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BERKELEY
PRIZE COMPETITION ESSAY
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| PARTICIPANT |
Mr
ryan a cuddeford |
| COUNTRY |
Canada |
| UNIVERISTY |
university of manitoba
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| DEPARTMENT |
environmental design, faculty of architecture |
| MAJOR
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architecture
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| YEAR
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3
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ESSAY
Truth is contingent.
Architecture is art, the social art of creating habitation and promoting interaction. Architecture exists as a social art when it creates space that is uplifting to the human spirit. Freedom of imagination and the application of human creativity to physical form allow people to dwell. Designers must not overlook this fundamental role in society. All architecture has social significance.
Architects must look within, utilizing their knowledge of the past in seeking new ideologies to create architecture that is cognizant of its political and moral consequences and one that assimilates evolving technologies. Architects striving to develop a critical social consciousness must shift the focus of their work toward people and their diverse wisdom, rather than being governed by the superficial expression of an architectural style. People, not dogmatic pronouncements, are the unifying component of architecture. In seeking a truth for all, architecture can facilitate an enhanced experience and understanding of self, and of the beauty in, and of life. Theorists scrutinize what architecture actually is or could be. A difficulty exists in this contemplation, stemming from the incessant desire of architects to define something that is perhaps beyond the realm of the architect, or beyond definition, (Abercrombie, 1984). The individual and society create complex enigmas for architecture that have no finite solutions. The desire to legitimize an inherently personal definition of architecture can tend to marginalize society |
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SOURCES
1 Anselevius, George. 'Architecture/Arts/Aesthetics.' Arts and Aesthetics: An Agenda for the Future. St. Louis: Cemrel Inc., 1977.
2 Burden, Ernest E. Visionary Architecture: Unbuilt Works of Immagination. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999.
3 Friedman, Mildred S., Michael Sorkin, Frank O. Gehry. Gehry Talks. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1999.
4 Gutman, Robert. Architectural Practice A Critical View. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1988.
5 Hall, Edward Twitchell. The Hidden Dimension. New York: Anchor, 1990
6 Harbison, Robert. The Built, the Unbuilt and the Unbuildable. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1994.
7 Hubbard, Bill. A Theory for Practice. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1995.
8 Jackson, Anthony. Reconstructing Architecture for the Twenty-First Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.
9 Janson, Liesbeth, and Hans van Dijk. Architecture and Legitimacy. Rotterdam: Nai Publishers, 1995.
10 Mitchell, William J. City of Bits: Space Place and the Infobahn. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.
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