Difficult is More .. More is too Much

In the past few lectures, we have come a long way from “Less is more”. We’ve quickly been through “Less is not more”, “Less is a bore”, and now, as I see it, we are entering an age of “More is more”, or architectural Expressionism. If Expressionism speaks, we are in a whole new language of “function follows form”, which for me is a very difficult language to grab hold of. With only one switch of wordings, I believe a whole new limitation of design is changed. When it was still “form follows function”, we have a definite limitation, or in other words, the design is created to serve a purpose. However, if “function follows form”, then the purpose is pretty much faded. How do we start the design? What is the design meant for? With the purpose fading and with the design base on form, the limitations of shapes or representation of the exterior can go beyond imagination. I believe many Post-Modernism architects, who believes in “Less is a bore”, is starting to question Expressionism as well. Both of the two manifestos are bored with the similar looking Modernism buildings, but Expressionist architects are taking it further, or maybe too far. I believe if we were to simplify Rem Koolhaas’s wordings on bigness, it would be something like “More is too much”.

I believe this approach to architectural form is pretty much telling a story of the social life and the technological advances we have accomplished. To be capable of playing with form in buildings, there must be ways keep the forms up and strong. In today’s engineering field, we have come up with many advances, which we did not have in Modernism period. This is one of the reason why today’s architects are more confident in playing with different forms. Another analysis I have from this change in era is that the society’s thinking is changing. After years and years of seeing rectangular and pure shape buildings, we are getting very bored visually. We are not happy with just enough anymore. We need something beyond the function. Something that we look at it, oohs and aahs will be heard. With this, different companies are trying to make their building look so complicated in form so that it seems like they are having a new technological advances. “Difficult is more”

            

Analyzing the Attendance Check

Just being cautious here in case I become the victim of the random blog check. In one semester, there are around 13 or 14 weeks of class. We are just through midterm week which makes us in around 8th or 9th week. From my analysis, if a student have been studious and hard-working throughout the past 9 weeks, but missed only one class, or the class on Monday March 21, in which I really have to go do business out of town and cannot attend class, he should be given another chance and not get cut 5%. Since it would be the first class he did not attend and if he hits the jackpot as the victim of the random check, it would be dreadful to see 5% go missing. This blog also acts as an apology in case I get checked and is not in class, but I will be ready to talk about post-modernism next class for sure. Hope no one get to read this

THank you

The Black The White The Grey

In the previous class of History to Architecture, we have started to explore the colors of architecture, not in the sense of ornamentation or decorating, but the color of style in post-modernism architecture. We have seen how the changes were slowly made and style were pulled away from modernism, which could be linked back to the previous posts on how Jacques Tati were explaining how the form of the international style was confusing itself with everything else that was being building according to the manifestos. With the lectures combined with readings from Complexity and Contradictions in Architecture by Robert Venturi, another big viewpoint have been opened in my understanding of architecture.

"Both-and" over "Either-or"
"Grey over Black and White"
"Less is not more" but "Less is a bore"
"Function follows From" rather than "Form follow Function"

These simple, yet strong phrases from the book is changing the phase of design. When looking at these words put side by side, it seems like post-modernist architects are a lot more optimistic than the ones have once conquered the world of design. These post-modernists are not limiting themselves to anything specific, but it seems like they are opening the eyes of people to something that was always existing, but unnoticed, which is "space and time". I would say this seems like enlightenment from a long meditation where you start to notice your breathing even though you do it all the time. (maybe a too direct analysis), but for this era, post-modernism IS the new and more practical way of looking at design. Robert Venturi, Peter Eisenmen and other new wave of architects are setting up a new writing or script for this new era. What I like most about this upcoming style is the fact that the manifesto states something like how architecture should not be created upon a limit to a certain boundary, but should have a process to it so that it creates its own way of writing according to, again, "space and time". Not a direct quotes but a phrase to this sort. This makes me better understand the history of architecture to this day of how architecture is a form of writing. The abstraction of nature in Egypt, abstraction of human form in Rome, abstraction of machine in Modernism, and now the abstraction of process in Post-Modernism. This also makes me understand the hard-work that we have to put through in studio class to make all these diagramatic analysis. This is all to create a new form of writing. A new form of character. In this new style, if function follows form, then the remake of Playtime would be people dressed up as Lady Gaga walking around post-modernist buildings.

Playtime - Jacques Tati

By watching the film by Jacques Tati, Playtime, we can see how people around the late modernism period are responding the international style at that time. At the time period where the film was created, modernism was playing a big role in the society and the egos and confident of the architects were almost at its top form. These architects were becoming like perfectionist where everything have to be done the way they wished when it comes to using the buildings as if the people were one of the controlled characters in "The Sims". We can analyze this behavior by watching many of the scenes in the movie. For example, in the opening scene, we start off with an airport. The exterior is non-ornamented, pure glass facades and metal framing, a direct translation of the modernism manifesto. Inside the airport, there were several groups of people displaying different behaviors, but explaining the same meaning. A couple was sitting at the waiting area and the wife would keep asking and ordering her husband, a cleaning person is always trying to find something to clean, and there was a group of nun walking around. These are different personifications of perfectionism which was the main theme of architecture at that time. Then, the director seems to try to point out how modernism is affecting our lives, or the lives of people at that time. He does this by displaying an adventure of one character. This particular character wonders off in the big city and into many modernist buildings. In these adventure, the character always confuses himself with other people since they dress up similarly, walks similarly, and does thing similarly. By doing this, the director seems to be saying that by having modernist set up manifestos on how form should follow function, form is starting to become one aesthetics. He is saying that there is no uniqueness or individual characters within the buildings. I believed that this topic was clearly pointed out in the movie. By watching and analyzing this movie, I understand architecture as writing or as symbol of history further. Architecture does not only become a habitat for human, but it is a writing, a story, a film, and a viewpoint for society to dwell upon.