Toward a New Architecture, by Le Corbusier & Play time, by Jacques Tati

According from the reading of Toward a New Architecture from Le Corbusier , the standard of the living place was created within the aesthetic and also functional. The standard that he created leads to the easier way of measuring and the simple way of the calculate these simple geometric structural forms. So, on this standard form of living, people seems to be more equally to each other and it is just like a new world with less complicated.

Furthermore in the Play time movie, this movie show the living of the same standard which everything in this world seem to have no different starting from the people’s out fit , the working space and lastly the living space. This leads to no envy and no jealousy to each other, because there is no need to be. Before I watched this movie, I used to think that the world with the no different would be so peaceful because it means that there are not going to be any thief because there have no reason to steal things when they are also have it. But my thought is kind of changed after seeing this movie. This world without different is totally boring. This world need to have some thing identical and iconic to give life more colorful, but to be different and standout need not only the creativity but it also require a willingness and the courage to get this such a thing done.

This movie of Tati will never ever come true because it is source of against the human nature. We as a human never stop developing thing, not only for the architecture but also every kind of study.

Mies van der Rohe and Ornamentation

 Mies van der Rohe is a master of the modern architecture. He likes simple, plain and makes everything minimal just like what he says “Less is more”.  Most of his building is as simple as a glass box and this is what makes him became famous. In his architectural work, he always uses an honest material, which means that you can see every single detail in his architecture.  He normally put in every piece of construction material together without any painted or covered on. The purpose of doing this is because he wants his building to be as a book, which people can come and learned from it. Mies’s building looked so stunning by itself, so there is no need for any ornament involved. The more decoration will take people’s attention away, which lead to the failure of the architecture. Beside this people will only care about the ornament and forget about the function of the building.

However, Mies seems not interested in any house decoration. But, in fact, he also uses it unclearly. The decoration is carefully camouflaged along with the building, so that the building still looks modern. In this case, I feel like Mies just had broken his own rule because the main thing about being a modernist is to make everything functional and turn back against every kind of the ornament. But maybe this is an exception for those rules, which the main purpose of the rule anti-decoration is that it will take the attention away. For Mies, his decoration is become one part of the architecture and it’s enhance the aesthetic of the building itself.

In the conclusion, the ornament is acceptable as long as it not takes attention away from the building. Otherwise the design of the building will not significant any more.