Understand deconstructivism as a strategy

Florian Rötzer: Coop Himmelb(l)au is considered a deconstructivist architectural group. Various deconstructivist buildings are well-known, but is there such a thing as a deconstructivist concept of the city?
Wolf D. Prix: If someone confuses deconstructivism with a formal expression, then such a thing does not exist. It needs to be regarded as a strategy. When we say that the city is a field of clouds, it includes the theory of deconstruction. A part of this theory is the effort to discover the “blind spot.” According to Derrida, the “blind spot” is an unconsciously written element of the text that controls it. A parallel to this idea are the invisible, unconscious architectural rules that profoundly influence the city. If we take this as a starting point for further development, then a deconstructivist city could emerge from it.

FR: What would correspond to the “blind spot” in the city? How can they be discovered?
WDP: Discovering the gaps in the city could be one way to find the “blind spot.” They could be unused spaces and areas. Such spaces are very important for the city because they act as valves balancing pressure. Interspaces thus become the main spaces. We are currently working on a project for Havana. We do not want to build any architecture there; instead, we aim to fix the water piping using the theory of fuzzy sets.

FR: What could that be?
WDP: It is a computer-controlled trial-and-error system that can find cracks in water pipes. This allows for digging precisely where the pipe is damaged. In Havana, 50% of drinking water is lost due to leaky pipes. So we thought: first, we will fix the water pipes. This is one example of how we can think of the theory of deconstructivism as a tool for building cities.

FR: You spoke of understanding the city as a field of clouds. Fields of clouds move, they are dynamic, they are constantly changing. Previously, Coop Himmelb(l)au talked about liquid architecture, which fundamentally leads in the same direction. From the beginning, you have worked with media and architecture. Architecture as a building is something solid and immovable. But how can we understand liquid architecture as something constructed? In the virtual world, this does not pose any problem at all.
WDP: Liquid architecture is architecture that incorporates media, which responds to the movement and activities of its inhabitant. This can be expressed by transferring emotional life to the façade, or it can mean that movements can be readable on the building. We are currently working on a related project in Vienna. The open square is characterized by energy fields and lines. If you break these lines by crossing them, the appropriate part of the façade of the building – the tower – will change color. Architecture that reacts is architecture of the field of clouds. Architecture that acts is static.

FR: To make this possible, architecture must connect with computer technology.
WDP: Definitely. For our time, it is “and also” and not “either or." There will be static and also dynamic architecture. New building technologies will be developed for this. The starting point can be seen in the so-called “intelligent” façades. I dislike using this term because the architect and the user are intelligent, not the façades. Moreover, experimenting with media façades supports this claim.

FR: For architecture, it will be increasingly important to include connections with media, both inside and outside. On the other hand, there is also the infrastructure of the city. You mentioned the sewage network. However, computer networks also belong to the urban infrastructure. They function similarly to transportation infrastructure, deeply influencing city life, perhaps even down to its unconsciousness. Computer networks might be able to replace parts and functions of a spatially rooted city, which would have a huge impact on life in the city. How could and should architects and urban planners respond to this?
WDP: The urban space must be redefined and understood as a changing, networked media event. It is characterized today more as a semiconductor than a spatial sequence. As new urban centers are built, the impacts are slowly becoming recognizable. For example, we are building a cinema center in Dresden, which is conceived as an urban forum. Visual media play a large role in shaping space.

FR: So virtual space is slowly replacing public space?
WDP: No, it is not replacing. They are simultaneous systems. A media event on public space can happen here just as in the piazzas of Rome. After all, television and cinema still exist simultaneously.

FR: Technology has a significant impact on the structure of the city. Trains, cars, and phones, for example, have triggered the process of urban sprawl. Suburbanization is likely to continue to grow with the formation of more computer networks since connecting to these networks allows for decentralization of organizations and collaborations. Suburban areas are minimally shaped by overall architectural designs. They grow wildly and increasingly represent settlements that are neither urban nor rural. Can such sprawling settlements be urbanized?
WDP: You’re talking about a democratic urban system. In our opinion, two schools or two directions will emerge. The first is dense urban development, which concentrates urban life and enables it at all levels. “High culture” will find its place here. Media will be present here, and news will be created here. This will be created interactively, so no hierarchy can establish itself. There will be those clusters of cities, but between them, “nomads” will move. There will be worlds of media Bedouins in cities of media Bedouins, temporary events – and also considerably populated metropolises, which will encompass everything that adds to that “and also.”

FR: What do these Bedouin cities look like? In suburban areas like Los Angeles, people often move between media and urban space. And architecture remains immobile.
WDP: Houses in Los Angeles are not immobile. Every ten to fifteen years, they are torn down and rebuilt, to the extent that the constructions can be granted a nomadic character. It is not the building that is valuable, but the land on which it stands. However, through the network of media, people still move a lot from one place to another.

FR: When you get a commission for a house, do you really plan the building just for ten years?
WDP: It depends on what we are planning. The new urban center in Dresden with the UFA cinema center is conceived as a shell that should last more than ten years. It is quite possible that this multifunctional building will one day be used as a museum, theater, or shopping center. This is one of the possible responses of architecture to mobility: the buildings themselves are multifunctional and can be used in various ways. Our roof extension on Falkestrasse, for example, is not just an office but can also be conceived as an apartment. The concept of lofts plays an important role in this. It is about spaces that can change inside the shell. Keeping options open for further development, supporting them.

FR: The old maxim “form follows function,” that the exterior should reflect the interior, is completely abandoned by separating the shell from the interior. How are such autonomous shells designed?
WDP: The shell has an immediate function, but it must be open to later reinterpretation. The shell should provide that “and also,” that variability, just like clouds. However, there is no neutral space, and thus the charisma of the content is still very important.