The School of Architecture of the Universidad Finis Terrae (Chile) is pleased to announce the Between Van Eycks and Smithsons Symposium: Theoretical Convergences, Practical Divergences. Thresholds, Doorsteps, Transitions, seeking to delve into specific conditions of the architectural works of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck and Alison and Peter Smithson, and to discuss their broad conceptual problems.
The symposium proposes a place to understand what is between the theoretical and practical work of the couples Aldo and Hannie van Eyck and Peter and Alison Smithson. How do they converge and how do they diverge in terms of architecture? As participants of the last CIAMs during the second half of 1950’s and exponents of Team 10 (with the exception of Hannie) during the next two decades, both pairs seem to stick together, although obviously separated. Observed from their written work, both sides intersect with the use of a series of coinciding or similar terms: doorstep, threshold, space between, in-between, as found, elementary. But also of divergent terminologies, yet seeming to point towards the same horizon: charged void (by the Smithson), twin phenomena (by Aldo), mat-building (Smithson), configurative discipline (Aldo). We submerge, then, the world of words -which try to grasp and make sense of the world-. This horizon, what they seem to be trying to grasp and name and finally materialize, seems to be the notion of relativity and the pairs of inextricable associations it implies. To what extent do the Smithsons exist, acquire meaning and gain value for the existence of the Van Eycks and vice versa? How do they strengthen each other?
Guest speakers are recognized experts in these characters and the disciplinary problems related to them. Their papers seek to shed light on the debate from the exploration of works, design strategies and the experience of built works.
