Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Everytime I pass by one of my co-workers' desk, I have to stop and look at the paintings she hung on her cubicle wall. Today, I couldn't help but to tell her, from the bottom of my heart, that I love the paintings, and she started introducing this artist to me: Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an painter/architect in Vienna. My co-worker started showing me Hundertwasser's architecture, and I am amazed and love his works. Yes, it almost feels like Gaudi's architecture in a different style.

Afterwards, I did a quick reserach on Hundertwasser, it only makes me becoming more intersted in him, here are something he stated:

"If we do not honor our past, we lose our future.
If we destroy our roots, we cannot grow.”

"A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door."

"There Are No Evils in Nature; There Are Only Evils of Man.
When man thinks he has to correct nature, it is an irreparable mistake every time. A community should not consider it an honour how much spontaneous vegetation it destroys; it should rather be a point of honour for every community to protect as much of its natural landscape as possible. […] Now, almost too late, this age-old adage is being recognized and the courses of rivers and streams, which had been straightened in concrete channels, are being destroyed in order to restore the previous irregular state. What irony! So why regulate a stream if you have to deregulate it afterwards?"

cubic equation

Ok, lets start from here: cubic equation, an architecture that actually glorifies God by reminding us the existence of the most beautiful thing that He creates for us: the nature. Now look, how humble is the building - silently sitting on the hilltop to allow us to worship Him just by looking out from the openings provided.

I would say that architecture has to be existed with the nature and human beings, if not, it is meaningless. Recently, a friend of mine keeps asking me about architecture, it somehow encourages me to think deeper about it, and what of architecture that actually means to me. During the thinking process, the words "material" and "spatial experience" keep coming back to me. I believe that the use of materials is one of the very important aspects that actually enhance our experience within the space. As human beings with our ancestors' profound experience in nature embbed in us, "we all carry in our memories our experiences of nature. We continue to bear within ourselves a sense of structure in nature, since so much of our experience derives from that". I truly believe that the honest/truthful way of using materials is actually a mean to bring us back to the nature, thus allowing us to establish a personal interaction with the space (the architecture). Here it is one of the examples, an obvious one: Japanese architecture, especially Japanese dwelling. I hope that also explains to some of you why you actually appreciate Japanese lifestyle so much.
I am convinced that there are still some traditional rituals that is affecting how we build, or should I say how we build reflects how we see the world? Nonetheless, just by looking at the above photos, I am grateful that this is how they (or we) see the world, and I am glad that there are still these architects who build what they believe.

蝴蝶蝴蝶真美麗

I love to write, I treasure and respect architecture.
As a girl, I love almost everything that is beautiful (the real kind of beautiful).

Recently, I keep asking myself how to, and wanting myself to write about architecture beautifully (or be able to write out the beauty of architecture tenderly). I know there are still a lot for me to learn and to experience before I am able to do so, and yes, it is still a long way to go. However, before I am able to do one, I am glad that I have come across this wonderful piece that one will have to fall in love with!

[click on image to enlarge]

book: 建築師的關鍵字：東亞都市地景的30種閱讀術

I wish I would have the knowledge, passion and sensitivity to do one someday.

a 12-years-old builds for homeless

We always tend to think or envision a lot, but do so little. Here it is, a 12-years-old kid puts thoughts in action!

[click on picture to read more]

architects' job

"Traditionally, the architect is faced with four components to every design decision:
1. Cost
2. Function
3. Aesthetics
4. Time
(desires)

The new, sustainably ecological paradigm adds one additional component to form a pentagon of concerns.
5. Sustainability"
(belief)
Lester Wertheimer & Arthur Kornblut, Construction Documents & Services, p.53

I think...
Architect does designs to satisfy client's desires;
Great architect does design to satisfy client's desires while conveying, to the world, the architect's belief in architecture, in aesthetics, or simply his/her Belief.

a respectful architect

There are only a few certain types of person whom I admire. Here is one of those: Frank Llyod Wright, a noteworthy architect, a furniture designer, an urban planner, a writer and a radical preacher (I actually did not know he was a writer as well as a preacher until I read about him in the following book.) I have always respected him as an architect; I have always liked his buildings for its simplicity, its truthfulness to the materials used, its human-centered flow of space, as well as Wright’s sensitive understanding of nature-architecture relationship. However, after reading the following, I start to admire him as “a true artist” and as a person, for his individuality and dignity! To be honest, how many of us can stand firm for our belief when the trend of the world is the complete opposite? Nonetheless, this is exactly what makes a person reverent.

“The incredible career of Frank Llyod Wright began a few years before the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. By the time his practice was well established, eclectic design was the dominant force in the world of architecture. It was a particularly difficult time for the few who chose to pursue personal ideals, but always the individualist; Wright persevered with the skill, tenacity, and flamboyance of a true artist. His career was unmatched in the history of American architecture, spanning nearly 70 years across two centuries.
[…]
Frank Llyod Wright was not only a remarkable architect, he was also a furniture designer, a town planner (Broadacre City), a writer, and a radical preacher. Throughout his life, Wright protested, revolted, and courageously proclaimed his often unpopular or misunderstood ideas. Strangely, his influence in America was slight. In Europe, however, the significance of Wright’s work had a profound effect on early 20th-century development. […]”
Lester Wertheimer, Mark Verwoerdt & Meg Kindelin, Architectural History, p.99-100

don't you care?

"Even though little remains from these early periods, we can assume that Middle Eastern architecture was substantially and artfully constructed. Records have been unearthed that attest to the care, skill, and even daring that was employed by the master builders of that time. More emphatic evidence of their competence may be assumed by a law contained in Hummurabi's code that provided that
if a builder constructed a house for a man, but did not make his work strong, with the result that the house which he built collapsed and caused the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death."
Lester Wertheimer, Mark Verwoerdt & Meg Kindelin, Architectural History, p.10

What do you think of the above law from the ancient Middle East, architects nowadays? Will this make you to be a bit more responsible for the human's life when you build/design? Will you even give a damn? Don't you understand you are now building for HUMAN BEING - LIFE? I believe it is not just about how we build strongly and safely so that the building doesn't collapse, but it is also how the plan is laid out, how the building sits on the site - with the surrounding, as well as how we are making the occupants to use the space, etc.......................

nature vs. design

Very interesting~~~
Would you have imagined this if you were the designer?

"A story is told regarding the Crystal Palace, which in 1851 was considered to be one of the greatest engineering achievements of its time. Its designer, Joseph Paxton, the English horticulturist and engineer, was contemplating a water lily, when the idea occurred to him to adopt the structural system of the lily as the basis of his design for an enormous exhibition hall. In the lily's structure he recognized a regular, precise, and delicate skeletal pattern. Its constituent veins enabled the stalk to support a very large area of leaf surface.

While the truth of this story cannot be confirmed, the point is that we all carry in our memories our experiences of nature. We continue to bear within ourselves a sense of structure in nature, since so much of our experience derives from that."
Paul Speiregen & Lester Wertheimer, Programming, Planning & Practice, p.73

its purpose

"A beautiful design must EXPRESS ORDER. It must also POSSESS QUALITY. It must be SKILLFULLY made from appropriate materials. It must also be USEFUL and PRACTICAL, based on the function it serves. Beauty confirms our ideas of what is RIGHT, PROPER, and fit for the use of human beings.

[...] The purpose of beauty in a design is TO ENRICH THE VIEWER, WHO IS ENLARGED BY THE EXPERIENCE. Beauty is thus a vital function of architecture.

A beautiful design alone, as George Nelson has said, cannot transform a dark, unhappy life into a joyful one; only the person living the life can do that. The purpose of a beautiful design is TO ENRICH LIFE."
-Paul Speiregen & Lester Wertheimer, Programming, Planning & Practice, p.83

Everything exists for a reason. All artwork pieces should have its purpose, and its function to serve. How can something (or even someone) be beautiful when there is no meaning to it?
Then we ask ourselves: "are the reasons and purposes for our works valid enough for them to be existed, what/who do they serve?"