Newcastle University // Phoebe Mo // Principles and theories in Architecture

A study into the extent of permanence and sensibility of modern craftsmanship through Ruskin’s principles.

ARC3015.

RUSKIN AND THE LONG NOW. KAI WING PHOEBE MO, 130176660

Consciousness in Craft.

“The idea of experience as a craft contests the sort of subjectivity that dwells in the sheer process of feeling…impressions are the raw materials of experience.”

-Richard Sennett The value of which experience should be understood as craft according to Sennett echoes strongly within Ruskin’s views through taking pride in the maturity of the skill.

It enables the work of reflection and imagination, as it tempers with curiosity and obsession.2 In a broader sense, “…craftsmanship finds a philosophical home within pragmatism.”3 The creative effort in shaping an artist will indelibly shape the materials they sculpt.

Through use of large masses of unindustrialized concrete, I have sought to allow for the process of craftsmanship to represent the expression of the material conveyed towards the user experience. My emphasis on enhancing the human sensory properties within the material, focuses on the way in which concrete stimulates interaction through the collision of glass and rough concrete. This presents an obvious and striking nature of the medium, intensified further by the juxtaposition of irregular forms in the two materials embodying the duality between strength and lightness.

Richard Sennett and Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), p.289.

Ibid 1.

3 John Unrau, Looking at Architecture with Ruskin (United States: University of Toronto Press, 1978), p.287.

1 2

Fig.1 (a) & (b): Herzog and De Meuron rethought the concept as a primordial structure as honest as a mound of earth.

In the puppet theatre, novelist Heinrich von Kleist believes in the possibility of an execution of grace through inanimate and soulless objects as he compares the advantage of mechanical puppets over living dancers. Yet he retains the perspective, “In the same measure, as reflection in the organic world becomes darker and feebler, grace emerges in ever greater radiance and supremacy.” Implying that grace comes with age and time, as materials experience deterioration and rust, an inner elegance and humble manner is revealed, uninfluenced by human interference or artificial modifications. “When consciousness has passed through an infinity, grace will return.” 4 Characterising it as an aesthetic of effect; unconcerned with whether there is dignity behind the charm, truth and goodness behind the beauty.5 Thus this questions the idea behind beauty and grace, does grace dictate beauty? As Ruskin discusses beauty as, ‘aspiration towards God, expressed in ornamentation drawn from nature.’ It is a moral concept meaning the congruence of external and inner beauty. So perhaps beauty is simultaneous with grace.

Fig. 2: Concrete and glass render.

Hence a third kind of material consciousness can be applied to concrete, investing the inanimate with human qualities.6 This state embodies values and a profound life quality encouraged by Ruskin as one of his 7 lamps of Architecture. Evoking the architectural moralities within the material; the attribution of ethical human qualities, one seeks to heighten our consciousness and think about their value.7 The concrete masses dictate the form externally and is exposed internally making the structure an honest expression throughout, showing the majestic quality of such weight and vigour.

As such, concrete can be considered as a humble material despite its technological perceptions based upon its reliance on underlying craft skills, as it nevertheless stems back to its most basic manual practices.8 Though may perceived as a static medium during modernity, the idea of such expertise was sacred to Ruskin. The lamp of truth echoed his demand for morality amid ingenuity, despite concrete “often regarded as a dumb or stupid material, more associated with death than life.”9 Perhaps this misunderstanding arises from its ability to be a permanent structural feature as a historical material and its subsequent tendency to slip between category distinctions.10

Architecture Theory: A Reader in Philosophy and Culture, ed. by Andrew Ballantyne (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005), p.306.

5 Heinrich-von-K, ‘Kleist-Museum: Room 16’ (Heinrich-von-Kleist.org) <http://www.heinrich-von-kleist.org/index. php?id=423&L=1> [accessed 3 April 2016].

6 Richard Sennett and Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), p.135.

7 Ibid., p. 137.

8 Adrian Forty, Concrete and Culture: A Material History (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), p.15-28.

9 Ibid., p.9.

10 Ibid., p.10.

4

Fig. 3 (a) & (b): Liquid glass against concrete.

‘What then should be the aesthetic of concrete?’

“Is it Stone? Yes and No. Is it Plaster? Yes and No. Is it brick or Tile? Yes and No. Is it Cast Iron? Yes and No. Poor Concrete! Still looking for its own at the hands of Man.”11 -Frank Lloyd Wright, 1927.

11

Fig. 4 (a) & (b): Carved cast concrete studies.

Adrian Forty, Concrete and Culture: A Material History (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), p. 10.

Ornamentation.

Ruskin heavily emphasises that “Ornamentation is the principal part of architecture.”12 It is not something extra which is added to a building to beautify it, thus the total effect of the building, must be designed as an integral part of the composition.13 My utilisation of the concrete, forms a large part of the structure which should also be considered the ornamental focal point. Alongside Ruskin, historian Nicholas Penny reiterates that “there should be an organic relationship between the ornament and the body of a building.”14 By combining magnitudes of the real and apparent within my design, the impressions on the concrete integrate both elements conceiving a monumental sculpture glorifying the material.

Fig. 5: Expressive ornamentation.

In the same manner, the significance of ornamentation in the work of Carlo Scarpa expresses rich meaning through reconstructing and preserving its historical integrity.

Maintaining sensibility to ornament and an insistence on the freedom of individual expression. The looseness and playfulness of his work nevertheless speaks of a profound care for humanity.15 Alongside, his ability to maintain fluidity in his exquisitely crafted joints speaks of a similar spirit with classical ornamentation without losing the taste established within a modern movement. Thus one should carefully consider the relationship of structure and ornament to realise that it should not be solely implied by its function.16

John Unrau, Looking at Architecture with Ruskin (United States: University of Toronto Press, 1978), p.65.

Ibid., p. 68.

14 Nicholas Penny, ‘RUSKIN’S IDEAS ON GROWTH IN ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT’, The British Journal of Aesthetics (Oxford University Press, 1973), 276–86 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjaesthetics/13.3.276>.

15 Jing Liu, ‘Carlo Scarpa: Mediating the Classical and Modern in Ornamentation’ <http://architecture.yale.edu/gallery/carlo-scarpa-mediating-classical-and-modern-ornamentation> [accessed 4 April 2016].

16 Quentin Yiu, ‘The Eclectic Treatment of Structure: The Significance of Ornament in Carlo Scarpa’s Works’, 2016.

12 13

Fig. 6: Ca’ d’Oro, capital sketches.

Fig. 7 (a): Scarpa’s door design.

(b): Outcropping of rock amongst concrete.

(c): Wall detail combining classic and mechanical techniques.

“We must look not only at the quality of the material used and at the craft employed, but also at the quality of the thought process selecting and shaping the material... quality cannot be an intrinsic condition that belongs to the object . . . but rather it must express the intent by which it is created and therein the clarity and strength of the meaning being produced by its form”17 -Giuseppe Zambonini, 1988.

Fig. 8 (a) & (b): Glass and concrete detail model.

Re-Reading ‘Perspecta’: The First Fifty Years of the Yale Architectural Journal, ed. by Robert A. M. Stern, Peggy Deamer, and Alan J. Plattus (United States: MIT Press, 2005).

17

embodying obsolescence.

“The Future, whether you capitalize it or not, is always just an idea, a proposal, a scenario, a sketch for a mad contraption that may or may not work. “The Future” is a story we tell, a narrative of hope, dread or wonder.”18 -Michael Chabon, 2006.

Designing in coherence to The Long Now foundation which seeks to look at providing a context that will survive and exist in the near future, director Michael Chabon poses several questions, “Do you believe “the Future” is going to happen? If it lasts—do you believe there will be a human being around to witness, let alone mourn its passing, to appreciate its accomplishment, its faithfulness, its immense antiquity?”19 This scalar dimension as infrastructures fade into invisibility between our set natural characteristics and the distortion of memory generates a slow process at which, change too slowly for us to notice.20 So one must consider the strategy in that the inevitable obsolescence of a design, can sustain a memory for which seeks to tell a story of the life of the building within its setting.

‘About - the Long Now’, The Long Now Foundation <http://longnow.org/about/> [accessed 3 April 2016].

Ibid.

20 Edwards, Paul N. ‘Infrastructure and Modernity: Force, Time, and Social Organisation in the History of Sociotechnical Systems’ in Brey, Philip, Rip, Arie and Feenberg, Andrew (eds.) Technology and Modernity: The Empirical Turn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.),p.8.

Architect, Keller Easterling discusses architecture through the concept of subtraction, both as a tool and a new form of territory. This offers a model for developments in architectural expression and ethics which infrastructure can cohabit with conditions of wasting and decay.21 This condition is particularly influential in my design as subtraction becomes an insistent state to which discloses its architectural materialization.

Over time, the decay of concrete seeks to reveal more of its true expression through undisturbed elements, so forth, to build in order to embrace this process thus conceives beauty as a result of flexibility and adaptation in architecture.

Encapsulating Ouseburn as a memory to reflect its rich industrial history, I believe concrete is a medium that has a history, humble at that, with its ongoing vigilance to cement and concrete industries; so forth this association of culture means in part having a continual fluency in its infrastructures. In the use of materials, one must anticipate its transformation and the life beyond and against its obdurate form. Its symbolism and memory cannot be dissociated from past program. However, “buildings have to be understood in terms of several different time scales over which they change, in terms of moving ideas in flux.”22 Rethinking this idea that architecture is constantly renewed, when does architecture’s mortality terminate? One must continue to explore the point at which the discipline reflects on the finitude of the created work.23

Stephen Cairns and Jane M Jacobs, Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture (United States: MIT Press, 2014), p.41.

Ibid., p. 42.

23 Ibid., p. 24.

18

21

19

22

Fig. 9: Forecast of progressive flood levels according to the land contours.

Fig. 10: Material study of site plan.

Illustrations.

Front Cover: Author, Photograph: Impressions on concrete, 2016.

Figure 1 (a): Herzog and De Meuron, Schaulager, 2003 [online photograph], https:// uk.pinterest.com/pin/2603712256427924/ (accessed 4th April 2016).

Figure 1 (b): Herzog and De Meuron, Schaulager, 2003 [online photograph], http://www. architecturerevived.com/schaulager-basel-switzerland/ (accessed 4th April 2016).

Figure 2: Author, Photoshop render of concrete and glass, 2016.

Figure 3 (a) & (b): Liquid glass against Concrete, [online photograph], http://korodizs. blogspot.co.uk/ (accessed 4th April 2016).

Figure 4: (a) & (b): Author, Photograph, 2016.

Figure 5: Ruskin, Arch and buttresses of St. Wulfran, Abbeville, 1868 in John Unrau, Looking at Architecture with Ruskin (United States: University of Toronto Press, 1978), p.158.

Figure 6: Author, Pencil Sketches, 2016.

Bibliography.

‘About - the Long Now’, The Long Now Foundation <http://longnow.org/about/> [accessed 3 April 2016] Adams, Nicole, The Original Print of the Book an Ongoing Dialogue <https://theses.lib. vt.edu/theses/available/etd-123322282975860/unrestricted/etd.pdf> [accessed 4 April 2016] Ballantyne, Andrew, ed., Architecture Theory: A Reader in Philosophy and Culture (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005) Cairns, Stephen, and Jane M Jacobs, Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture (United States: MIT Press, 2014) Cosgrove, Denis E., ed., Mappings (London: Reaktion Books, 1999) Forty, Adrian, Concrete and Culture: A Material History (London: Reaktion Books, 2012) Heinrich-von-K, ‘Kleist-Museum: Room 16’ (Heinrich-von-Kleist.org) <http://www.heinrichvon-kleist.org/index.php?id=423&L=1> [accessed 3 April 2016]

Figure 7 (a): Author, Photograph of doorway, Carlo Scarpa’s Fondazione Querini Stampalia, 2016.

Liu, Jing, ‘Carlo Scarpa: Mediating the Classical and Modern in Ornamentation’ <http://architecture.yale.edu/gallery/carlo-scarpa-mediating-classical-and-modern-ornamentation> [accessed 4 April 2016]

Figure 7 (b): Nancy Stieber, Alvaro Siza, Leça Swimming Pools [online photograph], https://www.flickr.com/photos/architectural_peregrinations/ (accessed 4th April 2016).

McGinn, Marie, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1958)

Figure 7 (c): Author, Photograph of wall detail, Carlo Scarpa: Fondazione Querini Stampalia, 2016.

Mitcham, C., The Empirical Turn in the Philosophy of Technology, Vol. 20, ed. by P. A. Kroes, A.W.M. Meijers, and Carl Mitcham (United States: Elsevier Science, 2001)

Figure 8 (a) & (b): Author, Photograph, 2016.

Newitz, Annalee, ‘Paolo Soleri and the Cities of the Future’ (io9, 2013) <http://io9.gizmodo. com/paolo-soleri-and-the-cities-of-the-future-509049258> [accessed 4 April 2016]

Figure 9: Author, Photoshop collage, 2016.

Figure 10: Author, Photoshop collage, 2016.

Penny, Nicholas, ‘RUSKIN’S IDEAS ON GROWTH IN ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT’, The British Journal of Aesthetics (Oxford University Press, 1973), 276–86 <http://dx.doi. org/10.1093/bjaesthetics/13.3.276>

Ruskin, John, and Ruskin John, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (New York: Hill and Wang, 1920) Sennett, Richard, and Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008) Stern, Robert A. M., Peggy Deamer, and Alan J. Plattus, eds., Re-Reading ‘Perspecta’: The First Fifty Years of the Yale Architectural Journal (United States: MIT Press, 2005) Unrau, John, Looking at Architecture with Ruskin (United States: University of Toronto Press, 1978) Yiu, Quentin, ‘The Eclectic Treatment of Structure: The Significance of Ornament in Carlo Scarpa’s Works’, 2016 <http://www.academia.edu/9969261/The_eclectic_treatment_of_structure_the_significance_of_ornament_in_Carlo_Scarpas_works> [accessed 4 April 2016]