The wall is a line on the plan.
It is a primordial, inevitable and necessary architectural element in our environment.
Its omnipresence makes it easy to be ignored and taken for granted.
The wall can be brutal too.
History of mankind has demonstrated its ultimate role.
Meaning of the wall could be: enclosure, division, separation, isolation, framing, protection, seclusion, display, provocation, support, connection, mystification (of the other side), boundary, mediation, etc.
It separates this and that, here and there, us and them. It excludes the ‘misfits’, the ‘unsuitable’, the ‘lunatics’, and the ‘others’.
While trying to induce meanings of the wall, we shall seek inversion of its power and give the meanings a twist. Ultimately we shall be able to arrive on ‘the other side’ and to be able to understand different sides.Architecture is, as Elia Zenghelis suggests, a medium through which to be critical. To understand the problem, horror as well as beauty of wall is to begin to understand the power of architecture. Next time you draw a line, or design a wall, be conscious of your power.
Shiuan-Wen Chu , 2006, Rotterdam
No comments:
Post a Comment