This chapter is an attempt to define and trace the development of an emerging genre of spatial design known as Narrative. It aims also to shed some light on some theories and classifications related his issue. Understanding and analyzing previous endeavors in the area will form the cornerstone of exploring the attributes of a space which is make it capable of telling a story and conveying a message.
Nigel Coates - one of the most original and profound British theorists and thinkers in architecture, interior and product design – has written profoundly and practiced design based on what he calls a ‘Narrative’ approach to design. (Incerti, G. 2008)
In his newly published book – Narrative Architecture – (which will form the premises for this chapter) Nigel Coats stated “In exploring narrative, I have no predominant theory from which a new architecture can spring”, he also claimed that “Concepts of narrative are built into the post-millennial language of architectural debate, but relatively few of these concepts are organized in prints” (Coats, N. 2012). However, his theory and thoughts summarize an intuitive approach which he started to practice during the 70s and 80s by forming the architecture group (NATO) Narrative architecture today. His theory also offers a new way to interpret buildings, and to create new opportunities to understand, appreciate, and design spaces and buildings… differently.
In an attempt to understand the bigger picture, different spatial contexts will be introduced starting by architecture and landscaping. Later in chapter two, collected key finding will be applied on a more specific context; Exhibitions and spatial installations.
1.2 What Is Narrative Architecture?
Nowadays, the term “narrative” is used w...
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...nt resides in a system of triggers that signify poetically, above and in addition to functionality. Narrative means that the object contains some ‘other’ existence in parallel with its function.” (Coats, N. 2012)
As will be presented in the following three examples, Coats believes that it is better for the messages sent by architecture to be subtle and static than overt. He suggested that they often follow an anti-sequential order; they are always there, setting in place and waiting to be perceived by a curious visitor. (Coats, N. 2012)
These two suggestions, as they contradict to some extend with the purpose of the spatial installation, rise two questions:
How complex and hidden should the message be? And who is the targeted perceiver?
Before answering these questions, It is important to explore more about the ability of the space through precedents analysis.
By giving the biographies of architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander, Hines does nothing to remedy his aimless writing. He writes that Neutra had a variety of experience as an archi...
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. 4th ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2006.
Using the quote by Habermas as a starting point, select up to two buildings designed in the twentieth century and examine what ‘sudden, shocking encounters’ they have encountered, or created. Analyse the building’s meanings as a demonstration of an avant-garde, or potentially arriere-garde, position.
...hey have entered the house, and then keeps it as you pass through the disappearing walls, pivoting doors, retractable stairs, and floating floors. It incorporates architecture, interior architecture and furniture design to create a total design that can be modified for different occupants. It truly is functional space.
James F. O'Gorman, Dennis E. McGrath. ABC of Architecture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Document. October 2013.
This explains why for ‘many directors, commercial and industrial architecture are just a necessary shell for their business processes’ (Susanne-Knittel Ammerschuber (2006) pg10). They consider dimensions for example surfaces, floor levels and converted space to be the stand out feature of this corporate architecture. Through doing this, the architectural ethos is overlooked during design. The architectural potential is therefore limited as it tends to overlook the surrounding context; the urban environment, local identity as well as the surrounding landscape design. Instead it...
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. NY: Architectural Press, 1980, 2007. Massachusetts: NECSI Knowledge Press, 2004.
People are made of complexities and contradictions. Venturi recognized that buildings should be complex and complicated, too. He theorized and built buildings inspired by this principle, and succeeded because of his emphasis on individual experience and the interaction between humanity and architectural forms. In pursuit of this goal, his pluralist and revolutionary style of architecture embraced difference and ambiguity and rejected the rigid rules of modernism. While undoubtedly influenced by Venturi’s ideas, later postmodern architects failed to live up to his principles by forming their own inflexible rules and not concentrating on the human experience with buildings.
The essence of modern architecture lays in a remarkable strives to reconcile the core principles of architectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. However, it took “the form of numerous movements, schools of design, and architectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying such classification, to establish modernism as a distinctive architectural movement” (Robinson and Foell). Although, the narrower concept of modernism in architecture is broadly characterized by simplification of form and subtraction of ornament from the structure and theme of the building, meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose; the visual expression of the structure, particularly the visual importance of the horizontal and vertical lines typical for the International Style modernism, the use of industrially-produced materials and adaptation of the machine aesthetic, as well as the truth to materials concept, meaning that the true nat...
The author explains architecture as an identification of place. Architecture starts with establishing a place. We define ‘place’ as a layout of architectural elements that seem to accommodate, or offer the possibility of accommodation to, a person, an activity, a mood, etc. We identify a sofa as a place to sit and relax, and a kitchen as a place to cook food. Architecture is about identifying and organizing ‘places’ for human use.
Hegeman, J. (2008). The Thinking Behind Design. Master Thesis submitted to the school of design, Carngie Mellon University. Retrieved from: http://jamin.org/portfolio/thesis-paper/thinking-behind-design.pdf.
A teacher of design and history theory of architecture, Mary McLeod examines and builds an argument about what constitutes ‘otherness’ in the discipline of architecture at a time of flux in her 1996 work Every day and Other Spaces. Other can be defined as a new architecture. She starts with the underlying claim that the idea of other is greater than just doing differently. Most that advocate this idea are broken into two categories, those that side with the theorist Jacques Derrida (deconstructivists) and with Michael Foucault (heterotopia.) The political and culture implication and role remained vastly unknown at the time. This is one question put forth by McLeod, followed by the discussion of the notion of ‘everyday life’ and several other
influences what we do in that space, and perhaps just as importantly, what we do not do. The
Charles Jencks in his book “The Language of Post-Modern Architecture “shows various similarities architecture shares with language, reflecting about the semiotic rules of architecture and wanting to communicate architecture to a broader public. The book differentiates post-modern architecture from architectural modernism in terms of cultural and architectural history by transferring the term post-modernism from the study of literature to architecture.
A city has to be beautiful, though the definition of “beauty” is so vague. The beauty can be physical, such as enjoyable parks, streetscapes, architectural facades, the sky fragment through freeways and trees; or it can be the beauty of livelihood, people, and history. As landscape architects, we are creating beautiful things or turning the unpleasant memorial.