Thursday 10 June 2010

Gaudi a Holotect?


First of all I would like to invite everyone (not just architects, engineers, artists, builders) but everyone, to enjoy the greatness of Gaudi once again, take another look.

A good way to do this would be to watch the BBC documentary on Gaudi called “Gods Architect.” Watch the whole thing, start to finish, and all seven parts, here’s a link.

The architect Antoni Gaudi is for sure underrated around the world for all his excellence. There were a few crazy ideas that came to the mind of some individuals that we should give up on Sagrada Familia and change it to a rail station or something….! It has been also known that Gaudi has been mocked for his “kitsch” aspects, and his “spiritual obsession,” however; these are all insults that are weak and they will die easily while Gaudi’s architecture will still be considered paradise for many and should forever stand strong in the face of history.

The question I wish to focus on is: Is Gaudi an example of a Holotect?
I believe miracles are seen in the designs of Gaudi. He certainly went beyond what people were ready for. Owners of buildings designed by Gaudi consider them to be the most special place on earth.

I often repeat to myself that if Gaudi was alive today he would easily collect the Pritzker prize (the highest award for architectural achievement in a life time). But Gaudi goes beyond the Pritzker...every building of his seems like a life time achievement and when was the last time a present day Pritzker nominee left behind something like Sagrada Familia? A piece of architecture way beyond our cultural ambition to finish, in fact even with all the technological experts today it’s super hard to finish it without him.

I believe holotects take action towards building something which gives out a message. This message can be of many; love, joy, hope…but the message has to be built and delivered creatively from many different perspectives. This must be done without having to fill it up with post-rationalized French philosophy or Jewish mysticism which purely concentrates on selling something “for the moment” (It is very tempting to give out examples of architects who do this, but I’ll hold my self).

I think the true infinity in a holotects work of architecture is seen in the many beautiful interpretations of the designs message.

Holotects reach out towards a message beyond their own skin by sharing beautiful biographical experiences in the built form. This is to say that it is important to balance the two equally important molecules…one of personal artistic experience and creativity…two the more functional needs of other human beings. What clients will continuously need to understand is that the collaborated vision of beauty is important for the successful growth of a project as is the buildings rational function.

Now lets break this down (we’ll get back to Gaudi in a second)…

Modernism or minimalism: Mies van de Rohe’s “Less is More” seems like functionalism…a very rational placement of architectural elements. But this soon became too boring for us to live in; to an extent that I would even say it would permanently damage our society with an ultimate lack of vision and ambition.

Post-modernsim: Robert Venturi’s “Less is a bore”…so now we started to attach things on to the box…giving shallow meaning to architecture but truly just camouflaging the modernist, minimalist and RATIONALISTIC mistake.

But Gaudi designed architecture that made decoration and organic form a function, he made architecture an extension of nature...the building is one, one with Gaudi, one with its inhabitants, one with nature, one with Spirit…and Gaudi within his architecture expresses ”Life is More”…and he won.

For this I believe Gaudi was a Holotect

1 comment:

White Phosphorus said...

"Holotects reach out towards a message beyond their own skin by sharing beautiful biographical experiences in the built form."

If a holotects biography is in some way manifested in his work, then this puts additional pressure on the practitioner to live his life in a certain way. There can be no duplicity about it. And it goes beyond his own skin thanks to the many influences all around him. The network the practitioner finds himself in influences that biography.