one page assignment

372 Sample Soundbite Quotations: 1) “The panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it to, produces homogenous effects of power.” p p. 202, Panopticism 2) “In 1970, Archizoom interpreted Typical Plan as the terminal condition of (Wes tern) civilization, a utopia of the norm. Since then, the one really new architectural subject this century has introduced has been endlessly deni grated in the name of ideology —its occupants ‘slaves, ’ its environment ‘ faceless,’ its accumulations ‘ ugly. ’” pp. 348, Typical Plan 3) “The cumulative effect of architecture during the last two centuries has been like that of a general lobotomy performed on society at large, obliterating vast areas of social experience. It is employed more and more as a preventa tive measure; an agency for peace, security , and segregation which, by its very nature, limit s the horizon of experience.” p p. 90, Figures, Doors and Passages Summary statement: Panopticism uses the panopticon to illustrate a diagram of power, rather than a particular building. T he panopticon’ s method of inducing people to discipline themselves manifests as an instrument of control and repression in society at large ; it ensures the efficiency of power to regulate behavior anywhere, for anyone ranging from a m adman, a patient, a criminal, or a worker, to a schoo lboy. In the second quotation, European dismissal of the “Typical Plan ,” deeming its occupants “slaves ,” seem s to stem from suspicion of the kind of efficiency which appears cold and mechanical in nature throug h its homogeneity. Finally, Evans’s statement affirms the potential of architecture as a tool of social division and control. Both Evans and Koolhaas , however, argue in their e ssays for the positive cultural effects that architecture also makes possible, in Evans’s words , “an architecture that recognizes passion, carnality and sociality.” Definition of Terms: Panopticon – the “panopticon” was a prison -style building designed by Bentham , which was unique in the sense that it incorporated a tower in the center that made it possible for a supervisor to view all the inhabitants of the cells around it . The prisoners can be seen, but cannot see themselves. This “permanent visibility” creates a condition in the prisoner’s mind that they under constant surveillance, and thereby ensures the “automatic functioning of power” through architecture. Foucault uses the panopticon to illustrate the way in which discipline and punishment can work in modern society.

Movement notation – this type of notation was introduced to capture movement of architectural bodies within spaces, at a time when new methods were being soug ht to overcome the limitations of traditional plans and sections in representing architecture. Derived from choreography and musical scores, they became a type of art form that layered, juxtaposed and superimposed images to obscure the relationships between plans and traditional architectural graphics. Tschumi uses the example of movement notation to paint the shift in the late 20 th century toward an architecture that began to represent not just spaces, but the events that took place inside them. (Note to 372 students: this term was taken from a reading that, although assigned for the same week , was different from the three that were used above for quotations .) Typical plan - by Typical Plan, Koolhaas refers to the modern American i nvention of a standardize d floor plan, used to best effect in large office towers. To Koo lhaas, the Typical Plan represents a triumph over modernist formalism because it represents the most abstract program possible. By its mere emptiness, simply “a floor, a core, a perimeter, and a minimum of columns,” it embraces all possibilities.