“Seven lamp of architecture “,the most enduring gift that we’ve got from our forefather John Ruskin, and the particular  “Lamp of Truth “ chapter express Ruskin's demand of morality in architecture and honesty in craft. “We may not to be able to command good, or beautiful, or inventive, architecture; but we can command an honest architecture…” Three main truth as Ruskin emphasised in his text actually resonates with me, which are structural truth, surface truth and operative truth.

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Relates back to our title of the day, what is the role of material honesty and deception in architecture nowadays? Material honesty and expression in architecture has been a point of discussion for over 100 years, but today, the topic of material honesty has become more complicated as design and construction industries have become more advanced.

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 “The building is exactly what we feel and touch, exactly what we feel beneath our feet: a cast concrete, stony body.” P. Zumthor.

Firstly, honesty in expression of building structure. A design should reflects the materials that it is made of. This is why some building nowadays seems to be so skeletal and minimal in the way that its structure is totally expose to the users rather than hidden away. These good “bones” of building reflects materials honesty which it could withstand the test of time.

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Besides, I would like to relate honesty to the designers and developers themselves because the honesty in themselves actually can draw the architecture to vary way. As we could see nowadays, some developers despise commercial honesty and morality to make as much profit as they can. Thus, many events and man-made calamities happened just because of their dishonesty in making building.

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On the other hand, we shall also discuss about the role of deception in contemporary architecture. There are examples actually made our task of expressing materials quality become challenging when new materials such as ceramic are developed into complex materials which for decoration purpose meanwhile as performative aspects to build building exteriors and interiors. These surface can perform vary functions therefore I would rather take it as an importance of deceptive elements in architecture today.

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To end with, honesty in architecture has to do with truth because both of them go along together. No legacy is as rich as honesty. Architecture will always response to world in different ways. As the world and technology changed rapidly, material honesty is the only way to last longevity & durability. I believed that working with honest materials is exhilarating and there is nothing worse than design in dishonesty. Therefore, it’s a crucial challenge for architects nowadays to actually expose true materials and striped away the deceptive element in their design and present architecture in honest way.

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