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1There is a latent confusion in philosophical-architectural vocabulary regarding the terms concept and project. Still, a preliminary and very broad adistinction between them would, above all, include a temporal aspect. If concept implies a notion of an exterior object that exists independently of us (whose representation would then be “in us,” “in our thoughts” or “our heads”), then the project always refers to an act that establishes a new object that is to remain forever independent of us. It would probably be possible to define the status of the concept as a timeless or a pseudo-temporal notion, while the project would always concern the future, a time yet to come. When a project is constructed, it is determined by the time it took to be built. Therefore, the existence of a project implies a future time to be caught up and discontinued through various tools (which could be named as “design”).
- 1 Unless I am mistaken, the term “ meta-project » first appears in Massimo Scolari’s 1973 “ The New A (...)
- 2 In the third chapter of The Reflective Practitioner. How Professionals Think in Action, Donald Schö (...)
- 3 This is a legacy of phenomenology and such an understanding exists in Husserl’s Erste Philosophie, (...)
- 4 Both Entwurf and nabačaj follow in the steps of the Latin proiectus (the past participle of proicer (...)
2If I announce that I will shortly explain what it is that I am doing (my intention) then such an act of announcing that refers to the existence of something somewhere else (somewhere behind, underneath) would already be part of a protocol or register that refers to a project (but not «design») or perhaps even «meta-project».1 Questions such as «what does he/she even want», «what is he/she talking about» seek a certain reflective reaction, unless one wishes to simply ignore «others’» curiosity. Certainly, we have here a «turn» (a word to which I will return a few times) or reflection or «reflection in action» (Donald Schön).2 If what I am doing emerges from something else, then that something is only implicitly present at the moment (the absent is not entirely here, but can be found in «traces»). When I attempt to reconstruct the emergent steps, what I wish to prove is merely that what we have here is a «projected act» or a planned, controlled action. In other words, the project of an action precedes the action, yet is nothing other than a portion of the content of the project, whose realization is announced by the project.3 The existence of a project or projected acts would constitute one of the first (although certainly insufficient) basic guarantees that, for example, I am not currently spewing nonsense, I am not improvising, not bluffing. What is the further guarantee that I am not a cheater? Excluding personal familiar terms (those who know me), the guarantee that I am not a cheater and that there is indeed an idea and project here («Entwurf» in German or «nabačaj» in Serbo-Croatian4) are the title and abstract of the text. That is to say, the title and abstract oblige me to follow them.
- 5 “ Program » (in the same extended family as the word project) is, similarly to the document, “ publ (...)
3I do, then, have a project. I do indeed have something to say, which I am attempting to now do carefully (because the title and abstract have been previously published, that is, documented).5 Put simply, if I have a project (a plan, concept, idea, schema, conception, platform, etc. – words we have a hard time differentiating and connecting because they are of a single register), then what I am now doing is precisely the consistent act of that project (or «projected act»). Of many potential acts, this act is certainly part of and emerges from my project.
- 6 “ Having » or “ lacking » a project are Peter Eisenman’s phrases. In an unpublished interview (“ On (...)
- 7 Actually, this differentiation is a modification of a distinction made by Alfred Schütz, certainly (...)
4Now, where is that which I have or is mine (both words are italicized because problematic6)? And what does the description of the project consist of? Answers to both questions lie in the reflection connected to the word «turn». In order for what I am doing to truly be in harmony with the project I have, it is necessary that I constantly constitute it through reflection or through reflective reconstruction. The (myriad) operations which create the project, and which simultaneously confirm my acting in accordance with that project (making my actions «projected acts»), ought to be called «project acts» (that is, acts that create the project, rather than actions the project implies). My acts are projected if and only if I project or create a project, that is, if I simultaneously produce «project acts». This distinction between «project acts» and «projected acts» actually leads us into entirely uncharted difficulties that characterize a potential theory of projects and projecting/design.7
- 8 If we had the answer to this question, then we immediately recognize the problem of thematization : (...)
- 9 Armando and Durbiano, using their own terminology, develop a detailed and always problematic dilemm (...)
- 10 A subject missing from departments of architecture is Architectural Terminology. This absence resul (...)
- 11 Cf. “ El proyecto como documento » in Cosme 2008 : 22-24.
- 12 It is entirely possible that “ document theory » or documentalità (with which we usually associate (...)
- 13 Nick Bostrom writes about “ typical lags between competing technology projects » (Bostrom 2014 : 82 (...)
5Before I explain the basic principle of the functioning of this «reflective gesture» and gradually elaborate what constitutes the difference between my understanding of the project from other similar theories (my only question is how and by what act is a project made?8), I would like to insist on a few elementary facts. When, some time ago, I initially proposed the title and abstract of this text, when I «projected» (pitching the suggestion), I did so within a reflective protocol – I «turned» and «pitched» something (which is why «turn» is a word within the same order as proiectus or der Entwurf ).9 A project or pitch do not a priori precede my action, but are rather constituted by this action, thus simultaneously correcting and converting it. A thematization of reflective acts that make up a project (concept, theme, Gestalt or positions – all words we differentiate insufficiently10) would construct and fix a project as (an acting) document.11 A project as a document produces obligations and controlled actions, becoming the condition of existence of joint work in the studio or outside it. That is, the project as a document constructs disciplined work and is the condition of the existence of the institution (there can be no institution without a project).12 A didactic reconstruction of projects (so-called didactic performance) and amendment to the rules of work by introducing competing projects13 produces myriad disciplines and thus ultimately institutionalizes the possibility of interdisciplinary actions.
6This reflection I am speaking of is a collective or social gesture. Analogously, Schön’s often criticized phrase «reflection in action», always and necessarily assumes a group or a plural agent. The situation in which an individual publicly explains his own action, thus harmonizing it with a general position or a foreseeable and advertised plan (whether a child before her kindergarten teacher, a college professor before a student, one friend to another), represents at once a common assessment of the plan (conception or project) and, potentially an introduction to joint thematization, participation, acceptance of the plan on behalf of the group. A group is always constituted in the course of constructing and executing a project: it executes a project together while also at once constituting itself.
- 14 Alexander Kojève gives a very simple example, even if his conclusion is entirely insignificant. The (...)
7It seems to me that the existence and validity of a project can only be ensured by a group, and that the group determines the potential development and ultimate fate of, say, an abstract or a title.14 In that sense, the acts that make up the project, with which something is projected (thrown up, pitched, «spun» forth), represent on the one hand an attempt to impute current action into something new (a project or platform) that would ensure their validity and duration; on the other hand, the authors of these acts are necessarily diverse, but it is their very multiplicity that will ensure the validity and duration of the project as such. Doubtlessly, the fact that the group exists implies two protocols contained in the word proiectus: space and time. And conversely, proiectus holds this very same group together for joint action and motion in time and space. The group is the body of the project.
- 15 We can claim, with Jean-Pierre Boutinet (and not only him), that the architectural project was born (...)
8Let us thus return to the ur-scene of the founding of the institution, the first effort of constructing an architectural bureau, indeed, one of the first attempts at incorporatio in the histories of the West. A group of people who work and build together in Babylon is without a doubt the prototype of the group assembled much later by Filippo Brunelleschi, circa 1420, in Florence.15 There are any number of assumptions as to why the largest construction site in the history of mankind was discontinued and destroyed. Nor can it be said unequivocally that the project was unsuccessful and futile, given that the action lasted a very long time, possibly even centuries. Indeed, the (unhappy) «end» of a project or its «failure» could always be one the first and rather important characteristics of the project as such.
9Two verses in Genesis (at the beginning of chapter 11) speak of the construction site, the technological innovation, and a monstrous vision that certainly has an outline similar to what I am here designating with the word «project»:
3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
10It seems to me that there are ever-new and all too complicated reasons why this group was denied a construction license, and why the erection and this grandiose edifice was not born out. Above all, the «project» could not be carefully thematized or constituted because it was not presented to the highest power before the work began. The group is rushing with the work and does not negotiate. It does not draw its own limits, give itself shape, does not adjust its aims. The group, which as we know, does not have issues with communication and cooperation: all members of the group speak the same language, the group is innovative, collective intentionality has been achieved, the group is without leader and in perfect equality, etc. It imitates its creator (God) by performatively acting and utilizing various imperatives that mobilize its members. Although the group manifests a grand plan (idea, conception), in contrast with the first creator who does not (God is above all a laborer, a practitioner, not a thinker), the group still does not possess reflective strength that would enable the members of the group to remain in one place for any sustained period. And this is precisely the definition of institutional activity: using this repertoire of acts (institutional acts) that can for as long as possible keep the group in a single place. All these acts always concern reflection, that is, the project. The name mentioned in this fragment («and let us make us a name») is the great project itself, but also one on which the group is unable to hold focus for a sustained period of time. Why?
- 16 In “ Progetto » Massimo Cacciari goes back and forth between “ force » and “ violence » in describi (...)
- 17 Peter Eisenman points out this difficulty (which is always with Plato and the ideal order) whenever (...)
- 18 This is the point from which usually issue endless discussions of neoliberalism, the connection of (...)
11We must not forget that all we are left with from the Tower of Babel is precisely the kind of project (a tower «whose top may reach unto heaven») that each one of us, in our life’s endeavor, is in one way or another trying to complete: unity of all, the world, the production of grand institutions, (Europe too as a project, as a set of documents and their constant assessment) - having a project has become nearly self-regulating for us. Nevertheless, one answer to the question «Why?» would certainly concern the violence of the project. Of course, the violence would also immediately have to refer to reflection, that is, violence of reflection.16 Lest we forget, among the more important characteristics of the project (nabačaj, proiectus, Entwurf ) is that it does not mean a weak pitch (swing). Entwerfen does not mean to drop something just in front or very close behind oneself (in German, such a weak gesture might be designated with the word Vorwurf ). Rather, it means to throw very far, far afield (reflection is an operation of emergence, through reflection I emerge beyond myself). A consequence of this move (easily confirmed with the word «projectile») does not only consist of some kind of separation and production of a completely uncontrollable, self-sufficient entity (image, projection, idol), unreachable in its perfection (impossible to process reflexively).17 We are dealing with an act of overshooting and expanding to beyond the surface or edge (proictus), which then always implies exclusion, abolishment, banishment, expulsion (proicto). «Exclusion», «expulsion», «elimination», etc. are moments about which we must think, in the context of the project, only in the most abstract sense, without dwelling on them. Yet we must also be aware that in order for a group to constitute itself temporarily and work actively (which would mean work on a project), it of necessity excludes the insufficiently engaged/committed, insufficiently competent, dynamic, even insufficiently intelligent, and thus asocial.18 It would probably be incorrect to say here that reflection or «reflection in action» does not imply critique or systemic doubt as an integral portion of the project’s strategy of structuring and execution. However, hesitation, procrastination, delay or alternate work on counter-projects certainly need to be accounted for and placed within potential new processes and aims.
12Translated by Edward Djordjevic
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Bibliografia
Armando, A., Durbiano, G., 2017, Teoria del progetto architettonico: dai disegni agli effetti, Roma, Carocci.
Baudrillard, J., Nouvel, J., 2013, Les objets singuliers, Paris, Arléa.
Bostrom, N., 2014, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Intelligence, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Boudon, Ph., 2003, Sur l’espace architectural: essai d’épistemologie de l’architecture, Marseille, Editions Parenthèse.
Boutinet, J.P., 2002, Projet, in J. Barus-Michel (ed.), Vocabulaire de psychosociologie, Paris, ERES.
Cacciari, M., 1981, Progetto, “Laboratorio Politico”, II: 81-119.
Cosme, A.M., 2008, El Proyecto de arquitectura – concepto, proceso y representación, Barcelona, Reverté.
Eisenman, P., 2008, Interview with Peter Eisenman: The Last Grand Tourist: Travels with Colin Rowe, “Perspecta”, XLI: 130-139.
Gehry, F., 2019, Frank Gehry Teaches Design & Architecture, www.masterclass.com.
Husserl, E., 1996, Erste Philosophie (1923/4), II, R. Boehm (ed.), The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff.
Kojève A., 2004, La notion de l’Autorité, Paris, Gallimard; Eng. tr. by H. Weslati, The Notion of Authority, London, Verso, 2014.
Prost, R., 1992, Conception architecturale, une investigation méthodologique, Paris, L’Harmattan.
Sartre, J.-P., 1946, L’existentialisme est un humanisme, Paris, Nagel; Eng. tr. by Ph. Mairet, Existentialism Is a Humanism, Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, W. Kaufman (ed.), New York, Meridian, 1956.
Schön, D., 1983, The Reflective Practitioner. How Professionals Think in Action, New York, Basic Books.
Scolari, M., 1988, The New Architecture and the Avant-Garde, in M. Hays (ed.), Architectural Theory since 1968, Boston, MIT Press.
Schumacher, P., 2011, Autopoiesis of Architecture: A New Framework for Architecture, I, London, Wiley.
Schütz, A., 1932, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt, Wien, Springer; Eng. tr. by G. Walsh and F. Lehnert, The Phenomenology of the Social World, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1967.
Simon, H.A., 1969, The Sciences of the Artificial, Cambridge (MA), MIT Press.
Vattimo, G., 1982, Abitare viene prima di costruire, “Casabella. Rivista internazionale di architettura”, 485: 48-49.
Vesnić, S., 2018, Architectural Concept, PhD Thesis, Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade.
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Note
Unless I am mistaken, the term “ meta-project » first appears in Massimo Scolari’s 1973 “ The New Architecture and the Avant-Garde ». He uses it when writing about Tafuri and Tendenza : “ […] a kind of meta-project that extends to all the architecture that is thought, designed and written. » (Cf. Scolari 1988 : 133).
In the third chapter of The Reflective Practitioner. How Professionals Think in Action, Donald Schön uses this phrase when describing the famous example of Quist and his student Petra who is making preliminary sketches in order to discover a basic design, a “ design hypothesis » (Schön 1983 : 287-355). The example is demonstrated in detail by Armando and Durbiano. Armando and Durbiano 2017 : 74-76. Interestingly, Schön’s book was translated into the Italian as Il progettista riflessivo, while Armando and Durbiano translate the title of their course at the University of Turin, “ Progetto umano », that is, the word progetto from the title of their book, as “ design » (“ human design »). Schön’s book, as well as the Nobel Prize Winner, Herbert Alexander Simon’s book, The Sciences of the Artificial (1969) have had the strongest influence on the understanding of projects in the second half of the 20th century. “ Design » is usually translated into European languages as “ project », although not exclusively : Simon’s “ design » is rendered in the French as conception. Perhaps the most complete book on the epistemology of architecture is Philippe Boudon’s Essai d’épistémologie de l’architecture, in which he says that conception (that is, “ design ») is a crucial question of epistemology, which means that it must of necessity become a true “ architectural object ». The architect is un concepteur (designer) for Simon and for Boudon (Boudon 2003 : 12-13). Simon’s definition of design is as follows : “ Design is concerned with how things ought to be with devising artifacts to attain goals » (Simon 1969 : 133). There are, however, authors who attempt to “ extend the notion of project » (meaning conception or design). Robert Prost (Pratiques de projet en architecture, 2014) speaks of “ the projectual dimension of conception » and of the project still “ beyond the design in temporal context ». Cf. Prost 1992.
This is a legacy of phenomenology and such an understanding exists in Husserl’s Erste Philosophie, vol. 2 (1923-1924), “ Wir können auch sagen, die praktische Besinnung ist ein inneres Handeln und ergibt, geligend, ein inneres Werkgebilde, als den geistigen Plan, inneren Entwurf für das, was im äusseren Handeln verwirklicht warden soll. » (Husserl 1996 : II, 205-206) Only a few years later, Heidegger will distance himself from such thinking in his brief consideration of Entwurf in Sein und Zeit.
Both Entwurf and nabačaj follow in the steps of the Latin proiectus (the past participle of proicere), “ to throw forward, extend ». In the Indo-German dictionary, Julius Pokorny ties the root ver with turn, throw, with the Old Slavonic vresti. Werfen means “ to throw », from the Latin jactare, “ lancer au loin par un movement rapide ». Entwurf is opposite to objectum, Gegenwurf (Fritz Mauthner). Alfonso Muñoz Cosme gives a detailed etimology and use of the word “ project » (Cosme 2008 : 17).
“ Program » (in the same extended family as the word project) is, similarly to the document, “ public notice » (from the Greek pro’gramma), a plan of action to accomplish a specific end.
“ Having » or “ lacking » a project are Peter Eisenman’s phrases. In an unpublished interview (“ On the End of Authority », of 26 September 2016) – along with several recorded lectures in which the phrases are used – over the course of twenty pages, Eisenman speaks of “ two avenues to power in architecture. One is through design ; the other is through the intellect – that is, thinking ». “ You teach project », says Eisneman, “ by reading and thinking in the design studio ». “ Project and practice must be integrated in a studio. » Further, “ Gropius had a practice and not a project ». Mies, Corbu, Wright, Loos, Koolhaas have a project, but not so Ingels. Eisenman assumes that project can be defined, but that he himself cannot define his own project, rather that others must do so : “ I don’t need to define it, because I do it ». “ I was always inventing institutions and projects that I could appear in. »
Actually, this differentiation is a modification of a distinction made by Alfred Schütz, certainly the greatest theorist of the project : “ Handeln als Tätigkeit (act ; action) » and “ der Handlung als seines gedanklichen Entwurfs (actum) ». In English, this becomes rather obscure and endangers the German original : “ action in progress and the already finished and constituted act ». Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt was published in 1932, while the English translation from 1967 bears the title The Phenomenology of the Social World. The tense in which the project appears is “ future perfect ».
If we had the answer to this question, then we immediately recognize the problem of thematization : a) in Sartre, for example : “ Man is, indeed, a project which possesses a subjective life (qui se vit subjectivement), instead of being a kind of moss, or a fungus or a cauliflower. Before that projection (projet) of the self, nothing exists ; not even in the heaven of intelligence : man will only attain existence when he is what he purposes to be (ce qu’il aura projeté d’être) » (Sartre 1946 : 23 ; 1956 : 29). b) In Bonaventure’s scheme of authorship when he describes four ways of making a book (14th century) : scriptor, compilator, commentator, auctor. “ But he who writes both what comes from himself and from others (aliquis scribit et sua et aliena ; cose che vengono da lui steso sia cose d’altri), with the material of others annexed for the purpose of confirming his own, ought to be called author ». c) Frank Gehry : “ I have always felt if you know what you are going to do in advance, then you won’t do it » (F. Gehry, internet).
Armando and Durbiano, using their own terminology, develop a detailed and always problematic dilemma whether a project precedes or follows the analysis (“ prima l’analisi, poi il progetto »). Armando and Durbiano 2017 : 379.
A subject missing from departments of architecture is Architectural Terminology. This absence results in sliding, unsystematized concepts, borrowed from other genres of knowledge. At the same time as Gilles Deleuze, Donald Schön is working on a theory and formation of new concepts in his 1963 book, Displacement of Concepts. The term “ concept » is closest, it seems to me, to what Eisenman designates with the word “ project ». “ Concept » is not necessarily fixed and manifested, nor determined by time, and should absolutely be differentiated from conception or project. Cf. J. Nouvel, “ […] chaque projet à un concept ou à une idée préalable ». Baudrillard and Nouvel 2013 : 16 ; Vesnić 2018. The name “ concept » designates that which is ever-uncertain, after Plautus : “ to conceive is to seek what is not and thus find it. » In Chapter 3.9, “ Themes vs. Projects » of Autopoiesis of Architecture : A New Framework for Architecture, Patrik Schumacher insists on the concreteness of project, that a project comprises episodes and “ well-defined stages » as opposed to a theme that develops entirely differently (Schumacher 2011 : I, 317, 320). Gestalt or Gestaltung as a configuration is usually opposed to Begriffe (Gestalt implies subjective experience) and is explained via the idea of the concrete (Gestalt is a concrete notion, not notion as inkling).
Cf. “ El proyecto como documento » in Cosme 2008 : 22-24.
It is entirely possible that “ document theory » or documentalità (with which we usually associate Maurizio Ferraris, although this is not entirely correct) is very useful to explain the transition of what we call project into design. Design is necessarily documented and in that sense, it is possible to follow Armando and Durbiano. However, there are projects not yet documented or who have only just become so. My attempt is to show that even as such, they can be thematized. Armando and Durbiano’s great accomplishment lies in novel ideas : diminished significance of the author for the project (“ E le progettualità sono, molto prima che nella testa dell’architetto, nell’ambiente [fisico o sociale] che lo circonda »), a project as a social object, the project as letter, “ action issues from the document, not the intention » (Armando Durbiano 2017 : 15, 93). Even though Armando and Durbiano mention an important debate about the project on the pages of Casabella (1982), they do not explain in detail, for example, the status of the word dwelling in Vattimo’s sentence “ dwelling precedes building » (abitare viene prima di costruire) (222).
Nick Bostrom writes about “ typical lags between competing technology projects » (Bostrom 2014 : 82-87).
Alexander Kojève gives a very simple example, even if his conclusion is entirely insignificant. The authority of the creator of the project (the subject) is incidental compared to the authority of the project itself that forms the group and has simultaneously been its real creator : “ Let us consider a familiar example. A band of kids gather to play. One of these kids proposes to go and steal apples from the orchard next door. Immediately, by doing so, he casts himself in the role of the band’s leader. He became this leader because he saw further (plus loin) than the others, because it was he alone who thought out a project, while the others did not manage to get beyond the level of immediate facts ». Kojève 2014 : 63 ; 2004 : 74.
We can claim, with Jean-Pierre Boutinet (and not only him), that the architectural project was born with Brunelleschi who divided and at the same time linked two periods that determine the creative act in the course of building an edifice. There is the period of time of work in studio or research based on constructing a model, and the period of time on site, in which the execution of the structure based on the model takes place (Boutinet 2002 : 224). Boutinet does not emphasize joint, disciplined work of a group of people in the studio, building the model of the cathedral they are about to erect. The idea of collective intellectual work, a discussion about preliminary hypotheses, the idea of critical reflection and inspection of coherence of argument and counter-argument is born in this place, and it will forever ordain modern philosophy.
In “ Progetto » Massimo Cacciari goes back and forth between “ force » and “ violence » in describing the main characteristics of a project. “ Violenza suona nel progetto » (Cacciari 1981 : 101).
Peter Eisenman points out this difficulty (which is always with Plato and the ideal order) whenever he speaks about the project, or better, about the idea of the project or the maximalism of the project. “ Seeing as an Architect » (the title of one of the more recent seminars) means that the architect (if he is truly an architect, although only few are architects and more commonly, they are pretending to be so) means that by looking or perusing the material and visible before him, sees the invisible “ project ». On at least fifteen occasions, in various interviews, Eisenman cites versions of Colin Rowe’s words from one of their joint trips across Italy (probably in the summer of 1961). In front of a Palladian villa, Colin says : “ Sit in front of the façade until you can tell me something that you can’t see. In other words, I don’t want to know about the rustification, about the proportion of the windows, about ABA symmetries or any of those things… I want you to tell me something that is implied in the façade. » (Eisenman 2008 : 133) The word “ project » in Eisenman functions similarly to the word die Geste (eine Geste) in Wittgenstein. Good architecture is a gesture, much like good philosophy. Wittgenstein is emphatic (in several places) that his intention is to eschew bad philosophers from philosophy. This would be the functioning of the word Geste, impossible to thematize or define precisely (there are only six or seven passages in which Wittgenstein sketches its meaning).
This is the point from which usually issue endless discussions of neoliberalism, the connection of capitalism and the project, profit and the project, so-called project financing and competition.
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