and how to begin.
Anyway, here’s the hint/idea of what I am currently studying.
Like I said earlier, its hard to really define what it is actually.
Is it Architecture and Music? or Architecture through Music? or Architecture/Music
or is it just an approach or concept/idea?
For a start,have a look at this video.
METASTASIS (1953), Iannis Xenakis
Made by using UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu).
I’ll post more informative post soon!
-Minn
Green architecture. Most define it as building studies/designs that has as little impact as possible on earth. I’m making a wild guess that it’s a relatively new term, as compared to Modern, Post modern, etc.
It’s not easy to really define green architecture, don’t you think?
Asking and reading about it might leave you even more clueless (??!!) coz there are so many different definitions to it. However, you might want to argue when I say, everyone has their own way of interpreting green architecture. What can you conclude?
Sometimes it seems like building green is about taking as much time as possible to familiarize with site context (architecture school jargon hehehe). Sometimes it takes everyone involved to do it. End users should take their time to consider the brief, even read up about what’s harmful to the environment. Architects and engineers might want to really sit down and discuss, even at initial design stage. Architects come up with passive energy (whats that word), M+E take the challenge of designing services (The vein + life of a building) as effiecient as possible. People in general, as building end users (The very element that breathes life into a building) start loving trees and hating littering. OK it’s more than that..
James Wines listed in his book ‘Green Architecture’ (LOVE THAT BOOK!!!) a few projects/studies/buildings that ‘has the ritual vision of architecture as an extension of landscape’. I’ll extract two of them, one is The Pit, by Peter Noever and the other is ACROS building by Emilio Embasz.
The former which is sited in Britenbrunn, Austria is a complex (of dwelling?) embedded in the ground, comletely covered in ‘greenies’ (earth berms) that, with wing-like concrete slab, the project appeared to be what James Wines called ‘the contemporary version of a Neolithic earth shrine’.
(Photos scanned from Green Architecture by James Wine.Hehe, ok, they’re badly scanned. )
The latter, sited in Fukuoka, Japan, is a center for international culture and information. The whole of front facade is terraced to create a set of giant steps of vegetation. James Wines called this feature ‘as an extention of a series of public gardens that service the surrounding complex of building’. Nice.
Anyway,..
Personally the task of building green is NOT my favourite design excercise! Many many projects done and my design is anything BUT green (let alone sustainable.. SOB SOB!) It’s really the draggiest task to fulfill, I always end up discarding all the green ‘properties’ in my final proposals.
The thought is one thing. Executing is a WHOLE-DIFFERENT-STORY. ARGH!
So, what’s your (personal) definition of green architecture?
keen to know
*cincau
Sri Maha Mariamman temple: the raja gopuram
The Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Jln. Tun H. S. Lee, Chinatown KL was a family private shrine turned public temple. Its chief beneficiary in the 19th century was Thamboosamy Pillai, which explains why the temple is unusually well-endowed as its own property and other assets worth millions of ringgit (C. Jeshurun, 2004). Thamboosamy Pillai built a private shrine for his personal religious devotions, but later on the temple, moved to the present site and upgraded, was open to public.
I’m personally drawn to the five-tiered raja gopuram. After visits to the temple I’ve produced sketches, identified the statues that the stapathi (architect+sculptor) installed on each tier. Basically, the gopuram is said to symbolise the ladder, as devotees make their ways, upon seeing sacred images, to each level of consciousness and finally to the zenith that is the region of deities.
This raja gopuram belonging to Sri Maha Mariamman temple expresses more of the structure and elements such as the pilasters, entablatures, little pavilions, ‘salai’ and ‘jala’, rather than sculptural dominance (like raja gopuram of Sri Kandaswamy temple, Brickfields). One might observe that this expression is practiced back in India such as raja gopurams in Kanchipuram, Srirangam, and Tiruvannamalai (T.V. Mahalingam, 1968).
Sketch of the raja gopuram: Glimpse of the Garbha Graham (main shrine) within
There is a courtyard defined in between of the complex of prakaram (skin of temple, outer wall) and the garbha graham (main shrine). It is flooded with sun light. When standing on the outside the glare shields the garbha graham of Mariamman from view. This effect is moderate as a snapana mandapam containting a flagstaff, a deity’s vehicle and a sacrificial altar, are roofed togther with the garbha graham under a pavilion. This pavilion is shaded from the sun, so from outside devotees get a vague glimpse of the garbha graham.
So, if you have time, you might count and see that this raja gopuram has five tiers, which does not include the main gateway that devotees can physically walk through. Each tier has little windows called ‘jala’ at its center, flanked with door guardians. The door guardians on this raja gopuram are female, and they are called ‘dvarapalikas’. These ‘jalas’ are psychological doorways to devotees states of minds, depending on which tier each ‘jala’ belong to. Of course, the higher the tier, the closer it is to the Deity.
Dvarapalikas, female ‘door guardians’ flank windows called ‘jala’ piercing the first tier. As tiers recede in size, the size of the window at the centre also recedes, along with the dvarapalikas, the little pavilions ‘salai’, the size of folk deities, etc.
The modern Dravidian order is applied on the raja gopuram’s façade. On the gateway level itself one might see the order of pedestal-pilasters-entablature repeated twice. About as high as the pilasters, dancing female figures in different colored saris seem like supporting the entablature while striking a pose. These figures might remind you of the sculptural female figures taking the place of the columns found on the Caryatids Porch, Erechtheion. The entablature that is metaphorically balanced above the dancing maidens, which are called ‘apsaras’, is studded with ornaments called kudus.
These are probably ‘apsaras’, dancers in heaven
A variety of kudus found on the raja gopuram
The ornamental kudus found on the raja gopuram are modern and some are not even ornate. These are a variety of kudus which repeats all over the raja gopuram with different sizes and colors. One thing’s for certain is that these kudus usually stud each tier’s entablature, like some sort of a finial ornamentation.
Mariamman nestled under little pavlions called ‘salai’. The folk deities above the three statues are playing musical instruments
These folk deities are secondary deities called Yakshi and Yaksha.
The barrel roof gables have drop like forms, like an orb rising from the ocean, but part of it still lying hidden beyond the horizon. This shows that water element is present in the composition of sculpture and ornaments.
The location of Sri Maha Mariamman temple on Jalan Tun H. S. Lee might provoke a thought if the temple’s relocation from its original site would prove that the temple’s freedom in addressing the site restricted. I’ve done a sketch showing shadow casting if the temple stands alone. In reality multiple storey buildings that surround all sides of the temple would dampen the daylighting effect intended for the main axis of the temple as delineated in the sketch.
Sri Maha Mariamman temple started with a devotee’s commitment to a deity, which evolved with the devotee’s constant prayers, his pride and his wealth. When the board of trustees took the responsibility of running the temple, countless contributions have been made to the Hindu society. Sri Maha Mariamman temple seasoned with the sweat of Mariamman’s devotees, an example of how architecture reflects the people it contains.
*More to come: Sri Kandaswamy temple’s raja gopuram ~!
RAJA GOPURAM : SRI KANDASWAMY TEMPLE, BRICKFIELDS, KUALA LUMPUR
It is said that the gopuram is one element in Hindu temple architecture that sets the Dravidian style apart from that of Northern (East and West) style. The gopuram acts like a landmark for the whole establishment of a temple. Like a signboard it tells to which deity a temple is dedicated, with the help of sculptures and ornaments. It can be seen from far which draws devotees towards the house of God within. Its verticality and pyramidal structure gives an impression of an ideal world above, the abode of ‘God’.
The general form outlining the raja gopuram of Sri Kandaswamy temple is a mass laden with sculptures. The little pavilions ‘salai’ and pierced windows ‘jala’ are obstructed and are hardly significant. This raja gopuram expresses the stories told by the sculptures rather that the structure. Tin Ching Wei 1998,1999 (University Malaya) recorded in his dissertation that the stories told of the deity Murugan are from the Purana texts. These Puranic depictions are also found in nooks and crannies of Palani Murugan temple, Palani, India
A modernist composer, musical theoretician, and architect
- Iannis Xenakis
