Architectural Philosophy...

The Equilibrium of Appropriate Balance and Econo-Functional Aesthetic Balance (E-FAB) People need well designed shelter for themselves, families, businesses and all type of endeavour that requires sheltered space. Architecture has the power to create beautifully effective shelter for the needs, hopes, dreams and memories of humankind, both collectively and individually. This design philosophy is an attempt to reconcile and bring design factors into an equilibrium, and create a NEW sustainable "architectural gestalt" [6], to transcend architectural fashion. A treatise to explain and understand why it is necessary to intellectually balance design factors empowering all architects and designers to create a built environment that transcends the sum of its individual parts. Design Factors Finding the Equilibrium of "Appropriate Balance" between design factors requires Architecture and Building Design be recognized as a Socioeconomic Artform. Architecture and Building Design should serve the people that utilize, not those who design. Does architectural design imply purpose? Designing by definition implies it is done for some purpose [6]. Purpose implies the design is created to perform some desired function [5]. The term function as meant here, refers to the purpose of the entire function and sub-functions. The Functions cannot be separated from the design. Functions is a fundamental design factor. Does architectural design imply a real space? A real building design occupies, or will occupy a real space. Real three-dimensional space length, width, and height are fundamental to the design of real buildings. Real materials earth, wood, steel, concrete, plastic are fundamental to making the architectural design into a physically real building. In order for a building design to become a real building, you must build the building. The process of building involves human manpower and building materials. The industries that produce the materials are economic entities that, for a price, will produce the materials needed for the building construction. Human manpower is a socio-economic entity that, for a price will construct the building from the materials. When I use the word price, I mean at some economic cost to the society engaged in constructing the building. The economics of building also has a socio-political facet. Buildings are regulated by laws that create limitations, social expectations, and requirements on the building for a presumed general benefit. In many past societies, religion and politics dominated building design in this manner (example: cathedrals of Europe). These aspects of building a real design are encompassed in the social science of Economics. Environmental impact and green design sustainability are assessed through economic analysis. Economics is by definition a social science concerned with analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services [6] AND the thrifty and efficient use of material resources [5]. The process of obtaining and placing building materials, by utilizing or transforming natural resources by man and machine, is an economic and social endeavor. Therefore the architectural design of real spaces requires that the economic components be considered in the process of creating the design. Economics cannot be separated from the design of a real three-dimensional building. Economics is a fundamental design factor. The Three Fundamental Factors of Architectural Design Aesthetics Factor Functions Factor Economics Factor

E-FAB compared to the conventional wisdom of the past Each factor, individually, represents one portion of a total theoretical design. All three factors are present in any design and no real building can exist without all three factors present in some manner. The designers objective should be to balance all three portions to achieve the maximum

"Econo-functional Aesthetic Balance". When successfully balanced, the whole architectural design, with the equilibrium created, artistically exceeds the sum of its parts. It transcends itself and reaches a higher plane of artistic expression. From observations of the built environment, I see many buildings suffer from either the: ---"Seduction of the Aesthetic", where the primary effort is put into creating the visual beauty of form, OR the ---"Obsession of cost control", where the primary effort is put into constructing as cheaply as possible, OR the ---"Compulsion of Efficient Function", where the primary effort is put into planning only the fundamental purpose of space. Focusing on any one or two factors without considering the third results in the design being theoretically unbalanced and falling short of its full potential to reach the maximum "Econo-functional Aesthetic Balance" Vitruvius - firmness, commodity, and delight. That is, a building must be strong, useful, and beautiful. Architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) said, Form Follows Function (F-F-F). With this statement, Sullivan tells us that he believes the architectural form of a building should follow the function of its underlying structure and purpose. Like the way a persons skin is their outer appearance and covers the structure of the skull. The form of the skin follows the function of the shape of the skull and the two work together to create the expressive beauty of the person. The human face is capable of a great many expressions and so is the architectural design of buildings. "Appropriate Balance" demonstrates that Form Does NOT follow Function. Form and Function are given weight and should balance. However, this still fails to account for the Economic Factor. Perhaps it should have been "Form Follows Function Follows Economics". Or in an "Appropriate Triangular Balance" possibly "Form Balances Function, Function Balances Economics, Economics Balances Form". Or as I have stated, "Econo-functional Aesthetic Balance" Architect Mies Van der Rohe (1887-1969) said, "God is in the details." Anyone who has engaged in the serious design of real buildings knows, God is NOT in the details; the Devil resides in the details. Mies saw "God" in the inter-dependant relationship of a buildings elemental components. "Appropriate Balance" sees Mies's "God" in discovering the Appropriate Balance between the three design factors. God is the "Econo-functional Aesthetic Balance" Less is less. "Less is More" is probably the single most destructive phrase to come out of the modernist architectural lexicon. The poetry of Mies was mis-interpreted and mis-used by building developers who used the phrase to justify stripping buildings of all significant meaning as objects of art in order to build as cheaply as possible. It is historically unfortunate that breakthroughs in the mathematical understanding of economics emerged contemporaneously with the stylistic expression of modernism and "Less is More" became the perverse slogan of builders driven by greed. The impact of this continues today. Less and More should never have been equated. Less and More should create a theoretical balance. Can More be achieved with a little less? This may tip the equilibrium out of balance. E-FAB strives to achieve the poetry of Less and More through appropriate balance between the two. Less balances More in a manner that retains significant meaning and the artistic soul of the building. The lesson of Less is More is that it should have been "Less balances More". Remember, we are not trying to please people. We are driving to the essence of things." It is possible to over-derive. To reduce something to less than it's minimum constituent parts. Reduction to a point where it is no longer itself. It may be aesthetic, but it is overall, less than it could be. Later in the same article, Mies says Architecture is great "only when it is an expression of its time. Architecture is the battleground. It is a struggle to find the essential factors."

Philosophy Less is more. (Mies van der Rohe) Space and Light and Order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep. (Le Corbusier) Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union. (Frank Lloyd Wright) Neither is it the right angle, which me attracts, nor the straight line, hard, inflexible, made by men. What attracts me is the curve, free and sensual, the curve I find in the mountains of my country, in the winding course of its rivers, in the waves of the sea, in the body of the beloved woman. The universe is made out of curves - the curved universe of Einstein. (Oscar Niemeyer) A wheel? Thirty spokes meet at a nave! But the empty hole is the essence of the wheel. A jug? Clay is moulded into a vessel! But the empty hollow is the essence of the jug. A house? Walls with doors and windows! But the empty space is the essence of the house. Therefore use what exists; Recognize the utility of what not exists. (Lao-Tse) Since food, shelter, and clothing, are considered as the most essential needs of man, the art of making them characterizes the various civilizations on earth. This art is design . The greatest works are often the most humble. The efficient and simple beauty of man's working clothes and tools the world over is a constant cause of wonder... The art of native food, evolved from the direct products of climate and soil, is forever a source of amazement and joy... But design offers its greatest examples in the art of shelter, or architecture , because it creates the environment for living and thus makes possible the development of all other forms of art. (Paul Jacques Grillo) Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast. (Khalil Gibran) Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement; a sanded floor and whitewashed walls and the green trees, and flowery meads, and living waters outside. (William Morris) The function of what I call design science is to solve problems by introducing into the environment new artifacts, the availability of which will induce their spontaneous employment by humans and thus, coincidentally, cause humans to abandon their previous problem-producing behaviors and devices. For example, when humans have a vital need to cross the roaring rapids of a river, as a design scientist I would design them a bridge, causing them, I am

sure, to abandon spontaneously and forever the risking of their lives by trying to swim to the other shore. (Richard Buckminster Fuller) The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built. (Frank Lloyd Wright) There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection. (H. G. Wells) When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. (Richard Buckminster Fuller) Life is the art of encounter. (Vincius de Moraes) The words are like the tunes. People always try to improve something, isn't it? But often you ruin the song trying to perfect it. You try to make it better in a way that it loses the grace. Because sometimes, the grace is in the improvisation. (Antonio Carlos Jobim) As completeness is always imperfect, so is perfection always incomplete. (Carl Gustav Jung) Brazil has no vocation for mediocrity. (Lcio Costa) We are a country condemned to be modern. (Mrio Pedrosa) There are no dead things. Each thing is an expression of life, which acts and claims for its rights like a present living being. And the more things you have, the more you have to comfort them. Not only are they serving us, but also we have to serve them. And many times we are more their servant than they ours. (Christian Morgenstern) Your house is your larger body. It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream, and dreaming, leave the city for grove or hilltop? (Khalil Gibran) Beautiful buildings are more than scientific - they are true organisms, spiritually conceived, works of art using the best technology. (Frank Lloyd Wright) Of course, our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking. (Richard Buckminster Fuller)

To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. (Nicolaus Copernicus) A garden is the result of arranging natural materials, according to aesthetic laws and interwoven with the artist's vision, his past experiences, his insecurity, grief, his attempts, his mistakes and his successes. (Roberto Burle Marx) Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) How do I make a sculpture? I just remove everything from the block of marble which is not necessary. (Michelangelo Buonarotti) A garden is made of light and sounds; the plants are participants. (Roberto Burle Marx) The chief source of art is man's pleasure in his daily necessary work, which expresses itself and is embodied in that work itself; nothing else can make the common surroundings of life beautiful, and whenever they are beautiful it is a sign that men's work has pleasure in it, however they may suffer otherwise. It is the lack of this pleasure in daily work which has made our towns and habitations sordid and hideous, insults to the beauty of the earth which they disfigure, and all the accessories of life mean, trivial, ugly - in a word, vulgar . Terrible as this is to endure in the present, there is a hope in it for the future; for surely it is but just that outward ugliness and disgrace should be the result of the slavery and misery of the people; and that slavery and misery once changed, it is but reasonable to expect that

external ugliness will give place to beauty, the sign of free and happy work. (William Morris) Design is not the product of an intelligentsia. It is everybody's business, and whenever design loses contact with the public, it is on the losing end. For the first time in history, there is today a total disconnection between art and the people. When I say that design is everybody's business, I don't mean that design is a do-it-yourself job. I mean that it affects everybody , at all times , in our lives . Unless we gain a better understanding of design, we shall witness our environment getting steadily worse, in spite of the constant improvement of our machines and tools. (Paul Jacques Grillo) Heaven, earth and mankind are the three powers in the world, and it is man, who has to bring harmony into the two others - being heaven, the creative power of events in time, and earth, the receptive power of expansion in space. Heaven shows the images, and the man with vocation brings them into reality. The book of transformations (I Ching), where we find this sentence, is based on the insight that the last reality is not in the passive situations, but within the spiritual law, which gives sense and an impulse of continuous effect to all events. (Richard Wilhelm) And what is it to work with love? It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. Work is love made visible. (Khalil Gibran) More is more. (Robert Venturi) Doing more with less. (Richard Buckminster Fuller)

Cubic houses (Kubuswoningen') Piet Blom

The concept behind these houses is that he tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest.

Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai looks like a boat sailing the

ocean. Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai is the ONLY 7-star luxury hotel in the entire world.