[biennale]
[thessaloniki]
[model]
[second moon]
[biennale]
[easa]
[desert A]
[ i ]
[desert B]
[desert C]
[café]
[shell]
[colossus]
The Moon, whether depicted in creative and narrative works or physically represented, as in the 1903 Luna Park on Coney Island[1] where passengers embarked on a simulated voyage to its surface, has always embodied the allure of the unknown. The cultural and scientific significance of the Moon landing in1969 (66 years after the whole Coney Island affair) and its impact on architecture and design are still being felt to this day: Humanity's quest for exploration and innovation were given exterritorial substance for the first time since the discovery of the New World in 1492. Its distant yet magnetic presence served as a prompt to be curious enough to traverse the gap between the familiar and the uncharted. In our discourse, the Moon signifies the duality of distance – it is both a tangible celestial body and a metaphorical representation of territory which has not yet been explored. In these moonlit reveries, we might discover the courage to transcend established norms, embracing the unconventional. After all, an architect must reconcile materiality, purpose and shape with the boundlessness of imaginative expression. Here, the almost Calvinian moon serves as a methodological means to bridge the physical and the sublime.
CLIMB UP ON THE MOON? OF COURSE WE DID.
ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS ROW OUT TO IT IN A BOAT AND,
WHEN YOUWERE UNDERNEATH, PROP A LADDER AGAINST HER AND SCRAMBLEUP.[2]
Beyond its permanent impact on architectural aesthetics, and life in general, the Calvinian moon's symbolism also resonates with the philosophical concept of the self in relation to the other. The Moon, as a celestial body distinct from Earth,[3] is both an actual and an oneiric representation of otherness. The Moon's cyclical journey, from visibility to invisibility and back, is nothing other than a metaphor for the fluidity of identity and perception - a device for reflection. On the other hand, Sloterdijk argues that the other is not just an external entity but an integral part of our own identity formation. Beyond the architectural and in the broader context of cultural and spatial dynamics, the Moon is an intersubjective object. This landscape, visible every night and on most days ,is shared between and equally observable in the sky in both hemispheres. In Calvino’s book we are transported to an invented time when the moon grazed the Earth so intimately that lovers could leap from our world to its silvery surface. In those moments of celestial proximity, the gravitational forces between the Earth and the Moon became a real bridge, a manifestation of the fantastic. The thought of the Moon as an entity living cheek to cheek with our planet and pulsating with life is not so far from the real drama that unfolded approximately 4.5 billion years ago during the Hadean eon, when the Moon emerged as a celestial companion to the Earth.[4] Ever since the postmodern, when reality became blurred and intertwined with the (hyper-textually) rea, architecture seems to stand in a framework of simulated realities. Architectural form started transcending its physicality, becoming a symbol not just of presence but of self-existence. Numbers ceased to be mathematical; they metamorphosed into layers of meaning, embodying the hyperreal foremost as an experience. Architectural spaces, now conditional, try to embody the coalescence of numerical precision and simulated future. It is within this intellectual space that numbers assume a new identity, representing not just measurements but layers of semiotic significance. Designed constructs ,therefore, take on an illusory quality, the otherness. Traditional forces blend with simulated forces – forces of desire, of ideology, of collective consciousness. Numbers (now accepted as simulacra) dictate not just the structural integrity but also the socio-cultural and psychological impact of architectural spaces. Although spaces are no longer simply functional, they are simulations of experiences, catalysts for the sensational, a moment where the force of simulation merges with the force of convention, creating a dynamic that still defines contemporary architecture to this day. Analogous to the relationship between the Earth and the Moon, architecture is witness to the concept of the origination of the ever new and unknown. The other body embodies the unfamiliar, the unexplored, and the unexpected. It is the force that pushes boundaries, challenges established norms and beckons us to venture into new territories of design and imagination. Architecture forms a dialogue between the established and the avant-garde, the clearly visible and the forever mysterious. It stays in the shape of desire and contemplation itself, forever measuring the distance of the Moon.[3]
[1] Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, The Monacelli Press, 1997, 39.
[2] Italo Calvino, Distance of The Moon, Penguin Books Limited, 2018,2.
[3] Even though Rock samples collected during the Apollo missions provided evidence that the Moon resulted from an object crashing into Earth in the early history of the solar system. Perhaps most importantly, the rock samples indicated that the Moon was once a part of Earth.[4] The Moon is in fact still moving away from the Earth at about two centimeters peryear.
CLIMB UP ON THE MOON? OF COURSE WE DID.
ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS ROW OUT TO IT IN A BOAT AND,
WHEN YOUWERE UNDERNEATH, PROP A LADDER AGAINST HER AND SCRAMBLEUP.[2]
Beyond its permanent impact on architectural aesthetics, and life in general, the Calvinian moon's symbolism also resonates with the philosophical concept of the self in relation to the other. The Moon, as a celestial body distinct from Earth,[3] is both an actual and an oneiric representation of otherness. The Moon's cyclical journey, from visibility to invisibility and back, is nothing other than a metaphor for the fluidity of identity and perception - a device for reflection. On the other hand, Sloterdijk argues that the other is not just an external entity but an integral part of our own identity formation. Beyond the architectural and in the broader context of cultural and spatial dynamics, the Moon is an intersubjective object. This landscape, visible every night and on most days ,is shared between and equally observable in the sky in both hemispheres. In Calvino’s book we are transported to an invented time when the moon grazed the Earth so intimately that lovers could leap from our world to its silvery surface. In those moments of celestial proximity, the gravitational forces between the Earth and the Moon became a real bridge, a manifestation of the fantastic. The thought of the Moon as an entity living cheek to cheek with our planet and pulsating with life is not so far from the real drama that unfolded approximately 4.5 billion years ago during the Hadean eon, when the Moon emerged as a celestial companion to the Earth.[4] Ever since the postmodern, when reality became blurred and intertwined with the (hyper-textually) rea, architecture seems to stand in a framework of simulated realities. Architectural form started transcending its physicality, becoming a symbol not just of presence but of self-existence. Numbers ceased to be mathematical; they metamorphosed into layers of meaning, embodying the hyperreal foremost as an experience. Architectural spaces, now conditional, try to embody the coalescence of numerical precision and simulated future. It is within this intellectual space that numbers assume a new identity, representing not just measurements but layers of semiotic significance. Designed constructs ,therefore, take on an illusory quality, the otherness. Traditional forces blend with simulated forces – forces of desire, of ideology, of collective consciousness. Numbers (now accepted as simulacra) dictate not just the structural integrity but also the socio-cultural and psychological impact of architectural spaces. Although spaces are no longer simply functional, they are simulations of experiences, catalysts for the sensational, a moment where the force of simulation merges with the force of convention, creating a dynamic that still defines contemporary architecture to this day. Analogous to the relationship between the Earth and the Moon, architecture is witness to the concept of the origination of the ever new and unknown. The other body embodies the unfamiliar, the unexplored, and the unexpected. It is the force that pushes boundaries, challenges established norms and beckons us to venture into new territories of design and imagination. Architecture forms a dialogue between the established and the avant-garde, the clearly visible and the forever mysterious. It stays in the shape of desire and contemplation itself, forever measuring the distance of the Moon.[3]
[1] Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, The Monacelli Press, 1997, 39.
[2] Italo Calvino, Distance of The Moon, Penguin Books Limited, 2018,2.
[3] Even though Rock samples collected during the Apollo missions provided evidence that the Moon resulted from an object crashing into Earth in the early history of the solar system. Perhaps most importantly, the rock samples indicated that the Moon was once a part of Earth.[4] The Moon is in fact still moving away from the Earth at about two centimeters peryear.