IN PURSUIT OF ARCHITECTURE FICTION

Kazys Varnelis

doi:10.3846/tpa.2011.02

Abstract

This essay examines the role of architecture fiction and ecstatic realism as strategies for architects working within a protracted period of economic collapse. It reviews the history of the concept of architecture fiction and explores Werner Herzog’s idea of ecstatic realism as a means of understanding what the possibilities are for the interaction of art and architecture. Through a series of examples, I explore the development of innovative ways of interpreting the world. Santrauka Straipsnyje nagrinėjama architektūros fikcija ir ekstatinis realizmas. Daroma prielaida, kad tai yra strategijos, taikytinos architektūros kūryboje užsitęsusios ekonominės griūties laikotarpiu. Apžvelgiama architektūros fikcijos koncepcijos raida ir tiriama Wernerio Herzogo ekstatinio realizmo idėja kaip atverianti naujas architektūros ir dailės sąveikos galimybes. Pasitelkiant įvairių meno sričių pavyzdžius atskleidžiami inovatyvūs šių dienų pasaulio ir architektūros prasmės jame interpretavimo būdai.

Highlights

In this essay, I want to pursue the emerging concept of “architecture fiction”
The creative economy was the furthest epitome of this kind of economic fiction
Architecture fiction serves as a means of making architects pause and pull back from the thoughtless building that consumed the field during the last boom

Summary

Introduction

I want to pursue the emerging concept of “architecture fiction”. Developed by science fiction novelist Bruce Sterling and elaborated in a conversation between Sterling and myself on the Internet, architecture fiction identifies a new kind of interaction between architecture and the arts in which architects transgress into the territory of the novelist to themselves envision alternate realities and shape narratives (Sterling 2006; Varnelis 2009). Refigured within the broader realm of media, the book began to lose its distinct boundaries from capital. More than any other art form, postmodern architecture represented capital refiguring itself as “creative”.

Results

Conclusion