Architecture and Metaphor PDF

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ARCHITECTURE AND METAPHOR DR. MAGED YOUSSEF BAU PUBLICATIONS Stephan Library ARCHITECTURE AND METAPHOR Dr. MAGED YOUSSEF BAU PUBLICATION Printed and distributed by Stephan Library Beirut - Lebanon © 2016 Maged Youssef All rights reserved, no portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or ...

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ARCHITECTURE AND METAPHOR

DR. MAGED YOUSSEF BAU PUBLICATIONS

Stephan Library

ARCHITECTURE AND METAPHOR

Dr. MAGED YOUSSEF

BAU PUBLICATION

Printed and distributed by Stephan Library Beirut - Lebanon

© 2016 Maged Youssef All rights reserved, no portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written statement of the publisher. The author designs cover and back. The author captured photos of cover and back, ‘Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain’, on August, 2013. Includes bibliographical references. First edition, 2016. ISBN 928-9953-0-3778-3 Published in Lebanon by Beirut Arab University (BAU), Lebanon. Website: www.bau.edu.lb E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: 009611300110 Printed and distributed by Stephan Library Beirut – Lebanon

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, praise and thanks be to God the Almighty that the achievement of this book has been made possible. TO THE PRESIDENT OF BEIRUT ARAB UNIVERSITY IN LEBANON: PROFESSOR DR. AMR GALAL EL-ADAWI I would like to thank him very much for encouraging the idea of publishing this book. His vision was clear from the beginning in adopting the scientific methods to enrich faculties of Beirut Arab University in Lebanon by excellence and prosperity. One of these visions is to make the university provide academic and labor sectors with the latest knowledge. This book would not come to the light without this vision.

TO THE DEAN OF FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING, BEIRUT ARAB UNIVERSITY: PROFESSOR DR. IBTIHAL EL-BASTAWISSI Since day one of her work as the dean, Prof. Ibtihal directed all her efforts in making the faculty of architectural engineering, Beirut Arab University, one of the forerunner faculties locally and regionally as it is always known. Under her leadership, the faculty has witnessed tens of events and activities. With a great passion, she gave much concern to the scientific research and activated a strategy of its development throughout the next few years. One of the research activities she cares about is publishing books. I am grateful to Prof. Ibtihal because of her true support and eagerness to publish this work.

TO MY PROFESSOR DR. KHALED DEWIDAR One of the turning points in my life is the first lecture I attended for the great Prof. Khaled Dewidar. He is one of the leading professors in Ain Shams University, Egypt, particularly in the field of 'Theory of Architecture'. He changed the traditional methods of teaching theories to flexible material allowable to be discussed and can be debatable. I will always owe him all gratitude to let me continue what he started. Thank you my professor.

TO MY PROFESSOR DR. AMR FAROUK ELGOHARY Prof. Amr F. Elgohary considers my 'Godfather'. I learned from him how to be a deep excavator for truth. He supervised my Master and PhD theses. I can say that; he is a unique school, a bizarre attitude depending on new ways of thinking. His travelling around the world articulated a magnificent character gathering valuable experiences from West and East. He transferred all these rays of science to me through long discussions for years and through lending me groups of his wonderful books. The bond between me and him can never be described in words.

TO MY FAMILY I want to dedicate this book to my family, who is the main reason for all what I've reached and achieved along my life. - To my mother, Ms. Mona Soliman, who dedicated all her life for me. - To my wife, Arch. Safaa Hassan and to my three lovely daughters, Tammy, Ann, and Leen. - Finally, I want to dedicate this book to the soul of my grandfather, Mr. Ahmed Ali Soliman, The former Manager of Alexandria Bank, Portsaid, Egypt, (God rest his soul in peace), who lived in England for years and transferred his experience of the Western culture to me. His unprecedented English experience was the light way for me to understand many secrets about the Western thinking. I will never give him what he really deserves. Certainly, he was a tremendous encyclopedia. -3-

CONTENTS 3 5 9 15 17

Acknowledgments Contents Introduction Keywords Glossary

PART ONE: THEORIES OF METAPHOR CHAPTER 1 THE MEANING OF METAPHOR 25 25 26 27 31 31

Art of Rhetoric History of Rhetoric Rhetoric Branches Statmentry Forms in Rhetoric Importance of Metaphor Components of Metaphor

CHAPTER 2 WHERE CAN WE FIND METAPHOR? 37 40 42 47 48

Metaphor in History Metaphor in Language Metaphor in Literature Metaphor in Philosophy Metaphor in Art

CHAPTER 3 METAPHOR IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY 56 61 66

Metaphor in Postmodernism Metaphor in Deconstruction Metaphor in the Digital Age

CONCLUSION OF PART ONE

PART TWO: METAPHOR IN ARCHITECTURE CHAPTER 4 THE MEANING OF ARCHITECTURAL METAPHOR 81 83 85

Metaphor and Architecture Role of Metaphor in Architecture Theories of 'Architectural Metaphor'

CHAPTER 5 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF USING METAPHOR IN ARCHITECTURE 99 101

Metaphor in Architecture of the Ancient Civilizations Metaphor in Architecture of the Enlightenment Age -5-

102 105 107 108

Metaphor in Architecture of the 1st half of the 20th Century Metaphor in Architecture of Modernism Changing from Functionalism into Semiotics The 2nd half of the 20th Century: Three Phases of Architecture

CHAPTER 6 THE METAPHORIC APPROACHES IN ARCHITECTURE 119 123 128 132 135

The ‘Leading Projects’ Approaches The Japanese Approaches The Post-Modern Approaches The Deconstructive Approaches The Digital Approaches

CONCLUSION OF PART TWO

PART THREE: READING THE METAPHORIC THINKING IN ARCHITECTURAL REPRESENTATION CHAPTER 7 METAPHORS OF COMPLEXITY I 155 161 164 171 178 186 193

Amsterdam Orphanage, Netherlands, 1960 Kaleva Church, Finland, 1966 Arcosanti, USA, 1970 Brion Vega Cemetery, Italy, 1972 Walden 7, Spain, 1975 Frankfurt Museum, Germany, 1984 Important Findings

CHAPTER 8 METAPHORS OF COMPLEXITY II 199 206 212 227 242 251 263

Al-Houd Al-Marsoud Park for Children, Egypt, 1989 Elektroprivreda, Bosnia, 1994 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Spain, 1997 The Jewish Museum, Germany, 2001 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, England, 2002 Casa da Musica, Portugal, 2005 Important Findings

CHAPTER 9 METAPHORS OF COMPLEXITY III 271 282 292 299 310

The Water Pavilion, Netherlands, 1997 Body-Zone Pavilion, England, 2000 The Blur Building Pavilion, Switzerland, 2002 Kunsthaus Museum, Austria, 2003 Important Findings

CONCLUSION OF PART THREE

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PART FOUR: THE BOOK OUTCOME CHAPTER 10 A THEORETICAL MODEL OF THE METAPHORIC THINKING IN DESIGN 327 331 332 333

The Final Conclusions A ‘Theoretical Model’ for reading the ‘Metaphoric Thinking’ in Design Benefits of the Book Recommendations & Invitations

337

References

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INTRODUCTION There is no doubt that we live now the 'Image Age'. Architecture is an important part of this age due to its strong visual effect. It can be noticed that, after the outbreak of several wars took place in the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first century, an old wisdom re-spread saying: 'Do not believe 50% of what you see and 75% of what you hear.'1 Therefore, the public around the world became skeptical about every visual product and every media-material. Accordingly, people started to doubt in the truth beyond the architectural representations. Users and critics, thus, keep searching for what the buildings are really implying by trying to read the architectural texts, decode the hidden messages, and understand architects' philosophies. In this direction, theories and opinions are released to interpret these underlying philosophies. Through these different interpretations, users and critics use the 'metaphors', spontaneously, to tell about their personal experiences narrating what they see and describing where they walk through. In some cases, the architect does describe his own building saying 'metaphorical' descriptions. The concept of 'Metaphor', as a linguistic phenomenon, has been resurrected to be used as a descriptive tool interpreting between the lines of architectural thought. Linguistically, 'Metaphor' is a figure of speech used in arts of rhetoric and literature. It considers a linguistic phenomenon whereby we talk and think about something in terms of something else. It varied in its textual manifestations, versatile in the functions it may perform, and central to many different types of communication. Means in 'metaphor' are comprehended as paths. The understanding of the word requires the notion of path. 'Metaphor' is used by writers, poets and philosophers to mean something that differentiates with its more basic meanings. The contextual and basic meanings of a metaphorical expression belong to different conceptual domain, and it can be understood in terms of the basic meaning.2 'Metaphor' is a widely distributed phenomenon that encompasses all our cultural reality including material culture and physical events. Making sense of our world can’t take place without 'metaphor'. Speakers who use 'metaphor' purpose rhetorical goals, which go beyond expressing their opinions in an effective way. They thrill audience’s perceptions with certain metaphorical words forcing their minds to travel far away to gray zones. In fact, these mental zones are related to the audience’s memories. Aristotle famously described 'metaphor' as the mark of genius. It represents abilities and skills of the speaker. Any 'metaphor' has a structure defined as a systematic set of correspondence, or mapping. In present, the age of media, we can define the 'metaphor', used in rhetoric, as a video clip without any electronic device because it leads the audience into a serial journey. A chain reaction, metaphorically, is created between speaker and audience. In the architectural discourse, the 'metaphor' is a 'carrying over' from one idea to another, a transgression, a metamorphosis of categories, and it goes to the heart of architecture's secrets. This architecture crosses boundaries, merges categories, and concentrates on itself – its own internal world.3 It is the transformation process from abstracts into material or visual image. It is a part of system of sign or semiotics. Metaphor as part of architectural approach is strongly bound with the local context and local understanding. -9-

The history of architecture proved that the 'metaphor' is a very old aspect used by the builders and architects of the ancient civilizations. They used it to convey a certain image to their nations. Ancient architecture, which used a lot of signs and symbols, has already adopted it as a grammatical tool to represent their concepts, especially for spiritual and sacred buildings. After thousands of years, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century, the main common theme all over the world was representing power of modernity, globalization, idealism, utopianism and high technology. The world was moving clearly in this direction. But, unexpected events had completely changed this direction as: (World War I & II, The Holocaust, Vietnam War, Disaster of atomic bombs in Japan, fall of communism). After these extraordinary events, particularly after 1950s, the world witnessed the rise of new movements for the first time as: (anti-ideological ideas, anti-globalization, feminist, racial equality, gay rights, anarchism, the explosion of psychedelic, youth cultures, the fight for minority rights, protest against hierarchy in general and anti-war movements in USA).4 These movements produced new trend in style, literature, philosophy and art. The world described that trend as 'Postmodernism'. This kind of openness, in media, in literature, in art, allowed people to think free using Freud’s skeptical approach to believe or not believe in what they see and what they hear. People, therefore, no longer think in a superficial way but they become multiple in their way of thinking. Thus, the rhetorical tools had been resurrected to be used among societies again. 'Metaphors', metonymies, puns and icons became the main letters of the neo language of this period. Specifically, among these rhetorical tools, 'metaphor' became a foundation of thinking, rather than being merely the superficial decoration in language. According to critics’ investigations, Postmodernism is the main movement that used metaphor as a secret code to achieve polysemy in reading any context.5 According to this openness that took place after 1950s, the world directed towards the 'Age of Media' or, what is called the 'Age of Image'. This age declared the emergence of new generations of architecture based on deep philosophies and sending strong visual effects through very distinguished forms. Architects of these new generations have used 'metaphors' to hide their real intentions. Therefore, in the last sixty years, 'metaphor' started to take new shapes, new costumes, and new purposes, veering far away from (obviousness, explicitly, shallowness, and easy understanding). These features became the main characteristics of the architectural languages. From this point, a problem emerged around the world due to this degree of complexity in reading the architectural representations. This book focuses on this problem and tries to find solutions through presenting visions and analyses that may interpret the 'Metaphoric Thinking' between the lines of the 'Architectural Representations'. According to this radical change happened in architecture from 'Functionalism' into 'Semiotics', architects produced enigmatic architectural representations using 'metaphor', as an intellectual vehicle, to hide their true intentions. The question that provokes minds here is: 'Why do these architects hide their intentions abstracting their buildings in unfamiliar forms?!' The most renowned critics in the architectural society answer this question interpreting the basic reason beyond this act is: 'these intentions are offensively touching the three taboos in any society, shown in fig. 1:

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Religion

Politics

Sex

Fig. 1: Triangle of the three taboos in societies

These three taboos are the dangerous sensitive strings in any society. Consequently, the architects avoid conveying these contents to public directly. Therefore, every architect uses his own 'metaphoric thinking' to abstract the form to be completely differentiated from its origin. The architectural representation, thus, appears as incomprehensible ambiguous riddle and that creates a real crisis in reading the 'Architectural Though' and generates a misconception about realizing the architect's true message beyond his form. According to critics' investigations, architecture since 1950s till now passed three phases of complexity. Chronologically, the degrees of complexity increase from phase to the next. The more complicated 'metaphors' are implanted in the architectural representations, the more difficult to be understood. 'Metaphor' changes its skin, costume, and shape from phase to phase. Meanings, therefore, become almost lost. Thus, this book exposes this problem in order to reach a theoretical model that may interpret the 'Metaphoric Thinking' in 'Architectural Design'. So, this model is a suggestion that can be applicable by critics, users, architects, and even students.

THE BOOK OBJECTIVES The main goal of this book is: (Trying to read and interpret the 'Metaphors' between the lines of the architectural thought). In order to achieve this goal, the forthcoming secondary objectives have to be achieved: Defining the 'Metaphor' and clarifying its importance. Recognizing the theories of 'Metaphor' and its components. Recognizing the different fields that host the 'Metaphor'. Explaining what the 'Architectural Metaphor' means. Finding when, why, and where the architecture used the 'Metaphor'. Identifying the 'Metaphoric Approach' in the architectural design. Understanding the interpretations of architects and critics for the metaphoric architectural representations. - Reading the 'Metaphors' used in architecture of (Postmodernism, Deconstruction, and Digital Age) and analyzing their degree of complexity. - Concluding the timeline-graph of the 'Metaphoric Thinking' in 'Architectural Representation' throughout history. - Trying to build A Theoretical Model) that can be able to interpret the 'Metaphoric Thinking' in architecture. -

Such findings are vital to read the 'Metaphors' used in 'Architectural Representation', evaluating its degree of complexity, to overcome the misunderstanding between users and - 11 -

designers, then the metaphoric design process can produce comprehensive, appreciated, and interactive architecture, that reflects the present time and shared meanings.

THE BOOK DETERMINANTS According to the complexity of the content, the author prefers to put some determinants seeking the obviousness and clarity, as shown in fig. 2:

Temporal Determinant

Analytical Determinant

Scientific Determinant

Metaphoric Determinant

Moral Determinant

Fig. 2: Research Determinants

a) Temporal Determinant: The book commits with a specific time-framework for the case-studies between 1960 till now. Any time before this period is considered as a historical background. The author prefers this time-framework, specifically, because it detects the contemporary architecture and keep up with the present.

B.C

1960

Now

Historical Background Time-Framework of Case-Studies Fig. 3: The time-framework of the 'Case-Studies'

b) Analytical Determinant: The book focuses only on analyzing the 'Metaphoric Thinking' implanted in representations of the 'Architectural Design'. Therefore, issues will not be analyzed as; construction systems, form aesthetics, laws and legislations, mechanisms of implementation, time schedules, costs, environmental aspects, ext. c)

Scientific Determinant: The book will analyze the 'Metaphoric Thinking' through mentioning the different interpretations of critics and architects in order to disclose the design-secrets in architecture of the second half of the twentieth century. Seeking the scientific credibility and transparency, the book will only mention opinions of critics and architects who had already visited the case-studies projects. The author believes that, the opinions of these who did not visit the buildings will be useless, incomplete, haphazard, and non-valuable. Scientifically, the true visiting experience articulates interpretations that may be so close to be true.

d) Metaphoric Determinant: The book concentrates only on the 'Indirect Metaphors' used in the 'Architectural Representations' because they imply deep philosophies. So, the research will ignore any - 12 -

direct metaphor as; works of Santiago Calatrava who inspires his ideas from nature or works of Philip Johnson who inspires his ideas from the history of architecture. In this direction, the researcher thinks that, these direct metaphors will not be valuable because they are easy to be understood by public. e) Moral Determinant: This book includes bizarre ideas and philosophies used in the time-framework architecture. In many cases, unfortunately, architects' intentions touch erotic or heretic issues. Therefore, the researcher will put a thick red line removing any of these offensive issues. Consequently, the book will only present the case-studies, interpretations, and philosophies that commit with this moral limit.

These five determinants enable the reader to understand the content easily

1

The original wisdom says: 'Do not believe everything you see or hear' said by William Shakespeare. Semino, Elena, Metaphor in Discourse, Cambridge University Press, New York, USA, 2008, p.1 3 Jencks, Charles, Ecs...