Goethe-Universität, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main,
The lecture Faked reality is part of the Constructed Realities cycle curated by Chris Dähne, Frederike Lausch and Bettina Rudhof for the Goethe-Universität at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, alongside Models in reality by Carolin Höfler
The Elbphilharmonie already exists. 12 years ago, it was presented to the public in the glossy magazines and digital architecture portals and has therefore long since become a reality in our minds and part of our image of the HafenCity of Hamburg. It is questionable whether we will still feel the need to see them in real life after their completion. Is the audience’s desire for reality through the visual media already satisfied? Would the perception of the building give us something new, something we desire?
Starting from a medium of architectural discipline – the model, visualisation, photography, parametric programming and smart ambiences – on the one hand, the complex interrelationship between the understanding of architecture and its media devices is to be addressed. On the other hand, it is important to investigate the influence of these media practises on the perception and confrontation with the real presence of the building. Why do we still have to deal with the building when we can look at design descriptions and representations presented to us much earlier?
Therefore, the question arises as to what happens to our conception of architecture under the influence of certain media practises. How much do images of architecture deceive us? Or do we mimetically construct our reality via the media and what are the consequences?
Before his lecture, Cardillo screened Seven Houses for No One, a long poetic sequence of images of all seven houses of the series, edited to the Prelude to Act I of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. The sequence opens with his own words to Der Spiegel in 2012, ‘Sehen Sie es einfach wie eine literarische Erzählung […] ein Märchen’ (see it simply as a literary narrative […] a fairy tale), and closes with an aphorism by Oswald Mathias Ungers, ‘Realität ist, was unsere Vorstellung als solche begreift’ (reality is what our imagination grasps as such).
The video Seven Houses for No One (9:54), screened before the lecture ‘Faked reality’. Audio: Richard Wagner, Lohengrin, Prelude to Act I
Every story claims to be true. So what do we talk about when we talk about reality? And what do we talk about when we talk about fakes? Is Architecture imagination? Does it have a literary nature? Is it an attempt to understand the invisible? Is Architecture an idea? Or is it just a strategy to support business and developing? So what are we talking about when we talk about Architecture?
In 2010, the design magazine H.O.M.E. published a visually powerful article about the House of Convexities of the Italian architect Antonino Cardillo in Spain. Previously, Cardillo had been named one of the 30 most important young architects in the London magazine Wallpaper*. He had supplied numerous print and Internet media with his designs and gave the impression that his pictures showed physically built rooms. In reality, however, it was photorealistic computer rendering without reference to a realised building.
Carolin Höfler and Antonino Cardillo at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum. Photography: Antonino Cardillo
Bibliography
Carolin Höfler, ‘Hyper desire’, lecture as part of the Wunsch, Technische Hochschule Köln, Cologne, 1 June 2016.
Carolin Höfler, ‘Modelle in Wirklichkeit. Die digitalen Bildversprechen von Antonino Cardillo’, lecture as part of the Constructed Realities, ed. Chris Dähne, Frederike Lausch, Bettina Rudhof, Goethe‑Universität, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, 1 Dec. 2015; transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 24 April 2022.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Faked reality’, lecture as part of the Constructed Realities, ed. Chris Dähne, Frederike Lausch, Bettina Rudhof, Goethe‑Universität, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, 1 Dec. 2015; transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 12 May 2021.
