The Craft Making Our World
"Architecture is the fiction to our reality" (Bjarke Ingles). Architecture is a tool that can make our craziest dreams come true. A lot of the built environment around us doesn't take advantage of the tool, many of the buildings are boring boxes, containers of space. Designed to hold a specific program and the essential systems needed to operate the building. But the knowledge and technology we have at our fingertips today, doesn't limit us but enables us to turn dreams into inhabitable spaces. I do want to emphasize inhabitable space because although architecture can turn fiction into reality, not all fiction needs to be made into reality. One good example of fiction becoming reality is Copenhill designed by BIG which is a power plant that turns waste into energy. They wanted to change the publics perspective on what a power plant was and make it into a public amenity. So they incorporated a ski slope around the plant. This allowed the public to activate a once perceived dirty power plant to a place where people ski on top of the power plant that turns trash into electricity.
One not so good example of turning fiction into reality, is the Crystal addition to the Royal Ontario Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind. I have personally visited the museum and I think the addition is disruptive and abrasive to the existing building and the site around it. I don't think the human scale was really considered in this addition in terms of the exterior. I think this fiction could have been left on paper.
I love the idea of being able to turn dreams into inhabitable spaces that can transform the world we live in today. I think this could benefit the built environment in so many ways and the ability to be able to change the publics perceptions on specific programs and how spaces can be used. With that being said, the human scale and how people feel and use the space should be considered. If its not then we are just left with these eye catching elements that are uncomfortable, disruptive, confusing and overall unusable.
When I compare these two projects I think about the 'intention' of their design.
ReplyDeleteFor Copenhill - it is easy to love. I mean come on, an artificial mountain that happens to turn trash into energy. What's not to love? There is a direct purpose and thoughtfulness to the somewhat obnoxious addition.
For the Crystal addition - It intends to be disruptive for the sake of being obnoxious. To some, this is all the reason they would need for this project to resonate in them as an architectural marvel. For most, its an eye sore. As you said, "abrasive to the existing building and the site around it."
Spot on.
I completely agree with your stand point. Its great to have the technology to turn ideas into reality, but there needs to be a good reason for it. Architecture should be built just because it can be, it should be built with a purpose and should serve a function and give back to the community around it. I think the two examples you gave depict just that. One has a purpose and gives back, the other is just there because it can be.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with this post. I think that in comparing these two projects, it is easy to see how each analyzed the problem. The approach Bjarke Ingles took was to transform the existing building into a better version of itself by inviting the public and helping the environment. Then you have Daniel Libeskind's project in which instead of transforming the existing building, he attacked it. The abrasiveness of it completely uninvited the public and has no physically positive contribution to the context or environment. It is easy to see how successful one is over the other based on how they responded to the context.
ReplyDeleteFiction and Reality reminds of the movie 'Inception'. The way that dreams are designed by the architect and can be altered, causing the subconscious to attack or become more aware of what is going on. This is what I think the Crystal addition did for you. The dream of one mind, architected into reality alerted your architectural subconscious in a negative way. This happens to all of us, ie. Cody Blevins and his strong feelings about architecture looking like what it is designed for. #alwaystriggered
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