ABSTRACT

From 1963 to 1968, architect Claude Parent and cultural theorist Paul Virilio formed the Architecture Principe group, which in its 1966 eponymous magazine—the group’s manifesto—developed the theory of the oblique function. The idea was to design the building and the city exclusively using horizontal and inclined planes, on which the residents would have to exert themselves physically in order to get around. Architecture Principe’s drawings show topographical architectural reliefs, so to speak, that were intended to generate new types of perceptual experiences and encounters. The oblique function should be seen as a countertheory to the technophilic approach of urban design during the progress-driven post-war era in France, the Trente Glorieuses, at the end of which Virilio developed his criticism of speed (dromology). This chapter starts with a look at the importance that Martina Löw and Hubert Knoblauch ascribe to the role of circulation in the refiguration of spaces to determine how circulation influences urban design and architecture.