This week's readings for Buildings Texts and Contexts:

-Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. "The Architecture of Bureaucracy and the Architecture of Genius." Architectural Review 101, no. 601 (1947): 3-6.
-Adorn, Theodore W. "Theses Upon Art and Religion Today." The Kenyon Review VII, no. 4 (1945): 677-82.
-Adorn, Theodore W., and Max Horkheimer. "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception," [1947] in Dialectic of Enlightenment, 120-131. New York: Continuum, 2000.
-Wiener, Norbert. "Progress and Entropy" in The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.

Through all these essays we are exploring the following argument laid out by Hitchcock:
"The distinction between the character of the operations of a lading bureaucratic organization like Kahn, Inc. and an individual practitioner of established fame like Wright is real, but can be exaggerated if applied ruthlessly to the whole architectural profession... But conceptually the two types of work are distinct and should not be subjected to the same type of analysis and criticism..."

I am not sure that I buy the argument that we need to think of the built environment in these two simplistic ways. What is interesting is that it is an issue we are struggling with today probably more than back then. Also, it would be interesting to study the Libeskind-Childs WTC debacle through this lense.

Anyhow, the real reason I was inspired to post is Theodore Adorno's essays. His essays are very much applicable today and can be seen in issues discussed far and wide: should wally-world be allowed in our community? how come all music/movies (buildings?) sound/look the same? How come I cannot distinguish politicans?, etc... I recommend reading "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception," specifically.

My reading of the argument (all my bias included):
Increasing organization since the enlightenment comes out of an 'instrumental reason'* that started then and has led to the industrial and capitalist revolutions since. He argues that a few with power are bringing an artificial order in the disguise of progress to control the many. He concludes that art (with its lack of usefulness) is the last refuge from 'instrumental reason' and thus very important for society and humanity. The question this brings up is whether architecture can be separate of a society ruled by 'instrumental reason' or are we too intrinsically tied in to the larger society and its methods of manufacturing and production to do so.

*'instrumental reason' is what we call rationality and that in all reality sees everything (including people) as mere instruments of a larger organization. This thinking allows for children to be exploited in the name of progress, for communities to fail in the name of lower prices, etc...


since i dont like entries without images here is one of adorno chilling, trying to avoid the society of 'instrumental reason'.

I plotted my first model: 1-Solid Works Model 2-After 10 hours and $11 for my 2 cubic inches of material, I have a 4"x7"x2.25" model-a pencil holder. It comes out with a thick wall of 'extra' material that I had to dig out with great effort. I actually liked the extra stuff as a design element...

Since some people seemed interested about this information in my last post, I thought I would post a more full list of tools and where to get them: software for environmental engagement research and analysis: sun path diagrams-wind roses-other climatic info:http://squ1.com/weathertool Thorough and...

doing some environmental research on the site and, as always, I am captivated with the pragmatic beauty of some of these tools. take the wind-rose for example: and the solar path diagram: also, I have created an experiential material palette of the surrounding site: from the vernacular to the...

the bad news: this is how i spent my weekend... the good news: I think i got it i ♥ parametric variations in closed solid models...

Studio 8 credits Goals: I am open for anything. There are some issues I always try to engage: the politics of building (who do you build for and why, what about the "others"?), environment, etc. Right now I am also studying issues of architecture and national/cultural identity, and the...

??-Line begins 5:15 got into the line with at least 200 people in front of me, lecture starts in 45 minutes. 5:30 They start letting students in, by now the line snakes through a big portion of the second tray 5:35 I get into Piper Hall (GSD's auditorium), it is almost full, I find a nice little...

Design project: 146,000 sqft Science and Art Building in Allston. Site:Harvard Allston Initiative studio critic: Amale Andraos. Some info on Amale Andraos:GSD ProfileWorkACarchrecord2 Seems like a good semester, now let's get into it... P.S. More on the Schedule later.

This is the first on what I can only imagine will be a series of rants/thoughts/questions/requests. In this first such post I have a request.I would love to see all the words that archinecters (and others) use to describe design that innovatively engages natural, environmental, and climatic...

gsd 3rd semester fall '06 schedule-possibilities gsd 3rd semester fall '06 schedule-preferred gsd 3rd semester fall '06 schedule-reality looking to take: 1 Studio, 3rd from the Core series 1 CAD/CAM digital fabrication class 2 History/Theory classes Next week I will be going to all the classes in...

CHECK OUT THE UPDATED AND EXPANDED PORTFOLIO, also includes larger images... A last review of the design work that I included in my application portfolio before my new design studio series begins:NY1: Manhattan Youth Community Center Main idea: I used the imaginary circulation patterns of a UN...

So... Orientation and registration started and I have found myself, along with the other AP's, busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I am now digging up records, books, notes, and syllabi for classes from yesteryear to see if they will help me avoid taking 'Materials and Methods'...

A Collage of pictures from the 2,200 mile (3,600 km) Santa Fe to Cambridge trip.

Hello Archinecters, This is my first entry and I am excited to start school and document it for everyone to see. First though, I had to give props to the many school bloggers (Oana, Hasselhoff, AP, Marlin, others...) that so eloquently document their school lives. Some more stuff about...