Зачем Нужна Архитектура?
Why Architecture Matters by Paul Goldberger — Book Review
How did I find the book?
I was always paying attention to architecture, however, I had never had a decent example of what “good” architecture should look like or how it should be treated. The city where I live, Chisinau, has little respect for that, moreover, almost no money is invested in restoring the small number of historic buildings that we have left, our mayor prefers to build more roads so Chisinau turns into a car haven.
That’s why I started watching Varlamov’s playlist about urbanism/architecture. He is travelling mostly in European countries where urbanism and architecture it’s at their peak. He is showing how it is correctly done and how it improves peoples’ lives, where the “comfort zone” doesn’t end at their house door.
So I got a good grasp of urbanism but I lacked the “architecture logic”. I wanted to get more of that. In the “What to read: 10 books about urbanism” video, the first book that Ilya recommended was “Why Architecture Matters” by Paul Goldberg. Bought the book on Kindle and started reading it.
P.S: I do not recommend reading it on a Kindle because the author gives examples where he describes a certain building and it is pretty difficult to understand what he is trying to say because you have to read the description and at the same time look at the building. Download Kindle on your computer and use half the screen for reading and the other half for examing the building.
Summary and Quotes.
In chapter 1 the author talks about meaning, culture and symbols.
The people can mislead you more easily than their architecture can.
I love truth and you can receive that through architecture.
“Architecture “is the will of an epoch translated into space,” Mies said. Buildings tell us what we are and what we want to be, and sometimes it is the average ones that tell us the most.Architecture is always a response to limits — physical constraints, financial ones, or the demands of function. If it is seen purely as art or purely as a practical pursuit, it will never really be grasped.
Architecture is a presentation of its people, country, city, and community. It is like a mirror that its citizens find themselves in. And I can say that for sure about my country’s citizens, including myself, how much the image of the city is related to us.
Architecture is balanced, precisely and precariously, between art and practicality. Vitruvius, writing in ancient Rome around 30 BC, set out the three elements of architecture as “commodity, firmness, and delight” and no one has done better than his tripartite definition.
I really enjoyed chapter 4, where the author talks about “architecture as space” because I had never thought of it that way.
Philip Johnson wrote that what he called procession, the experience of moving through a building, was actually the most important element of all in architecture: “Architecture is surely not the design of space, certainly not the massing or organizing of volumes. These are auxiliary to the main point, which is the organization of procession. Architecture exists only in time.”“The beauty consists in how you move into the space,” Philip Johnson wrote. Johnson understood that we first experience architecture from afar, watch it change as we move closer, and have (if we are lucky) an experience of great drama as we move, step by step, into it. And then we see it in different ways again when we stand inside and move around within its spaces. Architecture reveals itself in stages as we move toward it, and then space unfolds in stages as we move within it.
The experience of getting to know the building is like listening to a story that it is being told, in different chapters. It looks one way from afar, where you see the main elements of it. Moving closer you start seeing the details of the structure. And when you finally enter the building itself it is a totally different place than you imagined it looks like. It is like watching a movie where you are the main character, that’s how architecture makes you feel.
The first reason that buildings change over time is that we change.
I love vintage cars and once I asked myself: why can’t we just make more vintage cars? The questions also apply to architecture. Why can’t we just build an amphitheatre as the Greeks did? We can, we choose not to. That’s what the author talks about in chapter 6, buildings and time.
We can’t copy old forms of art into today’s world because it wouldn’t be fair. Imagine people 100 years from now building structures like the modern day ones. Art should be projected from the present day. Yes, we can take some elements from the past, but not build pyramids as ancient Egyptians did. A good example of good inspiration is the Louvre.
Wine tastes better with age. Our memories feel more special with time. We wouldn’t appreciate the past if we started to replicate everything from there. Las Vegas and the Chinese tried to do that with the Eiffel Tower and I don’t know if humanity should be proud of that.
We should create art that represents the humanity of the present so that future generations could travel in time, at least just for a glimpse, learn and get inspired from this age as we did. Brutalism reached the Soviet Union in the last century. Huge parts of it are still seen in the post-soviet countries today, like Moldova. It is definitely not my favourite, but, it depicts perfectly those times.
A city — or a town or a village — should feel as if it began long before you and will go on long after you. It should have a patina. It should have gravitas, which older buildings confer naturally, especially if they are good ones. Older buildings give a place an anchor in time. It should almost go without saying that preserving old buildings is the right thing to do.
Architecture is present in our lives more than we think. We are surrounded by these structures and live in them. They have the potential to influence our mood and perceptions through space, light, geometry, and the materials used. Most importantly they say a lot about us, and by learning about them you learn more about yourself.
Architecture represents the real, and that is ever more precious in an age of the virtual. Every piece of architecture is an opportunity for real experience. Some of the opportunities architecture offers us are banal, others are irritating, and some will not communicate at all. Some will give us comfort, which is of no small value. And some will be transcendent and will tell you, more eloquently than anyone can express in words, of that aspect of human aspiration that makes us want to connect to what has come before, to make of it something different and our own, and to speak to those who will follow us.
Conclusion and what have I learnt.
I think everyone should read this book. On the next trip, you will start paying attention to the architecture of the city, thus the experience will be more fulfilling because you will learn and understand more, and also feel less like a tourist.
You will start paying more attention to your local architecture and value it. In my case, Chisinau has a small number of beautiful structures that are in a terrible state. Before reading this book I haven’t really noticed that. That’s why people don’t notice this problem because they lack the knowledge of it, not because they are indifferent.
As I have mentioned before I am not a huge fan of Soviet architecture. I thought the only solution to this problem is destroying everything and starting from zero. That’s a good idea, in theory, however, it is very impractical. Berlin took a better approach after 1989 and hasn’t destroyed everything that the Soviets have built. Instead, it turned the other part of the city from propaganda into a heritage by respecting urbanistic and architectural rules. Ilya in his video proves that.
And most importantly you will discover that your comfort zone shouldn’t end at your doorstep but be present all over the city. That’s how you should feel in your city, and that should be the norm.