20090722

Architecture's usefulness

I happened to come across a book called "Genius of Architecture or the Analogy of that Art with Our Sensation," and found the following quotes:

The human world is governed by the principle of 'the priority of appearance'. What is hidden from us has no meaning. To know how to build, therefore, you must first understand appearances.

Architecture is useful only if it is not absorbed in being useful. Human purposes change from epoch to epoch, from decade to decade, from year to year. Buildings must therefore obey the law of the 'mutability of function'... The capacity of a building to survive such changes is one proof of its merit: one proof that it answers to something deeper in us than the transient function which required it.



The above are two of the eleven principles that the author laid out for education of the nineteenth century architects. Just these two already contradicted the basic differentiation between architecture and art: architecture being functional and art being functionless.

The first quote calls for the importance for aesthetics in architecture, basically art involving in the design process. But how much art is to be involved? Or even, what kind of ornamentation? The idea behind the second quote can be used to answer these questions. The usefulness of architecture lies within its flexibility of transforming into different spaces, which is also a 'useless' space because there is no definite purpose. To answer how much and what art is to be involved, flexibility and changing are crucial. And also, 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Nobody can determine how much and what kind of art is to be incorporated, other than the architect who understands the need for the flexibility of putting in how much ornamentation.

And the definition of 'ornamentation' in architecture can sometimes be as simple as a splash of light onto a brutal concrete wall or colored illuminations.



Church of Light, Tadao Ando

James Turrell

3 comments:

  1. Richard Meier thinks architecture is an art. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, what about the architect who designs a jail? Wouldn't the absence of artistry be part of the intended "jail experience?" (And do they actually get architects to design jails?)

    ReplyDelete
  3. interesting... I was thinking architecture is one of the art work.

    ReplyDelete

 
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architecture by jlam1011 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.