Cologne, 31 July 1996
Erik Champion poses questions concerning the artwork and architecture.
I agree that in the case of the Spanish Steps in Rome, the distinction between
equipment (Zeug) and artwork becomes permeable.
The Spanish Steps are good for going up and down from the park above to the
promenades below, just like any other steps. But they are of course more than
that: a meeting place, a place to promenade and watch the sunset and rest near
the streets full of boutiques and cafes at the foot of the staircase. The steps
are broad, spacious, allowing people to pass or sit as they please. Buskers work
there; there's always something going on. The life of Rome is facilitated by
this work of architecture. The Steps are a way in which Rome romes by making the
space for being-together in this city. Similar to a sculpture, the Steps
"raeumen den Raum ein", they orient the city space, making it a space for
living, for urbane togetherness (a world), wresting (twisting) it from the
closedness of the earth.
The Spanish Steps were planned as a piece of architecture in and creating a
public space. Whether 'life' comes to a piece of architecture cannot be planned
with certainty, as many examples show, e.g. the Barbican Centre in London.
The Sydney Opera House brings forth the space around it, allowing the harbour to
be a harbour, the brilliant sky to be a sky, the Botanic Gardens in Farm Cove to
be gardens, the city skyline to be a skyline, the Harbour Bridge to be a great
bridge. Each work of architecture refers to the other in an interplay that
creates the open city space in which the Sydneysiders orient their urbane lives
by car, ferry, train, bus and by foot. Their interplay is part of the way Sydney
sydneys in a mode of urbane togetherness (Mitsein).
This architectural creation of worlding space is akin to the openness of
aletheia within which beings can appear AS what they are.
Cheers,
Michael
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