I declare war on all icons and traditions, all stories that would bind me in a web of errors, in my miserable fears. I know only the moments and fragments of the flow of life, I know only the forms that are painfully born and immediately dissolve into the air. I am an architect, a creator of worlds, a sensualist who worships form, melody, silhouette against the background of the dark sky. I don't know your name. You don't know mine. Tomorrow we will start creating the city together."
Lebbeus Woods Manifesto
Architect Lebbeus Woods
Lebbeus Woods and Sarajevo
Lebbeus Woods, a theorist and philosopher of experimental architecture, was born in Lansing, Michigan, USA. Educated at Purdue University in Indiana and Illinois State University, he then worked for several years at Eero Saarinen's office. But since 1976, Woods abandoned architectural practice and devoted himself entirely to what he called "experimental architecture."
In the center of his interests was urban planning in crisis states, so it is not surprising that in the fall of 1993, Woods made his way to the blockaded Sarajevo, moreover, he urged his fellow architects to start reconstruction without waiting for the end of hostilities.
Lebbeus Woods, graphics for the "Zagreb Free Zone" project, 1991; pastel, paper. Image credit: ROOM EAST, New York
Lebbeus Woods, essays for the "Zagreb Free Zone" project, 1991; pencil, paper. Image credit: ROOM EAST, New York
This is what he writes: “The manifesto was read aloud on the steps of the burned-out Olympic Museum in Sarajevo on November 26, 1993, in full view of Serbian snipers and gunners... The gunners turned ordinary buildings where people worked and lived into death traps. It was clear that architecture was part of the problem of killing thousands of innocent men, women and children, and I was sure that as long as the attacks continued, architecture could also be part of the solution.
Without the help of architects, people built temporary walls as shields against snipers. I believed that these temporary structures created a degraded environment. In order to survive and upset their enemies with their sophisticated culture, humans need a sense of order in their world, whether consciously created or projected.”
Lebbeus Woods, 1991; watercolor, oil pencil, paper. Image credit: ROOM EAST, New York
Lebbeus Woods, essays for the "Zagreb Free Zone" project, 1991; pencil, paper. Image credit: ROOM EAST, New York
However, his call remained unanswered. There were no lunatics who would dare to build in a city that was shelled every day. The only material evidence of Woods' presence in the besieged Sarajevo were a few photographs - the so-called "Sarajevo Windows".
Photo session "Windows of Sarajevo", 1993
Photo session "Windows of Sarajevo", 1993
Photo session "Windows of Sarajevo", 1993
Guided by Woods' concept, local architect Paul Anwar created options for insulating windows in residential quarters with cardboard boxes from humanitarian aid.
Principle of post-war justice No. 3
Lebbeus Woods died in 2012. Shortly before his death, in December 2011, Woods decided to add to his book "War and Architecture", dedicated to the reconstruction of Sarajevo. And he publishes the article "Three principles" in his blog, in which he writes that now, 15 years later, he would like to give his concept a wider, human context and indicate the three main principles of post-war reconstruction.
"I would like to explain what inspired me for the design, drawings and models, and what I wanted to achieve. I believe that I did not say enough when I was accused of "aestheticizing violence" and exploiting the tragic human condition. I would like to fix this."
Lebbeus Woods, sculpture Nine Reconstructed Boxes, 1999; plastic. From the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Ben Blackwell
This is how Woods formulates three main principles of an architectural approach to war-torn cities:
principle number 1:
restoration to the pre-war state;
principle number 2:
demolition of damaged buildings and construction of new facilities with the same function on the site of the ruins;
principle number 3:
creating the new from the destroyed old.
Lebbeus Woods, graphics for the Unified Urban Field project, Centricity series, 1987; pencil, paper. From the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The first two concepts are being realized in the same Sarajevo, but rather randomly and unsystematically. Woods believed that architects and construction clients (i.e. the government) ignored the fact that in the psychology of the inhabitants of the cities that were attacked, indigestible changes had already taken place, and the normal pre-war past had been irretrievably lost.
Therefore, attempts to hide from future generations the scars inflicted on the city by shelling are doomed to failure. Behind the new buildings will always be the shadows of their destroyed predecessors, and the face of the city will still look like the face of a car accident victim after plastic surgery.
Woods proposed to use the so-called “radical reconstruction” during the reconstruction of cities: to preserve buildings whose supporting structures were slightly damaged, and in place of the destroyed fragments to create new spaces with a new function, thus combining the experience of people who witnessed the destruction with the need for social changes
Woods suggested using detritus and ammunition fragments as building material. Back in 1993–1996, Woods created a series of futuristic sketches, illustrating his vision of rebuilding Sarajevo. He offers options for the reconstruction of residential quarters, administrative buildings, in particular the Parliament building. However, all these projects of Woods remained unrealized, moreover, caused a flurry of criticism from those who would like to get rid of reminders of the tragedy.
Lebbeus Woods' "Pavilion of Light" in the Sliced Porosity Block, designed by architect Steven Holl in 2012. Photo credit: Steven Holl Architects
Photo credit: Steven Holl Architects
Despite the fact that Woods has always called himself an opponent of utopian idyll, his activities within the framework of the research institute of experimental architecture he created and teaching young architects are permeated with humanism and the dream of a just, but not cruel, world. An illustration of these deep meanings, which speaks more than a thousand words, can be considered his only realized work - the "Light Pavilion" in the skyscraper district Sliced Porosity Block in the Chinese city of Chengdu.
/Published in #00 volume Pragmatika, March 2018/
