WE CAN’T CHANGE THE WORLD

image: Barbara Kruger Your comfort is my silence (1989)

A specter is haunting the world of architecture

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There is no mark of agony or hesitation in the output. It is, in this sense, very confident and definite. The only way to evaluate works like this is to review the correctness of the rules (or algorithm), but on what basis? The decision to use rules and algorithm has already made an assumption that “formula” is the solution.

An analogy could be made to “digital books.” Size, weight, smell, color, texture, thickness, dents, scratches etc. that make up the whole experience of reading a physical book is striped away from digital books. What is left is a very sterile text data (users can even change the attributes like the fonts). And there is a notion that digital books are better exactly for that reason. When evaluating the validity of book digitalizations, we need to be

I’M COOL!

A computational design project by Gentaro Makinoda 8with Ronaldo Bello, 2014)

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Architecture should be a compilation of decisions made at every steps to make those steps count. The hesitation, agony, joy, etc. associated with each decisions will become the fruitful sources of what should or could follow.

If architecture does not communicate anything, why even have a profession beyond engineering to deliberately make it less efficient? Why write a letter if you are embarrassed to express your emotions?

Architecture needs to become the proactive creator and carrier of information instead of being just the user of information

Nikko City Imaichi Cultural Hall by Itsuo Kamiya

ARCHITECTURESTIR EMOTIONS.

ARCHITECTUREMAKE PEOPLE THINK. ARCHITECTURE

COMMUNICATE WITH ITS VISCERAL INTEREST

MAKE CHANGES

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Incredible changes are taking place in the arts district, Los Angeles.

What used to be a deserted, undesired industrial district slowly came back to life as an affordable and unfettered habitat for artists in the 90s. And it is now one of the most desired place to live,attracting massive investments including the 438 units One Santa Fe apartment next to Sci-Arc.

Ironically, as we have seen it happen in SoHo, NY, the revitalization is making it harder for the real artists to inhabit the area. 343 sqf studio in One Santa Fe costs approximately $2,000 / month. The district is turning into a quasi arts districts, kicking out the very people who created the district’s brand value.

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SCI-ART

a sci-arc expansion project

Being very socially conscious, SCI-ARC decided to take an action by extending their program to art, to be the incubation of next generation local artists. The school will also expand physically, to accommodate 300 new art and architecture students from worldwide, into the lot just west of the current architecture school. The new school building will include studio space for art students, 200+ audience lecture hall and class rooms, exhibition halls, art library, and office facilities for the faculties and staffs.

Assumed thesis project: the SCI-ARC expansion project to be the “note” that continues the spirit of the districts yet disrupts the current trajectory (swamped with quasi “artists” typologies) to redirect the progress towards somewhere new.

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script

A specter is haunting the world of architecture.

In the face of global binary nakedness, where the truths are believed to be exposed, It is no longer “cool” to think critically or try hard (Robert Somol, p.76, 2002)

Architects have capitulated to the alluring clarity of science, empowered by computers, as architecture has started to be perceived more as things that should to be “generated.” Generated from mathematical rules or patterns found in the surroundings, as if to suggest that the realities represented by math and science are the whole truth, and the purposes and decisions inscribed by the architects are worthless.

We architects are on the verge of total surrender.drafted by Gentaro Makinoda on 4 | 3 | 2015

What results from the “generative” attitude is - although intriguing in appearances - something very arbitrary in its reasons for existence. Almost sterile.

Despite its complexed look, it communicates very little because it disregards or does not incorporate human decisions in its generative process. Few parameter inputs in the beginning will instantly create the end result.

There is no mark of agony or hesitation in the output. It is, in this sense, very confident and definite. The only way to evaluate works like this is to review the correctness of the rules (or algorithm), but on what basis? The decision to use rules and algorithm has already made an assumption that “formula” is the solution.

An analogy could be made to “digital books.” Size, weight, smell, color, texture, thickness, dents, scratches etc. that make up the whole experience of reading a physical book is stripped away from digital books. What is left is a very sterile text data (users can even change the attributes like the fonts). And there is a notion that digital books are better exactly for that reason. When evaluating the validity of book digitalizations, we need to be aware that the decision has already been made that text is the only thing that matters in books.

Likewise in architecture, when a form is generated from a set of rules, the decision has already been made that agonies and hesitations that may appear in the process of designing is not important. But is it really?

drafted by Gentaro Makinoda on 4 | 3 | 2015

“I don't want to do architecture that's dry and dull.” -Frank Gehry

Architecture begins where engineering ends. -Walter Gropius

“most important thing is finding a way of escaping the framework or aesthetic consciousness with which I am burdened.” -Arata Isozaki

“A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.” -Louis Kahn

“A house is a machine for living in.” -Le Corbusier

“Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.” -Mies van der Rohe

“Architecture is a negotiated art, and it's highly political, and if you want to make buildings, there is diplomacy required.” -Thom Mayne

if not, why do it? If one cannot bear the bestowed responsibilities, leave the work to engineers

“美しきもののみ、機能的である” (Only the beautiful things are functional*) -Kenzo Tange

More is more -Robert Venturi

All architects should have something very important to say:

drafted by Gentaro Makinoda on 4 | 3 | 2015

Architecture should be a compilation of decisions made at every step to make those steps count. The hesitation, agony, joy, etc. associated with each decisions will become the fruitful sources of what should or could follow.

If architecture does not communicate anything, why even have a profession beyond engineering to deliberately make it less efficient? Why write a letter if you are embarrassed to express your emotions?

Architecture needs to become the proactive creator and carrier of information instead of being just the user of information.

drafted by Gentaro Makinoda on 4 | 3 | 2015

drafted by Gentaro Makinoda on 4 | 3 | 2015

Incredible changes are taking place in the arts district, Los Angeles.

What used to be a deserted, undesired industrial district slowly came back to life as an affordable and unfettered habitat for artists in the 90s. And it is now one of the most desired place to live,attracting massive investments including the 438 units One Santa Fe apartment next to Sci-Arc.

Ironically, as we have seen it happen in SoHo, NY, the revitalization is making it harder for the real artists to inhabit the area. 343 sqf studio in One Santa Fe costs approximately $2,000 / month. The district is turning into a quasi arts district, kicking out the very people who created the district’s brand value.

drafted by Gentaro Makinoda on 4 | 3 | 2015

Being very socially conscious, Sci-Arc decided to take an action by extending their program to art, to be the incubation of next generation local artists. The school will also expand physically, to accommodate 300 new art and architecture students from worldwide, into the lot just west of the current architecture school. The new school building will include studio space for art students, 200+ audiences lecture hall, class rooms, exhibition halls, art library, and office facilities for the faculties and staffs.

Assumed thesis project: the Sci-Arc expansion project to be the “note” that continues the spirit of the districts yet disrupts the current trajectory (swamped with quasi “artists” typologies) to redirect the progress towards somewhere new.

drafted by Gentaro Makinoda on 4 | 3 | 2015