Parametricism and the Virtuals

                Parametric is a new style of architecture that emerges after the period of modernism. This Parametricism has unique characteristics in term of forms compared to the previous styles due to the “flow” of it. We can see from many parametric buildings that their forms has been adapt from the normal geometric to a much more flexible yet systematic shapes. It is quite clear that parametric introduces complex dynamic forms that have been designed with the use of computer programs. The software has a great role to help the designer create new architectures by curves, slopes, patterns, etc. The parametric show us that aesthetic values are one of the main components of it, while the surroundings of the building also has a great impact on the designing shape.

                One of my favorite examples of parametric in architecture comes from one of the most well-known architect, Zaha Hadid. Her work such as “Beko masterplan” and “abu dhabi performing art centre” are very impressive examples that we can literally see the “flow” from those buildings. We can see that parametric buildings are not just only about designing unique forms, there has some connections with the environments as well. I had to admit that it is interesting to see that parametricism and space existed and also complementing each other. We can see that prametricism is not just random forms but it is in fact, carefully calculated both in terms of functions and aesthetic which is very impressive for me.

                Then what is the “virtual”? It is the term that refers to things that seems to be real but actually it is not. It might seems hard to imagine what I am talking about but if you look at our daily lives closely you will find that we actually has connections with this virtual that we might think. Virtual can be seen mostly in simulated worlds, games and even the internet itself that we all use nowadays. The idea is about having parallel worlds that seems to be quite real for example The Sims but actually it is not even close to our reality, it just seem to be. It cannot be touch physically but in mentally it can be even more real than our world that some people might think it is ideal, just like the gamer couples that “accidently” left their own child to death of hunger while living in their own “virtual” world.

The Dialogue

Things and Objects

                These two words are quite common in our daily life, actually it may be seen too many times that we started to ignore the real meaning of it. First I would like to start with the different in meaning of these words. It is very difficult in order to explain the different but I would say that everything can be considered as an object but not just everything can be refers as thing.

                 According to my understanding we separate things and objects by its function. Things refer to something that has more than one function as the time goes by it started to have more and more use of it, assigned by not just humans but sometimes animals as well. We can see in the film Dawn of Man, bone that is actually made as a structure in our body suddenly develop another function thanks to the apes, bone become a tool/weapon which obviously new task for it. The bone has been “objectified” just like many things else in our world, the nature helps evolving “things” along with time. On the other hand, objects are refer to things that stick to the reason at the beginning and keep it that way through time. It can be said that objects are timeless, they stay as what they were before, while things keep changing over time along with human and animals. The evolution of nature and lifestyle causes things to keep going non-stop. 

The system of ecology

When talking about a theory that involve deep ecology, first thing to understand is that the different in perspectives between normal and deep. Both of them may concern about same thing or object but the boundary of each type are quite different. When we talk about a deep ecology of something no matter it is an object, or living organism, we always study in a large scale. Let think about it for a second, and then try to imagine a pen as an example. In a holistic point of view, we only analyze mainly about its components and function, but when we go beyond that into the “deep ecology” we are not just observe about how many parts of it? Or about how they move? We are looking at the connections between the pen and the natural resources, basically the world. We are questioning how it was made? Which materials do we need? How much do we have to use? Or even how this pen will affects the future world.

As you can see that, deep ecology is basically the study of relationships that goes beyond simple things into a more serious consequence. We can say that it is about the chain effects that one thing can create, which is very interesting because there are many examples that shows how important this theory could be. Let’s think about the system as a plan to perfection and then apply it to the concept of topos. I personally think that system is what makes a place become a utopia because the fact that system would provide the best solution for many things for example the most suitable way to organize resources, which sure will create a well community. But still, just like the utopia, this system is not entirely real, it is like a guideline which is not practical enough for us, the human. So, the will not only lack of the ability to change human nature but also it will not guaranteed that people will followed it to the letter. For me, it is still just an idea, but a great idea that help every people in a  scale. 

The topos

When we talked about utopia, dystopia and heterotopia, we are actually talking about the different types of a place. As you can see all of those three keywords consist of the word “top”. The word “top”, also known as “topo” has the same meaning, they all mean “place”. So, these words are basically talking about good and bad places.

                The first word that most of us are very familiar with is Utopia, which means Good-place. The word literally refer to its meaning, it used to describe those wonderful places such as the Garden of Eden or the Radiant City from Le Corbusier. They are refers to a place that are very good to the society but yet most of them are still imagination or unreal. While the heterotopia is like a reflection, reflects us physically and mentally.

                Similar but complete different from Utopia is Dystopia. It means bad-place or the place where they are not suitable for an ideal lifestyle. We can see in some movie as well about the perspectives towards the concept of dystopia. The film called “Hunger Games” is one of a great example of a bad place.  The films narrowed us through different kinds of topo, by showing two different societies, first one is a very utopia-like city, which has a very luxury lifestyle. We can say that they are living in a perfect world while there are also thirteen small districts that servers the main city. Those districts are living with a very cruel lifestyle, in order to keep the city going. This is an image of how a dystopia would look like.

                So, there are not just about place anymore, the detail goes beyond that and show the complexity that a place can become. Both good and bad places are mainly based on our perspectives and the lifestyle that those places can provide for us.

A Space and The Place

Space and Place has a very similar meaning that is quite confusing so, what exactly is the different between a Space and a Place? I would like to start with this conversation with a quote that I’ve heard, “Home is where you make it”. The quote came from a movie called Joe Dirt (2001), the film is about a homeless boy that has been travel around the world trying to find his long lost parents for years. The story shows that even he manage to find his house and parents but for him it is not where he belongs, It is not his place to be. For him, home is a place where he has his friends alongside him. So, now we should talk about House and Home, both of them has basically the same functions but we choose to define them according to the emotions, feelings, experiences and meanings that we have for each of them.

Space and Place are used differently by different users, in order to describe a location. We use the word space to describe the location which mostly likely has no other relationship for us except as a location. Then when we use the word Place, it is quite different because the place always has some special relationship to us, it has something that makes this location special and has a story behind it, as I have said earlier. The best example would be when we talk about a location such as our class room, for those who are not study in this particular room, the class room is just only an ordinary space for them. But for us, this classroom is a place where it has a meaning to us, because we shared many meaningful things to this place.

We can see that every time that we use a space, we also add some values to it and simply transform that space to a place. Our experiences create new boundaries which defines the location differently. So, just like the quote “Home is where you make it”. I would say the same thing that a place is also where you make it. Or I would say that a place is literally where we shared our meaningful story with.

The Erotics

                 Erotic, this simple word has a very important impact towards our lives, maybe even more than what we might think. The concept of Erotic is about adding and creating unique feelings into a spaces. Those essences  of erotic is like a phenomenology that not just only caught the viewer’s attentions but it also stimulate additional experiences for them as well through emotion, which comes in varies media. There are plenty of The Erotic in architecture that we might have seen before, no matter it was colors, shapes, voices or any other things, the main point of this is to create something special towards the space. This is a very complex theory that eventually results in most likely surprise and excitement, due to the ability to change even the most simple box room into the most memorable space by itself. This is why the Erotic is such a very powerful element in our lives.

                The concept of the Erotic does not just exist in only architecture as I had stated before. One of a very effective example would be when the concept of erotic has been show in film industry, the movie called Fight Club is the perfect example of this. The movie itself represents the Erotic by showing the perspective of a world where most people act like all of them are in IKEA catalogue, no unique tastes or feelings. In the film, the main character sick of this kind of tasteless people and then seek for a different aesthetic that are unique from the world he bored of. He chooses to be in a small group of fighters that he created in order to be separate from the old world and be unique from others in that world. He fights not to fulfilled his sadism but actually because it creates what he think is true feelings for him, unlike those programmed feelings that people automatically felt for example: like all the people who went all the way to Louvre Museum in order to see the great painting of Mona Lisa, then just keep taking pictures and pretends that the painting is the greatest thing to see like all the others there. We can see that in fight club, he just trying to avoid this kind of pre-scripted actions and keeps on finding the best way for him successfully stays in the true feelings that fighting creates, even in the end it just went too far, from normal to chaotic beyond control, but yet the movie did a pretty good job expressing the concept of the erotic in a simple way.

                For me, the erotic as we can see is a theory that really has many effects on people. It might not be one of the easiest concept of all and also can create problems if people went too far with it, but I would say that we cannot avoid the fact that it helps a lot in creating what I would called, Values, towards our feelings on that spaces or even ourselves. It will be even better when combined with other theories just to support each concept and improves the outcome in the same time. 

Aesthetic

                Have you even wondered why do we have so many types of buildings? Why do we need different kinds of clothes? Why do we have so many unique styles of cars? We can see that in our world today, there are so many things that are different in appearance but exactly the same function and use. So the main question should be, why do people always choose different things? It is because that fact that we have different tastes, that’s why.

                The word Aesthetic can be refer to taste, actually it is the same thing. Aesthetic means the ability to decide and judge everything around us. We tended to choose what we think it best for us and sometimes for people around us as well. The society that we lived in today has so many kinds of things that we can choose, for example in fashion, we have over hundreds types of a t-shirt that we can choose. We can see that aesthetic make people choose the ones that they liked and related to their personal tastes. The same principals can be seen in other things as well .Basically the rules can be applied automatically to everything that has more than one option for us to choose.

                Now come to the aesthetic and architecture, aesthetic has a lot of impact directly to buildings than we might think of. In class, we are had a chance to choose between two buildings that almost all of us never seen or heard of, we had to choose one of them based on our taste only. The result was a little bit of surprise, yes, all of us have different tastes but the thing that are amazing about it is the fact that we had different reasons as well on the same answer. We can see that in architecture, it is quite a great challenge to create a building that can serve all the people tastes, actually I think it is impossible, and that is how thing works. In fact, we should say thank you to our nature to judge and to hate things, because this is the reason why we always develop and changing, we never stop at some point, and we will always want something new and unique all the time.

                As I said earlier that aesthetic is not only about personal taste, in fact society is another main factor that determine our aesthetic. If you have a trouble imagine what I am trying to say, just imagine those female Korean singers and models. You might probably noticed in just a few seconds that they all look very much alike each other. Actually so many of them look alike each other that you cannot tell which one is the one who has been copied. The main point is not about copy rights but it is about how media manipulates people, this shows us the fact that sometimes our ability to judge what is best for us were made from others people not ourselves. This is also why many people choose to follow celebrities on the television and in the end becomes a trend for certain groups. It is because aesthetic nowadays are not only about personal acceptations anymore, getting acceptation from the society is almost as important as well.

                So, I would say that aesthetic, are mainly a good thing that helps our society to move on from old things. Its helps the society to keep creating newer and better things to replace the previous ones that has been overused or over bored. Even that it can be manipulated by many factors but it is still better than not changing at all. It is one of the most useful emotions in our lives and society and will always be useful for all the developing society. 

Profane and Play

               Since we all are living in Thailand, a country of long lived history and many different cultures, it is quite common of us to see sacred places in our daily life. There are many religious in Thailand and almost every one of them has their own sacred version of structure such as temples and churches, each type has their own characteristic that is almost impossible to see the same look on different function. People elevate these places into a higher position among others types of structure so that, redefine the function would be some kind of an orthodox or what we call Profane.

                The concept of Profanity is when we try to redefine the concept of those untouchable sacred structures, we are challenging all believes and knowledge that we were born with. Profanity is like one of the unique perception that is not focused on creating a completely new thing, actually it is about using the existing space or form and then adds a new meaning into it. So far in my understanding, profanity is one way to adapt and evolve for a building, also a very brave action choice because playing with sacred places is not a common thing. There are so many possibilities both good and bad ways on the results, and to be able to succeed one good profanity building is risky and very challenging.

                Profanity in Thailand has many things to do with religions and cultures, and as I said earlier that Thailand has a very long history so, it is quite hard to play with these respective ancient architectures such as temples. There is one hotel in Chiang Mai that actually plays with the traditional form of temple, duplicated and redefined as a new luxury hotel. The hotel, in my opinion was a success in term of creates new function and space while still able to preserve the unique characteristic of the traditional temple. But there are always different believes and opinion, some would say that the sacred temple should not be used as anything rather than traditional use. Not just only in Buddhism but in Christianity as well, there is a similar situation in a painting of angry Jesus Christ. In the painting the god is getting angry because people have turned the church into something else by selling things inside of it. He was mad by the profanity of people that challenging this sacred house of god, it is considered as disrespectful and ruined the real value of the architecture.

                Profanity also happens to other designs rather than religious places as well. One of a very big example is from Rem Koolhaas. He is a well-known architect in terms of playful and a little bit of a badass, in my opinion. His works has a very unique style of getting people mad. The best example would be when he tries to create new architecture using Mies Van de Rohe, a well-known and widely accepted among architects as his inspiration. In the end, Rem managed to create a building with a façade that totally blown people away, he chooses Mies Van de Rohe’s face as a façade which is very unique way of inspiration. This is by far, has been consider as a playful profanity, even he did not play with religious believes but still Mies Van de Rohe is consider as one of the sacred and respectful among architects.

                So, I would say that Profanity is not something that we can judge, it is in between good and not good depends on different perspectives. It is just a way to of redefining process that is very challenging and risky in order to obtain a very successful one.

The Empty Form

                The term Empty Form is not a very common word that we used to describe a space in our daily life, but there are always exist among us. Empty Form can be seen in many places as we live in a modern world, a new generation that has been upgraded. We are living our lives differently from our previous generations, with these unique ways of living there are also unique functions to the architecture as well. But there is another type of space which is very similar to Empty Form yet very different, we called it Empty Space.

                So, what is Empty Form? Empty Form is a type of a space that is not an empty space. The Empty Space is a term used for a space that used to have a function before but then that particular function disappeared. From this, we can say that Empty Space is like a dead space where there is no function left for them anymore on the other hand, The Empty Form is a space that was designed and created to serve more than just one particular function. The Empty Form has a more flexible boundary that allows numbers of functions to fit in the form.    

                For me, I think Empty Form is a very interest type of architecture not just because of the variety of functions but also the sustainability that allows it to survive form time. Time is one of the main threat for almost any architecture, due to the fact that we are always evolve and develop our life into a better, easier, and faster way of living. This constant changes results in changing of functions as well. A very solid example would be those office buildings in the past, they were designs to fit hundreds of desks, and even more papers and cabinets for those office documentary. Today we change from paper documentary into a much more compact way which is the Internet, we kind of eliminate the old way of storing and communicating into electronics. So, these days nobody needs that office building to work on those documentary anymore, this results in an empty floors on the building that cannot serve the designed functions anymore, also there is no any other functions that can be fit either. This is sad but true facts of empty space, in the end they all lose to time.

                Then, how does Empty Form survive from time? Yes, it is because of the flexibility of it. The best example that I would like to show is the Holocaust Memorial. It is a very interest place due to the fact that this big piece of land has been cover with thousands of concrete blocks with varies heights aligns into a grid system. Even the place was meant to be a grave and monument for the holocaust but yet there is no sign of that in here, every block are empty. So unlike most architecture where functions were determined by the sign that has been placed on them, this place has absolutely nothing to define its functions. That is why, people started to recognize this place differently according to them. This place has been used for many activities, playing maze for kids, landmark for tourists, even for photo shooting and modeling. This monument can be transform into playgrounds or a stage due to the flexibility that overcome the change of time.

                So, how do we design an Empty Form? I take this as a very challenging task, because we have been asked to design not only just a space for a function but a space that will survive for many years or even decades. Not just that, we need to kind of predicting the upcoming future too, we need to make sure that the space will always serve a function no matter what period of time. So, I think it is not just a small task but a truly great creation, and I have almost no idea how to begin that. I think Empty Form is a very complex type of architecture that users and time will later determine its functions and how to create one of it.

Hyper Reality

                The term Hyper Reality is used to describe a state of mind when the reality has been interfered and manipulated by others things which results in simulations. It is when the power of the unreal started to affects our judgment, it become harder to separate what is real and what is not. We can see that there are many examples of hyper reality, not just only duplicated buildings but interestingly from movies as well.     

     

                We all have a chance to see a very funny yet creative comedy movie called Borat. The story introduces a concept of Hyper Reality by using characters created to be tourists in USA. These characters have almost entirely different cultures and perspectives that most of us considered it as pretty unique. The main characters, Borat and his associates are only just a few number of people who actually pretending, the others people in the films are unaware of any situation happened.  The movie is considered as a very funny thing to us because we all laugh at those unusual things that they did, those weird accents, body languages and habits are just a fake reality created for the movie. We can see that we basically laugh because those unaware people has been manipulated by the fake reality created by the movie, we laugh at the reaction that they make. It is quite funny to see how Hyper Reality can affects people this much.

                The movie keeps going and we all keep laughing at it, and then before we know it, we also got seduced right into the movie. In some point, the movie make us believe that it is real even we already know it is not. Our reality has been manipulated many times in the movie, just like those people in the films. I think this Hyper Reality is actually quite complicated yet very interest, the affects are quite impressive.

Design and Translation

                There is a very important connection between these two word and our lives that we might think of. The definition of the word design is, to de-sign or we can say that it means to detach ourselves from away from the sign itself. So the question will be what is a sign? For me a sign is like a system created in order to organize our lives and make it quite easier for all of us. The sign’s job is to simplify and represents s things in a more international way, we could say that sign simply make us notice and understand thing quick. One of the most effective examples will be a painting of a pipe from Rene Magritte. The painting simple show us a picture of a pipe, this is when the question comes to our minds that what is it? We would say that it is a pipe but little did we know that it’s not what we think, it is NOT a pipe, but it’s actually a picture of a pipe. The picture represent how signage affects us in our daily lives, it changes how we see things into a more automatic response.

                In architecture there are also something similar to the painting of a pipe as well. There are many architects who understand this concept of signs and then adapt the concept into the buildings. We can see that many buildings such as the Seagram building which built with steel I-beam on a plain sight are using the concept of signs. The reason why these buildings choose to show the materials that usually be hidden is because it is not just a material but it is also a sign. Those structures are signs of functions, which tell us about the background of the construction.  

                Now after we understand about signs, we need to know about translation, which is the way that we can detach our mind from the system and started to analyze by ourselves rather than just follow the system that we were born into. The concept of translation allows us to think beyond the automatic thoughts in our daily life. It can be explain in a very simple way by using shapes. Let say that we have a picture of a pentagon shape, I assume that most of us would interpreted the picture as a house, the simple shaped house that we used to draw when we are young yet, already programmed by signs. This is when architects tried to change how the translation works by create buildings that will redefined the old house shape.

                In the lecture, there is a house that got the inspiration from this pentagon house, the architect choose to represent a new definition to it by creating it into an exact shape of a pentagon house but the tricks are this building has be elevated above the ground, slightly shift windows and door from the position and yet the most interesting thing about this, an entrance that located underneath the structure. The house is using the same shape but yet created in a whole new definition for us to translate. We can see that this is a great example of how translation can be used to redefined and transform buildings into something new beyond the system.

Phenomenology and Pavilion

Phenomenology and Pavilion design project.     

                The term phenomenology for me is referring to the study of hidden elements that has an effect on people’s emotions and conscious. These elements are like spirits, they happen to be everywhere hiding around spaces. They create uniqueness and values that cannot be experience anywhere else.  The concept of this phenomenology separates designed space from just normal ones, due to the ability to communicate with people through structures and particles.

                In architecture, the concept has been used many times in order to add more values into the design, it creates more than just experiences, and in fact it creates identity to the building. The uniqueness of each building speaks the hidden message from the designer by itself. All parts of the building such as walls, floor, windows and even materials carry fragments of the spirit that we can feel in the second we see them.

                The concept of my pavilion was extracted from my selected sculpture and eight more pieces, I need to create a space for all of them to be displayed together without mixing up the hidden messages they carried with. I managed to create a proper space of all of them with a story line about human life from the very second we were born until the last second we that we can feel our breath got taken away. The main concept of my pavilion is focus on unity, derived from the sculpture that creates in order to symbolize our society and those second class citizens who has been ignored for their hard work for so long. The structure transform the concept in to a pavilion that consist of many elements combined together, supporting and strengthening each other, create a complex structure from simple pieces. All of the truss and steel structures have been concealed almost completely to reflect our society that only a few of us can see the real meaning of unity. The only supporting structure that can be seen was right at the center of an area, this is for the structure to directly shout out to the people walking by about their hard work, carrying and protecting us from collapsing on our own creations (society as the roof).

                The plan of the pavilion also creates from the concept of unity, the circular shapes that has been scaled, tilted, rotated and adjust into a circulation for each sculpture also fulfilled the purpose by providing many paths for people to choose but in the end we all walking on the same as people around you. It contain a deep meaning that says, no matter who we are or where we came from, we still living and dying in the same cycle(path), it is inescapable and people should understand this message more and more while walking inside.

                The pavilion was design to look simple but yet to be very direct in terms being a symbol that reflects the society along with those hard workers that has been forgotten due to an illusion of the surroundings. The concept of phenomenology has been used many times and has been expecting to be effective enough as a symbol in order to remind people about life and way of living within the illusion of the surroundings. 

Theories, and Interpretations

                Have you ever wondered why kids need special care from parents, why they need to be taught, guided and protected? Every teaching that has been given is due to the fact that when a child was born, he/she has absolutely zero understanding of our world. Guidelines are inevitable for everybody, by with those guidelines, it becomes a boundary that limits our way of understand. We could say that, our basic thoughts were programmed into our brains since the first day that we were born.

                It is quite an interesting argument for those who claims that we all born with freedom. They might thing that all their rights and choices and freewill that they choose to think, but deep down we were already taught to have the same basics ideas.

                We are living in a modern world that has been developed for a long time, unlike our previous worlds that were collapse, we are still standing today because of this idea about basic guidelines that keep the society in an well organized system. These guidelines are not as bad as it might seem to be, it becomes part of our nature habits and can be beneficial for those who understand the principle of it.

                Let’s talk about the way of interpretation first, have you ever wondered about how we can identify and separate different habits from our normal daily habits? Why we can instantly know that we should sit on a chair, drink with a glass or put a sock on our feet even when we can do these tasks in a completely unique ways? It is because we all able to interpret the proper way of doing things. This interpretation thinking is not just only happens to simple tasks, on a contrary, it existed in many subjects even in architecture.

                In architecture, we can see the way of interpretation even from those basic structures, almost everybody lived in a designed and constructed space which means that the teachings of interpretations or guidelines has been apply to many generations before us. Imagine standing in a room, how do we that it’s safe? How can we tell which space is accessible? How can we identify it? The answer is by what we have been programmed. We understand a wall as a solid that separate a space and forms a more specific space, we know that a door means accessible unless it was locked. This is a very interesting thing and almost unable to denied because we all born and lived like this.

                Now, there is a writing that involves the concept of basic interpretation and more interestingly the way to manipulate it into a theory, “Lethal Theory” by Eyal Weizman. His concept is about how we adapt these knowledge and then turned it into unexpected strategies against others. The very best example that I am very impress is The Walking Through Walls Theory, it is literally walking through it. He knows that by our subconscious we interpreted walls as a safe boundary, and least expected to be penetrated through. That’s why it is the most effective to caught people off guarded.

                It is my point of view that we all born without a true freedom, in order to maintain a society that we lived in today, the system must be made as basic guidelines. I did not say that we will never have freedom in our lives, obviously we can but only after we understand the system completely. We could say that the system of interpretation protects us until we becomes strong enough to maintain the way of life then finally we can have freedom started from that point. 

19th Century Architecture

The 19th century, is a period after the renaissance period. This period is quite chaotic in terms of the designs. We can see that most buildings used the inspiration from the previous time and then combined those characteristics together into this new style.  This Period is also known as a period of the rich, the architecture focused on creating noble appearance to it while using the combinations of many previous styles. We can say that it is a period that focused more on adapting and developing, the period refused to came up with a totally new style like many would do. Instead, this era try to use the new combination of old styles as if it was an upgrade version of it.

                Because of the industrialization, introduced at this period of time, the 19^th century period added new types of materials, steels and irons which also being using in a new combinations of this era as well.  This period focused more on the façade of each building rather than the structures like previous time. It is also in the concept of advertising, because of the ability to change of the façade. It is the elements that can be adapted and replaced quite easily compared to a solid structure. The buildings in this era are focusing more on advertising space. The public buildings such as museums, libraries and universities were created to serve the needs at the time.

                This era for me is a very strange era compared to others. There are many things involved in the designs of the buildings, many factors such as styles, materials and also different social classes becomes a combination to this era. But behinds those factors are limitations that this era has, due to the fact that this era based on many things rather than established it own style.  Therefore the 19^th century is still lack of the specific identity. I think there is a lot of confusion in this era.

Baroque

For me, Eroticism is not only about visualizing something that has sexual appearance. The word “Erotic” has a much deeper meaning behind it. I noticed that it is more about combinations of surroundings that seduce people into it.

Comparing Renaissance to Baroque, even both of them look very similar but I think we can see the difference between both of them which is the way of representation.  The baroque period developed how the arts were represent with more feelings and expressions. We can say that they add the "Erotic” value into their art.  

                First thing is about the feelings that Baroque added into the art. We can see from statues, even it is a human statue just like the Renaissance but the baroque’s style create the statue with a face that really shows the feelings of it. Also, the baroque statue were created with a posing that really express the movements, which is also consist as erotic compared to the previous renaissance style.

                Then about the forms, it becomes more erotic due to the use of curves instead of only simple lines. The curves are not only giving new appearance but it gives new feelings towards the structure. Those curves become one of the main elements that help baroque architecture to express flowing movements by its structure.

                The baroque also considered as erotic because they use surroundings components as one of the elements of their art. There are the uses of lights, ornaments, and patterns which effectively seduce and draw the attention of people towards the art which is the main concept of erotic in my opinion.  These creations of art and architecture are filled with details, complexity, and feelings and mysterious. 

                In my opinion I really think that Baroque is well developed in term of eroticism from the previous period. It is the architecture that not only express through their unique forms but also by all of those hidden feelings in each elements. These components may not be noticed easily due to the complexity of details but it provides feelings that really transform the space into an erotic architecture. 

The Early Renaissance

          The renaissance is a very famous period that we all heard about it. It is a period of many well-known artists and filled with hundreds of great creation. This period contains many precious paintings, sculptures and also many architectures that inspires many generations afterwards. 


           The early renaissance has a style that is very interesting which is the style of "Humanism". it is about studying and interpreting the human form and develop the idea into an architectural scale, human scale. The scale is not the only knowledge that develop from human, there is another style called "Anthropomorphism". This style focused on size and proportion of humans and then convert that knowledge into simple geometric shapes in order to become a system for a architectural design. 

          This new system of design gives the early renaissance's designs more possibilities and details to the design. Building's floor plan was created by using the combination of different geometry shapes that were repeated, rotated or re-sized in order to become a unique and more complex structure. Even though, the use of anthropomorphism is not just only result in building's form but it is also used for those ornaments as well. 

           In my opinion, I really think that it is a very interesting system that requires a really great understanding of human body and also a very creative and open-minded. The system not only just make buildings more beautiful but it also make them more accurate, systematic and well organized. It is one of a great development of architecture, from human to system, it shows a very important beginning of a new era when humans are connected to the architectural design not only as a user but also as a system. It is a system that really helps in designing greater and greater structures thanks to us. 

Fordism

In the ancient time, building is just only the term that we used in order to call the place where we can  stay. It is that simple, the main goal is to protect people from be eaten or killed. As the time goes by and we started to develop a little by little, and so do buildings. In this era, buildings changed themselves to be more interesting and complicating, which separated them from each other and give each of them an identity. 

The "Fordism" is a term that is derived from the word Ford, a famous car factory that existed since 19th century and well-known for its massive car production line. The word Fordism is a style that is about mass production, which means the goal is to build hundreds, thousands, or even more number of objects. It is a fast process but the products will all look the same due to the process.

Then there is a term "Post-Fordism", the term is like an upgrade version of Fordism. The meaning of Post-Fordism is to create things in a more specific way. The style creates designs that truely fits the owner taste and expectation. Due to the ability to be flexible and out of the box, the Post-Fordism allows each building to have a unique identity that added more value to it. It is like the freedom of breaking the old box, which allows more and more creativity and designs. Due to the concept of Post-Fordism, new styles such as parametricism started to caught our attention. The parametricism is a style that combined creativeness with technology, by using advance programs such as MAYA, in order to calculate those complicated construction  that make building in reality possible. The programs help in breaking down parts of the buildings into small elements that not only made it possible of building it in reality but also made each elements unique by their design as well. 

As we can see, design is something that never stops, due to the creativity and technology, there is no limitation. There will always unique designs coming because uniqueness is now become a special values to design, even most of the time it means using more time and money. In my opinion, the unique designs is like a privilege, just like a Christmas presents, it is a special and valuable gift that transform a normal world into a more special one. 

Venturi's Style

          There is a very big differences between Modernism and what Venturi is trying ti do. Venturi's idea is focused on designs off building that not just only creates identity to it but also express the real function of it as well. His style approached the shape of the building and trying to connects it with its function in order for people to understand what it really made for.

          I am really appreciate the way he designs one of his building to have literally the shape of a duck, the reason behind this design is that the building was meant to be a shop, so he use the shape to represent the products, which is duck eggs. By doing this, the building can communicate its function to every person walking through or seen it in a distance without using any help from signs or advertisements. People will be able to relate to the function of that building because of the appearance of it. Unlike Modernism where everything was mass-produced structures which are also impossible to tell the difference between each other unless there is a clue about its functions. 

          In the past, building were built in different shapes depends on the functions of it, which can be related to Venturi's style. Some was built in order for safety purposes, some was built to be noticed and some was built for decorations. Most building have its own identity that we can tell what there are right at the time we see it for example churches with a symbol of a cross, there is no need for more signs people can relate to it immediately.

          For Modernism, Things are different from the past, they are focusing more on the function, those mass-produced structure were built while concerned about time and materials. It must be done in a fastest and simplest way, every elements must served its functions and there will be less decoration as possible. By following the concept of Modernism the building need addition help in order to communicate with people about it functions, The best example is a showroom, even we can see that there are selling motorcycles and cars but it is actually the products that are telling us not the building. If we simply hide the products, the identity of the showroom will be changed into unlimited possibilities, it can be almost anything from a simple shop to a restaurant, because there is no way we can tell the different without any clue.

          However, in my opinion, the venturi's style is consist as a good erotic architecture. I like the way that these buildings provides some clues for the people while there are still a little mysterious, it is a very interesting for people to be able to explore what they see. It attracts people by its form and make people want to find out more about it. People will read its functions not from a text but from the structure itself

               

               

                

Modernism Vs. Postmodernism

                At first, we studied about Modernism, the style which focused on simplicity and function of buildings which is quite hard for people to see nowadays. For me I think that the real reason that makes Modern style become less popular that before is due to the fact that it is too spiritless, even the style can serve all the functions but it is still lack of a very important element. The part that create all the unique feelings and separate the one building from others, the part that serve as the "identity" for the building.

                Later on, there was a creation of "Postmodernism", the style which developed from Modernism but instead of just designing simple structures, Postmodernism also introduced the new style by combining the previous one and ornaments together. The new style introduced the buildings with the help of 

ornamentation, which is really different from the previous one because Modernism consider ornaments as unnecessary elements and avoid using it. In my opinion, I really like the new style, it creates unique identity to each building. The new additional part helps the building to express the feelings which is a new thing that Modernism do not have, "Uniqueness".

                Not just new feelings but ornamentation also means new ideas and creations. It helps in creation new designs that literary outside of the box, from a simple glass box to difference forms such as triangles and curves. The best example would be the TWA terminal, which has a stunning designs that not just only beautiful but meaningful as well. the building use a bird as an inspiration and thanks to the ornamentation, the TWA terminal can really express itself.           

                                    

                It is quite an impressive development from Modernism to Postmodernism, we can see that Postmodernism did not replaced the concept of Modernism, the new style actually using the modern concept as one of the main components, but adding ornaments in order to improves the old concept by giving the ability to express itself to it. We can see that Postmodernism is not so different from Modernism, for me Postmodernism is like an upgrade version of modernism, a new version that not only functional but also meaningful. 

Le Corbusier & Playtime

                Le Corbusier is a very famous architect, his unique design inspired many buildings and in the 20th century. His works may looks really simple compare to many buildings that we can see nowadays, but that is exactly the way he want it to be. His designs are considered  "modern", which is more about simplicity and functions more that decorations. Also, Le Corbusier combined his modern designs with "mass production", a concept of creating a perfect place, a utopia for every person where all of them can have the same equal standard. He created buildings that can really fit into everyone standards, so that there will be the advantage and disadvantage. The results are similar to factories, where every routine are repeated endlessly, everyone has the same thing and living in the same way. I think that in the end everybody becomes more like a machine that human.

                And then there is a movie called "Playtime", in the movie we can see that the city is very similar to Le Corbusier's utopia where there are almost no differences between people. The movie shows the city where the buildings are created to look the same everywhere, and people shared a very similar way of living. Just like one of Le Corbusier manifesto that he compared a house to a machine for living, in the movie, I can see the connections to that, because people are so robotic and lifeless.  The movie shows another side of Le Corbusier's concept, it shows the time when a perfect world started to effects people lives and identities.

                In my opinion, I love the idea of creating a utopia for everyone, I respect how it will create equality to all the people but as we can see in the movie, may be people are not ready for it yet. As you can see, people are people because we are all different from each other. By living like this, people have their own identities and their way of living, indifferent from industrial lifestyle in "Playtime" where their lifestyle are limited. Even it may not be equal for everyone but I believe that the uniqueness each people is the most valuable things that people can have. 

Modernism And Ornaments

                The name Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, for many people this name is just another name of some random guy that has nothing to do with them, well actually it is much more complicated than that. In fact, The name Mies van der Rohe (or well known as Mies) creates a lot of impacts to the society we lived in, not just only for those who studied in architecture but for every single person who actually use buildings or houses as a place to live. He is a German architect, which known for his amazing modernism designs and also for his famous quote "Less is More".  His style is focused on simplicity and minimalism.

                As you can see, Mies van der Rohe's style is very opposite to "bourgeois". As a modernist, Mies always create his designs to be in the simplest form and choose only the materials that really necessary for the structure but not for decorations. Some people might actually misunderstood the simplicity of modernism means the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to design a building but in reality, I think it really goes the other way around. I always believe that it is quite a challenge to create a modern style because due to the fact that modern buildings are created with only elements that really necessary, we can see that everything needs to be planned and designed very neatly to be able to serves all the functions needed. Compared to bourgeois, it is really amazing for modern architectures to create such an impression to all the clients without using any fancy or luxury decorations.

                Mies van der Rohe always try to position his style away from all those the ornaments and decorations in order to make sure that his style will not change to the opposite direction. But everything has its limit, even  for Mies van der Rohe himself, we can see some changes from his style with in his work. The best example for me is the "Seagram Building", one of the most well known building designed by Mies. It looks really normal as if nothing is different but if you look close enough you will see that there are some elements that existed not only for its functions but for another reason, decoration. The I-beams outside the Seagram building that we can see are actually not for supporting any foundations as it should be. The fact is while Mies can der Rohe designed this building, he noticed that the real I-beams that were used for structural purpose will be covered with concrete then nobody will know that they existed. His concept of showing the real materials somehow makes him designed more I-beams on the outside in order to show the materials that the building really made of. Because of that he ends up using unnecessary elements which is not only just changing his own style but it also consist as ornaments. This is quite confusing but he actually broke his rules while trying to followed it.

                The story of this building shows me that the differences between modernism and bourgeois are separated by just only a thin line. Just only small elements can actually change one style to a completely opposite one, only because he over think about it too much. I think it is quite hard in order to keep follow your style while make sure not to cross the line while designing it.

Crime and Ornamental by Adolf Loos

          After finish reading the article, This book is very interesting and really got my attention all the way through the last page. I immediately noticed the style of writing which is really different from Tom wolfe's style (the previous book that I have read). Adolf Loos has his own style of writing that I really like, it is quiet easy to understand and also very straight to the point. He has a very strong opinion towards "Ornaments" and really express it through his writing about his opinion and many strong examples to support his argument.

          I like the point that he really make me understand that period of time can cause such an amazing changes that can even turn normal things at that time into crime. There is an example which shows that in the past, writing on the wall is just one way for  to express and create styles which inspired our generations, but nowadays such an act are recognized as crime, we can see how valuable art has turned into just a crime. I believed that this can cause a really bad effects in the future, because doing so is also consist as creating an ornament. So, It is like we are losing an opportunity to create some impact to the generations after us.

          There are some of his opinions that I really disagree with, the first one is about what he said about ornaments, he implied that "Ornament is wasted of manpower and therefore wasted health. it has always been like this. But today it also means wasted materials". I completely think that the real point spending more time, energy and resources is to add more special value to it. Like what he said in the book that, those objects with even the smallest details are more valuable than those without any special details on it. We can really noticed in the museum, where those beautiful becomes more that just a waste of time, and transform into memorable and historical values that cannot be replaced. Also, due to the fact that I was born and raised as a Thai citizen where we really appreciate those hard work as a real value of the thing. I think that what he said about ornaments as "degenerate" not true at all.

          It is really nice to be able to learn from Loos, even there is something and I was disagree with, but I think it is because the fact that we are in the different period of time so, that is why our perspective are so unique in some point. This is also a very valuable lesson that may be in the future, my point of view will be considered as unique just like what Loos did to our generations. It is all about the future, we have no idea what it will turned to be, the best we can do is just keep guessing about it. Who knows may be what we consist as a "degeneration" today will become the most valuable piece of art in the near future.

          

Tom Wolfe - From Bauhaus to Our House

                 After I got a chance to read the book "From Bauhaus To Our House" by Mr. Tom Wolfe, I have never expect that this book will give me these much questions in my mind before. I have spend a lot of time on each page trying to understand all the text which is quiet hard to understand because of his unique style of writing, I think it may be one of the hardest book I have read so far. Even that, The book still gave me a lot of new perspectives and points of view to think about, some of them are very inspirational but also there are few of them that I am totally disagree with Mr. Tom Wolfe, mostly about how he express his opinion towards architecture in such an overly critical way.

                It is quite amazing how he was able to  criticized many well-known architects such as Mies van de Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright about their creations. It even more complicated due to the fact that Mr. Tom Wolfe himself is not even architect, I found it very interesting to see a man who didn't  study architecture, to  comments on buildings and architectures. Even though I still admire how he is able to have a great knowledge about architecture.

                Also, I found his opinion towards modern architecture, referred as "Glass Box" in the book, quite hard to except due to the fact that I personally liked it. I think it is personal opinion because it provides almost unlimited options for the users to be able to put whatever they preferred inside that space. But there is also a point that sometimes I agreed with him. he claimed that the "Glass Box" can also be an obstacle that really blocked new ideas and imaginations from the designers, which can be noticed in many areas around the country.

                 There is one point in the book that really caught my attention and suddenly become my favorite lesson from the book. "starting from zero", the phase that linked to the teaching where the book taught me about the soul of things. In the book, there are students tried to create their own piece of art by using newspaper, there are many amazing outcomes from those students, but the one that got picked is just a piece of paper folded to the tent. The story taught me that even this paper tent is the simplest but it is also the only one that really got the real characteristic (soul) of the paper, it express the true feelings of the paper.

                I think that it is a very interesting book to read, even it is a really confusing book but there are many great things that can be archived from it.