Jørn Utzon (deceased Architect)
Utzon had
a Nordic sense of concern for nature which, in his design, emphasized the
synthesis of form, material and function for social values. His fascination
with the architectural legacies of the ancient Mayas, the Islamic world, China
and Japan enhanced his vision. This developed into what Utzon later
referred to as
Additive Architecture, comparing his
approach to the growth patterns of nature. A design can grow like a tree,
he explained: "If it grows naturally, the architecture will look after
itself.
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This also embodies the concept of ‘modules/nature organic’ where patterns are
formed and ‘added’ onto one another. I am planning to incorporate this concept
into my monument by adding ‘units’ or ‘modules’ onto one another.
As i was researching i came across a
quote by Utzon said of the Design
Principles, "My job is to articulate the overall vision and
detailed design principles for the site, and for the form of the building and
its interior". This quote allowed me to understand Utzon's way of
thinking when it comes to designing, and also reminded me of the concept of
'Modules-nature/organic'.
Additive Architecture
Additive Architecture is an approach used by Danish architect
Jørn Utzon to describe his development of architectural projects on the basis of growth patterns in nature.
Mogens Prip-Buus, one of Utzon's closest colleagues, reports that the term was coined in 1965 in Utzon's Sydney office when, after a discussion of the social structures in Britain and Denmark, Utzon suddenly jumped up and wrote "Additive Architecture" on the wall. He saw it as part of an additive world where both natural and cultural forms contributed to additive systems and hierarchies. He realized that his own architecture reflected the same principle, just as the transitions in primitive societies between family, village and the surrounding world have visible links revealing differences, relations and distances.
Utzon observed the additive approach in Chinese temples whose stacked timber structures are basically identical, differing only with the size of the building. In his "Additive Architecture" manifesto in 1970, he tells us how he saw the phenomenon reflected in a group of deer at the edge of a forest or in the pebbles on a beach, convincing him that buildings should be designed more freely rather than in identical box shapes. Earlier, in 1948, he had expressed the same ideas in an essay titled "The Innermost Being of Architecture" stating: "Something of the naturalness found in the growth principle in nature ought to be a fundamental idea in works of architecture."
The application of the additive approach can be seen in many of Utzon's works including the courtyard housing schemes which began with the tiling of the Sydney Opera House and his designs for a sports complex in Jeddah. Utzon's early competition project for a crematorium in 1945 also exemplifies his approach. The building's free-standing walls could be extended over time, a new brick being added for each cremation.
Bjarke Ingels (born
2 October 1974) is a
Danish architect. He heads the
architectural
practice Bjarke Ingels Group which he founded in
2006. In 2009 he co-founded the design consultancy KiBiSi. In his designs,
Bjarke Ingels often tries to achieve a balance between playful and practical
approaches to architecture.
With BIG, Bjarke Ingels has continued the ideology from
PLOT and has several major projects under construction or development both in
Denmark and abroad. These include 8 House in Ørestad and the new Danish
national Maritime museum in Elsinore, hotel
projects in Norway, a highrise designed in the shape of the Chinese character for 'people' for Shanghai, a masterplan for the
redevelopment of a former naval base and oil industry wasteland into a zero-emission resort and entertainment city off the
coast of Baku, Azerbaijan,]shaped as the seven mountains of the
country, and a museum overlooking Mexico City.
Under the BIG Banner Bjarke recently published "Yes
is more - an archcomic on architectural evolution".
On 24 July
2009, he spoke at the prestigious TED event in Oxford, UK.[4]
He
presented the case study “Hedonistic sustainability” in the workshop Manage
complexity - With integral solutions to an economy of means at the 3rd
International Holcim Forum 2010 in Mexico City and shall be a
member of the Holcim Awards regional jury for Europe in 2011.[5]
Design
Philosophy
Explaining
his design ideas, Bjarke Ingels states:
“
|
Historically
the field of architecture has been dominated by two opposing extremes. On one
side an avant-garde full of crazy ideas.
Originating from philosophy, mysticism or
a fascination of the formal potential of computer visualizations they
are often so detached from reality that they fail to become something other
than eccentric curiosities. On the other side there are well organized
corporate consultants that build predictable and boring boxes of high
standard. Architecture seems to be entrenched in two equally unfertile
fronts: either naively utopian or petrifyingly pragmatic. We believe that
there is a third way wedged in the nomansland between the diametrical
opposites. Or in the small but very fertile overlap between the two. A pragmatic
utopian architecture that takes on the creation of socially,
economically and environmentally perfect places as a practical objective. ”
|
-This embodies the concept of his pragmatic approach to architecture. Pragmatism is a
philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It
describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back
to practice to form what is called intelligent practice.
Overall
I enjoy BIG's architectural works much more than Utzons as i value the theory of "YES IS MORE" over 'LESS is more' and the concept models on BIGs website are extraordinary - i will post a few examples of the works i enjoy.
