oris
V sedemdesetih letih, v prvem obdobju poklicnega življenja, ste se večinoma ukvarjali s konceptualnimi projekti, predavanji, raziskavami, pisanjem in premišljevanjem o osnovah arhitekture. Vaše takratno delovanje bilo v skladu z duhom časa, in to ne samo v arhitekturi. To je bilo obdobje uveljavljanja konceptualne umetnosti in odmikov od konvencionalnih umetniških artefaktov k drugačnemu pojmovanju umetniške prakse.

tschumi
Morda je bil to res duh časa, morda pa je bilo še kaj več od tega. V resnici je obstajala potreba po iskanju odgovorov, kaj pravzaprav je arhitektura. Z drugimi besedami, v dvajsetem stoletju je najprej obstajala vrsta nedvoumnih zadev, ki so se izoblikovale skozi izjave v času gibanja moderne, ki je poskušalo definirati, kaj je arhitektura. Te nedvoumne, gotove zadeve so se pokazale kot nekako neizvedljive. Morebiti so obljubljale precej, omogočale pa zelo malo. Naj kot primer navedem način, kako so se projektirale mestne četrti – ta mesta so se pokazala kot neizvedljiva. Niso izpolnila svojih obljub v smislu socialnega, kulturološkega in drugih kontekstov.

oris
V tistem trenutku je bilo modernistično gibanje tudi deloma zasedeno s korporativno arhitekturo, avantgardni položaj gibanja je bil izgubljen, utopični ideali pa so postali dvomljivi.

tschumi
Če pomislite na Francijo in nova mesta okoli Pariza, je bila arhitektura zares korporativna, celo birokratska. Pomanjkanje kredibilnosti arhitekture šestdesetih let je pomenilo, da sem čutil, da je zadeve mogoče radikalno premisliti. Začel sem delovati ne iz središča arhitekture, ampak na obrobjih. Preučil sem druge discipline in iskal povezavo z arhitekturnimi interesi ali vprašanji. Arhitekturo sem poskušal doumeti skozi robove, skozi margino, zato sem se obrnil k umetnosti, filozofiji, matematiki itn. Raziskovanje v tem obdobju je bilo zares opravljeno skozi pisanje, skozi teorijske risbe, teorijske projekte, kot so Manhattan Transcripts, Screenplays, Manifestos itn. Tako se je vse začelo.
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oris
During the first part of your professional life in the seventies, you were mostly involved with conceptual projects, with teaching, research, writing and reflecting on the fundaments of architecture. In a way, your engagement was close to the spirit of the time, not only in architecture. It was a period of growth of conceptual art and shift away from artistic artefact to different notions of artistic practices.

tschumi
Maybe it was the spirit of the time, but maybe it was more than that. There was really a need to question what architecture was all about. In other words, throughout the 20th century, there had been first a number of certainties that were established through the statements made by the modern movement, trying to define what architecture was. Think of Le Corbusier and the five points of architecture. These certainties had proved somehow not workable. Namely, it may have promised a lot but delivered very little. Take the way the new city quarters were designed, these cities proved to be not workable. They did not fulfil their promises in terms of social, cultural and other contexts.

oris
At that moment, the modern movement was also partly absorbed in corporate architecture, its avant-garde position was lost and the utopian ideals were brought under the question.

tschumi
Architecture was quite corporate and even bureaucratic, if you think of France and the new towns around Paris. The lack of credibility of architecture at the time in the sixties meant that I felt that things had to be questioned radically and started to work not within the centre of architecture, but on the margins. I looked at other disciplines, searching where the connection point was with architectural concerns or questions. I was interested in art, literature, philosophy, mathematics, cinema etc. trying to learn about architecture through the edges, through the margins. So much of the exploration at the time of the work that I did was indeed through writing, through theoretical drawings, theoretical projects, like the Manhattan Transcripts, like the Screenplays, like the Manifestos and so on. And that’s how it all started.
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