Architectural projects are not machines à habiter, as Le Corbusier proposed, but machines à comprendre, devices constructed by architects but expediently operated by anybody who decides to ponder the human condition by means of this strange activity we call architecture. Thanks to theory, projects, buildings and designs become a grindstone to sharpen ideas. These ideas, convictions and interpretations deal, for example, with the weight of history and the possibility of progress, with the distribution of power, with the entanglements of dwelling, with the evolution of society, and with the revelation of the goals we would like to achieve.
It is not possible to separate architectural theory from criticism and history. This does not imply that theory, criticism and history are interchangeable, nor that they don’t strive for an independent form. But ideas are never independent of historical change: architects and theorists are shaped by the times in which they live and work. A theory cannot be understood without its historical context. At the same time, theory always involves criticism, in the sense that objective or scientific truth is not the real goal of theory or architecture. Building and designing always involves personal and cultural choices. It is the task of theory to put these choices into words, and to show architects and human beings in general, the alternatives they can choose from.
In the historical year of 1989, OMA/Rem Koolhaas designs a terminal for ferries crossing the English Channel between the UK and the continent. A project that was never built, but that reminds us today of a possibility for Europe and for European architecture.
In 1972, at the age of 70, Nikolaus Pevsner publishes Some Architectural Writers of the Nineteenth Century. The book shows the necessity of returning to previous theorists and authors. Not only buildings, projects or plans, but also texts are valuable sources of knowledge and insight. In the beginning of the 21th century, it is advisable to study the great architectural writes of the twentieth century, who often successfully combined historical research, critical judgement and theoretical speculation.
VERSUS. An American Architect’s Alternativeswas written in 1982 by Stanley Tigerman as a sort of chronicle of his career. The cover drawing, the book concept and the often ridiculously contradictory choices Tigerman made, show both the difficulty and the necessity, for every architect, of defining alternatives and of making choices.
In the historical year of 1989, OMA/Rem Koolhaas designs a terminal for ferries crossing the English Channel between the UK and the continent. A project that was never built, but that reminds us today of a possibility for Europe and for European architecture.In 1972, at the age of 70, Nikolaus Pevsner publishes Some Architectural Writers of the Nineteenth Century. The book shows the necessity of returning to previous theorists and authors. Not only buildings, projects or plans, but also texts are valuable sources of knowledge and insight. In the beginning of the 21th century, it is advisable to study the great architectural writes of the twentieth century, who often successfully combined historical research, critical judgement and theoretical speculation.VERSUS. An American Architect’s Alternativeswas written in 1982 by Stanley Tigerman as a sort of chronicle of his career. The cover drawing, the book concept and the often ridiculously contradictory choices Tigerman made, show both the difficulty and the necessity, for every architect, of defining alternatives and of making choices.
