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Architecture Is Dead: a Renewed Organic Aesthetic for Ecological Design

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Architecture Is Dead: a Renewed Organic Aesthetic for Ecological Design ARCHITECTURE IS DEAD 45 Architecture Is Dead: A Renewed Organic Aesthetic for Ecological Design LEONARD DAISUKE YUI University of Oregon “There, in the physical realm of the built world, we The modern use of organic metaphors, which the seem to be presented with dramatic proof… that lan- architectural historian Mari Havattum refers to as, guage, far from being the servant of man, is all too often his master.” Kenneth Frampton “one of the most commonly used metaphors in the history of modern architecture,” continues to im- LIVING AND DEAD METAPHORS ply the preference for the quality of life and I will therefore refer to this conditional use as a living An organic metaphor in ecological design has a metaphor. It will also help to delineate an alterna- need to standout as offering something new in or- tive construct3 I will make in a moment. der to be an effective and a provocative metaphor. It must address the historical organic emergence,1 The case for an alternative begins with an intui- its transition to a modern machine aesthetic and tive question about whether a building as a living then its appropriation into an ecological movement. organism really fulfills the complexity and dyna- One way to investigate the relevance of today’s mism of nature. Di Palma points out that the or- organic metaphors is to provide a comprehensive ganic metaphor’s specificity to “create and sustain definition of nature, to locate and identify an eco- life” intersects the human dream to “recapture a logical emphasis and to reveal ecological functions prelapsarian state of harmony and grace.” Archi- that can help to inspire creative applications while tects like Walter Gropius would echo this4 notion providing direct ecological engagement. Accom- through organic design as “breathing soul into the plishing this will require folding in new concepts life of a building.” Nature in this sense, is a pri- and expanding an interpretation of the traditional mary model of good,5 but has little reference to the organic metaphor without destroying its useful in- destructive qualities that also clearly characterize tended applications. it, to which Di Palma calls a “paradox.” Ecologists, historians and philosophers have a direct response An Organic Paradox to Disequilibrium to nature’s paradox by formulating a new model for The primary use of the term “organic” arose as ear- nature based on recognition of a world in flux. The ly as the 19th century. Organic metaphors consist of architectural historian Amy Kulper refers to a shift varying interpretations as to how it is applied, but it in interest from “’what’ nature and culture produce, also shares a clear focus on “life” and “vitality.” The to the ‘how’ of natural and cultural production.” architectural historian Vittoria Di Palma describes 6 what is generally understood about the primary fo- The living metaphor was largely established by cus of organic metaphors as follows: findings of the late nineteenth and twentieth cen- tury scientists, naturalists and thinkers like the “…to focus on the organic metaphor entails, necessar- Ernst Haeckel, Georges Cuvier, and August Wilhelm ily, privileging questions that concern architecture’s relationship to life, to nature in its creative role, and Schlegel among many others. During the early to species that exhibit processes of growth, develop- twentieth century the ecologist7 Frederic Clements ment, and change.”2 and Eugene Odum helped to codify a theory of the 46 LOCAL IDENTITIES GLOBAL CHALLENGES ecosystem in equilibrium and balance. However, ecosystems as ‘open’ and strongly influenced by the as early as 1926 another prominent ecologist8 Hen- input and output or ‘flux’ of material and individuals across system borders.”10 ry Gleason challenged the notion unsuccessfully with a theory that put forth a controversial “indi- This disequilibrium view comes at time when the ar- vidualistic concept” of nature, where “each migrat- chitectural world is blind to many important social ing body acts for itself and moves by itself almost and health issues plaguing communities. A signifi- always completely independent of other species.” cant blight is the phenomenon of waste, like mate- This was later revalidated by scientists in the late9 rial waste in our landfills, which in 2007 represented seventies. This more recent understanding of the two-thirds of all non-industrial solid waste genera- ecosystem is characterized by ecologists and land- tion in the US.11 Design philosophies of William Mc- scape architect Ronald Pulliam and Bart Johnson donough and Michael Braungarts’ “Cradle to Cradle,” and other growing number academics. They ex- John Lyle’s “Regenerative Designs,” and Stephen plain two shifts toward a new understanding of dis- Moore’s “Non-modern thesis” all offer a new way to equilibrium science as follows: rethink the fundamentals of ecological design that “…(1) a shift from an equilibrium point of view are more inline with a disequilibrium model of the where local populations and ecosystems are viewed world. Following in the same vein, an alternative as in balance with local resources and conditions, to metaphor representing a disequilibrium view, which a disequilibrium point of view where history matters I refer to as a dead metaphor, could assist in con- and populations and ecosystems are continually be- ing influenced by disturbances…(2) a shift from con- fronting a death paradox by inspiring architects to sidering populations and ecosystems as relatively directly address issues like waste in terms of a com- closed or autonomous systems independent of their prehensive ecological design construct.12 surroundings to considering both populations and ORGANIC METAPHOR LIVING METAPHOR (ex. Flower) DEAD METAPHOR (ex. Deadwood) I. DEFINITION A living metaphor utilizes a simplified A dead metaphor offers an alternative understanding of nature and looses it perspective of the ecological landscape by “metaphorical tension.” It ultimately challenging presumptions about the human offers nothing new to inspire the mind. aesthetic relationship with its context. II. EMPHASIS A living metaphor emphasizes the A dead metaphor offers an emphasis based on building-object for a solution for the literal understandings making it a “strong ecological issues. The machine metaphor.” The process of decomposition in aesthetic that preceded it still manifests particular redirects an emphasis about the itself in the organic metaphor by referent object to its surroundings and to functionally turning organisms into dynamic temporal states, which leads to open- machines or vice versa. ended goals. III. FUNCTION A living metaphor relies on common and A dead metaphor offers unfamiliar, but inspiring vague ecological reasons to apply literal ecological associations that allow for a functional metaphors, which make them direct application of ecological functions to a uninspiring. building. Table 1. Questions for an Organic Metaphor ARCHITECTURE IS DEAD 47 CLARIFYING QUESTIONS recently the Living Building Challenge (LBC) uses a “flower” with a claim to establish a more holistic A dead metaphor is largely a response to a living approach to green design than USGBC’s LEED metaphor’s inadequacy to illuminate a clear ecologi- program.17 The author Jason Mclennan extracts cal purpose. The topics of definition, emphasis and from the flower an array of functional biological function will be used to clarify the current shortcom- processes to apply to building design to meet his ings of a living metaphor and provide a case for a metaphorical “Living Building” status.18 Finally in more robust interpretation of an organic metaphor. I Cradle to Cradle the authors William Mcdonough use deadwood, also known as Coarse Woody Debris and Michael Braungart use a tree to describe the (CWD) by ecologists, as a dead metaphor to inves- creation of energy production, so that “buildings… tigate the complexity of a disequilibrium model in like trees, (could) produce more energy than they design. The living metaphor has a variety of existing consume.”19 uses, however I will primarily focus on the Living Building Challenge’s use of flower as a generic but The nature implied by the examples above share clear contemporary example of a living metaphor a vague understanding of the term and does little applied to ecological design. Table 1 lays out a sum- to challenge new conceptions about the ecological mary of both the living and dead metaphor respons- world. The historian Amy Kulper, in echoing Paul es to the three selected topics. The following are the Ricoeur’s definition of a metaphor to ‘tell us questions used to begin an inquiry into each topic. something new about reality,’ advocates for a restoration of “metaphorical tension” in order to Can an organic metaphor convey… avoid tautological analogies between building styles 1. a contemporary ecological definition of ‘na- and organic species.20 In the case of species-styles ture’ for design? metaphor that favors similarities over their respective 2. a clear ecological emphasis for design? difference Kulper explains the following issues. 3. a direct ecological function for design? “The conflation of species and style is due to the historical process of immanentisation in which style Definition loses its rhetorical connotation as the internal co- Can the organic metaphor convey a comprehensive herence of nature and comes to be understood as ecological definition of nature for design? the internal coherence of human inner nature. This shift renders style a contingency of personal
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