Safety values in post-9/11 architecture

On Sept. 10, 2001, Terry Smith set to work writing the book he’d been outlining for months…. On Sept. 10, 2001, Terry Smith set to work writing the book he’d been outlining for months. The very next day, he scrapped it and began again with an entirely new topic.

“Initially I was considering how in some sense the pre-conscience of art is full of conventionality,” Smith, Pitt’s Andrew W. Mellon professor of contemporary art history and theory, said in cultural studies program lecture Tuesday night.

His plan was to chronicle the evolution of art and architecture, beginning with periods of strict adherence and convention to moments where a sudden change gives rise to a new style.

“That was what was in my mind to do on Sept. 10, but obviously the next day everything changed,” Smith said.

What Smith produced instead was “The Architecture of Aftermath,” a book that examines the world of architecture from a post-World Trade Center attacks perspective.

He, along with Anthony Vidler, dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, discussed the issues addressed in the book, the proposals for architectural memorials at Ground Zero and the state of post-Sept. 11, 2001, architecture.

Smith claims that the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers altered the way we view architectural icons or “spectacles.”

He believes that, prior to the destruction of the Towers, architecture aimed to be something recognizable, a tangible representation of a country’s ideals and a symbol of its strength.

Now, however, the attacks have made obvious the vulnerability of iconic architecture in the minds of architects and their clients.

“[Before the attacks] I decided an economy of images existed – an ‘iconomy’ – which was mainly about consumptive objects,” Smith said.

“Within this image economy, spectacle architecture was a central feature.”

Using the renowned Sydney Opera House of his native Australia as an example, Smith said, “Creating an iconic image often surpassed the need to create an appropriate structure to house the art.”

“On 9/11, however, the implosion of the buildings released the idea of an anti-icon, of anti-imagery,” Smith said.

As America tried to process the loss and determine an appropriate response, Smith said, “Ground Zero became a space with an urgency to be filled because of the way it was emptied.”

As he reviewed the proposals submitted by various architects for a fitting replacement or memorial, however, Smith noticed a pronounced move away from towering buildings soaring with pomp and circumstance.

“Modernity may be the last period where such spectacle architecture may exist,” Smith said. “More will be generated, but none will be universal and none will be all-encompassing.”

Now, Smith said it appears the new goals within architecture will be geared toward “green” designs with increased security.

“Bunker architecture is appearing, building security measures into buildings is occurring,” Smith said.

“[These security measures] are designed in a very soft, elegant kind of way,” Smith said, pointing to a slide of a building with prisms of light and aesthetic, symmetrical lines.

“It’s all very appealing, but actually these things are meant to keep the building from being rammed by trucks armed with explosives.”

“Green” architecture is emerging in the wake of the destruction left by hurricanes in Louisiana and the need for environmentally friendly housing that caters toward mobile, nomadic populations.

Smith cited the Lincoln-logs form of housing being tested for aboriginal tribes in Australia as an example of such shelter built for the transient.

He explained that the houses arrive in pieces, almost as kits.

“It’s do-it-yourself housing,” Smith said. “Everything can fit in the back of a truck and can be assembled with a power drill.”

Following Smith’s speech, Vidler responded, agreeing with some of Smith’s points, contesting others and making a few of his own.

Vidler arrived in New York to assume his position as dean of the Irwin S. School of Architecture just two days prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The real crisis for us was that we were in an architecture school and we had to decide how to do this,” Vidler said.

His students immediately became active in relief efforts, donating blood and building a collapsible model of the buildings to show firefighters the channels that the structure would create that would provide probable routes of escape.

After the initial chaos had subsided and plans for memorials and construction began, Vidler said, “The best thing, to me, was to glass it over, turn it into an observation park and wait 40 years.”

He feels that current architectural abilities are moving toward more responsible, environmentally conscious planning and construction, but that there is much ground to be gained before any attempts are made to permanently memorialize Ground Zero.

“We live among the ruins indeed, but we have been blinded by the spectacle so that we don’t realize that the ruins are not of buildings, but of nature itself,” Vidler said.