III-5. Neo-picturesque

Towards complexity

    When the most simple and pure orderings of geometry are preserved, for example, the case of a geometrical architectural form using a perfect square grid plan, the entropy in thermodynamics, i.e. the level of disorder, is said to be small. On the other hand, when there is absolutely no order and the individual elements are scattered around in all kinds of directions, the entropy is said to be large. Usually, because a building must take on a stable structural form, it is natural that the designer intend to make the entropy as being small. This becomes economical, flexible, and useful for the user. However, in the eyes of the observer, this kind of architectural form is seen as monotonic and boring, and lacking in joy and pleasure. Furthermore, from the standpoint of the designer, this becomes a low dimensional piece and leaves frustration. Therefore, there will be a demand for some degree of variation and complexity.

    However, according to the second law of thermodynamics, matter is constantly acting in the direction of diffusion, with irreversible processes gradually leading to a completely diffuse state, i.e. chaos, where the state of equilibrium and stability are attained for the first time. Non-equilibrium is therefore a half-way state, and the cosmos is burdened with the fate of continually transitioning from order into chaos. When ironically stated, the action to design an architectural form having a clear order means a fruitless gesture against inevitable physical phenomena.

    The chemist Ian Prigogine, however, said that the dimension where life exists is formed thanks to non-equilibrium states, and we should focus on the reverse directionality from chaos to order, and viewed that the formation of a stable structure in a fixed non-equilibrium state as a condition for the formation of life. This is called the formation of a “dissipative structure,” where energy continually flows in and out and yet where the structure is stable.* Such theory, which  supports the non-equilibrium level,  is probably helpful to review the thought of architecure. The reasons is that, if we consider creating a diverse range of architectural forms, just like drawing various spectra in the band between complete chaos and complete order, architectural design is thought as a kind of human culture that is performed suspended in non-equilibrium space.

    In any case, the originating point of modeling is the most primitive geometrical shapes as described earlier. These eventually progress from the point of minimal entropy towards the direction of gradually increasing complexity, i.e. entropy. At the beginning of the 20th century, as can be seen for example in the Suprematist “absolute painting” by the Russian Malevich, although there was an artistic attempt to sweep away complexity by painting the canvas completely black or completely white, after the modernism that took this idea as fundamental reached its limits, the direction of art came to demand the arbitrary destruction of geometrical forms. Various trends of this kind can be found in the various manifestations of post modernism, and this is often exhibited by the method of shifting arbitrary axial directions in particular.

    This method was started by the American architects Richard Meier and Peter Eisenman and German architects O. M. Ungers and J. P. Kleihues, and there came a time when it was a kind of stylistic fashion employed by many architects. For example, in the proposal for the “Sprengel Museum” (Hannover, 1972, see Fig. 37) by Kleihues mentioned above, the group of regularly formed shapes that used cubic forms and grids was broken by a diagonal line as if pierced by a skewer. This single axis line gives a clear feeling of disharmony within the stoically regular geometrical form. The more stoic the whole, the more intense surprise and terrorist-like destructive power it has.

    Richard Meier used a method that had a similar delicate axial rotation while taking a direction that pursued a new ambiguous aesthetic more than surprise. In the “Atheneum” (New Harmony, 1975 to 1980) and the “Museum für Kunsthandwerk” in Frankfurt am Main (1979 to 1985, Fig. 69) a fundamental square shaped main component is pierced by an overlaid and slightly rotated cross shape. The slightly misaligned wall surface line and column axis line only appear in the form of an unstable space within the interior of the building. But, in the floor plans, they form a structure that contrasts the two clear systems. Nonetheless, the intention of Meier was not to create a destructive state, but instead to assume a state filled with inconsistency and create a harmonious image that exceeds this. This aimed for a stable state that permitted minor vibrations like a kind of “fluctuation” from the overlap of a movement towards chaos and a movement towards order.

    This kind of method of misalignment can be thought of as a method critical of modern architecture, which boasted monistic formal structure. People attempt to see the occurrence of “meaning” in this. In other words, monotonic modern architecture exhibited a coldness that rejected inquiry by people. In order to form warm buildings, destructive forms that betray the expectation of stable forms are thought as suitable even more than perfect geometrical forms. This resembled the decorative method of destroying formal grammar based on the classical order that Giulio Romano created in the Mannerism period in the 16th century, but expressed at the much larger scale, namely in the whole shape of building.

    In the redevelopment proposal for the Kochstrasse/Friedrichstrasse in West Berlin by Peter Eisenman (1982), a misaligned double grid was given an even deeper symbolic meaning (Fig. 70). Here, a grid parallel to the city streets symbolized the regional identity of historical Berlin and the second misaligned grid ran along the lines of latitude and longitude to represent a global meaning. People entered the gaps between these two grids, deeply reflecting both the regional meaning of Berlin city as a community and the global meaning of Berlin as a city of ideological confrontation between East and West.

    Mannerism used expressions of various manneristic techniques and intended to take formal design back into human hands and to give human meaning to works, as if it would criticize the spatial awareness of the thought of Neoplatonism in the High Renaissance that viewed pure geometrical forms as the highest virtue and inclined towards order. And modern Mannerism also attempted to turn back towards the side of humanity the modern architecture that trended towards transcendental things and things that alienated humans. This was a movement to pull architectural design from the throne of order down to the hell of chaos.

    Geometrical architectural forms appear as artificial and alien substances in front of the complex landscape of nature. Although the human aspiration towards form originally pursued it, when the landscape became completely artificial, humans then viewed this as detestable and began to collapse self-destructively the geometrical order. The creation of dual misaligned axial lines was an symbolic expression of that first step. It represented a slight shift down from the extreme order towards chaos in the realm of the non-equilibrium state, or speaking thermodynamically, towards eternal equilibrium and eternally stable states.

    The examples of Meier and others started from the most perfect geometrical order. However, Frank Gehry started from the more complex architectural form and attempted to destroy another kind of stable structure. He acquired a traditional house in the style of the 19th century with a Mansard roof, and carried out renovations that appeared strange at a glance ("Gehry Residence", Santa Monica, 1978 to 1979, Fig. 71).

    Gehry left behind to some degree the external appearance of an existing house, while removing walls and cutting out columns, creating a new form while commanding a destructive method of construction. The steps at the entrance had foot boards that appeared spat out, and above this was a lot of wire mesh like an aviary, while a dice-shaped glass box protruded on one side of the house as if it had dropped from the sky, and the interior was left as if still under construction. Altogether, this appeared simply as destructive behavior that reversed the classical calling of architecture to provide an ordered space.

    In this way, the "Gehry Residence" appeared like a creation of schizophrenic modeling by a man with an animal-like desire for chaos. However, this can be seen as something that is nothing more than carrying a similar misalignment into the order retained by a traditional house much like the misalignment that Meier brought into geometrical order. Because it was a house of traditional form which had already a stable structure including some degree of complexity, the method for adding misalignment had to be somewhat violent. In other words, a difference also appears in the amount of destruction that should be added, depending on how pure the starting point, or conversely, how complex. That is, the intricate sensibility of Meier and the sensibility filled with rustic beauty of Gehry could be said to be the predetermined appropriate starting points for each of themselves.

    The other works of Gehry that were originals and not renovations were also formed from chaotic structures of deformed shapes and complexity. Even though his works imply Expressionism that evoked, for example, dynamic forms of Hans Scharoun, they were in fact more fragmentary, mixed, and destructive, and suggest that Gehry can be viewed as a chaoticist who did not pursue a harmonic holisticness. Nonetheless, these structures and building spaces were still created artificially, and of course did not fall into a natural state of chaos or thermodynamic equilibrium. In other words, this should be interpreted as an intense concentration of structural aspiration and attempting to break open yet another stable structure.

    Such attempt of design to destroy and shake existing order or geometrical order is observed also in the floor plans where the level of complexity, in other words, the entropy clearly increases. At the very least, the architectural feeling of today can be said to have a trend that prefers forms with large entropies. This trend should be viewed as a large historical twist, and it is best to think that this kind of trend appeared because the time of the inclination towards states of low entropy of modernism occurred at the start of this century. Thus, taking this point of view, the current state should be said to be in the middle of a transition that should not be viewed as having reached an extreme maximum state of entropy.

Composition of landscape

    The design of Gehry seems to open the new dimension of so-called dynamic symmetry. This is a design technique that uses diverse formal elements and arranges them into a balanced shape including variations in spite of arranging them in a symmetric shape. This architectural design technique was originally established as “picturesque” substantially in the 18th century, and was widely employed in the 19th century. Speaking of whether the design of Gehry directly correspond to picturesque in the classical sense, this is problematic but it cannot necessarily be rejected if we look at the dimension enlarged.

    For something to be picturesque, it is first a prerequisite to have variation, and as the word suggests, it must have stimulating scenery as if you would want to draw a painting of it. Leon Krier introduced simple figures titled “Three models to conceive urban spaces” (Fig. 72) that presented methods for combining between buildings and urban spaces such as squares and streets, but this simultaneously presented a method of forming picturesque urban spaces.* The first among the three models presented “The blocks are the result of a street and square pattern …”, which presented using a perspective diagram the urban space ordering when the road network was determined first. The second, “The streets and squares as the result of the position of the blocks …” presented a much different layout of blocks scattered around the square, with scenery also drawn scattered in the perspective drawing. The third, “The streets and squares are precise spatial types. The block is a result.” presented a monumental urban space where the clear square types are lined along an axial, and the scenery full of variety was drawn filled with towers, arch structures, external stairs and gate-shaped structures are lined etc. The thing that we should focus on here in relation to the theme of picturesque is the point that the three perspective diagrams lined up by Krier showed a problem between ordered geometrical urban space scenery and urban scenery full of variety on the contrary. The third model appears to be the model most preferred by Krier, and it exhibits the creation of an extremely picturesque urban space with few architectural elements. This demonstrated that a rich and pleasant urban space can be reorganized through tracing a process of gradually dissolving the basic shape of a rectangular grid, while at the same time criticizing the idea of completely separated building placement included in the modern urban principle.

    As another indicator of picturesque, there is a scenery that appears as a romantic landscape beauty when viewed at a distance. This started with the English garden, i.e. landscaped gardens. The word picturesque used originally in terms of the scenery where the natural landscape with undulations and scattered wild trees and the architectural elements of classical style, exotic taste or rustic effect engender a pastoral atmosphere. Therefore, we will consider here about the varied formation turning focus to the picturesque in the realm of the landscape beauty.

    The architectural work that should be focused on in terms of this point is the “Abteiberg Municipal Museum” (1972-1982, Figs.73, 74) in the city of Monchengladbach by Hans Hollein. This building presented a summary of various shape elements and was formed by a kind of ensemble design. If we take a look at each of the individual parts, we get a feeling that mainly squares and square grids were used. The main exhibition room is covered with the roof composed with seven box shapes based on square plans, which evokes a neatness of being huddled together. The temporary exhibition room separated from this is a fairly large square, of which the axis line is rotated in some degree and the ceiling is divided into a square grid. A small protrusion used as the main entrance in the center of the site is also based on a square, the form of the tea room that protrudes horizontally to the garden side and the plan of the tower-shape building are square shaped, and the walls are also marked with a square grid pattern. Although each of the elements shows clear attachment to square shapes, when viewed as a group, they appear somewhat disordered as if the uniformity of form had been lost. The stepped twisted terrace with appearance as a sloped surface actually has built-in exhibition rooms enclosed internally within curved walls, creating an element that contrasts extremely with the regular geometrical shapes of squares. When viewed as a whole, it seems as if the order of the group of squares is knocks down by this curved surface terrace.

    Hollein carried out a contrast between the square grid and semi-representational amorphous curves in the “Schullin Jewellery Shop” as described earlier. Furthermore, the combination of twisted walls that and geometrical shapes became a popular fashion as seen in “Atheneum” by R. Meier. Although such design in itself was not therefore particularly new, in the case of the “Abteiberg Museum”, a new dimension was opened because the building with geometrical forms was unified to the natural scenery through twisting curves. In other words, the slope with twisted walls was expanded towards the garden enclosed as a semi-elliptical shape, and thus expanded towards the outside of the suburban landscape. The tower part of the museum building have also twisting curves on the surface which look as if cutting down the corner of the square planned tower. The whole building is formed as if an amorphous landscape intrudes an ensemble of buildings as a geometrical spatial system.

    Different from the stimulating and explosive ensemble design shown by Gehry, that by Hollein looks gentle and calm. It was because, in contrast to the design exhibited by the expressionist and personal emotion in the case of Gehry, Hollein turned his eyes to the external scenery and designed with intention to merge the internal artificial chaos and external natural chaos. In terms of this, Hollein can be thought to have learnt from the organicism of A. Aalto. Additionally, this conflicting matching of large and small squares actually became unified with the existing district of the historic town, namely the organic scenery with historic buildings, spires of churches and a gathering of sloped roofs, etc.

    Against the background of the thought of Romanism in the 19th century, the design technique of picturesque was established and showed a variety of developments. It favored such formal characteristics that, for example, geometrical solids such as the parallelepiped main parts, square pillars or low extending horizontal wings were grouped and integrated into a dynamic symmetry, the natural elements, such as waterside, forests, and hills were mixed, and a pastoral landscape was formed (Fig. 75). The design techniques exhibited here by Hollein can be said as its modern version. Namely, it had the basic tone of square shapes, made the dynamic symmetry arranging towers, large volumes and horizontal elements, merged them with the slope at the periphery of urban district or the pastoral urban landscape, and then composed a romantic landscape beauty.

    If the “passive” design namely the type adaptable to the environment was aimed at, the sloping twisted surfaces, etc. would have been completely filled up with soil and integrated to the nature, or the architectural elements like sloped roofs were incorporated instead of geometrical solids and the buildings were blended into the the existing townscape in order to suppress the self-assertion of buildings. The reason why it was not made such was probably that there was a dismissive reaction against the creation attitude including somewhat deception which such design method had. Designers had the original duty to create order from chaos. Even if they aspired to create chaos from order, this target did not return to the initial chaos but created a new artificial chaos. In other words, the form confronting with the natural state and the more chaotic form were desired in stead of returning to the nature or assuming so. This resembled the relationship between nature and representational or semi-representational creatures as viewed earlier.

    In the “Neue Staatsgalerie” (1977 to 1984, see Figs. 49, 50, 51) as described earlier, James Stirling used a picturesque design technique resembling the method of Hollein to progress one more step towards the theme of representation and semi-representation. In other words, although Hollein did not incorporate historicist formal elements, Stirling incorporated them into every level of architectural design. The museum designed similarly making use of the sloped site incorporated the geometrical forms of a large rectangle and a circular central square. But this focused rather on an overall classical composition referring a motif of the “Altes Museum” by K. F. Schinkel in the early 19th century than to be geometrical. In addition, a variety of new and old historical styles were employed, with a small house-shaped steel structure in the front entrance gate that was of the temple style of Antiquity, the tower part of the Le Corbusier style, the arched windows of the Romanesque church, a Doric portico of Neoclassic style, the eaves of Constructivist motif, and motifs of pediments and cornices employed in the interior.

    The feature of picturesque design technique of Stirling was that the geometrical forms were overlaid and concealed with historical motifs. There, the conception of picturesque was used not only in a synchronic but also in a diachronic dimension. In other words, the elements of retrospective dream inherent in Romanticism were incorporated here. When actually 19th century picturesque architectural design borrowed the various elements of historical style, then the design method of Stirling can be considered as closer to that of the 19th century.

    The dimension of time, which can be found in the museum of Stirling, can also be found in the way giving an image like ruins without monumental self-assertion often observed in the new buildings. This was actually designed as if knocking down some portion of the Schinkel’s well-known architectural work, and appeared as if the front face had been teared off and the dome ceiling had been collapsed. In contrast to that Hollein gave a feeling of instability through rotating the axial lines, Stirling, avoiding such arbitrariness, started from the overall symmetry and stopped at the partial collapse. Thus, in the case of Stirling, we cannot feel so much degree of dynamic symmetry and the landscape beauty. If we only look at this point, we find that Hollein performed more visually picturesque design.

    Anyway, in terms of the basic directionality of dissolving geometrical order and existing created order and the also the intention to merge the remnant chaotic ensemble with the surrounding urban landscape, Hollein and Stirling uncovered the same basic premise. This could be said to correspond to Meier and Gehry incorporating geometrical order on the one hand and shaking existing buildings on the other. Compared to this, it is remarked that a Contexturalist viewpoint of maintaining the continuity in the scenery and in the environment was added here.

Forms of dissipative structure

    The beauty of picturesque that unifies artificial structures with natural scenery is found, for example, when villas are viewed from afar. When the urban landscape is viewed from a far-removed viewpoint such as the eyes of a bird, in other words, viewed as a bird’s eye view diagram, the picturesque beauty of the urban landscape can be recognized. The plan for redeveloping Echternach proposed by Leon Krier (see Fig. 61) undertook a proposal for a picturesque urban landscape from a bird’s eye view. His proposal was to attach large-scale squares and streets to a historical city. It resembled the picturesque method of architectural design that incorporated three types of solids of towers, masses, and horizontal wings, and so   the formal elements of vertical lines of advertising balloons rising high into the sky, the rectangles of large squares, and the long-stretched horizontal lines of the streets were incorporated reflecting his own urban design method. This newly constructed part that employed picturesque as a composition technique merged and contrasted with the existing historic center that exhibited pseudo-organic profile and made the scenery more complex. Then, the old and new parts became one and blended into the landscape of curving lines of hills and rivers.

    Krier’s thought on the design was represented clearly in the apparently contradictory duplicity that simple geometrical forms were used for the urban spatial forms of individual buildings, squares and streets but they were merged into the non-geometrical landscape form as a whole. In this sense, the formal method of picturesque becomes an extremely effective technique which intermediates the geometrical level of the building and the organic level of the landscape. It is born here what cannot be found by attempting a formative process purely within the bounds of architectural design. In other words, an axis joining the dimension of small with the dimension of large was captured there, in which it becomes autonomous and closed towards the inside, while it becomes expansive towards the outside.

    It is because that the “dissipative structure” of Prigogine noted earlier, i.e. the biological phenomenon of creating a constant stable structure that preserves a dynamic balance in a non-equilibrium state, while energy flows in and out of the external world seems to resemble the formal image of picturesque which is explained above. In other words, the artificially formed buildings and urban forms perform a kind of energy exchange and information exchange with the chaotic external world, and simultaneously maintain the stable form as a non-symmetric structure keeping a constant balance.

    An example of one kind of dissipative structure called a Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction exhibits a constant structured form such as vortex, striped pattern, or a loop shape during the process of some chemicals undergoing a chemical reaction, and this is thought to be stimulating in the eyes of the designer. In contrast to static systematic structural forms that take the geometrical form of the crystal structure as their base, dissipative structures reflect a dynamic system. Even if it is difficult to see physical buildings, urban spaces, etc. maintain a dynamic state where the form changes moment-to-moment, the urban redevelopment proposal of Leon Krier, for example, when viewed in a long term, can be said to show a periodical aspect of the dynamic transformation process of the urban space. Architecture and urban design can be said to assume a theme of dynamic formal order in terms of this.

    The fact that the sense of aesthetic of picturesque was created in relation to the landscape of ruins of ancient Greek, Roman and medieval castles indicates that the process of change of buildings during a long period of time, i.e., that the dimension of time became incorporated into aesthetics. Certainly, concerning the formational technique of picturesque itself, the subject was the morphological order of an instant when the flow of time stopped which excluded the element of time. But an element of temporal change can be included by adding a technique of representing the process of change in steps as a continuous images like stroboscopes. For example, in the history of changing patterns of urban spaces and changing floor plans of residential buildings that spans several thousands of years, this kind of stepwise change of formal order can be highlighted.

    The Medical Faculty Housing at Leuven University by Lucien Kroll (Brussels, 1970 to 1976, Fig. 76) includes things that share the principles of picturesque although it cannot necessarily be said to have realized beauty in the general sense. This lost order and appeared hideous like a crumbling barracks or slum. This was the result of having the residents participate in the building plan and reflects the individual aspirations of many people, and achieved a kind of architectural ideal in a different dimension from so called aesthetic form. In other words, it was prepared for formational chaos from the start and cannot be criticized based on its ugliness. Thus, although it is not beautiful, it gives the feeling of a strange attractiveness due to being filled with success from the perspective of the abundance of change and the dynamic balance of the diverse elements.

    In contrast to the attitudes of Meier and Hollein starting from and then deconstructing geometrical forms, Kroll followed a path in the reverse direction from a chaotic state towards order, and therefore did not reach clear geometrical order but stopped at incomplete states as an artistic work. However, he succeeded in more vividly reflecting the reality of human society because of this. In regard to the architectural forms, merely the basic structural frames are ordered in a unified system, and the overall shape was left as an open system. Thus, the attempt to draw up from chaos, i.e. state of thermodynamic equilibrium, to the level of non-equilibrium artificial order is incorporated here.

    If we take human formation as having a history of starting from primitive geometry, becoming more complex to finally merge with nature, then here we are working along the reverse vector from the natural state towards order. A feel like a star being born from space dust or the morphology of cellular slime molds, which transform into living organisms like amoeba joining together to form a slug, can be found in this student dormitory. In other words, this is because it transformed into a larger organic organization while realizing to some degree the demands and egotism of the many individuals. If picturesque is taken as dismantling inorganic order and transforming into pseudo-organic order, then this method was such one which achieved true organic organization.

    In contrast to the planned cities of the Antiquity or the Renaissance that idealized geometrical order by using road networks of grid patterns or radiating lines, cities in the Gothic period created the picturesque urban landscape that featured twisting roads and complex profiles. It was because they did not control the freedom to build of the individual city residents at that time, they well reflect the complex organic urban lifestyle. The discovery people made that medieval city landscapes was of romantic occurred around the 18th and 19th centuries. Up until then, they were viewed as nothing more than uncontrolled chaos. The architecture of Kroll can be thought of as comparative with the medieval cities before the positive evaluation in the same way.

    If we once again refer to Leon Krier’s plan for redeveloping Echternach, there is certainly a plan to fuse the picturesque forms of the newly built parts with the organic streets of the medieval city, and it is clear that there is a tight mutual relationship between these two parts. These preserve each of the levels between the two poles of complete chaos and complete order, and create a dynamic order in a non-equilibrium state. From such an overall viewpoint, in this way, there are stable techniques at several stages between order and chaos in a single environment. Undertaking the design that uniformly uses one of those techniques is defective, and excellent human environments can be said to be formed for the first time by appropriately adjoining many of these levels of techniques.