What does Architecture do?

In the following link Mark Wigley, Dean of Columbia Universities GSAPP, makes a great response to what exactly is architectural theory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=107m4d_07yw

New Direction

Hello,

This blog is currently heading in a new direction. The old focus was on the theory and history of architecture applicable to an installation about structure and spatial conditions. The new direction of the blog is to use it as a vent for the theories of architecture I am investigating, along with general topics of architecture.

The goal of these blog posts is to be clear and informative, but most importantly that they bring in opinions and information from the viewers. I do not believe that progressive conversation will require a background in architecture and invite any new ideas to be investigated seriously. With this in mind, I do request that any conversations be Civil and Productive. 

Otherwise I hope the blog is satisfactory.

Thanks,


Michael

Colin Rowe on Chicago Frame/FLW

          Here is a rough summary of Colin Rowe discussing the Chicago frame and Frank Lloyd Wright's structure from the book "On and by Frank Lloyd Wright, A Primer of Architectural Principles." I am going to be looking at some Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque if time permits next.

          Rowe begins by stating the frame as a symbol that is the neutral grid of space enclosed by steel. Rowe pushes the frame into a category with the likes of the column in regards to antiquity and the Renaissance. The frame acts as a system to which proportion, organization and space are determined while, like the vaulting bay of the Gothic cathedral, all parts are subordinate to the system. Rowe explains the frame as lacking in rhetoric or sentimental excess but having a heroic and brutal expression. In this expression the buildings "make no compromise with the observer,...,and they display an authenticity so complete that we are disposed to accept them as facts of nature, as geological manifestations rather than as architectural achievements." 

Rowe continues breaking down the organizational parti of Chicago office building, looking at the architecture being conceived as singular volumes or singular facades.The appearance is compared to that of Italian Renaissance palazzi, where the observer is overwhelmed by the "economy of the motif and consistency of theme." and the appearance of Western rationality  At this point Rowe compares this to Wright's methodology, conceived as developed composition of transparent volumes the structure breaks from the static nature of the Chicago frame and becomes more dynamic. Rowe quotes Henry-Russel Hitchcock whom investigates Wrights fascination with "nuclei generating around themselves intelligible volumes of space.", a fixation with centrality explains this desire to break from the frame.

----Project Investigation--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Mark's-in-the-Bouwerie, proclaimed by Rowe as first true fusion of structure and space which Wright called organic.
Similar projects: 1930 apartment house, Crystal heights hotel, Racine laboratory,Price office building.
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Direct quote time on this organic structure

"Conceptually (all of these structures)* present the nucleus of a gigantic mushroom column supporting a series of trays, which, as shown by the apartment-house and  hotel projects, is implied to be systematically extensible by approaching column to column until the circumferences of their trays impinge or even overlap. Like  the central core of the chimney and the real mushroom columns of the Johnson Admin Building, the idea of the St. Mark's Tower may seem to derive from the "organic"  demand for the integration of space and structure; and, as fulfilling this demand, the building becomes a single, complete, and self-explanatory utterance."

Following this Rowe begins to discuss why Wright would disregard the frame in place of his own system. A "partial" answer is in his organic spaces and the feeling found in his plan. Wright believed in the plan as a generator of form, and in a parti of developing without the appearance of effort. From this Rowe explains 
the popularity of the Chicago frame due to it's "unobstructed evenly lit floors and indefinite amount of floors", an answer to the basic requirements needed in planning an office block. However, in the banality of the exploration of the structure the frame lacked spacial possibilities. Instead a focus was shifted towards the appearance of the frame on the exterior instead of the spacial dynamics of the interior. 

To summarize "Unlike (Louis) Sullivan, who had approached architecture primarily with the object of realizing an expressive structure, Wright was, from the first, abnormally sensitive to the to the demands of an expressive space." From this Wright's training with Sullivan began to become reasserted with a need for a rationalization of space in terms of a structure.

---Project Investigation---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hillside Home School, Martin House
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Rowe continues by investigating the difference in spacial vs structural qualities employed by Wright and that of the International Style. Wright whose structure creates space or is created from space is a stark contrast that of the International style of structure perforating a space, there is no fusion of space and structure but each acts as a separate component.

Interestingly Rowe indicates that a lack of understanding of this new method presented to the Chicago architects and their impulse reaction to implement resulted in a temporary interest that faded, something that we should take note of when investigating materials and fabrication!...."A primary architectural achievement was determined by urgency of a physical need and by the lack of a specifically architectural program, and as a result an apparently complete architectural revolution was made possible. But just this lack of program in the end made it not possible for this revolution to become decisive."

Dynamic Structure

Here is a link to a conversation between Balmond and Toyo Ito about making structure dynamic.http://www.cagroup.cn/au/001/44-53.pdf

Irrational and Rational

I was reading through a Cecil Balmond interview and he was discussing the success of rational and irrational structure of Johann Bach's music. Balmond compared this to his time growing up in Sri Lanka and living in London and the influence it had on his architecture. Maybe we should investigate some structural properties in unfamiliar architecture that I am not sure any of us are well versed in, i.e. Asia and S. America. 

Group Discussion

          This blog is to be used for any kind of discussion about the project. Convenience is the goal, allowing us to take a more relaxed stance to the research. I do not want to use deadlines because pressured research is crap, I am hoping that the blog will combat that. So with that being said lets get things rolling.