Controlling the Des ign Process :

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A Modernist Obsession?

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If there is one notion architectural historians are united in viewing as poisoned, it is "functionalism." Functionalism fell into disrepute early on, as if even those architects who had called it into
being quickly turned their backs on it. In the preface to Alberto
Sartoris' Gli Elementi del/'architettura Junziona/e, for example written at the author's request- Le Corbusier censured the narrowness of the term "functional" and ironically criticized "those
who lose themselves in the study of a window handle or a kitchen drawer." Was ever another book, intended as the anthological
manifesto of a particular direction, already refuted by its own
preface?r Yet functionalism was to encounter still other gravedigger amcng the architects' ranks. When Henry Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson presented modern architecture to the
American public in 1932 as the embodiment of a new style- the
"International Style" 2 - a genuine "epistemological caesura" in

functionalism; here I am thinking particularly of the work of Edward Robert de Zurko or the essay by Sebastian Miiller.4
So what is this functionalism, the whipping-boy of modern
and contemporary architecture? First of all, it is not a movement,
as the ending "ism" might lead us to believe. In Der modeme
Zweckbau of 1925,s Adolf Behne distinguished between the "rationalists" and the "functionalists," as represented by Hugo
Hi:iring and Hans Scharoun respectively; yet this distinction, as
subtle and fruitful as it may be, refers to only one facet or section
of the functionalistic world. Nor can functionalism be reduced to
the architects and theorists of "modernism" who, in the name of
a supposedly scientific method of design, sought to exclude any
autonomous artistic approach- such as the editors and readers
of the Swiss magazine ABC,6 Hannes Meyer, Karel Teige? and

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DAIDALOS 71 1999

2 . v,..o 3 OBERGE SCH O SSES.

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many others.
In actual fact, "functionalism" is still largely an unexplored
continent, one that offers many lessons for the immediate future
of a disoriented profession. In the following, I will limit myself
to one component of th e functionalistic legacy, an aspect that
has gone largely unnoticed and has remained without mention
in the writings of countless enemies of functionalism . I am
speaking of the theories and meth ods, the strategies and applications devised and employed in an effort to come to terms with
the design process itself and to direct it in a rational, critical way.
For "functionalism" was not only a particular conception of the
the Bachelardian sense had occurred.
object, manifesting itself in a specific architectural poetics. In an
Hitchcock and Johnson did in fact free modernism from its
aspect as yet little researched, it also applies precisely to the arideological, theoretical and methodological premises. These prechitect's modus operandi and consists of th e attempt to apply
mises, however, claimed to be politically enlightened and proscientific meth ods to th e design process itself. In its effort to engressive, oriented above all to the functional and technical qualisure objective correspondence between product and plan and
ty of the building; they disputed (at least in part) the legitimacy
liberate creativity from the arbitrariness of artistic practice, this
of aesthetic intention and most certainly excluded the possibilimethod resembles the inventive work of th e technician or
ty of creating a style. We should recall that in 1928, the first Inscientist. One might even go so far as to speak of a paradi gm shift
ternational Congress of Modern Architecture (ClAM) in La Sartaking place in architectural culture at th at time. This shift, to be
raz refused to incorporate Le Corbusier's "Five Points for a New
Architecture" into its program, precisely in order to avoid any
formal priority.3
The "humanistic" impulses of Team X, the pragmatism of
Robert Venturi and his companions, the "rationalism" of Aldo
Rossi and the neohistoricism of Leon Krier and Maurice Culot
have discredited the "functionalist" argument to the point that
historians no longer feel the need to study or investigate- aside
from a few isolated studies since the war that have attempted to
describe the origins and motivations of the aforementioned

o1 ~

eg~ntell bel einer Verklelnerung der Wohnflache eine Hebung

general work procedure to ascertain a rational apartment, in:

"GrundriBbild~~g

Dessau Torten development, model of the construction scheme 1926,

und Raumgestaltung von Kleinwohnungen und neue Auswertungsmethoden

in: Gropius, Bauhaus Bauten Oessau

in: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Berlin 1928, #34/34

whole, the variety and quality of the spatial effects and ab_ri~~e
ments produced by the planimetric organization. The sensibihty
for space he thereby manifests is extraordinarily modern and_ at
first glance unexpected, in view of the seemingly conservative
(neo-Biedermeier) character of his architectural prod~ctwn ..
His approach, however, contains an add1twnal mnovat~on,
one that, in my opinion, has not yet received sufficient attentwn:
namely, a genuine method of design. That is, his prop_osal for a
"general method for the study of functional dwellmg ty~o
logies"ro is not aimed _ or at least not directly - at the reahzatwn
of dwellings, but rather the development of suitable instruments
for the optimal organization of the intellectual work on which
the production of dwellings is based. His I 7 phases of pro~uc_t
development _ in particular the definition of need, the st~tlStJ
cal, psychological and technical data, the programs, the ch~Ice of
types the selection by means of questionnaire and graphic method~, the tests on the model, all the way to the serial building
method _ represent a true obstacle course, a challenge presented
in the name of scientific objectivity and the critical distance
which, with the help of qualitative criteria, selection tables, and
control instruments, is to be established between designer, user

and product. Klein's method proceeds

from the fundamental assumption that
the way to improve the product is to
make its creator more competent.
The function of "production"
In the experimental housing development Torten in Dessau, erected by Gropius in a number of stages from 1926 to
1928, "production" becomes the object of
functionalist thought. " Here, functionalism applies not only to the object, but
above all to the improvement of the production cycle: now, the concern is to save
time and to budget resources and manpower. Modern architects
have often invoked Taylorism 12 : the plan of the Frankfurt kitchen, for example, is based above all on the behavior of a housewife
preparing a meal. In general, the functional articulation of the
architectural object is oriented to the analysis of the processes
underlying the organization of Ford factory assembly lines; in
Dessau, however, the entire design of the housing development from the "scientifically organized construction site" to the urban
and architectural form - follows the Taylorist model for organizing time and resources. Thus, the broadening of the street at the
entrance to the development, at first glance a beautification in
the tradition of the garden city, in reality provides the space necessary for the production, drying and storage of floor beams. In
the same way, the width of the street accommodates the shortterm storage of steel girders and the motion of the cranes that lift
them into position. The garden side accommodates the production, drying, and storage of hollow bricks. The cement is brought

sure, came to naught- whether because its protagonists posse~

sed neither the means, concepts, nor terms (the meta-language, If
you will) to describe and communicate their intuitions and thus
to expose them to a critical self-consciousness, or because they
were and remained outsiders, or even because the cultural, Ideological and political crisis of the years I930-1940, together with
the war, presented architects with other problems.

in cartloads, so that the requisite quantity of bricks can be produced in front of each house and after drying, stacked within reach
of the masons. The light weight of the bricks and the metal fra mes of the windows, which serve as templates, ensure that the
walls go up quickly. In orthodox Taylorist fashion, every phase of
the work is entrusted to a specially trained brigade and the time
frame precisely established, while rotation ensures continuous
work. '3 In essence, this is a lesson in Taylorism, applied to building.
The book Bauhausbauten in Dessau by Gropius, published in
1930 in the impressive series of Bauhaus books, describes the history of this construction site, documented with numerous drawings and photographs. There, for example, we see a diagram of
installations, the schedule (a hourly chart regulating the construction phases of the shell work), the assembly operations picture-by-picture, the now-famous axonometric section explaining
the "modular building system," etc. In its final, rather disappoin-

Functionalism rethinks the architect's work

Alexander Klein's studies of the housing 8 financed by the Reichs-

forschungsgesel/schaft for Wirtschaftlichkeit im Bau- und v.:ohn~ngs

wesen land us at the heart of "distributive functwnahsm, the
version that offers the most criteria for evaluation. The systematic approach to optimizing dwelling types - according to the
depth and breadth of the plan, the number of rooms, the ~epara
tion of functions and paths (day and night), the dimenswns of
the furnishings and its possible arrangement- gives a foretaste
of the most refined design methods of the post-war period, developed particularly in the field of engineering an_d industrial design.9 In its graphic method of quality control, t~Is ~pproa~h ~lso
includes the-visual comfort of the dwelling, wh1ch IS not hmited
to the supervision of the children or the view from the window.
In fact, Klein brings an aesthetic-psychological element to the

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DAIDALOS 7 1 . 199 9

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Dessau-Torten devel opm ent, sc hedul e for the she ll of the construction , year of
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B RU NO R EIC HLIN CO NTROLLI NG THE D ESIG N P ROCESS : A M ODER N IST O BSESSIO N?

ting form, the development shows only few traces of this entire
process, such as the banal color distinction between the dark
bearing elements and the white filling material. The expensive
protocol book thus reminds us that the appeal of the Torten development consists first and foremost of the concept on which it
is based and in its process of production. In other words, the
aesthetic message has been transferred from the object to the
procedure, a development which may prefigure the poetics of
more recent conceptual art. 14

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Creation under control

The competition entry submitted by Gropius in 1929-30 for are
sidential complex for elderly women in Kassel,rs a project fi
nanced by the Marie-von-Boschan-Aschrott-Stiftung, clearly illu
strates the architect's critical distance from the product, achie
ved by means of strict evaluation criteria. Gropius submitted a
design and seven successive variations on which he commented
from various points of view and then discarded in favor of the
chosen solution. In his plans, he takes account of the orientation
of the plot as well as the existing buildings, i. e. the shade, the di
stance between individual buildings, the view, the length of
paths on the interior, the relation between usable floor area and
traffic patterns. On the one hand, such a procedure serves as an
almost provocative illustration of the distance maintained by
the modern, scientifically neutral architect between the "affec
tivity" of the creator and his "creation"; on the other hand, one
wonders what the purpose of the seven variations was. Perhaps it
was only a trick, a way to provide the jury with a broad and con
sidered selection of criteria for use in rejecting rival designs. In a
neck-and-neck race, Gropius took second place behind Otto

would consist in "forgetting the origins, prescribed meaning, and

'essences' which traditional furniture still concretely symbolized" in favor of a world that is "no longer given, but produceddominated, manipulated, inventoried, and controlled, i.e. appropriated."20

continues: "The poet removes all the signs from their places; the
artist is always the driving force in the revolt of things. With the
poets, the things revolt, throw off their old names and take on a
new meaning with their new names.( ... ) We perceive the object
as something new, since it occurs in a new context" (V. S., Theorie
der Prosa, Frankfurt I966, pp. 75f.).
Modern architects, too, sought to "remove the signs from
their places." The Rasch brothers were not the only ones who
wanted to describe things according to their function rather
than call them by name. When the German Werkbund organized exhibitions of interior furnishings in the 193o's, one of
them was called "Seats" (and not "Chairs"), another "Drinking
and Eating" (instead of "Glasses and Dishes"). 1 8 In order to break
free from established formal and ideological conceptions-prejudices that hindered the perception of functional value and all
development in favor of a broader instrumental usage - the "old
names" were abandoned. Modern architects, zealous (if perhaps
also ignorant) pupils of what Paul Ricoeur calls the "School of
Suspicion" 19 with reference to Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, contributed to the unmasking of these traditions, articles of faith, and
fetishes; for these "objects of feeling," as Jean Baudrillard puts it,
still resist "the lived design of a technological society": this

The cunning of"demonstrative reason"

in the radical functionalism of Paul Nelson
The clearest and most original method of functionalist design is
doubtless that of the American architect Paul Nelson. 21 When he
presented his "general program" for the new Columbia Broadcasting System headquarters on October 13, 1936, he considered
it "essential" to precede it with a "short description of the architect's working method," a method that "underlies and defines
the program" and is predicated on the assumption that Columbia wants to "write a radically new chapter in the history of architecture."22 The method is divided into three phases: "First
phase: the non-architectural analysis. Second phase: the translation of this analysis into an architectural program. Third phase:
the architectural synthesis, i.e. the design."
According to Nelson, the first phase involves the analysis of
material and intellectual functions independent of a specific architectural structure. The contribution of philosophers, poets
and artists is as important as that of engineers and financial analysts, for in reality, function is dependent on life in its totality,
not on a specialized abstraction. In a text published shortly
thereafter presenting the design for the Palais de la Decouverte
(I938), Nelson explained that in the first phase, "all preconceived
notions of the solution should be excluded with total objectivity
and no architectural drawings prepared." 23

Haesler and Otto Volkers.

above: Dessau-Torten development, organized construction site, year of

construction 1926 from the plan, in: Gropius, Bauhaus Bauten Dessau
bottom: Dessau-Torten development, tower crane used to relocate the rapid
ceil ing beams and armored cement beams (1927), ibid.

Functionalism in the "School of Doubt"

In I 93 I, the brothers Heinz and Bodo Rasch- who had assisted in
the construction ofWeissenhof and assembled the technical doc
umentation - published the book ZU OFFEN- Tii.ren und Fen
ster.r6 In the preface, they bluntly announced that '"window' and
'door' are imprecise terms" and suggested subsuming them un
der the broader term "isolators," which would include all outer
shells functioning to isolate the building. The authors then pro
vided a systematic and detailed analysis of the elements of an
"isolator": as "movable and mechanical isolators," doors and win
dows are subdivided into fixed and movable elements according
to motion, or "valves and slides" according to type of motion, rna
terial, and hinge. The importance of this analysis in the present
context is that, above and beyond its practical significance of dis
tinguishing the movable isolators that ventilate but block the
view from fixed and particularly transparent isolators, it dis
mantles the false self-evidence of the object of everyday use,
breaking it down into its basic elements and functions with the
goal of arriving at new and more functional combinations.
"We must tear the object out of the context of conventional
associations," states Victor Sklovskij in his theory of prose.I 7 He
DAIDALOS 71 . 1999

10

left: domestic Taylorism in the apartment of the Bauhaus

master. (Fitted cabinets from W. Gropius and M. Breuer), ibid.
right: settlement Dessau-Torten, rotating tower crane used to
relocate the armored cement relief beams. The photos
suggest a perfectly synchronized production process., ibid.

BRUNO REICHLIN CONTROLLING THE DESIGN PROCESS: A MODERNIST OBSESSION?

II

period, the legacy of this strategy of designing around "programmed" conflicts appears in areas other than architecture, as
the heuristic procedures of "brain storming" and "generative metaphors.")
This subdivision of the design process (its "Taylorization,"
one might almost say), the multiplication of control filters, the
psychological distance between creator and object- everything
seems geared to resist the temptation of any model, pattern or
prefabricated conception and to conduce to the creation of the
new and unpredictable. As Nelson expressly stated, the architec-tural result of his design for the Palais de la Decouverte was not
the product of decisions made by the architect, "but the
completely unpredictable consequence of the investigation of
the requirements." 24
In passing, Nelson takes advantage of the opportunity to distance himself from conventional functionalism: the architecture we are aiming for, he writes, is a logical and yet contradictory development of "functionalism." Through its absolutenessperhaps traceable to its aesthetic intentions - and its desire to
force functions into a strict architecture it considers static and
established once and for all, functionalism finds itself in conflict
with the necessities of the dynamic life of our epoch, which
might be described as the age of mobility. 2 s

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In the second phase, "the analysis is translated into architectural

terms. The ideal space is conceived with reference to every detail,
but without attempting to group the spaces. In this phase we
establish a relation between the organic function and the space
that will emerge and take on its final form. The work consists
mainly of writing and drawing. What the diagrams cannot represent, the architectural program will explain." This phase, in
other words, moves from the "schematic investigation of each
element" to the "totality of the elements and their relation to
each other."
Finally, the third phase consists of the "architectural synthesis" or "drawing," which in turn proceeds by steps from the
"sketches of the second phase," the "optimal space for each function," to the "delimited space imposed by the overall plan."
The transition from the second to the third phase shows the
full originality of Nelson's method. In the second phase, the optimal distributive and technical solution is sought for each func-

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Walter Gropius, competition project for a rest home of the Marie von Boschan
Foundation in Kassel, 1929-30, Systematic Design, BRM-GA 35.173 (GropiusArchiv /Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin)

tion or complex of spaces associated with a function. Thus, in

the third phase, when the architects undertake the inevitable in
tegration and adaptation operations in the creation of the overall
design, they notice everything they are forced to sacrifice or lose.
Here, the multiplicity of partial solutions functions as a control
filter, permitting corrections to be incorporated as necessary.
This two-phase approach decreases the danger that important requirements will be accidentally sacrificed or forgotten, as can
easily happen in a complex plan approached holistically from
the beginning. The method's significance, however, consists
above all in its recognition of the productive conflicts inherent
in the transition from the various individual solutions to the de
sign intended to integrate them. The innovation - the surprise,
as Nelson says- comes precisely from the solutions the architect
must suggest for those "programmed" conflicts. (In the postwar
DAI DALOS 71 1999

12

bottom: System of the mechanical isolator (doors and windows), page 83, in:
rleinz and Bodo Rasch, ZU OFFEN - Doors and Windows, Stuttgart 1931

ian reflex produced by one's own cultural education. For the

young Jeanneret, the "Voyage d'Orient" was first and foremost a
means of distancing himself from his own education, of criticizing and bidding farewell to regionalism, "Art Nouveau," the
"Ecole d'Art," and the modernism in statu nascendi of Behrens, Tessenow, Theodor Vischer and Josef Hoffmann that had so fascinated and irritated him in the Germany of the prophetic year
I9I0. 2 7 To immerse himself in Ottoman or Roman everyday architecture, to imbibe through drawing its spaces, forms, colors
and techniques, to describe, analyze, and record the things and
his own perception of therri in log books and letters was to him
what "washing his clothes in the Arno" was to Alessandro Manzoni, enabling him, in his own words, to recreate the Italian language. Without the experiences of his time in Triest and the
complicity of Nino Frank, even Joyce's "language consciousness"
in Finnegans Wake would probably have inspired him to other
things.

The projects and writings ofLe Corbusier in the 1920s:

almost a treatise on designing?
From the point of view of the design process, the diverse activities pursued by Le Corbusier beginning in 1907, when he participated in the building of the Villa Fallet under the direction of his
teacher and mentor L'Eplattenier, represent a single struggle to
develop his own approach to design, to liberate creativity from
all inhibitions, whether epistemological, psychological, cultural
or instrumental. Le Corbusier was to simultaneously change
both the things and his own perception of them. The fact that little has been written on this, that even Christopher Alexander in
his Notes on the Synthesis ofFomz 2 6 made little more than general
reference to it, may perhaps be explained by the respectful timidity inspired by an undertaking that seeks to extend from hermeneutics to the material history of architecture; or should it
simply be chalked up to the general disinterest of critics and historians in the forms and practices of architects' intellectual activities? (The old vices of an essentially idealistic criticism.)
In the following I will do no better: I will confine myself to
an inventory of those aspects that most precisely characterize Le
Corbusier's contribution to design strategy.
A first strategy consists of what we might describe as the "deautomatization" of inherited cognitive instruments, the Pavlov-

Systemati k der me<hanisd1en Isolaforcn (Ti.ircn uncl. Fenste r).

BRUNO REICHLIN CONTROLLING THE DESIGN PROCESS: A MODERNIST OBSESSION?

IJ

left page above: Pau l Nelson, metho di ca l wo rk plan for archit ects,
in: ders., General program of new building for the Columbia

Broadcasting System, page 2 Typesc ri pt, October 10, 1932

left page be low: Pau l Nelson, general scheme of attack, ibid.

The method r esolves itself into three steps =

the non-archit ec tural analysis.
First s t ep
s econd step

right: Paul Nelson, proposed operating re latio nshi p, ibid.

the transl ation of this analysis into architectural program

Third step

the architectural synthesis,

t hat is design

This generalized statement occurs in a text of great importance

written by Le Corbusier and Jeanneret in the far-off year of 1929,
when they explained to their CIAM colleagues their und~rsta~
ding of the application ofTaylorism to the design of dwellmgs m
order to avoid the "confusion of capacities" and the "hybnd processes" of traditional planning. They write:
"If we do not distinguish between two independent events on the one hand the articulation of the dwelling space and on
the other the building of the house; if we do not separate two
functions _ on the one hand an organized system of circulation
and on the other a structural system; if we maintain the traditional methods in which these two functions are mixed and dependent on one another, then we will persist in the same inflexi-

A second strategy, likewise aimed at the transformation of ~is

own cognitive horizon, was the deconstruction of perspect1ve
space through the practice of painting and the criticism of cubism. Like the "puristic" experience, "Apres le cubisme" and other
texts written together with Ozenfant constitute the "rech~rche
bility:
patiente" that Le Corbusier was later to describ~ unhes1t~t_mgly
as "la clef demon labeur." In this regard, he mentwns speoflcally
that only the daily exercise of drawing and painting o_p enedup
the general
to him "the secrets of form, developing the spirit of mventwn
28
like the acrobat who daily trains his muscles and self-control."
From the range ofLe Corbusier's entire research on efficiency
in the design process, I w~uld like to focus on the "plan libre," because it is the result and de facto consequence of consideration of
the "differentiation of functions" which, according to scientists
of "technical thought" such as Simondon, represents the indispensable prerequisite "for the concentration of diverse functions
non-architectural
into a single structure, and which constitutes the essence of a
synergetic redesign of the concrete technical object."
.
.
"The further development of the technical object." wntes Slmondon in 19 69,29 "occurs through the inner redistribution of
functions into compatible units. This replaces chance or the anarchit ect ural
tagonism of the original distribution; the specialization o~curs
not 'function by function,' but rather 'synergy by synergy. The
synergetic group of functions (...) forms the subcomplex in the
technical object. (...)The concrete technical object is one that 1s
no longer in conflict with itself, in which no secondary effect
harms the functioning of the whole or remains outside this funcarchitectural

scheme of attack for new C. B.S. building

ing

analysis

analysis

synthesis

tion."

buil ding and decor a t i on

DAIDALOS 71 199 9

14

gi n eer s ,
ec i alists
a oustical ,
c
!assistant
research !o
engineering
creative ideas

-tpractical

a) Industry will not be able to make use of the maison minimum

(minimal house).
b) The architect will be unable to make plans adapted to the
modern economy. Society, caught up in the process of social
transformation and marked by a dangerous lack of housing, will
not be able to use the maison minimum."3 (Considerations that
make the brothers Heinz and Bodo Rasch seem like industrious
epigones.)
In the Villa de Mandrot in Le Pradet, designed during the fateful years of 1929-3 r, at the same time as the Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier experimented with a new planning strategy, one that in a
certain way combined the poetics of the "open work" with therepetition in modern architecture of the pragmatic "piece by piece" typical of certain types of building, such as Mediterranean
everyday architecture.
In other words: once the building function and distributive
elements were separated from each other conceptually and operatively, the composition of the "puristic" "plan libre" resulted
from the subdivision of a given space or "pure" prism. The desired distribution solution is attained through the successive coor-

;application

dination of the entire spatial complex in plan and elevation and,

proceeding from an initial topological scheme, gradually becomes more precise. The type of "open" composition anticipated
in the Villa de Mandrot, on the other hand, results from addition
and subtraction, from the combination and displacement of simple cells or modules, which are always the same or at any rate are
based on identical and immediately identifiable spatial, constructive and material features: square or rectangular modules,
inverted or open-ended modules, etc. If, at first glance, the overall form eludes a priori sculptural or volumetric definition, its
formal coherence is based on both the tectonic and formal characteristics of the basic module and the rules of combination.3 1
This "open" character of the work finds its exact correspondence in contemporaneous tendencies in painting and sculpture
as well as in music and literature, as Umberto Eco insightfully discussed toward the end of the r 9so'sY
This inventory, albeit a brief one, should not close without
mentioning the design strategies to which Le Corbusier applied
the neologism "to architecturize" (architecturer) in his Difense de
/'architecture of 1929,33 since they directed the specific arrangement of those elements that secu.re the self-reference of the architectural message, i.e. the "elegant solution."34

B RU NO REICHLIN CON TROLL I NG TH E D ES I GN PR OC ESS: A MOD ERNIST OB S ESS I O N?

15

.-1

'

l_

p..::..

..

stinct alone; I leave every architectural synthesis aside, and

sometimes come up with quite childish compositions. In this
way the main idea originates gradually, as an abstract basis, a
kind of point of departure which I can then successfully use to
harmonize the countless special and contradictory problems."
Thus far Alvar Aalto.38 Now, however, we have at our disposal the elaborate volumes published by the Alvar Aalto Foundation with reproductions of countless sketches and drawings by
the master, encouraging us to test his thesis. The dormitory project on the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass.,39 seems to me to
be one of the most successful results of Aalto's "method," which
supposedly consists in following the pencil with childlike, trustful - and brilliant - instinct, from flourish to flourish by a

rades did nothing to change this situation. La speranza

progettuale, Tomas Maldonado's appealing title for a reflection on
the "revolutionary function of applied rationality,"4 1 certainly
sparked the imagination of the younger generation, though we
are still waiting for the volume on its application; it also pointed
the way to the "Notes on the Synthesis of Form," published by
Christopher Alexander in 1964. The distinction between selfconscious culture and culture that is not helped us novices to
understand the workings of various pedagogical models, while
functional separation-the distinction between specific and dependent variables, physical and functional goals, etc.-served to
structure the approach to complex programs and awakened a
certain "critical awareness of procedures." To quote the system

above: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Villa de Mandrot in Le Pradet

The downfall of "efficient" designing?

,
Alvar Aalto and "the courage of 3:00a.m.
Strategy- and method-supported creativity in design seemed to
face a bright future in the fourth decade of a century onented
entirely to scientific achievement and technologic~! effioency.
Yet, perhaps due in part to the ideological chaos leadmg to World
War II, this goal remained nothing more than the obsessiOn of a
few intelligent outsiders. Among these were such eccentnc but
ingenious figures as Frederick Kiesler and his theory of "correalism" or the Danish architect Knud Lonberg-Holm, co-author of
the Time-Saver Standards, which according to historian Marc
Dessauce represented "the first handbook of general architectural efficiency"36; to be more precise, it contained a large n~mber
of technical specifications and research notes previOusly
7
published in The Architectural Record and The American Architect.3
. To be sure, in the period immediately followmg the war,
there was widespread conviction that innovation in architecture
could also be found at the bottom of a glass, and there was no
.
.
. .
7
lack of confirmation for this temptmg hypothesis. But IS It true.
In an openly autobiographical text written in 1947 for Damus Alvar Aalto unhesitatingly reveals his "method" of approachin,g the most difficult themes and programs. With t~e "courage
of :oo a.m." and in the confidence that in the meantlme, .the un3
conscious has stored "those thousands of often contrastmg elements that play a role in architectural planning," he forgets the
"unbelievable jumble" of social, human, economic, and psychological requirements "that no rational or mechanical method
can disentangle," becomes a child, and draws: "I draw, led by m-

929 - 1931. Drawings FLC 22293/FLC 22297. First sketches for the fmal
1
version of the villa project with changes originating from the additions of
square cells.
below: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Villa de Mandrot in Le Pradet
1929 - 31. Drawing by the author (B. R.) synthetizing the development of the
plans for the villa during the design process and illustrating the principle of
"open" composition.

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Villa de Mandrel in

Le Pradet 1929-31. Modell, 1987

r u r
~

r.b_ J '

straight route to the masterpiece, when reason -long obscured

by the umpteenth cigarette and the last whiskey- dozes in the
gray of dawn. And what do we discover? A series of axonometric
projections that systematically revolve around the data of the
problem: optimal number of rooms, orientation and view of the
river, protection from weather, intimacy, rational division, location of central facilities such as cafeteria, etc.- just like Gropius
when he designed the above-mentioned retirement home in Kassel. The genius of 3:00a.m., therefore, essentially consists in seeking a form capable of embodying the results of precise, methodical research in a sculpturally powerful, engaging and synthetic
sign.

theorist Horst Rittel, designers were urged "to look critically over
their own shoulder."4 2 The proceedings of the "Conference on Systematic and Intuitive Methods in Engineering, Industrial Design, Architecture, and Communication,"43 held in London in
1962 at the Aeronautics Department of the Imperial College, familiarized its scanty readership with "morphological tables" and
"brainstorming" and once again confirmed the outstanding experience of interactive group work. On the whole, however, the
project of "project-making" lost ground, both in teaching and in
journalism.

"The designer looks critically over his own shoulder"

Since the war, the banner of methodological and systematic research has been upheld perhaps only at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung in Ulm; yet, as the protagonists themselves admit, much
has been said on methodological discourse that has yet to be applied.40 The outstanding teaching of Gugelot, Bonsiepe and com-

DAIDALOS 71 199

BRUNO REICHLIN CONTROLLING THE DESIGN PROCESS: A MODERNIST OBSESSION?

The typological approach: a strategy appropriate

for a product with such a strong social meaning like
architecture?
Interest in the meta-discourse of design declined to the point
that almost no one realized that the typological approach of the
architecture of Canella, Rossi, Grassi or even the Muratorian
School, apart from a rediscovered continuity and the historical
contextualism of its architectural language, actually concealed a
strategy of great efficiency. Based on the systematic study of
spaces and types charged with historical and social significance,
the typological approach guaranteed the re-utilization and controlled transformation of forms and resources thoroughly tested
by experience, without falling into mechanism, abstraction or
reductionism, the greatest dangers of the more radical "functionalism." In view of the resistance to technical progress encountered with industrial products "charged with powerful psychological and social significance" (Simondon)44 such as the car, it
may seem surprising that postmodern architects have not taken
more advantage of the capital of experience afforded by a historically and socially grounded, typological approach. But since the
197o's, the architect - who views himself as more of a cicada
than an ant - no longer condescends to such crude utilitarian
considerations. And so away with the handbooks, the petty passion of the "needy" architect. Does this mean that as the intellectual paternity of ideas grows ever more uncertain in such a complex, networked society, the creative orgasm is reduced to "cogito interruptus"?
"Demonstrative reason" versus "cunning rationality"
If we take the multi-phase design strategy proposed by Paul Nelson and reduce it for the sake of convenience to the core it shares
with Gropius, Klein and others, it typifies a linear conception of
the creative process, proceeding stepwise from the collection of
initial data to the solution, from the general to the particular
(although Nelson, as we have seen, is to some extent an exception). The preparatory phase is essentially analytical, documentary, and quite lengthy, striving as it does to provide planner and
designer with all the information assumed to relate to the proposed task in any way, shape or form. For Ezio Manzini in La materia dell'invenzione,4 s this rational, optimistic programming of
the creative process is a product of what he aptly terms "demonstrative reason"; it sets the epistemological horizon (and perhaps
also the "obstacle"46) within which the modern design process is
inscribed. In the field of industrial design - though not (yet?) in
architecture- observation of the creative processes of design has
yielded the following insights:

Genuine innovations are frequently concentrated at the end of

the process. Here, chance, subjective intuition and reaction often
play a primary role; thus, Manzini suggests, one should really
speak of the design process in terms of "heuristic strategies."47
Initially, it is helpful to start with even a rough design for the
product, drawn up on the basis of provisional knowledge. Com.
parison with specific demands, tests, ceaseless revision and even
the questioning of the initial question, the process of "trial and
error" involving the use of intuition, image and metaphor48 will.
at the end of a sometimes uncertain process, guarantee the pro
duct's adaptation to the demand and sometimes the opposite as
well.
According to Manzini, the "heuristic strategies of invention"
presuppose that, in the beginning, the designer has at his dispo
sal only "a part of the information, drawn from his cultural back
ground and the totality of his previous experience; on this basis,
he develops an idea and sketches an initial conceptual structure
of the theme, from which he gains an overview that can gradual
ly provide him with new information." For this reason, "he can
find himself facing a technical challenge which, in order to be
completely grasped, forces him to question even the initial
image and the approach he had used at the beginning." What is
needed is an "open representation of the problem, developed ina
process of constant adaptation.
The quality of the designer consists precisely in the quality of
these representations, in their degree of success in making a pro
blem locally comprehensible while still permitting interaction
with other representations and models"49. In the end, Manzim
concludes, one must admit that always and in every cas~
"chance, subjective intuition, and the variability of the frame of
reference influence the final result of the designer's cognitive
process and help define the outcome of the design procedure
Even the patchwork of specialized knowledge that constitutes
the designer's technical training is not generally acquired as an
element of formulaic, transparent rationality."
The "heuristic strategy" is a mixture of intuition, common
sense and chance, which we may describe as "cunning rationali
ty" and which the ancient Greeks called metis. "In Hesiod's Theo
gony," Manzini continues, "metis is the mother of Athena, the
goddess whom Zeus took as a wife and then swallowed in order
to lay hold of her sagacity. In normal usage, the word me tis evok
ed a complex of mental gifts such as shrewdness, acumen, or ver
satility; it was used for flexible or unstable concepts without pre
cise measurements or strict logical conclusions."so Today, whl
are the happy possessors of "cunning rationality"?

.; .

!I

~l

~I
Alvar Aalto, Senior's Dormitory (Baker House), Cambridge, Mass. 1946 - 49 .

Bruno Reichlin is an architect and architecture historian and teaches at the

lnstitut d' Architecture of the University of Geneva.

18

Drawing preserved at the "Aivar Aalto Foundation", Helsinki 'lne of many tables most like ly used to
systamatically analyse the For ana Against of a massive typo'ugicalalphabet.

DAIDALOS 71 199

BR U NO REI C HLIN CON TROLLIN G THE D ESIG N PR OCESS: A MODERNIST OBSE SS ION?

19

Notes :
Le Corbusier, preface to Alberto

Zweckbau, Munich/Vienna/Berlin:

Sartoris, Gli Elementi dell'architettura

funzionale, Milan: Hoepli, 1932. Fairly

42 - 53.
6 See esp. the program "Bauen,"

enough, in the introduction to the

Bauhaus, Zeitschrift fur Gestaltung 4

book Sartoris published the letter

(1928). "Everything in this world is a

that Le Corbusier had written to him

product of the formula 'function

Drei Masken Verlag, 1926, pp.

through economy,' but not

of title.

everything is a work of art: all the

piante e progettazione degli spazi

arts are composition, and thus are

negli allogi minimi," Matilde Baffa

15

Henry Russell Hitchcock and

"Alexander Klein, Lo studio delle

concret au travail," Faces 15 (1990)

on June 7, 1931, criticizing his choice

pp. 18 - 21 .
"Aitersheim in Kassel," Die

Ph dip Johnson, The International

not subjected to a particular

Rivolta ct. Augusto Rossari, ed.,

Baugilde (1930). pp. 115 - 117; Otto

Style: Architecture since 1922, New

purpose . All of life is function, but not

Milan: Mazzotta, 1975; a collection of

Vi:ilkers, "Aitersheim der Aschrott-

everything is artistic." ABC- Beitrage

essays by A. Klein from various

Stiftung in Kassel," Moderne

York: MOMA, 1932.

3

zum Bauen 1924-1928, ed. Emil Roth,

German magazines including Die

Bauformen (1932), pp. 133 - 159;

Hans Schmidt, Mart Stam. Among

Baugilde, Moderne Bauformen,

Winfried Nerdinger, Walter Gropius,

others, we should recall the text by

Wasmuth's Monatshefte, etc.

Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1985, pp.

Karel Teige, Mundaneum 1928,"

126-127.

Stavba 10 (1929), to which Le

conference on Systematic and

16

Corbusier responded emphatically

Intuitive Methods in Engineering,

OFFEN- Tilren und Fenster,

with his Defense de !'architecture

Industrial Design, Architecture, and

Stuttgart, Wedekind, 1931.

'.

of Functionalist Theory, New York:

(1929)," written for Stavba and

Communication, organized in 1962 at

17 Victor Chklovski, Una teoria del

Columbia University Press, 1957;

published in Musaion 2 (1931), and

the Aeronautics Department of the

pro sa, Bari: Laterza, 19 66; orig. ed.

Sebastian Muller, Kunst und lndustrie

reprinted in Werk and in

Imperial College in London.

Moscow, 1929, chapter on "La

- ldeologie und Organisation des

Funktionalismus in der Architektur,

L'architecture d'Aujourd'hui.

10 Alexander Klein, "GrundriB-

costruzione del raconto e del

bildung und Raumgestaltung von

romanzo"; here quoted from the

Munich: Hanser, 1974.

polemic in the texts mentioned in the

Kleinwohnungen und neue Auswer-

German edition, Theorie der Prosa,

previous note.

tungsmethoden," Zentralblatt der

Frankfurt/M 1966, pp. 75f.

Bauverwaltung 33/34, Berlin 1928.

11 Walter Gropius, Bauhausbauten

"Wohnbedarf" ("Accessories for

Dessau, pp. 152-200; Ch . Kutchke,

Living") organized by the Werkbuna

Bauhausbauten, pp . 39 - 52.

in Stuttgart in 1931. "Seats,"

Mass., 1964. Here Alexander is

Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1969, p. 34 .

solution," cf. Bruno Reichlin, "Das

progettuale, Turin: Einaudi, 1970,

12

"Eating," "Drinking," were the titles

referring to Le Corbusier when he

30 Le Corbusier and Pierre

Nlitzliche ist nicht das Schi:ine,"

p. 122.

standardiser et tayloriser,"

of the various sections. In October

defines usefulness and the various

Jeanne ret, "Analyse des elements

Daidalos 64 (1997).

42 Cf. Horst Rittel, "L'eredita della

supplement to Bulletin du

1932, a standing division was

types of diagrams: on form and

fondamenteaux du probleme de Ia

35 After his emigration to the

HfG?", in: Una nuova cultura del

redressement francais (May 1, 1928).

created for each of them for an

requisites.

'Maison Minimum'," in: Die Wohnung

United States, Frederick Kiesler

in M. Steinmann, ed., ClAM, n. 15.

entire year.

progetto - La scuola di Vim 19531968, pp. 118f.

13 Walter Gropius, Bauhausbauten,

19

p. 172, diagrams. Gropius' detailed

Essais sur Freud, Paris: Le Seuil,

See Martin Steinmann, ed.,

ClAM Congres internationale

d'architecture moderne. Dokumente
1928-1939, Basel/Stuttgart:
Birkhauser, 1979, p. 16 and n. 6, p.
17.
4
Edward Robert De Zurko, Origins

Adolf Behne, Der moderne

See the Teige/Le Corbusier

Cf. the proceedings of the

Le Corbusier, "Pour batir,

18

Heinz und Bodo Rasch, ZU

30

~..!. ~~

<
- - - - - - -----
4--+-1~-.-.-- - . 2~
.... - ..... - ..__. l' 'f!
n 1

]0
~;.,-

. ,

_____
...

He refers to the exhibition

Paul Ricoeur, De f'interpretatior

~--

~. Yd,

------ -- - - -- ---- --- - -- -- -- - - - -

27 See Giuliano Gresleri, Le

fur das Existenzminimum

preached the "correalistic designing"

Corbusier- Viaggio in Oriente - Gli

(Frankfurt/Main 1930). pp . 20 ff. The

and "biotechnical architecture"

43 Cf. n. 9. See also the various

text is dated to September 1929.

which, in his words, transcend

essays contained in Scienza e

31

functionalism .

progetto, ed . G. Susani, Padua

instructions for the course of work,

1965.

inediti di Charles Edouard Jeanneret

fotografo e scrittore, Venice: Marsilio

the division of labor and the

20 Jean Baudrillard, Le systeme de.

Editori, 1984; Fondation Le

composition in Le Corbusier, see

36 Marc Dessauce, "Centro lo Stile

Marsilio Editori, 1967.

specialization of the groups are a

objets, Paris: Gallimard, 1968, p.

Corbusier, 1984; Le Corbusier (Ch.-E.

Bruno Reichlin, "Cette belle pierre de

lnternazionale: 'Shelter' e Ia stampa

44 G. Simondon, ibid., p. 27

pure and simple paraphrase of the

34-35) .

Jeanneret), Voyage d'Orient-

provence- La villa de Mandrot," in:

German edition of the book by

21

Garnets, facsimile, ed. Giuliano

Le Corbusier et Ia Mediterranee, exh.

architettonica americana," Casabella

LVII, 604 (September 1993), p. 49.

45 Ezio Manzini, La materia

dell'invenzione, Milan: Arcadia

Frederick W. Taylor, Die Betriebsleitung, Berlin 1909. Most helpful for

1895-1979," AMC 15 (March 1987'

Gresleri, Milan: Electa; Paris:

cat., ed. Daniele Pauly, Marseil le:

37 Marc Dessauce, ibid.

Edizioni, 1986.

The April1989 supplement to the

Fondation Le Corbusier, 1984;

Parentheses, 198, pp . 131-141.

38 Alvar Aalto, "La trota e il r;;scello

46 In the sense of Gaston

Joseph Abram, "Paul Nelson

On these questions of

an understanding of the ideological

Bulletin d'information architecturale

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Le

32 Umberto Eco, Opera aperta,

di montagna,'' Domus (1947);

Bachelard's contribution to this

context is the introduction, "Das

130 is devoted to Paul Nelson; see

Corbusier), Etude sur le mouvement

Milan: Bompiani, 1962. The text grew

reprinted in Alvar Aalto, Idee di

theme in the anthology

AI ar Aalto, senior's dormitory (Baker House), Cambridge, Mass. 1946-49,

Experiment der Siedlung Ti:irten." Cf.

esp. the article by B. Reichlin, "Le

d'Art Decoratif en Allemagne, 1912;

out of a conversation at the Xllth

architettura- Scritti scelti 1921-

Epistemologie. Textes choisis, Paris:

view from the river, photo: Martin Steinmann, Zurich

also the very interesting essay by

fonctionnalisme radical de Paul

reprint New York: DaCapo Press,

International Congress of Philosophy

1968, Bologna: Zanichelli, 1987.

Presses Universitaires de France,

above right: from the series of design sketches. The final form already stands

Winfried Nerdinger, "Walter Gropius

Nelson," p. 15-16.

1968.

in 1958.

39 The Seniors Dormitory (Baker

1971, compiled by D. lecourt.

out.

- vom Amerikanismus zur neuen

22 I am grateful to J. Abram for

28 Le Corbusier in "Unite," special

33 Le Corbusier, Defense de

House) facing the Charles River on

47 E. Manzini, ibid., p. S. 62 .

Welt," in: J.-L. Cohen and H. Da-

providing me with a copy of the dra

issue of L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui

/'architecture, written in 1929 for the

the MIT campus in Cambridge was

48 Ibid., p. 57 for the suggestion of

misch, Americanisme et modernite -

of the "General Program."

(April1948). pp. 32-39.

magazine Stavba but not published

designed and realized from 1946 to

"generative metaphors."

L'ideal americain dans /'architecture,

23 Paul Nelson, "Le palais de Ia

29 Gilbert Simondon, Du mode

unti11931 in Musaion 2 (Prague).

1949.

49 Ibid., p. 61.

Paris: EHESS Flammarion, 1993,

Decouverte," Les Cilhiers d'arts

d'existence des objets techniques,

34 On the concept of the "elegant

40 Cf. Tomas Maldonado, "Uim

50 Ibid., p. 62.

pp. 147-170.

(Paris 1940) .

rivisitata," in: Una nuova cultura del

progetto - La scuola di Vim

20

14 Cf. my article on a scu lpture by

24 Ibid.

Max Bill that never went beyond the

25 Ibid.

1953-1968, ed. Herbert Lindinger,

project stage, presented at a

26 Christopher Alexander, Notes

Genoa : Costa & Nolan, 1988.

competition for a monument to work

the Synthesis of Form, President an

pp. '222f.

in Zurich in 1939 : B. Reichlin, "L'art

Fellow of Harvard College, Harvard

41

DAIDALOS 71 1Q

BRUNO REICHLIN CONTROLLING THE DESIGN PROCESS: A MODERNIST OBSESSION?

Tomas Maldonado, La speranza

21