TRAJECTORIES IN ARCHITECTURE Trajectories in Architecture: Plan, Sensation, Temporality presents a compelling examination of underlying issues in late-twentieth-century architecture. Three formal preoccupations and conceptual orientations are used as guiding threads or trajectories. These three trajectories – the plan as conceptual device, a logic of sensation, and temporalities – serve to organise individual chapters in the central sections of the book and provide a new lens to the study of period work, revealing architectural conditions and consequent spatial effects little explored to date. Trajectories in Architecture adds to scholarship and expands our understanding of the role of conceptual and formal criteria in the analysis and creation of works of architecture. The book provides potentially transformative new interpretations of influential architects and key projects from the last half of the twentieth century to reveal new alignments and potentialities in architecture’s recent past as a contribution to identifying future possibilities. In so doing, the book argues for the still-latent potential in modern architecture’s traditions and design principles and their future expression. Trajectories in Architecture includes analysis of significant projects of Le Corbusier, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, John Hejduk, Louis I. Kahn, and I. M. Pei. Michael Jasper is Professor of Architecture at the University of Canberra. Former Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, and former Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, he is the author of Architectural Possibilities in the Work of Eisenman. TRAJECTORIES IN ARCHITECTURE Plan, Sensation, Temporality Michael Jasper Cover image credit lines. Left: Diamond House A, 1963–1967, Sketch plan with red columns, John Hejduk, drawing in graphite with coloured pencil on translucent paper 50.9 × 76.3 cm, DR1998:0060:002:003 ( John Hejduk fonds, Collection Centre Canadien d’Architecture/Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal). Middle: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, Computer model study of the lobby, I. M. Pei (courtesy Pei Cobb Freed & Partners). Right: MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, Study model in plexiglass, Zaha Hadid (courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects). First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Michael Jasper The right of Michael Jasper to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Jasper, Michael (Professor of architecture), author. Title: Trajectories in architecture : plan, sensation, temporality / Michael Jasper. Description: Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022052014 (print) | LCCN 2022052015 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367444259 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367444266 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003009641 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Architecture, Modern—20th century. Classification: LCC NA680 .J376 2023 (print) | LCC NA680 (ebook) | DDC 724/.6—dc23/eng/20221116 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022052014 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022052015 ISBN: 978-0-367-44425-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-44426-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-00964-1 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003009641 Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC CONTENTS List of figures vii List of tables ix Acknowledgements x Continuities 1 TRAJECTORY I Conceptual objects 17 1 Distancing: De Vore House by Louis I. Kahn 19 2 Displacements: House II and House IV by Peter Eisenman 33 3 Overcoming: Diamond Projects by John Hejduk 55 TRAJECTORY II Sensation 71 4 Animate matter: Bryn Mawr College Dormitory by Louis Kahn 73 5 Elastic space: I. M. Pei’s approach to form-space generation 93 vi Contents TRAJECTORY III Time 111 6 Diagonalities: Visual Arts Center by Le Corbusier 113 7 Group form: Meeting House and Philadelphia College of Art by Louis I. Kahn 130 8 Freedom: MAXXI by Zaha Hadid 148 Discontinuity 163 Index 167 FIGURES 1.1 De Vore House, elevation study, Louis I. Kahn 23 1.2 De Vore House, plan diagram, Louis I. Kahn 24 1.3 Four-square variations in Louis I. Kahn’s De Vore House 26 1.4 De Vore House, plan study, Louis I. Kahn 29 2.1 House II (Falk House), Hardwick Vermont, 1969–1970, conceptual sketches, Peter Eisenman, black ink on yellow paper 27.9 × 21.5 cm, DR1994:0130:015 37 2.2 House II (Falk House), Hardwick Vermont, 1969–1970, upper floor plan, Peter Eisenman, reprographic copy 63.5 × 65 cm, DR1994:0130:291 39 2.3 House II (Falk House), mock-up of a proposed cover for Casabella magazine, Peter Eisenman, ink and coloured ink on translucent paper 35 × 27.2 cm, DR1994:0130:301 41 2.4 Nine square variations in House II 42 2.5 House IV, Falls Village, Connecticut, circa 1970–1971, first-level plan, Peter Eisenman, drawing in ink with transfer type and traces of graphite on translucent paper, 79 × 92 cm, DR1994:0132:333:007 43 2.6 House IV, Falls Village, Connecticut, circa 1970–1971, section, Peter Eisenman, drawing in ink with transfer type and traces of graphite on translucent paper 79 × 92 cm, DR1994:0132:333:002 44 2.7 House IV, Falls Village, Connecticut 1970–1971, axonometrics, Peter Eisenman, mounted drawings in ink on paper 61 × 61 cm, DR1994:0132:193 45 3.1 Diamond House A, 1963–1967, sketch plan with red columns, John Hejduk, drawing in graphite with coloured pencil on translucent paper 50.9 × 76.3 cm, DR1998:0060:002:003 58 3.2 Diamond House B, 1963–1967, floor plan, John, ink over graphite on cardboard 50.9 × 76.3 cm, DR1998:0061:002:003 59 viii Figures 3.3 Diamond Museum C, 1963–1967, plan, John Hejduk, drawing in graphite on translucent paper 93 × 92 cm, DR1998:0062:003 60 3.4 Sketches for a fourth diamond house, 1963–1967, John Hejduk, drawing in graphite on translucent paper 60 × 84 cm, DR1998:0063:007 65 4.1 Bryn Mawr College Dormitory, floor plan, Louis I. Kahn 77 4.2 Bryn Mawr College Dormitory, photograph of entry hall, Louis I. Kahn 80 4.3 Bryn Mawr College Dormitory, photograph of exterior detail, Louis I. Kahn 83 4.4 Bryn Mawr College Dormitory, photograph of exterior, Louis I. Kahn 84 5.1 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, rendering of the interior sculpture court, I. M. Pei 100 5.2 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, sketch of external massing, I. M. Pei 101 5.3 National Gallery of Art East Building, Washington D. C., early concept sketch plan, I. M. Pei 102 5.4 National Gallery of Art East Building, Washington D. C., photograph of atrium from 1978. Architect: I. M. Pei, Sculptor: Alexander Calder 104 5.5 Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, computer model study of the lobby, I. M. Pei 106 6.1 Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, site plan, Le Corbusier 118 6.2 Visual Arts Center, view from Prescott Street, Le Corbusier 124 7.1 Meeting House, Salk Institute, La Jolla, exploratory plan sketches of the perimeter duplication, Louis I. Kahn 135 7.2 Meeting House, Salk Institute, La Jolla, site plan schematic group form sketch, Louis I. Kahn 137 7.3 Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, early site elevation sketch, Louis I. Kahn 139 7.4 Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, site plan and elevation study, Louis I. Kahn 141 7.5 Philadelphia College of Art, project, Louis I. Kahn, section sketch of studios, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1966. New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), charcoal on paper 29 3/4 × 47 3/4’ (75.6 × 121.3 cm) Gift of the architect 429.1967 142 7.6 Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, site plan study, Louis I. Kahn 144 8.1 MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, master plan bird’s-eye view, Zaha Hadid 151 8.2 MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, section on main lobby, Zaha Hadid 153 8.3 MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, study model in plexiglass, Zaha Hadid 154 8.4 MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, first-floor plan, Zaha Hadid 156 TABLES 2.1 Comparative table: design principles or devices and findings comparing House II and House IV 49 5.1 Conceptual and formal aspects of a perspective concept of space versus an elastic conception of space 96 6.1 Aspects of diagonal time versus linear time in certain works of architecture 126