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    Presence

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    Dinu Mihaela
    This document provides an introduction to Chaiboon Sirithanawat's personal investigation into the concept of "presence-absence" in architecture. It traces the idea through different philosophical and architectural discourses from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The investigation is presented as a continuous series of "scripts" including copies of literary and illustrated texts. It examines how presence and absence inform each other in architecture through concepts like form and space. It also discusses how memory and technology ("tektonik") represent architecture through different historical periods but notes that the "architecture of the present" remains absent and needs new exploration.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Presence

    Uploaded by

    Dinu Mihaela
    85 views6 pages
    This document provides an introduction to Chaiboon Sirithanawat's personal investigation into the concept of "presence-absence" in architecture. It traces the idea through different philosophical and architectural discourses from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The investigation is presented as a continuous series of "scripts" including copies of literary and illustrated texts. It examines how presence and absence inform each other in architecture through concepts like form and space. It also discusses how memory and technology ("tektonik") represent architecture through different historical periods but notes that the "architecture of the present" remains absent and needs new exploration.

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    This document provides an introduction to Chaiboon Sirithanawat's personal investigation into the concept of "presence-absence" in architecture. It traces the idea through different philosophical and architectural discourses from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The investigation is presented as a continuous series of "scripts" including copies of literary and illustrated texts. It examines how presence and absence inform each other in architecture through concepts like form and space. It also discusses how memory and technology ("tektonik") represent architecture through different historical periods but notes that the "architecture of the present" remains absent and needs new exploration.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    85 views6 pages

    Presence

    Uploaded by

    Dinu Mihaela
    This document provides an introduction to Chaiboon Sirithanawat's personal investigation into the concept of "presence-absence" in architecture. It traces the idea through different philosophical and architectural discourses from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The investigation is presented as a continuous series of "scripts" including copies of literary and illustrated texts. It examines how presence and absence inform each other in architecture through concepts like form and space. It also discusses how memory and technology ("tektonik") represent architecture through different historical periods but notes that the "architecture of the present" remains absent and needs new exploration.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6

    l

    p a I i m p s e s t:
    A Trace of the "Presence-Absence" in Architecture

    PRE-SCRIPT
    The Beginning of a Trace:
    Examining the Opposition
    This project is a personal investigation into some existing
    ideas in architecture. The investigation is based on an attempt
    to search for a possible connection between the architeclUTal
    ideas of different times and contexiS. Taking the idea of
    "Presence-Absence" in architecture as the beginning of the
    trace, some inquiries are made into the oppositions:
    What does "Presence-Absence" mean?
    What does "Presence-Absence" mean in architecture?
    What does architecture mean to "Presence-Absence"?
    Tracing the idea from different discourses-philosophy and
    architecture, the study projeciS some concepts of the opposition from different times --past and present, and from different contexiS--oriental and accidental.
    This trace is presented in a continuous series of collages of
    "Scripts"--copies and writings of literary text and "Graphic
    Scripts" -copies and drawings of illustrated text The presentation takes the form of scrolled reading, starting from left
    to right

    by Chaiboon Sirithanawat
    vo l ume

    s e v e n

    number

    23

    THE PRESENTING SCRIPT


    'PRESENCE-ABSENCE
    Absence marks presence as well as
    presence marks absence.
    We perceive presence
    by its existence in absence,
    And v.-e conceive absence by
    non-existence of presence;
    Therefore, presence and absence
    beget and complement each other.

    Presence and absence mark architecture.


    Presence forms absence,
    and absence informs us of presence.
    Form contains space,
    as well as maintaining its existence in space.
    In architecture, we gain from what is present
    -solid and form,
    And we utilize what is absent
    -void and space.
    Together, the presence of form
    and the absence of space
    form a unity, an inseparable reality.

    REPRESENTATION

    PRESENTATION

    INTERPRETATION

    BEING

    PRESENCE

    PE.RCEP'I10N

    NON-BEING

    ABSENCE

    CONCEP'I10N

    SUBSTANCE

    FORM

    AKTEFACf

    NON-SUBSI'ANCE

    SPACE

    EDIHCE

    a:

    defer

    Thus "Presence-Absence"
    is the mode of representing architecture.
    As well, architecture through a continuum of history
    is a representation of man's presence
    in this absent world.
    Is the present architecture an architecture of absence,
    one which ceases to represent
    the historical continuity?
    And is there an "Architecture of the Present,"
    one which marks the present stance
    in the historical continuum?
    If there were such, should we, and how could we,
    re-present that which is absent
    in the present architecture,
    and simultaneously represent
    the "Architecture of the Present"?

    PAST

    MEMORY

    HISTORICAL

    PRESENT

    REAUIY

    CONTINUITY

    PAST
    PRESENT
    FUTURE

    TEKTONIK

    IDENTIFIABLE

    "

    EPOCH

    TECHNOLOGY

    THE PAST SCRIPT


    "TAOISM"

    THE PRESENT SCRIPT


    ORIENTAL

    Men the people of IM world all know beauty as beauty,


    There arises tlte recognilion of ugliness.
    Men tltey all know tM good as good,
    There arises the recognition of evil.
    Therefore, being and non-bting produce each other;
    Difficult and easy complm each other;
    Long and short contrast each other;
    Sound and voice hamwniu each otlter;
    Front and behind accompany each other.1
    -Lao Tzu
    Tao Te Chinz, ch.2

    We put thirty spokes togdher and call it a wheel;


    But it is on the space where there is nothing
    that the utility of the wheel depends.
    We turn clay to make a vessel;
    But it is on the space where there is notlting
    that tlte utility of the vessel depends.
    We pierce doors and windows to make a house;
    And it is on these spaces where there is nothing
    that the utility of the house depends.
    Therefore, just as we take advantage of what is,
    we should recognize the utility of what is not. 2
    -Lao Tzu
    Tao Te Ching, ch.ll

    "DECONSTRU CI'ION'

    OCCIDENTAL

    Axioms of Deconstruction:
    Axiom 1 Everything can be given at least two equally
    cogent explanations.
    Axiom 2 In tlte temporal process of thinking about
    anything, Ofte explanation collapses into its
    contrary.3
    -E. D. Hlrsch, Jr.
    "Derrida's Axioms

    "Differance, " as Derrida uses it, has two senses.


    means, differ and defer.

    It

    To differ means to be spatially separaied (nothing, not


    even tM present or consciousness, is self-present or

    identical; there is no original identity).

    To defer means to be temporally separated (nothing

    ever is wholly present; even tM present is always


    tklayed). Since what ~e take to be objecti\.e reality is
    fundamentally spatial and temporal-think of what we
    mean by the built environment, for o:ample-Derrida is
    claiming that there is no momenJ when anything is given
    as itself, in full self-present identity; there is always a
    gap, an absence in the heart of reality. Indeed, it is this
    difference which is primal. 4

    -Robert Mugerauer
    "Derrida and Beyond"

    Le Corbusiu

    Let us never f~t that there is an architecture of


    architecture
    .... This naturalized archilecture
    is
    bequeathed to us: we inhabit il, it inhabils us, ... we
    must recognize in it an artefact, a constTUction, a
    monumenL . . . This architecture of architectlln has a
    history; it is historical through and through. . . . The
    concept of architecture
    is itself an inhabited
    construcJUm, a heritage whid1 comprehends us 1!\.~n
    before we could submit it to thoughL . . . architecture
    must have a meaning, it must present iJ and, through il,
    signify.5
    -Jacques Derrlda

    "Point de folle-Maintenant l'arcbitecturt

    THE GRAPHIC SCRIPT

    White Circle on \\lhitt


    FOR.\t..SPACE

    Form & Space

    art

    Solid & Void

    Corinthian Order

    Caryatid

    ~
    ~

    l.a

    11

    Satural Column
    itr's Primitnt Hut

    TEKTO:\IK & TI:CH!'\OLOGY


    ldtntif"aablt Eph

    GREEK

    Par1htnon Athtn

    ROMAN

    438 B.C.

    CoiO\\eum Rome A.D. 70

    "PRESENCE-ABSENCE"
    form ~

    Abunce

    I . ,"'.'
    1,'

    ,)

    Presence

    Presence fom1s Absence

    ''
    ' ./ '
    ' ,!.
    ':
    " ,.

    ~,

    ,,,,--, ..

    ' I , I , ; . ' , . , \ t t l /

    ~ '~

    I ' ..

    .'t

    lllack Circle on White S uart


    Form containjng Space

    forms containing Space

    form &. Space

    Cast Iron Order

    Column Sk) SU11per

    H. P. F. Labrouste
    Bibliothe ue National Paris 1868

    Chica o Tribune To\>tr Corn tition 1923

    GOTHIC

    CLASSICIS:\1

    Cnthedrnl Rtim

    1290

    St. Pettr'' Romt 1564

    Kohn PedHWn Fox Assoc.


    Frankfurt A. M. Pro '~t W. German
    \10DER.\

    i
    R~im ~

    1981

    ro

    Lt Corbu itr
    Ctnler lA Corhu\itr Zurich 1967

    POST- CRTPT
    The End or Trace:
    The Absence or "Architecture of the Present"

    From the ''Presenc~Absence" in architecture, two notions


    are derived: "memory" and "lektonik." The first. "memory"
    repre-sents its meaning as historical continuity. In the tranSfonnauon of architecture from one period to another, the
    architecture of the past never represents a total disruption
    from its precedent. The stain of the preceding period often
    remains and its meaning can be traced back toilS origin. The
    auitude of looking forward LO the furure, searching f<X" new
    developmenlS, is perpewally inherent in man; however,
    man can never detaeh himself from his past and memory.
    Because memory is always a part of man's life, the reminisence st:Uning man's culrure is the representation ofhis development through the long continual process of civilization.

    "The Architecture of the Present"

    The second, ''telctooik.., a jXimary principle of the architectural discipline, is another aspect which resides in every
    period. The possibility of a new architecture in the aansition
    from one period LO another often resullS as a pan of the
    exploiLation of new materials and development in construction technology. From ancient LO modem, the great architecture of each period always reveals this exploituion through
    "tektonik" -a structural poetic which represents theidentfiabte epoch of architecrure.'
    However, both "memory" and ..tektoni:k" are only two aspects in\'Oh'ed in architectural discourse. The achievement
    ofarchitecwre, in fact, depends on many aspeclS, and in each
    aspect its condition always changes from time LO time, and
    from place LO place. Thus, no single concept of architecture
    can be app~ted at all times and for all places. Architects
    invariably have LO search for that appropriateness for their
    specific time and place. Therefore, the paradigm of"Architecture or the Present" is always absent, and is waiting for

    a new exploration for its appropriate presence.

    NOTES
    1.

    2.
    3.
    4.

    5.
    6.

    W'mg-tsit Chan, The Way of Lao Tzu (New York: BobbsMerrill, 1963), p.lOl.
    Francis DJ(. Ching, Archilecture: Form, Space & Order.
    (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1979), p.lO.
    E.D. Hirsch Jr. "Derrida's Axioms", in London Reviews.
    (1988):p.29.
    Robert Mugerauer, "Derrida and Beyond", in Cenler, vol. 4
    ( 1988): pp.66-67.
    Jacques Derrida, "Point de folie-Maint.enantl'architecrure",
    in AA files. no.l2 (Swruner 1986): p.65.
    As quoted from StBnford Anderson by Kenneth Frampton in
    '7owards a Critical Regionalism," The Anli-aesthetic. Port
    Townsend, Wash.: Bay Press, 1983; pp.27-8: "Telaoru~
    referred not just to the activity of making the materially
    requisite consttuction...but rather to the 11Cliviry that
    raises this construction to an art form. ..The functionally
    adequate fonn must be adapted so as to give expression to
    its function. The sense of bearing provided by the enta.sis
    of Greek columns became the touchstone of this concept of

    Teklonik.

    Chaiboon Sirithanawat is a Masters of ArchiteCture student


    currently working on his thesis at McGill University.
    The Present Architecture

    28

    The

    Fiflh

    Column

    magazine

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