Complexities and Contradictions

I am happy to announce that I have finally finished one of those "must read" books on Architecture: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi. To give you an idea why it took me so long, here's a typical paragraph:

Contradiction adapted is tolerant and pliable. It admits improvisation. It involves the disintegration of a prototype - and it ends in approximation and qualification. On the other hand, contradiction juxtaposed is unbending. It contains violent contrasts and uncompromising oppositions. Contradiction adapted ends in a whole which is perhaps impure. Contradiction juxtaposed ends in a whole which is perhaps unresolved.

I've lost count of how many times the book put me to sleep! Imagine a first-year student, fresh out of high school in Asia, with a tentative grasp of the English language, trying to make sense of that!

Anyway, here's my understanding of Venturi's mind-fogging classic.

Architecture is fundamentally a form of art and, like fashion, is subject to humanity's whims and fancies, actions and reactions. As it progresses through time, its guiding philosophy swings from one extreme to the other, rather like a pendulum. Going back a little in history, we find the Romantic Movement reacting against the intellectualism of the Renaissance. Modernism was, likewise, a reaction to the ornate architectural styles that had prevailed before. (Reacting against Modernism, we had Post-Modernism. And so it goes, on and on.)

Modernism was promoted by architectural superstars like Mies van der Rohe (Farnsworth House)

















and Le Corbusier (Villa Savoye).
















Call it a severe simplification of buildings to their bare essentials. The structure is the decoration. The house as a machine! As you can guess, it wasn't long before people got sick of these glass boxes and pure geometrical forms. Robert Venturi, a young architect back in the 1960's, came out with his book arguing that Modernism had gone too far and that complexities and contradictions are part and parcel of humanity. I do agree.

John Allen Paulos in Once Upon a Number:

Describing the world may be thought of as an Olympic contest between simplifiers - scientists in general, statisticians in particular - and complicators - humanists in general, storytellers in particular.

I would contend that scientists are very much like the Modernists in architecture. With a giant cleaver, they hacked away everything that is intangible, metaphysical, spiritual, and replaced it all with cold rationality.

I'm waiting for the pendulum to swing in the other direction.

Design

I can't help but get a sneaking suspicion that lots of people out there don't really know what design is, especially those who ridicule "intelligent design" and claim that ANYTHING can happen if you give it a gazillion years.

I, fortunately and unfortunately, was trained as an architect and had spent around 25 years in the industry dealing with the subject of design - agonising about it over sleepless nights and getting hammered for it when things don't work out. (Luckily good design is achievable and I will blog about that later.)

Have a look at these two videos to see how much thought needs to go into the building design process before idea becomes reality. Look at how many people are involved. And then ask yourself whether it's possible to get from single-cell organisms to our present complexity via Darwin's simplistic "natural selection" process.

Dreams

Recently someone asked me why I am a Deist and not an Agnostic. An Agnostic, from what I can see, is someone who thinks that there is no way man can know God and therefore is not going to bother trying. That is not my attitude. I am still thinking, seeking and exploring.

One possible way a personality from another dimension may choose to communicate with us is through dreams. Normally I don't remember what I was dreaming about when I wake up, but last night's is still fresh in my mind.

I was walking down the street to my mom's place when an uncle of mine overtook me. (He had passed away many years ago.) He was wearing white and walking much faster than me. As I neared the house, I saw a bunch of relatives standing outside. I was informed that two of my cousins had bought 3-storey shop lots. One of them was already doing a successful jewelry business. (In real life, none of my relatives are in the jewelry business.)

In the next scene, I was sitting next to my dad (recently deceased), watching a video projected on a large screen. Again it's my uncle (dad's elder brother) walking down the street. I asked, "Is that uncle?" He said, "Yes, that's definitely him." I said, "Isn't it amazing how I can project what's in my head onto a screen for everyone to watch?"

Hehehe! Funny dream, ain't it?

Now, assuming it's not due to something I ate for dinner or my blood pressure peaking in the middle of the night, what is its significance? Is it a bit of advice from my dad? Is he pointing me in some direction? Or could it indicate something that I need to watch out for over the coming days? Only time will tell. In the meanwhile, I will mull over it.

And that's something we all need to do in our hectic lives - to take time to ponder and plan.

[Art by Tiffany Liu]

Playing Nostradamus

Recently when Dubai shook the world with its financial crisis, I thought to myself that even a layman like me could have told them that building skyscrapers and ski resorts in the middle of the baking desert is asking for trouble.



















Such things are total no-brainers, right? Who wants to pay a fortune to stay in an artificial environment like this unless you don't have a choice? The moment the airconditioning stops running, you're in deep shit!

















But then, what's the point of me talking after the fact? Anyone can boast about wisdom based on hindsight! I have therefore decided to demonstrate to you, ladies and gentlemen, that my ability to look into the future of a country like Dubai was not just a fluke. I will now attempt to make a few predictions of events that I see happening in the next five years! If what I say comes to pass, you will return on Christmas Day 2014 and declare me a genius. Deal? Now gaze deeply into my crystal ball!

Prediction 1: US troops will leave the Middle East for good. In fact, many of the American military bases overseas will be vacated and closed down.

Prediction 2: The US dollar will go down much further against the Yen and Euro. According to the BBC, 1 US dollar today is worth 0.6936 Euros and 91.185 Yen.

Prediction 3: Gold will continue to go up and up. Again, from the BBC website, gold is currently worth US$1104 an ounce.

Prediction 4: The world will NOT end in 2012!!!

Prediction 5: BN will lose big in the next general election. They will no longer form the Federal government.

Further into the future, I foresee Brunei joining Malaysia once the oil runs out. Remember, you heard it here first! :)

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is without a doubt the most famous scientist on the planet promoting atheism today. He wrote The God Delusion that sold millions of copies. I have not read it, but I have listened to his interview on the BBC and his talk on TED.

As a Deist (ie. I believe in a Mind behind the universe), you would expect that the bullets in his arsenal of arguments would have my name all over them. But upon closer inspection, you'll realise that most of them are actually aimed at Christianity. And since I'm not a Christian and you CAN'T prove there is no God by debunking Christianity, my beliefs remain largely unscathed. RD is no threat to me.

But he is most definitely a threat to idjits like GW Bush Jr and S Palin, who see the world in black and white, defined by an ongoing war between good and evil, God and Satan, Christ against the anti-Christ and Christians and Jews versus everybody else. Dawkins wants to bring some sanity back into the USA. For that, I applaud him.

That's him in the photo. It's from a campaign back in Jan 2009 to promote atheism in Britain. Now a scientific theory is an explanation that best fits the data and stands until a better theory comes along. So science is all about probabilities. Which means you can't make an absolute statement like "There is no God" when you can't even begin to prove it! The word "probably" was added because organisers of the campaign "did not want to be dogmatic in the way that so many religious leaders are" (timesonline.co.uk).

Even though my position and theirs are diametrically opposite, I respect these atheists for that generous gesture! :)