Ornament is not a crime

Adolf Loos once said that the “Absence of ornament has brought the other arts to unsuspected heights” but I tends question this after visiting the National Gallery of Singapore. Within the building, there is carefully crafted walls, balustrade and widely sized openings. They are dressed up in pleats. There is folding, layering and depth. I am not so sure if that’s what the architect’s intention to keep the heritage element and therefore the ornament, but it definitely convinces me to think that ornament is not a crime.

The other thing that fascinates me is the manipulation of light in the space. The roof is composed of big skylight supported by bracing systems and the roof hold water. So that when the light strike the building, the light penetrate the roof and casting glittering effect on the walls. It is almost like the light is dancing on the wall.

Comments

Is it worth to buy Procreate for Architect?

Sketch by Connie Sketch by Sohan PROS Help you draw straight lines, if you can’t draw straight lines like me, then this app would be your life saver You don’t have to sketch everything, you can make use of the furniture library and texture You can group your lines/sketches into different layers, so that it is easier to erase something and faster to do alternative layout (pretty similar to the layer function in Photoshop) CONS There are no scale ruler or any scale tool, you have to rely on an accurate base image or the grid You have to use apple pencil and have to pay for the app You have to search for suitable libraries

Mum and Babylon

Unnecessary romanticism in urban planning: Death and Life of Great American Cities

“ Just as some belles, when they are old ladies, still cling to the fashions and coiffures of their exciting youth. But it is harder to understand why this form of arrested mental development should be passed on intact to succeeding generations of planners and designers” - Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The Garden City and the Radiant City ideals are truly eighteenth century urban planning romanticism, with their rejections of urbanised society, excessive and unnecessary romanticism about the nobility and simplicity of ‘natural’ or primitive man. Everything should operate in a rational, regimented and harmonious way. This zone is for work, that zone is for live; it follows by inconsiderate insertion of civic space and large footprint of park and vertical towers that accommodate cars. Those grandeur urban renewal schemes replaces ‘slums’. They make sense until we discover that they are at an expanse of city diversity of street vitality. They are go...

Bedtime Architectural Stories

Search This Blog