Broadacre City

Frank Lloyd Wright

and his vision for the urban future

Usonia

The Galesburg Country Homes

'Inside and Outside in Architecture' Excursus

by Franz Sdoutz

'The Galesburg Country Homes'

Also known as 'The Acres' [lots of (owned) land in terms of extensive, but in contrast to 'open range', surveyed and thus (by means of such distinction see Excursus) claimed. In its original sense acre/field relates ownership (tenure) to cultivation.]

Each home is placed in a one acre circle, floating the commonly owned space [in between].
All that's necessary is to locate the disk's centres and » … any house owner can tell where his lot limits are. « II.) 7 (Superficially minimising efforts on survey.)

Wright celebrates this colonisation. To outline ones influence - even in symbolic terms - establishes that claim. Sufficient distance between houses [and men] is ensured. Each disk has a diameter of 72 meter, and is instrumental in preventing odd leftover lots. Dealing with topography isn't that straightforward though […]. Prime locations remain exclusive […] and access roundabout.

For an outsider these domains aren’t tangible, not even from above [a b c]. The plan [for these cooperatives] delineates first and foremost the "accounted" egality of its stakeholders, distinguishing it in every respect. […]

Similar cooperative community schemes, sporting circular layouts, are:
Parkwyn Village in Kalamazoo, Michigan 1947
Usonia II (Usonia Homes, Inc.) in Pleasantville, New York, 1947

Excursus: 'Inside and Outside in Architecture' V.) VI.) VII.) XV.)

German sociologist Dirk Baecker [...] builds his [systemic] interpretation of architecture with respect to Frank Lloyd Wright, observing 'The Destruction of the Box' VIII.) 27 as the » perhaps most significant benchmark « V.) 13 V.) 14 in architecture(theory). [PDF]

» […] Primary and elementary, according to Wright, architecture is not about boxing [in], but about enclosure. [ IX.) 27 ] This fundamental idea, and this is crucial, is not conceived by Wright as other-reference, but as self-reference of architecture […] The issue is not; that architecture is accommodation and containment, but rather how it can be that. […] The screen [ X.) 28 ] posits the distinction of inside and outside [interior and exterior] and in positing it is the unit[y] of difference. […] « V.) 15

Aside from being Intuitively sceptical in terms of how Wright’s American understanding IX.) 27 X.) relates to Baecker’s German theory jargon, V.) 16 VII.) 25 I also resist for that matter a certain [aspired] "non-vividness" deemed necessary in order to » discover, not what and why architecture is, but rather how it can be achieved […] « V.) 12
Architecture means to distinguish all right (just like livestock farming or haute couture does …) in terms of PLENTY of different distinctions, see also XVI.) 43 made by many, at different times and according to distinguishing contexts …

It often remains unclear what’s being incorporated into self descriptions / self observations of architecture as "architecture", and above all for what reasons … Thus distinguishing only ONE central theme [lead-difference] – namely the distinction of inside and outside as constitutive for architecture – seems little insight.
The methodical approach, only to observe » communication on architecture « V.) 11 and not architecture as such (whatever that may be) basically makes that viable. In return architecture(theory) tends to forward architecture as » communication via physical artefacts and buildings. « XVI.) 42 … all together, V.) 30 including all proceedings developed precisely to conceive / inform VII.) 24 distinctions [in architectural terms] "simultaneously". XV.) 36

And than there’s still that overwhelming multitude of inside / outside issues [in terms of screens, shelter, such as the umbrella], V.) 19 which most certainly [?] are not architecture - therefore being appropriated by self descriptions of different societal [functional] subsystems ... V.) 18

Does this definition / observation of architecture make sense at all?

In my mind's eye the Nambikwara XI.) Indians [Img. _02] trek Superstudio's XII.) 'Supersurface' [Img. _03 ] equipped with palm leafs. Both familiar narratives.

While aboriginal residual vegetation still complies with the 'Primitive Hut' of Baecker’s lead-distinction, V.) 17 Superstudio promote abandonment of inside and outside - architecture for that matter. XII.) 29
For the sake of completeness: palm leafs (without wickerwork) traditionally are no architecture yet, 'Supersurface' (even without palm leafs) by all means is – or vice versa – or both, for this ain’t conclusive … V.) 18 VI.) 21 VI.) 22

Differentiation of 'inside and outside' is spatially induced, as many notions are … for [my] language has a tendency to translate anything non descriptive to three dimensions. XIV.) 32
The very reason for such 'differences' to immediately suggest themselves, to be applicable - and that equals to be meaningful in the first place - is [our concept of] space: the environment, we distinguish ourselves from, the medium we are immersed into … XV.) 35

Even if 'screening' conditions architecture as its sole medium, by reconceptualising space as the mere medium of its medium V.) 31 (already containing / allowing for such nesting) still » the medium is the message « …

The architecture of communication: V.) 30

» [One] loses sight for one’s own intelligence. […] This used to be a general theorem we followed in Bielefeld at the time, that practice is more intelligent than the way it speaks about itself. That means that people talk dumber than they act. « VIII.) 26 V.) 11 XIV.) 33

At least we [architects] are trusted with building …

What remains are issues of interpretational sovereignty in architecture(theory). Why is that important? Because it’s about external perception, the system limits of the discipline, where it [inter]faces business.

References

1. 'Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses: Designs for Moderate Cost One-Family Homes' by John Sergeant, published by Watson-Guptill Publications / New York, 1984 Paperback Edition (First published 1976 in New York, by Whitney Library of Design) http://books.google.at/
   
   Img. _01 Master plan FLWF 4828.001 [retracing]
   Caption: » Galesburg Country Homes, site plan, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1947. Each home was placed in a circular 1-acre lot. « [John Sergeant shows this plan with the "water feature" [to the north] facing down, page 79]
   
   » At Galesburg Country Homes […Wright's] four-house designs used concrete blocks to avoid postwar shortages of building materials. The community members, a group of chemists from the Upjohn Institute, made the blocks themselves from a Taliesin mold, obtained materials in bulk and built their own homes. […] The site plans for both Michigan groups [see also 'Parkwyn Village'] proposed a layout of serpentine roads meandering about the contours and servicing circular 1-acre lots. For the most part, these lots touched only at their circumferences; open space between them was maintained as landscape held in common by the community. « [page 79]
   
   1 a b c » The Galesburg homes included the following designs, all of 1948 and all of textile block: Weisblatt [Weisblat], Pratt, and Eppstein. The Meyer house, also of 1948, is of conventional concrete block. « [note 61, page 174]
2. 'Frank Lloyd Wright 1943-1959: The Complete Works' [Volume 3] by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, edited by Peter Gössel, published by Taschen 2009
   http://www.taschen.com/
   
   'Master Plan for Galesburg Country Homes, 1947' [All drawings reproduced bear 48… numbers, page 121]
   
   6 4828.001 master plan label: » THE GALESBURG COUNTRY HOMES … «
   
   
   7 » Forty-two circles represent the plots for 42 homes on 72 acres. Wright wrote: [in 'The Architectural Forum' III.) ] "The center of each disk of ground once located by survey and diameter given, any house owner can tell where his lot limits are. No lot line touches another wherever the scheme is perfect. All interspaces are to be planted to some native shrub like barberry or sumach, throwing a network of color in pattern over the entire tract." The plan was later modified to provide 21 homes, and then once again modified to provide 18. […] «
   
   2 4905.010 plan label:
   » … HOUSE FOR MR. & MRS. SAMUEL EPPSTEIN … « [page 157]
   
   3 5015.009 main floor plan label:
   » … RESIDENCE FOR MR AND MRS CURTIS MEYER … « [pages 170 -171]
   
   4 4827.002 perspective view label:
   » HOUSE FOR MR & MRS. ERIC PRATT GALESBURG COUNTRY HOMES ASSOCIATION FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT - ARCHITECT « [pages 179 -180]
   
   5 4918.001 plan label:
   » … HOUSE FOR MR. AND MRS. DAVID I. WEISBLAT … « [page 188]
3. The Architectural Forum - 'Frank Lloyd Wright'. The Magazine of Building. New York, NY, published by Billboard Publications, January 1948 [page 84, according to Brooks Pfeiffer II.) ]
   http://www.steinerag.com/
4. 'The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: a complete catalog' by William Allin Storrer, Frank Lloyd Wright, published by University of Chicago Press, 2002 http://books.google.at/
   
   [pages 294 to 297]
   
   

   ---

   
   
   ^ Excursus: Second-order observations
5. IN: 'Unbeobachtbare Welt: über Kunst und Architektur [Unobservable World: on Art and Architecture]' by Niklas Luhmann, Frederick D. Bunsen and Dirk Baecker, published by Verlag Cordula Haux, Bielefeld 1990
   http://books.google.com/
   
   ^ a b 'Die Dekonstruktion der Schachtel: Innen und Außen in der Architektur [The Deconstruction of the Box: Inside and Outside in Architecture]' by Dirk Baecker [page 67-104, details according to Baecker] PDF my copy
   [Baecker argues in terms of 'distinctions' not 'spatial conditions' … ]
   
   11 » In den folgenden Überlegungen geht es um einen ausgewählten Aspekt der Soziologie der Architektur. […] wir versuchen, die Theorie der Architektur als einen Teilbereich der Kommunikation über Architektur daraufhin zu untersuchen, wie mit dem Prinzipienlosen umgegangen wird. Wir beschränken uns auf eine Untersuchung der Kommunikation über Architektur, insoweit sie in einer Reflexionstheorie, in der Architekturtheorie, ihren Niederschlag gefunden hat und dort gepflegt und variiert wird. Die Architekturtheorie dient uns als Spiegel, der uns von der Architektur sichtbar machen soll, was jeder einzelne Bau und jeder einzelne Entwurf nur verbergen kann. […] Das Verfahren des Soziologen ist […] die Beobachtung von Beobachtern, die behaupten zu wissen, was sie tun. […] « [page 68]
   41 a » […] Dieses Problem besteht in der Unmöglichkeit, architektonisch die Einheit der Differenz von Innen und Außen zu denken, eine Einheit, die, so vermuten wir, als eigentliche Form der Architektur gelten kann. […] « [page 70] First of all: Architecture isn't a problem for architects: architecture is the solution … What's really interesting [here] is the conviction (expressed by a sociologist) that (the societal subsystem of) architecture (provided it exists) is constructed / constituted via statements on architecture made by architects! Such is the blind spot of sociology. [See above and below.]
   12 » Denn auch die Architektur muß unanschaulich werden, um zu entdecken, nicht was und warum sie ist, sondern wie sie zustande kommt. Das geht nur auf dem Umweg über die Negation. Im Moment der Dekonstruktion der Schachtel werden bestimmte Bedingungen der Architektur, an denen bisher festgehalten worden war, aufs Spiel gesetzt und erst in diesem Moment als elementare Bedingungen der Architektur gewonnen. […] « [page 88, see also page 97]
   
   13 » […] Die Architekturtheorie lebt vom Reflexivwerden der Architektur selbst, als deren vielleicht wichtigstes Datum Frank Lloyd Wrights 'destruction of the box' gelten kann. Denn erst im Moment dieser Zerstörung entdeckt die Architektur(theorie) die Einheit der Differenz von Innen und Außen. […] « [page 70, 71]
   14 » […] Und tatsächlich gibt es in der Geschichte der modernen Architektur einen herausragenden Moment, in dem die Architektur sich in ihrem Selbstverständnis so deutlich zu erkennen mag, wie sonst nur selten. Dieser Moment ist die 'destruction of the box' durch Frank Lloyd Wright […] « [page 88]
   15 » […] Primär und elementar, so Wright, gehe es in der Architektur nicht um die Einschachtelung, sondern um die Einfriedung. [enclosure IX.) 27 ] Dieser Grundgedanke, und das ist entscheidend, wird von Wright nicht als Fremdreferenz, sondern als Selbstreferenz der Architektur aufgefaßt. […] Nicht darum; daß die Architektur Wohnung und Gehäuse ist, geht es, sondern darum, wie sie das ein kann. […] Die Abschirmung [screen X.) 28 ]  setzt die Unterscheidung von Innen und Außen und als diese Setzung ist sie die Einheit der Unterscheidung. […] «
   [page 90] Translated by me, trying to keep both ambiguity and "negativity" of argument, in terms what architecture is not …
   
   10 Why does Dirk Baecker [exponent of German Sociological Systems Theory, who - according to note 7 on page 68 - comes from a family of architects] refer to Frank Lloyd Wright?
   
   [In the spirit of second-order observation] some bitchy arguments:
   A) Simply because Wright has anticipated [shaped] Baecker’s beliefs. Due to a profoundly German understanding / intuition of architecture - originating in Wright's [reputed] influence on German Modernism.
   B) Baecker's methodological approach requires a [critical] volume of text, circulating, informing and by sheer mass [seemingly from an outside position] dominating the discourse [self description] of the discipline in question. Only Le Corbusier rivals Frank Lloyd Wright in that respect … [Simply check with Amazon.]
   C) The views exemplified [as prevailing, hence self-descriptive] also need to comply with a widely acceptable "outside" notion / understanding of architecture, for Baecker's target group [his audience] needs to be able to follow [and to endorse] these arguments. Thus an already established "household name" is helpful.
   D) Relevant critics conjure significant works [and vice versa]. Choosing [and by doing so, re-affirming] an already accepted position is beneficial, when establishing a "new approach". Dirk Baecker promotes a branch of sociology, which back in 1990 was [still] keen to demonstrate its applicability.
   E) Wright's texts [and it is only communication we're </editorial> concerned with] aren't tainted [yet] by explicit referrals to philosophical concepts relevant [knowledgeable], to threat or to repel Baecker's "usurpation" [in his own terms].
   F) […]
   
   16 » Die Abschirmung ist es, die der Architektur ihre elementare Form gibt. Ecken, Wände, Böden und Decken werden beweglich und nahezu beliebig auflösbar und kombinierbar, ohne daß in Zweifel gezogen werden könnte, daß es sich um Architektur handelt, solange Effekte der Abschirmung erzielt werden, die es erlauben, Innen und Außen zu unterscheiden und das Innen gegenüber dem Außen stärker zu gewichten - in der Konstruktion von Architektur wie in der Kommunikation über Architektur.
   Abschirmungen setzen die Differenz zwischen Innen und Außen. […] « [page 90, 91]
   31 » Das Medium der Architektur ist die Mannigfaltigkeit aller möglichen Abschirmungen: Wände, Dächer, Böden […] als Bedingung der Möglichkeit, überhaupt Formen bilden zu können. […] jede Abschirmung, die sich als Element des Mediums der Architektur eignet, kann man seinerseits als Form betrachten, das sich einem Medium verdankt, und dies ist […] der Raum. So wie die Abschirmungen das Medium der Architektur sind, so ist die Räumlichkeit das Medium der Abschirmungen. […] Raum als das Medium des Mediums der Architektur […] « [page 93, 94, 100 quite assembled]
   17 » Auch ein Schatten, auch eine gedachte Linie […] kann bereits als eine Abschirmung fungieren, der architektonischer Wert zukommt. [… and continuing]
   […] Architektur ist Formbildung im Medium der Abschirmung, wobei die Abschirmung immer zweifach zu denken ist: als Schließung und als Öffnung. Die Abschirmung ist nicht nur vorgestellte Bedingung der Möglichkeit von Architektur, nicht nur regulative Idee, sondern ein wie immer ausgeprägtes reales Element, das die Ausgrenzung eines Innen in einem Außen leistet. […] « [page 94, 95]
   
   18 a XII. [page 91, 94, 102]
   kunst » […] Der große Unterschied zwischen Kunst und Architektur besteht darin, daß die Kunst jede Unterscheidung zur Disposition stellen kann, die Architektur jedoch an die Differenz von innen und Außen unaufhebbar gebunden bleibt. Nur dem künstlerischen Zugriff, der über Unterscheidungen disponieren kann, ist der Durchgriff auf den Raum als das Medium des Mediums der Architektur zugänglich. […] « [page 100] So 'Supersurface' XII.) is 'art' different from 'architecture' …
   19 » Der Maßstab des Menschen ist erforderlich, um die Abschirmung der Architektur von anderen Setzungen der Innen/Außen-Differenz im Medium des Raumes unterscheiden zu können, etwa von Schränken, Futteralen und Kassetten einerseits oder vom Ozonschirm und von militärischen Abwehrschirmen andererseits. […] Ein problematischer Grenzfall allerdings ist der Regenschirm. er entspricht dem Maßstab des menschlichen Körpers und er ist eine Abschirmung, die es erlaubt, Innen und Außen zu unterscheiden. dennoch handelt es sich beim Regenschirm wohl nicht um Architektur. Aber warum nicht? Wir antworten: Was man mit sich herumtragen kann, ist keine Architektur. […] « [page 102] A bleak prospect for the Nambikwara [Img. _02] at least in architectural terms.
   
   20 » Tatsächlich ist allerdings schon die Gesellschaftsform der Bororo-Indianer nicht mehr aus ihrer Architektur zu erschließen, wieviel weniger also die Form der modernen Gesellschaft. « [page 103] Baecker also referring to Claude Lévi-Strauss. XI.)
   
   30 a » […] Architektur als soziales System zu betrachten hieße, daß nicht nur über Gebäude kommuniziert würde, sondern Gebäude ähnlich wie Kunstwerke selbst als Kommunikation aufgefaßt würden. « [Note 116, page 100]
6. ^ 'Am Anfang war das Dach [In the Beginning There was the Roof]' by Dirk Baecker, Universität Witten/Herdecke November 2006 PDF
   [published in: 'build: Das Architekten-Magazin', No. 1, 2007, page 16-19 (reprinted in: 'Studien zur nächsten Gesellschaft' by Dirk Baecker, published by Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2007, page 63-80) details according to Baecker]
   http://books.google.com/
   
   21 » Am Anfang war das Dach: Eingrenzung und Ausgrenzung im Interesse von Schutz, Orientierung und Versammlung. […] Architektur ist daher zunächst einmal nichts anderes als der Entwurf eines Daches […] Diese Sinnform der Architektur, die bestimmt ist als Unterscheidung von Innen und Außen, Schutz und Offenheit, und als Entwurf eines Bezugs zwischen Innen und Außen, wird in jeder Gesellschaft anders verstanden und gestaltet. […] « [I. page 1] So the 'architecture' of the Nambikwara [Img. _02] is what they make of it, provided they've got a 'notion' … V.) 20
   
   22 » Eine Sinnform der Architektur, die der next society gewachsen ist, könnte darin bestehen, den Entwurf der Architektur so zum Thema zu machen, dass die Schnittstellen zwischen Gesellschaft, Bewusstsein, Körper und Maschine offen gelegt und in neu zu findenden Grenzen gewählt werden können. « [III. page 6] Superstudio [Img. _03 ] just made it back into 'architecture' …
   
7. IN: 'Die Architektur der Gesellschaft: Theorien für die Architektursoziologie [The Architecture of Society: Theories for a Sociology of Architecture]' edited by Joachim Fischer und Heike Delitz, published by transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2009
   http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ http://www.buecher-nach-isbn.info/ http://books.google.com/
   
   ^ 'Bauen, Ordnen, Abreißen im Formmodell des Sozialen. Die ›Architektur der Gesellschaft‹ aus system- und formtheoretischer Sicht [to build, to order, to demolish within models of social / societal forms]' by Dirk Baecker [page 195 bis 222]
   
   24 » […] als Information der Architektur durch die Gesellschaft und als Information der Gesellschaft durch die Architektur. […] « [note 1, page 195]
   
   25 » Als eine in diesem Sinne belastbare Leitunterscheidung hat sich in der Architekturtheorie die Unterscheidung von Innen und Außen bewährt. Es geht dabei nicht um die Aufteilung des Raumes, wie ja überhaupt die Raumkategorie von raffinierten [!] Architekturtheorien mit Bedacht auf Abstand gehalten wird, sondern um die soziale Organisation von Abschirmung und Zugänglichkeit. Insbesondere die moderne Architektur verweist explizit darauf, dass die Unterscheidung von Innen und Außen nur als Zusammenhang zu denken ist, das heißt nur als Asymmetrie, die resymmetrisierbar ist, architektonischen Wert bekommt. Das Grab, in das man zwar hinein kommt, aus dem man jedoch nicht wieder heraus kommt, ist in diesem Sinne der Nullpunkt der Architektur. Im Zweifel wird die Unterscheidung von Innen und Außen daher auch nicht räumlich, sondern temporal gedacht. Die bauliche ebenso wie soziale Form der Architektur sortiert Ereignisse, nämlich das Drinnensein, das Draußensein und den Übergang, nicht Räume. […]
   Das Innen und das Außen der Architektur macht demnach nur Sinn im Rahmen der Fragen, welchen Schutz ein Innen bietet, wie man zu diesem Zugang findet und zu welchem Außen dieses Innen seinerseits einen Zugang bietet. « [page 205, 206] In most cultures tombs are usually 'informed' in terms of 'passage'. The pyramids as 'zero point' of architecture, a cul-de-sac regarding Baecker's inside/outside lead-difference, doesn't seem convincing either …
8. 'Der blinde Fleck im Auge der Banken' [The Blind Spot in the Eye of Finance. The case of Lehman Brothers as a symbolic example] Prof. Dr. Dirk Baecker talks to Alexander Kluge [explaining bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 in systemic terms.] http://www.dctp.tv/
   
   26 » [… Man] verliert den Blick für die eigene Intelligenz. […] Das war so ein allgemeines Theorem, dem wir damals in Bielefeld folgten, dass die Praxis intelligenter ist als die Art und Weise wie sie über sich selbst spricht. Das heißt die Leute reden dümmer als sie handeln. « [time code 24:15 bis 24:35, translated by me] … lack of overview caused by extensive pyramiding. </sarcastic>
9. IN: 'Frank Lloyd Wright: Writings and Buildings' by Frank Lloyd Wright, selected by Edgar Kaufmann Jr. and Ben Raeburn, published by Meridian Books,1960 [Paperback edition]
   http://www.steinerag.com/
   
   27 a 'The Destruction of the Box' [page 284 - 289]
   'From an address to the Junior Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, New York City, 1952. Taped and typed; corrected by Frank Lloyd Wright.'
   » In Unity Temple you will find the walls actually disappearing; you will find the interior space opening to the outside and see the outside coming in. You will see assembled about this interior space, screening it, various free, related features instead of enclosing walls. See, you now can make features of many types for enclosure and group the features about interior space with no sense of boxing it. But most important, after all, is the sense of shelter extended, expanded overhead, and which gives the indispensable sense of protection while leading the human vision beyond the walls. That primitive sense of shelter is a quality architecture should always have. If in a building you feel not only protection from above, but liberation of interior to outside space […] then you have one important secret of letting the interior space come through. « [page 284]
   » […] Let's go on. These unattached side walls become something independent, no longer enclosing walls. They're separate supporting screens, any one of which may be shortened, or extended or perforated, or occasionally eliminated. These free-standing screens support the roof. What of this roof? Overhead it becomes emphasized as a splendid sense of shelter, but shelter that hides nothing when you are inside looking out from the building. It is a shape of shelter that really gives a sense of the outside coming in or the inside going out. Yes, you have now a wide-spreading overhead that is really a release of this interior space to the outside: a freedom where before imprisonment existed. « [page 286]
   
10. ^ 'An Autobiography' by Frank Lloyd Wright, published by Pomegranate Publishers 2005 [published first 1932 by Longmans, Green and Company, reprinted 1943 by Duell, Sloan and Pearce]
    http://books.google.at/ http://www.books-by-isbn.com/ https://archive.org/
    
    28 » My sense of "wall" was no longer the side of a box. It was enclosure of space affording protection against storm or heat only when needed. But it was also to bring the outside world into the house and let the inside of the house go outside. In this sense I was working away at the wall as a wall and bringing it towards the function of a screen, a means of opening up space which, as control of building-materials improved, would finally permit the free use of the whole space without affecting the soundness of the structure. […]
    And at this time I saw a house, primarily, as livable interior space under ample shelter. I liked the sense of shelter in the look of the building. I still like it. […] « ['BUILDING THE NEW HOUSE', page 141, 142] 
11. ^ a 'Tristes Tropiques' by Claude Lévi-Strauss, published first 1955, translated by John Russell, published by Criterion Books 1961 […]
    http://www.archive.org/
    
    Img. _02 'A leaf shelter in the dry season' [Image 21, between the pages 96 and 97] "Distinction" settled by the Nambikwara, indigenous people of Brazil, 1938 [Detail, netpic from …]
12. ^ a b » Vita Educazione Cerimonia Amore Morte [Life, Education, Ceremony, Love, Death] « [film project] by 'Superstudio' [Gian Piero Frassinelli, Alessandro Magris, Roberto Magris, Adolfo Natalini, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Alessandro Poli] 1971-73 for the MOMA exhibition » Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, Achivements and Problems in Italian Design « 1972
    http://books.google.at/ 2 http://www.scribd.com/
    http://www.impakt.nl/
    http://andreasangelidakis.blogspot.com/
    
    29 » In this exhibition, we present an alternative model for life on earth. We can imagine a network of energy and information extending to every properly inhabitable area. Life without work and a new 'potentialized' humanity are made possible by such a network. (In the model, this network is represented by a Cartesian 'squared' surface, which is of course to be understood not only in the physical sense, but as a visual-verbal metaphor for an ordered and rational distribution of resources.) […]
    Nomadism becomes the permanent condition: […]
    The membrane dividing exterior and interior becomes increasingly tenuous: the next step will be the disappearance of this membrane and the control of the environment through energy […] «
    ['Description of the Microevent/Microenvironment', statement by Adolfo Natalini, Superstudio] PDF
13. IN: 'Figurationen des Utopischen: Theoretische Projekte von Archizoom und Superstudio' by Marie Theres Stauffer, published by Deutscher Kunstverlag München Berlin, 2008 http://books.google.com/
    
    'VITA EDUCAZIONE CERIMONIA AMORE MORTE : CINQUE STORIE DEL SUPERSTUDIO' by Superstudio [manifesto] published in Casabella Nr. 367, on 12 pages 15 to 26, 1972 [reprinted on pages 291 to 302, appendix 10, labelled as 'La Vita/Supersuperficie', details according to Stauffer]
    
    Img. _03 » La Vita/Supersuperficie: L' accampamento « 1971 [page 236, 'Supersurface' from 'Life', detail, netpic from …]
    
    44 Text accompanying a sketch of Img. _03 in the storyboard shown on page 24 [300 in the reprint]
    First frame: » LIFE OR THE PUBLIC IMAGE OF TRULY MODERN ARCHITECTURE
    SUPERSURFACE AS ALTERNATIVE MODEL OF LIFE ON EARTH «
    Second frame: » A 35 mm., COLOUR, SOUND FILM DESIGNED AND DIRECTED BY SUPERSTUDIO
    FOR THE EXHIBITION "ITALY: THE NEW DOMESTIC LANDSCAPE" XII.)
    AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK […] «
    Third frame: » This screenplay has been re-edited for publication «
14. 32 'Das Wunder der Sprache. Probleme, Methoden und Ergebnisse der Sprachwissenschaft [The Miracle of Language: Problems, Methods, and Results of Linguistics]' by Walter Porzig, published first by Francke Verlag, 1950, republished 1993 http://books.google.com/ [quote according to Google; see also PDF]
    
    » […] In Wirklichkeit ist das Verhältnis von Seele und Welt gar kein räumliches. Aber die Sprache übersetzt alle unanschaulichen Verhältnisse ins Räumliche. Und zwar tut das nicht eine oder eine Gruppe von Sprachen, sondern alle ohne Ausnahme tun es. Diese Eigentümlichkeit gehört zu den unveränderlichen Zügen ('Invarianten') der menschlichen Sprache. Da werden Zeitverhältnisse räumlich ausgedrückt: vor oder nach Weihnachten, innerhalb eines Zeitraumes von zwei Jahren. Bei seelischen Vorgängen sprechen wir nicht nur von außen und innen, sondern auch über und unter der Schwelle des Bewusstseins, vom Unterbewussten, vom Vordergrunde oder Hintergrunde, von Tiefen und Schichten der Seele. Überhaupt dient der Raum als Modell für alle unanschaulichen Verhältnisse: […] « [page 209 onwards]
    
    Though frequently quoted, the Nazi past of its author should be mentioned, because the context of an idea may influence the idea itself. I haven't read the book,… which is insignificant for my argument anyway.
    
    Whether 'spatialization' is true for all [human] languages, as an 'invariable' of language as such, I can't say - it is certainly true for the languages I speak [and particularly pervasive in German, because this English translation looses many of its spatial allusions].
    
    "this and that" (point your finger)
    "before and after" (expresses how one "faces" an event - for time is conceived directional)
    to "draw a distinction"
    even a "form" …
    
    Conceivable 'artificial' languages [not subject to a 'natural order', often confused with 'evolution' </joking> ] may not resort to space for "figures" of speech … even if only devised to prove a point.
    
    33 Whether space does shape language or language presupposes space, downright constructing it, concerns discourses of producing text. Engaged in producing space [and in contrast to termites] also capable of speech, I do consider the possibility of both being illusions respectively […] Space 'or' language, spatial language, linguistic space … can be kept congruent or different haphazardly, putting Baecker's observation of reticent practices ^ somewhat into perspective.
    For there is both: spatial conditions we can't possibly talk about, that need to be experienced, and spatial conditions, we can't possibly experience, that need to be talked about.
15. IN: 'The Split and the Structure: Twenty-Eight Essays' by Rudolf Arnheim, published by University of California Press, 1996
    http://books.google.at/ http://www.books-by-isbn.com/
    
    ^ a 'Inside and Outside in Architecture: A Symposium' by Rudolf Arnheim [page 45 to 51]
    Presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics in Washington, D.C., 1965
    Published first in 'The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism' Vol. 25, No. 1 (Fall, 1966), pages 3-7 by Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics [details according to http://www.soziales.fh-dortmund.de/] http://www.jstor.org/
    
    35 » […] It is true that architecture alone among the visual arts has to deal with outside and inside, although it shares with literature this privilege of reflecting the basic dichotomy of the mind. But by no means does the conception of the interior require an inversion of ordinary space experience. On the contrary, the sensation of being surrounded is primary and universal: […] «
    continuing
    36 » An architectural interior is the totality of what can be seen at the time. […] If outside and inside cannot be seen together although the unity of the two is essential, how then is architecture possible? Obviously, either view must be supplemented by what is known about the other. […] « [page 45, 46]
    Like Dirk Baecker, V.) Rudolf Arnheim posits the impossibility to synchronise [the difference of] inside and outside as a 'problem' V.) 41 with architecture. What may pertain to 'users', actually constitutes our stock-in-trade. Training, imagination and some cultural-skills [no parametric CAD software needed] habitually outwit the impossible. To object that in doing so we architects are merely kidding ourselves, in terms of auto-suggestive delusions [in dealing with 'reality'], is valid - but such is equally true for sociologists V.) in respect to society, and for psychologists XV.) in respect to psyche …
    
    37 » […] Fortunately, a particular view of an object can also include aspects of the object that are not presently visible, although they are as visual as what is directly seen. […] I see a building as containing an interior, and I see the inside as being fronted by an outside. […] « [page 46] To 'see' means to understand, to realise - to construct, in architectural terms.
    
    38 » […] For although it is true that nested volumes can be visualized as a unitary percept, these volumes are not to be viewed from a common station point, as are the flatiron and its core or the boot and its foot. The outside must be viewed from the outside. But to look at the inside from the outside would mean to miss its nature; it must be viewed from its own inside. The unification of the two perspectives, produced by the two station points, has to overcome an antagonism. That is, the parallelism of exterior and interior shape is complicated by a counterpoint of views. […] « [page 48] What reads as a 'geometric' view, actually comes pretty close to notions of 'form'. V.) 41 In contrast to 'terms' applied, 'phenomena' [in architecture] are quite persistent.
    39 » […] As I said before, one cannot see one's own face. […] « [page 48] Because this phrasing alludes the possibility of the mirror </cheeky> the notion of a 'blind spot' describing [the assumption of] the impossibility of observing one's own point of view [while observing] is more successful as a metaphor, but essentially demonstrates the same understanding.
    
    40 » […] The contradictory aspects must add up to a meaningful whole. Also, less obviously, the outside as well as the inside must be complete and unified in itself - a rule violated, for example, in the facades of some English Gothic cathedrals, which are screens placed in front of the church proper and unrelated to what is on the insides […] « [page 49] …it needs to "make sense"; apparently a screen alone for Arnheim doesn't.
    
    Between 'Inside and Outside in Architecture: A Symposium' and 'Die Dekonstruktion der Schachtel: Innen und Außen in der Architektur' V.) lie 25 years. Rudolf Arnheim is not mentioned by Dirk Baecker. V.) Both authors refer merely to Gaston Bachelard 'La Poétique de l'espace [The Poetics of Space]' 1964 as a common source.
16. 'The Autopoiesis of Architecture' by Patrik S. Schumacher
    Vol.1: 'A New Framework for Architecture'
    published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd., London, November 2010 [2011]
    http://books.google.at/ [See alsoBikini Bottom]
    
    42 » […] The base concept of communication also covers communication via physical artefacts and buildings. The concept also includes ‘regimes’, ‘practices’ and ‘quasi-objects’ etc. However, it unifies these components of discourse via the more abstract and universal concept of ‘communication’. […] « [page 11]
    
    43 » […] It is this distinction of inside vs outside that is constitutive of architecture as a very specific design discipline. As Dirk Baecker [V.) ] notes, 'one only knows that it is architecture if one can go inside and come out again and if the conditions change through this ability to go in and out, ie, if inside something else can be expected than outside'. […]
    Enclosure as protection against the elements is just one of many forms of enclosure. The concept of enclosure must be defined in a very general way implying no more than a certain occupiable zone or territory is somehow recognizably defined. […]
    […] contemporary architecture further demands recognition of blurred boundaries, smooth versus striated space [...] and the gradient transformation of field qualities as means of organizing and articulating space as a continuously differentiated field. […]
    The key is that territories are distinguished and organized and that differences are articulated and perceived. « [page 168-169]
    See also my PDF from build - Das Architekten-Magazin [2/2011]

Links

• Frank Lloyd Wright
  my PDF from http://michiganmodern.wordpress.com/ [403]
  http://www.findingmrwright.com/ […]
  my PDF from http://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/ [German 404 +]
• Images
  http://www.peterbeers.net/
  http://contentdm.unl.edu/
  http://www.prairiemod.com/
• Plans
  http://www.wright50years.com/
  http://www.scribd.com/ [page 7]
• Video
  http://youtu.be/
• Compare
  http://www.onearchitecture.nl/

• ---

• Dirk Baecker
  http://catjects.wordpress.com/ PDF my copy all German
  http://www.spacetime-publishing.de/
  http://vimeo.com/ 2
  http://www.dctp.tv/
  http://youtu.be/ 2
  http://www.br.de/ MP3 Audio
• Reception
  http://www.duerfeld.de/ [PDF 2008, German …]
  http://www.fischer-joachim.org/ [PDF 2004, German …]
• Slavoj Žižek on the gap between inside and outside (more or less …)
  http://youtu.be/ and in cinematic terms (first 10 minutes)
  https://www.youtube.com/

more Broadacre

• 'Broadacre City' model
  Illustrations 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007 for 'The Living City'
• Related housing schemes:
  Quadruple Block Plan; Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing; American System-Built Houses; Willey House; Usonia; Galesburg Country Homes; Parkwyn Village; Usonia II;
• Featured architecture:
  Huntington Hartford Play Resort; Gordon Strong Automobile Objective; Rogers Lacy Hotel

File Log

• Preliminary version ...
  My notes on 'Inside and Outside' evolved during summer 2011.
• Outlining Broadacre City became necessary in the course of my urban diploma project 16/3 in 1999. Published online the same year in German, this 'preliminary' English translation became available in 2007.
• All links to http://contentdm.unl.edu/ [University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries] have been updated (25.11.2008).
• Links to http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/ [Columbia University in the City of New York] added (2.8.2009)
• All dates according to source [!]. Wikipedia and 'The Complete Works' by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer accomplish a certain 'conventionalisation', superseding conflicting 'chronologies' supported by [prior] publications of the time.