Junk Space: Business Tool

Junk Space

Architecture since the early beginning had hold its great success in being a tool to help promotes, convey and enhance people believes, actions, or decision.

According to Rem Koolhaas, an architect, the author of the book 'Junk Space' and the creator of the term, “If space-junk is the human debris that litters the universe, junk-space is the residue mankind leaves on the planet.”

Junk space is not as junk as it sound, in fact, from a business perspective, it is rather wondrously amazing. It is brain provokingly interesting how something so big, huge, massive and very prominent can makes the user lost in time, trapped in the space and came out not remembering a lot about the architecture at all but rather what is inside it. This is basically what junk space is.

From the description, most of us would picture this in their mind, of a simple large void or cube with not a lot of architecture features so that it does not stand out and make it way into our memory and so that it stays in the background and emphasis the special-ness of the objects in the inside. Precisely the opposite. Junk space refer to the space in most if not all commercial malls, shopping complex, and other in the category. Junk space works by having minimised window to cut out any connection of user and the outside world, trapped user inside as long as possible. Also having a very complex pathway, making confusing circulation where user actually have to go on a detour to get to their destination, this not only forced people to see more than what they should actually see in their circulation but also make them confuse and lost track of time so that they would spend more time in the space. This can be clearly seen in the Maboonkrong (MBK) shopping centre where one has to around the whole floor to get to another forcing us to see as much as possible of each floor.

In some cases, it tries to create endless circulation so instead of making confusing circulation it made the circulation from floor to floor very clear provoking people to go from one floor to another and only has the path to the exit is unclear. A good example is paragon where the elevator of every floor is group together in each zone so user can know instantly how to get from one floor to another, just come back to the same place.

Baroque: Breaking Away

Baroque is a reaction off of Renaissance architecture
Instead of perfect form, perfect symmetry, it broke the rule and uses compression for power, buildings look muscular and is made larger than that of renaissance. It still uses the excessive ornaments and decorations from the renaissance period but take it to the next level and make it more excessive and expressive. The breaks the clean line and geometrical and uses concave and convex curve, also it reacts to Renaissance pediment by breaking it down into three triangle. It also uses geometrically shape but broken it down into triangle based circle based oval. It also uses triangle based stars and triangle as interior decoration. Even though it tries to break away from the Renaissance period as much as possible, elements can still be trace back to the Renaissance architecture.

The elements of baroque architecture also includes cornice, and also uses dove as a holy trinity as well as cantilever wall.

Renaissance Architecture

Baroque Architecture

Renaissance: Influences to modernism and other

Renaissance had a big influence on architecture from then on and ere is quite a few qualities from modern architecture that can be credited to renaissance period

Renaissance gain history elements but uses proportion of man and human study, and uses symmetry and harmony that later appears in most modernist architecture.

It also has symmetrical facade and the geometry shape, square and circle which later show up in a lot of modernism work from the vienna succession, the Secessionist building which contain both circle and square form, building to lots of work from Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and other.

                   Renaissance Architecture             Vienna Secessionist Building, Vienna Secession Architecture

It has column, balance window ( and smaller at the top floor) where windows in both the renaissance period and modernist period are usually balance in size proportion numbers and symmetry.

It has also has vanishing point and perspective, smooth stone wall, uses number & proportion as 1L = 2W = 3W

The late renaissance the also uses fake perspective and secred cut.

Formal and public buildings to banks uses some elements from renaissance architecture to give the appearance of security, trustability, formality and strength.

Age of Enlightenement: Thank to the Rich

Age of Enlightenement: Thank to the Rich

The Age is Enlightenment or 'The Age of Reason' is the age where people started exploring the rest of the world, seeking for truth and logic.

The Grand Tour where they explored different places around the world and study the past and seeking for the truth. Rich people would travel the world, paid some great artist to paint him (or her (rather unlikely) ) at different places, came back and create architecture from bits they could recalled from the great architecture around the world. Almost literally cutting and pasting pieces together like a collage. Supposedly eclectic is the name given to this type of creation where ideas, style or taste are derives from broad, diverse range of sources. Apparently, from architecture and architecture movements being about the form, the function, the belief and etc, architecture during the grand tour period became about whether or not you have the money to go on the tour.

Folly is another subset of architecture born during the age of enlightenment where money are spent on the creation of 'fake' building with no living space that are extravagant and usually take a form of architecture from around the world(hence the owner with the kind of money to spent on a folly is most likely to already have gone on a grand tour) and usually are made to look old since brand new. The important of follies are not to depict important or outstanding architecture from around the world but rather to be an part of . . a garden. According to wikipedia, the outstanding features of a folly is that it is 'merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs'.

It also said that many follies were built to provide employment for peasants and unemployed artisans so supposedly there were good intensions behind the ridiculousness of money spent on gardens. Lets thank to the rich from the 18^th and 19^th century who had a contribution to open the world for people who cannot pay for the grand tour by creating architecture that practically combines many things from many places together and also creating follies mimicking architecture from around the world for other to see and also increase the employment rate and prolong the skills of skillful artisans. Probs to them.

Grand tour

Folly

http://dictionary.reference.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly#Follies_in_18th_century_French_and_English_gardens

Vienna Secessionist: Secession Building

Secession Building,1897

The Vienna Sucession was formed in 1897, the same year this building were built.

The building is Secessionists' administrative headquarters, and also vitally important exhibition space.

To break through away from the rigidity of Vienna's long standing taste, to identify themselves as modern and different, Joseph Maria Olbrich decided to create a sober building, using only white with gold flourishes.

Due to its plain walls, the building appears as if it was created from solid cubes. Of course the harsh ness of the building was softened by decoration; laurel was placed on the pilasters and on the entrance. Above the building, thousands of gold plated leaves and berries formed a dome or crown. Three gorgon heads, representing the arts, added to the ex­terior decorative elements which were all clearly Art Nouveau. People admired it for its boldness and the rare craftsmanship in all the architectural statements.


After the building was completed, it still faced a barrage of criticism. Rather than being seen as a temple to art, the building was described as a mausoleum with cabbage on top. Overall this building still has ornamentations but simpler form and ornaments seems to be concentrated at one particular area rather than all over the facades like a lot of classical Vienna building.

Front entrance and decoration

Interior exhibition space

Modernism: Le Corbusier points

Modernism: Le Corbusier points

Modernism is the period that totally rejected the past, it uses no ornaments to blend class.

Uses a geometrical form and things and machine cut structure. They tried to use structure as ornament.

Throughout 1920s, Le Corbusier introduced his manifesto on five points towards a new architecture which leads him to developed several architecture based on his five points and perfected his points.

Le Corbusier first point is ‘free façade’ which means that the wall of the architecture is not a load barring walls and does not support any weight of the building so architect can do anything they want with the facade from using glass panel to take out certain part and create an open space.

The second point is that whole structure must be lifted off the ground by ‘pilotes’ and because of this allows the structure to have ‘open floor plan’, which is his third point, where space can be divided in every manner without the concern of supporting walls. The fourth point one is the ‘horizontal windows’ where strip of windows continue horizontally along the facade giving a panoramic and clear opened view of the surrounding. Fifth point is the ‘Roof Garden’ which means that the building has to have 'Flat Roof'. This theory also goes into inspiring a lot of architecture in the generations after like Tadao Ando

Modernism : Tadao Ando and Louis Kahn

Modernism : Tadao Ando and Louis Kahn


Modernist architecture is architecture built based on the thought that everyone is equally equal. It emphasis the function of the architecture and has little to none ornamentation, trying not to refer to any classical period or symbolism and also consists of factory-made parts and used man-made materials such as metal and concrete. On the other hand post-modernist architecture are built base on the thought that everyone is equally different. There might be a used of classical elements and symbolic parts in post modernism so that each people has different perception about the architecture.

Church of the light is located in Ibaraki. The structure of this Church of the Light is the simple reinforced concrete which can be traced back to Modernist architect, Louis Kahn and his work, Salk Institute, California, United States completed in 1965. The simple material was left unpainted and undecorated which is a Modernist style because it shows the truth and the structure of the architecture. It also emphasis on the use of light in the architecture and Kahn architecture is about ‘Silent and Light’. With the Salk institute, Kahn used water as a mean of guiding the light to travel where he wants it to he want to seperate the spaec symmetrically. When daylight shine onto the surface of water, it reflects off resulting in in a line of light going through the middle of the institute. Ando takes on this is he uses the wall as a mean of guiding and manipulating light instead of water, where the opening in the walls allow light to enter the space, however, the opening that he created for this architecture is a cross shaped where light could leak inside in the form of a cross. Although the cross is created with the form of the structure and natural element, light, and not ornamental or decorative pieces, it is still symbolic. It is a symbol of Christian cross on purpose and so it is different Kahn’s use of light and it is different from the way modernist architects work and think.

With the use of materials and light in the Church of the Light and the way Tadao Ando designed the space, it can be see how his architecture is related to Louis Kahn.