EXCERPTS FROM ARCHITECTURE AND DISJUNCTION BYBERNARD TSCHUM

Figure 1: Book written by Bernard Tschumi

In this book, Bernard Tschumi talked about the contradiction in architecture. For Bernard Tschumi, the short half-life of function and the inability to know beforehand how people will use a building or place are chief examples of "disorder, collisions, and unpredictabilities entering the field of architecture. Although these challenges seem impossible to archive the rule ridden practice of architecture but then they emancipate architects and their arts.




"So architecture seems to survive only when it saves its nature by negating the form that society expects of it," he writes. "I would suggest that there has never been any reason to doubt the necessity of architecture, for the necessity of architecture is its non-necessity. It is useless, but radically so. Its radicalism constitutes its very strength in a society where profit is prevalent" by Bernard Tschumi.

Figure 2: Disjunction

However, Mr. Tschumi does not originate his arguments from analogies with linguistics or philosophy, but rather from the architecture itself. His writing is relatively clear, even lively because of the very low standards of contemporary architectural theorizing.




Mr. Tschumi's art seems to exist in a hermetic world that lacks the primitive, truly architectural pleasures created by light and shadow, color and texture, expansiveness and enclosure, rhythm and incident. His architecture is an occasion for explication, not joy. Mr. Tschumi repeatedly describes architecture as sensual and pleasurable, but the eroticism he finds in architecture is really an obsession with rules and the architect's desire both to impose and to transgress them. Design is bondage; learn to enjoy it.

Jane Jacob- The Death and Life of Great American Cities




This article is a redefining a large city on why it exist, and what it takes to plan for its development and improvement. Jacob argued that urban planning of a city needs to take place from a street-level perspective. The objective of planning a city need to support, promote and ignite the importance of city streets. This include commercial and residential spaces and a mixture of people from a variety of economic status and background. All planning effort of a city needs to take into account of the people around the neighborhood involved regardless even if the people are poor and uneducated. Any thoughts of simplifying things to make them orderly will destroy the city and its people with it. On the other hand, a city is supposed to be an organized complexity. A city is not a work of art and cannot be treated with as if it were another form of architecture. A city, unlike a small town, is filled with people who are strangers to each other, so any plans have to find ways for strangers from within a neighborhood and from without to be able to co-exist and maybe even learn a little about each other.






CHUA CHYI SHYAN 1001542549

NONsence-PLANing? (Non-Plan Cedric Price)

Is this freedom, too much freedom?

The idea of non-plan was provocative, as it was radical, can't be controlled and no order to some who disagreed with it. But this allows the users who are experiencing it to be  the one creating it's own functional space, the freedom to control it's own indoor weather or usefulness. The size and function can be tweaked by customizing, and it's achievable through an empty canvas, an empty plan.

But can an imagination run that wild? Or can we as planners of space let a random and extreme idea flow with on boundaries?

Balance can help tip the balance back in place. We have to find the right amount of each element to be played on the plate. There's no correct number to be achieve but to be solved with moral and compromise, tolerance and support from each other to be a workable architecture movement.

TO BE REBORN, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES?

City planning or the American way of it was thought to be an attack on the current city planning by Jane Jacobs. It is believe to be inadequate to be a safe or beneficial for city to improve or move forward. To be spending a fortune and to not reap anything from it seemed harmful. It is a test lab full of trial and error, to many roles and personnel need to be taken into account to create and be considered.

City planning is important and vital to keep a nation, a society together. Many have conceptual idealism of plans that tweaks and plays with the formation of city planning. Centralized system is usually commonly agreed by logic. I believe strongly in community communication and equal grounds of ideas. Therefore a centralized space can be a great way to ensure a thoroughly connected village. It would be the most fair and equal distant for the majority to be gathered or commuted into the same circle of area.

America, the land of Freedom, a playful ground for dreams to be build and explore into reality. No way of city planning can be perfect for all, but it all can be perfect individually with the right context. At least close to a temporary perfect.

I believe through many trials and attempts things would get better with actions taken:

“In order to rise
From its own ashes
A phoenix First Must Burn.” 
— Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

Peter Eisenman- ''Post-Functionalism''




Peter Eisenman discuss that two different exhibition centre ''Architerrura Razional'' and "Ecole des Beaux Arts" applies a different treatment of form and function nevertheless having the same definition of architecture as function and type. Humanism in architecture is always concern with program and theme or in simple way function and form. Eisenman also discuss between a French hotel with a more variation of floor plan while being masked by a well-proportioned facade on the external, while the English house on the other hand has a regular and formal floor plan and defines the external facade. I agree with the opinion program and form were once contrast design consideration. However as the development of industrialization arise, the balance between form and function was disrupted. Architects from the mid twentieth century began to understand design as form follows function. However the issue is not always about the function but some how rather modernist taste. It is believe that the relationship between form and function is based on culture. Modernist sensibility has to do with a change of thinking attitude towards artifact of the physical world.

CHUA CHYI SHYAN 1001542549

LECTURER 04

CEDRIC PRICE

Non-Plan & Activity and Change

Cedric Price suggest total dissolution of the planning system. The idea non-plan is highly controversial, but it has a continuing influence. Non-Plan infuriated many architects and planners because not only was it extremely provocative and contentious but it also went against the established order and controlled uniformity of the built environment. Non-plan is intended to destroy a system of value. I disagree with this point. Although good planning will give us more clearly directions and preparation to face the out-coming problems, non-plan also will bring us to an unexpected outcome and the result might be more stunning and unprecedented that we cannot imagine how the outcome will be. The reason is non-plan encourage unevenness of development and reducing the permanence by avoiding the very reinforcement. Thus, you might exploit peculiarity and even more discoveries through the non-planning process. However, for our pasar design now, due to the restriction of timing, we still need a good planning of time while doing the design. Although non-plan sometimes will give us an unexpected splendid result because of the unbounded restriction, but we still need some plan or else it might exceed the requirements and time given to finish the works for my final design now.

Non-plan: City Movement

I support Cedric Price's concept of "anticipatory architect" in which the general public could determine, control and shape their own surrounding freely. All buildings should allow for obsolescence and complete changes of use. It might establish a new order of priorities of land, sea and air that related more directly to social and economic life-span of use. Non-plan explored ways of involving people in the design of their environments. I agree with the statement that people's own choices should be respected. It is good that we ask everyone ideas and preferences before designing a space because we also do not want to force the people to fit in a place that dislike to stay or join. Architecture bring life to humans thus we should let people shape the environment they want to live and work in so architecture will bring people together in the end. This is the reason why we should do the survey of people in pasar and ask the things that they prefer or hope to improve the environment or space. I hope to design the pasar that will associate with social life of kajang community and we should consider the economic life-span of pasar use in the future. Hence, pasar should allow to change and establish some new input to enliven the pasar for the coming years.

Cedric Prices Fun Palace sketches architectural details

Cedric Price favours non-architectural solution to the accommodation of human activities and denigrate the limitations of permanent and monumental buildings. It is easier to allow for individual flexibility than organisational changes. For example, the expandable house, the multi-use of fixed volumes and the transportable controlled environment. It is useful to applied in our final project now that we can design modular stall that is expandable and multi-functional for sitting and display items purpose. It is allowing for change and flexibility. It is essential that the variation provided does not imposed a discipline that everything is permanent and load-bearing. We should open-minded that design is flexibility and allow for change if it is not suitable to apply. When designing pasar we can plan for activities that allow for change not only in content but in means of operation. For instance, we can have two planning in pasar, which are day market and night market that the operation time are different but with movable stalls of different arrangement that can be different in activities and operations but at the same place.

Peter Andrew : Non-plan city movement

In a nutshell, non-plan enables uneven development, the particularization of occupation, habitat and appetite to occur in place and at times best suited to it. Through its permissive attitude to change, it increases the validity of continuous redevelopment resulting in activities and forms as yet unrealized. Although the result might be unexpected, we still need to accept along the time. For pasar design, we can apply some non-plan ideas above that make the design more lively and interesting because sometimes you will unrealize to obtain the outstanding result when go through the process. Therefore design process and development are vital. However, we still need to emphasize the planning of time. Remember design is allow to change and flexible. Don't bash one's head against a brick wall. We should think out of the box sometimes but do not forget the practicability and functionality.


Written by Chiew Jing Yi, 1001644071

LECTURER 07

TOM SCHUMACHER

" Contextualism: Urban Ideals and Deformations "

Tom Schumacher presents two concepts that make up the twentieth century town which are the traditional city and the city-in-the-park. The traditional city is primarily an experience of space defined by continuous walls of building, essentially a subtractive form of space making for public urban space. It emphasizes the spaces by figuring void and de-emphasizes the building volumes. The concept is humanistic approach by following the human scale and usage like create pedestrian and hybrid urban experience. I think our pasar design need humanistic approach for better user experiences by using the void in solid procedure to make public space as gathering place with anthropometry consideration. It is vital that designing a common space for human interaction and socialization. Due to historical approach of development, the city planning is more density and complex. For instance, the city of Rome had scattered irregular block to fit into the site, blur division of land use and no zoning. The irregular and blurring zoning planning reflect the street market(pasar malam) in Malaysia now with all the mix stall together and make the users difficult to find the directions sometimes.

Emphasize space by figure voids(circulation)

City of Rome: narrow street with pedestrian experience

The city-in-the-park concept is consist of collections of isolated buildings set in a landscape.It is modernist approach of city planning that emphasize functionalistic, efficiency and convenience. I think it is more towards my pasar design intention now. Owing to the typology in the current economic condition, we need to find the solution for pasar to thrive in 20 years time against supermarket and mini market. Therefore, I plan to use modernism design and more diverse or high efficiency technology to attract the youngster have curiosity and visit the pasar. For example the pasar had drive through options to buy things like MCDonald's. 

Moreover, it emphasizes building volume by figuring solids and not the spaces which the buildings define. It is arranged orderly and uniformly by using grid method regardless of site. It is standardize and form a machine-like city. However, the consequence is the mismatch between the building and human scale. Thus, I found that it is important of site context and human scale that we need to consider when we planning design so will produce better urban configuration and have linkage between context and building. For instance, our pasar site is almost surrounded by residential housing, therefore we can make a hierarchy and attraction in pasar to engage the kajang community come to the pasar.

Emphasize building volumes by figuring solids

gird uniform layout

Contextualism is the urban ideals as the middle ground that reconciles these two contrasting concepts. Schumacher found out the ideological and social differences among the two plans making us think about how land values and economic necessities of grouping people in high concentrations have greatly limited the flexibility of the capitalist city. Economic pressures and design preferences have led to the typification of housing as packages assembled repetitiously and based on profit rather than need. Hence, when we designing pasar, I think we should consider the human needs and site respond rather than put all the typical repetition blocks with no reasons because of the economic pressure that the buyers intend cheap and simple design without appreciate the limited land use.

Tom Schumacher: Contextualism

Schumacher by de-emphasizing the “form follows function” assertion, was willing to consider those spatial and planning pressure and try to find a solution. Public spaces should respect a hierarchy together with the buildings within the urban factory, consequently the rest takes shape. I think it is a good point that spatial planning and functionality is important when we doing pasar design and public space should be hierarchy to make a grand feel and attraction spot to the visitors. The rest of the plan could just takes shape like the Le Corbusier bubble analogy, the exterior and interior can be using the same language and characteristic.

Collage

Deformation

Densely packed in Mei Foo Sun Cheun VS
Deform in relate to social meaning arrangement

There are two techniques to achieve contextualism which are collage and deformation. Collage is the fragmentation of basic part and reorganisation base principle. It respond to the constricted environment by unified whole. Deformation is the basic part which the adjustment made to fit in the existing context that respond to constricted environment. For pasar design, we can extract the good elements from the ideal housing forms and reformulate the arrangement of buildings in the site based on the need of human beings. In short, pasar is a vital community engagement place. Following Schumacher theory, I think city-in-the-park ideas and contextualism are more towards my design intention now and i would applied in my design. Besides. I think we should maintain the pasar culture but we can input some new attraction in pasar like foods paradise with nice photo session and become a popular spot so it still thrive even in the future.



Written by Chiew Jing Yi, 1001644071