THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
The relationship between building and the human body has always been strongly bonded with each other. Throughout history, the human body has been an inspiration for architecture. Architecture in the past was more on following the principle of human body in designing each kind of building. As time changes, it stresses on the relationship of structural and human body.
“Architecture must be a thing of the body, a thing of substance as well as of the spirit and of the brain.”
–Le Corbusier
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Buildings are interpreted by means of the human body metaphor. The human body and architecture are engaged in a “dance” relationship where each adapts to the other — where there is right balance between the two. Ginger & Fred or ‘the dancing couple’ is a clear example of present-day anthropomorphic architecture stressing the human body. It was referring to the magical dancing partners Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
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One of Frank Gehry’s work called the “dancing house”. The symbolic name of it defines how the structure of the building looks. It represents a man and a woman, dancing together. The glass tower, Ginger bends and clings to the concrete tower, Fred, which has a metal cupola on the top, representing hair. The form of the human body in a particular gesture of togetherness inspired the architect. The two modern multi-storey buildings, placed elegantly side by side as if dancing, depict an upright man, steady, who is stretching his arm out to a gracefully curved lady, twirling to a joyous rhythm, with her flexible legs. ‘Fred’, the right cylinder, fits in with the rest of the buildings and the ancient structures in central Prague; ‘Ginger’, the column of glass, with a trim waist lets her skirt flare out through the air.
Sweden’s tallest residential building, the HSB Turning Tower. The gigantic tower stands 54 floors high and it features a form inspired by Spanish architect’s studies on nature and human bodies. In order to follow the building’s spiral structure, which was inspired by human body in movement – twisting human spine. The glass features a complex double curved shape. " For the construction part, the building's exterior steel structure imitates a backbone. Turning Torso" building is meant to be seen as a free-standing sculptural element posed within the cityscape.
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In nutshell, I think buildings are metaphor of the body. The house has a certain human condition, and is embedded with the personality of its inhabitants; the house represents the human body and the human body is the metaphor of the house.