Page 69 - Studio International - April 1973

Art information

News and notes says, 'usefulness is always sacrificed. The spaces instance passes at either '0' or 'A' level in
of an edifice must, like a motor, give the particular subjects, may be adopted for
maximum return. For symmetry, however, light individual courses at individual colleges.
and space are conceded to areas with no need 3. Entrants to the Dip AD three-year courses
for them, while others, most necessary to should generally have completed a Foundation
modern life, are deprived of them'. 'The facade course of one year.
of a house', he says elsewhere, 'must descend, 4. Students may enter a three-year Dip AD
rise, undo, enter or protrude according to the course directly from the sixth form provided
Newly discovered Boccioni manifesto power of the requirements of the rooms which that the admitting college and the NCDAD are
Further evidence of the internal contradictions compose it. It is the exterior that the architect satisfied in each case of the student's
of Futurism, between the various strands must sacrifice to the interior as in painting and competence to undertake the work on an equal
ill-woven into its ideology and between the sculpture. And since the exterior has always been footing with the students from Foundation
personalities gathered around Marinetti, has a traditional exterior, the new exterior resulting courses.
been offered us by Zena Birolli who has from the triumph of the interior will create 5. Exemption from the minimum
discovered amongst the Boccioni papers a ineluctably the new architectural line. requirements is permissible in cases of students
hitherto unknown and unsuspected draft for 'We have said that in painting we want to place of marked creative promise.
a manifesto upon architecture. It had always the spectator in the centre of the picture, Effectiveness of the present arrangements
seemed something of a mystery that Boccioni's making him, that is, a centre of emotion rather These arrangements have worked exceptionally
ideas of 'plastic dynamism' should not have than simple spectator. So too, the architectural well since the introduction of Dip AD courses in
found an expression in some sort of declaration environment of the city is transformed in a 1963.
about architecture. Moreover, for many years sense of surrounding. We live in a spiral of i. They make possible a very wide application
there had been some speculation about the architectonic forces'. from a variety of backgrounds - very valuable
divergences between Sant' Elia's original In these quotations Zevi sees an anticipation from an educational point of view.
Messaggio and the Manifesto, edited by of Dutch Neo-plasticism in its ideas of the 2. The very considerable number of applicants
Marinetti, culminating in Bruno Zevi's elevation, and of Tatlin in the spiral wrap- who can only satisfy the existing minimum
discussion of the essay of Giovanni Bernasconi, around of urban environment, and in the academic requirements but who have special
as Bruno Zevi has hastened to tell us in his following passage an intimation of the visual and aesthetic sensitivity are able to
column of L'Espresso of 11 February. 'megastructure' : 'Until yesterday construction proceed with the development of their
Though Birolli is at pains in his critical notes developed in a panoramic sense of succession. particular talents.
to stress the agreement between Boccioni's and One house followed another, and one street 3. If specific requirements such as '0' and 'A'
Sant' Elia's ideas, and this is more or less what another. Today we begin to have around us an level passes in particular subjects are considered
Marinetti did in his editing of Sant' Elia's architectural environment that develops in all desirable they can be adopted for individual
text, and in his decision not to publish Boccioni's, directions . . . Life will cut through the secular courses.
Zevi is more properly concerned with the horizontal line of the earth's surface . . . The 4. Students who enter Foundation courses
differences. Boccioni was always in some sense future prepares for us a sky unlimited for prior to Dip AD have the benefit of working for
or other a figure apart. He remained more or less architectural structures'. q a year in a diagnostic situation, in an Art and
'marxist' for one thing. He was the one really Design environment, and, to quote from the
great talent at a European level for another. Joint Report, 'receive educational and
The points in common are the obvious Statement by the Academic Board of The vocational guidance on the basis of performance
rhetorical attacks upon academics and hacks - Polytechnic, Wolverhampton, on the and developing interests'.
architecture then as now was dominated by both- proposal by the National Council for Diplomas The effects of the latest proposals
upon the reverence for the past and for a false in Art and Design to change the entry It is now proposed to introduce a minimum
tradition, and the affirmations of the need for arrangements for Diploma in Art and Design entry requirement of two 'A' level GCE passes
total renewal and the ecstatic eulogy of industrial courses: for entry to Dip AD courses.
products. But much of this, except for its wild The Academic Board is very concerned over the The main adverse effects of this proposal if
declamatory form, was not even peculiar to the proposal by the National Council for Diplomas implemented would be felt in the three
futurists, and some of it was already under way in Art and Design whereby two 'A' level passes following ways:
in the projects if not the actual practice of the in GCE would be required as part of the . Applicants
pioneer architects of this century. qualification necessary for entry to Diploma in The number and range of applicants would be
An immediate difference, as Zevi notes, is this Art and Design courses. restricted by excluding nearly all those who
passage from Boccioni's draft; 'The architect The present arrangement could not fully satisfy the new requirements.
needs must throw everything over and forget to These were set out in the First Report of the One of the greatest educational benefits
be an architect. He must turn to a new basis, National Advisory Council for Art Education in resulting from the introduction of Dip AD
other than the archaism of the Egyptians or the 196o and were again recommended in the recent where application for entry is on a national basis,
primitivism of peasants, the architectonics joint Report by the National Advisory Council is the wide variety of students' background -
imposed upon us as pure necessity by the for Art Education and the National Council for educational, social and geographical. Any
conditions of life created by science. The great Diplomas in Art and Design on the Structure of restriction on the application would only serve
popular housing blocks with their nudity and Art and Design Education. to reduce the richness of the total educational
their simple decoration of white-solid and The conditions are summarized in the Report as: experience.
void-black are much nearer reality than the villa 1. The minimum age of entry is 18 years. 2. Exceptional entry
or the palace ... In this there is some breath 2. The normal minimum academic To increase the percentage of applications for
of Boccioni's socialism with its recognition of the requirements are five GCE passes at '0' level (or 'exceptional entry'.
emotive values of working class quarters. an approved equivalent) but specific An 'exceptional entry' does not qualify for a
Boccioni attacks symmetry, 'For which', he requirements for other qualifications, for mandatory award. As an increase in this kind of
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