Architecture as a Solution to a set of Parameters
Explanation:
Architecture should be analyzed based off of its success (or failure) in fulfilling the set of parameters that the project was commissioned for. If the building that is constructed fails to properly satisfy any of the purposes it was originally commissioned for in the first place, then it should have failed as an architectural project, even if it is the most beautiful piece of art in the world. Likewise, if a project is very ugly, but does an excellent job in providing answers to the set of problems it was commissioned to resolve, it still holds some architectural merit.
Examples:
Vessel, New York
The Vessel in New York exemplifies this very well. Despite its unsightly nature and being confined to a very small footprint in the busy city, the Vessel’s vertical series of walkways provides a considerable amount of walking space for the public, accomplishing its goal of creating a sufficient amount of open-air public space.
Architecture’s Incorporation of the Technology Available to It
Explanation:
Architecture should be analyzed based off of how well it incorporates the technology available to it into its design. If modern technology is incorporated well into a buildings design, it should be praised, and if it is incorporated poorly into a design, it should be critiqued. Based on Deep Space, Thin Walls: Environmental and Material Precursors to the Postwar Skyscraper.
Example:
Sears, Roebuck & Company Store, Englewood, Chicago, 1934.
The Sears, Roebuck & Company store in Englewood, Chicago in the weekly reading exemplifies this, as it utilized air conditioning and fluorescent lighting to replace most of its exterior windows.
A Building’s Ability to Communicate its Function
Explanation:
Architecture should be analyzed by its successful communication of the function it serves. A building should not look like a public space that is available to the public when it is in fact a private space. Based on The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered
Example:
Wainwright Building, Exterior.
Adler & Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright building exemplifies this, as particular parts of the building clearly demonstrate the functions they serve: the bottom section has larger openings and higher ceilings to communicate public space, while the less open spaces located above convey private areas.
A Room’s Ability to Provide a Comfortable Space for Human Use
Explanation:
A constructed room should be analyzed by the level of comfort it provides its inhabitants. A room that cannot be practically used due to a low levels of comfortability should be criticized.
Example:
Lina Loos’s Bedroom, Loos’s Flat, Vienna.
Lina Loos’s bedroom in the Loos’s Flat in Vienna is cold and austere by todays standards, and can serve as an example of a room that is too uncomfortable to serve its practical function.
Architecture’s Practicality to the People who are Actually Going to be Using It
Explanation:
Architecture should be analyzed in regard to the practicality it has to the people who are actually going to be using the spaces it creates. Architecture that does not consider the viewpoint of the people who are actually going to be using the space should be criticized as shortsighted. Based on Home Planning and Gender in Mandatory Palestine.
Example:
Kibbutz Kitchen, Palestine, 1930’s.
This kibbutz kitchen of the 1930s in mandatory Palestine is a prime example of spaces being designed by people (men) who were out of touch with the way it would impact the people who would actually use it (women).
Neighborhood Housing as a means of Unification or Division
Explanation:
Architecture, and in particular the architecture of community housing or areas, should be analyzed based off of its influence on either unifying or segregating the communities it affects. Depending on the context of the project, either end of this spectrum could be praised or criticized.
Example:
Massing Plan of the Carrieres Centrales in Casablanca, 1952.
The Carrieres Centrales in Casablanca serves as a good example of how the architecture, which certain parts of were designed for certain subgroups of people, is an example of the power architecture holds over the segregation or unification of people.
Architecture as a Tool of the Government
Explanation:
Architecture can be analyzed by the role it plays in furthering the agenda of the state that commissioned it. Depending on the project, the state’s influence on architecture works can diminish its formal value, but also speaks to the importance that work may hold on a national level. Based on Li, Jie, and Zhang, 2016, Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution.
Example:
Great Hall of the People, Beijing.
As one of Mao Zedong’s “Ten Great Buildings” that were constructed to celebrate the first 10 years of communist rule in China, the Great Hall of the People in Beijing perfectly exemplifies a government’s use of architecture to further its agenda, in this case proving to the world that Communist China is a political power to be reckoned with.
Architecture as a Representation of Culture
Explanation:
Architecture should be analyzed on its ability to represent the culture of a people, either successfully or unsuccessfully. There are multitudes of projects that have been commissioned with this goal in mind, only to have failed miserably and be deemed as racist or a form of appropriation, but there have been successes as well.
Example:
Bank of China Headquarters, Shanghai, 1939.
The Bank of China Headquarters in Shanghai is a great example of the way architecture can represent the culture of its people. Otherwise a pretty standard office building, the Bank of China Headquarters is adorned with a traditional style Chinese roof and Chinese characters.
Architecture as a Call to Action
Explanation:
Architecture can be analyzed on its ability to create unrest among its subjects, and call people to action in regards to the power dynamics or social relations of society. The level of social change that architecture provokes can be a tool used to analyze it. Based on I Mean to be Critical, But…
Example:
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Kim Dovey explains in the article, I Mean to be Critical, But…, Michael Sorkin’s proposed project for the site of 9/11 (Ground Zero) in which the void space of the site’s footprint was used as memorial for 9/11’s victims, while other parts of the site’s footprint were subdivided to surrounding sites for the purpose of urban regeneration. This was a very unique approach to redistributing socio-economic power through the use of architecture, and serves as a perfect example of this analytical frame.
REVISED GUIDELINES
- Careful attention to the time period the piece was written without bringing my own contemporary bias into the reading
- Focus on “the why” instead of focusing only on the content of what is being said
- Pay particularly close attention to the timeline of things, make sure I’m understanding the proper order of events
- Try exceptionally hard to view things from the author’s POV, especially if I don’t particularly agree with the concepts they are presenting
- Try to comprehend what the circle of influence was like at the time of publication
- Try to bring to memory other authors during the time period
My guidelines all had to do with what I was looking for in reading architectural discourse, and not analyzing architecture itself, so I am simply adding all of my analytical frames to my reading guidelines.
