colomina, domesticity at war

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Domesticity at WarAuthor(s): Beatriz ColominaSource: Assemblage, No. 16 (Dec., 1991), pp. 14-41Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3171160 .

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-::::I::

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BeatrizColominas Assistant rofessorfArchitecturet PrincetonUniversity.

1. Demolition of the

UndergroundHome pavilion,New YorkWorld'sFair,1964-65

B e a t r i z Colomina

Domesticity a t W a r

16 January1991. We are, we seem to be, on the edge of

war. At the threshold. A line has been drawn. Literally.Adeadline. In crossingthat line we go to war.We go out-side. We leave the homeland to do battle on the outside.But there are also alwayslines in the interior,within the

apparently afe confines of the house. As we all know but

rarelypublicize, the house is a scene of conflict. Thedomestichas alwaysbeen at war. The battleof the family,

the battleof sexuality,the battle for cleanliness, forhygiene . . . and now the ecological battle. With recy-

cling, even the waste of the house is subjectedto classification. Domesticated.People are reminded of life duringWorldWarII, and not justbecause that was the last time

they had to recycle.

"War s no longer identifiablewith declaredconflict, with

battles,"writes Paul Virilio, "Nonetheless,the old illusionstill persists hat a state of peace means the absenceof

open warfare."'Wartakesplace todaywithout fighting.The battlefield s the domestic interior: he warcabinet.

A "cabinet,"n English, means, in common use, a "cup-boardor case with drawers,shelves, etc., for storingordisplayingarticles"; "pieceof furniturecontaininga radioor televisionset";and, in the terms of politics, a "groupofministerscontrolling government policy."The cabinetis a

space. In the firstdefinition, this space is associatedwiththe traditionaldomestic interior,the house;2 n the second,it houses the media;in the third, it has been displaced ntothe media itself. While cabinet members derive their title

fromthe spacewhere their meetingstakeplace, that space,

15



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U.S. Vows oDestroyIraqi Launchers

WhileIsrael Puts OffAny Retaliation

2. "U.S.Vows to Destroy... ,"HeraldTribune,19-20 January1991

...

Saudis Heed Call to Prayer In a Bomb Shelter

3. "SaudisHeed Callto Prayerin a BombShelter,"New York

Times,19 January1991

G A S MASKSURVIVAL IN THE90's

WES H I P

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January1991

16



Colomina

. ..

that cabinet, exists, above all, in the media waves, it is

housed by radio, television, and newspapers.The cohabita-

tion of these apparentlydisparatemeanings indicatesthat

the house is a military weapon, a mechanism within a war

where the differencesbetween defense and attackhave

become blurred.

An instanceof this blurringof limits between warand

peace was offeredby CBS news on 15 Januarywhen the

question most insistentlyput to the multiple "guests" f the

program to the war "experts" was, What signsshouldwe be looking for in the next two or three days, what signswill indicate to us that we have reallyenteredwar?The

media, chargedwith makingvisible the war,was at a lossin the moment of identifyingwhat would constituteevi-

dence of its advent. The guests, who are, afterall, guestsin the home of the viewer,were unable to anticipatethe

image of war. The image, therefore,might arrive n the

house before it was recognized.The house is alreadymobilized. (Duringthe War in the Gulf, in fact, CNN

would advertise tself with the line "CNN bringsthe front

line to your living room,"to what we used to call the

"frontroom." Outsidespace, then,

iscollapsed

into this

line, this front, but because the line is unclear, the war

also speaksof the difficultyof establishing he limits of

domestic space.)

1964 (twoyearsafterthe Cuban Missile Crisis).The New

YorkWorld's Fair. Its architecture s dismissed at the time

(and still today)as "toocommercial,""toovulgar," acking

"architectural nity,"and, perhapsmost symptomatic,"themastersare missing":"Whereare Kahn, Neutra, Mies,

Gropius, Yamasaki,BuckminsterFuller, Kiesler . . ? asks

Interiors,a professional ournal.3While the institutionsof

high culture (if one could considerInteriors,Progressive

Architecture,or ArchitecturalRecordas such) lament theirinabilityto comprehendthe fair,only a reporter or Holi-

day, a populartravelmagazine, seems able to providean

adequateresponsewhen he writes,"Mostof these chargesare true;none of them matters.. . . Too commercial?As I

see it, commerce is the point of any fair. . . . It is pre-

cisely the chaos of architectural tylesthat lends to Flush-

ing Meadow the nightmare quality any properWorld'sFair

should strive for. . . . As for the vulgarityand the triviality

I would grieveto see an iota of them blotted or canceledout. "4

The accusations of commercialism,vulgarity,disunity,andabsence of masterywere not simplya rejectionof mass

culture. The attackon the kitsch of the fair,the bad taste

of its formsof massculture, constitutedan elaboratedefense (withantiquatedartillery)againsta majordisrup-tion of the traditionalstatus of architecture.Architectural

magazineswere defendingthemselvesagainsta threat to

their own foundations.

The fairpresented o the viewer, in the words of the Holi-

day reporter,"a worldcomputerizedto the teeth, a push-button world":

Atthe BetterLivingCenter here s a computero tellyouwhatcolors o use in decoratingourhome. . . . Atthe NationalCash

Register avilion computereedsoutfacts o helpchildrenwiththeirhomework.Atthe Parker enpavilion, computerwill find

youa pen palsomewheren the world . . andat theClairol

pavilion,a computer dvisedmywifewhatcolorsheshoulddyeherhair:Don'tbe a sissy,' soft,electronic emalevoicewhis-

peredn her

ear, goahead,do it '5Not only were the computers(descendantsof the firstcom-

puter developedto decode enemy messagesduringWorldWar II) "concerned" xclusivelywith domestic issues

(displacing nto themselvestraditional ormsof domestic

relations n areas as crucial as decoration,homework,

companionship, and fashionadvice),but moreover,domestic space itself was deeplydisturbed.Within the pop-ular kitsch of the 1964 World'sFairveryelaboratepropo-sitionswere being made about the status of the moderninterior somethingthat architecturalmagazinescould not

recognize).

One such propositionwas the UndergroundHome, a tra-ditional suburbanranch house buried as protectionfromthe new threatof nuclear fallout.6It was the projectof JaySwayze, a Texan militaryinstructor urnedbuildingcon-tractorof luxuryhouses, who duringthe Cuban MissileCrisisof 1962 had been commissionedby the Plainview

(Texas)City Council to build a demonstration allout shel-ter to specificationsby the Departmentof Civil Defense.

17



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In a promotionalbook publishedin 1980, he discussedthe

projectin the followingterms:

I saw he meritof utilizinghe earthasprotectiongainst adio-active allout.As a formermilitarynstructorn chemicalwarfare,I knew hat hethreewaysman coulddestroy imselfwerebynuclear ission,nervegasorgermwarfare. espitePresident

Kennedy'sssurancehat hethreat f warwasonlytemporary,one thingwasclear.The nuclear gewasuponus, and ong-rangeplanningwasnecessaryo protect umanityrompossibleill

effects.7Swayzequicklyturned the militaryprojectfora shelter

into a domesticprojectfor a house:

It seemedmore ogical o make he home and itssurroundingssafeharborwhere hefamilywouldbe protectedn comfortable,familiarurroundings... Armedwiththese deas,I moved othe drafting able. . . . Because we cannot live in constantfear of

war,storms r uncomfortableemperatures,he 'betterway'mustofferprotectionromsuch.8

This equationof war with weather was symptomatic.The

"betterway" Swayze'ssloganfor the UndergroundHome - rested on two "obviousadvantages":constant

temperature" nd "security rom naturalor man-madehazards."The house offereda controlled environmentin

which one could createone's own climate by "dialing"

temperatureand humiditysettings:"the breeze of a moun-

00J(

5. UndergroundHomepavilion,New York WorldFair,1964-65, plan

tain top, the exhilaratinghigh pressure eeling of a Springday can be created at will. ... The clamor of traffic,jets,noisy neighbors- all are gone with a turn of a switch and

you are free to restin silence, or experiencefor the firsttime the full rangeof sensationsthat today'ssensitive stereo

systemsare able to produce."9

As "windows o the outside worldseemed impossible" nan underground helter, Swayzedevelopeda survey"to

learn how much value people actuallyplacedupon win-dows."He concluded that althoughwindowsmightbe of

psychological importance, they were, in fact, rarely ooked

through. Moreover,"with traditionalhomes we must takewhat we get for views. Afterlookingoutside, I decided anartistcould do a thousand times better."'0n the Under-

ground Home traditionalwindowswere superimposedon"dial-a-view"murals. Everyroom in the house looked outonto a panoramic andscapethat could be changedat will.

(In the prototypeof this house, completedin Coloradobefore the World'sFair, the outside views spanneda conti-

nent, with San Francisco'sGolden Gate to the west andNew York's kylineto the east.) The time of day or night

could also be "dialed" o fit any mood or occasion. A pub-licity brochurenoted that rheostats"permita risingsuneffect in the kitchen, while a star-fillednight blankets he

'outdoor'patio."That is, simultaneously

6. UndergroundHome

pavilion,section

PAVILKI

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GARDEN

ROOMPLUMBINGENTS

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18



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pavilion,entrance

A/t

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8. UndergroundHome

pavilion,bedroom

9.Undergroundgardening:"the observerforgets that th

sun-drenchedor moon-lit

landscape is a productof MrSmith'sluminouspaints and

Geobuilding'sspecial lightingsystem"

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The displacementof time and spaceproducedwithin thishouse problematizes raditional patialdistinctionssuch asthat between inside and outside. But these distinctionsare

not simplyabandonedhere. They are made strange.Insidethe "protective hell" a clear division is keptbetween"inte-rior"and "exterior" reas. The definition of terms at the

beginningof Swayze'sbook clarifies that "out-of-doors,

backyard, rontyard,patio, courtyard,garden,swimmingpool"are "all areas inside the shell." "Outer/outside"s

"anythingnot enclosed in the shell."" By internalizingeven the inside/outsidedistinction,the UndergroundHome offered,again in the words of the Holidayreporter,

"greaterecurity- peace of mind - the ultimatein true

privacy "'2And the publicitybrochure read:"A few feet

undergroundcan give man an island unto himself;a placewhere he controlshis own world a worldof total ease

and comfort, of security,safetyand, aboveall, privacy."

"Peace" s achieved in this warby environmentalcontrol,controlover "theexterior":emperature,noise, air, light,view. The publicitydoes not insist so much on nuclear

dangeras on intruders,dangersof the street, insects,

impuritiesof the air. In the

1970s,with the oil

crisis,emphasisturned towardenergysaving, and in the 1980s,

ecological concerns. The descriptionof the battlefield

changes. "Ecologicalcatastrophes re only terrifyingor

civilians,"writesVirilio, "Forthe military, they are but a

simulationof chaos, an opportunity o justifyan artof

warfarewhich is all the more autonomousas the politicalStatedies out."'3

The traditionaldomestic ideal of "peaceand quiet"can

only be produced by engagingthe house in combat, as a

weapon: counterdomesticity.

The sponsorof the UndergroundHome was General Elec-

tric, who also commissionedWalt Disney to producetheCarousel of Progress,a series of theatricalsets that exhib-

ited the historyof the interiorfrom 1880 to 1964 by trac-

ing the transformations f the house throughelectricity.In

the General Electricpaviliona demonstrationof thermo-nuclear fusion took place everyfifteenminutes. So that

nuclearpower,a by-productof military echnology, was

presentedas both a mass spectacleand a transformation f

the interior.

::::::C:

10. Kodakpavilion,New YorkWorld'sFair,1964-65

The transformations f interior/exteriorwere not isolatedmoments within the 1964 Fair but its main theme: IBMofferedthe InformationMachine, where"fourteen yn-chronizedprojectorsuse nine screensto show you how

lucky you are to have a brain, how your brainworks,andhow a computerdoes its mechanical best to emulate yourcerebration."The Bell pavilionexhibited the Picture-

phone." And the Coca-Cola pavilionpromotedthe simu-lation of countries:"The visitor

experiencesnot only thesightsand sounds of five foreigncountriesbut also theirsmells and their temperature hanges. He goes fromacrowdedstreetin Hong Kong (pasta fish store whose smellwas so overpoweringly uthenticthat it had to be deodor-ized beforeopening day), to the Taj Mahal, to a perfumedrainforestin Cambodia, to a bracingski resort n theBavarianAlps, to the slowlycantingdeckof a cruise shipjustoff Rio de Janeiro.It is an amusing journey."'5At theKodakpavilionthe visitor could see, outside, the largestpossiblecolor printsand, inside, how the day'snews pic-turescame in by wire, just as they were being receivedbynewspapersand television stations all overthe country.

The Kodakpavilionalso offered tself as a stageset fromwhich to takepicturesof oneself and one's familyin the

backgroundof the fair or in such unthinkableplacesas themoon (therewas a "moondeck" n the roof).

At the 1964 Fair Kodak ntroduced ts new "Instamatic"camera. With it, the camera, this window into the world,which still in the 1939 Fair was contemplated(likethe

television)with amazement, as a technologicalobject,

20



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13. Futuramaexhibit, GeneralMotorspavilion, New YorkWorld'sFair,1939-40

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12. Jons Vassos,TRK12 RCAtelevision set with radio,1938-39

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14. Futurama, he metropolisof 1960

15. Visitors o Futurama n

sound-equipped chairsthattravel around a 35,000-square-foot model on a simulatedtripto 1960

21



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assemblage 16

became an object of mass consumption. Moreover,these

objectswere no longer seen as discrete.The television was

everywhere,partof everyspace. The camera instamaticwas not a technologicalobject of awe, but a cheap piece of

plastic:$8 with a built-in flash. And with the mass con-

sumptionof the cameracame the "privatization"f the

view, that is, of the "exterior."People constructed heirown historiesin photographs, n snapshots, justas theyconstructed he "exterior" f their (underground)houses as

imagesof cities.This is consistentwith the idea of the city presentedby theWorld's Fair in the Futuramaexhibits. Futurama1, at the

1939 Fair, could still offera coherent, unified image of the

city - a modernistproposalof steel and glasstowers,an

object, overwhich the visitor,a detached, amazedviewer,had no control. But Futurama2, at the 1964 Fair, could

no longerprovidea unified urban idea. Instead,it offered

a collection of "improbable" laceswherepeople would

live in the future:on the moon, in the jungle, below ice,under the sea, and in the desert.The visitor to the 1964

Fair could only achieve "unity" hrougha "frame," col-

lageof

imagesassembled as s/he moved

throughthe fair.

This visitor,unlike that of 1939, wasgiven the illusion of

control (controlover the imagesboth "inside" he house

and "outside"on the fairgrounds).This "frame" ecame

that of the television screen. Virtuallyeveryexhibitin thefair involved television. Indeed, the fairitself was read at

the time as a big televisionscreen:"The biggesttelevision

set in the world,"wrote a reporter,"Itwill have everythingon the 'screen'except the BeverlyHillbillies, the top-ratednetworkshow."'16

But, in fact, the 1964 Fair neverachievedthe popular

appealof the 1939 Fair. Televisionitselfwas more appeal-

ing.The time of the fairs had

alreadypassed.(The1939

Fair is now said to have been "the last fairon earth.")The

mechanism of the World'sFair, the capturingof every-

thing, was no longer operatingoutside, in the traditional

public space, on the fairgrounds,but within the domestic

interior. The public domain has been displacedindoors.

Or as PatriciaPhillipshas written,

Justasthepublicspacehas becomediminished sa civicsite,the home hasbecome, n manysenses,a morepublic,open

forum.Thepublicworldcomes ntoeach homeas it neverhasbeforehroughelevision, adio ndpersonalomputer. o thatritualshatwereonceshared onspicuouslyn a group re nowstillshared butin isolation.Anexample f thisambiguousconditions theannualcelebrationf the NewYear'sEve nTimesSquare.Which s the morepublicevent thethrong fpeoplegatheringt Forty-secondtreeto watcha lighted ppledropor themillionsof peopleat home,eachwatchinghiscon-

gregationn TV?17

Onethinksalso of the televisedspectaclesof the 1960s:Kennedy'sassassination, he moon landing, the Vietnam

War. In fact, many Americansboughttheir firsttelevisionset to "attend"Kennedy's uneral.

1987. Room in the City, an exhibitionorganizedbySusana Torre in New York. Severalprojectsaddressed, nthe words of the curator,"the self-consciouspublic charac-ter of private ife by envisioningthe room as a stageforthe privateperformanceof public rituals."In the projectfor this exhibitionby Donna Robertsonwith Robert

McAnulty,this stageis "fullydematerialized,transformedinto video screenscirclingaround a single chair for the

actor forever urnedspectator."'8

The apartment s divided into two partsby a diagonalwallthat slashesthroughthe space. At one end, the wall is

punctuated by a dining-roomtable, the traditional cene of

domesticity,and, at the other, it passesthroughthe build-

ing's faCadeo supporta satellite dish and broadcastantenna. On one side, the living area, five video monitorsare hooked up to the satellite dish outside the window.These screensshow randomimagesof the city, creatinganetherealglow of collaged information.This flickering ightis reflectedin a mirrorand sent outside throughthe win-

dow, which is partiallyblockedby the satellite dish. On

the other side, the sleepingand bathingarea, is anothertelevisionset, but one not connected to the dish. Here asmall opening replacesthe originalwindow. The blue lightof the television set glowsbehind this wall.

Both windows have been compromised.They are notintendedto let light in but to let light passout. Yet whatkind of light is this?Robertson'sprojectcan be readintermsof what Virilio calls a "newform of visibility":

22



Colomina

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i,-,i,, ,,,,.,•,,.,.,.,

I thinkwearewitnessing newformof visibility. think hatelectronicmages rereplacingheelectrificationf townsandofthecountrysiden the latenineteenth ndearly wentiethen-

tury, n a certainway.Automatic ameras ndmonitors re

replacingtreetightsandneonlights n towns.Whenyoumovearoundn a modern ownyounotice hateverythings concen-tratedntoa videomonitorwhich s notmerelyhevideomoni-tor of theprefecturef policeor of traffic irculation, utthevideomonitor f supermarkets,hevideomonitor f interactiveblocks f flatsn a closedcircuit,andso on. Andhereweareno

longer oncernedwithan imageat all in therepresentational,artistic,llustrative eaning f theterm;t is a question fanotheright,an electronicighting,andI think hatone can no

longer onceiveof space,whethert's iving pace, ownspace,oreven thespaceof theentire erritory, ithout hisnewlighting.19

This new "lighting"hat is producedby a new desire forcontrol displacestraditional orms of enclosure. One of the

primaryreferencesof Elizabeth Diller and RicardoScofi-dio's Slow House, begun in 1989, is a photographby Len

Jenshel in which a securityguardin the desertwatches atelevision set that has been placed in the trunk of his sta-tion wagon. No-man's-land:Here there is only a car, a

surrogate nclosure. Yet, precisely,the guarddoes not sit

in the car, but outside it, looking in. The television occu-

pies the space. It is the only thing comfortablyplaced. Its

light passesout. The blue glow illuminates the man's face.He is, in fact, bathedin the light of the television. Theman findssecurityin the television. He warmshimself upin the light of the electronic fire. But in so doing he is

alienated, detached from traditional pace.

The car windshield and the televisionscreen are both

twentieth-centuryapertures.The picturewindow isanother. But unlike the other two, it is usuallyunderstoodas unproblematicallyarchitectural.The Slow House

problematizes his distinctionbetweenarchitectureand

systemsof communication. The deploymentof the wind-shield, in the words of Diller and Scofidio, "theframedtransitthroughvehicularspace,"and the television screen,"theframed transitthroughelectronic space,"questionsthestatus of the picturewindow. 0

The picturewindow speaksabout control and transparency,but, above all, at issue is the commodification of the visualfield. The New YorkTimes Real Estatesection distin-

guishes between "oceanfront, ocean view, bay view, cove

view, waterview."As Diller and Scofidio havenoted, thisis a complex "realestate nomenclaturedevelopedto subtly

distinguishvalue in a market hat feeds on the desirefor

optical possession."On the site of this house, the view hasa very preciselyestablishedmarketvalue. An ad in theNew YorkTimes reads:"Spectacular iews. Justlike BigSur. With better sunsets. We didn't want anythingless forour beach house." In theirproject,Diller and Scofidio

juxtapose his view with its electronic representation ndexplorethe gap betweenthese two systemsof representa-tion. This is a rereadingand transformation f the rearviewmirrorsuperimposedonto a car windshield.But here, afrontview is juxtaposedonto another frontview, that is,

juxtaposedonto itself. The Slow House makesproblematicthe verystatus of the view: alienation is producednotbetween one view and another,but within the view itself.

The whole house is set up as a spatialtransitionbetweenthe car and the view. The structureof the road is trans-formedupon arrival nto that of the garage,so that onedoes not simply leave the road, the line, for enclosure.

Instead,the windshieldis

telescopedinto the

picturewin-

dow, the zone of transitionoccupied by the traditionalmarkersof domesticity.The front door confrontsa knife

edge that splitsthe passage:one half, remaining evel,deviates to the left (to the sleepingand bathingareas); heother half, ascending, deviatesto the right(to the cooking,eating, and living areas).

The living room is the site of a dialecticalplaybetweenthe television and the fireplace.The television set is sus-

pended in the space so that its image is superimposedontothat of the window. The image on the televisionscreencomes froma cameramounted on a long pole, a transfor-mation of the traditionalchimney. The chimney pointsupward,the camerapole points forward.One is concernedwith gettingsomething out of the house, the other with

pulling something in. One removespollution. The other

bringsin visual pollution, imagesthat, suspendedwithinthe antiperspectival urve of the house, contaminatetradi-tional architecturalorder.

The window is a clearlyestablished ramebut this frame

has no stablecontext. It is as free-floatingas the frame of

23



47

.4

assemblage 16

16. The Runabout,Futuram

exhibit, GeneralMotors

pavilion,New YorkWorld'sFair,1964-65, car for

housewives, with built-inremovable shopping cart

~1 _.__. _,PA17. The His-and-HersHummer"in civilian dress":"OperationDesert Storm was a breeze forthis seasoned veteran of

militaryservice."

'I ~ ~h ~ZI?K-IIM,901-

.1.

H E R

90 0 ?I. ~r IILO4 rd 4

SO ~ '~ "4~)~L*4C4 pbdot~p~krY, c~crcr 4 ?Q o41? ?-rcr~(q p~w

24



Colomina

"

the television screen. The slightdisplacementof the hori-zon marksa deeperaffinitybetweenthe two systems(pic-ture window and television screen).The television is no

longer simply outside of architectureor some kind of furni-ture within it. The limits of architecturehave been dis-

turbed. This is an architectureon, in, and aftertelevision:

the television cabinet.

With Michael Webb'sDrive-In House project,which has

evolved over the last decade, the car plugs rightinto thehouse, even more, it literallyturns into a house. The car,that "mostluxuriouslyappointedcomponent of vita domes-

tica [which, however]wastefuland sad, sits in the drivewayunused for most of the day" s here recycled, separatedinto parts(the stereosystem, the seats, the windows, the

television, the cocktailcabinet, the air-conditioning,the

telephone).21 The waste is thus classified,domesticated.

Reversing he cycle of consumption, the Drive-InHouse

becomes an ecological alternative,or as Webb puts it, a

"try-anythingype answerto mitigatethe coming disaster

homo-not-so-sapienshas cooked up - namely, the atmos-

pheric warming."His is a strategy hat furtherconvolutes

inside and outside. "When the penultimateGlad trashbagis full of trash and has been takenout," Webb writes,"Iremove the ultimatebag from the packetand place inside

it . . . the packet.Whenever I do this I come over feelingall architectural: he containedbecomes the container,the

containerthe contained."In the Drive-In House the car

body, a container of media equipment, a cabinet that pro-vides a cinematic gaze throughthe windshield accom-

panied by stereosound, is turnedinside out and occupied.

In the firstundergroundhouse that Swayzebuilt for his

family, in 1962, only the double garage s visible outsideand one entersthe house between the two garagedoors. As

RosemarieBletter has written,"thegarage s the only signof human habitation that remained."22To which we couldadd the television antenna and the chimney (the house'sexhaustpipe). A photographof anotherundergroundhousebuilt by Swayzeshows the television and the fireplaceoccupyingthe same wall, veryclose to each other, the

family gatheredaroundthem, warmingup. But in a house

where the temperature s always keptconstant, the func-tion of the fireplaceis purelyvisual. Since the chimney

removes not only fumes but also "undesirable centsormoisture"as partof the air-conditioning,the breathingsys-tem, it is actually, like the television, a window.23

The Slow House interiorizes he problematicof the car.The house is about the transitionbetweenwindshield,

garagedoor, frontdoor, picturewindow, and televisionset.Five frames: he windshield and its extensions.The curveof the house producesa car vision, a continuously delayed

promiseof anotherview, anotherangle. When in the liv-

ing room the "actual"view is superimposedonto its elec-tronic representation,but at a slightlydifferentangle, ashift in the horizon, it is like travelingwithoutmoving. Asif the house were sliding in the world, or better,the world

sliding throughthe house.

The Slow House is a second, weekendresidence,accessi-ble only by car. The Room in the City, by contrast,dealswith domesticityin the context of the displacementof the

nineteenth-centuryurbanrealityof New Yorkby the newmedia. The TV/VCR replacesthe outsideview, the win-

dow; it is also a substitute or travel. To return o Virilio:"Thetechnology of the VCR createsa day, an additional

'false-day' that]comes into being for you alone, justas inthe secondaryresidencewhose heatingturnson of its ownaccord when it getscold. . . . The new windshield s no

longera car, it is a television screen. There is thereforeamuch more precisealignmentto be made between thedeferredday and the deferredresidence."24

The Drive-InHouse, finally, is a suburbanhouse at homein the new landscapeof plastifiedvalleysfilled with gar-bage, mountains made of discardedcar bodies, and rivers

runningwith medical waste. This "automobileas a housecontainer" s a nomad'ssteel-and-plasticent for a post-nuclear landscape,the latest, most elusive war cabinet.

25



. . .

4

assemblage 16

~

- ?-?

cl~ L-.J

;t ~ -?? -~t~r L rl

4

18. Undergroundhouse, 1960s,

living room with television and

fireplace

NotesThis is the editedtranscript f a

lecture given in the School of

Architectureat the Universityof

Illinois, Chicago, on the evening of

16 January1991. During the lec-

ture, the bombingof Baghdad

began.

1. Paul Virilio, PopularDefenseand Ecological Struggles,trans.

MarkPolizzotti(New

York:Semio-

text(e), 1990), 36; originally pub-lished as D6fensepopulaireet luttes

&cologiquesParis:Ed. Galilee,1978).

2. Among the largeamount of lit-

eratureon this theme, I would

point here to Gaston Bachelard's

classic text, The Poeticsof Space

(Boston:Beacon Press, 1969), in

particular hap. 3, "Drawers,Chestsand Wardrobes";o the

extendedreadingsof the domestic

interiorby GeorgesTeyssot, forth-

coming as The Diseaseof the Domi-

cile (Cambridge,Mass.:MIT Press);and to the recent essay by Emily

Apter,"CabinetSecrets:Fetishism,

Prostitution,and the Fin de Siacle

Interior,"Assemblage9 (June 1989):6-19.

3. "RazzmatazzAt FlushingMeadow,"Interiors March 1964):98. Other reviewsof the fairby

professional ournals nclude "The

BusyArchitect'sGuide to the

World'sFair,"ProgressiveArchitec-

ture(October1964), "Queen of the

Fair,"ProgressiveArchitecture

(December 1964), "Bestof the Fair"

Interiors October 1964), and "TheHouse of Good Taste,"Interior

Design (August1964). See also

RosemarieHaagBletter,"The 'Lais-

sez-Fair,'Good Taste, and MoneyTrees: Architectureat the Fair," n

Rememberinghe Future:The New

YorkWorld'sFair From 1939 to

1964 (New York:The QueensMuseum and Rizzoli, 1989).

4. PeterLyon, "AGlorious Nightmare,"Holiday (July 1964).

5. Ibid.

6. The UndergroundHome was

constructedby the UndergroundWorld Home Corporation whose

presidentwasJaySwayze),which

also proposedUndergroundShop-

ping Centers, UndergroundMoteand UndergroundRestaurants nd

Night Clubs. See also HaagBlett"The 'Laissez-Fair,'Good Taste an

Money Trees."I would like to

thankRosemariefor directingmyattentionto the house and Marc

Miller for providingoriginalmate

rial from the World'sFair archive

7. JaySwayze, UndergroundGardens and Homes:The Best of Two

Worlds Aboveand Below(Here

ford, Texas:Geobuilding Systems

1980),19.

8. Ibid.,20.

9. The UndergroundHome:NewYorkWorld'sFair 1964-1965, pub

licity brochure(Texas:UndergrouWorld Home Corporation,n.d.).

10. Swayze, UndergroundGardeand Homes, 20.

11. Ibid., 10.

12. Lyon, "AGlorious Nightmar62.

13. Virilio, PopularDefenseand

EcologicalStruggles,65-66.

14. "The televisedtelephone, or

the teletelephoneor the video

phoneor whatever t

maybe calle

when eventuallyit is among us,

slaughtering oreversuch folkwayas the blind date, alwaysin the

name of Progress"Lyon, "AGlo-rious Nightmare,"56).

15. Ibid., 57.

16. "A TV View of the Fair,"Ne

YorkSunday News, 12 April 196World'sFairsection, 26.

26



Colomina

17. PatriciaC. Phillips, "Outof

Order:The Public Art Machine,"

Artforum December 1988):96.

18. SusanaTorre, Room in the

City (Princeton,New Jersey:PrincetonArchitecturalPress,

1987), 7. The exhibition took placein the City Gallery, New York,

April-May 1987.

19. Paul Virilio, "The Workof Art

in the ElectronicAge," interviewwith Virilio for a French television

program,Block 14 (1988):4.

20. Quotationsare takenfrom con-

versationsbetween the author and

the architects. The Slow House will

be publishednext yearin Elizabeth

Diller and RicardoScofidio, Flesh

(New York:Princeton Architectural

Press).

21. Quotationsare takenfrom con-

versationswith Michael Webb and

from his notes for a lecture given at

PrincetonUniversity n the fall of

1990.

22. HaagBletter,"The 'Laissez-

Fair,'Good Taste, and MoneyTrees," 128. Blettersees this house

whose garagealone remains visible

as an extremeprogressionof the

migrationof the garagefrom the

servicewing in the earlytwentieth

century(when the garagewas

treatedas a vestigeof the older sta-

ble) to the front of the house in the

1930s (when it displacedthe old

frontporch). See her article "The

Worldof Tomorrow:The Future

with a Past," n High Styles:Twen-

tieth-CenturyAmericanDesign(New York:Whitney Museum of

AmericanArt, 1985), 84-85: At

"the Motor Home, a model housein the Town of Tomorrowat the1939 New York World'sFair, the

two-cargarage s the centralfocusof the front faqade.A small entrybetween the two dominantgaragedoorsfunctionsas a vestigeof the

old-fashioned frontdoor, or, as the

brochurereassures: The mainentrance is providedwith a normalfront door for the convenience of

callerswho do not drive in.'"

23. The etymologyof the Englishword "window" evealsthat it com-bines wind and eye, as GeorgesTeyssothas noted, "anelement ofthe outside and an aspectof inner-ness." See E. Klein, A Complete

EtymologicalDictionary of the

EnglishLanguage, cited by EllenEve Frank n LiteraryArchitecture

(Berkeley:Universityof California

Press, 1979), 263, and by GeorgesTeyssotin "Waterand Gas on All

Floors,"Lotus 44 (1984):90. There

is a channel on Americancable

television, "Yule-TideLog,"that

aroundChristmastimedisplaysa log

constantlyburning.

24. "The Third Window: An Inter-view with Paul Virilio,"in Global

Television,ed. Cynthia Schneider

and BrianWallis (New York:

WedgePress,

1988),187-88.

FigureCredits1. Photographby Bruce Davidson.

? Bruce Davidson/MagnumPho-

tos, Inc.

2. HeraldTribune, 19-20 January1991.

3. New YorkTimes, 19 January1991.

4. New YorkTimes, 20 January1991.

5, 6. The UndergroundHome,

publicitybrochure, UndergroundWorldHome Corporation,n.d.

7, 8, 16. Rememberinghe Future:The New YorkWorld'sFair From

1939 to 1964 (New York:The

Queens Museum and Rizzoli,

1989).

9, 18. Jay Swayze, UndergroundGardensand Homes:The Best ofTwo Worlds Above and Below

(Hereford,Texas:Geobuilding Sys-tems, Inc., 1980).

10. Pressrelease, New YorkWorld's FairCorporation,n.d.

11. Promotionalphotograph,East-man KodakCompany.

12. Promotionalphotograph,RCA.

13-15. Futurama, publicitybro-

chure, General MotorsCorpora-tion, 1940.

17. Neiman Marcus, 1991 Christ-mas Book.

19-25. Courtesyof Donna Robert-son and RobertMcAnulty.

26. Photographby Len Jenshel.

27-38. Courtesyof ElizabethDillerand Ricardo Scofidio.

30-44. Courtesyof Michael Webb.

27



F

assemblage 16

Donna Robertsonwith Robert McAnultyRoom in the City

iJ%L

.........

SISO

19. Donna Robertsonwith

RobertMcAnulty,Room in theCity, 1987, sections/elevations

28



Colomina

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20. Room in the City, plans

MCMLXXXVII

29



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30



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23, 24. Room in the City,viewsof model showing faqade

25. Room in the Cdetail of satellite

31



assemblage 16

Elizabeth Diller

and RicardoScofidio26. LenJenshel,Sterret,Texas,

The Slow House 1985

27. ElizabethDiller and RicarScofidio,Slow House, 1989-,section cuts

A 3

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28. Slow House,drawingshowing sight lines from carwindshield in garage

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29. Slow House,juxtapositionof the view with its electronic

representation

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30. Slow House,view at

picture-windowwall



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assemblage 16

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31. Slow House, plan view of

conceptual model

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32. Slow House,elevationalview of conceptual model

34



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34. Slow House underconstruction

33. Slow House, plan

35



assemblage 16

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showing interior

36



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38. Slow House, conceptualmodel of intent of facade

37. Slow House,section cut,detail

37



assemblage 16

OUF

MichaelWebbThe Drive-In House

, .

40. Drive-InHouse, four-phase

39. MichaelWebb, Drive-In sequence showing car entering, g COLD IR

House, 1980s, plan showing car then becoming the house WARMIR

entering access tube

X31

38



Colomina

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41. Drive-InHouse,horizontalsections through partiallyunderground room

The diagramsillustrate wophases of the rotation of the

garage - a sixteen-inch-

diameter drum and a steelrackon to which the car isdriven.DiagramA shows thedrumand rack n position to

accept entryof the car.Oncethe car is properlyaligned inthe garage, drumand rackrotate clockwise,the latter onan eccentricorbit, until,asshown in diagramB,the carsits in the middleof the room,energizing it. Inthe departure

phase,the drumrotates

counterclockwiseand the rackclockwise.The drumis

designed so as to preventexternal air from blowingdirectly through to theinterior room duringrotation- and this reminds me ofthe graceful surpriseof themotions of the Wankelrotaryengine.

39



assemblage 16

42. Drive-inHouse,Wankel 43. Drive-inHouse,orbits ofengine the rotor

-4&w

Excerpted rom RoadandTrack February1971):"FelixWankel(a Germanengineer)had devoted muchof his lifeto investigating rotarycombustionengines, and

publishedthe firstsystematicclassificationof them: 804

possibleof which 149 areworkable. In 1954 he

discoveredthe configurationthat, with the help of a Dr.WalterFroede,led to ..."the design shown here.

A pseudotriangular-shapedrotororbits an eccentric shaftwithin a casingwhose shape"isdefined by a point on theradius of a circle which is

rollingaround the outside ofa base circle," ts motion

being termed epitrochoidal."For he two-lobe bore of theWankel RC ngine, the radius

of the rollingcircleis exactlyhalf that of the base circle,and the point which definesthe shape is not on thecircumferenceof the rollingcircle."Idon't get this last bit.

"The rotor is in slidingcontact with the eccentricshaft and impartspower toit as a connecting rod doesto a crankshaft.The internal

gearing merelyestablishesthe necessaryspeed relation-

ship between rotorandshaft - 1:3(the rotororbitsonce for everythree shaft

revolutions)."

An attempt to comprehendthe grace of the rotor'sorbits

through drawingwasinconclusive. Iexpected todiscover,or uncover,latentharmonies,dimensions

emerging as multiplesofother dimensions.No suchluckyet: for example, thecurveof the engine casingappearsnot to be semicirculabut, in fact, formed of more

complexcurvatures.

40



Colomina

:: :

44. Drive-InHouse, top and

side views of a design for ahers-and-hishouse, whose planderives from the seating layoutof their car

. q.o

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" 1.e..•.•

OscarMadisonof The Odd

Coupleslouches acrossthe

livingroom floor after a hot,

tough day at the office,

throwing off his garmentsone by one, leavingthemwhere they fall on the carpet:he transforms he carpet intoa linear,horizontalstoragecabinet in a procedureto be

enacted in reversethe

following morning.

Sequence:arrive,get up from

seat, undress,descend steps,pee or shit (toilet bowl inthemiddle of steps), bathe, sleep,bathe, pee or shit (toilet bowlinthe middle of steps), ascend

steps, dress, lower into seat,

depart.

colomina, domesticity at war

Documents