Architecture without Content 5: Places Of Accumulation: Machines

This book shows the fifth incarnation of Architecture without Content. Architecture without Content started three years ago at Columbia University. Back then it was intended as a study of the Big Box, a big industrial building that could contain many things . Over time, Architecture without Content came to represent an idea of a possible architecture of the perimeter, a pragmatic kind of architecture that remains radical and precise. Architecture without Content 5 was held at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Epfl). This time we were dealing with Places of Accumulation. Places of Accumulation are both places of production and places of storage. They are buildings that concentrate the very essence of our contemporary infrastructure. In most cases they are not considered as possible sites for an architectural project. Places of Accumulation investigates the possibility of accumulating formal knowledge in buildings that do not deserve a specific architectural treatment. Their presence is all they have, but perhaps that is enough. Places of Accumulation starts from the presumption that it might be possible to ignore content and still make precise architecture. For that reason we will make form first, and content later.