The Dilution of Architecture, the first of two volumes, is an anthology of the great architectural theoretician, writer, and urban designer, Yona Friedman. The Hungarian-born Jewish architect was one of the most influential figures in the 1960s that helped shape several dynamic architectural theories specifically related to movement that tied in with the underlying principles of Archigram. Yona Friedman was also a celebrated professor at several top international universities such as MIT, Harvard, and Colombia. Friedman’s harsh early years of his life and his several scientific learnings and influences from many great European scientists specifically theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg, gave birth to his many ideologies. This consequently made him one of the few architects to write two acclaimed books on physics. Friedman participated and was involved in several iconic architectural exhibitions throughout the years till his passing. These included the Venice Biennial, Shanghai Biennial, and even Rome’s MAXXI Museum.
The book itself is a powerful representation of architecture in its most playfully simple form which was represented childishly but was strong in terms of its conception. The book breaks down the very notion of what architecture is and talks about what the shape of architecture is when politically influenced. The book also takes the reader on a journey going through the life of Yona Friedman and acknowledges his shift of perception from believing technology is the architectural solution to every problem, to getting grounded back to the roots of being human and sensitive.
Movement, the book’s Fil Rouge.
Friedman’s love for projects with flexible spaces that celebrated movement was highlighted throughout this book as a reflection of many of his works. He was involved in several significant wars more directly as a designer which helped change his perception of architecture. A specific recollection would be that of war trenches that Friedman was involved in designing for the War of Independence for the State of Israel during his time at Haifa. Trenches in their nature had to move while being symbolic, and the representation of these trenches embodied the concept of movement. With war comes destructive loss that architecture must facilitate dynamically through amenities reflected in one of his first works, Panel Chain for Refugees. The Panel Chain was flexible and gave privacy where needed while distributing amenities as required through collapsible folding walls.
On an urban scale as well, the book points out several of Freidman’s sketches showing the movement of people into a city in his idealistic utopia. Friedman’s sketches and drawings as seen in the book was unique, almost as if they were drawn by a child. But these drawings were mostly sections that looked weak in their representation but were extremely strong in terms of their conception. The idea of movement was visualized on a city scale. During Freidman’s time in Palestine, he speaks highly about the dynamic nature of the country as one founded by immigration. The principle thus came about that as designers it is crucial to understand that the intensification of a city is indifferent to the city and maintains its core principles. This eventually gave birth to Freidman’s idea of linear cities and bridge cities that could be elevated dynamically which tied in with the principles of Avant-Garde.
Technological Utopia.
The book reflects on one of Yona Friedman’s influences, Konrad Wachsmann, a genius German-Jewish architect who was a Master of Mass Production and joineries in particular. Notably, his production of large spanning hangars for the American air force excited Friedman’s imagination. A parallel perception of a similar design thought gave birth to arguably Friedman’s most notable work, “Ville Spatiale”. The book gives a glimpse into this uniquely Utopian and rather exaggerated version of an elevated city that stood as a baseline for several Urban Design principles to follow suit.
The Ville Spatiale visualizations, which were one of the first architectural photo-invasions seen, are iconic to this day and have inspired several architects including Renzo Piano and Rem Koolhaas. The intensification of a city with its transportation, urban agriculture, and housing floating over existing typologies almost like a large metallic city roof suspended in case of emergencies. The idea of Ville Spatiale was to be indifferent to its context through elasticity that recycled its context in an ever-changing undefined façade. It was this idea that eventually gave birth to Groupe d’Etudies d’Architecture mobile; GEAM, which was soon dismantled but propagated Friedman’s ideologies. Friedman was against the general top-down ideology and was a proponent of participation in the dilution of architecture itself.
The role of an architect.
The ever-daunting question of what it means to be an architect goes well beyond just the normal obligations according to Friedman. He propagated a transformation of the profession itself. An architect is not only a designer and creator, but someone who goes to a spot and is always on the spot. An architect is not someone who is far away and draws abstractly from the site and its people. Friedman’s philosophy of meaningful playfulness was organic as he always said, architects must never force people to play making it an obligation thus resulting in dead environments. Friedman believed in the dilution of architecture, that architecture is merely facilitative, and that architects themselves are facilitators ensuring that people needed to live in houses that they designed themselves.
In conclusion.
On an objective note, the book itself is incohesive and not connected to all its different parts. In a way, it is hard to understand the sequence of its different chapters making it ambiguous. But that is precisely what makes the book beautiful as it is in line with Friedman’s idea of self-interpretation and the process of being involved as a user in the design. Friedman takes the reader through his ideas and works in a rather irrational yet thought-provoking way. The illustrations though childish, are so deep in their concept and meaning.
With expanding population, the influx of migrants, and the increase in wars, the Dilution of Architecture is almost ahead of its time not only in terms of its ideologies but also in the meaning architecture carries politically and the importance of mass production that is generally frowned upon. The Dilution of Architecture makes one question stringent ideologies and rules because most of the projects mentioned are not built but rather concepts that define what a building’s voice is to a society. The book is not only one that should be read, but it is a book that must be discussed in depth to try and find accommodative and facilitative architectural solutions to an ever-evolving society.
References.
One Day at Yona Friedman’s (no date) DOMUS. Available at: https://www.domusweb.it/en/from-the-archive/2023/06/13/yona-friedmans-home-from-the-domus-archive.html (Accessed: 14 June 2023).
Yona Friedman. the dilution of Architecture (2015) University of Chicago Press. Available at: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/Y/bo20290506.html (Accessed: 14 June 2023).
Theodora Vardouli Assistant Professor (2022) How architect Yona Friedman used math to design utopian cities of the future, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/how-architect-yona-friedman-used-math-to-design-utopian-cities-of-the-future-132474 (Accessed: 14 June 2023).
Yona Friedman. notes and sketches on a New Museum of Modern Art. 1999: Moma (no date) The Museum of Modern Art. Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/86565 (Accessed: 14 June 2023).
