This dissertation begins to reconsider the theoretical and practical implications of notions of the cinematic in shaping the built realities and conceptual understandings of what architecture can be and can do. Through a combination of primary source archive research, interviews with a range of actors, original building analysis, and critical engagement with the secondary literatures, I examine a range of architectural case studies through a distilled notion of the cinematic, in order to begin to think architecture differently. The dissertation is structured in three main parts. Firstly, using primary archive research and secondary literatures, I reconsider the foundations of cinema through the successive image and moving-image work of Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey, and Thomas Edison; from this analysis I construct a core set of qualities of the cinematic. Secondly, I critically review the existing architecture-cinema relationship as it relates to the discipline of architecture, using a combination of primary and secondary literatures, and architectural projects; I identify gaps and contradictions in the existing understandings of the architectural implications of explicitly cinematic approaches; I then introduce two contemporary architectural practices that engage with ideas of the cinematic - Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Bernard Tschumi Architect. Thirdly, I use the distilled notion of the cinematic constructed above to think and re-evaluate a series of case study projects of these two architectural practices; I analyse these projects in detail to reveal a different mode of understanding both these specific architectures, and the critical positions of these architectural practices more generally. Finally, I begin to explore the broader implications of these conclusions for thinking architecture and its possibilities anew.

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Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons aux relations spécifiques entre l’architecture et la philosophie dans une période bien précise de l’histoire de l’architecture. Notre recherche consiste en une analyse approfondie du processus de la conception architecturale approchée à partir de la philosophie de la déconstruction. Il ne s’agit pas d’aborder de façon générale le domaine trop vaste des emprunts que les architectes peuvent faire à la philosophie, mais bien de se limiter à une entrée beaucoup plus précise, en partant d’une interrogation portant sur les relations que les architectes dits «déconstructivistes» entretiennent avec un courant de la philosophie connu, depuis les écrits du philosophe français Jacques Derrida, sous cette même appellation de «philosophie de la déconstruction». L’enjeu est d’étudier le processus de conception architecturale, son passage par des concepts et son aboutissement dans des formes, en le référant à la philosophie et en se demandant en particulier comment les architectes utilisent des références philosophiques. Pour arriver à une assimilation plus rigoureuse de la pensée déconstructive en architecture, l’architecte American : Peter Eisenman a proposé une interprétation du processus de conception architecturale proche de la logique textuelle. Ce processus s’appellera chez Eisenman la «décomposition». Notre problématique majeure sera d’essayer de comprendre quels outils à la fois théoriques et pratiques utilisent les architectes contemporaines afin de restructurer une conception architecturale influencée par la pensée déconstructive ? Le but était d’arriver à donner à la déconstruction en architecture un aspect et une définition précis, au-delà loin des seules images métaphoriques que certains architectes peuvent proposer de cette notion. De là dépendait le choix des œuvres analysées comme exemples de ce mouvement, mais aussi l’élucidation que nous tentions du processus de conception architecturale issu de cette notion de déconstruction. Notre but était de parvenir à donner une figure esthétique, théorique, fonctionnelle et opérationnelle à un mouvement architectural. Nous avons construit notre projet de recherche autour de quatre problématiques et hypothèses majeures qui résument de façon générale le chemin parcouru. La première interrogation vise l’origine de ce mouvement, dans la mesure où il est au croisement de ses deux disciplines divers, la philosophie et l’architecture. Est-il possible que ce mouvement soit le fruit d’une transformation philosophique en architecture, détaché de toute théorie architecturale antérieure ? Ou bien n’est-il que le développement d’une ou plusieurs idéologies antérieures en architecture ? Notre deuxième interrogation est orientée vers une compréhension de la source philosophique – les écrits de Jacques Derrida – et le processus d’une critique de la métaphysique chez le philosophe. Qu’est-ce que la déconstruction? La troisième interrogation vise une analyse concrète entre les données philosophiques et les œuvres architecturales. Comment l’architecture, art de construction par excellence, peut-elle devenir une déconstruction d’elle-même ? Dans quelle (s) limite (s) est-il possible de réduire la déconstruction à des connaissances définissables, comme semble malgré tout l’exiger l’architecture ? Ainsi, la dernière interrogation principale de notre projet vise l’impacte de ce mouvement sur l’architecture en globale et l’architecture contemporaine. / In this thesis, we focus on the specific relationship between architecture and philosophy in a specific period in the history of architecture. Although our research analyzes the process of architectural design through the philosophy of deconstruction, it does not generally address too broad field of philosophy. In fact, the project undermines the effects of the philosophical method of deconstruction on architecture and the so-called deconstructivists' concern with "philosophy of deconstruction" known from the writings of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. In other words, the challenge is to study the process of architectural design, its association with concepts and its effect on forms, by referring to philosophy and in particular by claiming how architects use the philosophical references. To achieve a more precise assimilation of deconstructive thought in architecture, American architect Peter Eisenman proposed an interpretation of the architectural design process close to the textual logic. For Eisenman, this process is called "decomposition". Our major issue is to try to understand what theoretical tools and practices are used at the same time by the contemporary architects to restructure an architectural design influenced by the deconstructive thought. The aim is to give the deconstruction in architecture, a specific dimension and precise definition, far beyond the few metaphorical images that may offer some architects of thisconcept. Although we require analyzable projects to achieve a clear-cut definition, we have tried to elucidate the architectural design process resulting from the notion of deconstruction. Our goal is to achieve an operational, functional, theoretical and anaesthetic figure in an architectural movement. We have carried out our research project around four major issues and assumptions that generally summarize achieved progress. The first question examines the origin of this movement, in so far as it is at the crossroads of two different disciplines, philosophy and architecture. Is this architectural movement theresult of a philosophical transformation in architecture apart from any previous ideologies in architecture or is it the product of the development of one or more ideologies ? Our second question is directed towards an understanding of the philosophical source in the writings of Jacques Derrida and the process of critique of metaphysics for him. What is deconstruction ? The third question is about the concrete analysis between philosophical data and architectural works. How architecture, art of construction by excellence, become a deconstruction itself ? To what extent is it possible to reduce the deconstruction to a definable knowledge that the architecture can use it ? Thus, the last main question of our project highlights the impact of this movement on architecture in global and contemporary architecture.

No description available.

Esta dissertação aborda tentativas e possibilidades, no contexto contemporâneo, da prática arquitetônica se estabelecer como prática crítica e, nesse processo, construir interlocuções com práticas artísticas que respondem a anseios comuns. Tomamos como foco de análise parte da produção teórica e prática desenvolvida pelo arquiteto Bernard Tschumi (1944- ), pensando-a e interpretando-a com o auxílio da reflexão e da produção elaboradas principalmente por dois artistas paradigmáticos, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) e Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980). Tais criadores se interessaram pela dimensão política e emancipatória das manifestações de arte ou de arquitetura que extrapolam seu campo específico de atuação e incorporam reflexões sobre comportamento, espaço, cidade e esfera pública. Assim podemos distinguir, no interior de trajetórias distintas com desdobramentos e coerências internas particulares, e através de um olhar que possui certa distância histórica, alguns pontos de contato que, apesar de indiretos, certamente não são inexpressivos. Evidenciam um repertório comum de idéias que foram compartilhadas por distintas manifestações estéticas na década de 1970, um momento histórico marcado pela vontade de transformação da realidade. Nessa ocasião, manifestações de arte e de arquitetura estabeleceram interlocuções através do desejo de participar de debates culturais mais amplos, que incluíam reconsiderações sobre o papel social da arte, sobre a noção de \"público\" e sobre o poder que poderia ser atribuído aos acontecimentos efêmeros. / This dissertation discusses attempts and possibilities to establish architectural practice as a critical practice within the contemporary context and, in this process, to build interlocutions with artistic practices that respond to common aspirations. Our analysis focuses on part of the theoretical and practical production developed by architect Bernard Tschumi (1944- ), considering and interpreting it based on the reflections and production created principally by two paradigmatic artists, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) and Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980). These artists were interested in the political and emancipatory dimensions of artistic or architectural manifestations extending beyond their specific field of expertise to incorporate reflections on behavior, space, the city, and the public sphere. Thus, within different trends with particular developments and internal coherence, viewed from a somewhat historical distance, one can distinguish several points of convergence that, albeit indirect, are far from insignificant. These points reveal a common repertoire of ideas that were shared by different aesthetic manifestations in the 1970s, a historical moment marked by the desire to transform reality. At the time, artists and architects established interlocutions upon demonstrating their desire to participate in broader cultural debates, which included reconsiderations about the social role of art, the notion of \"public\", and the power that could be attributed to ephemeral events.

Esta dissertação aborda tentativas e possibilidades, no contexto contemporâneo, da prática arquitetônica se estabelecer como prática crítica e, nesse processo, construir interlocuções com práticas artísticas que respondem a anseios comuns. Tomamos como foco de análise parte da produção teórica e prática desenvolvida pelo arquiteto Bernard Tschumi (1944- ), pensando-a e interpretando-a com o auxílio da reflexão e da produção elaboradas principalmente por dois artistas paradigmáticos, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) e Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980). Tais criadores se interessaram pela dimensão política e emancipatória das manifestações de arte ou de arquitetura que extrapolam seu campo específico de atuação e incorporam reflexões sobre comportamento, espaço, cidade e esfera pública. Assim podemos distinguir, no interior de trajetórias distintas com desdobramentos e coerências internas particulares, e através de um olhar que possui certa distância histórica, alguns pontos de contato que, apesar de indiretos, certamente não são inexpressivos. Evidenciam um repertório comum de idéias que foram compartilhadas por distintas manifestações estéticas na década de 1970, um momento histórico marcado pela vontade de transformação da realidade. Nessa ocasião, manifestações de arte e de arquitetura estabeleceram interlocuções através do desejo de participar de debates culturais mais amplos, que incluíam reconsiderações sobre o papel social da arte, sobre a noção de \"público\" e sobre o poder que poderia ser atribuído aos acontecimentos efêmeros. / This dissertation discusses attempts and possibilities to establish architectural practice as a critical practice within the contemporary context and, in this process, to build interlocutions with artistic practices that respond to common aspirations. Our analysis focuses on part of the theoretical and practical production developed by architect Bernard Tschumi (1944- ), considering and interpreting it based on the reflections and production created principally by two paradigmatic artists, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) and Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980). These artists were interested in the political and emancipatory dimensions of artistic or architectural manifestations extending beyond their specific field of expertise to incorporate reflections on behavior, space, the city, and the public sphere. Thus, within different trends with particular developments and internal coherence, viewed from a somewhat historical distance, one can distinguish several points of convergence that, albeit indirect, are far from insignificant. These points reveal a common repertoire of ideas that were shared by different aesthetic manifestations in the 1970s, a historical moment marked by the desire to transform reality. At the time, artists and architects established interlocutions upon demonstrating their desire to participate in broader cultural debates, which included reconsiderations about the social role of art, the notion of \"public\", and the power that could be attributed to ephemeral events.

L’installation architecturale, l’objet de recherche central de cette thèse, est un type d’intervention architecturale qui échappe autant au discours professionnel qu’à celui des chercheurs en architecture lorsqu’il s’agit de définir les limites de la profession et celles de la discipline. Prenant ses distances avec le déterminisme fonctionnaliste qui domine la pensée et la pratique courantes de l’architecture, la recherche a pour but de montrer que l’installation architecturale s’inscrit dans une tradition classique bien ancrée dans la pratique et dans la théorie de l’architecture et que son rôle dans la pensée sur le projet architectural et urbain de la ville contemporaine a occupé et occupe encore une place importante. C’est pour ces raisons que la recherche se présente essentiellement comme une exploration guidée avant tout par le souci de contribuer à la reconnaissance de cette pratique particulière de l’architecture. Avant de poser l’hypothèse de recherche, nous avons présumé que l’installation architecturale agit comme une construction active dans l’espace public, qu’elle comble certains manques quant à la définition des enjeux urbains de la ville contemporaine, particulièrement dans un contexte où les libertés de choix, de mouvances et d’opportunités sont largement accompagnés par des stratégies d’organisation, de contrôle public et de constructions technologiques, d’efficacité énergétique et fonctionnelle. La recherche a également supposé que cette valeur d’agitation sociale et culturelle est liée à certaines caractéristiques inhérentes à l’architecture, à la ville et à l’individu et qu’elle représente, par le fait même, un objet de recherche important tout en offrant une porte d’entrée dans les questions plus larges qui traversent la discipline. Parmi celles-ci sont particulièrement étudiés des pratiques et des discours qui échappent aux définitions usuelles et qui offrent un regard critique quant aux limites de la discipline, des pratiques qui mettent en lumière des idées telles que l’instable et l’événement, des notions d’intervention et d’éthique, d’action et d’exploration. Cette thèse cherche ainsi à éclairer la contribution potentielle de l’installation architecturale dans les problématiques urbaines et architecturales et de montrer comment l’expérience de la ville à travers le dispositif architectural peut transformer nos manières d’aborder l’espace construit. / Architectural installations, the central research object of this thesis, are a type of urban intervention eluding professional discourses as well as architectural research when the limits of the profession and of the discipline are put under question. Taking a distance from the functionalism which dominates architectural thought and practice, this research shows that architectural installations are inscribed within a classical tradition anchored in the practice and theory of architecture and that their role in engaging architectural and urban projects in contemporary cities still occupies an important place. The research therefore presents itself as an exploration guided by the desire of contributing to the recognition of this particular architectural practice. Before posing the research hypothesis, it was presumed that architectural installations act as active constructions in public space, that they fulfill certain lacunae in the definition of contemporary urban issues, particularly in a context where freedom of choice, spheres of influences and opportunities are largely accompanied by organizational strategies, public control, technological constructions and efficiencies, whether they be functional or energy efficiency. The research also supposed that the value of social and cultural agitation is associated with characteristics inherent to architecture, to the city and to the individual and that it represents an important object of research while opening on larger questions which cross the discipline. Amongst those are particularly studied practices and discourses which stand outside usual definitions while presenting a critical stance towards the limits of the discipline, practices which put under light ideas such as uncertainty and event, notions of intervention, ethics, action and exploration. This thesis wants to enlighten the potential contribution of architectural installations in urban and architectural questions and to show how the experience of the city, through architectural devices, can transform our ways of addressing built space.

L’installation architecturale, l’objet de recherche central de cette thèse, est un type d’intervention architecturale qui échappe autant au discours professionnel qu’à celui des chercheurs en architecture lorsqu’il s’agit de définir les limites de la profession et celles de la discipline. Prenant ses distances avec le déterminisme fonctionnaliste qui domine la pensée et la pratique courantes de l’architecture, la recherche a pour but de montrer que l’installation architecturale s’inscrit dans une tradition classique bien ancrée dans la pratique et dans la théorie de l’architecture et que son rôle dans la pensée sur le projet architectural et urbain de la ville contemporaine a occupé et occupe encore une place importante. C’est pour ces raisons que la recherche se présente essentiellement comme une exploration guidée avant tout par le souci de contribuer à la reconnaissance de cette pratique particulière de l’architecture. Avant de poser l’hypothèse de recherche, nous avons présumé que l’installation architecturale agit comme une construction active dans l’espace public, qu’elle comble certains manques quant à la définition des enjeux urbains de la ville contemporaine, particulièrement dans un contexte où les libertés de choix, de mouvances et d’opportunités sont largement accompagnés par des stratégies d’organisation, de contrôle public et de constructions technologiques, d’efficacité énergétique et fonctionnelle. La recherche a également supposé que cette valeur d’agitation sociale et culturelle est liée à certaines caractéristiques inhérentes à l’architecture, à la ville et à l’individu et qu’elle représente, par le fait même, un objet de recherche important tout en offrant une porte d’entrée dans les questions plus larges qui traversent la discipline. Parmi celles-ci sont particulièrement étudiés des pratiques et des discours qui échappent aux définitions usuelles et qui offrent un regard critique quant aux limites de la discipline, des pratiques qui mettent en lumière des idées telles que l’instable et l’événement, des notions d’intervention et d’éthique, d’action et d’exploration. Cette thèse cherche ainsi à éclairer la contribution potentielle de l’installation architecturale dans les problématiques urbaines et architecturales et de montrer comment l’expérience de la ville à travers le dispositif architectural peut transformer nos manières d’aborder l’espace construit. / Architectural installations, the central research object of this thesis, are a type of urban intervention eluding professional discourses as well as architectural research when the limits of the profession and of the discipline are put under question. Taking a distance from the functionalism which dominates architectural thought and practice, this research shows that architectural installations are inscribed within a classical tradition anchored in the practice and theory of architecture and that their role in engaging architectural and urban projects in contemporary cities still occupies an important place. The research therefore presents itself as an exploration guided by the desire of contributing to the recognition of this particular architectural practice. Before posing the research hypothesis, it was presumed that architectural installations act as active constructions in public space, that they fulfill certain lacunae in the definition of contemporary urban issues, particularly in a context where freedom of choice, spheres of influences and opportunities are largely accompanied by organizational strategies, public control, technological constructions and efficiencies, whether they be functional or energy efficiency. The research also supposed that the value of social and cultural agitation is associated with characteristics inherent to architecture, to the city and to the individual and that it represents an important object of research while opening on larger questions which cross the discipline. Amongst those are particularly studied practices and discourses which stand outside usual definitions while presenting a critical stance towards the limits of the discipline, practices which put under light ideas such as uncertainty and event, notions of intervention, ethics, action and exploration. This thesis wants to enlighten the potential contribution of architectural installations in urban and architectural questions and to show how the experience of the city, through architectural devices, can transform our ways of addressing built space.

This thesis project explores the question of the death of architecture; the declaration of the lost abilities of architecture to achieve political influence and the architect as a social actor. As I have found myself in agreement with this Tafurian perspective on the subject, I wanted to use this thesis project to explore the question of architecture and its political potential, as well as breaking from the paralyzing condition of the incentives of architecture's incapabilities. This, in suggesting that architecture can act as a catalyst for doing things differently. The project investigates, on the one hand,  how a building can encourage political action and engagement, and, on the other, how ideological ideas and intentions can concretize spatially, materially and aesthetically, The project is an design exploration concretized in a specific architectural proposal – a building for a political organization operating in the city of Stockholm.

In this dissertation, I investigate connections between French philosophy and the theory of architecture from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s. In the mid-1960s, many architects became acutely aware of the crisis of modern architecture embodied in the failings of social housing, the routinized corporate modernism of the postwar period, and the commodification of design. They questioned the principles of the Modern Movement and emphasized the “arbitrary” nature of the relationship between form and function while turning to French structuralism, semiology, and post-structuralism for potential answers. My period of study spans from the the period of political uprisings of the 1960s to the advent of digital design in the early 1990s.To date, little in-depth research has been done on the close relation between French philosophy and architecture in this period and its role in foreshadowing postmodern developments. My dissertation addresses this gap by presenting case studies of the theoretical work of six different architects: Aldo Rossi, Alan Colquhoun, Mario Gandelsonas and Diana Agrest, Bernard Tschumi, and Peter Eisenman. These case studies share a common thread: a preoccupation with structuralist and poststructuralist concerns with language. However, concepts such as “structure,” “event,” and “meaning” often have different meanings for each of these architects. Thus, my project could be described as a history and criticism of architectural theory—one that focuses specifically on the dissonances and contradictions present within the theoretical writings of these architects, while examining the polemics and discussions between them. I consider their built work only to the extent that it helps to elucidate or challenge theoretical concepts. Thus, in my case study on Aldo Rossi’s writings, I interrogate the analogy between the structuralist concern for articulating discrete and finite linguistic units and the latter’s notion of “type” and urban morphology. In the chapter on Alan Colquhoun, I discuss the influence that the work of Roland Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Ferdinand de Saussure had on his reflections about “meaning” and “convention” in architecture. In the case study on the work of Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas, I examine the extent to which their understanding of “theory” and of “ideology” is indebted to the work of Louis Althusser and trace the influence of Roland Barthes, whose seminar on S/Z they attended in Paris before moving to New York in 1971. Likewise, I analyze the role that thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Roland Barthes, and the Tel Quel circle in the late 1970s, and Jacques Derrida in the early 1980s had on Bernard Tschumi’s writings on the “polysemy of meaning” and on the “event.” Finally, I examine Peter Eisenman’s collaboration with Jacques Derrida in the 1980s questioning Eisenman’s eclectic appropriation of Derrida’s philosophical concepts. Besides elucidating this significant period of architecture in which many of the fundamental principles of modern architecture were overturned, in the conclusion of this study, I discuss briefly the “post-critical turn” in the architectural scholarship of the past two decades with the hope of challenging its basic assumptions. My hope is to contribute, through its critical reevaluation, to theory’s renewal.