Constant

Bio Sketch

Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920–2005), known as Constant, was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and architect, and a founding member of the Situationist International (later CoBrA). His most famous project is New Babylon (1956–1974), a large-scale utopian model of a situationist city designed for a nomadic "New Babylonian" citizenry liberated from work and the family and devoted to play and constant invention.

Key Works

• New Babylon (1956–1974) — the extended cycle of models, maquettes, and writings on the situationist city.
• Nomade Encampment (1958) — a flexible, transportable shelter for a gypsy community, precursor to New Babylon.
• Various dynamic, neo-constructivist works (e.g. Suspended Spiral, Nébulosité mécanique).

Key Concepts

Concepts associated with this author that have pages in this wiki:

• New Babylon
• Unitary Urbanism
• Play

Relevance to Geoffrey's Research

Constant is the key architectural figure of Geoffrey's Situationist urbanism area: New Babylon directly realizes the principles of unitary urbanism and the play-spirit central to Andreotti's reading. The tension in New Babylon — between a liberating spatial construct and its eventual assimilation into commercial speculation — bears on Geoffrey's interest in material vs. formal utopianism and the recuperation of avant-garde form.

Source Support

Source notes in this wiki drawn from this author's work:

• Unitary Urbanism: Play-Tactics of the SI
• Debord, Constant, and the Politics of Situationist Urbanism
• An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle'
• The Revolution of Everyday Life
• Benjamin for Architects