734
PARTISAN REVIEW
tion, limit, push, pull, support one another; which leap together and
leap apart like groups of acrobats in a circus, who transform themselves
from one unit of two or more bodies into another unit, without losing
their balance. In life this balance can be lost only once. And then
there is no net to catch one, as in the arena. There is only death.
Correalism expires.
If
we had progressed to the point of working freely, that is,
of creating a concrete thing free from the realities of routine, then
we architects would surely not plan buildings by "drawing floor
plans"; we would first of all (and I have been trying to do this for
many years*) project on paper the nucleus of the "dwelling-uni–
verse":
the nervous system of the house.
At this stage we need
not greatly concern ourselves with the future ears, hands and other
functional organs of the body of the house, for these possibilities are of
course already present in the germ cell of the initial draft. The feet
of our houses, or stairs, the noses, or ventilators-all these structural
units have today once more been technically well solved (as
in
pha–
raonic Egypt and in Renaissance Italy) -these elements are avail–
able; they can be had for money. What cannot be bought is the
character of the species. This must be invented. And in order to
achieve it, all of the creative instinct of an individual who takes it
upon himself to be an architect is needed. "Modernized" tradition is
not enough. Himself a being which does not consist only of muscle,
bone and fluid-an architect should conceive of a new house not as
mere walls and roof with a heating and cooling system, but as a living
organism with the reactivity of a full-blooded creature. The house
is not a digestive apparatus. Man is a nucleus of natural forces, living
in emotions and dreams, through the medium of his physique. Every
millimeter of his physical environment is inspiration, not merely
mechanical contact. But his aesthetic needs cannot be lastingly satisfied
by pictures, carpets, tapestries and candelabra intended to make
his
house "livable."
On the other hand, we must not-in the hope of making the
house commodious-turn the process of its creation in reverse, and
begin with the "purely" aesthetic element, building in the practical
*
See designs for the "Endless," Paris 1925, reproduced in the Architectural
Record of 1931; "Space House," Architectural Record, 1935; "Salle de Super–
stition,"
L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui,
Paris, April, 1949.
