The act of creating one object is connected to the act of reimagining the whole world.
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NEST OR CAVE?
A nest and a cave are both primordial forms of architecture, yet in a sense these two are antithetical. A nest signifies a hospitably arranged ‘func- tional place’ for the benefit of resident persons (or animals). In opposition, a cave exists autonomously from humanity. It is a place that emerged as a natural phenomenon irrespective to the convenience or otherwise to its inhabitants. Yet, in questioning the unsuitability of the cave, such assump- tion is not true. In a cave, there are various convexo-concave surfaces, unforeseeable expansions and contractions. Upon entering a cave, human- ity can rediscover the ways of life from those geological features. Gradually, they begin to assimilate their lives to this geomorphology, such that: these depressions appear appropriate for sleeping; the height here is compatible for dining; or, these alcoves can be small private spaces. In other words, a cave is not functional but heuristic. Instead of an authoritarian functionalism, it poses as a place where various activities are stimulated and facilitated. There, the humanity will discover new utilities on a daily basis.
As such, a nest and a cave might appear alike but in fact these two are diametrically opposed concepts. One is a functional place made for humans, and the other is a place that predates mankind; an ‘autres’ place for people. Yet, precisely because it is an externality, the probabilities of serendipitous discoveries permeate the place. Furthermore, it need not appear like a cave to be called a cave. Instead, we can imagine what may be called a transparent cave wherein the cavernous quality is manifested into a pure form.
The future of architecture, I believe, must be places analogous to caves rather than nests. I think this will be more enriching. Yet, the problem remains that a cave itself is a naturally derived geomorphology; engendered with a promising discoverability by its quality as an externality to human- ity. Are the ‘artificial caves’ attainable in ‘manmade architecture’? This is the big conundrum concerning our ability to willfully create something that is devoid of or transcends intentionality. Only the artificial and transparent cave points toward the potentialities of architecture of tomorrow.
GRADATIONS
Gradation will become the keyword for the future of architecture. For instance, there are infinite colorific degrees between white and black, and innumerable values between 1 and 0. Conventional architecture systematizes our world in the name of “functionalism”, as if clearly differentiated into black and white. However, our contemporary lives are sustained by myriads of unpredictable actions that lie between them.
Unlike the Internet, space is not capable of switching from 0 to 1 instantaneously. Conversely, the allure of space must lay in its ability to actualize in reality the possibilities of a gradation in between 0 and 1.
Gradations lay dormant in diverse places. They can be found in between: interiority and exteriority; architecture and urbanism; furniture and architecture; private and public; theatres and museums; houses and streets; matter and space; morning and night; comprehensibility and incomprehensibility; and dynamism and immobility. In between multitude of concepts, we should be able to uncover unforeseen gradations and provide them new forms. The idea of gradation will herald the immense possibilities of architecture.
MUSICAL NOTES WITHOUT STAVES – THE NEW GEOMETRY
In the five stave musical notation system, the melodic notes are placed on the grid-like staves and the melody lines denote the “homogeneous time”. This method resembles the modern architecture in which the ordination of elements is predicated on the “homogeneous space” of the Cartesian coordinate system. Consequently, empty staves devoid of inscriptions must be the architecture of Mies van der Rohe. Mies asserted that architecture (=music) was the staves themselves, not in the acoustic tonality inscribed in those five staves. He was able to clearly envision the foundations of architecture.
Take away the five staves and draw only the notes with which sounds afloat. Would this be a chaos? Not so. Here, relationships emerge amongst the notes. Myriads of notes are mutually intertwined in the vast web of interrelationships. There exists a dynamic and gentle order engendered by local relationships. This order indicated by the musical notes is precisely the order of the 21st Century architecture.
KIMONO AND BODY
In Europe, clothes are three-dimensionally made to fit the human body. On the other hand, Japanese kimonos are basically a flat plane. A form emerges when someone wears a kimono as the flat surface of a fabric interacts with the three-dimensional body. Furthermore, human bodies are dynamic. With every corporeal movement, the interaction is continually readjusted between the fabric and body to manifest sequential forms. Japanese kimonos do not trace the outlines of the human body, but rather trace the multiplicity of human movements. Otherwise, it can be said to design the air around one’s body; in other words, it is designing the interaction between a body and its kimono.
A human body is not motionless; it constantly sways, moves and transforms. The clothing for human bodies embodies those dynamisms and made to manifest human figures within myriads of interactions and slippages. Human lives are also never necessarily motionless; constantly swaying, unpredictable and transforming. Therefore, the places for human lives ought to embody those dynamisms, and at times provoke, to produce lively sceneries set in the network of myriad divergences and interactions.
In Issey Miyake’s works, materials, fabrication method, shapes, the relationship to a human being, functionality, beauty, movement, transformation, recycling, technology, an element of surprise, tradition, future, and above all joy, all crystallize into one. Analogous to an ecosystem, this singularity is the result of powerful network amongst and starts to define each other. The act of creating one object is connected to the act of reimagining the whole world.
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Abstracts and drawings from magazine El Croquis nº 151, Sou Fujimoto 2003-2010.
Photographs:
Sou Fujimoto (David Vintiner)
Serpentine gallery (http:// blogsias.gr)
Diseño de Issey Miyake (Irving Penn, 1983)
