Diller, Elizabeth( 1954 )
Blur process sketch, December 28 , 1998 , Blur Building, Swiss Expo 2002 , 7. 5 7. 5 in.,
Ink on napkinElizabeth Diller has constantly questioned the state of architecture. First collaborating with
Ricardo Scofidio, their interdisciplinary studio now includes Charles Renfro and bears the name
Diller Scofidio Renfro (D S R). Their work merges architecture, the visual arts, and the
performing arts, which take the form of architectural projects, temporary and permanent site-
specific art works, multimedia theater, electronic media, and print.
‘Diller was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1954. She attended The Cooper Union School of Art and
received a Bachelor of Architecture in 1979 from The Cooper Union School of Architecture.’^9 The
studio is currently designing the public spaces of Lincoln Center in New York and two architectural
projects as the result of international competitions. Other completed projects, of various scales,
include: X,Y, a permanent installation for a pachinko parlor in Kobe, Japan; Travelogues, a per-
manent installation at the new JFK International Arrivals Terminal in New York; and two dance
collaborations with the Lyon Ballet Opera and Charleroi Danses. They have been honored with
numerous awards such as the MacArthur Foundation Award and the Arnold W. BrunnerMemorial
Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The page opposite (Figure 8. 8 ) is a conceptual sketch by Diller for Blur Building. ‘Blur Building is
an exhibition pavilion for the Swiss Expo 2002 on Lake Nuechatal in the town of Yverdon-les-bain.
[It] is an architecture of atmosphere.’ The building is made of a lightweight tensegrity structure and
water. ‘Water is pumped from the lake, filtered, and shot as a fine mist through a dense array of high-
pressure mist nozzles. The resulting fog mass produced is a dynamic interplay of natural and manmade
forces. ... Upon entering the fog mass, visual and acoustic references are erased, leaving only an optical
‘white-out’ and the ‘white-noise’ of the pulsing nozzles. ... Unlike entering a building, Blur is a habit-
able medium – one that is spaceless, formless, featureless, depthless, scaleless, massless, surfaceless, and
dimensionless.’
The sketch taped into a three-ring binder is a combination of diagram and written text. It has
been sketched on a paper napkin with ink. The paper napkin suggests a discussion over a meal, where
two or more people were brainstorming and reached for the most convenient writing surface. With
this sketch they are showing the architecture of atmosphere, listing all of the qualities of architecture
that can be ‘blurred’ with this project. To the left is a simple yet poignant diagram of the ephemeral
cloud. A vertical line divides the words from the diagram and also acts as a ground line for the fog
mass. The ‘less’ points have been bulleted to separate their importance as conceptual ideas. The
strong theoretical nature of this project shows in how the words and the cloud are given equal space
on the napkin.
The lines forming the mist sketch are bold and constructed of nearly single line weight. They over-
lap where they join to close the shape and at the points where the pen caught on the soft paper of the
napkin. With a few vertical lines to represent the structure and water source, the succinct description
was complete. The diagrammatic qualities of this sketch show the pointed thinking of Diller and her
colleagues. The idea was so ‘dimensionless’ that its physical manifestation may not have been neces-
sary. As a conversation the diagram assisted to understand the words and the form (or formlessness).
One might speculate that the paper napkin was retained more for the words than the cloud.H5719-Ch08.qxd 7/15/05 3:51 PM Page 225