ARCH8620_History & Theory III_Final Booklet by Marissa Cutry

HISTORY & THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE III

SPRING 2020 | MARISSA CUTRY

CONTENTS 04-05 VENICE 06-07

THE VENETIAN TERRAFERMA

08-09

HEIDIGGER’S THINKING ON ARCHITECTURE

10-11

CHARLESTON: HISTORIC RESIDENTIAL FABRIC

12-13

CHARLESTON: CIVIC INSTITUTIONS

14-15

THE CONCEPT OF DWELLING

16-18

MIDDLETON PLACE & INN

19-21

KENNITH FRAMPTON’S CRITICAL REGIONALISM

22-23

TADAO AANDO & THE KOSHINO HOUSE

24-25

GASTON BACHELARD’S “POETICS OF SPACE”

26-27

LOUIS KAHN & PARLAMENT OF BANGLADESH

28-29

THE THINKING OF LOUIS KAHN

VENICE

Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice is a building that not only reflects byzantine architecture, but also merges it with Venetian architecture. I wanted to use these two sketches to show how different types of architecture can be used to build on other aspects of a building from an entirely different influence of architecture. With St. Mark’s, Byzantine architecture is primarily seen from the interior of the building with the gold flooring and intercrate mosaics. From the exterior the influence is also continued abd from the Piazza San Marco Byzentinethis can be seen in the ornamental mosaic work, columns, capitals and friezes. I captured the atmosphere of the buildings essence by first detailing the original facade of the building. The archers and layered facade show a byzentine influence - a technique similar to Hagia Sophia. This contrasting facade contrasts with the piazzas skyline and

strikes a visitors eye as ‘different’. St. Mark’s is one of very few buildings in Venice that has Byzantine influence which contrasts the skyline with its domes as well at the city plan with its differing ‘cross-in-square’ layout. As for the architectural element focused drawing I decided to stay on the exterior of the building. Although the domes themselves are not Byzantine, their purpose was to shelter the Byzantine mosaics of the interior and thicken the walls to further protect them. The sky is left gold in my drawing to again resemble the purpose of these dome and bring back the true indicator of Bysantine architecture that is found within the building, the gold mosaic tiles. Again, we see the harsh difference of the domes within the Venetian skyline to indicate ‘something new’ within the city’s vernacular.

THE VENETIAN TERRAFERMA

LANDSCAPE In my first sketch I wanted to capture the beauty of Veneto’s landscape and how the architecture simply “fuses” with its environment rather than stamp itself on top of it. This view is looking out from Villa Godi which was constructed Andrea Palladio from 1537 to 1542. It is incredible how Villa Godi so easily forms into and plays on the existing landscape of Veneto while lending serving as such a needed and useful villa to its owners. As if he were building on water in Venice, he invited the landscape in through selective thresholds found on the buildings facade. As one looks out from the villa the green landscape leads their eyes in a horizontal motion - mimicking the profiles of the grassy hills. Along the way comes small vineyards

and pruned shrubs and trees that hint at human interaction with the landscape. Lastly, pops of burnt red come into play as one focuses on the rooftops of surrounding houses, churches and sheds. I can see this sketch as the background of one of the great artists of the 1500’s as the pictorial quality is brought out by the harmonious relationship of the rolling hills and pops of build environment. VILLA Villa Godi is one of Palladio’s first villas that he built located in Lugo do Vicenza, Veneto. From every angle, one can see that the building fuses the interior spaces with the surrounding environment by offering framed vistas and lush surrounding gardens adjacent to the house. This villa in particular is framed with beautiful gardens that I wished to capture in my sketch. During this time, in the 1500s, Veneesian people were

realizing the role of the surrounding environment and most importantly its beauty. The architecture followed by this realization began to compliment and pair with the beauty of the surrounding nature. I chose to frame the drawing as if one was peeking through the gardens to see the Villa. Although drawn with harsh contrast between architecture and nature, I wanted to show how one can complement another. If my first drawing the landscape rises above the built environment to show a pictorial scene when in this drawing the villa is brought out by the shape of the surrounding landscape. As out reading said: “we shall see the beautiful and the useful happily in an admirable whole”. Thus one cannot exist without one another here in Veneto.

HEIDEGGER’S THINKING ON ARCHITECTURE This essay immediately reminded me of two things, or topics when reading. The first was Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book published in 1499 by Francecso Colonna (two images to the right taken from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili). Throughout the essay, Heidigger constantly talked about dwelling poetically and it kept drawing me to connect the thoughts of Colonna with his. Although in Hypnerotomachia the author writes the story of a man within a dream, which is not the setting for Heidigger’s essay, both approaches to description seemed to be so similar. Both talked about architecture not as the forefront but almost as the backdrop to humanity. I believe both authors tell a story within their writing that connects humans to the landscape and eventually

to their built environment but in a beautiful way that teaches lessons to not the onetime-reader, but to the scholar who looks into the deeper meaning of the story and how architecture is represented. The second reference I drew upon when reflecting on this essay was Tadao Aando. Aando was one of the first architects I studiedalong with his Koshino House. From this house I learned how Aando designed poetically to compliment the environment while offering an in depth experience for the user. Like Heidigger explains within his essay, the ultimate aim for works of architecture is to bring the inhabited landscape close to let man dwell poetically. For me when I hear this I immediately think of how Aando shapes nature around his projects and uses for and lack-of to mold light and atmosphere to provide spaces for reflection, thought and interpretation. Therefore I would argue that Aando brings truth to his work by allowing the fourfold to interact within his built environments.

Overall I enjoyed reflecting on this essay mainly because it was different. Many books of architecture that set rules, such as Vistruious’ Ten Books on Architecture (extreme example, yes), I believe are very imposing on the human path. Heidigger approaches his ‘rules’ in a more holistic approach allowing thought for human experience, design, function and aspects of form. I think it is so important to ‘design for the user’, as many call it today, to ensure that we are not just building to build or prove a point. One question I would ask Heidigger if he were alive today: What are your thoughts on Kandinsky and his influence on architecture? I would ask this because I have a strong opinion on the type of architecture that was being produced during the time on Kandinsky (De Stijl) and think it would spark a good conversation with him about the balance of form:function.

CHARLESTON: HISTORIC RESIDENTIAL FABRIC For the first sketch on orientation (lare image to the right) I wanted to capture the reasoning and need for the Charleston single house here in Charleston. By doing so I sketched the top portion of the south side of a charleston single that highlights the rich shadows and strong highlights the side of a Charleston singles picks up on a sunny day. As we know from the reading, orientation is important to a city (and a sketch) because it allows the space or form to be placed in a particular microclimate. This sketch shows the sun exposure that the single houses experience while offering moments of direct, indirect and ambient solar gain to filter into the user. The selected use of glazing, high frequency of shutters and overall structural integrity of the sketch allows one to assume the range of weather this form may see over the course of the year. I decided to use cardboard so that I had a natural and level playing ground for the light and shade/shadows to contrast one another. My second sketch (above) focuses on a specific ally way within Charleston’s footprint. Here, one is exposed to the historic brick of Charleston and reminded of the need to ally ways such as these in the historical times of Charleston. Today residents use this ally way to access different programmed rooms to their apartment/dwelling. What was once a working kitchen could perhaps be a family room and what was once a storage room for a family’s winter food supply could now be a bedroom. This thought implies that within this one sketch, layers of time can be unraveled and realised with simple thought of place, time and dwelling.

When choosing a location to sketch I wanted to find an area where I believed identity could be unveiled. I knew that I needed a place of dwelling and human activity but only viewed in its natural state. What I found about this alleyway was that yes, the use and frequency of the hall may have changed multiple times throughout its existence thus far but the prominence of the gate, bricks and draw to nature remains the same as I could imagine it 50 years ago. THis is why I decided to highlight the green of the gardens past the gate. They not only give me character of the space but they offer a destination that each and every user experiences.

CHARLESTON: CIVIC INSTITUTIONS When walking around Charleston one can experience the N/S grid of the city by walking down almost any street on the southeast point of the peninsula. Looking left to right when crossing streets exposes you to the city’s orientation and the beautiful edges of buildings that pop out and play with the sidewalks character. There was one location when exporting Charleston’s N/S orientation where I had to stop and turn down a street due to a figure. This was on the corner of Queen and Church street looking north to the figure of St. Phillips Church. St. Phillips Church was built in 1836 by Joseph Hyde and later the monumental steeple was added by Edward Brickwell White. The grid of Charleston adapts and forms around the figure allowing for an exposed view of the north and south facade from the street. I found it interesting to imagine this first sketch without the steeple and with this could feel the power of breaking the street grid and how it gave heirarchy to the building at a human scale. For this sketch I wanted to capture the moment I realized what was happening to the urban context due figure’s presence and placement. I also found it very interesting here that due to the orientation of the figure on the city’s grid, one cannot see the front of the cross that is on the steeple. It is so interesting because for such a promenade building - one with such rich and old roots in the city’s European history - one could be confused about the buildings orientation. For the next sketch I decided to look at a new point of view not on the N/S axis of the city grid. This change in orientation exposed the cross of the steeple and show off parts of the building that one cannot experience looking from afar when standing on . These moments had to be experienced in front of the building when one curves around the front of the building and is taken off axes. This whole experience of the shift in grid left me only looking at the church and nothing else. The building as a figure demands your attention as it is the reason for this strange phenomena.

THE CONCEPT OF DWELLING The notion of human dwelling developed by Heidegger focuses on man’s interaction with one another through the use of not just language, but poetic language and how this action is one of dwelling. Here, the built environment, landscape and surrounding environment and effect how one dwells as architecture allows for dwelling. It is not until man can understand and speak poetic language that the house of being is opened and one is at last dwelling. On the other hand, the notion of human dwelling as articulated by Norberg-Schultz is not as specific as Heidegger’s approach. Norberg-Schultz talks about dwelling as if there are many ways to attain or participate in it. One can exist among others and interact and begin to understand them and/or one can be with oneself to dwell. Either way dwelling is achieved, you have the ability to experience dwelling in different ways. One can look to the four modes of dwelling to see that it does not just specifically take a poetic language to experience dwelling. When taking a step back from the readings I began to compare the two. Right away I felt a pull towards Heidegger’s approach as it seemed more holistic and attainable for the modern day architect. After some research and reading a few articles on Norberg-Schultz (which has probably influenced my opinion on his work) I came to the same conclusion - that Heidegger’s approach was more holistic. This is because I have read that NorbergSchultz had read Heidegger’s writing and was influenced by it. Because of this I can only assume that he wanted to take his phenomenology and understand it further which in turn made his understanding of dwelling more strict. But this is simply an assumption. I now wonder if Norberg-Schultz’s dwelling is essentially the same phenomena of those dwelling in Heideiggers theory. Do those who exchange in poetic language only attain this ability because they have been externally influenced by orientation + identification, the existence of others, understanding oneself? According to Norberg-Schultz there are three constituents of the language of architecture which include topology, spatial organization, morphology, the fact that the built environment sits between the earth and the sky, and typology, the manifestation of the modes of dwelling. Typology is apparent through spaces that are not designed by a given program but through knowing of the phenomena that the space designed can hold. Morphology is realized through the delicate and/or but not limited to the brutalist approach of how the built environment touches the earth and how it reaches or even refuses to touch the sky. Typology is met through the figure that is created via the architecture.

MIDDLETON PLACE & INN I was introduced to WG Clark early in my architectural education. I studied architecture as an undergraduate at the University of Maryland where we spent most history classes digesting the federal/greek revival/neoclassical buildings of Washington D.C. and other local instances. One study came with University of Virginia’s THomas Jefferson and his works on the campus as well as Montechello. When we arrived at studying Jefferson and Virginia we did take a few minutes in our lecture to hit on WG Clark and his contributions to Virginia but never did we talk about his connection to nature. I can only briefly remember distasteful comments from my professor’s mouth about his works - which seems so incredibly wrong now and makes me ask a million questions about my professor (who attended Ecole de Beaux Arts, hmm..). Unknowingly a few years prior to college I was taking college tours and stumbled upon UVA’s architecture building and most importantly it’s recently completed east wing by WG Clark. At the time I had no idea about Clark and his theory on architecture but now that I look back I find it interesting that Clark took on an addition to an existing building. From my brief research on him I would have thought that he would only design new builds where he had full control on the human experience of the site. But when I look back to my experience with the wing I understand. Clark was able to connect students adn all users back to nature with the conditions of the pre existing building - it was located off the grid of UVA’s main campus at a higher elevation surrounded by nature and and it was the first glance at built environment you saw peeking out from the natural vegetation when approaching the site from the south. When we were on our tour of Middleton Place last week I was struck and so intrigued by the simple geometry of the living quarters. I couldn’t help but think of the Campbell hall at UVA and how the two resemble one another. I cannot help to think that WG Clark looked at the unfinished architecture building’s south facade, thought of the Inn at Middleton Place and said “I know what to do”. Sketch I - The Inn With the fourfold in mind I wanted to express the truth that WG Clark expresses about the built environment and its connection with nature. Here, planes of nature, concrete and wood interact together to let one’s eye to the sky white offering a place to dwell for its users. I think Clark did a great job capturing the fourfold at this site as he captures nature with views and alignment while placing it exposed to the elements all while receiving the sky above. While sketching this part of the Inn I questioned the thought that if these walls were not covered in vegetation would it still capture nature? From the view I sketched

KENNETH FRAMPTON’S CRITICAL REGIONALISM

IN LIGHT OF THE QUOTATION BY PAUL RICOEUR, CITED BY FRAMPTON AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS ESSAY, WHAT IS THE DILEMMA FACING PROGRESSIVE CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTS IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION? The dilemma facing progressive contemporary architects in the age of globalization is to find a balance of pulling from (not copying) a cultural past that ‘did us well’ while advancing the built environment, and the civilization that employs it, through new findings of the modern world.

DISTINGUISH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE. Civilization includes the people of a certain time in history and the world they lived in. Culture is the ‘expression’ of a specific civilization which can be locally or sometimes even globally grown (natural) or in some cases inflicted (unnatural, bad).

EXPLAIN WHAT HANNAH EHRENDT MEANT WHEN SHE SAID “UTILITY ESTABLISHED AS MEANING GENERATES MEANINGLESS.” I believe Hannah Ehrendt meant that we are placing culture within our civilization in a way which is unnatural, or forced, leading to false meaning instead of advancing and finding what ‘modernism’ is today.

EXPLAIN WHY AVANT-GARDISM CAN NO LONGER BE SUSTAINED AS A LIBERATIVE MOVEMENT. Avant-gardism can no longer be sustained as a liberative movement because its positive ‘liberating’ meaning one can find via Neoclassical architecture (function for majority) has been altered as history continues. Post Neoclassical form came movements such as the Arts and Crafts and Gothic Revival which were in fact Avant-Garde by definition but began to forget about the human and seemed to force modernism in a new, often thought as negative, direction (form follows function, ornamentation follows functionality) all together losing its connection to culture and gaining a connection with “science, medicine and industry”.

DESCRIBE FRAMPTON’S NOTION OF THE ARRIERREGARDE. Frampton’s notion of the arrierre-garde is finding a way, in architecture, to successfully cultivate a culture while “having discreet recourse to a universal technique” or supporting/be supported by common parameters of modern civilization. To me, this means doing the opposite of the Hearst Tower (Foster + Partners), or even thinking of what not to do as ‘forced modern Eclecticism’ for the sake of bringing culture and architectural history to present works.

EXPLAIN THE FUNDAMENTAL STRATEGY OF CRITICAL REGIONALISM AND HOW IT IS AT VARIANCE WITH POPULIST EMPLOYMENT OF “COMMUNICATIVE OR INSTRUMENTAL SIGNS”. The fundamental strategy of Critical Regionalism is to return ‘place’ back to a piece of architecture (‘place’ meaning direct local culture – for me I think of Dan Harding and his residential design build projects). This strategy is at variance with populist employment of “communicative or instrumental signs” because unlike critical regionalism, it is simply not crucial of itself. Populist architecture is meant to be understood without theory – visually rich but theoretically sterile.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE “PLACE-FORM” IN THE METROPOLIS? Place-form in the metropolis is important in the metropolis because it established the meaning and purpose of the built environment. Without it – is it a meaningless city?

CITE THE FIVE REALMS WHERE CRITICAL REGIONALISM INVOLVES A MORE DIRECTLY DIALECTICAL RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE THAN DOES THE ABSTRACT, FORMAL TRADITION OF RATIONALIST MODERN ARCHITECTURE. The five realms are topography, context, climate, light and tectonic form.

WHAT DOES FRAMPTON MEAN BY THE TECTONIC AS DISTINCT FROM THE MERELY “TECHNICAL” OR THE “SCENOGRAPHIC” IN ARCHITECTURE? I believe that what Frampton means by the tectonic is the art of architectonics and how it was achieved, forgetting the technical aspects (nuts and bolts) as well as the stenographic (the atmosphere or ‘makeup’). He is talking about the beauty that the building embodies – the expression of its function.

EXPLAIN HOW THE “TACTILE RESISTANCE OF THE PLACEFORM” CAN SUGGEST A STRATEGY FOR RESISTING THE DOMINANCE OF UNIVERSAL CIVILIZATION. The “tactile resistance of the place-form” can suggest a strategy for resisting the dominance of universal civilization because without tactility one can only depend on universal civilization (false hope in sense for making architecture fit in a place). It is the tactile, what one experiences within a place or form, that connects one to the space and allows one to truly experience a place. TV screen v. Actor Performing in the space.

TADAO AANDO KOSHINO HOUSE I chose to explore a work of architecture from Tadao Ando because I believe he embodies the architect Heidigger explains in his essay on thinking. Not only does Ando practice critical regionalism within his well known projects, or famous projects, but he embodies this approach within all of his works. This house sits on a mountainside and simply digs into the earth offering a complex circulation along with spaces for humans to dwell to reach divinity. This again embodies Heigiggers thinking of the four composite beings: earth sky human and divinity. I decided to use a straight edge for my plan and section drawing this week with hopes to embody Ando’s thinking. With a crooked line I would diter from the concept of Ando and his architecture of having a simple and beautiful built environment to allow for poetic thinking, or dwelling. Instead of drawing hard lines outlining the walls I drew the shadow caused by the built environment to show speciality within the space and allow the viewer to imagine what the space would be like. I added a light taupe color to the ‘site’, which is framed by two adjacent properties and two roads, again to keep the drawing simple and not place harsh preconceptions on the viewer. The trees in plan I decided to render them the same as the walls of the building to explain Andos thinking on the connection of the built and inhabited environment and how one can be an extension of the other. The second drawing shows how simple vertical and horizontal planes are used to capture and leadlight though spaces of the house and again allow the user to dwell poetically. The center (largest) stair is essential to this property in capturing critical regionalism and how he inhabits the landscape. This stair is the main entrance of the house which allows one to descend down the ‘mountainside’ with brief interaction with the built environment. The view looking down the hill to the ‘backyard’ of the site is a forest of some which truly hugs the properties and encloses the user with nature. This perspective is a view of the hallway adjacent to the bedrooms which had slits in the walls that follow the main stair on the property. The shadows created are caused from the built staircase but represent the topo of the embodied landscape: the descent into the built environment. This descending movement then influences the interior shade.

GASTON BACHELARD’S “POETICS OF SPACE” Bachelard is described as “the master penetrator of anthro-cosmology” where anthrocosmology means the natural connection on has to the universe of the house. The house is essentially the human, and the study of their behavior in the past and present, while the universe is the cosmos which is a complex system we are trying to understand and make connections back to the human race. When it came to the introduction of the book, Bachelard’s characterization of the poetic imagination seemed to be described in many ways that brought me to one understanding: that one can drift off into a dream, into a special or sacred space, and begin imagination. Here one gives future to the past by exploring the notion of time not only from memory but by breaking the linear clock and surpassing the limits of the past into new territory. When this happens, imagery is made into language thus poetry… imaginative poetry. This whole phenomenon emerges from one’s past through the reminiscence, or recreation of the ‘spaces within the house’. As images speak, imagination promotes* poetry. This all is to say that it is just not what one remembers which becomes poetry, it is what one lived and is living about a space (soul rather than mind). Chapters I&II of the book is about daydreaming. I believe that the psychic significance of daydreaming is that it can be transferred from person to person, dream to dream through a converting daydream to poetry, poetry to daydreaming for as long as time remains. The act of daydreaming allows one to relive spaces of our past that hold memories to us. The house serves this daydreaming by sheltering the act of daydreaming, by protecting the dreamer and allowing one to dream in peace. I found it interesting when Bachelard wrote “We can only think of it, in the line of an abstract time that is deprived of all thickness… memories are motionless.” (pp.31). Is this why we define those with great memory having ‘photographic memory’? Because it is a series of still frames being relived in their minds, not a fluid video. In Chapter IV Bachelard discusses the mother bird and how she makes her nest without tools. A bird collects materials to a place upon a tree limb and begins to form the materials to its own body – creating a shell. This shell is repetitively patted down by the female bird’s breast and the male bird continues to add materials. When reading this I could not help but to think of the Van Gogh painting you shared in class, “Road with Cypress and Star”, and connect it with how Bachelard is writing about Van Gogh’s paintings of nest and the concept of the nest. Looking at the painting now I cannot help but see nesting materials in the fields adjacent to the road then look to the carriage where the women are

sitting, see its womb like form, the repeated color of the grasses and then see the men on the road carrying faming tools. To me, the people are the birds, men collecting the materials and women forming the nest. The nest here signifies the beginning of confidence. If a bird has confidence in the surrounding world to survive would it not build a nest? Of course it would, and so they do. We build houses as our nest to show our confidence in the world. Our first house is our first leap of trust and the house in turn serves as protection from the unknown where all of our ‘eggs’ can lay warm and safe. Chapter V, Shells, talks about the relationship between life and form and how life can take on different forms and although some of these forms man not have ‘limbs and senses’ they can still have life. This whole chapter had me thinking, as morbid as it might be, about heart transplants with modern technology. Today heart transplants have improved due to a machine that extends the time the organ can be without its shell, or human body before dying. One thought is that when an organ is removed from a body and put into this machine that tricks it into thinking it is still inside of a body it is ‘working on making a shell’ as Bachelard writes but we know that this is not a long-term solution. But the new body receiving the transplant could be the shell the heart was looking for. My second thought is relating this transplant concept to Bachelard’s writing on the fossil. The fossil is not without life, it is simply asleep in its form – is the transplant machine a fossil? Or is it a failed shell? At the end of the day we know the heart continues to ‘live’ but is this odd analogy not accurate because of the involvement of technology? In Chapter VIII, Intimate Immensity, Bachelard talks about the vastness of the cosmos. Human contemplation has such a range which can be reached though intimate space, and this is what Bachelard defines as vast – “infinity of intimate space”. This space itself and the ‘vast thoughts’ that come with it define a metaphysical argument where the vast world and the vast thoughts of contemplation are united. At the same time the author makes the connection to the word vast and how it evokes calm, peace and serenity as when it is spoke and imagined by man it requires a soft yet heavy response of contemplation. Thoreau said that when a man looks into a lake, he takes the first view man has on himself, or as he described it in the writing the universe’s first view it has on itself. Here cosmic narcissism is brought up as this is a moment of self-flattery as the cosmos is measuring the depth of its own nature. From d’Annunzio’s observation of the hare in the freshly plowed field, the “sacred instant of contemplation” is the look in an ever-fearing animal’s eye when he is frees from its instincts and does not command flight. This is when the animal finds peace and the animal looks down into nature rather than being on the lookout for danger – a relief in time that allows us to witness world peace.

LOUIS KAHN. PARLAMENT OF BANGLADESH For the sketches this week I was very moved by a section of the reading (image on the right) that talked about the process that Kahn and FLWright found themselves constantly engaged in when searching for organic space or order within their projects. With this thought I began sketching the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Capital of Bangladesh. Starting at the exterior of the building I found a beautiful relationship between the water and the geometry of the building. As the shapes (in plan) turn and radiate from the central space shadows are pulled on to the water creating amsost drafting lines to indicate a change in the geometry. I drew this about four times until I was satisfied with the symbolic showing of this relationship but like the passage stated, was not satisfied with my attempt. I then continued and moved close to the building, this time looking at the relationship of materials and how their color and geometry offset one another. Again drawing this sketch multiple times I found that the simple gesture of color, shape and value helped determine the overall thought of this sketch - it did not take much. I realized here that once I understood the geometry and sense of order of this building my sketches became ‘simpler’. For the third sketch, a view of the southern facade from afar, I wanted my strokes within my sketch to be the most simple while capturing the order of the facade and of the overall layering of the site. I wanted to capture the possible form that Kahn reached when bringing the project from the silence to the light. Using color to capture the material selections with intent to include the sky, earth and built. Khan’s hierarchy is shown in this drawing with my attempt to layer on color as different ‘realizations’ he may have had - shapes, openings (geometry again), material and finally shadow. When studying this building I found it inspiring how Kahn used modernism to transform cultural norms in architecture from the Banglidesh culture. At first glance

this building has notions to being close to the cultural architecture existing while noting an extended point of view which I believe here is a new democracy. Here I compare the porches of the Taj Mahal to Kahn’s porches. One can still see the symbolism but also the rethinking and use of the geometry to better serve the assembly of people in terms of lighting. The overall geometry in plan interests me and makes me wonder what Kahn’s thoughts were on using very basic geometry for such a monumental and meaningful building. It is almost like he once designed a detailed and neo-classical centralized mosque and then broke it down into its simplest geometric forms in a suprematism approach (similar to Kazimir Malevich’s approach to art).

THE THINKING OF LOUIS KAHN Understanding Kahn’s metaphysics begins with the understanding of his components of design thinking that offer a complex route to reaching meaningful architecture. These components start with order, which is what Kahn believes drives the imagery of design. He looks not only into himself to reach an order but also to materials - he asks a brick “what do you want to be?”. Through order comes design and Kahn emphasizes the commonality of man’s inspirations and institutions that tells one ‘what’ to design. This process can only be explained through the path from silence to light. Silence and light consist of a meeting point called the threshold. Here the silence implies the unmeasurable and the unrealized, yet it possesses a “will to be”. This will determine the very nature of things and can only be satisfied through design. On the other hand light is the symbol of understanding, the giver of all presences which is measurable. When silence and light meet they create the threshold where art resides. This is where “the will to be meets the means of expression”. It is here where the will to be takes its next step to realization by becoming the will to make. This is where the ‘dust settles and the echoing silence gives the sun the it’s shadows’ - this is where design is witnessed. Without the coming and going of silence we would not reach the threshold which casts a shadow onto the light - meaning that without the unrealized there would be no shadow falling from the light thus no design. An important part of this design process is the will to exist - the will to be that is held within the unrealized. This is what determines the very nature of things and is fulfilled through the process of design while being a vital part of design itself. Without a need and will to be there cannot be a reached art, the architect’s design. This connection from the will to exist to the design is the translation of the inner order into being. Again, going from the unrealized to art. The art, or design which is reached, resides in an adequate relation to the institutions. Kahn believes that the institution is the realization of architecture, the incarnation of the built. The progression from silence to light then into the institution is a process of sharing, participation and one of ‘coming together’. Institutions are seen as our truest sense that can honor the use of the buildings. It is the institution that connects the people, program and meaning of the building to the built environment. The main objective of architecture for Kahn is not to fulfill the need of its user but to satisfy a desire. Kahn’s work is constantly progressing to make the building what the building wants to be along with providing a human’s desire for self expression. By opening passages between silence and light, Kahn is able to provide enrichment to the building

and it’s users. Offering up glimpses of the threshold to the user leads to the realization of the beginning by bringing the unmeasurable into the measurable through form and eventually as the built architecture. It is when this process is complete that one can enter the measurable and experienced to reach back and see the unmeasurable, the silence, and be more complete with the world (closed loop). Here one can understand how critical the interaction of the building’s (or architect’s) desire and the human (user’s) desire are to one another. They cannot exist alone and without one the institution cannot be realized. Form and design have a very close connection to order. Form is essentially the idea - the thing that desires to be. Form inspires design and encompases the sense of order yet form has no shape, no dimension. There is no presence to form and the only place one can reach form is through the mind. This is because form proceeds design and design is the realization of that form and institution combined. The two, form and institution, can be seen in Kahn’s form drawings where the two come together to generate special properties. Rooms are found by Kahn to be spaces yielded by light. With the being of built walls and architecture comes again the shadow which is enclosed within a space - an area of enclosure to the human which in turns creates a world within a world - compartmentalizing the field into a smaller field. Without light the room would not be realized and without shadow the room about not ‘be’. Influencers of Kahn’s work can be seen in his writing, sketching and architecture that came to fruition. The castle is one inspiration that Kahn looks to for ways of manipulating light. Thick walls along with voided areas offer drastic thresholds that the human can experience on foot or visually and can alter the presence of the room. The Parliament Building in Bangladesh can be digested through these terms to understand Kahn’s approach and reasoning for design. Kahn thought of the walls of this parliament building as light giving - through a series of geometric openings voiding through thick cast in place concrete walls Kahn offers a place for the light to subsite and in a way ‘gives light to the light’. These monumental gestures of light giving can be seen throughout the building but really take a showing in the mosque. Here once can witness the essence Kahn creates that allows the institution to emerge. I think it is important to note the change in design that Kahn had during the design process and how we witnessed his Metaphysics during this building’s design process. As we know, the building took a shift in intent when the Bangladesh Liberation war began and eventually led to Bangladesh separating from Pakistan. This led to a shift in the silence of this project. The building went from wanting to be a monumental robust building to a building of dependence and a new, freed democracy. This led Kahn back to the drawing board as one cannot refind light of new meaning without going back to the silence to reinitiate a new meaning of the art, or design. Kahn’s new design is one that someone can experience and appreciate aesthetically while being emerged in the institution. He brings in architectural gestures throughout the building that give an essence to the inhabitable space that can be experienced by the user thus fulfilling the users and the building’s desires. 29