Saturday, May 15, 2004

Why Frank Lloyd Wright? Why Le Corbusier?

Why must we allow architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and other delusional wannabes to set the standard for our practice? These architects belong to societies where individuals are given too much importance. Their contributions to architecture are considerable, but the negative repercussions of their arrogance and individualism can still be felt today.
Frank Lloyd Wright was too selfish to share the credit for organic architecture. Today, its practice is limited only to the fringes of contemporary American architecture. Few architects dare take on the style of the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright and risk being labeled a poor imitator of the great master. As a result, Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture almost died with him.
Le Corbusier achieved the opposite, his modernist style is very much alive, but at what cost? Le Corbusier's "single building for all nations and climates" is a dangerous oversimplification of architecture - an oversimplification that made it easier to copy all over the world. Many problems in modern cities can be attributed to this narrow world view. Le Corbusier himself admitted to the shortcomings of his style of modern architecture later on, but it was too little too late.
It is so easy to be seduced by the image of the primadonna architect. It is one thing however, to aspire to their level of competence, and another to imitate their arrogance. "Pride comes before the fall." For architects, however, the fall doesn't end with death. The fall lasts until the very last city plan, the very last building, and the very last residence is wiped from the face of the earth. We must be grateful that not everyone becomes as famous as Le Corbusier or Mies Van der Rohe. Otherwise, people will be burning architects at the stake for making such a mess of the built environment.
Why can't architects be satisfied with working together in a concerted effort? Why must we step all over each other to be recognized as the greatest architect of all time while building very little in the process? Architects account for less than 20% of the built environment, even in developed countries. While we squabble like children fighting over icing on a cake, the rest of society ignores our self-serving calls for a better environment and builds its own shelter without us.

2 Comments:

At 4:34 PM, Blogger raymond said...

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At 4:37 PM, Blogger raymond said...

Believe me, arrogance and pretension is a disease not merely confined to the west. Local architects may be less vocal, but the arrogance is still there.

How many local project architects would honestly admit ignorance in certain aspects of building when put to the test on site? Local architects may need to be generalists, but not know-it-alls. If any architect can assure the client that he knows the best way to put together every single detail on a building, better than the carpenter hammering overhead or the structural engineer doing the math back in the office, that architect is probably one of ours.

 

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