Honesty & Deception
'We may not be able to command good, or beautiful, or inventive, architecture; but we can command an honest architecture'
In these three articles that we learned this afternoon, what does honesty and deception mean to architecture? How do the architects convey the meaning of honesty and deception and how do people understand it?
Basically, there are several different meanings of honesty and deception, it differs from each architect.
From the original text ‘the lamp of truth’ that wrote by John Ruskin, it stated that architectural deceits are to be considered under the structural, surface, and operative deceits.
For architecture being in its perfection the earliest, as in its elements it is necessarily the first of art that always precede.
A true building should not cover up the original element with another material, and he demand morality in architecture and honestly in craft.
Art and craft were sacred to Ruskin. For example, when you look at a building, the outlook material used may be wooden but in fact it is not, it just covering with the painting that look like wooden but inside is totally another different material.
The building facade was covered up by another materials
Honesty, somehow is the reflection of deception.
The highlight of Ruskin is the importance of essential qualities of building matter. His rule is using the highest grade of the material and strictly no disguises although the substitute is cheaper.
’ We should not use materials for the purposes that contradict its attributes and properties.’
He proclaimed those materials not used in respected architecture, should be avoided. Another meaning of honesty is be rationalism. As times goes by from the old century to twenty centuries, a lot of new materials had uncovered.bI agreed to what voillet-le-duc stated, we should welcoming the new materials that could replace the traditional one. It is not that the old does not function well, it is because the characteristics suit better the needs of building and making it more efficient and convenient.
Honesty and deception each play an important role in architecture.
The expression of a building’s structure can be seen through the relationship between the exterior and interior. Taliesin West was the winter home to Wright and his wife’s summer home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin in addition to being Wright’s workshop and school for his apprentices.
The exterior of Taliesin is the radical commitment to natural expression of materials. It is fine constructed with stone or slate that neatly cut in rectangular shapes but different size and thickness. Look at the façade or the surface of this building, it created masonry effect that suggests natural layering of stones that arranged un-uniformly.
We can conclude the wright design is honesty that he used true material and elements that bring up the meaning and the value of it. Furthermore, the materials used for interior are left undisguised.
For example, the wood was stained with sealant and a coat of wax and the stone was left bare.
Everyone’s mind come to MR sek san when what we seek for the design is simplicity and minimalist. He totally designed with the use of simple materials such as brick, timber, etc that did not overshadow the space qualities of the entire building.
Nowadays, materials are the main role that played in erection of a structure.
Contrary to Wright, the contemporary architects do not care about the natural qualities of materials such as wood and stone. The building that built are more to the use of technology software and industrial production.
I think modern architecture is tended to deception more than honesty, they built up the building that are looking impressive and fancy. Truth is, the modern building is much easier to construct compare to the classical one.
Modernist use Materials that are hard, smooth, and shiny are preferred to anything that is otherwise, which means a bias toward metal, glass, and some plastic. With the use of cheaper materials and mechanical production, it totally saves time and cost for the entire project.
If I am the fourth writer, what am I arguing is about the possibility of the combination of both honesty and deception in one building. Does it have a chance to reconsider the meaning of honesty and deception in this contemporary architecture?
This is a challenge for architects that brings up a new concept to design a whole new building rather than just focus on the outlook or just remain the honesty of the building itself.
Make it the possible to combine both that represent the speciality of the architecture building. Maybe when architect succeed toward this direction, it’s time for us to accept the changes and move toward.
It will totally be a new revolution