Manifesto

My starting point for this blog is my manifesto which was written in my Diploma 1 and will inform my direction of study for Diploma 2.

Dialogue in Design

The urban fabric is a pattern in time, which has been woven by our actions. Any re-interpretations we make today should be calculated and informed as to not defragment this pattern we are intervening with.

I believe that the design process should be interpretative, any good design should identify and negotiate a dialogue with its surroundings and become nothing more than an impression in time, another layer of history.

Designing into an existing building I believe is the ultimate challenge of sensitivity that many of us fail to appreciate, Sola-Morales Rubio’s method of Analogy shows us that dialogue does not have to simply mean contrast and that highly unique solutions can be developed for each situation. Carlo Scarpa demonstrates this in Castelvecchio (1964), Sverre Fehn demonstrates this in Hamar (1979) and Peter Zumthor demonstrates this in the recently completed Museum of Modern Art in Cologne (2007). These are all exemplar architects with established design philosophies. The structure and ideals of analogy form the basis of the carefully implemented designs above and this ideology should be applied to all levels of design. By considering the imprint we make as designers at the smallest level, we can negotiate a sensitive response to its context.

Deconstructivism demonstrates a sharp contrast with these principles I have laid out before you, these timeless monuments enabled through Eisenman’s methodology. By refusing to establish a dialogue with the context I implore that these buildings do become a fixed point in time, as they refuse to negotiate with the surrounding context or be intervened with. These buildings hold no place in the dynamic of the urban fabric and thus will be reflected by the misinterpretations that will follow.

Dialogue is the real measurement of architecture.