Anomaly and Aesthetics:

The Villa dall’Ava

Philip Morse

Design Principles

Professor Brain

27 November 2009

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Rem Koolhaas’ design for the Villa dall’Ava is ironic, quirky, and fashionably au

contraire. It is very much in league with the artistic concerns of its time in that he

departs from traditional forms of modernism (but not without referring to them)

to arrive at context driven solutions to problems presented by the site and by the

demands of his clients. Even when his choice of materials approaches the vulgar,

he is drinking from the same cup as Frank Ghery who realized his Venice beach

house during the same time. It is the purpose of this paper to show how Koolhaas’

anomalies of form, structure, and space challenge our preconceptions of what

a house should be while they engage us in the dialogue between his villa, its

neighbors and its predecessors.

The term anomaly can be elusive, particularly in our time when every artist is

assigned the task of finding himself, that is to say his own particular anomalies,

from day one. The normal would seem to be endangered, but thankfully, our

reserve of preconceptions and stock solutions appears to be endless. It is important

to note, however, that what seemed to be anomalous yesterday, may be accepted

into the canon tomorrow; and what was the norm centuries ago could be seen as

outrageous in a current setting. It will be necessary at times, therefore, to adjust our

use of the word to circumstance.

Saint Cloud

Some of the most striking ways that the Koolhaas villa departs from normality are as

follows: Its formal language is a violent intrusion into the architectural idiom of

St. Cloud, nineteenth century Victorian and Cottage style. If, as Bachelard would

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have us believe, the house is a place for reverie1 , then the Villa dall’Ava must have

been a rude awakening for the neighbors of Dominique Boudet, the publisher

who commissioned it. Koolhaas’ choice of materials, particularly the cladding of

corrugated aluminum, but also his use of plastic netting for a safety fence on the

roof, that border, as suggested -- on the vulgar, reinforce the effect – like wearing

red to a funeral. It has to be assumed that this clash of language was intentional

and as we shall see, it makes the Villa dall’Ava very comparable to the work of

Richard Serra, working at the same time and for whom the clash of languages was a

central concern.

The array of angular and spindly columns that frame the entry to the villa is a

1 Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), 6-7.

Figure 1 Intruder in Saint Cloud: view from the front

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striking departure from the modern practice of le Corbusier and also that of the

ancient Greeks, both of whom we must consider. Le Corbusier would have kept

the width of these proportional to their height and the Greeks would have lined

them up. Although Koolhaas uses wide support columns elsewhere, this is not a

frame house that lends itself to a plan libre. It is not a temple, either, but there

are temples to which it may be compared. We will look at the Mayan temple

architecture of Tikal in this regard.

Doubtless, the constricted space of the plot that he had to work with enforced

the lateral compression of Koolhaas’ design. Its narrowness is confirmed in its

proportions 2 . Accounting for the fact that the plan tapers3 , the averaged

2 These were taken from the plans 3 Rem Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL (New York: Monacelli Press, 1995), 179. Koolhaas’ notes and reflections indicate his concerns about the visual effects. The tapering of the walls was required by zoning regulations. The effect was to in-crease the sense of length looking from one end (see figure 4) and to create a sense of compression looking in the other direction.

Figure 2 first floor plan: showing dimensions, property lines, columns, and the ramp

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ratio of width to length is roughly 2:5, so the structure is about 4 times as long as it

is wide for the first two floors.

The single file progression of columns that support the pool and their enclosures,

along with the connecting ramp that runs lengthwise, reinforce the linearity of the

plan. They also take up lateral space and leave the proportions of perceived floor

space more in the realm of 1:6. The view from the stairwell past the long galley

kitchen to the other end is that of an elegant corridor. This compression is alleviated

on the main floor by the glass wall that extends around most of the perimeter, a lot

of which can be opened to the outside.

The structural proportions reverse in the apartments at the third level as they cross

the building (figure 3). Their external ratios are not so extreme; about 2:4, and their

internal divisions move the proportions even closer to normal. The pool, however,

Figure 3 The shifted apartments

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retains the exaggerated sense of narrowness. The much-publicized photograph of

a young woman about to take a dive into shows a person in danger of cracking her

head as the facing side of the pool is only about 8 feet away.

Figure 4 The pool on the roof

The “shifted apartments” are a signature feature of the Villa dall’Ava and while the

concept of a separate apartment is not unusual, their placement is. Perched on

both ends of the structure like a seesaw, they are also offset. Part of the reason for

this is to capitalize on available views and part, according to Colin Davies, was to

better relate them to neighboring structures4 5. The provision of a private space for

la fille Boudet, while understandable, underscores another aspect of the plan in

general; there seems to be no central core. Rather, there are a series of personalized

4 Colin Davies, Key houses of the twentieth century : plans, sections and Elevations (New York: W.W. Nor-ton, 2006), 206. 5 Koolhaas, 181. Koolhaas’ scribbled notes are the source for this interpretation, in which he suggests that the concept of the house should extend beyond its footprint to include its environment and ends by stating, “it is not an object!”

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spaces at various levels that seem to reflect the dissolution of families in general

amidst the growing culture of the individual. The closest thing to a communal space

is the area past the kitchen that is presumably for dining, watching television, and

entertaining, but not for sitting by the hearth. There are no home fires here. It is

also the area most open to the garden and the outside world.

A last look at the structure in general gives the impression of a great weight high

up. This is literally true. The weight of the water in the swimming pool when full

would be about 655 metric tons6 . The internalized column structure that supports

this weight also allows for the non load-bearing perimeter that is essentially a glass

wall. The visual effect is to increase the sense of the mass above, compressing the

6 Calculated by taking the volume of the pool from the drawings (655 cubic meters x 1000 kg)

Figure 5 The first floor past the kitchen showing the perspective distortion

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space below and pushing it outward7 (See figure 11).

Tikal

In northern Guatemala in the province of El Peten, an architectural style of pyramid

temple developed between 200 BC and 800AD based on the concept of divine

kingship and the Mayan calendar. To a visitor today the anomaly of their presence

gives the impression of nothing so much as billboards in the jungle. For they rise to

heights of 200 feet and more, towering over the forest canopy by more than double

the height of the surrounding trees.

Mayan scholar and author, Jeffrey Chouinard, informs us that in the time when Tikal

was a flourishing community of 425,000 souls the jungle had been largely tamed

and reduced to planted corn and groves of breadfruit trees8 , so the incongruity of

their presence would have been lessened, but that was then and this is now. Let us

take anomaly where we find it. In any case, there is nothing to compare with

7 This would coincide with Koolhaas’ intention that the space of the house extend beyond its footprint to include its environment.

8 Jeffrey Chouinard, Mouths of Stone (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1995), 206.

Figure 6 The Mayan temples I, II, and III

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these temple structures in other Mayan buildings, be they royal apartments or other

civic structures. Absent the jungle canopy their perceived height increases rather

than decreases as lower lying structures are revealed. We should note that it is the

overall style and disposition of several of these temples that merits comparison and

that anomalies within the style carry their own meanings.

If the Villa dall’Ava is a top-heavy structure, the pyramids at Tikal take top-heaviness

many steps higher. As if the limestone temples were not massive enough, having

no windows and but a single entrance, the roof combs that tower over them rise in

some case to three times height of the temple rooms below.

Figure 7 Section and Plan of Temple I9

9 “Great Buildings Online” www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Tikal.html The original drawings have been modified by the author.

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The overall proportions of the larger pyramid temples at Tikal are odd as well. From

the side they appear to be very narrow (see figures 7 and 8). In fact, the steps that

access the temples rise at angles of 60 degrees, with risers higher than the steps,

making them dangerous for tourists10. Several have climbed to the top only to die

in the descent11. Chouinard relates that after cutting out the hearts of sacrificial

victims the Mayan priests would throw their bodies down these same steps12. The

angle of declination would surely have facilitated this action.

10 Chouinard, 202.

11 TravelPod “Tikal’s Torments”, http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/stevecori/long_honey-moon/1127171040/tpod.html.

12 Chouinard, 191. Carrying them down would have been risky and way less dramatic.

Figure 8 Temple IV side view The spatial compression here is inward and upward

rather than down and out

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Hopefully, no one has ever been hurt at the Villa dall’Ava, but it is true that stairs,

open, circular, and enclosed, along with the occasional ladder are the key means

of access. The ramp that joins the first and second floors must feel at times like

a welcome alternative. The key difference here is that the design of the Mayan

structure including its stairs is driven by symbolic intent, whereas with Koolhaas the

issues are likely more complex. Was he responding only to much more pedestrian

exigencies such as the limits of the site (zoning)13 and needs for access and flow14?

Surely, the angle of the plot had a lot to do with the configuration of his plan. He

has aligned one side with the long leg of the only right angle of the boundaries. The

other side tapers with the angular opposing plot line. The four meter setback may

have been a clincher.

13 Koolhaas, 134,179

14 It may well have been these same limitations in the first place that caused Koolhaas to enlarge his vision of the “house” to the point where privacy becomes a major issue, as the neighboring homes are situated right on the property lines. One way that Koolhaas dealt with this was by using etched glass panels in the glass wall. He also notes that their sufficiency as “walls” was contested in court. The other provision he made for privacy-was for sliding chenille curtains that could effectively shield any view of the first floor from the outside.

Figure 9 The angled plot closes in to 4 meters

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A look at the model of the villa in the Pompideau Center, however, highlights the

visual interest created by juxtaposing angled plane against angled plane. The result

is sculptural in a cubist mode, recalling some of Picasso’s early works, particularly

the head of a woman from 1909. What, in fact, may be at work here is the process

of “embracing restraints” identified by Nancy Duarte, presentation designer and

CEO of Duarte Design inc.15 The paradox that designers faced after the successes

of modernism and the resulting explosion of aesthetic freedom was that In a world

where anything goes a designer still needs and must actively seek limits -- so that

his or her imagination can function at all16. Really good designers, like Koolhaas,

know how to make this work for them17.

15 Jimmy Gutterman Interview “Ho to Become a Better Manager...By Thinking Like a Designer” MIT SLOAN

MANAGEMENT REVIEW Vol 50 no.4 (2009) 39-42. 16 Without limits there is only paralysis. 17 Of course, this planar effect must be intuited as most of the surfaces are below grade. We are fortunate in having institutions like the Pompideau Center which can bring these things to light.

Figure 11 Angled planes and outward pressure

Figure 10 Picasso Head of a Woman 1909

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Chouinard refers to these angular Mayan temples as “exterior architecture”18. By

this, he means that their main purpose was for show. In fact, temples have been

found that mimic the style at Tikal but provide no functionality whatsoever19.

Symbolically, these temples embody a concept of divine kingship in which

particular kings mattered less than the overall dynasty they represented. Each new

king, inducted by ritual, partook of that divinity. The temples themselves had a dual

function in this respect. They housed the remains of the former king and were also

the dwelling place of the gods. It was the custom to erect a new temple on the

death of the king not so much as a celebration of the past, but as a restatement of

the principle of the dynasty and its future greatness. The space inside the temples is

compromised by thick walls and chambered into six cubicles to the left and right of

a hall that runs front to back20.

18 Chouinard, 187-189. 19 Chouinard, 187-189. 20 Chouinard, 188.

Figure 12 Temple I facing the Great Plaza

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Barely large enough to turn around in, these must have served some ritual purpose,

but what it was is not known. For those who went in and came out alive, however,

the experience would have been one of negotiating a very compressed space and

then coming out into the open, high up, possibly with a crowd below, attendant

upon their every word.

Coincidentally, these structures became larger and more impressive as the security of

power waned; and as the legitimacy of rulers came into question, the depictions of

kings and their exploits recall our own time in the way that image trumps reality. To

quote historian Arthur Miller on the subject of Mayan ruler Stormy Sky21:

Notwithstanding the many questions asked about Stormy Sky’s reign, it seems clear he

commanded the resources to display publicly his 5th-century claim to Tikal’s throne. Whether his rule

was as legitimate and as glorious as visually and textually stated, we will never know. We are looking

at the appearance of rulership, not its substance. But as someone once said; in politics appearance is

all.

All of which is to say that an increase in the size and elaboration of these temples

did not happen by chance. The enormous roof combs mentioned earlier had their

purpose as well: to support brightly painted masks or full figure representations

of the temple gods. The placement of the temples was carefully considered for

both celestial observation and public display. The Mayans were sophisticated

astronomers and organized their life according to a complex system of calendar

cycles. This surely accounts for the alignment of temples with particular planets

21 Arthur G. Miller, Maya rulers of time: a study of architectural sculpture at Tikal, Guatemala (Philadelphia: University Museum, 1986), 52.

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and the winter and summer equinoxes. Just as oysters open with the moon22, and

cow and deer alike line up with north and south23, so it would appear that

humans, too, have an inner need to seek alignment with natural forces, events,

and things. Alignments remove the arbitrary and enhance legitimacy. Perhaps this

drive informed Koolhaas’ delight in noting that the central axis of the site of the

Villa dall’Ava aligned directly with the Eiffel Tower and that one might “see it while

swimming”24.

In the complex known as the north acropolis, three large temples form, with the

great plaza, the equivalent of an amphitheater. It is likely that it was a place for

ritual sacrifice. Surrounded by the brightly painted gods on high and the echoes

of sound that could easily fill the compressed space, the bloodletting rituals would

have been very impressive and very public. The space of the “Great Plaza”, so

named by the Mayans, interests us because of its associations with water 25. The

Mayan name for plaza is also their name for the sea, from which they believed their

ancestors to have come. Water was extremely important to the Mayans because

they needed it for agricultural production. They networked the city of Tikal with

aqueducts, cisterns, reservoirs, and irrigation canals. It was the responsibility of

22 Brown, Frank A. JR. “Persistent Activity Rhythms in the Oyster.” Am J Physiol Vol 173 no.3 (1954) 510-514 This is the classic study on this subject. 23 Begall, Sabine. “Magnetic alignment in grazing and resting cattle and deer.” PNAS vol 105 no.36 (2008) 13451-13455. Begall draws her conclusions not from folklore, but rather from a Google Earth study of the imprints of cows and deer all over the globe. 24 Koolhaas, 133-134. This alignment was apparently fortuitous and not intentional. The aforementioned zoning regulations gave him very little leeway, in any case. It remains a question as to whether one could re-ally see the Eiffel Tower while swimming on top of the Villa dall’Ava.

25 Chouinard, 191.

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the Mayan kings to maintain and replenish this system. While water may not have

been a physical consideration in the construction of these temples, its presence or

the lack of it was very much felt and central to their purpose. The Mayan kings were

above all, rainmakers26 .

That the last of the Mayan rulers should erect a monument to impress on his

subjects the future greatness of his dynasty is not without relevance in this

comparison. It is understandable that M. Boudet, as the chief editor of France’s

largest construction weekly, the publisher of the monthly architectural magazine,

AMC, and undoubtedly a rainmaker himself, did not want just a beautiful house,

but “something that adds to history”. Surely, he also wanted to impress and just as

surely, he would need a space in which to entertain. If, in considering the Mayan

temples, we must narrow our concept of dwelling towards the symbolic, then

in considering the Villa dall’Ava, we need to enlarge our concept to include its

external effect and symbolism. An invited guest approaching the main entrance

would be slowed by the winding path -- placement of the columns does not allow

one to march straight ahead – and encouraged to savor the historical moment and

spirit of the place. His host might be seen descending the spiral staircase to greet

him and upon entry, most likely he would be directed towards the ramp, a long and

narrow traverse by which he could take the measure of the villa and admire the

26 Lisa Joyce Lucero, Water and ritual : the rise and fall of classic Maya rulers (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), 175-195.

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works of art that adorn the walls 27. Arriving at the main second floor space behind

the kitchen, the space would suddenly open up for him to make his entrance.

For important people do not merely enter a room; they make an entrance. If the

weather were good, the room might even be open to the garden and the whole

experience would be one of delightful expansion; not as intense, but comparable

to emerging from the chambers at Tikal. This is not the space of a protected and

refuge seeking family28 . It has become the public or semi public court of a man

engaged in the world of business, and his architectural gem is a testament to his

success.

New York

There is no evidence to suggest that ego was a consideration in Tilted Arc, the

sculpture that Richard Serra installed in the Jacob Javits federal plaza in New York

City in 1981, except in so far as his attempts to eliminate any trace of it29 . His ego

was surely tempted by the commission, however, as it was his one chance to have a

work permanently installed in a government setting, and his assertion that “I did not

make a dime on this project” is very likely true30. Many in the media represented

the controversy as a clash of Serra’s ego with the public interest. However, as the

27 Koolhaas, 148-150. There are, in fact, no artworks. The view through the windows reveals unadorned slabs of [fir] plywood that comprise the room dividers and which recall a construction site more than an art gallery. It was these windows and the concrete wall that framed them that so unhinged the sensibilities of the neighbors that they referred to the ensemble as the Berlin Wall (188). We shall see this reference again. Meanwhile, a visitor might have been able, really, to admire the magnificent pet giraffe of M. Boudet, shown on these pages and used for our frontspiece. 28 Koolhaas, 176,184. In notes regarding the underground room for the father, Koolhaas observes that it is the only room from which the surrounding houses cannot be seen, and paradoxically, surrounded by earth; it is the closest to nature. Meant as a refuge for the father, the “cave” as he calls it, would be taken over by the daughter while she went through her “existentialist” phase. 29 As an artist renowned for the size of his ego, this surely required a substantial effort on Serra’s part. 30 Harriet Senie, The Tilted arc controversy: dangerous precedent? (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002), 3-6.

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record makes clear, in this case “the public interest” came to be conflated with that

of a few Reagan appointees31.

In fact, what was at work here was an intentional clash of languages that Serra took

great pains to bring about. Within the nondescript fabric of buildings that surround

the empty plaza and its dysfunctional fountain, Serra’s piece worked in anomalous

ways to enter into a critical dialogue with its environment and thereby to change its

context. According to Serra, these are principle goals of what he calls a site-

specific piece 32. In Serra’s words:

Tilted Arc was constructed so as to engage the public in a dialogue that would enhance,

both perceptually and conceptually, its relation to the entire plaza. The sculpture involved the viewer

rationally and emotionally. A multitude of readings is possible.

My hope is that the viewer can learn something about a sculptural orientation to space and place.

31 Senie, 67. 32 Senie, 11-13.

Figure 13 Tilted Arc

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The work, through its location, height, length, horizontality, and lean, grounds one into the physical

condition of the place. The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the

plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result

from the viewer’s movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire

environment changes. The space can be experienced as compressed, foreshortened, or extended.33

To bolster his case that it is the “intention of site specific works to alter their

context”, he turns to none other than Le Corbusier, citing his opinion that the

frescoes of the Sistine Chapel both enhance and destroy the wall34. If we can

attribute intention and thereby consciousness to an inert piece of steel (as the

Mayans did with stone), we might say that in its clash with the plaza, and then, the

government, Tilted Arc becomes self-aware. In this way, so does the Villa dall’Ava.

The ways in which the piece stood out were certainly in its proportions. Like the

villa dall’Ava it is long and narrow; 2.5” wide by 120’, to be exact35. Its 12’ height

makes it appear from above, as a ribbon of steel. Weighing 90 tons or more, it

affirms a Serra statement that his sculpture was all about weight. However, this

is weight on the ground, not in a high place. Furthermore, it sits directly on the

ground, asserting its connection to the earth36 . There is no base that would serve to

set a traditional sculpture apart from its environment and make it special. Sculptors

previous to Serra had certainly used Cor-ten steel. Anthony Caro and David Smith

33 Senie, 65. 34 Senie, 12. 35 ANSC Image Library, Tilted Arc, http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/819.html. 36 It may be appropriate to relate it in this respect to the underground room intended for M. Boudet.

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are two examples. Nevertheless, it was not

a common choice. Its stark, industrial

quality puts it in the same category as the

corrugated aluminum that clads the Villa

dall’Ava. Both the metal and the curvature

of the piece evoke the shipyard and by

extension, water, by which it rusts, turning

red orange at first. Over time, its surface

stabilizes and patinates into a rich brown.

From above, Tilted Arc looked like a dingy

soliton crossing a Mayan sea.

Its presence among the limestone government offices would have been less of an

eyesore if it had not become a magnet for graffiti, one of the principle objections

raised by the people who wanted it removed. Another objection, taken seriously

but never substantiated, was that it fostered rats. A third objection was that it

blocked access for people who wanted to cross the plaza. Serra, however, had

carefully studied pedestrian traffic across the plaza and placed the sculpture so that

it did not block access to any of the main entrances to buildings. In fact, he meant

it to fit with the flow of foot traffic so that people would walk along its length.

Nevertheless, one critic referred to it as the Berlin Wall37.

37 Senie, 126. This simile appears to have infected cultural discourse on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps it was the posturing of Ronald Reagan in 1987 to Mikhail Gorbachev, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”, that inspired this silliness.

Figure 14 Tilted Arc from above

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It may have blocked access to the fountain that sits nearby, but it was only the

idea of a fountain since no water splashed or bubbled in that dry place. Those

who were against the piece, however, felt the loss of the fountain deeply. Serra’s

subsequent experience with the government and the courts would come as no

surprise to Dominique Boudet. It took seven years of court battles finally to allow

Koolhaas’ to build his villa. After nine years of deliberations and public hearings,,

the US government destroyed the Serra piece.

In her defense of Tilted Arc , historian and critic Rosalind Krause expanded on

Serra’s explanation of minimalist sculpture and the manner in which it works. She

located Tilted Arc squarely in the long tradition of art that has taken the human

body as its subject. Only here, the subject is not located in the work, but rather in

the viewer. To experience a work like Tilted Arc is to experience your own

Figure 15 Tilted Arc and the Fountain

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changing perceptions of the piece and the space around it as you walk its

length38. Koolhaas would surely have been aware of the methods and intentions of

minimalist art when it occurred to him to create the winding path into his villa39.

A winding path

In a recent critique40 of Koolhaas, Prof. Anna Klingman traces his roots further back

than minimalist art. Klingman claims that Koolhaas’ strategies are the extension of

discoveries that Warhol and Beuys made in the 60’s --- based on suppositions that

the everyday and banal could be a source for the sublime and that artistic

process could subvert and even co-opt the corporate culture of commodification.

38 Senie, 81-82. 39 Koolhaas, 176. That Koolhaas struggled with this is evident from the notes on his drawings. 40 Anna J. Klingman “The MEANING(less) POPularity of REM KOOLHAAS.”Thresholds no.29 (2005) 74-80.

Figure 16 straight? random? scientific?

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Exploring terms such as “cheap”, “ugly”, “contaminated”, and “grotesque”41 to

describe the anomalies we have found in the villa dall’Ava, she finds them to be

complete departures from modernist aesthetics. Nevertheless, seeing Koolhaas as

a non-ideological purveyor of modernist “hybrids”42, Klingman appreciates that

these departures are what give the work of Koolhaas “legs”, to borrow a journalistic

phrase. Admittedly, Koolhaas is postmodernist, at least in the sense that modernism

has evolved or devolved (depending on your point of view) into postmodernism at

large, but it seems a stretch to tie him so closely to Andy Warhol. Since Klingman

has raised the spectre of Andy, is it not fair to present at least one of his images,

41 Klingman, 5 - 14.

42 Klingman, 20.

Figure 17 Piss Painting, Andy Warhol, 1971

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particularly one that evokes the terms she uses? While there may be a kind of

aqueous association with the Villa dall’Ava, it seems rather thin43. Contrasted to

Koolhaas’ rough concrete volumes the painting’s offhanded abjectness amplifies the

sentiments of critic David Wallace-Wells; that Warhol was as much a captive of the

“dysfunctional” world he helped create as its leader44.

Koolhaas, on the other hand, (and Klingman would appear to agree) navigates the

“waters” of modernism-postmodernism adeptly, committing to no avant guard, but

charting his own “performance”45 based course, even where it may “accelerate a

state of the ephemeral”46.

Temporality

With the anomalies of material choice, proportion, space, and authorship, there

does come a sense of temporality for the Villa dall’Ava, both in its physical aspect

47 and in its strategic effect. This is not the permanence, stability, and quality that

we had come to expect from architecture48, in the footsteps of Mies and Corbu.

We must enlarge our idea of the house to take it in. And we have; just as we have

accepted Andy Warhol into our pantheon of art gods. But by now, the ascension of

43 It would appear that Andy was something of a rainmaker himself. Although the authorship of many of these paintings is uncertain, it is known that Warhol participated in the early canvasses, along with friends. They were made by preparing a canvas with oxidizing copper paint, laying it flat in the manner of Jackson Pol-lock, and pissing on it the way Pollock (notorious for his public voidings) would have.

44 David Wallace-Wells, “Andy Warhol: Factory Man.” Newsweek, 12 December 2009, 66. 45 Klingman, 23.

46 Klingman, 22. 47 To be specific, many of the physical aspects of the villa dall’Ava suggest that it was done “on the fly”. The corrugated aluminum has all of the permanence of a Quonset hut. The angled support columns impart the playfulness of “pick up sticks”, and the instability of its massing suggests that it might fall over if asked. 48 It is not the permanence that Serra expected either.

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the Villa dall’Ava into icon-hood would seem to spell the demise of its challenge49.

We have seen repeatedly that anomaly is a relative term but nonetheless useful as

a comparative tool. When applied to the Villa dall’Ava, which appears strange at

first view, the idea of abnormal is mitigated by an understanding of the concerns

that drove Koolhaas to find particular solutions to the problems with which he

was confronted50. Conversely, the codified style of temple building developed

by the Mayans can be seen as full of anomalies, both in its own terms and in

our expectations of what would constitute a temple. These particular qualities,

however, can shed light on some of the formal and functional aspects of the

Koolhaas villa. As well, the anomalous aesthetic strategies of Richard Serra help us

to understand both the originality of Koolhaas’ ideas and the ambiguous reception

they received51.

In the end, however, the controversies they generated have not been unkind

to either Koolhaas, whose name has become synonymous with architectural

innovation, or Serra, who had a retrospective at MOMA in 2007 and remains as

irrepressible as ever52. Both, for better or worse, have become part of our culture.

49 One of the problems for minimalist art, as well, is that once you “get it”, it ceases to hold your interest. 50 The clients specified the glass house with the pool on the roof. Zoning regulations determined the foot-print on the site. 51 Unfortunately, for Serra, his strategies turned out to be no match for the distressingly normal practices of a conservative administration. 52 Karen Rosenberg “Richard’s Arc: How Serra went from being a steely pariah toNew York’s favorite sculptor.” http://nymag.com/arts/art/profiles/32110/

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It is a testament to their vitality that both men have flourished and continue to take

their art to new levels.

Let us imagine Stormy Sky in the fifth century, beset by declining rainfall and nigh,

the passing of his reign, step by step ascended to the gods. If chambered under the

comb of his temple, there to induce blood-let visions, Stormy Sky perchance saw

further than intended, even into our own time; he might have been speechless

Figure 18 Stormy Sky (drawing by William R. Coe)

27

before an anomalous vision of a young woman gaily splashing towards the Eiffel

tower; or a bone dry fountain fending off an “ugly” and vengefull wall of rust. But

he could have spoken at length to their temporality of both their authors and their

anomaly.

For anomaly is like the principle of kingship in Tikal. It lies not in the individual

or the object. Rather, the work or the king carries it for a time, until it is time for

the next individual to pick it up and move forward. Without it there would be no

forward. When that happens, perhaps we could say, “Anomaly is dead. Long live

Anomaly!”

28

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