The Discourse Of Liberation In Architecture And The Experience Of Emancipatory Design: A Criticism On The Architecture Of Eisenman And Its Layering Method

Eisenman Mimarlığı ve Katmanlama Yöntemi Üzerine Bir Eleştiri

Abstract

Accompanied by the neoliberalism that emerged especially after 1980, the discipline of architecture had difficulty in liberating itself from economic and ideological references and moved away from being an autonomous field of knowledge. As a result of this situation, the discipline of architecture has been transformed into a tool of control and obedience by certain groups of capital and by reducing to a formal model, architecture has become an industrial production area that generally copies similar images in the global market, has lost its meaning, its content is emptied and standardized, and moves away from its social, contextual and social problems. The field of architectural design needs to be liberated and liberated from the capital that dominates itself, and therefore from the understanding of architecture, which is reduced to a formal model. Only in this way we can get rid of the emptied copy images and the aesthetics of urban spaces that have lost their identity, in other words, liberation in architectural design can be achieved. Believing that the discipline of architecture is under the domination of capital today, this study concerns with the transformation of architecture into a tool of control and obedience of capital and the uniformization of the architectural product, especially in the post-1980 period in line with the dominant ideology. The study also positions itself against this argument assuming that this situation can be overcome in favor of emancipation in architectural design. In the study, it is believed that overcoming this situation and achieving liberation can be possible thanks to the tools of architectural epistemology. It is here that the study relies on the idea of enlightenment. Just as it was suggested in the idea of enlightenment, the breaking of domination and liberation from capital can be realized through reason, that is, with scientific knowledge. It is necessary to seek freedom in the epistemology of architectural design itself, not in an ostentatious and gentrified field of architectural production that walks arm in arm with capital. In this direction, the study aims to create an original discussion area by considering the freedom and myth understanding of the Enlightenment idea and the freedom discourse of Eisenman architecture, which constitutes the sample of the study and has recently become widespread and legitimized especially with the consumption culture. The aim of the Enlightenment thought was to save mankind from all kinds of myths and the domination of oppressive forces under the guidance of reason. However, the industrial revolution, mechanization, world wars, technological developments, and reason-based developments that increased its power in the presence of major economic crises have led to the emergence of a new kind of myth, or in other words for Horkheimer and Adorno. They summarize this new state of humanity by saying that myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology. In the article, it is thought that the thought of the Enlightenment and the thought of architectural design are in a state of similarity in the context of liberation and myth. That is, it is argued within the scope of the study that the freedom in the thought of architectural design can be achieved through the conceptual design process. Because the basis of the conceptual design process is based on mental production, that is, the existence of the mind. For this reason, in the study, enlightenment and architectural design are compared to each other. The liberation of both and their liberation from their limitations depends on the existence of the mind. In this direction, the aim of the study is to reveal the conceptual framework of the liberation discourse and its effects on architectural design. In this study, it is aimed to investigate and decipher these concepts in Eisenman architecture, starting from the idea that liberating concepts in the field of architecture constitute a basis for architectural design. Within the scope of the discussion, the sampling method was used. Eisenman architecture, one of the leading names in conceptual design, which opens the design to new possibilities by replacing the conceptual design process with the traditional design process, constitutes the sample of the study. The study examines the concept of layering, one of Eisenman’s liberating concepts that opens architectural design to endless possibilities in order to realize its purpose. However, besides these contributions to architectural design, Eisenman is also a starchitect. Although he revolutionized the design with his concepts, the architectural forms he produced and their images tended to turn into tradeable-consumable commodities in the post-80 political economy when the act of consumption increased. Therefore, Eisenman architecture seems to have come under the domination of capital after a while, just like the transformation of enlightenment thought into myth. Eisenman architecture, which was pregnant with positive developments at first, eventually returned to its own myth in the dark shadow of capital.