The Metropolis and the Modern World

The Babel Tower (Bourgeois)

"In the depth....what if one day those in the depth rises up again?"

The World Beneath (Non-Bourgeois)

"The hands of the holder know nothing of the dream of the workers"

The Metropolis is a modular of a modern city that was thought to be during the 20^th century, the perspective of an industrialized city with machine and mass production. The city of two worlds: one deep below the Earth’s surface lays the poor workers that were treated inhumane as if they were robots; working all days and night. The other high above the surface lays the bourgeois who live peacefully. The whole notion is represented as a machine-liked century, where the poor are force to work for the rich, where there is no more individualized. Machines are represented as an evil demon that could take away the workers’ life in any possible time.

Le Corbusier- Domino House

However, Le Corbusier's modular of a modern city is to benefit the non-bourgeois, where everything are conserve and has multiple program; Domino-House after WWI. Houses are design for living and are drawn on a form from factory that is functionally determined not ornamentally determined; functional as a machine.

Le Corbusier- Radiant City (La Ville Radieuse)

Le Corbusier also declare his manifesto of the "Radiant City" of the modern world. It is a modern form of living where city is broken up in the specific usage of zones. Such as residential zone, commercial zone, educational zone and etc. It is a modular concept for better living where every people have the same right and have an equal amount of space to live (14sq. m/ person).

" A better future, that is not classify"

Modernism Movement

The Vienna Secession was the biggest movement from the classical. It was the period of disillusion of capitalism, where they are suspicious of what they see and distance them self from the pass. By changing to serve the architecture for only the non-bourgeois, the concept had changed from the ornamental to industrialize. It was the machine age where hand crafted decoration and ornamental was rejected and consider as a waste of time. The modernism movement had played a major role on how people think about architecture. The method of mass production and machine liked material were use to serve as ornamental itself. However, distinctive period of architectures still serve as a good historical record on how far human have developed.

China Pavilion; Shanghai Expo 2010

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 was the purpose for every country all around the world to promote their cultures and traditions. . Most Chinese beliefs were influenced by Confucianism, which gives rise to the belief in “Heaven, Earth, Rulers, Ancestors, and Masters”. The Temple of Heaven, one of China’s most famous places, is round on the outside and square on the inside. The round outer wall represents heaven and square inner wall represents the earth. The traditional Chinese beliefs have a very strong influence on the architecture of the Chinese Pavilion, because the usage of red color and seven shades represent Chinese culture as good luck and wealth. The layered wooden beams and bracket were the basic elements of traditional Chinese architecture; often seen used in the Forbidden City. The form of the building was also similar to the style of joinery bracket sets or also called Yingzao-fa shi. The Pavilion is face to the front of the pond which express the energy that flow through the complex. This is also related to the belief in Feng Shui of the Chinese people. Overall, the Pavilion is elevated up higher than every pavilion in the Expo to indicated the powerful of the Chinese and to let it been seen through out the expo.

Light and Architecture

Light is one of the most vital aspects in Architecture. Where lights play a major role on how the architecture is seen. Since ancient time, Architecture uses light to tell story and to express the atmosphere of the space that is given. Ancient architectures such and Greek and Egyptian uses light to express the feeling of power to the people. For example the Pantheon at Athens was designed so that light could pass into the building and shine straight to the statue of Athens to represent the powerful and sacred. The sun god of Ra was represented as light, where the pyramid is pointed to the sky to illustrate the path to heaven. This is to be said that light is a powerful tool that could use to create and intangible feeling that is express out to the people from the architecture.

The Abbey Church of St Denis- The lighting effect of the sun that shines through the glass would give the feeling and atmosphere of heaven to the Cathedral.

Gothic Architecture is a good example of how light is incorporated into architecture. The way they increase windows to create the lighting effect also changes the structure of the building. Having the invention of the flying buttress would increase the height of the ceiling and provide more space to install the glasses.

Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque architecture emerged during the early medieval period. The style and architectural uses are influenced by the Byzantine and Christian architecture. The use of Roman arches were incorporated to the buildings, by transforming it into semi-circular arches to decorate window opening. The arches are usually made of bricks to show the new age of the building. Roman domes were not used any more, therefore heavy thick walls were carry by vaults. This lead to the decreasing of lights that would shine in to the building, making it kind of dark inside.

Moreover, the beliefs and religious teachings where place on to how the buildings were basically used. The influence of how the Christian believe in the spaces of teaching and gathering were reflected on to the style. Universities such as University of California Los Angeles also use Romanesque architectural style to express the meaning of educational space. This way, the Romanesque architecture would create a symbolic icon that it is a place for learning.

Indian Architecture

Indian civilization is rich in its religions, with three major religions, which consist of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Therefore, these religions are the major influence of Indian architecture. Their religions are express on to the form and shape of their architecture. Symmetrical is the basic form of how they design their temple. This is because they believe in energy, and unsymmetrical plan would destroy the path of the energy to the building and people itself. The Taj Mahal is a very sacred place on how they translate their symmetrical belief on to a piece of architecture.

The Taj Mahal was built by Shaha Jahan fro his wife Mumtaz. The building was a perfect symmetry except for Shaha Jahan's tomb.

The Taj Mahal was design to be seen in a perfect perspective view, in which the viewer would see it in its most beauty. This method is sort of similar to the Pantheon in Greece where viewer have to see it in a 45 degree angle to see it in a perfect beauty. As like Taj Mahal, the building was elevated parallel to the river that would give the feeling of heaven. It is visible all boat traffic that passes by.

Park 51

Project Park 51 is a new Islamic Community Center located near Ground Zero. There had been many controversies regarding to the idea of this new Islamic center. It was referred to be the Ground Zero mosque and could be a thread to the community where it is and insult toward 9/11 situations. Although America is a place that except every race and religion and Park 51 is a place for peace but it is not acceptable for them, since its location and situation does not fit the consequence of feeling due to the horror that happened at 9/11.

Even though Park51 look like an ordinary building as the surrounding, but it has a meaning underneath. The strong and intense beliefs of the Islamic are expressed through this geometric form. An example of this geometric form is the façade. Although the building was not built in the same form as a Mosque, it still has the patterns and intricate designs used in typical Islamic art.

In most Islamic buildings, there is symbolic repetition in its pattern and tilling order. This shows that the form never ends, leading to the belief that the Islam religion doesn’t have and end to it