Oskar Hansen and The Open Form
27/09/2016.
[EXHIBITION]. Yale School of Architecture [New Haven - Connecticut] USA 01.09.2016 > 17.12.2016
metalocus, CLAUDIA CENDOYA
metalocus, CLAUDIA CENDOYA
The Yale School of Architecture hosts until December 17 an exhibition showing the works of the Polish architect, urban planner and theorist Oskar Hansen (1922-2005).
Hansen is mostly known for his theory "Open Form", a movement that focuses architecture on the user and diverges from the orthodoxy of the Modern Movement proposed by Le Corbusier.
Hansen is mostly known for his theory "Open Form", a movement that focuses architecture on the user and diverges from the orthodoxy of the Modern Movement proposed by Le Corbusier.
Linear Continuous System, model of Masovia Belt, designed by Oskar Hansen and team, 1968. Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Oskar Hansen Archive, courtesy of Igor Hansen.
Oskar Hansen at AICA congress in Wroclaw, 1975. Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Museum.
Students in Oskar Hansen's Studio doing the Great Number exercise. Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Museum.
Students in Oskar Hansen's Studio with apparatuses for Rhythm exercise. Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Museum.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Rich House.
Oskar Hansen in his house in Szumin. Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image courtesy of Igor Hansen.
Oskar Hansen during open-air exercises in Skoki, 1972. Exhibition "Oskar Hansen: Open Form". Image © Wiktor Gutt.
The school of thought "Open Form" proposed by Oskar Hansen was first presented at the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM) in 1959, a meeting where the Team 10 was founded. Hansen attached to this group, who was the first voice who criticized the rigidity of the Modern Movement embodied in the Charter of Athens.
This theory encourages the participation in artistic works, with a conception of art as a process in which flexibility and variability of the works is encouraged. The role of the architect is limited, according to Hansen, the creation of a "perceptual background" so that architecture becomes a tool that can be managed and adapted by users.
Hansen applied this vision different scales of design, from temporary pavilions to its urban plan Continuous Linear System, which established extended decentralized cities across Poland and Europe. This shows how Open Form that has more to do with strategies of indeterminacy, flexibility and collective participation than with the scale of the project.
The exhibition is divided into seven sections organized in tune with the idea of Open Form. They are interlaced so that the visiting order depends largely visitor. These categories, which explore different aspects of the work of Hansen are: Architect as a Curator, Politics of Scale, Counter-Monument, Architecture as Events, House as Open Form, Art and Didactics and Tradition of Open Form.
This theory encourages the participation in artistic works, with a conception of art as a process in which flexibility and variability of the works is encouraged. The role of the architect is limited, according to Hansen, the creation of a "perceptual background" so that architecture becomes a tool that can be managed and adapted by users.
Hansen applied this vision different scales of design, from temporary pavilions to its urban plan Continuous Linear System, which established extended decentralized cities across Poland and Europe. This shows how Open Form that has more to do with strategies of indeterminacy, flexibility and collective participation than with the scale of the project.
The exhibition is divided into seven sections organized in tune with the idea of Open Form. They are interlaced so that the visiting order depends largely visitor. These categories, which explore different aspects of the work of Hansen are: Architect as a Curator, Politics of Scale, Counter-Monument, Architecture as Events, House as Open Form, Art and Didactics and Tradition of Open Form.
More information
Curators
Soledad Gutiérrez, Aleksandra Kędziorek, Łukasz Ronduda.
Venue
Paul Rudolph Hall, Yale School of Architecture. 180, York Street, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Dates
From September 1st until December 17th, 2016.
Opening hours.- From Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 17.00. Saturday from 10.00 to 17.00.
Access
Open and free access.
Oskar HANSEN
Oskar Hansen was born in Helsinki on 12 April 1922. This Polish architect, urban planner, teacher and theorist of Finnish birth graduated from the Technical College in Vilna in 1942, then studied in the Department of Architecture at the Technical University, Warsaw (1945-50). In the 1940s and the first half of the 1950s he also took up painting and sculpture, which he later dismissed as examples of ‘Closed Form’.
In 1948-50 he visited France, Italy and England and studied under Fernand Léger and Pierre Jeanneret; he also became acquainted with Le Corbusier, Henry Moore and Jerzy Soltan. From 1950 to 1983 he lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw. He was also a member of the Groupe d’Etude d’Architecture Moderne (GEAM).
Hansen’s theory had a fundamental influence on the Polish concepts of ‘environment’, ‘dziela-procesu’ (works of process) and ‘performance’ in the 1960s. It was fully expressed in his competition plan for the international monument for the victims of fascism at Auschwitz-Birkenau (1957; with Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz and Julian Palka). In the 1960s Hansen developed the ‘Open Form’ theory into the ‘linear continuous system’ theory, which envisaged the extension of his principles to the arrangement of buildings and communications on a larger scale; projects included the housing estate at Przyczulek Grochowski, Warsaw (1963), the district plan for Warsaw-Ursynów (1966-68) and proposals for town, regional and national plans. He also designed several international exhibition buildings during his career, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art (1966), Skopje, and the Polish Embassy (1973), Washington, DC.
Hansen’s contribution to the Team 10 discourse mainly revolves around the Open Form theory, which he presented at the last CIAM congress in Otterlo in 1959. He also presented the Auschwitz monument on this occasion. He attended several meetings in the 1960s, and contributed to the journal Le Carré Bleu.
In 1948-50 he visited France, Italy and England and studied under Fernand Léger and Pierre Jeanneret; he also became acquainted with Le Corbusier, Henry Moore and Jerzy Soltan. From 1950 to 1983 he lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw. He was also a member of the Groupe d’Etude d’Architecture Moderne (GEAM).
Hansen’s theory had a fundamental influence on the Polish concepts of ‘environment’, ‘dziela-procesu’ (works of process) and ‘performance’ in the 1960s. It was fully expressed in his competition plan for the international monument for the victims of fascism at Auschwitz-Birkenau (1957; with Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz and Julian Palka). In the 1960s Hansen developed the ‘Open Form’ theory into the ‘linear continuous system’ theory, which envisaged the extension of his principles to the arrangement of buildings and communications on a larger scale; projects included the housing estate at Przyczulek Grochowski, Warsaw (1963), the district plan for Warsaw-Ursynów (1966-68) and proposals for town, regional and national plans. He also designed several international exhibition buildings during his career, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art (1966), Skopje, and the Polish Embassy (1973), Washington, DC.
Hansen’s contribution to the Team 10 discourse mainly revolves around the Open Form theory, which he presented at the last CIAM congress in Otterlo in 1959. He also presented the Auschwitz monument on this occasion. He attended several meetings in the 1960s, and contributed to the journal Le Carré Bleu.
