Principles and Theories of Architecture Essay

Principles and Theories of Architecture Jake Joseph Richardson

“Is Wonderland really a wonder...when you have nowhere to land?”1

“We’re all mad here!”2

1. Gregory, Raven. Return to Wonderland Grimm Fairy Tales. (Zenescope Entertainment, 2008) p. 23 2. Lewis Carroll. Alice in Wonderland: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass. (Chicago, IL: J.G. Ferguson Pub., 1992) p.

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“Architecture is not based on concrete and steel and the elements of the soil. It is based on wonder”3 - Daniel Libeskind

When in the Matter of Light studio I began my exploration of the site location in Richmond by looking past the site itself and at the individual stories that make the town.

I wished to create a piece of architecture that would celebrate the stories which make Richmond special. Two tales which emerged were The Legend of the Richmond Drummer Boy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, with the former providing inspiration for the latter. Figures 1 and 2 show how I represented these two stories in the mapping of Richmond. The metal represents the route of the drummer boy tunnel, while the white rabbits represent the instances where I have located Alice. In Figure 3, I have illustrated where I have located these passages from the book and where I feel the author gained his inspiration. This process is very subjective, as to some, these locations will be identified 3. Hefferon, Joe. The Seventh Level: Designing Your Extraordinary Life (Bloomington: Balboa, 2012) p. 44

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Figure 1: Telling the stories of Richmond (Model above)

Figure 2: Telling the stories of Richmond

Figure 3: Finding Alice

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with different chapters in the book. However this process is directly comparable to my method of designing as my architecture allows for different interpretations; as we each inhabit and experience a space in different ways, I endeavour to celebrate this in my architecture.

This approach forms the basis and narrative for my practice which is based on my view that architecture itself is communicative. My designs tell a unique and particular story of Richmond reflecting both the programmatic content and the singularity of the site. Fundamental to my thinking and motivation is that buildings and urban projects are crafted with perceptible human energy and that they speak to the larger cultural community in which they are built; in this case, addressing the historical and theoretical context of Richmond in the form of the design. Through this process a more responsive architecture is created, which I strive to implement within my design; this fits with my

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belief that “The great thing about being an architect is you can walk into your dreams”.4

4. Hefferon, Joe. The Seventh Level: Designing Your Extraordinary Life (Bloomington: Balboa, 2012) p. 31

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Figure 4 demonstrates how I quantified wonder from the locations in which I found Alice in Richmond. Through this processes I identified the meanings of what creates wonder in a photograph, in doing so, revealing the Alice I was perceiving in the given area. I was criticized in my interim crit. as to the meaning of the shapes I created in relation to their connection with Richmond. However, as Vilém Flusser highlights, “Images are significant surfaces. Images signify something ‘out there in space and time”5 Further to this Alyson Belcher states “My photographs reveal what lies beneath the surfaces of the tangible world: stories, memories and hidden truths” . In my attempt to find Alice, my interpretation of the

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photographs reveals what lies beneath. Then through the diagrams in Figure 4 I bring these moments into something I can turn architectural.

5. Flusser, Vilém. Towards a Philosophy of Photography. (London: Reaktion, 2000) p. 72.

6. Mullen, Leslie. “TRUTH IN PHOTOGRAPHY: PERCEPTION, MYTH AND REALITY IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD.” ( University of Florida. Web. 10 Apr. 2015) <http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/amd0040/Leslie.pdf>.

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Figure 4: Quantifing wonder Wonderment

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Fundamentally I believe and practice that when designing architecture the use of metaphors and fragmentation should provide the inspiration upon which to provide a deeper meaning in a building. Hence, through the abstract interpretation of the drummer boy tunnel and quantification of the wonder from instances of Alice in Richmond, I was able to interpret the two stories through a series of diagrams. During the process of diagramming an “Inter-connected philosophy of making is developed”7 and Figure 5 demonstrates this approach in a series of Noli Diagrams which become inevitably reduced and simplistic8 Figure 6 also does this by simplifying my design decisions to demonstrate the massing approach whilst designing the scheme; taking my initial 2D representations into a 3D axonometric view. These diagrams act with “an ‘in-between status” 9 to convey the designer’s ideas to an observer, forming a relationship between architectural drawing and the building which 7. Carter, Paul, Material Thinking: The Theory and Practice of Creative Research (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne UP, 2004) p. 20.

8. Garcia, Mark. The Diagrams of Architecture (Chichester: Wiley, 2010) 9. Allen, Stan, and Diana Agrest. Practice: Architecture, Technique, and Representation (Australia: G B Arts International, 2000) p. 99.

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Figure 5: Noli Plans

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Figure 6: Massing Diagrams

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they describe”10 Both drawings convey the idea of the building in different ways and together they explain the architectural meaning. Fundamentally, “Architects do not make buildings, they make drawings and models,”11 this is especially prominent for architecture students.

Our drawings and diagrams are not used as the basis for completed structures “but as projections that convey... ideas as their end result”12 and process. Figure 7 shows a sectional model I made conveying the light conditions in a key space. Though it does not show the structure it demonstrates the atmosphere I wished to achieve, consequently “it is not the representation, but what is represented that matters”13 10. Gómez, Alberto Pérez, and Louise Pelletier. Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1997) p. 9 11. Leatherbarrow, David. Uncommon Ground: Architecture, Technology, and Topography (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2000) p. 25.

12. Woods, Lebbeus, Joseph Becker, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, and Brett Littman. Lebbeus Woods, Architect. (The Drawing Center, New York, 2014) p. 7.

13. Vesely, Dalibor. Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2004) p. 97.

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Figure 7: Sectional Model

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My work is influenced by the work of Daniel Libeskind, in particular the Jewish Museum. Libeskind is a deconstructive architect: inside the Jewish Museum the pillars squeeze into the walls, “there isn’t a rational link between the architecture elements”14 because “the aim of Libeskind is to create a metaphor thought the abstraction that gives anguish, torment and discomfort to the viewer”15. Through my architecture I try to do the same, I wish to create spaces which allow for people to interpret and interact with them as they wish. Like Libeskind my building creates a metaphor for the stories which inspired them. Figures 7,8 and 9 demonstrate this by the use of double height spaces which form around the tunnel projecting a story from the outside by showing the theoretical route of the drummer boy. Internally this route is distinguished by the changing of ceiling heights, which is similar to that of the Jewish Museum where five cavernous voids run vertically through the New 14. Bernhard Schneider, and Libeskind Daniel. Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin: Between the Lines (Munich: Prestel, 2004) p. 34.

15. Bernhard Schneider, and Libeskind Daniel. Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin: Between the Lines (Munich: Prestel, 2004) p. 34.

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Figure 8: Above left (Light tower) Figure 9: Above right (External view)

Figure 10: Above (Section)

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Building (Figure 10). “They have walls of bare concrete, are not heated or air-conditioned and are largely without artificial light, quite separate from the rest of the building”16 . On the upper levels of the exhibition, the voids are clearly visible with black exterior walls. Figure 11 shows the process in which Libeskind manipulates the Star of David to form the mass of the building. The Historian William J.R Curtis comments “Like a bolt of lightning, it cut through societal complacency to repressed but disturbing memories beneath the surface”17 This deconstruction of a shape to form a mass is what inspired me in my graduation project. When visiting the museum the architecture spoke to me as being of an “open architecture,”18 meaning an architecture which is initially not for a specific purpose, “Self sufficient structures that form different spaces, spaces that do not 16. Bernhard Schneider, and Libeskind Daniel. Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin: Between the Lines (Munich: Prestel, 2004) p. 34.

17. Curtis, William J. R. Modern Architecture since 1900 (London: Phaidon, 1996) p. 667.

18. Noever, Peter, and Regina Haslinger. Architecture in Transition: Between Deconstruction and New Modernism (Munich: Prestel, 1991) p.

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Figure 11: Jewish museum voids

Figure 12: Star of David

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pin down the future user”19 but self sufficiently offer a range of possibilities. It is this openness which I try to bring forward into my own architecture.

In essence we cannot all be creative “geniuses, that would not be fun”20; however, this is why we marvel and endeavour to emulate them and this sums up how I perceive the work of Libeskind. In my work it is not about creativity in the sense of designing a building or sculpture; it is about me learning to be imaginative, so I can discover what is needed to make my work better than ordinary. As Hefferon says, “Once you begin to express your creative genes, you will mystify your friends. You can finally hear, “That was your idea? Holy Toledo!”21

19. Noever, Peter, and Regina Haslinger. Architecture in Transition: Between Deconstruction and New Modernism (Munich: Prestel, 1991) p.

18.

20. Hefferon, Joe. The Seventh Level: Designing Your Extraordinary Life (Bloomington: Balboa, 2012) p. 31 21. Hefferon, Joe. The Seventh Level: Designing Your Extraordinary Life (Bloomington: Balboa, 2012) p. 31

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Bibliography Allen, Stan, and Diana Agrest. Practice: Architecture, Technique, and Representation (Australia: G B Arts International, 2000) Carter, Paul, Material Thinking: The Theory and Practice of Creative Research (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne UP, 2004) Curtis, William J. R. Modern Architecture since 1900 (London: Phaidon, 1996) Fjeld, Per Olaf., and Sverre Fehn. Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts. (New York: Monacelli, 2009) Flusser, Vilém. Towards a Philosophy of Photography.

(London: Reaktion, 2000) Garcia, Mark. The Diagrams of Architecture (Chichester: Wiley, 2010) Gómez, Alberto Pérez, and Louise Pelletier.

Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1997)

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Gregory, Raven. Return to Wonderland Grimm Fairy Tales. (Zenescope Entertainment, 2008) Glusberg, Jorge. Deconstruction: A Student Guide (London: Academy Editions, 1991.

Hays, K. Michael. Oppositions Reader: Selected Readings from a Journal for Ideas and Criticism in Architecture, 1973-1984 (New York: Princeton Architectural, 1998) Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Experiencing Architecture.

(Cambridge: M.I.T., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962) Joe Hefferon. The Seventh Level: Designing Your Extraordinary Life (Bloomington: Balboa, 2012) Kalay, Yehuda E. Architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Media: Principles, Theories (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2004) Leatherbarrow, David. Uncommon Ground: Architecture, Technology, and Topography (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2000) Lewis Carroll. Alice in Wonderland: Aliceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass.

(Chicago, IL: J.G. Ferguson Pub., 1992)

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Noever, Peter, and Regina Haslinger. Architecture in Transition: Between Deconstruction and New Modernism (Munich: Prestel, 1991) Unwin, Simon. Analysing Architecture (London: Routledge, 1997) Vesely, Dalibor. Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2004) Schneider, Bernhard, and Daniel Libeskind. Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin: Between the Lines (Munich: Prestel, 2004) Woods, Lebbeus, Joseph Becker, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, and Brett Littman. Lebbeus Woods, Architect.

(The Drawing Center, New York, 2014)

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List of illustrations Figure 1: Author Figure 2: Author Figure 3: Author Figure 4: Author Figure 5: Author Figure 6: Author Figure 7: Author Figure 8: Author Figure 9: Author Figure 10: Author Figure 11: Schneider, Bernhard, and Daniel Libeskind.

Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin: Between the Lines (Munich: Prestel, 2004) Figure 11: Schneider, Bernhard, and Daniel Libeskind.

Daniel Libeskind, Jewish Museum Berlin: Between the Lines (Munich: Prestel, 2004)

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Precedent list Architect Daniel Libeskind - Jewish Museam Berlin Photographer VilĂŠm Flusser Alyson Belcher Author Lewis Carroll

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Notes

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