critical regionalism

"The forms that people used in other civilizations or in other periods of our own country's history were intimately part of the whole structure of their life. There is no method of mechanically reproducing these forms or bringing them back to life; it is a piece of rank materialism to attempt to duplicate some earlier form, because of its delight for the eye, without realizing how empty a form is without the life that once supported it. There is no such thing as a modern colonial house any more than there is such thing as a modern Tudor house. [...]
If one seeks to reproduce such a building in our own day, every mark on it will betray the fact that it is fake, and the harder the architect works to conceal that fact, the more patent the fact will be. [...]
The great lesson of history - and this applies to all the arts - is that the past cannot be recaptured except in spirit. [...] Our task is not to imitate the past, but to understand it, so that we may face the opportunity of our own day and deal with them in an equally creative spirit."

"As with a human being, every culture must both be itself and transcend itself; it must make most of its limitations and must pass beyond them; it must be open to fresh experience and yet it must maintain its integrity. In no other art is that process more sharply focused than in architecture."

by Lewis Mumford
in "Critical Regionalism" by Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis

Built Upon Love

terminei de ler

e recomendo a quem ama ser arquitecto

Built Upon Love

"Like literature and film, architecture finds its ethical praxis in its poetic and critical ability to adress the questions that truly matter for our humanity in culturally specific terms, revealing the enigmas behind everyday events and objects."

in "Built upon Love - Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics"
by Alberto Péres-Gómez, MIT Press

Built upon Love

"The world of humanity tolerates ambiguity, even madness and confusion, but not lack of meaning. Despite importante differences between spoken or written languages and other "plastic" or even "musical languages", they are all endowed with a communicative force. Because the poet cherishes the ambiguity of the word, poetry is closer to spoken language than to prose. While the prose writer imprisons language, the poet sets language free.
Likewise, while technology uses up matter to make utensils, poetic making sets matter free. Poetic matter has color, rhythm and texture, yet it is always something else: it is image.
A poetic work is a peculiar form of communication. Without ceasing to be language, it transcends language. A building will also be a poem if it expresses something other than its parts, its materials, its contruction process, its ideology, or the identity of its owner or inhabitants."

"To convey a moment of insight, a prose writer describes it. A poet, in contrast, evokes an experience, with all its contradictory qualities. Similarly, the architect uses rhythm, light and shadow, to re-create our first encounter with depth, the wondrous place of human dwelling that cannot be conveyed through descriptive geometry, a photographe, or an illusionistic reproduction. The experience is always surprising, like a clearing in the forest that we identify with a place in our dreams."

in "Built upon Love - Architectural Longing after Ethics ans Aesthetics"
by Alberto Péres-Gómez, MIT Press

built upon love

"According to Geordano Bruno there are few, very special professions that require disciplined imagination: poetry, art and architecture. Since the imagination is the main gateway for all magical processes, these professions are associated with magic. Most mortals are subject to uncontrolled fantasies, but members of these professions must learn to exert total control over their imagination to avoid being seduced by the very objects they create. This is an ethical imperative. For a magical process to succeed, both the performer and his subjects must have faith in its efficacy. Faith is the prior condition for magic, and the magus indeed must believe in his own work. Furthermore, Bruno observes that while the magus/architect has no right to use his power for selfish ends, self-love facilitates the creation of ethical bonds."

"The architect must be obsessive about beauty in his work and compassionate about its purpose in the social realm. Thus, acts of wonder may be accomplished"

in "Built upon Love - Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics"
by Alberto Pérez-Gómez, MIT Press

tadao ando's process of design

Tadao Ando almost never starts sketching during the first months after receiving a contract. He tries to concentrate on articulating the surrounding context and to put his imaginations into high tensions. He waits until the mature moment, waits until the "concept" gradually develops naturally.

Children's Museum in Hyogo

In the case of the Children's Museum in Hyogo, he spent long hours at the site, waiting for the moment when his intuition awakens and opens up to the sites, until the solution comes out itself, unconsciously. Ando believes that feeling, intuitions, reacting emotionally are the primal conditions of the architect.

by Pham T. Hien

Katsura - Kyoto

tadao ando

"I have an arrogant belief that architecture can change the way people lead their life's"
by tadao ando

Na obra de Carlo Scarpa
Beleza
é a primeira impressão
Arte
a primeira palavra
depois o Espanto
by Louis Khan

HABITAR POETICAMENTE

É O OBJECTIVO ÚLTIMO DA ARQUITECTURA

tadao ando

"Eu componho arquitectura procurando encontrar uma lógica essencial inerente ao lugar. A pesquisa arquitectónica supõe uma responsabilidade de descobrir e revelar as características formais de um sítio, ao lado de suas tradições culturais, clima e aspectos naturais e ambientais, a estrutura da cidade que lhe constitui o seu pano de fundo, e os padrões de vida e costumes ancestrais que as pessoas levarão para o futuro. Sem sentimentalismos, minha ambição é transformar o lugar, pela arquitectura, em um plano abstracto e universal. Somente dessa maneira, a arquitectura pode repudiar o universo da tecnologia industrial e tornar-se uma "grande arte", no verdadeiro sentido da expressão."

"Creio que os materiais arquitectónicos não se reduzem à madeira e ao concreto, que têm formas tangíveis, mas vão além ao incluir a luz e o vento, que apelam aos nossos sentidos."

by Tadao Ando

tauana hotel

http://tauanahotelprojectoeconstrucao.blogspot.com/

hakka houses

www.chinadwelling.dk