To be completely honest, I have no idea how to start a blog post, particularly the very first one of hopefully many. I searched the definition of “blog” on the dictionary, and this is what I found:
blog | bläɡ | noun
a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style. verb (blogs, blogging, blogged) [with object] write about (an event, situation, topic, etc.) in a blog: he blogged the Democratic and Republican national conventions as an independent.
How many Independents are there that blog on both the Democratic and Republican national conventions (presumably without bias)? I’d love to read that blog. Which brings up another random thought...what would a politically charged dictionary look like? Can dictionaries be totally free of all biases? That’s probably a discussion for another time.
I think this blog exists as an informal reflection on the contemporary and past architectural, building and design culture, mixed in sporadically with historical and religious references. It would probably have the feel akin to an open journal.
So perhaps it’s fitting to start journaling about the present and discover ties to the past and how it can also inform the future. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the connection between architectural history, historical buildings and its implication to a contemporary architectural and design career.
By the way, in case you are curious, here is the dictionary definition of “journal”:
journal | ˈjərnl | noun
1 a newspaper or magazine that deals with a particular subject or professional activity: medical journals | [in names] : the Wall Street Journal.
2 a daily record of news and events of a personal nature; a diary. • Nautical a logbook.
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One is always presented with multiple attitudes towards architectural history. It can be sentimalized (Neoclassicism / Preservationism), it can be ignored (Modernism), or it can be ridiculed (Postmodernism)...and that ridicule can also experience revival (Neo-Postmodernism).
As we live in what I believe to be an age where fast image culture, personal expression and #DIFTI reign supreme, the words of a relatively (compared to the avant-gardists of today) conservative architect named Rafael Moneo struck a nerve within me:
Experience is barely taken into account in the education of an architect. Furthermore, that which was circumstantial in modern architects has become the norm; architects do not accept the contents of experience and they reject introducing into their own works what other colleagues have previously achieved, seeking originality at any cost - originality for which society patently pays a high price. Note 1
Evidently, Moneo critiques the tendencies of a prominent design attitude present in architectural discourse, a design mindset that perhaps is viscerally championed by his fellow Pritzker laureates (Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry come to mind.)
An author writes of Moneo:
Moneo believes architects should have a deep knowledge of history, and this allows them to make use of solutions that have already been thought through and tested by their predecessors.
An examination of Rafael Moneo’s own buildings reveals numerous elements already ‘tested’ in the long history of architecture. Note 2
To be clear, Moneo is a creative and expressive individual. Not all that he does is a direct derivative of what’s been done before. Rather, what’s significant about Moneo is his sound acknowledgement of architectural history and buildings that inform him of adequate strategies to be utilized in light of a building and design problem. For him, building and architecture is not and should not be arbitrary...rather, those elements and design strategies that have been tested through time are the ones worthy of replication and re-adaptation. Thus, he argues, the need to have a solid grasp of architectural history and the development of a critical eye towards the built environment.
Precisely how Rafael Moneo “tests” is the prime focus of this reflection and writing, and there is no better way to understand Moneo’s writing than in parallel examination with his own architecture. Thus, I will look at two buildings, the Great Mosque of Cordoba (an ancient monument which Moneo writes extensively about) and the Museum of Roman Art at Merida (one of Moneo’s seminal pieces of work).
If you are unfamiliar with either (or both) pieces of work, here are some good primers:
Mosque of Cordoba:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque%E2%80%93Cathedral_of_C%C3%B3rdoba
Museum of Roman Art, Merida:
https://www.archdaily.com/625552/ad-classics-national-museum-of-roman-art-rafael-moneo
This examination will also include excerpts from two separate texts, both by Moneo. One text is an essay written by himself, “The Life of Buildings”, where he writes about the unearthing of formal principles of buildings, using the Mosque (Cordoba) as an example. Note 3. The other text is a description of the methodology and process used in designing the Museum of Roman Art (Merida) found in his own monograph, “Remarks on 21 Works”. Note 4.
Three major topics are explored between the two buildings: Construction, Spatial Definition, and Coexistence with a Historical Past. Excerpts pertaining to the Mosque of Cordoba will be followed by excerpts pertaining to the Museum of Roman Art at Merida, with emphasis on certain key phrases and words to highlight similarities and “tested” design attributes. Furthermore, relevant photos of the two spaces will be compared.
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Construction:
On Cordoba:
The reason why we talk about walls when describing the mosque is perhaps because these are identified, metaphorically, with aqueducts. So we see how, in the Mosque of Cordoba, a system of walls, that drains rainwater at the same time that it spans over the internal space, becomes an element of special interest as the walls accept, with naive literality, their condition as aqueducts.
On Merida:
...we decided to use a quasi-Roman construction method, applying techniques and procedures not unlike those of the builders who had worked on the site long before us.
The point of departure for the museum was a well known building procedure involving a system of parallel bearing walls that solved both the structural and drainage issues. This system was developed by the Romans with countless variations was later used as a model in both Muslim and Gothic architecture.
Top: Mosque of Cordoba (photo by author), Bottom: Museum of Roman Art, Merida (courtesy of Rafael Moneo)
Spatial Definition
On Cordoba:
“However, once we take into account the thickness of those parallel walls, then we can read the semicircular arches defined by them as a series of continuous vaults; a new direction is thus introduced, parallel to the qibla.”
On Merida:
...in the dialectic established between the transverse layout of the walls and the longitudinal sequence created by the voids produced by the arches, a space emerged to frame the fragments so carefully...The space is the result of digging, of hollowing out the static wall system with a series of voids that bring movement to the space.
This procedure created the perception of a virtual nave solely defined by the arches, since the structural elements that brace the walls - the concrete slabs - are formally separate from it. Therefore, the virtual nave emerges as an abstract, intangible space that is only shaped by the geometry of the arches...
Left: Mosque of Cordoba (photo by author), Right: Museum of Roman Art, Merida (courtesy of Rafael Moneo)
Coexistence with a Historical Past
On Cordoba:
We have thus reached a point in which it is possible to state that the formal principles of the Mosque of Cordoba were so clearly established from the beginning and were, in addition, so decisive, that the later extensions of the building did not lead to its radical transformations. The future life of a building is implied in the formal principles that are present in its origin, and this is why understanding these gives us clues for understanding the building’s history.”
On Merida:
...the new museum became the latest component in the building continuum on the site, the most recent episode in its history. The new museum was being treated as an instrument, as a “machine” - to quote the terminology used in the past...that enabled us to see all the layers, all the different Meridas contained in the site...highlight a Merida that was not only written memory, but quite the opposite; a buried presence with which the new construction would coexist.
Left: Mosque of Cordoba (photo by author), Right: Museum of Roman Art, Merida (courtesy of Rafael Moneo)
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The same exact study can be done on Moneo’s other projects, as he is known to have taken elements from Louis Kahn’s works and the Sir John Soane. Note 5. Reading further in depth into Moneo’s works, it is apparent that Moneo’s interpretation of the Mosque’s design strategies and mindset has also been applied to other Moneo’s own projects, particularly in his depiction of the design process of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Note 6.
Perhaps this methodology may appear a bit too constrictive, but it definitely gives reason to be much more thoughtful about the organization and experience of buildings through a thorough study of past architectural works. It is absurd to think that the creators of the Ferrari totally neglected the design of previous generations of racecars before them, or that the latest tech start-ups have no comprehensive understanding of the various establishments they are trying to disrupt.
Conversely, why must architectural history and the study of buildings past be relegated into an antiquated field in favor of formal experimentations, which are often driven by amoral technological advances and perhaps even anxieties of the expressive creativity experienced by other design fields?
Note 1: Gonzalez de Canales, F. Ray, N. (2015) Rafael Moneo: Building, Teaching, Writing. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 195.
Note 2: Ibid., p. 197.
Note 3: Ibid., p. 266-284.
Note 4: Moneo, R. (2010) Remarks on 21 Works. New York, NY: The Monacelli Press. p. 103-134.
Note 5: Gonzalez de Canales, Ray, Rafael Moneo: Building, Teaching, Writing, p. 198.
Note 6: Moneo, Remarks on 21 Works, p. 311-342.