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Architects and their Symbols

Author(s): Geoffrey Broadbent


Source: Built Environment (1978-), Vol. 6, No. 1, Architects, Space and People (1980), pp. 10-28
Published by: Alexandrine Press
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Architects
and

their

Symbols

Geoffrey Broadbent
Architectural
to Modern

shift continually
to the world
functionalism

paradigms

Movement
but

remain

symbols

though

to read some
of the journals
these
think,
the letters columns,
that architects,
especially
and researchers
seem to be completely
out
planners
of touch,
not only with each other but also with

19th century eclecticism

their language

You'd

awful

days,

to describe

'the people'
whom
Architects
serving.
done
which
things
not

want,

and

all

three

and

are

planners

'the

have
certainly
most certainly

people'
themselves

the people

to be

supposed

don't

seem

to

be able to say what they would like if they could


have

it. Researchers
and

think
also

they
have

know

has

what
on

can
gone
wrong
they
to put things
be done
But most
right again.
architects
and planners
don't
to
seem to want
know.
most
of
the
research
which
is
They
ignore
published
their

what

or dismiss
too

irrelevant,
on

ideas

it as incomprehensible,
too trival, not
complicated,

focused

Researchers
problems.
argue
that
the
would
back,
correctly,
if
professionals
then they might
realize
that the
only listen,
which
have tackled
problems
they, the researchers,
everyday

that it is largely
ones;
really are the deep-seated
because
them
that
the professionals
they ignored
got so much
wrong.
They
may go on to argue
even further that if the gaps were to be closed
between
gaps

researchers

between

and

professionals,
and people
professionals

then

are.

people,
But often
have

and

some

of them

most

also

certainly

who
they are people
really care;
the best of intentions,
but they are far

10

working

within

a 'paradigm',

to use

that

Kuhn

He

in 1962

coined

pressures

was

on a
acting
about
scientists,

writing
apply also to architects,
planners
to every kind of group,
indeed
is that which
forces them to

the paradigm
to the norms

of their group.
If a scientist
to gain and retain the respect
of his
to get his work
in the
colleagues,
published
to get invited
to conferences
reputable
journals,
wants

and

so on,

general
accepts
that the
way,
know

he simply
has to work
within
that
in his field
framework
which
everyone
as 'correct'
at the time. Kuhn's
is
point
'normal'

but

in this
works
practitioner
always
are always
a few brave
spirits who
the paradigm
is wrong.
think
They

there

that

about
than

at it and

it, work

alternatives

eventually

better

which,

the going

greatest

paradigm,

hostility,

present

though

they

meet,

at first,

from

especially

may be
with the

those

who

have

made their reputations within the old paradigm.

on

they
too busy,
too preoccupied,
too set in their ways
even to want to engage
in that creative
dialogue
which
cause
to change.
all parties
are
might
They
each

Thomas

'normal'

scientist

knows

what

to do

and jogs

along happily doing it, but then a Newton appears

be closed!
It sounds like a lot of bloody-minded, not to say
hostile,

which

the set of social

conform

The

the

would

word

phoniness

may change.

particular
group.
but the principles
and psychologists,
and

did

crassness,

oj honky-tonk,

the

scene

to challenge

the established

of

order

things. At first the majority rejects his views but


the opposition
eventually
seemed
new and strange
But then
paradigm.
show
where
Newton
shows
And

what
that

was

is how

dies away,
and
at first becomes

an Einstein
was

wrong
science

comes

what
the

along

new
to

a Heisenberg
wrong,
with Einstein
and so on.
progresses.

The

same

thing obviously happens in other fields, such as


architecture

and

not

planning,

to mention

psychology, sociology and so on.


Paul Feyerabend goes into greater detail (1978)
BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

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VOL 6 NO

AND

ARCHITECTS
as to just

how

why and
within

reputations

highly
suspicious
the task of showing
his view

such

those

its flaws

their

made

are so
paradigm
have set themselves
and

come

challenges

have

who

a particular
of those who

and

is, the researchers

having
pondered
the going
beset
which
challenge

paradigm,
the status

responsible
precisely

from

what

paradigm
distress:

and

not

by

only

the problems
those
present

ideas

planning,

spokesmen
is that
But what

journalists.
quo, which

to attack
is open
of the great
One

directions?

that
much

if we

clearer

The

paradigms.
a catalogue

saw

styles
of architecture

history

done

and
Gropiuses
curtain-walled
large

panel
and
longer

its Le

its Mieses.

had

It also

tall

The

types.
its
thin

pre-cast

for filing

them

when

they

make

were

adapted

set for universities,

a Meccano

and
hospitals
of the Modern

so on.

All

these

were

sub-paradigms
it is hardly
made
their reputations
that those who
surprising

not to mention
their money
them,
designing
the ways in which
resent very much
journalists,
on

the one

them
But

with

Movement

and

hand,
some

and

researchers,

conviction

the fact is that,

that

whether

on

the

other,

BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

tell

they were wrong.


we like it or not,

paradigm changes of the kind which Kuhn

concentrated

far the results

how

of their

be the
is to say, they should
solution
direct and the cheapest
and any attempt
to
design
problem

This

'look

them

from the
say, any building
the greatest
That
suspicion.
reaction
and inevitable

like',
with

viewed

a natural

was

Small

it was an attempt
paradigm;
of 19th century
eclecticism.
fathers of the
that the founding

wonder

felt very

Movement
Loos

by Adolph
'Ornament

strongly

about

in this

first shot

and

particular
argument
in a famous
essay of 1908
he said,
Crime'.
Savages,

so it was

hardly

for instance,

Papuan,
should

at home. It had light and dry prefabricated systems


designed firstof all for building schools and then
like

been

been

have

themselves,

for 'filing'
at work,
people
concrete
somewhat
ones,

slabs

lower,

building

having

severely

to a previous
design
to curb the excesses

monasteries,
Corbusiers,

have

research

simplest,
to a particular

The

had

which,
has

heat

bleak

into practice.
applied
for it was a
vital questions,
are indeed
These
in
Movement
tenet of the Modern
deep-seated
and should,
be
that buildings
architecture
could,

not

Movement

solar

sheer

place.

particular

to show

and

Modern

colleges,
Modern

at any

and

research

such as Henry
had individual
architects,
obviously
cathedrals
and castles,
Yevele.
It also had churches,
houses,
bridges,
and other
universities

the

diminished, if not yet finally destroyed, the sense

past,
in itself

as:

building types and so on. The Gothic paradigm

to mention

loss,

so on;

penetration
Style
sterility of that International
the world,
been built right round

was

there

we

the work

of heat

by housing

the most

such
might call 'sub-paradigms'
of individual
architects,
particular

are what

in terms
and

'Functional'.

is
obviously
to Greek

and

problems

to take
areas.
I have been asked
in these particular
and
of identity,
sense
one the question
meaning
the researchers
have
of place to outline
what

as

of changing
styles, Egyptian
each of these
so on. Within

to Roman

walling

criticism

he suggests
could
become

themselves

the greatest

causing
caused

So it is hardly surprising that both public

that status
paradigm,
from so many
of Kuhn's
advantages

other things
among
of style in the arts'

ways;
'notion

the

social

been

noise

of identity

paradigm is that he defines it in something like 21


different

the

Movement

of the Modern

aspects
have

which

families in high-rise flats; the notorious deficiencies


gain,

by the great user-public


their self-appointed
and
the critics and

to mention

those

of curtain

which

the practitioners
of
as
challenged
they are
of their
components'

'philosophical
but also

vocal

highly

who,

are

fields,

particular
itself, not

theoreticians

at this moment.
occurring
actually
in the past, those
all such changes
on
for them have concentrated

as with

In

largely

are

describes

deficiencies.

the
quo. Naturally,
finds them threatening,
even
of science:
how
closed
world

average
practitioner
in the comparatively
much
more threatened
architecture

on

deeply

SYMBOLS

And,

he calls the 'philosophical component' of the field,

that

THEIR

having
to tattoo
'his

fired

called
tattoo

that

his skin,

his paddles,
boat,
on'.
But it
he can lay his hands
everything
man did not
that modern
a sign of civilization
also

go

on

surprising
tattooed

it.

was

in short
was
tattoo

himself,

for 'the

modern

man

who

tattoos

There
or a degenerate.
in which
are prisons
per cent of the inmates
eighty
is tattooed
dies at
If someone
who
show
tattoos...

himself

is either

a criminal

liberty, it means he has died a few years before


committing
obviously

it

a murder.'
was,

though
Spurious
struck
argument
those who,
amongst

Loos's

chord
wanting
sympathetic
of
to the development
their contribution
make
were
to
the
architecture
change
paradigm
reacting
against eclecticism.

VOL 6 NO 1

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to

11

SPACE

ARCHITECTS,
read
that, having
surprising
Le Corbusier
declare
should

it is hardly
the young

So
Loos,

not always

though

pretty,
more.

and never

too was extremely


critical
of the 'artistic
our charming
architects
who
turned
gentleman
mansions'.
He asked
the question
Tudor
(1956):
a style?'
'What
constitutes
and answered
it:
Gropius

And by 1940 J.M. Richards saw the concept of


style as a dead and labelled thing. As he put it:
people now agree it is absurd to
like miniature
castles, petrol
stores
stations that look like medieval
barns, department

that look like the palaces of Renaissance


bishops
inefficient.
quite apart from being extremely

responsible

of the mass

responsibilities

and directness
relation

personal

cold

to design
clients.

anonymous

of

for the satisfaction

architecture

modern

was

for such

architects

of anonymous

appearance

and

critics

neutrality

that

could

the

which

also

they

tended

to favour.

The

fact

that prefabricated buildings were almost always


worse

than

traditional

buildings

in terms

of

environmental performance and flexibility of


planning,
maintenance

not

to mention
costs,

really

capital,
was not

commitment,
visionary
commitments
above
all

of the

for the

campus

Every building
steel

box:

rectangular

two.

of the smaller

Two

as it
as they do, so similar
they 'carry',
one
is
same 'meaning';
the
yet
chapel
a
a filling station.
But what
the other merely
the

of values:

sense

strange
motor

to exactly

car

god God!

that
the same

equates
status

the great god


as the great

on the
even Mies's
were based
buildings
that buildings
do 'express'
acknowledgement
Neo
Admirer
as he was of Schinkel's
something.

in
the Altes
Museum
Classicism
especially
Yet

tacit

in architecture

trouble

running
the point:

for it is visionary
that lead to paradigm

was

functioning.
the services

with

that

much

became

basic

they

to

started

of a

same

its
since

has

happened
in
at the Beaubourg
to 'expressing'
approach

sees

when

steel

frame

the fire officer


that which

had to be clad in
actually held the building up
So,

committed

structure
you
in the case
no

added

as you
a fictitious

of Seagram

other

even
but

purpose

to expressing
outside:
steel
I-sections
bronze
were

one

visual

effect.

The crucial point about all this is that an


architectural
was
out

that

paradigm

supposed
specifically
to have been fraught

the Modern

Movement

not to symbolize
with symbolism.
were

used

as symbols.

turns
Some

so often

that

the

Take

curtain-walled city centre slab. This obviously


became

do

not

would

appearance
than
important

more

(The
as one

your

he still

once you
the visual

Given
the Miesian
Paris.)
there were times
structure
that

that')

the structure,

'express'
structure
actual

from

building
types themselves
to read them
we learned

and

to the
of technology
the application
expressed
of social
True
solution
practicalities
problems.
not loom
you are driven
by
very large when

12

were,

to serve

be

precisely achieved by those prefabricated building


systems

Rohe's

Looking,

concrete.

deliberate expressionof 'social responsibility'. How


fortunate

der

to a simple

combination

insisted

So, his architecture must look cold. Thus the bleak


of much

van

bring himself to design with classical columns.

he first put

of the past may have gone for good.


buildings
The architect, to represent this century of ours, must be
of mechanical
colder, cold to keep in command
production,

Mies

As

which

between

reduced

was

Berlin (as he put it in 1960: 'I learned everything

ages of craft and


architect and client

with

architecture

the socially
to the social

endowed

sterility

some

The

warmth

a more

up

society.

it in 1936:
The

as to how
face

such

buildings, however, literally are brick boxes.

and

all thinking
Presumably
put up houses that look

would

was

is reduced

there

neatly into a coffin with a style label on it... What


not a new style.
we looked for was a new approach,

his views

the extreme,

box which
to the simple
rectangular
specifically
to 'mean'
The
was not intended
anything.
I
ultimate
of such 'meaningless'
architecture,

framed with buff brick infilling, glass infilling, or

each

had

cities.
At

Illinois Institute of Technology.

urge of critics to classify contemporary


irrepressible
movements
which are still in a state of flux by putting

architects

our

suppose,

The

too

shift was certainly


particular
which
are there to be
with results

seen brooding on the skyline of virtually all of

or Gothic,
are to
XV, XVI,
styles of Louis XIV,
architecture
what a feather is on a woman's
head; it is

Pevsner

That

shifts.

The

anything

PEOPLE

successful,

(1923):

sometimes

AND

a deliberate

It is extremely
symbol.
of capital,
and
running
in Park
but it originated
costs,

in terms

wasteful
maintenance
Avenue

in New

business

success

York

where

in exactly
BUILT

it came

the same

to symbolize
as the

way

ENVIRONMENT

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VOL

6 NO 1

ARCHITECTS

AND

THEIR

SYMBOLS

Two buildings on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology:


top, Mies van der Rone's chapel; bottom, thefilling station
BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

VOL 6 NO 1

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13

SPACE

ARCHITECTS,

AND

PEOPLE

The painted pipes of the Beanbourg, 'expressing' services

Gothic cathedrals symbolized the faith of the


Middle Ages. So it is hardly suprising that the
successful

multinationals
wherever

presence
the grey,
Leslie

proved

actually

pack
sun

requisite

courtyards
and Trace,
storey
City

go

slab,

Sir

multistorey
housing
Land
Use and Built Form

in the early
more habitable

1960s

that

rooms,

their

Studies

you
with

had

could
the

penetration,
by putting
four-storey
across
the same area of land
(see March
1968).

courtyards
councillors,

housing

for

concrete

Martin's

already

they

it to symbolize
in the world.
As

use

habitation.

managers

But

you have to go into four


to see how
life goes on there.
city planners,
city
and so on wanted

architects,
much

more

visible symbols than that. They could point with


pride to their high-rise flats and say 'Look what we
did in our time for the people.'
One

could

to dozens
of other examples
in
point
Movement
of building
methods
types,
of construction
and so on of which
the known
the Modern
deficiencies
their

can

only

be

explained

designers
gave to symbolism,
the realities
of practical
architecture

by the precedence
rather than to
and

practical

The

fact

a 'functional'

arguing

that
case

with it by
they got away
for building
or, more
which
was not

an economic
case
true merely
serves to show
that the
necessarily
in
themselves
were
mere
arguments
symbols,
the motions,
as it were.
For the
going
through

likely,

fact is that, whether we like it or not, buildings do


symbolize;
architect

there

is no way we can avoid


it. The
the same position
as Moliere's

is in much

Monsieur Jourdain who, on being told by his


philosophy
of putting
and

prose,
everyday
'Well,
more

master

words
that

that

there

were

together,
namely
the latter included

speech,
blow
me,

ways
and

ordinary,
evident
surprise:
for
speaking
prose

been

than

forty years and I didn't


It is hardly
that after
surprising
written
about
Modern
Architecture
to transcend
supposed
in practice
'expressed'
our present
paradigm

two

poetry

with

exclaimed,
I've

only

even

know

which

was

the idea

of style
(but
all manner
of things)

shifters

nettle.

have been looking


They
not merely
as things
meaning,
BUILT

have

grasped
at style and
to be accepted

ENVIRONMENT

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it!'

all the cant


which
that
the
with

VOL 6 NO 1

AND

ARCHITECTS
but

as things
to be embraced
with
as the very stuff of which
architecture
is made.
If science
itself is subject
to styles in
then
the form of Kuhnian
paradigms
why try
to pretend
that architects
can avoid
it? For even
those
those movements
that see it as superficial
movements
concerned
with laser participation,
reluctance,

enthusiasm

involvement,
community
advocacy
so on they too are fashion-like
strictest Kuhnian
sense!
Those

are looking
at style again
in its 'Post
manifestations
not only historians
include

theorists

mention

in the

who

Modern'
and

and

planning
paradigms

but

also

not to
architects,
practising
rarer creature,
the genuine
And there is no doubt
that

much

that

theorist-practitioner.

THEIR

SYMBOLS

of the avant-garde
were attacking
the kind of architecture
building
the number
liked.
Try counting
built

houses

in Britain

them,
that

they were
most people

of 'modern'

between

the wars

Jeremy

Gould's book (1977) actually catalogues them all

and

then

this with

compare

the number

of

typical suburban semis, with their half-timbered

or rented
which
were built and bought
gables,
the same period.
of them,
it is true,
Most
during
were built
without
benefit
of architects,
but they
were in the direct tradition
of the 19th century
Arts

and

Movement

Crafts

unabated,
Modern
There

were

indeed

which

survived,

the heroic

right through
Movement.

days

such

architects,

'rogue'

of the
as

collectively they are achieving a paradigm shift.


So instead of reviving the idea which is what

Clough Williams-Ellis, who continued to build his

the Modern

Cardigan Bay

Movement

pretended

to do

the

Portmerion

an Italian

on

hill-village

the coast

of

which he started in 1928. He was

paradigm which is emerging simply asks us to lie


back and enjoy it.
That attitude has been expressed in his laid-back
California way by Charles Moore who defines five
points for what Charles Jencks and others (1977)

of
by the most tight-lipped
of
whom
prefabricators,
many
enjoyed
privately
its sheer human
the delights
of Portmerion
scale
even
and humanity
it was diametrically
though

Moore says (1976):

continued to build housing in a (pared down)

have

1.
2.

as Post

described

such

while

vernacular,
'movement'

and

Green

the vernacular
not

Maguire,

of Norwich

has

to Darbourne

thanks

and

Murray

as Taylor

now

and

to mention

become

Darke,
the Essex

Design Guide (see RIBA Journal 1980). Yet there

can speak again we should allow them to be wistful,


wise, powerful,
gentle, silly, just as people are.
Functional
on the whole were bleak and
buildings,

most

hostile.

beings,

is still

Those

which replace them must be


in the minds and the bodies of human

not to mention

possessions.
We should

therefore

in and around

spaces
abstraction

5.

opposed to everything they (publicly) stood for.


Others

to speak.
that idea at which

suppressed

as a person

point architecture
simply stopped being interesting
for most people.
But once we admit that buildings

inhabitable

4.

Architecture.

can and should speak.


they should have freedom

Buildings
Therefore

Functionalism

3.

Modern

revered

their plants,

statues

an English

about

modesty

most

of this.

The

are continental

ones,
spectacular
examples
as Daniel
Port Grimaud,
a holiday
Spoerri's
which
he started
on the Gulf of
village/marina
such

Saint

and other

as early as 1966.
It is in a sense a
Tropez
'Radburn'
with
layout
pedestrian
'fingers'
into the water,
lined with
'vernacular'
reaching
houses

base

the design of physical


not on the
buildings,

on their
open
roads of Radburn

which

the motor

not

to

the marina

itself;

these and they assist the human memory


in time and space.
connections
restructuring

people/vehicular relationships, room size, shape


and arrangement for (holiday) domestic purposes,

There

in

is nothing
really new in these basic premises
for the central
one as we shall see had

of Moore's,
been

used

Let

for at least

us start

with

2000

years.

the practitioners:

those

who

have tried deliberately to build an architecture


with meaning. That sounds like 'artistic
gentlemen architects' of the kind which Gropius
disliked,
BUILT

but

even

ENVIRONMENT

at the

time

when

he and

others

Grimaud

other

sides,

onto

but

of Cartesian
but on the human
geometry,
body and the way we sense spaces.
Whether
we like it or not, the spaces and shapes of
contain certain psychic qualities.
We
buildings
perceive

where

vehicular

houses

houses

have

have

boats.

cars,

The

the Port

glossy

magazines

will show you all this as a piece of picturesque


kitsch.

sound

But

the fact is that

sun

insulation,

in terms

shading

and

of

so on,

this is

highly practical architecture for the Gulf of Saint


Tropez
terms.

even

no,

especially

in economic

Then there is the work of Ricardo Bofill and his


Taller di Arquitectura of Barcelona. They
dedicated themselves in the early 1960s to fighting
the grey,

anonymous

'cemetery

VOL 6 NO 1

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suburb'

in which

ARCHITECTS,

SPACE

AND

PEOPLE

Left, Daniel Spoerri's Port Grimaud


Below, Xanadu, designed by Ricardo Bofill
and his Taller di Arquitectura at Calpe

16

BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

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VOL 6 NO 1

ARCHITECTS

AND

THEIR

SYMBOLS

La Petite Cathedrale
so many

early
based

To

holiday
Mediterranean
called

La

so they

but

Manzanera,

included

experiments
on the local

do

at Calpe
housing
coast.
The whole

with

is now

complex

to live.

had

people

experimented
the Spanish

what
particularly,
'read'
Disneyworld

on

films,
their

which

we

on

draws

the local

shall

be analysing
in earnest,
with

build

some

(1964),

their

Pontoise,
shall

'carries'

they

the local
The

still

a new

analyse

meaning
of Meritxell

Church

Then

this

La

(1971)

for the way it


there was the

and
too

which

so on.

have

been

dismissed

as

'rogues' much like Clough Williams-Ellis and


certainly

few

'serious'

architects

at the

time

would

admit that in Walt Disney's Disneyland (opened


1955) and Disneyworld (opened 1971) were to be
seen

anything

seen,

rather,

like

serious

in Peter

architecture.

Blake's

words

They

were

as 'honky

in design
Yet,
phoniness'.
they

of more analysis
had been the subject
the
using
full panoply
of design
method
from
the
techniques
than
environment
other
Space
Programme
any
in the world.
And that analysis
extended
obviously
tonk,

crassness,

to what the buildings should look like, or, more

BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

VOL

6 NO

Yet,
effect

and

at least

as Le

serve

Corbusier,

Movement
paradigm

Gropius

knew,

changes

and

roofs

of keeping

the purpose

others

of the

built don't
buildings
unless
someone
writes

about them (Mies got Johnson to do it for him).


around

on

draws

looks

Modern

Articles

in 1976

in Andorra

Romanesque,
Bofill
group

Paris

outside

later

and

of place.
Then
Cathedrale
for

Petite

town

can't

Disney's
so the basic

systems
in clip-on
glass-reinforced
plastic
or whatever.
'like'
Cinderella's
castle

of Disneyland
out the rain!

at Reus

in
housing
to establish

managed
and sense

You

know

the visible,
that, unlike
symbolic
Except
'structure'
of, say, Mies's
Seagram
building
for visual
I-sections
the GRP
(bronze
effect),

in ways
started
to

they
Gaudi

the Barrio

of identity
with
grew

sense

ambitions

Cergy
we

later.

of the lowest-cost

in which

Europe,
coherent

environment

mean.

his life story,


environmental

concrete

are all covered

villas
holiday
and Xanadu,
(1964),

a pagoda-like block of holiday apartments (1966).


Xanadu

to mention

steel-frame,

Plexus,

vernacular

not

they should
unless
you

in journals
the world,

and

even

whereas

books

buildings
mentioned

go

right
stay in one
to
started

The buildings
I have
place.
become
because people
wrote
paradigm
changers
about
them:
Alison
and Peter Smithson
on Port

Grimaud (1972), Peter Blake (1972) and Roy


Landau (1973) on Disneyworld, and myself on
Bofill and his Taller (1973, 1975b).

those committed
to the old paradigm
Naturally,
dismissed
both
the buildings
themselves
and our
about
the
crassness,
writing
'honky-tonk,
phoniness'.
breached

But
by one

the ramparts
had already
of the theorist-practitioners:

been

in addition
to teaching
at
who,
Venturi,
the University
of Pennsylvania
also ran a practice,
Venturi
and Rauch.
The first of his major
Robert

publications, Complexity and Contradictionin

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17

SPACE

ARCHITECTS,

AND

PEOPLE

Disneyworld
had

Architecture,

been

by the Museum

published

of

Modern Art in 1966. This had been subsidized as a


study

in architectural
for the Baroque

polemic

but it was
history,
as an architecture

really
of

other

buildings

in which

book,

with

he attempted
within

of the Baroque
principles
the Modern
Movement.
careful

exercises

contradictory.
The Venturi
from Las
obviously,
the epitome

each

of them

were,

team's

solemnly

well,

next

complex

book

were

set up

having

somewhat

was

Venturi,

the
of
rather

a basic
broke

it

and

studied

had

to Las
gone
the architecture

Nevada,
Vegas,
of 'The
Strip'.
of hotels,
things,

other
among
a large entrance
stuffed to
lobby,
with one-armed
tables
bandits,
point
consists,

Strip
with

blackjack,

craps

and

roulette,

for

Keeno

boards and Big Six wheels, through which one has


to run the gauntlet
In an extreme
case,

before
such

even reaching
as the Stardust

reception.
all

Hotel,

this is housed in an anonymous 'shed' behind

which

wings.

are

But

some

bedroom
equally
anonymous
the shed, as Venturi
says, is decorated

with a glittering neon sign the full length of the


Learning

attempt,
Las Vegas

Scott-Brown,

they

poker,

as

of 'honky-tonk,
crassness
and
The book
is a bold expression
of some
ideas.

students

bursting

of his

to reinterpret
the mainstream

a deliberate
Vegas (1972),
to shock
those who
saw

phoniness'.
rather subtle

18

Most

in which,

he then
symmetry,
with results
which

a selection

their

The

'complexity and ambiguity'. It ended, like

Venturi's

and
where

Izenour

facade

and

which

of course

also

a programmed
sign at the kerbside
is highly
visible
to motorists
as

The Strip.
they cruise
along
It was from this and other
Venturi

coined

his term

the

examples
'decorated

that
shed'

which is vital to his architectural philosophy. In


BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

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VOL

6 NO 1

ARCHITECTS

AND

THEIR

SYMBOLS

Above, Venturi's poultry-stand


on Long Island
Right, 'decoration' on the Stardust Hotel,
Las Vegas
this

practice

means

that

given

architectural

any

problem he plans the most efficient building he can


(and Venturi
in the United

of the

is one

most

efficient

planners

thus exercised
his
States).
Having
he then feels free to 'decorate'
his
responsibilities
treatment
which
shed, that is to give it a surface
will give 'meaning'
to his building,
much
as the
to an otherwise
identity
Hotel.
Venturi
contrasts

signs give
Las Vegas

This

derives

from

his most

with

extreme

example, which he found in Peter Blake's book


God's
the

in reverse,
a homage
as
(1974),
Junkyard
to the worst
of what
Blake
could
find in

'honky-tonk,
American

typical

was

example

crassness,
commercial

a poultry-stand

phoniness'

of the

strip. Blake's
prize
on Long
New
Island,

York, which was shaped to look like a duck. One


could

thus

'read'

its function

selling

poultry

from the duck-like form of the building itself.


It is precisely
because
they seem so trivial
Venturi's
raise some
of the most
examples
important
'carry'

as to how buildings
the analysis
meaning,

issues
their

actually
of which

that

BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

(1949)

so on,

and

were

concerned

with

the efficiencywith which ideas may be converted

while

the others,

including

such

as

philosophers

Charles Sanders Peirce (1960) and Ferdinand de

the actual
were concerned
with
(1906-11)
of the message,
or other
with how
words
for us.
their meanings
symbols
actually
'carry'
in their very different
Peirce
and Saussure,
ways,

content

were

each

looking

for what

they

called

a general

'Theory of Signs' and a sign, in this sense, is

for' or
which
'stands
something,
anything,
reminds
us of something
else. So a sign can be
or spoken,
a gesture,
a diagram,
written
word,
drawing
and, most

or a picture,

a jacket,

a tie or a motor

a
a
car,

This is not the


a building.
certainly,
to trace a history
of the field nor even to
I have tried to do that
its major
expound
concepts.
place

has

of researchers
in semiotics,
the province
or
and related
areas.
These
derive
from
semiology,

been

One
of analysts,
the Information
ways.
group
Theorists
such as Weiner
Shannon
and
(1948),

Saussure

Own

it were,

for the whole


of language,
purpose
is the deliberate
transfer of ideas and
obviously,
from one person's
their meanings
brain to
in a number
of
another's.
This
has been studied
surprising,

Weaver

anonymous
his 'shed'

quite another kind of building which he labels the


'duck'.

the analysis of language, which is hardly

elsewhere

(1977),

so let me just

outline

one

or two

points.

VOL 6 NO 1

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19

SPACE

ARCHITECTS,
First

of all,

it must

that

admitted

be

of terminology
problems
the founding
between
disagreement
enormous

as to

whether the field itself should be called Semiology


(Saussure) or Semiotic (Peirce). So let me just pick
out

a few

relevance

are

which

general
points
to architecture.

Saussure,

of
obviously
for instance,

distinguishes (1906-11) between language and

he selects
speech
Saussure
goes
of words;
indeed
column.

This

to describe

he likens

also

two

a word
two

performs

plays
word

a sentence:
also

column

of column,

Corinthian

because

of the place
of column
types.

whole

and

so on.

structure,

these

of Saussure's

One

around
key

but

particularly

and

it.
concepts

is at least

2000

architecture,

there

are

these two points: the thing signified and that


which gives it significance'. Saussure's key point is
that

the

two

are linked,

inextricably,

to form

what

he calls a 'sign', that is, something which 'stands


for'
which
word,

20

something

else.

Saussure's

should

into

incorporate

the

to

the thing

'sign'

which it refers and they decided to call it the


Thus

'referent'.

still

triangle',
probing

their

they developed
one of the most

the meanings

useful

'semiological
in
devices

of things:

signified

referent

signifier
Where:

years old, for Vitruvius himself wrote: 'in all


matters,

than

ideas about things. So two English linguists,


Odgen and Richards, decided in 1923 that they

architectural,

We

words

thing you
that most

Saussure,

is more

of

construction
and
of building,
the vernacular
of the monumental,

other

Any
'attached'

with him
while
agreeing
the thing you see, the
on to argue
hear and so on, have gone
of us, most of the time, are having
our

since

a sign

know

described
may even hear of a politician
as 'architect'
of a particular
so
we
policy,
clarify
of all
for ourselves
what
'architect'
means
because
so on.

that

it occupies
in the
And similarly,

us of architecture,

reminds

architectonic,

Others

of

range
to Saussure,
the meaning
we know
according
a whole
of its position
within
a word
because
the word
for
scheme
of words:
'architect',
instance,

ideas or concepts.
thoughts,
tell us what
are
thoughts

'carries'.

up,
as a

We

will

side of the road, it is also the thoughts which it

But an Ionic
it is a part of the syntax.
reminds
us that there are other kinds
Doric,

it is Ionic

such

to the various
road 'signs'
the point
in fact makes
'sign'
For in a Saussurean
view it is not just
very well.
to a pole,
at the
attached
that disc or that triangle

make

a column

to

are attached
thoughts
and so on. The road

to a (classical)
functions:
on the

helps to hold the building


an essential
just
part in its construction,
an
essential
part in the construction
plays

hand

one

on

'language'.
uses we

or

most

which

to which words; the highway code tells us which

of the going
style; the
of a system,
as in his

the components
from the available

he uses

way

sign'.
whom

dictionary

each of us
makes
a language
available,
we
also
certain
words;
ways
prefer certain
prefers
attaches
the
them together.
Saussure
of putting
uses and there are
term speech to those personal
in the use an
in architecture:
obvious
parallels
makes

touch

hear,

of us just call 'the


for Saussure,
for
But that is not enough
linked
a 'sign'
must also have thoughts
that

whatever,

describe

which

architect

see,

or

picture
It is,

that physical form. He uses the word signifiedto

is something
we
in his terms,
speech. A language,
the words
in the
as it does,
all share, including,
them
and a set of rules for stringing
dictionary
of the resources
But from the whole
together.

individual

a building.

certainly,
which
we

that

therefore,

a television

a diagram,

one,

even

fathers

PEOPLE

a drawing,
and most
even,

are

there

and

AND

is that

signifier
the sounds
of a spoken
an idea;
conveys
on paper
form a written
the marks
which

= the
or written
the
word,
spoken
or whatever
diagram,
drawing,
picture,
by
which
the ideas are being
conveyed

signifier

signified = the thoughts, ideas, concepts and so


on which
are being
actually
conveyed
= the
or other kind
object,
person
refer.
those concepts
thing to which

of

referent

can

We

understand

a lot

more

about

our

buildings if we think of them in these ways. If I


write,
with

Point
Ronan
say, about
a picture,
words
and
my

and

illustrate

my picture

it
are

the

the
'signifieds'
'signifiers'. They signifyideas
about a block of flats in London. And that block
of flats

still exists

as a thing,

BUILT

that

is, a referent,

ENVIRONMENT

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VOL 6 NO 1

AND

ARCHITECTS
which

can

you

go

and

it has

also

see,

touch,

But

things;

about

how

come

to 'stand

for'

SYMBOLS

or

photograph,

even kick to convince yourself of its physical


reality.

THEIR

a lot

of

it is for young

unpleasant

families to live in high-rise flats, about the


of putting
real live
and machine-like

inhumanity
machine-made

into

people

such

environments,

of the 'great
heat of
the fading
white
to a very dull glow
indeed.
Ronan
technology'
in itself to a
in other words,
is a 'signifier'
Point,
about

set of ideas.
complex
we can go into deeper
and deeper
Obviously
this one device:
the
by using
layers of meaning
of
and
Richard's
sign
Odgen
three-part
highly

semiological triangle. But finally it has its

it can no
there comes
a point
where
it describes
only one type
help us because
That
is where
Charles
Sanders
Peirce
comes

limitations;
longer
sign.

for he,

in,

once

with

went

on

of

his extraordinarily
mind,
complex
as saying
that there were

record

59 049, that is 310, typesof sign, of which the

triangle
only one.
represents
he would
exceedingly
turgid;
coin a new
if he could
word

Peirce's

is
language
use an existing
never coin a

never
one,

single-syllable word if he could coin one with


he changes
his mind,
as to be virtually

three;

ambiguous
had some

amazing
insights
has proved
sign-groupings

and

his writing

impenetrable.
and one of his
to be

fruitful.

is so

But

he

many

exceedingly

feature
of
it, the crucial
you think about
one type of sign is that we have to learn
we have to learn the relationships
rather,

When
Saussure's
it. Or,

between his signifier and his signified. We learn

a certain
a particular
letter on paper
represents
of
letters
makes
that a particular
grouping
to
the
that this word,
a certain
word,
according
or
refers to a certain
definition,
dictionary
thing,
that

sound,

And
that goes
meaning.
of a language,
which
is why we
difficulties
with
those foreign
languages

at least

'carries'

a certain

for all the words


all have
which

we

to learn.
such

which

not
uses

as this

signifier,
learned.
words

have
Peirce

shows
you
in your pocket
value
and
symbolic
which

note

or the inclination

for signs
'symbol'
the
between
relationships

the signified
other

of ordinary
admits
you

time

the word

in which

Among

the

had

and

the

things

referent

have

to be

the
they include
the membership
card

language,
to a particular
the ticket
club,
have paid to ride, the coin or
which
which

carries

a certain

therefore

can

be

used

to

buy things. Some buildings obviously are symbols


BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

VOL

Ronan Point, London

6 NO 1

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21

SPACE

ARCHITECTS,
in this

such

sense,

as the church,

the cathedral,

the

or the mosque.
We
have learned
by our
within
a
culture
that
experience
any
particular

AND

and so on where
by steps, canopies
you go in. It
can indicate
by its plan which
way you have to go;
museums
and exhibition
are
art galleries,
pavilions
often planned
so as to force you around
a set

large building with a tower, a spire, a pointed


and

so on probably
was
and find a nave,
go inside
that it is
and so on we know

windows
pointed
If we
as a church.

roof,

cross

an altar

aisles,

still used

as a church.

If, on

find

the altar

been

that

has

the other

that

it has

been

converted

Conversely,

if we

church.

have

see

a new

say,

and

don't

it indicates.
You
could
take
just what
from the most primitive
of cultures,
anyone,
him in a building
around
a set route
planned
the route indicated
he would
have to follow

form,

an arts centre.

strangely

shaped

building, the chances are that this will be a


We

learned

from

our

that

experience
have been

and,

church.

comes

The
have

trouble
to be

constant.

is that

with

symbols
their meanings
card
membership

cannot

learned,
Your

because

runs

out

they

'prevent'

to mean

used

of'

in front

'go

and 'gay' used to mean bright and cheerful. So it's


that building
forms also
hardly
surprising
A hundred
and fifty years
their meanings.
to
it seemed
instance,
entirely
appropriate
an art
of the Greek
orders
for a museum,

change
for
ago,
use one

of everything

of sculpture,

that

was

what

than
the

for a 'cultural'

more

appropriate
of the Greek
and
the Fascist

the re-use
1930s

orders?

But

Communist

building
then in

signs

have

their

value.

referring.
the wind,

indicates

A weather-vane
a rap

on

the door

indicates

that

someone

is there, a pointing finger indicates a particular


22

like

another
Saarinen's

of Le

Corbusier's

Ronchamp

which he says looks 'like' the shell of a crab;


Kahn's Medical Centre in Philadelphia which
looks 'like' a Scottish castle and so on.
the likeness

Sometimes
with

Air

Saarinen's

or even

Venturi's

Le

duck,

Corbusier's
have

but

crab

as,

say,
Church

Wright's
sometimes

with

it isn't,

caution.

And

which

I have

of likeness

as

likenesses

such

shell;

to be used
kinds

other

is appropriate

Terminal,

then

described elsewhere (1977) where the plans of


from

are derived

buildings
The

pattern.

Again,
more

hotting

one

is 'like'

the same

the other

in terms

there

is much

more

to it, but

as more

of it gets into print, so the argument


is
relevant
all this is for the
up as to just how
of architecture.

The

Italians

started

publishing in this field well over 30 years ago but


the amount so far published in English really has
been

His

the direction

'like'

what
look

as a duck;

building

the roof

prayer;

development

So symbols may be unreliable, which is why


other

simpler.

terminal which looks 'like' a bird (or is it a


pterodactyl?); the roof of Frank Lloyd Wright's
church at Madison which looks 'like' his hands at

and

state.

'index' is a sign which indicates,by some direct


physical relationship, the thing to which it is

churches,

is symbolized.
the face of it, even

of planning relationships. Yet they may look very


differenton the ground.

to use the Greek


orders
of Europe
began
but power
not freedom
and democracy,
to express
the naked
that is, of the totalitarian
power,

of Peirce's

is, on

to 'read'

learned
what

you start thinking


means.
One
thing can

bubble

dictators

some

idea

when

different

good in civilization, including architecture itself.


So

no

icon

Peirce's

obviously
there are

'cradle' of liberty, of democracy, of philosophy, of

mathematics,

by

It is a sign which is 'like' its object. The trouble

with

gallery,
a university,
that is to say for any
an athenaeum,
for Greece
was seen as the
'cultural'
building,

not

he had
have

TWA

your day return is


you renew
your subscription,
of
no good
even on the following
day, the Bank
that
those
'real'
old
can
declare
sixpences
England
too change
their
Words
are no longer
legal tender.
meanings;

because

he would

actually
think of Venturi's

stay
unless

put
and

the building. Yet put him in front of a church

for churches
built
buildings
except
if when
in such strange
we go
And,
shapes.
again,
has an altar, a font
inside we find that it actually
that it really is a
and so on, then these confirm
few

Corbusier's
houses
were planned
The point
about
an
promenades'.
in the way Peirce
uses the term is that you
have to learn it; you know, from its physical

index

that there
away,
used
the sanctuary

our experience

into,

of Le

as 'architectural

taken

where
is a stage with curtains
from
to be, then we know

some

route;

we

hand,

a part of the drawing


and so on.
can be an index.
It can indicate

a drawing,
A building
too

book,

temple

built

PEOPLE

more
of

very

small.

pragmatic.

Anglo-Saxons
The first, key

tend

to be

collection

so much
in

English, Meaning in Architecture,was published in


1969. This was a collection of papers by Reyner
Banham, Fran^oise Choay, Aldo van Eyck,
Kenneth

Frampton,

Alan

Colquhoun,

BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

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Norberg
VOL 6 NO 1

AND

ARCHITECTS

THEIR

SYMBOLS

Frank Lloyd Wright's church at Madison


and the praying hands it symbolizes
edited
myself and others,
by Charles
and George
Baird.
But in some
ways it
around
of us even
skirted
the subject
and none
the comprehensive
which
attempted
survey
ought
to have been included
in such a pioneering

Schulz,
Jencks

collection.
book

And yet it made


its impact.
The
in fact started
in the margins
of the
itself where
various
authors
on
commented

what

the others

discussion

'spitting
discussion
no

had

written;

and

means

in her

snarling'
continued

Janet Daley
review.
But

it

called
still

the

and Robert
Venturi
was by
to say
practitioner
(and
teacher)
from it. As Venturi
himself
something

the only

he learned

said:
Another

aspect of this subject [that is 'ordinary'


involved
and iconography,
but
meaning
of these subjects I know little about;
they
not part of our education.

architecture]
the subtleties
were

Obviously
on to say:

he wished

We

space.

they

were,

but

then

he went
which

studied

considering

Some

English architects are now


and the whole subject of semeio

meaning
a way relevant for architecture...In
logy [sicjin
my day
it was a game in abstraction,
without
the elements of
association
and past experience
and their effects on
perception.
Academic

work

has

proceeded

apace

and

some

of it has been published in fairly obscure journals.

There

have

International

been

conferences
significant
for Semiotic
Association

of the
Studies

(IASS) in Milan (1974) and Vienna (1979), each of


BUILT

ENVIRONMENT

VOL 6 NO

had

mention
semiotics

sessions

on

architecture,

not

to

on architectural
meetings
specialized
at Castelldefells
near Barcelona,
Ulm

and
Germany
out in Spanish
with

other

been

published

key

so on.

The

Castelldefells

papers

in
came

in 1967

and some
of them,
together
in the subject,
have just
papers
as Signs, Symbols
and Architecture

(Broadbent, Bunt and Jencks, 1980). The Ulm

was organized
whose
meeting
by Martin
Krampen
in the Urban Environment
has just appeared,
Meaning
while
to the area, Juan
another
key contributor

Bonta, has also finally published his Architectureand

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23

SPACE

ARCHITECTS,
and

its Interpretation,
press:

Meaning

this

Environment,
Tomas

and

time

in

collection

edited

Dick

by myself,

Bunt

one's

above

all,

doubts

'Post

'Language',
has done

has

been

'softened

up'

possible

of

his definitions

about

or even

Modern'

than

more

'Architecture',
with the

any other
of Venturi's

book
to
the
bring
arena.
And what
the public

exception
into
debate
'meaning'
is more it did so in an extremely
illustrated
and provocative
way.

readable,

well

It is from

Charles

in particular
that the idea of
work
not
in architecture
made
Time magazine,
meaning
And it
the Sunday
colour
to mention
supplements.
rather than the
from those sources,
is probably

Jencks's

that

of the researchers,

work

semiotics

found

have

their

Nathan

Silver

(1980),

tongue-in-cheek

possibly

certain

from

ideas

into

way

everyday

is thematic. I've
happens in the front hall
master bedroom entirely out of my narrative.

of

cut the

levels

have

with the ground

no conversation

floor.
to mention:

Not
The

building

of course,

Well,

Yet such
examples.
very stuff of which
Most
who

the street.

addresses

decisively

he is quoting
trivia,

extraordinary
in the trailer

pretentious
are the
applied,

changes
Richard

paradigm
of all was

said,

some

widely

to a television

are

made.

course,
Beaubourg

the red,

Rogers

of the building
together
in a sentence.'
the words

green

'express'

and

blue

the idea

much

as

systems

the escalators

pipes of the
painted
of servicing.
They

indicate

the way

up!

And the whole thing is an icon, if not of Sant


Elia's Futurist of c. 1914, then at least of
Archigram c. 1960. So the whole thing is a clear
case of application, into a real building, of
principles from Peirce's iconicity.
But the liveliest appliers of semiotic into
24

Venturi's

in a curious

to

way,

one of Le Corbusier's ideas. As he put it (1920)


If I show

to everyone

a Laplander
Negro,
ball (one of the most

on Earth a Frenchman,
a
a
sphere in the form of a billiard
of
perfect human materialisations

the sphere), I release in each of these individuals


an
identical sensation inherent in the spherical form.
The

Frenchman

well

might

think

of the

according

to Le

according

to Le

Corbusier

would

to

games

be played with billiard balls, but everyone

to

respond

the 'fixed' sensationreleased by theprimaryform.


The difficultywith such 'primary forms',
is that

Corbusier,

because

'reads'
them in the same way,
they have
everyone
for
no particular
Therefore
we
meaning
anyone.
must consider
what
Le Corbusier
calls 'secondary
which

from

vary

form, I release in each


sensation of the cube; but if

If I hold

up a primary cubic
the same primary
some black geometric

individual

A Papuan

would

In other

words

particular
its surfaces;
The

see only an ornament.


one

cultural

the primary
by the way

places
context

form
one

into

treats

one decorates
Venturi's
shed.
literally
to do it. Robert
of course,
is how

question,

Stern (1977) suggests three possibilities, each of


which he has utilized himself:
1.

in which

Contextualism

design

are derived

colour

and

from

forms

the context

for the new


into

which

it

is to be placed to which it will then relate in form,

Of

symbolize the fact that the building has water,


drainage, electrical, air-conditioning and other
while

Take

relates,

programme

(1980) but not in the programme itself, 'We put

the components
we put together

Moore.
this

shed;

I place
spots on the cube, I
release in a civilised man an idea of dice to
immediately
which
play with, and a whole series of associations
follow.
would

And:
upper

Charles

and

to person
person
or
his
cultural
they depend
upon
capital
of
He
an
what
hereditary
gives
example
capital'.
he means:

for instance,
quotes
some
examples

What

The

Stern

'because

They include:

'Architect Talk'.

have been such


undoubtedly
as Robert
Venturi
Robert
himself,

sensations',

discourse.

architectural

architecture

decorated

by Charles Jencks, especially with his The


Language of Post Modern Architecture(1977). This,
whatever

PEOPLE

Americans

in the Built

Llorens.

the field,

Yet

is another

there

and Behaviour

AND

2.

scale;

Allusionism, based in particular on historical

allusions.

Stern

sees

this

eclecticism

but

it may

established

and

successful

of trying
which
may

a matter
mood

fragments
3.

from

Ornamentalism.

as far more

involve

than

the re-use

mere
of

But above
all, it is
types.
to recapture
an appropriate
of
involve
the incorporation

the past

into

Stern
BUILT

the new;

concerns

himself

ENVIRONMENT

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with
VOL 6 NO

ARCHITECTS

AND

THEIR

SYMBOLS

Robert Stern's house for Paul Henry Lang


the physical
architecture

surfaces

in the case

which

are walls,

of

their

white-painted
crumbled
eventually

in other

while

obviously
As he
of design
be containers.
they would
the decora
sees it there is no need even to justify
tion of a visible
surface.
We
need complexity
and

kinds

elaboration

and

is no

there

reason

this

why

be applied just for the sake of it.

Rough
problems.
right in themselves

is open

obviously

cannot

to charges

then

frame.

So

it was

more
more

greyer,
to perfection

conscious

insist

indulgence.
Certainly
to those who
are still

Modern

Movement

paradigm.

it will

be

in the
living
But isn't that

any

approved

without surfaces
building
the
Modern
Movement
by

to 'honky-tonk,
susceptible
ness'
as their Post-Modern
The

white-walled

supposed
and so on.

'like'

are not
buildings
they look like them?

why should
alternative
surfaces
followers
BUILT

machines,

But

began

which

to use

ENVIRONMENT

Le

once

VOL

1920s

had

holes,

liners
liners,
the

and

his

realized

so

that

got
to use

they

No

one

could

around

used

were

somehow

that

concrete,
conceive

hostile
even
finish;
which
it seldom

as a
exposed
a drabber,
it was

when
was

cast

it would

so
drab,
looking
grey and hostile,
to make
it more
had to be done
used the
did they do? They
find for the formwork
they could
knot
marks
left the board
showing:
So

what

boards

joints,
grain,
was supposed
to ensure
concrete,

phoni
to be.

even

roughest
and then
This

were

Atlantic
And

as

just

Atlantic

Corbusier
they

and
seem

successors
of the

the surfaces

were

crassness

villas

to look

and

on

something
'human'.

little dishonest? Obviously it is quite impossible to


build

when

the idea

'honest'

finish.

of superficiality, triviality and general self


anathema

except

and looked like mere infilling, within a concrete

surface
an approach

Such

and
cracked
streaked,
plaster

too
their
had
they
certainly
all
stone and rough
brick were

warts
gaps,
splinters,
to give 'human
scale'
that it would
weather

and

all.

to the

of course,
it did nothing
and so on. But,
gracefully
is no more
of timber
of the kind.
The graining
for concrete
than sea shells,
doggie
appropriate
and from a distance
or wicker
marks
work
paw
is not timber;
it looks
as drab as ever. For concrete

how inappropriate to make it 'look like' timber.

6 NO 1

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25

SPACE

ARCHITECTS,

Charles Moore's Piazza

Yet

board-marked

recognize
Loos
we
and

in its crazy way,


did
that despite
Adolph
Ruskin
ornament.
Pugin,

do

need,

Morris

fact:

well,

all knew

in another

it, while

I might
have argued
that
paper
are so constructed
as to demand
if we

are

to see

surfaces

and even to ease


skirting
light to dark at window
our

at the moment
enough
obviously

on

its own.
gives

literally
meaningless.
should
why concrete
photographic
we are going
decorate,

we

and
openings
is
subject
meaning
Board-marked
There
look

the
analogy,
to ornament,
might

as well

and so on. But then the


out, sun shading
is 'decorated'
with a 'Palladian'
facade
archway
on in the form of
and other shapes
tacked

mouldings. They are (just) sufficient to draw the


desired

from
so on.
and

But

concrete

on

that it is
beyond
is no reason
simply
timber

or,

'negative'

of timber.

texture,

or otherwise

do

so in a way

that

a
If

skin-deep

in this

is no

more

his principles

can

Decoration
but

case,

for instance,
at work,

Contextualism
forms

of his larger houses


was built for Paul Henry
a distinguished
music
critic and an admirer
Lang,
of classical
architecture.
The house
is an extremely
in the Venturi
'shed'
sense
sophisticated

together

26

ripped

the
tacked
than
be

applied in three-dimensional form. Bofill's

meaningful, and Bob Stern, I think, has it right.


One

they can have


off and others

Gothic,

place.
Stern's
course,

Xanadu,
is

Allusionism),
yet in a
(Stern's
almost
more easily than
be changed
if the Langs
move
out and the next

in their
Of

to use

can

So,
wallpaper.
owners
prefer, say,
Palladian
mouldings

is

but

'like'

allusions

which

way

that

worked
out relationship
of public
to guest
bedroom
parts, of master
corners
for various
family functions,

views

brain

and pattern
they need
at cornice
and

perspective
the transitions

us texture

private
odd
rooms,

of

kind
and

a carefully

and

that

properly,

to reinforce

mouldings

the eye
texture

PEOPLE

d'llalia in New Orleans

with

concrete,

a fundamental

AND

square
cross.
double

of which

is a splendid
of
example
for the basic
apartment

it is made

could
have been put
You
can group
four
ways.
to form a larger square,
or a
apartments
You
can group
to
form
a
eight together
in many

arm

cross

and,

given

BUILT

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a steel

frame,

ENVIRONMENT

such
VOL 6 NO 1

AND

ARCHITECTS
floor

could
have been piled vertically
layouts
a pyramid,
a straight-up-and-down
tower,
and
so
on.
But
Bofill
and his
an inverted
pyramid,

basic

THEIR

form

building
by
it an icon)
have called
them a rather blocky

would
(Peirce
But that gave
the outline
so they 'softened'

building,

on

drawing

the local

de Ifach,

of their

analogy
the rock.

with

at a particular
looked
across
the

else. So they
in the distance,
the Penon

the overall

drew

visual

Xanadu

nowhere

at the rock

bay
and

to locate

wanted

by

for their

vernacular

pantiled
the whole
thing in
they painted
to which
that khaki-green
the Spanish
countryside
in the summer
sun. That
is the clearest
burns
after

roofs,

which

I know

example

of Contextualism.

Bofill's group too have used Historical Illusion,


their

for instance,

in,

Petite

Cathedrale

scheme

for

to design
Pontoise.
Asked
a whole
suburb,
Cergy
a department
with shops,
schools,
store, parking,
and so on, they thought
immediately
apartments
of a shopping
mall form rather like the great

Galleria in Milan. The mall itself would be


from

protected
grouped

up

it would

the weather;

social

encourage

and

over

the

the apartments,
of the gallery,
would

top

certainly avoid the bleak sterility of your typical


slab.

straight-sided

But

it didn't

somehow

seem

right; why should they build a Milan-type Galleria


in the outer
to them
lie

that

suburbs

of Paris?

de France

the greatest
is of course

started

as a classical

But

it occurred

then

architectural

glory

the Gothic

of the
so

cathedral,

Galleria

was

are spectacular
examples
at many
scales.
been applied

but

what

transformed

into a Gothic cathedral!


the principles
Moore's
Charles

These
have

at Santa

Club

Faculty

for instance,

Barbara,

of Contextualism
extraordinary
example
from Santa
Barbara
elements
itself, from
to International

Colonial

is an

in which
Spanish
are drawn

Style modern,
the most
into the form of the Club.
And perhaps
in New
of all, his Piazza
d'Italia
controversial
is intended

Orleans,
community.

as a focus

It is centred

on

for the Italian


formed

a fountain

from a relief map of Italy which in turn is

of

redolent
colonnades
by classical
of Charles
As one might
expect
grandeur.
and
it is wistful
and wise,
gentle
powerful,

surrounded
Roman
Moore,

silly, but already it has become a symbol so that


what

was

once

a seedy

part

of New

Orleans

being rapidly taken over by high-rise offices


now

has

literally
BUILT

of identity
The Piazza
again.
has become
the focus for an extensive
a sense

ENVIRONMENT

Stern,

renewal.
Venturi

Moore,

and

Bofill

and,

just occasionally,
architects
are still

prose
But most

speaking
poetry.

know

they

writing
like Monsieur

the
they are trying to 'express'
or the services
drawing
(Rogers),

Jourdain,

whether

structure

(Mies)
to nature

their
by board-marking
to machines
Foster
Norman
by using
or and this, of course,
is the most
surfaces
to the
allusions
these days drawing
popular
All such architects,
whether
'vernacular'.
they
allusions

are

concrete,

whether

the

can play it as an amateur,


game.
it
but like all
as
a
play
professional,
you can play it better if you actually

semiotic

or one
games
know

can

the rules.
out

spelled
and while

they
One

The

know

rules

in the various
some,

'honky-tonk,

are playing

of this game
I have

are being
mentioned

books

no doubt,

crassness,

it or not,

like

it or not,

will

resist,

phoniness'

screaming

until

their

dying days, the paradigm is shifting, inexorably,


against

them.

also

while

interaction,

of urban

scheme

to form

colleagues
place and

SYMBOLS

REFERENCES
Blake, P. (1972) Walt Disney World. Architectural Forum,
June. Reprinted in Finch, P. (1973) The Art of Walt Disney.
Abrams, New York.
Blake, P. (1974) God's Own Junkyard. Holt,
Winston, New York.
Bofill, R. (1978)

Reinhart &

L'Architecture d'm Homme. Arthaud,

Paris.

Bonta, J.P. (1979) Architecture and its Interpretation. Lund


Humphries, London.
Broadbent, G. (1973) 'The Taller of Bofill': work of the
Taller de Arquitectura of Barcelona. The Architectural
Review, November, 289-97.
Broadbent, G. (1975a) The Road to Xanadu and beyond:
work of the Taller de Arquitectura. Progressive Architecture,
September, 68-83.
G . (1975b) Taller de Arquitectura.
Design, July, 402-17.

Broadbent,

Architectural

Broadbent, G. (1977) A plain man's guide to the theory of


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