Lecture 06.1: Power & Making Environments- National Identity & Classicism

Lecture 06.1: Power & Making Environments- National Identity & Classicism Announcements: 1. Portfolio due this Thursday 2. Project check-in on Thursday 3. Interim project reviews in class next week Rapson Hall Balconies & Links All projects to be posted before class. Tuesday: North balconies, upstairs and downstairs links Thursday: S & West balconies and upstairs link) Culture & Design as A Constructing a Thatched Roof in Shirakagawa Japan (photo by JWR, 210) Architecture 3711:Environmental Design & the Sociocultural Context

Lecture 06.1: Power & Making Environments- National Identity & Classicism I. Introduction II. Two Approaches To National Identity Using Classicism III. Environments & Communication Why is it important that environments communicate? How do environments communicate? IV. Film: Triumph of The Will- Leni Riefenstahl V. Exercise & Discussion How Power is Conveyed Culture & Design as A Constructing a Thatched Roof in Shirakagawa Japan (photo by JWR, 210) Architecture 3711:Environmental Design & the Sociocultural Context

Power Environments-Albert Speer & Adolph Hitler f Culture & Design as A Cultural Process 3. Exercise: The Childhood Dwelling As I once stated in 1936, my buildings were not solely 4. Lecture: intended The to express Role of the essence of the National-Socialist Environment movement. They were an integral in Constructing part of that very Identity movement Albert Speer 5. Western Culture in the World Context & an Example of Adaptation to the Environment (if time) (1978, in Krier, 1985: 213-214) Architecture 3711:Environmental Design & the Sociocultural Context

Power Environments-National Identity- Two Approaches f Culture & Design as A Approach #`1 Housing the Head of State The New Chancellory, Berlin- Albert Speer 1938-39 What do you notice? to the Environment (if time) Architecture 3711:Environmental Design & the Sociocultural Context

Power Environments-National Identity- Two Approaches f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) - Space expressing power - Social hierarchy in built form

Power Environments-National Identity- Two Approaches f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time)

Power Environments-National Identity- Two Approaches- New Chancellery f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) How do you feel?

Power Environments-National Identity- Two Approaches- New Chancellery f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) Marble Gallery Hall of Light Attitude toward visitor /citizen?

Power Environments-National Identity- Two Approaches- New Chancellery f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) Attitude toward visitor /citizen?

Power Environments-National Identity- New Chancellery: Hitler s Study f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) http://deutschlandostmark.blogspot.com/2013/05/troost-and-speer-hitlers-architects

Power Environments-National Identity- New Chancellery: Hitler s Study f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time)

Power Environments-National Identity-White House vs New Chancellery White House, Benjamin Latrobe versus New Chancellery, Albert Speer 1807, Washington, DC 1938-39, Berlin What do you read in these environments about the relation of the head of state to the people?

Power Environments-National Identity-White House vs New Chancellery f Culture Comparative & Design Plan as Analysis A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) What do you read in these environments about the relation of the head of state to the people?

Entry Power Environments-National Identity-White House vs New Chancellery f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) Comparative Plan Analysis Leader s Office Entry Leader s Office

Power Environments-National Identity-White House vs New Chancellery f Culture Comparative & Design Plan as Analysis: A Adaptation Distance to leader s the office (est) Environment (if time) Leader s Office 1440 250 Entry Leader s Office Entry

Power Environments-National Identity-White House vs New Chancellery Comparative f Culture & Design Syntax as Analysis A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) Hitler s Study Oval Office White House- First Floor New Chancellery- First Floor Overall Depth What = 8 Overall Depth = 13 # Spaces =21 # Spaces =110 Mean Depth = 6.2 Mean Depth = 6.58 Office Depth= 7 (near mean) Office Depth= 13 (maximum depth) What do you read in these environments about the relation of the head of state to the people?

Power Environments-White House vs New Chancellery- Exterior Image f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) What do you see as similar and different? White House New Chancellery

Power Environments-White House vs New Chancellery- Leader s Office f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time) What are the differences here? White House- Oval office New Chancellery- Hitler s Office 816 ft2 x 18.5 ft 3600 ft2 x 30 ft(?)

Berlin- Speer s great axis (project only initiated) Almost 3 miles long Champs Elysees= 1.2 miles Background to the film : Triumph of the Will? Berlin to represent the power of the Third Reich

Background to the film : Triumph of the Will? Berlin to represent the power of the Third Reich Berlin- Speer s Great Hall or Volkshalle (project

Background to the film : Triumph of the Will? Hitler would talk enthusiastically about the farmer who would travel all the way from the provinces to Berlin, enter the Great Hall, that gigantic area of 220 meters high and 250 meters diameter, and felt literally crushed by what he saw... That is why Hitler saw the architecture of assemblies as the mechanism that would help establish his domination. Albert Speer Berlin- Speer s Great Hall or Volkshalle (project) To house 180,000 people 16x the size of St Peter s

Background to the film : Triumph of the Will? Nuremburg Zeppelinfeld 1934-37 Albert Speer

Background to the film : Triumph of the Will? I must have had the feeling that it was no affair of mine when I heard the people around me declaring an open season on Jew, Freemasons, Social Democrats or Jehovah s Witnesses. I thought I was not implicated if I myself did not take part. Albert Speer Matuhausen Forced Labor Camp

Background to the film : Triumph of the Will? Nuremburg Zeppelinfeld 1934-37 Albert Speer

Background to the film : Triumph of the Will? Nuremburg Zeppelinfeld 1934-37 with choreographed lights & movement Albert Speer

Film : Triumph of the Will? Karl Arndt is right to detect Hitler s desire for power and the submission of others in my buildings. The main character of my architecture expressed this urge. In those years, I believed in the claim to absolute domination and my architecture represented an intimidating display of power, as Georg Friedrich Koch describes in an essay. The National Socialist movement represented more to me than the mere incarnation of political power. It was the fulfillment of claim to dominance over a nation. Every person, if they wanted to survive, had to submit to it. Albert Speer

Film : Triumph of the Will? As you watch, please consider: RITUALS- What are the feelings generated by the activities in the film? PLACE- What are the elements of design that support that feeling (ritual, place, photography) CONTEXT- What is the responsibility of the designer?

Comparison

Power & Environments: Communication f Culture & Design as A Adaptation to the Environment (if time)

Power & Environments: Communication- 4 Premises- [Whiteboard] 1 The designed environment communicates ideas 2 The language of space & form is the vehicle for such communication 3 The designer s role is to form/use/modify the spatial language 4 The designer is therefore responsible to attend to: The message The language The reception of the language (or lack thereof) by the ordinary person (the public) n to the Environment (if time)

Power & Environments: Communication- 4 Premises- [Whiteboard] What is Language in Environmental Design? What is an appropriate expressio of Power? Who Builds?

How Does Space Become Meaningful? [Whiteboard] Some problems with meaning in environments (modified from Bonta p 28) Designer intentionally sends a message Interpreter assumes intentionality Message correctly understood/? Message incorrectly understood, but designer seen as responsible Interpreter does not assume intentionality Understood or not, message seen as inadvertent. Designer not understood as responsible Designer does not intentionally send a message Interpreter incorrectly assumes designer had an idea and is responsible but designer does not feel responsible Interpretation of a message seen correctly as inadvertent

Preparation for the Exercise: How Does Space Become Meaningful? Sources for Communication 2.. Ordinary people s everyday interaction in and understandings of places 3. The history of the place, ordinary people s associations with past experiences and political ideology 4. Designers ideas about space

How Does Space Become Meaningful? Sources for Communication 1. Ideas and intentions held by powerful people 2.. Ordinary people s everyday interaction in and understandings of places 3. The history of the place, ordinary people s associations with past experiences and political ideology 4. Designers ideas about space

How Does Space Become Meaningful? Sources for Communication 1. Ideas and intentions held by powerful people 2.Physiological Experience 3. Ordinary people s everyday interaction in and understandings of places 4.. The history of the place, ordinary people s associations with past experiences and political ideology 5. Designers ideas about space

How Does Space Become Meaningful? Sources for Communication 1. Ideas and intentions held by powerful people 2. Physiological Experience 3. Ordinary people s everyday interaction in and understandings of places 4.. The history of the place, ordinary people s associations with past experiences and political ideology 5. Designers ideas about space

How Does Space Become Meaningful? Sources for Communication 1. Ideas and intentions held by powerful people 2. Physiological Experience 3. Ordinary people s everyday interaction in and understandings of places 4. The history of the place, ordinary people s associations with past experiences and political ideology 5. Designers ideas about space

How Does Space Become Meaningful? Sources for Communication 1. Ideas and intentions held by powerful people 2.. Physiological Experience 3. Ordinary people s everyday interaction in and understandings of places 4. The history of the place, ordinary people s associations with past experiences and political ideology 5. Designers ideas about space

How Does Space Become Meaningful? Mechanisms Mechanisms -for transmitting meaning -for spatialization of ritual, activities, Scale & dimensions Symbolism & Iconography Historical Reference Landscape manipulation Materiality Hierarchy Location Lincoln Memorial & Reflecting Pool, Henry Bacon, 1922

How Does Space Become Meaningful? Mechanisms Mechanisms for transmitting meaning for spatialization of ritual, activities, Scale & dimensions Symbolism & Iconography Historical Reference Landscape manipulation Materiality Hierarchy Location Lincoln Memorial & Reflecting Pool, Henry Bacon, 1922

How Space is Empowering or Disempowering? Findley Maintaining Hierarchy Marginalization Segregation Colonialization Globalization Mapping Territories Reversal Subversion Occupation Transformation Role of Economics Role of Politics Marin Luther King Washington March, 1963

Exercise Preparation- Comparison of the two sites Zeppelinfeld 800m x450m (2624 x 1480 ) U of M Mall 304m x 76m (1000 x 250 )

Exercise 06.1: Power & Environment- How Power Is Conveyed (in Teams) Consider how the meaning of Speer s Zeppelinfeld (in film) is conveyed in comparison to the meaning in the University of Minnesota mall (Coffman to Northrup. Use the terms below to identify the particular design elements that convey meaning and the mechanism that is used. If you think of a new mechanism, please add it to the list. Draw your conclusion: What is the difference between the Conveyance of meaning in the two environments? MECHANISM SCALE & DIMENSION SYMBOLISM/ ICONOGRAPHY HISTORICAL REFERENCE LANDSCAPE MANIPULATION MATERIALITY SPATIALIZATION OF RITUAL HIERARCHY LOCATION DESIGN DETAIL OR ELEMENT & MEANING SPEER U OF M CONCLUSION:

Lecture 06.1: Power & Making Environments: Take Away Environments can communicate power Environments can take away power Environments can empower people Clacissism can be used positively or negatively Designers need to know when & how to design for power and empowerment

Lecture 06.1: Power & Making Environments: Sources REFERENCES Barthes, Roland. 1964. Elements of Semiology. New York : Hill and Wang Bonta, Juan P.1979. Architecture and its Interpretation. New York: Rizzoli. Lefebvre, Henri. 1995. The Production of Space, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. De Certeau, Michel. 1984. The practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley: University of California Press. Findley, Lisa. 2005. Building Change: Architecture, Politics & Cultural Agency. London: Routledge Hayden, Dolores. 1996. Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space in The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, pp15-43. Krier, Leon. 1985. "An Architecture of Desire," in Albert Speer Role of classicism in communication of Nazism in Architecture, 1932-1942. Brussels: Archives d Architecture Moderne, 217-228. Kroll, Lucien [Trans. Peter Blundell Jones]. 1987 [1983]. An Architecture of Complexity. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press Roger Moorehouse. 2012 Gemania: Hitler s Dream Capital History Today,Volume 62 Issue 3 March 2. http:// www.historytoday.com/roger-moorhouse/germania-hitlers-dream-capital) Riefenstahl, Leni, Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). 1935. 1992 Film Preserve, Ltd,. Speer, Albert. 1985. Introduction in Albert Speer Role of Classicism in Communication of Nazism in Architecture, 1932-1942. Brussels: Archives d Architecture Moderne, 213-124. Smith, David Calvert. 1990. Triumph of the Will: A Film by Leni RiefenstahlRichardson, Tex.: Celluloid Chronicles Press. http://www.geocities.com/emruf4/triumph.html Tzonis, Alexander, and Liane Lefaivre. 1986. Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press. Wise, Michael Z., 1998. Capital dilemma : Germany's search for a new architecture of democracy, New York: Princeton Architectural Press Figure: 18 Vale, Lawrence, J. 1992. Architecture, Power & National Identity: New Haven: Yale University Press