London Arts and Events Analysis - Essay Example

London: Arts and Events: analysis of an arts or events activity Introduction: The Arts and Architecture of a nation show how the citizens have thought and expressed themselves through ages, and the cultural heritage of the nation has a significant impact on all its art forms and architectural designs. A close look at the history and development of architecture as a major art form convinces one of the fact that these developments can be closely associated man's attempt for individual and artistic perfection. When one speaks about architecture, the pictures that flash through one's mind are that of huge temples and churches, historical palaces and mansions. However, architecture is not all about designs, buildings and carvings; rather it is the most effective way of immortalizing the national life of the citizens. As Walter H. Godfrey (1991) rightly puts it: "...architecture is the crystallisation of history. All the arts, to a large extent, depend for their growth and encouragement on the broad movements of national life, which have their bases in profound historical conditions or great political events. But the connection between these things and architecture is more intimate, more direct, and infinitely more obvious even to the unskilled observer than in the case of, say, literature or painting." (p. 2). The first forms of architectural designs can be traced back to the early Greeks in the Hellenistic period and architectural festivals that celebrated the rich cultural heritage of the nation is a recent development in Europe and the Western World. The paper here tries to analyse the various events that are held during the London Festival of Architecture and try to unearth the cultural and national significance for the event among the audience. Type of case study (what, where, when): The paper tries to analyze the London Festival of Architecture and to bring out the major theoretical aspects regarding the growth of architecture in London. The London Festival of Architecture is celebrated in each summer and this year it has taken place recently from June 20, 2008 to July 20, 2008. The festival is regarded as one of the best festivals the nation has witnessed as it offers myriads of opportunity for the spectators both for enlightenment and entertainment. Like any other architectural fest, the London Festival of Architecture unearths the best form of artistic perfection of the past generation and all the architectural monuments have a different story of culture or myth associated with it. They are reminiscent of some of the most important cultural and historical heritage and as such they have got a lot to offer to the spectators. The 2008's London Festival of Architecture offers to provide fresh outlooks to the onlookers as its theme is FRESH: "The theme of this year's festival is FRESH and organizers are exhorting visitors to take a fresh look at London, to indulge in fresh thinking, to enjoy the fresh talent on show and the fresh air of the walks and rides." (Williams). The festival is located in the central London, providing easy access to the many visitors who witness the festival. Content: The London Architectural Festival consists of a variety of programs, each of which focuses on one architectural monument or other. The major highlights of the festival include the LFA Clerkenwell & City of London Hub walking tour 1, LFA Clerkenwell & City of London Hub walking tour 2, Barbican flat tours 2, Barbican Screening : Garbage Warrior, Barbican Screening: The Rural Studio, the Brazilian Architecture in the 20th Century, Building the South Bank, Embodied Energy: Dance at Carter Lane, Fresh Views of London, 24 Hour Film Competition: Prize Giving, Green Sky Thinking, Roman Fort gate, and the Digital Architecture Film Showcase. The London Architectural Festival covers architectural monuments like the City Information Centre, National Portrait Gallery, Liverpool street station balcony. Aim: The aim of the paper is to analyze each event in the London Festival of Architecture and to probe into the significance of each event in the cultural and architectural development of the nation. Audience: The audience for the festival consists mainly of the citizens of London and the architecture lovers from the Western Europe and various other parts of the world. Historical context: The festival is of historical importance as the culture, various art forms and the architectural designs of the nation as well as of other architectural are best portrayed in the festival and because it provides a clear cut view to the spectators of how architecture of the nation depicts the lives and cultural values of its citizens. The London Festival of Architecture 2008 (June 20, 2008 to July 20): The London Festival of Architecture 2008 offers a lot to cherish and learn for the architects, students of architecture and professors and all the architecture admirers and lovers all over the world. The first surprise that is offered to the spectators is the The LFA Clerkenwell & City of London Hub walking tour. The LFA Clerkenwell & City of London Hub walking tour provides one with a good glimpse of the new City Information Centre that opened in 2007 which is rich in its architectural design.The opportunity for the walking tour is provided from 16 July to 29 July. The walking tour also brings to one's notice to many newly built constructions at the centre of the city that are carefully designed by Fletcher Priest, Foster, Grimshaw and Parry. The National Portrait Gallery and the St. Paul's Information Centre are the other major architectural attentions during this walking tour. The St. Paul's Information has a seamless design, "giving the building an air of lightness that allows it to sit gently in its context while achieving the necessary stability and strength required for the large spans and cantilevers of the scheme." (St. Paul's Information Centre, London, United Kingdom, 2008). The National Portrait Gallery founded in 1824 is built of stone and follows the Neo classical style. The gallery has a huge collection of the Western European paintings from 1250 to 1900 from the National art collection of Great Britain. The major architects for the galleries were William Wilkins, Sir John Taylor and Robert Venturi. The Barbican flat tours provide one with post war and modern architectural designs that underlines the value and growth of architectural designs through ages. The tour is conducted on 16 July, 2008 from I p.m to 3 p.m. The Barbican estate does have a modernist design in the Le Corbusier style and most of the residential apartments that surround the celebrated Barbican Arts Centre are designed by the renowned post-war architects Chamberlain, Powell and Bon. Special care is taken by these architects to provide a green natural touch to the surroundings with a number of residential gardens, water features and a central lake with fountains. Analysing the tradition and development of architecture in the West, the contributions made by Le Corbusier, who invented the modern international style in architecture, can never be forgotten. His five points of architecture elaborately discussed in his book Vers une architecture have proved to be the guiding principle for many architects who followed him. They include: 1. Freestanding support pillars 2. Open floor plan independent from the supports 3. Vertical facade that is free from the supports 4. Long horizontal sliding windows 5. Roof gardens (Craven). Le Corbusier is renowned to be a great "innovative urban planner" and he termed his early designs as "pure prisms" whereas his later works follow the style of "New Brutalism": "The earlier buildings by Le Corbusier were smooth, white concrete and glass structures elevated above the ground. He called these works "pure prisms." In the late 1940s, Le Corbusier turned to a style known as "New Brutalism," which used rough, heavy forms of stone, concrete, stucco, and glass." (Craven). Anyone who visits the Barbican flats is reminded of this great architect's design because of the way the Barbican flats are created. The Shakespeare tower and the Gilbert House are the other two cultural monuments that one comes across during the Barbican flat tours. The Shakespeare tower was completed in 1976 and it is situated near to the Arts Centre. The architectural design of the tower is noteworthy; "It is 44 storeys high (consisting of garage level, podium level, 40 storeys of flats and 2 of penthouses). It contains 113 large flats and 3 penthouse maisonettes. It featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest residential building in Europe for many years." (A Description of Shakespeare Tower). The cultural value of the Shakespeare Tower cannot be undermined in this respect as it is built in commemoration of the greatest English Dramatist that the world has ever seen. The Gilbert House, just like the Shakespeare Tower attracts the attention of many spectators because of its rich architectural designs and construction. The flats in the building are so carefully and artistically designed that it provides the best view of any building in the Barbican flat. The following description shows the richness of its design: Like nearly all north-south terraces, Gilbert House has a central corridor along each floor and flats are on one or other side of it, with all rooms facing either east or west. Arguably the flats have the best view of any in the Barbican. The west-facing flats have sun most of the day and look out over the lake and the terrace in front of the Barbican Centre. The east-facing flats get sun in the morning only but look out over the more attractive half of the lake with the waterfall (Description of Gilbert House). As already mentioned, the Barbican Centre of Arts has been the focus of attention of many architects and architecture researchers. The Barbican Centre is regarded as the Europe's largest multi-arts and conference venue that undertakes a variety of programmes of art, music and film and theatre all throughout the year. Opened in 1982, the Barbican Centre is carefully designed with a concert hall, two theaters, three cinemas, two art galleries, conservatory and a public library. "All the Barbican's buildings are designed in a bold, modernist architectural style. The development expressed optimistic, post-war ideas about London's future. In 2001, the estate was 'listed' in recognition of its historical and architectural importance." (Barbican). The Barbican Cinemas during the London Architecture Festival screened films that provided new insightful thoughts regarding architecture. The Garbage Warrior screened on July 16 tells the story of maverick eco-architect Michael Reynolds. The movie throws light on the eco friendly manner in which Reynolds designed his architectural outputs. He made use of waste materials for his architectural designs and used old tyres, beer bottles and clay etc foe his architectural designs. One of the most significant spot that attracts the students and fans of architecture all over the world is the Rural Studio. The rural studio has the cultural heritage of moulding many artists and architects. The history of the Rural Studio can be traced back to 1993, when two Auburn University architecture professors, Dennis. K.Ruth and the late Samuel Mockbee, established the Auburn University Rural Studio within the University's School of Architecture. One of the key factors of the training in the Rural Studio is that it tries to offer context-based learning to the learners by providing provisions for community service. The mission of the Rural Studio is to enable students to "cross the threshold of misconceived opinions to create/design/build and to allow students to put their educational values to work as citizens of a community." (The Rural Studio Mission). Thus, the Rural Studio prompts students to build what they have designed and the main objective of this is to "refine the student's social conscience and to learn first-hand the necessary social, cultural and technological concepts of designing and building." (The Rural Studio Mission: History). A documentary on Brazilian Architecture in the 20th Century, which comprises of an "illustrated talk by Geraint Franklin of English Heritage, and a showing of a subtitled documentary on Brazilian architecture (TBC)", (Brazilian Architecture in the 20th Century) is another surprise that awaits the spectators of the London Architecture Festival. The documentary is organized on 16 July from 6.30 pm to 9.30 p.m. The event is part of the Brazil Embassy's attempt to preserve the architectural heritage of Brazil in the 20th century. It gives new architectural insights to the visitors as "Brazil offers some of the world's most influential and diverse 20th century architecture, from the formal freedom of Oscar Niemeyer to the brutalism of the escola Paulista (So Paulo school), and from the hybrid mannerism of the eclectic period to the Art Deco of Copacabana." (Brazilian Architecture in the 20th Century). The best quality presentations, moving pictures, films and television programmes from the BFI National Archive is made available at the Mediatheque at BFI South bank. The event is closely linked with the London Architecture Festival as the collection of films screened at the venue clearly provides one with the domestic architecture in Britain since the 1930s. Another attraction of the London Architecture Festival of 2008 summer is the Grimshaw and the green bean dance performed by the dancers from The Place's London Contemporary Dance School and the major objective of this dance program to propagate the significance of architecture through dance forms. On the same night there is another architecture related show held at Bethnal Green Road, London named Rich Mix which consists of a number of digital films that deal with the lives of leading architects and producers in London. One never fails to have a close look at the remaining of the Roman Fort Gate, near the museum of London. It is thus evident from the above discussion that the London Festival of Architecture provides one with the best opportunity to have a clear cut understanding of the growth, significance and the major architectural designs in London. The Architecture festival of London, thus, provides the spectator with both the theoretical factors of various architectural designs and most of the architectural constructions in the Barbican Centre still provide a lot of information and insight into the craft of architecture. The festival also highlights the fact that one has a lot to imbibe from the architectural designs and constructions that on e come across at the London Festival of Architecture. The fact that the number of people who visit the festival increases day by day suggests that the festival has much more to offer than mere information; rather it offers the spectator with greater values of life and nationality. As observed by Walter H. Godfrey (1991), "these are the things we first seek out when we leave our home to visit other cities and other countries, not merely out of idle curiosity, but because we know that they are among the greatest achievements of their time and of their land, and because we know also that there is something in them which will ennoble our views of life, and will show us the fulfilment of many of our deepest aspirations." (p. 1). One can also notice that among the various art forms, architecture has immortalized its influence and people have come to the realization that architecture forms a major part of the tradition of various art forms. As Robert Gregory (2000) remarked, "while a few artists were haunted by memories of the trenches, most chose to reject the past, and to search for modern forms of expression, in a period of experimentation in art that included architecture." As many of the foreigners who came to attend the festival admitted, the London Festival of Architecture has given them fresh outlooks regarding the art of architecture. To conclude, one can state that the London Festival of Architecture as its theme suggests provide FRESH insights to the spread of architecture in London and no doubt architects and students all over the world benefit the most out of the festival. Works Cited Godfrey, Walter H. A History of Architecture in London: Arranged to Illustrate the Course of Architecture in England until 1800. London: B.T. Batsford, 1991. St. Paul's Information Centre, London, United Kingdom. Designbuild-network.com. SPG Media Limited a subsidiary of SPG Media Group PLC. 2008. 24 Jul. 2008. . Craven, Jackie. Le Corbusier, Leader of the InternationalStyle. About.com: Architecture. 2008. 24 Jul. 2008. . A Description of Shakespeare Tower. Barbican Living. 24 Jul. 2008. . Williams, Lowri. London Festival of Architecture. Dennis Publishing. 10 Jun. 2008. 24 Jul. 2008. . Description of Gilbert House. Barbican Living. 24 Jul. 2008. . Barbican. Museum of London. 24 Jul. 2008. . The Rural Studio Mission. Rural Studio. 24 Jul. 2008. . The Rural Studio Mission: History. Rural Studio. 24 Jul. 2008. . Brazilian Architecture in the 20th Century. The Twentieth Century Society. 24 Jul. 2008. . Gregory, Robert. "HEROISM versus EMPIRICISM" The Architectural Review. Vol. 207(1235), 2000. Read More