Bracket 2. Goes Soft
Bracket 2 examines physical and virtual soft systems, as they pertain to infrastructure, ecologies, landscapes, environments, and networks. In an era of declared crises—economic, ecological and climatic, amongst others—the notion of soft systems has gained increasing traction as a counterpoint to permanent, static and hard systems. Acknowledging fluid and indeterminate situations with complex feedback loops that allow for reaction and adaption, the possibility of soft systems has re-entered the domain of design. Bracket 2 critically positions and defines soft systems through 27 projects and 12 articles. From soft politics, soft power and soft spaces to fluid territories, software and soft programming, Bracket 2 unpacks the use and role of responsive, indeterminate, flexible, and immaterial systems in design.
217 Ville Spatiale, Yona Friedman (1959–)— –A collective framework containing individual, ﬂexible and mobile pods. (Drawing by Alicia Hergenroeder) In essence, the metaphor of Arendt’s pluralism is embodied within Giacometti’s City Square, wherein distinct individuals are tied together on a common platform. Extrapolating from Arendt, the political project of the city is to reconcile the collective (equality) and individual (distinction). Surely, Arendt is not alone in this quest— –think about the tension and similarities on various philosophical and design debates over the past two centuries: objective vs. subjective (Enlightenment vs. Romanticism)5; collective vs. individual (CIAM)6; exterior vs. interior (Team X’s Doorstep Analogy)7; control vs. choice (Archigram)8; frame vs. pod (megastructure)9; determinacy vs. indeterminacy (hard vs. soft systems)10; etc. None of these debates, however, was able to mediate such a dialectic that is at the core of a politically empowered metropolis. Increasingly comprised of a grouping of various constituencies, a scan through the current metropolis provokes the ultimate question of where the common object of collectivity presently exists? The issue of diversity11 is even more pronounced today, with more than half the population of some cities consisting of visible ‘minorities’. This growing situation prompts a design interrogation of how one can provide unity in diversity, reconcile the individual and collective, and accommodate distinction and equality. It is a political ecology rooted in pluralism that can produce a collective agency, capable of restructuring our economic and socio-cultural territory and its relationship to the natural environment. Form and the Emergence of Soft An attempt to reconcile such issues reached a fatalistic apogee in the typology of the megastructure. Le Corbusier, who repeatedly stressed the importance of the individual and collective in the C.I.A.M Athens Charter, planted the seed for the megastructure in his Plan Obus (1933) in Algiers. In his project, a continuous linear form merged architecture, infrastructure and topography, while subdividing into multiple dwelling units. Within such a framework, Corbusier left the dwellings “open” 5. Isaiah Berlin, “The Counter-Enlightenment” in The Proper Study of Mankind. ed. Hardy, Henry (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1997), 243-268. 6. Le Corbusier, “The City and Its Region” and “Conclusion— –Main Points of Doctrine.” in The Reconcile Basic Values?” in Documents of Megastructure Reloaded, ed. Sabrina van der Ley and Markus Richter (Berlin, Hatje Cantz, 2008), 136-152. 10. Archigram, “Open Ends: Editorial from Archigram 8” in Archigram: A Guide to Modern Architecture: CIAM ’59 in Otterlo, ed. Jürgen Joedicke (New York: Universe Books Inc., 1961), 26-35. 8. Archigram, “Control and Choice” in Archigram, ed. Peter Cook and Michael Webb (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), 68. 9. Hadas Steiner, “Within the Big Structure” in Archigram 1961-74 (Taiwan, Garden City Publishing, 2003), 216-227. 11. As opposed to political concept of pluralism. Athens Charter (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973), 43-49 and 91-105. 7. Van Eyck, Aldo, “Is Architecture Going to GOES SOFT bracket