Post Modernism 2

1982 MICHAEL GRAVES

A Case for Figurative Architecture.

In any architectural language, it is important to keep the technical expression parallel to an equal and corresponding expression of ritual and symbol. It could be debated that the Modern Movement did this and its internal language. Modern Movement expressed the symbol of the machine and therefore practiced cultural symbolism. A significant architecture must incorporate both internal and external expressions. The external language, which engages inventions of culture at large, is rooted in a figurative, associations, and anthropomorphic attitude.

It is assumed that in any construct, architectural or otherwise, technique, the art of making something, will always play a role. However, it should also be said that the components of architecture have not only derived from pragmatic necessity but also evolved from symbolic sources.

In the article, a debate is made for the figural necessity of each particular element and, by extension, of architecture as a whole. Modern Movement is not so much as an historical break but as an appendage to the basic and continuing figurative mode of expression. Nevertheless, in order to wholly allow culture of architecture to represent the mythic and ritual aspirations of society, it is critical to re-establish the thematic associations invented by our culture.

1983 Kenneth Frampton

Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance

3 Critical Regionalism and World Culture.

The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements de rived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place. It is clear from the above that Critical Regionalism depends on maintaining a high level of critical self-consciousness.

Critical Regionalism as a cultural strategy is as much a bearer of world culture as it is a vehicle of universal civilization. it is obviously misleading to conceive of our inheriting world culture to the same degree as we are all heirs to universal civilization, it is nonetheless evident that since we are, in principle, subject to the impact of both, we have no choice but to take cognizance today of their interaction.

4 The Resistance of the Place-Form.

The bounded place-form, in its public mode, is also essential to what Hannah Arendt has termed ' the space of human appearance', since the evolution of legitimate power has always been predicated upon the existence of the ' polis' and upon comparable units of institutional and physical form.

While the strategy of Critical Regionalism as outlined above addresses itself mainly to the maintenance of an expressive density and resonance in an architecture of resistance (a cultural density which under today's conditions could be said to be potentially liberative in and of itself since it opens the user to manifold experiences), the provision of a place-form is equally essential to critical practice, inasmuch as a resistant architecture, in an institutional sense, is necessarily dependent on a clearly defined domain.

5 Culture vs Nature: Topography, Context, Climate, Light and Tectonic Form.

Critical Regionalism necessarily involves a more directly dialectical relation with nature than the more abstract, formal traditions of modern avant-garde architecture allow. The bulldozing of an irregular topography into a flat site is clearly a technocratic gesture which aspires to a condition of absolute placeless ness, whereas the terracing of the same site to receive the stepped form of a building is an engagement in the act of 'cultivating' the site.

Despite the critical importance of topography and light, the primary principle of architectural autonomy resides in the tectonic rather than the scenographic: that is to say, this autonomy is embodied in the revealed ligaments of the construction and in the way in which the syntactical form of the structure explicitly resists the action of gravity.

6 The Visual vs the Tactile.

The tactile resilience of the place-form and the capacity of the body to read the environment in terms other than those of sight alone suggest a potential strategy for resisting the domination of universal technology. Critical Regionalism seeks to complement our normative visual experience by readdressing the tactile range of human perceptions. In so doing, it endeavors to balance the priority accorded to the image and to counter the Western tendency to interpret the environment in exclusively perspectival terms. The tactile opposes itself to the scenographic and the drawing of veils over the surface of reality. Its capacity to arouse the impulse to touch returns the architect to the poetics of construction and to the erection of works in which the tectonic value of each component depends upon the density of its object hood.

1991 ITSUKO HASEGAWA

Architecture as Another Nature.

ltsuko Hasegawa took with her the essentially Japanese and Metabolist view that sees human activity and technology as a part of nature. Her works, such as the Shonandai Cultural Centre (I 990) make use of crystalline and organic forms, often using her trademark perforated metal, to create a diverse landscape of the human environment.

“One of my aims is to reconsider architecture of the past, which was adapted to the climate and the land and permitted human coexistence with nature, and to see human beings and architecture as part of the earth's ecosystem.”

It is a challenge to propose new design connected with new science and technology. A building must have a quality of urbanity. The city is a hanging, multifaceted entity that encompasses even things that are in opposition to it. The aim has been to try to eliminate the gap between the community and architecture by taking such an approach to public architecture and to give architecture a new social character

Human beings were born to live in a relationship of interdependence with nature. We are adaptable to change and are physically and spiritually rugged enough to live practically anywhere. To sum up, buildings as well as human beings are born of nature, receive their images from nature, and return to a more profound form of life through death and destruction.

1993 FRANK O GEHRY

On The American Center" Paris An Interview.

In the interview, when asked if Frank O Gehry thought himself more as an artist than an architect. He replied,

“I am an architect. I do think that art and architecture come from the same source. They involve some of the same struggles. My first work, when I started to do my own stuff, was encouraged by artists, not by other architects”

Frank O Gehry believes that architecture came through the fine arts and paintings. He also believes that paintings area a way of training the eye, how a canvas is composed. Piet Mondrian has inspired the window and wall elevations of many buildings from Gropius to Corbusier. Frank O Gehry mentioned that the moment of truth is when you have to face yourself and put down the first line or the first brush stroke if you' re an artist. And from that, decision and direction are made.

When asked if there a problem with the development of Bercy where the site had project developing surrounding it. He answered,

“My perception has always been to deal with the world the way it is and to deal with it optimistically. I don' t try to change it because I know I can' t, so I try to fit in and mess with [it] at the same time. Working in the city requires more than a passive interaction”

Frank O Gehry are dissatisfied when other architects started making buildings that look like Greek temples. He thought it was a denial of the present. It's as if telling the new generation there's no reason to be optimistic about the future. When designing the Bercy, he started drawing a fish, because fish has been around for thousands and thousands of years. It's nature's creature, very fluid. It's a continuous form and it survives. And it's not contrived. He mentioned that he didn’t intend it to become a central form when it first occurred to him. It was an instinctive thing.

He thinks pluralism reflects the times in America, as far as architecture is concerned. He thinks pluralism is wonderful because it is the American way of individual expression. It hasn't hurt us in painting, sculpture and in literature. And it won't hurt us in architecture.

Overview

In the article by Michael Graves enhances the important of both internal and external expressions in architecture. If architecture is to represent the anthropology of society, it is important to re-establish the thematic associations invented by our culture. Kenneth Frampton stresses Critical Regionalism as a cultural strategy is as much a bearer of world culture as it is a vehicle of universal civilization which involves more relation with nature than the abstract. ltsuko Hasegawa see human beings and architecture as part of the earth's ecosystem by linking the technology with science. Frank O Gehry interprets nature’s creature in architecture as nature is survives since the beginning. He also believes that art and architecture is the same as both technique begins with strokes of pen.

The articles are interrelated as four articles talked about the nature, culture and society. The 3 points are paraphrase in architecture to give back identity and values to the society after the war without destroying the nature around us. As the old says, whatever we build end up building us. Thus, architecture is part of the identity of society.