IV. Scene of Maturity

revised on 2010.10.16 IV. Scene of maturity Chapter IV IV- 1 8. Soaring into chaos (1) Ellipse and chaos formation of neo-baroque The aim of post-modernism was to first raise objection against the monistic system brought about by modern rationalism. This negative dialectic produced many breaks and fractures. The monistic system first became dualistic and then pluralistic. New problems were brought in by this process, and opposing paths led to either expanding this pluralistic set of styles into chaos or reintegrating them into some new method. The logic of style proceeded in this way. This problem prompted the mannerism of the 16th century and was a theme that occurred during the downfall of the ideal of the monistic formal order such as the central-plan or proportions of the renaissance. Michelangelo placed a semi-circular dome on the square plan of the Medici chapel showing the posture to inherit the high renaissance in the early half of the 16th century, and then he drew an elliptical shape in the stone paving in the Piazza del Campidoglio showing the posture to move to mannerism in the middle of the 16th century. This was used as a trick that created a distortion in the field of view by matching the trapezoidal square with the aim of creating the illusionary effect of a perspective drawing method. After this, elliptical shapes became extremely popular, such as in Piazza San Pietro in the Vatican designed by Bernini in the middle of the 17th century, and elliptical shapes became a key symbol of baroque style. Arata Isozaki referred to and turned over this ellipse on the Piazza del Campidoglio in the courtyard of the “Tsukuba Center Building” as if to present a doubled method of mannerism. Although it seemed not to add intention to attach a role concerning the development of style carried by the Piazza del Campidoglio itself, there was a boom in the use of elliptical shapes after this through the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in Japan. This was not a simple fad but can be said to have symbolized the graduation of the awareness of the age from post-modern mannerism migrating toward a baroque-ish stream of thought. The “ Unoki Elementary School” (1988) of Kiko Mozuna formed an elliptical structure surrounding an elliptical courtyard as if reviving mysticism designs of the baroque church and symbolized the universe (Fig. IV-1). Toyo Ito used the ellipse in the “Tower of Wind” in Yokohama, and inserted in the competition entry for “Bibliothèque nationale de France” (1989) in Paris two elliptical shapes as if floating within a lattice-shaped plan with an orderly barcode style (Fig. IV-2). The architects group Coelacanth and associates added an elliptical shape protruding from orthogonal coordinates in “Utase Elementary School” (1995) in Japan. Rem Koolhaas gathered the main conference facilities of “Congrexpo” (1994) into a single large elliptical shape in the project for Euralille. Although Isozaki himself created the overall silhouette of the “Nara City Hall” (1992 competition) using a long, thin elliptical shape and also used ellipses in other works, the manneristic criticism was going to fade away and the feeling of the existence of the elliptical shape itself was emphasized just as in baroque age. The elliptical shapes gradually developed Chapter IV IV- 2 into solidified objects and became a symbol of the age despite the difficulty of constructing walls. In the “Color of the Crystal” (1987) of Masaharu Takasaki, an egg shape appears in the corner of a space that expands and sways. A variety of concrete shapes gathered around the egg shape then appeared in the “Tamana City Observatory Museum” (1992), and the flow of power began to be visible on the surface (Fig. IV-3). This was not already the critical spirit of mannerism but exhibited the outpouring of the energy of baroque. In the “Naka-no-shima Project “in Osaka (in the 1980s) by Ando Tadao, the insertion of a large egg-shaped hall carved out of the interior of the former city hall of historicism architecture was proposed. Why was this flood of elliptical shapes seen particularly in Japan? Although this is probably connected to the rapid pace of the construction works in Japan, it may also be because the Japanese architectural design world is more sensitive to the stylization of shape compared to other developed countries and had strong inclination to be influenced by that. The worldwide neo-baroque trend can be said to have been superficially understood in Japan where it became a fashion. So, where can we find the extent and main themes of the neo-baroque style of the 20th century? Although elliptical shapes were initially deformed circles, their transformation into even more complex shapes continued, making it easy to wrap diverse shapes using the efficiency of this deformation. This bore the role of an integration of the group of isolated shapes which is inclined to fall into chaos. If seen from the opposite viewpoint, it is said that the architectural shapes each began to have individual power and fall into mutual conflicts forming the tendency to the chaos. Zaha Hadid proposed a new method of trompe l'oeil based on the perspective drawing method that expressed unique distorted spaces (Fig. IV-4). This was a dramatic expression drawn as a flowing space that had an overly exaggerated feeling of depth and twisting space. This neo- expressionist distortion incorporated a flowing energy rather than a clear spatial system. The flow of power began to be created in the expression of manneristic exaggeration and deviance. The jagged style that Daniel Libeskind demonstrated in the “Jewish Museum” in Berlin (1989 competition) is a form designed after understanding fully the meaning that the form has power (Fig. IV-5). The kind of inevitability that this jagged shape has cannot be understood. The reason is that it was the crystallization of the pure formal aspiration as the result of rejecting regular spatial order and further advancing the offsetting of axes. The space created internally enforced a large amount of unexpectedness brought about by offset axes and without any logic or consistency. In the interior of late baroque churches, bent and cut-up entablature can be seen as if vanishing its original shape, and in this case the broken shapes were expanded to the scale of a building. Since the pictorial book of “ Micromegas", Libeskind revived the shape motif of Constructivism of the 1920s, and progressed to more complex structures attempting to draw wriggles as if life is created from a pile of refuse. The results of this study of shape are displayed in the “Jewish Museum,” and the post-moder crushed shapes began to be infused with a new power. Chapter IV IV- 3 Coop Himmelb(l)au expressed motion like crawling insects by remodeling the rooftops on the historical town streets of Vienna using a complex structural framework and glass (Fig. IV-6). The structural elements have been put together freely, at worst like a garbage collector of skeletal elements. It has a protruding forward edge as if displaying a yearning for the freedom of romanticism. However, it is not merely eccentric and displays a collectivity as if the life force inside it were about to burst out. As can be seen in the case of Libeskind, the group of elements mutually cooperate and begin to hold power greater than a simple collection of matter. On the other hand, in Vienna, which gave birth to the mannerist and picturesque emotions of Hollein, there was the baroque emotion of Günther Domenig. He had created the curving design of the “Zentralsparkasse Bank” (1979) that was like a can that had been torn open, and in the “Steinhaus” in Steindorf (1986), he combined a complex set of seemingly random solid elements to create a structure like a bird’s nest. He also began to destroy shapes that had order with all of his strength and reached the stage of expressing a collision with a flow of power bursting out from the inside. Frank Gehry who had started from partial destruction of existing building shapes also surpassed post-modern criticism and dualism and shifted from focusing on the main shape that was destroyed to focusing on the complex shape of the destroyer. In the “Vitra Design Museum ” (1989), the modern shape that should have been destroyed had already disappeared, and a wriggling accumulation remained as if individual distorted shapes had collided. This created the feeling of the motion of great power like an explosion (Fig. IV-7). The shape has no place to relax and seems to be heading toward chaos. This was a replacement for the valiantly complex set of decorations of the neo-baroque period that appeared at the end of the 19th century, and here the 20th century basic elements were transfigured, turning the structure overall into a decoration of complex shapes. In this way, the neo-mannerism of post-modernism turned into a neo-baroque stage. The chaotic shape itself became its own purpose, and all that stimulate the sensibility which have been set free by post-modernism are further accumulated into the figure of building. The neo-baroque of the late 19th century left behind monuments that were luxurious yet overpoweringly over-decorated like the Opéra de Paris, the Palais de Justice in Brussels, and the Berlin Cathedral. These had the mission of decorating the capital in an age of imperialism and came to symbolize the wealth of the nation. The social background of the 20th century neo- baroque was completely different, and through globalization, the themes of the pride of the nation, etc.

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