Post-Functionalist, Beauty and The Struggle of Representation

-An oil refinery silo that demonstrate sheer functionalist beauty of assisting nature's tasks.

Modern era represent beauty of functionalist thinking but functionalist thinking couldn't be singly represented by modernism. Functionalist perspective of absolute beauty has deeper root and longer history than what the Utopian and dictating modernist had single-handedly claimed.

One day in Athens, student Aristippus met master Socrates...
Aristippus tried to challenge Socrates' view on the relationship
between 'good', 'beautiful' and 'usefulness'...
Aristippus:"Can you describe what constitute 'good'?"
Socrates: "There could be nothing good in itself but only in relation to something. A thing must be good for something in order to be good."
Aristippus:"How about 'beautiful'?"
Socrates:"A beautiful wrestler is unlike a javelin beautiful for swift and powerful hurling."
Aristippus argued that the two answers given by his master are overlapping and repeatedly the same. Socrates then explain:" Is a dung basket beautiful then? Of course, and a golden shield is ugly, if the first is well made for its special work the later badly!".
But for Aristotle's Functionalist theory, a work of art that is truly 'beautiful', is one that could function to complete mother nature's unfinished design of the world. The higher rank in life scale, from insect to animal to human, the more nature require them to assist her task. Provided the rational faculty of art, man is able to come to nature's aid and the art done by human functions to fulfill her uncomplete task. (example: an oil refinery plant is a beautiful work of human art to solve the incapability of nature to convert oil into power resource) A physician/doctor use the law of nature to do the heal of health of a person, when nature made mistakes and incapable to do so. The skill and machinery of a physician carrying out his job, has help nature to reach the desired result of providing health. This is the true reason and the beauty of human art.

The end of modern era see the lack of rational understanding of the beauty of architectural art. Those classical faith and thinking of functionalist beauty faded and the whole post-modern world plunged into a deep abyss of identity struggle in the search for 'beauty'... called it the Struggle of Representation. One full century of functionalist modern rationality proven to be too cruel to some ill-fated human, who always wish to live in idealised imaginary world (especially those in third world country which literary understanding of the meaning of modernism is lacking), the 'hamster wheel' of Struggle begun. Morality neglected, the responsibility of completing nature's unfinish task pushed aside, the naive, emotional and irrational reviving of the fading identity barricade the human eyes! The Struggle continues...
-The rude and banal etnocentric post-modernist revivalism - a giant Golden Shield?

'Man shouldn't be able to see his own face - there's nothing more sinister. Nature gave him the gift of not being able to see it, and of not being able to stare into his own eyes.Only in the water of rivers and ponds could he look at his face. And the very posture he had to assume was symbolic. He had to bend over, stoop down, to commit the ignominy of beholding himself. The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart.'

- Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Of Impulse Conversion and a Masterpiece of Spatial Concept

-The museum of hearing...?

Parallel to what biomorphic architecture has to do with the borrowed idea from human organic inner structures, some component in our body (other than the physics of the skeletal structure), are able to show enormous functional proximity and physical metaphor with how we shape our building art. This time the idea is from our ear cochlea.

To achieve genius architecture spatial quality need no devine transcendental interfered idea, a close look at how our sensory organs work might do you well. The working of Cochlea, an auditory structure in our inner ear, shows close resemblance with how the greatest 20th century architectural space functions to rise human sensation in art appreciation, it is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York.
-5thAvenue, Upper East Side, New York.

The cochlea is filled with watery liquid that moves in accordance with vibration coming from the middle ear. There are 'Hair cells' inside the spiralling scala vestibuli that set into motion when a low frequency vibration is detected. While the liquid moves along the spiraling 'rotunda', Hair Cells convert vibration into electrical impulses and are sended through neurotransmitter to the brain to produce SENSATION.

-The spiralling rotunda of our cochlea. -Wright's sectional drawing of the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim Museum simply works the same way as with the Cochlea. The extraordinary experience of walking down the spiralling ramp while enjoying endless piece of artwork on the spiralling wall, could have putted the cliche of 'architecture as boxes' to the test. The spatial concept here intensify the sensory link between the messages of the art on the wall with the human soul.

Here, you walk down the spiralling ramp, your physical present metaphorically works as the 'vibrational input', the museum's volume of space as the 'watery liquid' of cochlea, the artwork on wall as the 'hair cells' on the spiralling scala vertibuli, the messages and the texture of the artwork as the sensory 'impulses',...all in one coincide within a beautiful moment, INTENSIFYING THE SENSATIONAL RETHINK OF THE MEANING OF TRUE GREATNESS!

Of termitidae's Harmony and homo sapiens's Unending Dialectic

The last century of earth will see human species in sorry state of inculpativation. The intolerable nature of human is critically contradicting the rest of nature, making them the strangest animalia kingdom ever existed on this planet. The paradox of humans nature, which is much represented by some of their works like Energy-Mass-Speed relation, the exploitation of uranium or even their self-admit overly high energy consumption, can be easily seen through and proven by comparing the stark contradiction of humans' and inarguably, termites' architecture.
Ventilation vents in termites mount.

While the dialectic discourse of human on the agenda of finding a fresh new glamour Logos of architecture, the rest of the world (termites a preferable sample) do not seem finding it hard to have a eternal solution of producing a lasting excellent architecture. The theoretical progress of humans architecture, which has yet reach its ultimate harmony, would continue to stumblingly struggles, failing in each attempt to find the ultimate centre. A harmony termites mount would be far adrift the amalgamation of human architecture which is still within great uncertainty.

In the middle of our boast of how complicated our biomatic sustainable architectural terminology is, of how we blend our architecture with nature, nature scoff off a sigh of scorn on our naiveness. A sub-Sarahan African termites mount has all the reasons to proof the incompatibility of human's architecture compared to theirs. With the body size of not more than the size of a quarter of a tiny rice, termites has built comparatively 2743 feet high 'building' while the tallest human made structure now being the Burj al-Arab is only 1922 feet high. Inside the mount, they farm fungus which is their primary food source which must be kept at exactly 87 degrees F, while the temperatures outside fluctuate between 35 at night to 104 degrees F during day. A termites mount achieve this remarkable (LEED Platinum certified maybe..) feat by constantly regulating the opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents. By using the principal of convection currents, air is sucked in at the lower part of the mound, down into enclosures with muddy walls, and up through a channel to the peak of the termite mound. The industrious termites constantly create new vents and plug up old ones to regulate the temperature. This 'architectural' wonder, existed approximately 251,000,000 years ago since termites evolved. Sadly, we human only learn this from nature in the year 1996 of the 20th century, approximately 250,999,987 year later!

Another page of humans strange architectural evolution.

The Eastgate building in Harare, Zimbabwe, which emulate the bioclimatic features of a termites mount, symbolize not just another page of human contradicting boundless theories in architecture, but also the contradicting humans nature with the other parts of nature. The Eastgate development, owned by corporation Old Main, is itself a mirror of the conflict of human which has until now failed to find the true harmony. Pre-industrial past, tradisional culture was the leading way of thought; industrial age with Modernism as the ultimate episteme; while in post-industrial time see humans' continued struggle for a proper representation, neither Pop, Neo-, Ethnic, Mass, Deconstruct nor parametric could speaks for the majority global dwellers. The establishment of a eternal representation of human architecture stumblingly continue. Old Main, along with the likes of Barclays and others are those who secretly funded the reign of Zimbabwe's president Mugabe, amidst the lasting civil war, hunger and severe corruption the failed nation is facing.
The ventilation holes at Eastgate as direct imitation of the system in termites mount. An architectural mutation it would seems.

A theoretically boundless, strange but avant-garde architecture, ironically found in the trouble-proned continent of Africa, with the most unlikely context of a failed community using it, Eastgate is in stark contradict with the highly organised community system of King-Queen-Worker-and-Soldier living inside a termites mount, those who found the true harmony...While nature cast off a scornful smile on us...the Human.

Coming Soon - Of Rebirth of Logos & The New Definition of Mosque

From Logocentrism to Derrida's Deconstruction, and The Death of Style

-The Platonic Nemesis as the advocator of Logos

I found a Deconstructivist book by Derrida called 'Writing and Difference'. In that I found ideas on my long questioning of why Style has dead. Here, I compose all my points why I think so.

Architecture is an endless quest of constant struggle against gravity and the complementing organization of spaces. From the start of architectural history, the struggle begun. It is human's creativity in dealing with that struggle against the gravitational pull and space design that produce architectural style. The greek hexastyle, the parthenon octostyle, the Islamic hypostyle up until the modern domino was a type of creative battle against the nature of gravity in the provision of organised spaces - each one a new creative solution.

From the first birth of architecture when we came out from cave and have our roof, wall and floor in place as our shelter taking form, the chronological progression of style commenced until, (I would personally say)the modern era. The 1960's Structuralist was the cul-de-sac for our much obsessed architecture style. Since then, any new found 'style' or new theory of style or any redefinition of style are seen as futile and underdeveloped. Easily saying, the climax of a great style like the modernist is now hard to emulate. All of these could be traced back to the consequence of work by one man who had play an antagonist role and rebellious enough to scatter the foundation of the whole western philosophy which is much advocated by Plato's Nemesis and the Christian Trinity. His name is Derrida (1930-2004)
-The most influential 21th century philosopher, French Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida's work has great influence in trembling the whole ground of western metaphysics and even has dampened the foundation of western architecture since the time postmodernist architects embraced the linguistic work of Derrida. The whole game is called Deconstruction. The great string of architectural Style progress broken when Deconstructivist theory forerunner architects like Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Bernard Tschumi conceived the idea from Derrida. Never since their work, our creative struggle against the law of gravity and the space organisation and hierarchy ended.

Derrida first presented his long developed idea of Deconstruction in the U.S. in his paper called "Structure, Sign and Play, in the Discourse of the Human Sciences". In that he found out that most of Werstern Philosophy (until the modern era) were indeed in a continuous search for the Logos. Those proponents of western philosophical theory are in fact share a negative character of being Logocentric. Logocentrist is those who consider meaning in all things in life could firmly attached to some originary source that is pure, eternal and unchanging (the Logos). Example, the incarnation of Christ in Christianity; the Prophet, the Quran, the God, the Paradise, the ultimate Beauty in Islam. Whenever human talk of beauty, they are in direct reference to the heavenly Beauty with a Capital B; the God with Captial G..etc.. That ultimate totality of those Logos are the base of all theories in Western philosophy, considered the touchstone, the origin that is pure or the source to everything. Any new theory that claims to go beyond and free from the previous thinking is indeed useless or Derrida said 'Waylessness', in Greek called 'Aporia'. All of these new found idea, esthetic, theology even linguistic are to point back to Meaning/the ultimate Truth (with Capital T) or some higher end. The pursuit of style or more commonly like a human who pursuit fashion and knowledge, they are in a journey to reach that Truth and Meaning (the logos). New architectural style have the tendency of being like that. All architects seek that Logos, for its promises to give Meaning and Purpose to all things in world, that act as an universal centre, a transcendental signified that all signifier can refer back to. All new movement and theory are indeed trying to find that Logos where they can ground on, a desire for a higher reality in a world that is rather uncertain and full of death.

In architecture, the Logocentricism is in fact more serious. From the great pyramid until the utopian modernism, all are guided by the ego of Logocentricism, externally and internally. The pyramid is the preparation place before the reincarnation of the Pharaoh, where the secret chamber and the passage were used as accelerator for the soul of Pharaoh to travel to the stars for reincarnation. The Pharaoh and the believed blessing of annual flood from him is the Logos behind the invention of Pyramid. Likewise, the greek Parthenon is a theory that serves the Logos of Goddess Athena. Victorian industrialist architecture with the Logos of new found industrial society and technology. Last, the modernist with the Logos of industrial age, functionalism, rationality and machines. Besides, there lies an internal Logos of ego among modernist who claimed the win of technology against religion, who claim the True Beauty of human rationality, morality and the concept of Zeitgeist. But that marks the end of Logos in architecture when Postmodernism and the Deconstructivist idea of Derrida flourish. The Style ended.
-The Aporia as in Dante's 'The Dark Wood of Error'

Deconstruction of Derrida is a method to break and dismantle all Logos and Logocenticism in the world. The 'deconstruction' means to tear down and deconstruct all the efforts in search for the Logos. It promote a full free play of Meaning, unbound the bounded structure(logos) of all things, synchronic and refuse to be attached in the Aporia of Logos, refuse to be pinned down and refuse to be putted in a 'box'. In architecture the whole progress of style is an useless Aporia that each of them seek a high reality of greater Truth which indeed doesn't exist. It is like the hamster wheel and an act of masturbation. Something proven when effort to ignite a new great style has failed, like the movement of metabolism, post-functionalism, blobitecture, Memphis Group and the recent Parametrism. All of it because the new age of Deconstruction has begun, one that allow no Logo or Style or new Theory that could extent our stupid Aporia.

The deconstructivist work of firm Coop Himmelblau on the Funder Factory Works 3, in St Veit Austria and the design of Parc de la Villette by Tschumi in Paris mark the death of Style, architecture no longer posses the struggle against gravity and space organisation could now be played boundlessly with no reference to the source of history. The order of base-shaft-pediment, column and beam, private and public, solid and void are now in history book! They are rotten Logos of total self-conscious idea and theories! Everything are now in Total Free Play!
-Coop Himmelblau's deconstructivist Funder Factory Works 3 - World's first deconstructivist 'building'.

-Parc de la Villette of Bernard Tschumi with direct consultation from Derrida.

Of Ryōan-ji's 'Zen', Michaelangelo and The Glass of Mies

A work of perfection requires you to be in constant struggle of infinite desire. Standing outside of the Miesian house, you feel something lures you to go to the inside. From the inside, the framed landscape could go furthur pinpointing you to go side by side with those sugar maple outside. This is an masterpiece of an act of intensifying elements of nature, much celebrated in the 'borrowed landscape' of Japanese Zen Garden while the one found in Ryoan-ji Temple, Kyoto dubbed to be at its pinnacle.

A granite rock would never own such high gratitude and subtlility if not placing it to a well proportioned and organised Zen rock garden. There, while the rock silently resting on pebbles and stones, an intense and alarming wave remind you of the nature of gravity, and the power of Now, where the composition of that granite rock resting on the ground seem inpenetratable by any kind of forces.


The maple landscape must thanks the glass and steel of Mies, which have help to highlight, intensify and celebrate their existence. It is otherwise feasible to say that without the glass box, you who stand there would never see the intense tipping branches of those sugar maple pointing towards you, touching your fingertips, bringing you, the human, back to the very root of nature, bringing you to a higher level of abstraction in understanding our cosmic action.

"The house is no more than a device to see the world, a mechanism of viewing....The glass house doesn't simply expose the exterior world. It actively turns the world into a highly composed display." -Beatriz Colomina


Edith Farnsworth's machine is at the summit of the power of modern architecture. A piece like that require the touch of a man with skills more than an average craftsman. A man who could explore well in the realm of both subjectivity and objectivity and putting the beholder in the constant struggle of beauty.

The pinpointing touch of maple branch, so intense, in close proximity with the hands in Michelangelo Buonarroti's(1475-1564) diegno "The Creation of Adam"!

Wonder

...wonder is not knowledge,
neither is it ignorance.
It's something which is suspended
between what we believe we can be,
and a tradition we may have forgotten...


- Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)