Ornament & Crime or is it?
5. How is or is not “ornament” an appropriate concept or term in architecture today?
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"In a highly productive nation ornament is no longer a natural product of its culture and therefore represents a backwardness or even a degenerative tendency."-Adolf Loos
Together with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's quote "Less is more", theses become the bywords of minimalism, the statement taken out of complex cultural context to define a modernism now. Just like fashion, it has changed for architect as well.
Ornate details isn't just that they were eliminated or abandon, is because due to the lack of desire for skilled craftsmen, but because of the perception that ornamentation is unnecessary.
The move towards Modern architecture happened at the time when cost of labour rose significantly, it simply isn't necessarily to have thousands of skilled craftsmen tapping away at stone. The labour cost and education for the skilled craftsmen are rarely found in modern society now.
But with the technology now such as 3D printing, etc. This is an interesting question and some of the examples, with the help of digital design technology technique that allow complex forms to be mass create in a way that was not possible 5-20 years ago, it may possibly bringing ornate details back.
Another way to expressing Ornate details, why should we debating on bringing back ornament into modern building. With the help of today technology, there's many way we can construct our building in various shape and forms. As an architect why not build and design a building to act as an ornament itself instead of putting thousands ornament into a single building.
Al Bahar Towers - Aedas
Aedas has taken consideration at the weather in Abu Dhabi, with such extreame weather condition Aedas have designed a responsive facade which us the world's largest computerized facade.
“The dynamic façade on Al Bahar, computer-controlled to respond to optimal solar and light conditions, has never been achieved on this scale before. In addition, the expression of this outer skin seems to firmly root the building in its cultural context.” - – Chris Wilkinson
Not ony it combat the effects of solar glare and heat gain, the team looked for a method to shield the glazed towers in a creative way. By studying the traditional and vernacular architecture of the area, the “mashrabiya,” a wooden lattice screen used predominantly in Islamic architecture.
Not ony it combat the effects of solar glare and heat gain, the team looked for a method to shield the glazed towers in a creative way. By studying the traditional and vernacular architecture of the area, the “mashrabiya,” a wooden lattice screen used predominantly in Islamic architecture.
Al Bahr Towers fuse the principles of bio-inspiration, regional architecture, and performance oriented technology with an underlying performance criteria, grid-guide, and geometric composition that generates a highly efficient integrated system. The plan of the towers is based on six tangential arcs, taken from three intersecting circles – a pattern which forms the basis of nearly all geometric configurations known to the region.
Conclusion
The Al Bahr Tower is a design concept that demonstrating the importance of creating necessary integration of form, structure and sustainable design in architecture. Not only by creating theses concept is by how it able to merger together, it was inventive, sophisticated, thoughtful and unique.
Reference
1.https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/al-bahar-tower-1/9129
2.http://www.archdaily.com/270592/al-bahar-towers-responsive-facade-aedas
3.http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildingArchive2012/AlBaharTowersAbuDhabi/tabid/3845/language/en-GB/Default.aspx