The [Contemporary] Function of the Oblique

The [Contemporary] Function of the Oblique.

A study of contemporary surfaces in the context of Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function.

Harry Musson

Cover: Virilio, P. (2009, February 02). The frightening beauty of bunkers [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://themorningnews.org/gallery/thefrightening-beauty-of-bunkers. Image edited by Harry Musson.

The [Contemporary] Function of the Oblique.

A study of contemporary surfaces in the context of Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function.

2019.

Tutor: Nicholas Beech.

w1656093 Harry Musson

Master of Architecture (MArch), RIBA/ARB Part 2 School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster [7ARCH023W] Architectural Reflections II: Dissertation Ethics declaration Name of student: HARRY MUSSON Title of submitted work: THE [CONTEMPORARY] FUNCTION OF THE OBLIQUE. Nature of submitted work: DISSERTATION Declaration: I understand the University’s Code of Practice governing the Ethical Conduct of Research and confirm that my research has been fully compliant with all ethical requirements.

Signed:

09.01.2019

Acknowledgements.

I gratefully thank the following for their support and guidance, without whom this work would not have come to fruition; - My tutors Douglas Spencer and Nicholas Beech for their advice in shaping and improving this work as it progressed.

-My family for their enduring support throughout my entire education, without which I would not succeed.

-Eleonora for her continued support, patience, encouragement, and critical suggestions throughout the writing of this work.

Abstract.

Architecture Principe’s seminal work - The Function of The Oblique - bridges the gap between the Le Corbusier modernist period and the Postmodern / Deconstructivist / NeoFuturistic styles of contemporary architecture, typified by works of Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Coop Himmelb(l)au.

This dissertation sets out to analyse potential influences of Architecture Principe’s Function of the Oblique on contemporary architecture. By taking a sample of contemporary architecture through the use of case studies, the aim is to find out whether their ideas survive specifically in the works of Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, and Foreign Office Architects.

Con tent s.

00. Introduction.

001

01.

The function of the oblique.

007 009 010 015

02.

The Heydar Aliyev Center.

027 031 033 037 038

The Discovery of the Oblique.

The Adoption of the Oblique.

The Futurist Biennale.

The Center.

Early Works and Influences.

The [Hadidian] Function of the Oblique.

Seminal Fluidity.

03. The Dutch Embassy for Berlin.

049 053 055 060

04.

The Yokohama International Port Terminal.

Context.

The Terminal.

Influences on FOA.

067 071 072 075

05.

Conclusion.

088

06.

Appendix.

093

07.

Bibliography.

105

Design by Rem. Influences on Rem. OMA’s Function of the Oblique.

08. List of images.

111

1

2

ion. t c u d tro 00. In

"Inside, you tumbled through a strange room; the floor was so sloped that you couldn’t tell whether what you were standing on was a slanted floor or a former wall."1

The exponential rise of computational modelling techniques for architecture and the innovations in engineering and construction methods gave the ability to formalise2 increasingly complex spaces often attributed to contemporary architects such as Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Coop Himmelb(l)au. The idea, however, of being able to reorient surfaces to reshape space and subsequently affect the users within, came originally from the experimental French architecture group Architecture Principe. Their discovery of the abandoned German bunkers along the Atlantic Wall3 and their subsequent seminal publication The Function of the Oblique4 led to a revolutionary body of works concerning the use of occupiable inclined planes as architecture. Their work precedes the built work of leading contemporary architects by at least two decades.

Architecture Principe was an experimental art and architecture group that operated between 1963 to 1968 and consisted of Claude Parent and Paul Virilio5. They did not limit

1

Maak, N. (2011, July 27), para. 03.

2 When using the words ‘formal’, ‘formalistic’ or ‘formalise’ throughout this dissertation, I am speaking in the context of form, not of that pertaining to a public or official capacity.

3 A fortification system used by the Germans in WWII along the north/west coastline of Continental Europe and Scandinavia.

4 Johnston, P. (1996). The function of the oblique: The architecture of Claude Parent and Paul Virilio, 1963-1969. London: AA Publications.

5 As well as the painter Michel Carrade, the sculptor Morice Lipsi, and a small group of interns which included Francois Seigneur and Jean Nouvel.

3

Fig. 01: Parent and Virilio in their Architecture Principe Jeep

4

Fig. 02: Tilted German bunker on the Atlantic Wall

themselves to the realm of architecture - often collaborating and theorising with artists such as André Bloc and Yves Klein – which afforded them the freedom of being able to approach and theorise their work in a non-rational and unrestrained manner. With their discovery of the spatial qualities produced by the interior surfaces of the abandoned WWII bunkers on the French coast came the revolutionary departure of traditional modernist ideals, and with it, Architecture Principe’s abandonment of the idea that buildings need to have Euclidean, orthogonal surfaces or the dated hierarchies of the post and beam6. The Function of the Oblique sets out an important precedent for the contemporary architectural works to come, regarding the use of the oblique or continuous nature of the surface. "the issue was to activate the ground as both context and surface, to conceptually destabilize the architectural object: a, literally, ‘fundamental’ process which, in recent years, has gained renewed interest"7.

This dissertation investigates this "renewed interest" in the oblique function by considering the way in which specific contemporary architectural works integrate oblique or continuous surface in their design and, using the works of Architecture Principe as an origin point, considers the extent to which the works of Architecture Principe survive in selected contemporary works. This will be analysed by way of conducting three case studies.

This investigation is broken down into four main threads

6

Heathcote, E. (2014, August 28), para. 02.

7

Bideau, A. (2002), p. 14.

5

of analysis; an analysis into Architecture Principe and their works to understand their primary motivations for promoting their Oblique Function, then I will conduct the first case study into Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA) Heydar Aliyev Center, the second case study into the Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s (OMA) Dutch Embassy for Berlin, and finally the third case study into Foreign Office Architects’ (FOA) Yokohama International Port Terminal.

The queries I pose to analyse these projects in relation to the works of Architecture Principe are;

-What are the formal qualities of the building and its surfaces?

-What impact do these formal qualities have on the

spaces within?

-What were these architects’ motivations to create

these surfaces?

This investigation will also consider the ‘fluid’ continuous surface in the same manner as the oblique surfaces of Architecture Principe as these also break from traditional orthogonal geometry, which is essentially the primary intention of Parent and Virilio.

6

It is worth noting that the conducted case studies are not comparative studies where one is analysed in relation to another, even if they may have overlapping influences or techniques. Instead, they are analysed as separate cases with the intention of drawing conclusions of the extent to which the works of Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function survive in these contemporary works.

7

8

blique.

O e h t f o n nctio 01. The Fu

The Discovery of the Oblique.

The monolithic remains of the German fortification systems from World War II left scattered along the Atlantic Wall (Fig. 03) grasped the attention of Paul Virilio - a French cultural theorist, urbanist and aesthetic philosopher. He encountered these monumental bunkers for the first time in the summer of 1945 as the Germans retreated from France, and he was granted access to the sea for the first time in his life. It wasn’t, however, until 1958 at the age of 26 years old that these structures really began to grasp his attention. What particularly intrigued him about these bunkers was their nature of abandonment - and as a result - their decaying state, and their new, shifted orientations from having settled into the beaches due to the violent winter storms that frequented the coast, and to the shifting topography of the coastal embankments upon which they sat. Virilio documented these bunkers in his 1975 work Bunker Archaeology8.

Paul Virilio introduced these spaces to his close friend at the time - Claude Parent - with whom he formed the experimental architecture group of Architecture Principe. Claude Parent had worked in Le Corbusier’s studio and had, together with fellow architect Ionel Schein9, brought American bungalow style modernism to France. Parent was, subsequently, well versed in the Corbusian style of modernist architecture10 (Figs. 04-07), so he was immediately gripped by the inconceivable surface orientations found in the ruins of this

8

Virilio, P. (2008). Bunker Archaeology. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

9 A Romanian born French architect who was a pioneer in the use of synthetic materials and is considered (by Le Monde) as one of the major figures of French architecture.

10 Which included Minimalism, International Style Modernism, Purism, and ‘béton brut’ - the beginnings of Brutalism.

9

defence architecture(Figs 08-11).

"He introduced Parent to the strange feeling of vertigo inside bunkers that were so spatially convulsed that they lost their x,y,z Cartesian coordination. You couldn’t tell which way was up."11

The Adoption of the Oblique.

This concept of adopting the oblique surface as a key architectural quality, discovered through these war bunkers, was in complete contrast to the workings of the style of modernist architecture that was known to Parent, convincing him to abandon his commercially successful career and work only with occupiable oblique surfaces. Ever since his introduction to these spaces, Parent spent the majority of his time and focus into designing, drawing and building works of art and architecture that reflected this non-orthogonal train of thought, even beyond the dissolution of Architecture Principe in 196812.

This led to the creation of a body of works consisting of buildings, drawings and exhibitions that all followed this line of thought of the oblique. These ideas were put to work and tested through Architecture Principe’s built manifesto of the oblique surface - the Sainte Bernadette du Banlay church in Nevers, France. This was the first significant built work that displayed their ideas of the oblique and included Virilio’s inspiration of the bunker aesthetic. It was a powerful work as it "shocked the minds of a period still deeply affected by World War II

11

Giovannini, J. (2016, March 02), p ara. 08.

10

12 Parent and Virilio split due to differences in political opinion – particularly Parent’s refusal to join in the May 1968 demonstrations in France. Parent however continued with the idea of the Oblique Function.

Fig. 03: Atlantic Wall - represented by dotted line.

11

Figs. 04-07: Le Corbusier Modernist Buildings

12

Figs. 08-11: Atlantic Wall Bunkers

and terrorized by the cold war and the constant nuclear threat".13 Subsequent key works that manifested these ideas of the oblique surface included the installation of ramps into Parent’s own house, and Parent’s French exhibition at the 35th Venice Biennale in 1970.

Parent and Virilio’s intentions of the oblique surface went beyond a formalistic approach, and beyond merely experiencing disorientation when encountering the space.

Their motivations lay in affecting the way the body moves through space. Parent, having experienced these effects himself in the bunkers, was excited by the potentials that these non-orthogonal surfaces could have on changing types of movement in space. "Historically, we have already observed numerous modifications to societies, but never have we attended the mutation of mankind itself."14 They intended the surfaces to create a new relationship between people and space through contrasting the apathetic orientations of modernism, which had made people slumbersome. Having come from the strict reductivist principles of modernism, this was a world that Parent was keen to explore.

These ideas of the oblique impose upon users of the space a more direct relationship with the architecture, as gravity now forces the bodies’ parts to interact with the architecture’s surface parts15 (Fig. 14-15). As well as this, the inclined surfaces impose directionality on the bodies inhabiting the spaces.

13

FRAC Centre. (n.d.), para. 01.

14

Virilio. (1997), p. 20.

15

Lambert, L. (Ed.). (2013), p.13.

13

Fig. 12: Sainte Bernadette du Banlay

14

Fig. 13 : Model

Through manifesting these ideas, the duo created spaces where one could no longer recognise typical architectural elements any longer, as the spaces had become distorted through the application of these ideas of the oblique. This is clearly seen with the installation of ramps into Claude Parent’s own house (Figs. 16-18). He removed all furniture and instead installed this topography of inclined surfaces, to launch a new ideology of the way a house could function, forcing a new dynamism and, as a result of this extremely unfamiliar space, an informal type of social interaction began to occur, something that was extremely unusual in the context of the bourgeois society in France at the time.

"Through this dissolution of categories and order systems, Parent wanted to discover a new freedom. The house became a landscape again; you sat and rolled around like a herd of gorillas on the incline – a strong sociodynamic signifier in a time when sitting next to each other or lounging carelessly in public was still considered morally questionable."16

The Futurist Biennale.

The most notable demonstration of these ideas of the oblique can be seen through the French exhibition, created by Claude Parent17, in the 35th Venice Biennale in 1970. This exhibition consisted of a room which was composed entirely of inclined surfaces.

"Inside, you tumbled through a strange room; the floor was so sloped

16

Maak, N. (2011, July 27), para. 07.

17 Paul Virilio had already left Architecture Principe at this point, but Parent continued with these ideas.

15

Fig. 14: Eadweard Muybridge "The human figure in motion" Showing the effect of inclined spaces on the body.

16

Fig. 15: The body in motion on an inclined surface.

Drawn by Claude Parent.

that you couldn’t tell whether what you were standing on was a slanted floor or a former wall."18 Visitors to the 1970 exhibition were greeted with a space unlike one they would have encountered before - it was a space with no orthogonal language (Figs. 19-21). Visitors were encouraged to explore this new, dynamic space by moving through and clambering over its inclined planes.

This exhibition was pre-built, made of timber frames and planks, with the intention of creating angles that challenged the movement of the body in motion, forcing users of the exhibition to explore the sensation of having different magnitudes of gravity forces imposed upon their bodies - the stress of going up, the relief of going down19 - disorienting their usual experiences of moving through a space.

This Biennale was curated by Umbro Apollonio and Dietrich Mahlow with a theme of ‘Proposal for an experimental exposure’20, and included works by significant artists such as; Kazimir Malevich, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Josef Albers and El Lissitzky. These artists and the curators are all well-known Futurists, setting an important precedent for the context in which Architecture Principe presented their oblique surfaces.

This was their chance to display their ideas of the oblique beyond their circle of peers, and to show the world that a non-orthogonal type of architecture was not only possible, but was also a completely valid and exciting way of designing spaces. This context of works by other Futurists and of the

18 Maak, N. (2011, July 27), para. 01. Claude Parent speaking of the abandoned bunkers introduced to him by Paul Virilio but is equally appropriate for describing the exhibit at the Venice Biennale.

19

Koolhaas, R., et al. (2014), p.03.

20

La Biennale di Venezia 1970. (n.d.), para. 01.

17

Futurist curators is an important factor in setting the tone for the Biennale, which enabled the visitors of Parent’s inclined planes to be set in the right frame of mind before visiting the exhibition. Therefore, some success of this exhibition can be attributed to the context.

Futurism is an early 20th Century Italian social and artistic movement which was translated into art and architecture and was founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with his Futurist Manifestos21, and was followed by the likes of Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, and Antonio Sant’Elia. The key idea of this movement was ultimately a rejection of the Neoclassic style and of other styles of emulating and amalgamating previous movements – a phenomenon which plagued Italy at the time. These self-titled ‘Futurists’ understood that to be able to progress as a modern society, the designing and creating of art, architecture and urban areas the same way as had been done centuries earlier needed to stop – essentially an attempt to lift the weighty burden of the past off the shoulders of the youth of Italy. One proposal for change even suggests the use of the oblique in architecture. "Oblique and elliptic lines are dynamic, and by their very nature possess an emotive power a thousand times stronger than perpendiculars and horizontals, and that no integral, dynamic architecture can exist that does not include these."22

21

Marinetti, F. T. (1909), p. Cover.

22

Sant’Elia, A. (1934).

18

Futurist principles emphasised objects and concepts that contrasted the ideas of the past, and include concepts of; speed, technology, youth, and objects such as the car, the

Figs. 16-18: ‘Socio-dynamic’ ramps installed in Claude Parent’s House.

19

20

Figs. 19-21: Claude Parent’s Oblique surfaces in the 1970 Venice Biennale.

Fig. 22: Umberto Boccioni - Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.

21

22

Fig. 23: Giacomo Balla - Abstract Speed + Sound.

airplane, and the metropolitan city. Important works of Futurism included Cubism, Boccioni’s sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (Fig. 22), Balla’s painting Abstract Speed + Sound (Fig. 23), and of course, Marinetti’s Futurist Manifestos.

These set the tone for following movements / styles such as Constructivism, Dada, and Surrealism23.

"In truth I tell you that daily visits to museums, libraries, and academies (cemeteries of empty exertion, Calvaries of crucified dreams, registries of aborted beginnings!) are, for artists, as damaging as the prolonged supervision by parents of certain young people drunk with their talent and their ambitious wills. When the future is barred to them, the admirable past may be a solace for the ills of the moribund, the sickly, the prisoner. . . But we want no part of it, the past, we the young and strong Futurists!"24 The Futurist Manifestos was later re-edited by one of the curators of this 1970 Venice Biennale - Umbro Apollonio.

This gives a high level of significance to the strong futurist themes occurring through this Biennale. These Futurist ideas were brought forth by Parent’s exhibition as it displayed revolutionary ideas of architecture and space unlike any preceding one, particularly when one regards its cultural context of still being in the height of the era of Le Corbusier style Modernism / Purism / International Style, as well as being at the beginnings of Brutalism. As the true era of Futurism occurred during the 1910s to the 1930s, as well as considering the cultural context of this Biennale, this exhibition by Parent could be thought of as an extension of Futurism, and the beginnings of Neo-Futurism.

23 Taylor, J. C. (1961). Futurism: New York, NY: The Museum of Modern Art: Distributed by Doubleday, Garden City.

24

Marinetti, F. T. (1909, February 20), p. Cover.

23

"The consulted artists, confronted with this spatial scheme, must, through an action proper to their personal discipline, make the meeting between this unbalanced space and the visitors meaningful. In short, with their interweaving, the artists sensitise the space in such a way as to establish a profound understanding, a real communication between spatiality and visitors."25 The significance of this is it shows that the intentions of Parent went beyond that of a merely formalistic approach, and that they had full intentions of having a very real impact on the way the body moved through space.

The purpose of scrutinising the ideas and the works of this duo is because their ideas come as a precursor to a lot of the forms and ideas that contemporary architecture does or claims to do. We can see retrospectively that not only are their ideas of how an oblique surface can affect the body in motion - physically and socially - valid, but also, that they managed to successfully manifest their ideas of the function of the oblique surface in architecture through some of their built works, rendering it as a valid concept and not merely a formless theory. However, this was only limited to the installation of ramps into Parent’s house and the French Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, as they were not given the opportunity to prove the habitable capacities for the inclined surfaces. Regardless, their work is profoundly significant and worth dedicating a whole chapter to because they were the first to define the oblique surface and recognise its potentials as a socio-dynamic force that acts beyond that of simply a

24

25 La Biennale di Venezia 1970. (1970). La Biennale di Venezia 1970: Francia [The official catalogue of the 1970 Venice Biennale].

circulatory or transportation device, and its potentials for transforming space and the way we live and interact with each other.

The question from here is; do examples of contemporary architecture that include non-orthogonal surfaces continue the line of thought of Architecture Principe? Or do they merely take the formal qualities of the continuous surface?

25

26

27

28

02.

The Hey dar Aliy ev C ent er.

29

30

Fig. 24: Continuous Surfaces.

"The building is really a gerund, always in a state of becoming - floors becoming walls, steps turning into cliffs, the outside diving inside, the ceilings sailing off."26

The Center.

The ultimate manifestation of how the surface can be liberated from conservative, orthogonal behaviours can be represented in Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA) Heydar Aliyev Center27 completed in 2013 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The project was born from a desire of Azerbaijan to depart from their Soviet past and move towards a more modernised, democratised and contemporary future. This was, at least, the image they wished to project to the world. The surface of the Center can be described as a "fluid form which emerges by the folding of the landscape’s natural topography and by the wrapping of individual functions of the Center"28 (Fig. 24). It is "a surface so continuous, it appears homogenous"29. They intended to create a building that projected fluidity between the exterior and interior.

The stated reason for these qualities of the continuous surface is, according to ZHA30, because it is representative of Azeri culture. Fluidity in architecture is not new to the region

26

Bekiroglu, S. K. (2014), p. 39.

27 The center bears the name of Heydar Aliyev, leader of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era of 1969-1982 and president of the country between October 1993 and October 2003.

28

Jodidio, P., et al. (2013), p. 357.

29

Bekiroglu, S. K. (2014), p. 82.

30

Ibid, p. 42.

31

32

Fig. 25: Azeri Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale.

– "in historical Islamic architecture, rows, grids or columns flow to infinity like trees in a forest, establishing non-hierarchical space." 31 This concept of fluid continuation can also be seen through the patterning of Islamic decorative motifs and patterns that flow from carpet to walls to the ceiling, blurring distinctions between the different architectural elements (Fig. 25).

The Heydar Aliyev Center however attempts to do this in a contemporary way - instead of being represented through patterning applied to the different surfaces as is done in the Azeri tradition, it is instead represented through the singular, continuous surface that flows between landscape, the facade and the interior.

The question to be asked however is; do ZHA follow the same train of thought as Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function regarding the liberation of the surface from orthogonal behaviours, and to what extent do Architecture Principe’s ideas survive in Zaha Hadid’s works?

Early Works and Influences.

To answer this, we must look at the influences of Zaha Hadid and the origins of her work and her distinctive style.

Hadid was a student at the AA32 from 1972-1977, and during her time there she was introduced by Elia Zenghelis33 to the ideas of the Russian Constructivist and Suprematist artistic movements at the time of the Revolution, which was founded by Kasimir Malevich, and included artists such as

31

Zaha Hadid Architects. (n.d.), para. 1.

32 The Architectural Association School of Architecture, based in Bedford Square in London.

It is the oldest independent architecture school in the UK and utilises a highly experimental mode of study.

33

Former tutor at the AA, and former Partner at OMA.

33

El Lissitsky and Wassily Kadinsky. All have had a profound impact on her earlier works and representational style, particularly Malevich. This led to her significant student project Malevich’s Tektonik (Fig. 26.) under the tutelage of Rem Koolhaas34 which took the fragmented aesthetics, concepts, and qualities of Malevich’s Suprematist works and translated them into a conceptual physical structure in the form of a fourteen-storey hotel on the Hungerford Bridge in London. Hadid was particularly inspired by Malevich’s writing that stated, "we can only perceive space when we break free from the earth, when the point of support disappears"35, and this ideology can clearly be seen in her works. Through the works and writings by the Russian avant-garde, she developed the concept of abstraction as an investigative principle, resulting from her view that traditional methods of drawing were too restrictive. This is further seen in her representations of her breakthrough project The Peak Leisure Club (Fig. 27) in Hong Kong which use a style of drawing reflecting the fragmented aesthetic of Russian Avant-Garde/Futurist artists. She utilised their pictorial devices and combined it with her own particular skill set in mathematics and fine arts to create a new kind of formal language of architecture and design36, which has become well known as her own distinctive style.

The relevance of Russian avant-garde principal figures as an influence of Zaha Hadid37 is that, inherently, she was primarily influenced by the work of key Futurists – namely Malevich, Lissitzky, and Kadinsky – which is of course

34

Hadid was later a partner at OMA with Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis.

35

Malevich, K., & Hilberseimer, L. (Ed.). (2003), para. 2.

36

Hiesinger, K. B., et al. (2012).

34

37 It is important to note that these influences were merely visual and representational and did not include the political and social associations of this era.

Fig. 26: Zaha Hadid - Malevich’s Tektonik.

35

36

Fig. 27: Zaha Hadid - The Peak, Hong Kong.

relevant when considering the works of Architecture Principe and their Oblique Function.

The [Hadidian] Function of the Oblique.

If we consider the works of Architecture Principe and their Oblique Function as an extension of Futurism and possibly as the beginnings of Neo-Futurism, we can consider the works of Hadid as the full fruition of Neo-Futurism and can consider her as one of the principal leaders of the architecture of fluidity and dynamism. Hadid does not appear to have any explicit links to, or any direct influences from the works of Parent and Virilio, however, her early works and representational style ultimately comes from mostly the same influences. Her representational works (and later physical works) further propagate some of their ideas of the oblique surface. "The diagonal was the beginning of all this. The diagonal created the idea of the explosion reforming space. That was an important discovery." 38 This bears very similar language to Architecture Principe’s ideas, but is her own independent thought derived from the common influence of the Futurists.

The works that resulted from Hadid’s influence from the earlier Russian movements were very planar as she took the fragmented forms and reconstructed them to create representations of physical buildings as well as having a focus on the dynamic and ‘frozen movement’ qualities that were reflected in the Russian avant-garde works. She managed to successfully build this, with the qualities of dynamism and ‘frozen movement’ using these planar forms, with the Vitra Fire Station project (Fig. 28) in Weil-

38

Jodidio, P., et al. (2013), p.14.

37

am-Rhein, Germany in 1993. This fragmented architecture, with its multiple orientations of surface planes is reflective of the formal qualities of Parent and Virilio’s work, as well as the concept of the architecture pushing these ideas of movement and dynamism. The difference however, is that Parent and Virilio’s work was more literal in respect to physically affecting the movement of people through space and encouraging dynamism whereas Hadid’s work was more metaphorical with the intention of portraying the architecture itself as one of having a dynamic energy or a ‘frozen movement’ in its forms, rather than as an effect on the users of the space.

Seminal Fluidity.

Hadid developed these ideas of dynamism and an architecture of movement by beginning to make her designs more fluid and curvaceous as she began to look at her work through the lens of considering volumes rather than individual planes that shaped space. Her formal language began to change into one of fluidity from the mid-1990s as ZHA began to adopt the computer and its capabilities of CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) with its practical abilities to manifest their ambitious forms. This gave Hadid the freedom to continue and further develop her formalistic ideas without the restraint of possibly not being able to build the designs.

38

This shift into fluidity was becoming more visible with some of the representations of the Vitra Fire Station where she no longer conveys a language of an explosive fragmentation, but rather as that of gathering and directing, and the creation

of unified forms39. The fluid morphologies that arose from Hadid’s advanced painting and drawing skills were translated into digital models which further enhanced her ideas of movement and dynamism.

The firm’s primary director Patrik Schumacher40 was key in introducing these technologies into ZHA and has been heavily invested in parametricism41 and in exploring its potentials.

A point of interest to Schumacher arising from the use of parametricism is the possibility for social modelling and subsequently, controlling the degree of social interactions between users through the design of the form and the separations in the building42. The newfound fluid forms of ZHA realised through their trademark continuous surfaces were key to implementing these ideas of user control. It’s hard to imagine that it would have had the same effect had Hadid stayed with her fragmented architectural style.

This idea of affecting the social interactions between users of a space was a significant point of interest of Architecture Principe and a specific aim of their Oblique Function. So, we can interpret the initial fragmented style of Hadid and her development into fluidity, combined with Schumacher’s ideas of parametric impacts on social interactions in a design, as an (unintentional) extension of the ideas of Parent and Virilio. We can observe some of these qualities in ZHA’s 2013 project – The Heydar Aliyev Center.

39

Woods, L. (2010, January 28), para. 1.

40 Schumacher has been involved in ZHA since 1988 and has been director and partner since the late 1990s. He is now the primary director since Hadid’s death in 2016.

41 Parametricism is a style within contemporary avant-garde architecture, promoted as a successor to post-modern and modern architecture. The term was coined in 2008 by Patrik Schumacher.

42

Schumacher, P. (2012), p. 126.

39

40

Fig. 28: Zaha Hadid Architects - Vitra Fire Station Exterior.

We can consider the Heydar Aliyev Center as the convergence of the two sides of ZHA through Zaha Hadid herself and Patrik Schumacher, who also incidentally manifest the two key elements of Parent and Virilio’s Oblique Function. In this totally fluid43design, we can observe, through Hadid, the physical concepts of Architecture Principe’s inclined planes being referenced, not literally, but as a further development of their forms. It is, however, limited to the continuous surface of the envelope and the surrounding landscape as the ground plane and the floors remains orthogonal with just the edges changing direction as they curl up to become the wall (with the exception of a few circulatory ramps inside).

There are no inclined planes in this building designed for the intention of influencing the body in motion as Architecture Principe intended to do. Through Schumacher, we can see the intention of affecting the social functions and interrelationships in the Heydar Aliyev Center that is evident in Architecture Principe’s work. We cannot see this physically manifested in the Center, but this speculation can be made because of the knowledge we have of Schumacher’s interest in Parametricism and his attempts and research into social process modelling. From this we can conclude that to some degree the ideas and works of Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function survive in ZHA’s fluid work in an implicit, non-referential (almost coincidental) way which results from their mutual influences of the Futurist works of the early 20th Century. It cannot be stated that Zaha Hadid had any direct influence from Parent or Virilio as there is no evidence suggesting this. It is however, interesting to see how, even though they have manifested their ideas in different forms

43 series?

A third design research focus for the Patrik Schumacher-led AA Design Studio’s "Fluid"

41

42

and different styles, they do bear similarities and one can be seen as a development of the work of the other, taken in a different direction . . .

43

44

Fig. 29: Zaha Hadid Architects - Heydar Aliyev Center Public Square.

Fig. 30: Zaha Hadid Architects - Overlooking Interior.

45

THE HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER

46

Fig. 31: Zaha Hadid Architects - Internal Corridor.

47

THE HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER

48

Fig. 32: Zaha Hadid Architects - Heydar Aliyev Center Exterior.

49

50

03.

The Dut ch E mba ssy i n Be rlin.

51

52

Fig. 33: OMA - Dutch Embassy in Berlin Exterior.

The Dutch Embassy in Berlin, completed in 2003, designed

by Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon of OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), resulted from the need of the Netherlands for a new embassy to firmly present their identity to the world and to increase their international presence. This was a project of significance as it occurred after the fall of the Berlin Wall, during the reunification of Germany; and had to unify the dual identities to be represented. On one hand, there were the Dutch values of transparency, modernity, and openness, with the reunified Germany dealing with its tormented past on the other (which can be seen in the physical scars in the city of Berlin)44.

Design by Rem. OMA’s design answers the competition brief of the Netherlands’ wishes of the Embassy being an "autonomous, singular, clearly legible embassy, and if possible, an event."45. They simultaneously fulfill the wishes of all other parties – the former West Germany required a full perimeter boundary for the design to be consistent with the city block system, whereas the former East Germany were more open to innovation. OMA, in their typical fashion, did something in between, resulting in the innovative design. They created a freestanding L-shaped perimeter wall containing five apartments and is the required (27m) height of the building with a narrow facade of only 3m wide and only half that along the Klosterstraße. This was to give the appearance of being consistent with the city block system required by the former

44

Koolhaas, R., & Chaslin, F. (2004), p. 27.

45

Ibid, p. 38.

53

West Germany in order to follow the Critical Reconstruction46.

They then designed an isolated cube, which was to house the required typological/embassy functions, to stand separately from this perimeter wall and all other neighbouring properties.

The most intriguing element, however, may be the 200m long continuous ramped surface that takes off through, around, within and without the building, taking users from the first floor, where the foyer is situated, through all floors to the top floor. This continuous (albeit staggered and jerky), oblique corridor (Figs. 34-35) creates an interior trajectory and carves through the solid cube, leaving the spaces remaining as the work spaces. OMA describe the way this oblique surface functions in the embassy and the way it creates chance events along its path but do not really offer anything more in terms of what this oblique intervention should achieve.

Considering, however, the degree of importance that is given to this inclined, continuous plane implied through its violent carving trajectory through the otherwise static cube, it is suggestive of some further influence or impact on Koolhaas to feel the need to design this in this fashion.

The question to be posed here, really, is; could this influence be Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function or else have they had some other impact on this work? It is not an unreasonable speculation to be made when one considers that Architecture Principe’s seminal work was published and publicised at the same time as Koolhaas was a student at the AA and was beginning his architectural career and was

54

46 An architectural and urban theory developed by Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues, encouraging a return to pre-World War II architectural styles and typologies and aimed to create pedestrian friendly urban street life reminiscent of the early 20th century European metropolis.

starting to solidly formulate his ideas.

Influences on Rem. Koolhaas grew up in a post-war Rotterdam during a period of extreme change, as the city (as well as other cities of the Netherlands) was rebuilding after the damage of the War. He was able to experience the impact that architecture (or its absence) has on the identity of a place and its social mechanisms. He was then transplanted from the ruins of Amsterdam47 to Jakarta, Indonesia from the age of eight to twelve years old as his father - a writer, theatre critic and director of a film school - was invited by the government of Indonesia to become their cultural director48. This had a significant influence on Koolhaas as he was able to experience a contrasting culture, which simultaneously was also a city in a state of euphoria and significant change as Indonesia had recently gained their independence from the Dutch. From there, he came back to a reordered Netherlands, which he never felt totally comfortable with as he had witnessed and experienced significant architectures and cultures of change, which one could say is the primary influence on Koolhaas’ tendency to seek out and design projects that are under cultural, social or political tensions.

Koolhaas’ studies and the beginning of his career occurred at the time when the utopian promise of Modernism began to fall apart. In search for new modes of thinking, practicing and designing architecture, Koolhaas looked to the Russian Avant-Garde, to which he makes numerous references in

47

As he describes in an interview with Archdaily. Mackenzie, A., (2014, March 19), para. 3.

48

The Pritzker Architecture Prize, (n.d.), para. 2.

55

Fig. 34: Oblique Corridor.

56

Fig. 35: 200m ramp shown in transparent model.

Fig. 36: Rem Koolhaas, The Wall as Architecture, p. 229.

Fig. 37: Rem Koolhaas, The Wall as Architecture, p. 223.

57

Fig. 38: OMA Kunsthal in Rotterdam.

58

Fig. 39: Jussieu Library.

his writings and architecture49. Koolhaas was therefore also influenced by the works of key futurists, placing him in context of having mutual influences with Architecture Principe.

While these experiences were all important factors in developing Rem’s attitudes and ideas towards architecture, urban landscapes and cultures, the most significant perhaps, at least in the context of formulating the Dutch Embassy for Berlin, is his study while at the Architectural Association in 1971 of the Berlin Wall. Koolhaas, as part of the AA ‘Summer Study’ programme, visited Berlin and instead of documenting an existing architectural object (as was required by the AA course), he investigated the wall separating East from West (Figs. 36-37). This experience was able to expose him to the tensions that occurred in Berlin at the time, leaving a profound impression on Rem. "The optimism of the 1960s about architecture ‘seemed feeble rhetorical play. It evaporated on the spot’, manifesting the powerlessness of architecture. The wall as absence demonstrated the power of nothingness, which could incorporate more than any object ever could: ‘in architecture — absence would always win in a contest with presence’."50 These experiences were all important influences on Koolhaas’ thinking and architectural design theory as it allowed him to see the impact that large, culture-shifting factors had on places, societies and their resulting architecture (think Rotterdam after WWII, Jakarta after their independence, and

49 Koolhaas even claimed the term ‘Social Condenser’ as his own even though it was a mode of practise during the time of the Russian Avant-Garde, and was primarily revived by Anatole Kopp, Henri Lefebvre and Catherine Cooke. It is also interesting to note that Kopp himself was present at the May 1968 demonstrations in Paris, also attended by Paul Virilio. Murawski, M. (2017), p. 372-374.

50

Schrijver, L. (2008), p. 240.

59

Berlin after the wall). This is evident in his approach and design of the Dutch embassy as his wide worldview, plus his prior knowledge of the impact of the wall on Berlin, gave him the tools to create this unconventional, provoking, and yet perfectly appropriate embassy.

OMA’s Function of the Oblique.

The concept of continuity (represented through continuous surfaces or otherwise) throughout the city was essentially revived and brought to attention in the 1990s by Koolhaas, who analysed this idea in terms of infrastructure and urban performance. "Koolhaas viewed infrastructure as a chance to unlock architecture and urban planning from their categorical isolation and to interlock them operatively. If seen as a section of an urban infrastructure architecture could lay claim to a new form of urban performativity." 51 Koolhaas manifests this through the Kunsthal (OMA, 1992)(Fig. 38) where he combines the formal qualities of Le Corbusier’s promenade architecturale52 with Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function. This project is programmed as a hybridisation of museum with museum park and highway, which involves the curation of the movement and interactions of people along their ramped surfaces, and is perhaps OMA’s most direct appropriation of Virilio and Parent’s work. As well as this, their 1992 Jussieu Library (Fig. 39) utilises inclined planes as an incubator of public space, which speaks a similar language as the Russian Avant-Garde idea of social incubators, and is widely regarded as the first example of topological geometry used to spatially

51

Ruby, A. (2002), p. 73.

60

52 The continuous sequence of spaces that interpret circulation spaces as floor space and vice versa. It is the experience of architecture opening up to the user the more they travel down the route of the design. Le Corbusier did not invent the concept but coined the term.

organise an interior53. We can observe from these projects that, while Koolhaas does not explicitly state the impact that Virilio or Parent has had on his work, we can see their formal qualities manifest in his works, as well as his own version of some of the social intentions conceptualised by Architecture Principe to be achieved with these surfaces. He does however pay homage to Parent through his involvement in the 2014 Venice Biennale.

The 2014 14th International Venice Architecture Biennale directed by Rem Koolhaas, titled ‘Fundamentals’ looked at the essential, almost banal, elements54 of architecture. The ‘element’ that is of interest to this dissertation in relation to the works of Architecture Principe is Ramps55. Koolhaas and his research division of OMA - AMO - analyse the history of ramps, the different ways they have been proposed to be used, and the important figures that have been integral in its evolution which includes, of course, Claude Parent. Koolhaas describes him in this text as "an architectural hero. His ramp created hierarchy, destabilized relationships, changed activities like making love, reading. He fought for the oblique, he built ramps even though no one asked for them."56 We can see an admiration from Koolhaas towards Parent from a historicist point of view as they both have similar viewpoints of destabilising the norm, and of normalising the unstable. This is seen through Parent’s theoretical and physically manifest Oblique Function, and through Koolhaas’ life experiences in places of

53

Ruby, A. (2002), p. 73.

54 Elements is also a published book resulting from this Biennale in which AMO (OMA’s research, publications and anything non-architecture) division explore 15 different architectural elements and their origins and developments.

55

Koolhaas, R., et al. (2014). Elements: Ramp. Venice: Marsilio.

56

Ibid, p. 29.

61

conflict, tension and uncertainty which is manifest in oblique surfaces through his/OMA’s Jussieu Library in 1992, their Kunsthal also in 1992, and of course, through their Dutch Embassy for Berlin in 2003.

The Dutch embassy is about unification determinedly contrasting the principles of division and segregation that defined the Berlin wall. The penetrating ramp through the embassy is an important part of that, as it violently slices through the building in a similar fashion to the wall through Berlin, but it represents a different ideal, which is that of unification in the face of tension. It represents unification through its connectedness with every element of the embassy and the fact of its uniqueness creating a common point for all the users of the building.

62

To some degree one could draw a parallel between Architecture Principe’s work and Koolhaas’ Dutch embassy as both ideologies/works have been derived from periods of conflict, and as a result both projects attempt to focus on unifying elements, whether social or physical, as a method of defying the tensions of the past, and both have (at least some point) utilised oblique surfaces to achieve this. We can therefore conclude that through Koolhaas’ works is where Architecture Principe’s works and ideas survive to some degree in contemporary architecture, perhaps not so much in the Dutch Embassy for Berlin but in his other works, and can be considered as an indirect continuation of Parent and Virilio’s works. However there are many other (more significant) factors that come into play when considering the origins of Koolhaas’ ideas and works, so therefore cannot be entirely attributed to Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function.

63

64

Fig. 40: Bodies in motion in effect on OMA’s inclined plane.

65

66

Fig. 41: Embassy in context. Fitting in the city block system with its own independent features.

67

68

rminal. e T t r o P l a rnation e t n I a m a koh 04. The Yo

69

70

Fig. 42: Public spaces of the port terminal. The oblique paths take up the majority of the surface area.

Context.

Conceived through an international competition, the Yokohama International Port Terminal completed in 2002 on Osanbashi Pier was an epochal work, foreshadowing the future significance of computational technologies in designing and building architecture. Foreign Office Architects (FOA), headed by former husband and wife team of Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera Polo, won the international competition - unexpectantly as their entry arose only from a request from Alan Balfour57 to produce some material for the AA files - the magazine of the AA - where they were teaching at the time. They decided to enter three different competitions to explore some possibilities they were interested in, only for the purpose of creating content and research for these AA files. The third competition entry never happened because of the unexpected win of their second entry – the Yokohama International Port Terminal. They instead focussed all their energy into its production, even moving their offices from London to Yokohama for the duration of the project.

This is perhaps the closest example of a piece of contemporary architecture that successfully achieves the aims of Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function, regarding the application and performance of oblique surfaces within architecture.

The initial intentions however, differ slightly - Architecture Principe created oblique surfaces purely with the intention of affecting the quality of relationships between people and space and the surface, as well as exploring the potentials of the human body under different degrees of gravitational

57

Chairman of the AA from 1991 - 1995.

71

strain due to the varying inclinations. FOA however, had the intention of increasing the number of social collisions purely from a quantitative point of view between people in a terminal typology, which they achieved through a hyperrational, pragmatic approach.

The Terminal.

The method of designing this Port Terminal sprang from an analysis of the typical relationship and behaviour of people with a pier. They recognised that when encountering a pier, people tend to have a monodirectional type of movement – you enter from the base, walk to the end, and either you leave in a ship, or you must retrace your steps back58. This type of limited, prescribed movement is also archetypal of terminal programmes where one has no freedom of choice of movement, so they decided to disrupt this typified behaviour by creating a multiple return, interweaving design to affect the types of movement that would occur in the terminal, and initially represented this in a two-dimensional branched diagram (Fig. 43).

58

Foreign Office Architects. (2002), p. 11.

59

Ibid, p. 11.

72

"The connection between the paths was always set as a bifurcation, so that rather than setting the program as a series of adjacent spaces with more or less determined limits, we articulated them in the continuity of a branched sequence along the circulatory system. What we then called the ‘no-return diagram’ was basically the first attempt to provide the building with a particular spatial performance."59

This type of circulation gives users no prescribed routes and offers the freedom of choice in determining paths taken and routes of movement. Such was the desire to achieve this continuity of space through the inclined, continuous planes, that the resulting building has very few traditional architectural elements. There are no columns throughout as the folded structure of the roof means they can achieve large spans (Fig. 45), the walls are not vertical and are not space separating elements - they are instead framing elements for the circulatory paths and are extensions of the oblique floor planes in most cases, and of course, the floors are untraditional as they are not just divisive flat slabs that resist gravity’s impact on the user of the space, instead, their inclinations utilise gravity to move users around the spaces and connect all levels with each other (Fig 44).

They converted their 2D multiple-return circulatory diagram into a 3D digital model, stratifying the different functions and zones, but allowed for the continuity of space through the utilisation of the free choice, multiple return paths, which became the highly recognisable oblique surfaces of the Port Terminal.

"Instead of providing the specialized and isolated routes that are normally found in terminals, which prioritize passenger way-finding and discourage or eliminate other choices, the circulation system consists of a series of interlocking paths, designed to increase opportunities for exchanges between individuals and present them with choices"60.

We can see from this statement that FOA had clear intentions

60

Moussavi, F. (n.d.), para. 1.

73

Fig. 43: 2D ‘multiple return’ diagram.

Fig. 44: Oblique circulatory paths.

74

Fig. 45: Folded roof structure, carrying loads, reducing the need for columns.

for these inclined planes, or "interlocking paths" as Moussavi describes here, expressed in the design, but to understand its origins, we need to look at influences on FOA to conceive this project.

Influences on FOA. Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo met while studying at Harvard GSD, and both subsequently worked at OMA (Moussavi also worked at Renzo Piano Building Workshop for a period of time). During their time under Koolhaas, they (at least for a duration) worked on the Jussieu Library and the Yokohama Urban Ring project and so were able to derive a lot of these oblique theories to formulate the Yokohama Port Terminal. The site had a pivotal role along the city’s waterfront that presented Yokohama City with a continuous structure of open public spaces along the waterfront61, making it an appropriate project to test their theories of continuous surfaces and its potential for creating continuity on spaces.

"The terminal has been designed to merge with the landscape of the city’s harbor and serve as a public space."62 Moussavi and Zaera-Polo then formed FOA in 1993 after leaving OMA. They, like a lot of the leading architectural practices of the 1990s, were interested in the concept of the continuation of spaces through the merging of landscape, architecture and urbanism into single entities, and felt that continuous surfaces were possibly the best medium

61

Foreign Office Architects. (2002), p. 15.

62

Moussavi, F. (n.d.), para. 1.

75

76

Fig. 46: Interconnecting paths, produced by a threedimensionalisation of the 2D ‘multiple return’ diagram.

to achieve this. This was not an idea purely derived from Koolhaas, it was a shared train of thought in the 1990s obtained from architectural discourse in Ivy League schools - "A concerted wave of theory Propaganda by the Anglo-American Ivy League discourse proclaimed the geometry of continuous surfaces to be the sole legitimate architectural embodiment of continuity. . . the computer-supported avant-garde of the 1990s formalised the concept of continuity, in the process pushing more conceptually based interpretations of continuity onto the sidelines."63 This adoption of computational modelling technologies gave rise to more complex architectural forms, which really began to take off in this period and can be seen in many examples of architecture in this period through architects such as Future Systems (Fig. 47), Peter Cook and Colin Fournier (Fig. 48), and Foster + Partners all exploring ‘blobitecture’ and other previously unattainable forms. The Port Terminal is however, epochal as, while it is not the first building to be designed with a computer, it is one of the first to only have been able to be designed using a computer.

Moussavi and Zaera-Polo’s time at OMA was clearly a significant influence on their design, and to some extent, the Yokohama Port Terminal can be considered as a continuation of the work they did under Koolhaas. From there, they took a predominantly formal approach by crossing the topological geometry of Jussieu with the infrastructural methodology of the OMA urban ring project in Yokohama, ultimately transforming the building, from a typological perspective, into an infrastructural landscape. FOA’s work was clearly a further development of the work done at OMA, and not merely a formula (or a copy) created from this work. "By means

63

Ruby, A. (2002), p. 73.

77

of this conceptual hybridisation FOA eliminated the typological contradictions still noticeable in both Koolhaas projects. FOA’s approach would cause the buildings, which in OMA’s Yokohama scheme are still understood as separate entities, to ultimately melt together."64 This can perhaps be seen most clearly with their Virtual House project (Figs. 49-50) as all architectural elements fold and merge together to become continuous, inseparable elements.

While the work done under Koolhaas had a significant impact on the design for the Port Terminal, it was not the only major factor that shaped the project. The concept of spatial organisation and circulatory paths was the most significant driving factor on the design. Their interest in circulatory patterns was considered (by themselves) as a development of similar approaches from the 1970s where "circulation was organised and then ‘architecture’ deployed on the circulation diagram"65, but they aimed to achieve this in a more consistent manner whereby circulation physically shapes the space. This type of thinking is also along similar lines of Le Corbusier’s promenade architecturale – but is ultimately, again, a development of this concept as it is not merely using a sequence of spaces as circulation (or vice versa), it is actually defining the sequence and the shape of spaces through the rational design and application of the circulation. They take a very pragmatic and rational approach to design whereby they are vastly more interested in the performative aspects of spaces as a result of the volumes and the orientations of the surfaces, rather than being caught up in metaphorical forms. "Architecture no longer needs to embody concepts, symbols

64 Ibid.

Foreign Office Architects. (2002), p. 11.

78

65

Fig. 47: Selfridges Birmingham by Future Systems.

Fig. 48: Kunsthaus Graz by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier.

79

80

Figs. 49-50: Looped continuous surfaces of FOA’s Virtual House.

and ideologies. This is why we are interested in a performative approach to material practices, in which architecture is an artefact within a concrete assemblage rather than a device for interpreting or signifying material and spatial organizations."66 Research into the performative qualities of spaces is seen in their earlier work of the National Glass Centre in Sunderland (1994) (Fig. 51). Here, it was essentially a hybridisation of enclosure with topography whereby continuous surfaces are employed to increase continuity between levels to make the structure of the programme less layered and segregated, to allow all activities to occur along a single route67. This is clearly a key design element in the Yokohama Port Terminal as the functions and spaces all are shaped by, occur along and are intensified by the circulatory oblique planes. "Connecting the three levels are a series of gently sloping ramps, which the architects decided were more effective than stairs at maintaining a continuous and multi-dimensional flow of circulation."68

Fig. 51: National Glass Centre Sunderland. Section through ramps.

66

Foreign Office Architects. (1995), p. 7.

67

Ibid, p. 10.

68

Langdon, D. (2018, October 17), para. 4.

81

Their methodology is ultimately a version of Architecture Principe’s intentions of the fostering of socio-dynamics achieved through oblique surfaces, except it is applied on an urban scale, and is a less intimate variation of Parent and Virilio’s ideas. It is however, reminiscent of Parent’s drawings of his visions of urban areas composed of oblique planes.

82

Essentially, the Yokohama Port Terminal is the ultimate manifestation of the principles and works of Architecture Principe and is where their ideas are brought into the now and embellished the most. Attempts by other architects have been mostly formal or just employ the oblique planes/ continuous surfaces to some degree. FOA instead utilise every aspect, from the formal to the social, but do not merely accept it at face value, they develop the ideas and contemporise it to make it useable spaces that achieve the fundamental principles of Virilio and Parent. This did not occur from a direct influence from Architecture Principe on FOA, but instead from an intense chain of research, not just by FOA but derived from others who researched similar forms, into these general formal qualities and resulting principles, as well as the newfound abilities of computational technologies from a modelling, representational and manifestational capacity. It is as if Architecture Principe has proposed the hypothesis and it has now been researched through the works of several architects and proven to have some validity through these contemporary works, with more capacity for research to come . . .

83

84

Fig. 52: Oblique Corridor.

85

86

Fig. 53: Inclined Roofscape.

87

88

. n o i lus c n Co .

5 0

The chance discovery of the abandoned WWII bunkers along the Atlantic Wall has had a profound impact on the style and development of architecture since the beginning of the end of the modernist period. Paul Virilio and Claude Parent are some of the most underappreciated architects despite their significant (albeit mostly indirect) impact on formal qualities of contemporary works to come. Architecture Principe’s personal brand of Futurism was ultimately along the same lines as that of the original Futurism of the 1910s to the 1930s, only instead of rejecting the artistic and architectural tradition of the time of the originals futurists, they were rejecting the stoic, reductivist principles of modernism.

They were among the first to reject the orthogonal nature of modernism and to design alternative spaces – achieved through their reorientation of surfaces. Essentially they were the embodiment of the early Futurist principles brought into the (then) modern day, in almost every aspect. Claude Parent even had a love for all things fast and modern as the Futurists did. "‘You probably liked the highspeed train TGV?’ we asked. ‘Yes, quite magnificent!’ – ‘and the futuristic Citroën DS?’ ‘No, that one not so much, it was way too slow!’"69 Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas of ZHA and OMA respectively were both highly influenced by the Russian Avant-Garde movement which was directly influenced by Italian Futurism.

This shaped the majority of their works and they looked to it as a source of inspiration for how to design in a world where the current predominant style of modernism was failing and becoming less ubiquitous. The Russian Avant-Garde dared to think differently and to imagine a world that was different to

69

Maak, N. (2011), para. 14.

89

their own and which is what Hadid and Koolhaas perpetuated.

Foreign Office Architects came along later and so were not directly impacted by these early Futurists, however, having been intricately linked with OMA, they were exposed to a great deal of these ideals, and continued the discourse and the development of these newfound ideals. While none of these contemporary works are directly linked with Architecture Principe and their Oblique Function we can see that a lot of their ideas and forms survive in these contemporary works as a result of having mutual influences.

90

ZHA’s Heydar Aliyev Center manifests the formal ideas of Architecture Principe through the continuous surface element of the enclosure, envelope and landscape all working as one entity, which behaves as a direct contrast to the orthogonal language of modernism. This stems from Zaha Hadid’s influence of Russian Avant-Garde Futurism which eventually transitioned formally into totally fluid forms, to speak a language of ‘frozen movement and dynamism’, as is clearly seen with the Heydar Aliyev Center. When considering the ideals and works of Architecture Principe, we cannot conclude that their works have survived in this particular example of contemporary architecture. Despite having mutual influences of the early Futurists, Zaha’s work does not consider the continuous surface in the same regard as Architecture Principe. She does not expect the surface to affect the movement of the users within, at least not in the same manner as Parent and Virilio. The Center does not have any physical impact on the users as they cannot occupy the continuous surfaces beyond that of an observational capacity and that of an emotional affect when experiencing the space. This is due to the fact that it serves as an envelope, an aesthetic element and as a tool of projecting ideas of fluidity and dynamism about the architecture, not about the users

of the space. Most importantly, the continuous surfaces are not occupiable which results in a non-symbiotic relationship with the architecture - the opposite of Architecture Principe’s aims.

OMA’s Dutch Embassy for Berlin comes from a careful analysis of the impact of the Wall on Berlin, conducted by Rem Koolhaas while a student at the AA, and comes from research into the concept of the continuity of cities and urban areas, tested initially with the design and construction of OMA’s Kunsthal and Jussieu Library. These designs employ continuous, oblique surfaces to have an experiential impact on the users of the space, affecting their movement in the space, but mostly affecting the way they can reach other parts of the building in one, continuous manner. Koolhaas was also influenced by the works of the Futurists, as were Architecture Principe, which can be seen as he employs the oblique surface as a tool to impact the user’s experience of the space. In the case of the Dutch Embassy however, there are implied idealistic claims of the ramp being representative of a unitive element in contrast to the workings of and the tensions that arose from the Berlin Wall, however, as it is a private embassy, limited only to those who work there, this implication is somewhat unfounded. Regarding Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function we can say that it only survives in this work in a formal manner, with none of the socio-dynamic effects successfully achieved (or attempted as this was not the design focus due to its private and secure nature of being an embassy), however we can say that their work survives in and is much more clearly manifested in OMA’s other works of the Kunsthal and the Jussieu Library.

We can say with a high degree of certainty that Foreign Office Architects’ Yokohama International Port Terminal is the piece

91

of contemporary architecture where the ideals of Architecture Principe survive the most. The Terminal embodies both the qualities of Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function of the form of the inclined planes, and of the socio-dynamics that are produced, however, the socio-dynamics produced from the port terminal operate differently, as FOA intended. We can say that this terminal is not merely another manifestation of the Oblique Function but is a further development of these ideas. Foreign Office Architects had no direct influence from the works of Parent and Virilio that we can see, but due to their close relationship with OMA and the fact that while working at OMA, Moussavi and Zaera-Polo both worked on the ‘continuous surface’ projects of the Jussieu Library and the Yokohama Urban Plan, they have been able to derive some of these initial influences, and develop them in their own, contemporary, way. Their Yokohama Port Terminal is where the works and ideals of Architecture Principe survive the most as they were influenced by Koolhaas, who was influenced by the Futurists, so having gone through a long chain of research, makes their works the most inextricably linked to Architecture Principe.

92

This investigation has determined that the works and ideals of Architecture Principe’s Oblique Function have survived to some extent in contemporary architecture. This is however, mostly in the formal qualities which, due to the small, interconnected nature of the world of architecture, has meant that these have all been derived mostly from the same source of Futurism. It is of my belief, however, that Architecture Principe have gone largely unrecognised, and that there is more to be exploited and utilised from their ideals and theories. Perhaps we will see more manifestations of their oblique theories and the affiliated implications in future examples of architecture to come. . .

93

94

06. A ppen dix.

Sainte Bernadette du Banlay 1963 - 1966. (Figs. 54-63).

Theatre de Marc’o 1968. (Figs. 64-73).

95

Oblique visions by Architecture Principe / Claude Parent.

Maison Mariotti 1967-1970. (Figs. 84-93).

96

La Fonction Oblique 1965-1967. (Figs. 74-83).

97

98

Fig. 94: Claude Parent’s oblique realisation for supermarket chain Gouletturpin.

99

100

Fig. 95: Claude Parent urban visions.

101

102

Fig. 96: Rem Koolhaas - Ramps section at 2014 Venice Biennale.

Fig. 97.

Fig. 101.

Fig. 104.

Fig. 98.

There are a great deal of contemporary architecture works that have resulted from Architecture Principe’s quiet revolution with their Oblique Function. These all employ some degree of inclined planes or continuous surfaces, some with the intention of affecting the body in motion, some just with the intention of creating an emotional affect in the space.

Fig. 105.

103

Fig. 99.

Fig. 100.

Fig. 102.

Fig. 103.

Fig. 106.

Fig. 107.

104

Contemporary Surfaces.

105

106

07. B ibliog raph y.

Bideau, A. (2002). Grounding Space. Werk, Bauen Wohnen,89(11), 14-19.

Foreign Office Architects. (1995). National Glass Centre, Sunderland /

Redevelopment of Cartuja Island, Seville / Yokohama

International Port Terminal. AA Files, (29), 7-21. Retrieved from http:// www.jstor.org/stable/29543945 Foreign Office Architects. (2002). The Yokohama project: Foreign office architects.

Barcelona: Actar.

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Fig. 07: Bagheri, H. (2014, March 26). AD Classics: Weissenhof-Siedlung Houses 14 and 15 / Le Corbusier Pierre Jeanneret [Digital image]. Retrieved from https:// www.archdaily.com/490048/ad-classics-weissenhof-siedlung-houses-14-and15-le-corbusier-and-pierre-jeanneret?ad_medium=gallery Figs. 08-11: Virilio, P. (2009, February 02). The frightening beauty of bunkers [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://themorningnews.org/gallery/thefrightening-beauty-of-bunkers Figs. 12-13: WikiArquitectura. (n.d.). Church of St. Bernadette in Banlay [Digital image]. Retrieved January 5, 2019, from https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/ building/church-of-st-bernadette-in-banlay/ Fig. 14: Muybridge, E. (n.d.). Sequential Images [Digital image]. Retrieved from http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/portraits/francis_bacon.htm Fig. 15: Parent, C. (2010, December 23). #GREAT SPECULATIONS /// THE OBLIQUE FUNCTION BY CLAUDE PARENT AND PAUL VIRILIO [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://thefunambulistdotnet.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/great-speculationsthe-oblique-function-by-claude-parent-and-paul-virilio/ Figs. 16-18: Olson, M. (n.d.). [Claude Parent with his students on ramps installed 113

in his own house]. Retrieved from http://www.rolublog.com/2009/10/youvebeen-living-on-horizontal-planes-for-nine-thousand-years-now-and-you-haventgiven-any-thought-to-living-differently-except-in-the-case-of-those-people-whoeither-sail-or-mounta/ Figs. 19-21: La Biennale di Venezia. (n.d.). Untitled [Photograph]. ASAC (Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee) Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, Venice.

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Fig. 28: Binet, H. (n.d.). Vitra Fire Station [Digital image]. Retrieved from http:// www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/vitra-fire-station-2/ Figs. 29-32: Baan, I. (n.d.). Heydar Aliyev Centre [Digital image]. Retrieved from http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/heydar-aliyev-centre/ Figs. 33-35: Richters, C. (n.d.). Netherlands Embassy [Digital image]. Retrieved from http://oma.eu/projects/netherlands-embassy Figs. 36-37: Koolhaas. (1995). The Wall as Architecture, S, M, L, XL. New York: Monacelli Press.7 Fig. 38: OMA. (1992). Kunsthal [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://oma.eu/ projects/kunsthal

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Fig. 39: OMA. (1992). Jussieu - Two Libraries [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://oma.eu/projects/jussieu-two-libraries

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Fig. 94: Claude Parent. (2011, July 27). [Gouletturpin Supermarket design by Claude Parent]. Retrieved from https://032c.com/the-supermodernist-architectclaude-parent/ Fig. 95: The Funambulist. (n.d.). # GREAT SPECULATIONS /// THE OBLIQUE FUNCTION BY CLAUDE PARENT AND PAUL VIRILIO [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://thefunambulist.net/architectural-projects/great-speculations-theoblique-function-by-claude-parent-and-paul-virilio Fig. 96: Frolov, V. (2014, August 20). Architecture of disintegration [Digital image]. Retrieved from http://projectbaltia.com/en/news-en/7158/ Fig. 97: Javier, C. (2010, March 24). The MA: Andalucia’s Museum of Memory / Alberto Campo Baeza [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily. com/53701/the-ma-andalucias-museum-of-memory-alberto-campo-baeza Fig. 98: Sou Fujimoto Architects. (2012, October 25). Beton Hala Waterfront Center / Sou Fujimoto Architects [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www. archdaily.com/286381/beton-hala-waterfront-center-sou-fujimoto-architects Fig. 99: Coop Himmelb(l)au. (2009, July 22). BMW Welt / Coop Himmelb(l)au [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/29664/bmw-weltcoop-himmelblau Fig. 100: Gehry Partners. (2013, September 1). AD Classics: The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao / Gehry Partners [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www. archdaily.com/422470/ad-classics-the-guggenheim-museum-bilbao-frankgehry Fig. 101: Hufton + Crow. (2015, September 16). Harbin Opera House / MAD Architects [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/778933/ harbin-opera-house-mad-architects Fig. 102: London’s Living Room at City Hall. (n.d.). A unique & striking interior feature [Digital image]. Retrieved from http://www.londonslivingroom.co.uk/ Chamber Fig. 103: PLOT. (2009, January 12). Maritime Youth House / PLOT = BIG JDS [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/11232/maritime-youthhouse-plot

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Fig. 104: Oscar Niemeyer. (2013, August 21). AD Classics: Niterói Contemporary Art Museum / Oscar Niemeyer [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www. archdaily.com/417751/ad-classics-niteroi-contemporary-art-museum-oscarniemeyer

Fig. 105: Snøhetta. (2008, May 7). Oslo Opera House / Snøhetta [Digital image].

Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/440/oslo-opera-house-snohetta Fig. 106: Frearson, A. (2015, December 15). New photos offer a closer look around Jean Nouvel’s Philharmonie de Paris [Digital image]. Retrieved from https:// www.dezeen.com/2015/12/15/new-photographs-closer-look-around-jean-nouvelphilharmonie-de-paris-danica-o-kus/ Fig. 107: Baan, I. (2010, March 22). Rolex Learning Center / SANAA [Digital image].

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