International Conference: ICAR 2015

ICAR 2015 | International Conference on Architectural Research |

conference theme: Re[Search] through Architecture

section: Innovation and Experiment

presentation: Ana Maria CRISAN

venue:”Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, 18-20 Academiei St., Bucharest, 010014, (ROMANIA)

DATE: Friday, 27th of March 2015; HOURS: 10.30. A.M.

Topic 6: Architectural Experiment

PLACE: PhD’s Hall

Abstract

The paper treats the reactivated subject of the modernity from the particular perspective of the vocabulary process mechanics. Following the intrigue established by Rem Koolhaas with the occasion of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, in September 2014, the Fundamentals of architecture are rediscussed from the theoretical perspective. As R.K. stated “Fundamentals looks at histories, tries to reconstruct how architecture finds itself in its current situation, and speculates on its future.”

Starting from the premises of Monditalia Exhibition, the analysis relies in reaffirming the Italian Peninsula as a unique areal, a universal library of historic examples taken in whole or in part and reinterpreted in the modern and contemporary architecture. As stated in numerous times by the father of modernism, Le Corbusier, the Peninsula is more than a geographic determined area, it is the land who inspired the famous five principles of the Modern Language. The study area is case restricted by cumulating the points recorded by the architect in his travel journals with the correspondent stylistic objectives. Consequently, the methodology starts from the theoretic archives linking the mentions from journals and articles to the root elements. The basic references were considered the statements in L’art d’Aujoudhui Decoratif, L’Esprit Nouveau, Vers une Architecture, and the thematic exhibitions organized under the aegis of the Fondation Le Corbusier, the specific session Voyage d’Orient 1911–2011, and Le Corbusier’s Italy organized in Rome, Maxxi museum.

Thus aim is to underline basic vocabulary of the Modern architecture language and to discover the origins of the Elements in the old Italian constructed expressions. The final challenge resides in redefining Fundaments as universal intrinsic values or desiccated fragments, in an attempt of better understanding of the modern and contemporary architecture language mechanics.

By understanding the evolution of the modern vocabulary at the larger or smaller scale and in a specific point, we approach the globalization of the information from a different perspective. The results have a large implementation frame in order to orient the educational process towards an active assimilation and a responsible future creation.

Thus, the study builds itself as an active exercise of the famous L.C’s Journey to the East, a story rooted in the past and with currently reflexes, a story about the architectural objects seen beyond the observer’s temporal affiliation. Finally, the Modern architecture language quest for origins is a similar time travel as the one provoked by Rem Koolhaas in Monditalia exhibition a story about the creative adaptation and the progressive imagination.

Monditalia – 14th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, 2014. photography c. Alexandru Crisan, editing: Ana Maria Crisan