Performance and Teleology

Abstract

Performance and teleology.
This article presents a generalized discussion of American and Dutch
architectural positions. The article uses Colin Rowes introduction to
Five Architects as a prism for this discussion. He criticizes the
ideological foundation of heroic modernist architecture, especially
its claim of unifying form (physique) with social and programmatic
content (morale). His argument serves as a justification for a syntactic
formal approach. The article compares this approach to Rem
Koolhaas Delirious New York which operates with almost identical
schisms. Koolhaas however comes to the almost opposite conclusion.
He focuses on the programmatic proliferation of Manhattans
grid. The article claims that these different critical reactions to the
totalizing claim of modernistic architecture serve as a starting point
for current architectural approaches.