Perspecta 5-15. Revisions of modernism in 1960-1969

PERSPECTA 5-15 Revisions of modernism in 1960-1969

CONTENTS

ANATOMY OF THE JOURNAL 1952 - 1975 1

School of Architecture Urban Planning and Construction Engineering

16

History and Theory in Contemporary Architecture Academic Year 2019 Prof. Gaia Caramellino T.A. Nicole De Togni T.A. Ludovica Vacirca Group 12 Jian Du, Kim Yen Le Thi, Natalia Voroshilova, Heydar Alibayli, Hesam Khoshvaght

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28

44 60

History of publication Perspecta. Definition Yale historical background General historical background Editorial staff Recurring contributors Articles typologies Trends of topics Structure of issues Covers Tables of contents Layout Use of images REVISIONS OF MODERNISM 1960 - 1969 Analysis Historical background in the US Architectural background in Yale Editors Covers Contributors Trends of topics Collection of articles Essay

3

ANATOMY OF THE JOURNAL 1952 - 1975

4

5

THE NAME

START OF THE MAGAZINE

Perspecta. (masculine perspectus) perfect passive participle of perspiciĹ?o I. to look or see through, to look into, look at. II. to perceive, note, observe, explore.*

Perspecta was the only student-edited journal in USA of 50s which was founded in 1952 in the Yale School of Architecture.

The concept of the journal belonged to George Howe, the first state-established Modernist architect in USA, a cosmopolitan figure with an eclectic background. He wanted to introduce an independent platform for discussion on architecture among professionals and students. It was meant to be a flexible intellectual system sensitive to new ideas and able to keep a continuous approach to the architecture of past and present. The results proved the concept. Perspecta was presenting the up-to-date plurality of American architectural discourse, combining preoccupation with history with a thirst for change.

In 1952 George Howe, the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, opted for this word as the name of the new Yale Architectural journal. We can only guess why an acient latin word was chosen to represent an ambitious media project.

It could be a consequence of the conservative atmosphere in the US of the 50s or an attempt to relate to the European intellectual tradition rooted in the Roman culture. Although historically, we can spot there a clue which triggered the future drastic changes. * Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Le Corbusier, Ville Radieuse, 1933

2

Piero della Francesca, Ideal City, 1470

George Howe, 1969

First Perspecta cover, 1952

3

GENERAL HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961

Helsinki Accords 1975 May in Paris 1968

Vietnam war 1955

Assassination of Kenned,1963 U2 incident 1960

First Issue 1952

Chilean coup d'état 1973

1953

1954

CIAM 9

1955

1956

1957

1958

CIAM 10

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

CIAM 11

Berlin wall 1961

Warsaw Pact 1955

The Prague Spring 1968

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project 1975

Culture revolution 1966 Cuba missile crysis 1962 Sputnik 2 1957 4

5

EDITORIAL STAFF

1

12

23

34

45

56

67

78

89 10

MAIN EDITOR MAIN EDITOR Norman Carver

Norman Carver

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

C. Brickbauer ASSOCIATE EDITORS

C. Brickbauer

ASSISTANT EDITORS

Joan Willson ASSISTANT

Joan Willson S. Meech B. Pushkarev

EDITORS

M. Meyers

M.E. Meyers Close, II

E. Close, II J. Baker

J. Baker

S.R.Meech Harlow B. Pushkarev

H. Roth R. Harlow

H. R.Roth Neville G. Knower

R. Neville G.P.Knower Lambert

J. Barnett

G. Pasanella T. Twitchell A. Grinnell M. T. Hood F. Jacobi W. De Cossy B. Falconer L. Mogel W. Porter

EDITORIAL STAFF

R. Pottinger R. Childs B. Shaw W. Hawkins D. Shaw L. Perfido R. J.Peters Stouffer

Peters T. Twitchell A. Grinnell

P. Bartlett

W. Cox B. Falconer

W. Cox

L. Mogel P. Andes W. Porter

P. Andes

ADVISORS, FACULTY BOARD

D. C. Sawyver ADVISORS, FACULTY G. Howe BOARD H.-R. Hitchcock A. Eisenman

Ives H.N.Chazen

H. Chazen C. Hammond

D. C. Sawyver G. Howe H.-R. Hitchcock A. Eisenman V. Scully

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

6

Shaw D. Shaw

14 P.Bretteville A.Golding S.Wrede P.Monteleoni

C.Hodgetts D.Michels A.Golding

H.Short D.Michels

A.L.Bernstein R.Coombs G.M.Hodges A.Villalon E.B.Lanman H.Short R.D.Lawrence

H.H.Knox II P.Papademetri P.Mittelstadt G.D.Pierce A.Purves H.Searing G.Swift

B.Feiss P.Papademetri

E.Leopold B.Feiss

P.Mittelstadt R. Faesy G.D.Pierce A.Purves H.Searing G.Swift C.W.Wbitaker

C.W.Wbitaker

L.A.Golding Cisler R.H.H.Knox Stewart II

1953 1955

1955 1957

12

14 W.Versaci

W.Versaci

P.Curley A.L.Bernstein S.Hagan G.M.Hodges W.McDonough E.B.Lanman J.Limerick R.D.Lawrence

P.Curley S.Hagan W.McDonough J.Limerick

W.B.Lyle L.Thomas A.F.Villalon R.H.T.Yee

E.Leopold K.Gross W.B.Lyle H.Romney L.Thomas A.F.Villalon R.H.T.Yee

K.Gross H.Romney

E.Muller W.Chung

W.Chung

J. Stouffer

D. Fix

H.Melison,J.Jr.Hill

M.J.Long S.M.Hill

D. Fix Feature Editors

J. J.Watson Hill

J. Watson E. Emori

E. Emori J.Meyer A.Tomcik

D. Gibson P. Rudolph C.L.V. Meeks

K.Gogswell J.Meyer A.Tomcik J.Bobczynski

C.Moore

P.Rand P. Schweikher A. Brodovitch

13 12

S.Wrede

G.Hipp R.Coombs C.Hodgetts A.Villalon

R.Hamner M.J.Long S.M.Hill M.Grimberger

M.Grimberger

P.Stevans

P.Stevans

K. Smith

R.Hamner

K.Gogswell A.Marcus J.Bobczynski R.Jackson S.Marcus

E.Muller A.Marcus R.Jackson S.Marcus

E.L.Stone

K.Zack E.L.Stone

K.Zack

H.S.Weaver D.H.Weaver

H.S.Weaver

C.Moore D.H.Weaver

V. Scully P. Schweikher A. Brodovitch

C. Cogswell

1952 1953

E.H.Melison, Robinson Jr.

D. Gibson P. Rudolph C.L.V. Meeks

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

1952

E. Robinson

R. Pottinger B.

1213

J. Weber

Feature Editors

C. Hammond

R. Stewart R. Faesy R. Stern S. Addiss

D. Page R. Stern J. Brooks S. Addiss J. Addiss

R. Childs J. Ericson W. H.Hawkins Jones L. Perfido G. Pasanella R.

J. Weber M. T. Hood F. Jacobi Bartlett W. DeP.Cossy

J. Barnett L. Cisler

P. Lambert

J. Addiss

DESIGNN. Ives

P.Bretteville A.Golding

G.Hipp

J. Ericson H. Jones

DESIGN

M. Dobbins

11 12

10

P.Monteleoni

D. Page J. Brooks

EDITORIAL STAFF

M. Dobbins

9 11

P.Rand

K. Smith Assistant Editors

Assistant Editors

C. Cogswell

1957 1959

1959 1960

1960 1961

1961 1963

1963 1965

1965 1967

1967 1969

1969 1971

1971 1975

1975

7

Protagonist 1952-1975

RECURRENT CONTRIBUTORS

Protagonist 1952-1975

1

2

13

24

35

46

57

68

79

811

10

912

1113

10

10 14

12 15

13

George Howe

Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Paul Rudolph

Philip Johnson

George Howe

Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Paul Rudolph

Philip Johnson

Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Paul Rudolph

Philip Johnson

Buckminster Fuller

Vincent Scully

Louis Kahn

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy

Buckminster Fuller

Vincent Scully

Louis Kahn

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy

Buckminster Fuller

Vincent Scully

Louis Kahn

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy

Charles W. Moore

Robert Venturi

Peter Eisenman

Colin Rowe

Charles W. Moore

Robert Venturi

Peter Eisenman

Colin Rowe

Charles W. Moore

Robert Venturi

Peter Eisenman

Colin Rowe

15

10 14

Buckminster Fuller Buckminster Fuller

Yale Professor

Yale Professor

George Howe

Other

Other

George Howe

Yale Student/graduate Yale Student/graduate

George Howe

Henry-Russell Hitchcock Henry-Russell Hitchcock Paul Rudolph

Paul Rudolph

Philip Johnson Philip Johnson Vincent Scully, Jr.Vincent Scully, Jr. Boris Pushkarev Boris Pushkarev Louis Kahn

Louis Kahn

Robert Osborn Robert Osborn Sibyl Moholy-Nagy Sibyl Moholy-Nagy Edgar Kaufmann,Edgar Jr Kaufmann, Jr Edward L. BarnesEdward L. Barnes Charles W. MooreCharles W. Moore James Stirling

James Stirling

Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky Peter Millard

Peter Millard

Robert Venturi Robert Venturi Peter Cook

Peter Cook

Denise Scott Brown Denise Scott Brown Emilio Ambasz Emilio Ambasz

Yale Professor Other Yale Student/graduate 1952

8

1953

1952 1955

1953 1957

1955 1959

1957 1960

1959 1961

1960 1963

1961 1965

1963 1967

1965 1969

1967 1971

1969 1975

1971

1975

9

GEOGRAPHY OF IDEAS

UK Denise Scott Brown 1969, 1971 James Stirling 1960, 1967 Peter Cook 1967, 1971

Perspecta was sensitive to new ideas not only from the US but also on a global scale. Many international contributers brought along concepts from their countries. Authors from the UK, Germany, Italy and France made significant contribution to the Perspecta discourse, keeping its readers updated on the important European thoughts.

Alan Colquhoun 1969 Anthony Vidler 1971 Arthur Korn, Maxwell Fry and Dennis Sharp 1971

Christopher Tunnard 1955 Ben Shahn 1957

China King Lui Wu 1959

Eero Saarinen 1961

Poland Joseph Rykwert 1971 Mathew Nowicki 1959 Canada

Manfredi G. Nicoletti 1971 Mario G. Salvadori 1959

Frances Piven 1969

Dennis Sharp 1971

Marshall McLuhan 1967

Pietro Belluschi 1961

James Gowan 1961

Melvin Charney 1969

Romaldo Giurgola 1965

Jane B. Drew 1963

Austria

Superstudio 1971

John McHale 1967

Richard Neutra 1957

Germany

Kenneth Frampton 1969

Adolf Placzek 1966

Eric Mendelsohn 1957

Argentina

Heinrich Klutz, Anita Holland-Moritz, Helen Manner 1971

Ralph Erskine 1963

Emilio Ambasz 1969, 1971

Walter Gropius 1955 Switzerland Francois Bucher 1960

Italy

Colin St. John Wilson 1961

Peter Collins 1961

Walter Benjamin 1969

Finland

Paolo Soleri and Jules Noel Wright 1971

Mike Heron 1971

10

Warren Chalk 1967

Spain Antonio Hernandez 1969 France Shadrach Woods and Roger Vailland 1967 Henry H. Reed, Jr. 1952 Jacques Ehrmann and Jeffrey Mehlman 1971 Robert Ernest 1960 Charles Price 1965 Greece Alexander Tzonis 1969

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy 1955, 1961 Anni Albers 1957

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ARTICLE TYPOLOGIES

Systematisation of article typologies is a tool to quantitatively observe how the journal’s focus was changing Project through the time. First principle is either the article discusses any paricular architectural project. If no projectProject is concerned then it is an essay typology, subdividing Project based approach depending on the extent at which architecture is concerned.

Project Whereas if the article presents particular project(s), there are three types of relation between the content and the Project based approach Study of a modern1 author: a project, if there are no comments, a project based Project based approach architect’s work approach, if the work is presented by its author, or a study, if it is presented by another person. Study subdivides onStudy of a modern1 architect’s work Study of a modern1 types according to the kind of architecture being discussed.

Study of pre-modern2

architect’s work

Project Project based approach Study of a modern1 architect’s work Study of pre-modern2 architect’s work Study of pre-modern corpus of architecture Study of contemporary3

architect’s work Study of pre-modern2 architect’s workStudy of pre-modern2 Study of pre-modern corpus architect’s work of architecture Study of pre-modern corpus of pre-modern corpus of architecture Study of architecture Study of contemporary3 corpus of architecture Study of contemporary3 Study of contemporary3 corpus of architecture corpus of architecture Study of contemporary and pre-modern architecture Study of contemporary and Study of contemporary and pre-modern architecture pre-modern architecture Essay on architecture Essay on architecture

Essay on architecture Essay on architecture and another subjectEssay on architecture and anotherand subject Essay on architecture another subject Essay on another subject Essay on another subject

Essay on another subject

1 modern -corpus belongs of to modernist movement in architecture which started in Bauhaus in 1919 architecture 2 pre-modern - before modern1 3 contemporary - from 40s till the present time of the artcile

Study of contemporary and pre-modern architecture

1952

1953 1952

1955 1953

1957 1955

1952

1953

1955

1957

19571959 1959 1960 1960 19611961 1963 1963

1959

1960

1961

1963

1965 1965

1967 1967

1969 1969

1971 1971

1975 1975

1965

1967

1969

1971

1975

Essay on architecture Essay on architecture and another subject 12

Essay on another subject

13

TRENDS OF TOPICS

1 TOPICS OF MODERNISM 1

6

1

6

1

12

6

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

ernational Style InternationalInternational Style Style International Style sters Masters Masters Masters

ucation Education

1952

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

& Architecture Art & Architecture Art & Architecture Art & Architecture

1960

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

fts, Technology Crafts, Technology Crafts, Technology Crafts, Technology ngineering & Engineering & Engineering & Engineering

1952

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

m & Order Form & Order Form & OrderForm & Order

1960

1952

1969

1960

1975 1969

15

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

y Planning City Planning City Planning City Planning

12 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Education Education

1952

615

15 12

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

1960 1975

1969

1975

12

NEW TOPICS OF THE 60S 1

15

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

1969

Historicism Historicism

1

6

1

6

1

12

6

SociologySociology & Politics& Politics Sociology &Sociology Politics & Politics

Environmentalism Environmentalism Environmentalism Environmentalism

14

1960

1952

1960

1952

1969

1960

1975 1969

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Total newTotal & Doom Total new &Total Doom new & Doom new & Doom

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

1975

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Media & Communication Media & Communication Media & Communication Media & Communication

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

1960 1975

12 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Ambiguity & Complexity Ambiguity &Ambiguity Complexity & Complexity Ambiguity & Complexity

15

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Mass Culture Vernacular Mass Culture Mass & Vernacular Culture & Vernacular Mass&Culture & Vernacular

12 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Contextualism & Realism Contextualism & Realism & Realism Contextualism & RealismContextualism

1952

615

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Historicism Historicism

1952

15 12

1969

1975

1969

15

COVERS

The covers were the absolute icons of the issues, visually presenting the main article and hence manifesting the mood of the issue. It is possible to divide the covers into groups with the similar visual language. This division corresponds with major shifts in the journal’s direction: from historical precedents to complex geometries of Louis Kahn, then the celebration of visual richness of architectural shape, then minimalistic move to iconic textures and, finally, colors.

8

12

1959

1963

1969

1

3

6

9 - 10

13 - 14

2

4

7

11

15

1952

1953

16

5

1955

1957

1960

1961

1965

1967

1971

1975

COVERS LAYOUT

Simple but precise layout served as an essential backbone for a highly intellectual content of the journal.

1957

1959-1965

1967-1971

1975

Historical precedents

Celebration of Louis Kahn talent

Postmodern expression of architectural shape

Iconic material

Color

1. Fragments from Michelangelo fortification drawings, 2. A photograph of the roof of Casa Mila by Antonio Gaudi, 3. A medieval mason’s mark.

4. Louis Kahn, plan for a plaza.

5. Louis Sallivan, 1899 6. Isamu Noguchi, photo of Yantra, Jaipur, XVIIc 7. Giovanni Piranesi, Via Appia and Via Ardeatina 8. Reima Pietila, church competition design, 1959 9. Pedro Machuca, palace, Granada, Spain, XVIc., 10. Louis Kahn, church, Rochester, NY, USA, 1962

11. Mylar 12. Resin, material based on the floor covering of the featured Maison de Verre, Paris (designed by Pierre Chareau & Bernard Bijvoet, Construction Dates: 1928 to 1931)

13/14. Colored paper, Mohawk Paper 15. Colored paper

5

11

13/14

12

15

5

11

13/14

1

2

6

12

15

2

6

3

7

3

7

1

18

Title Number Publisher

1952-1955

4

4

8

8

9/10

9/10

TABLES OF CONTENTS

Observing the layout of the contents page it is possible to spot tendencies towards a more clear structure. Editors staff is no longer on the same page with contents in 1960. From the same year a short bio of the article author is added to the index. The theme of the issue is presented only in few cases.

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1959

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13 - 14

9 - 10

1960

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1971

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1961

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1967

15

1975

PAGES LAYOUT

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Perspecta has the minimalistic character of graphical presentation persistent through all issues. The layout of of this journal has some characteristics: - Page layout organization: 2 or 3 (or 4) columns with text and images. The size of the images compared to the text in the layout is quite balanced.

- Color: Black and white - Text font: Serif, formal, it is defined by excellent readability, suitable for books and long texts.

- Graphics: Dynamic composition, the idea of the articles are clear by drawings and photos of the same building from different angles.

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Layout analysis of pages 46-46, William Wurster and Catherine Bauer,Indian Vernacular Architecture: Wai and Cochin, Perspecta 5, 1959

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USE OF IMAGES

Visual manifest In the researched period Perspecta had a laconic character: providing a limited amount of material but thoroughly prepared and of exceptional quality. The use of images was very accurate: each image was a visual manifest, as dense in its meaning as the text.

1

2

3

7

8

9/10

24

4

11

5

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13/14

15

25

REVISIONS OF MODERNISM 1960 - 1969

26

27

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND IN THE US

Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961

Helsinki Accords 1975 May in Paris 1968

Vietnam war 1955

Assassination of Kenned,1963

Chilean coup d'état 1973

U2 incident 1960 1952

1953

1954

CIAM 9

1955

1956

1957

1958

CIAM 10

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

CIAM 11

Berlin wall 1961

Warsaw Pact 1955

The Prague Spring 1968

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project 1975

Culture revolution 1966 Cuba missile crysis 1962 28

Sputnik 2 1957

29

ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUND IN YALE

Jose luis sert married student house 1961

Charles Moore, Condominio Sea Ranch 1964

Le corbusier carpenter center 1960

Marcel Breuer Whitney museum 1966

Luis Kahn national assembly 1961

1960

Archgram Plugin city

Robert Venturi vanna venturi house 1962 1961

1963

1965

Archgram Instant city

1967

1969

Kahn Venturi

DEAN

30

Paul Rudolph

Charles W. Moore

31

EDITORS

2

3 1

4 2

5 3

6 4

7 5

8 6

9 7

11 8

12 9

10 MAIN EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITORS S. Meech ASSISTANT B.EDITORS Pushkarev

Norman Carver

M. Meyers

E. Close, II

Meyers J.M.Baker

E. Close, II

J. Baker M. Dobbins

H.S.Roth Meech B. Pushkarev

R. Neville R. Harlow G. Knower

J. Ericson H. Jones G. Pasanella T. Twitchell A. Grinnell J. Weber M. T. Hood F. Jacobi W. De Cossy B. Falconer L. Mogel W. Porter

EDITORIAL STAFF

J. Barnett R. Neville

H. Roth

G. Knower

P. Lambert

P. Bartlett W. Cox P. Andes

R. Pottinger B. J. Ericson Shaw H. Jones

R. Childs W. Hawkins

H.H.Knox II P.Mittelstadt R. Stern G.D.Pierce S. Addiss A.Purves R.H.Searing Pottinger B. G.Swift Shaw

D.Pasanella Shaw G. J. T. Stouffer Twitchell A. Grinnell J. Weber

L. Perfido R. Peters

D. Shaw C.W.Wbitaker J. Stouffer

R. Stern S. Addiss

J. Addiss R. Childs W. Hawkins L. Perfido R. Peters

M. T. Hood F. Jacobi W. De Cossy B. Falconer L. Mogel W. Porter

N. Ives

ADVISORS, FACULTY BOARD

H. Chazen E. Robinson

J. Brooks J. Addiss

D. C. Sawyver G. Howe H.-R. Hitchcock A. Eisenman

P. Andes D. Fix

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E. Robinson J. Hill

A.Villalon

D.Michels L. Cisler P.Papademetri R. Stewart

H.Short A.Golding B.Feiss II H.H.Knox

R. Faesy

P.Mittelstadt G.D.Pierce A.Purves H.Searing G.Swift

D. Fix

M.J.Long S.M.Hill

1957 1953

P.Bretteville A.Golding

W.Versaci S.Wrede

P.Monteleoni A.L.Bernstein G.Hipp G.M.Hodges C.Hodgetts E.B.Lanman R.D.Lawrence D.Michels

P.Curley R.Coombs S.Hagan A.Villalon W.McDonough

E.Leopold P.Papademetri W.B.Lyle L.Thomas A.F.Villalon R.H.T.Yee

J. Hill E. Emori

J. Watson J.Meyer A.Tomcik

D. Gibson P. Rudolph C.L.V. Meeks

R.Hamner M.Grimberger

K. Smith

M.J.Long S.M.Hill

H.Short J.Limerick B.Feiss K.Gross H.Romney

A.L.Bernstein G.M.Hodges E.B.Lanman R.D.Lawrence E.Leopold W.B.Lyle L.Thomas A.F.Villalon R.H.T.Yee

K.Gogswell E. Emori J.Bobczynski

A.Marcus J.Meyer A.Tomcik R.Jackson S.Marcus

E.L.Stone C.Moore

R.Hamner

M.Arch 1961 Asi.Editor 1959-1960 W.Versaci Main.Editor 1961 P.Curley S.Hagan W.McDonough J.Limerick K.Gross Robert H.Romney A.M.Stern

Main.Editor 1965

M.Arch 1968 Aso.Editor 1967 Main.Editor 1969

M.Grimberger P.Stevans

P.Stevans

P.Rand P. Schweikher A. Brodovitch

14

Warren J.Cox 12

C.W.Wbitaker

E.Muller K.Gogswell J.Bobczynski

K.Zack

A.Marcus W.Chung R.Jackson S.Marcus

E.Muller

E.L.Stone

K.Zack

W.Chung

C.Moore D.H.Weaver

C. Cogswell

1955 1952

C.Hodgetts

Feature Editors

H.Melison, J. Watson Jr.

D. Gibson P. Rudolph C.L.V. Meeks

P. Schweikher A. Brodovitch

1953

R.Coombs

14

13

Peter C. Papademetriou

V. Scully

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

G.Hipp

12 12

P. Bartlett W. Cox

C. Hammond

V. Scully

2

H.Melison, Jr.

J. Barnett A.Golding

L. Cisler P. Lambert R. Stewart D. Page R. Faesy

Feature Editors

C. Hammond

S.Wrede

P.Monteleoni

D. Page J. Brooks

DESIGN H. Chazen

P.Bretteville M. Dobbins A.Golding

C. Brickbauer

Willson R.Joan Harlow

10

13 11

H.S.Weaver

D.H.Weaver

H.S.Weaver

P.Rand

K. Smith Assistant Editors

Assistant Editors

C. Cogswell

1959 1955

1960 1957

1961 1959

1963 1960

1965 1961

1967 1963

1969 1965

1971 1967

1975 1969

1971

1975

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COVERS

6

1960

PERSPECTA 6 1960

7

1961

8

1963

Back cover

Isamu Noguchi, Photo of Rasi Valaya Yantra at Jaipur (created by Maharajah Sawai Jai Singh II from 1683 to 1743)

9 - 10 1965

11

1967

12

1969

Although Mr. Noguchi is best known for his sculpture and landscape architecture, this issue presents him as a photographer. Mr. Noguchi’s more recent work includes the garden for UNESCO’s Paris headquarters.

Front cover

Perspecta 6 is preoccupied with architectural history.

Cover photo is taken from the visually stunning portfolio of sculptor Isamu Nogichi’s photography of the protosurrealist eighteen - century observatories built in India by the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. In this issue, Cox provided the text accompanying Noguchi’s photographs as well as a sophisticated discussion of their value to astronomy, a subject he tackled on the basis of one undergraduate course on the subject.

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PERSPECTA 7 1961

Back cover

PERSPECTA 8 1963

Front cover Back cover

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1720 - 1778, Ancient intersection of the Via Appia and Via Ardeatina

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The cover for Perspecta 7, illustrating Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s reconstruction of the antiquities along the Via Appia and Via Ardeatina, broadcasts the new spirit of historicism that the editors were, if not promoting, at least celebrating.

Reima Pietila, Elevations of the Kaleva Church in Tampere. Design competition, 1959

Front cover

This issue of Perspecta is devoted to several questions of continuing architectural concern: the relationship of modern architecture to the other arts, to technology, and to the indigenous building methods of the developing nations; the perception and criticism of architecture; and the problem of urban design.

Perspecta 8 is started by a portfolio of recent Finnish architecture, which includes work by a young architect Reima Pietila, whose church at Tampere appears on the covers.

37

PERSPECTA 9 - 10 1965

Back cover

Pedro Machuca, Plan of the Palace of Charles V, 1527 to 1568, Granada, Southern Spain Louis Kahn, Preliminary scheme of the Unitarian church, 1962 to 1969, Rochester, NY, USA

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Plan of the Palace of Charles V by Pedro Machuca (1527 to 1568 _ Granada, Southern Spain)

Preliminary scheme of the Unitarian church

by Louis Kahn (1962 to 1969, Rochester, NY, USA)

“A major manifestation of contradiction in architecture can be the contrast between the inside and the outside. One of the powerful orthodoxies of 20th-century architecture has been a continuity between the inside and the outside. The inside should be expressed on the outside, it says...”

“In the Charles’s palace, the dominant - shaped courtyards make the primary space; the rooms within the contrasting perimeter become residual. As in the preliminary shceme of Kahn’s Unitarian Church, the residual spaces are closed.”

Front cover

The double issue 9/10 is best remembered for its identification of a new generation of American architects who offered through their writings, and a handful of mostly unrealized projects, a deflationary critique of modernist heroics.

The issue contained an essay that was immediately recognized for their definitive iconoclasim, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Robert Venturi).

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PERSPECTA 11 1967

PERSPECTA 12 1969

Front cover Back cover

Mylar material “If Perspecta 9/10 marked the first clear articulartion of an emergent postmodern position at Yale, then Perspecta 11 must to some degree be seen as a continuation of that project, but with a clear and important cross - current. That is the continuing dialogue, sometimes collaborative and somtimes dialectical, between architects and artists at Yale,

40

who, until very recently, occupied the same building - if not the same “space” - at the University. That dialogue was never so clearly represented in the pages of Perspecta as in No.11, at least until Carol Burns’s and Robert Taylor’s issue in 1983.

Inventive in its graphic and memorable for its mylar covers, the rich mix of content in this issue is surely as free - wheeling and genuinely, if somewhat selfconsciously, inclusive as Perspecta ever got.”²

Cover material is based on the floor finishing of the featured Maison de Verre, Paris, by Pierre Chareau & Bernard Bijvoet, Construction Dates: 1928 to 1931 “After a succession of rather gaudy covers and more flamboyant designs, the design of Perspecta 12, and especially its laconic and elegant embossed black cover based on the floor covering of the featured Maison de Verre,

Front cover

signaled at least a partial return to an outward restraint that serves as a frame and foil for the real power of the contents.”2 Perspecta 12 proposes that architecture cannot afford to move blindly onward, but should pause to challenge both its method and its content. Either by the standard of the significance of its individual articles or the extent to which the overall mix of articles reflects, precociously, a critical moment in contemporary architectural culture, this is a landmark issue of Perspecta.

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PROTAGONISTS OF MODERNISM CRITIQUE

1

2

13

24

35

46

57

68

79

811

10

912

1113

10

10 14

12 15

13

15

10 14

Buckminster Fuller Buckminster Fuller

Yale Professor

Yale Professor

George Howe

Other

Other

George Howe

Yale Student/graduate Yale Student/graduate Henry-Russell Hitchcock Henry-Russell Hitchcock Paul Rudolph

Paul Rudolph

Philip Johnson Philip Johnson Vincent Scully, Jr.Vincent Scully, Jr. Boris Pushkarev Boris Pushkarev Louis Kahn

Louis Kahn

Vincent Scully

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy

Professor of History of Art in Architecture at Yale University. Scully’s early advocacy was critical to the emergence of both L. Kahn and R. Venturi.

Architecture and art historian. Immigrated from German to the United States with her husband, a Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy.

Charles Moore

Robert Venturi

One of the most important advocates of the informed and eclectic style known as Postmodernism; he was influential as an architect, educator, and author.

American critic of the high seriousness of modernism, praising the vernacular, the commercial, and even the avowedly ordinary in writings and buildings.

James Stirling

Colin Rowe

A British architect, a significant innovator in postwar international architecture.

One of the first architects who mixed neoclassical concept with the modernist base.

American architectural historian, critic, theoretician and teacher; au­thor of «the Collage City», researched for­malism in architecture and diversity in urbanism.

Robert Osborn Robert Osborn Sibyl Moholy-Nagy Sibyl Moholy-Nagy Edgar Kaufmann,Edgar Jr Kaufmann, Jr Edward L. BarnesEdward L. Barnes Charles W. MooreCharles W. Moore James Stirling

James Stirling

Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky Peter Millard

Peter Millard

Robert Venturi Robert Venturi Peter Cook

Peter Cook

Denise Scott Brown Denise Scott Brown Emilio Ambasz Emilio Ambasz

Yale Professor Other Yale Student/graduate 1952

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1953

1952 1955

1953 1957

1955 1959

1957 1960

1959 1961

1960 1963

1961 1965

1963 1967

1965 1969

1967 1971

1969 1975

1971

1975

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COLLECTION OF RELEVANT ARTICLES

Challenging modernism from the inside:

Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal Form and Order, Art and Architecture

Eero Sarrien, An Interview with Eero Saarien

Sociology,International Style Masters

Challenging modernism from the outside:

R. Buckminster Fuller, Summary Lecture

Vision ‘65

Technology, Environmentalism

Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Amazing Archigram Technology, Media

Robert Venturi, Bruce Adams and Denise Scott Brown, Mass Communication on the People Freeway Media, Complexity, Social

Challenging modernism both from the inside and outside:

Francois Bucher, A Failure of Architectural Purism

Historicism, International Style Masters, Form and Order, Complexity

James Stirling, Functional Tradition and Expression Historicism,International Style Masters, Vernacular

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, The Future of the Past Historicism, Education

Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture: Selections from the forthcoming book

Historicism, Form and Order, Complexity

Paul Davidoff, Democratic Planning City Planning, Social, Politics

Vincent Scully, Jr., The Death of the Street City Planning, Social, Politics

Charles W. Moore, You Have to Pay for the Public Life City planning, sociology, realism

Charles W. Moore, Plug It in, Rameses, and See if It Lights up.

Because We Aren't Going to Keep It Unless It Works City planning, Historicism, Media, Complexity, Social

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45

A FAILURE OF ARCHITECTURAL PURISM

FUNCTIONAL TRADITION AND EXPRESSION

Francois Bucher Perspecta 6 1960

James Stirling Perspecta 6 1960

«The lesson learned from this is older than the twelfth century. It tells of human weakness in general and more specifically the weakness for ever present Vic- torian trappings - symbols of coziness. It also tells of a mild form of cowardice and lack of spiritual courage. For - though it is big enough for two - nobody will contest that it takes courage to make love in a Mies van der Rohe chair placed in the middle of a room whose walls are of glareproof glass.»

«The Architectural Review published in July 1957 a special number called "The Functional Tradition"; this illustrated many anonymously designed buildings in England of a regional type, such as farmhouses, barns, warehouses, mills, etc.

This selection was per- haps a little narrow, faintly Georgian, and too nearly confined to early industrialism. It could have included fortifications, village housing, and early office building. Sibyl Moholy-Nagy has also published a book illustrat- ing similar buildings in America.»

Senanque Southern France. Ground plan twelfth century. Upper stories more recent.

Plan of a Cisterian church by Villard de Honnecort c. 1120-30 AD

Le Corbusier, Chapelle Ronchamp

Vernacular building

Cultural context Special number “The Functional Tradition”, The Architectural Review, July 1957 Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, “Native Genius in Anonymous Architecture”

Revised issues: International Style Masters Form & Order Historicism

Mass Culture & Vernacular

Critics of the purism are based on a throurough historical study and use precedents of XII century monasteries to prove its inconsistency with human life with its desire for cosiness.

Revised issues: Historicism International Style Masters Vernacular

Functionalism as an architectural expression alternative to «styling» and «structural exhibitionism», inspired by primitive vernacular buildings.

THE FUTURE OF THE PAST

THE DEATH OF THE STREET

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy Perspecta 7 1961

Vincent Scully, Jr. Perspecta 8 1963

«The revolutionary architectural movements of the past had a driving force that was relative to the depth of their creed and the solidarity among their adherents.

The Chicago School, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, etc. became decisive influences through a binding idea that inspired firmness of vision and a collaborative partisanship. This is missing today.»

«Seagram’s, no less than Lever’s, was conceived as a freestanding monument on its own, an aggressive statement of the special talent of its architects, dependent upon the pre-existing civil design of the Avenue but taking a step toward its destruction.» «...disciplining anarchy in order to make the city what it has always been, the ultimate work of human art...»

TOMB TEMPLE AT SAQQARA, Egypt

Park Avenue, 1910s

Park Avenue with Pan American Building, 1960s

Mies van der Rohe, Lafayette Park, Detroit; one family town houses, 1959

Philip Johnson, UTICA MUSEUM

Cultural context 1. Segram Building, Lever Building, Pan American Building 2. Le Corbusier’s concept of skyscrapers in vast empty spaces 3. Sophocles, ‘the feelings that make the town’

Revised issues:

Revised issues:

Historical

Mies van der Rohe Modernism Monumentality Anti-urbanism

Criticising modernism for its anti-urbanism: its monumentality inserted in random sites destroys the city. take care of the city as a common space for many.

TRANSPARENCY: LITERAL AND PHENOMENAL

COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN ARCHITECTURE: SELECTIONS FROM A FORTHCOMING BOOK

Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky Perspecta 8 1963

Robert Venturi Perspecta 9/10 1965

«By this definition, the transparent ceases to be that which is perfectly clear and becomes instead that which is clearly ambiguous.»

«A major manifestation of contradiction in architecture can be the contrast between the inside and the outside. One of the powerful orthodoxies of 2oth-century architecture has been a continuity between the inside and the outside. The inside should be expressed on the outside, it says.

But this is not really new in architecture.

Only our means have been new.»

«These stratifications, devices by means of which space becomes constructed, substantial, and articulate, are the essence of that phenomenal transparency which has been noticed as characteristic of the central postcubist tradition.»

Cultural context 1. Gyorgy Kepes, “Language of Vision” 2. Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, “Vision in Motion” 3. «Contribute to that process of loosening up a building which now dominates the architectural scene», Siegfried Giedion: op cit p 489; and S. Giedion: Walter Gropius, New York 1954; pp 54-55 4. Cubism: Delaunay, Gris, Picasso, Braque, Moholy-Nagy, Leger.

Revised issues: International Style Masters Form & Order Historicism

Mass Culture & Vernacular Ambiguity & Complexity

Church of the Autostrada

by Giovanni Michellucci

Criticising empty formal attitude, defining a formal spatial quality of phenomenal transparency on the example of Le corbusier — an ambiguity, achieved by tension of spatial organisation, a materialised cubists’ space.

Revised issues: International Style Masters Form & Order Historicism

Mass Culture & Vernacular Ambiguity & Complexity

REFLECTIONS ON BUILDINGS AND THE CITY: THE REALISM OF THE PARTIAL VISION

PLUG IT IN, RAMESES, AND SEE IF IT LIGHTS UP. BECAUSE WE AREN’T GOING TO KEEP IT UNLESS IT WORKS

Romaldo Giugola Perspecta 9/10 1965

Charles W. Moore Perspecta 11 1967

«We have too often been concerned with those visual experiences in which buildings became abstractions, capable of filling a part of an organized scheme, but at best, unrelated to the substances of architecture, which, like human phenomena, is complex, infinite, poetic, tangible, dramatic, intimate, the result of both conscious and unconscious activities.»

«If architects are to continue to do useful work on this planet, then surely their proper concern must be, as it has always been, the creation of place, the ordered extension of man’s idea about himself in specific locations on the face of the earth to make what Susanne Langer has called “ethnic domain”.»

Revised issues:

Revised issues:

City planning

Exclusion/Inclusion

Sociology

Place-making

Realism

Urbanism Monumentality Contradictions

Criticising modernism for its artificiality, calling for architecture of inclusion, with the architects trying to make their order with as much of life as they can include, rather than as little.

VISION ‘65 SUMMARY LECTURE

DEMOCRATIC PLANNING

R. Buckminster Fuller Perspecta 11 1967

Paul Davidoff Perspecta 11 1967

«Clearly, and sum totally, something very important is happening to man on this planet. Fred Hoyle, the great astronomer, dealing with the regularities found by astrophysicists in the heavens, has been able to say in all seriousness that he now assumes from the observed regularities that there are at least hundreds of millions of stars with planets that could maintain human life. He finds it logical to assume human life to be present in this universe on at least one hundred million planets. This particular big figure he uses is obviously intended to infer astronomical numbers of humans present in universe.»

«The city planning process is neutral. It may be used in support of a number of different values. It may be used for Liberal or Conservative or Radical purposes. It may be used to support the status quo or it may be used to assist the development of social change along predetermined lines.»

Revised issues:

Revised issues:

Technology

City Planning

Environmentalism

Social

Total New

Politics

AMAZING ARCHIGRAM: A SUPPLEMENT Peter Cook, Warren Chalk Perspecta 11 1967

MASS COMMUNICATION ON THE PEOPLE FREEWAY Robert Venturi, Bruce Adams and Denise Scott Brown Perspecta 12 1969

«In this, the second half of the twentieth century, the old idols are crumbling, the old precepts strangely irrelevant, the old dogmas no longer valid. We are in pursuit of an idea, a new vernacular, something to stand alongside the space capsules, computers, and throw-away packages of an atomic- electronic age.»

«The multitude of elements in Herald Square station may give the impression of confusion and unresolved intentions.

This is a misimpression: only a sightseer would experience the whole station - the average user will encounter only a few of these elements along his path. But there is a multiplicity of paths leading to any destination - the shortest vs. the long, adventurous journey. Multiplicity provides niqueness - adding another dimension to a subway journey. »

Revised issues:

Revised issues:

Cityplanning

Cityplanning

Communication

Pop culture

Total New

Complexity

ESSAY

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ANATOMY OF THE JOURNAL Introduction Perspecta was the only student-edited journal in USA of 50s which was founded in 1952 in the Yale School of Architecture.

The concept of the journal belonged to George Howe, the first state-established Modernist architect in USA, a cosmopolitan figure with eclectic background. He wanted to introduce an independent platform for discussion on architecture among professionals and students to make a flexible intellectual system sensitive to new ideas and able to keep a continuous approach to the architecture of past and present. And the results proved the concept: Perspecta was presenting the up-to-date plurality of American architectural discourse, combining preoccupation with history with thirst for change. It turned out to be a barometer attuned to the flow of contemporary discourse, as Henry-Russell Hitchcock stated in Perspecta 6: «PERSPECTA has never offered the last word on any subject, but quite often it has uttered what (in the context, at least) was the first word. This is a service which the professional journals, burdened with other intellectual responsibilities, have in our country been reluctant to perform, and one which the scholarly journals, by their very nature, are vowed not to attempt.

The way that the publishing of Perspecta was organised determined its guiding character. Being published once in two, three or even 5 years it collected main intellectual shifts from that considerable timespan, being “not merely a barometer of current conditions, but a chart, helping to guide the course of architecture.” 2 Looking at the period of twenty years we can say that Perspecta sustained an unbiased position owing to the constant rotation of the editorial staff, with the main editor almost never staying for more than one publication, except for the first two years.

Historical context During 1950-1975, the way how American gradually shifted its attention and subtle transformed from a sort of old-conservative hegemonism into a new globalism and Americanisation were clearly illustrated in a wide range of events, from 1950 the break of Korean War which last the continuation of the Cold War show that America’s context and notion as a Great Power who could spread its influence over the world till 1975 the Vietnam war end during the protest of new young generation in which fight against this notion and try to push American into another direction.

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DNA of Perspecta from 1952 to 1975.

Main trends of development, grouping the issues 1.1,2,3 - established modernist architects, focused on local Yale discourse, although already much interest in history 2.

4 - the celebration of Louis Kahn’s talent 3.

5, 6, 7, 8, 9/10 - series of issues involving history as a strong reference for contemporary architecture, but also concentrating on sociological aspect of human behaviour and culture 4.

11,12, 13/14 - continue the revisions of modernism while bringing in a new current of ideas on media, communication and technology, as well as strong political engagement 5.

15 - the result of official establishment of depoliticized post-modernism Editorial board Explain trends by groups we could see in diagram before Structure, layout and graphics The medium has always been equal to the message; a review of Perspecta’s pages has always been a visual as well as intellectual feast3 In the researched period Perspecta had a laconic character: providing a limited amount of material but thoroughly prepared and of exceptional quality. Simple but precise structure and layout served as essential backbone for highly intellectual content. The use of images was also very accurate: each image was a visual manifest, as dense in its meaning as the text. And the covers were the absolute icons of the issues, visually presenting the main article and hence the mood of the issue.

The protagonists George Howe, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Paul Rudolph and Philip Johnson.

The first issues of perspecta were much defined by giants of American Modernism: George Howe, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Paul Rudolph and Philip Johnson. Hitchcock and Johnson brought the Modernism from Europe to the US with the 1932 MoMA Exhibition on “International Style” — a puristic formal vocabulary of architecture liberated from its socio-political reasonings. In the 50s they all of them belonged to the academic environment of Yale, Howe as a Chairman of Architecture Department, Hitchcock Together with George Howe and Paul Rudolph they formed a solid though conservative intellectual base for the young journal to spring from.

Buckminster Fuller However from the first issue Perspecta also presented a consistent opposition to the International Style. Richard Buckminster Fuller was a major critic of the International Style already in 1932, offering a concept of indigenous American architecture based on technology and engineering.

He had a significant impact on architectural scene of the US, being among the first to introduce the social issues in SHELTER Project in 1930s, anticipating the obsession with networks, social and environmental questions in 60s-70s.

Vincent Scully Vincent Scully was a Professor of History of Art in Architecture at Yale University. According to Philip Johnson, he was “the most influential architectural teacher ever” 4.

Scully was the protagonist of the historical line of research present from the first issue of Perspecta. Scully was a scholar of Hitchcock and he was the one to introduce the young talents of Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi. Scully’s early advocacy was critical to the emergence of both Louis I. Kahn and Robert Venturi as important 20th-century architects.

Scully was a fierce critic of the 1963 destruction of New York’s original Pennsylvania Station, memorably writing of it that, “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.” Thus Scully’s writing served as a fin rouge connecting Modernist and Postmodernist culture by the historical perspective.

Louis Kahn Perspecta was the platform for shaping of the career of Louis Kahn. His vast publications presented his key projects as well as reflections on architecture, in the format of essays and interviews. He was not a part of any architectural movement as he had his own unique approach, mixing a mysterious understanding of form and order, a legacy of Modernism in a way, with historical consciousness and the interest in networks, which connected him with the next generation of ideas of Team 10, Marshall McLuhan and even Archigram.

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy and James Stirling Moholy-Nagy was an Architecture and art historian, she immigrated from Germany to the United States with her husband, a Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy. Stirling was a key figure in British post-war architectural scene. They brought the topics of vernacular and functionalism from Europe, adding to the social trend of 60s.

Charles W. Moore, Robert Venturi and Romaldo Giurgola The generation of architects liberated from the modernist dogmatic perspective who received a broad education

of architectural history and were connected with Italian scene of “Neo Liberty Controversy” with its historical focus.

They opened up architecture to mass culture, founded the Postmodernism on the pages of Perspecta.

Colin Rowe and Peter Eisenman Rowe and Eisenman were the protagonists of New Form line of thought in Perspecta, continuing the Modernist discourse but looking at it in a new light. Colin Rowe was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician, and teacher; acknowledged as a major intellectual influence on world architecture and urbanism in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond, particularly in the fields of city planning, regeneration, and urban design. During his life he taught briefly at the University of Texas at Austin and, for one year, at the University of Cambridge in England.

Peter Eisenman is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructive. In mid-September 1960, Peter Eisenman went to Cambridge and was invited to be the assistant of the first-year design class. Here he met Colin Rowe. In 1963, he finish and publish his doctoral thesis which later become a book The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture. In it, the architect confronts historicism with theory and the analysis of form, whose distinguishing features he regards as the foundation of architectural composition The development of the discourse From its beginning, Perspecta registered a deep loss in belief in the modern movement, ironically just at the moment when modernism triumphed.5 Already from the first issues Perspecta presented diverse approaches criticising the modern movement. Thus a substantial corpus of opposition to modernism was formed on the pages of the journal. Looking at Perspecta as a construction site of architecture we can see it as a generous collection of critical attempts challenging the Modern Paradigm and use it to trace the trends of thoughts and their connection with the consequent outcomes such as Postmodernism movement, New Urbanism, New Form and Networking and other topics leading to the further development of architecture.

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THE DIRECTIONS OF MODERNISM REVISION IN PERSPECTA FROM 1960 TO 1969 Introduction The character of Perspecta was a barometer of change as it was a very flexible intellectual platform in a search for the new. From its preoccupation with critics of modernism we can see that it was one powerful subject which was attacked from diverse sides continuously during the researched twenty years from the beginning of the journal.

So it is interesting to trace the ways of challenging modernism through the pages of perspecta. By achieving an overview of the critics it is possible to understand what were the weak points of Modernism and what were the tools which finally overcame this paradigm and resulted into a new architectural epoch.

Systematisation of approaches In order to have an overview of critical approaches there is a need to systematise them. From the development of the journal’s structure we can see the continuous transition from the conservative mood to a new wave of narratives. The aim of the essay is to analyse this smooth transition, to trace the changes and to understand what was taken from the old discourse and what was brought new.

Analysing the diagram of recurring authors we can see that in the 60s there were some old masters still writing for Perspecta and at the same time the new generation was making its way. Hitchcock, Johnson, Rudolph, Howe and Fuller, Kahn and Scully kept narrating while there emerged new voices of Sibyl Moholy-Nagy and James Stirling, Charles W. Moore, Robert Venturi and Romaldo Giurgola, Colin Rowe and Peter Eisenman.

A diagram of topics is a tool to get an idea of how the discourse was developing on the pages of perspecta. In order to spot the shift from the old paradigm into new one we can categorised the topics in two groups: the old ones, inherited from the modern paradigm, and the new ones, which emerged from the outside of it.

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Comments on articles The old topics are /Form and Order/, /Art and Architecture/, /City Planning/, /Education/, /Crafts, Technology and Engineering/ while the new ones are /Historicism/, / Sociology/, /Politics/, /Environmentalism/, /Media and Communication/, /Total New or Doom/, /Mass Culture and Vernacular/, /Contextualism or Realism/, /Ambiguity and Complexity/.

Collection of articles I. Challenging Modernism both from outside and inside: -Francois Bucher, A Failure of Architectural Purism, 1960 Historicism, International Style Masters, Form and Order, Complexity -James Stirling, Functional Tradition and Expression, 1960 Historicism, International Style Masters, Vernacular -Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, The Future of the Past, 1961 Historicism, Education -Vincent Scully, Jr., The Death of the Street, 1963 City Planning, Social, Politics -Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture: Selections from the forthcoming book, 1965 Historicism, Form and Order, Complexity -Romaldo Giurgola, Reflections on Buildings and the City: The Realism of the Partial Vision, 1965 City planning, sociology, realism -Paul Davidoff, Democratic Planning, 1967 City Planning, Social, Politics -Charles W. Moore, Plug It in, Rameses, and See if It Lights up. Because We Aren’t Going to Keep It Unless It Works, 1967 City planning, Historicism, Media, Complexity, Social

II. Challenging modernism from the inside: -Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal, 1963 Form and Order, Art and Architecture II. Challenging Modernism from the outside: -R. Buckminster Fuller, Vision ‘65 Summary Lecture, 1967 Technology, Environmentalism, Total New -Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Amazing Archigram, 1967 Technology, Media, Total New -Robert Venturi, Bruce Adams and Denise Scott Brown, Mass Communication on the People Freeway, 1969 Media, Complexity, Social, Total New

The chosen articles provide explicit critical statements, which can be analysed and systematised.

Francois Bucher, A Failure of Architectural Purism, 1960 Historicism, International Style Masters, Form and Order, Complexity Francois Bucher was an Assistant Professor of the History of Art at Yale University, born in Switzerland he has been in Zurich, Rome, and at the University of Minnesota before coming to Yale in 1954. In the article Boucher carries out a historical study on the twelfth century Cistercian monasteries finding the parallels between Romanesque austerity and the minimalistic approach of the International style of 1920-60. In the beginning of the article Bucher states: «While the controversy of ornament versus curtainwall, of the planar versus the sculptural formulation is as yet quietly shaping new dogmas in the sub-basement of architectural thinking, we find it rewarding to turn the telescope 180 degrees and to train it on the distant past where the once raging opponents of irreconcil- able architectural theories appear tiny and the heads which roll are not our own.» 8 This is an example of how a traditional (for modern paradigm) question of formal purity, which was still ambiguous at that time, is being re-studied but from a new, historical perspective. It is a strong tool which provides a solid base for critical approach, with the new ideas being based on real-life precedent, in contrast to references to abstract art or other ephemeral topics.

James Stirling, Functional Tradition and Expression, 1960 Historicism, International Style Masters, Vernacular Stirling was a Visiting Critic at Yale University School of Architecture, the 1960 was the first year of his long connection with the Yale university. Stirling graduated from Liverpool School of Architecture and by that time already had some publications in the Architectural Review.

He led a private practice with James Gowan, who would also contribute to Perspecta in 1961 with an article «Notes on American Architecture» together with another English author Colin St. John Wilson with his article «Open and Closed». They formed a consistent critical group, attacking the Modernist paradigm from different sides but with an equal rigour, «these essays reflected the “angry young man”

tone then characteristic of the young generation of British writers» 9 In his article Stirling returns to the oeuvre of Le Corbusier, scrutinizing it once again but with the tool of historical precedence of primitive vernacular buildings. As a reference he takes basic purely functional buildings, starting from the medieval times, looking at some peasant houses on Ischia, continuing to 19th century brick housing and arriving at anonymously designed buildings in England «such as farmhouses, barns, warehouses, mills etc» with their parallels in the US published in a book «Native Genius in Anonymous Architecture» by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. Stirling compares that «functional tradition» with some works of established Modern architects such as Louis Kahn’s project of Trenton Community Center and other works which he calls post-Miesian. He criticises the convention of «styling» and «structural exhibitionism» showing their emptiness and decorative character, on the other hand presenting the expression of function as a tool to avoid artificial decorations and bring back the human scale into cities. As an example of such he speaks of La Tourette and Chapel Ronchamp of Le Corbusier, and finally showing his own competition entry for a new Churchill college in Cambridge. He derives his formal solution from the references of medieval castles and walled cities creating an internal courtyard typology in order to achieve an atmosphere of enclosure.

Same as the previous article, Stirling finds a weak point of Modernist paradigm and tackles it with a tool of historical reference. Besides he represents another tendency of re-examining the work of Le Corbusier, denouncing the later generation of architects for adopting only the formal language of masters while missing the core of their approach. This way to approach Modern legacy is recurring in Perspecta, started by Hitchcock in his article «The Evolution of Wright, Mies & Le Corbusier» in the first issue, presented also by Warren J. Cox in «The Work of Charles Edouard Jeanneret» in the same 1960 issue, by Colin Rowe in the series of articles on Transparency, etc.

Vincent Scully, Jr., The Death of the Street, 1963 City Planning, Social, Politics Vincent Scully was a very influential Professor of History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, persistently contributing to Perspecta starting from the first issue and

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till 1965, so his input was somehow connecting the journal’s discourse, creating a solid core. His mentor was HenryRussel Hitchcock, a significant contributor to the concept of International Style and to the deep studying of modern movement protagonists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. Scully took over the historical approach keeping the same focus on Modernism however with a new critical attitude.

In this article Scully argues that Modernism had a fundamental anti-urban approach. Analysing the Park Avenue in New York through the time, comparing its character before and after major modernist Seagram’s and Lever’s buildings finishing with the UN tower, he denounces their role of breaking the order of the street, exploiting its continuity and equality of the buildings forming two walls of the «running corridor» of the street. Scully demonstrates the basic principle of Modernist monumentality which creates the spectacular effect specific to the International Style.

Basically the powerful effect is a result of broken order. The monument needs empty space and outstanding character, while the street is meant to accomodate a continuous flow. «Seagram’s, no less than Lever’s, was conceived as a freestanding monument on its own, an aggressive statement of the special talent of its architects, dependent upon the pre-existing civil design of the Avenue but taking a step toward its destruction.» In conclusion Scully reflects on the political meaning of the Modernist monument as a concentration and expression of an individual power, an unequal politcal and social environment. In order to prevent the city from such invasion of individualistic power, calling for a power which can regulate the harmonious order among diverse citizens, individuals as well as groups.

Thus Scully puts the first step to the series of articles criticizing Modernist anti-urbanism, which belongs to a broader discourse on a national level about the failure of American Cities. One of the main figures of the discourse was Lewis Mumford, who was a major opposition to importing the European 4 function city concept in 1942, preventing Sert from publishing the book under the name «Should Our Cities Survive?». However his advocacy didn’t prevent a massive program of Urban Renewal carried out from 1949 to 1962 following the modernist urban planning principles.

Therefore the critical discourse emerged in the 60s when the social disaster of the urban sprawl became evident. An important research was carried out by Martin Anderson with the following book «The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Analysis of Urban Renewal, 1942-1962» published in 1964.

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A significant input was done by Jane Jacobs with her book «Life and Death of American Cities» published in 1961 where she argues that the attention should be paid not to the formal aspects of architecture but to the social fabric that generates successful urban street and neighbourhood. The social perspective unified critical claims in the sixties, being a natural consequence of the profound ignorance to this aspect in earlier years. Scully underlines the individualistic character of Modernist architecture on the urban scale while it is true also concerning the private housing realm, where it created a myth of glamorous lifestyle to export it to Europe.

Romaldo Giurgola, Reflections on Buildings and the City: The Realism of the Partial Vision, 1965 City planning, sociology, realism Romaldo Giurgola was a graduate of the University of Rome and of Columbia, practising and teaching in Italy and America. He was among the new generation of architects presented in the outstanding Perspecta 9/10 together with Charles Moore and Robert Venturi. Their approach was deeply different from the previous generation of scholars as in their architectural education and thus shaping of personality history played a crucial role. Moreover all of these authors were connected with Italian architectural scene, Moore and Venturi travelling and doing after-graduate studies while Giurgola being brought up and having graduated there. In that moment in Italy was a shift towards historical consciousness so intensely denounced by Reyner Banham, a world-renowned proponent of technological sobriety. So Giurgola was a point of transfer of Italian ideas to the pages of Perspecta, an American journal which adopted an Italian name, as if anticipating the directions of 60s already in 1952.

In his article Giurgola reflected upon city being a complex rich organism derived from historical actions. This approach somehow resonates with the concept of the city formulated

by Aldo Rossi in his book «The Architecture of the City» published in 1966. Giurgola continues that the city can not be reduced to geometrical rules of total approach but should be seen as a sum of partial visions, focusing on complex relations with surroundings. «We have too often been concerned with those visual experiences in which buildings became abstractions, capable of filling a part of an organized scheme, but at best, unrelated to the substances of architecture, which, like human phenomena, is complex, infinite, poetic, tangible, dramatic, intimate, the result

of both conscious and unconscious activities.» So in his critical attempt Giurgola uncovers the insufficiency of visual (formal) traits of architecture, suggesting a sociological perspective linked with the overall social science atmosphere of the 1960s. Besides he touches upon the topic of failure of purism, articulating the complex human nature and the need for reflecting this nature in the physical environment.

Moreover, he adds a more Italian approach of Genius Loci, the attention to the place in the city and its historical consistency.

Paul Davidoff, Democratic Planning, 1967 City Planning, Social, Politics

Conclusion Perspecta was a perfect platform for emerging critics which made it a major document of Modernism Revision movement in agitated US scene of 1960s. Analysing the different approaches of critics it is possible to trace how the giant paradigm was overcome and what were its crucial weak points: the detachment from real life of common people and from historical line of development, ignorance to social issues, and it’s clearly show that from both inside and outside, the whole society want to explore and find solution in different aspect. And in the Perspecta we can clearly see the role of an open-minded academic journal in shaping the development of architectutre.

Paul Davidoff continues the discourse on the failure of American cities highlighting the political aspect of the subject. He claims that the city is a political domain where diverse interests meet. Thus it should be subjected not to individual power and biased interest but the order must be negotiated with all the different parties involved in city life.

His critical approach to the issue of Urbanism is based on a political engagement which reflected overall atmosphere of that time. With the protests emerging against the Vietnam War the American society was highly politicized, which provoked a new perspective also on organisation of architectural environment.

Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky, Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal, 1963 Form and Order, Art and Architecture Colin Rowe was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician, and teacher; acknowledged as a major intellectual influence on world architecture and urbanism in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond, particularly in the fields of city planning, regeneration, and urban design. During his life he taught briefly at the University of Texas at Austin and, for one year, at the University of Cambridge in England.

In his article Rowe is criticising empty formal attitude of late Modernism, defining a formal spatial quality of phenomenal transparency on the example of Le corbusier — an ambiguity, achieved by tension of spatial organisation, a materialised cubists’ space.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1 Henry-Russell Hitchcock, “Food for Changing Sensibility”, Perspecta 6, 1960 2 Robert A. M. Stern’s introduction in Robert A. M. Stern, Peggy Deamer and Alan Plattus (ed.), “Re-Reading Perspecta.

The First Fifty Years of the Yale Architectural Journal”, Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT, 2004 3 Erik Ghenoiu,“The resurgence of visual urbanism in the American architectural discourse, 1954–1972”, The Journal of Architecture, Volume 17 Number 5, 2012, 791-805 4 Richard Conniff, “The Patriarch,” Archived 2009-05-17 at the Wayback Machine Yale Alumni Magazine, March/April 2008 5 Véronique Patteeuw, Léa-Catherine Szacka, “Mediated Messages: Periodicals, Exhibitions and the Shaping of Postmodern Architecture”, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018, 158-174 6 Joan Ockman and Edward Eigen, Architecture Culture, 1943-1968:a documentary anthology, Columbia Books of Architecture/Rizzoli, 1993 7 Michael Hays, Architecture Theory Since 1968, MIT press, 1998 8 John A. Stuart,“Review: Re-Reading Perspecta: The First Fifty Years of the Yale Architectural Journal by Robert A. M. Stern, Alan Plattus, Peggy Deamer”, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 65 No. 3, Sep., 2006, 457-458 9 “Architectural Phenomenology and the Rise of Postmodern” in C. Greig Crysler, Stephen Cairns, Hilde Heynen, The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory, SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012, 136-151;

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