BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2015) [5 MARKS] NAME: Tan Shing Yeou ID: 0314850 LECTURER: Nicholas Ng TUTORIAL TIME: 2pm – 4pm SYNOPSIS NO: 4 READER TITLE: Semiology and Architecture AUTHOR: Charles Jencks Emerged from Postmodernism (extremely tacky) and Modernism (extremely boring), forming a new third school of thought, Critical Regionalism. The fundamental aim was to seek the middle ground between these two extremes. To me, everything changes over time, architecture style too. It is some sort of evolution that makes things better and better. While the modernists strived to create a common “universal” architecture” glo bally, it is good to see the third school of thought trying to reflect culture and tradition of its own region through architecture design and materials use. While the postmodernists obsessed with ornamentation for its own sake, critical regionalists act as a fresh move insist that stylistic flourishes must only be applied in a measured and meaningful way. It is important to approach to architecture that strives to counter the placeless-ness and lack of meaning in modern architecture by using contextual forces to give a sense of place and meaning. One of the great example in Malaysia, the British India Corporate Warehouse by Malaysian architect Kevin Mark Low. The architect successfully combines the concept of “less is more” from modernism and using the contemporary element to reclaim the lost textures in contemporary industrial building types in the use of locally fired clay brick. The warehouse has a smooth integration between old traditions and changing modernism by exploring the loss of regional culture and at the same time, architecture value was placed on the geographical context of the building. As a system that synthesizes identity, past, history, culture and values of a region, critical regionalism is the critical move of this era, addressing the balance point of past and future, focusing on current regional elements, rethink how the technocratic world has moved the society to universalization of the civilization. I believe, by not giving a single side definition, the concept of Critical Regionalism has its powerful say in current era, at least to say, it brings back the relationship between human, culture and building in a sociological context. Re-examine the traditions and look back to learn our own traditional values, principles, identity and bring out the sense of own-ness in architecture. It is our job, as an Architect. WORD COUNT: 336 DATE: 24/04/2016 MARK: GRADE: ASSSESSED BY:
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BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2015) [5 MARKS]
NAME: Tan Shing Yeou ID: 0314850 LECTURER: Nicholas Ng TUTORIAL TIME: 2pm – 4pm SYNOPSIS NO: 4 READER TITLE: Semiology and Architecture
AUTHOR: Charles Jencks Emerged from Postmodernism (extremely tacky) and Modernism (extremely boring), forming a new third school of thought, Critical Regionalism. The fundamental aim was to seek the middle ground between these two extremes. To me, everything changes over time, architecture style too. It is some sort of evolution that makes things better and better. While the modernists strived to create a common “universal” architecture” glo bally, it is good to see the third school of thought trying to reflect culture and tradition of its own region through architecture design and materials use. While the postmodernists obsessed with ornamentation for its own sake, critical regionalists act as a fresh move insist that stylistic flourishes must only be applied in a measured and meaningful way. It is important to approach to architecture that strives to counter the placeless-ness and lack of meaning in modern architecture by using contextual forces to give a sense of place and meaning. One of the great example in Malaysia, the British India Corporate Warehouse by Malaysian architect Kevin Mark Low. The architect successfully combines the concept of “less is more” from modernism and using the contemporary element to reclaim the lost textures in contemporary industrial building types in the use of locally fired clay brick. The warehouse has a smooth integration between old traditions and changing modernism by exploring the loss of regional culture and at the same time, architecture value was placed on the geographical context of the building. As a system that synthesizes identity, past, history, culture and values of a region, critical regionalism is the critical move of this era, addressing the balance point of past and future, focusing on current regional elements, rethink how the technocratic world has moved the society to universalization of the civilization. I believe, by not giving a single side definition, the concept of Critical Regionalism has its powerful say in current era, at least to say, it brings back the relationship between human, culture and building in a sociological context. Re-examine the traditions and look back to learn our own traditional values, principles, identity and bring out the sense of own-ness in architecture. It is our job, as an Architect. WORD COUNT: 336 DATE: 24/04/2016 MARK: GRADE: ASSSESSED BY:
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2015) [5 MARKS]
NAME: Tan Shing Yeou ID: 0314850 LECTURER: Nicholas Ng TUTORIAL TIME: 2pm – 4pm SYNOPSIS NO: 4 READER TITLE: Towards a Critical Regionalism
AUTHOR: Kenneth Frampton Emerged from Postmodernism (extremely tacky) and Modernism (extremely boring), forming a new third school of thought, Critical Regionalism. The fundamental aim was to seek the middle ground between these two extremes. To me, everything changes over time, architecture style too. It is some sort of evolution that makes things better and better. While the modernists strived to create a common “universal” architecture” globally, it is good to see the third school of thought trying to reflect culture and tradition of its own region through architecture design and materials use. While the postmodernists obsessed with ornamentation for its own sake, critical regionalists act as a fresh move insist that stylistic flourishes must only be applied in a measured and meaningful way. It is important to approach to architecture that strives to counter the placeless-ness and lack of meaning in modern architecture by using contextual forces to give a sense of place and meaning. One of the great example in Malaysia, the British India Corporate Warehouse by Malaysian architect Kevin Mark Low. The architect successfully combines the concept of “less is more” from modernism and using the contemporary element to reclaim the lost textures in contemporary industrial building types in the use of locally fired clay brick. The warehouse has a smooth integration between old traditions and changing modernism by exploring the loss of regional culture and at the same time, architecture value was placed on the geographical context of the building. As a system that synthesizes identity, past, history, culture and values of a region, critical regionalism is the critical move of this era, addressing the balance point of past and future, focusing on current regional elements, rethink how the technocratic world has moved the society to universalization of the civilization. I believe, by not giving a single side definition, the concept of Critical Regionalism has its powerful say in current era, at least to say, it brings back the relationship between human, culture and building in a sociological context. Re-examine the traditions and look back to learn our own traditional values, principles, identity and bring out the sense of own-ness in architecture. It is our job, as an Architect. WORD COUNT: 359 DATE: 13/06/2016 MARK: GRADE: ASSSESSED BY:
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2015) [5 MARKS]
NAME: Tan Shing Yeou ID: 0314850 LECTURER: Nicholas Ng TUTORIAL TIME: 2pm – 4pm SYNOPSIS NO: 3 READER TITLE: The eyes of the skin
AUTHOR: Juhani Pallasma What I like about this book is how the author, Pallasma takes his reader through all the human senses in question; by using hearing, smell, touch, taste and vision. He quotes some example from nature to support his points and thus describing on how it is acknowledgement of all senses that shape a complete space. To me, it is a very genuine and authentic experience when something is felt by the skin, or smelled, or heard. As opposed, vision is actually repressed, to being seen with what i felt is a completely true line. According to Pallasma, architecture should be conducive of mobility. With saying of the multi-sensory experience, our bodies and movements are in constant interaction with the environment. The environment entering you, and you entering the environment. I do agree on that, our house or bedroom, to an extent the place being an extension of the context itself. As we change, our home changes, and perhaps as our home changes, we change respectively. This is the beauty of architecture, everything is related, none of it is isolated. Architecture involves several realms of sensory experience which interact and fuse into each other to form a complete system. The famous architect Zaha Hadid had a great expression of sensory experience on architecture. She said, ‘I don’t think that architecture is only about shelter, is only about a very simple enclosure. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.’ To at least some extent Pallasma and Zaha Hadid have the same thought on how multi-sensory experience are linked together with architecture. His critique of the ‘eye’ seemed a bit fanatical to me. I do understand how the brain and body are connected and the ideal home could be a forest for the senses, or act as a bridge between the body and environment and mind. But I am not convinced to see how abstract design or architecture can prevent that. In another word, environment that caters to the eye can be like meditation, and perhaps these environments can bring out di�erent and crucial sensation. To complete that, Pallasma has pointed out that our body is not a mere physical entity, it is impossible to have our capacity of memory without a body memory, which I agree on how the body memory can a�ect passively in sensory experience. WORD COUNT: 392 DATE: 30/05/2016 MARK: GRADE: ASSSESSED BY:
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224) SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2015) [5 MARKS]
NAME: Tan Shing Yeou ID: 0314850 LECTURER: Nicholas Ng TUTORIAL TIME: 2pm – 4pm SYNOPSIS NO: 2 READER TITLE: Semiology and Architecture
AUTHOR: Charles Jencks I agree on how the way Charles Jencks relates and simpli�es the theory of semiotic triangle to
architectural �eld. There are just three point, “percept”, “concept” and “representation”, and very
importantly, the relationship is irreducible.
What the three points from Jencks introduce is the practice of interpretation itself. To me, it is
di�erent to the “Interpretant” by Peirce’s Sign Theory, which individual allows for description of
architecture as well as its creation and inhabitation. It is the translation of the development of the
original sign, in the sense of idea can be interpretant and provide a translation, allowing us a more
complex understanding of the sign’s object.
Buildings as physical images are read as messages when translated. This implies their basic
function as signs coded di�erently within di�erent perception. By all means, the same building may
signify di�erent understanding when translated or decoded. An example given is Kisho Kurokawa’s
Negakin Capsule Building, for Jencks, it was a form of washing machines, until he met the architect
who explained to him that the guiding metaphor were bird boxes, which response to the come-and-
go character of the user of inhabitation.
Secondly, the interesting part is how he places semiotic theory on the act of interpretation. It
releases semiotics from the confusion of abstract theory and allows an open-ended and engaging
fresh attitude towards both the creation and interpretation of architecture. This promotes more
creative, at the same time less didactic role for the architect in the process. Giving an example build
by Jencks, Elemental House provides an orgy of meaning through architectural codi�cation.
Combines with the themes of natural elements, the building give order and legitimacy to architectural
form as well as responding to broader meaning itself. The pool acts as a crack in ground, �lled with
water which a series of follies symbolize various elements and respond to notions of time, like
summer, winter etc. The connotative meanings and the non-linear interpretive process would be
impossible to unravel the architectural messages without the explanation by the Architect.
WORD COUNT: 336 DATE: 24/04/2016 MARK: GRADE: ASSSESSED BY:
