Complexity And Contradiction In Architecture: Less Is Bore

Fredric Jameson is admired as a standout amongst the most imperative and persuasive artistic and social pundit and theoretician in the Marxist convention of the English speaking world. In his work “Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” Jameson endeavors to portray the way of social creation in the second half of the twentieth century, the period of late capitalism, and to recognize it from different manifestations of social generation of going before capitalist periods. A generous part of Jameson’s “Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” is committed to differential investigation of masterpieces and building design from what Jameson terms “high innovation” and postmodern works. He describes the postmodern mode of generation as a “social prevailing” in the wake of ideas like “depthlessness” or the concealment of depth, the fading of influence and pastiche, terms which as per Jameson identify with the postmodern type of production and experience.

According to Butts and Rich (2015), complexity science is a knowledge founded on physics and mathematics that operates using basic principles to elucidate the connection between variables. Butts and Rich add that complexity science is a developing field of interest that is catching the attention of scholars from different disciplines because it provides a different viewpoint on various phenomena of interest. According to Sturmberg and Martin (2009), although there has been an ongoing push for application of complexity science in health care, this is not an attempt to eradicate the reductionistic view. Complexity science only aims to fabricate a new and more comprehensive understanding of the world by unifying both the holistic and reductionist viewpoint (Sturmberg & Martin, 2009).

Frank Gehry’s deconstructivism evolution is showcased by the use of non-traditional materials, conscientious detail to the building’s intended use which elevates his architecture into

Leon Krier was criticised for publishing a costly monograph on Albert Speer’s architecture (1985)in which, while acknowledging the crimes of the Nazis and the man, Krier nonetheless claimed the book’s only subject and sole justification was “Classical architecture and the passion of building” (cited by Jaskot, ‘Architecture of Oppression’, 2000). Discuss this claim, the controversy and the issues (historical, philosophical and ethical and possibly others) they raise. Can architecture, Classical, Modern or otherwise, be autonomous from politics and valued independently of the circumstances of politics and history that adhere to it?

Synopsis: this article addresses the principles of complexity theory, and discusses the value of focus on capabilities, not competencies.

To fully appreciate the differences and similarities between Postmodernism and Modernism, it is required to understand exactly what they are. Modernism is the term we give to the accumulated creations and activities of designers in the early 20th century, who had the theory that traditional forms of literature, religion, social organization, and most of all, art and architecture, had become outdated in the new social, political, and economic environment of a fully industrialised world. One of the main characteristics of Modernism is self-consciousness, which typically caused exstensive experimentations of form and function. The creative process of generating work was also explored, forming new techniques in design. Modernism rejected all ideology of realism and prefers to reference and parody works of the past. Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a radical rejection of Modernist design. Taking place in the late 20th century, it is a movement in art, criticism, and architecture that disputes the majority of modernist tendencies. The Postmodernist analysis of society and culture lead to the expansion of critical theory and advanced the works of architecture, literature, and design. This entire re-evaluation of the western value system of popular culture, love, marriage, economy, that took place from the 1950s and 60s, leading to the peak of the Social Revolution in 1968, is commonly referred as Postmodernity which influenced postmodern thought, as opposed to the term

However, as the time passes, one can say that international architecture that totally lacks cultural symbols cannot always ensure what an ideal model of the city is striving at - creating the comfortable environment where people can live. The reminiscences of architectural post- modernism became the attempts to bring back the lost symbols into

As a paradigmatic place of public involvement and symbolic disclosure, theatre has always served as a suggestive source of inspiration for architects and played a role in relation to architectural theories and ideas. Every collective memory unfolds within a spatial framework. Space is a reality that endures: since our impressions rush by, one after another, and leave nothing behind in the mind, we can understand how we recapture the past only by understanding how it is, in effect, preserved by our physical surroundings.

Although this week, I also was drawn to Truettner’s argument about passive and active perception of the artworks in museums, I was carried away with Barr’s involvement and the formative aspect of the “Modern Architecture: International Exhibition”. So, thank you for mentioning the “Case for Active Viewing. In his essay, Truettner contemplates an interesting controversy: on one hand, museums have to engage visitor into the active viewing for the full comprehension and understanding of the artwork, on the other hand, the excessive informational supplements might distract and discourage person from the artwork itself, and in some cases, ruin one’s personal interpretation, especially if the historic contest is in the disagreement with well-established

Postmodernism is a universal movement, present in every art and discipline. In architecture, postmodernism is precise as well as ambiguous thereby in need of an explorative pursuit for a consensus of what is meant by the movement in this perspective - between the works of Charles Jencks, a primary theorist of this architectural turn; Heinrich Klotz, a leading architectural critic; and William Curtis, an architectural historian. The progression of this paper is highly influenced with Jencks’ studies as his works are often times referenced as well by both Klotz and Curtis in their individual interpretations and further accompanied with either supporting statements or contradictions.

Mies van der Rohe is one of the most prominent figures in modernist architectural history, the man who popularised some of the most influential phrases of the era, e.g. “less is more”, and strove to push his ideas and philosophies, not just on what he thought a building should be, but of what he thought architecture itself was. He changed the cityscape of America, showing the world a style that was simple and elegant, with such a controlled palette of expressions that shone through in its geometric beauty.

This book was written by Juhani Pallasmaa with regard to ‘Polemics’, on issues that were part of the architecture discourse of the time, i.e. 1995. It is also an extending of ideas expressed in an essay entitled “Architecture of the seven senses” published in 1994.

The following essay will explain the differences between “exhibition” and “cult” value as discussed by Walter Benjamin’s: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1995). This will aid in discussing how the relationship between “cult” and “exhibition” value result in the loss of the “aura of authenticity” and the “aura of uniqueness” in reproduced works of art. It will define the concept of simulacrum according to Michael Camille’s Simulacrum. The essay will also explain Jean Baudrillard’s understanding of the lack of the “real” in contemporary society, how simulacrum threatens the modernist and the postmodernist notions of the “real” and how these postmodern strategies are no longer relevant.

It suggests that there are two forms of knowledge that firms use: architectural knowledge and modular knowledge. Architectural knowledge captures the relationship between each individual component within a product or process architecture (Henderson and Clark,1990). It also defines how different activities interface in the supply chain. The architectural knowledge constitutes the composition embedded within the organization. Modular knowledge contains the individual characteristics and functions in different components respectively. The knowledge of different types of product and innovation divides the different components in the supply chain. Distinguishing it from modular innovation, which is the innovation that has impact in components individually, architectural innovation refers to the innovation that changes the arrangement of components. Sometimes the influence of these two innovations can be difficult to recognized in the activities of firms.

The book consists of twelve chapters that propose this idea that designers should explore the nature of our senses’ response to the spatial built forms that people invest their time in. It tries to cover a specific topic in each chapter that in order to deconstruct the book, it is necessary to cover each chapter individually.