Rem Koolhaas:

Field Trip
A(A) MEMOIR (First and Last...)
The Berlin Wall as Architecture, 1993
AA,
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London, early seventies.
"Famous" students present megastructures made o sugar cu!es to universal approval o grinning Archigrames"ue
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teachers.
$eter %mithson
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&al's in ( he &ears a lo&ered shirt ( &inces, and turns !ac'.
)edric $rice
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pontiicates on architectural modesty rom interchangea!le cards ( early randomi+ed discourse.
,enc's,
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a dandy, is seen to assem!le ( according to amateur terrorist hand!oo' ( the irst elements o the semiotic e.plosion.
A sulurous Boyars'y
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e.poses )hicago0s inrastructural under!elly.
%chool in upheaval a!out mystic ta'eover plat. Theory1 there is only a limited amount o 'no&ledge in the &orld &hich should
therefore not !e spread homogeneously or democratically ( it &ould get too thin. 2no&ledge should !e communicated to
chosen e& only. 3lia 4enghelis
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perpetua6ly threatens to &al' a&ay rom it all...
A monstrously idealistic appearance !y Louis 2ahn.
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8ever again... Tschumi,
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re"uently in periphery o my vision, already a
perectly ormed typology ( a teacher...
%uperstudio
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appearing on the hori+on...
6ncompara!le mi.ture, in other &ords, o )eltic :or is it simply Anglo(%a.on;< !ar!arism and intellectual erment. 6 there is a
plot, in any school, it is the eternal one ( simple =ar&inian imperative may!e ( o each generation trying to incapacitate the
ne.t under the guise o educational process. >ere it is very noticea!le and very e.pensive. :6 &as &riting movie scripts to cover
the costs.<
6n this anarchic assem!ly, one o the rare remaining ormal o!ligations or a diploma is so(called %ummer %tudy1 the
documentation :measured dra&ings, photographs, analytical studies< o an e.isting architectural item, usually in a good climate
( $alladian villas? @ree' mountain villages o complicated, yet to !e deciphered geometries? pyramids.
6ntuition, unhappiness &ith the accumulated innocence o the late si.ties, and simple Aournalistic interest drive me to Berlin :!y
plane, train, car, oot; 6n my memory, 60m suddenly there< to document The Berlin Wall as Architecture.
That year, the &all cele!rates its tenth !irthday. By irst impression in the hot August &eather1 the city seems almost
completely a!andoned, as empty as 6 al&ays imagined the other side to !e. Cther shoc'1 it is not 3ast Berlin that is
imprisoned, !ut the West, the "open society." 6n my imagination, stupidly, the &all &as a simple, maAestic north(south divide? a
clean, philosophical demarcation? a neat, modern Wailing Wall. 6 no& reali+e that it encircles the city, parado.ically ma'ing it
"ree." 6t is 1/- 'ilometers long and conronts all o Berlin0s conditions, including la'es, orests, periphery? parts o it ara
intensely metropolitan, others su!ur!an.
Also, the &all is not sta!le? and it is not a single entity, as 6 thought. 6t is more a situation, a permanent, slo&(motion evolution,
some o it a!rupt and clearly planned, some o it improvised.
As i time is an accordion ( a =isney
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archaeology ( all o its successive physical maniestations seem simultaneously present
in this deserted city :holiday; e.ile; atomic threat;<.ln its "primitive" stage the &all is decision, applied &ith a!solute
architectural minimalism1 concrete !loc's, !ric'ed(in &indo&s and doors, sometimes &ith trees ( implausi!ly green ( still in
ront o them.
The scale o this phase is heroic, i.e., ur!an, up to *9 meters high.
6n the ne.t permutation, a second &all ( this time o rough concrete sla!s hurriedly piled on top o each other :!y orced la!or;<
( is planned Aust !ehind the irst. Cnly &hen this &all is inished is the irst &all :the old houses< ta'en do&n. %ometimes,
adding insult to inAury, the street level ( a portico, orever(empty shop &indo&s, the striped poles o none.istent !ar!ers ( is let
as a 'ind o decorative pre(&all. This second &all is also unsta!le. 6t is continuously "perected" through construction
techni"ues ( more and more prea!rication ( that inally give it ultimate orm1 the smooth, mechanical, designed &all ta'en
do&n #9 years later. Topped !y an endless ro& o hollo& concrete cylinders, it is impossi!le to grip or those &ho might &ant to
escape.
=irectly !ehind the second &all1 sand, treated li'e a ,apanese garden. Belo& the sand1 invisi!le mines. Cn the sand1 antitan'
crosses ( concrete intersections o the three(dimensional a.ial cross ( an endless line o %ol LeWitt
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structures. Beyond this
+one1 an asphalt path, !arely &ide enough or a Aeep. :=o they avoid each other in the mined +one;< Ater that1 a residual strip
&here @erman shepherds pace !ac' and orth, patrolling the "par'," !aying at non(events. Beyond that, @ehry(li'e
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chain(lin'
encing.
Those are the linear elements. )losely spaced together are natrium street lamps, their orange glo& turned to&ard the West?
then, &ider apart1 the architecture o the standardi+ed doghouses. %till &ider apart1 guard to&ers emanating a visi!le military
presence even &hen apparently unmanned? guns po'ing through narro& slits. Finally, inevita!ly at irregular intervals1 the
sections through the entire system represented !y the !order crossings.
This &as the schematic proile. But in acts o o!vious realism, it &as not imposed on the city as consistent ormula. The &all
s&elled to assume its ma.imum identity &herever possi!le, !ut along more than hal its length, its regularity &as compromised
in a series o systematic adaptations that accommodated e.isting ur!an incidents or dimensional conlicts. %ometimes the
parallel layers o the &all &ould separate, s&allo&ing, or instance, a church. %ometimes the encing &ould surround, li'e a
tiger cage in a circus, a orlorn satellite o Westernness so that a nine(year(old could !icycle to school every morning.
That &as not all? there &as a "high" &all ( as in "high" culture D and a "lo&" &all. The irst &as maniest at the most "ur!an"
locations :mostly on the line that divided the ormer center in t&o<. There it &as at its most conrontational, at its most
consciously sym!olic in its shameless imposition ( on a Western enclave that !ristled &ith pseudo(hypervitality ( o a linear ruin
ininitely more impressive than any artiicial sign o lie. Along other, orgotten :orgetta!le;< sections, the &all assumed a
casual, !anal character :shades o >annah Arendt;<.
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6ts architecture rela.ed. 6 had not seen such a te.t!oo' demonstration
o dialectics since &itnessing the drill o the guards at Lenin0s tom! on Eed %"uare1 a antastically intimidating goose step (
legs lited higher than those o chorus girls ( that disintegrated meters in ront o the 2remlin gate into a motley group o loose(
lim!ed $etrush'as.
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Cn each side, the &all had generated its o&n sidesho&sFparaphernalia? on the Western side, a regular series o vie&ing
platorms :early models or >eAdu'0s
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mas"ues;< !rought the pu!lic as close as possi!le to the &all. %ometimes these ric'ety
&ooden structures &ere all that remained o a ormer ur!anistic apotheosis li'e Ale.anderplat+? sometimes their positioning
seemed utterly random, dissociated rom any recogni+a!le point o the city.
Cn the other side, the &all seemed the rontline o a slo&, gangrenous erosion o the good :3astern< part o the city.
But in this desultory year D 1951 ( the &all &as normali+ed, its apparent permanence dulling part o its ormer touristic glamour?
the platorms ( thrusting voyeuristic positions o ideological gloating ( &ere mostly empty.
The greatest surprise1 the wall was heartbreakingly beautiful. Bay!e ater the ruins o $ompeAi, >erculaneum, and the Eoman
Forum, it &as the most purely !eautiul remnant o an ur!an condition, !reathta'ing in its persistent dou!leness. The game
phenomenon oered, over a length o 1/- 'ilometers, radically dierent meanings, spectacles, interpretations, realities. 6t &as
impossi!le to imagine another recent artiact &ith the game signiying potency.
And there &as more1 in spite o its apparent a!sence o program, the &all ( in its relatively short lie ( had provo'ed and
sustained an incredi!le num!er o events, !ehaviors, and eects.
Apart rom the daily routines o inspection ( military in the 3ast and touristic in the West ( a vast system o ritual in itsel, the
&all &as a script, eortlessly !lurring divisions !et&een tragedy, comedy, melodrama.
At the most serious level o "event" the &all &as deadly. )ountless people ( mostly young men ( had died in more or less
disorgani+ed attempts at escape1 shot dead !eyond the !ar!ed &ire, the sand, the mines? caught theatrically at the top o the
&all.
A particular cruelty in the &all0s permanent transormation rom line to +one &as that the distance that had to !e crossed
!ecame longer and longer, e.ponentially increasing the ris', provo'ing ever more premature attempts at escape.
Cn a more premeditated level, there had !een more antastic attempts that relied either on hiding in vehicles that &ould cross
the &all at the notorious chec'points :eerily, it seemed that the most amous metropolitan crossings, such as )hec'point
)harlie, e.ercised the greatest attraction or those &ith the least interest in !eing discovered< or on circumnavigating the &all
itsel ( either in the air or, in a more traditional voca!ulary o prison escape, underground D using se&ers, digging tunnels,
starting rom living rooms that seemed unchanged since the Third Eeich.
:What architect ( ho&ever Bataille(soa'ed
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( could !oast o its transgressive perormance, o the sheer radicalism o its
e.istence;<
The &all &as the transgression to end all transgressions.
Reverse Epiphanies
This &as a ield trip that spoiled the charms o the ield? tourism that let a 'ind o scorched earth. 6t &as as i 6 had come eye to
eye &ith architecture0s true nature.
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6n the early seventies, it &as impossi!le not to sense an enormous reservoir o resentment against architecture, &ith ne&
evidence o its inade"uacies ( o its cruel and e.hausted perormance ( accumu6ating daily? looking at the wall as archilecture,
it was inevitable to transpose the despair, hatred, frustration it inspired to the fieId of archilecture. And it &as inevita!le to
reali+e that all these e.pressions ( the anaticism o the tunnel diggers? the resignation o those let !ehind? the desperate
attempts to cele!rate conventional occasions, such as marriage, across the divide ( &ere inally all too applica!le to
architecture itsel. The Berlin Wall was a very graphic demonstration of the power of archilecture and some of its unpleasant
consequences.
Were not division, enclosure :i.e., imprisonment<, and e.clusion ( &hich deined the &all0s perormance and e.plained its
eiciency ( the essential stratagems o any architecture;
6n comparison, the si.ties dream o architecture0s li!erating potential ( in &hich 6 had !een marinating or years as a student(
seemed ee!le rhetorical play. 6t evaporated on the spot.
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The wall suggested that architectures beauty was directly proportional to its horror.
There &as a dreadul "serial" !eauty to the &all0s systematic transormation rom an invisi!le line on a map to a solid line o
soldiers :that made it maniest<, to !ar!ed &ire dropped on the line, to the irst cementing o !loc's1 a atality o "development"
that perversely echoed, or instance, the sophistication o %chin'el0s
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thematic variations on architectural themes at %chloss
@lienic'e.
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!n the same level of negative revelation, the wall also, in my eyes, made a total mockery of any of the emerging attempts to
link orm to meaning in a regressive chain"and"ball relationship.
6t &as clearly a!out communication, semantic may!e, !ut its meaning changed almost daily, sometimes !y the hour. 6t &as
aected more !y events and decisions thousands o miles a&ay than !y its physical maniestation. 6ts signiicance as a "&all" (
as an o!Aect ( &as marginal? its impact &as utterly independent o its appearance. Apparently, the lightest o o!Aects could !e
randomly coupled &ith the heaviest o meanings through !rute orce, &illpo&er.
There &as no point in constructing the grammar o this ne& type o event. Ges, one could loo' at the irst sections o the
deinitive &all, read ino them a style or a language ( a 'ind o Clivetti
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aesthetics ( connect them to modernism, declare them
!oring, imagine rantic layers o mimetic devices as compensation. But on the eve of postmodernism, here was unforgettable
#not to say final$ proof of the %less is more% doctrine...
6 &ould never again !elieve in orm as the primary vessel o meaning.
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In my eyes, the wall also forever severed the connection between importance and mass.
As an o!Aect the &all &as unimpressive, evolving to&ard a near demateriali+ation? !ut that let its po&er undiminished.
6n act, in narro&ly architectural terms, the &all &as not an o!Aect !ut an erasure, a reshly created a!sence. For me, it &as a
irst demonstration o the capacity o the void ( o nothingness ( to "unction" &ith more eiciency, su!tlety, and le.i!ility than
any o!Aect you could imagine in its place. 6t &as a &arning that ( in architecture ( a!sence &ould al&ays &in in a contest &ith
presence.
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The &all had generated a catalog o possi!le mutations? sometimes the ne& o!AectF+one slashed mercilessly through the most
:ormerly< impressive parts o the city? sometimes it yielded to apparently superior pressures that &ere not al&ays identiia!le.
Its range from the absolute, the regular, to the deformed was an une&pected manifestation of a formless %modern% " alternately
strong and weak, imposition and residue, 'artesian and chaotic, all its seemingly different states merely phases of the same
essential pro(ect.
6 had not 'no&n &hat to e.pect on this Aourney. 6 had hoped to "do" the &all in a day and then to e.plore the rest o the cit:ies<.
6t &as so endless, 6 &ould say, that it could not !e measured. But its attraction &as hypnotic. 6t made me a serious student.
Three months later1 my irst pu!lic presentation. They &ere all there1 #, 3, *, -, /, and 5, in a mood o semiestive, semicynical
e.pectation :this school &as nothing i not un<. The images that appeared on the screen ( ormer conditions, concepts,
&or'ings, evolution, "plots" ( assumed their positions in a se"uence that &as gripping almost !eyond my control? &ords &ere
redundant.
There &as a long silence. Then Boyars'y as'ed ominously, "Where do you go rom here;"
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8otes
1. Architectural Association %chool o Architecture :ounded 17*7<1 the "oldest and largest" architecture school in the H2? notoriously
independent? student !ody1 *-9 :5/I rom over -9 oreign countries<? sta1 1#-.
#. Archigram :ounded 19/1, London<1 group o 3nglish avant(garde architects :$eter )oo', Eon >erron, =ennis )rompton, Bichael We!!,
Warren )hal', =avid @reene<.
3. %mithson, $eter :!.19#3< and Alison :19#7(93<1 ormer AA teachers? ounders o Team J? they had Aust pu!lished Action and )lan :London1
%tudio Kista<.
*. $rice, )edric :!.193*<1 architect o $otteries Thin'!elt, &hich insinuated a ne& university in a derelict +one o redundant Kictorian
inrastructure? also o "8o $lan."
-. ,enc's, )harles :!.1939<1 $h.=., London Hniversity? &or'ed &ith @eorges Baird on "Beaning in Architecture," an early e.ploration o
architecture and semiotics, memora!le or its ormat, in &hich each contri!utor could comment in the margins on the speculations o the
others.
/. Boyars'y, Alvin :19#7(99<1 ater a "revolution" &as chairman o the AA rom 1951 until his death and &as most responsi!le or the school0s
prominence.
5. 4enghelis, 3lia :!. 1935<1 AA teacher? later CBA partner :until 197/<.
7. 2ahn, Louis 1. :!.1991, Baltic island o %arema? 199-, immigrated to $hiladelphia? d.195*, $enn %tation, 8e& Gor'<1 American architect
and teacher? proessor at Gale and later at Hniversity o $ennsylvania? had Aust completed the $hillips 3.eter Academy li!rary and the
2im!ell Art Buseum.
9. Tschumi, Bernard :!.19**<1 %&iss(French architect o $arc de la Killette, $aris? dean o )olum!ia Hniversity %chool o Architecture.
19. %uperstudio :ounded 19//<1 6talian avant(garde1 architects :6 had !een very impressed &ith their )ontinuous Bonument and had
organi+ed lectures or Adolo 8atalini at the AA<.
11. =isney, Walter 3lias :1991(//<1 #9th(century genius? creator o Bic'ey Bouse, =onald =uc', etc.? planner o =isneyland, Anaheim,
)aliornia :opened 19--<, and Walt =isney World, Crlando, Florida :opened 1951<.
1#. LeWitt, %ol :!.19#9<1 American conceptual artist 'no&n or his &all dra&ings and structures? once &or'ed as a dratsman or 6. B. $ei.
13. @ehry, Fran' C. :!. 19#9, Toronto, Cntario<1 )aliornia architect &ho !ecame &orld amous &hen he enced in his LA house and
dismantled it !ehind the ne&, notional enclosure.
1*. Arendt, >annah :199/(5-<1 @erman(!orn H% political scientist and philosopher 'no&n or !rigins of Totalitarianism :19-1<, &hich related
the development o totalitarianism to 19th(century anti(%emitism and imperialism, and or *ichmann in +erusalem :19/3<, &hich
emphasi+ed &hat she vie&ed as the cooperative role o ,e&ish community leaders in acilitating 8a+i e.termination o the ,e&s during
World War 66.
1-. $etrush'a1 Eussian marionette &ho in %travins'y0s !allet :1911< leads his o&n lie, independent o the puppet master.
1/. >eAdu', ,ohn L. :!. 19#9<1 8e& Gor' Five architect &ho !ecame increasingly interested in allegories? director o )ooper Hnion, the "other"
architecture school.
15. Bataille, @eorges :1795(19/#<1 French philosopher, novelist, poet, and critic inluenced !y surrealists, A+tecs, 8iet+sche? developed
theories on "proane" human &orld o order vs. "sacred" animal &orld !ased on disorder, cruelty, e.cess.
17. %chin'el, 2arl Friedrich :1571(17*1<1 @erman architect &ho invested eclecticism &ith intellectual rigor ( an a!ility that &ould later resurace
in the architect C. B. Hngers.
19. Clivetti :ounded 1997<1 6talian type&riter and computer actory 'no&n in the 19/9s or its irresisti!le designs.