Reflections on Architecture in the Age of it's Virtual Disappearance

Media has taken over from reality, and media has become reality. I notice this more and more with my students. Architecture students dont' want to draw, they want to use a computer. An architect who can't draw is like a writer who can't write. In any case, what has happened to architecture is very symbolic to what has happened to the culture at large. In what I call the mechanical paradigm, on had to show the truth of structure in othe rowrs if there wre things holding a building up you wante dot ssee how the force of gravity was held up by the structure of a piece of architecture in a mechanical way. Now, in what I call the electronic paradigm, we don't need to show how buildings stand up, and you get the wildest kinds of forms...but they're all ornamental, they don't actually reflect structure, they only appear to reflect structure. There has been a loss of integrity in a certain way as to how architecture portrays itself in the society, and I have always argued that one of the ways that we can understand culture is by looking at the architecture that the culture has produced. You can measure the changing relationships between social and cultural entities by looking at how the urban topography of a city etc. evolves over time. The evolution of universities is a prime example from the religious to the secular. Now we are no longer s architects tie to a mechanical necessity. we don't need to show how we build things, it's a paradigm that can be summarized by Alberti's statement that the point of architecture is not to simply make something stand-up, but to also give the illusion that it stands up.

-Peter Eisenman


Abstract:

The subject of this article is to address issues pertaining to both virtual and concrete architecture related to absence as an aspect of architectural design, theory and phenomenology that transcends culture as well as time. The goal of this essay is to high-light the existence of the notion of virtuality in architecture that pre-dates the advent of the digital revolution to help shed light on where it may be taking the discipline of architecture in the future as well emerging as a multi-faceted discourse in it’s own right. To help illustrate these ideas, I have drawn liberally from a 1993 interview with architect and theorist Paul Virilio from the book The Virtual Dimension.


Architecture in the Age of Oblivion

Architecture it has been found, is not only inescapably beholden to time as the modernists thought, but in the current age has become time as well, or perhaps more fittingly, a reflection of how we perceive and engage time. What defines architecture now, in the wake of its de-materialization into fields such as computer programming has expanded it's conventional definition and created something else in the absences of it's monumentality and mechanistically determined past. The architecture of game design and social networking in particular have made architecture something which truly transcends time and breaks its bonds from it. Pure information. An architecture which the inhabitant not only moves through, but an architecture that moves through the very inhabitant within it. Altering their perception, opening new doors, closing off old ones, and creating new possibilities previously unimaginable while at the same time, precluding others that have conventionally held significance. The formlessness, or rather the structurelessness inherent in much of contemporary architecture has been such an event that has so radically twisted the notions of what architecture is, that a critical fragmentation has occured that threatens to render a traditional sense of rigor and integrity obsolete. But, the creation and propogation of these new forms and ways of being do not have to spell the end of architecture as we know it altogether.


It is in this way, in creating a music out of architecture, that one most poetically describes and illustrates this state of being, this essential transcendence of form into something totally liquid, something that literally moves through you in waves and particles.

Andreas Ruby:

At your last seminar in the College International de Philosophie you stated: "Due to the continuous flow of optical apperances, it is becoming difficult, if not impossible, to still believe in the stability of the real, in the fixing of a visuality which is constantly fleeing away. The public space of the building suddenly vanishes behind the instability of the public image." Should not one conclude then, that reality itself has become unstable today? That it is less defined by the materiality of architecture but rather by the ephemerality of the images with which we perceive the world?

Paul Virilio:

Centuries ago, matter was defined by two dimensions: mass and energy. Today there comes a third one to it: information. But while the mass is still linked to gravity and materiality, information tends to be fugitive...and counts more than mass and energy.

Andreas Ruby:

Your writings about disappearance as a new mode of appearance are linked to a set of scientific approaches giving new emphasis on time, for example the theories of chaos, catastrophe, and complexity. Analyzing the development of forms, the theory of morphogenesis severely shakes up every discourse about form in architecture. It defines form no longer as something static but constantly changing and re-emerging in new configurations. Could this altered notion of form affect architecture?

Paul Virilio:

It is not easy to answer this question since, for me, architecture is just about to loose everything that characterized it in the past. Step by step it looses all its elements. In some way, you can read the importance given today to glass and transparency as a metaphor of the disappearance of matter. It anticipates the media buidings in some Asian cities with facades entirely made of screens. In a certain sense, the screen becomes the last wall. No wall out of stone, but of screens showing images. The actual boundary is the screen.

What used to be the essence of architecture is more and more taken over by other technologies. Take a staircase: it becomes increasingly replaced by elevators which are no longer designed by architects but by engineers. When people wanted to climb up to the sky, they built towers, now you just take an airplane. Something of the tower became transposed to the airplane, but the tower has lost its interest as a monument as such. The same applies to the dissolution of the staircase in the elevator, [or the book and record store to the internet].

One of the consequences of virtual space for architecture is a radical modification of its dimensions. So far, architecture has taken place within the three dimensions and in time...unlike the three known dimensions of space, this dimension can no longer be expressed in integer numbers but in fractional ones...to some degree, virtuality has been haunting architecture for a long time. It announced itself in a set of spatial topologies. The alcove for example, is a kind of virtualized room. The vestibule could be called a virtualized house. A telephone booth then virtualizes the vestibule: it is almost not a space, never the less it is the place of a personal encounter. All these types of spaces prepare for something and engage a transition. Thus virtual reality tends to extend the real space of architecture toward virtual space. That's why it is no longer a question of simply putting on a head-mounted display, squeezing into a data suit, and promenading within virtual space.

In terms of architecture, it is important to create a virtual "room" in the middle of architectural space where electromagnetic spirits can encounter each other...you will be able to walk around Alaska, swim in the mediterranean, or meet your girlfriend on the other side of the globe. This is a new, fractional dimension of space that should be built, just as one has built houses with living rooms or offices.

Andreas Ruby:

This would be the space of the future?

Paul Virilio:

The space of the future would be both of real and of virtual nature. Architecture will "take place", in the literal sense of the word, in both domains: in real space (the materiality of architecture) and virtual space (the transmission of electromagnetic signs). The real space of the house will have to take into account the real time of the transmission.

Andreas Ruby:

But time in general appears to be one of the hidden issues in the history of architecture. Architectural design seems to focus more on the three dimensions of built space than the temporal dimension that emerges as we start to use that space- which is probably due to the traditional design tools of architecture.

Paul Virilio:

Absolutely. There is a dynamics of space, or of the space-time experience by the individual. And this dynamic escapes rom the ordinary graphic represtations of space such as plan sectionk and elevation. But on needs to integrate time and movement as spatial parameters into the design oferman choreographer Rudolf Labour in the 1920s) not in order to work out choreographic notations, but to account in a more subtle way for the capaciies in terms of movement that can unfold in a space. By "constructing" the dancer's movements in a certain space, the choreographer assigns a value to a movement. It would be a challenge to explore the potential of this approach for architecture, especially since there are now computer programs capable of analyzing complex patterns of movement in space.

Andreas Ruby:




Introduction:

The image that accompanies Paul Virilio’s interview, 'Architecture in the Age of its Virtual Disappearance' is a black and white photograph of the "Cathedral of Light" designed by top ranking Nazi Albert Speer for one of the infamous Nuremburg Rallies that was held at the time the picture was taken, on September 11, 1937. The quote that accompanies the image was made by British Ambassador Neville Chamberlain who described it thus, "The effect was both Solemn and beautiful, it was like being in a cathedral of ice." It consisted of 130 anti-aircraft search lights spaced 40 feet apart and likely could have been visible from outer space. The Cathedral of Light was of course designed to inspire the army and the German people and display not only the technological and military prowess of the third reich, but to also demonstrate a sort of aesthetic dimension as well.


While a great deal of this article deals with the growing dominance of digital technology in the tradition driven field of modern architecture, that's not really what at heart is being addressed (as much has already been said about it already). What is interesting about the Cathedral of Light is that it is a genuinely virtual space. It’s structural material comprising it’s massive columns are beams of light being projected through space to create the illusion of an impossible structure that at the same time acts on the viewer as if it were indeed a ‘real’ or concrete work of architectural engineering. In an odd sense but not too distant sense, the digital age in which we now live where flat screens, and 3d imagery have become undeniably ubiquitous, the Cathedral of Light can be taken as a kind of predecessor to these objects which are increasingly encroaching on and in some cases usurping the functional and aesthetic territories that once were the exclusive domain of architecture. Going farther back to consider such works as The Palace of Versaille’s Hall of Mirrors, The Crystal Palace, and the Ise Shrine, one sees how the absence, or perceived absence of material that makes empty space become perceivable occupied, has long been as important an aspect as other engineering an d design concerns and that now in the digital age, it is this misleadingly empty space that is redefining and transforming architecture at its core. No other feat of engineering could have had the same effect on the Nuremburg spectator as the Cathedral of Light, and in spite of its creator’s nefarious motivations behind it, none the less it can help us understand on a fundamental level the role of virtuality and absence and how it is currently becoming manifest.

The Palace of Versailles's Hall of Mirrors was a true engineering marvel of its day. The technology used to produce mirrors and other surfaces which we now take for granted had reached a point of maturation that obviously begged for experimentation. He brings up how the manner in which the mirrors and candle light are used to not only compensate for lack of space within the Hall, but to create a genuine virtual space in it's own right. A space that is arguably related to the Cathedral of Light and others, and that fits into an essential architectural tradition which can help shed light on the expanding definition of architecture in the 21st century.
Der Lichtom in Nuremburg at NAZI party rally (1938)

Aside from the Cathedral of Light, which was intended to inspire the German people, we should take some time to make a point about a new architectural material that does not simply REFLECT light, but which generates it as well.

If mirrors and glass, materials which are designed to inadvertantly display the dissolution of traditional architecture, the picture screen is surely another. There has always been a question of what is space and what is not space, and to what end it defines the building. at issue essentially, is what is defined as space, and what is defined as material? in the past, glass was a material, but not a defining structural material used in architecture itself. This changed with Mies Van Der Roe of course. Some time in the not too distant future, we may see a structure that is made ENTIRELY of screens (or almost entirely) something that could in essence be the contemporary equivalent to the Crystal Palace in London, a true technological feat in it's own time.





Hall of Mirrors in Versailles



















The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, England



Mies Van Der Rohe

When looking to non European countries, one finds yet more correlations between space, and non space, to the borders of what is architecture and what is not. One such is of course, the Ise shrine in Japan. The Shrine has been perpetually built up and torn down every 17 years for centuries in order for the shrine to appear to be perpetually new and clean. While physically, the shrine is not there after it's been torn down and while it is not technically the same structure, in actuality, and by it's own merit, it must be considered to be among the oldest free standing structures in Japan if not the world. There is a virtual element to it, and a very strong one at that, for even while it has been totally dismantled, the space is heavily guarded and scrutinized so that it can be built up exactly where it is supposed to stand since it has been continuously rebuilt throughout it's history.

the Ise Shrine Japan

In traditional Korean architecture, there is what is known as the Madang, an empty space that functions as just that. Empty space. It is not a courtyard, or commons area, it is intended to help structure the architectural environment of whatever it is housed in.


"Centuries ago matter was defined by two things, mass and energy. Now we must include a third, information. While mass is still linked to gravity and materiality, information tends to be fugitive. The mass of a mountain for example is something invariable, it's immobile; it's information however changes constantly. For a prehistoric man, the mountain is a nameless mass. It's information is to be an obstacle in his way. Later the mountain slowly ceases to an obstacle. It takes on other meanings, for instance that of the holy mountain. It gets painted in perspective, photographed, analyzed and exploited for resources. The mountain for us contains a whole world of information."

"If you concede that architecture, in a primary sense, has to deal with statics, resistance of materials, equilibrium, and gravity. Any architect works with the mass and energy of a building and its structure. But in terms of information, architecture still stays somewhat behind the behind the present development.

"Your writings about disappearance as a new mode of appearance are linked to a set of scientific approaches giving new emphasis to time, for example the theories of chaos, catastrophe, and complexity. Analyzing the development of forms, the theory of morphogenesis severely shakes up every discourse about form in architecture. It defines form no longer as something static but constantly changing and re-emerging in new configurations. Could this altered notion of form affect architecture?

"It is not easy for me to answer this question since, for me, architecture is just about to loose everything that characterized it in the past. Step by step it looses all its elements. In some way, you can read the importance given today to glass and transparency as a metaphor of the disappearance of matter. It anticipates the media buildings in some Asian cities with facades entirely made of screens. In a certain sense,the screen becomes the last wall. No wall out of stone, but of screens showing images. The actual boundary IS the screen.

LCD Screen wall

What used to be the essence of architecture is more and more taken over by other technologies. The terminology defining architecture has been dispersed through the fields of technology, economics, and music. Contemporary architecture is increasingly becoming something which is nearly unrecognizable. The largest contributing factor to this development, the dissolution and dispersal of architectural space, is mobility. The territory of the internet is no longer confined to nodes that can be placed on a map listing public libraries, coffee shops and hot spots. It is now a space as ubiquitous as the very air we breath (and we must be in agreement that it is fundamentally a space that we inhabit).

Because of the increasing replacement of hitherto material elements of architecture by technical substitutes, a term like high-tech architecture appears tautological. "High technology" would be enough; it is unnecessary to add "architecture". It is certainly not by chance that many architects today use the vocabulary of airplanes and space shuttles. to design something immobile they apply the aesthetics of a vehicle-which bears some paradox in itself.

You could put it another way by saying that architecture today integrates elements that used to be part of something else. A hybridization of hitherto unconnected genres merging together into something new. As for example the encounter of tectonics and electronics in virtual space.

One of the consequences of virtual space for architecture is a radical modification of its dimensions. So far, architecture has taken place within the three dimensions and time. Recent research on virtual space has revealed a virtual dimension. Unlike the three known dimensions of space, this dimension can no longer be expressed in integer numbers but in fractional ones. It will be interesting to see how this is going to affect space. To some degree, virtuality has been haunting architecture for a long time. It announced itself in a set of spatial topologies. The alcove, for example, is a kind of virtualized room. The vesituble could be called a virtualized house. A telephone booth then virtualizes the vestibule; it is almost not a space, nevertheless it is the place of a personal encounter. All these types of spaces prepare for something and engage a transition. Thus virtual reality tends to extend the real space of architecture toward virtual space. That's why it is no longer a question of simply putting on a head-mounted display, squeezing into a data-suit, promenading within virtual space-as Jason Lanier, Scott Fisher, and many others do.

The space of the future would be of both a real and virtual nature. Architecture will "take place," in the literal sense of the word, in both domains: in real space (the materiality of architecture) and virtual space (the transmission of electromagnetic signs). The real space of the house will have to take into account the real time of the transmission.

Architects try increasingly to design space directly with spatial means (the model, for example) instead of taking the two dimensional detour of the drawing. To reach beyond the limitations of ordinary computer aided design, there are attempts to apply virtual reality as a design tool for architectural design. After having defined a space within a conventional computer model on the screen, one enters this space virtually to continue to design "from within".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJMMnb0qrXA&feature=related

Against the Technological Interpretation of Virtuality: Giovanna Borradori

The Technological interpretation of virtuality undermines it's phenomenological raison d'etre, yet at the same time, allows it to come into full fruition in the world of the everyday. Virtuality has in a sense, been a specter haunting architecture from it's inception. From the Ise Shrine, which, though it has been continuously torn down and rebuilt for centuries, is the longest free standing piece of architecture in Japan, to the nomadic territories of the plains indians who carried their architectures upon their backs and had to envision them more clearly in their absence than in their presence.

An image, for Bergson, is a certain existence which is more that that which an idealist calls a representation, but less than what a realist calls a thing- an existence placed halfway between the thing and the representation:. Matter is not out there, in the world, but a mix of self and world, perception and memory.