Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Landscape Urbanism and the Event

POINT1: In Tschumi's first article, he analyzes of architecture and event begins with the declaration that "there is no space without event." Later, he amends this academic preconception with the idea that Architecture is no longer the backdrop for events, but rather becomes the event itself.
POINT:2 Alex Wall, discussing a more urban condition - specifically the urban surface - proposes that the urban surface unfolds events in time. He references OMA's Yokohama Design proposal as a project that designed a heterogeneous mix of functions and activities throughout the day. "The space of form is here replaced by the space of events in time."
POINT3: Tschumi's second piece, and more developed thesis, talks about spaces and actions (events) as being qualified by each other. "One does not trigger the other, they exist independently. Only when they intersect do they affect one another."
So which point of view most accurately portrays the relationship between Landscape Urbanism and Event? I think Wall's urban examples are most similar because he is discussing an complex and chaotic scape where event is probably inherent, unavoidable even. When design involves flows, connections, and networks, it is hard to imagine a space that exists separate from an associated event. The definition of event will always be another important aspect of this debate. Is the Hoover Dam an example of architecture/landscape urbanism or event?


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