Iconic Architecture - Good Architecture?
[charles blanc] glasgow
Yesterday I read with
interest Adrian Welch's text on iconic architecture, signatecture,
which brought up interesting ways of opening up the discussion instead
of dwarfing it into one mindset or the other. I especially valued the
idea of developing post occupation studies of buildings to assess their
definition as "good" architecture.
But the definition of the street as a gallery of buildings made me cringe
a little [Ed fair comment, not my phrase, from Charles Knevitt's Channel
4 book back in the Eighties, though the point was really to get across
how public the 'art of architecture' is] . The street is indeed lined
by buildings, but what defines it is the empty space created, not the
buildings per se. When Barcelona started its regeneration in the 80’s,
it was realised by reconsidering and enhancing these empty spaces, not
by changing the gallery surrounding them. It came with a few new builds,
but around theses new public spaces so envied by other European cities,
there are only "ordinary" buildings. The energy was spent on
the actual place rather than the image.
The suggestion that architects should improve their lot by engaging in
everyday aspects of people’s lives is a bit daunting. Taken to the
extreme, it reminded me of Loos’ short text, The poor rich man, where
an architect not only designs a house for his client but goes as far as
designing every detail of the Rich Man's home; he anticipated everything,
even the pattern on his slippers. One day, the Poor Rich Man's family
offered him birthday presents, but the architect, summoned to find correct
places for them in his composition, was furious that a client had dared
to accept presents about which he, the architect, had not been consulted.
For the house was altogether finished, as was his client: he was complete.
This holistic design of an environment might be some architects dream,
but it usually becomes other people’s nightmares. Accidents and incidents
are essential for real life. Architects design spaces for people to live
in, not only for magazine to take pictures of and for developers to market
them. The debate is a bit more interesting, I hope. Cities tend to become
attraction parks for architects to “perform” and developers
to show their protÈgÈ. The strength of an architect is to
do "good" buildings using and playing with the existing context
rather than try to create a stand-alone object to look at within an ideal
sterilised site.
One side of the argument for iconic objects, well side-tracked by Adrian
Welch, is to defend the populism of such attitudes: the architect's job
is to "service society’s need for instant gratification".
Architecture is not a sausage roll. That is mere construction and bad
product design. This forum is not the place for it, but I can't resist
responding to this attitude. There is such an unpleasant condescendence
in separating the people and ourselves, and giving them something that
we wouldn’t consider good enough for us. Disneyland, or Celebration
to make it more architectural, might be successful, but quality has never
been defined by numbers. Our role is to provide a creative answer to a
brief and a site, going further than a hollow image, what ever the brief
is.
It doesn’t mean that we should replace the "ordinary" architecture
Adrian Welch is talking about. Please don’t touch the ordinary buildings,
don’t confound modesty and mediocrity. Ordinary buildings are honest
and without pretensions, a simple shed can be far more interesting architecturally
than a shed trying to be a town hall or a greek temple. There can be a
real beauty and intelligence in the simplicity of the volumes and materials,
often involuntary, but we shouldn’t dismiss it. I remember an insignificant
small garage/substation in Glasgow at the corner of Cathedral street and
North Hanover street, with interesting proportions and clever details.
Six months after the redevelopment of the Buchanan Shopping centre, it
was done up and is now a horrible little thing, looking like a suburban
house gone wrong. Before, it existed and was pleasing in its simplicity,
now I always have to turn my head. I am not criticising the status of
the brief, but the result in trying to transform an ordinary building
into "recognisable" architecture. If the occasion arises, the
ordinary brief of a shed or factory is as interesting (look at factory
designs from Alvar Aalto, Herzog & de Meuron or Jacques Ferrier) as
more mediatised ones and should be considered and discussed on the same
level in architectural debates. I would agree with Gordon Murray that
the peripheries of our cities and their unfashionable briefs have to be
considered by architects and are essential to a positive development of
our cities. But please don’t touch the ordinary buildings.
oct 05
texts - no limit to words, we supply the colours: info@e-architect.co.uk
Architecture Debate
Adrian Welch is an architect but also runs www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk
+ www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk: a forum + resource for Scottish architecture
Contemporary Architects
Modern Houses
Architecture Competitions
Architecture Books
World Architecture: City Guides
Barcelona Architecture
Cambridge Architecture
Copenhagen Architecture
Hong Kong Architecture
New York Architecture
Paris Architecture
World Architecture : e-architect
- a guide to key buildings across the globe
Comments for the Iconic Architecture page welcome: info@e-architect.co.uk
Iconic Architecture : page
- adrian welch / isabelle lomholt