Moore, Bernini and the BIG interiority.
"I really like reading, literature, and books. Also, listening to music, going to concerts, ballet, painting exhibitions, going to the movies ... But in the end they are all elements of the same family as architecture. They are activities related to creativity where everything has to do. And there are influences, influences that are also reciprocal". (1)
Perhaps one of the most important sculptors of the twentieth century was Henry Moore (1898-1986). He reflected and rehearsed works that have been characterized as being thematic. The same theme repeated and repeated like an obsession; being his last product, not the simple addition or the synthesis. The consistent search for artistic expression, the emotion for the detail itself. Demonstrating his dignity as an artist, his dedication to work, honesty and empathy with the other. In addition to already classic themes of, “The Family", “Mother and Son", the “Reclined Figure", "The Sheep”, he also devoted special attention to the anatomy of the hands. Often, his own hands. A special emphasis is observed in this subject since hands can express numerous emotions and conditions such as friendship, compassion, and love. But adding a time component, are they young or adult hands? The analysis of the moment could lead us to believe that they are about to come together or to separate. Are they the hands of a single person or are they the hands of two people? Do they show fatigue and age or youth and vitality? Thinking from an Architectural perspective, it is also intriguing to understand the space between them and the limits they determine. In other words, there is something between them that cannot be touched; that is not empty, that is invisible, that may not be appropriate but defined only by its edges and by the spatiality they express.
(2)
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) also dedicated several of his works to the study of hands. Those of the Bourgeois of Calais, for example, are exaggeratedly large in relation to the bodies they are attached too. Their position expresses the attempt to understand the inexplicable. For example, the hands in The Thinker: the right elbow rests on the left leg to hold a bent hand about to break under the chin. The Pianist Hand that captures a moment of transition in traveling along the keyboard. The hands of the Cathedral, the most exquisite and ethereal of all, these two hands are about to intertwine or about to separate delicately and passionately and subtlety without wanting to undo what has been done without wanting to disfigure what is about to come together or what is being separated.
(3)All of these references emphasized the importance of gesture and the understanding of expression within any piece of art.
Important gestures have characterized great works in the history of Architecture. St. Peter's Square in Vatican City (Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1598-1680) makes the gesture of embracing the community. With a simple and forceful limit of columns. Simply looking at it, you can see the arms of the church surrounding the community. From inside the square in the focal centers of the ellipse, it can be understood that this edge moves in time and follows the visitor, showing him again and again that those arms accompany him and that he is not alone in his journey. This expression is where architecture plays a leading role. Serving the interests of the community, being an instrument of the gesture towards it. All its elements are directed to provide limits, to generate that interiority abroad, providing the walker with the containment that he does not find outside.
Both the hands of H. Moore, as well as those of A. Rodin and Bernini's colonnade in San Pedro provide the necessary elements to generate an interiority and containment with architectural elements or sculptural resources.
Tension: what else can be said about the Tower of Pizza? Physically it is known that its center of gravity when falling into its base is what keeps its integrity standing. That is the technique, constructible, the forms, but the tension it generates in its surroundings. The sensation that the tower will fatally fall is undeniable. That is what generates the attractiveness. This tension is what it produces in the observer.
Few works in the world generate this tension, however daring they may seem. Perhaps many buildings defy gravity, with more eloquence; but the reference, debatable or not, will be the famous, inclined and always about to fall, Tower of Pizza.
With these components or ingredients of tension and expression, the 'Bjark Ingels Group' affectionately called BIG presents their newest building in NYC. The complex having unique characteristics is being built next to the High Line. Joining Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and many other notable architects. Bjark Ingles' building rises in the form of two buildings that are exquisitely related. Between them, there is tension in the same way as Moore's or Rodin's earlier mentioned hands. Individually they would simply be an inclined building but, when they are related, they define each other; they cannot cease
to exist without each other, and by interlacing the space between them they express this spatial interiority as delicate as intangible. The towers are inclined and at the same time, they turn on their center of gravity; There is a lot of tension in its movement, being surrounded by vertical references that contrast sharply in the world where the vertical is the logic currency.
The project is being programmed as a hotel and residences in a privileged location with great connections to the tourist circuits. Very close to the proposed cultural attraction of The Shed (Diller-Scofidio-Renfro) and all the convocation of the elevated park (High Line) and its connections with the exhibition center (Javits Center) and the Meatpacking District. In this sense, once again the High Line is positioned as the axis of so many significant works that give the area such a particular architectural interest. It is worth thinking of the park as an organizer of all these expressions that in a short time have completely revitalized an area that no more than fifteen years ago was, literally marked by abandonment and neglect.
The towers of 26 and 36 stories, they have 4 floors where gardens connect the towers. These amenities are the incentives to increase the value of the property thus justifying the price. (if its location were not enough). The residences have some duplex units. The exterior finishes are in sealed travertine and very thin profile windows.
“Every time we face a building, we have a responsibility to make our dreams come true in that small part of the world. If we create something we want, we are on the winning side of the situation”(4)
In return for the high price the client pays for the unit, an apartment is received where (supposedly) all the senses are highlighted, where it is possible (as Bjarke says in his video) to do something similar to the dream world in architecture.
Art is not separated from our discipline, is all related and interconnected, the icons of the are out there and we need to apply our judgment to increase our perception and through it enjoying our life better. We don’t know if Bjarke Ingels thought about this when the building was on the boards, it certainly doesn’t matter because once the building is part of the sky-line our interpretation that makes that relationship more enjoyable.
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(1) From interview to Álvaro Siza Vieira in Jot Down magazine see:
Your translation is "Luggage transport company, Tabuk"
ReplyDeleteThank you any way
Adrian