CRITICAL WRITTEN REPORT #3 & #4

#3

The concept

Understanding the material

The meaning and the story of the modern architecture today is a lot different from the past architecture where the design and expression came to show the quality and the special property of the material. Today we see an economic building that is built as fast as possible where the saying “time is money” is the story of it. Materials used also show the hurry and the very distance that appears from the architect by forcing it to bend and join and connect in strange ways. Is that the architecture we can be proud of and show and for the next generation to learn from? There are no hands on, the feeling of material and the knowledge does somehow not exist. The importance of understanding the material, the building’s skeleton, skin and brain, is fading away.

Indian Institute of Management - Louis Kahn

''If you think of Brick, you say to Brick, ‘What do you want, Brick?’ And Brick says to you, ‘I like an Arch.’ And if you say to Brick, ‘Look, arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over you. What do you think of that, Brick?’ Brick says, ‘I like an Arch.’ And it’s important, you see, that you honor the material that you use. [..] You can only do it if you honor the brick and glorify the brick instead of shortchanging it.''

- Louis Kahn, Transcribed from the 2003 documentary 'My Architect: A Son’s Journey by Nathaniel Kahn'. Master class at Penn, 1971.

Today there are many examples where different types of material are stretched to its limits of its tectonic behaviour, and the architecture becomes something what its not. Again time is money where architects are modelling often only by Computer – assisted design, where hand and head is two separated parts. What the modern times misses today is the importance of showing people the quality and distinction of the materials. The architect must find their inner craftsman and get hands on, and embrace the trait, history and function of the material(s) used.

# 4