Comments on: Philadelphia’s ‘ethical’ architecture

By: Terri Baisley

Terri Baisley — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:09:28 +0000

To quote from your blog above: “…architecture differs from the other arts insofar as its inescapable practical function- to be inhabited…” This is pinnacle point as to why one must consider an ethical architecture.

Unfortunately today the idea that architecture is an art as well as the buildings we inhabit appears lost. It seems it is the thought of most of society that the architecture of the buildings we inhabit does not influence our daily lives, does not move us or speak to the soul. In reality the exact opposite is true and this is where one needs to consider the ethics of it.

For a building to be ethical is does not have to “go green” or enforce its own set of rules on the visitor, it must only be the answer to two problems. The first being the problem of site and the second being the programmatic problem of the building. Only by successfully solving these two “problems” can truly great architecture (and space) exist. An architecture without intensions of grandeur, without imposing ideas on how the building must look and one that does not need to be more then what it must be. This is an ethical architecture.

A quote from the architect R. Buckminster Fuller encapsulates this point: “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty, but if when I am finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

By: Tebogo Orapeleng

Tebogo Orapeleng — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:16:25 +0000

continuation….

This when attributed to architecture, indicates its capacity to impart to the people who inhabit buildings such as sense of place, taking us back to the previous topic of “ethos”. When one feel at home in a specific building or place one may say that it automatically transforms impersonal space into human place as you have suggested.
But I guess the question now remains, do all Architects design ethical buildings, foe people to feel at home or some just do it to get the job done, or maybe to put something into their pockets..?

By: Tebogo Orapeleng

Tebogo Orapeleng — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:15:03 +0000

What strikes me the most is the style of Architecture and the feeling/ personal experience one seems to get when surrounded by the buildings and spaces in the city of Philadelphia. The place surely manages to capture and appeal one’s awareness of it and this truly pays compliments to the architects that were involved in the creation of such mind-blowing spaces. It serves us to remember what it feels like to live, to be “astonished” by our architectural surroundings especially looking at the manner in which the buildings modulate the city into a configuration of interconnected spaces with a very distinctive special quality that imparts to it the character of a region with its own special ‘genius loci’ as you have noted.
I like the way you describe how the city has been transformed into places in various ways, by a combination of the architectural design of buildings and the spatial interrelationship between different buildings. It is as if the Architects had lived before in the same places and experienced the feeling that one gets now before they even designed for them to have felt the same feeling u had there on your visit, the feeling of being at home. They surely seem to have transformed ordinary spaces into an architectural ‘place’ ethically oriented towards the art and a place, to provide a sense of ‘place’ or an ethical orientation in the world.

to be continued…

By: Boipuso Isaac

Boipuso Isaac — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:02:03 +0000

What interests me most is the architectural space making mentioned and when recalling from the movie (Rocky) mentioned the few examples i saw were very remarkable spaces. This is also evident as one would tend to turn around at Washington’s statue like the author always does turn to witness how the buildings complement each other and the spaces around them. The originality mentioned makes it more unique or special as compared to the cities which use the architectural elements to modulate their without any creativity but in a universal way. With the museum raised on a podium to mark a point of arrival and a gateway shows how carefully the city has been organized to create different nodes of spaces which are interconnected.
The buildings being a mixture of classical and neo classical styles of architecture if uncompromised i imagine strongly gives Philadelphia the character that it needs to be a remarkable place. Its also an important fact that there is a strong attention given both to the exterior and interior of these buildings which strongly helps in activating the spaces of the city. And i don’t see any reason why someone with a good sense of architectural space would not feel welcome to explore this preserved styles.
With the trees aligned along the streets and, the responses of the buildings to the context and places like Fairmount Park are what some of the modern cities are lacking but with cities like Philadelphia still embracing such spaces I think

By: Nametso Matoko

Nametso Matoko — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:53:41 +0000

Well,it seems as architecture becomes piece of art in which to express, one needs a strong centralised inner consious to relate narrate his\her feeling about the building or the nature of space exprieced. The philadelphia buildings are more rich in the beauty, the portray architecture as habital art,more practically exprieced as compared to paitinn artifact that its only enjoyement can be absorbed or experssed visually.
Classical architecture has been always the best in terms of aesthetics and ethical funtion relation to the users.Architects of then had knew their people very well, contributing on making spaces worthful to be enjoyed even by the coming generations.In this case, i feel Philadeliphia places were carefully,benched on the love for the people, indentity and powerfully expressed.I believe each of us has that feel for the love of the building, or particular space that can be either inner experienced or the practically enjoyed.The attention to space syntax in Philadeliphia contributes much wider experiece in collection of building precedents,to be expirenced as a whole intergral to the building and the public at large.

By: Nikhil Tricam

Nikhil Tricam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:48:46 +0000

It truly is wonderful to encounter an individual who is genuinely appreciative of the spirit of place, and so sensitive to the effect imparted on it by truly good architecture and urban planning/design.
I believe the prerequisites that constitute an ‘ethical’ architecture can be named, yet cannot be easily created. Like a human personality grows through experience and interaction with others, and in taking shape creates an atmosphere and impression of that person when encountered by fellow persons, so should an architectural space take on an atmosphere and character through it’s interactions and relations with various factors. In an architect’s mind, the space interacts with forms, climate, context(built and human) and client, and begins to take on a ‘personality’ intrinsic to it alone. Once this is realised by architects and designers, and care is taken to either respect the existing character of a site, enhance it through a built intervention, or harmonize with the natural character of a virgin site, the ethical duty is fulfilled. The architectural place created will then take on a character conducive to the intended ethical imperatives. In other words, people will enjoy it. In addition to Philadelphia, one imagines the unique sense of place apparent in some areas closer to home, namely Port Elizabeth’s Central, or the Bo-Kaap in the Cape Town city bowl. These spaces, while entirely different to Philadelphia, possess a unity and distinct character, which can only be attributed to an ethical, careful, ‘background yet foreground’ architecture.

By: Mpumzi Mbulawa

Mpumzi Mbulawa — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:24:10 +0000

I believe the architectural example used here (Philadelphia) is a perfect example of the results achieved when an art/skill is executed in its truest sense (or ethical sense). All the principles of architecture co-exist in a harmonious whole.
This co-existence allows the sapce to celebreate minor everyday activities such as a walk on a path by the Schuylkill river or simply strolling down Benjamin Franklin Parkway admiring the buildings that create the sapce itself. In a sense the architecture, when executed skilfully, intensifies the experience of a given space and creates an awareness in us that otherwise, we would not be able to pick up had the space not been created.
I believe wherever this is done in the world (the skillful crafting of an architectural space (e.g the city of Venice, the Acropolis in Greece, the Pantheon in Rome, etc.) the ethical architecture is able to reach us on an emotional level.
Even Speaking to our soul…

By: Jean Jacques

Jean Jacques — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:01:31 +0000

In architecture today we face a dilemma.

How do we merge our ethical duty to care with a capitalist consumer driven society oblivious to the quality of our product?

Care is the fundamental basis of all good architecture. Without it all the theory, analysis and play in the world has as much chance of producing good, ethical architecture as hitting a hole in one blindfolded. Care is the driving force that makes you pay attention to site conditions or explore appropriate modes of space or make a beautiful detail. Care is the root of all good space.

This care is difficult to quantify; being a qualitative characteristic. Its nature becomes even more elusive to a capitalist society because of the tendency to quantify quality.

Today care is measured in carbon foot prints, local labor usage, black empowerment, and amounts of money donated to charity. None of these characteristics can ever make a good building without real care.

Real care cannot be quantified. Our inability to realize this has resulted in measuring it by its symptoms. Which is why we believe that an amount of money given to charity equals care. We have mutated what real care is in order to fit the glib and eccentric quantification based understanding that roots our society today.

It has become unfashionable to care. It is no longer expected of us. Instead we are expected to make not space, but objects which titillate and flatter the ego’s which commission them.

By: Taboka Mokobi

Taboka Mokobi — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:48:19 +0000

The one thing that further enriches the architecture of Philadelphia is the fact that some of the buildings mentioned date back more than a century and therefore present themselves to be read as a palimpsest giving the viewer an opportunity to gain some historical perspective on the modern condition.

By: Taboka Mokobi

Taboka Mokobi — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:46:50 +0000

As an architectural student I find it truly inspiring and almost impossible to qualify the joy I derive from seeing such writing on a piece of architecture by an individual who is not directly involved in the making of space and places. It takes a lot of time, effort and many sleepless nights behind a drawing board for an architect to produce good architecture and sometimes one wonders if it’s really worth it. In most cases good architecture is recognized by all but experienced by a few. Those that recognize architecture conceive it only as a visual art and the people that experience(deeply engaged) it understand that its true experiential means lies within a bodily feeling by means of which the architectonic shaping of spaces has an immediate effect on our emotions. Good architecture is like a good piece of music or a novel. It has a beginning and an end determined by its structure or composition. Just like the architecture in question there is a defined order to the sequence that is necessary to understand the architecture which creates a narrative space that proves that the productive experience of architecture doesn’t just happen within a building but needs to be organized as an unfolding experience much as the complexities of a novel are unfolded. Once one understands the concept of a narrative space it becomes easy to design magical spaces that are able to capture one’s attention and engage him in a sweet dream.