Conceptual architecture is a form of
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
that utilizes
conceptualism
In metaphysics, conceptualism is a theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between nominalism and realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical co ...
, characterized by an introduction of ideas or concepts from outside of architecture often as a means of expanding the discipline of architecture. This produces an essentially different kind of building than one produced by the widely held 'architect as a master-builder' model, in which craft and construction are the guiding principles. In conceptual architecture, the finished building as product is less important than the ideas guiding them, ideas represented primarily by texts, diagrams, or art installations. Architects that work in this vein are
Diller + Scofidio
Diller Scofidio + Renfro is an American interdisciplinary design studio that integrates architecture, the visual arts, and the performing arts. Based in New York City, Diller Scofidio + Renfro is led by four partners – Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo ...
,
Bernard Tschumi
Bernard Tschumi (born 25 January 1944 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is an architect, writer, and educator, commonly associated with deconstructivism. Son of the well-known Swiss architect Jean Tschumi and a French mother, Tschumi is a dual French-S ...
,
Peter Eisenman
Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructiv ...
, and
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...
.
Conceptual architecture was examined in the essay "Notes on Conceptual Architecture: Towards a Definition" by
Peter Eisenman
Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructiv ...
in 1970, and again by the ''
Harvard Design Magazine
''Harvard Design Magazine'' (ISSN 1093-4421) is a biannual publication of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It is indexed by the standard subject bibliographies, including Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, Bibliography of the History ...
'' in autumn 2003 and winter 2004, by a series of articles under the heading "Architecture as Conceptual Art? Blurring Disciplinary Boundaries". But the understanding of design as a construction of a concept was understood by many
modernist architects
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
as well. To quote
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...
on
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
:
:It doesn't work, it doesn't have to work. Wright had the shape conceived long before he knew what was going into it. I claim that is where architecture starts, with the concept.
[Louis Kahn quote from Frampton, Kenneth. ''Modern Architecture, a critical history.'' page 245.]
See also
*
Conceptual art
Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...
Bibliography
*Eisenman, Peter (2004). ''Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings, 1963-1988''. Yale University Press.
*Frampton, Kenneth (1992). ''Modern Architecture, a critical history.'' Thames & Hudson- Third Edition.
*"Architecture As Conceptual Art?". ''Harvard Design Magazine.'' Number 19, Fall 2003/Winter 2004.
References
20th-century architectural styles
Architectural theory
+
Conceptualism
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