In Warped Space, Vidler successfully juxtaposes neoformations in architecture with the purer forms of functionalism to reveal striking and important differences in their respective zeitgeists.
Modernism was interested in standardization and efficiency in regards to its use of new technologies. The formal results of this line of thought are evident and resulted in a search for utopian, idealized spaces and relationships.
Firms like Morphosis are specifically challenging monochrome modernism and post-modern excess.
(I find it particularly ironic, then, that the people who architects such as Morphosis and Koolhaas are criticizing are the very people paying for these projects - dramatic buildings specifically calling out the excesses of corporatism)
Further, modernism’s interpretation of the human form was entirely about dimension and form (see Corbu’s Modular Man). The architecture of modernity, according to Vidler, is investigating the space of the mind, or “[the bodies] introjected projection.” (quote Morpheus from in the Matrix, “the digital projection of your virtual self”) Our “virtual selves,” as brought to us in neoformations, come complete with all of our fears, prejudices and “neurosis” included. The formal result is buildings like Coop Himmelblau’s UFA Cinema Center in Dresden, which, love it or hate it, is a challenging image of the contemporary human condition.
No comments:
Post a Comment