Colloquium
DATE 03 - 15 - 2010

World Design culture: collectivity to individuality We began the tour traveling through ruins of the old world as well as towns and cities with history rooted in the Middle Ages. These communities of the past were often collectively oriented around a religion or dynasty that guided the social nature of the culture. Even with these unified cities, I struggled with the notion of a unified world culture, because, while each of these places had a distinct identity of their own, often strengthened by their collective nature, I also noticed characteristics of society as well as design, planning, and narrative elements that suggested a world culture through similarities that could be found between them. Emphasis on fortification walls, grand religious facilities, elaborate narrative imagery, and city squares in dense environments, among other things, suggested to me a world design culture of strong communities from long ago. I believe that as the world has progressed to today's day and age, there has been a world cultural shift away from unity and towards individualism, creating a world culture that holds individuality in higher regards than collectivity. In a world where YouTube and blogs (except for in China), among other cultural aspects, promote individual expression and one religion or dynasty doesn't have total control over a people, design, like the people, has opened up to allow for a wider range of expression in the built environment. In the times of castles, the acropolis and places like Pergamum, the individual wasn't nearly as important as the community, king, or God. Cultures that developed were a product of this emphasis and the built environment became a product of such a culture. With importance being placed on idols or leaders, cathedrals, temples and palaces were given a lot of design attention. The design vocabulary used to express the importance of such structures seems to have been fairly uniform within each particular place. For example, the acropolis in Athens has a campus of important buildings that all use the same building material and large columns for structure throughout, while the early Egyptians covered the walls of all of their temples with narrative imagery and writing to show their grandeur. As time has moved forward, certain architectural styles have blossomed and taken root in different parts of the world that we've visited. We've seen countless examples of baroque, art nuvo, and Italian renaissance architecture, among other movements. While these efforts towards stylization speak to an increase in individuality of the built world, by cultures trying step outside of the box to create a new architectural vocabulary, they also give me reason to belief in a world culture. As we travel across borders these styles do to. Art nuvo could be seen in every Baltic state we experienced, but traces of Italian renaissance could be found there as well. Cities have been influenced by one another's built styles and by doing so have helped to unify the world's landscape and culture. As we moved to places where we were able to experience more of a modern built environment, it was hard at first to not feel that there was no longer much of a world design culture, with so many different building types to be found in one landscape. No longer were you only seeing buildings of classical order or streets lined only with art nuvo buildings. Even with early modern buildings, such as the Otto Wagner's Postal Savings bank in Vienna, by the early 1900's building materials were being rethought. Glass, iron, and steel were being reevaluated for their design application opportunities. No longer were certain materials reserved for use only in the most important buildings of a community. Since then a wide array of building forms and material choices can be seen within a city. Even with this lack of design continuity, I would argue that there is a world culture of design. Just as the people of the world have began to move more towards individualism, design culture has done the same. Now, instead of showing building prestige through material or ornate narrative, cities make social statements through having the latest Zaha Hadid or Frank Gehry building, individuals who have made a name for themselves in the built arena. Even with cities often looking to having big name architects design their landscape as a cultural statement, we also live in a world where an unknown designer can win and open contest and find his or her design integrated into a landscape. Because of this, the architecture of today often has to push the limits of design, in search of a solution that's better than yesterday thought possible. While this may create a landscape without stylistic unity, it facilitates a world design culture of less constrained expression and innovation. Top image: sketch of Frank Gehry's Fred and Ginger building in Prague Bottom image: Art Nuvo façade from Baltic States