Culture Clash - 500 Words of Design

Culture Clash.

500 words of Design.

From the Editor. ________ Culture Clash is an odd one to Describe, it’s not something that can easily be represented because, first and foremost, it’s felt in our bones. In this series of articles, Designers have answered what Culture Clash they have experienced or understand, what the topic means to them, and what it means to be inside of a world that’s contently clashing with itself.

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Editor and Design : Jack Oliver Petch.

Installation : Sam Eadington.

Contributors : Ecaterina Stefanescu.

El朝na Boge.

Sam Eadington.

Matthew Riches.

Jack Oliver Petch.

Bunty Jenkins.

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Japanese architecture and architectural education.

Have a short search on Google, i’s easy to come across some unbelievable designs and constructions from Japan: their houses seem to defy basic construction rules and even logic! There are of course, the good examples we all know about: Sou Fujimoto, Tadao Ando or Ryue Nishizawa, with their bold but functional designs attracting a lot of attention. Along with these however, most of the houses you find fall more into the kitsch characteristic. But what makes Japan the perfect framework for this whimsical architecture? Is it just the radical architects, or does it have something to do with the country itself?

If we are to look at the financial aspect of the construction industry, in the West, unique designs are often too risky for clients as they can jeopardise re-sell value. They opt for “safe� architecture to suit their own tastes but also the tastes of potential future buyers: these houses are built to last. In Japan however, the situation is the opposite, houses loose all value after 15 years, demolished and replaced just like any other consumer goods. The factors include the frequency of earthquakes and the WWII destructions, which made 4.

homes disposable, but in modern times, the land has more value than the building.

Young professionals with a steady job get a mortgage to build their house, slowly repaying the debt over the course of their career, even after the house devalues completely. But, the situation forces them to hire an architect to design a house with complete personal and taste freedom. Furthermore, there is no real planning council regulations, and spiritual factors come into play, with the ancient Japanese belief that second hand houses hold hostile spirits; in the end, it is the price the country that fetishizes everything new and novel has to pay.

This could easily be related to the way architectural education and office work is perceived in Japan as well.

Much has been said about architects like Sou Fujimoto, who take up unpaid interns for a short, indefinite time and turn them into model-making machines, overworked and underfed, preparing them, apparently, for the exhausting working culture of Japan. This seems obviously wrong to the Western eyes, but in Japan,

the internship is seen as a continuation of the studies, benefiting the student more that the practitioner. And besides, aren’t we all architecture students used to being overworked anyway??

I recently went out with a few Japanese students. We talked a lot about the differences they have noticed, and the reason why they love the West so much. Again, it all comes down to newness, but here the age of things has the opposite effect: as they generally have nothing old in their country, they marvel at all the historical buildings we have hoarded over the years. For them, it is not only about age - it is the array of styles that communicate the layers of history. The students ended up being equally excited about the architecture of Cambridge as about the film sets of Harry Potter – for them it was all ornamental, intricate, vintage, contrasting with the allnew city of Tokyo where they come from.

In conclusion, I have only one question: if the Japanese don’t want their extraordinary houses, can I get one for free?

Ecaterina Stefanescu.

When Co-Existence turns into a clash. _________ Culture clash is perhaps one of those terms that appear straightforward when you first read the definition, but, once you start thinking about it more in depth, a whole new universe unveils itself. While there is little or no difficulty to think of an example where culture clash shows off its brutal, violent and ignorant side, there are places where another form of this process - more peaceful, subtle and natural - has occurred for decades, if not centuries, without attracting much attention or controversy. I’m talking about regions where the culture, morals, lifestyle and even design approaches of several neighbouring countries have become so entwined we no longer perceive them as separate countries, but rather a unified territory.

For example, Scandinavia.

One might think it is an inevitable and logical evolution based on the similar historical, cultural, political, and social movements these countries share. Great, so where’s the problem? The ‘by-product’ of this process is the establishment of a design (or rather a perception) where a number of the most prominent characteristics that define the traditional styles of the individual 6.

countries is synthesised to a point where it becomes impossible to distinguish the origins of each of the elements. We are left with a design that represents a larger region, but is not so much concerned with the individual identities of the countries within it.

It is unlikely that any Swede will stab you with a fork if you call Gunar Asplund a ‘Scandinavian architect’ and no Finn will bash you with an ice hockey stick for calling Alvar Aalto ‘the father of the Modern Scandinavian design’. However, coming from a place which is more often referred to as ‘one of the Baltic states’ and having to persuade people at times that my country really is located in Europe when its own name comes up, I know that, regardless of how great your neighbours are, you want to make sure people see clearly what exactly has made you who you are. And why would you want to generalise things that are so special because of their uniqueness anyway?

Imagine Norway - the fierceness of the waves crashing on fjords, the rawness of Sverre Fehn’s concrete structures, the architecture that doesn’t just ‘fit’ into the landscape, but becomes the landscape itself.

Imagine Sweden - the calmness of the deep forests, the vitality of the colourful buildings of Gamla Stan. Imagine Finland - the transparency of the lakes, the clarity and boldness of Eero Saarinen’s work. Imagine Denmark - the lightness and openness of the harbour towns, the strong presence of international influences in Ove Aarup’s designs.

Yes, it is unavoidable that cultures, developed in a close proximity for centuries, will clash and overlap eventually, and there will be many common elements, and we will be tempted to throw them all in one bag and put a label on it, because we are great at thinking that we simplify our lives by actually complicating them. But if we really care about the individual identities, maybe we should slow down with labelling and categorisation.

Elīna Boge.

ía.

For me, hearing the term ‘culture clash’, or any other kind of clash for that matter, brings to mind a feeling that ranges from violence to, at best, an uncomfortable coming together, which is odd. Pasta and gravy is cultures clashing in a student meal, Italian and Yorkshire cuisines. It’s delicious.

Whatever progress is, pasta and gravy are it.

You may disagree. You may argue that, for example, the recent Charlie Hebdo attack, which resulted from a culture clash of the very worst end of the violence/ discomfort spectrum, cannot possibly be seen as progress and I’d agree - but the discussion it has instigated between the cultures concerned surely is.

After returning from China, 3 weeks of being a walking, talking, chopstick wielding, curly-haired culture clash of my very own, I have had chance to reflect on the often uncomfortable results of the cultural alchemy currently taking place, which most notably for myself, manifest themselves in the architecture and rapid urban expansion. The western influences are as clear as they are dominating. The humble and historic courtyard structures shudder in the shadows of the sky scraping 8.

steel, concrete and glass towers, almost tall enough to wave to their capitalist cousins in New York. No doubt a culture clash, but I began to see that this ‘westernisation’ isn’t all that western.

The speed of the new constructions and their life expectancy are distinctly Chinese.

The rate of urban expansion and the ever growing demands this places on the infrastructure are unlike anything western society has ever had to deal with.

This isn’t westernisation, it’s something completely different. It’s the turbulent and imbalanced early stages of a dialogue between cultures, old and new, eastern and western, and architecture is a key mediator in this dialogue.

This kind of architectural mediation isn’t unprecedented.

Andalucia in Southern Spain proudly boasts an architecture which has risen from cultural clashes through history with Islamic and Catholic empires constantly growing and shrinking their territories. Even it’s name; Andalucía, is taken from its old arabic name of Al-Andalus and made a bit more Spanish by adding

‘ía’ on the end (think María, sangría, Luis García etc.).

In Córdoba, the catholics built a cathedral through the centre of the mosque after conquering the city from Muslims in 1236. Many people think it’s beautiful, I think it’s a bit clumsy and crude. Thankfully these once clashing cultures have successfully settled into a more harmonious architectural solution than building one on top of another, making cities such as Córdoba, Sevilla and Granada some of the most beautiful places I know.

Comparing China today to Spain shortly after Islamic rule, the Charlie Hebdo attacks and pasta and gravy might seem far-flung and ridiculous. It is a bit. But it does show that culture clashes are as common as they are varied in their nature, time-scale and cultural significance. China’s future is coming quickly and may be incomparable with its past but it will still, nonetheless, be very Chinese.

Sam Eadington.

Barcelona; Leather; _________.

When I think of culture clashes the first things I think about are tension, awkwardness and hierarchy. In every city, town, village or even each building across the world you find culture clashes and every place has its own individual combination of characters, and this gives a place its attitude towards which ‘culture’ is the most important. In my eyes it is these clashes that give a place and its population its identity. This can, a lot of the time, be understood by looking at the architecture and spaces within their context.

This term, 2nd year BA students travelled to Barcelona.

In this city, one of the many central points of their identity is in their religious culture, highlighted by buildings like La Sagraga Famillia and the Barcelona Cathedral. Running alongside these expensive, dominating structures you find rows of shops covered in the markings of the graffiti culture which is arguably Barcelona’s other major distinction.

These two cultures sit side by side each other in complete contrast and to some it might be seen as an awkward mess but I think, albeit awkward, it is what gives Barcelona its sense of place.

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This feeling can happen in any place, at any time and is not just restricted to architecture. For example, over summer this year I found myself in a night club which played 50’s/60’s music upstairs (where you would find me) and Gothic rock downstairs. Towards the end of the night my hand was forced in to going down stairs to get a drink. This meant queueing in a dark, smelly room surrounded by people covered in piercings and wearing platformed boots as high as my knees. I felt like an out of place, inconvenience of a culture clash on legs. This feeling is somewhat similar to how I felt stood outside the Sagrada Familia, only it didn’t smell of sweat, alcohol and leather.

You don’t have to look as far as Barcelona, or even nightclubs in Hull to see culture clashes. In Huddersfield a third of the population is supposedly students, who come from all corners of the earth. Each of these cultures have their own cultural clashes. These are then brought to Huddersfield resulting in a diverse combination of different backgrounds and identities.

Having lived as part of the student population for nearly 2 years now, I think it’s clear to see how this has

effected the town in terms of food, music, architecture and fashion.

None of this is saying that any genres of culture are more dominant as it’s purely subjective. Some would argue that the sporting culture is the most important sector of Barcelona, with one of the best teams, one of the biggest stadiums and an Olympic park, the city is certainly a sporting capital but at the end of the day it is all opinion and it is this interaction or clash of opinion that gives people an identity and in turn gives a place its distinctiveness.

Matthew Riches.

Germ Culture.

A clash itself doesn’t have to be a fast-moving, catastrophic event. Every medium has a different way of expressing itself when too polar forces meet. Think of the vast Himalayas, the enticing little acid burn you get when you place a neon yellow next to blue, or even when you accidentally play music from two sources on your laptop. But Culture, now that’s a different affair altogether.

Isn’t it fantastic to live in a world so inter-connected?

I’ve touched on it before, but inspiration these days has the ability to be so much more authentic, a relationship as opposed to previous Western colonialism who took tokens and treasures after pillaging and destruction, we can now actually be influenced and be inspired by people on the other side of the world. In general, this actually helps the situation, though sometimes not so much. I don’t feel I have any authority to talk about Cultural Appropriation in-depth, but I knew that it needed to be brought into the discussion, as it is something we struggled with when studying in China.

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The symbiotic nature of ideas is really interesting to observe if you are able to be removed from the crossfire and informed efficiently. CGPGrey describes the spread of ideas like Germs, spreading not unlike a strain of flu, they can change and mutate over time.

Sometimes, a joke can get funnier, or it can loose all momentum altogether with those little details being lost in translation. Strong arguments have the ability to inject fire into the hearts of others like Viruses creating RNA in host cells, it just keeps on going.

The interesting thing, however, is how contrasting arguments can actually work in-tandem with each-other.

These, if they were given sentience, actually feed from the conflict as opposing forces. The “them” and “us” situations create a closed-loop of aggregation, with the mutation process escalating tensions higher and higher.

Newton got it back in his third law, it’s not a new idea that every force has an equal and opposite reaction, but the evolution analogy really helps explain how initial aspirations can get lost. But above all, the message is that these work by connecting to emotion spots in the brain to spread.

With a world that is increasingly being given the chance to open itself up to other influences, despite the anterior, often corporate motives to shut collaboration down, I do practice the optimistic view that we might achieve a cultural nirvana of both informed awareness and detachment.

We can’t ever undo the things we have done in the past, but we have to learn from them and accept the damage done, without letting it cloud our judgement for any future action. We’re working on it and we’re getting there, feel free to lend a hand.

Jack Oliver Petch.

Outside _______ Inside.

A clash of culture points towards identity. Where the values held by someone or something are represented for an audience to see. Displaying their insides out to the public. This act demonstrates a pride, acknowledges a reference to history, event, religion and such. From this, we can create stereotypes in people, identify movements in art and architecture or classify genres of music. There is a safety and comfort in recognising something and instantly understanding it’s purpose or reason without interacting with it. This could range from; identifying the purpose of a classical style building in a city as being one of public use, or seeing a person walk down the street, wearing a certain fashion, and presuming aspects of their character, or hearing a 3 chord riff in a country song and knowing that lyrically, the song most likely revolves around a woman, getting drunk or something about a train.

More often than not, our preconceptions are correct.

This perhaps makes life easier in a way, following an unwritten rule book based on a vague logic.

But what would happen if this idea was challenged?

What would happen if that wasn’t a formal public 14.

building, but perhaps a night club, that the person you thought looked like a chav was an important community figure who was dressed down for the day, or that country song was about being a CEO in the city.

In instances where our assumptions are challenged or proven to be wrong, these examples become more memorable than others. They develop their own character and are more prevalent in discussions and as points of interest. There is more depth to these things, and so we are more inclined to judge them, find a reason to interact with them more, and possibly value them more in some instances. Is this a clash of culture, or have we assumed for too long that a certain culture must appear a certain way, all of the time, constantly.

We may see a carnival procession through the town; seeing participants proudly displaying their culture.

We may try food from their culture and understand significance in the use of certain colours, movements or actions, but at the end of the day, these people will not dance forever, they will go home, get into their pyjamas and go to bed like you or I.

A culture, may then, not perhaps be demonstrated outwardly all of the time, but most importantly the core values will always be contained within. Partly; do not judge a book by its cover, but if you spend time to read the book, consider the cover too, as the cover is as much a part of the identity as the contents, but not greater.

Stop assuming things, start to question and investigate. Curiosity is a virtue almost lost in society, where possibly the most important and most forgotten question is ‘why?’.

Why?

Bunty Jenkins.

Installation and Publication.

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