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114 THEO VAN DOESBURGFrom Towards Plastic Architecture (1924)

The years 1921 2 were crucial to the development of De Still theory. In 1921, after his break-upwith Oud, Van Doesburg took his (nearly) one-man show on the road and met El Lissitzky andothers in Berlin. Out of these meetings came his artistic alliance with Soviet Constructivism andGerman Dadaist circles. The Dutch artist shortly thereafter relocated his journal and studio toWeimar again in search of disciples where he gave a series of lectures opposing theBauhauss original curriculum of crafts -based studies. While in Weimar, van Doesburg met theDutch architect Cornelius van Eesteren, who was touring Germany in 1922. The result was a newcollaboration, in which the two men began a series of axonometric drawings of three-dimensional

planes suspended in space. In Paris in the following year, they collaborated again on the design ofthree houses for a De Still exhibition in Paris. The models for these projects were made by GarritRietveld, who had been active in De Stiji circles since 1917. The gallery drawings, in turn, becamethe basis for Rietvelds famous design for the Schrder House. All of this activity led areformulation of De Still thought in 1923 4, as seen in this statement penned by van Doesburg.This melding of De Still and constructivist theory marks the first great synthesis of postwarEuropean theory. Van Doesburgs characterization of the new architecture as anti -cubic, for

instance, would offer a formal alternative to the frontally-conceived villas of te Corbusier, whilehis emphasis on space -time introduces a concept into modern theory that also would be laterseized by others.

1 Form. The basis for a healthy development of architecture (and of art in general) is thesuppression of all form-ideas insofar as this concept implies a predetermined type.Instead of using earlier style types as models and thus imitating previous historical styles, onenecessarily must pose the problem of architecture entirely anew.

2 The new architecture is elementary, which signifies that it develops from the elements ofconstruction as understood in the most comprehensive sense. These elements are for example,function, mass, plane, time, space, light, colour and material, and they are, moreover, also plasticelements.

3 The new architecture is economical, which signifies that the elementary means are organizedeither as efficiently and economically as possible or by wasting neither these means nor thematerial.

4 The new architecture is functional, which signifies that it develops from the precisedetermination of practical necessities which it embodies in a clear groundplan.

5 The new architecture is formless, yet defined, which signifies that it is not characterized by any predetermined aesthetic form-type or mould (like those used by pastry-cooks) into which it caststhe functional spaces derived from practical living demands.

In contrast to all earlier historical styles, the new architectural method imposes no standard orbasic type.

The division of functional spaces is strictly determined by rectangular planes which possessthemselves no individual shapes, since, although defined (one plane by the other), they can beextended infinitely by the imagination. Thus they can create a coordinated system in which all

points correspond to an equal number of points in universal, unlimited open space.

It follows that the planes possess a direct relationship with open (exterior) space.

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6 The new architecture has rendered the concept of the monumental independent of largeness andsmallness (since the word monumental has been abused, it is replaced by the word plastic).This architecture has demonstrated that everything exists in terms of relationships, through the

principle of interrelationship.

7 The new architecture possesses no passive moment. It has abandoned the use of dead spaces(holes in the wall). The openness of the window has an active meaning as against the closure ofthe wall.surface. Nowhere does a hole or a void issue forth, everything is strictly determined bymeans of contrast. See the various counter-constructions, in which the elements of architecture,such as, plane, line and mass, have been freely arranged into a three-dimensional relationship. [. . .

8 The groundplan. The new architecture has opened the walls, thus eliminating the separatenessof the interior and the exterior.

The whole wall no longer carries, it is reduced to points of support. The result is a new, opengroundplan, which is completely different from the traditional usage, since interior and exteriorspace interpenetrate.

9 The new architecture is open. The whole consists of one space, which is divided according to thevarious functional demands. This division is accomplished through the use of separating planes(in the interior) or by projecting planes (on the exterior).

The former planes, which separate the different functional spaces, can be mobile, which meansthat the separating planes (formerly the interior walls) can be replaced by movable screens or slabs(doors can also be treated in this manner). In the following phase of this development inarchitecture, the groundplan must disappear completely. The principle of two-dimensionally

projected space-composition, asfixed by a groundplan, will be replaced by exact calculation of theconstruction, a calculation which must transfer the carrying capacity to the simplest but sturdiest

points of support. Eudidean mathematics will no longer serve this purpose; yet by using Non-Eucidean calculations in four dimensions, this calculation can be accomplished quite easily.

10 Space and time. The new architecture calculates not only with space but also with time as anarchitectural value. The unity of space and time will give architectural form a new and completely

plastic aspect, that is, a four-dimensional, plastic space time aspect.

11 The new architecture is anti-cubic, which specifies that it does not attempt to combine allfunctional space-cells into one closed cube, but projects the functional space-cells (as well asoverhanging planes, the volumes of balconies and so forth) centrifugally, or from the core of thecube outward, thereby giving a completely new plastic expression in open space to the dimensionsof height, width, depth + time.

In this manner architecture takes on a more or less hovering aspect (insofar as this is feasible froma structural point of view, which is a problem for the engineer!). This aspect, so to speak,challenges the force of gravity in nature.

12 Symmetry and repetition. The new architecture has suppressed symmetrys monotonous

repetition as well as the rigid equality which results from division into two halves or the use of themirror image.

It employs neither repetition in time, street walls, nor standardized parts. A block of houses is asmuch a whole as a single house. The laws governing single houses apply also to both blocks ofhouses and the city as a whole. In place of symmetry, the new architecture proposes a balancedrelationship of unequal parts; that is to say of parts which, because of functional characteristics,differ in position, size, proportion and situation.

The equivalence of these parts is gained through an equilibrium of unequality rather than of

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equality. In addition, the new architecture has granted equal value to the front, back, right,and possibly also to the above and below.

13 In contrast to frontalism, which was born out of a rigid, static concept of life, the newarchitecture offers the plastic richness of an all-sided development in space time.

14 Colour. The new architecture has suppressed painting as a separate, illusory expression ofharmony, whether as embodied indirectly in representational art or directly in an art of coloured planes.

The new architecture employs colour organically as a direct means of expression of relationshipsin space and time. Without colour, these relationships are devoid of the aspect of living reality;they are invisible. The equilibrium of the architectural relationships becomes a visible reality onlythrough the use of colour. The task of the modern painter is to integrate colour into a harmonicwhole (by placing it not on a plane-surface of two dimensions, but within the new realm of four-dimensional space time). In a succeeding phase of development, colour might also be replaced

by synthetic materials which possess their own specific colours (this is a problem for the chemicalscientist), but only if practical demands require such materials.

15 The new architecture is anti-decorative. Colour and colour-shy people must strive to realizethis is not a decorative or ornamental part of architecture but its organic means of expression.

16 Architecture as the synthesis of Neo-Plasticism. Construction is only one part of the newarchitecture; by including all the arts, in their most elementary appearance, the new architecturemanifests its very essence.

This architecture presupposes a capacity for thinking in four dimensions, so that the plasticarchitect, who might also be a painter, must construct in the new realm of space time.

Since the new architecture prohibits representation (such as easel-painting or sculpture as separateelements), its purpose of creating a harmonic whole from all the above mentioned essential meansis inherent in its very nature. In this manner every architectural element contributes to themaximum vitality of plastic expression, accomplished on a practical and logical basis, without

prejudice to utilitarian demands.

Paris 1924

Theo van Doesburg, fromTowards Plastic Architecture De Still12:6-7 (1924), trans. Joost Baljeu, inTheovan Doesburg. New York: Macmillan, 1974, pp. 142, 144-5, 147.