Context | Architecture
Context has a very important role to play in the field of architecture. The relationship between architecture and context has much variety and we can thus mention different approaches. Context is made up of many components. Some approaches aim to highlight the characteristics of the contextual components. Others ignore or exhibit the components in a superficial manner. From these differing attitudes, we able to see the maturing development of contextual design attitudes within the architectural field. The fact that context is found in the design of different components, that it gives direction to design and that it plays an important role in the formation of architecture is not a novel concept. There has been both conscious and subconscious awareness and experimentation of this even in architectural history and before the architectural profession became institutionalised. In this regard, architecture has been inevitably intertwined with contextual thinking.
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Falling Water / Frank Lyord Wright
It is more possible to see Wrights high-level contextual relations in his work where the conditions are brought about by the context. Wright’s Falling Water is a great example to highlight organic architecture within a natural context and to show the modern and local perspectives of the organic architect. Made with natural materials it is economic and is thus a preferred choice. Wood and stone are generally used throughout the building. Wright has shown, as he does with much of his work, that architecture can go more further than being an individual “object”.
Interior arrangement of building is placed according to the inner core which is the stone wall growing out of the site, and therefore, the building is shaped according to the main organic concept. From this organic fusion, Wright designed a series of cantilevered overlapping terraces playfully with the pure geometrical shapes and white tones of the international style. The water fall house seems weightless over the waterfall and at complete harmony with the nature. Use of effective materials, topographies, climatic factors towards mass and spacial organisation allows for organic architectur’s attainment of a relationship between the building and the environment within which it is found and attainment of unity with its surroundings.
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Some technological advancements have had a positive effect on design related to the context. Examples include the heating and cooling proble’s cessation through industrial development, the establishment of flowing spacial interior organisations and inside-outside relations with re-materialisation of interior and externally placed “walls” through transparent surfaces. An underlying reason for the view that spaces were becoming more whole and complementary, was the new dialogue with the surroundings through the removal of the “wall” and the establishment of even more transparency. The developments in the technological sphere have had a positive effect on the spaces and its relation to its context.
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Contemporary architecture with starchitects (BIG, Zaha Hadid,MAD,etc), they reject architectural relationship with context, finding it difficult and limiting by saying "Why should I conform? In other words, the building is not harmonious within its context but instead focuses individually to itself and has the pretence of standing alone.We can see that the individual modernist buildings and their effort to stand out as a design product began to erode the city, its coverage, its history and meaning.
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House 8 / BIG
Rather than a traditional block, the 8 House stacks all ingredients of a lively urban neighborhood into horizontal layers of typologies connected by a continuous promenade and cycling path up to the 10th floor creating a three-dimensional urban neighborhood where suburban life merges with the energy of a city, where business and housing co-exist.
In Bjarke Ingel's position deconstructivist attitude is presented rejecting urban context and focusing on the buildings as an object. His approach, contrasting radically with a traditional urban fabric, cannot join the context and the object becomes more important than the City. Deconstructivist architecture is generally of an unusual scale; invoking volume and high technological imagery which decompose it with its surroundings. In addition to this individualism, one of the main problems is the fact that they do not „belong‟ to the place in which they are found. Reflection of human values and history are not involved in architectural design. It did not take long for this architectural style to become popular; and it soon became the cause of the branding of architecture and architectural language. Appealing to popular style in a short period of time, there was a gradual increase of buildings that contrasted with city unity; and soon the areas took on the imagery of the contemporary cities.
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I will end up with the quotes of these both gentlemen. Kahn’s quote “what does the building want to be? indicates that there may be different preferences according to the scale of the architectural context. Rem Kookhas wrote in exasperation, “ But can such a container still have a relationship with the city? Should it? Or is ‘fuck context ‘ becoming the theme?”