When I watched Mr. Zong Baihua's "Aesthetic Walk" before, I saw him quote the phrase "architecture is solidified music" more than once to describe the beauty of Chinese gardens and architecture, and at that time I was only impressed by the beauty of this sentence, and there was no more heartfelt empathy.
It was not until after reading this book "How to Appreciate Architecture" written by Taiwanese architectural scholar Han Baode that I truly understood and experienced the inner qiankun and deep meaning of this sentence.
Douban screenshot
As the author explains in the preface, this book is a collection of popular articles on architecture that he was invited to write for a magazine column. Although it is a little difficult to choose the right building, considering that the object is a general reader, he tries to narrate it in the form of a travelogue, and the final choice is the building that he has seen with his own eyes, the most impressive, and the most touching to him.
It is precisely for this reason that the reading experience given to me by this book is far from being comparable to those books that introduce the history of architecture in pure objectivity and rationality. In short, this is a warm book with the author's subjective emotions, so that after reading it, I can easily move the author's touch and learn to appreciate the architectural beauty of the author's eyes and the center of the solidified musical sense.
The book introduces a total of 17 buildings, some of which are famous, such as the Sydney Opera House, a dramatic and unforgettable national landmark, and the Taj Mahal, which Tagore called "eternal tears on the face", whose beauty lies not only in the harmony of architecture, but also in the touching stories behind it...
But it is more of a building that is not very thunderous, but every time I think about it and think about it, it can make the author full of emotion... Some of these feelings I can empathize with, and some of which I can't appreciate for the time being, but I can also gain additional understanding from his words.
For example, the red wall on the side of the Wu Temple in Tainan brought the author's touch, which I can fully understand, just as when I first went to the Forbidden City in Beijing and walked through the seemingly bottomless red wall, I also sighed from the heart: The Ten Thousand Gates in the Red Wall Palace...
For another example, the fan-shaped vault inside the Church of King's College, Cambridge, in addition to the inverted funnel shape in line with the structural principle, the design with the fan bone as the warp and the arc as the weft, also let me instantly feel the full of rhythmic musical experience ~ ~ ~ ~
King's College Church, Cambridge | The inside pages of the book are illustrated
For example, not far from Purdue University in the United States, the small but conspicuous fire station in the small but conspicuous town of Columbus (Indiana). What makes it special is the design concept of "the front is originally a signboard".
As shown in the figure below, the architect Venturi, who advocates the contradiction and ambiguity of the appearance, designed the back of the fire station as a patchwork of high carports and low dormitories, but in order to be positive and eye-catching, he carefully designed a red brick wall "big signboard", which not only meets the actual needs, but also can be beautiful and generous, and not wasteful.
American Fire Station | the inside page of the book with pictures
The beauty of such an ordinary building, if there is no intentional introduction by the author of this book, may really not enter our eyes and hearts. As the book says,
The things in the world that are appreciated by everyone are wonderful and beautiful. Ordinary things are everywhere, and most of them go unnoticed. And ordinary beauty does not stimulate the senses, the power to make our eyes light up, only the people directly related to it feel its warmth in life.
The reason why the Golden Gate King's Mansion was chosen by the author was because of the narrow alley between the buildings, which in his view is very rich in the characteristics of ancient Chinese architecture. Such an ordinary alley, with a roof and doors and windows that may not be symmetrical on both sides, but gives people a kind of drama attraction of life.
The incomparably narrow alley, almost unable to see the bottom, the resulting beauty of the skyline, and naturally leads to a sense of suspense about the unknown prospect...
The narrow alley of the Golden Gate King's Mansion | The inside pages of the book are illustrated
The narrow alleys here are just when building houses, taking into account the movement between the courtyards, as we now call the "moving line", and it is like the hutongs in Beijing and the lanes in Shanghai, which play the original role of isolating houses and maintaining distance; however, in the author's pen, there is a beauty of architecture and space that is not easily seen by people.
There is no doubt that although the author of this book is also a well-known architect, his heart is still very rare to maintain a soft place that can be easily moved.
And I, also moved by his softness, can't help but re-examine these ordinary beauty that we often ignore, and even last night, I dreamed that I was in the ancient town of Lijiang, wandering in the narrow alley, feeling the right sense of distance, like the way people get along, can not be strange, but not too familiar...
Narrow alleys are narrow, but they must not be left without.
In Barcelona, Spain, there is a Gaudí's Mira residence. Although the six-story house, designed for the regal Mira, is not the architect Gaudí's most famous work, and it is not much different from the average apartment on the street. But if we are attentive enough, it is not difficult to find that it is special, that there is no straight line, no right angle. Because Gaudí believed that straight lines were man-made and That God created curves, the curves carried divine intent, which also showed Gaudí's medieval spirit.
Gaudí's Residence of Mira | The inside pages of the book are illustrated
As shown in the figure, the front of Mira's House is six parallel wavy curves from top to bottom, and each curve has a wave rhythm of the same amplitude, formed by simple bumps. It is not difficult for us to see a dynamic architectural beauty from this, which is a perfect interpretation of "architecture is solidified music".
Not only that, but the windows, balconies, and iron fancy balustrades on each floor are also different, and the fan-shaped vaults at the corners of the interior halls are admired by the author as the most beautiful roof ceiling he has ever seen in modern architecture.
In addition, the carvings on the roof, several obvious protrusions also have their own characteristics, both like crosses, like several abstract human heads, and a few like columns of space warriors, which turn out to be chimneys.
It is worth mentioning by the way that in Western countries chimneys are erected in rows, because under the chimneys is not the kitchen, but the fireplace...
Just like this, while appreciating the beauty of the building, you can also popularize common sense by the way, and such a small Easter egg is also quite useful.
All of this reflects, consciously or unconsciously, the creativity of Gaudí, an imaginative, illusion-obsessed and game-minded architect, who has both "change in unity" and "unity in change" aesthetic principles.
Finally, I can't help but record one of the buildings that impressed me the most, the Church of Our Lady of Langxiang, which is so interesting!
The first is the architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965), the most important architect of the twentieth century, the most committed advocate of the spirit of modernism, and a famous painter and sculptor.
His paintings developed the Cubist view of shape, simplified Picasso's figures, and strengthened the concept of formal composition; but in the architecture of reason, this pure form has no room for development.
It can be said that this is the contradiction in Le Corbusier's heart, and his life is also two feet on the two boats of "rational architecture" and "emotional painting".
And the Church of Our Lady of Langxiang is the only work he has shaped by expressing the desire for curved shape in architecture and conveying the affectionate cry of human beings with space.
If you look at the east-west orientation of the church floor plan, it is not difficult to find that it is actually a human figure.
Church of Our Lady of LangXiang | The inside pages of the book are illustrated
This is the interpretation of the author of this book, who laughs at himself for being a fabric, but it must exist in Lao Ke's subconscious, otherwise this spatial structure is unexplainable. After all, in most cases, the church is a typical vertical figure, and a large roof that protrudes horizontally, rather than the picture below, the dark cement roof is like an abstract block on the painting, not only with another abstract block of the white wall, but also gives the impression of drawing one more up in the air!
The southeast corner of the Church of Our Lady of LangXiang | Netmap (intrusion and deletion)
The end of the white wall in the southeast corner rises like a blade, supporting the huge roof on the left and right sides, like a boat split by a large knife. Well, this kind of imagination is also reasonable, the ship-shaped roof is headed towards the sky, metaphorically rising image. In addition, the large and small openings scattered on the slightly inverted wall surface flew up like music.
The northwest corner of the Church of Our Lady of the LangXiang | The inside pages of the book are illustrated
Now from another point of view, looking at this church from the northwest corner, it is a completely different feeling, and it is easy to give people the illusion that it is not the same church at all. In this direction, the white creamy texture, the three towers are straight, is to restore the vertical fun of the church.
The author says that this is the vocabulary of the religious architecture created by the old Ke:
It is a tender and sweet, fairytale dreamy place of worship; it is indeed very different from the sharp, angry shape of jehovah in the southeast corner.
Not only that, but the interior space of the church uses up light to create an atmosphere of worship. The author said in the book that photography was not allowed inside the church, but he secretly took a few pictures... Thanks to this, we can get a sneak peek.
As shown above, there is a ray of light between the roof and the walls of the church, which naturally gives people the feeling of floating roofs. Some small dots of light on the white wall, and a square window, symbolize the universe.
Unlike traditional churches, instead of casting light on the altar and not particularly illuminating the pulpit, the windows are fully opened on the right wall, so that the whole room is shrouded in a sacred atmosphere. It is said that this way of opening the window is original to Lao Ke.
There are also small holes in the north and south walls of different sizes, widths, widths, and straights, as well as stained glass paintings specially used to increase the meaning of religious traditions... These all have the style of Cubist painting, which is lao Ke's careful thinking, and it is also an appreciation point that we must not miss if we have the opportunity to visit one day.
In fact, under the author's interesting and illustrated interpretation, I only feel as if I have visited it in advance, but even if I am already very clear about the characteristics of the church, I still hope to have the opportunity to see it in person.
Maybe that's the charm of a great building, you want to get closer to it because you know it, and it's no wonder that it attracted Japanese architect Tadao Ando to go a dozen times... But I've always remembered Tadao Ando's words:
In my work, light is always an important element in dramating space.
Just like on the eve of the Spring Festival in 2018, when I passed the Xinhua Bookstore on the seventh floor of the Aegean Shopping Park in Hongqiao, Shanghai, I was inadvertently shocked by the "space of light" designed by Tadao Ando. Such a feeling is completely unexpressible by photographs alone. Recommend a small partner who has the opportunity to pass by must go to feel it.
photo by Chu Xi @2018.02.08, Shanghai Xinhua Bookstore
For the author of this book, each selected building is a journey of unforgettable beauty. For me, in recent days, due to my interest in illustration, I will pay more attention to the inner space of the building, the external structure, the expression of the architect, the concept of beauty, and so on... In turn, you can learn to sink your heart to feel the beauty that will be ignored inadvertently.
I can't help but think of Alain de Botton, mentioned in the book The Art of Travel, that there is only one way to have beauty correctly: by understanding beauty, we can be sensitive to the factors that make up beauty (psychological and visual), so as to achieve true possession of beauty.
Looking back on this sentence now, it is very different from how I felt at that time, because at that time I was just one of the passers-by mentioned in the book, and even the best-looking tree would not let me stop for 1 minute... But at the moment, I will.
I hope that we can all observe the beauty of life with the eyes of painting as Roskin hoped, and record the emotions in the ordinary.
Every book that opens is a long night. I am Chu Xi and like to record life in words. If you also like this article, welcome to follow @Chu Xisi reading and painting