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Lebbeus Woods

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Lebbeus Woods
Lebbeus Woods
Born(1940-05-31)May 31, 1940
Lansing, Michigan
DiedOctober 30, 2012(2012-10-30)(aged 72)
New York, New York[1]
Occupation(s)Architect and artist
Websitelebbeuswoods.wordpress

Lebbeus Woods(May 31, 1940 – October 30, 2012) was an Americanarchitectand artist known for his unconventional and experimental designs.[2][3]Known for his rich, yet mainly unbuilt work and its nonetheless significant impact on the architectural sphere, Lebbeus Woods and his oeuvre are considered visionary, describing a radically experimental world built on the principles ofheterogeneityandmultiplicityand bridging thus the gap between numerous fields including architecture, philosophy, and mathematics. Reconfiguring the architectural space in environments of crisis, whether it be natural, social, political, or financial, Woods stated: “I’m not interested in living in a fantasy world. All my work is still meant to evoke real architectural spaces. But what interests me is what the world would be like if we were free of conventional limits. Maybe I can show what could happen if we lived by a different set of rules.”[4]

Career

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Born in East Lansing, Michigan, Woods studied architecture at theUniversity of Illinoisand engineering atPurdue University.While Woods called himself an architect he never received a degree in architecture nor was he ever licensed to practice architecture. He first worked in the offices ofEero Saarinenas a field representative on the Ford Foundation building designed by Saarinen in New York City. After leaving Saarinen's office he worked for a short period for the Champaign, Illinois firm of Richardson, Severns Scheeler & Associates. He also produced paintings for the Indianapolis Art Museum during that period. In 1976 he turned exclusively to theory and experimental projects.[3]He designed a light pavilion in theSliced Porosity Block,Chengdu,ChinawithSteven Holl,[5]and buildings inHavana,Cuba.[6][7]In 1988, Woods co-founded the Research Institute forExperimental Architecture,a nonprofit institution devoted to the advancement of experimental architectural thought and practice while promoting the concept and perception of architecture itself.

As an artist, Woods illustrated Wagner'sRing of the Niebelung,and Arthur C. Clarke's 1983 short-story anthology,The Sentinel.[8]An exhibition of Woods' work, including his drawings, was organized by theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Artin 2013. The opening included a conversation between Southern California architectsThom MayneandNeil Denari,who remembered Woods as a mentor and friend.[9]This was a touring exhibition, presenting during 2014 at theEli and Edythe Broad Art Museumat Michigan State University andDrawing Center,in New York.[10]

The author of nine books, he was a 1994 recipient of theChrysler Design Award.[3]He was a professor of architecture at theCooper Unionin New York City and at theEuropean Graduate SchoolinSaas-Fee,Switzerland.[2]

Philosophy

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While the purpose of mostarchitectsis the construction of their designed work, for Woods, the essence ofarchitecturetranscended these limits by seeking something other than an idea expressed as a built form. Interested in what would happen if the architect was freed from conventional restrictions, he did not intend to generate and construct adesignproposal of a specific geometrical form in order to approach an existing architectural problem. To the contrary, his work consists of intricately complex drawings and designs, envisioning and exploring new types ofspace.Yet, he considered his architecture neither utopian nor visionary but an attempt to approachrealityunder a radical set of ideas and conditions.[4]

Pyramids in Giza

In his visionary world, architecture instrumentalizes the continuous transformation of the human being as its user who becomes its creator, giving it meaning and content through their way of acting in space. All individuals, whether they have an architectural background or not, should become creators of this newworld.A person devoid ofarchitectural educationis called upon to act as an architect and in parallel, the architect needs to act upon as a person with no architectural background.[11]To this end, Woods saw a parallelism between thedesignerof abuildingand the creator of apyramidwho follows forms imposed by those who represent, express, dominate, and exploit others’ obedience to regulatory rules. On one hand, at the lowest level of the structure Wood places the inhabitant of the pyramid as the bearer of its full load. On the other hand, the architect who designs building non types, or else the freespace of unknown purpose and meaning, inverts the pyramid and creates new building types. Every resident of this inverted structure becomes a top. In the undefineddarknessof the void where this structure is located, many pyramids interpenetrate and dissolve, one in the other. They generate a flow; a form of indeterminacy; a contradictoryplan;acityof unknown origin and destination; a state of continuous transformation.[12]This can as also be seen in Woods's project Horizon Houses about which he states:

Lebbeus Woods: Horizon Houses (2000)

They are structures experimenting with our perception of spatial transformations, accomplished without any material changes to the structures themselves. In these projects, my concern was the question of space. The engineering questions of how to turn the houses could be answered by conventional mechanical means—cranes and the like—but these seem clumsy and inelegant. The mechanical solution may lie in the idea of self-propelling structures, using hydraulics. But of more immediate concern: how would the changing spaces impact the ways we might inhabit them?[13]

The majority of his explorations deal with the design of systems in crisis: the order of the existing being confronted by the order of the new. His designs are politically charged and provocative visions of a possible reality; provisional, local, and charged with the investment of their creators. He is best known for his proposals for San Francisco, Havana, and Sarajevo that were included in the publication of Radical Reconstruction in 1997 (Sarajevo after the war, Havana in the grips of the ongoing trade embargo, and San Francisco after the Loma Prieta earthquake).

Architecture and war are not incompatible. Architecture is war. War is architecture. I am at war with my time, with history, with all authority that resides in fixed and frightened forms. I am one of millions who do not fit in, who have no home, no family, no doctrine, no firm place to call my own, no known beginning or end, no "sacred and primordial site." I declare war on all icons and finalities, on all histories that would chain me with my own falseness, my own pitiful fears. I know only moments, and lifetimes that are as moments, and forms that appear with infinite strength, then "melt into air." I am an architect, a constructor of worlds, a sensualist who worships the flesh, the melody, a silhouette against the darkening sky. I cannot know your name. Nor you can know mine. Tomorrow, we begin together the construction of a city.[14]

Realizing the need to redefine the meaning of human existence by means of architecture, Woods envisioned the creation of spaces sheltering the diverse material and immaterial needs of each of their inhabitants. In his works, terms of a conventional architectural vocabulary, such as the void, wall, volume, and surface, give their place to combinations of heterogeneous and radical interpretations of their content including the "freespace", "multiplicity", and "heterarchy".[15]

In a similar way,Michel Foucaultidentified transitional spaces that accommodate diversity or else theotherpertaining to each inhabitant as opposed to the entirecommunity.For him, these heterotopias are real and institutionalized spaces lost within the grid of the urban fabric. However, they constitute "a kind ofdislocationor a realized utopia, in which all the real spatial arrangements, all other spatial arrangements encountered within society, are simultaneously represented, challenged and overturned ".[16]

Freespace

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Woods introduced the termfreespaceto propose an architectural approach freed from its conventional, predetermined anddeterministiccharacter, or else an architecture that instrumentalizes the ever-changinglandscapeof the modern era which is exposed to natural and man-made changes. In contrast to the model of organization and development of the modern city, thefreespacewas for Woods a field of unpredictable forces and continuous transformations of both its user and society which is characterized by morphological fluidity and ideological liberation.[12]Theconceptoffreespacewas addressed to the remaining empty space whose meaning differs from that of the indefinite void whether it is perceptual, natural, political,socialor cultural. A buildingmassis not a necessary condition for the existence of space. The act ofabstractionis an entirely creativelogicthat leads to covering the remaining empty space with human energy and movement. The subtracted mass cannot be replaced with anything else as the energy lost in the act of subtraction can only be offered to thesystemthrough human energy, thus ensuring the system's balance.[12]In Woods'freespace,the user of the building plays the role of the creator, and the space exists only when it is inhabited. It is not intended for a particularsocial group,but for those who wish to transform their everyday life from static to fluid and from deterministic to existential. It does not have a predefined plan of use and is not part of a particular building type. The purpose of establishing such a space is the transformation of the user through their existence into an unprecedented and totally indefinable spatial reality. Woods' society can only be founded on the intelligence, resourcefulness and awareness-raising initiative of the individual who is called to identify and harmonize with the complexity of their self-sufficiency in space and time. To do this, they must devise new and more experimental ways of usingfreespace.[12]

Wall

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Woods developed a comprehensivetheoryabout thewallas a structural element, giving it a multi-dimensional and totally different value from that of the boundary. For him, walls form as a result of the ephemeralculturethat develops in the midst of acrisiswhich manifests itself not in its core, where the most damaging effects are expressed, but in zones on its periphery. The zones of crisis are shaped by the collision of dissimilar situations, things, and ideologies and constitute the only places where new and vital ideas for the development of a new culture can emerge. In this context, thewallis an element which defines rather than divides spaces that lie between different spatial conditions and its user is one who purposely went there not fitting in any of the conventionally designed spaces. The wall's role is to neither build a completely new logic, nor abandon existing systems and ideas but to trigger a new way of thinking about space.[11]

Multiplicity

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In Woods’ philosophy, space and structure constitute a form ofnoiseorchaosknown asmultiplicity.In his work,multiplicityis defined as a source of change consisting of undefined compositions of elements with indistinguishable trajectories. The elements form an aggregate but not a totality. Thus,multiplicitycan be described but not clearly defined. It contains a sense of indeterminate motion which can influence and create sets of elements rather than a transition from one point to another.Multiplicity,for Woods, is directly linked to creation but it involves the possibility of chaos andviolence.Themultiplicityof chaos triggers an endless series of changes, some of which are violent. Under such circumstances, Woods envisioned a world that is reborn and continuously transforming, thus responding to the ever-changing environment but also to each individual's needs.[11]

Heterarchy

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In a society where heterogeneity is established as a form of homogeneity, Woods envisioned the foundation ofheterarchy,a societal structure based on dialogue and collaboration. In this context, the individual stands as a unique entity calledheterospertaining to theother;the one that differs from the group.[12]In this society, Woods believes that the architect needs to first respect and meet the needs of eachheterosmember to satisfy eventually the ones of the larger group.[12]

Works

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Einstein Tomb

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A 1980 proposal for a celestial cenotaph for Albert Einstein, to be constructed in orbit and sent into deep space. Wood envisioned it as "a vessel that rides a beam of light to the edges of the cosmos, eventually and infinitely orbiting back toward its origin."[17]

Terra Nova - Korean Demilitarized Zone

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In 1988, as part of the Kyong Park exhibition at the Storefront for Art and Architecture inNew York City,Woods proposed a solution of an architectural and political nature to address the crisis in theKorean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ),a strip oflandthat runs through theKorean Peninsulaand almost bisects it, forming a neutral zone between the northern and southern part. It was created in 1953 de facto under the Korean Reconciliation Agreement betweenNorth Korea(Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and theUnited Nations,requiring the troops of each side to descend from the front's line by 2 km, thus leaving a neutral 4 km-wide strip between them.[11]

Woods’ Terra Nova-DMZ project had a double purpose: first, to comment on themilitaryand social implications of the political division of the Korean Peninsula from a symbolic andaestheticarchitectural perspective; second, to reflect on the rigid relationship between architecture and landscape. To this end, he bisected vertically the Korean peninsula by envisioned a steel-and-aluminum,dome-like structure of gigantic dimensions to make the military equipment accumulated in the area undetectable by satellite oraerial photography.In this way, he designed afreespacewhich covered the entire length of the peninsula and consisted of movable architectural elements, covering Han and Nakdong rivers to the South and expanding all the way down to the coast ofKorea Strait.To the North, a smaller structure rose to Imjin and covered the Changjin Reservoir reaching the foot of Mount Hamgyong. The function of the architectural members of the dome set the foundation for asecond nature,or in Woods' vocabulary, aterra nova.In this new nature, a dialectic relationship between the ends of the militarydipolewas established, without this meaning the merging of each pole's characteristics and ideologies.[11]

Havana

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In 1995, Woods dealt with the urban fabric ofHavana,in a period whenCubawas undergoing the consequences of a socio-politicalrevolutionthat was turning intocommunism,of which the most important was the trade embargo by theUnited States.Under these terms, the Cuban government encouraged the construction of public buildings and social housing as a form of financial and technical support. Whole building blocks pre-fabricated inYugoslaviawere transferred to Havana ready for assembly, triggering the development of a type of architecture similar to the one implemented ineastern Europe.Woods's work aimed to activate every citizen in Havana by proposing the practice of a radical architecture which he considered an extension of the revolution rather than an adaptation to old habits and conditions.[18]To this end, he developed three architectural proposals.[11]

The first one dealt with the 6 km-long avenue ofMaleconwhich forms the northernborderbetween Havana and the Caribbean Sea. Here, Woods envisioned to create an artificialbreakwaterwhich would protect the urban fabric against the tides caused by tropical storms and hurricanes flooding a large part of the city every three to four years. It would be also used as abalconyto the sea for recreational purposes. Using the energy of the tides, the breakwater would tilt increasing in height and strength (Woods, 2010). Woods' aimed to use the boundary in a dual way: on one hand, to protect and separate the urban fabric from the forces of nature; on the other hand, to create a new space on the extension of the old boundary between land and sea in an attempt to reconcile an artificial and a natural element.[11]

The second proposal focused on the city's historic center known asHavana Vieja,which leads to the harbor and is in a state ofdecompositionas there are no funds required for the preservation of its historic buildings. Woods introduced the concept of awallto propose the construction of an urban wall along the old city boundary in order to bring together the decomposition and redevelopment activities of Havana Vieja. It was a massive construction that contained utilities accommodating new types of use and habitation within the old city. It was made of cheap, and lightweight materials, yet based on the cutting-edge technological means of the times. The wall in this work did not function as a boundary isolating the old from the new part of the city of Havana but as a form offreespaceredefining the relationship between them.[11]

Woods's third proposal did not dictate the result, but provided accurate models and rules that could be transformed into built forms. Thanks to its vibrant culture and its unstable political history, Havana was for him an incubator for the study of the function of institutions of any type. His aim was to design rules and practices through which the institutes could be reorganized and reformed. In Havana, this center was to be dedicated to the study andanalysisof holistic models of both fixed and fluid surfaces representing the paradoxical landscapes of contemporary cities of the era that included the human and natural forces of change.[11]

Underground Berlin

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In 1990sBerlin,in order to reduce the importance of theWallthat divided the city into the Eastern and Western part, Lebbeus Woods envisioned the construction of an underground community along the U-Bahn lines, a project which again remained on paper. His goal was to encourage the citizens of Berlin to reconnect their own city and their fragmented culture. This would require the overthrow of the current system of values andsocial controlwhich Woods wished to achieve by architectural means. Starting with the destruction of the neglected and abandoned by public and private institutions urban space (freespace), he proposed the construction of spaces of extreme conditions of living anddwellingfor the ones who abolish the conventional principles of architecture. These freespaces would compose a linear network of autonomous habitat and work structures, as he described them whose inhabitants would be in charge of building their underground city.[12]

In the underground city, inverted light metal towers and bridges are electronically connected with large public ground spaces as well as with each other. The structures are in constant transformation vibrating by the forces of the earth. They were conceived as intertwined landscapes of dialogue where there is unlimited freedom of access to communication systems; these are the "free-zones", which appeared for the first time in Woods' philosophy and vocabulary as"Berlin Freezones".[12]In thisfreespace,instrument stations ensure theinteractionwith otherfreespaces,locations, and users. They play the role of electronic nodes that are connected to computers and other telecommunication devices, thus laying the foundations for creating a dynamic relationship between the physical reality of architecture and the non-material world oftechnology.[12]The underground society can survive as long as it remains secret and only as the inhabitants use their intelligence to reach a state ofself-organization.[11]

In the terrestrial city the ground functions as a surface offrictionresisting the city's energy. In this way, Wood argues, terrestrial life is limited to only two dimensions and the notion of the surface is stronger than that of the depth. In this sense, the ground stands as a boundary. To the contrary, in the underground city, the city of depth, the surface does not function as a point of reference. The underground inhabitants do not seek to meet their daily needs in a standardized way and the architecture of the underground world aims to lay the foundation for a newplasticityin the way of thinking and experiencing space or else, an experimental way of living.[12]

Influence on film

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Woods sued the producers of the film12 Monkeys,claiming that they copied his work "Neomechanical Tower (Upper) Chamber".[19]Woods won a "six figure sum", and allowed the film to continue to be screened. The end credits state that his work "inspired" the Interrogation Room set.[20]

Woods is credited as the "conceptual architect"[21]forAlien 3,establishing the look and feel of the film, especially the opening sequence.

Personal life

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Woods married Pattilee (née Haagsma) in April 1961. Together they had two children: Angela, born in 1963, and Lebbeus Woods II, born in 1967. As of 2024, Lebbeus Woods II currently works in finance, and Angela is a social worker. Woods has three granddaughters and four grandsons.

Woods' marriage to Pattilee dissolved in 1972. He remarried Aleksandra (née Wagner) in 1998, with whom he had one daughter, Victoria. As of 2024, Victoria is an artist residing in New York.

See also

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Bibliography

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  • Slow Manifesto: Lebbeus Woods Blogby Clare Jacobson (2015),Princeton Architectural Press,ISBN978-1616893347
  • OneFiveFour(2011),Princeton Architectural Press,ISBN978-0-910-41380-0
  • The Storm and the Fall(2004),Princeton Architectural Press,ISBN978-1-568-98421-6
  • Radical Reconstruction(2001),Princeton Architectural Press,ISBN978-1-568-98286-1
  • Pamphlet Architecture 15: War and Architecture(1993),Princeton Architectural Press,ISBN978-1-568-98011-9
  • The New City(1992),Touchstone Books,ISBN978-0-671-78117-0(hardcover),ISBN978-0-671-76812-6(paperback)
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  • The Hermitage sculpture (1998) by Lebbeus Woods in Rotterdam, The Netherlands
    The Hermitage sculpture (1998) by Lebbeus Woods in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

References

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  1. ^Lebbeus Woods, Experimental Architect, DiesArchivedOctober 31, 2012, at theWayback Machineat archdaily, access date: October 30, 2012.
  2. ^ab"Lebbeus Woods Faculty Page at European Graduate School (Biography, bibliography and video lectures)".European Graduate School.Archived fromthe originalon October 24, 2010.RetrievedSeptember 25,2010.
  3. ^abc"1994 Chrysler Design Award to Lebbeus Woods".Chrysler Design Awards.Archived fromthe originalon September 27, 2011.RetrievedDecember 23,2015.
  4. ^abYardley, William (October 31, 2012)."Lebbeus Woods, Architect Who Bucked Convention, Dies at 72".The New York Times.RetrievedMay 24,2019.
  5. ^"Two Short Films Capture the Essence of Steven Holl Architects' Sliced Porosity Block".ArchDaily.February 20, 2013.Archivedfrom the original on October 14, 2018.RetrievedOctober 14,2018.
  6. ^Ouroussoff, Nicolai (August 25, 2008)."An Architect Unshackled by Limits of the Real World".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on April 17, 2009.RetrievedMay 7,2010.
  7. ^Domus Magazine March 2013
  8. ^Clarke, Arthur C. (1983).The Sentinel.New York: Berkley Books.ISBN0-425-09389-1.
  9. ^King, John (February 26, 2013)."Lebbeus Woods: artistry over architecture".SFGate.Archived fromthe originalon November 15, 2013.RetrievedJune 29,2024.
  10. ^"The Drawing Center: Lebbeus Woods: Architect".The Drawing Center.June 30, 2024. Archived fromthe originalon June 30, 2024.RetrievedJune 30,2024.
  11. ^abcdefghijWoods, Lebbeus (1997).Radical Reconstruction.New York: Princeton Architectural Press.ISBN1568982860.
  12. ^abcdefghijWoods, Lebbeus (1992).ANARCHITECTURE: Architecture is a Political Act.London: Academy Editions. pp. 8, 11, 46, 50.ISBN1854901486.
  13. ^Manaugh, Author Geoff (March 2, 2012)."Star Wheel Horizon".BLDGBLOG.RetrievedMay 19,2019.{{cite web}}:|first=has generic name (help)
  14. ^Woods, Lebbeus (2002).War and Architecture.New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 1.ISBN1-56898-011-6.
  15. ^Woods, Lebbeus. (2014).Lebbeus Woods: architect.The Drawing Center.ISBN9780942324846.OCLC908138878.
  16. ^Foucault, Michel (1993).Οf Οther Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias Architecture Culture 1943¬1968 - Α document anthology(J. Ockman ed.). New York: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Rizzoli.ISBN0847815110.
  17. ^"Lebbeus Woods: Einstein Tomb".SFMOMA.Archived fromthe originalon June 30, 2024.RetrievedJune 30,2024.
  18. ^"LEBBEUS WOODS".LEBBEUS WOODS.RetrievedMay 19,2019.
  19. ^"WOODS v. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC. | Leagle".Archivedfrom the original on July 14, 2014.RetrievedJuly 10,2014.
  20. ^Copyright website on "12 Monkeys"ArchivedFebruary 2, 2007, at theWayback Machine
  21. ^"Film credits for" Alien 3 "".IMDb.Archivedfrom the original on August 17, 2017.RetrievedJune 28,2018.
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