Introduction

Author(s): Thomas Barrie and Julio Bermudez

Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 62, No. 2, Immateriality in
Architecture (Nov., 2008), pp. 4-5
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40480827
Accessed: 26-08-2016 23:11 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

Taylor & Francis, Ltd., Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc. are
collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Architectural Education
(1984-)

This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 23:11:04 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THOMAS BARRIE Introduction
North Carolina State University

JULIO BERMUDEZ

University of Utah

For once on the foce of the eorth, let's not culture, symbolism, and ritual; and the uncount-
speok any longuoge; let's stop for one second,able ways that architecture articulates existential
and not move our arms so much. It would be meanings. Lindsay Jones reminds us that "build-
an exotic moment without rush, without ings in and of themselves do not 'mean' anything"
engines; we would oil be together in o suddenbut only have significance "in the negotiation
strangeness. or the interactive relation that subsumes both
- Pablo Neruda1 the building and the beholder- in the ritual-
architectural event in which buildings and human
Pablo Neruda reminds us that the ephemeral space participants are involved."4 Essentially, immateri-
between words is where authentic communication ality is revealed in embodied consciousness, but
and understanding occur. Analogously, considera- this does not mean that it is only subjective. Any
tions of the immaterial in architecture suggest that bifurcation of subject and object, self and other,
it is in between our conventional conceptualizations or body and environment truncates the ability to
and experiences that significance and meaning may fully experience (and subsequently understand)
be discovered. Bernard Tschumi inverts our pre- the wholeness that is intrinsic to any qualitative
sumptions regarding the presence of architecture activity.
when he asks, "is space a material thing in which all Considerations of immateriality in architecture
material things are located?" that leads to the challenge a discipline where new construction and
question, is the immaterial as "real" as the material material technologies, in addition to digitally gen-
(if not more so)?2 erated designs, representations, and fabrication,
We have difficulty understanding the "imma- have gained privileged positions in theory, peda-
terial," a product perhaps of our overly "material- gogy, and practice. The resulting imbalance calls for
istic" culture, yet much of what we value- love, reconsiderations of the ineffable, numinous, and
joy, comfort, beauty, meaning, and happiness- is immeasurable in architecture. Technological and
immaterial. Most religions emphasize the immate- formal responses to the environmental, social,
1 . Interior view of the Centro Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain, by Rafael
rial: from the Buddhist concept of the reciprocity of cultural, and professional challenges we face need Moneo. (Photo by Joshua Hansen, courtesy of the photographer.)
form and emptiness to the Holy Spirit of Trinitarian to include more diverse, inclusive, and balanced
Christianity. Architectural theory has a substantial approaches. The following scholarly papers and provides new perspectives regarding the role of the
tradition regarding the immaterial, from Vitruvius' designs supply heterogeneous approaches and immaterial in today's technologically biased,
"delight" to Louis Kahn's "immeasurable" and perspectives concerning immateriality in architec- mediated, and materialistic world.
from Christopher Alexander's "quality-without- ture. We hope they may serve to advance our In "Immaterial Structures: Encountering the
a-name" to Juhani Pallasmaa's emphasis on the complex and nuanced discipline and bring us closer Extraordinary in the Everyday," Randall Teal
metaphysical and existential aspects of architec- to that "exotic moment" Neruda describes within applies Martin Heidegger's philosophy to explore
ture. Steven Holl argues that "beyond the physi- which "we would all be together in a sudden the ineffable in architecture in the context of

cality of architectural objects and practicalities of strangeness." ordinary life. Authenticity, disclosure, anxiety,
programmatic content, enmeshed experience is "Modeling the Void: Mathias Coeritz and the and involvement, vis-à-vis the nature of both
not merely a place of events, things, and activities, Architecture of Emotions" focuses on Mathias "being-in-the-world" and "thing-in-the-world,"
but something more intangible, which emerges Coeritz's design methods, ideology, and work to are considered in relation to the making of
from the continuous unfolding of overlapping challenge contemporary modes of production in architecture. This challenging paper provides
spaces, materials, and detail."3 architecture. Louise Pelletier's discussion of the new understandings of the immaterial that
Architectural immateriality describes the primacy of emotional responses and the necessity are relevant to the teaching and practice of
subjective experience of place; the embodiment of of nonobjective conceptualizations of architecture architecture.

Journal of Architectural Education, Introduction 4

pp. 4-5 © 2008 ACSA

This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 23:11:04 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 "Three Doors to Other Worlds" is a rare piece enlightens the meaning of materiality/form and University, Ohio), Martha Bradley (University of
of scholarship for the JAE that, we hope, readers immateriality/emptiness. More importantly, Baek Utah), Frances Downing (Texas A&M University),
will find as thought-provoking and emotionally demonstrates that they are inseparable aspects of Tom Fowler (CalPoly University, SLO), Heinrich
compelling as we do. By using three engaging one reality. Hermann (Rhode Island School of Design), Robert
stories, Andrew Crompton leads us to the archi- "Material Models and Immaterial Paradigms Hermanson (University of Utah), George Hoover
tecturally sinister, sublime, and uncanny. Narrative in the Rietveld Schröder House" engages intan- (University of Colorado at Denver), Brad Horn (The
becomes a gate to a poetics of strange spaces, gible intellectual systems and their fundamental City College of New York), Rebecca Krinke (Uni-
where the deeper and most difficult issues of life role in the design process through an examination versity of Minnesota), David Leatherbarrow (Uni-
may be experienced. The immaterial is thus exposed of the physical modeling of the Rietveld Schröder versity of Pennsylvania), Jean LeMarche (State
in the narrative stories about architecture. House. By applying Gaston Bachelard's idea of University of New York at Buffalo), Snezana Litvi-
Blaine Brownell presents design work along "nested paradigms," Paul Emmons and Matthew novic (University of Pennsylvania Health System),
the ancient tradition of using illumination as pur- Mindrup provide compelling evidence that archi- Prescott Muir (Prescott Muir Architects), Steve
veyor of the immeasurable. His beautiful "Assem- tects ordinarily use different (even contradictory) Padget (University of Kansas), Carolyn Prorok
bling Light: PET Wall Installation" employs recycled conceptual frameworks. This apparent inconsis- (Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania), Gray
materials, contemporary technology, and sophisti- tency is solved simply by understanding that dif- Read (Florida International University), Wendy
cated tectonics to create an atmosphere that, as he ferent types of material models enfold and hence Redfield (North Carolina State University), David
puts it, "vacillates between the material and the invite particular ideological positions to operate in Rifkind (Florida International University), David
immaterial, the conscionable and ineffable." Such a nested order, which allow for a consistent Seamon (Kansas State University), Brian R. Sinclair
experiential oscillation elucidates better than any whole to evolve. The authors conclude, "archi- (University of Calgary), Maged Senbel (University
text or thought the real challenge behind the tectural meaning is produced by the presence of of British Columbia), Ozayr Saloojee (University of
architectural act. immaterial ideas nested within their material Minnesota), Jeff Stein (Boston Architectural Col-
"Kitaro Nishida's Philosophyof Emptiness and interpretation." lege), and Scott Wall (University of Tennessee).
Its Architectural Significance" uses Eastern philos-
ophy to expand our understanding of emptiness Acknowledgments Notes

beyond the stereotypical immaterial "void." After The theme editors gratefully acknowledge the 1 . Pablo Neruda, Extravagaria , Alastair Reed, trans. (New York: Farrar,
Straus and Ciroux, 1958/1969), p. 29.
showing that the contemporary debate regarding contributions of the following peer reviewers for
2. Bernard Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction (Cambridge: MIT Press,
architectural typology is yet another battle in an this issue of the JAE: Barbara Ambach (University 1994), p. 54.
age-old dualist struggle between realism and ide- of Colorado at Denver), Carmen Aroztequi (Uni- 3. Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Perez-Gomez, Questions of

versidad ORT, Uruguay), Julio Arroyo (Universidad Perception- Phenomenology of Architecture (Tokyo: A + U, 1994), p. 45.
alism, Jin Baek offers a powerful methodological
4. Lindsay Jones, The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture,
antidote: double negation. Following Japanese Nacional del Litoral, Argentina), Michael Benedikt
Volume 7: Monumental Occasions, Reflections on the Eventfulness
philosopher Kitaro Nishida's studies of emptiness, (University of Texas at Austin), Lisa Henry Benham of Religious Architecture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000),

this article proposes a non-Hegelian dialectic that (University of Utah), Robert Benson (Miami pp. 29, 41.

5 BARRIE AND BERMUDEZ

This content downloaded from 129.96.252.188 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 23:11:04 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms