Académique Documents
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Culture Documents
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urbanism project in a complex intertwined dialectic between Archizoom (mid-1960S), based in Milan but associated with
the ecologies of the informal and the relentless reach of mod- the Florentine Architettura Radicale movement. Archizoom's
ernization. Bhabha maintains that one is in effect always project and texts for "No-Stop City" (1968- 71) illustrate an I
working with the problems of the past, but these problems urbanism of continuous mobility, fluidity, and flux. While -~ -- {
appear differently in new emergent contemporary conditions. "N o-Stop City" was received on one level as a satire of the Brit- 1-
Thus the project of ecological urbanism, Bhabha insists, is ish technophilia of Archigram, it was also viewed as an illus-
a "work of projective imagination." 2 tration of an urbanism without qualities, a representation of
It is in those terms, as work of projective imagination, that the "degree-zero" conditions for urbanization. 3
the urban projects of Andrea Branzi might be found relevant Archizoom's use of typewriter keystrokes on A4 paper to
to the emergent discourse on ecological urbanism. Branzi's represent a nonfigural planning study for "No-Stop City" an~ --_
work reanimates a long tradition of using urban projects as ticipated contemporary interest in indexical and parametric
social and cultural critique. This form of urban projection representations of the city. Their work prefigured current at-
deploys a project not simply as an illustration or "vision- tention to describing the relentlessly horizontal field condi-
but rather as a demystified distillation and description of tions of the modern metropolis as a surface shaped by the
our present urban predicaments. In this sense, one might strong forces of economic and ecological flows. Equally, these
read Branzi's urban projects as less a utopian future possible drawings and their texts pointed toward today's investiga-
world than a critically engaged and politically literate delin- tions of infrastructure and ecology as nonfigurative drivers \ '
eation of the power structures, forces, and flows shaping the of urban form . As such, a generation of contemporary urban- , '-~
contemporary urban condition. Over the past four decades, ists have drawn from Branzi's intellectual commitments. This "
Branzi's work has articulated a remarkably consistent cri- diverse list of influence ranges from Stan Allen and James
tique of the social, cultural. and intellectual poverty of much Corner's interest in field conditions to Alex Wall and Alejandro
laissez-faire urban devt::lopment and the realpolitik assump- Zaera Polo's concern with logistics. 4 More recently, Pier Vit- ~
tions of much urban design and planning. As an alternative, P.V. Aureli and M. Tattara/Dogma, torio Aureli and Martino Tattara's project "Stop-City" directly
"Stop City," aerial view (2008)
Branzi's projects propose urbanism in the form of an envi- references Branzi's use of nonfigurative urban projection as -
ronmental, economic, and aesthetic critique of the failings of Typical plan, forest canopy (2008) a form of social and political critique. s Branzi's urban proj-
the contemporary city. ects are equally available to inform contemporary interef ts
Born and educated in Florence, Branzi studied architecture within architectural culture and urbanism on an array oC --
in a cultural milieu of the Operaists and a scholarly tradi- topics as diverse as animalia, indeterminacy, and genericity,
tion of Marxist critique, as evidenced through speculative ur- among others.
Archizoom Associati, "No-Stop ban proposals as a form of cultural criticism. Branzi first As a deliberately "nonfigurative" urbanism, "No-Stop City" ---
City" (1968-71) came to international visibility as a member of the collective renewed and disrupted a longstanding traditional nonfigu;-~-~
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ANTICIPATE 116
rative urban projection as socialist critique. In this regard, thought spanning from Andrea to Andres is accomplishment
Branzi's "No-Stop City" draws on the urban planning projects enough, considering the relatively narrow confines within
and theories of Ludwig Hilberseimer, particularly Hilber- which debates in contemporary urbanism are often described.
seimer's "New Regional Pattern" and that project's illustration Branzi's primary contribution to the proceedings consisted
of a proto-ecological urbanism. 6 of a keynote lecture featuring a surreal video anthology of
Not coincidentally, both Branzi and Hilberseimer chose to his greatest hits of "weak urbanism," accompanied by a Patti
illustrate the city as a continuous system of relational forces Smith soundtrack. This montage of four decades of urban pro -
and flows, as opposed to a collection of objects. In this sense jection offered a visual manifesto of sorts, proclaiming "weak
the ongoing recuperation of Hilberseimer, and Branzi's re~ urbanization" as a medium of environmental and cultural rel-
newed relevance for discussions of contemporary urbanism evance. Branzi prefaced his prepackaged multimedia mashup
renders their work particularly meaningful to discussions' with a brief introductory text prepared for the event (read in
of ecological urbanism. Andrea Branzi occupies a singular Italian with simultaneous translation by Nicoletta Morozzi)
historical position as a hinge figure between the social and proposing seven suggestions toward a "post-environmental-
environmental aspirations of modernist planning of the post- ism."9 These points succinctly framed Branzi's longstanding
war era and the politics of 1968 in which his work first emerged call for a conception of contemporary urbanism as a field
for English-language audiences. As such, his work is particu- of potentials, shaped by weak forces and spontaneous pro-
larly well suited to shed light on the emergent discussion grammatic eruptions. Branzi's seven "suggestions" (reprinted
around ecological urbanism. in this volume as a "New Athens Charter") offer a surreal and
Branzi's 1993/94 project Agronica returns to his interest nonlinear set of propositions simultaneously accounting for
in the relentlessly horizontal spread of capital across thin and celebrating the failings of the contemporary city.
tissues of territory, and the resultant "weak urbanization" that Branzi's "weak work" maintains its relevance for genera-
the neoliberal economic paradigm affords . Agronica repre- tions of urbanists. His longstanding call for the development
sents the potential parallelism between agricultural and of weak urban forms and nonfigural fields has already influ-
energy production, new modalities ofpost-Fordist industrial enced the thinking of those who articulated landscape ur-
economy, and the cultures of consumption that they con- banism over a decade ago. Equally, Branzi's projective and
struct,? More recently in 2000/01, Branzi (with the Domus polemical urban propositions promise to shed light on the
Academy, a postgraduate research institute founded in 1980s) evolving understanding of ecological urbanism and its poten-
executed a project for Philips in Eindhoven. These projects tial for reconfiguring the disciplines and professions respon-
returned to the recurring themes in Branzi's oeuvre with sible for describing the contemporary city.
Ludwig Hilberseimer (with Alfred typical wit and pith, illustrating a "Territory for the New
Caldwell), bird's-eye view of Economy."s
commercial area and settlement
Andrea Branzi's intervention in the ecological urbanism
unit (c. 1943)
conference was timely in that it followed a presentation by Andrea Branzi, et aI., "Agronica,"
model view (1993-94)
Ludwig Hilberseimer, ''The City in Andres Duany. That the ecological urbanism agenda could be
the Landscape" (1949) found relevant to a cultural and professional breadth of urban
_"V_
, .........., ...... .
2 Homi Bhabha, " Keynote (Footnote)," ,'
.......... _
Landscape of Movement and Logistics,"
with Rem Koolhaas and Sanford Kwinter, Architectural Design Profile, no. 134 (1998):
;.: 'n::.: ,~::.:
, :.:'.
.. ..
Ecological Urbanism Conference, Harvard 16-21 ; and Alejandro Zaera Polo, "Order JI: x
- -
............. ..
Graduate School of Design, April 3, 2009. . r. r. r
3 Archizoom Associates, "No-Stop City.
Out of Chaos: The Material Organization
,
of Advanced Capitalism," Architectural
. """ '-"1 ,' .
... -
Residential Parkings. Climatic Universal Design Profile , no. 108 (1994) : 24-29. '
Sistem," Domus 496 (March 1971): 49-55. 5 See Pier Vittorio Aureli and Martino ...... I
-
For Branzi's refiections on the project, Tattara, "Architecture as Framework:
see Andrea Branzi, "Notes on No-Stop The Project of the City and the Crisis of '."..
r~:.:
.
City: Archizoom Associates 1969-1972,"
Exit Utopia: Architectural Provocations
1956- 1976, edited by Martin van Schaik
and Otakar Macel (Munich: Prestel, 2005),
177-182. For more recent scholarship
Neoliberalism," New Geographies, vol. 1
(2009): 38- 51 .
6 Ludwig Hilberseimer, The New Regional
Pattern : Industries and Gardens, Work-
shops and Farms (Chicago: Paul Theobald,
.: x ,
..'. .. .......
.
' .. t .
.
r . ''''.
X
on the project and its relation to contem- 1949). . :: +
porary architectural culture and urban 7 Andrea Branzi, D. Donegani, A. Petrillo, . =+ . ++ . . ++
theory, see Kazys Varnelis, "Programming and C. Raimondo, "Symbiotic Metropolis:
.. +++ + + ++
. . +.. . +++ . 60'060606.'0'0 ' 0 ' 0 ' 0 ' 0 ' 0 ' 0 ' 0 '
after Program : Archizoom's No-Stop City,"
Praxis, no. 8 (May 2006): 82-91.
Agronica," The Solid Side, edited by Ezio
+ + .+++++ . ++ 600.000::~00Q:::~:
/I
, g : : : : ::
Manzini and Marco Susani (Netherlands:
4 On field conditions and contemporary V+K Publishing/ Philips, 1995), 101 - 120.
+' . + . . _. +H + . ::::::::::::;,: . : . : . ~ . : . : . : . ~ .
urbanism, see James Corner, "The Agency 8 Andrea Branzi, "Preliminary Notes for + ... . + . ++ ++ i- . H . +' ::::::::~:::;:.: . :.: . : . : . :.:.
of Mapping : Speculation, Critique and a Master Plan," and "Master Plan Strijp +~ + + . . ~ . +"'+'
i- . ++ .. t +.
+ ...+,+ . +
. , .+
Invention," Mappings, edited by Denis
Cosgrove (London: Reaiction Books, 1999),
Philips, Eindhoven 1999," Lotus, no. 107
(2000): 110-123.
)( . 1
++. ++ +Hi-+~ + . -Ji.~ . ++. . .t~+;z.
213 - 300; and Stan Allen, "Mat Urbanism: 9 Andrea Branzi, "The Weak Metropolis," + :f: + +
Andrea Branzi, et al., "Masterplan
The Thick 2-D," CASE: Le Corbusier's Ecological Urbanism Conference, Harvard . +++ ++++ 1- -+.... '!:.:::- .
Venice Hospital and the Mat Building Graduate School of Design, April 4, 2009. 1"++++ . . ....++'
Strijp Philips, Eindhoven," model
view (1999-2000) '+
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ANTIC IPATE 120 121