Empty Spaces, Empty forms

From my understanding, ‘empty space’ and ‘empty form’ are not the same thing, but very closely related.  These terminologies are derived from a theory, so there are no exact meanings to them, depending on each person’s interpretation.

Empty space, from my point of view, refers more to the physical characteristic, like empty room, abandoned buildings, etc. this can be caused from many factors, such as restrictions made (like IIT Crown Hall that have a lot of confinement to the users), but the main reason, I think, is that its function ceased to exist.  Buildings that were designed using “form follows function” way almost always have a couple of specific uses.  If those uses disappear, the buildings usually cannot survive.  Examples are old factories that are abandoned due to the use of outsource in modern world.

Empty forms, again, from my point of view, refer to a more abstract field.  They are forms that have no specific use or function, but they were created to be ambiguous, leaving the usage open for users renditions. One of the examples would be the ‘Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe’ by Peter Eisenman.  It is indeed built in memories to the Jews murdered during the World War II, but since its form is just clusters of rectangles in a big field, there are so many possibilities of what these forms can be

Nevertheless, empty spaces can be empty forms.  Looking back at those abandoned factories, many of them were reused and renovated, but not as functioning factories anymore, but as houses, shops, and condominiums.  In this case the user decided to look for the new function, new interpretation, of the existing structure and completely changed the use of it.

From my point of view, empty forms are a better design goal for us architects.  Since functions of architecture can change over time, designing an empty form is an interesting solution to make sure the architecture we design is built to last.

Reality, NOT!

Hyperreality is the phenomenon when your consciousness can’t distinguish between reality and simulation of reality.  It is when what is real and what is artificial blended together you couldn’t tell which is which.  There are many situations that really happen, like a Korean couple that let their daughter starve to death because they are busy raising their virtual child in an online game.  In this case their consciousness could not tell reality apart from virtual reality (VR), so they choose the wrong choice.

We also were given an example of hyperreality in this film called “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”, where Sacha Baron Cohen acted as a Kazakh journalist named Borat Sagdiyev travelling to America to study about cultures.  This movie has a concept of hyperreality because, unlike most movies, which are shot in studios or set-up places with actors, it filmed Borat communicating with people who have no idea they are being filmed.  Thus, what people interacted with Borat in the movie was their reality, simulated by Borat.  What is funny about this movie is that the simulation of ignorance of the Kazakh, acting what is called stupid and awkward in America, like walking around on the street, trying to introduce yourself and kiss every on the cheeks.  My favorite part is the driving lesson, where Borat and the instructor discussed on various topics regarding the life and laws in America, and Borat would give some weird reflects of what it is like in Kazakhstan.  It gives people false impressions and ideas towards Kazakhstan.  It makes us think of the way people live there were really like what Borat told us. 

Your Design, My Design

design |dəˈzīn|: do or plan (something) with a specific purpose or intention in mind

‘Design’ is the word we heard a lot, but it is hard to really explain what this word means.  Even us architecture students still could not define it specifically.  But I think the meaning of the word ‘design’ can be many things according to each person’s interpretation.  If we look at the typology, it composes of the prefix ‘de-’, which could be translated as ‘remove’ or ‘decrease’, and the word ‘sign’.  This, I think, could mean decoding, decomposing the sign and reading it in a deeper perspective.

Some signs, like road signs, show their obvious meanings, because they are meant to be easy to read and to make everyone understand the same thing.  But there are signs that invented by personal preference, such as the “V-sign” by Winston Churchill.  It is the sign made by raising index and middle fingers, parting.  It looks like sign for “two” and can also be confused with “the finger” as an insult.  Nevertheless, Winston designed a brand new sign, which later became popular worldwide.

In my own interpretation, design is not just innovation; it could mean to improve the existing stuffs.  Since signs are representation of objects, there is freedom for everyone to play with the possibilities of their meaning, whether to change the whole understanding of that or to use our common understanding of the sign.  When we look at a pentagon shape, a familiar shape that, I could say, everyone drew when we were kids, we all could see that it represents a house.  Herzog and de Meuron played with this shape in their storehouse by extruding the simple pentagon shapes and stack them together.  People who pass by can see the glowing sign of a ‘house’ and interpret that this is a store for house products.

Phenomenology: It's sublime.

Phenomenology in architecture is the concept that would gives us effect of extreme feelings when we encountered certain space.  ‘Sublime’, one of the examples of feelings that you can get from phenomenology, is the feeling like you are on the verge of death and then back again.  Several architectures can stimulate this feeling, like Etienne-Louis Boullée’s cenotaph for sir Isaac Newton.  He made the entrance a small straight path, then, suddenly; you entered a big spherical room so big that it is like the universe itself.  The shock of abrupt, huge change in space can cause you to stun in awe.  Sublime.

This concept could be integrated into our studio design works as well.  As I said earlier that most of the time people experience architecture in the state of distraction, but if we manage to stun them, turn they attention to the space we design, we could bring people to appreciate architecture more.  In studio design this semester, we are to make an exhibition pavilion to house 10 sculptures by Thai artists.  These arts are very interesting and beautiful, yet not many get to see them since they were kept in faraway and quite secretly placed museum.  I decided to make a pavilion kind of plain on the exterior, but when entered, visitors would see a lot of spinning mechanics and moving colored glasses, which would stimulate a bizarre experience and, I hope, give them an unexpected feeling.

Maybe the pavilion would give an interesting lighting?