Jorge García de la Cámara
Director
BIArch Journal: An Orange Tree Noise
Reviews
10/10/2009The auditorium was still relatively quiet right before the BIArch’s inaugural lecture by Chilean architect Smiljan Radic. As the final details were double-checked, the only sounds were a faint, intermittent buzz from the overhead lights, broken now and then by a sound check.
In a few minutes the room was abuzz with people, the air heavy with expectation. The event began with an introduction by Joan Roig and Jorge García de la Cámara, the Institute's Academic Director. They spoke of the BIArch’s intention to create an open architecture forum of shared reflection and public debate. They explained how BIArch's global outlook, supported by the Institute's Open Lecture series, is built around architectural highlights from the Americas, Asia and Europe.
Miquel Adrià, a Catalan émigré who has lived in Mexico for the past fifteen years, and founder and editor-in-chief of Arquine magazine, acted as a bridge between the audience and Radic, who is also familiar with the concept of displacement (A Chilean architect with a rich Croatian heritage) and likes to think of being in permanent movement. According to Adrià, "In order to understand, one must look for commonality from afar and for difference from up-close." As a first step toward familiarity from a distance -- "and Chile is far away from everywhere," -- Adrià identified Radic as part of a young generation of Chilean architects with a strong global presence. He also traced the peculiarities of Radic's work and persona (his Venetian training, his particular aesthetic, the diversity of his works). The audience came to understand Radic and were better prepared to grasp his distinctness.
Soft-spoken, Radic recounted the circumstances leading to the conference, and shared some of his own reflections of the relationship between Spain and Chile; As a student he experienced the "clear-cut" Spanish architecture of the 1990s, something he considered distinct from the "diffuse" (at times precarious) realities and sensibilities of his own context.
The lecture grew more intimate. Radic spoke sparingly, suggesting an eagerness to show his work, which took the form of a video prepared especially for the occasion. Fascinating footage flashed on the screen, bringing to mind photos on an old slide projector: a random string of intimate and slightly bizarre scenes.
The video showed examples of Radic's architecture interspersed with an array of what he called "soft data" —stories, anecdotes, bits of biography and chance— which are attached to his projects, a reflection of the embedded emotional and narrative elements that contrast the "hard" data of program and calculation that dominate traditional architectural presentation techniques. The soft data consisted of a series of figures: nomads, dust-laden Ford trucks crossing deserts, gypsies on ships, shacks on remote islands, monoliths, whispers, and elephants in circus tents. The presentation was both challenging and endearing. It perfectly transmitted Radic's conviction of "projecting in the rough," thoughtfully saturating things to draw out their essence.
The lecture was at times elusive, a bit intimidating in its scope of references and intricacies, but obviously heartfelt. Audience questions focused on the qualities of architecture as craft, as narrative, as a retraction, as an embrace with landscape. Like the hoards in Radic's stories, we came together as a group, "to listen, together." Afterwards we each went our own way, leaving with a sliver of shared atmosphere of the lecture (that orange noise), and the room was silent again.
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Open Lecture: Smiljan Radic
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