Feb 23, 2024
kiddos! when they're not making bad decisions, the gang are actually decent parents...or try to be
seen from Spain
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kiddos! when they're not making bad decisions, the gang are actually decent parents...or try to be
This course has been a journey for each of us individually, and as a section. Looking back over the semester, the sheer scope of what we covered, and the depth with which we were able to study it, astounds me. While I had heard of some of the buildings and architects before, the majority of the material was new to me. What I found most fascinating about this class was the way that it tied so many things together. From old drawings to modern films, my experience this semester has really allowed me to gain a more thorough knowledge of both modern building types and the rise and change of the city plan. This has definitely been a worthwhile class, and I hope to have a chance to learn more about these subjects in the future.
The Myth of the Techno-Utopia
I found this article from the Wall Street Journal and thought it made an interesting connection to this week's topic. It is about how many people see technology as opening doors for the entire world, it can also be used as a tool of repression. In Iran and other authoritarian states, internet use is often tightly wound up in politics and controlled by the regime in power. There is a belief throughout much of the Western world that access to the internet and social networking sites in these places will eventually lead to democratization. This article tries to disprove that theory and show that these governments can actually use the internet to fight modernity, rather than being destroyed by it. It's very interesting to think about today's belief that technology will create a utopia in comparison with the ones we are learning about in class.
Duck vs. Decorated Shed
The duck versus the decorated shed is an ongoing debate in architecture that we discussed in one of my other classes. They represent two different schools of thought in the design field: the "decorated shed," which is a conventional building type with applied symbols, and the "duck," in which the form of the building is a symbol itself. The duck is usually associated with modernism, and the decorated shed with postmodernism. This debate reminds me of our studies of functionalism with a building like the ADGB Trade Union School building, in which the form shows its function, in contrast with the AEG Turbine Factory, where a title saying "Turbine Factory" was needed in order for the observer to distinguish function.
http://www.architectmagazine.com/books/of-ducks--sheds.aspx
Ice House Detroit
After our field trip to Detroit, I wanted to look more into the idea of the foreclosed homes and housing crisis that was mentioned in the guest lectures and panel discussion. I found an article about this project, Ice House Detroit, on dwell.com. I think that this is a very unique way of drawing the public's attention to condemned homes. By turning them into a work of art, Matthew Radune and Greg Holm allowed people to see them in a new light. It reminded me of some of the ideas we have discussed in class, about helping people to see Detroit not only as sad ruins, but also as a place that has many positive aspects today, and could one day boom again as it did in the past.
Pompidou Center, Paris
The Pompidou Center in Paris, a famous art museum, was designed in a very post-modernist way in order to display the interior systems on the exterior of the building. The piping and structures are clearly visible, making this a sort of "inside-out" building. In a way, this idea is like the Bauakademie and others we have studied, which are intended to show their structure. This building is clearly about functionalism and not hiding anything from the viewer, not even behind walls.
Alvar Aalto
In talking about functionalism, I was reminded of Alvar Aalto, a Finnish functionalist architect who I read about one time. He was influenced by Le Corbusier, and was one of the first people to introduce functionalism to Finland. He incorporated a lot of Le Corbusier's theories into his own work. He also made everything in his buildings part of the overall design, including furniture and all decorations. With this new architectural strategy, Aalto became internationally known. The Nordic countries became big proponents of functionalism, starting in the late 1920s.
Robert Rauschenberg
In talking about montage, I was reminded of Robert Rauschenberg's work, which I studied in one of my previous classes. Rauschenberg was known as a "Neo-Dadaist," which was a movement that was very much related to the original Dada, but came after Dadaists like Kurt Schwitters. He was a master of combining different pictures, colors, and 3-D objects into works of art which seem coherent. He would even go so far as to collect trash on the streets to put them together in different ways and turn them into something new and exciting, giving new life and meaning to found objects. The picture I pasted above, for example, combines representations of images that were common on television at the time in order to evoke the sense of images flashing in front of the viewer. This idea is similar to that of montage in architecture, like Mies's glass skyscraper designs, which break up the reflections into many separate images that then meld into one in the eyes of the viewer.