Architecture of a Muted Intensity

Page 48

Non-Referentiality Architecture today must respond to its immediate context as well as to its global context. A precondition for an architecture founded on the principle of a contextual response requires an understanding of the current global condition. It is a fact that today we are living in an everincreasing global society, a postmodern society—one in which the exchange of cultures, ideas, and concepts has reached a certain level of familiarity and expectation. If this is the current condition that we are living in, how do we find an appropriate architectural response and how do we ultimately define ‘value’ in the built environment? Should we be responding with architecture stemming from general historical reference, that requires a certain level of nostalgia for the past? Should we be responding to local customs that embody particular traditions and characteristic nuance? Or should we be formulating a response to the current situation—a diverse, postmodern and global world? Valerio Olgiati and Markus Breidschmid, in their book titled “Non-Referential Architecture” argue for a response in architecture that reacts to the current condition of our world, that is, the society of a non-

46


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.