9 EAAE no 35 Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design: Advances in Technology and Changes in Pedagogy
autonomous or is it dependent on all the other fields? I agree with you on that for, as I
understand it, architecture learns its own state through another kind of dependence,
although it has declared in the post-modern condition that it is autonomous. We have
this huge literature on the autonomy of architecture, with Tafuri and so on. On the
other hand, another kind of dependence comes up when talking about architecture,
and it comes through philosophy; because, historically speaking, architecture became
autonomous from social reality, economic conditions, etc., with the post-modern-
ists. Now it is at another stage and that dependence comes through other things,
including philosophy. Who can deny that a non-standard attitude is not somehow
related to Deleuze? Everybody talks about Deleuze. My question right now is that
if we want and have any right to study this connection, it is, I am afraid to say, a
one-way, and not a two-way, relationship. A non-standard approach that respects its
own contribution is referred to Deleuze. I do not know if there is any discussion on
the relationship between the theoretical-philosophical discourse of Deleuze and the
equivalent architectural discourse. Historically speaking, that is something that we
do have regarding Derrida, because he designed the “Chora”, in Parc de la Villette,
with Eisenman. So there we have a historical example, an architectural example, that
we do not have with Deleuze.
I agree that there is a lack of autonomy in architecture right now. It is not only
philosophy: I was talking about philosophy, psychoanalysis, gender studies, literary
criticism. The people who are involved with Deleuze and non-standard architecture
talk about other fields – biology, physics, mathematics, etc. – again another paradigm
that supports the idea and declares a new kind of dependence of architecture on other
fields.
Rivka Oxman, Haifa, Israel
How do you teach your students? These things are so abstract, so high level. How do
you criticise the project? What discourse do you develop? How do you speak in a down-
to-earth way, not just in the abstract? Because with the students we have to be very,
very specific.
Vana Tentokali, Thessaloniki, Greece
Who says that I do not have experience talking with students on a lower level?
Rivka Oxman, Haifa, Israel
I did not say that. I was not referring specifically to you.
Vana Tentokali, Thessaloniki, Greece
Very low, I can prove it. I am talking now about your second question. I do not agree
at all, because you mentioned Daniel Libeskind, and I am referring to his older work,
and particularly the Jewish Museum in Berlin. I think that this building is a historical
monument in our era, because it was designed based on one of the underprivileged
notions, one of two opposing concepts, presence and absence. He made...