Architecture is usually understood as an activity whose task is to design
buildings that will be built, in which we can later work, spend our free
time, in short, live. Many projects that are planned for construction
otherwise remain unrealized. They only exist on paper or screen. This
is their sad fate. But an important part of the practice of architecture
is also the design of buildings and spaces that are not meant to be
built. They exist only on paper, and this is also their realization. They
are realized in the drawing. For one of the forms of such architecture,
which was established in the 80s, the term Paper Architecture became
established. The name originally refers to the work of young architects
who worked within the Architectural Institute in Moscow, such as Yuri
Avvakumov, Alexander Brodsky, Ilya Utkin and Mihael Belov. The work
of these architects - their fantasies and in a way utopian projects - will
be of particular interest to me in this thesis. I will also be interested
in the broader problem of creating the so-called paper architecture or
architecture on paper. In this thesis, I will consider it as a phenomenon or
orientation that is important for the practice of architecture in general. In
the first chapter, I will focus on the question of what paper architecture
is and how it first appeared. In the second chapter, I will present the
above-mentioned architects and some of their works. These works
consist of both drawings and texts, which suggests that they used two languages to express themselves, I will be interested in their connection.
Most of the before mentioned works were sent to the Shinkenchiku
publication’s international idea competitions. In the third chapter, I will
therefore investigate what Shinkenchiku represented and how the idea
competitions worked. Some Yugoslav architects also took part. I will
remind of some and present their most interesting works. Through the
assignment, I will show what is architecture that does not build. This,
however, is in constant connection with architecture, which builds. The
first could be called a discipline, and the second a profession. In the last
chapter, I will present what one means, what the other means and what is
the connection between them. The purpose of this thesis is to show that
paper architecture or architecture on paper, despite not being built, is still
architecture. It is important for thinking about architecture and, as such,
also affects architecture as construction. Similar to the so-called realized
architecture, paper architecture also has material effects.
|
