15. Defamiliarization

DEFAMILIARIZATION

Defamiliarization is a device and technique used to perceive the familiar and ordinary in a different manner. It can push us out of our comfort zone and make us question what we see. In architecture, it is often performed by playing with the appropriation of forms and how a form is represented.

On the right are several recomposition collages that were produced by decomposing structural elements of the M2 Building by Kengo Kuma. I defamilarized from the original building to create new forms using repeated elements of the building to create new forms that carried new concepts and ideas. The bottom left shows a recomposition that involved maintaining grid-like aspects of the original building while now incorporating symmetry. The bottom right is a recomposition that decided to illustrate the columns as reinforcement and support for the structure while again having symmetry.

"Art makes the familiar strange so that it can be freshly perceived. To do this it presents its material in unexpected, even outlandish ways: the shock of the new." -Viktor Shklovsky

M2 Building in Tokyo, Japan by Kengo Kuma (1991).

Decomposition of M2 Building