The Genealogy Script
The Genealogy Script
In 1991 the Constructivists’ pool, whose story was told by Koolhaas at the end ofDelirious New York, finally landed in Paris suburbs, scaled down on the rooftop of Villa Dall’Ava. This perfect match of theory and practice is portrayed by the renowned picture of the villa roof garden where a swimmer stands at the poolside getting ready to plunge into the water. An image that represents Koolhaas approach to architecture, as he described it inContent,recalling OMA beginnings: “In 1966, I first heard of a brief moment in time – the Constructivists in the Soviet Union, 1923 – where the most intimate details of daily life became the legitimate subject of the architect’s imagination. I could not resist my late participation – to think of architecture not as form, but as organization, to influence the way lives are lived, an ultimate form of script writing”. We re-elaborated the diver’s picture as a collage made of parts cut out from Russian avant-garde posters, to point out this theoretical genealogy. The motto on the upper banner of the image is a manipulated quotation from Contentforeword.
La Sceneggiatura della Genealogia
Nel 1991 la piscina dei costruttivisti, la cui storia era stata raccontata da Koolhaas nell’epilogo di Delirious New York, approda finalmente – in scala ridotta – nella periferia di Parigi, sul tetto di Villa Dall’Ava. Questo felice approdo della carica teorica all’interno di un’opera paradigmatica, viene testimoniato dalla celeberrima foto del tetto giardino della villa che ritrae una nuotatrice a bordo piscina nell’atto di tuffarsi. Questa foto costituisce per noi il simbolo dell’approccio di Koolhaas all’architettura come mezzo per raccontare delle storie, per scrivere delle sceneggiature: “In 1966, I first heard of a brief moment in time – the Constructivists in the Soviet Union, 1923 – where the most intimate details of daily life became the legitimate subject of the architect’s imagination. I could not resist my late participation – to think of architecture not as form, but as organization, to influence the way lives are lived, an ultimate form of script writing”. Così Koolhaas descrive in Content l’inizio della parabola di OMA. Abbiamo voluto rielaborare la foto della tuffatrice come un collage di elementi presi da manifesti delle avanguardie russe, per rendere esplicita questa genealogia teorica. Lo slogan riportato nell’immagine è estratto dall’incipit di Content.
Originally published in Viceversa
n°8 “Theorem: Discourse(s)”, July 2019
Director Valerio Paolo Mosco
Edited by Giacomo Pala
Cover graphic design Malapartecafé
