PARADISE REGAINED

INTERMEDIATE 1

‘All utopias are depressing because they leave no room for chance, for difference, for the miscellaneous’.—Georges Perec, Think/Classify (1985)

The unit’s visit to Texas in 2014–15 concluded our exploration of the US. We now relocate to the exhausted utopias of modernism to examine the unrealisable ambitions embedded in the architectural heroics of futuristic projects such as Brasília, Chandigarh, Tokyo, Dubai and Songdo City.

In 2015–16 the unit will travel to Brasília, the modernist state capital of Brazil. Inaugurated in 1960 by President Juscelino Kubitschek as part of a programme of national advancement the construction of Brasília made ‘fifty years progress in five’. With a masterplan by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer as lead architect, swathes of rainforest were carved away to make room for a new modern city. For Niemeyer Brasilia was an experiment in ‘aesthetic functional-ism’. However the dream of a modern utopia was soon dashed. Such strict allegiance to composition ignored the non-compositional elements that also make up a city. With nothing left to chance Brasilia’s imposing plazas, monuments and superquadras comprised not a modern utopia but what Simone de Beauvoir famously dubbed a capital of ‘elegant monotony’.

Sixty years later the utopian vision is still largely unfulfilled. In response, Intermediate 1 will seek to pursue projects that embrace the nonsensical, eccentric and anti-paradigmatic – to in effect re-edit utopias. We will explore both the discrep-ancies and intersections of the ‘model architectures’ of modernism (Neimeyer, le Corbuiser, et al) and models that look like architecture (Joseph Cornell, Thomas Demand, Junya Nishigami). A range of references will fuel these investiga-tions, including but not limited to the writing of Roberto Bolaño, the surrealist collectivism of Marcel Duchamp and films such as Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Chris Marker’s La Jetée (1962), Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville (1965), Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985) and Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982). Working through these prec-edents, the unit will design a surrealistic reinvention set in the context of Brazilia, a project that acknowledges Bolaño’s suggestion that ‘only in chaos are we conceivable’.

Marcel Gautherot, Aerial View of the Three Powers Square, Brazilia (1963)

Previous - Marcel Gautherot, The National Congress Palace (c.1958)

AGENDA

Marcel Gautherot, Early Stage of Concrete Consolidation, Federal Senate Dome (c.1958)

The critical and aesthetic quality of the work is paramount for Intermediate 1.

The unit does not believe in design is a process of problem solving. Rather, we use design as a means to explore the parameters of a given problem – with our design explorations aiming to define the field of operations associated with this problem, together the possibilities of intervening within that context.

The unit acknowledges the autonomous value of expert practices – art, film, photography, documentary, modelmaking, etc. – while employing bastardized non-expert versions of these practices in the production of critical architecture. Students produce one major project for the year – these works examine the operative capacity of design to intervene within these fields, while also questioning the relevancy of architecture.

For Jeff Kipniss, the unit is a Situationist-inspired extended derivé with a multitude of distractions, diversions and asides. These components include: preliminary investigations, references, seminars, film, fieldwork, speculations, projections, final portfolios and humour. In 2015-16 we will built on the history of drawing within the unit by developing a series of models that imitate model architectures, constructing and documenting a series of denuded, desaturated, descaled and fragmented models of Brazilia. These models will be designed and manufactured to be represented through analog and digital media, including 5x4 large format photography, digital photography and time-based media, such as super-16mm time-based film.

The Technical Studies are an integral part of the unit work. During Term 1, 3rd Yr students will be asked to formulate a TS topic, which will be pursued for the early Option 1 TS submission in Term 2.

‘The founding of Brasilia is a political act, the

consequences of which can be ignored by no one. It is

the march toward the interior in its plentitude. It is the

complete consummation of the possession of the land.

We shall erect a powerful centre of radiation of life and

progress in the heart of our country’

President Juscelino Kubitschek, Brasilia Magazine, year 1, n. 1, January 1957

Previous - Rene Burri, Inaugration of the New Capital, Brazilia, Brazil (1963)

FIELD WORK

Field Trip 1 - Paris - Saturday 10th October to Sunday 11th October

Oscar Niemeyer, French Communist Party Headquarters (1967-81)Le Corbusier, Pavillion Suisse (1930-31)

Field Trip 2 - Brazil - Sunday 1st November to Tuesday 10th November

Day 1 – Sunday 1st November Fly out of Heathrow 21.00

Day 2 – Monday 2nd NovemberArrive San Paulo 07.00Fly to Brasilia 10.00 - Arrive 11.30Check into Hotel plazabrasilia.com.brVisit Exio Monumental: Palacio do Congresso, Palace da Justice, Supremo Tribunal Federal and FAU UNB by Oscar Niemeyer

Day 3 – Tuesday 3rd November Visit Torre de televisão and Rodoviaria by Lucio CostaLunch Xique XiqueTour of the Palacio de Alvorada, official residence of the Brazilian President by Oscar Niemeyer

Day 4 – Wednesday 4th November Tour of the national embassiesWatch the sunset from Niemeyer’s Ermida Dom Bosco

Day 5 – Thursday 5th NovemberVisit the Satellite City of Ceilândia and the central feira

Day 6 – Friday 6th November 12.00 Fly to Sao Paulo.Check in to Hotel - Hotel Emiliano http://www.emiliano.com.brVisit to the Japanese Quarter Day 7 – Saturday 7th November Oscar Niemeyer Tour - Parque Ibirapuera, Edificio Copan, Memorial da America Latina, Sesc Pompeia

Day 8 – Sunday 8th November Lina Bo Bardi Tour - Casa de Vidro, MASP, Casa de Vidro

Day 9 – Monday 9th November Visit to the Higienopolis QuarterFlight Departs Sao Paulo 24.00

Day 10 – Tuesday 10th NovemberArrive Heathrow 14.00

Over - Marcel Gautherot, Staircase in the Itamaraty Palace, Brazilia, Brazil (1970)

CALENDAR

Term 1 - Monday 28th September to Friday 18th December

WK.01 Unit Introduction & Interviews Modeling / Drawing Workshop 1WK.02 Review 1 Field-work — ParisWK.03-05 Modeling / Drawing Workshop 2 Photography Workshop 1 ResearchWK.05 Film Workshop 1 Review 2 & Research Presentation

WK.06 Field-work — Brazilia

WK.07-09 Field Trip Documentation Site Proposals and Project Speculations Modeling Workshop 3 Drawing Workshop 3 Photography Workshop 2 Film Workshop 2WK.09 TS Introduction (3rd YR) Review 3WK.10 Drawing Workshop 4WK.11 TS Proposal (3rd Year)WK.12 Review 4 / End of Term Jury

A series of seminar discussions and films will run throughout Terms 1 & 2.

Term 2 - Monday 11th January to Thursday 24th March

WK.01-06 Project Development Drawing Workshop 5WK.01 Option 1 TS Progress ReviewWK.02 Review 5WK.05 Review 6WK.06 Option 1 TS Interim Jury (3rd Year)

WK.07-11 Design Development Drawing Workshop 6 Modeling Workshop 4WK.09 Option 1 TS SubmissionWK.11 Review 7 / End of Term Jury

Term 3 - Monday 25th April to Friday 24th June

WK.01 Review 8WK.02-04 Final Design Documentation Drawing Workshop 7 Modeling Workshop 5WK.05 Review 9 / End of Year JuryWK.06 2rd Yr Practice Tables 3rd Yr Practice Tables

WK.07 2nd YEAR FINAL TABLESWK.08 3rd YEAR FINAL TABLESWK.09 RIBA Part 1 Examination End of Year Show

REFERENCES

Film Series

—Philippe de Broca, That Man from Rio (1964)—Terry Gilliam, Brazil (1985)—Jean-Luc Godard, Alphaville (1965)—Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo (1982)—Stanley Kubrick, 2001 (1968), The Shining (1980)—Chris Marker, La Jetée (1962), Sans Soleil (1983)—Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, City of God (2002)—Alain Robbe-Grillet, Last Year at Marienbad (1961)—Jacques Tatti, Playtime (1967)

Print

—Pier Vittorio Aureli, The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture (2011)—Marc Auge, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1995)—Reyner Banham, The New Brutalism (1966), Megastructure (1976); A Concrete Atlantis: US Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture (1989)—Roland Barthes, Mythologies (1957)—Jean Baudrillard, System of Objects (1968); For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign (1972)—Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives (1998); Distant Star (2004); 2666 (2004)—Andre Breton, Nadia (1999); Mad Love (1988)—Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths (2000); The Aleph (2000)—Craig Buckley ed., After the Manifesto (2015)—Thomas Demand - Thomas Demand (2004); Ralph Rugoff, Thomas Demand: Photography (2004); Roxana Marcoci, Thomas Demand (2005); Beatriz Colomina, Thomas Demand (2006); Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Thomas Demand (2007)—Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (1995)—Joseph Cornell, Wanderlust (2015)—Marcel Duchamp, Complete Works (1997)—Marcel Gautherot, Building Brazilia (2010)—Junya Ishigami, Small Images (2008); Another Scale of Architecture (2010); How Small? How Vast? How Architecture Grows (2014)—Tom McCarthy, Remainder (2001); Double Take (2009); Saturn Island (2015)—Reinhold Martin, ‘Architecture’s Image Problem: Have We Ever Been Postmodern?’; ‘Moment of Truth’ (2006); Utopia’s Ghost: Architecture and Postmodernism, Again (2010)—Oscar Niemeyer - Stamo Papadaki, Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress (1956); Rupert Spade, Oscar Niemeyer (1971); David Kendrick, Oscar Niemeyer and Brazilian Free-form Modernism (1994); Oscar Niemeyer (1997); Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer (2000); Michael Webb, Modernist Paradise: Niemeyer House (2007); Ruth Verde Zein, Three moments of Oscar Niemeyer (2007); Yukio Futagawa, Oscar Niemeyer: Form and Space (2008); Styliane Philippou, Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence (2008)—Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Writings (1997)—Gerhard Richter, Atlas (ongoing)—Tom Sachs, Space Program (2007)—Felicity Scott, Architecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics After Modernism (MIT Press, 2007)—Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (1967)—Anthony Vidler, ‘Fantasy, the Uncanny and Surrealist Theories of Architecture’ (2003), Histories of the Immediate Present: The Invention of Architectural Modernism (2008)

Unit Masters

Mark Campbell & Stewart Dodd

Workshops & Consultants

Ross Exo Adams, Yoni Bentovim, Emily Harris, Thomas Heywood, Chris Johnson, CJ Lim, Damian Rogan, Davide Sacconi, Vere Van Gool, Kieran Thomas Wardle, Lara Yegengolu

Over - Rene Burri, Construction Worker & Family, Brasilia (1960)