Carlos Bethencourt

Meditation/celebration

During and after the World War II, Modernism was developing and growing in America. New ideas were being interpreted and new options were being considered. This period of Modernism could be classified as a period of meditation/reevaluation for the future and base of many upcoming features in architecture. At the same time, meditation created some sort of celebration within the buildings. For example, for Van der Rohe the Barcelona Pavilion, like Patrick Lucas said in class, “is itself the content of view. Rather than what is in it”. Celebrating only how the building looks like becomes true throughout the time and becomes more and more notorious not only for Rohe but for many other architects. The building is celebrated by its material, style and designs and the rest is taken as a secondary “celebration”.

In the Catholic religion the so-called “holy week” is meant to meditate the passion of Christ. This is celebrated normally when schools are in spring brake, but not every school coincides with this event. Normally private/Catholics schools tend have spring brake in that week so that people can focus on the holy week. It is a very important week for the Catholic religion because is when the people kill the son of God but then he rises and proves himself once again Jesus, the son of God. That is the day then called Easter. It has been interpreted in so many ways nowadays, but for Catholics is the celebration of the faith and a remembrance of the past.

Light/shadow

Because of the concept of meditation and celebration, one has to consider the integration of the building as a whole, that is, light and shadow as an important component for the integration and celebration of any building. But not only light and shadow but also the inside/outside, the public/private, the materials, etc. Many things can change the role of light and shadow when building a particular building. That is why for light and shadow is important to determine what type of materials, style, service is going to be used for the particular building. Massey describes a natural element where “the use of natural light [should be used] wherever possible”(Massey 120).

In my photography class we had an assignment called “lights and shadows” which consisted in taking pictures with the idea of playing with the light and shadows. Basically, before having to take the picture one should had the idea of how much light and shadows one wants in the picture. If one is thinking in a dark setting, one should then go to a darker place where light is vague. Although, if you get into a very dark setting or very luminous setting, one can over expose the picture and then not be able to develop the pictures. One must find the balance between light and shadows.

Transpose/juxtapose

The idea of transpose and juxtapose is found everywhere all the time in the theory and history of desing and architecture. The transposing of styles, ideas, materials are constantly found in architecture. From wood and mud to glass and steel. There has been a transformation since the classical to where we are now. Modernism and later on Post Modernism are a great example of creating something already with the idea of transposing it. Also building are always juxtapose to each other. You find several of different buildings stacked together or close by and they are completely different form each other. Is the idea of placing buildings side by side as close as possible and when is not possible, and then create something in the middle that looks like they are together.

In my English class we are challenged to transpose others peoples arguments to agree with ones own. To do this one has to have good rhetoric skills. To be a good at rhetoric, before talking to an audience one has to consider the ethos, the pathos, and the logos. Ethos means the credibility of the speaker. Pathos is the use of emotional characters to alter the audience’s judgments. For last, logos mean the use of reasoning to construct an argument. When one considers these aspects, most probably one will be considered a good rhetorical person. For Aristotle, rhetoric was the a important thing a citizen should be good at, and indeed the only people that participated in the ancient Greek senate were people with power and those without power in the senate were people with good rhetorical skills.

literal/abstract

The ways of interpreting things can be taken literally and also abstractly. We can find architects that literally write down a rule and live up to it. IN the case of Corbusier, he invented the five rules of architecture. He thought that the best desing was the simplest. A building that was above level supported by pilotis, with no need of supporting walls, a flat roof, large flat windows and a smooth façade would be considered literally a work followed by the rules of Corbusier. Instead other architects were more abstract, trying to set aside the general rules and create their own. This way of thinking was one factor that led Modernism have a competitor, that it, post modernism.

In my Desing Perspective class we have argued and discussed about the authenticity of structures and their role in one persons self. In order to understand the idea that one can see oneself in a building or a thing one has to forget about anything literal and think abstractly. The idea is that if one does not break the literal understanding of things one cannot find the supernatural meanings of things. One has to go beyond literal proves and expose oneself to something that has not been written down, or proved to be as it is. To see oneself in a building requires being abstract and becoming free of thought.

Monologue/dialogue

I believe that the Sydney can be a perfect example of a monologue and a dialogue. The Sydney Opera House has been an iconic piece for the people of Australia. The Opera house has created a dialogue with the people in such a way that it has become a hot point for tourists to visit. But the Opera house has one particular problem, that is, the inefficiency of the theater design. The Opera House has the particular problem the sound is not projected, as it should be, creating a monologue between the singer/presenter in regards of the real use of the building. Therefore, once again, the theory of the content rather than what is in the building is confirmed. Phillip Johnson says, “Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful…” in other words, why care about of the purpose if we just want to make it beautiful.

In my Family and Relationship class we find that communication is essential for any relationship, that is, married, dating, and friends. One has to be sure to create conversations throughout the relation in order to create a full dialogue between the relationships. The worse thing one can do in a relation is to be the promoter of a monologue. A monologue will not take you anywhere when there is a need of conversation. It creates conflict, uncertainty, doubts, in a relationship and one does not one to be in a situation where one is unhappy because of lack of communication. Communicate is simple as long as the person is able to be open and create a converse, a dialogue, otherwise the relation will not work and will got to an end.

Reflection

This week prompts really emphasizes in how is the Modern Movement taking place in our everyday lives. In a very distinct way it has been taking over every other movement and created things peculiar. But even today we are defining Modern, everyday we learn new things, everyday we meditate and celebrate. In general, we like to transpose to the future the best things we can so that other generations can create dialogues and continue experimenting like we are doing now.