Rethink CTV+Book 2011 pt1

Six
on
Four
Marina Carretero
Beatriz Fernndez Gmez
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Fernando Jimnez Salmern
Candela Oliva Varier
Blanca Prez Gonzlez
Edited by David Goodman
Selected Texts from Culture and Theory V

IE University - Bachelor of Architecture Program
Prof. David Goodman
2011
Six on Four
IE University School of Architecture and Design
Prof. David Goodman
Six on Four
IE University School of Architecture and Design
Prof. David Goodman
2011
Marina Carretero
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Fernando Jimnez Salmern
Candela Oliva Varier
Blanca Prez Gonzlez
FOREWORD
The texts in this volume are the result of may weeks of hard work
by students and faculty alike. The work illustrates the results of
an ongoing experiment in how to teach history, and how to infuse
it with the energy and sensibilities of studio design teaching.
Id hoped to introduce students to several of the key questions
facing the architect today, presenting key texts related to these
issues, and placing them in context with pairings of contemporary and historical examples. In this way, the idea was to afford
the student a solid base in these fundamental texts and case
studies, but we can also make the case quite directly that these
historical examples are directly related to problems and questions that they will face in practice and that are intimately related to any kind of contemporary cultural production, no matter
the medium. The idea is to create a living, applied history by
showing how the meanings of objects themselves are contestable, malleable, etc.
But there is also a secondary goal. The course was also a study
in argumentation, rhetoric, and information design. It was my
hope to make this a design course in a certain way. As you will
see in what follows, students advanced their arguments with
concise, focused writing, but also through drawings, graphics,
collages, etc.
What you see here, then, is the collected effort to grapple with a
few key questions. The dedication of the students included here
makes this series of essays much more than a mere collection
of opinion pieces, or essays on given topics. What we have here
are explorations and questions. They are openings and provocations, not conclusions.
David Goodman
Director of Undergraduate Studies in Architecture
IE University
Marina Carretero
Chapter 1:
Architecting Life/Living Architecture
Chapter 2:
Creating Language from Geometry: A Review of Alberti
and Eisenman
Chapter 3:
The Question of Nature: Architecture Between Order
and Messiness
Chapter 4:
Dubai: Between the Real and the Artifical
Chapter 1
//
architecting LIFE
living ARCHITECTURE
Marina Carretero
Nowadays we live in a world of mess, movement, commuting. We do our best

to achieve what we have always wanted. We dream about something, fight for it and
hope that someday that dream comes true. As I said, it is all about a dream. This is
something similar to what we understand today as myth, fake although based on
reality and decorated with fantasy. From the point of view of each person most lives
end up becoming a myth. We use to dream with something better to what we have,
and -in best cases we hope that dream will become true. We hope all these dreams
sometime stop being so, and start being our real lives.
Marina Carretero
That is what this ad suggest. At first glance it is only a car

with a background of a building in a day that is about to end.
But that is only the signifier, obviously the thing goes further.
It is an advertisement for a car, in which we see more than a car
and a building. We can see that the car is not a simple car that
by chance has been pictured, but a high-end one. The building
is not a random building either, but an international airport.
This picture expresses somehow the reality that we have been
talking about: the movement and commuting people are getting used to nowadays.
Architecting LIFE/ living ARCHITECTURE | Chapter 1
Barthes Myth Diagram
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
1. Signifier:
-Image of a building.
2. Signified:
Something that people
inhabit
1. Signifier:
-Image of a building.
2. Signified:
Something that people inhabit
Mirador, Sanchinarro, Madrid
Marina Carretero
Bilbao World design Capital
Architecture as a
symbol.Marketing of
cities
Architecture as a
symbol.Marketing of
cities:
WORKING??
Sanchinarro bird eye view
All this, and the meaning it has beneath it, is what we call the signified. This
signified has different levels of meanings, from what is a car or an airport itself, to
what the car company wanted to express with this advertisement. Somehow they are
trying to attract costumers selling what they believe the clients life is based on. There
is not a common building as a background of the image, but a modern one. It serves
not only to sell this car, but also to sell the city in which it is located. The airport
expresses the way of life that the car company wants to sell: a lifestyle based on commuting, business capitalism and globalization.
Modern and high-tech buildings mean more than functionality and sustainability. They have a second connotation behind them which is marketing (the way
to sell them, or the city they are representing). Nowadays politicians commission big
architects not to design a common building that covers all the functions needed, but
to sell a city, or even a country, with a building. We can see for example the Guggenheim Museum (signifier) in Bilbao by Frank Gehry, which has converted the city of
industry into the city of contemporary architecture and culture. Bilbao is not anymore one of the most industrial cities of Spain. Bilbao nowadays is the Guggenheim,
and the meaning implicit in it is the signified of this whole myth. The Guggenheim
is not just a modern building. It means modernity, culture, and life. Through the media, the Guggenheim has become the reference point of Bilbao. Through marketing it
has become in one of the cities worth visiting in Spain. Years ago, the myth of Bilbao,
had a different signified. It meant a dirty seaside, cranes and containers. That was
what we saw when we thought about Bilbao. Now because of the Guggenheim and
the media and marketing surrounding it, we understand something different about
Bilbao. Now we see clean squares, art and modern architecture.
From this point, politicians have believed that with contemporary architecture the problems of a city, or neighborhood can be solved, such as the Mirador, by
MVDRV, where politicians in Madrid have invested millions of euros. It is located
in one of the new extensions of the capital, Sanchinarro, which from its beginnings
until now, has been a ghost neighborhood, a dormitory-city of Madrid that does not
work by itself. It is here where this sign or myth of the new architecture has its end.
Architecture does not work by itself. It is not something that you plant somewhere
and wait until people are aware of its existence. The media is needed to make a myth
out of buildings and architecture.
As we can see in the previous page diagram, both myths (Bilbaos and
Sanchinarros myth) have the same signified at the first level, but if we take them to
the second level, both signs are different. They are creating a different language.
The advertisement, as I have argued, has been thought for people of this new
era. They want their clients to think this car is not designed for common people, but
for special people, (something that many advertising agencies do). As a high-end car
is supposed to, it is directed to people of the upper class, business man, who are used
to travel, to commute.
This myth of the high-end car and the high tech airport is nothing but a dream,
such as the dream of ones life. It is nothing but an image for you to imagine who you
want to be, who you want to become when you take that car.
While talking about car advertisement, they refer to two different aspects. On
one hand, it refers to the car, to all the things that car is capable of doing, or all the
different topographies or paths the car can go through. On the other hand, it refers
to the buyer, and to what a person can become when buying the car, as in the case of
this specific ad.
If the picture was taken in a different atmosphere, in a non high-class atmosphere, the meaning (signified) of the advertisement would be completely different,
for example, if it was taken in a conflictive neighborhood, the meaning could be like
feel safe wherever you are with this car, and if it was in a non-asphalted road of a
poor country the meaning would end up being of the first type ads, type where
your car can be anything.
This advertisement is thus seen as a dream, as this kind of myth that we wish
can become real, as the development of ones life, and in this case, this dream becomes
true by buying this product. With the monumentality of the building and the signified
of an international airport with its atmosphere is created the signifier of the car itself.
+
+
Marina Carretero
=
=
This is not the first time architecture is linked to the

commuting and transportation to express a way of
living. In the 19s, architects of the Modern
Movement started theories about this link. Le
Corbusier started thinking about the house as a machine, and relating this concept to the car. How did
houses needed to change with this revolutionary new vehicle? And what is more important, how was life
affected by this change? We can see some pictures from Le Corbusiers architecture,
and how he related his projects to the car, to the machine, but not only to compare
both technologies and their behavior, but also to manifest how different ways of
living become related to something from the outside. The way Le Corbusier thought
about his architecture is related to the airport and the advertisement; he designed
high-tech buildings for his epoch, related to a society of the machine, of the car.
Nowadays cars are no longer a high technology, but airplanes are. Airplanes and
high-tech airports are defining a way of life, such as the car and machine were in Le
Corbusiers time.
Le Corbusier was not taking into account his precise clients nor their hobbies or their specific ways or living, but he was instead relating his projects to a new
era, and to a new society. The society of the machine, industry and mass production.
Here it is useful to refer to Alan Colquhoun, and his positions towards historicism.
Le Corbusier was taking into account one precise context, and as Colquhoun explained, making truth as something relative and determined by the context.
If we analyze his projects, we could affirm that from the plans (from the
house), as a signifier we would obtain thesignified as ways of living. When Le Corbusier made architecture, he did not design houses as something beautiful, but as
something to live in. Instead of referring to a specific lifestyle, he designed according
to the lifestyle of asociety. In this case the society of the machine, the society of the
car. Everything in his plans had repercussions in this lifestyle. Everything was around
the space for the car. It is designed as a promenade around the car. This is what we see
when talking about Le Corbusier, and so the signified of this myth about the house as
a machine. But this is not the only way of making architecture. As said, Le Corbusier
did architecture according to a society and not to a specific family or person
who would inhabit his designs.
But there are architects that do this, and create
architecture from a specific lifestyle. Lets take in this
case the example of Eileen Grays E-1027. This architect
disagreed completely with the living machine of Le
Corbusier, and for her, the specific ways of living were
what determines architecture. She takes the social context as a background, and focuses into the experience of
the user within the architecture, which at the same time,
comes by the user way of living. In the case of this precise work, (E1027), Gray designed this house for herself
and her husband, and the architecture reflects how they
lived. It was a house to experience the architecture at
the same time they were experiencing their own lives. It
was so until Le Corbusier hunted the house and painted
the walls following his own style, and it is in this point
where the myth of E1027 was broken.
Here we can see two examples of creating mythical
and successful architecture, and both are related to the
experience and social context of the user. Architecture is
thought as something to be inhabited by people. If while
designing this basic concept is taken into account, we
could create this myth that involves architecture and lifestyles, and create this language that should always appear
while talking about designing architecture. There is no city
without citizens, as there is no architecture without users.
Marina Carretero
Although these two architects had different theories and ways of seeing
architecture, they both fit in this myth of life. They both although in different
scales- play with the experience. Somehow we could relate this myth to the one
of Roland Barthes about the Eiffel Towel. It is about how this symbol is representing the city of Paris or the country of France. It is as the work of both architects- incorporated with daily life. In all cases it is more than just a building,
house or tower, there is something else behind it that is the myth around them.
It is not anymore in the case of Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray- as Barthes said
referring to the Eiffel Tower an adventure of sight, but an adventure of living, an adventure of experiencing. They are somehow architecting life and living
architecture. In the case of Le Corbusier, and the way he creates architecture, he
is introducing society, and a specific time into architecture, he would be architecting life in this sense, and reflecting this societys lifestyle into his works. On
the other hand, Eileen Gray is doing the opposite, she is making her inhabitants to live her architecture, and this is possible because she designed her works
according to her inhabitants lifestyles. They are not forced but enjoying their
architecture. They are living architecture.
The same way this myth can be applied to different disciplines, as we saw
in the example of the car advertisement, in where the way of living was the first
theme to convince the client. In this case architecture was also present, helping
to understand one certain way of living.
So, everyones life is conditioned by something external that is somehow
creating our way of living, and creating the myth of our life. As we have seen
this can be extrapolated to architecture aswell. We as arcthitects should have this
into account, and try to create the spaces we are responsible of, according to
this myth, and not only design by design, but having something else behind
all that. We need to transform life with architecture, or be able to transform the
architecture we already know according to the changes our lifes are experiencing.
As we all know, architecture has changed through history, according to
peoples needs, and this cannot stop. Architecture, like the individual, needs to
change, to evolve. It is our responsibility, as architects, to make this happen. We
cannot let architecture get stucked. We have to architect peoples lives.
CREATING LANGUAGE FROM GEOMETRY:

A Review of Alberti and Eisenman.
Chapter 2
Leon Battista Alberti

S. MARIA NOVELLA 1458-1470.
Leon Battista Alberti was a multifaceted figure of the Renaissance. He

was mathematician, musician, poet But what especially calls our interest is his theoretical and practical development of arts and architecture. He
is known as a disciple of Vitruvius, and following his steps, Alberti wrote
the Ten Books on Architecture in which he declared that the most important
themes in architecture were Beauty and Ornament. These two concepts will
be explained in this essay through one of his most remarkable works, S.
Maria Novella.
Marina Carretero
This church is located in one of the most famous cities of Italy, Florence. Alberti was commissioned to finish the faade of this building, which
had a Gothic interior and the same style for the
already-constructed part of the faade. This faade
seems to be separate from the actual church. If
we look at the picture, it really seems to be pulled
apart from the church.
When Alberti started designing this faade,
he had the obstacle of maintaining the existing part of it, such as the basement, the pointed
arches above the side doors, the tombs, and the
blind arches of the first tier. Despite of all these
problems, he was able to maintain the logical
relationship between the entire body, and each of
its pieces.
From the beginnings of this design, Alberti had something clear, maintaining the rhythm of Gothic and Renaissance styles that would be mixed in
the faade of the building. He did not destroy the preexisting faade, but he
restored it and added the second tier following a clear harmony between the
two epochs.
Creating LANGUAGE from GEOMETRY | Chapter 2
Alberti defended the position of not combining arches and columns,

because it was unaesthetic and lacking logic. This theorized idea is materialized in almost all of his works, but also in S. Maria Novella. As we can see in
the front entrance, the big arch denotes the main entrance, but instead of resting on columns it is supported by two pilasters. As we can see in the diagram
below, next to each pilaster there is a purely ornamental column denoting the
axis of the building and continued by the pilasters of the second tier. The preexisting columns on the first floor do not correspond with the new ones on
the second tier. Alberti tried to disrupt our attention with the horizontal axis.
Marina Carretero
This faade is also related with Classical buildings, such as the Pantheon
in Rome, as we can see in the image above both pediments, Sta Maria Novella
and Pantheon, that besides being different, they both share the triangular
shape, pointing to god, and the entablature. So, Alberti is not only mixing
the Renaissance and the Gothic style, but as a disciple of Classical architecture he is denoting so in this building. This is said because of the entablature
above the second tier, in which the name of the client -Romani Rucellai- and
the date -1470- are written, and also because of the classical pediment that is
closing this work in the upper side.
The first and second tiers have a big difference in
width, being the second one, half of the first. We can
appreciate in the faade, how Alberti was able to solve
this problem and maintain the harmony of the work
by using scrolls, helping to allow us to understand the
building as a usingle entity. This detail solving the width
difference will be used by architects following Alberti.
Above all, and denoting the concept of beauty that Alberti introduced
in his Ten Books on Architecture, is the geometrical relationship in which the
design has been thought. The entire faade can be circumscribed in a square,
where the half of its length is forming three different squares in which different parts of the faade are circumscribed. This golden relationship is repeated
creating the harmony and beauty of the faade.
Alberti was able to create this beautiful work

despite all obstacles and mixing his characteristic
style and the existing one. Creating an entity between
the pilasters, scrolls, and pediment and the circular
window, pointed arches and lateral doors already
erected in the faade. He was able to create a harmony
between the different parts and with those parts referring to the whole piece of art, the faade of S. Maria
Novella.
This harmony Alberti was able to create, is part of his
speech, it is part of this language he is creating, and
that has served us throughout history. We now can
appreciate beauty in its full meaning, knowing the
complete relationship it has with proportion.
(1)
(2)
Alberti uses the Classical language to create his own architecture.

Throught the basis of Vietruvius, Alberti was able to create this mixture
between Gothic and Renaissance architecture. In these images (1), (2) and
(3) we can see how Alberti took care about this part of the Classical language,
proportion. Everything fits perfectly in this square, but as we have seen, there
are some things that do not correspond with Albertis new design. But this
does not seem to be a problem for him. Eventhough the new upper tier does
not match with the lower columns, he tries to deceive our eye, in order for
his language (act of speech) not to be disturbed, and he is able to do it. We
perceive this work as a single piece. He uses all these techniques and materials
(colored marble) to unify the two periods faades into a beautiful and proportioned sigle work of architecture.
Alberti is talking about the classical orders, about perfection and beauty
as something that is part of architecture. For him, there is no architecture
without proportion, and there cannot be non beautiful architecure.
Marina Carretero
The Classical language is something that has been there for centuries, and
it has some rules that we are still using today. The proportion between human
body, different floors, faades. It is something implicit in architecture. Nowadays
things have changed. If we take a look to Vitruvius On Architecture, we realize
that, from the 6 principles he uses to describe architecture (Order, Arrangement,
Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety and Economy), which are creating his own
language, we have lost most of them in our way through history. Is this related
with the first chapter, and the way our lives have changed architecture and the
way we think?
(3)
Peter Eisenman
-NUNOTANI HEADQUARTERS 1989-1992.
-HOUSE VI
It is worth to comparing the work of Alberti with the work of one of
the best well known contemporary architects, Peter Eisenman, and the differences between them, talking about language in architecture.
On one hand, Alberti used his theories as described in the Ten Books on
Architecture, based on Vitruvius, and according to that, following classicism.
He studied beauty in architecture, which from his point of view was related
with proportion and geometry and supported by ornament.
On the other hand, Eisenman introduces in his designs something that
goes further, and that can be opposed to Albertis work. Eisenman works with
contexts, and according to the time he is living, and he introduces this into his
designs. As Alberti was taking into account to keep the harmony in the whole
work, Eisenman tries to keep an order as well, but this time is not about the
geometrical order, but about breaking geometries to achieve the order in different levels.
Eisenman in his essay Inside-out declares that architecture has been
repressed all along history, he argues that architecture has suffered of unconscious repressions from the very beginning of its existence. So we could define
Eisenman as an activist of architecture.
Marina Carretero
In all his projects he is fighting against this repression and trying to avoid
it. He is no longer centered so much in the form or the function of his buildings. his works go further than that. The function of his buildings is not related
with what is happening inside, the program of them, but as in the case of
Nunotani, the function is related with the context. The building is expressing
what is happening in the surroundings. . He is making people, architects, users
and citizens, analyze his works and to think about what he is declaring.
He always starts his designs with simple thoughts, simple in the sense
they remind us about the fixed language of architecture, and it is from that
point he starts to create his own speech, to communicate something diffrent.
while designing in two dimensions he starts with a simple grid, and goes to a
different level, a level where this repression is no longer present. While Alberti
tried to optimize the square and compose his design with a golden relationship, Eisenman tries to do the opposite. When he works with cubes we can
no longer read a cube itself, but the deconstruction of it. He does not just
break those grids or those cubes, but rather he modifies them in such a way
that everybody can read what he is doing. There is always time and space to
criticize and to discover the language of Eisenman. It is interiority, which he
tries to explain in his essay Inside Out. Eisenman makes a new dictionary
for architecture, a new way or reading architecture. It is a new language that
has different meanings.
Albertis Golden Proportion of S. Maria Novella.
Marina Carretero
Nunotani Headquarters Building, Peter Eisenman.
As the firm describes their work, Eisenman does

not just focus on the obvious contexts and programs
of a building. Rather than pursuing a particular
building type, Eisenman Architects specializes in a
particular problem type: projects with difficult sitting,
programmatic and /or budgetary constraints, and of
strategic importance to their environment. Taking
all this into account he tries to exteriorize his feelings
and thoughts about architecture in his buildings, just
as the artist does in his works.
All this theory about Eisenman work can be
studied through one of his works, the Nunotani
Headquarters Building, in Tokyo, Japan.
Eisenman tries to talk about several issues with
this building. The most obvious from my point of
view, is the fact of the location of the building and its
implications. Japan is one of the countries with the
highest risk of earthquakes. From the formalist point
of view of this act of speech Eisenman creates, this
building is creating a simulation of the movement
of the tectonic plates. The building seems already
devastated by an avent of these characteristics. It is a
movement in history what Eisenman is doing in here.
He is not waiting for an earthquake to destroy his
building, but it is the building who is playing with
it. Eisenman is declaring something obvious with this
building, something that everybody understands and
is conscious of, and that from now on can be also read
in an architectural work.
Marina Carretero
This reading is possible, because Eisenman works with a presetted language of architecture that most everybody is aware of. Looking at the image
below, this language is created by the horizontal slabs and round columns that
can be read in between this devastated faade Eisenman uses to create an act
of speech.
Another different reading of this building is the difference between itself
and the surrounding office buildings in the city of Tokyo. They are normally
high dense and tall buildings, with strong structure, giving the obvious reading of power. In this case Eisenman is doing the opposite. He is creating a
building that is no longer high or thing, but the opposite. This building is
vertically compressed and giving an image, in Eisenmans words between
erect and flaccid.
In sum, Eisenman ends up with with the already exploted language of
repressions, and he starts a new one, with no social or historical restrictions,
just designing inside out. From his represions and feelings to the design.
Another example from Eisenmans work will be the one which diagrams are shown in the right page, House VI. In this house we can see the different phases that the project has passed through. From the first image to the
last one, we can see the evolution of the project. It is easy to understand how
the design ends up being what it is, not because of the diagrams, but because
od how Eisenman took the preexisting language of architecture, and modified
it.
One can see this evolution, from the very begining where he takes a
square and four orthogonal lines. From this point, which is a predefined
language easy to understand from any point of view, and through different operations, Eisenman is able to create his own act of speech. It would be difficult
to understand it if this predefined language were not there.
From the basic cube, the architect starts to develop the basics of deconstructivism through this project, where a series of orthogonal lines and cubes
seem to overlap and work together in order to achieve this new speech, to tell
us something different about architecture, but always related to the preexisting
language of it. Through these specific movements and operations, Eisenman
achives his goal of designing new spaces that tell a new story.
Marina Carretero
Eisenmans Diagrams for House VI.

In both examples (Alberti and Eisenmans) we have seen how language

in architecture can be developed. In these two works, architectural language is
a main tool to create new speeches and to express the meaning of architecture.
I believe that in architecture there is always implicit this language, in one or
another way. Each architectural work should be thought not only as something that needs to be built but as something that needs to express something,
that is this act of speech that each architect should create along his/her career.
This concept from where we start designing should, at the end of the project, be expressed in the building. Architecture should transmit something.
It can be more or less obvious, but if we start to analyze it, it should mean
something and it should have a language. I see architecture as I see other kind
of arts such as painting or music. A painter always expresses something in his
works. As in architecture, it can be read by anyone easily, or maybe the only
one with the answer is the painter himself, but we all know that there is some
reason why he painted that image, and how he did it. Alberti expressed the
meaning of geometry, and he created his own language trying to mix two different styles in one building. He resolved several problems that this implied
and created something else that was taken by the architects following him.
There are several ways to read S. Maria Novellas faade, but is easy to
recognize the presence of geometry, and how the author created a new language from it. Same thing happens in Eisenmans work. He is again creating a
language but, as we have seen, different from the language of Alberti.
There is an already set language for architecture, but each designer is capable of creating his own act of speech according and related to this language.
Eisenmans buildings can be recognized by anyone while looking at them.
They express something that the rest of buildings do not express. Eisenman,
as we have seen before is creating this act of speech from himself. It is his own
language. He has created his own architecture.
So in this essay we have seen how from the Renaissance to Deconstruction, architecture has an implicit language. It expresses an identity for each
building. From my point of view every single piece of architecture should
have a personal speech, should express something to be a real architectural
work. The role of language is one part of architecture, as it is drawing or the
construction process. Language and acts of speech have to be there to create
successful architecture, meaning that we all have to be able to understand a
shared language in order to recognize the individuality of the new speech act.
THE QUESTION OF NATURE:

Architecture Between Order and Messiness
Chapter 3
From ancient times, Nature has long been known as a reference point for
many disciplines, and architecture is one of them. Architecture emerged out of
the need to shelter the human being. As Vitruvius analyzes in his second book
of On Architecture men passed from living isolated in caves, to creating their
own architecture as a way of sheltering and gathering. But from its beginnings,
architecture has been in conflict with nature. This conflict comes from the different points of view that nature gives us. Nature can be understood as something merely pure, describing the basics of the purity the classical orders, but it
also can be understood as the opposite, the organic, impurity and messiness.
If nature is analyzed from a theoretical point of view, such as physics or
mathematics, it arrives at the classical orders or platonic geometries. Something that we can see in Mies van der Rohes architecture, for instance, where
the use of platonic elements, axes, symmetry and proportion is constantly
present. In this case, he follows the principles of Vitruvius, where all these
small things make good architecture. He explains the classical buildings from
the figure of a man (Vitruvian man), and in turn, from nature. He adopts
these human proportions as the basics of the classical orders.
On the other hand, nature can be perceived as something impure,
something that comes from a process, something imperfectly proportioned.
We can see these kind of thoughts reflected in parametric architecture, or
organic architecture. While referring to organic architecture, we can cite
Gaudis work as an example. He is not using the orthogonal pure forms or the
symmetry axes described in classical times. But besides that, he as nowadays
architects using parametric architecture, is using architecture as a reference but
from a different perspective, keeping the pure geometries, such as parabola,
hyperbolic paraboloid, and rotated hyperbola, but erasing the orthogonality
and proportion of Classical Orders.
At the same time, there is something else about nature intrinsic in architecture, and it is the fact of the naturalness of architecture itself.
Marina Carretero
Is architecture something natural? Besides being inspired by natural elements

architecture has not always been a natural process, in fact, most of the time it
has been artificial, created by men. Architecture can exist in nature as something that is part of it, as something natural, but would that be architecture as
we see it now? Architecture is a science, and an art. This means that it is done
by men and it is therefore artificial. As we said before it began from the wish
of men to gather and to provide shelter. It started from a necessity, and it has
become an art. Early man, in needing architecture, was not conscious about
it, he was creating architecture without knowing it, and it is what we consider
today architecture without architects. That architecture was part of a process,
an evolution, and it was changing according to the necessities of the users,
who were architects of their times. Nowadays we can analyze that architecture
and create our conclusions, such as what Laugier and Viollet le Duc did with
their visions of the primitive hut. Here we can see that difference between
the two types of natural architecture. On one hand, the primitive hut that
Laugier is referring is obviously related to Vitruvian ideas of classical order and
proportion, while Viollet le Duc, one century later, referred to the opposite
with his primitive hut, making a Gothic point of view.
Primitive Hut, Laugier
Primitive Hut, Viollet Le Duc
The Question of NATURE| Chapter 3
So in this reflexion, architecture itself can never be something natural.

We are talking about nature in a science, and of course there are many natural
concepts that relate to architecture, but we have to be aware that architecture
has always been something artificial. It can be designed from natural materials, from a more or less pure point of view, it can be organic, but above all
architecture is a science, it manipulates nature, it is artificial, created by men.
We can argue therefore that science and artificiallity, (in this precise context)
can be synonymous.
As we have seen so far, architecture can refer to nature in different ways,
where it always has something natural implicit. It can be part of an evolution,
following forces over time and a natural process, or it can be part of the natural order. From here we extract two main concepts, purity as order (ideal) and
purity as vitality (informed).
As described before, in the case of Vitruvius, he was taking purity as
order, he was part of the ideal, reflecting all these in his writings On Architecture he makes proportion, symmetry, economy, and order something completely inside architecture. From that point is from where all designs should
be started and finished with those concepts. Architecture has to show that in
order to reflect beauty, to refer order. In the image below we can see architecture/shelter in the most pure sense of nature, therefore informed.
Marina Carretero
Tension between nature as purity

(Vetruvian man) and impure nature
(parametric architecture).
The
TheQuestion
Questionof
ofNATURE
NATURE|| Chapter 3
Marina Carretero
Although most architects refer to one or another point of view, Sullivan

is an example of both, ideal and informed. While his intentions are merely
pure, his projects are informed. In Kindergaten Chats he explains the
problems he faced during the development of the skyscraper. It comes he
says- from the process analogous to the evolution of the solution, [] the
essence of every problem suggests its own solution. He used the statement
form follows function but not in a functional way but in a suprafunctionalist manner. He wanted to do a tall building and for that reason the building
had to express the fact that it IS tall. It expresses the essence of the building.
In this kind of argument one can also detect ideas of contingency that seems
to be inevitable and permanent, because, despite being a tall building it could
express something else, or focus in the mere functionalist part of architecture,
instead of express so hardly the height of the building. He solves the problem
also creating a law for tall buildings, a solution that is going to be the same
for all tall buildings, an ideal solution. In this example, the truth is extrinsic to the object, it means, it gives importance to the process and not to the
object itself. This process that has to do with the problem solved. This system
that Sullivan creates is working as is has to work there is no other truth,
and the is no other possibility. He is giving a solution for his era that solves
all the problems they had.
On the other hand, and opposite to Vitruvius we can find contemporary architects working with parametric architecture. This is a completely new
concept. New technologies have made this new architecture possible. It uses
mathematical algorithms to create architecture, and these algorithms that, as
most of mathematics basics, are related to nature. They have a mathematical foundation beneath them even though the final result will be normally
informed. We can see examples of this parametric architecture in the work of
Iwamoto Scott Architects. They work through a speculative form-finding.
There is not a concept for each project, were a relationship between site, function and form is missing. They project architecture as an experiment. The
truth in this case will be intrinsic to each work, although it keeps a relationship with the process between nature and the algorithm that creates architecture. The final result of the project will reflect a cool image that has nothing
to do with what is happening inside or around the building, but that is in all
senses related to nature.
In this essay different possibilities to implement nature into architecture
have been discussed, and all of them are valid, it is the architect who has to
decide in with parameters wants to focus, what does he want to communicate with his building (if there is something to communicate), but from my
point of view architecture has to communicate something, each building
must express something, architecture is about creating spaces to inhabit, to
be occupied by people, and for that reason it needs to keep in touch with its
surroundings, program, and budget. These three things, among others create
arcchitecture, natural, in the sense that it is created for and to people. It is for
that reason that has to take into account all the daily life issues that people is
constrained and worried for nowadays. Probably, this state will be different
in a near future, when all this issues will be different, as they were in the past,
where one of the main issues was to express power through proportion, scale
and symmetries, that for them were representing human being.
Marina Carretero
Chapter 4
Dubai has experienced a tremendous growth over the last 30 years. It

started with the oil industry, but today oil only accounts for 6% of its total
revenues. The rest is built on tourism and business. From the 1970s until
2008 Dubai was growing unconsciously, creating new buildings, hotels,
luxury apartments, etc. The discovery of oil in the area of the Emirates made
this possible.
Dubai became a theme park city until today when nobody wants to
miss the opportunity to enjoy that theme park, which has made Dubai one
of the greatest tourist destinations. Nowadays the city is no longer about oil,
but about what the world is expecting.
The world economic crisis has made Dubai step back in its growth and
rethink its expansion. Today Dubai is a city in the middle of the desert with
extreme temperatures and some skyscrapers in the seaside. Something like
this is what the developers planned for Dubai, the only change is that every
single building in Dubai has something else.
Aereal Image of Dubai, 1950
Marina Carretero
In the urban plan for Dubai a city that has passed from being a port
city of 40,000 inhabitants in 1970, to a global city of almost 2,000,000 inhabitants in 2011. It has become a city in which each building has to be the
best in one or another way. This urban planning competes with the existing
city of Dubai, the city of the 1950s. It was a typical Arab city, with mixed
uses, working classes and majority of local inhabitants.
The new urban development has become encouraged the opposite.
Today Dubai is a fake city, the city of consumption and show. In Dubai, the
one that seems to be the best wins and this of course is related to money,
the best car, the best clothes. But all of this comes from what we have seen
before, it comes from the people in charge of the city. The urban planning
of the city is nothing but artificial, it is creating a new society that has nothing to do with the society that used to live Dubai as it was. It is a Guinness
Book of World Records city. It appeals to the image, to the picture of the
city and to its meaning
Aereal Image of Dubais urban plan.
The Question of the ARTIFICIAL | Chapter 4
There are several examples of this, such as the the highest building in
the world, the Burj Khalifa building, with 890m high, or the most luxury
hotel the Burj Al Arab, with 7 stars, or the biggest indoor ski center, the biggest aquarium Everything in Dubai ends with st. They are creating a city
for st people from scratch, and above all, arguing the sustainability in all
their construction development. How can a fake island be sustainable? How
can the construction of a 890m high building in the middle of the desertbe sustainable?
But the real question is: What is behind all that big faade? People from the rest
of the world are destined to Dubai by their
companies in exchange of lots of money. The
truth is that these people after a couple of
years begin to feel the pressure of the city, to
live it and they start to notice the behind
the scenes part of the city.
Tenis court at Burj Al Arab building, 7* Hotel
Marina Carretero
Burj Khalifa, 828m high building
All that theme-park architecture has an end. And it is not only denoted
by the geographical issues but also by other trends that go further than that.
In the end, the palm islands are nothing but concrete filling the sea, and the
Burj Khalifa a mega-structure designed to catch the attention of potential
tourists all around the world. From our point of view, all those things may be
interesting, but what happens inside all that?
There are three main types of inhabitants living the daily life of Dubai:
locals, expatriates, and construction workers. Between the first two and the
third, there is a big difference, not only socially but also geographically. While
the rest of the people live in the heart of Dubai, construction workers from
India and other poor neighboring countries live in the dark side. This part
of the city is nothing but the preexisting city. Nowadays it has become the
shadow of the city. Working camps and markets are built in this part of the
city, where people come from their countries to work in very poor conditions.
Comparison between old and new Dubai.
On the other side, the new city is inhabited by locals and other
foreign people focused on their business. The distinction here is not about
money, or bad conditions, but about mixture of cultures and laws. While
local people are having all the rights possible in their country, foreign people
have nothing. There is a continuous fight between these two parts of Dubais
inhabitants. Locals are proud of having reached that point, while foreign
people starts to get annoyed by the artificiality of the city. I would describe
this point with Koolhaass words, while talking about Junkspace: is like being condemned to a perpetual Jacuzzi with millions of your best friends. It
can be nice at first, but you cannot stay there forever. There is a point where
the Jacuzzi stops being something amazing and relaxing and starts to be
something annoying and dirty. The same happens with luxury in Dubai. It is
somehow like being in the Cavern once you know that the objects are nothing but shadows. It is an artificial reality in where knowing the real life- it is
impossible to stay.
It is interesting to observe Dubais change over the last 50 years, and get
to know the different modes of artificiality they have used. Today is still present the old city we talked about before, and the difference is huge.
Anonymous said...
Anonymous said...
Dubai is a pathetic excuse for a "develop-
you bunch of losers, instead of thanking god that you
ing country"; it takes two steps forward
are living in our land you post those silly comments and
and one step back!!! Dsicrimination is at
stories, please guys get a life and use your brains for
its peak here along with the lastest
once in your life. We got the cash and you got to work
development of disregard for expatriate
otherwise get the hell out of Dubai and go back to your
labor rights.
country and start begging you rotten creatures. You
3:37 AM
people could've been homeless without Dubai. Dubai

made you. Dubai fed you. Dubai made you look like
Blog Debate between locals

and expatriates
Marina Carretero
humans.
11:48 PM
Today the old city we duscussed before is still present, and the difference is huge. It is interesting to observe Dubais change over the last 50 years,
and get to know the different modes of artificiality they have used. Today is
still present the old city we talked about before, and the difference is huge.
We could say that through a generative mode of artificiality, they have generated what we know today as Dubai. They have created something completely
new for the rest of the world. The entire city has become a monument that
everybody would like to experience, but hard to live. Fake environments and
buildings create this parade in the middle of the desert.
To sum up, I will finish with two questions from Koolhass Theory of
Bigness applied to the urban plan and city of Dubai:
Is it what you see what you finally get?
Is Dubais impact independent to its quality?
For the first question the asnwer will be NO. as we have seen so far, Dubai is a
city made for the rest of the world, for the opinion of different people, and to
attract tourists and workers all around the world. But the truth is that when these
working people are there, they enjoy it the first months, but what happens next?
People start getting bored of all that showness and pretendings of the city of
Dubai, that ends up not being a city, but a theme park. Could anyone imagine to
live in a theme park? It is impossible because it is not a city, but an accumulation
of shows and parades, that at some point people end bored of all that.
For the second question the answer is YES, the impact is completely independent to the quality of Dubais city.
Besides having invested a huge amount
of billions in those buildings, the question now will be: what will be left after
100 years? From my point of view it
will be the old Dubai, the real city.
Chapter 1:
Space as a Myth: Myth in the Media
Chapter 2:
Behind the Image
Chapter 3:
Nature and Beauty Through Time
Chapter 4:
Where is Artificality
SPACE AS A MYTH
myth in the media

Myths are found anywhere. e best places

Th for finding
them are all kinds of advertisements because people pay attention to them although they are not conscious about that. Th is
essay is an explanation of architectural myth fi ltered in media:
an IKEA billboard. It is simple and it uses just a room and the
logo of the company. Th e most important point of the image
is to transmit the idea of something that people already know.
The image is a modified version of a very famous painting by
Vincent van Gogh: Bedroom in Arles (1888). Th is adaptation
of the painting shows an empty room with a window, two doors
and a hook with some kind of clothes on it.

The myth for this advertisement is the use of something that people already known
(the original painting) and change it in order to get the feeling that something is missing in
the room. What will people miss in the room? Th e furniture. This idea is reinforced because
of the use of the painting as itself and not just a modern copy of it (as could happen with a
photography). The goal of the advertisement is to look for the chairs, the bed in the right side
of the room and the paintings and images in the walls.
Photo of real room that Vincent van Gogh used for inspiration
As it could be appreciated, the bedroom is filled up in a very homely way. The bed
is not well made, there are a lot of things spread on the table, it is decorated with some paintings, there are clothes hanging from the walls Th is is the idea that IKEA wants to emphasize with the advertisement. People will see the empty picture in the same way as they can see
their just-bought house: empty and with a lot of possibilities.

IKEA, as one of the most powerful companies nowadays, is dedicated to sell products to fill up this emptiness in the room with its own designed ready-to-assemble furniture.
Peoples imagination can decide if they prefer to decorate their house as in the painting or
another way, but always having in mind this idea of home created by the advertisement.
The original composition is composed by different elements that are common in the
houses in the XIX century and nowadays (like a bed, chairs and a tables) and, as they are so
common and not tied to any particular time, you can imagine them in your house too.
Original painting
Bedroom in Arles is a representation of Van Goghs room in Bouches-du-Rhne.

There are three versions of the painting, each one smaller than the previous one. This creates,
with the IKEA advertisement a sequence of the same bedroom that people tries to figure out
how it ends.

IKEA wants people to understand where they live in the same way as Van Gogh
understood it in his time. Th e company gives you the chance to decorate your own bedroom
and create this new Bedroom in your house just by giving you the chance to choose the
furniture and the decoration you prefer for your empty space.

The original paintings consist in a series of three pictures, the three of them representing the same space: his room in Arles.
The first, 72 x 90 cm, was released in September

1888 and suffered a severe deterioration in a fl ood that
occurred during his hospital stay in Arles. It is currently
located in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
The second one, in equal measure, is preserved at

the Art Institute of Chicago.
The third version is smaller than the previous

ones 57.5 x74 cm and it was done as a copy of the fi rst
one, sent to a Dutch family. This work is found here in the
Orsay Museum.
The three pictures are well described in Van Goghs letters and are distinguishable
by the pictures on the wall on the right. In a first there are two portraits of his friends Eugne
Bosch and Paul-Eugne Milliet. Th is version was deteriorated and Van Gogh sent to his brother a repetition maintaining the same technical features but with some variations. And in
the third version he did a reduction, a copy in a smaller scale.

From the analysis of the last picture, even more than many of his self-portraits,
Vincents Bedroom in Arles invites us into the intimate dimension of the artists private
space.
Van Gogh furnished his room with simplicity, like a monastic bedroom. For him,
the bedroom is a haven of peace. It shows the contrast between the his peacefull home with
his messy interior life. However, the spatial representation shows a slight defect in perspective that gives an impression of imbalance: the head of the bed is not orthogonal to the wall.
The floor is not straight.
Those images create a new fact in the history of painting, the strange perspective
from which Van Gogh shows the objects in the picture: the foot of the bed are shown from
below, while the chair, pillow or table are seen from above. Th is personal conception and
unique use of color gives this work a symbolic content so characteristic of the style of Van
Gogh. Sure of himself, the painter has been included in the scene through the picture with
his portrait on the wall.
In his work, Van Gogh leaves behind texture and traditional forms. This creates a
flat surface so clearly inspired by Eastern European tradition mixed with Japanese simplification that he liked so much. To define the objects used thick lines, dark, thereby achieving
a higher volumetric effect. Forms are profiled. The artist returns to drawing and expression
through color and drawing. The outlines are hard and angular. The brushwork is extremely
thick, short and strong (sometimes Van Gogh applied paint directly from the tube without
mixing colors)
This time it is just my bedroom, therefore, only the color

should do everything ... to suggest rest or sleep in general.
In short, the vision of the table should head to rest, or rather, imagination ... the square of the furniture must express the rest still.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo

Van Gogh description talked about colors, shapes and atmospheres: the walls,
pale lilac, red soil of a worn-off, chairs and yellow bed, pillow and blanket of a very pale lime
green, blood red blanket, toilet table orange , the basin blue and green window. This work is
clearly influenced by Japanese prints and also said so in his letters: The Japanese have lived in
very simple interiors.
What Van Gogh wanted to achieve while painting this picture is the emotion it
arouses in the viewer. The use of the color as a means of expression, but a symbolic color,
which will influence the Fauves and at the same time it will be an essential reference in expressionist art.The room is trapezoidal in shape with the back wall where the window stands
a door on the right (which is accessed by the staircase that rises to the top floor). The left
door gives access to the guest room. Is the room prepared for Gauguin. As accommodation
it is modest, with rustic furniture made of pine: a bed, a rack, two chairs, a wooden table in
the corner and some pictures on the walls. Van Gogh enhances color depth, replacing the
white color of the walls by a light blue, orange and yellow complementary predominant
object.

When you see IKEAs ad, you can recognize most of these things in
the image. Th e colors of the walls, the shape of the room... you can imagine
yourself in the picture, inside the room. More than that, you can feel at home
because of the disposition of things on the top of the table, the bed now made,
the irregular arragement of the furniture all those things, so common in every
house, are not usually represented in pictures. When you see the empty room,
as in the add, you imagine immediately the rest of the furniture, although they
are not exactly as in the original, but you know the disposition of which pieces
are in each part of the room. Images of the real room (pg. 4) confirm how did
it looks like and confirm each ones mental image of how it is.
The reiterative use of famous paintings occurred since those objects
became important for society. Who would not like to have his own Van Gogh
painting in his house? Th e reality was that any of those artist were criticized
during their entire life and now are the best clear way of look like an important
person.
Van Goghs lifetime was hard.

He was born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands in 1853 and he was the eldest of six
children of a Protestant pastor. His relationship with his brother, Theo, would be
decisive in his life and carrer. Th e correspondence they exchanged over a lifetime
is a testament to the strength of their relationship.

Van Gogh moved to London in 1873 highlighting the beginning of

the fi rst creative stage. After a love rejection, he became lonely, until in 1878
he was driven by the need to surrender to their peers.

By 1880 he found in painting his passion, considering it as a way to

comfort the entire humanity. His rapid evolution and knowledge of the Impressionists led him to leave formal education and to meet with Theo in Paris
in 1876. His brother introduced him to Pissarro, Seurat and Gauguin. His
palette became colorful, less traditional, shaping his personal vision of postimpressionism. His interest in capturing color and nature led him to move to
Arles, where his work was progressively more clearly expressing his feelings
about what is represented and his own mental state.
The fi rst mental crisis he had, in which he cut off part of his left ear,
took place at Christmas in 1888. In April the following year, fearing to lose
his ability to work, asked to be admitted to the psychiatric hospital in SaintRemy-de-Provence where he remained twelve months. After suffering several
attacks and the impossibility to go outside to paint, made works related to
the hospital, medical portraits and reinterpretations of works by Rembrandt,
Delacroix and Millet.
The loss of contact with reality and a progressive sense of sadness are
the keys to this period that Van Gogh developed a style based on dynamic
forms and strong use of line, which was a most daring and visionary painting
that the one of Arles.
Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature

which one should listen to.... Th e feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures.

How important are brands when buying? What is the difference

from one ad to another one? The only difference is how people look at them.
Now, brand it means power, it means money, it means social status, means
everything. People dont pay attention just to the object but also to the references they have from advertisements, from other people.
The most powerfull opportunity for selling is advertisement. You
see adds everywhere, you hear things about them, and this creates a need in
you: the need of having one of those advertised things you see and you heard
about.
IKEA knows how to use this tool. Th ey dont sell just the producds
because, in fact, there is any object in this empty room, but sell you the idea
of need, the feeling that you will be so important as a Van Gogh picture just
buying the correct furniture to decorate your bedroom.
This is a very powerful tool because it is focused to the kind of people
they want to but in their shops: people with culture, the kind of people that,
looking at the ad can recognize Van Goghs room, the kind of people that, in
fact, can figure out how is the rest of the room: where is the bed, where is the
table, how many chairs are in the room.

In the end, what people buy is this idea of IKEAs high-standing

people, the ones that already knows everything about Van Gogh, the ones that
try to be a new Van Goghs by buying standard furniture but placing them in
the best way they know how, in the way everyone has to put them. In the end,
people want to be this new personality that will be known in the future, the
one who everyone copies, the one everyone will want to be.
A name could be the only source need for

implant into people this feeling of need.
To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have

ones fling from time to time, smoke ones pipe, and drink
ones coffee in peace.
Van Goghs quote about life

BEHIND THE IMAGE

Florences Duomo
The Cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore

From the analysis of the complexity of the different views of Fiorences

Cathedral, one of the most important symbols of Florence we can extract some
ideas:
The current faade of the cathedral is the second faade of the building. Th e fi rst one, designed by Arnolfo di Cambrio was just half-completed
and then demolished in 1587 by the Medicis architect, Bernardo Buontalenti,
because it did not harmonized with the rest of Renaissance buildings in its
surroundings. Th ere was a competition for the new faade, won by Emilo de
Fabris. This work toke place in 1876 until 1887 with the construction of a neogothic cathedral in white, pink and green marble conforming an unity with
the whole Cathedral, the Campanile and the Baptistery.
Distribution of spaces in the faade

Faade
Th
e construction of the three doors wasnt finished until 1903. Th ey
are decorated with scenes from the Virgins life. Th ere are some mosaics in
the windows over the doors. On the top of the faade, there are some niches,
each one devoted to one Apostol; in the center there is another one, a little bit
bigger with a Virgin and the Child. The decoration of the front faade is used
to understand the whole building: the main spaces are dedicated to the Virgin
because the whole building was constructed in her honor.
The composition of the faade is distributed in order to recognize all
the characters in the front part of the building according also to the importance of each one of them. Th at happens because during the Reanissance Christianism is trying to be merged with the classical ideas to avoid some of the
censorship of the church.
Detail of the faade

The structure is very simple: a main strip in the middle with two small
ones by its sides. Th e main one is crowned with a pediment. Pediments were
used during the Renaissance, but they came from Greek times, where pediments were commonly used in the construction of temples, reinforcing in this
way the temple as a symbol of power. Usually, the triangle that forms the pediment has a proportions also relaed to the golden ratio, which contributes to
reinforce the idea of power just by the beauty that it emanates. Th e different
offsets of those triangles were used to reinforce the idea of the power of the
building.
Dome
Lantern
The most important part of the Cathedral, even more than the faade,
is the dome, which represents the starting point of Renaissance architecture.
The project develped by Filippo Brunelleschi in 1418 gives the Cathedral with
an interior height of 100m which provides the city its main richness and power
symbol during its history.

Brunelleschis design was choosen in a

competition because his idea was conceived to be
made without formwork, which could be considered reckless because of the nonexistence of a single
building made without formwork since roman times. For being choosen he had to build a model on
brick to demonstrate his theory and method.
Interior view of the dome
Brunelleschi inspiration for the dome was the two-layer dome in the
Pantheon, in Rome. Instead of a regular circle for the base, he chose an octogonal disposition. The dome was made of bricks (in the same was a the previous
model he did). Th is idea was based on the buildability of the dome, because in this way, with eight bases, the dome could be constructed without the
formwork, which will ellevate the budget of an already expense dome. Th e
construction process was developed while the construction itself because Brunelleschi had to configure new machines to elevate the pieces to their fi nal
position.
For the construction he designed stone or iron reinforcement in the
edges of each side of the octagon as well in some of the interior parts of the
double layer to provide more resistence to the whole construction but also to
improve the stability of the construction, which could have more problems
than a circular dome. The pointed dome was crowned by a lantern with a cross
on the top.
St. Peters Basilica Dome

Entering the square makes the whole performance begin. It is like

going back to another era. Th e three buildings that comprise the complex of
the square: the Cathedral, Campanile and Baptistery do transport you to another time. The entrance to the cathedral itself is amazing, the human greatness
of the cathedral and the elevation god gives it. The huge scale of the Cathedral
evoques the renaissance times, when architects looked for the beauty and the
magnificence of buildings and the intention of being dominated by the space.
In such big and tall buildings people tend to look to the upper part of the building, where imagery is placed: this is the way to connect with god.
Baptistry of St. John

Campanile
Cathedrals interior

Cidade da Cultura, 1999, Santiago de compostela

Peter Eisenmann

Peter Eisenman is an architect recognized for his use of three-dimensional tools to get ieeregular patterns. In this three dimensional field, Eisenman
is the master of blending and holding, as he always tries to reconnect with the
tectonics of his projects. Most of the times those holding processes provides
his projects with a sense of lightness that the construction by itself doesnt have
because of the different shapes that he get with hidden structures. He looks for
an architecture that creates different feelings for the users, not only good but
also exhausting them with those geometrical forms without orthogonal angles
or the absence of horizontal and vertical surfaces (just oblique ones)
Eisenmans work as designer is acompanied by his work as theorists,
a fi eld where he based his projects on in Business as topology in the intermediate spaces, the interior-exterior relationship. He is sometimes considered a
deconstructivist architect characterized by the fragmentation of the space and
the process of non-linear designs. His theoretical work was somehow related
with the metaphysics and the necessity of show through language of architecture a sense of this deconstructive philosophy.
Cidade da Cultura: exterior view

From 2003-2004, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in

Berlin, Peter Eisenman is getting away from his first deconstructive ideas and
getting closer to a more tectonic (more related with the ground) ones, where
his works are not just placed on top of the ground but they are being part of
the terrain and the landscape. Th is monument represents this idea of blend
with the landscape by creating an artificial one out of concrete blocks while
trying to produce an uncomfortable and confusing atmosphere that represents
a coordinate system, that has lost the connection with human reason.

Layer 1: Vieira: Santiago de Compostela peregrination symbol
Layer 2: Old Medieval Santiagoplan
Layer 3: Monte Gais topography trhee-dimensional grid

Eisenman tectonics
The Project of Cidade da Cultura was selected in a competition in

1999 to create a new cultural complex in Santiago de Compostela. The project
presented by Peter Eisenman reproduces three superimposition of information: the fi rst one is the actual plan of the center of Santiago de Compostela,
the second one is a Cartesian grid on top of the medieval streets and the third
and last one is a topography of the slope. Th rough this mapping operation
the project is solved as a mixture between the terrain and a new complex of
buildings but any of them by its own. The medieval distribution of the streets
is found again in the new terrain and in a new location, which provides it a
different perspective from the center streets.

The Cidade da Cultura buildings, connected by streets and squares,

create a place for reflexion, debate and discussion about the future of Galicia
and the decision to put the city into the global atmosphere. Th e spaces are
conceived as areas for preservation of patrimony and other activities such as research, study, music, dance and other arts. The Project divides the six buildings
in pairs: the Museum and Art Center, the Music and Theater building and the
service center, and the Library and Storage building. The physical connection
between those pairs also affects the experience of visiting them. The buildings
are organized around a plaza but the opposite side of all of them is blended
with the terrain reconstructing the Monte Gais that was taken away for the
new construction.
For me it is a way of working today: using history and

combining it with the present to shape the future
Eisenman coment about architecture

Eisenman used informatics tools to help him to create these new shapes: taking into account the physical aspects and cultural and archeological
factors playing with the topography and the holding shapes he was looping for.
His idea of being integrated in the landscape instead of creating a new object
on top of it is a very sensitive way of transforming the landscape he is creating
into an inhabitable object. He reinvented the positive-negative dialogue between building and void.

NATURE AND BEAUTY

THROUGH TIME
From the ancient construction of temples and huge monuments, such

as the Egyptian pyramids or the Mayan temples, humans have searched for
symmetry. Apart from the function that all those elements had in their times,
such as ritual, astronomical, or funereal in form of huge tombs, this perfect
proportion meant to be footprints of the architect from the past. Th is architecture is trying to remain over time and nature in order to be part of future
culture as it was in its time. Although the cultures and beliefs have changed
from this ancient period and the temples had change their appearance, Vituvius symmetry and proportion (eurythmy and symmetry) can be appreciated
in most of the constructions, older or newer to his essay, such as the Greek Parthenon or Roman Coliseums to the Romanic churches distribution plans and
gothic cathedrals designs. The different designs were clear and the proportions
were used in some similar ways in all the constructions in order to represent
the same conceptual aspects, independently of the size or the function of the
construction.
Parthenon
Vitruvian man to the Gothic Church plan
There are three main ideas behind these ideas. The first one is the idea
of equilibrium, the second one is about beauty and the change of its perception through time and the last one is about nature and how to approach it.
These aspects are related because of human thoughts, which are trying to
merge natural approaches with symmetry.

THE IDEA OF EQUILIBRIUM

As Vitruvius said, in a composition, equilibrium could be achieved
by the use of lines and forms in the correct way, having all the forces distributed in the correct way to maintain this ideal equilibrium. Later studies on
Vitruvius theory about design and composition(1), exaplained that there are
two kinds of equilibrium: symmetric and asymmetric.
Symmetric and asymmetric equilibrium
Symmetric equilibrium is achieved when dividing a piece in two equal

parts; there is weight equity in both sides. There arent any elements disturbing
the composition. Symmetric equilibrium is hard to be found in nature (in big
scale, because all kinds of crystallization are achieved by perfect symmetry)
and it transmits a sense of order and proportion.
In the other hand, asymmetric equilibrium is achieved when dividing
a piece in to unequal parts, there is no dimension, color or weight equity but it
exists in equilibrium between both elements. Th e effect achieved depends on
the relationship between the relationships between the two sides. It transmits
nervous tension, dynamism, and vitality. In this kind of equilibrium a big mass
is close to the center and equilibrated with a small mass far from it, as it could
happen in the growth of trees.
The main point is that symmetry is everywhere and nowhere at the
same time. Perfect symmetry is hard to find in pure shapes because this order
achieved with the symmetry is fighting with the natural chaos.
(1) http://www.mailxmail.com/curso-diseno-composicion-tipografia/tipos-equilibrio

The Sistine Chapel provides an example: the regularity and perfect

shapes of the building are contraposed with Michelangelos pictoric asymmetrical composition (where is included another attempt of symmetry with
Adans hand almost symmetric to Gods hand, as image and similarity of his
creator.
Sistine Chapel ceiling
Adan and Gods hands
Eurythmy is beauty and fitness in the adjustments of the members. This is found
when members of a work are of a height suited to their breadth, of a breath suited
to their length [] Symmetry is a proper agreement between the members of the
work itself, and relation between the different parts and the whole general scheme.
[].
Vitruvius, on architecture, book 1, c.25 BC
Vitruvius found beauty in pure forms, in formal symmetry, but formal symmetry (that he found, for example, in the human body) in the end is
not the equilibrium, but the asymmetric one, because the human body, in its
interior is not symmetric: the heart is on one side of the chest, two lobes, the
pulmonary lobes, stomach, appendix and the absolute asymmetry between
the front and back sides of the body are not other thing that proves that we are
asymmetrical.

With this simple example, I am arguing that, although we can fi nd

natural symmetries, most of them are not so symmetrical as we thought and
that we can extrapolate some concepts to achieve this perfection or beauty but
this can be applied in some determined shapes (as platonic solids, perhaps).
Occasionally, we find in nature perfect crystalline mineral formations. Quartz
or pyrite, most of the time growing in small grains, with the same form as large
but invaluable to the naked eye. Even small ice crystals that form a snowflake,
however, are as beautiful as a diamond. Examined microscopically each of these crystals is different from the rest and yet the hexagonal symmetry is apparently common to all.
Ice crystaline structure
THE IDEA OF BEAUTY

From the ancient Egyptian times, beauty was related to proportions
and to mathematics. Th e fi rst mention they made about beauty was in the
instructions for wall decorations when explaining about the Edphu temple.
The Egyptians were the first civilization that created a canon for ideal beauty,
before all the Greek studies about this matter. Th ey elaborated some general
concepts for this beauty: the human body had to be divided in 18 (for woman)
or19 (for men) fists. This division could also be done by cubits, which was, in
fact, the fi rst division they did. Th e regular cubit was of 45 cm, which allows
dividing the human body in three different parts. These measures were considered a canon of proportions, not a canon of measures; this means that, for
being beauty, a human being h has to have those proportions independently of
his height.

Egyptian proportions
Egyptian ideas of beauty in construction were also related to proportions. Nowadays, there are two theories about the construction of the Great
Pyramid in Egypt: the first one talks about the number (half of the perimeter
divided by the height is similar to ); the other one talks about the golden ratio
() involved in the 3:4:5 triangle. Th is second theory is more related with all
the information we have about Ancient Egypt because this 3:4:5 triangles were
conceived as the Egyptian triangle (the Sacred Egyptian Triangle), which was
used in more than one opportunity in their constructions.
proportions in the Great Pyramid
Although there is some information about star systems in Babilonia

and Asiria ages, there are no formal studies about the golden ratio until 300
B.C., when Euclides wrote about it in his essay Th e Elements. In 1509, Luca
Pacioli wrote De Divina Proportione, where he fi xed the proportions for the
ideal beauty, inspired by Vituvius essays. Following from Vitruvius De Architectura, Leonardo da Vinci drew the Vitruvian Man, a drawing which is also

called The Canon of Proportions. The drawing has two texts explaining all the
proportions: in the upper text are the measures of a man (a man is 24 palms, a
pace is four cubits, a cubit is six palms a foot is four palms, a palm is four fingers
and four cubits makes a man). The lower text refers to other proportions that
can be achieved in the human body. Leonardo did the illustrator work for Pacioli book but his work, convined with other drawings he did (as the Vituvian
Man) were used as a tool for future generations when talking about beauty and
proportions.
Luca Pacioli study
Vitruvian Man drawn by Leonardo

The ideal human proportions were described before Vitruvius De

Architectura, during the Greek times, and developed as an artistic canon for
representing the ideal man. Th ose proportions were: total height equal to an
armful, an armful is eight palms, equal to six foots, equal to eight faces equal
to 1,618 by the distance from the ground to the navel. Th is number, 1,618 is
an approximation of the number, the golden ratio. They also use the golden
ratio in construction. The best example is the Parthenon, a temple in which its
exterior dimensions form a perfect golden rectangle.
Parthenon as a golden rectangle
The search for the golden ratio in relation with architecture has been a
study icon through time. From Vitruvius book and Paciolis reflections about
geometry to Alberti, Palladio and other renaissance architects, all of them had
being looking for the perfect proportions in their buildings, although some of
them found it unconsciously. Th e main faade of Salamancas University, the
oldest university in Spain, maintains the golden proportions. Most contemporary architects continued with this searching, some of them as well knowns as
Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed in his Guggenheim Museum in New York
a golden spiral in both interior and exterior of the building. Other examples
are the Zvi Hecker schools, which their plan is inspired in the sunflower petals
collocation, that means, in the disposition.

Guggenheim Museum, NY
Heinz-Galinski school by Zvi Hecker
Last important achievements in searching for the perfect proportions

came from the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, who criticized the Metric System
for being unrelated to the human scale. He created his own scale based in the
golden ratio based on Vitruvius ideas, the Modulor. He toke the proportions
from the plexus to pave up to the head and the arm: the golden ratio.
Le Corbusier designed the Mundaneum, a project of the International

Museum, in Geneva. He described the Mundaneum as a rectangular city where the ratio between the length and the depth is the number. The rhythm of
buildings also follows this ratio, creating the harmony that most of buildings
have unconsciously.

The Mundaneum
World War II stopped the construction of this singular place, a time

that Le Corbusier occupied himself with theories and researching. He published Le Modulor in 1948, followed by Modulor2 in 1955. Modulor 2 is describing Latin proportions 1.72 (a little bit smaller that Saxon culture, 1.82m).
Le Corbusier also designed Ville Savoye and the Unit dHabitacion with the
number: in the exterior and also in the interior according with the modulor
proportions. He also designed another museum, the Unlimited Growth Museum, which, based on the problems of the Mundaneum pyramid, which has
to stop its growth when arriving to the street level, in order to improve it by
creating a new space in a snail shape that allows all the growth needed.
The Mundaneum
THE IDEA OF NATURE

For Vituvius, as I have mentioned earlier, the idea of beauty comes
from symmetry, which comes from the proportions. As opposed to this ideal
statement of beauty as senti
mentality, Wright looked for this beauty from a more informal idea, from the
neutral, as a sentiment. He is trying to talk about the messiness of nature and
life, how we have to be honest with the raw materials because they have to be
the way they are and we do not have to change it, from him and following this
idea, Reansissance (which is meant to be a very pure period) is not honest.
His idea of organicism as something following natural laws is something much
more pure than any preconceptualised form. Things had to follow natural laws
in order to be natural, but not just because of this symmetry of Vitruvius. He
also argued againt the use of ornament because for him decoration has to be
part of a piece itself, not for covering the piece with some ornamentation.
The Water Cube structure and skin
The Water Cube Project (2003-2007, CSCEC, PTW Architects and

ARUP Associates), for Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 is an example of how
to play with nature. It is, somehow, an expression of the ideal of nature because
of the perfect box constraining the messiness of the water bubbles. Th e building is thought to show its function (and this is one of the most important
thesies of Sullivan). It is a swimming pool full of water, so, what has to be the
exterior envelope of the building to show what is inside it? The concept was to
reflect

what was going on in the interior of the building, water. For the concept they
used a structure based on the bubbles created by the water mixed with soap.
They used EFTE as the soft amorphous exterior of the soap bubbles and the
whole building seems to be made of this. Th e achieved feeling is that a glass
box fi lled up with water. It is a frozen stage of bubbles f water constrained by
this cube. The final result is influenced by many factors.
Detail of the faade: EFTE bubbles
As opposed to this, Taichung Convention Center, in Taiwan, (concept design by MAD Architects) is the expression of the informed nature. It
is an expression of how nature grows shaped as buildings. It is conceived as a
continuous weave of architecture and landscape that blurs the boundary between architecture, public space and city landscape ( Jordan Kanter, part of the
design group). It is thought to be a living art, a place where you can experience
this idea of nature (although it was created artificially), it is nature contaminated by life. Th e complex exists in a mixture of wind, light, air, nature and
human beings. It is sustainability in the sense of sustenance, in the nourishing
potential of architecture to connect people to nature and to each other.

Taichung Convention Center natural shapes
Plan view of the natural spaces

WHERE IS ARTIFICIALITY?
The term aura for Walter Benjamin is defined as the an aesthetic phenomenon thar occurs when a person is in contact with an original work of
art. In his essay Th e Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
he explains how the aura of a piece of art is eliminated by its reproduction.
Following Benjamin instructions about architecture and his thesis about how
iron constructions were the first one using an artificial construction material,
the chosen building for the analysis is the Birds Nest Stadium, by Herzog and
de Meuron.
Birds Nest Stadium, Beijing, China
The Birds Nest Stadium could be studied in the same way as if it were
a copy of a piece of natural art (considering birds nests as small pieces of art).
Using his theories, the building is a manipulated copy of the real work of art, a
copy that people can experience and feel free to have a close relationship with.
Somehow, this copy is changing the act of contemplating to experiencing.

The reproduction of copies eliminates the far location of objects that you experiment when you just admire a bird getting into his nest (in the same way
as when you look to the mountains in the horizon) and brings them closer to
people, spatially and humanly.
Buildings, as explained by Benjamin, are received in distraction, as
opposed to art, which is trying to get people concentrated. But nowadays, art
and architecture are not as differentiated as they were when Benjamin wrote
his essay. In that time, art (painting and sculpture) were autonomous from
the architecture, they are objects located in different places and are created as
something that you have to pay attention in order to understand it. On the
other hand, architecture is appropriated by the use that people give them or
by perception (understood as sight and touch) and that just mean reception of
information, not the process behind it.
The Birds Nest Stadium was conceived to look like a nest. Th rough
the irregular composition of the net structure was developed a complex structure made out of steel which recreates in an organized shape, the same idea of
the birds nest: being used by more than one entity and provide protection to
the interior activities, following, in that way one of Benjamins ideas about architecture where he explained that architecture was conceived as a prototype
of art, absent-mindedly used by a group.
Nest shape of the building

The design and the chosen shape enhance the main principles of the
nature of birds nests. Those are being constructions to refuge to hold animals
(the Stadium is thought to provide refuge people during matches). The whole
design tries to reinforce the idea of nest by the exterior skin and the chosen
material: the disposal of steel beams recreates the original structure of a nest.
This use of steel continuous also with Benjamins fi rst ideas about fi rst iron
construction in architecture, in a more advanced way thanks to the technological development, but in the same line of work.
Primitive hut, Viollet-le-Duc
Shelter-nest
Birds Nest
Top view of the stadium
The building also uses some sources from the past times, when people
used to gather around trees, and branches where the main material in construction, creating huts, which are human abstractions of the animal nests: just

a gathering of branches and leaves to provide refuge. Somehow, all constructions are recreating this idea of the primitive shelter, a simple construction to
be protected against the exterior.
Light bulbs in the pathway to the stadium
But, in the same way that a birds nest fallen in the ground is not its natural location, the construction of such a big structure with a natural composition out from what it is natural is creating a disconnection between what the
building represents and the represented object. This link, which was supposed
to be natural, is interrupted by copying it in a different way than the natural
entity. The use of small light bulbs covered by the same steel structure all along
the path is reinforcing this whole idea of broken links between coping nature
and the real natural object in order to reinforce the continuity of the shape and
the abstraction of what it means.

Ana Gonzlez Granja
Chapter 1:
59,99 to Buy the Myth of the Modern Movement
Chapter 2:
The Wavelike Surface
Chapter 3:
Natural, So What? The Tension Between Ideal and Informed
Chapter 4:
Does the Artificial Exist?
5999
To buy the Myth of
Modern Movement
Lego Production
Ana Gonzlez Granja
CONSTRUCTION TOYS are no longer just for childs play, according to

Fermn Gonzlez Blanco, the design of construction toys, like Lego or
Mecano, is a process that goes architecture and gets pedagogy, sociology
and marketing. What he says is reflected today in toy industries as Lego
which wants to explore the greatest iconic buildings in the world through
their Lego brick, as an innovative project to inculcate the culture of architecture in minds of all ages, a simple and effective way of learning. Just
paying a small amount of money you are able to build mini-master-pieces
to spread as monuments all over your flat, but why they have chosen
buildings such as The Empire State Building, Fallingwater, or Farnsworth
House? Most of them are designed by famous architects, others have been
designed to be icons in cities, icons of power, icons of politics and economy
(transformed today in products of media, using them to sell an image and
make a statment). But, what is the meaning contained in those small black
boxes of Lego Architecture? Whats the meaning of having a 6,6 cm
Farnsworth House materialized on your shelf?
The cyclical process of construction and destruction that is allowed by
construction toys is destroyed in the new line of products Lego architecture has commercialized. The disadvantage is that childrens creativity is
reduced, as it is not as developed as it was when having a box with
thousands of pieces that gives them the chance to imagine and build
different forms. The advantage is that here they get the experience of one
final answer, one shape that has a real history behind it, a cultural
background. The first time a kid opens this convectional box of LEGO,
hundreds of pieces appear in front of him, simple and small rectangles,
colourful, made out of plastic and light materials easy to handle and move,
but this new box also gives children instructions to help them in a
straightforward construction. In the moment these 546 pieces are all
perfectly placed one on top of another, in that moment, the new object
materialized is the culmination of the International Style. That object is a
replica of the last house by Mies van der Rohe, the Farnsworth House
(1951), it is no longer a group of simple toys, it now is something consistent
that describes a specific and critical moment in the history of architecture,
focused on the Modern Movement and un Mies van der Rohes life.
59.99 To buy the Myth of Modern Movement | Chapter 1
Architecture starts
when you carefully
put bricks together
Ludwing Mies van
der Rohe.
What is myth, today?[]

myth is a type of speech
Roland Barthes, Mythologies: Myth today
As Roland Barthes establishes, any image or context can be deciphered in

a way to reveal the myth that it contains. The speech that contains this
example here is a particular house and its background. It is an iconic
building of the 20th century that has been transformed into an object of
media. As the Eiffel Tower is a symbol in Paris, today the Farnsworth
house is a symbol for all architects, is symbol of Modernity. This building
is perhaps the most iconic of Miess career, it is friendly., simple, it is a white
and crystal rectangle, a primary shape, symbol of well done architecture, is
taking the maxim less is more. It is like a Lego piece, one simple rigid
rectangle, but why? Simple as the shape itself, Mies gave this answer For
most things we do need space. [] a rectangle space is a good space, maybe
much better than a fluid space.(Conversations with Mies van der Rohe,
2006:39).
Ana Gonzlez Granja
But what we see today as one of the major symbols of the International
Style, that purity and dreamed house was harshly criticized in America
during the 50s. It was believed that the house was an insult to American
country houses, and articles were published in American architectural
magazines which began toaccuse Mies of threatening the traditional American style, and why the Modern Movement was being so spread in
housing. House Beautiful defined the Farnsworth house as the example of
bad modern architecture, and while Mies was almost compared with a
dictator the International Style was understood as kind of a dictatorship,
defined with common features and shared by different architects. Orthogonal pure shapes, smooth surfaces, no ornament, materials as concrete
and steel structures, characteristics that they thought they were used to
guide people on how they should live their home space, but Modern
architecture has never been as much liked as its creators pretended it was.
How the Americans could understand the Farnsworth House as an attack, as an

alien?
I
(I love Modern Movement)
(I love Paris)
I believe that the Farnsworth house

has never been completely understood
Mies van der Rohe.
The problem came with the expansion of the Modern Movement, instead
of looking at it as an evolution, as the new shelter of a created utopian
society, Americans saw it as the destruction and violation of the rules of
traditional houses. But, music is not mere soothing background noise,
painting is not mere wall decoration, and architecture is not mere shelter.
The result of the Farnsworth House was not just a pure work of art set in
the middle of a landscape. There is a tension coming from the balance
between the practical points, aesthetic concerns, political and social issues
that Mies had to handle. It took six years of design and construction and
$74.000, but today you can spend just one afternoon and have an accurate
replica of the myth of the Farnsworth House for just 59.90.
Ana Gonzlez Granja
In 1951 the total amount of money Dr. Edith had to pay raised to US
74,000, from an initial budget of US 58,400. The LEGO imitation of the
Farnsworth House for most of the people is just something to let the
others see, a new sculpture-figure for the shelf, something to have fun
with while you construct once and then to be proud of shown. But what
this replica is hiding is the controversial and difficult process of elaboration, the design thinking process, the construction evolution the change of
budget and techniques. What the house today communicates is the critical
perception that society and Mies had of the original client, Edith
Farnsworth. Those LEGO constructions are an absurd toy (if they can be
defined as toy), in one way, they dont let the use of peoples creativity, as
there is just one final result there is not flexibility in the process of
construction and destruction, and in the other hand after spending a
couple of hours building it you see the house, true, but is it really explaining
and letting people know about the story of how the house was conceived?
About what happened between the client and the architect? About why is
the house a glass box instead of a simple concrete box?
Edith Farnsworth
Mies van der Rohe
It is worthwhile to stop and think why there is no reference of the name of

such an architect as Mies, on the box that contains the myth of the Modern
Movement, the LEGO Architecture box. Mies somehow always wanted to
get rid of his name that reminded him of his family craftsmans roots, in
1922 he was able to finally change it to Mies van der Rohe. But the negative
connotation from the German word Mies, meaning something rotten or
spoiled, was not going to make things easier, so for that reason he decided
to put on airs of aristocracy introducing the false graft van der. Despite
his attempts after finishing the Farnsworth house in 1951, some small
errors in the construction opened the mockery and the word game
between critics and his name. La casa mies-conception (error, idea falsa; a
popular misconception, error comn o generalizado) (Beatriz Preciado,
Mies-conception: La casa Farnsworth y el misterio del armario transparente), it was the
first appellant mock between Mies and mis-. Why is the name of the
LEGO model designer (Adam Reed Tucker) in the box and not Miess
one? Is this a contemporary mockery of Mies? Now they removed his
name completely from the iconic house, hiding his name to the spectator
of the model, as in the replica you just can read Farnsworth House.
Farnswo
Model de
Adam Re
Ana Gonzlez Granja
rth House
esigned by
eed Tucker
Edith the Farnsworth
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Mies and Edith Farnsworth had a lot of problems regarding the budget, he
denounced her claiming for the total sum of money, and she sued him and
accused him of fraud. But parallel to money conflicts, others arose when
Edith became lovesick and spiteful after their love affair. They had a
hidden-public relationship, the same relationship Mies created in the
house, the same atmosphere of a hidden-public relationship of her with
society. Because during the 50s was very much described by American
critics with malice. Although she was very independent and successful in
her professional life, she was a self-conscious woman because of her height
and ugliness, and her commitment to feminist groups. This was reason
enough for her to be "accused" in some writings of homosexuality, because
she liked the company of other women. Here is where LEGO is hiding the
truth of the house, a hidden relationship that was public at that moment,
the direct translation of a woman becoming the skin and bones of her
house, her temple. A reflection that Mies made about Edith materialized in
a glass box, and today in a LEGO piece. But the today object of media, the
6.6 cm Farnsworth house the story and judgments about Edith. Beatriz
Preciado explains in her writing Mies-conception: La casa Farnsworth y el misterio
del armario transparente, that the house was perceived as a way of coming out
of the closet, as it was a transparent and glass rectangle, every movement
she made would came to light and undressed her in the malicious and critic
as society of the 50s.
The problem is that LEGO just displays an object, but it doesnt make
proof of the mystery the first client had, the one that defined the concept
of the house.
Set in the middle of this landscape in Plano (Illinois, Chicago) surrounded
by nature and aligned with the Fox River, the meaning of this monument
is a reciprocal conversation between house and landscape. Barthes explains
that the Eiffel Tower is playing two functions seeing and being seen,
Citizens see the tower from every point of the city and it is only from the
Tower that you stop seeing it. This conversation is public and universal in
the city of Paris. In our example Edith Farnsworth (the first owner) is the
reincarnation of the house, the object house is her reflection, is the
perception Mies had of her, Edith as a human body is translated into a

livable space, into an architectural construction that has a soul itself, the
house is structured as a human body. Mies is trying to reach to the point of
being in harmony between nature, living space and the human. A naked
landscape is seeing and is seen by a naked Edith, there is a reciprocal total
appreciation of the pure beauties. Since the house is made out of huge
pieces of glass, light and landscape come through it into the interior area,
violating in a way the inside space, and breaking with the idea and association of inside meaning private. The limit between private and public is an
optical effect, it is a game of hidden and shown elements, through an
association of operations, there is a reading of the transparency as a phenomena of living, a way of eliminating the boundaries between closed and
opened, between freedom and prison.
The house is an explanation of coming out of the convectional understanding of housing, breaking apart that idea of privacy by an inevitable dialogue inside-outside, there are no limits between them, it is a fluid conversation. The same idea is seen in Philip Johnsons house (in New Canaan,
Connecticut). The house was designed as a viewing platform, and again
there is a conversation with nature and landscape. Directly connected with
the ground but hidden from the bystanders gaze. Even if both houses
were placed in the middle of a natural landscape the colors used were
totally opposite, while Johnson used a dark hue, and the exterior appearance was black. Mies, on the contrary, decided to paint everything in white
because of the surrounding area was green and open, so no color was
deserved for the house. I myself Mies recalled, have been in this house
from morning to nightfall. Until then, I had never realized how colourful
nature could be. Inside, neutral colours have to be carefully used since all
colours exist outside. These colours change continuously and completely,
and Id like to say that it is simply glorious.
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Farnsworth House, Mies van der Rohe
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Glass House, Philip Johnson
The Modern Movement served the needs for our senses, for our conception of evolution. It was architecture that was not seen as good one, where
the Farnsworth House was considered as an aberration for American
traditional houses, the point is that the International Style has no boundaries in terms of cultures (seeing the example of the glass box of Philip Johnson compared to the Farnsworth, following the same principles), and it is
architecture that has succeeded and survived to critics because the
architectures basics are well handled. In 1949 Johnson built his shelter,
taking Miess concept of the Glass House, following the maxim less is
more of their shared minimalism, Johnson made this house as a tribute to
his mentor, Mies. It is also seen as one of the landmarks houses of the
International Style, a symbol that was as much criticized as the Farnsworth
house at that moment. David Whitney (an American art curator, collector,
gallerist and critic) said once, I became close to these people who are now
all gods. But they werent then. Architects and architecture at that
moment because of society, belonged more to the field of questioning, they
were assumed to give answer to societys reactions, than to solve and give
answer to architecture itself, they werent gods at that time because they
were innovative, bold and clever on their movements, challenging what
people considered good architecture (the traditional one), but they were
walking next by the slow process of evolution, being part of it.
The myth that both houses contain is extrapolated from the object as a
media element, they are myths about architectural icons of a movement as
key as the Modern Movement. Over the years the glass houses are no
longer functional, they are not using anymore the space for housing, they
are now monuments of universal education. As Mies said, a building
should live as long as it can live. There is no reason to make it
provisional.(Conversations with Mies van der Rohe, 2006:35), today the houses
serve both as museum, and the Farnsworth as a LEGO object of study.
Skin-and-Bones
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Mies van der Rohe defined his architecture as is skin-and-bones architecture, and Theo Van Doesburg called him anatomical architect. He totally
belongs to the Modern Movement, when he started the designing of the
Farnsworth House it was totally opposite of what was being built in America, because American architects were following the principles of vernacular and traditional architecture, and continuing to work on the ideas of
Frank Lloyd Wright, living a popular American culture. For this reason
Mies and his International Style were not welcome at all. This house is a
perfection and pure magnificence, with a perfect precision in detailing.
Image of Modernism because of its flat roof, composed by surrounding
horizontal windows giving the feeling of being just one, light and transparent materials instead of the heaviness and opacity of the traditionalist
architects.
A house that is floating in nature, not directly anchored to the ground,
hold by light pillars that seem to be camouflaged as trunks trees. Purity is
in terms of lacking ornamentation, that whiteness and thinness, something
that F.L.Wright always used to hate. Modernist because the furniture is
what gives the definition of a room, there are no walls, is a free plan that
allows different configurations of one space, where furniture is minimalist
and rare. The house is a singular monument, what sees being mythically
linked to what remains hidden (Barthess Eiffel Tower essay) that what is
supposed to happen in the LEGO Farnsworth element, revealing the
hidden meaning, the proper signifier and signified of what is behind the
model.
Clearing every form

to the point where it
has dismissed and left
only what is modern
Rudolf Schwarz
The Role of the Critic

An architecture that is
constantly aware of its
own history, but
constantly critical of the
seductions of history, is
what we should aim for
today
Alan Colquhoun
Three Kinds of Historicism:209
Ana Gonzlez Granja
To explain a myth we do look past, we have to analyze and object we

already know with the new meaning and values that has been given to
it. To be able to understand what the myth behind the Lego Farnsworth House is we should have a previous knowledge about Mies and the
house. To describe and decipher new values in this object, we have to
look back in a deep search of historical references that might give you
the clue of what you are seeing. As thousands of critics exist,
thousands ways of understanding history derives from this. As Mies
once obseved, Architecture must not be subjective. It must be objective- thats what it is. The role of the critic is subjective and relative as
it is just one persons opinion, but it is an informed opinion, is shaping
another way of understanding architecture with the same complexity
of having lots of attitudes you can follow and be positioned towards
history.
There is not an Absolute Truth. We write to questioning about history

and thus acquire more knowledge about something we already know,
we use our knowledge to criticize and continue the evolution of
history. The human being is free of thought and live experiences, but
every human is highly conditioned by a society that determines his
behaviour, a culture, politics, religion factors that are reflected in his
idea of truth and history. The Farnsworth House has been determined
over the history of architecture, told from different perspectives, and
now as a construction toy that develops the idea of the myth of the
modern movement, one of the most famous icons of Modern architecture is becoming object of media.
The Wavelike Surface

Language
Baroque & Borromini

In order to understand Borrominis work we should first introduce
the Baroque in order to understand Sant Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
The etymology of the word Baroque comes from the Portuguese
Baroque, perola barroca, meaning rough or imperfect pearl. It
suggests the idea of irregularity and anomaly, which is later used in
some works of art and architecture. The etymological origins of the
word Baroque points to irregularities, pathologies, anomalies,
strangeness, imperfect shapes. Baroque was understood and explained as an adjective in the 19th C, and it was in that century when it
started to be identified as the historical period we know today. But
before that, it began to be framed during the 17th and 18th C entry in
Western Europe. Baroque is a term identified with shapes of architecture that did not follow the rules of the perfect classical period. It is
used to describe forms as somehow exaggerated, producing drama,
and it was applied in architecture with a pejorative meaning, as in that
moment art and architecture were focused and trying to return to the
rules of Classicism. Baroque is identified with works that pushed the
classical to its limits; it was free and picturesque, evolved from the
rigorous art of the Renaissance.
Francesco Borromini was in a period considered as the degeneration
of the principles of the Renaissance, Baroque was rejected, and
defined as degenerative. In this period, the things that were shown
were more important than the identification of the elements, the
main point was the expression of the shapes. He used the same architectural language in most of his works, his buildings follow the same
features, playing with the colossal order, considering big masses
Ana Gonzlez Granja
and dimensions to magnify architecture; the use of the called chiaroscuro, shaping with light and shadow to reinforce the idea of
spatial dynamism and movement in contrast with Renaissance principles.
Sant Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (in Rome, 1662-1667) expanded on

the idea of the movement of the wall, its undulating shape creating a
dramatic architecture. Simple and economic materials gave shape to
more architectural criteria than Borromini created, as the geometrical
modulate scheme, going further from the arithmetical order of the
Classicism; or the incorporation of the sculpture. The last feature
described is shown in the main faade, the figure of San Carlo Borromeo stands on the central position of the church, above the central
porch in the main door, to both sides of the sculpture two angels are
protecting him, as discussed in class that Language is superimposed on
Structure, applied here because is the inside space that forces
the exterior wall, the front elevation, to flex and bend. Borromini streamlines the language of
Baroque. His work is a total
detonation of Reinassance and
the Classical order, but he is not
dismissing it. Borromini was
focused on the sculptural aspect
and that is why that issue was
more obvious on the main
faade, but experimenting and
showing the structural elements.
His concept, articulated membrane, defined where all the
structural elements meet and act
with complexity.
The Wavelike Surface | Chapter 2
Sant Carlo alle Quattro F

concave -concave -concave
concave -convex- concave
concave -convex -concave
symmetry. pushing up the oval image which

breaks the culminaion of the building
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Fontane
Baroque can be explained as a search for the great style, represented
directly to impress, searching for the pathos and extravagant shapes
to show. As Christian Norberg- Schulz defined Baroque, in Sant
Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, here the author is creating a unity, he is
communicating an entity by a whole, a unified space that can not be
decomposed into its elements itself, it is one body, understood by its
viewers as one building block, one object, one powerful entity
unbroken. The church asks for attention; two narrow streets of Rome
allow a small space in between buildings to hold this masterpiece of
the Baroque. The faade, which is what you first see, is deceived by its
wavelike surface to create a sense of massiveness and amplitude,
creating a flow of concave-convex-concave curves that produces a
new conception of a great space that does not exist.
Borromini is breaking the symmetry of the streets, because of adaptation issues he has to play with an architecture capable compensating
that for lack of space and visibility, to make powerful a fault and to
transform it into the main reason for its existence, to change the look
of a place.
Sant Carlinos facade is fragmented, monumental and discontinuous,
because of the shape it seems that is going to break and fall. It is
divided in three parts, where all the elements are playing to push up to
the top cornice the oval image that breaks the composition concaveconvex- concave in the upper level, that is created by the game
between the main and secondary columns (which are place offset into
the rectangle niche) empowered with the sculptures and images. Two
different compositions with similar readings are done in the building,
the faade and the interior space. The inside has movement and life
itself, Borronimi decomposed it altering all the relationships that may
exist between elements. Their layout is fragmented and isolated, but
symmetrical and somehow looking for a harmonic legibility that he is
able to achieve by a game of curvatures.
The composition of the elements is the ornamental expression obtained by the architect, Francesco Borromini succeeded in creating,
through purely architectonic means, and in the open air, something
which is equivalent to the mild chiaroscuro of his contemporary,
Rembrandt, at work on his own last painting at this same time
(Sigfried Giedion in Space, Time and Architecture, 2008: 111). There is a
communication through out the materiality and the way its astonishing form is shaped and changed through its own movement and by
the changing conversation light allows. The ornamentation is purely
the contrast and mixture of the architectural shapes. Borromini is not
taking advantage of the ornament and decoration inside and outside
the church, he is pure in his way of shaping architecture, and making
powerful statements by powerful strategies from the use of the materials. He is taking the most of the main material, the stone, giving a
new value to it, flexibility and elasticity by shaping an undulating wall,
while communicating the same atmosphere in a flexible ground plan,
which makes dynamic a space due to the out-curving edges on the
walls. The architectural language of Sant Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
is purely Baroque, the tension created by the light effect, that sense of
monumentality is never far from a system that is showing the
program and what parameters and characterises that program implies:
one unity with a great sense of mobility.
Ana Gonzlez Granja
analysis 1
columns relationship
analysis 2
pure geometries
Idea of Monument
NE D
E S IG M E
D
N
ECA
B EE
IVE HEN, I B
T
Sant Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

Borromini
ED
SIGN E
E
D
N
TO B
BEE
IVE
Cidade da Cultura
Eisenman
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Sant Carlo alle Quattro Fontane is playing the role of a monument,

but a natural one, it is the kind of monument that has gained meaning
and importance without having that aim, contrary to the classical
definition of monument which is the one that describes A Cidade da
Cultura by Peter Eisenman. This complex of buildings has been
designed with the aim of being a well-known monument all over the
world. It has been thought to commemorate the city of Santiago and
all Galician citizens; a group of buildings that wants to manifest the
power of a specific culture. But are the buildings really creating an
icon in a city that is already full of meanings and symbols? The two
buildings selected have in common that unique legibility that should
be known a priori visiting the building in order to understand the
unique experience the building is offering, the language of the
building. Because for Borromini and Eisenman, function follows
form. Borromini creates a language that goes even further than Baroque, taking its concepts to its limits to distort that reality that he is
undulating the walls with stone, superimposing columns and basic
geometrical shapes, creating a language for his architecture. Sant
Carlino is absorbing all the energy around the area to concentrate it
on its wavelike surface. Eisenman goes further from the Modern
Movement, he has the necessity of creating problems in his architecture, creating an unresolved architecture where people should be
involved in a process of adaptation with the space he designed, and
they should adapt oneself to the shapes of the building. Eisenman
belongs to a movement he defined as Post-Functionalism, an attitude
which derives from a non-humanistic approach toward the relationship between a physical environment and an individual. The architectural language derives from the opposition between function and
form. In his book, Reworking Eisenman he says, Post functionalism
does not mean that a building should not function; rather the form
should not necessarily represent that function.
Decorated shed/ Duck
Where systems of space and structure are directly at the services of

program, and ornament is applied independently of them. This is
what we call the decorated shed. (in Learning from Las Vegas: The
forgotten symbolism of Architectural Form,:87 by Robert Venturi, Denise
Scott Brown, Steven Izenour) As every cathedral or church Sant Carlo
alle Quattro Fontane can be understood and explained as a decorated
shed. Architecture is always full of meaning and symbolism, for
centuries, architecture has been used as a manipulation tool, and as a
way to enhance power in totalitarian regimes and as the element of
connection between people and God. That is why it is a decorated
shed, because what it could just be a shelter for people to pray, a white
pure box, it is a piece of art full of icons, symbols, sculptures, which
are creating a new monumentality to show and enhance the power of
that religious entity. In contrast, A Cidade da Cultura was a duck at
the beginning when developing the main concept: Where the architectural systems of space, structure, and program are submerged and
distorted by an overall symbolic form. This kind of buildingbecoming-sculpture we call the duck (Learning from Las Vegas: The
forgotten symbolism of Architectural Form,:87 by Robert Venturi, Denise
Scott Brown, Steven Izenour). With three operations, Eisenman was
able to spread all the energy an icon has all over a place, showing as a
final result an abstract duck that could be seen from an helicopter.
(1)The first movement was to cut and remove the top of the hillside
Monte Gaias, (2)the second step was to recreate that space that had
disappeared, reconstructing the materiality of the hill with a complex
of six buildings. (3)The third and final step was to recreate the shape
of a scallop shell (which is symbol and icon of the religious and catholic pilgrimage in Santiago city) on the top of the hill, so A Cidade da
Cultura would be transformed in a pure duck.
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Monte Gaias
2000
(1) Monte Gaias

2003
(2) Cidade da Cultura

2009
(3) Symbolism
2011
Santiago city plan

city centre plan- city of culture
Cidade da Cultura, plan

superimposition of layers
Ana Gonzlez Granja
In parallel with its condition as a duck, Eisenman adds the idea of

genetic codification to create a new social logic. Eiseman is creating
links between old and contemporary Santiago, by superimposing the
shape of Santiagos symbol, the scallop shell, directly on the top of
historical centre plan of the city. The orthogonal mesh becomes
distorted to produce what today is A Cidade da Cultura. Everything
here is confused as you cannot recognize directly the duck, although
it hides in the subconscious of the people who know about it. Eisenman creates an urbanism where buildings and topography are one.
Here he is defining an architectural language that emerges from the
combination of random objects, where tradition is mixed with topography and plus iconic references taken from a city full of culture and
history. It is a language of power that wants to take the path of tradition, is a complex of buildings that want to be a monument, but
everything is thought to be as much as it can be integrated with the
city.
The language of the new hill is purely monumental; it is a system
designed with no specific function, this why you need to learn how to
read the construction to be able to understand its geometry and the
irregularity of its shapes. The architectural language Eisenman uses in
his buildings is just indexical, traces of operations and working
method not only visible in the work, but the content of the work itself.
An operation as vocabulary, the discipline itself is the subject. Work is
autonomous, hermetic. To understand Eisenamn works you should
previously know his architectural language, which is constantly in
evolution. Eisenmans architecture develops a system of communication, his architecture is talking by itself, he believes architecture is a
tool of expression, to develop the imagination, where everything in
the designing, building, and experience process is a matter of experiment. Everything is related here with visual and sensorial language.
Role of LANGUAGE in
Architecture cannot exist without a meaning; it cannot be real
without significance. Architectural language is always present in the
process of design, construction or building. There is always the need
for a reason of being, architecture cannot just be a mere box in the
middle of nowhere, it has to be though and develop in a way that
shows the skills, interest or experience of the architect, because even
if it is a box in the middle of nowhere it has a meaning behind. Aarchitecture is conceived as a way of communication, layered in different
categories, modes, manifests... there is a language, a code of symbols,
icons, systems that define and put together a group of people in the
same work methodology, they create a unity of common features in
designing, a way of thinking, or mode of communication. History is
framed by facts, and that issues are the ones that define history, facts
happened because of external or internal changes, talking about any
kind of history; everything is linked and related with the previous
phase. The same happens the architectural language, apart from the
chronological groups that grow inevitable; links and connections can
be made taking common features that buildings may share even if
they havent grown in the same epoch. Some classifications are made
by the performance of a building ( made out of sensations, atmosphere); archaeological connections ( refers to content outside the work
itself); textual ( elements meant to be read according to a grammatical
system of laws and convections).
Ana Gonzlez Granja
n architecture
There is a direct relationship between architectural language and
meaning but it is abstract, not-temporal and subjective; the same
building can be understood and analyzed completely different from
two different points o view with totally different perceptions. It is not
temporal because depending on the classification you want to make
would not be able to start linking completely different buildings by
means of physical appearance, but maybe they share an architectural
language that is the soul of those projects, maybe the link is how they
are connected even if it seems to be impossible. Being less banal,
language has been the tool from the very beginning to explain architecture through the use of a proper architectural vocabulary, something that can be understood and applied to different fields. During
centuries architecture has been working together with different arts,
sharing values, concepts, and aims... Literary theorists used to interchange terms of significance, reinforcing the same qualities in different disciplines. Metaphors and rhetoric are also very much used in
architecture to enhance the beauties of a project, to magnify the
strengths. Language apart from drawing is what defines a good architecture, the meaning you are able to communicate, is the value of your
work, and language in architecture should be a tool to make it more
powerful. Dont try to be original, just try to be good- Paul Rand
NATURAL, so what?
the tension between ideal & informed
Natura and Architecture
Ana Gonzlez Granja
The etymology of the word Nature comes from the Latin natura which
means essential qualities or innate disposition. Nature is identified
with something innate, inborn, rather than acquired, something that
seems to be inevitable and permanent. It also can be defined as a biological
phenomena in accordance with the usual course of nature. It is used to
describe the physical world that might can be related with the human
nature. The words natural and organic have been always used in architecture, sometimes giving them the same meaning, or as explanation for
different concepts. These terms, depending on the context, can be applied
in many different arts.
The Roman architect Vituvius (1st century B.C.) was illustrated 1500 years
after by Leonardo da Vinci (15 C) with his drawing of the Vitruvian Man
to explain the natural order that the perfect human body contains. He was
using the word natural to describe why the human proportions are like
they are. He believed in an architecture that should be organized, natural,
and well-proportioned, concepts reflected in the human body drawn by da
Vinci. However, he believed in a proportioned body that does not exist, he
was using the body as his architectural myth, trying to project that naturalness, meaning perfection which does not belong to men, in architecture,
responding in the most primitive way to order. But there are many more
theories about what natural means in architecture. A natural shape
unconsciously is though as one entity, as a construction (like a cottage or a
cave) that had happened by it, that was not though and seems to be a priori
of a design. Although to achieve that formal informality that seems unexpected we find there is always a natural process behind, a change produced
from the very beginning in the creation process, there is movement created
by external or internal forces that is shaping that apparently purity, sometimes reflected in architecture.
But what does natural have to do with architecture? How is the natural
understood in the contemporary world? Does natural mean innocent, pure
and ideal? Or on the contrary, is it being informed, not pure, contaminated? What does it mean for architecture to be honest, is this concept
related with the question of the natural?
NATURAL, so what? | Chapter 3
from LOUIS H. SULLIVAN
ideal that is informed
to FRANK O. GEHRY
Ana Gonzlez Granja
form follows function

LUOIS H. SULLIVAN
DIFFERENT
UNDERSTANDING ?
function follows form

FRANK O. GEHRY
Louis Sullivan wrote in 1896 that where there is a confrontation, a problem

in resolving things in architecture, and that the best way to decide it is to
shape the solution in the simplest way possible, it is the natural law that
defines the best answer. Conditioned by logic, sensibility and culture that
is concerned with what a building demands. Frank Gehry , his learnt how
to be innocent over many years, sharing with Sullivan the concept behind
the sentence the hand of the architect, shaped by a non-trained architect,
that has learnt from his innocence, he follows a path to solve architecture
from the problem to solution, a strong and natural liking for buildings.
When a problem appears they consider their own understanding of
building natural, but both expressing them from the function they want to
achieve and show.
Although their architecture is completely opposite and has nothing to do
regarding appearance and construction their design process and goal is
quite similar. Both are looking for the ideal solution which will lead them
to what they consider truth and pure, getting to being informed without
even care about that. Both manipulate the object up to they obtain the
truth, that truth is intrinsic to the object itself. If Sullivan wanted a tall
office building that building should be tall, although the final result might
come from illogical steps, the point is just to look tall, so it is natural itself
because it is shaped the way it should be to remain high, he uses tricks in a
natural way to beguile the eye of the observer. Meanwhile Gehry focuses
his point of being ideal, on looking informal and great, which is not bad,
he is ideal in the sense he tries to be functionally direct and organic. He
cares about the final result, so his methodology is quite simple, going back
and forth between plans and models to experiment about shapes, surfaces,
textures and colours, he manipulates the objects to find its own natural
rules, is the project telling him the answers and solutions.
A 3 PART THEORY.
compared with a classical colum
3. capital
attic
2. shaft
monotonous
1. base
lower stories
Ana Gonzlez Granja
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (1197) has purity

because it is shaped by perceptions, sensitivity of sensuali-ty, musical shape, on expressing feeling and sentiments in
a three dimensional way. That perverse and monumental
scale is shaped naturally, because that wave like surface is
what he defines as natural, that shape is natural to the
place because is the one that fits on that space, as the
ships built in Bilbao, is like a bridge connecting areas.
That is so stupid that makes it look great Frank O.
Gehry in Sketches from Frank Gehry, directed by Sydney
Pollack.
Buildings are surfaces that seek for what Sullivan or
Gehry independently consider the true normal type. The
natural process has a beginning and an end is defined in
those theories Sullivan describes, in a tall office building
you can always find 3 parts, shaped following the classical
rules for a classical column, 3 parts as a logical statement
a beginning, middle and an end. That process lead us to
the idea of the living object, created by Gehry in the
Guggenheim, the way light heats the material, those
reflections, make a building a living thing. Those spaces
are constantly changing in a biological way as the day time
goes by, there is always a beginning, a middle and an end
in the building facade. A building has to be optimistic
and has to respond and change to be related with the
surroundings, this building is shaped in a way that today
seem to be something that has been there always, it has
gained the power of being symbol and image for Bilbao,
is something that has happened naturally.
Guggenheim Bilbao
MIDDLE
biological colour changing. BEGINNING - MIDDLE - ENDING
Guggenheim Bilbao
BEGINNING
Guggenheim Bilbao
ENDING
from FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
informed that is ideal

Frank Lloyd Wright in 1908 wrote about how architecture
should be, how nature comes to design and how organic architecture can define spaces. He said that architecture should have
a natural appearance, an architecture that should come out of
the landscape, as a natural feature, and if it doesnt come the
architect should handle the situation in order to give the
impression that it is growing from the landscape. Buildings,
Wright argues should be pure as vitality, responding in an
organic way to the precise needs, being formally irregular.
But he fights with his own definition and ends up with an
internal contradiction on his architecture, as he believes that
to HERZOG and DE MEURON there should be as many architecture as way of life and people,
Ana Gonzlez Granja
nature of the object

FRANK Ll. WRIGHT
LIVELY
ORGANISM
nature of the object

HERZOG and de MEURON
although that architecture might be worthless. He framed himself as his

doing informed architecture but he is not, he is being ideal, because he is
using the repetition of platonic shapes to make something pure, coming
out of Vitruvius principles even if his reacting against him, like the Larkin
Company Building that is made out of the repetition of cubes and rectangles shaping its exterior faade and interior distribution, everything in a
perfect symmetry.
Herzog & de Meuron on their building The Institute Hospital Pharmaceuticals, known as the Rossetti building (1995-1998), makes references to
nature and they seem to follow the pure classical rules that Vitruvius talked
about, is a pure rectangular shape on elevation where the openings are
defined in such a way that, as Wright said, occurred as integral features of
the structure and form, is a natural ornamentation almost following the
divine proportions. The faade is designed as a specific space, in which
solidification and dissolution of the building unnoticeably merge, and not
only where the sunlight seem to break away its glazed edges. There is a
competition of reflections of the surrounding culture, nature, buildings
and lively movements shaped always on the faade, produced by an entirely
glass shell that gives shelter to the building hold a filigree grid. The
treatment of the material is another natural feature of the project, it is all
about imprinted dots which seem to be an illogical decision, but behind
that unknown appearance, the colour reminds of the poison of the medication, the old pharmacy glasses and the plants that treat the illness. The
reference to nature is informing a strip of artificial and natural ivy, which
replaces the glass layer as one element with density spatiality and light
qualities. The green here becomes the interface between natural plants and
the glass of the quartz sand. Rossetti reflects what Wright said about
bringing out the nature of the building in all of its points, where materials
should develop their natural texture and the forms should grow from the
natural changed conditions, they must be true forms.
is a natural ornamentation almost following the divine proportions

HERZOG and de MEURON
Ana Gonzlez Granja
A building has a person (F.Ll. Wright in The essential Frank Lloyd

Wright, Critical Writings on Architecture:40), and that person is the
function and the ability the architects have to handle a specific situation.
Herzog & de Meuron most of the time use this kind of textile materiality
that is directly related to some aspects of the function of the building. The
glass shell here keeps the pharmacy as a container, as one organism where
it determines the shape. An organism as the Prairie Houses, designed to
blend with the flat prairie landscape, design to create an organic architecture and integration of structural and aesthetic beauty and sensitivity to
human life.
But what does organic architecture means? What has nature to do with a building? What are that
features that defined if a building is pure or not? Why this continuous obsession of framing architects,
periods, styles? Why should we decide if an architect designs being ideal or informed? Which are the
criteria that lead us to pick out a building as honest, as pure or ideal?
How can we relate these questions to the ones posed at the beginning?
What does natural have to do with architecture? How is the natural
understood in the contemporary world? Does natural mean innocent, pure
and ideal? Or on the contrary, is it being informed, not pure, contaminated? What does it mean for architecture to be honest, is this concept
related with the question of the natural?
The role of the critic is the one that gives answer and shapes every discussion here, although every answer is just subjective, as it is the informed
perception someone has. It is said to guide people and help them to describe a style, a period or to define the kind of architecture someone does. The
confrontation that appears when there is a discussion is what allow us to be
able to create links between past architecture and current architecture, to
connect the dots in between and to realize how the same term can be
shaped through history in different ways but always going back and for in
between the same ideas and perceptions. Natural has been defined
differently depending on the purpose but there has always existed an
evolution of the topic and a moment of reflection and reinterpretation of
how nature has been applied in architecture.
Exist?
the tension between
The question of the Artificial

How can you define artificiality if everything that surrounds us is artificial itself?
Where is the limit that breaks the apparent barrier of a natural
element? How can we explain when something transcends the
terms pure and natural to become fictional and artificial? There
are no boundaries in this topic as everything is simultaneously both,
one can consider an art work to be pure and natural, in time and
space because it has been designed with a purpose in a current
moment. But, it is actually something questionable that wants to
elude and that represents something real, a concern, is a reflection
of a true act, of a moment. It is a fact of reality and it is false because
it has been made with technology, or hand-made work which also
has use objects that are already made objects. It has used material
that is not raw, and even if it is raw material is already discovered,
analyzed, explained, searched, reinvented, reused, recycled. So, is
there such an explanation for what is true and false?
Ana Gonzlez Granja
There is a loop in which everything is contradictory, superimposed,

correlated, and where one statement merges with another. I do see
artificial and natural as something opposed and related, they are, of
course, contrary terms, and one is necessarily opposed to the other,
defining its meaning. But their reason of being is that each justification is explained by the other concept itself. For example, black is
contrary to white, white appears when you combine the three
primary colours, (white means light, purity, perfection, security).
Opposite black is the absence of colours, (meaning darkness,
unknown, fear), just with two colours you may define different
characteristics of an space, not just how a space looks even what an
space wants to transmit. We make classifications because it is easier
to remember, it is easier to learn, but the truth is that although
elements may perform alone, as isolated objects, they are always
related, creating links between them, and avoiding that loneliness of
being one, that apparent artificially or purity.
But artificiality is defined in many different ways and theories of
artificial. The concept is related to representation, something
which is handmade, is sign, symbol, and image, everything that is
used as substitute of reality. The concept is pastiche, a plagiarism,
that consists of an uncontrolled and messy union of different
elements of different art works, that merge together to create something new, and that pretends to be exclusive and original. The
concept is prosthetic, artificiality also interpreted as an addition,
an exchange of elements, a substitution or replacement from natural
to artificial, like surgery. The concept means simulacrum where
simulacrum is real, the truth masks that there is no real truth, as
Baudrillard established. Finally, the concept is generative, something created from another element, the evolution of what already
exists. Is generative because it comes from the already made.
Does The Artificial Exist? | Chapter 4
Architecture is generative, is not artificial, because artificiality most

of the times evokes pejorative terms.
Negative assumptions, because people always want that naturalness
and freshness of something that have not been transformed, something that is just how it is and that do not have any kind of addition
or change on it, (we prefer a face that has not passed trough a
process of aesthetic surgery). Just because of preconceptions naturally made, or the mere term natural in this society we live in, it
evokes something better than just saying this it artificially done or
that something is just artificial. Architecture can be defined as
natural although it always has an artificial process.
What about the operation made out by Peter Eisenman on his
project, Cidade da Cultura in Monte Gaias (Galicia)? He had cut the
top of a mountain to do it again through building. Why is he doing
something artificial (a set of buildings) to recreate the natural
environment he decided to remove? I am sure the explanation of
this project never says an artificial construction that has destroyed
the real natural environment to recreate that purity again through
out the construction of the death environment, a group of
buildings. Why? Because, artificial is not a selling term. Eisenman
would say that his project is a series of friendly and natural
buildings in terms of their blending condition, of being able to
create a smooth surface that has the quality of linking the nature
around and the local materials, which shape through architecture
the top of that mountain. People would be amazed about how a
project can be resolved in a way that is purely natural, and how those
buildings take care about the nature, the culture and the surroundings. We believe without proof that natural is better than
artificial, but is that true at all?
Ana Gonzlez Granja
Artificial heart
Ana Gonzlez Granja
A pure artificial environment, a city in a house, a container of the

energy a city detaches, everything reduced and condensed to a
machine, Masion Bordeaux (1993-1998 by Rem Koolhaas). This
house is a network of the same isolated elements that creates a natural connection between them, the purpose and the connection are
not artificial, but its mode of creation is, a creation that is possible
trough technology, through artificial mechanisms. Masion
Bordeaux is an instrument, is a high technology machine reinterpreted as a house, all about artificial advantages that allow a new type
of dwelling and lifestyle, there is here a mechanism that produces an
artificial environment. The story of how the house has been conceived comes from the unexpected and natural incidents of life. The
client had a car accident that sentenced him to live in a wheelchair
the rest of his life, so the house was his opportunity to recover his
freedom and to define his new world. There is a prosthetic artificiality in the clients life, from the naturalness of the city to the artificial world of the house. A machine is the new heart, regarding the
house-machine and the wheelchair-machine, two simulacra of real
life, the wheelchair is simulacrum of being able to walk, and the
house is simulacrum of a natural and friendly environment where to
move around.
The main circulation of the house is purely artificially forced,

because it is related through a platform elevator which connects the
three levels. It is a continuous space that makes the most architectural and cinematographic part of the house, there is a single wall
intersecting all the floors, next to the elevator, full of books and
works of art, a technological machine that allows pure and natural
spaces, that changes the perception of the house every moment by
locking floors or floating above them. The house frames specific
points and natural views through artificial holes in the upper floor
container, elements that depending on the users position connect
the human with the exterior or with strategic objects around. Revealing holes, relative holes or dynamic holes creates a non physical
connection between the user, the house and exterior.
The main artificial part is created by this element that floats in
between one floor and the other, it can be physical or not, it can be
just the mere and simple movement of the elevator creating new
experiences, or it can be the new lifestyle the client has to life because of his new natural condition. We find here a new conception of
the world due to technology and machinery, due to the recreation of
real life by artificiality and technology.
Ana Gonzlez Granja
holes in plan and elevation
Artificial that kills. junk-s

In contrast with the small and controlled Bordeaux artificiality,
where everything is intentionality done, there are other kinds of
artificial spaces that are done in a way that they seem to be the same
everywhere, with no variation, they are like a repetition all over.
Rem Koolhaass concept of junk-space transcends the physical
space that belongs to history, human relationships, the material
connections, and culture. Junk-space is interior you rarely perceive
where the limits of the space are. Is junk-space generative and natural? Of course it is. It is a system of connecting factors and elements
that do not create boundaries in the total space, If space-junk is the
human debris that litters the universe, junk-space is the residue
mankind leaves on the planet.(Constructing a New Agenda. Architectural Theory 1193-2009, edited by A.Krista Sykes). So that is why junkspace raises new possibilities of understanding architecture, but not
in a negative way and not translating this concept into fictional and
unreal spaces, it is a new space possible because of natural and artificial living together.
Ana Gonzlez Granja
space
A desert is a natural feature but it is also junk-space no boundaries
or limits to define, a space that may happened in different parts of
the world where you feel as lost as in an airport, or a hotel, or that
spaces that want to recreate an atmosphere that is not natural at all.
So something natural may be able to be also junk-space. But, what
happened with that artificiality you find when you enter in a hotel?
Why that feeling of knowing a space you have never gone before?
How is that easy to be lost in an airport but to fast know all of it?
You leave a city from a cold space, wide enough in height, huge
distances to walk, that is totally disconnected from the culture and
of the city where it is, completely different from the city you are
travelling to. But, when you land, you arrive to the same place, to
that repetition of the same experience, you can do exactly the same
and in the same order, having the same perceptions and feelings,
although you are in a completely different city with different culture, architecture, ways of living. There is a globalization of architecture where no limits exist inside that place, where you pretend to live
freely. Junk-space is a new artificiality spread all over. Spaces you are
there for first time but you get the feeling of being there before. A
new artificiality that can remove your memories, here is where
artificial architecture is used with pejorative background, where it
crosses the line of being well-thought artificial architecture and it
happens as dangerous containers for people to flow.
Artificial architecture changes live.


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Six

Selected Texts from Culture and Theory V

Nowadays we live in a world of mess, movement, commuting. We do our best

That is what this ad suggest. At first glance it is only a car

Architecting LIFE/ living ARCHITECTURE | Chapter 1

Barthes Myth Diagram

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

Mirador, Sanchinarro, Madrid

Bilbao World design Capital

Sanchinarro bird eye view

Architecting LIFE/ living ARCHITECTURE | Chapter 1

This is not the first time architecture is linked to the

Architecting LIFE/ living ARCHITECTURE | Chapter 1

CREATING LANGUAGE FROM GEOMETRY:

Leon Battista Alberti

Leon Battista Alberti was a multifaceted figure of the Renaissance. He

Creating LANGUAGE from GEOMETRY | Chapter 2

Alberti defended the position of not combining arches and columns,

Alberti was able to create this beautiful work

Alberti uses the Classical language to create his own architecture.

Creating LANGUAGE from GEOMETRY | Chapter 2

Creating LANGUAGE from GEOMETRY | Chapter 2

Albertis Golden Proportion of S. Maria Novella.

Nunotani Headquarters Building, Peter Eisenman.

Creating LANGUAGE from GEOMETRY | Chapter 2

As the firm describes their work, Eisenman does

Creating LANGUAGE from GEOMETRY | Chapter 2

Eisenmans Diagrams for House VI.

In both examples (Alberti and Eisenmans) we have seen how language

Creating LANGUAGE from GEOMETRY | Chapter 2

THE QUESTION OF NATURE:

Is architecture something natural? Besides being inspired by natural elements

Primitive Hut, Laugier

Primitive Hut, Viollet Le Duc

The Question of NATURE| Chapter 3

So in this reflexion, architecture itself can never be something natural.

Tension between nature as purity

Although most architects refer to one or another point of view, Sullivan

The Question of NATURE| Chapter 3

The Question of NATURE| Chapter 3

Dubai has experienced a tremendous growth over the last 30 years. It

Aereal Image of Dubai, 1950

Aereal Image of Dubais urban plan.

The Question of the ARTIFICIAL | Chapter 4

Tenis court at Burj Al Arab building, 7* Hotel

Burj Khalifa, 828m high building

Comparison between old and new Dubai.

The Question of the ARTIFICIAL | Chapter 4

Dubai is a pathetic excuse for a "develop-

you bunch of losers, instead of thanking god that you

ing country"; it takes two steps forward

and one step back!!! Dsicrimination is at

its peak here along with the lastest

development of disregard for expatriate

otherwise get the hell out of Dubai and go back to your

country and start begging you rotten creatures. You

people could've been homeless without Dubai. Dubai