Duality in architecture

Hanelore Dumitrache

London Metropolitan University, 11000598

3/21/2013
"Architecture must have bad spaces as well as good spaces."

One of the oldest symbols of human kind is duality. Whether encased around the principles of
good-bad, light-darkness or yin-yang, these symbols are present in numerous forms and in
virtually all situations or places. Duality, in its various instances, tends to always generate
contradiction and/or even conflict. The question of right and wrong and intellectual turmoil
arises from the constant battle between coexisting antitheses, this very discrepancy suggesting
a kind of truth1.

This very principle gravitates around architecture also, where duality and contradiction solve
more problems than they generate. Opposites fuse together creating equilibrium, while
instigating tension between contradiction and uncertainty. Dissimilar elements coexist side by
side when the success of finalising glorious buildings overshadows many other problems of the
space. These alternating conjunctions duality and contradiction, incite the surfacing of the
ambiguity much characteristic to architecture. Closely connected to complexity and
contradiction, ambiguity shapes each building as it might appear close yet open, simple outside
yet complex inside, symmetrical yet asymmetrical or simply having it both ways2. Cast in an
ambiguous light, the building can look tall in one context and small when it is perceived in
another3.

Nevertheless, ambiguity and duality in architecture shouldnt be confused with the discrepancy
between appearance and actual meaning. Also, ambiguity and multifunction are two distinct
aspects, as structural elements which are simultaneously aesthetic too are not vague in their
own right.

Architecture is captivating through its intricate complexity fused with contradiction. Perfection
is boring; subtle problems and uncertainties are what makes architecture the fascinating field
we all know and love. Richness of ambiguity and intertwining of contradiction with functionality
are the key elements which validate and distinguish amateur from true architecture.

1
Robert Venturi, Complexity and contradiction in architecture, Simplification or Picturesquesness, page 24
2
Robert Venturi, Complexity and contradiction in architecture, The phenomenon of both-and in architecture, page 30
3 Rudolf Arnheim, 1977
References

Venturi R., 1977, Complexity and contradiction in architecture, The Museum of Modern Art

Baumberger C., 2009, Ambiguity in architecture

Edmonds B., 1998, What is complexity? - The philosophy of complexity per se with application
to some examples in evolution, Heylighen & D. Aerts