Naga Studio Architecture
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Architecture must be placed within a broader philosophical milieu. Architects can no longer afford to lag behind and linger in the post-industrial, post-classical mechanistic models. The Bergsonian attitude towards philosophy that : it "cannot and must not accept the relation established by pure intellectualism between the theory of knowledge and the theory of the known, between metaphysics and science", provides an appropriate philosophical model for architecture today. Deleuze and Guattari, invoking similar disposition, consider Nous and Physis, (metaphysics and physics), the two facets of the plane of immanence of concepts, the planomenon. Henri Bergson stated that "[ ] form is essentially extended, inseparable as it is from the extensity of the becoming which has materialized it in the course of its flow. Every form thus occupies space as it occupies time." Bergson's statement sums up the two fundamental principles that inform the basic tenets in my experimentation in architecture : the state of becoming and the flow. Architectonic and topological manifestations follow different behavioral patterns of becoming in response to the forces and flows inherent within, metaphorically or typologically. They both have internal codes of behavior "esoteric attributes" and external codes of influence, "exoteric attributes". Their rules of engagement are interdependent : A topological continuum may "gravitationally" cause the unfoldment, twisting, or bending of planes or volumes. Conversely, the flow within emergent architectonics may rupture, warp, or deform a continuous membrane. Fixity and stasis may occur only at a thresholding instance (a point of suspension) where flows are moving in opposing vectors : A subversive counter-state to the point of inflection in a topological continuum. Would Deleuze's concept of inflection (a state of ambiguity and weightlessness) allow for an instance of meta-stasis, a reversal of vectorial purpose and desire, at a point of intersection ? A point of turbulence. Architectonic volumes (imploding or exploding) that intersect with topological conditions, effectively become turbulences in the flow of continuous surfaces. Within this philosophical paradigm, morphological concepts (topological or architectonic) cannot be adequately generated within the framework of Cartesian coordinates. An alternative spatio-temporal coordinate system suitable for simultaneous unfoldment of space and time, becomes an inevitable evolutionary step. [We are currently developing a coordinate system, Tetra-Vectors ©, that employs the four vectors of a tetrahedral system as basic vectorial coordinates (Vt1, Vt2, Vt3, Vtn). In this system, spatio-temporal Vt values are imputed to each of the four vectors. Thus each point in space falls within a particular tetra-quadrant. The fourth vector carries an intrinsic potential (t) value for that point to vibrate, to become activated into motion (i.e. Vt1, Vt2, Vt3, Vtn º Vt1, Vt2, Vt3, Vtn+X) (fig. 1)] Within those Vt vectors, a planomenon of architectonic fragments or topological continuums are imbued with a projective becoming. An inherent instability and fragile equilibrium permeates the behavior of space. This architecture aspires to creating space that is simultaneously emergent and convergent, imploding and exploding. Space that is physically and metaphysically charged with the desire to transform, transmutate, and transfold itself. Tarek Naga |
Tarek Naga (1953) 1985/1982
Ph.D. Candidate, Doctoral Program in Architecture, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphie Enseignement 1999/1998
SCI-Arc, Los Angeles, Californie Principaux projets et réalisations 2000
"Pavillon Egyptien" Biennale de Venise (en cours) ; "House of Emergent
Suspensions" (Esk House), Le Caire (projet) Publication de Tarek Naga 2000 "Domestication of Modernity" New Art Examiner, Chicago Bibliographie sélective 2000
Global Architecture, GA Houses, Project 2000 (vol.53) Tokyo |