ABSTRACT
The question seems worth pursuing because it is undeniable that rooms predate our use of them. They also remain as they were once we have finished with them. With just this single and simple observation about the building’s extended temporality in mind, can it not be said that architecture exists quite happily and completely without us, that it is not entirely determined by “anthropological predicates” but is articulate on its own terms, that it is to some degree un-predicated, even auto-predicated? The turn to “experience” in architectural discourse, often announced with all good intentions, is generally a secret turn to design and production, insofar as the perceived is taken to be what is offered in designed perspectives. While congenial to technical or professional interests, this turn might well cause us to miss the reality of the building itself — especially that architectural reality that stands there irrespective of the vagaries of my interests or yours. My working hypothesis is that the theme of performance is a key to the building’s internal definition or pre-predicated existence.
