19th Century

This is a period of the emerging of mass market. It is a period when people becomes globalized that makes the technology of building spread into different part of the world by the world expo. With the first world expo was held that the Crystal palace that was designed by Joseph Paxon with the Used of iron and glass, while the interior is done by Owen Joan. There is an issue of alienness of the building that Joan has to deal with because at that time there is no one makes such a big building out of glass. Joan turned the alienness of the building into the decoration of the building. I personally like this building as it is the great invention of the construction of technology and as thinking as people that dress like characters from Downton Abbey  and walk in a glass building. It gives out such an odd feeling that people there would have felt that they are in the future world. Another world expo, the Columbus world expo took place in Chicago. I would say that I appreciate people back then for building the entire city within four months. However, it is too bad that everything was burned down in the great Chicago fire. And that actually makes this windy city became a city of architecture in the present time. 

Is Baroque erotic?

So to answer this question I guess the most important thing to identify is what erotic architecture is and what quality makes the architecture erotic. For me I think that Erotic architecture is an architecture that plays with emotion of the user in the space. It can be something that attracts people. It could also be something that controls human’s action or surprise them. This quality can be brought up by the used of lighting, material, texture, repetition and scale. These are the thing that can create attraction and eroticism.

It is obvious that Baroque is erotic since my instructor is trying to make us prove that it is erotic but how? How baroque architecture is erotic? Baroque architecture happened in a period of Catholic reformation after the protestant reformation. So Catholic Church would do everything to make sure that their reformation will bring back their people and becomes great again. One way to do that is using the architecture to impress people and to bring people back in faith.

Baroque architecture is the deformation of Renaissance architecture. It has a lot of Elements of the building are manipulated. Comparing to Renaissance architecture, most of the building are simple and express the perfect geometric shapes. They have no ornaments. Unlike, Baroque architecture has a lot of ornaments in it with a lot of high value material such as gold and marble. Baroque architecture also plays with the quality of light. When light shine upon the material, it create the magnificent effects on lighting. The example of erotic Baroque architecture can be seen from the interior of Saint Andrea al Quirinal by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini brought the light from outside to inside of the building, which creates the erotic quality in to the church. He make a hole just right on top of the golden sculpture. When the light hits the sculpture, the sculpture shines. The light complement the sculpture. 

Interior of Saint Andrea al Quirinal by Bernini

Early Renaissance

It is the age of change. In medieval time, people were so obsess with religion and that somehow make some people take advantages of Christianity’s faith. This issue led to the misunderstanding in the core of religion. Therefore, one clergy, Martin Luther decided to make the whole thing right again by posting his 95 theses and decided to translate the Bible that back then has only in Latin version in to German so other than clergy commoner can study bible and they don’t have to study the bible by listening to the priest only but the can just read it. This is the breaking point of the Christianity. It is a big change in society.

This event made a big change in society. The role of religion to the society is not as important as in middle age. Philosophe had gained a lot of role in the society. People became more intellectual that they did. People started to do everything by themselves and not relying on God’s good grace all the time. Without the power of the church controlling people to believe in everything they want them to, many scientists came up with a lot of theory and the world is no longer flat. This doesn’t mean that people were atheist but the church has less important role in their life.

As I have mentioned that people are still have faith in God, people brought the idea of God is sacred into architecture of this period. They believe that people are perfect in term of the way they look because God has created them according to the way he looks. Human body is symmetrical. So one characteristic of Renaissance architecture is symmetry. Then, Leonardo Da Vinci made a sketch of Vitruvian man. Human body can be fitted within the circle and square. So it made these two shapes become perfect and sacred.  In Renaissance architecture, people always put the shape of circle and square into it. For example, the arches have the combination of square and circle. This becomes the most important part of renaissance architecture. 

Vitruvian man by Leonardo Da Vinci 

Renaissance arch

Parametric design

What we have learned last class was about Parametric design which relates to the postmodern architecture. Parametric design is the design that comes from the parameter of what we interested in. So it took the parameter of the subject interest and turn it into the data. Then let the program calculate it and turn it in to a form of architecture. In my opinion, I think that paramentric design is something that is different from what we have had before. It is something that doesn't need the artistic quality as much as the scientific quality. By letting machine compute and build it complete shift the way we look at design because parametric design needs perfection that human cannot give. If only one little millimeter is off, the whole building might not be able to stand.

This is a great shift of design which has occured by the advance in technology. But have you ever thought if it is the right direction. For me I think it is wrong by relying too much of the technology which is equal to how we underestimate human's abilities. And If one day in the future there's no machine, how can we survive by not relying ourself on any technology. Or another sense, can they be architects without any computers?

Venturi, Complexity, Contradiction and Eroticism

This journal entry is about the relationship between Venturi’s postmodern ideas of decoration and utility. The idea of the postmodern is something that is very ordinary which opposite to that modernism is. As time passed by people started to think that modernism is boring. People eager to have decoration on the building more than plain factory like building. Postmodern architecture is meant to be for ordinary client. It doesn’t mean to be luxurious like modern architecture. We have heard about the quote that form follows function by Louis Sullivan, which defines what modernism is about. The inversion of the quote defines what post-modern architecture is.  It means that the function of the building follows that form. People would recognize the function of the building by seeing its form. 

For example, the building with duck form, it is totally opposite to what modernism is. But if we look at it as a postmodernist we would be able to guess that the building has to do something with duck. And it does do something with duck. The function of the building is a shop for selling duck’s egg. 

Another example of building that implies the idea of postmodernism is the Hershey store in Time Square. The building becomes recognizable to the others that it is a store selling Hershey chocolate. So the building façade itself becomes as a sign of the building which Venturi suggest the idea of double function in one object.

It is the idea of building becomes a sign for its function, which means that graphic quality becomes something that is very important to architecture. By having integration of graphic quality into architecture, it allows architecture to be deceptive to the viewer and it attracts people to architecture. Therefore, I think it links to the idea of erotic architecture. Since erotic architecture is the idea of surprising and attracting, it is a reason why I think that Venturi’s ideas of postmodern architecture links to the idea of eroticism in architecture. 

Are they really modernist?

As we have rules to follow or at least we have guild lines to guild line, some of us follow it. Some other doesn’t follow it. You know, there are a lot of people who breaks the law and there are a lot of people who follow it. Same as the architects, there are a lot of architects who strict with the way they design or strict with the style. Modern architecture has its own rules and its characteristic. As I wrote earlier in this blog, modernism expresses the unity and equality of people in society. So the context of places, money and fashion don’t have that much different. And one more thing of being modern is not to stick to the past or not stick to the history. This is what probably people in modern era try to express by building their own style by not building it up on the history or classical though. Eventually, some architects decided not to follow the characteristic of modernism and success as modern architects.

Louis Kahn

He was an architect who was trained to be a neo classical architect not to be a modernist. As soon as he graduated, his style became unwanted and rejected by other people. So he had to change how he design and make it become modern. This makes him get his first commission so late in his life. His first commission is Yale Art Gallery at Yale University. Another building is the National Assembly Building. As it is the assembly building, Kahn borrowed this shape from Islamic architecture to symbolize the unity and being importance and sacred. And the whole building is made out of pure geometry which was used in Islamic architecture and Roman architecture. More importantly, his works showed the connection to the surrounded buildings, which are the neo gothic buildings. This shows that he didn’t want to neglect the past or as a designer didn’t have to invented the whole new idea but it can be done by borrowing what is great in the past and adapt it to the period we live in. So Kahn proves to us why we have to learn history.

Yale Art Gallery

Yale Art Gallery: section

National Assembly Building

Alvar Aalto 

Alvar Aalto is a Finish architect whose works are experiments of the way to use local material. He is very localize with material. He try to bring the identity of being nordic out to architecture. However, being localized and identify are not ways of modern architecture. Modern architect neglect context of place and location. But for him, place is so important. But his work is successful as modern architecture. 

So the way these two architects design are not following the way modern architecture is. To follow the style doesn't mean that they will be a great architect. But they being themselves and have their own intention makes them a great architect.