Crown Casino & the Citroën DS
Taking in the atmosphere of Anvers. Eyes drawn to the Renaults, Saabs and Peugeots dimly lit by surrounding cafes. I like the cars that are boxy. Sharp edged in soft pastels. But I had just witnessed an exception to the rule. A yellow Citroën drove by Place Clichy.
I typed that passage onto my notes app while trying to locate Le Mansart. Years later while reading Barthes’ Mythologies (1957) I found that he was struck by the same car I saw drive by Place Clichy. In his essay Thoughts on the New Citroën Barthes wrote that they were the “exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals…conceived with passion by unknown artists.” (1957, p.88) Blake Gopnik in A Work of Art You Can Drive recognises the car as “the apotheosis of modernist ideals, sleek as any sculpture by Brancusi”. However I have not come across any writing which asks: what things are currently being made that are equal to the Gothic cathedrals of past centuries?
Alex Davies investigates Barthes claim on the commonality between Gothic cathedrals and the automobile. After affirming Barthes, Davies continues stating that cars — like cathedrals — are omnipresent, yet in the background. Secondly he states that cars and cathedrals serve a practical purpose yet are mostly appreciated by onlookers from an outside perspective.
Australian low import tariffs led to the accessibility of foreign cars and consequently there are currently no car manufacturers across so-called Australia. To find a modern equivalent to the Citroën DS it seems necessary to broaden my parameters to include anything available for visual consumption by the public. I look to the sky since Barthes wrote that the sky is where the Citroën DS fell from. Here on Gadigal country all I see in the sky are high-rise buildings. I see the Crown casino. A new omnipresent feature to the city skyline.
Wilkinson Eyre architects describe the Crown Casino as a “sculptural form that will rise up on the skyline like an inhabited artwork”. The 275 metre tower of twisting metal takes “inspiration from nature, being composed of organic forms without literal or direct reference.” Barthes described the Citroën as an object above nature with no tangible origins; could the same be said about the casino?
On an aesthetic level the crown has achieved success. It is the first Australian project to receive the Emporis Skyscraper Award and earned the admiration from former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating. Coincidentally he describes the tower as Brancusi-like with its clean sculptural shape. Does the serendipitous likening of Brancusi to both the Citroën and the Crown determine that the Crown is a modern Gothic cathedral?
Professor Elizabeth Mossop argues that the project in Barangaroo is “an enduring monument to a series of bad decisions”. Mossop also suggests that it is “an ordinary and banal piece of corporate architecture.” Former state architect Peter Mould highlighted that the debate of aesthetic quality regarding the Crown casino is flawed since “it came out of an unsolicited approval, was approved in secrecy without planning or design advice”. Rather than a monument manifesting pride Dr. Peter Tonkin describes it as the “most overt symbol of the triumph of private benefit over public good”.
Such testimonies makes the case for celebrating the casino difficult. Some may argue that it is unfair to include all this social debate when the great Gothic cathedrals of earlier centuries were built without broader consideration of the public and no recorded opposition to construction. Dr Paolo Stracchi, director of the masters of architecture program at the University of Sydney, added to the debate by stating: “Buildings symbolise the society in which they are built; if anything, the evil is in the latter.”
To answer the broader question of this article: what contemporary thing could we consider as an “exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals”, we should revisit the history of Gothic cathedrals. “The term Gothic was first coined by Italian writers in the later Renaissance period (late 15th to early 17th century).” The word was used negatively as a synonym of ‘barbaric’. Gothic art and architecture was thought of as unrefined and ugly. If one takes the term Gothic to mean what the Italian writers in the dusk of the Renaissance intended, it would be apt for many to label the Crown casino — with tongue in cheek — as Gothic architecture.
If the Crown casino is equivalent to the great Gothic cathedrals where does this leave the Citroën DS? Within the scope of this article I believe I can state that the Citroën DS sits uncontested as an object of adoration. A sublime object, greater than both the Crown casino and the great Gothic cathedrals, appreciated in its own time and long after the cessation of its manufacturing.