Thursday, June 10, 2010

House Architecture | Architecture and Language


In modernity there are no more steady rules of connections. Connections are elliptical and changing. Syntax and grammar are relational; however, they are not whatever. Modernity is about the freedom of connections which are not reducible to pure logic or rationalism. Modernity is dreaming new languages which are beyond representation. Language is tied to dreaming freedom. Whoever destroys language destroys himself or herself.

Language is a second body. Delaunays' paintings, their "window to the city", the surrealist novel, the nouveau roman all explore language as a second body. It is the materialized soul. With Novalis the body becomes the stream, the night, the day, the cosmos. His "liquid girls" are the secret of language. To know that "milk is black" is also one of the many secrets of language linking us directly to the cosmos. Language is a secret naming.

Language is that which closes itself over the void. Mallarmé and Duchamp show us, that if the universe is language,-its face is empty. Their works are trajectories in search of meaning. Doing Architecture is a love for language. It is like going to the desert and absorbing the lessons of the stream. It is being alone: the horizon and earth meeting, vastness, emptiness, movement, change and space. It is the courage to be able to face the "empty face" of the universe that allows for new possibilities of languages and forms of life.

Language is always somewhat ahead of our thoughts, just like writing or drawing. Surrealist writing, the drawing or sketch in Architecture, are the flow of language, it is a form of swimming, diving into something which is already there, like the city with all its superimpositions. As with the superimpositions found in Cezanne or Schindler's work, the superimposition and layering of space, volumes and colors. Language is ahead of our thoughts. It is more than just a matter of the brain. The heart, the soul, emotions and the body make for the corporeality of language. Language has an intimate connection to experience. It is a part of an intricate weave, like the air we breathe.

This is why language, writing and drawing have a deep and secret power to promote being. The imagination hungers for images. Drawing is not a depiction but a way of thought of expression; it is a figurative language like a form of writing. Scarpa says: " I draw because I want to see." It is a seeing and knowing in the mind. Scarpa's work doesn't so much take place in an arena of visual perception as in the vicinity of a linguistic competence. He never fell into historical styles because his interests were of a relational nature: " A Transparency of relations". According to Octavio Paz "Light is time thinking of itself." Scarpa works the light critically; it is a criticism in the romantic sense, not one of exclusion, but of inclusion of the object and work of art. The work of art becomes aware of itself.
Language is a place; there is a desire in language to orient and to have a standpoint. The language of Architecture is like the eye of language, it is about another kind of seeing. Language is like a plan or a section, it is generative, and it is a relational instrument. Architecture like language is polysemous, polyphonic and polysemantic. Architecture is about giving time and space for the articulation of different visions, voices and their multiple interconnectedness. Architecture and language are, like paintings, in the words of Clemenceau: "A way of looking deep into the eyes of the world."

Questioning and doubt are internal to language and architecture. In Chinese "but" is the radical root of the ideogramme "mouth" and "who" is the radical root of the ideogramme "language". Questioning lies at the heart of language. Words, like walls, planes, light and space, desire to enwrap and to show themselves; to traverse their own space. The issue perhaps is less to just let "words run loose", as to keep them within reach of their possibilities and within reach of their suggestive powers. The desire for words to show themselves also speaks of the strong relationship between language and joy. Words, like materials, space and light are the heaviness of emptiness. Language is that which closes itself over the void.

Language and Architecture are a kind of writing into the void, into the black, the dark and the shadow. It is in this black or shadow where words and architectural elements meet. The darkness of language is like a protection from too much self-reflection.

Language is more than just communication or understanding. It is about being alone and about taking risks. When I enter a building, it is like entering language with all its nuances, shades and inflections; and just like poetry, it likes to have a voice, it likes to be read, to be experienced and it likes to be a challenge.

To hear one word as if it were thousands of words is about the superimposition inherent in language. Language and Architecture exist as superimpositions. There is a presence and absence of language. The passivity of language is a kind of center which allows language to exist, and we should allow a word, like a house, the possibility to open itself unto all possible worlds or experiences which live in it. Writing is a kind of forgetfulness; it is the subconscious of language. Matisse's figures in blue are a kind of writing with the scissors into color. Similarly Yves Klein's body paintings, it is always the whole body which is involved in language and in architecture.

Language is another way of seeing and imagining. It is language which thinks and suffers, just as it is also the imagination which thinks and suffers. There is a subversive power in language, a magic beyond communication. Brancusi's Endless Column has a magical rhythm with which we can catch a glimpse of infinity. The Endless Column is like a revelation. Naming, the innermost nature of language is about naming the unnamable it is about doing the impossible. Herein lays the heart of architecture.
Language is a place and like writing it is about a return to the Zero Point. It is like writing on a blank page. It is about changing the world. Architecture has a memory of this desire for wanting to transform the world. The banal memory is like a dam against creative memory. Banal memory secures against loss, when, on the contrary, loss is a necessary part of memory. Memory is possible because of repetition. It is repetition of metaphors, symbols, words, myth and figures that give to language, to architecture and to the city the space and time to remember.

Language is a promise.

This text has been inspired by Paola Iacucci's
Three Houses and other Buildings by Gangemi
Publishers

Gabrielle is an architect, artist and writer. She completed her studies at Columbia and Princeton Universities in the USA. She currently lives in Switzerland where she has her own architectural practice. Her websites are: http://www.gabriellevonbernstorff.com and http://www.gabriellevonbernstorff.ch.

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House Architecture | Facts About China Architecture and Chinese Buildings Art


China's distinctive architecture makes up an important part of China's splendid civilization. Together with Western and Muslim architecture, the three styles comprise the world's major architectural systems.

In the Paleolithic Age, Chinese ancestors lived on fishery and hunting, and were sheltered in trees and caves. In the Neolithic Age, Chinese ancestors engaged in raising animals and farming, and settled down by digging caves and by building simple houses with twigs and lumber, thus commencing their architectural activities.During the 3,000 years of the feudalist society, Chinese ancient architecture formulated gradually its unique system, coupled with a considerable progress in urban planning, garden designing, and house construction technique. In 221 B.C., the First Emperor of the Qin Empire mobilized the resources of the country to do construction works on a massive scale, including A' Fang Palace, the Emperor's Mausoleum, the Great Wall and the Dujiangyan Water-Conservancy Project. In the Later dynasties, many more massive construction works of lasting fame were carried out.

China's wood frameworks are unique in the world. They reflect the values, aesthetic and ethical standard of the Chinese people. Chinese architecture is rooted in cultural tradition and features several characteristics. It highlights absolute imperial power and strict social status. The best examples of this can be found in the palaces and forbidden cities. Chinese architecture also stresses overall beauty and its axial layout pattern is widely used in buildings. The Chinese style also incorporates elements of nature and emphasizes a graceful, reserved and easy-going beauty. Apart from the Han ethnic group, architecture in the ethnic minorities is also diversified and distinct.

Chinese architecture can be categorized into imperial palaces, religious temples, ancient gardens, tombs group and ordinary ethnic residences.

The online website of the China travel agency - China Fact Tours has fruitful information regarding facts about China and China Architecture [http://www.chinafacttours.com/facts/a], as well as a great deal of practical China travel information and travel resources be of help before you plan a trip to China!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=C_Lee

House Architecture | Historical Architecture and the NRHP



Polo, Illinois is a small city of about 2,500 in Ogle County, a county whose largest settlement has less than 10,000 people. The rural communities in Ogle County are astounding and filled with history, art and architecture, if you know where to look. Armed with a list of sites in Polo from the National Register of Historic Places, I started looking at the Polo Public Library - a building that is one of five in Polo that share that status.

The Polo Library is a Carnegie Library that was constructed in 1903-04. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The librarians were friendly, giving me contact information for Polo citizens affiliated with historic preservation, and, most importantly, providing me with directions to an elusive lime kiln nearby. The woman I spoke with chased me down in the cold of January several blocks from the library because she had given me the wrong email address by mistake. Very kind.

Also in Polo is a cluster of architecturally important houses, all near each other, and all listed on the National Register, two of them the work of Joseph Lyman Silsbee (wiki) one of which reminds me of the important, earlier Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Winslow House.

Silsbee was an influential and very important American architect. He served as an early mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and was very influential on the young architect and other architects of the Prairie School. While the house is pretty obviously Classically influenced, some of the trademarks of Prairie style that Frank Lloyd Wright would later make famous are clearly visible, including leaded art glass and a low pitched roof. The building was constructed from 1899-1901 and added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1993.

Behind the Bryant and Lucie Barber House is another Silsbee work, this one older. The 1891 Henry D. Barber House is more Classically obvious than its neighbor but still not what I would call a high-style example of Classical Revival. It's an important work by an important architect, one that can be compared and contrasted with his other work, next door, from eight years later. The Henry Barber House was listed on the NRHP in 1974.

The other house listed on the National Register in Polo is across Mason Street from the two Silsbee works. It's an ornate Queen Anne style mansion known as the John McGrath House. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) hasn't made the NRHP nomination forms available online (despite their assurance to me that they were available) for any of the listed buildings in Polo so I don't know much about the McGrath House. I submitted a request to the National Park Service, and the IHPA but haven't heard back from either of them.

What I do know about the McGrath House is that it was designed by someone named George W. McBride. Unfortunately, the only George W. McBride I know of served as a United States Senator from Oregon. Though the senator was alive in 1896 when the house was built, he was not an architect and had no affiliation with Illinois anywhere I can find. I can only conclude that it is someone different. The McGrath House was listed on the NRHP in 1996.

Online Resources

*Buffalo Township Public Library: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency Property Information Report

*Joseph Lyman Silsbee: Biographies:

*Bryant and Lucie Barber House: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency Property Information Report

*Bryant and Lucie Barber House: NRHP

*Henry D. Barber House: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency Property Information Report

*John McGrath House: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency Property Information Report

*John McGrath House: NRHP

There are three non-residential sites in Polo listed on the National Register.

Article written by Andy McMurray a freelance writer and photographer based in DeKalb, Illinois. He has worked at DeKalb's Daily Chronicle, The Midweek, and the Northern Illinois University newspaper, the Northern Star. Known variously around the Internet as Dr. Gonzo or IvoShandor, Andy's wide ranging interests and knowledge in history, architecture, historic preservation, art and science have allowed McMurray to excel in penning both fiction and non-fiction pieces. In addition to pursuing a fiction career Andy has written and photographed extensively for English Wikipedia. http://www.AndyMcMurray.com

Article edited for EzineArticles and submitted by Bart Richardson, aka The Insatiable Insomniac who rants about what he fancy's. View some of his strange and entertaining ideas at http://www.FunWithInsomnia.com That is all.

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