Honest or Deceive?
Honest and deceive is an adjective which commonly use in describing human.
So, when architect placed these adjectives on building,
what will be the reaction?
University of California, Santiago. Dancing House.
Honesty and Deception in architecture play an important role today. Before we go into their role, let's define what is Honesty and Deception in architecture. After done reading the three articles by John Ruskin, Violet-Le-Duc and Fil Hearn, for my understanding, honesty architecture is something like naked which means that it doesn't have any addition element which doesn't have any function and also decoration towards the building itself, deception architecture is building which cover by unnecessary elements like finishes, supported by decorative column which only for decoration purposes and also use of cast and machine-made ornament.
Architectural Deceits are broadly to be considered under three heads :
1st : The suggestion of a mode of structure or support, other than the true one...
2nd : The painting of surfaces to represent some other material than that of which they actually consist...
3rd : The use of cast or machine-made ornament of any king.
- statement by John Ruskin.
The role of honesty in architecture today is more towards a new feeling for human behavior and support sustainable ability of architecture design. The building which is naked and exposed will save lot of energy, resources, materials in terms of economy and social. In the same time, it will create an exposed and raw feeling to the user. For deception in architecture, the role should be more to beautification of design and aesthetic purposes. Nowadays, there is a lot of artists, as a designer, sometimes, architect also need to propose something with aesthetic value which related to culture and historical value of that particular place which didn't related to any physical function of the building.
Yes, honesty and deception are predominantly about the expression of structure, the relationship between interior and exterior, the expression of the goals and challenges of the architect. Most of the time, the combination of it, that's why actually it's hard to differentiate a building whether is honesty or deception through its exterior and interior design, it is really depends on which perspective you are looking to.
'High tech, as a transmogrification of new brutalism,
maintains just as rigorously the principle of honesty, but it resubscribes to rationality as well.' which mean achieve the aims of the early modernists in the expression of technology.
- Fil Hearn.
In relation to honesty and deception, for me, I would consider more about for this two ‘style’, should they live independently or not? Which means it may solo or working together. Which one will be better?
For my own opinion, it’s better if they could work together. Architecture is not just about building, its more towards create space. Space is not just only to fulfill basic human needs for today, in terms of design, we need fulfill aesthetic value too, aesthetic can bring different sense of feeling to the user which inside the space.
Think out of the box!
Architecture should not be restrict by any boundary in terms of design.
