ARCHITECTURE OF THE ENMESHED CULTURE

The recent trends of architecture demonstrates the pugnacious departure from disciplined modernism. The traditional notion of creativity is slowly replaced by innovation in technological inputs and tools that generate the forms rather than tools that aids the process of generating one. The sinuous forms, non-structured or non euclidean geometry are encapsulating minds and thoughts into unidirectional understanding of architecture as form making process. Having said that the argument of Aesthetic or delight is not only re-created but formally put in to the realm of hedonism. The architecture has never been so polemic at any stage of its evolution. The only reliable source of justification of  the emergence of such architecture is the way cultural ingredient that are induced universally, uniformly and unequivocally across the globe through in-numerous mediums amounting into forced reality.

The sterile or dogmatic ideas are slowly giving away to kinetic notion of architecture, the purity is giving away to meandering chaos, the sacred is becoming blur and indulgence is emergence reality. The everywhere architecture of modernist manifesto is replace by anything architecture. 

ARTHUR ERICKSON: A CANADIAN MODERNIST

Arthur Erickson was first generation of Canadian Modernist Architect. His role in shaping modern ethos in architecture and planning domain is noteworthy. His practice involved varied kind of scale and types of building, strongly embedded into modernity. In principle his design showed the way that context is given condition and modernity has to be dealt with. It means simply that how modernity has to be appropriated in a given context. Two building that he designed at UBC campus and Downtown Vancouver is a significant example of architecture of the city. 

The public building (Law and Court Building) in downtown, Vancouver is an example of how modernity has to be dealt with civic architecture, as very few modernist could dealt with architecture of public scale. The building as series of decks/ podiums cascading down towards the large public plaza almost makes building move away to create perceptually larger space, rather than building occupying the space. The large atrium of the building is covered with large span structure and forms the facade of the building. On one side building defines the street edge while other side it responds to the public plaza. It is one of the few public modern architecture that has some urban clarity. 

The museum of anthropology is perhaps finest of all the building that he has designed. It conceptualized system of series of beams at various level on a single spaces to allow skylights, while position of columns to divide the spaces with visual continuity of the space. The U shaped beams are principal morphology of building facade. The entire building appears to have mirrored the landscape and maintaining the human scale.

Both the buildings are finished with stucco plaster from outside while inside is left exposed concrete. The stucco weathers and leaving its traces of time and architecture oscillates between extremities of embededness and futurism. 

QUOTES BY ARTHUR ERICKSON

Space has always been the spiritual dimension of architecture. It is not the physical statement of the structure so much as what it contains that moves us.

Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart.

Rationalism is the enemy of art, though necessary as a basis for architecture.

Photographs: copyright of Manoj Parmar Architects