THE CRAFTSMAN - RICHARD SENNET
Reading some of Sennet's ideas about focussing on the work of the craft rather than on ourself, made me think of how of a selfish society we have become, where the main goal is no longer 'How can my work benefit society', to 'How much can I benefit from society, with the least amount of work'. We are slowly losing the appreciation of making, we are becoming more and more detached from the things that surround us, but somehow society still makes us want more. We are developing a wrong and probably unhealthy relationship with physical things, where they become only of media to represent our social 'worth'.
We have to change our relationship with our work, and what it produces. Our work will represent ourself inevitably, and so we don't have to be so mindful of trying to figure out how to represent ourself through our work. Nowadays, it has become where the product is no longer about the use or need or purpose of it, but more of an iconic representation of what we believe we are, or wish we were, or a set of values which we associate ourself with, a great example of this is our overly recognized and adored starcitects.
True craftsmanship should be more modest, and more anonymous. not that we shouldn't get recognition for our work, but the recognition should come from a work well done, for the sake of itself. we as architects should not be known for the ability to reproduce a concept over and over again, but, the opposite, for the ability to reevaluate the problem in hand, and find the write solution for it.
I agree with Declan, that I love that Sennet is talking about the importance of the process of doing, and rethinking new ways of doing, it is through theses explorations that humans evolve and develop.
IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS - JUNICHIRO TANIZAK
I started reading this one, since I really liked the visual descriptiveness of spaces in the reading, and the emphasis of the connection between nature, views, light, materials and details to design, and the experience of design.
Although as I got more into it I found the author to be very imbedded in a particular cultural mind set, almost ethnocentric where only true traditional Japanese design is good enough to evaluate and describe, he was dismissing any western design thought, and so I found it to be really subjective.
THE ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL - EDWARD R. FORD
I find myself quickly disinterested since the book is mostly about looking at the definition of the word and the concept of detail through out history. Ford is defining detail by placing the word in historical / cultural context, showing viewpoints of people through history, particularly mostly looking at modernists and the anti-detail movement.
He was trying to express how does it exist in society, and how it evolved as an idea, but mostly it felt like a history book to me, which I find hard to keep awake for...
I do however think that detail is an extremely important and fundamental part of architecture, and deserves the attention and analysis theory has giving it.
I think Ford's discussion of the anti-detail and the "non-detail" actually puts the concept of a detail into a good perspective for me. I, in fact, preferred the related field of thought arguing that details "do not exist". It is a concept explaining that if the consistency of a larger conceptual idea of a design can express itself at all scales then there is nothing different about a "detail" than there is about the overall space planning or any other scale in between. It explains that at all scales objects need not replicate the same geometry, but rather they should express the same ideology. This distinction is important, because a concept can exist at all scales, but will not effectively manifest itself in the same geometric way at all of those scales. The actual act of producing what is traditionally called a "detail", does not actually change much, but the way in which it is conceptualized does. This way of thinking and the approach to the concept is a much mor rich way of thinking regardless of whether it is a non-detail, anti-detail, or if details dont exist.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated Sennet's description of how using the wrong tool for the job can sometimes inform what the right tool for the job would be, and also how using the wrong tool for the job will also perfect your use of a tool. Take for instance the flat head screwdriver. I would challenge anyone to name every use for the flat head screw driver. I am sure if you gave me the definitive list of uses for the flat head, I could come up with more, and someone else could probably add on top of that. The point being, that our ability to use a tool is limited only by our imaginations for how the tool could be used.
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