It's About the Story
Any architect of note, and especially the architects
discussed in this segment have something important in common, they are all
magnificent story tellers. Each proposal they have has deep roots and sophisticated
reasoning for the form and organization, from a historical, geometrical, or
theoretical perspective. Eisenman is telling a story that rejects much of
architectural history in favor of a geometric purism in a way few people have. Koolhaas is somewhat
unconcerned with taking a position in favor of absolute functionality. Bjarke Ingle's is riffing off of Koolhaas with dramatic pop tendencies that are extremely successful at drawing people in. Go on
YouTube right now and watch Daniel Libeskind talk about his projects, he is as
brilliant of a salesman as he is an architect. When it comes to being critical,
it’s first about having something to say and saying it well.
I think architects like to be as vocal or silent about their work in the same way as artists. Some will tell you exactly how it is on a sheet next to the painting and another artist might just have “Painting #5”. It’s interesting to see the different approaches of discussing their work in relation to the techniques at play.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me a lot of the Cote studio when we had to make those videos at the beginning of the semester because of how differently everyone expressed themselves. From the videos that had no sounds to the ones that did, everyone at the end of the day was selling their idea, pitch, and vision in a million different ways.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree- in order to advocate for a design, the presentation must be coherent and complete. However, I do believe it is important to be able to interpret works without needing to sell it. Once a design is built, is a viewer going to understand its’ intent? I believe this to be incredibly valuable to the overall design compared to the designer’s upfront ‘selling’ of their work.
ReplyDeleteThis was me. I didn't realize I had to click that. :)
DeleteI think any design that is successful and derived from something that is both truly programmatic & geometrical inherently has a good story to tell. But to your point, if the architect doesn't have a wit to them or a way of story-telling, I can see it being difficult to fully embrace/accept a design from someone as creative as Daniel Libeskind.
ReplyDelete