Dating Douglas Darden

Study for Oxygen House
From the collection at MoMA

I have written previously on some of the references to works of literature, art, architecture, and visionaries in Douglas Darden’s book, Condemned Building: Moby-Dick in the title image, Lequeu and Duchamp in thefrontispiece, quotes from Hamlet scattered throughout the book, et cetera. These demonstrate how deliberate and the extent to which he references and contrives meaning in every aspect of his work, not just in his drawings, but also in his writings, which are very playful in their own right—even in the dates he gives in the projects: for instance, in the sketches and notes of the project file for Sex Shop there was found the title, signature, and date for the project: "Twenty Sex, June '95."

Upon actually reading Condemned Building, and not just looking at the pretty pictures (for they certainly are magnificent), one will notice how much narrative and story Darden puts into his works. Darden regarded literature as his patron, and sees works of literature as clients—hence projects like Melvilla, which is inspired on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, or Oxygen House, which is inspired by William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Sex Shop inspired by the writings of the Marquis de Sade, et cetera. Darden called the pieces of writing and literature that inspired his architectural designs "archi-texts." So it is that Darden would, as part of the narrative of his designs, contrive his own stories and writings to accompany the designs (like Eisenman's essays on each of his houses, which are as much a part of the house as the house is of the essays). 

Peter Schneider quotes and notes in his "House at the End of Time" (2001) how Darden borrows and is inspired by the first chapter of As I Lay Dying in the letter Abraham Burnden (an anagram of Bundren, and sounds like "burden", and perhaps burn-den, i.e. destroy the living room) writes to the architect. So it is that the date of this letter, too, has some significance. The date Darden gives is "6 July 1979". Originally, in an early iteration of this letter Darden uses "6 July 1962"—which just so happens to be the day William Faulkner died.

Taken from Schneider's "House at the End of Time"

Why Darden switched it to 1979 is somewhat of mystery to me; though, most likely, it was something significant in Darden's life...perhaps it was because that was the year he was accepted into Harvard...I digress.

[EDIT: I have recently found in a fairly obscure and hard to find journal, Installation, Volume 1, Fall 1992 (a student run publication from the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado at Denver—only 500 copies printed), a publication of Darden's on Oxygen House called: "Oxygen House: As I Lay Drawing", in which Darden uses the date "February 12, 1990." This is nearly two years after he finished designing and drawing Oxygen House (from his sketches the earliest date I can find is 20 March 1988). I am speculating here, but Darden had leukemia for five and half years before dying; having died 3 April 1996, this would place his diagnosis sometime in early- to mid-1990; it is possible that this was the date or roughly the time of his diagnosis—but this is pure conjecture.]

Even more thoughtful about this letter from Abraham Burnden is that it is written from Byhalia, Mississippi—the place where Faulkner died.

There is another playful date, and certainly one that has personal significance to Darden, in Clinic for Sleep Disorders. Darden writes a fictitious dialogue between a fictitious Doctor Jean Nicholas (perhaps the physician Jean Nicholas Corvisart, or the pathologist Jean Nicholas Marjolin) and a patient named Arthur, in the absurdly named clinic, Charlesville Sleep Clinic, in Marseilles. The date Darden gives for this interview is "20 October 1954." Why, I do not know, but this was Darden's third birthday—he being born 20 October 1951. [EDIT: see my post Sleeping on a Drunken Boat].

There is perhaps one other thoughtful date in Condemned Building, that of the architect's letter for Saloon for Jesse James. The date Darden writes is "1 April 1986." As best as I can tell this is probably when he began the project.

Douglas Darden was certainly an intense and thoughtful in every detail of his work and writings. Upon close examination of some of his drawings, one will notice that the exact direction his screwheads are turned. So it is that the dates he gives in his narratives for his projects have some meaning as well.

Further reading:

-Darden, Douglas. Condemned Building. Princeton Architectural Press. 1993.

-Schneider, Peter. "House at the End of Time: Douglas Darden's Oxygen House," Part 7. CUNY. 2001.

-Schneider, Peter. "Sex Shop: An Immodest Proposal," Journal of Architectural Education, V.58, N.2, Nov. 2004.