Architecture 209X, Spring 2007
Words and Cities: The rhetoric and meaning of statistically improbable phrases
Nicholas De Monchaux
Qing Wang
System
System usually means a serial of things working together. It means something complicated enough that not single methodology can be applied to achieve the goal. In politics, it indicates some similar functional departments to work together. In computer software, it represents a whole pack of commands to work together to finish the operation. In architecture, it also means different kinds of agendas to participate into the building process. More specifically, it is more related to structure system, mechanical system. In article – spaceship, earth, Buckminster metaphorizes our earth into spaceship to imply that we should design the building as the same way we operate this mechanical spaceship. Furthermore, he stresses on the ecology of earth as a perfect system we can learn to apply on our architectural design. It talks in a general big idea of universe and explains it as two different categories: the physical universe and metaphysical universe which I consider as exteriority and interiority of architectural design manipulation. Obviously, the architectural cases we read this time are in the first camp.
The project of Kansai International Airport Terminal spends numerous photos, diagrams and sketches to show how objectively logical this design process except the original ideas of archy structure that can be considered as the sign of interiority. The first part of the reading focuses on how the air flow deforms the regular archy structure. The second part
is about how mechanical system integrates into the architecture idea to solve the problem of subsidence of the land. I see nothing but the terminal works as a functional machine in that particular site. The building is designed and operated based on external forces.
The similar situation of another case – Swiss Re. Headquarters we read. It explains the geometry of the building that it totally responds to its environment. The cylinder shape reduces the reflection. The smaller base concedes more space to the pedestrian to shows the friendly gesture to its neighborhood. Moreover, the word “lung” it uses to describe the sky garden tries to imply the whole building as an organic system which always has been considered as a sustainable system we learned from for thousands of years.
1 comment:
steven's post is a good introduction - but I don't get his distinction between the universe inside architectural and the 'metaphysical' universe outside that consideration. I doubt even techno-boffin Renzo Piano would not state a metaphysical claim for his buildings, and even his public role as a 'UN cultural ambassador' would seem to break down the distinction. this is glossed over in steven's post, but seems a really important point to tease out.
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