Three Books

Introduction

The Four Books on Architecture, Towards a New Architecture
& Learning from Las Vegas

Each of the three books started a movement in architecture. This essay will investigate how architecture was positioned through each book. What role was emphasized for the architect and what aspect of practice was focused on. Were there conflicts between political and artistic impulses. To these ends the essay will start by introducing the books with some historical context and by discussing how the writers have chosen to frame their view of architecture.

Four books on Architecture

Palladios book is strikingly didactic the new (old) architecture is comprehensively explained one could use the book as a manual to an architecture. The the guidelines for the new architecture are backed up with research. Fragments of the utopia he strived for existed and he had been carefully recording them. Little time is spent buildings arguments to convince us of the virtues of classical architecture. Simply stating them seem to be enough. Palladio is old and his status already affirmed the by the time he writes the book, the revival of classical architecture had started even before Palladio was born. The Tempietto was designed by Bramante in 1502 six years before Palladios birth. The document that kick-started the rivival in classical architecture Vitruvius "De architectura" was rediscovered in 1414 and several books and new treatises based on it had already been published. Nevertheless I think Palladio refers to Vitruvian classical architecture as "a new approach" in the first of the following quotes although he could be referring to his personal conclusions as to how classical architecture should be executed.

I am sure that those who look at the buildings included below and know how difficult it is to introduce a new approach—particularly in building, which is a profession everyone is convinced they know something about— (Palladio p78)

...the architect is frequently obliged to accommodate himself to the wishes of those who are paying rather than attending to what he should. (Palladio p77)

The above quotes are amusing as they show how little has changed in 400 years. Some things have changed though, today it would be impossible to issue guidelines for the design of all building types within the field of architecture. In Four Books on Architecture, architecture as a limited field, culturally less complex, and one whose practical aspects are reasonably straightforward. With the few methods of construction available the need for construction drawings is limited. The Four Books offer guidance in a way not dissimilar to the Building Regulations. It is however more enjoyable as it is concerned mainly with climate and people, things that are easy to relate to. Abstract fire and accessibility regulations with a multitude of cases were not yet developed. This quote offers guidance on stairs

they should never be made less than four feet broad so that when two people meet on they can comfortably pass each other. (Palladio p66)

The Four books on Architecture is essentially informational, a set of recorded observations and examples of their implementation. Palladio is like the other authors pushing a new architecture but the generous and informational nature of the book makes it feel more as sharing of knowledge than propaganda. This is in line with the humanist ideals of the time, spreading knowledge and promoting individual dignity.

Prisons must be healthy and pleasant because they were devised to guard but not to torment or torture miscreants or other sorts of men. (Palladio p193)

In spite of the complex the legal, cultural and technical aspects of architecture today Palladios practical lessons in architecture remain valid and interesting as architecture is still built for people and under the sky.

Towards a New Architecture

With an strong sense of urgency Le Corbusiers "Towards a New Architecture" proclaims a new architecture. The book was based on a collection of articles from his magazine L'Esprit Nouveau and were written over approximately three years. At the time the book was published Le Corbusier is thirty six years old. The passionate writing has a certain carelessness usually associated with younger writers. The book is pure rhetoric, pushing forward while omitting the hard facts to back it up. The conviction and urgency comes from a mix of personal issues and an analysis of society. Statements of peculiar particularity and sweeping generalizations are mixed together, amounting to a complete restructuring of everyday life. The bucket of industrial ingenuity and invention had been filling up without architects noticing, when the vast contents was suddenly poured over the architects heads a violent reaction was to be expected.

Similarly to Palladios book, Towards a New Architecture contains examples of how to construct and organize buildings but the examples are less informative and practical matters are treated conceptually. Towards a New Architecture cannot in the way of Four Books on Architecture be seen as a manual to architecture despite having a small section called "The manual of the dwelling". To much effort is spent explaining the virtues of industrialization and the new lifestyle. Le Corbusier understood the importance of industrialization but did he have real technical understanding of industrialization. If he had would he not have included more detailed solutions? Perhaps it makes sense in a time of rapid development to leave the details behind and focus on the concepts as new inventions and methods would continue to be developed by the experts in the factories. Le Corbusier writes about the alienation of the worker

...its part a detailed unit which will be required to fit automatically into the assembling of the whole. The father no longer teaches his son the various secrets of his little trade; a strange foreman directs severely and precisely circumscribed tasks. The worker makes one tiny detail. (Le Corbusier p255)

He goes on to suggest that the intelligent worker should be able to take pride in the final product despite of his alienation to it. Le Corbusier alienation is the opposite to the workers, severely and with some distance he directs the whole without being intimately familiar with the part. Despite his passion he lacks engagement with reality.

Learning from Las Vegas

Venturi Scott Browns and Steven Izenours book is the result of a 1968 study trip with students of Yale University. The first edition of the book was printed in 1972 the second edition, printed in 1977 is the one referred to in this essay. According to the preface of the second edition it is a low cost version of the first edition, with fewer illustrations, no colour, smaller format and it has been rewritten to "focus our arguments".

The first chapter of the book, the chapter about Las Vegas, uses planning tools such as land use maps as well as photographs and sketches to research the features and functions of Las Vegas. The research connects their arguments to a real place and situation but it does not prove their point. It only proves that the conditions they refer to exist. Le Corbusier in comparison does not prove to us that the conditions he wants to change exist or that the changes he proposes can exist. The research strengthens the argument through stating clearly and believably that it is rooted in fact. Learning from Las Vegas and Four Books on Architecture are similar in that they take as starting point the study of something existing.

The service area: Pumps and oil displays; canopy provides protection from the sun and bad weather and acts as a sign (Mobil's circle or Philips' soaring V). Must be fully visible from the service bays in the station because most stations are one- or two-man operations. (V. ,B. ,I., 1977 p78)

Unexplained Las Vegas is easily renounced as vulgar, researched and explained you are likely to think before you judge. Learning from Las Vegas is the most recent of the three books in this essay it is also the one least concerned with how to design buildings. There are almost no proposals in the book and the ones shown are used only as examples of symbolism and honest economy without showing in detail how they are made.

Three Images

Which image have become the iconic representation of the architects ideas at the time of they wrote their respective book? Perhaps even using the word iconic is a terrible submission to the times we live in but the iconic image as one of the definitions imply embody and represent more that the image itself depicts. It can be seen as a crude symbol of the architects legacy. The writers of the two later works were at relatively early stages of their careers at the time their books were published, later works that embody other ideas may have become more famous. Since my essay is concerned with the books and the architects ideas at the time of the books I choose projects that appeared in those books.

To verify that my choices were not totally arbitrary I used the image search function in the three main internet search engines to see which images turned up first. The search engine of for example google rates the sites and in this case images on the basis of how many other sites related to the search topic link to the image. Before verifying on the internet I choose Villa Capra as Palladios most iconic project, the cruciform skyscrapers as Le Corbusiers and Vanna Venturi House as VSBAs most iconic. The internet search on google.com, yahoo.com and altavista.com consistently offered up images of Villa Capra on Palladio, Le Corbusier always turned up images of Notre Dame du Haut, Venturi Scott Brown gave different results on each engine, only portraits came up at the top positionslts. The results perhaps as expected, Palladio did not live a decade after four books was published, Le Corbusier went on to to better things and Venturi Scott Brown are still at it. Even if their early work shown in their books did not appear amongst the top rated images the first image from the books was generally from the design I choose above.

Vanna Venturi House

Robert Venturis house for his mother was designed by Robert Venturi before VSBA formed but the project was included in the first edition of Learning From Las Vegas. The building is an almost childish breaking of the rules of modernism. According to Robert Venturi Walter Gropius said that you should never paint a house green, in defiance the Vanna house is just that colour. strangely enough the famous photographs of the Vanna House are strictly elevational showing only the flat almost minimal front elevation. A less orthogonal view reveals the abundance of complexity and contradiction in spite of this the front elevation became widely published. The house was intended to be ordinary but with complexity and contradiction. To my eyes the house looks exceptional one of the most special looking buildings I have ever seen. Admittedly I have not managed to find images of the context in which it sits but I would be very surprised if anyone had built anything like it before..

Cruciform Towers of Ville Contemporaine

I was surprised to find that Le Corbusiers famous images of huge cross shaped towers depicted offices. The caption to a line drawing of such towers in Towards a new Architecture states (p54). It is evident that such buildings would necessarily be devoted exclusively to business offices further down he writes Family life would hardly be at home in them, with their prodigious mechanisms of lifts. All students I have asked about the planned use for the towers reply, housing. This is puzzling but might be explained by the first line of the caption "A project for Apartments or Flats". This contradiction might be attributed to the translation or perhaps Le Corbusiers definition of Apartment. My guess is that he towers are designed to be office buildings of multiple ownerships and rented space. Le Corbusiers hard man image is softened slightly by the realization that the city of towers is a CBD. The lower housing around the towers is monotonous but the inhabitant is significantly closer to the ground and the vast green spaces. The buildings in the section "Mass-Production Houses" show detached houses and modesty scaled residential complexes, what we would call suburbia. Le Corbusiers proposals are distinctly anti-urban which runs against the widely held view that modernism was all about the city.

Villa Capra, La Rotunda 1570

Without doubt Palladios most famous villa. In Four Books on Architecture there are no suggestions that the extreme symmetry would make the buildings more perfect and appealing. The symmetrical plan is instead explained by Palladios claims that it enjoys the most beautiful vistas on every side. The plan that conveys such universality is explained to be site specific. Imagining someone living in Villa Capra is difficult, maybe because it has qualities of a pavilion, only on a much larger scale. Compared to other villas designed by Palladio the Villa Capra does not read as either an "office" or farm. The building is special in many ways, it appears amongst city buildings in the book in spite of being located in the countryside. The case is further made special by the fact that the owner Monsignor Paolo Almerico was a man of the church (Palladio p94) without a family and that the building was located in the countryside but did not function as a farm. The compact symmetry makes the plan slippery, imagining uses other than temple or pavilion is difficult. The central circular room connects to all four entrances via rooms whose proportions approach the corridor. Once you have entered the building, the plan seen in isolation suggest, one could easily and to ones surprise end up outside under a portico identical to the one just entered. Photographs of the building reveal how little of the symmetry is perceived from the ground. The Portico facing you takes command and gives direction to the building. To have a classical architect explain symmetry is used for site specific reasons is surprising. Palladio appears to have been a practical man, his private villas are built in rather cheap materials. It is an accomplishment to have ones designs so widely admired in spite of their execution in cheap materials. Many fans though, knew of his work only though the books.

Politics & View of History

VSBA, Suspend Judgement

The accepting attitude and attempts of being non judgemental so that the problems can be looked at straightly is in common with most late modernists in the vein of Team X. VSBA however, within their american context, takes the method one step further. Seemingly abandoning all ideology and politics (at least conventional politics) they managed to become more functionalist than any conventional modernist. Their attitude essentially boiling down to the abandoning of utopia and refusal to give in to the wish to make grand changes to society. A sound and responsible attitude but as history might suggest contrary to the nature of the architect. This is I belive the feat that makes VSBA noteworthy. They have taken one step back and shed the all encompassing scope of modernism but at the same time used modernism as the support to take one step forward towards the needs of the everyday.

Architects who find middle-middle-class social aspirations distastefull and like uncluttered architectural form see only to well the symbolism in the suburban residential landscape... (Venturi Scott Brown 1977 p153)

Irony might be the tool with which to confront and combine divergent values in architecture for a pluralist society and to accommodate the differences in values that arise betweeen architects and clients. (Venturi Scott Brown 1977 p161)

Can using irony to confront different values be anything but disrespectful. Theoretically a piece of architecture where the contradictory values of the people involved is expressed would be an honest and positive affirmation of a pluralistic society. In reality irony is always disrespectful and to construct a monument to this disrespect would be very cynical. The question that has always bothered me about their work is whether they really mean it. Their writings have convinced me about their conviction, they believe architects have a social responsibility to accept the symbolic mishmash of contemporary everyday. Snobbery and taste tyranny is politically unjustifiable. On the other hand the symbolic elements are often crudely reduced to a parody of their origins. Perhaps a statement that the architects do not really subscribe to them and apply them ironically. When the iconography becomes loveless, as it quite often does in their buildings, could it be caused by "irony combining divergent values" and result in the undermining of the positive feeling of the building.

There are moments when they in my opinion have done wonders, a favourite is the Trabant student center built in 1996. It is utterly strange but when seen with its neighbours it makes total sense. The suburban fairyland has received a characterful mutant. The plan reveals just how much of a monster this building really is. The small head with the three columns (top of plan) is attached to a giant amorphous body. Perhaps there are situations where "serious" architecture would be unsuccessful due to the nature of the context. Having never been to the USA I can only guess but the image of the trabant center suggest that american suburbia is more disneyland than I imagined. Serious architecture could become a joke when placed next to the distorted pastiche, proper architecture might make no sense at all.

Le Corbusier, A history for each time

Le Corbusier contempt for the styles of architecture is well known, his readiness to propose large scale demolition of existing city is also familiar. It is interesting to read in Towards a New Architecture that his argument against historicism is based on his readings of important historic places.

Here—Venice, Saint Mark's Square set with the bright diamonds of successive epochs...All these techniques, these different materials. But each epoch new comes had a faith in his own adventure and taking stock of his neighbors, risked... dared... Collins (1969 q4)

Paris was transformed on its own ground without evasion. Each current of thought is inscribed in its stones, throughout the centuries. In this way the living image of Paris was formed. Paris must continue. Collins (1969 q25)

These arguments for contemporary architecture and changing living cities make sense particularly within a pre-modern historic context. Corbusier claimed that the pace of change in the fifty years before his time has no precedence and that this condition requires bold breaks with convention. He is right when stating that old truths are no longer valid in the face of industrialization the irony however is that the quotes above use historical precedence, hence old truths, as arguments for new bold architectural statements for the industrial age. Let me clarify, industrialization enabled change at a new and magnificent scale and pace, this new situation should have demanded sensitivity and care, not boldness. The boldness of previous generations boosted by the the capacity of industry enables mistakes to be made at scales previously unheard of.

Ambivalent politics

From reading only Towards a New Architecture it is hard to understand Le Corbusiers political views. His enthusiasm for industry and business is clear but he is also concerned with the working man. This interest in the working man is however quite romantic and his writings reveal that he is perhaps most interested in the purity of the simple life. The last chapter of the book Architecture and Revolution ends Architecture or Revolution. Revolution can be avoided. His argument is that by adopting his new plans and executing his new architecture the worker will be pacified since all his demands have been met. The argument is put forward in a way that suggests, possibly to convince his audience which is likely to be middle class, that the main aim is to pacify the worker not to cater for his needs.

Le Corbusier is said to have joined the Syndicalist movement in 1930. Syndicalism is a form of non-parliamentarian socialism based on the organization of labour unions or syndicats in french. This ideology is perfectly suited to Le Corbusiers urban plans as the production unit whether it be a factory or a farm is the organizing political and social unit. The aspects of syndicalism that should not appeal to Le Corbusier is the messy confrontational nature of its organization and of course that the ultimate goal is revolution. Syndicalism today is mainly known in its Anarcho-Syndicalist form whose black and red flag can be seen in every WTO demonstration. Direct action, strikes and demonstrations are its key methods. There were versions of french syndicalism that denounced strikes (ironic that they would be french), it is possible that this was the form Le Corbusier subscribed to as it was pacifist and ordered.

Palladio, A Noble Past

Politics according to our normal definitions did of course not exist in italy during the fifteen hundreds. But renaissance humanism restarted the development that would lead to democracy. The religious shift in focus from total submission to a more human centered religion was an importand one. The quote above regarding the design of prisons suggests a fairly tolerant attitude. The society was still extremely hierarchical and the language used in the book whenever someone important is mentioned is a reminder of how relative the improvements were.

The goal for Palladio was the recreation of both the rural arcadia and the urban utopia of classic greece. The high ideals are compelling and are strikingly att odds with todays pragmatic society. The lessons learned from history prevent the utopian nostalgia to break free from a deeply ingrained scepticism towards ideas of pure, rational men.

Conclusion

There is a development in these three books. For each book the information provided is narrowed down a step. The successive books, Four Books on Architecture, Towards a New Architecture and Learning from Las Vegas are each slightly less comprehensive than the last. For each book less information is provided about the fundamentals of architecture. Palladio writes extensively about construction materials as well as siting, views and comfort. Corbusier gives suggestions about structure, ventilation and interior decoration albeit speedy. Venturi Scott Brown writes indirectly about construction but only as much as to say it should be generic. Today it is rare that books by architects cover practicalities as well as arguments for political and aesthetic points of view. The most common form today is of course the coffee table book whose didactic and political content is minimal. In the specialized society the author of the book on construction is never a leader in the cultural aspects of architecture.

A positive development is that architects are becoming less politically naive and more critical. Palladio was well meaning but ultimately naive in his worshipping of the old civilizations. Le Corbusiers well meaning was more dangerous as it was more ambitious than Palladios. VSBA have understood better how to really be helpful as architects but have paid the price in limiting their influence to architecture and planning. Perhaps a position forced upon them as a result of the mistakes during modernism.