1. The readings refer to tectonics in a variety of settings; tectonic/stereotomic, tectonic/atectonic, topos/typos/tectonic, representation/ontological, rhythm, corporeal metaphor, ethnography, and technology. Briefly define each term and provide an architectural example that embodies the condition.
Tectonic/sterrotomic - light frame construction/earth-nature based construction - hogan/adobe
Tectonic/atectonic - structure that visually accounts for the presence of the building/structure that does not visually correspond to the presence of the structure - Seagrams building/the Stoclet House
Topos/typos/tectonic - (three vectors of the built envrionment) i.e. site/type/tectonic (structure)
Representation/ontological - skin that represents the composite character of the construction/fundamental core of the building - Seagrams Building (solid core construction with curtain walls)
Corporeal metaphor - the bodily experience of a building - Saynatsalo Town Hall
Ethnography - the branch of anthropology that deals with the scientificdescription of individual human societies - Berber House
Technology - a transformational force that alters the lens through which the natural world is perceived
2. Kenneth Frampton writes that this study of tectonics "seeks to mediate and enrich the priority given to space", what is a dominant trend in Western architecture of today and how does tectonics relate to this trend?
A dominant trend in Western architecture today is the use of various types of veneers to cover up the structural elements and the process by which they are installed. Virtually every "brick" building one sees today is simply a steel or concrete frame with brick creating an all encompassing cloak around the building - in order to cover up materials/processes that people find undesirable with a material/process that people do find desirable. This directly relates to tectonics in that the veneer is covering the true tectonic elements of the building. The tectonic elements of the building have become undesirable features in many cases.
3. "Greek in origin, the term tectonic derives from the work tekton, signifying carpenter or builder". How has the the impact of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and other space-time models altered tectonic etymology?
The theory of relativity changes the etymology of 'tekton' (carpenter/builder) in the way in the end of the carpenter/builder. The theory of relativity brought forth a new awareness of space, which subsequently became the object of tectonic creation. This is a shift from viewing tectonics in resulting in a frame, or a structure - rather, tectonics is a process resulting in a space.
4. Vittorio Gregotti states in 1983, "(t)he worst enemy of modern architecture is the idea of space considered solely in terms of its economic and technical exigencies indifferent to the ideas of the site". If the intention of site is to situate human in the cosmos, how then does site infer from a contemporary landscape that has been graded, conditioned, tamed, treated, sculpted, mapped, engineered, essentially re-created by humans?
A site cannot infer from the contemporary landscape. I think it speaks alot to our current cosmological view that we surround ourselves with an obsessively groomed environment - it suggests that we can some how construct our own reality to suit our own preferences and the mood of our time. We have taken the site which was once viewed as intrinsically valuable because of its cosmological relevance and now have reduced it to a series of instrumentally valuable resources. I think this directly coincides with an up-springing of humanism that seems to be sweeping across the Western world. Sites, among other things, are now defined in terms of their instrumental value to intrinsically valuable humans - rather than the sites holding intrinsic value because of their relation to a cosmology that takes precedence over any single human.
5. Is architectural tectonics applicable or relevant in a world of global mobilization? State and explain your position.
I think tectonics serves a very important purpose in a world of global mobilization. Namely, it serves to ground an individual in surroundings that make visual sense. The construction process/evidence of the workers hand and the materials of a structure can help to ensure that it makes visual sense to a person as a intentional, built environment that suits a human. Without a building making such visual sense to a person the individual begins to inhabit nameless, shapeless structures that do not ground them for the time they inhabit them - but serve as reminders of the mobilized lifestyle. Such structures are void of the mark of a careful and intentional craftsman - they cover up any trace that grounds the structure somewhere in time (for all we know, the structure has always existed - there is no evidence of it every being built other than it simply is).
No comments:
Post a Comment