Destruction and affirmative negation in architecture

Abstract

The starting point of this paper is Alan Badiou's thesis that all creations, hence all novelties, are in some sense the affirmative part of a negation and, as such, stand against the destruction that lies in the negative part of the negation. The affirmative negation is considered to be within conditions of something that is happening as New, yet something that cannot be reduced to the objectivity of the situation in which it happens and that affirmation of the New means confirmation through an identity. On the other hand, the negativity of a negation is considered as a negative part of the negation, i.e. the destruction, with the aim not to create something New, but rather to destroy something that exists, with lack of affirmation and confirmation by an identity. In that context, we are discussing the issue of nihilism as an active part of the destruction and the issue of anarchy as a passive part of the destruction. Our research commences from three axioms: First - The World of architecture is one; Second - Architecture is an art; Third Architectural creation is Situation. The hypothesis of this study is that if the architectural creation meets the requirement of an affirmative negation, then and only then, it represents the real creation, cleansed of any destructive supplement and content. Accordingly, this paper examines a philosophical and the theoretical issue, raised by Lebbeus Woods, on a relationship between destruction and creation, the issue of necessity of destruction as pre-condition for creation. Destruction is perceived as a destruction of architecture and destruction in architecture through four processes: destruction as consequence of an act of God (natural disasters) and destruction as a consequence of human violence, something like war (extreme human destruction) - which would be referred to as external implications on architecture; destruction as consequence of inaction (passive human destruction) and consequence of action (active human destruction) which goes by internal implications on architecture. Case study includes recent history of Serbia: consequences of the war between Serbia and NATO in 1999, consequences of massive floods in 2014 and consequences of mega-project "Belgrade Waterfront" development. The result of this research is reflected in the conclusion that creation and especially architectural creation in current global context of democratic materialism, that is, subjective paradigms of enjoyment and sacrifice, is in crises. This crisis is caused by power of multiple destructions of the Empire (political, economic and media power structures) that leans on particularism, trade of power, relativisation, in a word, on the perversion of Truth.