AESTHETICS adj.
1. a. of, relating to, or dealing with aesthetics or the beautiful b. artistic c. pleasing in appearance 2. appreciative of, responsive to, or zealous about the beautiful; also : responsive to or appreciative of what is pleasurable to the senses aesthetic. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved July 4, 2016
The Making of the Leica M9-P »Edition Hermès« Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas on Vimeo University of Waterloo School of Architecture
Interpreted Definition An object’s aesthetic is an expression that exists beyond its function. It relates to the visual and the tactile experience immediately and relentlessly felt by the user. An object’s aesthetic can be used as a device to hide, deemphasize, emphasize, or reveal, as well as inject or subtract meaning from a particular object. This can take the form of colour, material, or geometry— in order or in disorder. In his Ten Books on Architecture, Vitruvius determines that successful architecture embodies three qualities: venustas, firmitas, and venustas— that is usefulness, solidness, and beautifulness. Venustas states that an object’s user is just as important as the object itself; therefore, the object must appeal to the senses of said user1, otherwise the relationship between object and user will be a negative one, and the object will be discontinued, forgotten, or demolished. Two millennia later and the world’s most reputable designers still agree about the importance of aesthetics: in Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles of Good Design, he claims that “Good design is aesthetic,” and that “the aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being.”2 One Chuck Palahniuk character would claim that, “The things you own end up owning you.”3 Through our dependency on material things, built objects become just as essential as electricity or education. Consequently, through the visual aesthetic of everyday items, one establishes one’s identity. Mies Van der Rohe coined the term “Less is more” in reference to distilling 1
a buildings’ ornamentation to the craftsmanship and details of structurally imperative elements, thus creating the modernist aesthetic (which is often referred to as minimalism). The aesthetic and the individual are deeply intertwined, in that one chooses how an object expresses itself much in the same way one would choose to express oneself through language or humour. In landscape architecture, a project’s motifs should be clear as expressed through its comprising elements. The use of local materials express a contentiousness, for example— an otherwise immeasurable trait. Formal responses to program express whether the designer is resisting or listening to the needs of the site and its citizens. Perhaps a dull, monotonous site is contrasted with bright colours and unnatural forms— this expresses the designer’s desire to challenge the design paradigm of her predecessors in a particular location. Through aesthetic, deeply human qualities of otherwise sterile and inanimate creations— or rather, the ideals the creators of said creations projected upon their creations— are readable. Made measurable. Material. Vitruvius. Ten Books on Architecture, Ed. Ingrid Rowland with illustrations by Thomas Noble Howe (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 1999) Karissa Rosenfield. “Dieter Rams 10 Principles of “Good Design”” 09 Jan 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 4 Jul 2016. 3 Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Print. 1 2
ien Boodan ARCH 225 | Spring 2016
EIDETIC adj.
marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall especially of visual images eidetic. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved July 4, 2016
Interpreted Definition James Corner refers to eidetic as “a mental conception that may be picturable [as well as] acoustic, tactile, cognitive, or intuitive.”4 He writes, “how one ‘images’ the world literally conditions how reality is both conceptualized and shaped.” In this sense, eidetic refers to a memory during its genesis (the “now”, or an aspiration of such), influencing and transforming it before finally collapsing it to the subjective reality one chooses— a prolepsis of space; an imiagined heterotopia. René Descartes writes, “I think, therefore I am,”5 describing the subjective, existential conditions that form one’s subjective reality. “Reality” can then be described as the summation of sensory experiences, as senses are the vehicle through which all reality is experienced, and memory is the medium onto which these experiences are recorded. In the context of landscape architecture, an eidetic experience is characterized by a multitude of stimuli existing at infinitely large and infinitesimally small scales: a field of grass: its topography: its colour: its transparency: its reflectance in the sun: its resistance to the wind: its length: its maturity: is state of decay etc. etc.. and how these levels of detail can be observed if looked for. 4 5
James Corner. “Eidetic Operations and New Landscapes.” Descartes, Principia philosophiae. 1644.
Beyond from The Animatrix, Kōji Morimoto, 2003 University of Waterloo School of Architecture
ien Boodan 2
ARCH 225 | Spring 2016
METABOLISM noun
1. a. the sum of the process in the buildup and destruction of protoplasm; the chemical changes in living cells by which energy is provided for vital processes and activities and new material is assimilated b. the sum of the processes by which a particular substance is handled in the living body c. the sum of the metabolic activities taking place in a particular environment 2. metamorphosis metabolism. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved July 4, 2016
Interpreted Definition In architecture, metabolism describes a movement in which built structures mimic the growth and adaptability of natural structures. Kawazoe, a writer for the metabolism movement, refers to this as the “symbolic … exchange of materials and energy between organisms and the exterior world.” Nature is inevitably changing. Landscape architecture should, by definition, change as well. The Metabolist manifesto’s opening page contains the following:
Metabolism is the name of the group, in which each member proposes further designs of our coming world through his concrete designs and illustrations. We regard human society as a vital process - a continuous development from atom to nebula. The reason why we use such a biological word, metabolism, is that we believe design and technology should be a denotation of human society. We are not going to accept metabolism as a natural process, but try to encourage active metabolic development of our society through our proposals.6
Filene’s Eco Pods, Höweler + Yoon, 2009 University of Waterloo School of Architecture
By describing the human position in the seemingly unending timeline of the cosmos, the Metabolists confront the affluence and exponentially developing technologies that allow for new methods of design. As biological and astronomical methods become more refined and we learn ever more about the galaxies that exist beyond ours, as well as the universe of at the microscopic (and now, even quantum) scale we should be able to apply these findings to the objects we create. 3
Though, what does it mean for a structure to adapt? To change? To grow? To respond? These answers can take the form of modular systems of occupation, in which users participate in upgrade, exchanges, and prospective innovations to said system. They can also exist through recyclable materials: building made from trees and vines, for example, that naturally return to the landscape from which they were born, with little negative impact on its ecosystem. It could be a building that is allowed to flood, or fall over, or dance gently in the wind: resilient structures. The philosophy of metabolism remains relevant in the face of today’s pressing issues: global warming, depleting resources, and drastic shifts in political climates (e.g. Trump, Brexit).What was once a formal ambition can now be realized with existing and upcoming technologies and bodies of knowledge. 6
Lin, Zhongjie (2010). Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement. Routledge.
ien Boodan ARCH 225 | Spring 2016
6-DIMENSIONALISM
The easiest way to imagine the sixth dimension is to imagine the third dimension (length, width, depth) with temporal axes in lieu of spatial axes. Moving along the x-axis in sixth dimensional space allows one to transverse one’s timeline from one’s birth to one’s death. The y-axis exists as branches from, for example, the aforementioned vector in the x-axis (which is to be temporarily understood as the life you’re currently living). Perhaps instead of finishing reading this sentence you closed your eyes and took a brief nap. This possibility exists within the fifth dimension— that is, different realities you could have chosen to collapse but didn’t for whatever reason. In the sixth dimension, one can instantaneously circumnavigate the tesseract of would have’s, should have’s, and could have’s of one’s life (as opposed to reversing time, making different decisions, and then living out the new reality in “real-time”). This means you could “walk” to the reality in which you chose to study photography instead of architecture, and then return back because you realized how unsatisfying it was. In 6-Dimensionalism the myriad of possibilities of a built form exist simultaneously. It refers to process rather than product, and how, within the intersecting forms of an objects potentiality, new and old ideas, within the given set of data, can be drawn. It is a selective spatial mapping of transformative events of a particular object, of a particular phenomenon, of a particular temporal boundary. Further reading: Imagining the Tenth Dimension, Rob Bryanton. 2006.
Sixth dimensional model of sunlight through trees which move in the wind through time and space. Ien Boodan. 2016 University of Waterloo School of Architecture
ien Boodan 4
ARCH 225 | Spring 2016