Modern Movements in architecture

El lenguaje de Le Corbusier es tempestuoso, a veces violento y dialéctico. El de Aalto es relajado y fluido es paciente. Su obra es afín con la de Henry Van de Velde, y su sistema de “sketching” resume su pensamiento: El detalle. Existe una obsesión por presentar el contraste de la imagen completa. Donde un sistema se encuentra con otro?. El piso, la silla, el muro, el techo, el cielo, que se encuentra con el techo, la tierra, el agua. Aalto recodifica los planos ondulados y las distorsiones ópticas, herramienta de los maestros y grandes artistas, lo que nos presenta una innovación decodificadora, llena de grandes expresiones formales, en contraste con gran parte de la arquitectura simplista reciente y basada en un solo modo de comunicación. Su rica sutileza es resultado de la multivalencia de significado en las intersecciones construidas

CHANGES IN THE PRESERVATION OF MODERN ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS IN RECENT YEARS IN JAPAN

This paper is an attempt to clarify the changes in efforts toward the preservation of and research on modern architectural materials, particularly in Japan, since the establishment of the International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement (DOCOMOMO) in 1988. Focusing on studies and research that describe preservation activities and discussions as movements within Japan, and beginning with the opening of the Japanese National Archives of Modern Architecture, which acts as a repository for these materials, we will proceed with our investigation by tracing the changes in their preservation

The Continuing of Organicism: An Enviro-organic Form Integrating to the Built Environment

Humans have engaged nature as an ideal paradigm of form and function since time immemorial. Within the organic paradigm, architecture may be seen to constitute an organic relationship with nature in any climatic, cultural and social condition. Though often rejected in canonical modern architecture, organic forms have been manifested, in various forms, and with different purposes. Recently, some modern organic movements have emerged, such as those following principles of biomorphic form and biomimicry. Unfortunately, these movements often fail to more fully embrace organicism in the totality and depth of their relationship to the natural. Following D‘Arcy Thompson‘s On Growth and Form, this research aims at uncovering the key attributes of natural form, in order to allow the design of enviro-organic form. Such form is defined as one that opens to the natural world, facilitating the making of architecture that sustains human life and nature today and in the future. In order to carry this out, the research offers graphic and analytic tools that help aid understanding into what organic architecture is, and how we can undertake a design process leading to enviro-organic form. The research concentrates on the analogies between architectural form and natural forms. The outcomes are, to paraphrase D‘Arcy Thompson, explained by the, “equilibrium resulting from the interaction or balance of forces.” Natural forms result from the fitness of the resolution of inside and outside living forces. Similarly, architectural organic form, as embodied in indigenous or vernacular architecture, result from integrating environmental and socio-cultural forces. Because architecture must adapt to cultural and social changes, human built environments are argued to be functionally more complex than those made by animals, as seen for example in a bird-nest, spider-web, or ant-hill. Since vernacular architecture is largely shaped by instinct, and in response to specific local place and culture, vernacular forms are not typically suited to be applied directly to the needs of contemporary culture. Geometry is proposed as the medium for historical examination of the incidental analogy between nature and organic architecture, for the rational fitness of integrating between natural principles and architecture disciplines, and for the selective transformation of enviro-organic forms that promise to more fully integrate the works of humans into the natural environment

Who was H Courtney Archer?

Harry Courtney Archer's (1918-2002) article on architecture in New Zealand published in The Architectural Review in 1942 is recognised as part of the rich collection of publications that shaped the discourse about Modern architecture in this country (Clark & Walker 2000). On the face of it, Archer was an unlikely contributor to the discussion on New Zealand's architecture and proselytiser for Modernism: he had lived most of his 23 years to date in small rural towns, before the war, working in his father's flour mill in Rangiora and during the war moving between pacifist rural communities in the South Island. In this paper, I consider Archer's 1942 article, his sole contribution to architectural discourse, in relation to his personal background, asking where and how Archer formed his views and how he came to expound them in the journal the New Zealand architects of his generation acknowledged as "the bible" of contemporary architectural thought. I also analyse his article beyond its brief figuration of the New Zealand timber tradition as "frank" and therefore a source for the local manifestation of Modern architecture, by reflecting on his writing in light of his personal experiences, his avant-garde friends and his commitment to socialist movements

Deconstruction: Between Icon and Architectural Landmark, Two Spanish Examples

The 20th century was a period in the history of humanity that was marked by numerous technological advances, many discoveries and achievements in terms of knowledge, science and the arts, as well as numerous changes and political restructuring. In the Human Sciences, especially in Philosophy, new concepts and thoughts that marked and conquered the opinions of the intellectuals of that time emerged. One of these new concepts was the “Deconstruction” around the 60s of that century. The term “Deconstruction” was used for the first time by the philosopher Jacques Derrida in his work “De Grammatologie” in 1967. Deconstructivist Architecture emerged in the 80s of the 20th century. Deconstruction had as the main intention the rediscovery of new values, through the contrast of concepts, and the suppression of Modernism. Architecture was no exception, because new thoughts, styles, movements and new constructive techniques arose, which produced and caused a (re)affirmation of Architecture in society, through the implementation of new configurations and modern spatial conceptions. “Deconstruction”, as an architectural movement, arose from the fusion of the Russian Constructivism and other movements related to the philosophical concept of “Deconstruction” presented by Jacques Derrida. But it is the 1988 exhibition “Deconstructivist Architecture” organized by Marc Wigley and Philip Johnson at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in New York, that acknowledges Deconstruction in Architecture. Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Bernard Tschumi were the avant-garde architects featured in this exhibition. On the 25th anniversary of the exhibition, MoMA curator Barry Bergdoll hosted “Deconstructivism: Retrospective Views and Actuality”, which traced the subsequent careers of that seven architects to examine the impact of the exhibition and the changes in architecture in those 25 years. This paper identifies the Deconstruction concepts that were the basis of deconstructivist architecture but keeping in mind that Iconic deconstructivist architects were not committed completely to all concepts of this philosophy as they produced their architectural objects. Two iconic buildings as Peter Eisenman’s City of Culture outside Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Spain) are presented to achieve the debate.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impure Postmodernity -- Philosophy Today

Hegel, Heidegger, Postmodernity reconsidered after 20 years

Harmonious architecture and kinetic linear energy

This is a chapter in a book based upon the work from an Erasmus International Project which took place in Athens in July 2012

Body Consciousness in Modern Urban Surroundings: Freerunning and Parkour

The paper covers the matter of body consciousness in modern urban surroundings. Somatic disciplines known as Freerunning and Parkour are presented as activities of a performative nature that can be understood and practised as means of redefining an aesthetic experience in modern urban surroundings