a final strip serves artists and staff which contain
dressing rooms and administrative offices.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/37/#)
The second project is Strasburg County
Hall which is composed of fragments. The site where the county hall is located
lies in between two types of urban planning one symbolizes the traditional
urban texture and the other one reflects the ideology of large postwar
developments. Tschumi preferred not to imitate both of the textures but he
tried to create a new relationship between them and due with these thoughts he
decided to create a meeting point between old and new by clarifying the
relation of the historical fragments to today. Fragmentation is the most
suitable way of designing this hall because of several facts such as , it
enables to consider specific constraints of each element of the program, it
gives the elements autonomy while it easier to perceive their relative
importance, the varieties of the sizes of each fragment creates a relative
space of the historic town, lastly, it enables free juxtapositions, a poetic
dimension, a spatial density and the new perception of site.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/56/)
Another project which is related with the
third type is the linear core of the Karlsruhe Media Center which should
reflect the new existence of digital and electronic imagery in daily life. The
project has four different parts which includes a public passageway that is
linear and proposed as an alternative to the concentric Baroque texture of
historical Karlsruhe, a core that is a public place with maximum visibility and
excitement which allows public “mediatization” of specific research, two
specialized compartment spaces that are located on the each side of the core
that contains all specialized functions and an electronic exterior that serves
both as enclosure and as spectacle.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/24/#)
The last project of the third type is the
circuits of the National Library of France which combines the pursuit of
modernity with the pursuit of knowledge. The whole building is about circuits
and movement which causes the architectural scheme was developed around a constant
dynamic. The building was planned to act like an urban generator for new part
of the city through the internal circuits of library culture. Within the
building there are multi-media circuits, circuits for the storage and retrieval
of books. On the other hand, the upper level is made for exhibition and a
running track for athletes that are intellectual and the intellectuals who are
athletes. Within the library, there are five circuits which are visitors and
administrators, books, electronic and mechanical circuits and they are
interacting with each other at strategic locations. “The library was seen as an
event rather than as a frozen monument” .
The project did not win the competition because it encourages to break away
from earlier concepts of libraries.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/25/#)
In the fourth type of project, the transient
architectures of the city, one particular reading of events is discussed
throughout the example of Glass Video Gallery .The
spatial definition changes constantly following the images of video displays. The
building designed on a small budget and the material which it is made of is
glass. Within this building the concept which was deal with was the envelope.
The concept is about movement of body and the building gives priority to the
image. Last but not least, the glass video gallery proposes parallels to urban
space both contain video objects that are on display as well as objects for
displaying them.
(http://www.tschumi.com/projects/17/#)
Conclusion
Throughout the examples, there are
different perspectives to landscape and architecture. It is impossible to
distinguish one from another so that the concept “Archi-scape” becomes a
keyword for the perspective of Bernard Tschumi. It is impossible to conclude
strongly valid arguments which an article that argues the process of
archi-scape and the way of looking cities because it is an interchanging and
developing and evolving issue. Further information can be gathered and
interpreted in a different perspective. But on the other hand, this research
can change our way of looking cities and it may support the future aspects of
an architect or a landscape architect. The most important thing that I learned
from this research is we can never look the cities as if they have zones such
as the area is park and separated for plants this area is the housing that
includes the architecture and this area is industry and it can go on like this
but because they have evolved and changed so our perspectives should also
change accordingly. Last but not least, as a landscape architect, I found out
that the cities just not only need parks but also they need architectural
elements within the parks in order to strengthen the function.
References
