Contemporaneity

Pop culture as an inspiration in the modern architecture. Chosen issues

Krzysztof Bizio

Abstract

The beginnings of mass culture1 are connected with the industrial revolution. They also have direct connections with urbanization processes that started in the 19th century, the indirect effect of which was the unification and popularization of societies and consequently, the ways of land development.

In the research conducted on the development of mass culture, from which pop culture has been evolving since the 1960s, the meaning of information popularisation (the influence of the mass media) and the consequences of progressing globalization are emphasized. The aspect of pop culture that still requires an analysis is its impact on the modern architecture and the feedback relation of this process, i.e. the influence of the modern architecture on other aspects of pop culture.

Researchers of culture emphasize the existence of stages in the development of mass culture. According to Antonina Kłoskowska, the first stage of popularisation takes place after World War I (the development of film and radio, the peak point of the press development), the second stage is in the middle of the 20th century (development of TV)2 [2]. Another stage is marked by the appearance of the Internet and further progress of globalization processes.

The 1960s and 1970s are the time of the evolution of mass culture into pop culture, which is connected with a new position of rock music, cinema and television. Fascination of pop culture can also be observed in art, which is manifested by the creation of pop art or the beginnings of American architectural post-modernism3.

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The beginnings of mass culture

are connected with

the industrial revolution. They also have direct connec-

tions with urbanization processes that started in the 19

century, the indirect effect of which was the unication

and popularization of societies and consequently, the

ways of land development.

In the research conducted on the development of mass

culture, from which pop culture has been evolving since

the 1960s, the meaning of information popularisation (the

inuence of the mass media) and the consequences of

progressing globalization are emphasized. The aspect of

pop culture that still requires an analysis is its impact on

the modern architecture and the feedback relation of this

process, i.e. the inuence of the modern architecture on

other aspects of pop culture.

Researchers of culture emphasize the existence of

stages in the development of mass culture. According to

Antonina Kłoskowska, the rst stage of popularisation

takes place after World War I (the development of lm

and radio, the peak point of the press development), the

second stage is in the middle of the 20

century (develop-

ment of TV)

[2]. Another stage is marked by the appear-

ance of the Internet and further progress of globalization

processes.

West Pomeranian University of Technology, Faculty of Modern

Architecture, Theory and Design Methodology.

There are many denitions of the term mass culture. Most of them

refer to numerous problems connected with the development of urbanized

societies (which appeared in the 19

century) and the mass media exist-

ing in these societies. As the most important mass media, the following

means are mentioned: press, radio, lm, television and most recently the

Internet.

These notions are introduced by A. Kłoskowska in her book Kul-

tura masowa, which is considered to be a classic position in the sociology

of culture.

The 1960s and 1970s are the time of the evolution of

mass culture into pop culture, which is connected with

a new position of rock music, cinema and television. Fas-

cination of pop culture can also be observed in art, which

is manifested by the creation of pop art or the beginnings

of American architectural post-modernism

. Linking mass

culture with architecture gives opportunities for a new

original perspective on the history of culture and archi-

tecture of the last two hundred years. We can distinguish

three phases of mutual relations between mass culture and

architecture:

• Phase 1 – 19

century and the beginning of the 20

century (beginnings of mass culture and the 19

century

town development). This phase was connected with the

concept of a new modern city (from circa 1850), demoli-

tion of defence fortications and creating a new unlimited

spatial perspective of city land development based on the

industrial development as well as popularisation of the

employed spatial forms (among other, a tenement house,

factory).

• Phase 2 – the time of modernist culture which takes

place throughout most of the 20

century (from 1920s to

1970s). In this period, we can observe further populari-

zation of the ways of architectural implementations and

also a considerable inuence of the international style

which can be perceived as a manifestation of the global

culture. Modernism, as an aesthetic concept, dissociated

itself from eclectic ideas by suggesting a new formal lan-

guage which did not approve of popular (folk) culture

and tried to create its own elitist character. At the same

time in the architecture and urban planning, such terms as

Compare: D. Strinati, Wprowadzenie do kultury popularnej, Wy-

dawnictwo Zysk i S-ka, Poznań, 1998.

Krzysztof Bizio*

Pop culture as an inspiration in the modern architecture.

Chosen issues

Introduction. Mass culture in relation to architecture

84 Krzysztof Bizio

repeatability, prefabrication, unication and others were

emphasized.

• Phase 3 – introduction of elements of pop culture

into the area of high culture, which is started in the 1960s

and takes on a new shape from the beginning of the 1990s.

Introduction of the forms, so far associated with popular

culture, into the area of architectural avant-garde resulted

in blurring boundaries between popular architecture and

high architecture.

Post-modernist breakthrough, pop culture and architecture

For many years, an intellectual opposition was created

between popular culture and high (elitist) culture. Popular

culture was ascribed low values, frequent lack of original

ideas, anti-intellectualism, commercialization and putting

the emphasis mainly on mercantilist values and satisfying

the lowest instincts.

We can assume that this division existed in the cul-

ture until the revolution of the 1960s, particularly until

the development of pop art and postmodernism. These

trends introduced a signicant change in the interpretation

of popular culture by involving some attributes of popu-

lar culture in a sort of an intellectual game, thus turning

them into high culture attributes, which in practical terms

meant that the boundaries between these two cultures

blurred

[1].

United States of America

Emergence of postmodernism in the USA is connected

with the appearance of new theories and publication of

such books as The Death and Life of Great American Cit-

ies – by Jane Jacobs and Complexity and Contradiction in

Architecture – by Robert Venturi. Particularly important

was the fascination with the popular products of culture

and kitsch, which was analyzed by R. Venturi along with

D.S. Brown and S. Izenour in – Learning from Las Vegas.

This book contains examples of advertisements and ludic

architectural forms into the space of a specic metropolis

Symptoms which anticipated this process were the concept of ready

mades, started by M. Duchamp and his Bicycle Wheel (1913), Bottle dryer

(1915) and the famous Fountain (1917).

which is the capital of world gambling – Las Vegas. The

observations made by R. Venturi in practice had a broader

dimension and described the spatial reality in which the

pop attributes were an integral part of the iconosphere of

the city of the 1960s and 1970s [4].

A different interpretation of pop was proposed by

Ch.W. Moore in the design of the town square Piazza

d’Italia in New Orleans. This public design executed in

1978 was addressed to the local community of Italian

origins. It employed traditional elements of classic archi-

tecture (columns, porticos and presentable stairs) for the

purposes of playing with the spectator and it was realized

with the use of modern materials (stainless steel, neon).

Among other examples of connections of the Ameri-

can postmodernism with pop cultural forms, we can men-

tion the projects of SITE workshop for the chain of mar-

kets Best, where typical rectangular façades of great su-

permarkets were enriched by the motives of walls which

fall off and apart or they used lettering as a decorative

Fig. 1. Dolphin and Swan Hotels in Walt Disney World, Orlando 1990.

Architect Michaela Graves

Fig. 2. The cover of Amazing Archigram 4

in a convention of comics

Pop culture as an inspiration in the modern architecture. Chosen issues 85

element

; also, designs by Michael Graves, with a project

that was radical as regards its references to pop culture

Dolphin and Swan Hotels in Walt Disney Word complex

in Orlando from 1990 (Fig. 1), in which he employed

gures of dolphins and swans from Walt Disney stories as

sculptures forming the building’s façade.

Europe

In Europe, the inuences of pop culture on architec-

ture in the 1960s and at the beginnings of the 1970s had

a slightly less direct character.

The achievements of Archigram (ARCHItecture

TeleGRAM) group are very characteristic here. The group

consisted of six architects

who were fascinated with new

and futuristic visions of architecture. Their designs had

a theoretical character, the aim of which was to stimulate

reections on new architectural possibilities. The most

famous are the following: Walking city – a design of the

city which transfers like a steel creature; Suitalion – a city

clothes or a mega-structure design – Plug-in-City. The

group signicantly contributed to the form of presenta-

The most popular SITE project from this period is a Huston market

from 1974.

The Archigram was created by David Greene, Peter Cook, Mike

“Spider” Webb, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton and Ron Herron.

tion of the architectonic idea which strayed away from the

pompous and serious approach presented by modernists

and suggested the usage of comics and posters (Fig. 2)

imitated on pop culture heroes (superman, Spiderman).

Among experienced architects, there were no such

radical creators in Europe who would derive their visions

from pop culture. The book by R. Rossi L’achitettura del-

la citta turned out to be very important for the European

post-modernism; however, it was a serious essay which

presented the reasons of the modernist city crisis and at-

tempts to get out of it.

Nevertheless, there were also European experienced

architects who took advantage of pop motives in their

creative activity. Hans Hollein, an Austrian architect, in

the rst stage of his creative activity was the author of

several ne-scale solutions, mainly interiors, in which he

used pop iconography in a specic way. For example, he

designed the interiors in form of steel palms and cash desk

windows with the motives of Rolls-Royce dummy bars

in the Austrian Travel Agency in Vienna. He is also the

author of ideological designs in which sea ships were to

be placed in the interior. On the European ground, Venice

Biennale in 1980 turned out to be a breakthrough event,

in which functionalistic architecture was replaced by nar-

rative architecture.

Artists in architecture

The design presence of artists connected with pop in

architecture may constitute an interesting thread of rela-

tions between architecture and popular culture.

Frank O. Gehry is an architect who in his early works

used some particular ideas – ready made – the example

of which can be his own house in Santa Monica (Califor-

nia) built in the 1970s. He is also a co-author of the ofce

complex Chiat/Day/Mojo in Venice (California) built in

the years 1975–1991. The co-authors of this concept are

the artists connected with pop art: Claesem Oldenburg

and Coosje van Bruggen. The central part of the structure

constitutes a several-storey sculpture by Claesem Olden-

burg, which presents binoculars. Gehry himself also used

the contours of objects in his later designs, the example

of which can be a sh gure motive used in Fish Dance

Restaurant in Kobe (1987); Lewis House in Lyndhurstw

in Ohio (1989–1995) and Villa Olimpica in Barcelona

(1992).

An original combination of art and architecture was

suggested by Friedensreich Hunderwasser – an Austrian

painter, sculptor and performer. He is the author of the

architectural manifest Verschimmelungs-manifest gegen

den rationalismus in der architektur (1957) in which he

criticized functionalism in architecture. Hunderwasser’s

suggestions do not directly derive from pop iconography

but they are examples of a radically different approach

to architecture from the ideological and ne arts point of

view.

Architecture as lm inspiration

In the 1960s, it was possible to observe the specic feed-

back in which other activities in the range of pop culture

were inspired by architecture, in particular, the lm. A good

example of this phenomenon can be the lm by the clas-

sic of the new French nouvelle vague – Jean-Luc Godard

Alphaville

; the lm describes a vision of the dehumanised

The full title of the lm is as follows: Alphaville, une étrange

aventure de Lemmy Caution. It combines science– ction and noir cinema

by presenting a story about the society managed by Alpha 60 electronic

brain. The location of the lm was in Paris.

world, which can be understood as an indirect accusation

of modernism in architecture. Apart from Godard, the in-

uences of postmodernist iconography can be observed in

Antonioni’s lms and rst of all in Fellini’s lms (Eight

and a Half (1963), Satiricon (1969), Amarcord (1973)). In

his lms, Fellini used architectural space giving it symbolic

and ambiguous values in a way that was characteristic for

architectural postmodernism.

For architectonic creative activity, a science-ction trend

turned out to be the most signicant; in this trend, set designs

were created which were supposed to represent the future.

86 Krzysztof Bizio

An important lm for this trend was 2001 – A Space Odyssey

directed by Stanley Kubrick in1968, in which a new kind of

spatial aesthetics representing the future was created.

A contemporary director who is mentioned by archi-

tects and architecture critics as a person inspiring their

creative activity is Ridley Scott and his two lms in par-

ticular: Alien 1979 and Blade Runner 1982. Impressions

of the suggested aesthetic solutions included in these lms

can be found in contemporary designs by Z. Hadid and F.O.

Gehry [3].

Participation, hippies and ‘do-it-yourself’

Equalization of the achievements of pop culture and

high architecture resulted in the appearance of a new trend

of architecture created by its users

as well as in the resi-

dents’ participation in professional architectural designs.

The works of a Belgian architect Lucien Kroll can

constitute an example of participation in creating archi-

tecture. After students’ manifests in 1969, Kroll started

work on his most famous design of La Merne town for the

students of Medicine at Louvain University. Students par-

ticipated in the process of designing actively and the re-

sult of the work was a controversial design which strayed

away from a modernist and ascetic form; however, the

design was enriched with different extensions as regards

This phenomenon was described in 1964 by Bernard Rudofsky in

Architecture without architects. A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed

Architecture.

the formal aspect, which emphasized the meaning of ar-

chitecture and greens.

Another famous design from this period is the housing

estate ‘Byker Wall’ by Ralph Erskine. The author opened

his ofce for social consultations

and created a different

housing sub-estate which took into consideration the re-

marks and suggestions of the future residents in the de-

sign process.

A similar approach characterized also other initiatives,

among which the most famous is the activity of ARCAU

group from Brussels founded in 1969 or the works by Ivo

Waldhor.

In order to encourage people to visit him, he connected the func-

tion of the design ofce, which was adapted from the old funeral parlor,

with the function of the lost property ofce as well as garden advice and

plants sale point.

New situation in the days of globalization. Cyber culture and architecture

Since the 1990s along with the development of the

computer studies society, in particular, the development of

computerization, the way of spreading products of culture

has been modied, which has also created a new situation

of the relation between culture and modern architecture.

Inspirations of mass culture products such as traditional

history of art or cinema – characteristic of postmodernism

époque – were replaced by inspirations in the area of new

media. Virtual reality and the appearance of the so called

cyber culture became particularly signicant

. Forms de-

rived from computer graphics or virtual reality entered the

sphere of architecture

A good example of the project which used cyber cul-

ture inspiration can be Victoria University Online Training

Center in Saint Albans in Australia (2001–2002). The au-

thor of the project is Studio Lyons from Melbourne whose

creative activity is characterized by irony in the digital

times

. In this design, a part of the building façade was

covered by computer graphics, which constitutes a refer-

ence to the function of the building. The usage of façades

A computer studies dictionary gives two basic denitions of cyber

culture: 1. subculture of the Internet users playing computer games; and

2. a new face of pop culture using the multi-media, including mainly com-

puters and the net of computer connections and links. Source: A computer

studies dictionary: www.i-slownik.pl

A separate issue constitutes the existence of structures in the virtual

space only. The example of such activities can be Guggenheim Virtual

Museum design by Asympote group.

10.10_2.100 Architects.10 Critics, Phaidon, London 2005,

p. 208.

Fig. 3. Silodam of MVRDV group in Amsterdam

Pop culture as an inspiration in the modern architecture. Chosen issues 87

as a media carrier

became also a kind of identication of

Herzog de Meuron group which should be regarded as one

of the most inuential groups in modern architecture.

The project of a transformer station in Utrecht made

by NL ARCHITECTS group is also inspiring. It was

changed into a sort of sculpture with façades, which have

grips for climbing and a basket for playing basketball.

This building in its stylistics refers to virtual reality, com-

puter games graphics, representing in this way a wider

trend of the architectonic quest.

Herzog de Meuron used façade motives-overprints (among other,

in the design of the University Library in Cottbus) and changeable light

façades (among other, the design of Munich Stadium).

A uniquely interesting thread of architectonic quests

is represented by Dutch MVRDV studio. Their designs

derive from Dutch structuralism trend and refer to the

classic forms of Aldo van Eyck; however, they give

them a postmodernist code – a kind of a formal play

which is characteristic of postmodernism. In the design

of Silodam building in Amsterdam, the façade of the

cuboidal building, which stands on water, was divided

into fragments which can be associated with build-

ing-blocks LEGO or heaps of port containers (Fig. 3).

A similar motive of elements and structure was also ap-

plied in WoZoCo design (residential home) in Amster-

dam or a Dutch Pavilion at Expo Exhibition 2000 in

Hanover.

References

[1] Dziamski G., Postmodernizm wobec kryzysu estetyki współczesnej,

Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań

1996.

[2] Kłoskowska A., Kultura masowa, Biblioteka Socjologiczna.

Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2005.

[3] Maas W., van Rijs J., Richard Koek R., FARMAX: Excursions on

density, Rotterdam1998.

[4] Venturi R. , Brown D.S., Izenour S., Learning from Las Vegas, MIT

Press, Cambridge 1972.

Popkultura jako inspiracja w architekturze współczesnej. Wybrane zagadnienia

W artykule opisano związki między kulturą masową i architekturą

współczesną. Związki te podzielono na trzy podstawowe okresy: faza 1

– to wiek XIX i początek XX wieku (początek kultury masowej i XIX-

-wiecznego rozwoju miast); faza 2 – to czas trwania kultury moderni-

stycznej, obejmujący znaczną część wieku XX (od lat 20. do lat 70. XX

wieku); faza 3 – to wciągnięcie elementów kultury popularnej w obszar

kultury wysokiej na początku lat 60. XX wieku.

Szerzej opisano okres przełomu postmodernistycznego, kiedy to

została zniesiona opozycja intelektualna pomiędzy kulturą popularną i kul-

turą wysoką (elitarną). Kulturze popularnej przypisywano niskie wartości,

częsty brak oryginalnych idei, antyintelektualizm, komercjalizację oraz

nastawienie w głównej mierze na wartości merkantylne, zaspokajające

najniższe instynkty. Podział ten można uznać za istniejący w kulturze do

czasów rewolucji lat 60. XX wieku, a szczególnie do rozwoju pop-artu

i postmodernizmu, kiedy został unieważniony, a pop stał się częścią

kultury wysokiej. W artykule opisano różne przykłady styku kultury

masowej i architektury tego okresu w USA i Europie.

Zaprezentowano także przykłady działań artystów pop-artu w archi-

tekturze, inspiracje architektoniczne w kulturze popularnej (lmie), nurt

partycypacji architektonicznej z lat 70. XX wieku, jako przejaw umaso-

wienia dostępu do architektury współczesnej, oraz przykłady realizacji

inspirowanych kulturą popularną (głównie cyberkulturą) z ostatniego

dziesięciolecia.

Key words: pop culture, modern architecture Słowa kluczowe: popkultura, architektura współczesna