The Final Three

7. We are witnessing a redemption of practice in the discipline of architecture. Many conversations are being centered around ways/means of practicing architecture. Has the status of contemporary urbanism affected this change? Are architects "redeeming practice" as an implicit response to the challenges of urbanism?

8. How do you see the perimeter evolving as the economy transitions from one based on heavy industry to a technological era of smaller, faster, and more efficient? Does it modify the size, speed or value of the perimeter?

9. What does it mean for a graduate program in architecture to work the perimeter? What are we doing by implication when we think the perimeter?

Perimeter Displeasure

4. Production in the discipline of architecture can be defined by recurring methods and techniques. What new methodologies become necessary in light of perimeter thinking? How do established modes of production get reorganized?

Perimeter thinking? It already sounds like we should be bracketing a new form of thought process specific to this theme, which would implicitly entail the generalized obsolescence of any ‘established modes of production’, if they are to be defined per subject matter/site of interest. A grammar of exceptions. You’re answering your own question..

I see among our studio themes the perimeter expressed as one of three possibilities: the edge of uncharted territory, be it geographical or knowledge based; the urban ready-made, the land of ultimate banality which we-architects are quick to aestheticize (one wonders: to whose benefit?); and the cracks and malfunctions within planned system, the anomalous zones that have been marginalized because our society likes to spotlight its failures about as much as its losers (ever noticed that in most other countries, defeated candidates get to come back and try again?). These categories widen the role of the architect to explorer, popular culture theorist and social worker, respectively, and whole new sets of methods and techniques become available.

In terms of architectural interventions, these specific perimeters all suffer from a lack of existing (or proven valid) methodological precedent. Architecture on virgin territory. So how do we lay an infrastructure of creative possibilities, without which any intervention, as good as it may be, could be erased without consequences to the land or to the people? Malcolm’s ‘art of composition’ is a possibility, if it speaks of tapping into existing harmonic needs other than formal (for now). It would demand extensive analysis (a scientific approach, watch out!) of programmatic needs. What is available, what is necessary, what is desired? What other desires and necessities would emerge as a consequence to any proposal? It’s a difficult exercise in proportioning. If many of these ‘perimeter conditions’ have not benefited from the touch of the ‘dream-maker’ architect, they certainly have already either been exploited or rejected as non-lucrative by the ‘money-maker’ economists. We’re always a bit behind on that one. Our role is to make spaces for local desire rather than for delocalized cash. Whether we are event-designers or space-manipulators, ultimately we’re trying to provide an optimized pleasure vs. displeasure ratio, and it should involve a clear, proportional and scaled definition of those affected. Sadly, pleasure is more easily evocated by a nebulous zone made of 100% potential than by any attempt post execution.
Is perimeter a sine qua non to pleasure?

Round 2 - New Questions

4. Production in the discipline of architecture can be defined by recurring methods and techniques. What new methodologies become necessary in light of perimeter thinking? How do established modes of production get reorganized?

5. How do you view the architect's role in the perimeter? As society becomes aware of the growing condition of the perimeter, do you see the architect - as - navigator within this system?

6. In its current state, how far do you see the perimeter expanding? Is the perimeter necessarily a fleeting, transitory condition? Or is it possible to locate the edges of a perimeter condition, its beginning and end? How do you see it ending?

Order of 1 with a side of 3

Somewhere in the syllabus, it says: What if the city is not where you expect to find it? I think it’s safe to ask: what if the perimeter is not where you expect to find it? i.e. contingent on a ‘center’ (2πR). We are continuously setting up oppositions: suburbs vs. inner-city, rural vs. urban, the ‘coasts’ vs. our identity-challenged Midwestern state. These may be temporarily meaningful, but have been proved unstable. Once vibrant centers vanish into the void of the doughnut hole (Detroit), relationships get reversed.
In my late great-grandmother’s house in Burgundy, old and heavy hemp sheets fill the linen shelves. A hand-stitched seem runs down the length of middle: a century ago, at the time of the sheets’ estimated midlife point, they were cut in half, flipped, and the worn out center area was relocated to the periphery, to be tucked in. In our studio, we’ve addressed ‘perimeter’ as the zone of marginalization (if not rejection). It may have a geographical implication, but originates as a social circumstance. Orphaned zones, unclaimed citizens. When searching for the zoning plans of the 8 mile strip, the Detroit bldg department suggested we contact the Warren/ Royal Oak/ South Field administrations -- who referred us right back to Detroit, mission unaccomplished.

The condition is untamable, clearly and for the better. The question is not whether architecture can control it, but more modestly, if it can achieve an active degree of participation. I would hope that the myth of architecture as an innocent and un-implicated practice is finally over. If it’s not working for you, it’s working against you.

Starters

1. Does the perimeter, by definition, entail a proximity to a center? What
is the character of this relationship?

2. Given the perimeter, what are the most important tools for the
architect? Are there new tools, or are we mutating the usual ones?

3. Is the perimeter a knowable circumstance? Or is it, by definition,
formless and out of focus? Is it possible to manage a condition that is
seemingly untamable?