Situationist and Archigram

Situationist International vs Archigram
a battle of the narrative
Week 8 AAHTS 3 / Architectural Coupling + 1

[excerpt] Towards a New Architecture, 1923 by Le Corbusier

“Without plan there can be neither grandeur of
aim and expression, nor rhythm, nor mass, nor
coherence. Without plan we have the sensation,
so insupportable to man, of shapelessness, of
poverty, of disorder, of wilfulness. A plan calls
for the most active imagination. It calls for the
most severe discipline also. The plan is what
determines everything; it is the decisive
moment.”
[quote] Towards a New Architecture, 1923 by Le Corbusier
[image] Plan Voisin, 1925 by Le Corbusier

[image] Plan Voisin detail, 1925 by Le Corbusier

[images] covers of L’Esprit Nouveau, 1919-24 by Le Corbusier

[image] Pavillion L’Esprit Nouveau, 1925 by Le Corbusier

[image] members of CIAM at CIAM I in La Sarraz, Switzerland, 1928

[image] members of CIAM at CIAM I “playing about”, 1928

[above] cover of Athens Charter, 1943 published by Le Corbusier

[above] Cafe Notre-Dame, where CoBrA was founded
[right] founding members of CoBrA - Constant and Asger Jorn amongst others

“In this period of change, the role
of the creative artist can only be that
of the revolutionary: it is his duty
to destroy the last remnants of
an empty, irksome aesthetic,
arousing the creative instincts still
slumbering unconscious in the human
mind.
The masses, brought up with aesthetic
conventions imposed from without,
are as yet unaware of their creative
potential.
This will be stimulated by an art which
does not define but suggests, by the
arousal of associations and the
speculations which come forth
from them, creating a new and
fantastic way of seeing.”
[above] Manifesto of the Dutch Experimental Group
by Constant published 1948 in Reflex #1

[right] To Us, Liberty by Constant, 1949
[top] cover of Reflex
[bottom] scan of CoBRa Journal cover

“...buildings must not be squalid or
anonymous, neither should they be show
pieces from a museum; rather they must
commune with each other, integrate with
the environment to create synthesised
‘cities’ for a new socialist world.”
[above] Except from Towards a Symbolic Architecture by Michel
Colle published 1948 in CoBrA journal #1
[image] drawings from Corbusier’s Radiant City

The Man of the Crowd, 1840 by Edgar Allen Poe
[above left] image from 1923 London edition by Harry Clarke
[above right] a 1943 etching by Fritz Eichenberg

[above] Hackney, That Rose-red Empire: A Confidential Report, 2009 by Iain Sinclair

Looking for ... a symbiosis
potentialities
freedom
Evoking ... wandering
authenticity
a new way of seeing
desires
By way of ... the individual
(in the city)
[image] map of Paris, 1952 by Guy Debord

Letterist International - faction of Letterist Group
Letterist Group - formed by Isidore Isou in Paris in the 1940s
Letterist Internationl - formed by Guy Debord in Paris in 1952
[image] a photograph taken by Isidore Isou of himself in Paris

“On the bases of this mobile civilization,
architecture will, at least initially, be a means
of experimenting with a thousand ways of
modifying life, with a view to an ultimate [...]
synthesis.”
[above] quote from Formulary for a New Urbanism, 1953, Ivan Chtcheglov
[left] Prison or Death for the Young, 1950 by Ivan Chtcheglov
[below] Ivan Chtcheglov

Psychogeography is
“... the study of precise laws and
specific effects of the geographical
environment, consciously
organised or not, on the emotions
and behaviours of individuals”
[above] definition of psychogeography, 1955 by Guy
Debord, developed from Ivan Ctcheglov’s wrting
[left] plotting of a student’s trajectories over one year in
Paris by Paul-Henri Chombart de Lauwe

[left] Letterist
Group
[left] Letterist
International
[right] CoBrA
[right] International
Movement for an
Imaginist Bauhaus
[below] Situationist International (SI) [1957]

[image] graph of the texts of the SItuationist International
slide with all of the texts of SI

Theory of the Dérive by Guy Debord
questioned how to remove ourselves from the
rigidity of our daily lives, paths, behaviours and
seeked how to enable the narratives of our
daily lives to become flexible, authentic, with a
sense of awareness
[above] published in 1958 in International Situationniste #2
[image] a scene from Guy Debord’s 1961 film Society of the Spectacle

dérive (verb)
to float, drift, drifting (from the French)
it is similiar to the Letterist term détourement
(a subversive act) and is key in the
construction of situations, or moments of
rupture with everyday life
“a technique of rapid passage through
various ambiances [...] involves playfulconstructive
behaviour and an awareness of
psychogeographical effects...”
[quote] “Theory of the Derive” by Guy Debord published in 1958 in
International Situationniste #2
[image] Guy Debord long exposure, smoking

[image] Psychogeographic Map of Paris, 1955 by Guy Debord

It could be continuous like the poker game in Las
Vegas, but only for a certain period, limited to a
weekend for some people, to a week as a good average;
a month is really pushing it. In 1953-1954 we dérived
for three or four months straight. That’s the extreme
limit. It’s a miracle it didn’t kill us.
[excerpt] from a letter from Ivan Chtcheglov to Guy Debord in 1963, reprinted in
Internationale Situationniste #9

[image] The Naked City, 1958 by Guy Debord & Asger Jorn

Guy Debord & Asger
Jorn interpreted as
meaning architecture
that exists, ie the city
“On the bases of this mobile civilization,
architecture will, at least initially, be a means of
experimenting with a thousand ways of modifying
life, with a view to an ultimate [...] synthesis.”
[excerpt] Formulary for a New Urbanism, 1950 by Ivan Chtcheglov
Constant interpreted
as meaning
architecture that can
be constructed

Unitary urbanism – a synthesis of art
and technology must be constructed
[above] called for Gil J. Wolman, 1957
[image] collage by Gil J. Wolman, 1950s

Guy Debord
focused on content
via the dérive
vs
Constant
had a structural
approach

[image] Life Continues to be Free and
Easy by Guy Debord, 1959 - gift to
Constant

[image] Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage, 1955-1960 by Aldo van Eyck

[image] cover of Potlatch #3 with drawing of Alison
and Peter Smithson’s Golden Lane Project, 1953 as it
appeared for CIAM 9

[images] New Bablyon over parts of England by Constant

[image] Space Travel, 1957 by Constant

[images] Nebulous Machine wire constructions, 1958 by Constant

[image] New Babylon collaged over existing city by Constant

[image] New Babylon collaged over a region by Constant

[image] New Babylon - autonomous from ground by Constant

[images] New Babylon as a new map by Constant

[images] models of New Babylon by Constant

[image] New Babylon collage - view from the ground by Constant

[images] inside New Babylon being transformed by Constant

[images] Archigram in the 1960s - Peter Cook, David Greene, Mike Webb, Ron Herron,
Warren Chalk, and Dennis Crompton - and again in the 1990s in the AA Library

[images] pages of Archigram 1 from 1961 - broadsheet published by Archigram

[image] Archigram 2 cover

[top] pages of Dream City project, 1963 by David Greene and Michael Webb
[left] compared to New Babylon by Constant, the suspended city

[left] cover of Archigram 3 - Expendable Architecture
[right] cover of Archigram 4 - Amazing Archigram Zoom

[above] Plug-in City 1962-64 developed by Peter Cook and Dennis Crompton

[above] Plug-in City 1962-64 developed by Peter Cook and Dennis Crompton - office and housing units for Charing Cross Road
“The term “city” is used as a collective, the project
being a portmanteau for several ideas, and does not
necessarily imply a replacement of known cities.”
[excerpt] from Peter Cook’s writing on Plug-in City, from Westminster’s
Archigram Archival Project Online

Thank you. (Peter Cook at Thrilling Wonder Series in 2009 - 5 t-shirts in 30 min)