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It had been a
relieve to strip buildings of their in the end meaningless ornamentation,
but the total lack of it made the public very uneasy in a need for
meaningful details structured like a language.
People often add semantic elements to improve the
relation with their environment. This sometimes culminates in fantastic
results such as Sam Rodia’s Watts Towers in Los Angeles.
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| Watts Towers, LA. |
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Demolition of Nieuwmarkt
houses,'74. |
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More than stripping of the ornamentation of
buildings, also, as a side effect of modernization, complete city quarters or
village areas were erased to become replaced by large scale buildings. Such neighborhoods
were regarded as replaceable objects, not to be living organisms. As a result riots became
a part of the building process like in the Nieuwmarkt area of Amsterdam.
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as life is a learning process awareness grew and appreciation for
beautiful places already existing. As much as possible houses became
remodeled on an individual basis and special care was provided for the
maintenance of monuments. In this respect modern products lack this extra
care and attention. This way not only the architectural and urban language
survived, but with it the neighborhood as a living entity. |
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| 17th century houses at
Bloemgracht, Amsterdam. |
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Side effect: the Homeless. Thompson Square squad,
NY '90.
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Exemplary
modern neighborhoods had to be broken down for the opposite reason being
the lack of social structure. Extreme monotonous and large-scale modern
neighborhoods impoverished and had to be blown up. The demolition of the
Pruitt-Igoe housing in St. Louis in 1972 marked the decline and ending of
Modern Architecture, such writes Charles Jencks in his Postmodern
Architecture. But in another edition he had to admit there is such
thing as Late-Modern Architecture. Projects always larger in scale
that replace old townscapes or valuable landscape areas. |
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The main purpose of
a building or a house is to create an optimal interior climate for its
inhabitants. It cannot be denied, that improving health conditions was an
item of attention for the modern world.
One side effect of Modern Building however is what results in so-called
'sick buildings' through an accumulation of unhealthy materials and
installations.
We communal try to ignore what our modern lifestyle
causes. And more than that our Modern Lifestyle threatens the delicately
balanced ecologies around the globe or destroys them. In our languages we
speak in a derogative fashion of the “hut” of the “primitive”
which may be a perfectly working house. If we don’t respect it than
authenticity maybe lost forever and without it our environments will not
sustain.
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| Townscape of
Sanga, Mali Africa, that inspired Van Eijck to create his structural
architecture. |
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