Architecture is the process of creating and building a project formed by complex ideas that would perdure in time and space, and would be considered art. It is a way of representing and expressing functionality and beauty through a unique design. Architecture reflects our culture heritage, shows our past way of thinking but also let us the possibility to innovate and form our future through sustainability.
An architectural project is a physic expression of a way of thinking, where we can feel us reflected. It is a proposal on how the world should be.
This unique art is interdisciplinary, it combinates both necessesity and tradition, composition and form, science and technology. It should evolve and be conserve at the same time, we have to transform public spaces but also protect our monuments. Thanks to it, we can immerse ourselves in history to try to understand our development.
“La buena arquitectura nos puede emocionar, nos hace pensar, nos conecta con el mundo que nos rodea”, therefore, can we consider architecture an art?
The documentary “Por amor al arte” tells how architecture conditions our way of seeing things, our perception of reality. Indeed, spaces are organized and thought based on their function. Music is made to be played in a certain place, so depending on how a song is conceived, it will need different features to be listened, more irregular ceilings or a longer reverberation time. Therefore, it is the architecture that adapts itself to the music and makes it be perceived in a certain way, it transforms our perception. Moreover, a cathedral projects grandeur, admiration, we tend to feel small in front of those dimensions, then we can listen to the organ and its deeper sounds thanks to its high ceilings. An auditory will project the music avoiding echoe and trying to distribute the sound evenly throughout the room. On another hand, a funeral parlor has to transmit solemnity through its light and silence. Both of those spaces are dedicated to ceremonies, where music will inhabit the building.
The same relationships are stablished between architecture and painting, theatre or photography. We consider our musuems monuments of our cities. In fact, the term art museum comes from the Greek “museion” which means “temple of the muses and deities of the arts”. It is the use we give to the building that defines it. Museums fulfill the need of enclosing art objects so we can be able to observe them like art. Likewise, theatres have to put us in the mood, in the ambience of drama and emotion so we can get what will be represented.
We can also understand architecture through photography. In fact, architectural photographs take in acount the composition of the building through their capturing process. They observe what organises and defines space as these feautures have to define their photos. Thanks to photography we can capture the building dynamics and the beauty of its harmony. We can contemplate architecture through different lights and angles and see it live for itself through another eyes, another perspective.
After all, we can agree to consider architecture an art but if we understand it in a subjective way. In fact, depending on the observer, the habitant or the visitor of a building, architecture can feel liberating, emotive, can attein to fullfill our souls, or otherwise can let us indifferent. That’s why we have to learn to read this art so we can expand our horizons with interest and will.
Through the class we have visualized an episode of The Simpsons where Maggie is in the kindergarden learning to make simple construction with little cubes. She is very avanced in comparaison with her classmates. However, his professor is limitating her creativity because he wants everybody to do the same, what he has ordered. He doesn’t let her express what she feel and doesn’t let her mind flow freely. Maggie is innovating and being excessively creative to his opinion and she is punished for it. Nevertheless, she doesn’t let his attitude stop her, she keeps pursuing what she consider to be a great architecture. Indeed, I have seen this situation many times in real experiences. It is impossible to progress in this type of environment. Moreover, it is very important for kids to have a safe space to let their ideas flow. Later on, during an adult age, you are expected to follow the rules and to not innovate too much. Change is wild and sometimes difficult to adapt, but I think it is necessary to humanity. Architecture transform us and that is why we have to continue transforming it and cultivating our creativity.