House
In Vom Subjekt zum Projekt [From Subject to
Project], Vilém Flusser declares that the house
must be reinvented (Vom Subjekt zum Projekt,
1994, pp. 61–74). For the end of the individual also
signifies the end of the old house which centered
the individual, allowing him/her to venture
forth and then return to process the experiences
made amid the “familiar.” That house, and the
ontological, political, and social boundaries it
afforded, have become obsolete.
The relationships between inside and outside,
between private and public, have changed now
that the walls of the house are no longer penetrated
only by windows and doors, but also by
various kinds of media. The radio, which was
once perceived by Martin Heidegger as an intruder
in the lockable, enclosing, and excluding
house, was merely a precursor to the disappearance
of the house’s bounds.
From this, Flusser concludes that the new house
should be oriented toward the flood of symbols
that will inevitably invade it. He envisages it as a
“node of competence” within flows of information,
communicating with similar nodal points
and participating in a free and adventurous
game, the object of which is to generate new
information.
The materiality of the house is of little interest to Flusser; this, however, has done nothing to diminish architecture’s interest in Flusser’s philosophy. Of course architects continue to work on the translation of designs into durable material and enduring buildings. Yet perspectives have been changed by war and reconstruction, by demolition and rebuilding in the name of markets and modernity, by the growing importance of temporary structures, and by engaging with virtual spaces: Over the course of the twentieth century, various experiences have given rise to an awareness that the solidity of things is not to be relied upon. Today the tents, sails, and screens, the “creative nests” so prized by Flusser, are quite present in architecture as well.
Original article by Susanne Hauser