Landscape Architecture: Does The Matter Augment Or Deny Expression - Assignment Example

Landscape architecture Minor role plays a crucial role to increase expression Table of Contents Landscape architecture 1 Minor role plays a crucial role to increase expression 1 Table of Contents 1 Matter and architecture When architecture is talked about, its highest objective which is its first too, is "space". Space itself is limited by material or the matter in architectural field. Architecture obtains its special character and power from this matter. Martin Heiddeger, the German philosopher who exerted great influence over architecture, has summed it up as this: "“The boundary is not the point where something ends, but as Greeks recognised the point at which something begins its existence” (Deplazes, nd). Matter is an integration which is consistent with lots of singles. The integration includes leading role and minor role. Matter and architecture are interdependent. Till date many forms of architecture have been explored; one further beyond the familiar boundaries that architecture is supposed to rest on. But, at the end, each form of architecture reassesses that there is one object at the centre that gives architecture the meaning that it has. That object is the building. At the same time it should not be taken for granted that just the building forms all the essence of architecture. It, in fact, is sum total of the whole that architecture derives its strength from. It could be bricks, the mortar, the sounds or even pixels (Hill, 2001). Landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the 'external architecture' - something that goes by the side of the main object. It is the design of landmarks, outdoor public areas and related structures that achieve socio-behavioural and environmental outcomes, besides providing aesthetic look to the main object. It is a multidisciplinary field that incorporates elements from more than one field like fine arts, botany, geology, industrial design, horticulture, ecology, and geography. Development of public parks, corporate office parks, and parkways come under the purview of landscape architecture. Leading and minor roles of architecture Leading role is the key sign of the integration and minor role is a subsidiary of the leading. As defined by Foucault, Michel in the order of things "one considers the whole first and then divider it u into parts. This division results in a number of units.”(Foucault, M, 1986) Matter can be a combination of a number of units. For landscape architecture these units are boundary, texture, and topography. Minor role is a significant part for increasing expression. For instance, a dish has two parts, food and sauce. The whole dish is matter which is an integration of food and sauce. Food plays the main role of the dish and sauce is the subsidiary part, while different sauces decide who eats it. In other words, when changing the minor role, the expression will be totally different. Therefore minor role plays a crucial role to increase expression. Generally minor role draws its strength from aesthetics around the leading role. This, more often than not, is centred around the landscape/ cultural part of the architectural process. The minor role stems broadly from procedures that take birth from the "philosophical angle" of architecture that focuses on visuality and aspects of how the whole architectural object, like a building, would be received if minor changes are made around the structure. As a result of this, the minor role assumes an important place in the major role of architecture. there is no set or systematic rule that applies to how minor role can enhance the expression of architecture; it is purely based on a subjective criteria. The minor role will be said to have enhanced the expression if it appeals majority of people visually. It is more reliant on how one perceives beauty around a piece of architecture; when a minor role is able to sensitise senses, particularly that of sight, for that instance that becomes the taste, the enhancement (Shah, 2012). Importance of minor role It is the minor role that weds an architectural object, says a house, to the cultural, social and ecological intermediates around it. In other words it links it to Nature; which could be earth, the sky, the sun or anything under it. The minor role establishes a harmonious relationship between the major role of architecture and its immediate neighbourhood. The architectural web of relationships is rich but at the same time complex. If the materials that form the minor role are put together in correct perspective, an architectural integrity is established. Minor role can also be seen as the role different shapes, different cultures (or objects emanating from it) and different beliefs bind with architecture to provide it its integrity (Buchanan, 2012). Minor plays a crucial role in increasing expression. To understand how one needs to understand the plurality of matter. Plurality of matter, which in case of architecture refers to different elements that go into the making of an architectural form; tend to give an architectural composition a plural meaning. Generally, architecture is the major of a project and landscape architecture is subsidiary of architecture. The case of SEB Bank & City Dune SEB Bank & City Dune, the whole project is a matter, consists of a number of units: SEB bank plays the main role and City Dune in front of bank is the subsidiary in the project. The City Dune is designed using disorder terrains to get expression of urban view of nature. However, in the contrast, before City Dune, the harbor front of Copenhagen has through the years been widely criticized for being the site of low quality office buildings, introvert shopping malls, bad infrastructure. When the minor role of the whole project had been changed, the expression of whole space will be totally different. In addition, ‘Haven on the river’ in Melbourne, it also created public space to get expression of nature view. The building in focus here is the principal expression; other minor expressions define their own perceptible role and in the process of that definition increase the overall expression of the landscape. If one is deduced from the other, the overall architectural ingenuity of the place is reduced. In Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Fregean semantics it is mentioned that separate building elements are not complete expressions in themselves. This is amply described in Frege's principles. In architectural incomplete expression types abound. If this interpretation is applied to SEB Bank & City Dune, any one component in isolation does not offer complete expression. For a moment if the SEB Bank & City Dune are looked at from the visual angle, one thing stands out very distinctly. The two buildings are separated and as well as joined by a common element, which is the landscaped area, dotted with trapezoid hexagonal cut-out portions, and not more than a few dozen trees; at least one in each cut-out. We can say that is the only minor element that binds the two buildings together (so as to give the same a feeling of oneness) but even as being minor, it has a major impact on the overall architectural composition of the place. There is a very common but distinct feature in the landscape and that seems to have be exerting an extraordinarily meticulous and powerful effect on the building. On closer introspection, small stairs of not more than half-a-dozen steps branch out seamlessly from the landscaped area and extend into both buildings. In order not to make the branching-out of stairs out of context, the landscaped area itself runs from one building to another in similar steps. As one has an end to end look at the whole premises, the sight runs from one building to another through the landscaped area only, doesn't dither haywire and keeps the mind focused on oneness rather than disintegration of the whole area. Disintegration, because in reality, these are two separate buildings and yet the minor elements convey their brotherhood with each other. In other words, as against the size of the overall structures, the landscaped area has a minor role to play. But, despite being a minor element, it increased the expression in a major way. The minor role can also be discussed in terms of other elements present in the buildings; the pillars branching out from the open area to the first floor and seamlessly joined by decks with holes, the panelling between each floor, colour of window panes and structures at the rooftops. Conclusion It is clear from the discussion above that although leading role plays an indispensable role; minor role is being considered a significant factor to increase expression in architecture. In landscape architecture there is an inherent interdisciplinary relationship between a number of components, which include the built environment, the design, spatial patterns and landscapes around the design in focus. It is worth introspection to see how environmental design and landscape present a dynamic and interactive process in which one form compliments the other. It should not be out of place to mention that in order to discuss minor role with respect to enhanced expression a number of factors, some falling within the principle architectural criteria and some outside, render to a deeper and impactful meaning to overall architectural ingenuity. These elements can be from components as diverse as ecology, culture and even history. References Buchanan, P. (2012). The Big rethink: farewell to Modernism - and Modernity Too. Available http://www.architectural-review.com/the-big-rethink-farewell-to-modernism-and-modernity-too/8625733.article. Accessed September 08, 2013. Deplazes, A. (nd). Antimatter architecture. Available http://www.antimatterarchitecture.com/. Accessed September 08, 2013. Foucault, M. The Order of Thing, London, Routeldg, 1986 Hill, J. (2001). Architecture: The Subject is Matter. Routelge. New York. Shah, V. (2012). The Role of Architecture in Humanity's Story. Available http://thoughteconomics.blogspot.in/2012/06/role-of-architecture-in-humanitys-story.html. Accessed September 08, 2012. Read More