John, if what you describe are "unintended consequences," then what are (or
were) the intended consequences?
avoiding collateral damages is one example.... ijust n warzones .
when destroyiing with explosives some building, the intended consequences
are known. the un-intended results are supposedly anticipated to be
included in the list of the intended ones.
but it's easier in destroying than building, to imagine un-intended
consequences.
some wellintentioned buildings failed (not necesarily for technical reasons,
but other, like the Bastille new theater in Paris, just for badly located,
Others like the sydney opera house became landmarks. imagine the Guggenheim
museum of NY central aprk in a similar location . or the sydney opera like
the St patrick curch surrounded by tall wallstreet-ike buildings...
For example, does being "cowardly in testing new means and methods of design
and construction" really signify an intention rather than an unintention?
cowardness could be defined or referrred as trying to avoid doing "any
thing", even beeing included in real quality work).
the intention of cowardness respond there , in materials testing you quote,
to a kind of corruption of the basic reflexes of responsible work.
using bad quality material to follow a lower budget is common in Mexico f.i.
and caused some collapsed schools and public buildings in the 85
earthquake. was the architect a coward. more probably the engineer...
Similarly, does the notion that "building is no longer where architecture
occurs, but instead takes place in the realm of ideas and imagination, with
the physical manifestation in photographs, models, renderings, publications,
TV, talk, performance, museums, as a variety of mediated media" really
signify that the intention here is to generate as much publicity as
possible?
doesn't any modern human activity need difusion/publicity/infomercials of
some kind ? the way of promoting Davinci or Rubens was diferent, certainly
slower tan WWW or phonecalls, but existed.
it probably was called reputation.
When you look at the history of any architect-designed building over the
span of its 'lifetime', most of that history is a series of manifestations
that, for the most part, were never unintended by the architect. If this is
indeed true, then I'd say that most of 'architecture' is (and always has
been) a manifestation of unintended consequences. Moreover, what is deemed
unintended is also mostly seen as some sort of aberration, something that
"really should be fixed because that wasn't the intention."
problems are always part of that kind of un-intentional results. good
results are designed, "maqueted ", visualized in some form, and eventually
stay at the "virtual" level in the mind of the architect /designer or his
computer.
later on it can help such creator to produce a tangible result using some
of the qualities of the anterior design not really born but "gested in
his mind ( during a longer time than 9 months, frequently)
bad results (in testing of new products or techniques) are not so
aberrant if physically previsible (any building is constructed under laws of
physics, eventually too complex for architects beeing not engineers), and
then shoud not be "un-intended" as consequences of some miscalculation. bad
results then are previsible.
bad results in taste or impact on the public, is another point,
misunderstanding of talent or visionary work can happen all the time.
The Pompidou center in Paris was strongly opposed and later become a
masterpiece for the majority. a.s.o.
(marvels for us can have been critically considered some decades ago. Art
Nouveau or Bauhaus were not exactly well accepted when originated, and
fortunately the intentions of their creators were understood by buyers with
opened but firm minds. And Horta had to fight, probably, to adapt new
materials into his buildings. Unite with lead steel to stone needs a
mastercraftmanship.
Let me add that the time allowed to calculate the resistance of new
buildings materials or new techonlogies those days of plastified new metal
sheets should be extended over some longer time span , as new medicines are
approved after a set of long experiences,
Stonebuild construction showed for centuries their capacities to resist or
support good durable results. But the first essays produced un-intended
results. cathedral builders had failures we probably will never know of.
And i suppose Pharaons architects had troubles wtih some materials they
wanted to use.
Modern architecture is not always preoccupied by the durability like the
Pharaons or memorial (stoned) builders are/were.
ephimeral objects as our material bodies vs. eternal (?)objects produced by
our well minded intentions.
therefore mummies inside memorials likepyramids.
What I find almost comical is that intentions, either good or bad, are far
from resolute. Intentions change all the time.
natural as human. and I add : fortunately things change.
On 6 April 2000, I ended a post (here at design-l (ironically!) entitled
"ironically, I never mentioned skin") with the question: "So what then is
architecture? Is it a hard, 'simple', 'natural' protective shell that
engenders the continuation of life?
simple and natural i donno, but techos/logy and technology is a basic of
such continuation,
imagine Us without housing.....
Or is it a soft formlessness forever (re-)designing an applied shell it
doesn't naturally have?"
there enters the mind's power. of course we have no shell on our back, as
some gasteropods do have, but we need to imagine one. therefore we evolved
into brained inhabitants of this planets, and didn't stay at some
gasteropodic shelves-on-our-back state. architects are not gasteropods i
suppose, so.... to have a continuous and sometimes glorious life, they
must design
[For a few years now, my intention has been to be virtually famous because
that's intentionally all I'll ever be.
funny ! but "intentionally or unvoluntarily" (sigh ?).
but the irony is the salt of life...
patrice
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