Tschumi again

Bernard Tschumi Drawing from Manhattan Transcripts

Bernard Tschumi believed, when he wrote Manhattan Transcripts in the 1980s, that architecture should acknowledge that it is as much about events and movement, as it is about space. This drawing shows three dimensions of architecture. This series of drawings was shown in an art context in New York before Tschumi was practising as an architect.

In his first built project, Parc de la Villette in Paris (1983), he had the opportunity to try his approach. He designed the Parc by superimposing three layers, a grid representing static space, a ground plan representing different activities, and curvilinear shapes representing movement.

Bernard Tschumi Concept for Parc de la Villette, Paris

Plan of built Parc de la Villette

Folie in Parc de la Villette

His drawings for both MT and the Parc are atttractive, and his writings very interesting. I wanted to take these and translate them into media such as print on paper and fabric. But I now realise that this is very difficult. Tschumi has radical ideas about architecture, and his drawings are complex conceptual explorations of his theory. It is meaningless to use the "style" without proper understanding or purpose.

I like Tschumi's three dimensional approach of the plan, the event and the movement. However, I am finding it a challenge to translate it into my way of thinking and working. I wonder also if his schema is relevant to me at all and whether I am in fact more interested in the subjective experience of space and buildings.

Diana Hand

Drawing charcoal and other media

This approach, however, says something rather different about architecture. It is a romantic comment on "the secret life of buildings" and the fragments of memory they contain.
But, to be continued, it is also about how we experience space and buildings - of all kinds.