The Open Work

Definition

The open work (Eco's opera aperta) is "the work that demands to be decoded, but not according to any script"(p. 63) — Jencks's name for the tradition of the enigmatic signifier: "the open work, the enigmatic signifier, has many suggestive meanings that point in a direction and ask that one travels along an unknown route with the search as part of the goal" (p. 63). Jencks adopts Eco's title as the frame for the enigmatic signifier: "There is a tradition unfolding here, a common thread even if it has no label. But if a name is sought, one might call it 'the open work,' after Umberto Eco's book of that title" (p. 63). Its architectural specification, in the conclusions: "those creations that allow completion by the viewer, those that elicit multiple interpretation along coherent but unchartered lines. The structure of the open work may channel understanding along certain avenues, but it does not force those in search of the meaning down a single or one-way alley" (p. 203) — and its risk-structure: "With the open work, open to innovation and new interpretation, there are no guarantees of outcome either way; there is only the framework of similar attempts we can bring to bear in judging the design" (p. 200).

The controlled openness is what separates the open work from mere randomness: "the successful iconic building grows from the inside to the outside, and takes up its new metaphors from this growth. Its requirements, context, and function direct the open work along broad boulevards of possibilities. As Zaha Hadid's work shows, the coherence of the architect's aesthetic further guides the understanding. Thus the iconic building is open to new interpretation, but in a controlled way" (p. 203). The building as "a giant iconostasis asking to be decoded, which is why people come back again and again to try to fathom the meaning" (p. 182).

Key Thinkers

• Umberto Eco — the source concept, invoked by Jencks for Ronchamp's "temple to the universe and a spiritual exploration without a religion" (p. 63): the open work as "the work that demands to be decoded, but not according to any script."
• Charles Jencks — the architectural application: the open work as the name for the enigmatic signifier's tradition, "from Ronchamp and the early 1950s" (p. 195), with the control conditions (inside-out growth, aesthetic coherence) that keep it from noise.
• Robert Venturi — the perceptual-compositional ancestor: "richness of meaning rather than clarity of meaning" (see multivalence).

Related Concepts

• Enigmatic Signifier — the open work is the tradition-name for what the enigmatic signifier operates as: "one might call it 'the open work'" (p. 63).
• Multivalence — the overcoded multiplicity the open work requires; multiple metaphors "worked through again and again, over time" (Gehry, p. 172).
• The Uncanny — the affective register the open work's "uncanny connotations… work as a small, internal world" (p. 21).
• Iconic Architecture — the building type whose success depends on controlled openness.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• The Iconic Building (Jencks 2005) — the Eco invocation for Ronchamp's bloodline (p. 63); the Disney Hall "giant iconostasis" (p. 182); the conclusions' four conditions and "controlled way" (pp. 200, 203); the no-guarantees wager (p. 200).

Open Questions

• How does the open work relate to Eco's own architectural writings in the wiki (the "open objects" of the Brasília analysis)? Eco's architectural "open object" was a pathology diagnosis; Jencks's architectural open work is an achievement criterion — are these the same concept pointed in opposite directions?
• Is "controlled openness" an oxymoron that collapses into the blank-screen problem, or is the inside-out growth condition (Gehry's "playing close to the bone") a genuine discipline?