Simultaneously Space and Event: Bernard Tschumi’s Conception of Architecture

Abstract

The article examines the way Bernard Tschumi understood the concept of space in the late seventies, interpreting it in conjunction with his relationship with the so-called “London Conceptualists”, whose concern was to embrace the experience of space. The exchanges of Tschumi with the conceptual and performance art scene are pivotal for understanding his conception of space. Special attention is paid to a number of exhibitions that epitomize the cross-fertilisation between the architecture scene and art scene, such as “A Space: A Thousand Words”, held at the Royal College of Arts (RCA) in 1975 and co-curated by Bernard Tschumi and RoseLee Goldberg. The importance of this exhibition for comprehending the role of space for Tschumi’s thought lies in the fact that it aimed “[t]o reveal a change in attitudes towards the theories and the language of space” and to reinforce the contact of architecture with the very reality of its spatial experience. The article examines the evolution of Tschumi's concerns about spatial praxis, addressing core issues of his pedagogical and design practice during the seventies and the early eighties. Particular emphasis is placed on his teaching strategies at the Architectural Association in London, and on an ensemble of projects on which he worked during his first stays in the United States of America, such as The Manhattan Transcripts series, The Screenplays series, and The 20th Century Follies series. The main objective of the article is to render explicit how Tschumi’s conception of the experience of the city as simultaneously space and event is closely related to his intention to challenge the cause-effect relationships dominating the modernist views of the city. Of great significance for his understanding of urban conditions is Tschumi’s claim that in architecture the materialisation of concepts coincides with their simultaneous visual and social expression. In other words, in Tschumi’s view, the concepts in order to be materialised must necessarily be expressed through visual and social means.