Bernard Tschumi
Paul L. Cejas Eminent Scholar
Graduate Seminar
LECTURE 1: ARCHITECTURE AND EVENT
January.25
There is no architecture without event. The role of the architect as provocateur: relationship of indifference, reciprocity, conflict. Paradox of architecture: product of the mind vs. product of experience: limits, transgression, conflict. The architect does not create architecture so much as sets the conditions from which it springs.
LECTURE 2: JUXTAPOSITIONS/SUPERIMPOSITIONS
February.22
Architecture is provocative when two architectural concepts are juxtaposed or superimposed: programmatically, formally, or temporaneously.
LECTURE 3: VECTORS AND ENVELOPES
March.14
For buildings with fewer constraints against which to play, the architectural strategy must rely on different means. Activity springs from movement; movement through spaces creates vectors in space. Sequencing is critical to engaging space with its users as it generates a relationship between time, space, and movement. Sequences of movement constitute vectors. The rest of the building (roof, walls, partitions) constitute the envelope. Vectors activate; envelopes define.
LECTURE 4: CONCEPT/CONTEXT/CONTENT
April.04
Concepts give meaning and coherence to a building. Concepts organize and define how architecture functions; context is the geographical, historical, cultural, or political conditions of a project. The synthesis of context and concept are what defines the content of a project. Context and content may relate as follows through indifference, reciprocity, or conflict. |
