DIALOGUE AND UNIVERSALISM No.

11-12/2006

Napoleon Ono Imaah

SYNERGY AND DIALOGUE: INFLUENCE OF SOCIETY ON ARCHITECTURE

ABSTRACT This paper acknowledges the fact human beings are social animals, as they tend to live in well-organized societies. However, human population expansion explodes into internal implosions that continue to wreck havoc globally on the social, economic, political, architectural, and aesthetic environments. To harness the universal territorial imperatives, of contending components harmoniously, the world requires synergy and dialogue. Key words: dialogue; globalization; society; synergy; universalism.

INTRODUCTION

Observing the transformation of the hitherto expansive word contract into a global village exposes the globalization of many intimate problems. These are problems of population explosion, the accommodation of this teeming population, territorial instigated confiicts and consequent environmental degradation, industrialization and toxic waste management, the dissolution of established orders. The global question ofthe moment is what are the solutions to the questions raised by globalization? Is globalization good or bad? We feel that architecture as a creative force, forms a springboard for globalization because all human actions and assertions start from architecture that encompasses housing, territorial integrity; industrialization; order and chaos; War and peace.
ORDER IN ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION

Order appears in two basic forms in Architecture. Generally, order, by definition (Microsoft Encarta Dictionary) , is a condition of logical or comprehenAnonymous, (1999): "Column", Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia.

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sible arrangement among the separate elements of a group as a sequence or arrangement of successive things. Order sustains freedom from disorder through an established authority or a system of social organisation. Specifically, Order in Architecture refers to any of several classical styles, marked by the imposition of a type of column employed: Doric, ionic, Corinthians, by the Greeks, the Tuscan, an unfluted modification of the Doric, and the Composite, which the Romans added to the classical order (Anonymous, 1999) . Deservedly, the world occasionally pitches Order against Disorder. For instance, the Romantic Movement "was the rebellion of Feeling against Reason, of Instinct against Intellect, of Sentiment against Object, of Solitude against Society, of Myth and Legend against History. Furthermore the Romantic Movement pitched Emotional Expression against Conventional Restraint, Individual Freedom against Social Order, Youth against Authority, Democracy against Aristocracy, and Man against State". This seems to be the situation in the world today and particularly so in converging world of globalization spurred through the instantaneity of information transmission technology. Although we can see in the Romantic Movement that Order is intimately intertwines with disorder, but it is Order in the Society, and by extension. Architecture, that leads to survival of the social class, material and compositional concepts (Ardrey, 1974 a)^ Disorder in a Society is equivalent to diversity inequity or inequality; it depicts the development of the Individual rather than the group. Rousseau assert that "Disorder is an integral part of Order; insisting further that "Without that degree of disorder tolerating and promoting to the fullest development the diversity of its members, society must wither and vanish in the competitions of group selection. What contemporary evolutionary thought can bring to social philosophy is the demonstrable need for structured disorder within the larger structures of Order" (Ardrey, 1974 b) . Architectural composition exploits this principle to pleasant advantage, bringing Contrast and Conflict, otherwise known as Disorder, into Harmony, in a structured aesthetic Order. Consistency is another attribute of Order and harmony. For example, in any building type or formal composition, a recognizable logical link, otherwise known as, functional relationships or motif, exists between contrasting form, space and events. However, Contrast or aggressiveness is not equal to violence in architectural composition, as it usually is in the society. Architecture recognizes contrast or aggression as a positive assertiveness and a driving force of growth as no population will survive without sufficient members sufficiently aggressive. However, no population could survive where chaotic and conflicting competitions normally get to deadly dimensions" (Ardrey, 1974 c) .
^ Anonymous, (1999): "Taj Mahal", Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia. ' Anonymous, (1999): "Architecture", Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia. '' Ardrey, Robert (1974): the Social contract. Dell publishing co., New York, p. 95. ' Ibid.

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In his paper Open Groups in Hominid Evolution, Vernon Reynolds, the British primatologist Ardrey, (1974 d) , asserts that "modern man is territorial and aggressive, hostile to and intolerant of strangers, and lives within an authoritarian social structure in which self-assertiveness and competition, for dominance characterizes the successful man". Hence, in architecture, we take care of space as a specific human territory, where human beings can comfortably isolate themselves and exercise unfettered freedom through controlled aggression. From the above, we might deduce that a dormant architecture or society cannot be pleasant. There must be aggression or contrast, as we conveniently referred to it, in architectural composition. Contrast represents implicit and explicit tensile strength, which is equivalent to tension among all the component elements of both architectural and social composition. This allows each component ofthe composition, in architecture and society, a vital as well as necessary measure of controlled self-assertiveness, hierarchical order and harmonious coexistence. Aggression or contrast driven too far in architectural composition may lead to chaos, just as violence does in human society. Disorder, society and architecture Two basic problems facing Modern Architecture, and indeed society, are traceable to incoherent adherence and absence of viable principles of architectural composition or social engineering: The first problem is that of creating new building or government types, their functional relationship and commensurate compositional content and context. The second problem the clumsy chronic inconveniences encountered in creating new forms of Social Orders and Architectural Styles in the process of opposing traditional canons in an eclectic rather than in a precise manner; and in the process of defining new frontiers in architectural or social engineerine concepts, idioms, metaphors and symbols (Zabelchanski et al., 1985) These problems seem insurmountable in a world were change accelerates constantly to a point of confusion. The coherent collective methods of architectural and social composition, common in earlier historic periods, now often give way to decadent and divergent individual initiatives, thereby are compounding the problem of arriving at a common criterion for judgment in either aesthetics or ethics. Since architecture, as well as society, is not chaotic psychosis, but order, sanity and harmony, there must be laws to its composition, no matter the seeming conflictual manner of their conceptualization. The student of universal order, through Synergy and Dialogue, can learn again to apply these architec'ibid. ' Ibid, p. 273.

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tural designs methods, applicable to society, in recreating world unity despite diversity.
VIOLATION OF SOCIAL UNITY THROUGH ARCHITECTURE

The influence of aggressive government policies on architecture and creativity are numerous. A synopsis of some samples of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, The Middle Ages, Nazi Germany and Modern Architecture, hereunder, serve as ample examples: Egyptian Architecture and Society Egypt depicts a despotic architecture influenced by deified Pharaohs who were obsessed, ideologically, with the pursuit of inspired mystical ideas of an ideal meta-physical great beyond. The physical world was as transient as the metaphysical was permanent. The consequent spiritual architecture, celebrating death, was honorific, monumental, and mystical; invoking awesome symbols of stupendous scales and ponderous proportions; in spite ofthe fact the disciplined canonization ofthe perfect 3-4-5 divine triangle, gave the world the divine proportions. Evidently, the magnificence, mystique and myth of the Egyptian pyramids live on amongst the seven wonders ofthe ancient world. Greek Architecture and Society The rebated Greek architecture represents noble simplicity, typical of free expressions by freemen. The Greeks sensitivity to appropriate feeling for a humane, human scale, which they regard as "a good gift from the gods", led their architectural and sculptural forms into adequate conformity to human and structural forms. Their compositional concepts, practically, contained no "extras" or excesses that could be strange to the usual use of any form. According to Democritus, the ancient Greek materialist philosopher whom Karl Marx referred to as the first encyclopaedic mind among the Greeks (Marx, and Engels, 1955) , "excess or insufficiency, is distasteful". Kazarinova (1980) , quoting Democritus, also affirms the quintessential Greek architecture: "that great satisfaction exudes only from beholding an excellent work of Art that symbolizes beauty, which should be, according to Chernychevski (1948) , in good aesthetic and ethical measure underling all things!"

Arnold Whittick in Encyclopaedia, pp. 75-76. ' Blake, Peter (1965): "Breuer Marcel", Gerd Hatje, (Ed) Encyclopaedia of Modem Architecture, Thames and Hudson, London p. 60, column one. ' Chernychevski, N. G. (1948): Aesthetic Relationship of The Arts to Reality (Esteticheskoye Othnochenye iskustvo k Diestvitelnost) Gospolizdat, Moscow, pp. 12-78.

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ROMAN ARCHITECTURE AND SOCIETY

The arcuated Roman architecture, equated to the Greek's on the other hand, was ponderous; subduing; overpowering and out of scale; showing the slaves suffering under the punitive senate of Imperial Rome; like Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. The essence of Roman architecture was "decorativeness"; eclecticism; over loading of form with costly materialsgold, silver, bronze, ivory, etc. Although the Romans studied and synthesized elements from the Greeks architecture, and masterfully modified the forms, we can only describe their consequent architecture as colossal, tedious, grandiose, monumental, stupendous, powerful, and despotic in contrast to the humane, simple but splendid, original Greek architecture. The Romans' engineering featsForum, Coliseum, Basilica, and the Thermae built with slave labor, clearly marked them out, below the egalitarian elegance of the Greeks. Middle Ages and Society During the Middle Ages (c. 1000-1453 AD), architectural composition used heavy; "closed, static; rough, unrefined forms of Architecture. Furniture of this period seemingly reflects the hard or severe ideology of the then Church". Factually, the logical applications of irrational proportions, then in vogue, were in logical relevance, contemporaneously, with their irrational moribund belief systems. The Romantic Period in Germany and The Nazi Experience "The Romantic period in German Architecture after Friedrich Gilly, deliberately omitted to develop an exclusive style in a manner in which the whole was subjected to a common rule like its parts." The Romantic Period shows characteristic coherence in: repetition of particular forms like analogues; renunciation of domineering axis; fiowing plans and forms; interpenetration of space, along with optical displacements and intersection that occur due to the movement of the spectators (Wolfgang, 1965 a) . In practice, however, their adoption and distorted interpretation of the features of antique and Gothic styles turned into a monstrous monumentality in conformity with the exigencies of existing politics of power. Thus, contemporaneously, the praxis of architecture in the Nazi society witnessed waxing autocratic tendencies. Germany, from all indications, was indeed one of the leading countries to overcoming historicism and establishing the new functional style of the 20th

'' Fleming John, Honour Hugh. Pevsner Nicholas (1977): "German Architecture", in a Dictionary of Architecture, Penguin Books, Middlesex, England, p. 118.

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century (Fleming et al., 1977) . Unfortunately, the advent of National Socialism put a sudden halt to the "new Architecture". In contrast, even to Fascism, the National Socialism tolerated no modern architecture within the Nazi State. The official style turned into a mugging monumental, sterile, neoclassicism. Nazism permitted only industrial buildings to continue to carry out functionally justified and aesthetically satisfying designs. The truth, of course, is that the intimidating steely structures of industrial buildings, finely fitted the fury of their political power play; portraying a momentous militaristic monumentality. Nazism dissolved the Bauhaus and prominent Architects such as Gropius, Hiiberseimer, Breuer. Mendelssohn, Wagner, Mies, May and Hannes, emigrated (Wolfgang, 1965 b) , to greener pastures; together with their great talents, which continued to blossom elsewhere wherever they found peace to pursue perfection. Although, paradoxically, the persecution of architects led to inadvertent spread of the Modern architecture, we can see that perfect peace is the universal panacea for aesthetic pursuits and global unity. Characteristics of Modern Architecture The rationalism of the 18th century dispensed with the supernatural as a governing force, while the 19th century optimism looked forward to the perfectibility of man. With the emergence ofa new vocabulary of shapes: the dissolution of the mass into slender members of changing dimensions: asymmetry of plan; individual wings at angles apart, creation of vistas by means of ground floor columns or space spanning bridges. No part of the building demands prior attention. Modern architecture encompasses the buildings and building practices of the late 19th and the 20th centuries. The history of modern architecture also covers the architects who designed those buildings, the stylistic movements, the technology and materials that made the new architecture possible. Among notable early modern architectural projects are the exuberant and richly decorated buildings in Glasgow, Scotland, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh; the imaginative designs for an imaginary city of the future by Italian visionary futurism exponent Antonio Sant'Elia; and houses with fiowing interior spaces and projecting roofs by the American pioneer of modernism, Frank Lloyd Wright. Important modern buildings that came later include the sleek villas of Swiss-French Architect Ie Corbusier; bold new factories in Germany by Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius; and the steel and glass skyscrapers designed by German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Ever since then, modern architecture, which originated contemporaneously in Europe and the United States, continues to wax as well as wane throughout the rest of the world at varying cadence of dominance or decadence.
'^ Ghirardo, Diane (1999): "Modern Architecture", Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia. '^ Kazarinova, V. I. (1980): Beauty, taste Economy, "Ekonomika", Moscow, p. 17.

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Modern architects reacted against the architectural philosophies of the 19th century, (Wolfgang, 1965 c) , which they felt borrowed too heavily from the past. They found this architecture either oppressively bound to past styles or frivolously picturesque or eclectic. As the 20th century began, modern architects believed it was necessary to invent an architecture that expressed the spirit of a new age in order to surpass the styles, materials, and technologies of earlier architecture. This unifying purpose did not mean that their buildings were similar in appearance, or that architects agreed on all other issues, but there was unity in their diversify. The aesthetics of modern architects differs radically. Some architects, enraptured by the powerful machines developed in the late 19th century, sought to devise an architecture that conveyed the sleekness and energy of a machine. Their aesthetics celebrated functionalism in all forms of design, from household furnishings to massive ocean liners and the new flying machines. Other architects, however, found machine-like elegance inappropriate to architecture. They preferred an architecture that expressed, not the rationalify of the machine, but the mystique and philosophical powers of human emotions. The fleeting flight of fugitive architects in disarray seems to fuel the confusion of factional tendencies facing the praxis of architecture. The conception of a harmonious whole from fractal fragments has become obviously impossible in the absence of a stable sfyle in architecture. These conflictual circumstances also coincide with laissez-faire breaking the whole world apart into opposing factions. The ominous signs suggest that, without universal synergy and dialogue, sociefy and architecture wilt crumble because, aesthetically, inharmonious opposing parts cannot compose a harmonious whole. Unify in Architecture The concept of unity in architectural composition is neither equivalent to a mathematical oneness nor a summation of a multitude of individual quantities; it is a reduction of the pluralify of individual unities into a harmonious whole for the sole purpose of solving set aesthetic problems. According to Gestalt psychologists the whole, which emergences when the parts merge, otherwise call harmony, has unique qualities that are different from the individual qualities of its component parts. Therefore, the component part in an architectural composition cannot be greater than the whole. Similarly, the individual cannot be greater than the sociefy; a country no matter how super-strong cannot be stronger than the whole world. Thus, the strength of the part or individual is in its synergetic unify within the whole. Essentially, unity is a condition of being in accord or harmony within the specificities of an archetype. Specifically, unify is an ordering of all elements in a work of art, so that each element contributes to a consistent effect in the con'" Ibid, p. 74.

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text of the whole. The 1923 Manifesto of constructivism declares that all the diverse elements, which make a composition in the arts, particularly, space and color, could fuse into a unify that satisfies the human spirit. The creative use of space, time and color, gave architects a new dimension through which they could eliminate the dualify of interior and exterior of a building (Whittick, 1999). This reiterates the ideology propagated by philosophers as a means to achieve the unify of the physical with the metaphysical concepts en-route to the ultimate unify: the One without pluralify. Irrespective of their origins, architecture sfyles sums up the best values in a period, a people and a place. For instance, architecture and social sfyles document the evidence from the history of cultures as a testimony to the mettle of the sociefy and their achievements in creative governance and architecture. "These achievements, which are never wholly the work of individuals makes architecture a social art" (Anonymous, 1999) , Thus, an "Architectural masterpiece does not only survive as secluded solo effort in a vacuum but as a soloist in the plenum of a harmonious orchestra". For instance, the seven wonders of the ancient world do not tell only the story of architecture, but the gamut of the entire antecedents and consequences, concerning the complex climax, which culminate in a crystallization of civilizations, cultures, constructions, philosophies and indeed the historical record of the best achievements of the world and its peoples, in time and space. Hence, we adore: The mysterious, majestic, monumental Pyramids of Egypt, one of which we regard as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Greek Parthenon that endures and despite the enormous damages it has sustained over the centuries, it still communicates characteristic ideals of order and harmony, typical of Greek architecture. (Tweedier and Stone, 1999) . The Roman Coliseum regarded as one of the most famous pieces of architecture in the world. (Scala /Art Resource, 1999) . The Taj Mahal, a mausoleum in Agra, India, regarded as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. (Anonymous, 1999) . The American World Trade Centre, in New York, remembered as a symbol of worldwide woe of terrorism, when hijackers crazily crash a commercial plane, with passengers and crew into it, on September the 11, 2002.

" Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1955): Essays, 2nd Edition, Volume 3 Gospolitizdat, Moscow, p. 126. " Scala/Art Resource, New York "Coliseums", Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia 99. " Tweedier, Penny and Tony, Stone, (1999): "Parthenon," Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia. '* Wolfgang, Pehnt (1965): "Germany," in Encyclopaedia of Modem Architecture, Thames and Hudson, London, p. 122.

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New Trends and New World Order Modern architects naturally differed in their understanding of historical and philosophical traditions by introducing new philosophical concepts in architectural composition. Modem architecture, like Le Corbusier's Ron Champs (1950-1954) and John Utzon's Sydney Opera house (1956) obviously captures, in a rare feat, the imagination of architects and the public alike. These buildings arouse interest not only because they have curved and unusual shapes, but particularly because they command their landscapes with astonishing heroic presence. Furthermore, the Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, along with Daniel Libenskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin and Peter Eisenman's School of Architecture in Cincinnati; is a building, which changes the face of Architecture, that is, it confirms the new concept of philosophy exemplified in what could be called Complexify orNonlinearify Architecture. The term fractal, in mathematics, refers to a geometric shape that is complex and detailed in structure at any level of its magnification. One example of a fractal is the "snowflake" curve, constructed by taking an equilateral triangle and repeatedly erecting smaller equilateral triangles on the middle third of the progressively smaller sides. Theoretically, the result would be a figure of finite area but with a perimeter of infinite length, consisting of an infinite number of vertices. Fractal geometry is not simply an abstract development. A coastline, if measured down to its least irregularify, would tend toward infinite length just as does the "snowflake" curve. Mandelbrot has suggested that mountains, clouds, aggregates, galaxy clusters, and other natural phenomena are similarly fractal in nature, and fractal geometry's application in the sciences has become a rapidly expanding field. We can see the idea of self-similarify in the termitarium and the proportional as well as formal similarify of the many leaves of a tree (Ghirardo, 1999) . Thus, we can see that nature is always slightly changing the size and shape of every leaf on a branch or wave of the sea. Fractal shapes immediately recall the basic fact of nature: it is always changing, and always interesting. In the language of universalism, change require constant adjustment, analysis and synthesis of all forms of thought into the formation of the new world unify; wherein the minor and major views in aesthetics, philosophies and ideologies merge in harmony, in spite of dissimilarities; and not only in homogeneify but in heterogeneify as unify in diversify.
TYPES OF COMPOSITION: UNITY IN DIVERSITY

There are several principles of architectural composition, just as there are myriad differences in the new world order, which view the relationship of the part to the whole differently. Significantly, however, these different views
"ibid, pp. 122-127.

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achieve harmony. We hoped also that universal harmony, utilizing the differences as well as the similarities, could achieve global peaceful coexistence. Elementary composition, imitating the breaking up the atom, holds the belief that we could appreciate forms and spaces better when split into their basic elements. Le Corbusier talked of spheres, cylinders and cones as parts of the whole, Cezanne was of the opinion that the whole consists of cylinders. The Gestalt psychologists, however, propagate a contrary view: that we appreciate compositional form better as a whole, but not in parts, since the whole is greater than the sum of its component parts. Hence, the polemics, seemingly, remains unresolved. Harmony, however, requires that we must relate the part to the whole irrespective of inevitable dissimilarities, since they always coexist contemporaneously in the sociefy, architecture and nature (Zabelchanski et al., 1986) . Therefore, we know that the world consists of many parts, which are essentially, indispensable parts of one stupendous whole. UNITY, HARMONY AND COHERENCY IN ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION Kazarinova (1980) affirms that when good buildings, forms and ideas are compositionally related but bereft of preconceived unity, harmony, or coherence, they connote chaos. For instance, Blake, (1965) asserts that "some of the larger projects, which Breuer Marcel undertook in the years after 1952 have consisted of buildings which were individually impressive but failed to add up to a truly significant architectural groupings. The UNESCO Headquarters, for example, consists of several separate structures each of which is highly successful in its self; but as a group these separate structures do not form a successful architectural unify". Similarly, an inequitable world of iniquitous inequalities cannot guarantee desirably universal harmony.

LOCAL VERSUS GLOBAL CULTURE

Globalization has changed the old order making it to yield its place to the new. For instance, Nigerian communities exhibited great commonalify based on a common belief system. Elements of traditional architecture include sacred grooves, and shrines, which they categorized reverently as spaces for personal and communal gods. The customary cosmology was both physical and metaphysical under the strict surveillance of traditions and taboos, into which human beings fitted holistically. The sociefy, as one entify, built together, worshiped
^^ Ibid, pp. 1-19 ^' Zabelchanski G. B. Minervih, G. B. Rappaport, A. G. and Somov, G. U. (1985) Architecture and the Emotional World of Man, Stroizdat, Moscow, p. 28. ^^Ibid, p. 71.

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together, fought together. This reflected on architecture, security and religion, in accordance with the dictum of Alexandre Dumas in his Three Musketeers: "one for all and all for one". Consequently, the Society stayed together peacefully, protecting their common heritage. However, globalization still needs to recognize the good aspects of a people's life. CONCLUSION Meanwhile, we observe that the society breaks down as science breaks up form and philosophies into confusing components; the universe diversifies while global unity plummets into a plurality. Globalization makes the incursion of good and bad foreign ideas possible. Indiscriminate globalization segregates society aggressively whenever it attacks and weakens the foundation of communal commonality, particularly, in weak societies and nations. The world, through the concepts of Architecture and the precepts of Philosophy, could harmonize current discordant tunes through mutually beneficial global synergy and universal dialogue; in the unity of opposites or unity in diversity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr (Sir) Napoleon Ono Imaah is from Isoko-North Local Government Area in Delta State of Nigeria. He graduated from Kiev National University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Ukraine, where he obtained an MSc degree in architecture in 1982, and a PhD degree in Architecture in 1985. He has been a Sunday school teacher, primary school teacher, secondary school teacher, university lecturer, supervisor of architectural projects and theses in Nigeria and overseas universities and guest lecturer, with several publications, in national and international conferences. Since 1986a lecturer and Head of Department (1994-2003) in the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He loves architecture, music and philosophy. He is a member of the Nigerian Horticultural Society, an athlete, fine artist, and a Knight of Saint Christopher.