Lebbeus Woods: Manifesto (1993)

Lebbeus Woods brings his readers an opportunity to experience a kind of space that hasn't been experienced before through the use of opposites that use it in an enigmatic way. His dystopian ideologies are often set in disaster struck regions like Havana and New York that adopt a sort of faceted layer methodology over the destruction caused by the war. Strangely, his writing seems extremely pessimistic but when you look at his other works, architectural ambitions and drawings, he seems to have changed the way young architects think. (Fig1a&1b) It seems as though drawings transformed him and vice versa. Together they seem to have transformed the entire discourse. His visions are extraordinary and fragile which adds onto its durability.

Fig1a: Lebbeus Woods, “Metastructure,” from ‘Bosnia Free Zone’ (1993), showing the wall of the Bosnia Free State
Photo credit: https://hyperallergic.com/271184/uncovering-a-manifesto-in-the-blog-of-visionary-architect-lebbeus-woods/

Fig1b: Reintepretation of "Metastructure"
Photo credit: Aashika Shibu

This manifesto was written as a direct response to an emergency situation in Sarajevo, Bosnia - a city that was under a continuous terrorist attack. (Fig2a-2c) The city was considered a siege as snipers had turned streets into shooting zones and gunners had changed residential buildings into literal death traps. This made it clear that architecture was one of the main problems that killed thousands of people. Through the manifesto, Woods tries to tell the readers that architecture could also be a solution to this problem. People had already built temporary shields against these terrorists and modified their homes to withstand the attack without the help of architects. Woods reasoned that these structure, though well effective for the situation, created a degraded environment, thereby giving the terrorists what they wanted. To survive and push the terrorists away, they needed a sense of order that needed to be designed. From here, he went on to set some basic rules for reconstruction, being aware of the fact that rebuilding a damaged city when the people regained their energy to build a new city, would flag the start of a new civic life as well. One of the foremost principle was that the restoration should never be a mere facade of return, nor should it be totally rebuilt over its history, but must be a collaboration of the two. The city must create the new from the old.

Fig2a: Lebbeus Woods, “War and Architecture 2-2”, 1993, provoked by the war in Bosnia
Photo credit: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2012/oct/31/lebbeus-woods

Fig2b: Lebbeus Woods, “Sarajevo,” from ‘War and Architecture’ (1993), a proposal for the reconstruction of the Electrical Management Building
Photo credit: https://hyperallergic.com/271184/uncovering-a-manifesto-in-the-blog-of-visionary-architect-lebbeus-woods/

Fig2c: Lebbeus Woods, “High Houses,” from ‘War and Architecture’ (1993) 
Photo credit: https://hyperallergic.com/271184/uncovering-a-manifesto-in-the-blog-of-visionary-architect-lebbeus-woods/

In a blog written after 15 years, Lebbeus Woods revisited the basic principles and elaborated them on the basis of having studied the cities that were destroyed by to the World War. He feels that the reconstruction must be guided by local architects who understand the local conditions much better and has lived through the rough times. The broader principles are as follows:

First Principle: Restore what has been lost to its pre-war condition

This principle aims to restore an original post war condition where people feel lost as a result of the war. The idea here to to consider war as a interruption in their normal lives.

Second Principle: Demolish the damaged and destroyed buildings and build something entirely new

This could mean building something radically different from what existed before or an improvised version of the pre-war normal life. The decision for either of these depend of the desires of the people and how they handle post war trauma. 

Third Principle: The post-war city must create the new from the damaged old (Fig3a-3c)

Most buildings destroyed in the war are salvageable and hence, they must be used in creating the "new" city. And since the new ways of living will differ from the old, new ideas for living must be incorporated. 

Additionally, in a practical sense, symbolic buildings such as churches, museums etc must be salvaged as there is a culture and memory of people to be restored whereas ordinary residential buildings do not have anything special to be restored and hence the application of the third principle would be expensive. For reconstruction of war-damaged cities like Syria, he suggests we apply the Third Principle alone and that'd be sufficient.

Fig3a: Lebbeus Woods, A typical residential block, badly damaged, reconstructed with new spaces for residents. The principle here is that reconstruction integrates people’s experiences of the destruction into needed social changes, as well as architectural ones.
Photo credit: https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/war-and-architecture-three-principles/

Fig3b: Lebbeus Woods, Typical residential blocks, damaged and reconstructed. Most of such ordinary buildings are damaged only in part and can be salvaged by reconstruction for the post-war city and its new ways of living.
Photo credit: https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/war-and-architecture-three-principles/

Fig3c: Lebbeus Woods, Typical residential blocks, damaged and reconstructed 
Photo credit: https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/war-and-architecture-three-principles/

Reference

https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/war-and-architecture-the-sarajevo-window/

https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/war-and-architecture-three-principles/

https://hyperallergic.com/271184/uncovering-a-manifesto-in-the-blog-of-visionary-architect-lebbeus-woods/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2012/oct/31/lebbeus-woods