Architecture
is something that I have always had a passion for from being a young child
building with Lego, filling imaginative spaces, taking a space and transforming
it to give a desired purpose. I also enjoy to watch programs like “Grand
Designs” and “Restoration Man” seeing the original and different ideas that a
person can come up with to fill a space and how that space and the building
complement each other but the way that and space, no matter the size, can have
such a variety of uses and still be eye-catching but seamlessly fitting into
the environment. I also admire the ideas of George Clark an architect and TV
presenter who in believing in the restoration and revival of unused and old
builds to bring them back into use as opposed to monotonous new builds.
During the
summer I visited the Imperial War Museum in Salford Quays. A building designed
by Daniel Libeskind who’s idea of the building came from three interlocking
shards each shard representing a globe shattered
by conflict. This I believe shows a personal attachment between the architect
and the building and a link between the nature of the Museum and the history of
the place where it sits, a heavily bombed area during the blitz. The striking nature
of the building, with its geometric shapes rising from the ground, making a
statement for that of which it is about and its purpose.
Frank Lloyd Wrights work has always
fascinated me with his timeless and innovative pieces of architecture made from
the early 20th century yet implementing building techniques and
design still used today and leaving a legacy in American architecture with a
use of Usonian style. The Usonian style made his buildings in the early 20th
century way ahead of their time with open plan free flowing space with one room
or space leading into another. His designs seamlessly sitting in the
environment around them still being eye-catching but not looking out of place, retaining
a very practical design with every space thought out to a certain purpose to
the design.
Furthermore, Frank Lloyd wrights ‘Falling Water’
in Pennsylvania is one of my favorite buildings and one which I have a great
interest in visiting, due to its design and how it sits within its surrounds
attached into the side of the hill, with materials (the stone chimney) pulling
the building into the environment a key trait of the usonion style. Yet it fits
seamlessly into the space as though it has always been, whilst still proving a
statement of prowess in its style. The innovative design employees a timeless and
original aspect whilst still retaining a purposeful building; a trait which can
also be seen in the Guggenheim museum.
