The return of ORNAMENTATION
Ever have a chance to make a journey to Barcelona, it is a must to visit Basillica Sagrada Familia, an UNESCO Heritage Sites, designed by Antoni Gaudi. The first architect that flashes across my mind when the term, “ornamentation” is mentioned. Gaudi’s sensuous, curving and almost surreal design style is based on nature. Flora and fauna are used as exterior decorative elements, coloured stone or ceramics are used as adornments.
“.An ornamental craftsman has to work for twenty hours to reach the pay a modern worker earns in eight years.’” Quoted from Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos.
Sagrada Familia has started its construction by year 1882 and it is estimated to be completed in 2026–2028. Compared to a 20 storeys tower which might only takes 5-10 years, it takes more than a century, ten times the duration needed in clean modern architecture.
Ornamentation in the economic aspect it is a crime, as discussed by Adolf Loos. It is a fact when we consider the statistic of the expenses on the Sagrada Familia’s construction. Having the construction cost to increase 1.4 million euro annually, estimated total cost for 144 years would be 1 billion euro.
Some might have questioned if it is worthy and what for to spend such a vast amount of precious time and funds on the building.
“..ornament is no longer, organically integrated into our culture, it has ceased to be a valid expression of that culture..”
Sagrada Familia expressed the Spanish culture or Spanish Art Nouveau. What impressed me was that the ornamentations and form are structurally necessary.
Modern designers nowadays want their building to be iconic, to be remembered at one eye’s glance and to be renowned. The solutions usually used are form or ornamentation and sometimes both. Making use of different patterns of façade/ornamentation could catch the attentions and give passer-by an indelible impression. However, most of the design having a costly elegant massive façade shielding the whole building creating an inside out condition where the external surrounding experience is different from the internal one. In some cases, the building could still function when they are bare naked from the façade. This kind of ornamentation plays no function, and it is just a concession which indulge the user’s eyes.
**image:- left: Midrash by Isay Weinfeld, Brazil
right: Sint Lucas Art Academy by Fashion Architecture Taste, Netherlands
Instead of having dysfunctional facades, I would prefer “smart facade”. Making the façade/ornamentation not only for aesthetic purpose, but it plays technological and environmental role. Examples of projects applying this kind of ornamentation are:-
The BIQ House in Hamburg, Germany
The bio-reactive façade generates renewable energy from algal biomass and solar thermal heat as renewable energy resources. In addition, the system integrates additional functionalities such as dynamic shading, thermal insulation and noise abatement.
Abu Bahar Towers, Abu Dahbi , UAE by AEDES architect
The light-responsive façade has secondary sun screen over a thin skin of glass. A series of faceted fiberglass rosettes—based on traditional Islamic mashrabiya open and close in response to the temperature of the facade.
Besides having the ornamentation as an eye indulgence, technological and environmental role, the existence of ornamentation as cultural could still be found in this modern era. For examples, modern design mosques might have a cleaner form and design, it however remains their cultural ornamental characteristics, such as the calligraphy, Islamic patterns, mosaics etc.
