The Doppler Effect
April 21st, 2016
Notes around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism by Robert Somol and Sarah Whiting
Lecture by Prof. A Srivathsan
The essay ‘Notes around the Doppler Effeect and Other Moods
of Modernism ‘ by Robert Somol and Sarah Whiting depicts a compelling contemporary
architectural debate. Unfortunately, this significant essay is worded in such a
complex manner, that one is easily distracted by the various references and
terms that it throws up. Prof.
Srivathsan simplifies the writing that is situated in the American context by
drawing parallels close to home.
The core argument made by the paper is that architectural
production is neither cultural, nor autonomous, nor critical. It is projectile.
While stating their concerns Somol and Whiting refer to Michael Hays’ essay
“Critical Architecture: Between Culture and Form”, where he writes: “ I shall
examine a critical architecture, on resistant to the self-confirming,
conciliatory operations of dominant culture and yet irreducible to a purely
formal structure disengaged from the contingencies of place and time”. While
Hays locates the privileged architectural practice between cultural and
autonomous approaches, the authors feel that in reality all architecture
occupies that status. The discussion in the lecture moves across the four
approaches to architectural productions creating a case for projective
architecture.
Architecture is an
instrument of culture. Culture is the cause and content of architecture;
hence the task is to establish the relationship between culture and the form it
corresponds to. As Christopher Alexander said, “patterns already exist,
architects just need to bring it back”. Architects must focus on the methods of
recovery.
Architecture as an autonomous
form. Here architecture is characterized by the absence of historical
concerns and conditions. It reinvents itself while focusing on formal
operations. Peter Eisenman believes that architecture is form that must be
created without any external reference, having no impact of history and
culture. Any external reference
does not impinge on intellectual liberty or formal strategy, and innovation can
only happen when we suspends all notions.
Critical position-
distinguishing architecture from the forces that influence it. One can
achieve this by assuming authorship as a resistant authority, where one must
resist rather than reflect. In other words, always suspect. By maintaining
one’s distance and yet a clear intention, one must stand against the generality
of habit and nostalgic of memory. Rather than doing things the way they were
done earlier, one must observe the situation that leads to the creation of
architecture.
Alternative to
Criticality is Projective. The authors project forwards an alternative that
is not necessarily an oppositional arrangement and censoring but is about
performance and practice. They call it the Doppler situation, where
architecture is constantly moving and changing rapidly between culture and
form. It is directed towards a possibility of emergence. Prof Srivathsan
illustrates this point through his interview with Kerala based architect Reny
Lijo who banishes the idea of following identity and regionalism in his
architecture due to restricted resources and instead engages with the
contingencies to create a climatically responsible, evocative architecture.
It is interesting to note that today’s condition tends more
towards the Doppler situation as it focuses on effects and exchanges,
materials, programs, writing, atmosphere, form, technologies, economics and
other factors. Today architects engage with other ideas not as experts of those
ideas but as someone who learns in the process and facilitates innovation and
explorations.
(Word count: 534)
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