Theory & Projects

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Shortdescription In the 1930s, Frederick Kiesler (1890-1965) developed the theory of Correalism as a transdisciplinary research method in architecture and design. It was based on the latest findings of systems theory, biology and the technical sciences and has called for the combination of empirical scientific research, holistic human-centred design (Correalism) and the practical testing of emergent knowledge (Biotechnique).

In the 1930s, Frederick Kiesler (1890-1965) developed the theory of Correalism as a transdisciplinary research method in architecture and design. It was based on the latest findings of systems theory, biology and the technical sciences and has called for the combination of empirical scientific research, holistic human-centred design (Correalism) and the practical testing of emergent knowledge (Biotechnique).

Kiesler’s neologism contains the terms co-realism and correlation, referring to the interrelation of three environments: the natural, the human and the technical environment. The human being is at the centre of these interrelations, which Kiesler also refers to as interacting forces. Having published the ground-breaking article “On Correalism and Biotechnique” in 1939, Kiesler’s Correalism- research in the 1940s and 1950s focused on the critique of “pseudo-functionalism” and modernism, which he saw as favouring the “arbitrary separation of architecture into art, technology and economy.”

Kiesler’s neologism contains the terms co-realism and correlation, referring to the interrelation of three environments: the natural, the human and the technical environment. The human being is at the centre of these interrelations, which Kiesler also refers to as interacting forces. Having published the ground-breaking article “On Correalism and Biotechnique” in 1939, Kiesler’s Correalism- research in the 1940s and 1950s focused on the critique of “pseudo-functionalism” and modernism, which he saw as favouring the “arbitrary separation of architecture into art, technology and economy.”

XXX With his work at the Laboratory for Design Correlation at Columbia University (1937-1941), Kiesler is considered a visionary pioneer of artistic teaching, trans-, inter- and cross-disciplinary work, as well as a trailblazer for artistic research. The symposium emphasises the need of challenging the new pragmatism in architecture by re- visiting prospective scenarios of the past and imagining an archaeology of the future.

XXX In the 1930s, Frederick Kiesler (1890-1965) developed the theory of Correalism as a transdisciplinary research method in architecture and design. It was based on the latest findings of systems theory, biology and the technical sciences and has called for the combination of empirical scientific research, holistic human-centred design (Correalism) and the practical testing of emergent knowledge (Biotechnique).

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In order to meet the complex challenges of the present with viable concepts for alternative “futures”, it is important to “tune-in” with those who paradigmatically stood for a critical and reflexive opening of the profession toward other disciplines. In addition to Frederick Kiesler, Richard Buckminster Fuller and Victor Papanek, among others, anticipated much of what is now called trans- or interdisciplinary working methods. Kiesler, Fuller and Papanek exemplify the synthesis of art, humanistic design, and technological innovation.