The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

Architecture and the City
find in institutions that when there is a conflictual situation everything
freezes, and everybody tries to block everybody else, and nothing happens.
But I try to keep everybody moving around all the time and not frozen on a
single position—making sure the ball is moving all the time. This is what I
have tried to do at Columbia—but in a more general sense, as with the best
cities: and New York is one of them, despite its horrendous shortcomings, because
it is moving all the time. So you try to seize the occasion, and after
making major moves at the beginning, you make small moves to say “No, you
can’t keep the ball any longer to yourself,” or you add another player who is
going to make sure positions change. Because the absolute necessity is that
you break through ideological positions, so that things keep moving. I would
say that with architecture it is not any different: you just set things in motion,
and you hope that people and situations will respond.
WM: How do you feel about architecture culture in New York and America
at the moment, as opposed to Europe?
BT: It is interesting that you use the term architecture culture, because at the
moment the architecture culture in America—that is, at academic conferences—is
in good shape. I think the schools are generally speaking unbelievably
good compared to the European system. The conversations that
happen in the schools and the level of information is very high, but it is because
we have many young architects who do not have work in their practice
and so put a lot of energy into the schools.
WM: This is not a social democratic country that is letting young architects
build. But not even the best New York architects get a chance to build their
own city. Why can’t we have brilliant new architecture here?
BT: Well I am hoping this is coming to an end with increased awareness, but
my Columbia Student Center process has made me aware of certain conditions
here. For one, the role of the construction industry is very strong here
in the city, with its unions. Zoning codes have been evolving over a hundred
years and have created a situation which is far more locked-in than what you
would have in France, for instance. The amazing thing is that the architects
refuse to deal with the situation. Instead of being close to the beginning of
the chain of command, they have accepted being just one of many service
monitors for the client and the building industry.
WM: Does any of the paper architecture that is being done in New York at
the moment help convince anyone that the city needs good architecture?