THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
Building, like human, can be dishonest. Honesty and deception in architecture is subjective to everyone. However, they both play a different and yet important role in architecture today.
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What is the role of honesty and deception in architecture today? As times change, choice of material has become more. People now seek for new material and construction method in their project. Honesty and deception predominantly about the expression of façade and form. I would say architecture today is more on deception. Most of them are covering up a building with flashy facade designs but it does not do with the structure or functionality, rather than being a decoration. This is because architects nowadays are more favor in iconic buildings which there is no large purpose than showing their aesthetic form. The existence of new materials and advanced construction technology has made the building with complicated design much easier to build.
Starchitect’s works, they design with good looks and iconic building that set an image around the world. The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry. The building is well renowned to the world for its signature “shells”, which happen to be non-structural at all. It is a fusion of complex swirling forms and metallic form of the exterior. According to the John Ruskin, the suggestion of a mode of structure or support, other than the true one. It has nothing to do with the structure, it only acts as a envelop. The exterior of the building is trying to hide the structure itself while the surface representing some other material.
On the other hand, there are also architects that will go for honesty architecture. Adolph Loos’ essay ‘Ornament and Crime’ expressed the aesthetic position that architecture and the materials used should express simplicity and honesty. The true comes from the material itself. Tadao Ando’s signature architectural works, the Church of the Light. The building is constructed with concrete. The use of concrete is a pure and honest as it can be. Honesty of materials is what Ando emphasizes, materials have a crucial role in the aesthetics of his work. He does not veneer, rather he uses the brutal beauty of concrete formwork to texture his buildings, inside and out. It should carries with the corollary of urging fine workmanship. He really emphasizes on the surface of concrete to achieve a smooth-as-silk surface. Besides, it can be also consider as deceptive depends on how you perceive. There are reinforce steel is used inside the concrete which some may say it is dishonest.
All in all, architecture can be dishonest, but the material should not be insult. At least, it should have purpose. Honesty and deception in architecture should be balance. They will always be represented and perceived in different ways in architecture. There is no right and wrong in both.