Architecture, Nostalgia and Traces

 

The vicissitudes and pathos of the build environment are chronicled by traces, - remnants incised by time-honored spatial efficacy and material tenacity.

This host of geometric traces strewn along our urban landscape are suffused with insight and adorned by nostalgia.       

 

 

 

Often, they seem effaced by their disassembled past, yet, in truth, they are beholden to this subtractive precept for their significance as a mnemonic devices and unlikely ornament.

Consequently, the artless embellishment attains, paradoxically, an enviable standing.

A distinction the architectural form aspires to, but, can never entirely inhabit – the attribute of being ‘art for art’s sake.’   

 

Because unrestrained by the pragmatic convention of architecture, traces skillfully engender a perceptual consciousness for the discerning passerby. They formulate a narrative in which the viewer posits, deconstructs, and assembles, the critical association between culture and its architectural devices.  Their prosaic outlines serving as the building block of idealized precedents, a time when neighborly voices exchanged pleasantries before exalted façades, and affable fenestrations were arranged along an unblemished axis of conceit, just prior to becoming the progeny of erasure, and an enduring witness, so gallantly positioned for the vanity of nothingness.

 

 

 

 

Relics of the Pedestrian Age

 

In an era when an ordinary stroll down main street meant subjecting your footwear to some of the most distasteful aspects of city living, these metal contraptions provided a physical, and perhaps psychological means to eliminate the aberrant socio-natural environments outdoors, from the pulchritude and civility occurring indoors. Considering their practical application boot-scrapers were often adorned with quaint motifs inspired by flora or fauna. Along some neighborhoods they are matching, and unifying element of the streetscape, comparable to stoops, doors, planting and awnings.

 

Whereas some traditions encourage removal of ones footwear altogether - in order minimize the transgressive elements of the sullied outdoors, 19^th century urbanites in the west opted for a faster, socially acceptable alternative.

  

 

 

The most elaborate ‘scrapers’ closely match the brazenness of the building’s façade and address.

Paradoxically, it was the conquest of the urban landscape by the motor vehicle, which prompted improvement to city streets and boulevards. Ultimately, the humble boot-scaper became an anachronistic artifact of the cityscapes. 

What We Can Learn About Walkability From Looking at Pictures

What We Can Learn About Walkability From Looking at Pictures

In Defense of Ornament

“We arrange around us material forms which communicate to us what we need - but are at constant risk of forgetting we need... " Alain de Botton, The architecture of Happiness.  

Acute ornamental deficiency

If only the jetpack commuter of the 21^st century were a stunning reality today, then indeed, _Ornament and craft in our surroundings could be regard with derision.

Yet, here we are - 2013, and we’re still confined to a sluggish planar existence of sidewalks and streets. Fortunately, with increased appreciation by designers and planners that a livable city is comprised of suitable, dignified and pleasing pedestrian realms, it’s , therefore fiting at this juncture to reconsider the visual austerity and monotony, which mid-century architecture enfolded considerable portion of our pedestrian sphere.  Adage such as; Less is More and Ornament is Crime, inspired a reductive, even dehumanizing aesthetic which came to dominate the “modernized” quarters of cities. To some extent, these conditions were and remain, largely, a response to the preeminence of private automobiles and the difficulties of storing so much steel and rubber; nonetheless, a renaissance of walkable cities should herald a responsive architectonics suited to a bipedal creature which posssesses an inherent penchant for stimulating environments.  

Even before permanent settlements or the concept of a built environment, there’s been a longing to replicate aspects of the natural or dream worlds in our surroundings.

Minimalism is a lofty objective for some design professionals. However, this principle seems incongruent with human nature. Almost instinctively youngsters eschew coloring books and take their creative expression to the alluring qualities of a blank wall.   

Significant ornamentation (mosque) - Not even divine mandates restricting the use of some imagery restrained human’s fanciful imagination. Manmade structure seem destined to approximate the richness and complexity of the natural world. 

Alongside the Classical Orders, architectural aesthetics have made extensive use of a variety of flora and fauna motifs.

No funtional application - a diminutive scroll pattern for the amusement of the keen passersby

Vandalism or art?

Certainly no consensus for the foreseeable future, nevertheless, today’s graffiti aesthetic owes its appeal, in large part, to urban decay and to the purveyors of mediocrity as novel design.