L’Architecture de Survie: Ou Invente Aujourd’hui le Monde de Demain by Yona Friedman (review)

Book Reviews 57 acknowledge the Journal's editor, Norman Temme, and contributing editor, Helene Weis. Short summaries are given of each work mentioned. Many books are dismissed with three final words: "Contains no index." Or, more damningly, "Does not provide illustrations." The summaries are fascinating reading (where else can we trace the burial of a monkey, depicted in glass?). Browsing gives us a bird's-eye view of the whole subject. This suggests that British authors' interest in stained glass is largely antiquarian, whereas writers in the U.S.A. see it as an industry, beset by economic and labor-relations problems, training programs and "the spectre of European competition." Although we learn that John Piper has warned that obsession with technique results in mediocre design, most experts, on both sides of the Atlantic, concentrate on technical processes. Remarkably few discuss artistic merit at all, although it seems hard to justify such a large bibliography on any other grounds. The word "beauty" appears to have been last used in 1920(by T. A. O. Shaughnessy). Only the French critic Joseph Pichard (not mentioned in this volume) has written: "Stained glass, like all great works of art, is a message of the spiritual." (Coventry Cathedral Catalogue: Art Sacre Salon, stained glass exhibition, May 1978). L'Architecture de Survie: Ou Invente Aujourd'hui Ie Monde de Demain. (The Architecture ofSurvival: Where the World ofTomorrow Is Invented Today) "Syntheses Contemporaries" dirige par Michael Ragon. Yona Friedman. Casterman, Tournai Belgique, 1978. 169 pp., illus. Paper. ISBN: 2-203-23161-0. Reviewed by Pierre Szekely* Reading Yona Friedman's latest book has given meas much pleasure as I derive in listening to her speak. Her enthusiasm for uncovering the truth, her conviction that truth can only be other people, her scientifically presented but simple formulations, and-last but not least-her 'cool' sense of humor are always present throughout the book. To help me with this review I began reading with the idea of underlining the important passages, which I did until it became apparent I would be underlining the entire book. The author is an architect who builds with her imagination. She tells us about 'possible' architecture and invites us to join our imagination to hers and to get cracking without running for help to other 'experts', meaning professional architects. In the beginning, for us to become 'selfplanning ' architects ourselves, it is enough to take a few buttons and string them together according to the accompanying diagrams. Then the advantages of gathering together in 'shanty-towns' (without, for all that, encroaching on the territory of 'critical groups' capable of working properly) become apparent at once. Friedman's shanty-towns are not necessarily those weare all too familiar with. We are asked to build them consciously to avoid the poverty and misery which our otherwisewealthy societies force on us. It is all too true that no political power can guarantee food and shelter to millions of human beings. It is up to us, as of right now, to learn how to get by, in part by looking to those populations which, by an over-long experience of misery, are better prepared than we for living with poverty. These 'shanty-towns' will be our Noah's Arks, placing us on firm ground out of reach of economic storms, always able to feed us. Kitchen gardens will fit harmoniously among the easy-to-heat, labyrinth-like habitations. If there actually are any governments left pretending they want to help their citizens, let them provide flexible, water-resistant materials so people can make roofs that may double as water-tanks. Survival architecture includes food and social relationships. Thanks to the natural and spontaneous genius of its architects, i.e., the people themselves, survival architecture has always existed in every part of the world, and by making us aware of it, this book suggests that it issuitable for all of the world's populations. In the chapter "What To Do?" the author sums up in the following manner: (a) Stop the increasing birth rate. (b) Reduce the standard of living. (c) Continue to conduct ourselves as we have always done, and simultaneously accustom the human animal to the planet...