As stated by the philosopher Georges Canguilhelm, the concept of environment would become in the 1950s a basic category of contemporary though. In the architectural debates it would find its counterpart in notions like habitat (CIAM), cluster (Alison & Peter Smithson) or environment (Reyner Banham) through which the relation of man with his natural, social or artificial milieu was to be studied. It provoked a shift from an interest for the architectural form (modernism), to that of the environment and the different media flowing, circulating or running through or around the building (post-modernism). But how did theses debates transform architectural design? How did this new interest inform the architectural practice? And how was it to be represented? The talk proposes to address these issues through the work of the british architect James Stirling.
Laurent Stalder is professor for the theory of architecture at the Swiss Institute of Technology. The main focus of his research and publications is the history and theory of architecture from the 19th to the 21st centuries where it intersects with the history of technology. His most recent publications include Hermann Muthesius: Das Landhaus als kulturgeschichtlicher Entwurf (2008), Valerio Olgiati (2008), Der Schwellenatlas (2009), and God & Co. François Dallegret: Beyond the Bubble (2011), Atelier Bow Wow. A Primer (2013), Fritz Haller: Architekt und Forscher (2015). His articles have been published in various journals, including AA Files, Arch+, Greyroom, the Journal of Architecture, Werk, Bauen & Wohnen and the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte. He is currently preparing a monograph „Charting the Environment“ on British Architecture 1930-1970.
Image caption: Nordheim-Westfalen Museum, Düsseldorf, James Stirling, 1975.