voussoirs: VIRGINIA KERRIDGE - THE SERIALITY OF MATERIALITY, TACTILITY AND TRANSPARENCY: “MY OBSESSIONS”

Saturday 3 February 2018

VIRGINIA KERRIDGE - THE SERIALITY OF MATERIALITY, TACTILITY AND TRANSPARENCY: “MY OBSESSIONS”

It was a balmy coastal evening. The sun set on a warmly humid day with an unusual lack of drama. The pale yellow, lemon horizon faded into grim, darkening black with an uneventful, unremarkable, fuzzy ease. The entrance into the Abedian School of Architecture now has a certain familiarity about it that seems to have the same lack of impact as the evening sky on days like this. Yet, still there was a surprise. The linear easel structure remained in place, looking larger than ever, crudely, awkwardly, filling the corridor in a way that was previously concealed by the intimacy of the entry screen, now removed, and the crowds, now gone – see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/abedian-school-of-architecture-spring.html ; and the bar had been brought forward to avoid the awkward crush at the kitchen/entry space. It was, apparently, the barman's decision. He seemed to miss the irony of the comment that architects should know better. With so many architects about, why does it take a barman to notice the better location for the distribution of drinks? But this is the Abedian School where architecture seems to be defined by the visual drama of its own building, the ‘Sir Peter’ architectural form that becomes the promotional front for the working sheds behind – see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/abedian-school-of-architecture-spring.html Appearances seem to be more important than functions in this visual drama of vertical posts, curving masses and dramatic downpipes: see - http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/bond-downpipes.html

Gold Coast, Southeast Queensland, Australia

Strangely, there were many folk already seated with a drink in the Forum area. Students? Were they all encouraged to attend; coerced? What was the particular draw-card tonight – the speaker; the drinks; the nibblies: all three? One picked up a glass of wine from the more welcoming bar location, bypassed the cheese and bikkies, and chose a seat. The electronics at the lectern were just being connected. There is always some exemplary exposition of hope on these occasions with last-minute setups – blind belief that the gadgets will work without any testing failures. One attended to the few matters that needed to be looked at on the mobile phone, like everyone else. The tap on the back meant that a colleague had arrived – late. It was a steaming, solar hot water unit that had been the problem: 6:29pm.

Virginia Kerridge

Unusually, the speaker was ushered in by Professor Adrian Carter, like a formal promenade at a wedding without the fanfare. He introduced her in glowing terms; they were obviously good friends: “has won domestic awards; completed an apartment block at 3565 Main Beach, the new benchmark; has been written about in Chasing the Sky – 20 Stories of Women in Architecture (by Dean Dewhirst).” Virginia Kerridge, (VK), had been invited to run a masters programme at the school. She began, gushing with praise for it: “One big happy family in this beautiful building.” One remains cynical about such relationships generating exuberant praise. Opinions must be better than a mate’s vision of things. The school inspections of the past come to mind, where mate invited mate in a reciprocal dance of self-indulgent praise to ensure the very best of reports.

Main Beach apartments

Andy Goldsworthy's art - as delicate and amazing as Scarpa's detailing

see: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=andy+goldsworthy&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje-dnz2YjZAhVBQpQKHViqDcwQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=1094

VK – see: http://vk.com.au/ - dedicated her talk titled Art & Craft in Architecture, to the late Paul Pholeros, who had been the director of Healthabitat.^ She began by introducing her ideas: how architecture was “an art and a craft; art plus human experience” - “the interaction of looking and feeling and habitation.” VK’s mother was an artist. VK told how she had been raised with great artists, (Dobell, Boyd, etc.), as household names – mother was a student at the College of Art in Sydney. Then a friend’s artworks in nature were illustrated. There were beautifully delicate “interventions” that brought to mind the wonderful work of the Scottish artist, Andy Goldsworthy, but his name was not mentioned: the work was identical in its ideas, themes and techniques. It was this artwork that first raised the words tactility and materiality, and the concept of “making an intervention in a site.” The suggestion, the implication, seemed to be that all of these people and environments had had an impact on VK – inspired her, even if latently. Scarpa was added to the list; his Castelvecchio Museum that displayed “an intervention in a building, to integrate and be a part of it,” was mentioned.** The phrases started: “sense of tactility; getting ideas together” in the details of rails, steps, windows. Switzerland’s Peter Zumpthor got a brief mention, with an image of this Saint Benedict Chapel flashed up on the screen; but little more was said about this architect’s work beyond its “great sense of wonder in landscape.”# It seemed more intricate and considered than this – see text on Zumpthor below.

Castelvecchio Museum, Scarpa

Saint Benedict Chapel, Zumpthor

3565 Main Beach

VK became a little nostalgic as she told of her beginnings at the NSW University where she studied architecture somewhat reluctantly, almost belligerently. It was only some time later that she “became really passionate about architecture,” after travelling to New York. It was then that she started working for herself. The stories went on to tell about 2008, when Katie Page – see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Page - commissioned VK to develop a site at Main Beach. It was an area zoned for three storeys only, but the team wanted seven - “ to still maintain contact with street.” This seemed to set a terrible example for less responsible developers who might not care about the street. Ideas included “interface with public; green areas; screening; transparency and privacy; building depth; open/closed spaces.” It seemed strange to hear the 1970’s theory on the 'public space/street supervision' concept, then known as Safe Spaces, being promoted as a new, twenty-first century vision. This was the 3565 Main beach apartment building the Professor had praised. One remembered that the ‘relationship with the street’ concept arose as an important issue because mothers in high-rise units in Britain felt the need to be able to supervise their children in the play areas. Why was it important here when screens seemed to be the main expression?

3565 Main Beach

An abundance of drawings was shown to illustrate the development of this project, and many models too. The architect had to go to court to argue for its approval. Sand-coloured, smooth concrete, grey zinc and pre-aged, recycled ironbark, (from the Kingaroy Railway), had been used for the building materials to create a “transitional urban form” for this seven storey building – “actually eight if you count the penthouse,” which, of course, one should. This game seemed to be as tricky as that of any other developer. Ideas of “modulation; light; human scale; relation to beach; transparency, (“Sort of see through them”),” were raised as the slick, double-light, John Gollings’ images glossed over the screen. The photographs captured the unique glory of the building as a sculpture: “It was a big effort; took ten years”: (on architectural photography: see -

http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/the-need-for-street-view-in-architecture.html

and
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/solitary-architecture-ignoring-contexts.html )

3565 Main Beach

House in the Country

House in the Country - showing historic cottage

VK moved on to talk about the House in the Country (the Hunter region). It was actually houses on a horse stud in a remote valley in the Hunter region: “I really love horses; such intelligent, sensitive creatures.” The approach to the design started with wandering around the site, “the valley of the gods.” She, VK, wanted to “keep the sense of history.” This seemed to be the two old sandstone cottages said to be a bushranger retreat, Thunderbolt’s hideout. The ideas continued: “ look at mountains; engage with creek, (reshaped by Peter Andrews, a quirky environmentalist promoted by Gerry Harvey of Harvey Norman); follow presence of mountains; scale; honour the mountains.” A couple vet houses were built first, almost as a test case, both saluting the hills; and then the main residence that incorporated the old sandstone buildings was constructed, to give “solid and transparent” spaces; “places for pauses” to “accentuate transparency,” all on the 100 year flood level datum, at a “grand scale.” The “idea of grafting;” of “adding to old as though it had always been there” - “a light touch with everything on the property.” Was this simply another version of Murcutt’s “touch the ground lightly” rephrased? The “sense of materiality and tactility that we are keen on using” was noted, along with the “robust materials inside” - hardwood ply and rammed earth: but not too much rammed earth, “It was far too expensive.” The influence of Scarpa was noted in the detail, “in all things you touch.” “The roofs echo the mountains behind.” One thought of the 1960s classic book by Paul Grillo, What is design? Is it ever read these days? Is it still in print? One wonders about the negative impacts of ‘progress' that mock age and its intelligence and relevance.

House in the Country

House in the Country - 'robust materials inside'

Zumpthor-esque verticals

House in the Country - 'valley of the gods'

House in the Country - vet's residence 'salute'

Taylor Square Warehouse - 'lead roof used to add weight':

note the classic 'architect's' car carefully parked for the image:

knowing some photographer's tricks, one needs to ask - what might it conceal?

Taylor Square Warehouse - 'a piece of sculpture'

VK moved on to talk about the Taylor Square Warehouse, the refurbishment of the old carriage works building to become a home. VK noted that the ideas were the same: “robust materials; light; recycled materials - (“This is where I start being interested in textures”) - detailing; inside/outside.” Oddly, lead was used as the roofing material - “To add weight to the scheme.” Was this a metaphor or a functional fact? Here VK explained that her art was always rooted in her constant potting, painting and sketching, suggesting that this involvement freed up her architectural efforts. “The quality of work goes down when one stops revitalising your work.” The “higgedly-piggedly” stair was pointed out, “a piece of sculpture.” “Certain things are a constant patter – the importance of detail; tactility; “What is a handle?” - the shape of the hands.” (see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/what-is-handle.html ) “Exercise bespoke tactility; part of a vocabulary of a building; the enjoyment of materiality.” The repeated words started to feel like bland architectural jargon - (see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/architectural-words-logic-and-meaning.html ).

The lovely sag of the 'weighty' lead roof:

note the panel accommodates the perforations of the tapware, but not the waste

Taylor Square Warehouse 'Scarpa-esque' detail:

it seems to lack the intrigue, surprise and wonder of Scarpa's work

Luker Studio

Luker Studio in Glebe was the next project to be revealed. This was spoken about only briefly. It was from a stage where VK “just did things” - (c.f. http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/drew-heath-bespoke-details-practise.html ). She had it photographed only recently for the talk. Here an original, historic, Edmund Grouse house had been extended. The intentions were not to spoil the place with a “deliberate intervention, modern and robust,” to create a studio for the client in a garden – a box within a box. VK “played around with form” that “just happened,” to give “a multifunction box in a garden.” It all appeared somewhat random and ad hoc.

Luker Studio - 'deliberate intervention'

Luker Studio - 'modern and robust'

Bronte House - 'floating platforms'

'Scarpa-esque' entry water detail - see Scarpa details below

Bronte House was the next project up on the screen, a house for VK’s brother just above Bronte Beach - “floating platforms with screens for privacy.” We had heard about this theme before. “The pond defines entry; play with textures, (much like a Scarpa water detail); an enriching experience at the entry; void for airflow over dining area; sense of transparency and light (“my obsession”).”

The problems in controlling the service connections!

Bronte house - dining ventilation void

Lilyfield Warehouse - 'memory'

The Lilyfield Warehouse for Merrick Watts, a comedian was spoken about: “always fun.” “Wanted to have the character of a family home.” VK spoke of how parts of the old warehouse were removed to open up courtyard garden spaces, leaving the old trusses in place as “memory.” The issues were “air flow; robust materials; recycling of materials; re-imagining the building; obsession with tactility; relation to human scale” - “that’s what my work is saying to me.” It is what we had heard frequently repeated throughout the evening.

Lilyfield Warehouse

That was the end of the talk that finished bluntly, in a way similar to that used by the traditional storyteller: “That is the end of the story” - “That is my last image:” It was 7:40pm. This was obviously too early for Professor Adrian, who moved in with an exotically florid summing up: " a painterly approach to architecture; sympathetic recycling, etc. . . ." He asked a couple of ‘Dorothy Dix’ questions, as if to extend the evening; but even these self-conscious acts did not fill the gap, so questions were begged from the audience. Was he aiming for 8:00pm as the invitation had defined it? One person responded to the call: “Where do you get your inspiration for your buildings?” was the student's sad question. One thought: not from Pinterest! One could only admire the measured response to this naive question from what looked like a lost soul; how it was carefully and sensitively managed. It was indeed an impossible question to answer, one that said more about the student, and perhaps the school, than anything else.* Tradition explains the situation in a matter-of-fact manner: if it could be told, it would have been – such is the quality of matters subtle and poetic.

Still the time-gap had to be filled. Professor Adrian moved in with a commentary-question so forced that it felt embarrassing: “Do what is appropriate; full site engagement; vocabulary of how to look at problems; learn from material and inspiration.” It felt like a real struggle. This too, was responded to with guile and awareness. Then there was still more begging for more questions; even comments would do now. One audience member responded with questions about the legal approval process of the Main Beach apartment block. This project had to go to court to obtain approval. A few more minutes were spent exploring an answer, “that it was all happy endings; fluidity of bedroom spaces; screens help external appearance; protect outside to give more life inside; a double layer.” Then, yet again, there was more begging and explanations: “inside/outside space; treated as a big house; 100 signatures against; didn’t conform to codes; now liked by all.” “A change of thinking in the area?” “Yeah, probably a change in street landscape.” Professor Adrian was obviously searching for his prediction to be confirmed – that this apartment block was the new benchmark: (see real estate NOTE below).

Castelvecchio Museum, Detail, Scarpa

Now, in spite of the continued begging, there were no more questions, just a persistent, eerie silence. The subdued "OK" seemed to admit defeat. "Thank you." It was 7:45pm.

Castelvecchio Museum, Detail, Scarpa

The question remains: if Scarpa is such an influence, does the quality of the outcome lie in reproducing his awareness and solutions, or in seeking out the substance, the roots of his awareness? One had the feeling that this lady was designing a 'Scarpa' response to architectural matters. This seemed only to give things ‘Scarpa-esque.’ If quality and depth are going to resonate, rather than be replicated in an attempted reproduction, one has to seek feelings and emotions deeper than appearances, techniques, and themes. One kept on seeing Scarpa things in this work, almost in the same way as one might read a catalogue. The constant repetition of materiality, tactility and transparency – “my obsessions” – appeared to modify the commitment, and turn it into a prescription. Scarpa's work always holds more than a reproduction or a replica in approach can; more than a self-conscious 'careful feeling' might induce, no matter how 'sensitive' or 'committed' this act is seen to be, or be explained.

Saint Benedict Chapel, Zumpthor

The inspiration derived from other architects is always a concern. How many Ronchamps are there throughout the world? I can think of a pump house, a transport rest area building, and a residence, all of which have been shaped with the very best intentions of ‘worshipping’ Ronchamp. All make a mockery of it, in spite of these ambitions arising from sincere, respectful admiration. We need to manage our inspiration as well as our intentions. It is easy for one to squash the other. One inspired detail does not make a work of art: but the role of copying in tradition needs to be acknowledged – see writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy. It was always considered better to copy a master than invent some quirky, personal variation of one’s own ad hoc invention.

Castelvecchio Museum, Detail, Scarpa

VK’s talk was shaped by words that appeared to touch on a limited, fixed set of understandings that perhaps could manage futures - contain them. Yet the ‘art &craft’ of the architecture did manage to be displayed. It shows how tradition’s understanding of copying values, as against the circumstance where one “just did things .. playing around with forms . . . just happened,” still has relevance and strength even today. Good work can be done without being just too ‘arty’ or ‘crafty.’ We need to overcome the desire for everything to be a bespoke creation of MY unique genius, and approach the world with sensitivity and care; and humility – see comment below.*

Scarpa detail

Paul Pholeros

^ Paul Pholeros director of Healthabitat: see - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Pholeros
see also:
How design can help fight poverty - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiDSQyFdd68

Saint Benedict Chapel, Zumpthor

# Peter Zumpthor: VK did not dwell too long on identifying the PZ Saint Benedict Chapel, located in the village of Sumvitg, Graubűnden. Was it because one might recognise the similarity between its idea and the housing at Hunter?

Saint Benedict Chapel, Zumpthor - entry (see plan below)

* Perhaps VK could have referred to PZ’s approach:

In an interview with The New York Times, Zumpthor once explained his process: “When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. It’s not about paper, it’s not about forms. It’s about space and material.” (www.archdaily.com)

Maybe VK should have simply noted Scarpa and Zumpthor as her inspiration, as she had explained in her talk; but perhaps this might have alerted folk to the parallels between their work and hers: note the structure of the Hunter Houses, its similarity to Zumpthor’s chapel. Note also the similarity between the specific details that can be said to be 'Scarpa-esque.' ‘Inspiration’ can so easily be seen as copying. Now this raises yet another issue : today it is seen as a weakness to copy; that one has not been ‘original.’ Tradition held that it was always better to copy than to probe blindly into the discovery of form ‘creatively,’ 'higgedly-piggedly,' not really knowing what one was doing, just hoping for an 'interesting' outcome. Copying at least gave one a direction that held or referenced meaning, rather than one's indulging in random games, the 'playing around with form' seeking ‘self- expression.’ Art in older eras was never self-expression. It represented subjects that had depth and meaning, cosmic relevance. It was this understanding that made copying important, that it reproduced things of substance rather than mere personal whims. Our era seeks the scattergun approach: the repeated revelations of creative genius in everyone seeking to declare ME!

Maybe the poet can help here?

C.K.Stead Collected Poems 1951-2006, AUP, 2008, p.286:

‘Thinking is what creeps up on me

when I’m not thinking.

It’s the living that matters.’

** Note: Dropped names are used in the talk, apparently for the sustenance and prestige that might come with them, but not much more. The significant Peter Zumpthor barely got a mention, but became a claimed reference. Scarpa was mentioned two or three times. It was good to see that the consultants in the projects were given credit for their involvement.

Saint Benedict Chapel, Zumpthor

Hunter House, VK

Saint Benedict Chapel, Zumpthor

Hunter House, VK

Saint Benedict Chapel, Zumpthor

CARLO SCARPA DETAILS

NOTE

Zumpthor and Scarpa are two of nine famous architects who never had a degree: see -

https://www.archdaily.com/873850/9-incredibly-famous-architects-who-didnt-possess-an-architecture-degree

Educational institutions might find this simple fact worth pondering. The list is:

Frank Lloyd Wright

Louis Sullivan
Le Corbusier
Mies van der Rohe
Buckminster Fuller
Luis Barragán
Carlo Scarpa
Tadao Ando
Peter Zumpthor

NOTE: For 3565 Main Beach ‘real world’ real estate information, see:

https://www.realestate.com.au/property/3565-main-beach-pde-main-beach-qld-4217

and

http://www.m3565.com/ ‘The new dawn of luxury’

One has to be puzzled about the dedication of this talk to Paul Pholeros given his commitment to design that can help fight poverty (see above).

24 OCTOBER 2019

TWINS

The invitation from the Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University arrived as an E-mail. Julie Eizenberg of KoningEizenberg was going to talk. The link in the text was clicked in order to seek out more information; the work was perused. The ‘Kerridge’ touch was recognised: the ‘Edison/Swan’ factor?

INVITATION TO ATTEND:
ABEDIAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE #7

JULIE EIZENBERG,

KONING EIZENBERG ARCHITECTURE
Los Angeles

sponsored by Wilson Architects

wilsonarchitects.com.au

DATE
Thursday, 17 October 2019

TIME
Refreshments from 6pm for a 6.30 start

VENUE
Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University

JULIE EIZENBERG OF: KoningEizenberg

Julie Eizenberg, FAIA, RAIA, LFRAIA, Founding Principal has given visibility to the design value and potential of community projects in a people-oriented practice. Her focus on the user experience, whether of an individual, community, or the public at large brings an empathetic perspective that underpins how the firm transforms mundane programs into places of ease and generosity. Julie teaches around the world, and has been a frequent advisor to the U.S. Mayor’s Institute on City Design and outspoken advocate on the value of social impact design. She is a board member of Public Architecture, the School of Architecture at Taliesin and FYI Films.

NOTE

7 November 2019

No comments:

ON GARDENING

I am strongly of the opinion that the possession of a quantity of plants, however good the plants may be themselves and however ample their number, does not make a garden; it only makes a collection. Having got the plants, the great thing is to use them with careful selection and definite intention. Merely having them, or having them planted unassorted in garden spaces, is only like having a box of paints from the best colourman, or, to go one step further, it is like having portions of these paints set out upon a palette. This does not constitute a picture; and it seems to me that the duty we owe our gardens and to our own bettering in our gardens is so to use plants that they shall form beautiful pictures; that, while delighting our eyes, they should be always training those eyes to a more exulted criticism; to a state of mind and artistic conscience that will not tolerate bad or careless combination or any sort of misuse of plants, but in which it becomes a point of honour to be always striving for the best. Gertrude Jekyll Colour in the Flower Garden Mitchell Beazley London 1998 – Introduction (first published 1908)

MORE IS LESS

Significantly, in the era of the ‘information revolution’, the same process is now affecting disinformation: whereas in the past it was lack of information and censorship which characterized the denial of democracy by the totalitarian state, the opposite is now the case. Disinformation is achieved by flooding TV viewers with information, with apparently contradictory data. The truth of the facts is censured by over-information, as we have seen from the press and television discussing the Balkans. The globalitarian state, built out of economic-strategic alliances, is no longer old ‘Anastasia’ with her scissors: it is Babel. Now more is less. And in some cases, less than nothing. Deliberate manipulation and unintentional accidents have become indistinguishable.

Paul Virilio Strategy of Deception Verso 2007 p.48

(first published Editions Galilee 1999)

‘That which precedes the event is not necessarily its cause,’ claims the wisdom of the ancients. p.76

As Negroponte has rightly remarked, with the ‘liberation of information’ on the Web, what is most lacking is meaning or, in other words, a context into which Internet users could put the facts and hence distinguish truth from falsehood. On the Web, where, as everyone knows, the terrorist temptation is constant and where depredations of hackers are committed with impunity in a strange state of legal indeterminacy, the difference between (true) information and (false) deception fades a little more each day. In entering the looking-glass worlds of television and home computers, we are in the end left in the position of Kinglake’s old ‘English soldiery’. As they saw it,

insofar as the battlefield presented itself to the bare eyesight of men, it had no entirety, no length, no breadth, no size, no shape and was made up of nothing . . . In such conditions, each separate gathering . . . went on fighting its own little battle in happy and advantageous ignorance of the general state of the action; nay, even very often in ignorance of the fact that any great conflict was raging.

As Albert Camus asserted: ‘When we are all guilty, that will be true democracy.’ p.78

ENCOUNTERING CONRAD

Ryszard Kapuściński The Other Verso London 2018, p. 92

At the end of his book, Kapuściński asks whether, in our encounters with others in the future:

Will we jointly wish to refer to what – as Conrad puts it - ‘speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation – and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts: to the solidarity of dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity – the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.’?*

* J. Conrad, Preface to The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’: A Tale of the Sea, New York: W.W.Norton, 1979.

Architecture stands in between of all of these circumstances of encounter, but how does it explain itself beyond being a bespoke ‘grand design’ of a potential genius?

ON THE CULTURE OF OTHERS

Herodotus . . . wanted to know them because he understood that to know ourselves we have to know Others, who act as a mirror in which we see ourselves reflected; he knew that to understand ourselves better we have to understand Others, to compare ourselves with them, to measure ourselves against them. As a citizen of the world, he did not believe that we should isolate ourselves from Others, or slam the gates in their faces. Xenophobia, Herodotus implied, is a sickness of people who are scared, suffering an inferiority complex, terrified by the prospect of seeing themselves in the mirror of the culture of Others.

Ryszard Kapuściński The Other Verso London 2018, p. 19

CLEVER PEOPLE SELF-DOUBT

I last met him when Philomena came out back in 2013. Back then, Coogan was a bracing, combative interviewee. He saw every question as a potential ambush and moved to thwart any perceived journalistic angle. Today, though, he seems more comfortable with the process, more at ease with himself. It used to be that he felt he always had to have his guard up. Now he accepts that he can sometimes afford to let it drop. He’s middle aged and a mass of insecurity and contradictions. He suspects that, on balance, that’s not such a terrible thing to be.

“And actually I think acknowledging your own fallibility makes you a better artist and a better person,” he says in a rush. “It’s fairly obvious to me that the real wisdom lies in seeing people’s failings and trying to understand them. Because the alternative is that very childlike, Donald Trump thing of believing that admitting any weakness is fatal. What was it Bukowski said? All the clever people are full of self-doubt and all the stupid people are very confident. That’s the era we’re living in now. That’s the era I don’t want to be a part of. So all you can do is try to go about things differently. Do interesting work and don’t be a cunt.”

Coogan gulps for breath. His eyes widen and then he rocks with laughter. “There you go, that’s my big artistic statement,” he says. “Do interesting work and don’t be a cunt. Took me the best part of an hour. Got there in the end.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/04/steve-coogan-interview-stan-and-ollie

HILLS

The hills bespeak a healing power and closeness to unseen help now lost in the security of modern welfare. Those who befriend the silent peaks in a lifetime's work know well their embracing strength. (p.91)

For only once is it given to man to lie in the arms of the eternal forces which give all matter form. (p.98)

Iain R Thomson Isolation Shepherd Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2007

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121 King James Version (KJV)

SPAN

17 August 2012

This blog began as a co-operative concept. While the idea and the stimulus was generated through discussion, the blog has turned out to be an individual enterprise. SPAN stands for ‘Spence and’ in the context of others. As a word, it fitted in nicely with the idea of voussoirs - parts and pieces, complete with keystones, that could ‘span’ the gaps in understanding and communication. The word SPAN also allowed for a shared input into a blog.

Spence Jamieson is an architect and the author of these articles. The blogs show the scope of his interests.

THE IDEA

chapters and verses as architectural commentary:

the wedge to isolate, array and shape ideas; the keystone to highlight core, supporting issues. voussoirs is a concept to start an architectural discussion to span the large gap in the debate on things architectural; a bridging of the void in architectural issues by exploring considered bits and pieces. The state of the profession today is highlighted by silence and self. It is introvert and protective. Educational centres remain isolated within their own constructs, being run primarily as businesses. They put very little back into the community. They indulge themselves in their own interests and exclude contrary and different ideas and ideals. They constantly avoid any challenge on concepts or strategies that might change the plotted course. Rarely does comment ever come from this academic world into the public or any arena. Very few publications help direct the public interest. Rarely do newspapers grasp the issues and explore them. One aspect may be given space in the popular press, but architectural debates and concerns are rarely given attention. The professional institutes are doing much the same as the educational institutions. Private practice is doing likewise, offering, if anything, only its own pushy propaganda to the public. Yet there is a discussion and debate in these silences that needs a larger and more open platform. Discussion is alive and well amongst a few in at least one curry house, but the debate needs to be a broadened. voussoirs is the place for this discussion. It is a site for ideas, comment, articles, and critiques on things architectural and associated issues. It is here that matters can be aired and ideas discussed and debated without fear of the neglect and disdain that institutions and private groups and publishers give to open speaking and differing ideas.

There can be no true understanding of any idea if discussion and debate are curtailed in favour of a preferred position.

ON COMMUNICATION

. . . there has been a growing feeling of concern to solve what is now commonly called “the problem of communication.” But if one observes efforts to solve this problem, he will notice that different groups who are trying to do this are not actually able to listen to each other. As a result, the very attempt to improve communication leads frequently to yet more confusion, and the consequent sense of frustration inclines people ever further toward aggression and violence, rather than toward mutual understanding and trust.

David Bohm On Dialogue Routledge, Oxon, 1996 (2004) p.2

ON ART & METHOD

Even in relationships with inanimate objects and with nature in general, something very like communication is involved. Consider, for example, the work of an artist. Can it be properly said that the artist is expressing himself, i.e., literally “pushing outward” something that is already formed inside him? Such a description is not in fact generally accurate or adequate. Rather, what usually happens is that the first thing the artist does is only similar in certain ways to what he may have in mind. As in a conversation between two people, he sees the similarity and the difference, and from this perception something further emerges in his next action. Thus, something new is continually created that is common to the artist and the material on which he is working.

David Bohm On Dialogue Routledge, Oxon, 1996 (2004) p.4

THE NECESSITY OF THE INCOMPLETE

The early 50's and 60's is a period that is gaining interest in architectural ideas. Perhaps this is why Princeton chose to republish The Tao of Architecture. It is a beautiful little book that discusses the implications of traditional wisdom in architecture. Given the astonishing lack of direction in current architectural theory, the publication is very timely.

Amos Ih Tiao Chang, The Tao of Architecture, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1956, reprinted 2017.

p.26

Laotzu's idea of formation is heavily concerned with emptiness or non-existence. To him who regards nothing as persistent, what is essentially important in things is the possibility of becoming something, not the opportunity of remaining as something confronting deterioration. Consequently, meaningful incompletion is taken as the most desirable state of tangible being.

p.22

. . . the full meaning of existence is beyond the power of any manifestation. What appears tangible, architectural or natural, is only a means to suggest that which is lacking in appearance and existing in man's intangible understanding and aesthetic feeling.

LIVING IN IMPERMANENCE

Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts – serious, sad thoughts – and not to dreams. It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.

Gaston Bachelard The Poetics of Space

see: THE NECESSITY OF THE INCOMPLETE in the sidebar

THE REAL AND THE IMAGINARY

I prefer, by far, real islands to imaginary islands, just as I prefer prime documents to novelistic remakes. That's because the real is richer than the imagination. The real demands investigation and is an invitation to sensitive knowledge, whereas the imaginary is more often than not just a collection of stereotypes, a soup of clichés offering an infantile kind of satisfaction. Then, a relationship to the real and its resistance requires changes in thought, in ways of being, in ways of saying, it leads to a transformation of the self. Whereas imagination is nothing but compensation. There's even something horribly autistic about sitting in one spot and spinning out invention by the yard. How much more interesting an open and poetic process involving contemplation, study, movement, meditation and composition.

Kenneth White Across The Territories Travels from Orkney to Rangiroa Polygon Edinburgh 2004 p.86

VISION, CIVILIZATION & SPIRIT

The architect who combines in his being the powers of vision, of imagination, of intellect, of sympathy with human need and the power to interpret them in a language vernacular and time - - - is he who shall create poems in stone.

When you look on one of your contemporary 'good copies' of historical remains, ask yourself the question: Not what style, but what civilization is this building? And the absurdity, vulgarity, anachronism and solecism of the modern structure will be revealed to you in a most startling fashion.

It cannot for a moment be doubted that an art work to be alive, to awaken us to life, to inspire us sooner or later with its purpose, must indeed be animate with a soul, must have been breathed upon by the spirit and must breathe in turn that spirit.

Louis Sullivan

AN UNCHANGING PROFESSION

ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

. . . no one can relieve (the architect) from the need to rely on his own discretion, for that discretion is linked to a responsibility which belongs to no one but (the architect). It is the exercise of discretion hampered by considerations of cost, of risk, of exact justice, of conflicting interests, of uncertainty as to facts, of misunderstandings and of diverse individualities and dishonest or incapable agents, which is the chief care and preoccupation of architectural practice. To design a building, to draw and specify every part of it, and to direct its construction and see it completed with no other anxieties and dilemmas than belong to the exercise of those duties, is unknown.

H.B.Creswell The Honeywood Settlement Faber and Faber Limited London 1967 (fourth edition: first edition 1930 Architectural Press) p.128

MENDING WALL

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Robert Frost

CATHEDRALS and SYMBOLISM

Everything is the symbolical representation of an idea. p.28

The same artists, who had to follow a strict rule when treating the history of God, could use all of their imagination when treating the ornamental: whence the blossoming of the grotesque and the original. p.38

In those days religion, drama, and art had the same aim and sought to provoke the same thoughts. They did not pretend to amuse the people; they endeavoured to teach them. p.51

This way of thinking and reasoning takes sometimes a very subtle turn. p.53

Hélène Fouré The French Cathedrals Their Symbolic Significance Bruce Humphries Inc. Publishers, Boston, 1931

THE COMPLIMENT & THE CRITIC 2

ON DEMOLISHING BUILDINGS

Nothing appears to me much more wonderful, than the remorseless way in which the educated ignorance, even of the present day, will sweep away an ancient monument, if its preservation be not absolutely consistent with immediate convenience or economy. Putting aside all antiquarian considerations, and all artistical ones, I wish that people would only consider the steps, and the weight of the following very simple argument. You allow that it is wrong to waste time, that is, your own time; but then it must be still more wrong to waste other people’s; for you have some right to your own time, but none to their’s. Well, then, if it is thus wrong to waste the time of the living, it must be still more wrong to waste the time of the dead; for the living can redeem their time, the dead cannot. But you waste the best of the time of the dead when you destroy the works they have left you; for those works they gave the best of their time, intending them for immortality.

John Ruskin Lectures on Architecture George Routledge & Sons Limited, London p.109

THE COMPLIMENT & THE CRITIC 1

How to avoid insult

But how much of nature have you in your Greek buildings? I will show you, taking for an example the best you have lately built; and, in doing so, I trust that nothing that I say will be thought to have any personal purpose, and that the architect of the building in question will forgive me; for it is just because it is a good example of the style that I think it more fair to use it for an example. If the building were a bad one of the kind, it would not be a fair instance; and I hope, therefore, that in speaking of the institution on the mound, just in progress, I shall be understood as meaning rather a compliment to its architect than otherwise. It is not his fault that we force him to build in the Greek manner.

John Ruskin Lectures on Architecture and Painting George Routledge & Sons Limited; New York: F.P.Dutton & CO - p.64-65

ON EDUCATION

'. . those who are responsible for giving instruction in the theory of architecture should be practising architects. The warning is necessary because, strange though it may seem, English schools of architecture to-day tend to be run by men who either do not practise at all, or whose practices are for them a very subsidiary spare-time occupation. Often a teaching appointment is a means by which a clever student avoids the humiliation of entering an office as a junior assistant, thus depriving himself of the only opportunity he will ever have of learning something of the practical side of his profession from the bottom upwards. There can be no doubt whatever that the teaching of theory has suffered severely as a result of this habit: and this leads me to the conclusion that no man should be permitted to teach until he is recognized by his Faculty as a Master of Theory and Practice. In other words, he should be not only a practising architect but also, what is unfortunately a much rarer specimen, a good architect.'

W.A. Eden, The Process of Architectural Tradition, Macmillian & Co. Ltd, London, 1942, p.p. 86-87

ETHICS

Thus Pugin laid the foundation stones of that strange system which dominates the nineteenth-century art criticism and is immortalised in the Seven Lamps of Architecture: the value of a building depends on the moral worth of its creator; and a building has a moral value independent of, and more important than, its esthetic value. We must not consider this emphasis on morality peculiarly Victorian. Whenever esthetic standards are lost, ethical standards rush in to fill the vacuum; for the interest in esthetics dwindles and vanishes, but the interest in ethics is eternal.

Kenneth Clark The Gothic Revival - An Essay in the History of Taste, (1^st edition Constable 1928); third edition John Murray 1962, reprinted 1974, p.149.

MODERNITY

The everyday is covered by a surface: that of modernity. News stories and the turbulent affectations of art, fashion, and event veil without ever eradicating the everyday blahs. Images, the cinema and television divert the everyday by at times offering up to its own spectacle, or sometimes the spectacle of the distinctly noneveryday; violence, death, catastrophe, the lives of kings and stars – those who we are led to believe defy everydayness. Modernity and everydayness constitute a deep structure that a critical analysis can work to uncover.

Henri Lefebvre, The Everyday and Everydayness, in Stephen Harris and Deborah Berke, Architecture of the Everyday, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1997, p.37.

NAMING

The simplest act of substitution is to put the name of a maker in the place of his or her work, which amounts to a paraphrase in itself. . . . All paraphrase sets aside the original: To put the name in place of the painting is to remove it from immediate consciousness; to narrate the life of an individual is an act profoundly different from looking into a painting and one that cannot be conducted simultaneously with it. To substitute a temporal narrative, already present in a name, for the physical work of art is to give up those features of the thing that were transient and unrepeatable, bound to a moment that is irrevocably ended; the unique insistence is, for the moment at least, sacrificed on the altar of continuity.

Thomas Crow, The Intelligence of Art, The University of North Carolina Press, 1999, p.1.

ON BRANDING

Branding is now the art of getting people to think what something might be rather than what it necessarily is. It's about the manipulation of the virtual reality in which so many live. The manipulators include anyone with an interest in what we might think of them - not just big companies with products to sell but political parties with votes to win, design gurus with clients to attract - anyone, in other words, acting in some kind of market. They all have an interest in controlling their appearance to make us believe it is the reality.

John Humphrys Beyond Words How Language Reveals The Way We Live Now Hodder and Stoughton. Great Britain 2006, p. 86-87

see:

http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/faking-provenance-misuse-of-meaning.html

PRECONCEPTION

Leone Huntsman Sand in Our Souls The Beach in Australian History Melbourne University Press 2001, p.16:

Thus first impressions were filtered through existing preconceptions, starkly revealed in Sir Joseph Banks's description of the people seen from Captain James Cook's Endeavour when it first touched on the Australian continent in 1770:

In the morn we . . . [discerned] 5 people who appeared through our glasses to be enormously black: so far did the prejudices which we had built on Dampier's account influence us that we fancied we could see their Colour when we could scarce distinguish whether or not they were men.

Here Banks refers to William Dampier's unfavourable accounts of the West Australian aboriginal people in published accounts of his landings in 1688 and 1699, and reveals his own awareness of the extent to which perception was influenced by expectation.

see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/seeing-what-we-believe-idyllic-visions.html

THE MUSE - GETTING IT RIGHT

"It can be in the morning, any old time, I wake up with an idea and it starts following you around.

"You go, 'Ah that's good' because you know when it's going to work, it's going to be fruitful.

"Other times you'll get the edge of an idea and maybe it fades away or there's just no way it can be made to serve, you know?

"Then you just, it takes its time and you work on it and if necessary you work on it more than once. I'm known to work on it two or three times before you get it right."

Les Murray

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-02/les-murray-latest-volume-reflects-on-bunyah/6816714

http://www.lesmurray.org/

JARGON

The world seems to find it necessary to use more and more jargon in general reporting and conversation. It is especially noticed in accounts and discussions on the arts. The ABC TV arts programme presented on 7 January 2017 at 6:15pm had more jargon than usual; indeed, had more unusual expressions than previously encountered, ones that had not been heard before:

"unpicking the tapestry" of one's life;

and

looking at "the fan deck of what you do."

These reminded one of other popular fashionable expressions:

“to unpack an issue,” meaning to analyse it in some detail;

and

“to segue,” meaning to shift to a new topic or activity.

This last term is a favourite of radio announcers. The Italian word is often misspelt as ‘segway’ because of the similar phonetic sounding that is more commonly understood as Segway, the brand of a human transporter.

The parallel is interesting, as the idea of being ‘transported’ is common to both words, but it seems to hold little interest to the radio voices that appear just too cleverly happy with the use of this different, interesting expression.

Saturday 3 February 2018

VIRGINIA KERRIDGE - THE SERIALITY OF MATERIALITY, TACTILITY AND TRANSPARENCY: “MY OBSESSIONS”

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