“We need a new architecture for this new world, more Frank Gehry than formal Greek,” Clinton said...
“Some of his work at first might appear haphazard, but in fact, it’s highly intentional and sophisticated. Where once a few strong columns could hold up the weight of the world, today we need a dynamic mix of materials and structures.”
— politico.com
6 Comments
“We need a new architecture for this new world, more Frank Gehry than formal Greek,” Clinton said...
so the complexity of the world needs a complex structure and logic to support it. OK I get that..the funny thing is that both clinton and gehry are similar in that they create the complexity to begin with and then get a bunch of serfs to figure out how to keep it from falling apart.
A more logical approach would be to make the world less complex and more integral. The clintons and bushs of the world can start by not starting any more fucking wars. Gehry has his cad monkeys to make his egotistical whims "stay up" and the political royalty has the military and banksters....
Mies was too predictable for ya?
jla-x, isn't Gehry known as one of the first stars to publicly state that he does not use unpaid interns?
To build on David Curtis's point, I think they have a valid point that the vast majority of the world's population couldn't afford the kind of hyper complex and expensive work produced by Mr. Gehry, as beautiful as it can be. This would imply a top down paradigm which seems counter to the progressive policies one associates with Mrs. Clinton. Unless one viewed his work as a form of sculpture, it dosen't seem to much promise as a model with which to address our globes pressing issues.
To build on jla-x's point, as I understood it, self imposed complexity is quite different than real world complexity. Regardless of the fact that the world has always been complex, even in the good old days modernists chide traditionalists for wrapping themselves in. Do the calming proportions of classicism reflect the upheaval of a medeaval world in transition to a modern one? The real complexity of a Grand Central would have been a much more accurate metaphore to explain the multi polar world she was refering to, although aren't we the only superpower left?
I'm glad Mrs. Clinton used an archtiecture metaphore, if only to shine a light on our dear profession, but she was simply marketing herself to popular notions of what is cool and hip disregarding that the world of "a few strong columns" was just as complex and unstable as our modern world, if not more so. Real complexity is best handled by an organizational system that creates order out of disorder, not a mirror that seeks to caricature a complexity that needs less.
self imposed complexity has its place in architecture, but I wouldn't model the world on it. Freshkills park by james corner for instance is complex. The complexity does not come from theory or formal desire, but instead it derives its complex nature from its ability to integrate and utilize pre-existing conditions in order to deal with 21st century problems. It creates ecology out of chaos. I think ecology is a better goal than order. Ecology is not so much a singular system, but rather a network of relationships.
ecology is achieved by integration. imposed order and imposed complexity rely on imposed structures. Ecology creates natural structure of mutualism. A greek model relies on a greek power structure....A clinton model relies on a western power structure....A ecological model relies on a power balance between components. This is a big difference.
Donna, yeah I think you are righ about gehry. I respect him as an architect, and I'm glad we have him, but I don't think his work is a good model for where we need to go in the 21st century. I don't think that is hisresponsibility either...It was more a critique of global politics.
"Hillary Clinton uses Frank Gehry's architecture as an analogy for how to restructure world policies"
well, yes, it certainly is the intrusive US foreign policy to leave the world looking like more like crumpled up Gehry buildings although some areas are far closer to looking like crumbled down Lebbeus Woods buildings after they're done with them. either be unresisting and pliable or be broken.
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