Abstract
The architectural work of John Hejduk (1929-2000) is marked by theoretical-design research, collected in series with titles and periods. Among these series the one entitled Masques, developed since about 1979, can be considered the nucleus of his research on the architecture of the city and the place of origin of his language of construction later developed in his realized buildings. This paper analyses the dense network of references and analogies established by Hejduk to create his Masques, trying to fix its origin in the idea of the city as a theatre of characters composed of architecture. Starting from the name chosen for the title of this series, the paper tries to trace the threads that lead from the general work of the various projects of the Masques series, to the reflections and ideas that produced it. Then, it comes back again to the observation of architecture and of a case study (Security, 1989), to understand and explain its meaning and the compositional methods involved into the process of genesis of form. Through the entire work named Masques, and its recognizable link with the buildings and installation realized around the world, Hejduk has built an archive of architectural prototypes ready to construct different parts of the city, thus highlighting the strong connection that his work establishes with reality in order "to conceive it, represent it and finally realize it".
Highlights
IntroductionJohn Hejduk’s work is generally divided into phases and periods reflecting his theoretical and design research, which addresses certain issues over a period of time until fixing their conclusions through architectural experiments
The series entitled “Masques”, developed approximatively since 19793, gathers a various number of projects, representing the core of his research on the architecture of the city and the genesis of his language of construction4. These projects are mainly narrated by their author with extremely refined art books5 where his work is presented with an extensive set of drawings of different graphic nature, accompanied by descriptive texts, short stories, quotations and above all by poems, which constitute a complete language of Hejduk's work6. (Fig.1)
Starting from the large apparatus of essays and scripts about John Hejduk Masques8, this paper aims to enlighten the conceptual core of this thought about the role of architecture in the representation of the city and society and the consequences it plays on Hejduk’s architectural composition and language
Summary
John Hejduk’s work is generally divided into phases and periods reflecting his theoretical and design research, which addresses certain issues over a period of time until fixing their conclusions through architectural experiments. The series entitled “Masques”, developed approximatively since 19793, gathers a various number of projects, representing the core of his research on the architecture of the city and the genesis of his language of construction. The series entitled “Masques”, developed approximatively since 19793, gathers a various number of projects, representing the core of his research on the architecture of the city and the genesis of his language of construction4 These projects are mainly narrated by their author with extremely refined art books where his work is presented with an extensive set of drawings of different graphic nature (watercolour, sketches, technical drawings, urban plans, collages), accompanied by descriptive texts, short stories, quotations and above all by poems, which constitute a complete language of Hejduk's work. In order to understand this idea and its results it is necessary to reconstruct the deep network of analogies that nourishes Hejduk's design reflection, starting from the reference which gives the name to the series: the Masque
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