CHAPTER 2 CONCEPTS AND THEORIES
3.5 Role of Imagery and Form
3.5.2 Architectural Metaphors
The competitive drive of global society and the determination architects have for their designs to be exposed to the mass media has caused and increase in the production of buildings aimed at creating iconic recognition. Jenks (2005) holds that “self-important buildings characterize our time” (Jenks, 2005: 30). Visual metaphors created by the form of a building establish a reaction from viewers which subsequently generate an iconic rank. However, it is essential that the metaphors are coherent and well thought off if the building is to retain its iconic prominence (Jenks, 2005: 30). Mc Guirk (2006) writes about the metaphors of buildings contradicting Jencks, “the more things it can look like, the better it is”(Mc Guirk, 2006: 2).
Certain Iconic buildings tend to influence economic factors which disregard whether or not the building relates to its surrounding context, its users and the functions it houses such as the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in central Edinburg (Figure 12). Designed by Enric Miralles the building was complete in 2004 in contradiction to its scheduled opening in 2001.
The project was highly criticised by politicians, media and the Scottish public as the final building costs estimated at £414 million conflicting to the initial estimates of £40m
42 | P a g e Figure 13: Durban City Hall (left), Belfast City Hall (right)
Source: KZNIA, 2006:2
Figure 12: New Scottish Parliament building
Source:http://makdreams.tumblr.com/post/1385337486/urchinmoveme nt-scottish-parliament-building
(http://scottish-parliament-building.co.tv/#cite_note-jencks_11)". Despite the disapprovals and assortment of environmental,
construction and budgetary inadequacies, the building
was welcomed by
architectural academics and critics as the design aimed at a poetic union between the Scottish landscape, its people, culture and the city of Edinburgh. This won the parliament building numerous awards and it has been described as “a tour de force of arts and crafts and quality without parallel in
the last 100 years of British architecture” (http://scottish-parliament-building.co.tv/#cite_note- jencks_11).
Building metaphors are also used as an element of power, such as the Durban City Hall (Figure 13) which was built in 1910 by Stanley G Hudson, which is a replica of the Belfast City Hall built in 1906, in North
Ireland by H&J Martin and WH Stephens (KZNIA, 2006:2). The British disregarded the differences in climate and topography and were fixated on celebrating and emphasising their power and culture in the region. The
design is dominates its surroundings due to its scale and detailing.
The global culture of design is supported by architects who study what other architects are creating, no matter where. With photographs in magazines and professional journals, trend- conscious designers can scan and span the globe, sharing high-style concepts rendered in stylish materials. Glass, aluminum, stainless steel, copper, titanium, and natural stone are readily available. If they cannot be acquired locally, they can be imported. An American architect Ralph T. Walker spoke about the idea of an international style which is untailored to local traditions and further explained by his following words: “I have been around South America
43 | P a g e Figure 14: Doha 9
Source:http://redchalksketch.wordpress.co m/2010/08/03/in-progress-doha-office- tower-qatar-ateliers-jean-nouvel-nelson- garrido/
recently and I have just come back from Europe, and I find everywhere that modern architecture means a slab on pillars. It means the same thing in the United States because you pick up the architectural magazines and practically every issue has as its leading number a slab on pillars…Functionalism of materials have blazed our thinking around the world because you will find that the building in Rio for the Education Ministry looks exactly like the building that was designed for a giraffe in the London Zoo, and it looks exactly like the building that has been designed for the United Nations. In other words, you have a cover of unthinking, u ncritical acceptance of things” (Tzonis, 2003: 27).
Doha has recently been chosen by the government to become the cultural pole of the Gulf region. The Doho office building also referred to as Doha 9 (Figure 14), designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel was aimed to become an iconic structure in the city.
Located between the new city centre and the Corniche on the north side of the bay, each floor offers panoramic views towards the Gulf on the east, the port on the south, the city on the west, the coast and the desert on the north. This 231m high, steel cladded structure, will certainly change the skyline of Doha, but in has no substantial elements in assimilating the funtions it houses with its imagery (www.designbuild- network.com/projects/doha9highrisseoffice).
Buildings are designed for the sole purpose of showcasing their attire, it is the imagery and excitement that the media wants, and the architects are
aware of this. Harshad Bhatia in Architecture+Design (2005): “whether it is a museum in Bilboa, Spain by Frank Gehry or another museum in Berlin, Germany by Daniel Libeskind, the building design conforms to a new felt necessity of being an artefact. „Architecture as an artifact‟ is the maxim of the new generation designer. What it contains is just engulfed within its superior expression as the designer on the new age. Function follows form. And form follows freedom. Freedom follows delight. And delight is fun for the designer and visitor” (Bhatia, 2005: unknown). Jenck (2005) mentions that the hierarchy of building typologies of the past is been challenged as shopping malls and office buildings are labelled as iconic and subsequently elevated. He suggests that the solution may lie in returning to the „hierarchy of decorum‟ which limits the building typology that is allowed to be iconic.
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