Parallels are always
intriguing. As with Edison and Swan, and what seems to be their
shared 'light-bulb' moment, like forms often appear in architecture.
It can never be said that one was related to the other, but the
parallels can be pointed out. Here Gehry's little 2003 building
quaintly named Maggie's Centre in Dundee, displays an irregularly
folded roof form that wraps self-consciously, informally over a
knobbly plan.
Maggie's Centre, Dundee
Riverside Muesum, Glasgow
Similar zigzagging
roof profiles can be seen repeated in Hadid's 2011 Glasgow Riverside
Museum, complete with the same zinc sheet detailing. One is left
pondering on the possibilities of any relationship, such is the
likeness.
Hadid displays
sketches on her site suggesting the origins, growth and development
of the concept from raw, personal inspiration, as does Gehry. Hadid
further explains her forms as arising from the saw-tooth roof profile
of the old industrial buildings once on the site; but here the
distinctive profile is distorted. Gehry does not go beyond his
scribbles to explain his sources. Somehow, someone has 'interpreted'
the original Gehry concept sketch into these cryptic 'Maggie' masses
with a kinky roof. Hadid's flowing plan incorporates another idea,
onto which has been fitted the roof 'extrusions' that are like the
Gehry profiles stretched along to fit the plan form. Just why this
roof resolution might be necessary beyond the ambition to implement the zigzag idea is unclear
when one walks through the Riverside Museum.
Both schemes have
roofs that have little to do with their plans other than being there,
and being 'interesting.' The fit of the Hadid roof seems more
integral than that of the folded Gehry panels, but this is merely an
observational aside. The point is not only that the
expressions/impressions are similar in raw concept, but that
admitting one as the source, the inspiration of the other, if it is,
has become a problem. We have come to see such borrowings as less
than desirable because of our effort to recognise only originality
and personal creativity in assumed, often self-proclaimed genius. We
have come to see the use of sources as stealing ideas; pilfering
intellectual matter from others; a weakness; as claiming other's
efforts to disguise our own lack of ingenuity, for our own purposes. The
concept has very negative connotations. Is this why we live in such
an architectural shambles, with everyone trying their hardest to be unique?
We forget that the
history of architecture is littered with pattern books: sources. Once
we get rid of this glorifying concept, the requirement for a special original outcome for everything, we might start to be able to concentrate more on genuine
meaning in architecture, rather than place all of our efforts into
hagiographical concerns. Tradition can help us here, both as an
example, and as a source of theory too: if only we might take the
time to look and consider – and learn.
Maggie's Centre,
Dundee
Frank O. Gehry, 2003
Riverside Museum,
Scotland's Museum of Transport and Travel
Scotland's Museum of Transport and Travel
Zaha Hadid, 2011
NOTE:
Zaha Hadid designed Maggie's Centre in Kirkcaldy, Fife, 2006:
The Architect and her creation
ARTICLE
Maggie's Centre's Laura Lee
on the healing power of architecture: see -
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/maggie%E2%80%99s-centre%E2%80%99s-laura-lee-on-the-healing-power-of-architecture/3135714.article
NOTE 17 February 2016
Found in Professor Carter's profile http://architecture.bond.edu.au/Professor-Adrian-Carter - another 'cranky roof':
NOTE 17 February 2016
Found in Professor Carter's profile http://architecture.bond.edu.au/Professor-Adrian-Carter - another 'cranky roof':
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