ANALOGICAL MODELS IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN l

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172 (METU JFA 1988) CHRIS ABEL Figure 30: Cuzco, Peru, built by Spanish colonists. Consciously built in imitation of Spanish models, the picturesque town is typical of the medieval cities and towns Camillo Sitte held up as examplars of "the art" of urban planning and design (photograph by author) mmam Figure 31. City Hall, Dallas, by I.M. Pei, is designed for maximum sculptural effects as a free-standing object (photograph by author) Figure 32. House made of steel, near Lubbock, Texas, was designed and made by a professional sculptor for his own use (photograph by author) Figure 33. Le Corbusier, Pilgrimage Chapel of Notre Dame du Hout, Ronchamps, 1955 (METU Archive). Sculptural appearance of District Town-Hall in Kuala Lumpur is influenced by le Corbusier's Ronchamp and other civic buildings in India (photographs by author) THE ARTISTIC MODEL The treatment of architecture as an art form has been encouraged by the fact that a few of the greatest architects were accomplished artists in other fields. Michelangelo was a sculptor and painter before he became an architect, and Le Corbusier's development as an architect mirrored his development as a painter and sculptor (Gardiner, 1975). Renaissance architects, even when they were not painters or sculptors themselves, sought to integrate these arts into their building designs, and often commissioned elaborate fresco paintings for interior walls and ceilings that sometimes dominated the interior architecture. This tradition is still kept up, though in a less integrated fashion, through the commissioning of abstract paintings and sculptures to complement the designs of modern buildings. However, aside from these attempts to combine different forms of art in a building design, the most important influence of the model is in the treatment of the building forms themselves as visual compositions, much as a painting or sculpture is composed according to artistic principles of composition. For example, Camillo Sitte (1965), the Viennese architect and planner, wrote his book, City Planning According to Artistic Principles, in the belief that the most satisfactory urban forms were those designed for "picturesque" effect. From his studies of medieval towns in Europe, Sitte derived principles for the visual composition of buildings aimed at the creation of public open spaces and pleasing vistas (Collins and Collins). A quite different kind of interest in the artistic model emerged in the early Modern Movement, when architects were much influenced by the new forms of abstract painting and sculpture then being produced by the avant-garde. For example, the painting of Mondrian was to acquire a special importance, especially amongst architects of the so-called De Stijl group, whose furniture and building designs as abstract compositions of lines and planes seemed to define a new concept of architecture as a pure art form, making painting and sculpture (according to some) redundant as separate forms of art (Collins, 1965). The most creative recent exponent of this artistic conception of architecture was Le Corbusier, who, after breaking with his earlier preference for the machine aesthetic, developed a new kind of sculptural architecture. In one sense, Le Corbusier's appreciation for plastic form was nothing new for him, since he had always made clear his admiration for the plastic qualities of the ancient Greek temples. But it was not till his designs for the Chapel at Ronchamp and the public buildings at the new city of Chandigarh in India that he was able to give full expression to his abilities as an "architectural sculptor". THE LINGUISTIC MODEL The idea that architecture is like a language, like the other models, is historically well confirmed (Summerson, 1963). But it acquired a new import with the emergence of Post-Modern architecture. This new movement is much concerned with issues of meaning in architecture (Jencks and Baird, 1969; Jencks, 1977). Post-Mpdernists criticise Modern architects for not taking responsibility for the meanings people attach to their buildings, and pretending that they are the
ANALOGICAL MODELS IN ARCHITECTURE (METU JFA 1988) 173 Figure 34. Bird-like shape of TWA Terminal, Kennnedy Airport, New York, by Eero Saarinen, provides a powerful and easily understood metaphor for flight (Zodiac, 54) Figure 35. Sail-like roof forms of the Opera House, Sydney, by Jom Utzon, were inspired by the building's prominent site in Sydney harbour (Giedion, 1980, 680). Figure 36. Hot-dog stand, Los Angeles, communicates its purpose in a direct and amusing fashion (photograph by author) vmmm Figure 37. The Strip, Las Vegas, presents a brilliant kaleidoscope of messages oriented exclusively to the mobile consumer and fun-seeker (photograph by author) inevitable result of historical process. As we are now aware, ordinary people never liked the cool white, machine aesthetic preferred by the early Modernists, and when they had the choice, rejected the Modernists' mass-produced apartment blocks for more familiar and comfortable kinds of homes (Brolin, 1976). So now Post-Modernists say that architecture should communicate more to the users of buildings. Since human language is the most familiar form of human communication, architects look to language to try to learn how to create an architecture that people understand and appreciate. But what they learn from this analogy depends very much on their understanding of how human language works, and since there is quite a bit of disagreement amongst even specialists in human language, we can expect architects also to be confused. For example, many architects have a very simple idea about language, and think that people can "read" a building the way we read the words on a page. So single building elements are likened to words and the rules governing their composition are likened to rules of grammar. We read the meaning of a church therefore, by noting the church tower or altar, and its placement in the whole building arrangement. The idea that building forms should be treated like veryobvious metaphors is a variant of this approach and has produced some amusing and spectacular architecture (Abel, 1982b). For example, Eero Saarinen designed the TWA passenger terminal at New York airport to resemble a bird in flight, and Jorn Utzon designed the Sydney Opera House to resemble the sails of a yacht in Sydney's famous harbour. These are among some of the more literal interpretations of the idea that architecture should "say something". But these sorts of interpretations of the Linguistic model miss out the deeper functions of human language, and which relate with the Identity model (Abel, 1980b; 1981a). Every person knows how much of his own identity is tied up with his national language. In this sense, language is more than just a form of communication, it provides a framework for social experience. This is a complex idea, but if properly understood by architects, might encourage them away from the free and flippant use of architectural "quotations", in the direction of more serious and consistent forms of architecture conducive to cultural identities. And just as there are regional dialects of language, so would we expect there to be regional variations in architectural "languages". THE COMMERCIAL MODEL The use of this model arises out of a total rejection of the European tradition of architecture and city planning as the manipulation of internal and external spaces. Its best known exponent, the American architect and theorist, Robert Venturi (1966; 1972), argues that this space-oriented conception of architectural and urban form has been overtaken and outdated by new forms of dispersed urban development made possible by the universal use of the motor car and telephone (Clay, 1973). The spatial character of the traditional European city to which Venturi refers is exemplified by the enclosed space of the Italian piazza , or public square. By contrast, the typical American pattern of urban development is the exact reverse in terms of spatial quality. Buildings stand in spatial isolation from each other, laid out in seemingly endless gridlike patterns of roadways which reduce the sharp distinction between city and country typical of the more compact European model. Dwellings are single family units, each with its own garden and garage for the essential automobile, making up the popular "suburban" residential areas which now surround even most older cities in other parts of the world. In order to be close to the customers, the " down-town" commercial centers of older cities are increasingly displaced by "out-of-town" shopping centers and other commercial outlets, usually strung along the main highways like beads on a string. Appreciation of building form and urban space in this situation, argues Venturi, is irrelevant, because different criteria apply. The slow moving viewpoint of the pedestrian is no longer of any consequence, because all human movement is now by the fast-moving automobile.
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