The Nature of Urban Form - Term Paper Example

History Name: Name of the institution: Introduction: Architecture instrumentality is on of the topics discussed widely by Rossi and Venturi Scott Brown. They both had differences in regard the architecture relationship to urban. Venturi, Scott Brown was fully convinced that architecture correlation to urban revolution was concerned with the role of the sign. On the other hand, Ross argued that architecture’s aptitude for urban change was linked to the idea of architectural typology. In 1970 to 1980s, Aldo Rose was one of the well known theorists in the field of architecture and was the main leader of the Italian Neo-rationalist architecture movement. In particular he was recognized in theory, architecture, product sign and drawing among others. He has also published the book by the name “The Architecture of the City” (Rossi, 2002). Which has brought innovative insight in the architectural field in specific urban theory and building. This is because he believes in the representation of humanity in the designing of the city. On the other hand, Robert Venturi became visible in the field of architecture in the year 1966 and had great concern on complexity and contradiction. In 1972, he fully focused on Las Vegas city and so he and his companions discussed the city in the context of their book “learning from Las Vegas”. Venturi’s and Scott Brown points of view have been of great influence to the whole world (Venturi et al, 1993).They mostly focused on “Architecture as signs and systems” where by they focused on symbolism and iconography, popular culture and everyday landscape, pluralism and multicultural, electronic communication and generic building among others. Therefore, both Venturi and Aldo Ross had so much to do with the architecture, and they influenced the world in a very diverse manner. For this main reason, it is essential to focus on the original texts of “The Architecture of the City and Learning from Las Vegas” while discussing Ross and Venturi’s ideas; architecture’s relationship to urban transformation was concerned with the role of the sign by Venturi and architecture’s capacity for urban change was related to the idea of architectural typology by Rossi. Forms of cities: The nature of urban form is determined by the city form. This is because urbanism stems from cities. There are different city forms around the world; such as the Ancient and Arabic cities, Asian cities, Greek City States, Rome and the Empire, and Medieval cities, Renaissance and Absolutism among others. These forms of cities are the development of urban forms from the earliest settlements to the current cities. The formation and visual expression of cities depends on the political, economic, social and cultural reasons for its formation. Cities always have highest forms social organization. It has complex road systems, exceptional transportation, building laws, good markets, significant education system, and food distribution among others. However, the complexity of the city has taken so many years of human development. Hence, city takes many forms depending on its location and the reason for its existence. For instance, a city can be termed as a city though it does not have the entire above mentioned infrastructure. However, the activities that take place fully define what makes it a city. A city has two sides namely positive and negative. The positive side of the city is a promise for success, and the negative side of the city can bring disaster. For this main reason, it is most likely to create imperfect cities which will continue to demand improvements. Therefore, the international community must always have devotion and pay more attention to the city. They must employ good city planners who should improve access to good and cheap houses, leave ample land for other activities and to enhance public services, as well as help tackle the issue of the slum-dwellers. This is because the issue of the slum dwellers continues to be a problem due to poor management in the development of the cities. Urban transformation Urbanization can only be measured in terms of the percentage change of the city’s population taking place year after year. This urban growth happens as people continue to move in the cities as they hunt for jobs as well in search of opportunities to better their future. As a result, the city holds almost the half of the world’s population. This makes the number of those living in urban areas to outnumber those in rural areas. This shift of rural dwellers to urban has been known as the largest migration in the humanity history. For this main reason, the city planners has adopted the idea of urban transformation (Bosselmann, 2008).  Urban transformation has existed since time immemorial. Historically, people continued to shape their environment depending on the demand. Therefore, to understand and control urban physical transition and the social image occurring in the space becomes the centre of the philosophers, architects and planners. Additionally, the scientific knowledge is fully geared to understand and control the urban transformation. To be precise urban transformation should be whole and adopt relational conception to create a room fro both growth and decline. Therefore, the landscape of urban areas is conglomerate containing open space, fully built up areas to cater for the urban growth and also urban decline. This is because the contemporary urbanity is very dynamic for it can grow or decline depending on the number of people that migrates to the city or those who move out of the city. The decline in the city can be termed as the dissertation (shrinking city). This can happen if the city fails to cover all the expectation of people who migrate into these cities. Relationship between city design and urban transformation City designing entails shaping cities, villages and towns. It involves the larger scale group of buildings in a certain street, public spaces, in an entire neighborhood or district, or a whole city to transform that area to become attractive, sustainable and functional. Therefore, there is a great relationship between city design and urban transformation. Hence, the city designing plays an integral part in shaping urban life. For instance, the creativity used while designing the city helps to shape and transform the city in the best way possible. This is because the city designing helps urban transformation as the city becomes more functional and self sustainable. In addition, the process of urban transformation especially in the developing world are recognized and linked to the global trends of building design and technology. For example, some cities in the developing world undergo important transformation (Bosselmann, 2008). This transformation is aimed at modifying the conventional form of urban settlement that entail, physical, social, and economic impact of urban transformation. Therefore, the city designs should enhance urban transformation holistically. By so doing, they will ensure that all the facets in the city will help the city to look more decent and welcoming. Relationship between Urban transformation and economic factors Urban transformation is one of the many economical factors. This is because the better the city the more investors it welcomes. Therefore, while there is an urban transformation many people feel secure and comfortable to do their businesses and trade thus boosting the economy of that city and the country at large. In addition, while there is urban transformation many opportunities arise encouraging all sorts of businesses. For instance, people continue to invest by building plots for sale or for rental, building business centers, starting some booming businesses which will encourage others to continue trending with them. This facilitates the development of the country in general as these people continue to pay taxes which are used by the government to carry out all the other necessary developments. In addition, it also creates job opportunities which helps boost the economy of the country for the government in way ceases to depend on the outside grant and relies on its own resources. Therefore, while government invests in urban transformation it fully boosts its economy (Altoon et al, 2011). Discussing Venturi and Rossi point of view: Both Venturi and Scott Brown made comments on the wide ranging impact of learning from Las Vegas. This is because its idea transcended architectural discourse that influences academics and most professional in differing fields. To them a sign becomes the architecture. Urban transformation should incorporate all the necessary requirements to satisfy its dwellers and the tourists. Therefore, it is essential to allude from the perspective of Venturi and Rossi. For Venturi sign is extremely crucial for it deliberately wrenched meaning from form, building and function. He argues that emphasizing on two dimensional graphics denies an ultimate reality of architecture which is detectable in the three dimensional substance and volume. Therefore, for Venturi the needs of the architectures are only met in a three dimensional form. However, this is determined by the practical, structural work, spatial, and building identities by the most efficient imagery which can be visually perceptible. In learning from Las Vegas Rossi and Venturi points out that there is a very strong relationship existing between sign and the landscape. This relationship continues to evolve daily, and it is clearer especially of recent. In fact, this can be clearly seen Ruscha’s art as she separates the text in her work. She does this by making her work float across the picture plane in front of landscape images or the abstract sunsets. In addition, the automotive landscape continues by itself. However, it is essential to note that Venturi and Rossi take architecture in different perspective brings conflict. By so doing Rossi focuses so much in The Architecture of the City while Venturi focuses on Learning from Las Vegas. Rossi in the in The Architecture of the City Rossi in her argument discusses building and urban theory. Therefore, he not only focuses on the, different buildings in the city and the urban visual image but also the construction process of the whole city. He evaluates the modern architecture movement and analyzes the rules and forms urban development. However, she does not focus on reviewing the forms of the building and the standard images of modern architecture; he focused the neglect and destruction of the collective memory of humanity. He also attacks functionalism and the modern movement. Additionally, he ventured in restoring the position of the compositional systems by making it to be the one and only accurate study objective of architecture research. In his view, all the architectural styles are connected to specific dominant building types (Rossi, 2002). For instance, Abbey church represents Romanesque, and the civic cathedral represents gothic. Both buildings are iconic structures in certain cities and therefore the city image is provided by them. The buildings hence play a very significant role. Rossi tries to point out to two important questions by giving the example of the two building. Firstly, as people look at the city and feel moved by its structure the kind of role to its form play? Secondly, as people consider the city structure do they find the city spirit masked by the neglected building?. By so doing he tried to emphasize that there is a need to pay attention to urban geography, urban topography, its architecture and disciplines among others. In addition, he argues that the characteristics of the building in a city not only reflect the local characteristics and city environment, but it contributes to the spirit of the city. This is because each and every city has its own soul. This soul can be defined as the personality and the characteristic of the city. Therefore, the architecture should reflect the spirit of the city which in return will make it become the authentic urban architecture (Rossi, 2002). Rossi also made a proposal by stating that building being an organic part of the entire city should not by any way disturb the organization of the city, hence it should be combined with the available living space. He argued that the actual city forms while condensed together bring out the meaning and the characteristics of human living. His conviction was that even though the building just replicates a fraction of the multifaceted and the massive body structures as the ultimate and well-known actuality of the entity, buildings comprise the most specific tangible preliminary peak of discussions. In addition, he points out that the form became a replacement concept of the function. This is because the ordinary categorization has much more information pertaining to the city which provides helpful durability that comprehends urban structure. In particular, the life of humanity in space and time inclusive of history is closely related to the city form. For this main reason, Rossi did away with the shallow fantasy of functionalism by proposing that in order for a city to return to another form of order there must be a morphological relationship. He argued that architecture in itself is just a small city while as the city is a big building. Therefore, he heightened architecture by arguing that the rule that governs a city should be compatible with the rules that control personal life and fate. She pointed out that biography has its unique span though restricted to birth and death. Therefore, the urban architecture is a collection of biography embodiment which is beyond the meanings and emotions of the actual city (Rossi, 2002). Therefore, the philosophy of Rossi is that building types are closely related to the life styles of human beings. A life style resembles a kind of type, a specific form stemming from diverse societies and containing different expressions. Forms in themselves can be compared to the skin of things for the way of life is a deep structure of a building. Therefore, Rossi suggested that people need to access the deep meaning from the history and memory as well as the archetypes. Hence, the architects have to solely rely on the collective memory as they determine the model of building to create a city in a certain place (Rossi, 2002). Venturi in Learning from Las Vegas On the other hand, Venturi focused on the city of Las Vegas. By so doing all his argument points out to learning from Las Vegas. He upheld acceptance of high and popular culture. He was really concerned of the modern architectures hence he attacked the world science futuristic metaphysic. He points out that Las Vegas can be eluded for architectural symbolism and communication that was a fracture with modernisms heroism and distinctiveness. He champions architecture based on style image, on folk or vernacular construction and architecture without architects. He argues that this vernacular style should be , by historical precedent, and absolutely laden with signs and symbols gotten from previous eras as well as from the current ones, should be a mixture of low an high art, sacred and putrefying, for this defines the humanity natural language. Venturi encourages the architect to be laissez-faire as they study new space order, study the capitalist commercial language architecture of 1972 in America. He also encourages them to suffuse the high and low culture, the fine and crude art, and persuasion and communication in the buildings. In addition, he persuades the architect to focus on symbolism and its merits in the social and cultural fabric. This will make architecture as a communication over space in opposition to form in space. While focusing in signage and communication over space, Venturi insists that the contemporary designers have done away with symbols for they pervade people’s culture which makes them desecrated. He argues that the modern architecture of the buildings supporting the sign is decisively unattractive and uninteresting. This is because every sign that is used differ from each other (Venturi et al, 1993). Nonetheless, these signs share some character, location, and size. Additionally, every sigh possesses symbols which are borrowed from other eras. He therefore terms this lack of innovation as the old words with new meanings. He concludes that all architecture is a decorated shed or Duck or rather $10,000 building containing the $100,000 sign. For him, the architecture seems to be functional boring for it is neutral which makes it so difficult to recall (Venturi et al, 1993). The architecture also carries a surface which is alive with appliqué ornamental symbols which serves the function of evoking a variety of emotional responses. As a result, he compares it with the historical architecture whereby the Renaissance fully occupied with decorated sheds. In addition, he terms the architecture as the Duck as he describes it as a building which is reduced in importance as compared to its sign thus making the building to become a sign. Venturi terms most of these building as Un-admitted Ducks, and this is very common in the modern architecture. He terms this as a real hypocrisy for the architecture in modern time demonstrated what it looks like by setting itself against what it wasn’t thus concluding that a Duck is still a duck (Venturi et al, 1993). Venturi points out to the ordinary architecture of the Strip’s gas station. He terms them as tasteful, for they are a repetitive construction that comforts and soothes. Therefore, they patron sculpture and desert the oasis. Hence, in the middle of several ducks the ordinary and ugly architecture ceases to look ordinary by achieving an extra ordinary look. Venturi equates Las Vegas to the Roman Piazza. He claims that all roads in Rome leads to this inevitable piazza which is basically a void in the middle of the congested city. Alternatively each road leads to the Strip which is a void with no focus, located in and open indefinite space. The only scale that is different in Las Vegas is the space for pedestrians and the automobiles. This Renaissance piazza had a mixture of media symbols that were borrowed from other eras. Correspondingly, billboards located in the highways were inspired from the Roman triumphal arch, the architecture as propaganda to be read which Venturi terms as a critical associative process. He makes a distinction of an architecture that is interesting but in reality boring, and a economical and appalling architecture that is in fact interesting (Venturi et al, 1993). Venturi states that learning from a popular culture does not remove the architect from his own status in high culture. However, it may make an alteration toe the high culture making it sympathetic to its current needs. He claims that most architects and planners put aside their usual assumptions and tasteful professional culture. By so doing they failed to form a habit of looking non- judgmentally at the environment which actually became a problem. Learning from Las Vegas tackles issues of architecture that are mostly overlooked. The city always holds an identity of bright lights, rolling dice and roaring laughter among others. This makes the city to be experienced through motion, typology and sign. By incorporating speed and motion it makes the city look cinematic while typology and sign plays a vital role in the city. Many cities have borrowed from the outskirts of Las Vegas for example the Parramatta road in Sidney and the linking road in Mumbai. This is because the commercial architecture makes its presence indispensable. Additionally, the used of signage and the dynamics automobile centric architecture has become unavoidable. However the architects must remember that the symbols are indicators and are used in all spheres of life inclusive of architecture. Las Vegas pioneered the manner in which business are logically organized for optimal and visual appeal. It has a science to everything inclusive of architectural elements which brings a feel to the environment that makes people to feel more attracted to spending time in casinos and pools. This makes Venturi to term the architects as evil geniuses in regard to the evolution of Las Vegas (Venturi et al, 1993). Growth of the city and urban transformation: Both Rossi and Venturi in their discussions have manifested how the city grow and acquire the urban transformation. Therefore, one can conclude that the growth of the city and the evolution of urban artifacts are continuous natural processes, but the real difference within them disappears. This is because the reality of structure of urban artifacts suggests cities to be distinct in time and space. Hence, every modification of urban artifact presupposes a qualitative and the quantitative change. This stems from the fact that building typology and urban morphology are relative. Therefore, the architect should understand the structure of urban artifacts. Additionally, a city form summarizes the city image and the residential districts respond to the holistic urban structure. For this main reason, the architect should study the city form to transform it in a more appealing and extraordinary way. Conclusion To conclude, architecture should use the city morphology, consider space and time, and the typology of any city before assuming the task of transforming it. They should therefore, try to focus more in the concepts of Rossi and Venturi for they are so important and useful. They both emphasize on the culture and language of architecture which should correspond to the culture and language of people. Therefore, every architect should be willing to learn from them and also study their referral like Las Vegas in order to understand the importance of architecture to humanity. I think that both Rossi and Venturi are so helpful, and I can recommend that each architect should allude from them while planning the city growth and its evolution. References: VENTURI, R., SCOTT BROWN, D., & IZENOUR, S. (1993). Learning from Las Vegas: the forgotten symbol of architectural form. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press. ROSSI, A. (2002). The architecture of the city. Cambridge, Mass [u.a.], MIT Press. TILL, J. (2009). Architecture depends. Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press. RATTENBURY, K., & HARDINGHAM, S. (2007). Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown: Learning from Las Vegas. Abingdon [England], Routledge. FUCHS, R. J. (1994). Mega-city growth and the future. Tokyo [u.a.], Univ. Press. BOSSELMANN, P. (2008). Urban transformation understanding city design and form. Washington, DC, Island Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=382541. ALTOON, R. A., AULD, J. C., & EGAN, N. (2011). Urban transformation: transit oriented development and the sustainable city. Mulgrave, Vic, Images Publishing Group. HOUGH, M. (1993). City form and natural process: towards a new urban vernacular. London [u.a.], Routledge. Read More