Architectural Methodology as Life Method
Architecture is defined as the art and science of building.
University teaching in the 1960’s and 70’s demanded reasoned thought, experimentation and exploration of and with solutions to problems using contemporary materials and processes as the way toward problem solving. Architectural teaching rooted in modernism philosophy embraced the definition of architecture as the art and science of building. It was and has been an enlightening method by which to lead ones life – to have an existance based on reason. It is of course informed by that which came before but not being slavest to those old notions or models which were simply fashions of their time.
“The true thinker does not copy the past.”
This approach was challenged by postmodern thinkers and devotees to an extent which in 2014 expresses itself in buildings of the ‘baroque’ approach where cost seems an unnecessary consideration when ‘grandeur’ expressed in multifaceted functionless facade decoration is the norm. The higher cost of such ‘fashionista’ architecture contradicts financial imperatives demanded by and enabled by banks whose stranglehold on financing projects of projects is only available if a fixed-end cost is provided. No one seems sensitive to what is escalating costs.
I still aspire to modernist theory allowing the benefits of postmodern thinking, which enabled ‘image’ to be a design function, to influence the building outcomes.
Life management problem solving has more variables than a building, yet the lessons prevail. Form does follow function. Values influence the forms we choose and how we live our life and our final contribution to life is a balance of implementation of contemporary science and technology within an historical and cultural context. We are part of our own history – our family and community influence the way we make our contribution. We are to our community as is the building: a vehicle for enabling expression by receipt or by expenditure. As a building we are read externally yet not understood until we are explored within.