ARCHITECTURAL THESIS 5TH YEAR ARCH-541 RAZAN ZULOF U164N2329
UNIVERSITY OF NICOSIA SUPERVISORS: ADONIS CLEANTHOUS & ANGELA PETROU
CONTENTS:
ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: DOMINANCE OF VISION………………………………………………............ ▪ ▪ ▪
CHAPTER 2: A MODERNIST REIMAGING OF CITIES…………………………………… 1.
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A deteriorating visual fixation: Instagram-able Architecture Perspectival novelty of the renaissance discovery of movement in space
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THE NEW IMAGE AND THE NEW IDENTITY o Post-war Dilemma and Mental Defeat: Effect on Redesign of Cities o Replanning of cities based on a Visionary Image. o Existential Space and phenomenology
2. ADAPTATION………………………………………………………………………………………………………... o communicating plans o Post war playgrounds o Meeting the middle ground of Critical Regionalism o Postmodernist’s preoccupation with the exterior
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CHAPTER 3: ACHIEVING AN AWARENESS……………………………………………………… 22 ▪ ▪
The powerfulness of historical continuum The smaller scale: Interior. Scandinavian approach
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 25
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ABSTRACT
The following thesis is a theoretical investigation that seeks to find meaning beyond the visual values and aesthetic characteristics of architecture and explores precedents in which vision has either dominated architecture or supported it in enhancing the human existential experience. What is the deeper explanation for this external visual fixation, and what are the various ways in which the visual and aesthetic affected our perception of architecture and existential experience? To seek these understandings, this thesis analyses significant time periods in history that had a significant impact on the architectural fulfilling experience. By analysing how this vision became a necessity and addressing times in history when this visionary based architecture was prominent. It explores how vision fixation affected the wholistic sense of meaning in existence through the architectural experience. These significant comprehensive achievements in history have led to practical and physical applications and characteristics in our modern-day architecture. This thesis begins by discussing the dominance of vision in our modern world. Explaining the deteriorating visual fixation and the need for a wholistic architectural experience as the world is a result of collective lived experiences.
Introducing the perspectival tool in the renaissance has led to the discovery of movement representation. The tough period of the post-World War Two struggle, led to a visionbased city. Post-war bombings led to adaptation which in its turn led to changing people’s perception on wars and losses. The thesis later discusses the powerfulness that architecture needs to maintain in providing humans with an existential space of equal multisensory, historical, and archaeological qualities. And finally exploring the human perception on a smaller scale which led to contemporary adaptations such as the Scandinavian architectural approach.
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“The dominance of the eye and the suppression of the senses tends to push us into isolation, detachment, and exteriority” Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the senses
“Architecture continues to have a great human task in mediating between the world and ourselves, providing a horizon of understanding our existential condition and constructing settings for a dignified life.” - Gaston Bachelard
“A tectonic shift has taken place in global political culture. Many elites in history … viewed war as a positive good. Others viewed it as evil, but an inevitable one, which we had better turn to our own advantage. Ours is the first time in history that the world … genuinely see[s] war as both evil and avoidable” – Yuval Noah Harari
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INTRODUCTION:
As our world continues to progress and develop, notions of mere aesthecisation start to take over. Architecture has become almost entirely centred around vision. Visual culture has caused architecture to lose its wholistic value, and lead to its emphasis being merely placed on its visual appeal. Buildings have become externally viewed and admired rather than lived as an inseparable part of our awareness and sense of life. The following thesis is a theoretical investigation that seeks to find meaning beyond the visual values and aesthetic characteristics of architecture and explores precedents in which vision has either dominated architecture or supported it in enhancing the human existential experience. This thesis begins by discussing the dominance of vision in our modern world. Explaining the deteriorating visual fixation and the need for a wholistic architectural experience as the world is a result of collective lived experiences. To find the cause of this shift of emphasis on what appeals to the haptic eye, it was essential to look back at the line of history to trace back significant periods in which vision has affected our perception of architecture. Starting from the introduction of perspectival tool in the renaissance, and onto the discovery of movement representation. Moving forward in time to a rather tough period of the 20th century World War II, where the bigger urban scale is explored through ideas of modernity and post-war examples. It discusses the replanning of the city based on a new vision-based image and giving it a new identity. Moving on to adaptations of Postwar damages through embracing and celebrating remnants of bombings which changed people’s perception on wars and defeat, doing so through an analysis of Aldo Van Eyck’s playgrounds in Amsterdam. It later discusses the powerfulness that architecture needs to maintain in providing humans with historical archaeological continuum. And finally ending the research with exploring the smaller scale of the Scandinavian architectural approach in relation to connection with space.
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CHAPTER 1: DOMINANCE OF VISION
Figure 2: Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry. Photo Credits: Alamy
Figure 2: Zaha Hadid Architects Skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere
A deteriorating visual fixation: Instagram-able architecture of the 21st Century The world is witnessing a massive rise and expansion of technological culture. The development of technological tools that favour screens and visual mediums, lead to the very fact that 75 to 80 percent of information consumed of the surrounding world happens through sight and visual imagery. Quite similarly, is why Architecture has become almost entirely centred around vision. Visual culture has caused architecture to lose its wholistic value, and lead to an architecture whose primary emphasis is placed mostly on its visual appeal, with its value being merely measured by its ability to show, to be shown, photographed, or observed. With the evolution of social media and social media tools, especially ones that are photo and/or video-based such as Instagram, a lot of architectural projects nowadays are designed deliberately for the primary purpose of being Instagram-able. “The dominance of vision has never been stronger than in our current era of the visual image” Pallasmaa expresses. And since a huge percentage of information consumed of the world comes through sight as mentioned above, this has encouraged architects, planners, and designers to design architecture that appeals only to the eyes, with very little or no consideration to remaining senses or to different ways one can experience architecture. Architecture’s absence of attention and awareness of utilizing and designing architecture that accommodates other senses besides vision, resulted in the detachment of architecture with the body. In his work, Architecture and the senses, Juhani Pallasmaa talks about sensory design through different and new senses: smell, touch, sight, tongue, hearing, movement, and bodily awareness. He argues that all senses are vital for an authentic 6|Page
architectural experience. Therefore, for architecture to be more sensitive and holistic it should utilize design strategies that focus on and consider the totality of all different senses. In addition to that, digital tools further promoted the emphasis on the exterior that minimizes the emphasis on the interior. The shift of emphasis on an exterior engagement in space, or a perception of a whole of a building from the outside, shifted necessarily negatively the emphasis off the interior, which is vital to the mental wellbeing of humans. By giving an immense significance to how a particular building appeals to people from the exterior, with little or no regards to the interior, it disconnects humans with the experience of space within a building. Visual culture has resulted in an architecture that deteriorates the body and isolates the wholesome human experience of space. Communication within a building transforms into a visual journey and a building becomes only measured by it (Shirazi 59). This fact leads to an architecture which decentres the body and isolates it from its surroundings. The world is a result of collective lived experiences. Experiences are constructed of a series of images and lived emotions. Since architecture constructs a major part of our everyday life, therefore its connection and effect on our awareness and sense of life and existence is vitally significant. Many thinkers talk about the relation of architectural imagery with the body, including Martin Heidegger. According to him, visual fixation leads to a world with endless production of images, the essential event of our modern age is actually the conquest of the world as picture (Sharr 311). The act of designing and creating architecture has become merely aesthetic-oriented rather than wellbeing-promoting or seen as an inseparable part of our very awareness and sense of life. Architecture should be able to mediate between our surrounding and sense of self.
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Figure 4: Albrecht Durer using Perspectival Tool 1525
Figure 3: Perspective Drawing
Perspectival novelty of the renaissance: 15th Century To understand where exactly in the line of history this vision-based obsession derived, it is important to look back on the Renaissance Era, where the perspectival tool was discovered. The invention of the optic perspectival instrument dates to as far as the 15th century (around 1404). This instrument – embraced by Albrecht Durer as seen in figure 3, uses a square grid placed on a table in front of the observer or artist, while they place their jaw on a designated spot which in its turn centres the eye in one focal point, and deliberately drawing the perceived view behind the grid, consulting and referring to the gridlines proportionally to properly represent and portray the model or the view up front. This was not only a powerful discovery for that time but also a turning point. This tool emphasized and acknowledged the significance of vision, as perspective was based on the eye of the observer. The ability to draw in perspective allowed for buildings to start appearing during and after the renaissance because of this new technological tool that is vision centred, as evident in the works Brunelleschi Filippo’s tempietto in the renaissance period (figure7.1). Along with this discovery, a lot of philosophers at that time such as Alberti Battista contributed to placing vision in a prominent position. Battista’s architectural theory was all about questions of visual perception and harmonic proportions to the eye, making the eye the central point of the perceptual world. Perspectival representation has transformed into a symbolic form, which not only describes but also restricts perception (Pallasmaa 216). This as a result gave huge power to vision, and therefore eliminated necessity of other senses. The five sense became understood as a hierarchal system (rather than of equal importance) starting from vision down to touch, as related to the cosmic body (Pallasmaa 54). As discussed earlier, it is important to utilise and consider all our senses in order to create a sensitive and holistic experience to better utilize and live in a space.
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Figure 6: Sistine Chapel, by Perugino (1481–1482), features both linear perspective and 's architectural style
Figure 7.1: Brunelleschi’s Tempietto
Figure 6.2: Diagram of Brunelleschi's experiment in perspective
Despite elevating vision above other senses, looking at the bigger picture, the introduction of perspective tools and this new interest/concern in vision was not necessarily a deteriorating point, it has also acted positively in better understanding space. In fact, it made people understand that they could use and make use of space and therefore experiencing it. Architects could begin to visualize themselves moving through space, therefore persistently designing for that purpose. As evident in the Sistine Chapel, by Perugino (figure 7) In a perspective drawing of a proposed chapel, we can see people existing and acting within a space. During times prior to that, people envisioned themselves as detached individuals from space, removed their experience completely in a space, and only saw it with isolation of themselves. People at the time could only see and comprehend space at a distance. They could never imagine themselves within it. It is important to note that, before that, the experience of space was much more limited. Since space was logically understood through the way it was drawn, therefore people were unable to imagine themselves in space was it not for the perspectival invention. This has introduced many new capacities which increased people’s experience of space. It introduces a sense of three dimensionality. As well as notions of light and shade. Those capacities were mainly related to movement, to vision, to dimensionality, and slightly scientific understanding of space as evident in the graphs of Nicholas Oresme where he created visual representations (linear graphs) of time and space relationships. However, the visual remained greatly emphasized. Especially what the eye experienced: space, depth, light, and shade. This emphasis on the visual remained prioritized for a long time since the renaissance. We later understood that that was still limiting.
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Avant-garde and the discovery of movement: late 19th - early 20th Century With time and technology, vision became more and more prominent, not only with the perspectival representation, but also the discovery of movement. The perception of time and movement has influenced the understanding of art and architecture. Visualizing movement in space was a progressive development that occupied the minds of many in the late nineteenth to twentieth century. As documented by Giedion in his book, ‘Mechanization takes command’. He notes the contribution of Etienne Jules Marey in investigating scientific ways of capturing movement beginning in the late nineteenth century (Giedion). Etienne Jules Marey was an inventor and scientist that conducted lots of tests on photographing. Back then he studied the movement of animals. In figure 9, we see his photographic experiments recording several Instants in one photo. Besides, cubists such as Braque and Picasso further motivated the discussion on new ways of thinking about space in which time is also a dimension. Commenting on this ‘new conception of space’, Giedion states the following: “for the first time since Renaissance, a new conception of space leads to a self-conscious enlargement of our ways of perceiving space. It was in cubism that this was most fully achieved.” Architecture always creates an order. It becomes richer when we acknowledge that people have sensuality. Another example is the Acropolis which was designed to be experienced by walking (figure10.2). First a slow passage at the periphery of the Cliff prepares the body in motion for the encounter with the Acropolis. As one arrives at the top of the Hill a series of temples are placed at the site in a way that looks accidental. The Acropolis is an example that describes this detachment of the eye from the axis of movement the eye and the body diverge allowing the eye to wander to invent views, rather rather than passively looking at a given visual spectacle but also allowing vision to be affected by the other senses. The eye and the body diverge allowing the eye to wander to invent views. The passages are not fully prescribed but they are left to be made by the act of movement of the visitors, provoking their imaginative potential. In addition, for Le Corbusier, the promenade is an route that allows views to be developed by means of walking. In his book towards a new architecture, he writes: “The architectural promenade is described as a rhythmical qualitative transition through spaces that change the state of the mind. The mind is free from the vastness and fuzziness of the street when it enters the small, quiet and sheltered space of the vestibule, a transition that is also felt by the body” (Corbusier 169)
Movement in architecture became more popular through avant-garde art movement although it might have traced back to other cultures Like Japan (figure 10.3). It was seen as a tool for organizing and designing space. It was utilized and portrayed as a narrative device to delineate cultural or personal narratives. This became seen as a ritual; people 10 | P a g e
appreciated the promenade through walking and bodily experience. But most importantly engaging all the senses. This is mostly seen in promenades and gardens designs.
Figure 9: Avant-garde art: Figure 9.1: Etienne Jules Marey. Motion experiments Nude descending a Staircase (1882). Records several Instants in one photo. by Marcel Duchamp
Figure 9.2: Acropolis as portrayed by Le Corbusier
Figure 10.3: mapping movement in Japanese culture
This new design approach that originated from previous understandings, approaches and experiments, paved the way for new capabilities and allowed for new ways of design. The dynamic placement in space started to become more appreciated and experienced because designers started to incorporate and embrace this notion through exemplified spatial designs. Architecture has utilized the techniques that enhance the experience of space and provide wholistic sensory embodiment, but is that all that architecture can achieve and provide?
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CHAPTER II: A MODERNIST REIMAGING OF CITIES: 20th CENTURY Moving on from the era of perspective innovation and movement representation to a much tougher and challenging period. An era that not only shook nations on a deep destructive level, but also had its toll on many aspects of the life of citizens. Mid-20th Century was a period that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era. Especially during and after the second world war, which certainly left a significant impact on many cities, regions, and societies. This resulted in not only physical and material destructions and damages, but also emotional and mental defeat that affected whole nations on a deep mental level. This challenged architects, designers, and urban planners, as people found themselves in critical positions and sought various ways of dealing with the situation. Some desired completely new identities for their cities and countries that reflect a strong and powerful identity, which was possibly a reason for even more emphasis on the image of buildings. While other nations dealt with existing remnants of war within a new, strong, and powerful concept.
A: THE NEW IDENTITY AND THE NEW IMAGE
Post-war Dilemma and Mental Defeat: Effect on Perception of Cities During post-war crisis, and after World War II, whole nations were left with not only massive destructions and physical damages, but people abruptly found themselves in a period of mental struggle and emotional defeat. Citizens of destructed, badly damaged cities desired a new life in all aspects. They sought new houses, new cities, new cars, and even new identities. Architects and planners carried the responsibility of responding to these losses. Winston Churchill expresses ideally the belief that reflects people’s mentality at that time, he said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us”- Churchill Winston He believed, concerning the rapid rebuilding of European cities, that in order for nations to have new necessarily stronger and empowered identities, there was a need for a “reshaping” of existing buildings. This belief stemmed from a place of defeat, and both the desire, and vision of a completely new identity, that is stronger, wiser, and more powerful. After major bombings and damages caused by the second world war, and as mentioned earlier, architects and planners felt a rapid and sudden urge to almost immediately rebuild a huge part of their cities like London and Berlin. This placed a huge burden on architects, planners and even city councils to rapidly propose, organize, direct, 12 | P a g e
and deliver new plans for a huge scale city replanning proposal. This in its turn caused a diminution, if not absence, of communication with citizen’s needs and necessities. We can see that there were attempts and efforts to communicate - through pamphlets and such- what they were proposing and doing to the town of the people through
Figure 10: a public rhetoric of reconstruction
large and often popular exhibitions showcasing models, plans and exaggerated visuals. However, it was still miscommunicated or rather the opinion of the people was walked over. In one of the exhibitions in London for a new City replanning proposal, the plans of the proposed city were thoughtlessly displayed on a huge panel. The plan of the exhibition, as seen in the below figure (12), was purposefully designed in a way that allows the visitors to be let in on one door, and almost guided around the exhibition hall in a specific order all the way reaching the end, and that would have been it. What is interesting is that very few of these exhibitions truly tried to interact with people, to get their views, to listen to the views, and to change the plans accordingly. Governments at the time did not seem to care whether people had an opinion or necessary view on the new proposed plan of which they will be the inhabitants of. Instead, it was mostly just a flow of information; this is what we are going to do to your town.
Figure 12: Lindy & Lewis perspective 1944
Figure 12: Holford model (showing only Churches withing a Tabula Rasa)
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This mentality created irrational decisions for people and unreasonable plans for architects and planners. Although there is no denial of the existence of a genuine and evident effort to engage people in all kinds of ways. Books and pamphlets were for public sale and sometimes for free. The ministry and city planners cared about getting the message across. There was a high use of verbal content, mostly well illustrated, surprisingly, some were even printed in colour. Message was sent across through visualisations, seductive images, often produced by the best architects and illustrators at the time. However, this caused them to become occupied with reshaping the image of the city, and rapidly reconstructing affected areas, which therefore resulted in often a distant and detached ideal of a new city image. New plans and proposals were seen with no regard to existing context or ruins. In figure 12, we can observe an illustration of the New City Proposal drawn by architects Lindy & Lewis in 1944. Although well drawn, this illustration however is vague. All buildings seem to have similar heights, and most crucially, it does not deal with what was left behind. It is portrayed in a way as if everything that was existing is swept. Therefore, this later could not be communicated. This significant visual fixation started to become an issue, as it contributed to the detachment and deterioration of the connection of the people with their surrounding environment post-war, in figure 10, we can see a model in one of the exhibitions showcasing only churches within what would be described as Tabula rasa, but what do you do with the ruins? by designing a completely new city image that cleanses out and deletes what is existing, and instead, rebuilds a new city from scratch, with zero or almost no regards to past events, expecting things will sort out the way they envision. To conclude, often comes the need of vision, of visionary architecture after an event, war, or struggle. This need for Visionary architecture/city that is often introduced after a struggle is inevitable for the people. It then becomes the way this city is seen.
Figure 15: Exhibition Plan: "Greater London ... Towards a masterplan"
Figure 15: Country of London Plan Presentation 1943
Figure 15: "Planning for reconstruction" pamphlet
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Replanning of cities based on a Visionary Image. Many countries in the 20th Century were coming out of colonial situations by building a new capital. Not only after war destructions but after a period of struggle where people wanted to deconstruct anything that had to do with tradition. They desired a new visually based city that looked good. Such as the case of Brasilia in Brazil. The built-fromscratch capital designed and planned by Architect Oscar Niemeyer is a whole city not older than 60 years. This new city was based on an idea of emerging from the defeat of colonialism through an ideal city that people imagined for themselves. Since a lot of countries and cities wanted to develop new identities, they felt building a new stronger, empowered capital with a stronger identity would represents a stronger society and community. Assuming everyone is going to live there happily and necessarily better than they used to. Oscar Niemeyer’s work had a democratic spirit. Through his various architectural works, he has rejected mediocracy and the mainstream. He believed all people alike must enjoy equal degrees and characteristics of architecture in society. This was a Different distant approach based on the idea of modernity. As a result, however, people were not able to live there as they thought they would. The uninhabited park of Brasilia remained uninhabited and the massive voids became an obstructive factor. It did not allow for flow of experience. Architectural quality is manifested, displayed, and expressed in the fullness, richness, and undisputed flow of the experience. A complete resonance and interaction take place between the space and the experiencing person (Pallasmaa 217).
Figure 17: Congressional Headquarters -Brasilia, Brazil
Figure 17: City of Brasilia, Brazil as seen from a bird's viewpoint
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Another significant example of City Planning at that time is Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants. Le Corbusier had a cartesian approach to city, city planning and urbanism. The Cartesian system by Descartes suggests in its main principle that outer reality is a separate and distinct entity that can only be understood in rational terms through cognitive processes of deduction. It theorizes that the outside world has one meaning. Meaning there is only one way to design and plan spaces within cities. Le Corbusier designed the city as seen from above, with disregard to humans. As seen in figure 20. His architectural style is suggestive of this, as all his buildings are lifted, so everyone has access to the ground floor. This different approach to planning and designing, was the response of the Modern Movement in Architecture Post world war II. He felt that cities were not dense enough and levelling them gave cities a clean slate. However, the contemporary city became the city of the eye, detached from the body by rapid motorized movement. His process of planning was based on the “cartesian eye of control and attachment” as Pallasmaa calls it. This also encouraged - in a way or another- people’s shift of focus on the exteriority of the built environment, and of the city as visualized and seen from afar, rather than how it was experienced and what historical value it carried within.
Figure 19: Sketch of Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants
Figure 19: physical model of Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants
Existential Space and phenomenology
Perhaps what the cartesian eye and modernist architecture lack is the existential space. Existential space is a term popularized by many writers and thinkers. It is the lived space in a particular place, an exhibited and embodied space, one that is properly distinguished from physical and geometrical space. Existential space, as Pallasmaa defines it, is the meanings, intentions, and values manifested onto a space by an individual or a group of people, either wilfully or unwilfully (226).
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One of the leading thinkers to point out the link between space and the human condition was Martin Heidegger. Heidegger’s Dasein ("being there" or "presence", "existence".) It is a fundamental concept in the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger. This expression refers to the experience of being that is peculiar or unusual to human beings. He points out the essential existential connection that is indivisible between space and the human condition, more specifically, the world and the mind. He gave emphasis to the unity between the act of building, dwelling, and thinking. These acts are not only connected but equal in importance. The theory of Phenomenology developed by Edmund Husserl 20th Century, translates to "lived experience". It opposes the Cartesian, as it suggests that there is in fact a difference between the outer real reality, and the individual experience of reality. Phenomenology seeks to understand the outside world as it is interpreted by and through human consciousness. Meaning only exist in relationship with our senses and emotions, feelings, consciousness. Phenomenology states that our understanding and interpretation of the world is part of what it truly means. In architecture, this was a very significant understanding. It allowed us to appreciate and acknowledge that our view, our understanding of space is valuable. Part of what gives meaning to our surrounding architecture is the different entities that we as humans are. Each human being carries within them different beliefs, culture, background and understanding of space. Therefore, one will perceive and view architecture distinctively and particularly in relation to themselves. Existential space is not specifically a physical one, but can also be a mental one, which can also be interpreted through human memory and experience, this gives it a rather unique quality. Existential space is very powerful, as it exhibits a capacity to shape not only individuals but even entire nations. The Human consciousness is an embodied collective consciousness that becomes defined by an entirety of individuals. When individuals in communities share one common existential space, they become affected by it. Certain characteristics of that space create their collective identities and therefore build their “sense of togetherness”. This happens through the experiential and lived space, not the built or geometric space. (Pallasmaa 217). Architectural common spaces should maintain these spaces and their ability to provide knowledge and awareness of oneself.
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B:
ADAPTATION
Communicating plans It is later evident that city planners began to value the necessity for people to feel part of a place and connect with it. In one of many architecture Journals at the time, Architect and building news, a local Journal shared an insight stating: “Reconstruction, on the bold, big scale we want can only succeed if it has a goodwill of the people behind it. it will only have that goodwill if the people are fully informed of the growth of our plans and made to feel that they are participating in these works and not merely having them foisted upon them.” - Architect and building news, 1941, p. 116
We see that evident in later plans of London, one of the most badly bombed cities in Britain. In one of the more developed plans of reconstruction of the central city, we see the "egg" diagram for the Country of London Plan (figure 17). The interesting thing about it is the attempt to look at communities by analysing social and functional uses. which shows the attempt to look at the city as an agglomeration or a cluster of different communities, composed of humans with strengths, weaknesses, and heritages. This diagram was remarkable, however, difficult to interpret (Larkham). In Figure 22, sketch of the centre of london as it is to be replanned, we can also notice the effect of inner ringroads around rest of London, widening and straightening roads, new networks, new connectivit. This influenced to a large extent the way of life, getting to home quicker and more effectively, as an evidence of considering all aspects of the human fluid and dynamic life.
Figure 20: the "egg" diagram for the Country of London Plan showing Figure 21: Royal Academy (1942) - London Replanned social and functional analysis
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Adaptation: Post-war Playgrounds In other parts of the world post-war, some architects like Aldo Van Eyck had a different approach to the city. Van Eyck looked at the city of Amsterdam after the war which was badly damaged and bombed during the wars. Even though it was a period of destruction and mental struggle, he fought the traditional idea of giving the city a new façade or a new image. Instead, he looked at how the city has been shaped as a result of war destructions and what it’s become. After the world War II, planners had to deal with the baby boom. Urban planning in the Netherlands needed to solve these problems. Van Eyck’s approach was rather interesting, he carefully studied the left over, bombed out spaces in the city of Amsterdam, and created playgrounds that were based on his study of children’s play. As he investigated the experience of the city through children’s play, perceiving how it affected the new understanding of the city as it was, this channelled space for imagination. Especially for children, who have psychological needs and longings that extend far beyond their material needs. Those need to be addressed and fulfilled, otherwise they will result in great suffering (Harari). This also helped include the youth and integrate them as members of the society. Several cultures started to show appreciation of the element of playfulness in daily life, as seen in figures.
Figure 22: Figure 22: Aldo Van Eyck - Playgrounds
Figure 23: Aldo Van Eyck drawings of Playgrounds
This approach was opposite to the distant modernist era, that promoted universalization and the rise of specific design trends over others. Which led to certain trends taking over, without consciously taking in regards the localisation of a monument, or the history or culture of that region. When there was topography, architects and planners 19 | P a g e
would flatten it rather than working with the existing. No regard was given to the landscape itself. Aldo Van Eyck embraced those historical values and presented them as part of a historical continuity. So far, architecture has developed a collective understanding that often, the need for a visionary and haptic New architecture comes after a deep struggle. However, architecture should be human-responsive and respond to people’s needs, not only in terms of practical necessities, but rather existential psychological and mental ones. It is also understood that architecture should not distinctively be about being abstract or distant, it is far from universalization and the urge to put everything in one category like the cartesian approach. This is where the concept of Critical Regionalism comes in perspective. Not only that is to be concluded, but also the fact that sometimes expressing and exposing weaknesses is important and rather a gesture of strength rather than weakness. Notions tend to hide their losses in history, no one is ever proud of their defeat in historical famous battles. That is why we are very familiar with names of popular fighters who won famous battles which emphasizes and motivates the rise of “victory over defeat” as a power gesture, yet later we realize that in fact, expressing one’s weakness and defeat is a power by itself. Van Eyck’s approach was a successful one in these terms, as it was not as a vision detached from reality nor a new remaking, but rather including the existing situation as it is and considering the needs of children experiencing the space. This was also a sign of embracing and celebrating remnants of bombings which contributed to changing people’s perception on wars and defeat. He created spaces for playfulness, liveliness, embodiment, and therefore victory out of defeat which became the victory itself. “… A tectonic shift has taken place in global political culture. Many elites in history … viewed war as a positive good. Others viewed it as evil, but an inevitable one, which we had better turn to our own advantage. Ours is the first time in history that the world … genuinely see[s] war as both evil and avoidable” – Yuval Noah Harari
Meeting the middle ground of Critical Regionalism Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that that sought to arbitrate the spectrum between “universal characteristics of a civilization and the particularities of place. It is not about copying tradition or repeating what people have previously achieved in the past. Critical Regionalism bridges the gap between both approaches; first, the cartesian which is distant and detached, and second the phenomenological approach that appreciates the experience of the body in a space. Critical Regionalism concerns and encourages being aware of the past, acknowledges the modernist approach, and connecting the two in a conscious innovative approach, re-examining it within a contemporary context. 20 | P a g e
This approach to architecture is important because, plausibly, manmade structures, whether standing or as ruins, exemplify cultural hierarchies. It is vital to understand and acknowledge the continuum of tradition. Forming an awareness of our cultural past, empowers our present and provide us with hope and trust in the future (Pallasmaa, 215). Our constructed world, just like our bodies, is a product of thousands in not millions of years of evolution. Being aware of this, enables us to understand and remember who we are in the continuum of culture and history. Architecture has always reflected cultural aspirations, beliefs, and ideals; it is never purely arisen from material, climatic, and economic conditions, or pure rationality (Ibid, 217), architecture reflects cultural beliefs and principles.
Postmodernist’s preoccupation with the exterior Moving further in time, we notice that in some postmodernist architecture, some vernacular designs were still preoccupied with the exterior. Buildings were shown and designed deliberately to act as signifiers that communicate with people their context. They were remaking some historically understandable features of a building that communicate to common people simple things like “I am a house, public building, corporation building etc.”. Some examples are the AT& T building (1984) by Philip Johnson and Robert venturi in the hearth in the interior of the Vanna venturi (figure 24 & 25). This posed a connection to the use of historic vernacular forms with integrated modernist details. The purpose was supposedly to reengage the people, provide them with visual clues that would make it more meaningful, their understanding of buildings will become more intimate and direct by using visual clues. This shows that people in their nature have evidently shown a necessity to feel a connection with a building, and for buildings to connect themselves to the outside space.
However, this was not achieving of a wholistic experiential architecture. And resulted in mostly dysfunctional architectural monuments, such as the extreme dysfunction-
Figure 26: AT& T building (1984) by Philip Johnson
Figure 26: Vanna venturi
Figure 26: Portland building
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ality of the Portland Building: the city hall of Portland (figure 26). As a result of overemphasising visual appearance, the emphasis is only on how it appears on the outside. Windows bring almost no natural lighting. In the interior, there are offices on the middle that have almost no access to circular ventilation. Which was not supporting and discarding of human activities. As a conclusion, although the postmodernists’ attempt to provide connection of people with a building was evident, the preoccupation and focus was mostly from the exterior. This may not be nearly enough. Buildings and/or urban fabrics need to be more holistically communicative and meaningful to humans. By attempting to provide a wholistic value to buildings, we should not forget or discard primal values such as functional, thermal, ergonomic, and economic characteristics. Such buildings become detrimental to life and lose their value once they fail to provide us with basic needs and requirements. They must be meaningful in more valid and integral ways not just by the over emphasising of visual aspects but a host of other aspects.
ACHIEVING AN AWARENESS
The powerfulness of historical continuity It is worth noting that humans, overtime have shown a necessity of historical continuity in perceiving a building. There is a mental need for people to always connect with the history and archaeology of the past. This does not necessarily comply with the abrupt disruption that modernist or even postmodernist architects promoted in their works. We need to extend our understanding on a further scope of time, to comprehend that humans are biological beings, with senses and neural systems that have developed over the years (Harari). Humans are a product of thousands if not millions of years of evolution, when we look at our bodies, our minds, our organs and thought patterns, we should be able to resonate with our ancestors. Some even argue that pain and trauma are carried through DNA (Davis). That is why humans have the need of a historical understanding. Therefore, we should be able to find that through architecture. Architecture should be able to reflect and seamlessly deliver and provide us with clues to who we are and who we were in the past as humans. This expanded understanding can help architects design buildings that support both mind and body. Exploring how the built environment affects our behaviour, thoughts, emotions, and well-being. It is evident that our deepest experiences of settings and architecture reflect the course of human biocultural develop-
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ment, these circumstances are concealed in our neural and psychic constitution and reactions. Archaeology helps us understand the hierarchy of events that led to the current situation regardless its nature. Regarding that, Michael Foucault describes: “looking at history as a way of understanding the processes that have led to what we are today. Examining the discursive traces and orders left by the past in order to write ‘a history of the present’” - Michael Foucault No doubt, our aesthetic preferences reflect our biological paths, and our aesthetically based choices have had evolutionary values. The ancient and historical masterworks teach us the meaning of the cultural continuum. They also make us understand that the mental, spiritual, and artistic aspirations in architecture have not fundamentally changed; architecture still articulates and expresses the human condition, aspires to find meaning in existence, to mediate between ourselves and the world, and to elevate and dignify our lives.
The smaller scale: Interior. Scandinavian approach Just like critical regionalism was modified over time to include the avant-garde and innovative pushing the boundaries of historical examples while maintaining some connections to radical modernism qualities, Scandinavian architects as well took the vernacular and reworked it. Where it maintained the vernacular style and language, while also developing a translation of it within a modern radical context. In Säynätsalo Town Hall in Finland, (Figure 27), one can notice the use of vernacular forms. These forms were not depicted in the exact repeated way they would be in past existing precedents, but rather by translating it in a newly understood way that corresponds with newer understandings and adaptations of architecture that relates to the body and the senses.
Figure 28: modern Scandinavian Inte-
Figure 28 & 29: Säynätsalo Town Hall – Finland 1951
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Scandinavian architecture is a more wholistic contemporary example because this architectural style responds to more than just aesthetics. Its main principles are light, comfort, energy efficiency, sleek shapes, and connection with nature. Modern Scandinavian architecture is widely recognized for its clean lines and natural colour palette. This architectural approach tends to behold the main principle of existential architecture. It seems to exhibit signs of responding to existential human needs. The calm and subtle forms of the interiority and its deliberate style, provide and achieve qualities that allow one to feel protected and stimulated enough to settle in a space. In figure 28, the dark womb of the council Chamber of alvar Aalto's Saynatsalo Town Hall achieves qualities of deep shadows and darkness. These spatial features not only make distance ambiguous, but also dim the sharpness of vision (Frampton 29). The darkness in general elevates and emphasises the spoken word as it dims the vision, and therefore creates an enriched sense of community. On an interior level, Gaston Bachelard considers the first home as the point and origin to all subsequent ones. "the home we were born in is physically inscribed in us", he explains. Our home and domicile are integrated with our self-identity, they become part of our own body and being. Architecture is important in shaping our identity and providing existential needs. Perhaps the nature of the multisensory-focused Scandinavian Interior has achieved basic qualities of what allows the boundary between ourselves and the world to soften and become transparent. However, for architecture to settle our respond to our existential needs, it needs to coordinate and form experiences, beliefs, and imaginations of the world. But how can that be achieved through deliberate designing? If we assume that what Pallasmaa suggests is correct, that in order for architecture to settle our minds and memories, it needs to project distinctive frames and images, and provide horizons of understanding and meaning (Pallasmaa, 215), then how can individual-specific characteristics and qualities be achieved to create a wholesome “mind-settling” experience? and will there ever be a wholistic fulfilled and flawless architecture?
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CONCLUSION As a conclusion, we now know that because of the ability to draw in perspective in the renaissance, it has allowed for architecture to appear and develop in accordance with this optical perspective tool. Though the renaissance might have given vision a prominent power and rise over other senses, yet the dominance of vision had allowed for new ideas, capabilities, and understandings of space to be achieved. Such as the later discovery of motion and movement in space which in its turn too has paved the way for new capabilities and allowed for new ways of design. The dynamic placement in space started to become more appreciated and experienced because designers started to incorporate and embrace this notion through exemplified spatial designs. While exploring the Post War period, we conclude that at times of dreadful mental defeat and destructive war events, the need of visionary architecture is inevitable for the people and affected citizens. However, architecture should be human-responsive and respond to people’s needs, not only in terms of practical necessities, but rather existential psychological and mental ones, not just as a political tool. It helps provide us with hope and a sense of faith by trusting in architecture. Another significant way of dealing with destructions as we have seen is through adaptations of Post-war damages through embracing and celebrating remnants of bombings, which in its turn changed people’s perception on wars and defeat. Humans also have cultural and social needs; architecture plays a role in people's wellbeing and acknowledge those needs. We need to be cautious of visionary based designs. How we see these approaches, is related to the idea of allowing people to consciously connect to space. There must be a response to where they live and sense of place.
In architecture, phenomenology was a very significant understanding as it states that our understanding and interpretation of the world is part of what it truly means. It allowed us to appreciate and acknowledge that our view, our understanding of space is valuable. Part of what gives meaning to our surrounding architecture is the different entities that we as humans are. Each human being carries within them different beliefs, culture, background and understanding of space. Therefore, one will perceive and view architecture distinctively and particularly in relation to themselves. Overtime have shown a necessity of historical continuity in perceiving a building. There is a mental need for people to always connect with historical continuity. Not only to history, but as well as to Our bodies, as we identify ourselves in relation to a certain space, a certain place, or a certain moment. Lastly, we are all seeking for meaning in our existence. When we connect to what is meaningful and significant to us through architecture, we live more abundantly; when we lose this connection, we feel despair. Modern life distracts and estranges us more and 25 | P a g e
more from our true nature, making it incredibly effortless for us to lead lives lacking in meaning. Vision might be deteriorating, but other times it is empowering. We do need to be cautious of visionary architecture, but consciously manipulating various architectural qualities to best serve our interests, and thoughtfully utilising its different aspects in relation to our needs.
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GLOSSARY
dasein. according to Heidegger, means "being there" or "presence", "existence"
phenomenology. the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being. visionary. related with new vision dilemma. a situation in which a difficult choice must be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones cartesian. of or relating to Rene Descartes, his mathematical methods, or his philosophy
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Franco, Abel. Our Everyday Aesthetic Evaluations of Architecture. n.d. Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind. 2019. Vintage. Juhani Pallasmaa, Robinson Sarah. Mind in Architecture: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Future of Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press. 2015, 2015. Larkham, Peter. “Replanning London after the Second World War.” City of London Festival. 2015. Youtube. Pallasmaa, Juhani. “Architecture and the senses: the eyes of skin.” Holl, Steven. n.d. Shirazi, M. Reza. Towards an articulated phenomenological interpretation of architecture phenomenal phenomenology. Routledge, 2014.
OTHER SOURCES Ando, Tadao. “Shintai and space.” N.Y, Rizzoly. Architecture and Space. n.d. “Architect and building news.” (1941): 116.
Barie Fez-Barringten, Edward Hart. Architecture: The Making of Metaphors. 2012. Corbusier, Le. towards a new architecture. 1927. Frampton, Kenneth. “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance.” n.d. 29. Franco, Abel. Our Everyday Aesthetic Evaluations of Architecture. n.d. Giedion. “Mechanization takes command.” 1948. Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind. 2019. Vintage.
Holl, Steven. “Enmeshed Experience: Partial Views.” Urbanisms - Working with Doubt. 2009. Inoue, Mituso. Space in Japanese architecture: . Weatherhilll Tokyo N.Y, 1985. Juhani Pallasmaa, Robinson Sarah. Mind in Architecture: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Future of Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press. 2015, 2015. 28 | P a g e
Larkham, Peter. “Replanning London after the Second World War.” City of London Festival. 2015. Youtube. Pallasmaa, Juhani. “Architecture and the senses: the eyes of skin.” Holl, Steven. n.d.
Pallasmaa, Juhani. “Mental and existential ecology.” Rethinking Aesthetics. Ed. Ritu Bhatt. Routledge, 2013. 214-228. Pallasmaa, Juhani. Q&A with Juhani Pallasmaa on Architecture, Aesthetics of Atmospheres and the Passage of Time Michael Amundsen. 06 October 2018. Philip Tabb and A. Senem Deviren . “1980s: Postmodern Green.” Tabb, Philip. The Greening of Architecture: A critical History of Contemporary Sustainable Architecture and Sustainable Design. Farnham England: Ashgate, 2013. 89. Saura, Magda. Building Codes in the Architectural Treatise de re Aedificatoria. . 2009 . Sharr, Adam. Heidegger For Architects. Routledge, 2007. Shirazi, M. Reza. Towards an articulated phenomenological interpretation of architecture phenomenal phenomenology. Routledge, 2014. Stephen, Grabow. “Towards an aesthetics of function: exemplary signposts for architectural change in the twenty-first century.” 1999/2000. Zumthor, Peter. Atmospheres. n.d.
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TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 2: Zaha Hadid Architects Skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere .................................................... 6 Figure 2: Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry. Photo Credits: Alamy ............. 6 Figure 3: Perspective Drawing..................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 4: Albrecht Durer using Perspectival Tool 1525 ................................................................................ 8 Figure 6: Sistine Chapel, by Perugino (1481–1482), features both linear perspective and 's architectural style.............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Figure 6.2: Diagram of Brunelleschi's experiment in perspective ................................................................ 9 Figure 9: Avant-garde art: Nude descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp.......................................... 11 Figure 8.1: Etienne Jules Marey. Motion experiments (1882). Records several Instants in one photo. ..... 11 Figure 7.2: Acropolis as portrayed by Le Corbusier.................................................................................... 11 Figure 10: a public rhetoric of reconstruction............................................................................................ 13 Figure 12: Lindy & Lewis perspective 1944 ................................................................................................ 13 Figure 12: Holford model (showing only Churches withing a Tabula Rasa) ............................................... 13 Figure 15: Country of London Plan Presentation 1943............................................................................... 14 Figure 15: Exhibition Plan: "Greater London ... Towards a masterplan".................................................... 14 Figure 15: "Planning for reconstruction" pamphlet................................................................................... 14 Figure 16: Congressional Headquarters -Brasilia, Brazil ............................................................................ 15 Figure 17: City of Brasilia, Brazil as seen from a bird's viewpoint.............................................................. 15 Figure 19: physical model of Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants ................. 16 Figure 19: Sketch of Le Corbusier’s Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants............................... 16 Figure 20: the "egg" diagram for the Country of London Plan showing social and functional analysis .... 18 Figure 21: Royal Academy (1942) - London Replanned.............................................................................. 18 Figure 22: Figure 22: Aldo Van Eyck - Playgrounds.................................................................................... 19 Figure 23: Aldo Van Eyck drawings of Playgrounds ................................................................................... 19 Figure 26: Portland building....................................................................................................................... 21 Figure 25: AT& T building (1984) by Philip Johnson................................................................................... 21 Figure 24: Vanna venturi............................................................................................................................ 21 Figure 28 & 29: Säynätsalo Town Hall – Finland 1951............................................................................... 23 Figure 27: modern Scandinavian Interior................................................................................................... 23
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