ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM

CRITIC
The word ‘critic’, which comes from the same Greek root that gave us
‘crisis’, refers to the act of judging or deciding. The word pre-supposes
commentary. Judgment is very much present, with the constant
ambition of making discussion more acute, developing it, understanding
it, or bringing it into being. At the same time, it supposes a capacity for
taking risks. Critics, therefore, have to face a specific type of intellectual
responsibility (and sometimes even litigation).

SOURCES
Critics may be journalists or historians, even if the term ‘critic’ should
be reserved for those involved in the analysis of immediate or
contemporary production. They may also be teachers or even practicing
architects. On the one hand, there is fragmentary work concerning
architecture or culture – often linked to current events – that addresses
the general public as much as the specialist. On the other, there is in-
depth work carried out over the long term with goals that are more
theoretical or scientific in nature, which is articulated into research work
based on a precise methodology. This targets a specialist public, and
often requires the exploration of archives and other documentary
sources.

WHAT IS CRITICISM
Criticism always means evaluating and placing a work in its historic
context and amongst the issues that are contemporary with it and also
the building as it stands.

Criticism is also about the circulation of ideas in the professional

world and amongst the public, as much as in the community of
architects. This is to say that it has a role to teach and initiate, as well
as to inter-relate, animate and even structure intellectual debate within
the profession.

Apart from commenting, critics must explain and bring into contact
opinions, viewpoints and cultures.
 Architectural criticism combines response and interpretation.

Response is a rather informal and even instinctive reaction to a work

of architecture, a reaction that anyone with a developed visual sense is
capable of providing.

Interpretation, on the other hand, depends on considerable

knowledge of the work of architecture and of the technical, socio-
cultural and economic contexts in which it is produced.

ROLE OF A CRITIC
Having access to this knowledge allows the creators, perceivers and
users of architecture to fully understand its examples and appreciate
the levels of complexity that it consciously and subconsciously involves.
It is here that the role of the professional critic becomes important. The
critic translates, decodes and contextualizes the often opaque or
mystifying visual languages of architecture through the medium of
words.

ROLE OF CRITICISM
Criticism's role is to share tastes, to dispense the matter of an
emotion or the movement of a thought process to those who do not
spontaneously feel such things.

This activity of transmitting emotion, of introducing people to a new

type of beauty or thought, mode of construction, or set of social
problems, entails communicating in very different ways.

The positive role of criticism is basically to inform, educate,

clarify, compare and define ‘quality’ based on the knowledge of
a project from the initial conceptual design phase to completion
and into active use, as well as to examine the project’s social
use and ‘context’.
Since a good critic comes up with the following questions:

How is the structure related to the materiality of the building?

How does even the fanciest configuration relate to the way the building
sits in its environment?

What (if any) is the contribution it makes to the composite image of the
city of which it is a constituent?

Further, the critic is justified in enquiring about how the building is

perceived both by users and the general public. Any building that
satisfies the above questions will be considered good architecture.

Thus criticism is important.

JON LANG
POSITIVE AND NORMATIVE THEORIES
INTRODUCTION
Theory is a statement made which can be proved.

Theories stand until disproved.

Jon Lang architect and author has written Creating architectural

Theory this book deals with various theories in architecture and their
classification.

In general, Practice follows theory

In Architecture, this is reversed. Theories are formed based on the

discussions about the design and practice.

Theory is not given much importance in architecture in the present

system leading to ignorance.

Architects are drawn more to images and illustrations and pictures.

This leads to superficial knowledge.

Intellectual development in design profession is held back due to lack

of explicit body of positive theory.
Theories are of two types.

Positive theory and Normative theory

A positive science describes ‘what is’ and normative science explains
‘what ought to be’.

Thus a positive science describes a situation as it is, whereas normative

science analyzes the situation and suggests/comments on wrongness or
rightness of a thing/state.

For example, ‘population in India is rising’, is a positive statement and

‘Rising population is an obstacle in the way of development’ is a
normative statement.

POSITIVE THEORY

Positive or descriptive theory consists of statements and assertions

describing and explaining reality and capable of extension into
predictions of future reality although it is not positivistic in insisting
upon only verifiable or falsifiable truths.

The aim of positive theory is to enable people to derive a large number

of descriptive statements from a single explanatory statement an
economical and strategic shorthand to make sense of the myriad
complexities of the world.

Positive theories are scientifically proven.

It is Based on empirical evidence.
It is a system of statements and ideas which describe and explain a
phenomenon tested using scientific methods.
Explanation & predictive : Tentative & subject to revision
Can’t be proved and stands till its disapproved.
They are universally accepted and followed.
For example structural theories which lead to calculations of size of
columns beams etc. Similarly in architecture many theories have been
formed such as Scale, golden section etc.
FUNCTIONS OF POSITIVE THEORY

Makes sense of what otherwise remains as meaningful

To be value free-ethically neutral/ to avoid bias.

Raise to consciousness behavior in built environment having design

implications

To be helpful in making design decisions that lead to predictive

outcomes

NORMATIVE THEORY
Normative theory involves prescriptions for action through standards,
agreed norms, manifestos, design principles and philosophies arising
from an ideological position about what ought to be/ should prevail in
the world.

Lang maintains that an explicit positive theoretical base is necessary for

any discipline if it is to respond to the issues that face it, conduct the
research necessary for its progress to develop logical normative
statements for its actions and understand the limits of its
understanding. The logic of normative theory is not that of science
because science does not deal with creation. Rather Lang says
Normative theories are built on positive ones even though the professed
normative position of a designer often differs from its behavioral
correlate-practice.

Thus NORMATIVE THEORY is value laden statements on ;

What ought to be

Perception of what is good and bad, Right and wrong, desirable and
undesirable.

Prescription of action

Design principles

They vary from person to person

 They are highly subjective and could change with time

It is a norm or rule set up by a person for himself. Others can follow

if they want to. For example theories put forth by Vitruvius to Le-
Corbusier are normative in nature. His five principles are seen in all his
works.

1. Emphasis on horizontality
2. The building stood on columns or pilotis
3. Free flowing plan
4. Thin strips of Ribbon shaped windows
5. A terrace garden or roof top garden

Many such theories have been proposed by many architects but these
are not positive theories as they are their norm or design principles and
need not be universally accepted. This could be due to any number of
restraints like space constraints, variations in climate, culture, local
materials, client requirements etc.

DIFFERENCE b/w POSITIVE AND NORMATIVE THEORIES

The key difference is that Positive theory does not make value
judgments. It offers less good vs bad solutions.

Example : Louis I Kahn's' statement on doing to the brick what the

brick wants to be is a normative theory. It is a manifesto that implies
that pursuing this theory will result in "good" architecture where as
regarding circulation in Kahn's' Exeter Library would be a positive
theory that can be extended to other designs.
D R WAYNE ATTOE
D R Wayne Attoe classified Architectural criticism into three categories:

1. Normative criticism
2. Interpretive criticism and
3. Descriptive criticism

NORMATIVE CRITICISM
Normative criticism or Prescriptive criticism is essentially evaluative and
judges architectural objects as per standards external to their being.
This is further subdivided into four divisions

a) Doctrinal criticism: based on single comprehensive principles.

b) Systematic criticism : uses multiple criteria grouped into sets as in

commodity firmness and delight

c) Typal Criticism: more elaborate, employs characterizations of entire

structural building types

d) Measured criticism: definitive, uses quantitative gauges like riser

to tread ratio etc

INTERPRETIVE CRITICISM
Interpretive criticism is highly personal, the interpreter tries to mould
others vision to make them see as he does.
It is again divided into 3 types
a) Advocatory: offers new metaphors

b) Evocative: arouses feeling in the reader similar to the writers own

c) Impressionistic: interpret original works of art by exaggerating and

suppressing various feature of their recollected images.
DESCRIPTIVE CRITICISM

Descriptive criticism seeks to be factual establishing a foundation for

understanding through various forms of explanation. This kind of
criticism objectively depicts architecture's static aspects(morphology),
dynamic aspects( behavioral influence) and process aspects(the
patterns of decision making accountable for its design and
construction). Attoe also talks about the settings in which the criticism
takes place. The critics power over those he criticizes varies with the
nature of his own particular social role.

Authority: a teacher for example,

Expert: newspaper critic, Peer, Layman and Self ( the internalized voice
of the architects own critical super ego which monitors his every design
decision).

It may be further divided into 3 types

a) Depictive

b) Biographical

c) Contextual