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L01_The Manhattan Transcripts // Yeap Huei Sze

Updated: Oct 8, 2019


Manhattan Transcript (1976-1981) is a series of theoretical visual work by Bernard Tschumi. Instead of real project, it describe the architectural interpretation of reality by coupling drawings and photograph. They use photograph as the direct or “witness” of the event while plans, sections, and diagrams outline spaces and indicate the movements of the different protagonists intruding into the architectural "stage set." The episodes transcribe imagined events in real New York locales:

MT1. The Park, uncovers a murder in Central Park _ PLAN

MT2. The Street (Border Crossing) chronicles the movement of a person drifting through violent and sexual events on Forty-second Street_SECTION


MT3. The Tower (The Fall) depicts a vertiginous fall from a Manhattan skyscraper_AXONOMETRIC


MT4. The Block illustrates five unlikely events occurring in separate courtyards within a city block_PERSPECTIVE

Manhattan Transcripts propose that, beyond its traditional conventions of representation, architecture resides in the superimposition of space, movement, and events. The event, in particular, is the figurative origin of architecture itself, through which Tschumi proposes an architecture of difference and opposition rather than synthesis and totality.


"The Transcripts aimed to offer a different reading of architecture in which space, movement, and events are independent, yet stand in a new relation to one another, so that the conventional components of architecture are broken down and rebuilt along different axes." Bernard Tschum

One of the interesting part in the Manhattan Transcripts is the involvement of existing events, for instance ‘the archetype of murder’.He annotate human physicality and actions to interpret space.


“Other phantasms were occasionally used to underline the fact that perhaps all architecture, rather than being about functional standards, is about love and death. By going beyond the conventional definition of use and program, The Transcripts used their tentative format to explore unlikely confrontations.” Bernard Tschum There is an exploration between the standard expected functionalities of a space alongside sequences of an emotional capacity that becomes the functional reality.



“Thus the Transcripts never attempt to transcend contradictions between object, man, and event in order to bring them to a new synthesis; on the contrary, they aim to maintain these contradictions in a dynamic manner, in a new reciprocity and conflict.” Bernard Tschum



Manhattan Transcript for me is a complicated dispute of layer and element. I found that explore the existing movement and event in order to understand the physical engagement with space, could lead to a better architecture. As user experience is one of the important consideration as an architect to design a space.



“Architecture is not simply about space and form, but also about event, action, and what happens in space.” Bernard Tschum

If reflect to the site visit on 12/7/2019, to Kajang (the park), we are exploring the events at Jalan Wan Siew (the street) as 3 main proposed bus shelter site is along the street.  For example the surau where muslim will go for prayer, hawkers selling food and drinks, people waiting for bus at the bus stop… We observe the movement of people, bus, or even natural or building elements (the tower). Like different people on and off board from the bus, changing in the architecture element from repetitive to unique, area of grass become bare due to human stepping, trees been cut off where only a tree stump left and so on. After the analyzing, I think our project will become “the block” for the community. As “there’s no architecture without an event.”

the tree stump


People waiting for bus and hawker stall near to the bus stop


the park near to the surau is full of motorcycle during Friday prayer time


some part of the grass floor are bare might due to the people stepping on it while waiting for bus

It also make me to start thinking on how to broke the normal representation of architecture, like the normal bus stop, break it down and rebuilt it in different perspective. As I found that I’m always in my box. How can I jump out from the box, but remain the function of the box should be.   Yeap Huei Sze 1001642816

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