#12 A SUMMARY : MAISON JAOUL IN CONTEXT

Up to now the class has been discussing the idea of copying and altering previous works in order to create new ones. In Agamben's theories about what it is to be contemporary, he explains that one is only contemporary when they're able to look past what's the "good" currently and acknowledge the bad, looking into the past to learn from it. In art and music the same thing happens in a matter of series and variations. Artists do series of their own work as well as other's works. In music, an example of this technique is jazz music, where the musicians use their knowledge of music theory to compose improvised pieces in their work. Covers in music are also an example, where an original song is re-interpreted by someone else. This arises the question : is originality a real thing or is everything just a rework of something else. In the copy and paste manifesto it's proposed that the technique comes back to architecture and stops being a shunned practice, we should take advantage of the things we know work and transform them according to hour needs. "Everything is a remix" makes the point that we can't create without influence and the use of a "precedent" being a controversial subjects since using these can further our work and improve it as well. Architects such as EMBT and Lacation + Vassal admit that their work is also influenced by previous works of their own and other's and continue to use the same influences in their next work.

From this point on we have the conclusion that we can choose to utilize, copy, alter or completely ignore the past. Le Corbusier is no exception when it comes to this and an example would be the Maison Jaoul where he strays does both copy and ignore the past. He goes against his own 5 principles of architecture when it comes to these houses. Starting with the fact that the house strays away from the principles of a free plan and the house being built upon pilotis (1) . The structure in these houses is very particular because both of them mimic each other's structure(3), their orientation is almost a mirror , making the circulation cores and structures an almost copy of one another (5) . He then goes on to use materials not common to his usual works that would be used in more primitive climates. These include the brick walls, concrete slabs for the floor, ceiling and the Catalan vault structure holding it up, which is also stems away from the usual Le Corbusier structural techniques and materials. (5-8). This just goes to show that even some of the most well known architects can either put aside what's being used currently and resort to past mediums to further their own work and move forward in the field.

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Through this course we've touched the topic of reclaiming copy and paste in our field of work. Originality and the strive for originality shouldn't be something that holds us back from creating and bettering our craft. Though, of course I don't agree with copying work verbatim, but I do agree that we can't create without past influence or knowledge about it. We need to look back at what's worked and not worked before in our field. In order for us to not repeat history's mistakes and instead duplicate it's success we must study it and see what's applicable to today's problems and use them. Our society is changing at a quick pace and there's no room for arguments over what is original and what isn't, and it shouldn't affect creativity or productivity.