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Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in the 1970’s developed their ideas of a “Collage City” as an essay. Collage City was expanded and published as a book in 1979. Colin Rowe’s and Fred Koetter’s concept of collage as it does a critique of modern utopianism and a proposal for radical heterogeneity of appropriated form. And all these would seem to summarize much of architectural post modernism.

Rowe’s and Koetter’s concept of collage city can be a law as a model for architecture. The collage city is specified by Karl Popper’s anti- utopianism and fallibilism, Isaiah Berlin’s anti-hedgehog perception and the idea of bricoleur. This system is established on autonomous grid and heterogeneous fragments.

COLIN ROWE AND FRED KOETTER

Colin Rowe is British architectural historian, critic, theoretician and teacher. He graduated from Liverpool School of Architecture. Then, Rowe entered the Warbung Institute in London to study the history of Architecture under Rudolf Wittkower. In this time, he wrote his first essay “The Mathematics of Ideal Villa” in 1947. This essay is important for his career and his ideas about architecture. After the graduation from The Warbung Institute, he taught at the University of Texas at Austin and at the Cornell University in New York as a Professor. He influenced on world architecture and urbanism in the second half of twentieth century.

Fred Koetter is British architect and architectural historian. Fred Koetter is one the founder of Koetter, Kim and Associates in Boston and Koetter, Kim and Associates in London. He took his bachelor’s architecture from the University of Oregon in 1963 and his master in architecture is from Cornell University in 1966. Fred Koetter has taught at Cornell University, the University of Kentucky, Yale University and Harvard University.

THE MATHEMATICS OF IDEAL VILLA

Colin Rowe has written his first essay in 1947 while studying at the Warbung Institute. It is “The Mathematics of Ideal Villa”. The content of this essay was parallel to their concept of collage and Fred Koetter’s architectural approach. In this easy, he analysed that the history of architecture and the modern architecture are in coherence. He claimed that the pioneer of the modern architects like Le Corbusier and their buildings, works are more complex than thought. Because the modern architects claim that the modern architecture is new and it has a pure form, and it is completely different from existing buildings. But in this analyse, he handled that on the contrary of thought, the works and structures involved tradition and new idea.

In his very detailed researches on Le Corbusier’s buildings, Colin Rowe Claims that Le Corbusier has used analytic and geometric principles, which have been already existing, in traditional architecture. In this article, he compared Villa Malcontenta designed by Palladio and Villa Stein designed by Le Corbusier with analytic diagrams. Rowe explains that both of the villas have some strong similarities in the aspect of plan, ratios, and volumes. However for the façades of the villas, which creates the differentiation, while classical design dominates The Palladio’s Villa, Le Corbusier’s Villa had a bold use of modern design. In the other words, it does not mean that modern architecture rejects history of architecture and modern design is not just new.

UTOPIA AND TRADITION

While improving the idea of the collage city, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter were influenced by the ideas of Karl Popper, especially his ideas about the utopias. Popper was prominent name in the philosophy of science. He criticizes utopias, which views as designed and very firmly isolated models of society. He thought that utopias are despotic and lack tolerance. Popper’s idea forms the basis of collage city concept. But Rowe and Koetter did not reject utopia entirely. They believed that modern and tradition, fantasy and real should be combined.

Popper’s other idea that influences Rowe and Koetter is inevitability of tradition. Just as science advances though hypothesis being examined and being replaced with new ones. Architecture and society also can advance with traditions being examined and being revised and being replaced with newer ones. In fact, the tradition is a critical tool that provides advancement, even thought it seems like a contradiction.

Colin Rowe believes that we can of course take strength from novelty and fantasy, but this strength certainly have to be connected to the existing and the familiar, and it should be put into a frame that consists of memories. Under these circumstances, it is absurd to separate nostalgia from prophecy, remembrance from expectation, arcadian from utopia with precision. According to Colin Rowe, ideal city should be both a theatre of memory and a theatre of prophecy. It is misleading to call the supporters of the former “conservative” and the supporters of the latter “radical”, just as much as to present these two sides uncompromising.

THE HEDGEHOG AND THE FOX

Another name that was an inspiration for Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter is Isaiah Berlin, especially his article “The Hedgehog and The Fox”(1957). Isaiah Berlin was British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas. Berlin categorizes people or their way of thinking in two general classes. The first class is hedgehog that knows only one great subject and links everything to that universal and dominating subject. The second class is the fox that knows many things and that are capable of pursuing many diverse goals, which can sometimes be contrasting.

Based on this definition, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter defined Le Corbusier as a fox posing as a hedgehog from time to time. And this illustrates that the hedgehog and the fox can not be separated with precise lines. The same scheme can be seen in the article named “Notes on the In-between” by Fred Koetter. He argues that since the age of enlightenment, thoughts’ world is perceived as an arena in which contrasting thoughts fight, and that the solution is always sought in destroying the opposing idea. He reminds the famous contrasts, us vs. them, that have been presented to the architecture world in recent years, however much in-between is closer to the reality. Because the reality is complex, diverse, slippery, uncertain, indefinable. Unfortunately unclear definitions are not preferable. Thus, for a strong and credible argument, it is necessary to put on fox’s mask, like Le Corbusier.

COLLAGE CITY

It is possible to see “anti-utopia” which is Karl Popper’s idea and “anti-hedgehog” which is Isaiah Berlin’s ideas as foundation of Colin Rowe’s and Fred Koetter’s Collage City. Collage city proposed that cities could be improved through the collaging of variety of urban elements including shaped, figural open space into the continuous fabric of a city. In the other words, they proposed the concept of “bricoleur”. From Thomas Moore to Le Corbusier, people –or people with a more predominant fox side- have dreamt of “ideal city”, meanwhile real cities have been shaped by the accumulation of step-by-step progresses, unfinished intentions and obligatory compromises.

Also they defined the city as a museum like Rome and the city of Composite Presence, which was mentioned in Collage City. It is formed by either sole objects or events pilling up in an eclectic way. It is a choice, which has to be considered against altogether designs and the disaster cities resulting from social engineering. A city of fragments, which originated from a monumental effect of objects from the farthest places and times, objects that met through the most improbable ways. The idea of collage against altogether design also brings the idea of “bricoleur/fox” architecture who makes a whole out of thrown away objects and creates new uses instead of the “engineer/hedgehog” architecture who dismantles everything and creates again.

The idea of bricoleur architecture makes a whole out of thrown away objects and it creates new uses. Also in engineer, instead of special tools, which are designed for a certain project, bricoleur type elements should be used which can work with everything.

Versailles and Roman Villa at Tivoli can be example about collage city and bricoleur idea. They have contrary approaches. Versailles is the style of one great idea, it has a holistic design. In the other word, Versailles was designed with hedgehog perception. Whereas, Villa Adriana is a collage or iconography complex. It has orchestrated pieces. It tolerates circumstances, land and random elements. Roman Villa Adriana is closer to the collage city concept.

In Collage City, Rowe and Koetter also had an implicit contempt for recent American and European high- rise housing projects, which had been designing with modern architectural approach. It is also a critique for modern architecture. One of these projects is Illinois Pruitt- Igoe. Illinois Pruitt- Igoe was known as the death of the modern architecture. Pruitt- Igoe was a large urban housing project; it was constructed in 1954 in USA. It was made up of thirty three buildings. By the late 1950s and the beginning of 1960s, Pruitt- Igoe project was famous and it was taken a pride. However, by the late 1960s, the project had become internationally infamous for its poverty, crime and segregation. It was part of an evolving crisis of social segregation in 1970’s. Thirty three buildings were demolished with explosives in the mid-1970. Pruitt- Igoe was becoming an symbol of urban renewal and public-policy planning failure.

CONTEXTUALISM

Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter have proposed contextualism as a compromising theory. They started with two basic concepts while developing the city theory. First concept is standing alone, finished object such as Templetto San Pietro designed by Bramante and Unite d’Habitation designed by Le Corbusier. They are blocks among large green parks. This type structures also the main idea of the modern city. They are independent blocks. Second concept is that space carved into tissue and it created streets, squares, and connections, which expresses itself in traditional city patterns. As a solution of this duality, they proposed that contextualism. In the most basic form, contextualism is the idea of mixing type and context. In the other word, the softening of the ideal type through giving compromises. It means to integrate new and tradition.

REFERENCES

Rowe, C., & Koetter, F. (1978). Collage city. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Rowe C. (1947). The mathematics of the ideal villa and other essays : Mannerism and modern architecture. Cambr. Mass: The MİT Press.1976.
Dostoğlu, S. (1984). Colin Rowe ve bir uzlaştırma kuramı. Retrieved May 10, 2015, from http://dergi.mo.org.tr/dergiler/4/513/9307.pdf
Hays, M. (1973). Architecture theory since 1968. Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic642734.files/rowe%20koetter_collage%20city.pdf