from christine song's post (via Hong Kit):
anyway, today my theory of aki tutor (who is really funny) said an interesting thing.. 95% of the buildings in the USA are not designed by architects. Ninety five percent! How many sick people don't see doctors?i think it is sometime in year 1 when we pondered the definitions. like what makes an aeroplane hangar or some shed not architecture, and the question of whether or not monuments like the pyramids are to be considered architecture.
Maybe we don't need architects..
the figure of 95% doesn't surprise me at all, considering how most sick people do self-medicate before they even step into a clinic. this phenomenon has its roots in professional knowledge trust issues, democratic knowledge development, as well as human laziness and pride.
all that aside, my question is just how many contemporary architectures are not built by architects?
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ETA: 13 0640 Oct 2006 Friday
looks i'm really out of touch with new groups like really architecture and be the change bringing architecture closer to you. and Hann has an active hand in all of them.
kudos.
5 comments:
ah beng goes to museum and see picasso painting and exclaim "walau, nong zhong square square triangle pattern, lim pei ma hiao paint! damn ugly lah!"
the bespectacled art curator walks up patiently and charts the entire course of art history leading up to cubism, explaining the painterly techniques and the paints available to picasso then, his life, his torments, his struggle.
ah beng listened for a while. in the beginning he tried to argue. but because the art curator talk so fast and his engrish sound so chim, ah beng decided to shuddup and nod.
then ah lian walked in and kaopei "walan eh, liddat call art huh? my primy school EM3 classmates can draw better lor!"
ah beng glared at her and say "walau, u dunno dun anyhow say lah. make me paiseh only"
he has become a believer...
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have we become mere art curators celebrating the past? trying to sell a discourse that sounds more expensive than it actually is to a non discerning public? the public which unwittingly submits to our expertise by means of sociological rules rather than true values and in the end tries to talk like us?
hey guys. 'be the change' is simply a studio blog set up by one of my studiomates... if it sounds like it's got "Kheng Soon" written over it, that's cause we're all under Kheng Soon's studio. =)
its disturbing to think that just because one's contribution doesn't extend to the masses out there deems its useless. i don't believe our aim is to shape the entire. or at least its not our main aim.
even though most people may self medicate we must remember that the medical field has done the necessary research and production to enable that. practice is not the only component of any field. but that doesn't mean practice is useless even if only 1% of the population goes to clinics. it is still important to that 1%. and don't forget hospitals. :)
agree with sio regarding research, et al. like to add that at the end of the day, all your medications disclaim that you should "consult your nearest doctor if symptoms persist".
i think christine's point--and here i'm only guessing--is that buildings should be built by architects, as how ailments are treated by doctors to me, the truth of the matter is that architecture reaches far beyond mere building--we have builders and engineers for that.
so when i ask just how many architectures are not built by architects, i'm asking just whose service would you enlist if you wanted a piece of architecture.
at the same time, i see oahiz's point in semantics and "celebrations". reminds me of the scene from the movie "Mona Lisa Smile" (2003), in which Julia Roberts introduces her classically-trained class to modern art for the first time, and someone says (to some effect) "who determines what art is?". the critics? the academics? my grandma?
professional knowledge production is extremely exclusive to professions like medicine. they have them tremendous big words, processes and procedures that are not accessible to the general public. architecture, on the other hand, is a strangely softer field, whose techniques are not as unfathomable. what is unfathomable to the general public seems to be how a pair of siamese durians could be a grand architectural splendour.
of course, i say all this tongue-in-cheek. still, i'm not sure i'm far from some bottom-line truism as well. maybe architects are really just bloody wankers.
so what!?
Woody Allen once said, "Don't knock masturbation; it's sex with someone I love."
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hann - somehow i knew you'd offer up some clarification. nice effort with your studiomates. wish more studios would run online blogs to show processes and share thoughts. but no, i personally didn't think it very kheng-soon. but then again, i don't know kheng soon that well.
does kheng soon participate?
just wanna add that i love zihao's ah beng and ah lian analogy. si be funny sia! haha!
and yea i would like to think i am a bloody wanker.
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