No Architecture
These thoughts are influenced by the book Architecture without
architects by Bernard Rudolfsky issued in 1964. A set of examples of build
environment by people without engineer plans or any sense of architectural
education. No Architecture is a manifestation of common sense, a creation which
deals with important things that interests the user. It is about rejection of architectural problems like
the visual appearance of a plan, a form of a street, or interest about visual
smog of the city. No Architecture emphasize the role of public interest, of a
man´s preoccupation and perception.
There is probably a certain correlation between good buildings and famous
architects who have not studied architecture. Take the most influential
architect of the 20th century, Le Corbusier. He studied engraving and he take
an architectural experience in studios of brothers Perrets and in a studio of
Peter Behrens. Another contemporary example is Japanese architect, Pritzker price
winner of 1995, Tadao Ando. He is the self-taught architect, gaining his
experience from books and by traveling to Europe and South America. It is
not proving that the best architecture is done by nonarchitects. On the other
hand, it is not necessary to be graduated architect to create the hight quality
architecture. Sometimes is the architectural education an obstacle and those
who are trained in schools are separated from the reality and real
building problems.
No Architecture is the concept of putting the art of building from heaven
and conceptual level back on the ground to the user. Architecture should not
deal with questions like: style, the truth or even moral and ethical problems.
Architecture is a service for people. It is an expression of a certain problem
solution like: Where the people would live? How the one will move through
the space? Where the man would relax or work? What will surround him/her? How
safe is my children on the street? and etc. This is architecture raised
from the necessary needs of human. No Architecture is not dealing with
composition problems, it doesn´t matter if the window is on the side or on the
centre. The important thing is to bring enough light.
Rem
Koolhaas (born on 1944) says at the first annual Paul S. Byard Memorial
Lecture[1] at Columbia GSAPP in
February 20, 2009, and later published in his book Preservation is
overtaking us[2] following words
about architecture: I think that architecture is gone. It’s a very
interesting question whether it is gone forever or whether under certain
circumstances, we can imagine that it will come back. In any case, it is gone
for now. It is thirteen years old thought. It is still truth? What is the
condition of architecture in 2022? Koolhaas continues: To be considered a
genius for producing a serene order is also over. And describe Frank
Gehry´s creations as an example of what happened to architecture or, what we
have made happen to architecture.
Can No
Architecture be a way that paradoxically brings the Architecture back to our
consideration? Can No Architecture enrich the world of art with its
preoccupation of user needs and dealing with everyday troubles? Building Art is
in No Architecture brought from conceptual and rhetoric level back to the art
of building. The serious issue is questioning wrong questions which leads to
the wrong answers. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) was one of the philosophers
looking for the right questions. His thoughts deal mainly with the question of
language and the right expression of a meaning. He said: The limits of my
language means the limits of my world and his famous quote is: Whereof
one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Architecture is about
questioning. The famous architectural question was putted by Louis Kahn (1901 –
1974) and it is: What do you want, brick? Kahn asked the building material
about the way it should be used. His designs reflect his questioning, and he
has never used the material against its construction potential.
[1] Rem Koolhaas at the Paul
S. Byard Memorial Lecture is available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJJshaEbMYQ
[2] The book Preservation
is overtaking us is available on: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/books/reader/6-preservation-is-overtaking-us
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