H O N E S T Y &
D E C E P T I O N
In architecture, there were separated into two part of theory which is honesty and deception. The definition of honesty is defined as the expose of raw materials without much extra treatment and its real structure. For deception, which is using the material that not using raw material, but to pretend the raw material and the hiding of the structure with a cover. In architecture nowadays, there are mostly more in deception because being deception, the process of construction is more faster and cheap, but some of the architect still remain the honesty (raw materials).
In
the article ‘THE LAMP OF TRUTH’ by
John Ruskin written “As, whatever is pretend, it is wrong” , for him there are
three ways of construction are not honesty, firstly is the structural deceits,
if the real structural had add in others
material pretend to cover the main structure, there wold be totally wrong for
him, the second thing is the painting in the material, for him the painting in
material is the trick of hiding the weak of material, the third which is all
the material or ornament made by machine or from industrial like precast which
is wrong.
From
Viollet-Le-Duc’s article, he states out “Originality
is impossible apart from truth”. He mentions an idea which is using steel
as structural are honesty even it is from machine but as long as it is not an
ornament and make the structural stronger then, that is no more deception.
“Truth to the
medium: Using Material” by Fil Hearn, he suggested different era of generation
can be using new modern material to merge the era, and this is honesty. The identical
of John Ruskin, Viollet-Le-Duc and Fil Hearn which is the truth of using
material. For me, I agreed with using new material as long as the material are
functionality, being deception is the waste of material, it is destroying the
nature and beauty of the material.
In Russia, Expoforum Convention
and Exhibition Centre best representing honesty in architecture, there are
three architect who design this building; Yevgeny Gerasimov and Partners,
Tchoban Voss, and SPEECH. This building is one of the largest exhibition and
convention centres in the world. The high-rise part of the convention centre,
the hotels, and two business centres are linked by and stand on gentle arc,
which form the Expoforum’s main façade overlooking the main road. Perpendicular
to the façade are the auditoria of the convention centre and three exhibition pavilions
connected by a passage with an undulating roof featuring circular skylight. The
façades of the pavilion are decorated with photographic prints on ceramic
panels showing views of St. Petersburg.
Expoforum is in a striking
modernist style, its distinguishing feature is the amber colour of the façade,
a colour which is maintained irrespective of the material used. The overall
style is based on the rhythmic patterns of window openings, the colour scheme
used for the spaces between the windows, and the character of glazing.
In other hand, for me some or maybe all Frank
Gehry’s building is deception architecture, his design always makes me or other people
amaze with his work. One of his building that showed deception is Biomuseo. The
project consists of three main elements; the museum building, the exhibition design
and the surrounding park.
At the centre of the project is a public
outdoor atrium covered by colourful metal canopies was designed to protect
visitors from frequent wind-driven rains.
In this generation or era, honesty and deception are important, all of it is depends on architect who present it. Different people have their own thought, but for being honesty are much harder that deception, because have to consider the material using and how to apply it to the building. Different style is achievable in this era, the important is the material have the meaning and function. It will make a building more interesting if combining both of honesty and deception.
http://www.archdaily.com/804686/expoforum-convention-and-exhibition-centre-speech
http://www.archdaily.com/562296/biomuseo-gehry-partners