801 . . .

Metaphors: Its Relationship, Significance And its

Impact On Design
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As designers in this 21st century epoch, we are incessantly in acquaintance with metaphor. It is by and
large that we are engaged with it knowingly or sub-consciously. At its most simple echelon, metaphor
explains and describes the use of body knowledge and language about ones concept to understand or
even to comment on a different or another concept. Metaphors in design are particularly a powerful when
used to understand a concept that we are foreign to, or a concept that appears unapproachable to us.
Metaphor is also the expression of an understanding of one concept in terms of another concept, where
there is some similarity or correlation between the two. A very good example will be Alberti conceived of
the city . . . no more than a House . . . [1] In which he suggest that readers should conceive the House
as a little City. He in addition invites his readers to visualize one thing of something else. He requested
them to shift their concentration and to think of the dwelling as a city, conurbation and vice versa. In other
words, he asks his readers to employ an allegory so that they could understand or acquire a better
understanding on the metaphor he employs. Most of us carry out metaphoric acts firstly, whenever we are
attempting to transfer references from one subject to another. Secondly, when we are making an effort to
catch a glimpse of a particular subject or object, as if these subjects or objects are of something else.
Lastly, we transfer the focus of our scrutiny from one area of concentration or from one inquiry into
another. This is done in anticipation that by balancing or from beginning to end by addition we possibly
will clarify our scrutiny of a subject matter in an innovative way. The subject here refers to either the
concept or the object that we wish to transfer, see and displacement of our focus.
Another classis example of metaphor not related to design. The use of metaphor is the attempt to
understand death and dying: in religious belief aside, there is no definitive explanation of what will happen
to a persons consciousness after death has been established. In this case consciousness is been define
as soul, karma. However on a direct level, the majority of the people have no clear idea or understanding
of this milestone. However on the contrary, most people do have a personal concept of what will happen
at death, and this concept is usually based on metaphor.
Be it in design usage, language or other applications, metaphor are often been perceived as a trope. A
trope[2] is the figurative use of an expression. Figurative language is a departure from what speakers of a
particular language apprehend to be the standard meaning of words, or the standard order of words, in
order to achieve some special meaning or effect.
At its most complex level, metaphor is considered a type of figurative language, specifically a trope or
figure of thought. Figurative language[3] is typically divided into two classes, tropes, in which words and
phrases are used in a way that effects a conspicuous change in what we take to be their standard
meaning, and schemes [as distinct from schemas, see below], in which the departure from standard
usage is not, primarily, in the meaning but in the order of the words. In a simile, a comparison between
two distinctly different things is indicated by the word like or as. In a metaphor, a word or expression
which in literal usage denotes one kind of thing or action is applied to a distinctly different kind of thing or
action, without asserting a comparison. In metonymy, the literal term for one thing is applied to another
with which it has become closely associated. In synecdoche, a part of something is used to signify the
whole, or more rarely the whole is used to signify the part[4].
Metaphor is a powerful tool for understand concept, social, political, geographical and programmatic
context. A simple metaphor can evoke a broad array of elements that will affect our way of thinking. And it
is with this we can accomplish this evocation of understanding metaphor with a slight hint. It is with this
slight hint or the simplest element; we develop a better understanding on the concept of employing
metaphor. Along with this conception, we can swell into a structure of elements and relationships.
Schemas and simile are powerful because they are ways of organizing characteristics, information,
relationships, and things into recognizable and manipulate-able structures. Schemas help us apply
meaning to concepts. Metaphors are powerful because they provide shortcuts to concepts sometimes
a single word can call to mind a broad and complicated topic and provide ways to hash out meanings
for less understood concepts. And this can only be approached through metaphor. Thus by doing so, we
can use it on conceptual development. It is perhaps; the best substantiation on the strength of metaphor

application, schema and simile is pretty straightforward and simple. To the same degree, we use it
unconsciously for the most part of design concept development. As designers, we are constantly using
metaphors, schemas and similes to generate a better understanding on the concept.
Metaphor, been a very powerful channel, it is more useful to the creator than to the users or critics. It is in
reality; the best applied or employed metaphor and its practices cannot be revealed by users or critics. In
these cases, metaphors are been classified as little secrets[5]. Again the power of metaphor can be
consider as a core structure of imagination. This means that metaphoric channel can be very useful and
beneficial to whoever uses it or created it. This procedure allows us a vast amount of opportunities to see
a contemplated work in another perspective. This will compel us to probe for new sets of questions and
come up with new interpretations. This will allow the mind to transit into a previously unknown aspect of
territories. The use of such metaphoric acts can be universal. However, this does not mean that
everybody finds it easy to understand, and let alone use it. For those who use it, they can be known as
devotees of these metaphor applications. These people are often grateful to the vast horizons open up to
them. Metaphor can be useful and helpful in achieving the new elements and concepts in points of
building, designing and conceptual development. The overall organization can be seen as more
expressive in terms of its contents. Through metaphor, especially when it is approached with the
technique of displacement of concepts, (Schon 1963, 1967), one may apply the knowledge and
interpretations already understood for the case of the named item of displacement[6]. This may be object,
subject, a situation or another art.
Metaphor can be grouped into several categories. They can be grouped into Intangible, Tangible and
Combined. In intangible metaphors, these are which the metaphoric departure for the creation is a
concept, an idea, a human condition or particular qualities. Particular qualities can be listed as
individuality, naturalness, community, tradition and culture. In tangible metaphors, these are the
metaphoric departure stems strictly from some visual or material character. This can be a house as a
castle, the roof of the temple as the sky. In combined metaphors, these are the conceptual and the visual
overlap as the main ingredients of the point of departure and the visual is the excuse to detect the virtues,
the qualities, and the fundamentals of the particular visual container. This can be the computer, the
beehive, both being boxes of relevant proportions, yet having the qualities of discipline, organization and
cooperation[7].
These categories of metaphors have been employed by architects and have experienced a varying extent
of triumph. These examples can be found in the 20 th century. Some of the major movements in
architecture of this century have been identified by the metaphors they employed. For example, The
machine was the metaphor of the Modern Movement; the ruin has been attributed as the
metaphor[8]. Other branches or schools also applied these metaphors as their basis for inspirational
departures. Alvar Alto, one of the foremost Finnish architects of the century, whom based on the usage of
insubstantial allegory, developed metaphoric acts based on the hypothesis of individuality, naturalness,
community and so on. These actions allow us to produce buildings based on the insubstantial metaphor
of humanity, which is perhaps the most greatest of all metaphors. Many of the developments envisage as
metaphors often display problems of scale. This is maybe owing to the fact that metaphors have a
tendency to produce aphoristic, utopian,universalized[9] results, in spite of the initial good intentions of
the originators.
In Japan, the architects there are great devotees of metaphor applications. It was said that these
architects have long favoured metaphor. Some of these recent best architects who have used or employ
metaphors are, Arata Isozaki, Kazuhiro Ishii, Minoru Takeyama, Kazuo Shinohara and Kisho Kurokawa.
These architects remedy metaphors as a source for inspirations. Take Arata Isozaki for instance, he is
one of the most poetic and prolific architect and writer of theoretical essays. He was given the priority to
metaphors as a connotation to architectural creations. Although many of his works became as a literal
interpretation, in which one of it, a club house building which looks like a question mark. The departure of
his creative quest is usually metaphoric. His critical sense of the architecture of his peers is also at its
best when he uses metaphoric screening.
To most of us practicing design, architects or designers alike, may not out of necessity have to have all
these metaphors in mind. Well, it is after all how we interpret them. It is us who uses these metaphoric
interpretations for our own creative design purposes. We require further reading, study and contemplation
to understand the suggested metaphors and to draw our own personal conclusions. We on our part
should be receptive to the widely accepted metaphoric interpretations that have come to us in forms of
history, tradition, culture, political, nature, geometric and geographical representations because only

through their acceptance, then will we be able to build for and within the intellectual context of a particular
community and its people.
In metaphor, design benefited from it. One of the famous town planning concepts, the Finger Plan
for Copenhagen[10], was based on a metaphor. It was based in a metaphor of a great hand resting over
that city[11]. In 1947, that great hand has guided Copenhagen[12] developments into a merchant harbour,
after which the city was named. It sits in the palm of a guiding hand. The fingers pointed ways to new
development. Power lines, telecom lines and mass rapid transit lines follow the bones, arteries, veins and
the
nerves
of
the
fingers.
Between
those
fingers,
we
found
the
greenland of Demark, Holland. Copenhagen was made into a garden city but the hand itself, urban
development was grey by itself. Geometrical metaphors have been playing an imperative responsibility in
the city planning and regional improvement. Town or Urban Planners often seek to speak of the grid
cities[13], radical cities and even organic cities. It is through these spatial patterns that these
characteristics convert Copenhagen into a city with green heart. The lower part of Holland has been seen
as a ring city. The corridors were seemed as haulage passageways as well as expansion poles. The
benefit of these metaphors arises from the assistance they presented to the planners in thinking about
huge and obscured issues. Dis-benefits are capable of take place when concerns are becoming oversimplified. A city should be so much more than a street pattern; surrounding countryside should be so
much more than a green belt. Road plans do not show the city structure: they show one of many
structures.

Some interesting metaphors create more popular

buildings. Le
Corbusiers
chapel
at
Ronchamp can be perceived as a crab, a duck, a
hand, a hat and much else. Utzons Sydney
Opera House can be seen as shells, a flower, or
sails.
The
soaring
curves
of
Saarinens TWA terminal in New York symbolize
flight. The Archigram building concepts of the 1960s were described as pods.
There is something in common; these buildings were curvilinear in designs.
Curves carry ideas from the natural world. Rectilinear is a metaphor for
intellectualism and the works of man. Geometric can be used as a metaphor
too.
Kisho Kurokawa[14], born April 8, 1934 is a well-known Japanese architect and one of the founders of the
Metabolist Movement. Born in Nagoya, Aichi, Kurokawa studied at KyotoUniversity, graduating with a
bachelors degree from the Department of Architecture in 1957. He continued his studies at Tokyo
University School of Architecture under the guidance ofTange Kenzo, achieving a masters degree in
1959 and a doctoral degree in 1964. Together with some colleagues, he founded the Metabolist
Movement in 1960; its members were known as Metabolists. It was a radical Japanese avant-garde
movement pursuing the merging and recycling of architecture styles around an Asian philosophy. The
movement was very successful, peaking when its members received praise for the Takara Beautillion at
the Osaka World Expo 1970. The group broke up shortly thereafter. Kurokawa has a daughter from his
first marriage, who works as a landscape architect. His second marriage is toAyako Wakao, an actress
with some notable films in the 1950s and 1960s. Kurokawas younger brother works in industrial design,
but has also cooperated with Kurokawa on some architecture projects. Kurokawa is the founder and
President ofKisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates, established on 8 April 1962. The company has its
head office in Tokyo, and branch offices in Osaka, Nagoya, Astana, Kuala Lumpur andBeijing. The
company is registered with the Japanese Government as a First Class Architects Office.

In 1960, at the age of 26, he made his debut into the

world as one of the founders of the Metabolism
Movement. Since then, he has been advocating the
paradigm shift from the Age of Machine Principle to the
Age of Life Principle. Concept he advocated such as
Symbiosis, Metabolism, Information, Recycle, Ecology,
Intermediate Space, Fractal, etc. are all important
concept based on Life Principle. His publication
includes Urban Design, Homo Movens, Thesis on
Architecture I and II, The Era of Nomad, Philosophy
of Symbiosis, Hanasuki, Poems of Architecture,
Kisho Kurokawa Note, and Revolution of City[15].
Philosophy of Symbiosis, which was awarded the
Japan Grand Prix of Literature, was first published in
1987 and was revised in 1991. The book Philosophy of
Symbiosis was translated into English and was cited Excellence from
the AIA in 1992. His major works in Japan are the National Ethnological
Museum, the National Bunraku Theater, Nagoya City Art Museum, Hiroshima
City Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama,1994 Ehime Prefecture
Museum of General Science, Osaka International Convention Center (Grand Cube Osaka), Oita Stadium,
Toyota Stadium; his major works abroad are the Japanese-German Centre of Berlin in Germany, the
Chinese-Japanese Youth Center in Beijing, China, Melbourne Central in Australia, and Pacific Tower in
Paris, France, Republic Plaza, Singapore, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, and 1999
New Wing of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. His recent works include: The Japanese Nursing
Association Building, The National Art Center, Tokyo, which will open in 2006, the Zhengdong New City of
1.5million for the Zhengzhou City, China, New Kunming Airport City, China, International Financial Center,
Chunking, China, Maggies Centre, England and Tea house and Japanese Garden of Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation, U.S.A.
The School of Metabolist Architecture[16] was started in the late 1959, where a group of Japanese
Architects and city planners came together and form the Metabolist Group. Their forethought for a city of
the near forthcoming to be inhabited by mass civilization was to be characterised by a large scale, flexible
and extendable structures that could enable an organic growth process. In their view the traditional laws
of form and function were obsolete. They were strong believers on the laws of space and functional
transformation that held the future for the city and culture.

Famous projects include the floating city in the sea (Unabara project)
[17], K. Kikutakestower city, the wall city, the agricultural city and the Helix City
by Kisho Kurokawa.
Kiyonori Kikutake

Over the last 4 decades, Kisho Kurokawa had created architectures that have
attempted to challenge the Machine Age and have moved towards the age of the
Life. The key concepts of his principles are metabolism and symbiosis. These 2
words are chosen by him with intention. His works are constantly revolving
around these concepts. He fiddles with the forms, styles and materials in his designs. This is done in
accordance with the weather, program, cultural identity and the geographical of the given project. He felt
that architecture is slowly moving away from the World of Machine and is opening up to the world with a
dialogue[18].
Take his work on the Sony Tower in Osaka, Japan, 1973, was designed as a solid showroom for Sony
Electronics. From the beginning, Sony Tower was planned to be a real-time, on-line information tree,
connecting other Sony Towersin New York, London, Paris and other major cities by satellite. Along the
outside of the central display space, the stairs,elevator, escalator, and toilet are capsulated. The capsules
are the same size as those of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, but the exterior is made of stainless steel. To

connect the basement to the public parking lot, the utility rooms are all placed on the roof. The utility pipes
are exposed, also like those of the Nakagin Tower, to facilitate the maintenance and recycling of the
pipes. The Sony Tower is another prototypical example of sustainable architecture.

Metamorphosis 65 designed in the 1961, was a radius

expansion of large cities that has reached the limit of structural growth. The linear structure of network city
must be constructed to reform the radius pattern of urban structure with its single-cell type public and
service centres located in the heart of the city. Shrinking stage of cities of matured countries need to
reconstruct urban area, to make a compact linear network city. In the linear city, nature and urban life are
in parallel, there is no city centre and there is considerable growth potential. Super high-rise building will
be designed freely on fractal surface, along with land
surface and land form.
Another example would be the Fukui Prefecture
Museum of Dinosaurs, 2000. Japans first dinosaur
museum and research centre is located in Katsuyama City, the largest excavation site of prehistoric
remains in Japan. Visitors first enter the museum by taking an escalator from the ground floor, and are
then guided through a display of fossils still embedded in rock, and then, quite suddenly, enter an
enormous exhibition hall. Because the display path opens up into a gigantic space, one can understand
their place in the museum. A series of egg shaped pavilions tantalise the imagination with images of a
giant dinosaur egg. This understanding of place creates a space for the visitor to take part in the display,
allowing it to be an interactive experience and was placed as though buried in the centre of the
topography; the abstract rotated ellipse shape of the research section stands out.
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, 1989 was located on the top of Hijiyama Mountain, it is the
first art museum built in Japan after the war. The circular space at the centre of the architecture is
intentionally empty, the cut notch indicating the direction where the atomic bomb was dropped. The
stones beneath the columns are those exposed to the bomb. The left side of the central circular space
houses the museums permanent collection, and the right side hosts the special exhibitions. The many
gabled roofs come together as an entity like that of a village, the symbiosis between part and whole.
In summary, the metaphoric conduit, to design and architectural creativity that analysis the buildings and
concepts as if they were something else about what the designers or the architects should have a specific
erudition and channel that is treated with an elementary and systematic manner. The metaphoric channel
has been one of the largely fashionable during the contemporary years and has been well-received due to
its theoretical handling at this juncture by radiating a precision in the definitions, categorisations and even
right down to the weighing of the various factors of metaphoric practice for design purposes, addressing
and discussing the use of metaphors by individual designers and architects. Lastly, attention is also
required while focusing on the issue of factual vs. metaphoric fundamental, as this is crucial for its
appropriate use of metaphor under any creative circumstances.
[1] As Aiberti observes conceive of the City (Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design 1992 : 29)
[2] Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the
mind. Chicago: University of Chicago.
[3] Johnson, Mark. 1981b. Introduction: Metaphor in the philosophical tradition. In Johnson 1981a 347.
[4] Johnson, Mark Ed. 1981a.Philosophical perspectives on metaphor. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
[5] As Anthony C. Antoniades A observes little secrets (Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design 1992 : 30)
[6] Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design 1992 : 30
[7] Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design 1992 : 31, 32
[8] As Anthony C. Antoniades A observes The machine was the metaphor of the Modern Movement (Poetics of Architecture:
Theory of Design1992 : 30)

[9]

As Anthony C. Antoniades A observes a tendency to produce aphoristic, utopian, universalized . . . (Poetics of Architecture:
Theory of Design1992 : 34)
[10] Extracted from http://www.copcap.com/composite-8109.htm
[11] Extracted from http://www.inro.tno.nl/transland/Copenhagen.html
[12] Reference from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Copenhagen
[13] As Aiberti observes conceive of the City (Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design 1992 : 29)
[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kisho_Kurokawa
[15] Kisho Kurokawa Architects & Associates: The Philosophy of Symbiosis From the Age of the Machine to the Age of Life
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolist_Movement
[17] http://www.kikutake.co.jp/e/top/top.html
[17] Kisho Kurokawa Architects & Associates: The Philosophy of Symbiosis From the Age of the Machine to the Age of Life

Metaphors: A Creative Design Approach or Theory?

Posted by Christine Wonoseputro on November 1, 2006

Metaphors: A Creative Design Approach or Theory by ChristineWonoseputro

WHAT IS METAPHOR?

The word metaphor derived from grammatical language or phrase of expression. In language grammatical structure,
the word metaphor defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. The word
metaphor itself derived from Greek phrase: metaphoric rhetorical trope which in the simple case, a metaphor
describe as a first subject is being equal as the second subject in some ways. Thus, the first subject can be

economically described because of the implicit and explicit attributes or meaning from the second subject, in order to
enhance the description of the first one. Being known in its usage in literature, especially in poetry, metaphor has
been described in few words, emotions, and associations from one context with objects and entities in any other
different context or meanings.[1] The meaning in linguistic could be the denotative meaning and connotative
meaning. The denotative means the positive, the real meaning of a context. Connotative means the implicit meaning
of words, sometime it could be the negative or the hidden meaning of a word.
The basic of metaphor is almost similar with the term analogy in literature, but metaphor itself is more powerful and
assertive than analogy itself [2]. Metaphor has the similar acknowledgement and closely related to other terms and
grammatical structure that use in grammatical style such as simile, metonymy, allegory, hyperbolic, parable, parsprototo, totem pro-parte,and synecdoche.
Basic on George Lakoffs statement about metaphor, this grammatical term has the relation between the source and
the target. Source means the thing or object which sends the message or the impulse, and target means the recipient
of the impulse itself. The target could be audience or viewer. Being related to the target or the audience or the viewer,
metaphor has been describe open interpretation which this kind of language style sometimes has being known as
cognitive language, which its interpretation depends on the mind of the viewer itself.
TYPES

OF

METAPHOR

IN

LINGUISTIC:

Basically, there are 3 kinds of metaphors [4]

a. Dead metaphor,is one in which the sense of a transferred image is not present. Example: to grasp a concept or
to gather youve understood. Both of these phrases use a physical action as a metaphor for understanding (itself a
metaphor), but in none of these cases do most speakers of English actually visualize the physical action. Dead
metaphors, by definition, normally go unnoticed. Some people make a distinction between a dead metaphor whose
origin most speakers are entirely unaware of (such as to understand meaning to stand underneath a concept), and
a dormant metaphor, whose metaphorical character people are aware of but rarely think about (such as to break the
ice). Others, however, use dead metaphor for both of these concepts, and use it more generally as a way of
describing metaphorical clich.
b. Extended metaphor sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons.
c. Mixed metaphor is one that leaps, in the course of a figure, to a second identification inconsistent with the first
one. Example: He stepped up to the plate and grabbed the bull by the horns, where two commonly used metaphors
are confused to create a nonsensical image.
Other typeof metaphors which have been recognized but not universally accepted :

1. An active metaphor is one which by contrast to a dead metaphor, is not part of daily language and is
noticeable as a metaphor. Example: You are my sun.
2. A complex metaphor is one which mounts an identical identify on another. Example: That throws some light
on the question. Throwing light is a metaphor and there is no actual light.
3. A compound or loose metaphor is one that catches the mind with several points of similarity. Example: He
has the wild stags foot. This phrase suggests grace and speed as well as daring.
4. An absolute or Para-logical metaphor (sometimes called an ant metaphor) is one in which there is no
discernible point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle. Examples:
I. The couch is the autobahn of the living room.
II. Six Flags is the aquarium of roller coasters. An implicit metaphor is one in which the tenor is not
specified but implied. Example: Shut your trap!
5. A submerged metaphor is one in which the vehicle is implied, or indicated by one aspect. Example: my
winged thought. Here, the audience must supply the image of the bird.
6. A simple or tight metaphor is one in which there is but one point of resemblance between the tenor and the
vehicle. Example: Cool it. In this example, the vehicle, cool, is a temperature and nothing else, so the
tenor, it, can only be grounded to the vehicle by one attribute.
7. A root metaphoric the underlying association that shapes an individuals understanding of a situation.
Examples would understand life as a dangerous journey, seeing life as a hard test, or thinking of life as a
good party. A root metaphor is different from the previous types of metaphor in that it is not necessarily an
explicit device in language, but a fundamental, often unconscious, assumption. Religion provides one
common source of root metaphors, since birth, marriage, death and other universal life experiences can
convey a very different meaning to different people, based on their level or type of religious conditioning or
otherwise. For example, some religions see life as a single arrow pointing toward a future endpoint. Others
see it as part of an endlessly repeating cycle. In his book World Hypotheses, the philosopher Stephen
Pepper coined the term and proposed a theory of four ultimate root metaphorsform-ism, mechanism,
organic-ism, contextual-ism.
8. Aconceptual metaphor is an underlying association that is systematic in both language and thought. For
example in the poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, by Dylan Thomas uses the conceptual
metaphor of A Lifetime is a Day is repeatedly expressed and extended throughout the entire poem.

9. Adying metaphor : essay of George Orwell, calls a dead metaphor one that has been worn out and is used
because it saves people the trouble of developing original language to express an idea. It is all but dead.
Similar through the explanation above, Antoniades, [5] the author of Poetics of Architecture, describe these
kinds of metaphor in his own architectural language terminology:
a. Tangible metaphor or the visual metaphor is similar to the analogy of form. Such as if you build a
hamburger stall, which adopted the form of hamburger and people will recognize that the building is
a hamburgers stall.
b. Intangible metaphor is the metaphor of text or context. This is the extension of tangible metaphor, that
architecture is not only playing with visual image of the form, but it play with the hidden message of
it.
c. Combine is the combination of tangible and intangible metaphor.

METAPHORS, GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE, AND ARCHITECTURE

The demolition of Pruit Igoes building as the death of modern era.

Architecture which is form of visual art and communication, also bring visual language of communication. Becoming
the part of visual language, architecture contains of grammatical structure is sending its impulse of messages.
Grammatical structure builds the proper visual language to transfer the idea and body of concept from its author.
The word metaphor appears in Post Modern Architecture the form of protest to modernist architecture. In his
book, The Language of Architecture [6] Charles Jencks wrote that architecture itself can be read as a language. As
visual language, architecture has its own grammatical structure to state the mind. And metaphor is become one of the
most powerful Post Modern Architectures tool, to state critic and parody of the Modern era. It strongly states the
failure of modern architecture and make joke of the death of modern era.
In post modern architecture, the position metaphor as architectural grammatical structure is becomes the part of the
grand SEMIOTICS, the system of sign in Architecture. Basically, Semiotics and the system of sign are rooted on
Ferdinand de Sausages Structuralism Concept in Linguistic and Levi-Strauss in Anthropology. Structuralism always
divide the phenomena of things in elements that is believed the caused of abstraction [7]. Structuralism believes that
the relation between objects or elements is caused phenomena [8]. Structuralism teach us that to understand the
phenomena of things or objects, it always see matters in what they have called: THE BINARY OPOSITION.
Structuralism is seen everything in this life in its own way, such as:
a. Cause and effect (J.J Rousseau)
b. Speech and writing (C. Levi-Strauss)
c. Presence and absence, signifier and signified (Ferdinand de Sausure)
d. Non material material (Antoniades)
According to the concept of philosophy that being stated by those philosophers, Architecture adopt that philosophical
thinking. Architecture itself is being seen as the most complex and complicated branch of knowledge from ART,
which its manifestation is in visual and material. Architecture is being bound by gravity, climate and weather,
topography, hierarchy, movement, space, and other things such as memory, social hierarchy, soul, programs, and
many other things. That is why architecture is facing a lot of things, in order to accommodate a lot of programs and
natural bounds. At last, the complicated oppositional of architecture has to be translated into material. The process of
transformation of abstract aspects into material is being called as the process of Metaphoric Process. The most
successful metaphoric process is probably Notre Dame du Haute Ron champ Chapel of Le Corbusier, which
begins the idea of a crab, but could be interpreted as many other things by its viewers.

Le Corbusier

Le Corbusiers Ronchamp chapel multi interpretation of metaphor.

The multi interpretation of Ronchamp

According to Prijotomos [9] lecture notes, post modern era itself differ into the post-modern [10] era or called the
after or late modern era and the post- modern architecture or the new modern architecture. Both of them has different
technique and different translation system in using metaphor of architecture. The late modern and its architect, such
as James Stirling, Robert Venturi, and Charles Moore choose more conventional items as his own metaphorical tools.
[10] From Asian architecture, Tadao Ando has also been being known as the late modern architect from the eastern
world that use nature and the poetic of nature to form his metaphoric tools in architecture. The new modern or neo
modern architect, which most of them is being known as deconstructionist architect, is dividing into deriddean
architects and non-deriddean architects.
Scheme of Post Modern Architecture:
Post-modern Architecture:
1. After Modern Era:
a. Late Modern Architecture ( Tadao Ando, early Gehrys works,etc )
b. Post Modern Architecture ( James Stirling, Charles Moore, Robert Venturi, etc. )
2. New Modern Era
c. Neo Modern Architecture: Richard Meier,etc- High Technology ( High _tech ) : Norman Foster, etc
d.Deconstruction
1. Deriddean( Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi )
2. Non- Deriddean( Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelblau, Morphosis, etc.)

Lebbeus wood s dystopia of the future the metaphor of

non- deriddean architecture
The Deriddean Architecture would look like thesimplest deconstruction architecture in using the
metaphor of form, because their playing tools is the text and the revelation of text in design. The word
conservative doesnt mean that they use the simplest metaphor. Mostly deriddean architect play with

the intangible metaphors or the extended metaphors. Source has stated that this deconstruction is the
most complicated and hard to understand. They adopted Derridas concept from Of Grammatology,
which is wrote by Gayatri C. Spivak [11]. Peter Wiseman and Bernard Tschumi are two architects that
have been intensively used this concept. Setiawan [12] called these two architects as the metaphors of
text. The manifestation of their designs is not as chaotic and fractal as the non- deriding architects.
Aaron Betsky, [13] wrote his book The Violated Perfection, which categorized 210 architect of the non
deriding Architect, into 5 main groups:
1. Revelatory Modernist: Pure form has contaminated, transforming architecture into an agent of instability,
disharmony conflict that is the proper statement of this kind of architecture. According to its concept, this
group is the most conservative in non -deriddean architecture. They use function, principle of abstraction,
and composing the fragmentation of pieces, programs, and contexts to fabricate metaphors of architecture.
Emilio Embasz, Jean Nouvel, Helmut Jahn, Eric Owen Moss, and Gunter Benisch are part of these
architects.
2. Shard and Sharks: the most radical of deconstruction architecture. They play with slate and plane. The
composition is chaotic and fractal. The metaphor is rebellious [13], chaotic, and the beauty of ugliness.
Prijotomo called this kind of deconstruction as the ugly duckling the hidden beauty of design. As being
mentioned by Gehry in his Inaugural Lecture in NUS, October 2006, he use his architecture as the

Frank Gehry In His Inaugural Lecture at Singapore, being drawn as the

Simpson and his concert hall model.
metaphors of urban chaos, the mixed use topography and the messy environment. He said that architecture
is become mirror of its era, giving archieves to next generation about how that time when architecture is
being stated looked like . So, as what Himmelblau has stated, that architecture has mission to carry, as a
story teller. Architecture must burn. Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Kazuo Shinohara, Coop Himmelblau, and
Gunter Domineg are the part of Shard and Sharks movement.

Zaha Hadid

Frank Gehry

Frank Gehrys Fred and Ginger building metaphor of Fred and Ginger, a famous
dancer couple.

3. Textualist: this group has also being told as the built language architecture. They feel that architecture as the
interpreter must be used as the creative probability of interstitial composition between language,
photography, and movie. Ben Nicholson, Steven Holl, Bernard Tschumi, and Diller are parts of this group.
4. New Mythologist : using the utopia as myth which has existed along the time, and being revaluated by the
failure of International Style as the utopia of Modern Architecture, this new mythologist create dystopia or
vision of self destruction which is not developed in human minds to stay preserve the life. This group tries to
create the new utopia of the past, present, and the future. Being inspired by the science fiction movie and
time machine, Lebbeus Woods, Paolo Soleri, and Hodgett & Fung design association are parts of this group.
5. Technomorphism : the metaphor that being used is the metaphor of machine and technology. Architects think
that technology is being created to help human. Technology make space and time become shorter and
easier. For example in medical world, the life support of human being has already been helped by machine ,
such us artificial and metal bone, machined heart support, artificial blood vein, and the latest innovation in
Japan, the androids. This group of architect has been translating technology and its impact in human life as
technomorphism deconstruction. Betsky mentioned that Macdonald and Salter, Toyo Ito, Morphosis, and
Holt is the part of this group.
SOUTH EAST ASIA EXPERIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE OF METAPHORS : THE SOCIAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, AND
POLITICAL CONTEXT IN ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION

How about South East Asia Architecture? Learning from architecture and design development of the world, the
impact of globalisation and post modern language also give the strong influence through south East Asia and other
developing countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines. The using of Metaphors as
one of the Post-modern tool in doing the design, many young architects create innovation in design. The post-modern
world has brought communication and media closer to people. The information become open source and the global
network of architects give strong influence through South East Asia education and development, too.
Work of Ito, Gehry, Hadid, and many other architects can be found everywhere in South East Asia,
including Singapore. According to this situation, some Seminars and Design Conference in South East Asia, Young
architects conducts public discussion in developing the language of own local identity of South East
Asias architectural design tools. For example Singapore has 25 40 young architects, which actively publishing their
portfolio of works and sharing their way of thinking in design. InIndonesia, AMI[14] (Arsitek Muda Indonesia) or the
Young Architects of Indonesia become the front liner of new design innovation. MARA in as a school of architecture
in Malaysiastart

to

think

about

the

root

of

Malay

architecture

and

developing

the

language

of

Malay architecture.They conduct the first Malay Architecture International Seminar in 2005, collaborated with trisakti

University and National University of Singapore. Nowadays, South East Asiakeeps developing their own architectural
language in order to finding their own local genius. Dr. Johanes Widodo from National University of Singapore [15]
has mentioned that as Eastern World, we have to develop our own identity in architecture, by finding and keep
searching our own local architectural language. Nowadays our scholars and architects still borrowing western
grammatical language to perform their building design. South East Asian architects has to be brave enough to show
their own local heritage of metaphorical transformation.
Learning from Japan, which has probably been the most active in searching and developing Asian local values as
the grammar of metaphor in design. Japan has Kisho Kurokawa, Tadao Ando, and Toyo Ito have been globally known
as Asian front liners in developing new language that brings Asiato the world through its architectural metaphors.
Kisho with the concept of Architecture of Symbiosis, Symbiosis, Metabolism, Information, Recycle, Ecology,
Intermediate Space, Fractal, etc. has been the most influence Japanese architect of symbiosis and metabolism
metaphors.[16] Kishos concept of design has been recognize worlwide, and architecture public has apreciate his
works. ( Kisho Kurukawa :The Philosophy of Symbiosis ( 1992 ) ).
Trying to be one step ahead, Deconstruction Architecture Seminar has been presented in Surabaya, Indonesia,
Sardjono Sani[17], as the representation of AMI has stated that through his own understanding, he produce the
design. He looks at architecture as media that can produce programs that adopted complexity and contradiction. The
complexity is architecture is depends on architects subjectivity, modernity and it dependence of hierarchy, and human
as an object of form and space. So, he said that he does not want to be trapped in deconstruction or any other form
of style, but, he has his own of thinking [17]:
a. That his architecture could be interpreted as multi dimension of interpretation, because architecture as a
branch of art is open to many interpretations.
b. In Architecture, the most important is the life inside of it, the changing of its context and the eternal value of
space and form that could be used by the users.
c. Taoism, Surrealism, Dadaism,are his tool to help him producing his own architectural metaphor. The design
progress is being helped by using theme in design scenario, understanding the aim, meaning, and individual
response (client) along the design progress. Architecture is not only work by the subjectivity of the architect,
but must be done progressively with the client.
Learning from those experiences, it will be a great homework for South East Asia and a lot of school of
architecture and design to produce scholars that proud of their own local architectural grammar.

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

1. Metaphor is the transformation process from abstracts into material or visual image. Analogy is the
fundamental level of metaphor. In analogy, the concept is directly applied to design or context without
process.
2. Metaphor is part of system of sign or Semiotics. Semiotics, which divide into icon, symbols, and Sign, is the
representation of denotative and connotative meanings in linguistics into architecture. This signify, signified,
and signifier is the three points that construct the semiotics system.
3. Design approach or theory? Probably it is the most difficult question to answer, because most architects still
use it as a design tool. To make it as a theory, I think it still need a long road toward recognition. In my own
undestanding, metaphor as part of of architectural tool is strongly bound with the local context and local
understanding. To become a theory, metaphor should be recognized as a general and global concept.
Actually, the using of metaphor is not a new issue in architecture. Ancient Architecture, which use a lot of
signs and symbols has already adopted it as a grammatical tool to represent their concept, especially for
spiritual and sacred buildings.

FOOTNOTES
1. Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor: In language a metaphor ( from the Greek : metapherin )
is seeming relate the two subjects that seemingly unrelated subjects , IA Richard , The Philosophy of Rhetoric
( 1936 )
2.Anthony C. Antoniades, Peotic of Architecture : Theory of Design ( 1992 )
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff
4.Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor
5.Anthony C. Antoniades, Poetic of Architecture : Theory of Design 1992 : 30
6. Charles Jencks, The Language of Posmodernism ( 1991 )
7. Geoffrey Broadbent, Deconstruction : A Student Guide, London Academy Edition ( 1991 )
8.Heidegger in Dr.Bagoes Wirjomartono, The Conception Background of Deconstruction Architecture, presented in
Seminar of Deconstruction Architecture in Surabaya, 1995.

9. Dr. Joseph Prijotomo, Hand Book of Theory and History of Architecture Architecture Department of Petra
Christian University Surabaya (1998)
10. Charles Jencks, The Language of Posmodernism ( 1991 ): The metaphor after modern era is slightly
conventional, vernacular, and parodical. The vocabularies that they use is borrowing the value of the past, such as
using the greek or roman column as joke to critic the modern architecture and the international style. Compare to new
modern vocabularies, the emotion is brutalism, chaotic, and rebellious.
11. Aaron Betsky, Violated Perfection : Architecture and Fragmentation of The Modern, New York, Rizolli International
Publication ( 1991 )
12 Aaron Betsky in Aloysius Joseph Setiawan , The concept of Derridean and Non-Derridean in Architecture of
Deconstruction, presented in Seminar of Deconstruction Architecture In Surabaya ( 1995 )
13.Frank

Gehry

In

Inaugural

Lecture

In

National

University

of

Singapore,

October

2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_gehry
14.AMI Penjelajahan 1992 1995, AMI : The Long Toward Recognation ( 2005 )
15. Quoting from Dr. Johanes Widodo in International Malay Architecture Seminar in Jakarta : Today our architects
still borrow western language to produce their own methapors south east asia architects must be proud of its own
local vocabularies. ( 2005 )
16.Contemporary Japanese Architects, Taschen ( 1995 )
17.Sardjono Sani in Aplication of Deconstruction Architecture, presented in Deconstruction Seminar In Surabaya
( 1995 )
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2 Responses to Metaphors: A Creative Design Approach or Theory?

1.

Ash Yeo said

November 16, 2006 at 9:59 am

Credit should be given to you for finding this compendium of meanings of metaphor. This is technical
issue however knowing you only have a 3000 word article, that requires a summary of your findings in a
very short reference naming all the various meanings found, and then select the most relevant metaphors
(such as compound, para-logical, submerged and root), following which you may use to illustrate them in
applications of spatial design operations in a limited 3000 word article.

The article reads like a detailed compendium of certain key terms about metaphors and architectural
styles and programmes.
The article had forged Structuralism with Semiotics with Charles Jencks Post Modernism, and then
suggested that structuralism is phenomenology, and then detailed several non -deriddean architectural
styles as phenomenological examples. It would have been good if descriptive examples of phenomenology
were separated from the arguments of what is Derridean, away from the politics of categorizing what is
Post-Modernism.
The section about how some Japanese architects had successfully applied metaphors is very interesting,
except it lacks details of built examples with anecdotal evidences of phenomenological experiences. This
section could have been more thoroughly explored.

The concluding paragraph is fragmented and distracting. It includes two hanging definitions with a 3rd
question issue (which newly introduces terms of ancient architecture), which does not relevantly bring the
article to a proper close.

Credit however, to your spirit of research, which administers and interesting discovery of a cache of
metaphorical terms and categories. This should turn out useful as design devices for approaching
phenomenological studies and reading metaphorical translations in spatial designs.

The essential role served by post-graduate or professional works is to clarify, distil and ask the next most
relevant questions, that leads to our own insights and also hopefully enlighten others. This value should be
borne in mind as one of the many purposes of reflective writings as academics and practitioners.

Reply

2.

Kentneo said
November 21, 2006 at 4:12 pm

1.Shows good understanding of metaphors in relation to saptial design with suitable definitions
fromPoetics of Architecture by Antoniades,
2.In depth analysis of metaphors used in both Western and Asian context . Approaches metaphors in a
broad spectrum.
3.The article shows a logical sequence by starting with a definition followed by metaphors in an
international context and finally ending with reflection of the state of architecture in Asia. A critical
assessment of the impact of these imported metaphors in the Asian context could be meaningful for you
as an architectural lecturer in Indonesia.
Reply

Poetics of Architecture
Chameera Udawatthe
092150f
B.Arch level 2

Poetics of
Architecture
Theory of design

ANTHONY C. ANTHONIADES
BOOK REVIEW BY CHAMEERA UDAWATTHE
Literature and classics are an indispensible tool for the intuitively inclined architect
and architectural instructor
The good architecture like a poet it has the rhythm and flow tuned with codes. It
must address the aspects of imagination and creativity. The creativity is the
cognition of the edifice. The poetics of the architecture represent the evolutions of
this poet for the benefits of the good architecture. In this book represent the theory
of architecture which is derived from the human thought, a deals with the nature
like of the metaphorical thoughts of the humanity.
The whole premise of this book is that architectural contemplation, the architecture
contemplation quit good and benefits for the user and it has the methods of design
journeying, and in due course architecture as built nowadays are much wealthier
than they were during the earlier part of the century, the period of the Modern
movement. The book explains little bit about the development of the contemporary
architecture in the world. It explore the original theories of Modernism and
Postmodern design and attempts to bring together all that is meaningful in these
two movements into a new inclusivity attitude toward architecture. Anthony C
Antoniades looks at the many intangible and tangible channels one can yoke in
creating architectural design. By opening architecture eyes to full fill the mind and

heart in to the goodness of the spirituality is the best climax to the full range of
creative influence, he tries to explain the readers manufacture designs that are
richer on spatial, sensual, spiritual, and environmental levels. The richness is the
key of making classification of good architecture. Classification is very important in
the end to identify what is good and what is bad? And also the classification helps to
create good architecture. Most of the channels in the book directly address the
intangible elusive channels of creativity spirituality of architecture metaphor and
what is metaphor, the ironic consideration of the creative building on the earth.
And the writer deal with historical background of the exotic and multicultural
tradition of the architecture should be used in the applications. Among the
touchable channels covered in the book are the historical precedents to explain the
rhythm of the geometry and development of the metaphorical background of the
architecture in the world. The author presented a rich and imaginative discussions
of these various channels, explaining which are were favored during the Modern and
Postmodern movements and classifying his theoretical analysis through the use of
many vivid examples, tables and illustrations. Included among the examples in the
volume are many distinguished projects and theories by a wide range of noted
architects such as Utzon, Barragin, Asplund, Pietila, Aalto, Legarreta, Predock, and
Pikionis, who are latecomers to the attention of the media. It summarizes the
findings and transformation in biology and the theory of knowledge and suggests an
architectural analogue. It concludes with a suggestion for a transformational
attitude via the methodology of simultaneity. In this book poetry and literature are
portrayed as two powerful vehicles to architectural design. According to the author
a designer should have a poetic palette that includes local as well as universal
ingredients. He has discussed about the cross-culture fertilization which leads to the
birth of the exotica. He addressed both the physical and metaphysical nature of
exotica. Also he discussed about the multicultural nature of recent educational
trends that has brought the element of the exotic into the design studio. The
categories of exotic design exercises are presented, along with projects from the
authors personal experience. Author says that Architectural history is the
qualitative degree of difference that distinguish architects among themselves, thats
the turning point of the changing the creative channels of the architecture in the
world. The author made a great conversation to explain what the architecture
history is and hat is architecture historicism, and obtainable arguments for the right
use of both good and bad architecture. He defined the brand admiration of the
history as contrasting to the bias of architecture historicism. What is important of
the history and basic use of the history as architecture? The book says how we
should deals with the historical precedent which provide to create creativity or
imitate what we had in the past. The author negotiates the concept of the accurate
use of architecture history, and made suggestions for selecting the right sort of
precedents. Sir Anthony C. Antoniades accomplished that to look upon the style, the
needed architecture sense toward the historical background of the concept. And
also he converse the indeed response toward the responsibility of architecture with
the historical clues of good Architecture. The book covers the source, definitions,

and opposing attitudes of scholars and aesthetes on mimicking the goodness of

architecture, truthful interpretation deal with the philosophical liberation of
architecture science o, and their associated concepts imitation, origination. One
should be cautious when creating through this channel, and adopt the attitude of
implement ability as a way to safeguard against the dangers of misuse while
achieving useful ends from both mimesis and literality.
It addresses the supremacy of geometric over analytical depiction, and the reasons
for the appeal of geometry over the years. The early emphasis of aesthetes on
geometry was partial, with a focus on elevations, proportional systems, and the
concept of symphonic composition. It also discusses about the relationship of the
various building types and their corresponding fit with geometry and the concept of
geometric fields is viewed through both historical examples and contemporary
complex building types. The caution he gave is that geometry can be misused when
the emphasis is on form as opposed to the inclusivity concerns.
Author gave extraordinary concentration to the construction materials, selection
and their proper use. He talks that the language of the architecture and letters of
the architecture is materials we used to create good architecture. The advantage of
the advance science of the architecture comes from the goodness of the material
science. The development of the material usage is the development of the
architecture; the risk all the historical buildings took made the elusive
transformation to the development of the architecture to the contemporary
architecture. He talks about the tangible things in the architecture, its like a body
flushness blood and bones of the architecture are the materials which we used to
create good architecture on the earth. To him material is everything to create
anything. The Modern and Postmodern movements fluctuate with look upon to the
criterion of material science. The post modernism is the time when the new
materials came to the theater and play big roles in the architecture. In fact the fact
between the developments of the architecture lies behind the goodness of the
material science. His discussion focuses on the use of materials is the best way of
creating god architecture. He says the knowing the material science is the door to
the successful architecture. The best example for this is the post modernism. The
post modernism shows the rapid development of material science and parallel
developments in the architecture. To him successful architects are such as
H.H.Richardson, Frank Lloyed Wright, Louis I.Kahn, and Alvar Aalto. Author
suggested for the enrichment of design education by extra emphasis on materials
through their incorporation into design studio work. The author converse the
advantage of knowing the material science for the survival o the good architecture,
therefore he says the architecture education should be developed with studio works
an material works which are more practical to the construction science . He says
studying architecture all about studying how to deal with the materials for the
goodness of the architecture of the world.

In the end Antoniades made a great effort to understand the meaning of good
architecture and tried to explain the goodness of the architecture to us. His revival
of poetics of architecture deepens and sharps our mind and the heart to sense the
good architecture in the world. And also the book helps to understand and classify
the goodness of the architecture. Therefore he had succeeded to write and converse
the all the necessary element of the architecture and historical back ground of the
architecture. His negotiation toward the elementary science of the architecture and
his understand of each and every element of the architecture is good for us. I
believe all the architecture students should read this book to understand the
goodness of the architecture and create good grammar in architecture science.
And the best part of this book is he had given wonderful examples to prove what he
believe in the architecture and he gave good fight to prove what he believe. Yes, in
front of a society you should give fight and say what I believe is right, in the book he
had put a lots of photographs of not building but studio models and students works
of architecture. He always tried connecting the architecture education and the
general works of the architectural functions in the world.
Whatever, the great philosophy he had written and communicated in the book, my
conclusion is; he lacks the sense of social aspects in the architecture and
connection between the metaphor and the eye of the viewer change from the place
to place. He had no explanation on the correlation between the society and
architecture; he had understood the architecture as a single source work apart from
the society. Even thou he had converse the material science and connection
between the materials and the architecture he lacked to make a good conversation
to prove the great connection between the architecture and the society. Therefore I
believe the poetics of architecture is not an ideal book to understand the
architecture science it is a European explanation of the architecture as science
which deals with only the materials. Well the other things are the psychological
aspects of designing process. Antonio is not a machine therefore he should have a
sense of creativity and the way of singing song according to the patterns of
humanity but in the book no idea of psychological aspects which we should
considerably act to create good architecture. But in the other side the architecture
is something deals with society and the psychological aspects of the society. If he
had explained those things too I believe that the poetics of architecture is a great
book to understand the architecture. Highly original base on solid principles of
architecture and architectural education, the poetics of architecture help you to
understand and widen your own ideas of creative and in the studio works. It will also
deepen you mind and souls to taste and sense the good architecture. And the book
help to compromise to appreciate of the creative process and the design process
with many influences to develop the architecture. The student orientation of the
book is very important for you to understand the architecture education but the
other hand you should also try to understand the benefits of the sensing good
architecture. This book doesnt let you understand what is good architecture but it

does let you sense what is good architecture. Therefore as an architecture student
you should read this book not only once twice and understand the essence of the
architecture and the poetics of architecture. However after all inspire from the book
and start sings your own song.

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SPACE

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THE NEW URBAN QUESTION A CONVERSATION

ON THE LEGACY OF BERNARDO SECCHI WITH
PAOLA PELLEGRINI

Bernardo Secchi (1934-2014) was an Italian urban theorist,

renowned urban planner, Emeritus Professor of Urban Planning at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura (IUAV)
of Venice and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic of Milano. For almost half a century, he was a
central figure within European and Italian interdisciplinary debates on the contemporary city and urban design. His
research was located within the wider discourses of space and societal transformations, influenced by post-68
French theorists and nourished specifically by a wide investigation of European urban territories. In his practice, he
developed plans and visions for small and large cities in Italy and Europe, including Milano, Jesi, Brescia, Pesaro,
Siena, Ascoli Piceno, Bergamo, Prato, Pescara, Lecce, Madrid, Antwerp[1], Bruxelles and Moscow. In 2008 he was
amongst the ten architects selected to develop a vision for Grand Paris[2]; his idea of ville poreuse focused on the
improvement of permeability and accessibility, as a strategy to ensure the fundamental right to the city. As a scholar
and intellectual, he was fascinated by the multiple narratives and multidisciplinary nature of urban territories. In the
books, Prima lezione di Urbanistica (2007), La citt del ventesimo secolo (2008), La citt dei ricchi e la citt dei
poveri (2013), regrettably not yet translated for English speaking scholars, he placed into creative tension the
economic, political, and cultural dimensions of urbanism, informed by theoretical insights and underpinned by an
engagement with spatial realities and design projects. He treated urban transformations with vivid, lucid and
contemporary analyses that utilized theories as productive investigative tools to elucidate society and space rather
than as merely self-referential intellectual gestures.
Secchis death in September marks a great loss for urbanism. The conversation below is a gesture towards bringing
his work to a wider Anglophone audience, since little of his work has been translated into English. It reflects on his

legacy by exploring his intellectual production[3], critical pedagogy and practice, with a special focus on the
exploration of his idea of a new urban question and the formation of his reflexive urban research praxis. The new
urban question was addressed most concertedly in his last book, and is concerned with the increasing social
inequalities and spatial injustice. His urban research praxis, shaped by long-term practice and experience, voracious
curiosity and acute observation, aimed to dismantle disciplinary boundaries and conventional scales, focusing on a
certain idea of precision, accuracy and patience. We conducted an interview with Paola Pellegrini, urbanist and
scholar, and Secchis associate for 12 years, and asked her to offer a personal and professional reflection on Secchis
intellectual legacy.
Camillo Boano and Giovanna Astolfo

The whole history of the city can be written keeping in mind the compatibility or incompatibility of
the people [] Intolerance denies proximity, it separates and creates distance between activities,
buildings, public spaces, their inhabitants and users B. Secchi[4]
Camillo Boano/Giovanna Astolfo: Bernardo Secchi wrote and reflected extensively on the democratization of
urban space, the emergence of the ordinary, and, more recently[5], on the still fundamental issue of comment
vivre ensemble (how to live together), a topic you developed in recent work on proximity[6]. Can you explain
it further?
Paola Pellegrini: The search for proximity is part of the patient search for the physical and feasible dimensions of
individual and collective welfare, which was a major topic in Secchis work (see his La citt del XX secolo [7]) and
can be described, in his own words, as an attempt to give a concrete dimension, physically perceptible to individual
collective welfare/wellbeing[8] and to its distribution among the various social groups[9].
But it also goes beyond this search and refers to the idea that new individual practices and the consequences on the
ways of living together such as individualization and the search for some kind of network very well explained by
Richard Sennett, Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman in recent and less recent years are the basis of new ideas of
the city and territory. The search for independent and individual rhythm in the community Barthess comment
vivre ensemble[10]and idiorrhythms-, the recent appearance of various coexistence experiments in many European
urban contexts, the revival of the notion of spatial proximity in urban design and planning practice are moments of
this reasoning, trying to further articulate Webbers idea of urbanity without propinquity [11]. As an example of
this revival, all of the participants to the plan for the great Paris metropolitan area in 2008-2009, in their different
proposed models or solutions, claim the city must grow upon itself and densify; a renouvellement of the idea of
concentration, density, compact city, direct relations
CB/GA: A challenging concept, related to the intellectual milieu that influenced Secchis research and
practice (eg: Bourdieu, Barthes and Foucault) is that of the right distance (between buildings, people,
functions), but Secchi left it almost un-explained

PP: Quoting Tommaso DAquinos not everything has to be defined, Secchi has deliberately left the concept open
to interpretations. Such openness enables the case-by-case definition of the right distance, explored through the
socio-spatial specificity and political territories of any urban project. In fact, Secchi used to give great emphasis to
the design practice; accordingly, in the Secchi-Vigan Studios praxis, theories and hypothesies were constantly
tested in urban context and viceversa, in a continuous process of feedback. The interpretation of Paris as a postKyoto porous city can be regarded also as a question for the re-definition of spatial proximity, in which urban
interstices operate to densify (for example in pavillonnaire[12]), build functional and social mixit (mix), and
increase accessibility to the outer areas (by inserting an extensive network of public transport). Conceptually, the
notion of porosity reviews and renews those of compactness and density.
CB/GA: In his late work[13], Secchi reflects again on socio-spatial distance, taking up Bourdieus notion of
distinction[14], multicultural existence and social inequalities as central to what he used to call the new
urban question. Can you elaborate on his notion?
PP: A new urban question rises in times of great crisis, with the disruption of the economic, social and institutional
apparatuses. Secchi believed that the current global crisis, which he thought to be radical, and as meaningful and
important as other past crises, such as the massive urbanization post industrialization, shapes a new urban question.
Two other main questions shape it increasing and increasingly visible spatial injustice, and widening
environmental problems and climate change vulnerabilities. Alongside these three issues, in the development of the
idea, he further added the question of accessibility and mobility as part of the right to the city/right to
citizenship[15]. These questions, particularly problematic within the major metropolitan areas, arose independently
and over time became interdependent as suggested in many traditions of urban studies from Lefebvre to Merrifield
According to Secchi, the crises of capitalist economy, as for example the housing crisis at the beginning of
nineteenth century, has been overcome by a stronger concentration of power. The same could occur now, with a
stronger globalization. What impact will it have on our cities? First, it will probably cause a radical decrease in the
public investment aimed at tackling the worsening of social inequalities, and will result in a reduction of public
facilities and services (education, health, transport and housing); that is to say, a progressive decline of welfare.
Secondly, it will probably contribute to an increase of the territorial stigma (etiquettage), quoting Bourdieu and his
idea about the segregation of the misre du monde[16]. In fact, even if cities have always been the place where
difference is spatialized and therefore dramatically visible, today the phenomenon is even more evident, and the rich
and the poor are less mingled than they used to be in the ancien rgime city.

Studio Secchi Vigan, Grand Paris Plan

CB/GA: Since social inequality is central to the new urban question, the question then is, what is the
responsibility of urbanism[17]?
PP: Secchi argued that urbanism cannot impact inequality or poverty directly, but it rather governs those devices
that are aimed to produce and reproduce inequality and poverty: spatial, juridical, procedural and institutional
devices, widely mentioned in his texts, drawing from Foucault and Deleuze, include zoning, distribution of facilities,
construction of qualitative-quantitative parameters, traffic and transport policy, just to mention a few. What changes
down the history of the city is much more the regulatory sense and role of each device rather than the catalogue of
devices, and it is through this regulating action that the city becomes a machine for social integration or exclusion as
the case may be.[18]
Often we reflected whether our skills and tools are useful and adequate to fight inequalities, marginalization and
poverty. Although Secchi did not share the idea that a designer is a social or political activist, he was keen on the
idea of devising open and flexible projects that people can appropriate and transform. A project should help peoples
aspirations and show the kind of space that people can aspire to, as he used to say. Ultimately, the role/potential of
urban design/planning is to anticipate possible futures, improving the relation between people and space.
CB/GA: Do you think that urbanism can be conceived as a device itself, with Foucault, as a biopolitical
dispositif?

PP: That urbanism is a dispositif in itself is not a novelty. What is more interesting is precisely that it is a set of
collated and coordinated devices, linked in some sort of organization or as Foucaults termed apparatuses. Planning
policies and regulations, either holistic or selective, employ spatial devices such as dimensions, location,
separation, connection and housing typologies that increase or decrease social difference and the distribution of
welfare/wellbeing. In the Antwerp strategic plan, some urban devices were introduced for new dwelling and living
together, learning from existing practices of individual infiltration and cohabitation, couples with children reused
dismissed urban parcel in the historic dense urban center place of immigrants, abandonment, old people and shopsto create housing solutions alternative to the suburban flee in the porousness that opens up in the multiethnic urban
fabric[19].
The fear of the other, the poor and the stranger has often fostered the formulation of specific policies, while the
history of the European city can be described as a succession of systems of intolerance, removal of the difference
and normalisation efforts. The adoption of devices to prevent permeability and accessibility (such as walls,
infrastructural and environmental barriers) in the past, has been replaced today by multiple and complex forms of
segregation.
Secchi recalled the different experiences of the new urbanism, from the North American gated communities
(where 10 to 16 million rich people live) to the South American condominos fechados,barrios cerrados and ciudad
vallada, describing them as the negation of a city where the technical-spatial devices of the city play different
functional and symbolic roles [] place suspended from the legal institutional order of the country they belong to, a
limitation of its sovereignty [] where new and specific forms of governance are created ad hoc and accepted in a
pact of mutual solidarity with its inhabitants[20]. So Foucault certainly inspired Secchis urban visions, not only as
analytical tool but as emancipatory possibility in a renewed and attentive urban practice.
CB/GA: The vision for Paris widely reflects on the urban question (proximity, environmental problems and
mobility), fostering inclusive, accessible and sustainable production of space, as the slogan you choose which
makes it intelligible: la ville poreuse. Can you explain it further?
[PP] Secchi used to recall Bourdieus notion of social and cultural capital[21] and, more recently, Edward Sojas
notion of spatial capital, related to the benefits derived from social (network), cultural (education) and spatial assets
(housing/work location and mobility options). Secchis way to address the urban question in the plan for Paris was
to create, accumulate or redistribute (social, cultural and) spatial capital/assets, by increasing accessibility, improve
mobility and access to environmental resources. In other words, by ensuring porosity and permeability.
The notion of porosity, borrowed from physics but also from literature, i.e. Benjamin, is as well analytical as a
design tool, and refers to the percentage of open spaces in relation to built spaces and to the possibility to have
different flows (of people, public transport, water, activities, practices, differences and vegetation). Porosity does not
only include green areas and agricultural land, or abandoned, vacant and under-used lots; it rather implies the

possibility to re-signify non-built areas as a whole, especially the space for mobility. Furthermore, porosity is
strongly related to permeability, represented by the single connections between the pores. A porous city is widely
accessible thanks to a new structure of public transport (a network described by the metaphor of a sponge) and
highly sustainable new biological corridors, as well as, more space for the water network/wet lands.
In one word, a porous city can be said to be isotropic, meaning that it can provide an equal distribution of
infrastructural and environmental conditions, and therefore urban(ity) opportunities. Secchis concept of isotropy,
that was first employed by another Italian urbanist, Giuseppe Samon, developed into a willingness to dissolve
infrastructural segregation and destroy hierarchies. It has to be remembered, though, that the project for Paris is
conceptual and schematic, a tool to test some hypothesis and produce new knowledge, rather than a solution per se.

[]The archive that I propose becomes testimony to this effort: to the attempt, for instance, to
overcome the constraints of available resources and techniques, or those regarding relationships of
power, of culture, of taste; to build a city in which different individuals and group cultures can
represent themselves and find their own space [] -B.Secchi[22]
CB/GA: Recalling Secchis definition of space as an archive[23], or a palimpsest, with Corboz[24], seems to
regard urban space as a static reality, albeit complex, where social and political struggle is deposited or
fossilized. Based also on your own experience as urbanist and pedagogue, what was Secchis notion of space
and territory?
PP: Urban space was never imagined or described by Secchi as a static reality. The idea of palimpsest entails that
the inhabited territory is the result of a process of selective accumulation, i.e. in the continuous process of
transformation some elements are preserved for future generations, while some others are discarded, according to
the local values, cultural and economic conditions. Similarly I dare say there was not one notion of space and
territory for Secchi, but many, as many as the different realities he explored. It is possible though to recall three
moments in which the idea of space has changed: the glorious thirty, the thirty years of development after the last
world war, when middle class emerged and large peripheries were formed; the rise of individualism and the diffused
city after the economic boom in the 1960s; some sort of return to the compact city in more recent years, which many
claim is resilient or must be to face the crisis, the climate change, and the decline of welfare state.

by urbanism I mean not so much a set of buildings, projects, theories uniformed around the
common rules of a theme (urban), a language and discursive organization, much less I mean an
academic discipline, but the traces of a large set practices: those of the continuous and conscious
change the status of the territory and the city. -B.Secchi[25]
CB/GA: Such a notion of urban space, as the product of a multiple, complex and stratified agency, reveals the
difficulty of a holistic understanding of current transformations, calling for a continuous reflection around

disciplinary boundaries (architecture and urbanism) merging economic, social and geographical dimension.
What was Secchis definition for urbanism?
PP: Secchi was very cautious about the possibility of attaining a holistic understanding of socio-spatial urban
transformations, and was skeptical about any projects with holistic demands. Reality is getting more and more
complex and the territory is constantly changing, so being holistic is greatly naive. In such an uncertain frame,
disciplinary boundaries were considered an obstacle for the real understanding of urban transformations, but also an
obstacle for the design itself. Urbanism, according to Secchi, was a mixture of architecture, urban design and city
planning, an act of formation/composition (composizione), that was differently conceived according to the
specificity: in Antwerp it involved a selection of actions and interventions; in Paris and Brussels a vision about
space.
An urbanist should not be a rispecchialista as some Russian artists in the 1920s who claimed that art can only mirror
the contemporary social structure. Nevertheless, he/she should not think that the future is an extension of the past
and present. An urbanist should rather design the future in order to increase the welfare and wellbeing of inhabitants.
Secchi often mentioned the critique that Leonardo Benevolo, an Italian historian of architecture, addressed of the
planners lack of timing and the habit to intervene a posteriori rather than anticipate change; building on this,
Benevolo also suggested that an urban intervention can be effective only by addressing its political content.
Facing the increasing difficult task of understanding and engaging with the complexity and multiplicity of
phenomena, Secchi tried to elaborate an alternative approach to tackle inhabited urban territories, based on a
reflexive and investigative method. Averse to heroic and exogenous plans (so popular in the current climate of urban
super expert and archistars), he tried to reveal embedded socio-political processes, privileging accurate analysis,
close observation and walking through. Walking in the city which is not a metaphor, he walked for long periods in
the cities he was planning and taught students to keep walking in the territories means concrete experience,
progressive understanding of aspects
CB/GA: He was later criticized for such a weak, almost nihilist approach aimed to recognize intrinsic
legitimacy to most urban phenomena, including sprawl. Such a weak, humble approach to urbanism appears
to us as an important element to be disclosed to a wider public. Can you further elaborate?
PP: Secchis approach was neither humble nor weak, but rather elementarista, as resonates in the title of the Ph.D.
thesis of Paola Vigan, his partner and associate for almost 25 years, published as La citt elementare. It advocates
that the de-composition of a city into its elementary components is the starting point of the cognitive process as well
as of the design process, which are considered a unity. The reason for this method stems from the recognition of the
difficulty of understanding and grasping the contemporary city, which has radically changed due to social changes
and territorial expansions and contractions. Therefore there is a need to use the rilievo, that is to say the accurate
survey and mapping of every single element of the urban territory encountered buildings, roads, trees, fields,

materials, signs, uses their characteristics and relations; the very first lines of the first page of his Prima lezione di
urbanistica list these elements. This way, attention was given to ordinary objects, abandoning traditional grammar
and syntax of description, in order to start a new understanding of the urban.
Secchi used to say that this method emerged also in reaction to a drift of the 1970s, when the hegemonic role of
sociology and economics in city planning resulted in a detachment from physical reality; a renewal of content and
methods was therefore necessary. In the 1990s each city plan developed by his equipe (team), the plan for Prato
particularly, started with the rilievo of the whole municipality and its representation on boards at the scale of 1:2000.
This inventory showed the not sequential, non-hierarchical character of the contemporary city and its oftenfragmented random paratactic layout. In design, this method produced taxonomies and matrices and their collage,
abandoning generalizing categories for a new urban palimpsest.

Studio Secchi Vigan, Antwerp Plan

CB/GA: In conclusion, albeit being explicitly interested pre-eminently in European urban territories, Secchi
visited[26] South American megacities like So Paulo and Rio on several occasions, giving lectures and
interviews and participating in conferences, tackling topics of informality, vulnerable areas and urbanization
of favelas. From your understanding, did those urban realities inform his thinking and influence his projects?
In other words, did he find similar urban questions?
PP: I think that the new urban question was greatly influenced by his recent familiarity with South American
megacities, which he considered to be of great relevance. He tutored some interesting Ph.D. theses focused on
inclusion-exclusion dynamics, the requests of urban space by the consuming middle class, the influence of catholic
culture and politics on the realization of contemporary settlements in South American cities.

Also Asian and Russian megacities were very influential in his reasoning. The effort was often to make comparisons
between well-known urban realities and new ones; fully aware of the different urban histories and models, he tried
to produce generalization efforts to prevent the risk of being captured by the specificity of single situations.
CB/GA: Building on Paolas last reply, it is worth recalling that we increasingly live in a world of cities where
cities are shaped by processes that stretch well beyond their physical extent, as Robinson puts it[27]. As a result, it
is possible to produce those generalisation efforts that Paola mentioned, to radically de-territorialize the urban, to
have global conversations on the aspects of contemporary urban life and to formulate travelling theories, as
Edward Said advised us. It does appear tautological that the urban epicentre from which to explore urban theory is
no longer located exclusively in the so called Global North, Europe or US, but in a much more fertile arena that
results in the comparison as learning[28], a multi-directional learning that might happen across different contexts,
overcoming the impasse of the pioneering studies that were only focused on Western cities. Lagos is not catching
up with us. Rather, we may be catching up with Lagos[29]. The lesson of Bernardo Secchi can therefore open
new research directions towards a new urban question able to stimulate intellectual and practical investigation in
cities that are embedded in multiple elsewheres[30].
Paola Pellegrini is Lecturer of Urban Design at IUAV of Venice and the Politecnico di Milano. She was Visiting
Associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, MASS, and Research Associate at the Department of
Urbanism at IUAV of Venice with prof. Bernardo Secchi. Her research mainly focuses on spatial analysis and theory
of city planning design tools in particular the scenario construction both as a cognitive practice and proper urban
planning tool, planning proposals for tackling sprawling metropolitan areas, new concepts for infrastructure and
urban heritage.
Always combining academic research and professional practice, Paola collaborated with the Secchi-Vigan Studio
in Milan to the Pesaro city plan, the Strategic Plan for Antwerp and the Grand Pari of Paris; most recently she
develops cross-border and transnational cooperation projects funded by the European Community for transport
infrastructures development and cultural heritage conservation.
Camillo Boano is an architect, urbanist and educator. He is Senior Lecturer at The Bartlett Development Planning
Unit, University College of London (UCL), where he directs the MSc in Building and Urban Design in
Development. He is also co-director of the UCL Urban Laboratory. Camillo has over 20 years of experiences in
research, design consultancies and development work in South America, Middle East, Eastern Europe and South
East Asia. His research interests revolve around the encounters between critical theory, radical philosophy with
urban and architectural design processes where collective agency and politics encounters urban narratives and
aesthetics, especially those emerging in informal and contested urbanisms.
Giovanna Astolfos background is in architecture and urban design; she graduated at IUAV, School of Architecture
in Venice and holds a PhD at University of Udine. Her research focused on the nexus between density, proximity, re-

use of vacant land and sustainable development of medium sized cities in Southern Europe. More recently her
research is focused on urban borders, division and its production in the global everyday. Giovanna combined
academic research and professional practice, working in architectural offices in Venice and So Paulo, on
international projects and competitions for the recovery and reuse of existing buildings and urban regeneration,
infrastructural projects and environmental plans. She is currently Teaching Fellow and alumna of The Bartlett DPU
(UCL).

[1]Secchi, B., Vigan, P., (2009) Antwerp, territory of a new modernity, SUN architecture
[2]Grand Pari(s), Paris, France. Consultation of research on the future of great Paris metropolitan area. Client:
Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication de la Rpublique Franaise. See also: http://www.b-ondstudio.com/?
portfolio=grand-paris-paris-france-studio-b-secchi-p-vigano and http://www.ateliergrandparis.fr/index.php
[3](1984) Il racconto urbanistico, Einaudi, Torino; (2000) Prima lezione di urbanistica, Laterza, Roma-Bari; (2005)
La citt del XX secolo, Laterza, Roma-Bari; (2012) La citt dei ricchi e dei poveri, Laterza, Roma-Bari
[4](2012) La citt dei ricchi e dei poveri, Laterza, Roma-Bari, p. 22 (translations by authors)
[5]Secchi, B., (2006), The rich and the poor, comment vivre (ou ne pas vivre) ensemble. In: Vigan, P., Pellegrini, P.
(2006) Comment vivre ensemble, Officina (original in English), p.373-382
[6]Pellegrini, P. (2012) Prossimit. Declinazioni di una questione urbana, Mimesis, Udine-Milano
[7]Secchi, B. (2005) La citt del XX secolo, Laterza, Roma-Bari
[8]See also: http://www.planum.net/welfare
[9]Secchi, B. (2006) The rich and the poor, comment vivre (ou ne pas vivre) ensemble. In: Vigan, P., Pellegrini, P.
(2006) Comment vivre ensemble, Officina (original in English), p.376
[10]Barthes, R. (2002) Comment vivre ensemble. Cours et seminaires au College de France 1976-77, Seuil Imec,
Paris
[11]Webber, M. (1963) Order in Diversity: Community Without Propinquity. In: Wingo, L. (1963) Cities and Space:
The Future Use of Urban Land, pp. 23-54, Johns Hopkins University Press.
[12]Pavillonnaire is the low density settlement in the periphery of mainly single family houses with garden.

[13]Secchi, B. (2012) La citt dei ricchi e dei poveri, Laterza, Roma-Bari; Secchi B., (2010) A new urban question.
Understanding and planning the contemporary European city. Territorio, 53
[14]Bourdieu, P. (1984 [1979]) Distinction. A social critique of the Judgement of Taste. Harvard University Press
[15]Secchi, B. (2012) La citt dei ricchi e dei poveri, Laterza, Roma-Bari, p. 6
[16]Bourdieu, P. (1993) La misere du monde, Seuil, Paris
[17] Urbanism has strong and specific responsibilities in the worsening of inequalities Secchi, B., (2012) La citt
dei ricchi e dei poveri, ibidem (translation by authors)
[18]Secchi, B. (2006), The rich and the poor, comment vivre (ou ne pas vivre) ensemble. In: Vigan, P., Pellegrini, P.
(2006) Comment vivre ensemble, Officina (original in English), p.374
[19] Fini, G., Pezzoni N. (2011) Il Piano Strutturale di Anversa. Un nuovo dispositivo di convivenza per la citt
contemporanea. Intervista a Bernardo Secchi e Paola Vigan, Urbanistica, 148
[20]Secchi, B. (2006), The rich and the poor, comment vivre (ou ne pas vivre) ensemble. In: Vigan, P., Pellegrini, P.
(2006) Comment vivre ensemble, Officina (original in English), p.380
[21]Rich not only denotes persons, families, groups that have a high income and/or conspicuous assets. The term
rich is also used to define persons of a consistent cultural or social capital, with an extensive network of relation
amongst the dominant groups of the society, that confer a status and often an income that is equivalent to or above
that of persons with high income capital. Secchi, B., (2006), The rich and the poor, comment vivre (ou ne pas vivre)
ensemble. In: Vigan, P., Pellegrini, P. (2006) Comment vivre ensemble, Officina (original in English), p.373
[22]B.Secchi, original in English http://www.planum.net/these-words
[23]See also: http://www.planum.net/these-words
[24]Corboz, A. (1983) The Land as Palimpsest, Diogenes 31 (121):12-34
[25]

Translation by the authors

[26]Conference Cidade informal no Seculo XXI, 12 April 2010, So Paulo, Museu da Casa Brasileira; Conference
Arquitetura, Cidade, Metrpole Democratizar Cidades Sustentveis, 27 February-1 March 2013, IAB (Instituto
de Arquitetos do Brasil), Rio de Janeiro

[27]Robinson, J. (2014) New geographies of theorising the urban: Putting comparison to work for global urban
studies. In Parnell, S., Oldfield, S., (2014) The Routledge handbook on cities of the Global South, Routledge
[28]McFarlane, C. (2010). The comparative city: knowledge, learning, urbanism. International Journal of Urban
and Regional Research 34(4): 725742
[29] Rem Koolhaas postulation in the film Lagos Wide & Close. An interactive Journey into an Exploding City,
Netherlands 2005, Directed by Bregtje Van der Haak (120 min)
[30] Mbembe A., Nuttall, S. (2004) Writing the World from an African Metropolis. Public Culture, 16(3): 347-372
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Metafora Dalam Arsitektur

Jika perwujudan gaya bahasa metafora dapat kita nikmati melalui
komunikasi audio dan visual. Maka, metafora dalam arsitektur dapat
kita nikmati melalui sebuah proses pemikiran yang arsitektural.
Metafora dalam arsitektur dibangun melalui perwujudan konsep
desain. Melalui pengejewantahan desain, konsep tersebut
dipindahkan ke dalam ruang tiga dimensi. Tekstur, bentuk dan warna
dirancang untuk menghasilkan kualitas visual ruang yang unik,

meliputi lantai, dinding, atap dan sebagainya. Ruang-ruang unik inilah

yang kemudian membawa makna-makna khusus sebagai ekspresi
metaforik.

Itulah metafora dalam arsitektur. Sebuah gaya bahasa arsitektur yang

membawa, memindahkan dan menerjemahkan kiasan suatu obyek ke
dalam bentuk bangunan (ruang tiga dimensi). Anthony C. Antoniades
dalam bukunya, Poetic of Architecture : Theory of Design ,
mengidentifikasi metafora arsitektur ke dalam 3 kategori, yakni
metafora abstrak (intangible metaphor), metafora konkrit (tangible
metaphor)
danmetafora
kombinasi. Adanya
klasifikasi
ini
mempermudah kita untuk lebih memahami metafora dalam arsitektur.

Metafora abstrak dapat kita lihat pada beberapa karya arsitek Jepang.
Salah satu arsitek tersebut adalahKisho Kurokawa. Kisho Kurokawa
mengangkat konsep simbiosis dalam karya-karyanya. Kisho
Kurokawa mencoba membawa elemen sejarah dan budaya pada
engawa (tempat peralihan sebagai ruang antara pada bangunan:
antara alam dan buatan, antara masa lalu dan masa depan). Konsep
ini diterapkan pada salah satu karya Kisho Kurokawa yaitu Nagoya
City Art Museum. Sejarah dan budaya adalah sesuatu obyek yang
abstrak dan tidak dapat dibendakan (intangible). Oleh karena itu,
karya Kisho Kurokawa ini tergolong pada metafora abstrak.

Stasiun TGV yang terletak di Lyon, Perancis, adalah salah satu

contoh karya arsitektur yang menggunakan gaya bahasa metafora
konkrit karena menggunakan kiasan obyek benda nyata (tangible).
Stasiun TGV ini dirancang oleh Santiago Calatrava, seorang arsitek
kelahiran Spanyol. Melalui pendekatan tektonika struktur,Santiago
Calatrava merancang Stasiun TGV dengan konsep metafora seekor
burung. Bentuk Stasiun TGV ini didesain menyerupai seekor burung.
Bagian depan bangunan ini runcing seperti bentuk paruh burung. Dan
sisi-sisi bangunannya pun dirancang menyerupai bentuk sayap
burung.

Untuk metafora kombinasi, dapat kita lihat pada E.X Plaza Indonesia,
karya Budiman Hendropurnomo (DCM). Dalam buku Indonesian
Architecture Now, Imelda Akmal menulis bahwa gubahan massa E.X
yang terdiri atas lima buah kotak dengan posisi miring adalah hasil
ekspresi dari gaya kinetik mobil-mobil yang sedang bergerak dengan
kecepatan tinggi dan merespon gaya sentrifugal dari Bundaran Hotel
Indonesia yang padat. Kolom-kolom penyangga diibaratkan dengan
ban-ban mobil, sedangkan beberapa lapis dinding melengkung
sebagai kiasan garis-garis ban yang menggesek aspal. Dari konsepkonsep tersebut, gaya kinetik merupakan sebuah obyek yang
abstrak (intangible).

Selain dapat dikategorikan berdasarkan kiasan obyeknya, sebuah

karya arsitektur bisa memiliki multi-interpretasi bahasa metafora bagi
yang melihatnya. Sydney Opera House adalah salah satu contohnya.
Sydney Opera House dirancang oleh Jrn Utzon, seorang arsitek
kelahiran Denmark. Setiap orang yang melihat karya arsitektur ini,
akan menghasilkan berbagai macam interpretasi sesuai dengan
pikiran masing-masing. Ada yang berpendapat bahwa konsep
metafora Sydney Opera House berasal dari cangkang siput atau
kerang. Ada pula yang berpendapat, karya arsitektur ini adalah kiasan
layar kapal yang sedang terkembang. Dan ada pula yang
berpendapat, bagaikan bunga yang sedang mekar.

Kisho Kurokawas Organic

Architecture
BY CHRISTIAN SAGER / POSTED OCTOBER 7, 2013
Hammerbrook - Citycan this really be true?
SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS

Na
kagin Capsule Tower. Photo Credit: pictureTYO cc
Last week I stumbled across photos of the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo,
designed by Kisho Kurokawa. While many might find the aesthetic
unappealing, I was immediately drawn to the interiors of each capsule. They
remind me of Bruce Willis apartment in The Fifth Element, small and
utilitarian. Such design appeals to my instinct to crawl into a warm, little
burrow every once in awhile with a good book. I decided to look further into
Kurokawas work and discovered he was quite a visionary when it came to
architecture and environmental design.

Nakagin
Capsule Tower (interior). Photo Credit: MIKI Yoshihito cc
Kurokawa was one of the founders of a philosophical approach to
architecture in the 1960s called Metabolism. Taking the metaphor from the
chemical reactions in our bodies that process matter and energy, these
architects argued that buildings should be as adjustable as living organisms.
The idea was for these structures to evolve over time with their
surroundings. Unfortunately, that hasnt been the case with the Nakagin
Capsule Tower, as it has been scheduled for demolition on and off again for
the last seven years.
Other designs from Kurokawa include:

The Kuala Lumpur airport.

The Capsule Inn Osaka.
Sony Tower in Osaka.
The National Ethnological Museum in Osaka.
The Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Sporting Club at the Illinois Center in Chicago.

Later in life, Kurokawa expanded upon Metabolism with another architectural

movement called Symbiosis. Still comparing buildings to living organisms,
this aesthetic also attempted to integrate construction within its surrounding
habitat. For example, the airport in Kuala Lumpur achieved this by blending
its terminals in with the surrounding rain forest.

Kuala Lumpur
Airport. Photo Credit: rushdi13 via Compfight cc
Before he passed away from heart failure in 2007, Kurokawa even tried his
hand in politics, running for both governor of Tokyo and the upper house of
Japans parliament. Clearly this was a man who was persistent, productive
and interested in how his work influenced the surrounding world. Heres
hoping more architects take inspiration from him to develop the next
generation of architecture designed in harmony with its ecosystem.
Lots More Information
Sokol, D. Kurokawa Dies at 73. Architectural Record. Page

36. November, 2007.

Ivy, R. Kisho Kurokawa Designed For Change at Japans
Largest Art Venue, The National Art Center, a Mega

Museum With No Permanent Collection. Architectural

Record. Volume 95. No. 11. Page 142-. 2007.
Pogrebin, R. Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese Architect Who

Pioneered Organic Structures, Dies at 73. New York Times.

Page. 28. October 21, 2007.
Urban, F. Japanese Occidentalism and the Emergence of
Postmodern Architecture. Journal of Architectural
Education. Volume 65. No. 2. Pages 89-102. 2012.

Metaphor: an Aspect of Postmodern

Architecture
Abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy
FOLLOW
Metaphor can be defined as a straightforward comparison between two or more different and unrelated
subjects. In linguistic discipline, metaphor could be interpreted in the context of the meaning of denotative
and connotative. The denotative signify the real meaning of a context, while connotative indicates the
implicit or the hidden meaning of words. Similarly, in architecture, buildings are not only playing with visual
image of the form, but it play with the hidden message and meaning of it.
Postmodern architecture movement appeared in the late 1970s, and has been developed largely as a
reaction to the inability of modernism and the International Style to satisfy and express human beings
cultural and traditional issues. Postmodern architecture, essentially representing a revival of period styles
for all types of buildings with variety of forms. In the forefront of this movement is the prominent architect
Robert Venturi. His Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, published in 1966, is a seminal book
that helped in the development of postmodern architecture, as well as in criticizing the dominant principles
of modern architecture.

Venturi emphasized the importance of the building in communicating a meaning to the public. Venturi
explained that the physical appearance of a building could be interpreted in many ways, and each
interpretation is more or less true for its moment because any work of architecture have many dimensions
and layers of meaning. The Language of Postmodern Architecture, 1977, by Charles Jencks is another
instrumental book, which clarified many of the illusion of the postmodern movement. Jencks categorized
the different forms of buildings into number of aspects including, Historicism, Eclecticism, Straight
revivalism, Neo-Vernacular, Ad-hoc Urbanist, and Metaphor and Metaphysics, which represent the subject
of this article.
Metaphor can be defined as a straightforward comparison between two or more different and unrelated
subjects. In linguistic discipline, metaphor could be interpreted in the context of the meaning of denotative
and connotative. The denotative signify the real meaning of a context, while connotative indicates the
implicit or the hidden meaning of words. Similarly, in architecture, buildings are not only playing with visual
image of the form, but it play with the hidden message and meaning of it.
The process of transformation of intangible or abstract aspects into physical or visual image is known as
the process of Metaphoric Process. The most successful metaphoric process is probably Notre Dame
du Haute - Ron champ Chapel, built by Le Corbusier in France in 1955. The architectural form of the
chapel begins the idea of a ship, but the viewers could interpret it in many different ways such as a crab, a
hat or a bird.

Notre Dame du Haute - Ron champ Chapel, by Le Corbusier, France, 1955

Supplicating hands

Bird

A sailing ship

Hat

The Sydney Opera House, by Jorn Utzon, 1957 is another remarkable example, which expresses
extraordinary popular metaphors. The building is characterized by its organic shape, and abstracted
unadorned surface. In fact, this building demonstrated how architecture can add and integrate to the
environment as well as extending its metaphorical architecture to future generations.

The Sydney Opera House, by Jorn Utzon, 1957

The form of the Sydney Opera House remained a controversial issue and it played an important role in
clarifying the concept of metaphor in architecture. In fact, over the last 70 years, the figurative form of this
building represented a rich source of inspiration to architects and artists worldwide. Even in the official

inauguration of the Opera House by Queen Elisabeth II, the Australian students of architecture presented
a caricature of the building featuring number of turtles overlooking the sea.

Caricature of the Sydney Opera House by the Australian students of architecture

Artists such as Brett Whiteley and Julie Duell were also influenced by the architectural form of the building
and they expressed their artistic emotions by creating beautiful and imposing paintings. They
metaphorically visualized the building as a sailing ship with birds flying around.

The Sydney Opera House painting by Brett Whiteley (Sailing ship)

In Sydney Harbour on Australia Day March 2007, the painter Julie Duell expressed her artistic feeling
towards the striking form of the Opera House by sketching a draft pencil drawing, which was later
developed into oil paintings called Opera House Dreaming. The original pencil sketch showed a
metaphorical harmonious relationship between the sailing boats, birds and the Opera House, by using
fine curves, which represented the wings of the birds swooping across similar curves in the sails of the
building.

Pencil sketch by Julie Duell, 2007

Sydney Opera House by Painter Julie Duell

Not only artists, but also theatre designers were influenced by the forms of the Opera House and were
able to interpret them and create artistic productions. In an exhibition of futuristic work by Edward Gordon
Craig (1872-1966), an English modernist theater practitioner, there were number of selected distinctive
designs including the Dame Edna's Hat, whose design was inspired by the architecture of the Sydney
Opera House.

The Dame Edna's Sydney Opera House hat, by Edward Gordon Craig
Again, the location of the Opera House overlooking the Sydney Harbour inspired the renowned architect
Renzo Piano to design the new Aurora Place Office Tower, about 800 meters from the Opera House. The
curved and twisted shape of east faade is aimed to correspond spatially with Opera House. This building
featured fins and sails extending metaphorically, at the top of the high building. It is made of reinforced
concrete shell segments, which resemble wind-stretched sails.

Aurora Place and Macquarie Apartments by Renzo Piano, Sydney, 2000

Aurora Place and Macquarie Apartments by Renzo Piano, Sydney, 2000

Another expressive example to metaphor in architecture is the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin,
designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. This sculptural building featured a cathedral-like
space, a vaulted glass ceiling, a moveable sunscreen with a wingspan that unfolds and folds twice daily.
The museum is rich with metaphors and was interpreted as ships and birds that move up and down in
the lakefront site.

The Milwaukee Art Museum, by Santiago Calatrava, Wisconsin,1975.

The Milwaukee Art Museum, by Santiago Calatrava, Wisconsin,1975.

Another impressive piece of architecture is the Bahia temple at New Delhi, built by Fariborz Sahbathe in
1986. The structure of the building is made of reinforced concrete shells, which metaphorically could be
perceived as the petals of a flower.

Lotus Flower

Bahai Lotus Temple, built by Fariborz Sahba in New Delhi, India, 1986

Birds eye view, Bahai Lotus Temple, built by Fariborz Sahba in New Delhi, India, 1986
Sources:
1. http://transmaterialasia.wordpress.com/2006/11/01/hadids-metaphors-reading-her-biography-from-theway-of-thinking/
2. http://www.arcspace.com/kk_ann/news_from_denmark/
3. http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/big-blowzy-worth-megabucks/2007/02/14/1171405297605.html
4. http://artintegrity.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/29-opera-house-dreaming-original-painting-approach/
5. http://davidnice.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html
6. http://www.sydneyarchitecture.com/cbd/cbd4-009.htm
7. http://wideworldofgeometry.pbworks.com/w/page/14141605/Marissa-Hoffman
8. http://dummidumbwit.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/bahai-lotus-temple-new-delhi-india/

Is there a metaphor in there?

ALAN DAVIES | JUL 22, 2012 6:10PM | EMAIL | PRINT

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Melbourne Recital Centre - there's a Metaphor in there, can you guess what it is?

According to my young hipster architecture advisers, Myrtle and Beryl, theres a great big
Architectural Metaphor underlying the appearance of theMelbourne Recital Centre. Before reading
on, look at the exhibit for a couple of moments to see if you Get It (there are two buildings there its
the white one on the right).
Personally, I quite like a decent serving of Metaphor with my Architecture. One of the more familiar
examples of metaphor in concrete is the Sydney Opera House with its soaring shells modelled on the
sailboats of Sydney Harbour.
That might seem an awfully trite metaphor for such a high-culture activity or for arguably the worlds
greatest modern building. But it does capture something about the extraordinary setting on Sydneys
magnificent harbour.

If he were alive today, Utzon would probably say sails were an inspiration rather than a direct
model. Nowadays however, Myrtle and Beryl tell me theres a fashion in progressive architectural
circles for direct and uncompromising Metaphors as a key driver of built form.
I havent confirmed this with the architects, Ashton Raggatt McDougal (ARM), but Myrtle and Beryl
have thoroughly researched the Melbourne Recital Centre and are insistent its appearance is
Metaphor-driven. Moreover, they know what the Metaphor is and assure me the architects fully and
consciously intended it.
Thats fine. After all, the recital centre is a high-culture artistic institution with a wealth of musical
ideas for metaphor-makers to draw on. The location within Melbournes arts precinct would also
offer plenty of potential cues for the creative.
So taking Beryl and Myrtle at their word, heres what it is. They say ARM began with the idea that the
cultural activities the Recital Centre accommodates are extremely precious. To convey the concept of
extraordinarily high value, the designers hit on the idea of protective packaging.
The white form on the faade at the front represents polystyrene packaging enclosing something
precious something to be treasured and cherished. Its been slid part way out of a cardboard or
timber box, represented by the brown facade on the side street. If you take a look in Google Street
View, you can see one of the flaps on the box is open.
Having had it explained to me, I can see it loud and clear. I confess I wouldnt have got it otherwise,
but now its as obvious as Les Patterson. So assuming my progressive architectural friends have got
ARMs intention right, the packaging Metaphor raises some interesting and even challenging
questions.
An obvious one is whether or not the Metaphor increased the cost of the building or seriously
compromised its functionality. I cant say if it did or didnt, but in any event those questions can only
be addressed in the context of what the Metaphor is worth.
To have value, people other than the architects need to Get It. I wonder how many of those who
regularly attend performances at the Centre actually Get It? How many of them even know theres
something there To Get?
And how many of the 95% of Melburnians wholl never or only occasionally visit the Recital Centre
those who might drive past, see photos of it, or attend on a school excursion Get It?
Then theres the idea of preciousness. I can see its relevant and works in this context, but is it the
best possible fit? Of all the ideas suggested by a recital centre its mostly classical music (see
current program here) is precious the most apposite? Something directly music-related seems a
more obvious starting point to me.

But the big question for me personally concerns the Metaphor chosen to convey preciousness the
idea that the external appearance of the building is set up as packaging for a valuable object. This is a
personal view, but it strikes me as extraordinarily banal. In my opinion its a small, cheesy, even
trivial idea.
Yes, valuable objects do come in polystyrene. Ive unpacked microwave ovens, smart phones, mini
stereos and countless other small consumer goods that came firmly enclosed in plastic. Most of them
arent especially valuable though (theyre packed in polystyrene because theyre vulnerable).
Maybe the Metaphor would be an interesting idea for a small part of the faade or the interior, but as
the driving force for a whole building? For a major public building? For a building devoted to high
culture? Maybe if it were playful or ironic Id be more receptive, but I think the idea is trite.
Therere lots of things architects do well. They can create structures of extraordinary beauty and
fashion environments that evoke strong emotions. But making intellectual statements with design
isnt something architecture lends itself well to, especially compared to other mediums.
Its possible to theorise about architecture as a discipline, but therere very few buildings that present
as strong intellectual statements in and of themselves. Most times any attempt to be intellectual is
liable to come across as corny and lowbrow.
My young architect friends disagree. Myrtle and Beryl think the Recital Centres packaging Metaphor
assuming they got ARMs intention right is very deep, even profound. They also happen to think
the aesthetics of the building are unimportant as long as the idea is right, its the process of getting
there that matters, not what it ultimately looks like.
Thats a very interesting proposition Ill return to another time. In the meantime Ill risk their
disapproval by saying that ARM has created astunningly beautiful auditorium in the Recital Centre. I
dont think a direct metaphor is intended here, but it certainly evokes the feel of an old Stradivarius.
And by the accounts I hear, its acoustic performance is exemplary.