BERNARD TSCHUMI

BERNARD TSCHUMI

Bernard Tschumi ,born January 25, 1944 Lausanne, Switzerland, is an architect, writer, and educator, commonly associated with deconstructivism. Son of the well known architect Jean Tschumi, born of French and Swiss parentage, he works and lives in New York and Paris. He studied in Parisand at ETH in Zurich, where he received his degree in architecture in 1969. Tschumi has taught at Portsmouth Polytechnic in Portsmouth, UK, theArchitectural Association in London, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, Princeton University, the Cooper Union in New York and Columbia University where he was Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation from 1988 to 2003. Tschumi is a permanent U.S. resident.

Throughout his career as an architect, theorist, and academic, Bernard Tschumi's work has reevaluated architecture's role in the practice of personal and political freedom. Since the 1970s, Tschumi has argued that there is no fixed relationship between architectural form and the events that take place within it. The ethical and political imperatives that inform his work emphasize the establishment of a proactive architecture which non-hierarchically engages balances of power through programmatic and spatial devices. In Tschumi's theory, architecture's role is not to express an extant social structure, but to function as a tool for questioning that structure and revising it.
The experience of the May 1968 uprisings and the activities of the Situationist International oriented Tschumi's approach to design studios and seminars he taught at the Architectural Association in London during the early 1970s. Within that pedagogical context he combined film and literary theory with architecture, expanding on the work of such thinkers as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault, in order to reexamine architecture's responsibility in reinforcing unquestioned cultural narratives. A big influence on this work were the theories and structural diagramming by the Russian Cinematographer Sergei Eisenstein produced for his own films. Tschumi adapted Eisenstein's diagrammatic methodology in his investigations to exploit the interstitial condition between the elements of which a system is made of: space, event, and movement (or activity). Best exemplified in his own words as, "the football player skates across the battlefield." In this simple statement he was highlighting the dislocation of orientation and any possibility of a singular reading; a common resultant of the post-structuralist project.
This approach unfolded along two lines in his architectural practice: first, by exposing the conventionally defined connections between architectural sequences and the spaces, programs, and movement which produce and reiterate these sequences; and second, by inventing new associations between space and the events that 'take place' within it through processes of defamiliarization, de-structuring, superimposition, and cross programming.
Tschumi's work in the later 1970s was refined through courses he taught at the Architectural Association and projects such asThe Screenplays (1977) and The Manhattan Transcripts (1981) and evolved from montage techniques taken from film and techniques of the nouveau roman. His use of event montage as a technique for the organization of program (systems of space, event, and movement, as well as visual and formal techniques) challenged the work other contemporary architects were conducting which focused on montage techniques as purely formal strategies. Tschumi's work responded as well to prevalent strands of contemporary architectural theory that had reached a point of closure, either through a misunderstanding of post-structuralist thought, or the failure of the liberal/leftist dream of successful political and cultural revolution. For example,Superstudio, one such branch of theoretically oriented architectural postmodernists, began to produce ironic, unrealizable projects such as the 1969 Continuous Monument project, which functioned as counter design and critique of the existing architecture culture, suggesting the end of architecture's capacity to effect change on an urban or cultural scale. Tschumi positioned his work to suggest alternatives to this endgame.
In 1978 he published an essay entitled The Pleasure of Architecture in which he used sexual intercourse as a characterizing analogy for architecture. He claimed that architecture by nature is fundamentally useless, setting it apart from "building". He demands a glorification of architectural uselessness in which the chaos of sensuality and the order of purity combine to form structures that evoke the space in which they are built. He distinguishes between the forming of knowledge and the knowledge of form, contending that architecture is too often dismissed as the latter when it can often be used as the former. Tschumi used this essay as a precursor to a later eponymous series of writings detailing the so-called limits of architecture.
Bernard Tschumi is widely recognized as one of today’s foremost architects. First known as a theorist, he drew attention to his innovative architectural practice in 1983 when he won the prestigious competition for the Parc de La Villette. Since then, he has made a reputation for groundbreaking designs that include the new Acropolis Museum; Le Fresnoy National Studio for the Contemporary Arts; the Vacheron-Constantin Headquarters; The Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center at the University of Cincinnati; and architecture schools in Marne-la-Vallée, France and Miami, Florida, among other projects. The office’s versatility extends to infrastructure projects and master plans. Major urban design projects recently executed or in implementation under Tschumi’s leadership include master plans for Mediapolis in Singapore, a new Media Zone in Abu Dhabi , and the Independent Financial Centre of the Americas in the Dominican Republic. 


Tschumi was awarded France’s Grand Prix National d’Architecture in 1996 as well as numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is an international fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in England and a member of the Collège International de Philosophie and the Académie d’Architecture in France, where he has been the recipient of distinguished honors that include the rank of Officer in both the Légion d’Honneur and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. 


The many books devoted to Tschumi’s writings and architectural practice include the three-part Event-Cities series (MIT Press, 1994, 2000, and 2005); The Manhattan Transcripts (Academy Editions and St. Martin’s Press, 1981 and 1994); Architecture and Disjunction (MIT Press, 1994); and the monograph Tschumi (Universe/Thames and Hudson, English version, and Skira, Italian version, 2003). A series of conversations with the architect has been published by The Monacelli Press under the title Tschumi on Architecture (2006). Recent publications include a French and English language biography on Tschumi by Gilles de Bure and The New Acropolis Museum, published by Skira / Rizzoli. The fourth volume of the Event-Cities series will be available from MIT Press in fall 2010.


A graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Tschumi has taught architecture at a range of institutions including the Architectural Association in London, Princeton University, and The Cooper Union in New York. He was dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University from 1988 to 2003 and is currently a professor in the Graduate School of Architecture.


Tschumi’s work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, the Pompidou Center in Paris, as well as other museums and art galleries in the United States and Europe.

Summary of Biography

1964/69: studies in Paris and at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich
1970/79: teaches at the Architectural Association in London
1976: teaches at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York 
1976/80: teaches at Princeton University 
1981/83: teaches at Cooper Union 
1981: begins exercising the profession of architect
1982: wins the competition for Paris¿ Parc de la Villette 
1983: opens Bernard Tschumi Architects in Paris
1988: opens his studio in New York 
1988: becomes editor of "D" (Columbia Documents of Architecture and Theory; member of Collège International de Phylosophie
1988/2003: dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York 
1998: teaches at the Normandy School of Architecture
2004: appointed General Director for the International Exposition in Dugny, France 


Awards and honours
- First prize in the international competition for Parc de la Villette, Paris, 1982 
- Second prize in the international competition for New National Theatre and Opera House, Tokyo, Japan, 1986 
- Second prize in the international competition for New Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan, 1988 
- Third prize in the competition upon invitation for the Media ZKM Arts and Technology Centre, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1989 
- First prize in the competition for Le Fresnoy Art Centre, National Studio for the Contemporary Arts, Tourcoing, France, 1991 
- First prize in the competition for the School of Architecture in Marne-la-Valèe, France, 1994 
- First prize in the international competition for the Business Park in Chartres, France, 1995 
- Honour Award AIA New York and Progressive Architecture Award for the Grand Prix National d'Architecture, French Ministry of Culture, 1996
- Legion of Honour and of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres


Works
1981/82: The Manhattan Transcripts New York City-Manhattan, plan
1982/95: Parc de la Villette, international competition 
1988: Interface Flon, Lausanne, Master-Plan competition; Rotterdam railway tunnel, the Netherlands
1989: ZKM - Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, plan
1990: Kyoto Center and new railway station, Japan, competition upon invitation; Glass Video Gallery, Groningen, the Netherlands
1991: Villa in Le Hague, the Netherlands 
1991/97: National Studio for the Contemporary Arts, Tourcoing, France, international competition, first prize
1994: School of Architecture, Marne-La-Vallée, France (under construction); Lerner Student Center, Columbia University, New York (under construction) 
1995: Master Plan Renault, Paris, Competition upon invitation; Franklin Furnace Gallery, New York; Business Park, Chartres, France, international competition: first prize
2000: Exhibition Park in Zénith, Rouen, France
2001: Contemporary Art Museum in San Paolo, Brazil
2001: Vacheron Constantin watch factory, Geneva
2001: Museum of African Arts, New York, USA
2002: New Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece 
2003/06: Limoges Concert Hall, France


Bibliography of Bernard Tschumi
Tschumi B., Architecturalmanifestals, London, Architectural Association, 1979 
Tschumi B., La Case Vide: la Villette 1985, London, Architectural Association, 1985
Tchumi B., CinegramFolie: Le Parc de la Vittette, Bernard Tschumi, London, Butterworth Architecture, 1987 
Tschumi B., Architecture and Disjuctions: Collected Essays 1975-1990, MIT Press, London, 1996
Tschumi B., Event Cities (Praxis), MIT Press, London, 1994
Yoshio F., Architecturein-off motion, Bernard Tschumi, Rotterdam, NAI Publishers, 1997 
Yoshio F. (a cura di), Bernard Tschumi, in "GA Document Extra" n.10, ADA Edita, Tokyo, 1997 
Bernard Tschumi, in "AP" (Architectural Profile), Monograph, vol.1, n.4, Jan/Feb 1997
A. Guiheux, B. Tschumi, J. Abram, S. Lavin, A. Fleischer, A. Pelissier, D. Rouillard, S. Agacinski, V. Descharrieres, Tschumi Le Fresnoy: Architecture In/Between, Monacelli Press, 1999 
Bernard Tschumi, Universe, New York, 2003
Bernard Tschumi, Veronique Descharrieres, Luca Merlini, Bernard Tschumi Architects: Virtuael, Actar, 2004
Bernard Tschumi, Event-Cities 3 : Concept vs. Context vs. Content, MIT Press, 200