A reader in cultural theory Edited by Neil Leach R London and New Yorkby Ralege 1 New eter Lan Landon BOA AE Smutano pbs ne USA an Cade 2B War Soe, New York,NY 100 prin 197, 198 (01997 Nei Leach or sein adi ‘Types in Son by Sas it ined ‘oad and bn i Gi Bray Intnl Poison, Comal Ais ere, Np hbk ay be ‘epimers o wed ay Farm oe ‘pany clerome, mh or aes sm so ow oss ete nla ‘owocopying sal eco or tn Ferme awit fom dhe liber, it Litory Cataloguing i Pubston Date ‘esata reed or are nae om Layo or alg neon Tein cheer reader cal sry Trl inp en nine: sant see Isa o-sis126-» Preface ‘Ackovledgmonts Introduction PARTI MODERNISM ‘Theodor W. Adorno Fanetionalim Today Georges Bataille Achitctre Slaughterhouse Moseum Walter Benjamin (On Some Motif in Ba Paris, Capital ofthe Ni ‘Century Ernst Bloch Formative Education, E Form, Ornament Sicefied Kracaner ‘The Hoel Lobby On Employment Agene ‘Construction of Sp Georg Siomel Bridge and Door ‘The Metopols a MeJACQUES DERRIDA reach lilosoper Jacques Derrida (b 1930) has bd a consis impacto the ‘wo architec the one Band heb en ety inv ved he gual “snge proces rough hie collaboration with Petr Enema or a eto of the Daredela Vile st the nigaton of Bernard Thum, who wor the cmpetsos foe the overall projet Om the odes it war be a coined the tet “dconaraon Wich ha een ssid Wey prblematal- witha atch ‘ocala Bronly speaking, decnmracion in philosophy i a projet which seks to ‘expon the paradone’ and vale laden bsarchies which ewe tan te Scouse teem meeps in opposition orate te -iarl the fly and slippage of meaning thet ix alway ar work the pecs of Sienifcaon, though decontuction“dismantr concept it nk with atc {ecu ar rly only epoca In she sein which wed by Bera, ‘Sconarocion i ot & ule and bas le = anything =n common th wha eset destin ath Noein a apa ‘in he word of actetae and fee 2 poeta concept ol ‘Within aechiectural cies mach confusion sutrounde te term “co seructon”. Derrida ates to ipl thi inthe interview “Aechcrare Whee the Desire May Le Here Derega explores the posniy ofa way otaknglaked tothe acitectral moment He anesthe quinn of decoction, wich be ‘hers, ‘tesembes an arhitecural metagor' Homever Deda sees ‘econarjcton isnt simply a tecnigueof reversed constuction Rather i's ‘poling’ which touches the echnsgu self yp ne sutory othe architect ‘Retaphoc and thereby constitutes i own achiecual there Dera ee ‘Stearn of weting nd hone ar ayo living, He cal for. Invent fac of acetal dieence' Archtcrare mat produce ace here desire can copie sel whee tea ive {nome de Folie” maintenant Tarchrectre dense but porte piece of rlng, Deeds oflers an nce analy of Bernard Tach fi a he Fase aie nf he reads his own philosophical project at he aehitecard Teems. The aise represent te inatabty =the play of sang The ted a teed cobes of Truss oles are cen sti” whish bree aw ike ao rhiecure, Tey gine acchtetre chance “Tey reve, persapr to nee) ‘ich war inne spacer, walled, bared tr cons rae ‘pull sowalga” Derida challenges the accepted authonty of eter Imperatives sacha economic sesteec or seco alarm orm in arc ‘sctue These norms wil be taken ito account, bu hey wind themacoes oonsi POSTSTRUCTURALISM subordinated and reisrbed in a space where they o loge command he ‘al insanee ‘wont war not bacon a divin of labour whereby Exennan supplied eo Taio aden dora ake Whee ese Sh'bestls ote ee forth chee or se ae Thong Goal Wort bcos fnos Do roe ‘tianlian of meaningWHERE THE DESIRE MAY ARCHITECTURE WHERE THE DESIRE MAY LIVE ‘Lee ws consider architectural thinking. By that I dont mean to conesve architecture a a techniq separate from thought and thee possibly foiable co represent im space, co coneitte almost an embodiment of ‘hiking, bu tater ease the question of architect 4 rossibity of thought which cannot be reduced tothe status of «tepreentaton of thowghe Since you cfr tothe separation of theory and practice, one might sat basking oneself how ths working separation came sbost. seme 0 me that from the moment one separates Theorem ad Pate, ore considers architectures simple technique and deaces i from though whereas there may be aa undiscovered vay of thinking belonging t the archi ‘ectral moment, 0 desire, 0 creation If one is going to envzage architecrare af metaphor and teteby con stanly punt othe necessity ofthe embodiment of thinking hw can ithe feinrodaced oto thinking in a non-metaphocical way? Powly not ecstacy lading to an embeulment, but which remain slong the W390 2 labysac for example? ‘We wil talk shout the Iabyrnth later First of al, would lk o outline how the philosophical wadition has used the architcteral model 38 ‘metaphor fora kind of thinking which in tslf cannot be archtceural. 1a Descartes, for instance, you nd the metaphor of the founding of a own, and this foundation isin fact what supposed to support te building, the architectonic constriction, the town at the base, Thete fontequently 4 kind of utbeniste metaphor in. philosophy. ‘The "Meditation the Discourse on Method ae fl of thee achiectonic representations which in addition, always have political relevance ‘When Aristotle wants to ive an example of theory and peactce, he quotes he “archteRton’: he knows the origin of things, hea theorist ‘who can also teach and has at his command the labourer who are incapable of independent thought: And with that apolitical heearhy is ‘talked: arehectonice in defined as an art of systems, a8 an Or {eteore suitable forthe rational organization of complete beanches of knowledge. Ie i evident that architectural reference usfulin rhetoric sna language which in sel has retained ao archeectarality whatsoever Teonseguently ask myself how, before the separation berweentheory and practice, between thinking and architecture, away of thinking inked to the architectural event could ave existed teach language proposes 2 Spatialization, an arrangement in space which does't dominate it but srtich approaches it by approximation, then tis tobe computed with Kind of pioneering, with the clearing ofa path A path which does noe have tobe dicovered but to be rested. And this cresion of path= not stall alien to architecture, Each architectural place, each battation has ‘ne precondition: that the building shouldbe located on path at « ‘rossroad at which seval and departure are both possible. There i 80 Bulding withou eet leading towarde rasa trom ror seve 39320 POSTSTRUCTURALI one without paths inside, without corridors, staircases, posage, docs, ‘And if language cannot contol these paths towards and with x ining, then that only signee that language i enced in se seructres, that iti ‘onthe way. “On the move towards language (Heidegger, on the way to reaching itself. The way i aot «method he smust be cleat. The method is technique, a procedure i order to gin ‘omtrol ofthe way, inorder to make tviale And what isthe way then? refer once more to Heidegger wo says that ‘odo, the way, isnot “methodor that theresa way which cannot be reduced to the definiton sf method. The definition of the way as a method is inerpreted by Heidegger as an epoch in the history of philosophy starting weh Descartes, Libis and Hegel and concealing its nature of Beng aw ‘making i alip ito oblivion whereas in fat it indicates an infinity of ‘thinking: thoking i always a way. thinking doesn't rie above the way, ifthe language of thinking othe thinking system of the languages vot, understood se met-language onthe ways hat means that language sway and so has always had a certain connection with babtability and with architectre, This constant “being on the move, the habiabiliy of the way offering no way out entangle: you in 2 lbyringh without any ‘escape. More precisely is 2 tap, a caeulted device sucha Joyes+ Inbyeineh of Daedalus. “The question of architecture i in fac that ofthe place ofthe taking place in space. The eablshing of place which dda ex unt then and {sim keeping with what will take place there one day, that a place As ‘Mallame puts ice qu a en, c'est Te he Tes a at all natil The ‘ering up ofa habitable place is an even and obviously the sting aps always something technical. I invents something wich didnt exst beforehand and yet at the same time ther is the inhabitant, man o& Ga, vo requires he place prior to ts lavntion or caving i. Therefore ow does quite know where to pin down the rgi ofthe place. Maybe thee isa labyrinth whichis either natural nor artificial and which we shai within the history of gaccooccdental philosophy where the opposition ‘erween nature and technology originated. From tis oppoiton aries he listincion between the ewo labyeiats. Let ut rem tothe plas, ‘satay and wring. For some ime something like a deconstruct p> cedure has been tabling ial? an attempt to fice onc from the ‘2pposiions imposed by he history of philosophy such ax physitecoe, Godiman, plosophyarchtecare. Deconstruction theselore atases ard ‘estions cncepual pis which are currently aceped as elf evident ad tural as if they hada’ been institutionalize at some precise point si they had no hatory. Because of being taken for granted they rest ‘thinking. 'Now the concept of deconstruction itself resemble an architect ‘metaphor Tes often sid ro havea negative atid, Something bas Be fonstraced, a phlosopicl system, a uadition, a cure, sod a8 omer + deconstractor and destroys it stone by stay analyser He Seructre and dsoles i Often enough thsi the cae: One looks, 32RE THE DESIRE MAY LIVE _ system ~ Platonic Hegelian ~ and examines how it was bit which key "Hone which angle of vision supports the bling: one shits them and ‘hereby res ons om the auehonty of he system seams to me, NOW fret thi thi snot the essence of deconstraction. ee ct simply the techniqe ofan architect who knows how to deconstract wit has been cnsructed, but «probing which touches upon the technique ell, upon the suthoriy of the architectural metaphor and theeby onstrates own bstetural etre; Deconstriton is no smpy asinine seems indicate the rechniqae of reversed construction when t sable to com ‘ive fore the iden of constuction. One could ay that thes oxhing nore architectural than deconstruction bu alo nothing kes cchitctra ‘Architectural thinking can only be deonstracivein the flloving sens: a, fan attempt to visualize that which enables the authority ofthe ach ‘ectural concatenation in philosophy. From this pont we can go back to ‘what connets deconstruction with writings satay ehinking in tems {fa path, ofthe opening ep of a way which withoot knowing wheres ‘willed 20 inseibes ts teaes Looking at it ike that one cas that he ‘peng up ofa path isa wring which cannot be atibuted wether man (oF God of animal since designates nts widest sense te place oat ‘which hs clasifcation - man/Godfnimal~can take shape. This wing SS euly like a abyrnth since it has nether beginning nor end. One slays onthe nove The opposition between time and space burween the time of spech and the space of the temple or the house as to loge any sense. One lives in writing. Writing isa way of ving. [At ths poi I would lke to bring into ply the forms of weiting ofthe uchtect himself, Since the itrodaction ofthe orthogona.prvecton, {round plan and sectional deawings have become the primary means of Botton in architecture, They abo provide the principles according to Which architece it defined. Looking at floor plans by Pallado, Braman, Samozz, one can rea the tans fom a theosentic to an anthropocenrie world view im that the shape ofthe crow opens increasingly in platonic squares and ectangles tobe finaly oully resolved {in them. Modernism, onthe other hand, distinguishes ise by 2 eicsm ofthis humanistic position. Le Corbusier Maison Domino ican example ofthis new rye of construction made of cubic element wit a fa oof ‘ul ge windows rationally asalated without any consracional oma ‘nents In cort, an architect which no longer epresets mn but which Mr eter Esnman pote it~ bocomes + slfceferenil sgn. A self. ‘explanatory architectore pve information on what i iberet i sel I fees fandamentally new relationship beeween man and cbject,hoase tnd inhabitants One possiblity of representing such an arctectae = ‘xonomerry: aide othe eading of bling Which doesa presuppose ‘shabby Iescems tome that this self-efletion of architecture within Achteture shows a deelopment which can be connected with Your work ‘on deconstruction because of ts tating point which is deeply rial of Imethodology and therefore also of philosophic nature. I the hows ia ‘hich one fel "at home’ becomes open to imitation and inrades pon reality then a changed concer of bulding as been introduced not a an erntoPOSTSTRUCTURALISH, pplication but 2 condition of thinking. Would ite conceivable tha e ‘ocsntic nd the anthropocentrie world view together with ts ‘beings [lace could be transformed ins s ew and more diversied network ‘What emerges here can be grasped as the opening of architecture, ste beginning of «non representative architecture In this conten tight he interesting orca he fat that athe outer architecture was nota a representation, whereas panting, drawing and sculpure can always iitae ‘Something which is spposed to already exit woud like to end on ‘nce more of Heidegger and above all ofthe “Origin ofthe Wok of Arn which he refers othe “RS (ip-break-up drawings) 1s 2 Ri which ‘ould e thought of in its orignal sense independendy of modcatios Sach as "Grumdhi (ground. plan “Auf vertical vcin), ‘Skier (raf) narhitecure therein imitation of the ‘Ri ofthe engraving, the ation of ripping. This has to be associated with weting. From he ‘rginates the aemp of moder and postmodern architecture to cates Aiterent kind of ving which no longer its the old cicumstancs, whee the plan is not oventedrowards domination, convoling comic, th economy and transport. A completely new pporberwee ure the deawing ~ and space ~ architecture ~ is emerging, Ths relations hat long been important, In order to talk about the impouliy of absolte objectification let us move frm dhe labyrinth to the uidingo ‘the tower of Babel. There too the sky to be conquered in an ac of na ‘iin, which ye emains inseparably inked with the natural language. A Uber the Semtex whote name means ‘name tribe therfore called “name! want o erect a tower supposed to teach the sky, according tote Scripts, withthe am of making a name for el. Tis conquest of te shy thin aking up fs postion nthe Sky means giving onesel same and {oom this powes fom the power ofthe name rom the height ofthe met language, to dominate the other trikes, the other languages, colonise them. But God descends and spoils she enterprise by uterng one word "Babe, and this word is 2 name which resembles « noun meaning coe fasion. With thi word he condemns mankind othe diversity of language “Therefore they have to renounce ther plan of domination by means of Ianguage which would be universal “The act shat his intervention in architecture, with a castration an that alo means: deconstruction ~ represents the faire or the limita ‘emposed ona universal language in ode ofl the pan for pli and linguistic domination ofthe world says something about the impossbiiy| of mastering the diversity of languages, about the impossibly ofthe being a univer! raslason, This also means chat the consturon achtecrue will lays emain labyrinthine. The issue snot to pve w fone point of view forthe sake of another, which would be the only oe and slut, but see a divest of possible poins of view. If the ower had been completed there would be no architecture. On ‘he incompletion of the cower makes it possible for architectre as well ‘the muliudeof languages to haves history. Thi history always hat tandertood in relation to 2 divine being who & fine. eras it 8WHERE THE DESIRE MAY LIVE characterise of postmoderism to tke this file ime account IF ‘oven dsinguishes il by the sriving for absola domination, ‘en postmodernism might be the realization af the experince ofits ed, the end of the plan of domination. Postmodernism could Jevelop 3 new {elasonship withthe dvine which would no longer be manest inthe ‘eaditonal shapes of the Greek, Chrisan or ober des, out would sil Sethe conditions for architectural thinking. Pethaps there is no Srbiccurl thinking, Bot should there he such thinking, then it could ‘nly be conveyed by the dimension ofthe High the Supreme, the Sublime. Viewed as sock, architecture nota matter of space Buta experience of the Supreme which snr higher bat na sease more ancient ‘han space and therefore spaiaization af ine Could this spatalizaton’be thought ofa a postmodern conception of procs involving the subject i tx machination to such ar exten that onmot recognize itself in a2 How can we undersand hit 23 echnigue i ides not imply any zezcquisition, any dominion? |llse questions we have sized ofr pot othe question ef octine and that can only be placed tn a politic! context. How st posibl, for instance, to develop anew inventive facalty that woud allow the architect to ase the possiblies of the new technology without spicing 10 tlormiy, without developing models forthe whole woe? An inventive faculty ofthe aschitectra difference which would big ou anew typeof tiversiy with diferent limitations, other beterogeneiies ha the exsing tones and which would not be reduced to the ecg of planning? A the ‘Callie International de" Philosophie’, a seminar is held where pilosopers and architects work together becae became evident that the planning of the “College” lzo hat to bean architect! venture. The ‘Cate’ cannot tae place ifonecannrfind plac, an arctectral orm for it which beats resemblance to, what might be dhowht in it, The ‘Calle’ has to be habitable a tui diferent way from 2 univers. ‘nil now there has en ao building forthe College. Yau ake a oom here, a hall thre, As archtectre, the “Callie” does not exist yet and perhaps never wll There isa fories desire for another farm. The deste Tora new locaton, new arcades new cords, new ways of ving and of shining "Tha is @ promise. And when I stidthat the Collge’ des noe exist axchiecrue yest might alo mean thatthe community ic reies does not st yet and therefore the place isnot being constituted. A community ‘rust accept the comment and work so that achiecural hiking takes place. A new selatonship between the individual andthe community Feween the orignal andthe eproduction emerging Think of China and Japan fr example, where they bud temples oat of wood and renew them repulsely. snd enizely_ without the losing thelr orignal, which ‘bviouly isnot contained nthe sensitive body bat sn someting ese. That toois Babel: the diversity of relationships withthe archtecaral event fom ‘one culture to another. To know that a promises Bing given even if is tot Kept in its vile form, Places where desire can recogni self where 33