Professional Documents
Culture Documents
16 DAIDALOS 7J 1999
left page: from Arcitecture without Architects, 1964,
by BernardRudofsky,Connecticut, USA
below: suburb of Tokio
17
Robert Smithson. Untitled
(Science-Fiction Landscape),
1966, negative,21,6x 30,5 cm,
CourtesyJohnWeberGallery,
New York.
interaction betwee n the real cond itions of a place and his menta l landscape. While the infrastructures for transportation
interpretations of that place. Site stands for the material reality constitute a de facto condition of the site, they are at the same
of a pre-existing situation, as for exampl e, the familiar landscape time solidi fied fossils. The windshi eld glass of the car is captured
of New Jersey. A Non-Site, on the other hand , is an abstract in its physical condition but read as an extens ion of the land-
representation or reinterpretation of the site in the form of a scape. Site and Non-Site demarcate a space that, according to
text, a map, or a sculpture. Smithson's earthwor ks, which he Smithson, can be traversed-a space, fundamentally determin -
calls "a sedimentation of the mind," involve in situ a context, ing the so-called reality of space.
while concurrently suggesting other readings of that context. In
a series of interventions referred to as "flows" in which "large Scape
quantities of asphalt, concrete, mud, or glue" are "poured across "SCAPE,"a term introduced by Rem Koolhaas, implies a read-
parts of landsc apes," Non-Site strategies are superimposed onto ing of the urban territory as landscape.4 The term prompts a
the Site, thus altering its perception.3 strategic distancing from traditional terminolo gies. The
Site and Non-Site stand in a close relation to one another, yet binomial and dialectical nouns town -scape and land-scape are
they represent different states of the same phenomenon. One not considered separate en tHies but are conjoined to form a
can be transposed onto th e other and vice versa. The analogy in singular expression . "SCAPE"is an idiom for the edgeless city,
"The Crystal Land" between city, land, and geology, between the in which the distinction between center and periphery, between
topograph y of the urban landscape and the car's dashboard, inside and outside, between figure and ground is erased. The city
belong to both catego ries as they coalesce into a new physical / is understood as a continuous, topologically formed field
structure, its modulated surface covering vast extensions of
urban regions. Despite its inherent discontinuities, breaks and
fragmented orders, a specific form of cohesion is attributed to
the contemporaneous city, the urban landscape perceived as an
interconnected tissue. Koolhaas speaks of a city of "exacerbated
difference" that does not follow the ideal of a harm onic order but
is marked, throu gh the juxtaposition of opposites, by a perma-
nent hybridity-a hybridity constituting the city's primary
connective principle.
DAIDALOS 73 1999
left: HansScharoun,water color
below: Hans Scharoun,capital city Berlin, competition
entry 1958, Stiftung Archiv der Akadem1eder Kunste,
Berlin, ScharounWV 212/2
20 DAIDALOS 7J 1999
r _? ira te elements of the city form a network conglomerate
4:-ie components which amidst divergences offers the
~- -:.:>
n of a constant uniformity. This unifying principle
.: particular notion of spatiality considered by Koolhaas,
- - = :o Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, a type of smooth
-. :-his peculiar kind of space is not bound by a specific
-.;~ _: is primarily marked by vectorial displacements, "mul-
'11.l.L. .("<_ lines, strata and segmentarities, lines of flight and
22 DAIDALOS n 1999
:;..:.JU. a coastal region artificially created by land reclamation
and marked by infrastructures, farming, abandoned
_,...,..,rr,"1 sites and sand depositories.12 Geuze approaches the
~ an ecological system. From the residues of the local
I industry, a polder landscape is created using black and
~a shells, functioning as a hatching ground for prevailing
populations. The project responds to the large scale of the
ding landscape. The alternating light and dark stripes of
shdls appear as an extension of nearby infrastructures
lbz:=:u~ _ a linked territorial complex. According to Geuze, the
-ape is always subjugated to a process of transformation in
DAIDALOS 73 1999
Notes : A ThousandPlateaus,Minneapolis:
Theauthors would like to thank Universityof Minnesota Press, 1987;
SarahGraham for being a critical and Milleplateaux,Paris: Les Editions de
most supportive reader during the Minuit, 1980).
preparationof this article. 8 Ibid., p. 4.
9 JorgC. Kirschenmann&
Robert Smithson. "The Crystal EberhardSyring,HansScharoun.Die
Land", in: Harper'sBazaar,1966; Forderungdes Unvollendeten,
JackFlam, RobertSmithson:The Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt,
CollectedWritings,Berkeley& Los 1993. p.233.
Angeles: Universityof California 10 Klaus-JakobThiele,UberHans
Press, 1996, p. 8. Scharoun,Berlin: AlexanderVerlag,
2 Robert Smithson, "A Provisional 1986.
Theoryof Non-Sites", 1968,in: Ibid., 11 Hans Scharoun, "Organisches
p. 364. Bauen",Vortrag anlasslich der 31.
3 JackFlam, "Introduction: Referendartagung,Berlin, 30.
ReadingRobert Smithson", in: Ibid., Mai 1961,in: Peter Pfankuch, Hans
p. xxii. Scharoun:Bauten,Entwurfe,Texte,
4 RemKoolhaas,"Pearl River Berlin: Akademieder Ki.inste,Band
Delta, The City of Exacerbated 10, Gebr. Mann Verlag,Berlin, 1974.
Difference". in: Politics-Poetics 12 AdriaanGeuze,WestB.
documentaX-the book,Kassel: LandscapeArchitecture,Rotterdam:
CantzVerlag, documenta and the Rotterdam-Ma askant Foundation.
Museum Fridericianum, 1997. 1995, pp. 20-23.
5 RemKoolhaas,"The Generic 13 KennethFrampton, "A Kufic
City", 1994. in: RemKoolhaas& Suprematist; TheWorld Culture of
BruceMau, S,M,L,XL,New York, NY.: Zaha Hadid," in: ZahaHadid
TheMonacelli Press, 1995, p. 1254. PlanetaryArchitecture,London UK.:
6 RemKoolhaas,"Pearl River TheArchitectural Association, 1983.
Delta, TheCity of Exacerbated 14 RemKoolhaas& Bruce Mau,
Difference," op. cit. S,M,L,XL,New YorkNY.:The
7 Gilles Deleuzeand FelixGuatlari, Monacelli Press, 1995, p. 999.
.
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. . ... structure
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. . archi
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. .. Further developmentof the diagramsby RosalindKrauss concerning the
relationship between architecture, infrastructure and landscape.
scape
.. ....
- . land
. .. tecture ..
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... .. ......
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...
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Projects:
adidas -Scape
Petrosino Park, Manhattan
Swiss Self-representation
on Expo 2001
Vehovar & Jauslin
Diller + Scofidio
Vito Acconci
Ken Yeang
as well as:
Zaha Hadid, Adriaan Geuze,
Foreign Office Architects, Greg Lynn,
Ushida Finlay, Bernard Cache,
Paul Virilio und Claude Parent
73
Authors:
Marc Angelil
Anna Klingmann
Mark Lee
Linda Pollak
Philipp Ursprung
Anthony Vidler
Gregory Volk
SFJKWB G+B Arts Internationa l ISSN 1561-0152 8.- GBP n,-EUR 12,- USO 20,-AUD 2.200,- )PY