Lecture: Bernard Tschumi Lecture at IIT

lecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, 09 April 2012

“By removing the words roof and wall from our vocabulary, we would be liberated as architects”

-Bernard Tschumi

Tschumi began his lecture at Koolhaas’s IIT Campus Center building by telling a story from his childhood. Apparently he was studying abroad in Minneapolis, and decided to visit Chicago over his winter break. He said “it was there, walking among the magnificent buildings of the loop, that I decided to become an architect”.

Photo by Ben Conway

“I personally do not like brick” said Tschumi, and then then elaborated how the only brick buildings he had ever liked were the “structurally expressive buildings on the IIT campus”.

Dubai Towers (not by Tschumi, but shown in his lecture).

While pointing to a rendering of the Dubai Towers (shown above), Tschumi stated: “We are in a hysterical mode of using computer software to generate iconic gestures”. He then launched into a tirade against formalism in architecture.

Rouen Concert Hall and Exhibition Complex. Transparent seats and stark materials minimize the impact of the architecture, creating a venue for human activity. 

After showing an image of the clear acrylic chairs of the concert hall in Rouen, Tschumi stated: “Only when the building is occupied, does the space start to make sense. Architecture is a dialogue between the movement of bodies in space”.

Tschumi defended one of his controversial designs by stating that the top of the New Acropolis Museum is not “shifting not simply because I’m a deconstructivist” but as part of a conceptual alignment with the Parthenon.