the urgency of architecture
= the architecture of urgency SEMINAR
Ole Bouman
Architecture has always been identified with construction. It appeals to men’s deepest feelings about fragility of life and how to overcome that. Architecture is there to protect, it offers shelter from the out-side world. Either in literature, in theology, in politics or philosophy, it has been associated with the positive, the will to elevate, with resurrection, with hope. And if people managed to start thinking from scratch, in an utopian gesture towards completely unknown worlds to inspire mankind with a destiny, architecture was the first to help to provide the images of the better world. Architecture was about giving shape to dreams and striving for utilitarian perfection. A better world that needed to be built. Architecture simply has a hard time to address despair (…)
For instance, this is also an era of renewed interest in certain worldviews which for a long time were seen as utterly disgusting and unacceptable. Quite suddenly, violence is back on the agenda; not as an expression of evil, but as a sometimes useful tool to solve problems. Warmongers, social Darwinists and professional Cassandra’s are taking the floor to proclaim the purifying value of taking up arms. Most people, living in their safe havens of affluent societies, take it as a matter of press, covering events too far away to engage with, or feel perhaps somewhat tempted with the new totalitarian seduction. Others, those on the fringes of the global village have to deal with the consequences of these new forms of aggression. But whatever side, violence more and more is becoming a norm, if not a value.
If you want, a positive side effect of the new realism is clearer view on the agenda or ideologies of the aggressors. Indeed, architecture often reveals itself currently as criminal tool of oppression and destruction. Look at Afghanistan, Iraq or Lebanon: modern violence is pervasive, abstract and dehumanizing. It destroys buildings and communities in a frequency which hasn’t been seen before. As a result, it forces ordinary people to improvise and develop ways of survival. . So, what does it mean to stand up for those who are victimized? Can architecture also be present on that side of the spectrum and if so, how?
Perhaps the most daring and at the same time uncanny position is for architects who device strategies to cope with destruction by finding ways to deceive, it, ridicule it, pervert it, and ultimately, by doing so, may help avoiding it.
When clusterbombs are ready to be dropped, we need to cluster our cleverness to new configurations after conflict. When nature hits our habitats, we need new ways to inhabit this world and cope with nature. When crime and corruption are taking life worlds apart, we need a new sense of public domain. When violence is the norm, we need to violate the status quo in architecture.