At the risk of being over simplistic in order to be succinct, one could say that the latest generation of architects split into two groups. The first have studied and acquired an in-depth understanding of past and present architecture and on this basis developed their own personal language, a recognizable style that also speaks of their times and offers glimpses into the future. The second group is made up of those who believe in the architectural Esperanto as defined by globalization, an atopical language where it is the building envelope that prevails in all its possible forms, along with an insistence on high tech as sophisticated as it is often untenable. The architects of this second group are not interested in developing their own “language of doing”. Their language belongs to a “new eclecticism”, in their eyes, the ideal form of communication. True, architecture is also communication, and so, to a certain extent, a “collective art”, albeit springing from personal choice. In this sense, the first group - the artist architects, we could call them - seek a balance among all the components of architecture, starting from the interiors. It is this balance that gives significance, is the basis for the relationship between space and tectonics, between volumes and their parts; it is the appropriate layering of topological components to create a single harmonious whole. The second category of operators proceeds by merely adding fragments taken from other contexts with no concern for a logical consequence that would render the fragments a necessary part of the whole. While the first category of architects conceives architecture and building as the creation of an intimately bound series of components, each of which has an appreciable significance within itself and as part of the whole, the second category falls short of achieving this intrinsic whole, producing what has only the appearance of composite unity - albeit in many cases,...
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Seven speculations on the future of section
Marc Tsurumaki
Section, as both a representational technique and a series of architectural practices pertaining to the vertical organization of our buildings and cit...Dar Es Salaam MAPPING
The CityPlan once again goes to sub-Saharan Africa. After Luanda, capital of Angola, we now look at Dar es Salaam. Although now the former capital of ...A NEW CHAPTER IN DAR ES SALAAM’S CITY TRANSFORMATION
A city poised for change Dar es Salaam is a vibrant and fast growing East African coastal city of 5.7 million people (growth rate projections for 2017...