I was astounded with the news I received while I was browsing my news feed. A prophecy about an illness that'll harm a lot of people? So now a lot of us are scared, gonna start "praying and repenting for your sins, or else you'll be harmed". IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL FAITH?

Whether it is has any connections with the Bible or not, it's already there. Keep calm and do your best to be a good human being. 

Besides, that illness must've been caused by severe human intervention. The world's balance (food chain/circle of life) is terribly ruined because of our selfish "economic acts". Scientific studies already says it all: the population of disease-causing microorganisms is growing as part of the unbalance in nature - its predators are diminishing & unsanitary practices in the urban community is what makes them alive. So now we are back to the great cause of the unbalance: HUMAN OVERPOPULATION. We think we're useful; satisfying our own wants and desires, but all we are are pests if we keep contributing to the mess and not even helping out in cleaning and preventing it.

We have abused this world too much. If this is the punishment fitted for all of us, then so be it.

But not everyone deserves to be punished. Why do those people who are more suited to get punished always gets away just because they have money? I wish there really is a place like hell for such kinds of people. I am also into the idea of "Death Note"- it only needs to be handled by someone so just, to eliminate all those who are terribly rotten.

We are created to be good, but we abuse all that's good in this world. We don't care whether it'll be gone later, as long as we use it now.

So yeah, I really don't want to join the fuzz. But it gets on my nerves. Wish us luck, humans.

What's with having religion if you don't have respect for the world you're living in?

I'm talking about Mother Nature, not the selfish environment humans designed for themselves.

I had a weird dream.

My name was Mary (I forgot the full name), but she was adopted by her wealthy uncle and she went all the way to a "wise man" or a magical man that knows what happened to her parents (or whatever she wants to know, that's what I remembered but I'm not sure). I went on a journey to go to that man's place, which is located at my childhood village, but in my dream there was a forest by the first few blocks of its "Phase 2", and I needed to go there to get to the place. The place have several weird-looking houses; the houses are covered with furry spikes (can you imagine that?) of colors gray and brown. The old man's house is on the farthest and upmost portion of a house with a very tall roof which looks like a beanstalk. The grass everywhere are also a bit spiky, and I thought I felt tingling sensations while I was running towards the old man's house. It was a very weird place, but at the same time I was enthralled and enchanted with the weird beauty of the place.

Then the story changed moments after I arrived at the old man's place. I was a young Katara (from the Legend of Aang), maybe 3 or 4 years old? The setting is very different from the animated series though. It was cooler. We, the southern tribe, were standing on a barren land or valley with few puddles of water.Then the fire nation attacked, Aang was there, but he was a young kid, younger than the original Aang, so he was oblivious of his Avatar powers. Sokka was surprisingly on the enemy's side, even trying to attack me. In my dream, only my father, the leader of the Water tribe, is the sole water bender (or as what they had thought), so the enemies are attacking him until they succeeded. The enemies were satisfied until I got angry (?) and attacked them, I am the daughter of the leader, so I inherited his powers. Then I healed my father and I woke up.

I don't want to vent out too much. The last time I tried to vent out in this blog, I palpitated so badly that I needed to halt typing so I cannot publish it anymore.

Too bad because I have a lot of issues with the environment. This country, its so-called "leaders" (excuse me politicians), the irrational people and everything rotten in this world.

I cannot take it anymore. I wanted to vent out but I might have a heart attack if I do that.

This is so unfair.

Finally! I found a soft copy of my term paper!

Puzzle Pieces

What really is Architecture? [09/27/13]

Author/s:       Beatrice Ann A. Dolores

Mapua Institute of Technology, Manila, Philippines

Abstract:       A word is an expression of meaning independently formed as a basic element of speech (Oxford, 1995). That means, a word’s interpretation varies in every single person. “Architecture”, for example, has a different meaning to each and every one, most especially to the architects who practice their own “architecture”. But of course, people influence each other. Their conclusion was honed from a combination of other people’s ideas together with their own experiences. Young and aspiring architects look up to the world-famous architects and eventually realize their “own style” and definition of architecture by picking up fragments of influences from those prominent people, their environment, and their experiences. Those fragments of influences are then connected to each other to create his/her very own conclusion about Architecture, just like how puzzle pieces connect to create a whole picture.

Keywords:       architecture, building, convenience, kitsch, sustainable, user

In the essay “The Tall Building Artistically Considered” by Louis Sullivan in 1896, he stated that “Form ever follows function”. ( Fischer, 2008) The same ideology is carried by the first Bauhaus director Walter Gropius, (All Bauhaus, n.d.) but the former did not took the phrase into its most literal definition and designed buildings with ornamentations that aren’t similar to classical ornamentations. Sullivan’s approach is to create a new architectural style that will not use any of the previous styles. Gropius however, designed buildings into its simplest forms: glass windows, clean façade, and with no ornamentations. His movement was then followed by Mies van der Rohe with his popular dictum “Less is more.”

Le Corbusier, even with the gaining popularity of Gropius’ Modernist movement, made his own mark in architecture and stated that “A house is a machine for living in.” with his book “Vers Une Architecture”or Towards a New Architecture (Le Corbusier, 1923). His architectural style is somehow like Gropius’ and van der Rohe’s; his designs are also modernistic, clean (with no ornamentations) and functional.

Architecture students of the 21st century admire the buildings by these 3 prominent architects (Gropius, Le Corbusier, and van der Rohe). They are considered as the big three of International style (Architecture/Blog, 2005). The problem is that, the modernist movement is taking out the moral values of humans and turning them into machines just like the buildings they use. According to a person named Danny Krause: “Old-fashioned values and traditional fundamentalism was openly mocked and disregarded by the modernists, who wanted to recreate the art of life for the 20th century.” (Krause, 2012) So these architects eradicated values on purpose. Le Corbusier was stated as an atheist, by a documentary of one of the buildings he designed. Ironically, it was a church (cxlab, 2012). He did well with La Tourette’s design though and did not sacrifice the holiness of the church – in terms of the interior aspect though. With the church’s exterior, a passerby will be surprised if he finds out that it was a church.

Going back to the “losing morality”, one can notice the individuality brought by the built-environment. People living in private subdivisions (a built-environment) don’t even know their neighbours, or maybe they know, but they do not interact. They are too busy with their lives and have everything they need in their own houses that they do not bother going out and socializing with their neighbours. Elderly people complain that in their early lives, those who lived in humble provinces, everyone knows their “neighbours” from even from kilometres away. That was how friendly people were back then. Built-environment changed that. Modern technology changed that.

Just like what Frank Lloyd Wright said: “I know that architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived.” (Craven J., n.d.) Buildings hold human activities. Buildings hold the life of the people, both with its structural stability and its functionality. They also have the capability to influence the people’s daily lives – either make them better/productive or make them feeble and static. Renzo Piano once said, ‘My profession, as an architect is to create places for people. Places are where experiences meet and differences disappear.’ ” (Putman, 2008, p.147) Architects should meet the needs of his clients because, just like what was stated earlier, buildings hold human activities. Buildings cost a large amount of money and materials so if a building is built, and a client or a user doesn’t like it, he cannot just simply ask for it to be demolished. Well he can but, it is not just right. So architects should do their job for the sake of their clients and not just merely for self-expression. Buildings are meant to be used by others, and clients hire architects to design buildings. Architects cannot simply put up structures here and there for his “self-expression” with no guarantee that the buildings will be usable. It is impractical.

Speaking of cost and materials: “Louis Kahn had a steadfast belief that all materials had their own destiny and wouldn’t tolerate any attempt to deviate from that. During the age of clean modernism and the use of cutting edge materials, his architecture was often dismissed for being overly symbolic and heavily venerating buildings of the past. Influenced by the arid nature of many of his sites, Kahn’s buildings often took the form of cavernous brick shells with large geometrical cut outs, which he would like to describe them – in his bizarre Kahn-way - as ruins in reverse.” (Rackard, 2013) His belief is quite difficult to comprehend, but it is impressive for an architect to be that unique and original. Kahn has his own style and he is acknowledged for it. However, his designs were not completely understood by people using it. When his son documented his works, he asked the people using a building designed by Kahn of what they think about that building (Kahn N., 2003). There are those who were inconvenient with the design, saying that there are faults with the window design, etc; and that they weren’t flattered at all. Even his son agreed for the dislike of the building.

Gropius’ idealistic Bauhaus at Dessau did not also receive good remarks from the actual users of the building (Thangavelu S., 2011). Gropius wanted to create a built-environment that will have everything the occupants’ need that they won’t need to get out of his design. The students of the institution complained about the glass windows. Gropius did not consider how the sun’s heat would direct to the people inside the building because of his glass windows. Sure, it would be very nice to have a good view of the outside but he forgot that people don’t only feel with their sight, people get cold, hot, annoyed and etc.

Their view of architecture also did not consider the natural environment. They built structures for their ideal built-environment and took too much from Mother Nature. Most resources took a very long time to restore. Trees need to grow for almost a century to be tall and sturdy, people cannot grow trees overnight and expect a fully-grown tree the next day. Buildings, other than consuming too much of the available resources, also contribute to environmental pollution and carbon emissions. Thank goodness there are architects like Richard Neutra who are sensitive with the environment. “Neutra coined the term biorealism, which means ‘the inherent and inseparable relationship between man and nature.’” (North Carolina Modernist Houses, n.d.) Hopefully, green building would be the leading movement in the years to come.

CONCLUSION

With all of those being said, Architecture is a whole puzzle with pieces interlocking together making it whole. Architecture should apply to every building – its science, its standards. It’s not just an artistic piece which will have no function, that’ll only be considered as a mere sculpture. Architecture’s artistry includes the incorporation of science, strength, function and safety. It should serve the users’ needs because they will of course, use the building. Take note that a building is a container of activities that is why it has to serve its purpose and function. Building structures are also one of the most resource- consuming activities; architecture has to stop being one of the top contributors of unsustainability(epa.gov, 2009) and lead the way to environmental concern. Everyone is simply doing their own business without minimal concern with the environment. Buildings are a huge role model of the people. What are designed nowadays depict how we are now as humans. Most are kitsch. Modernistic kitsch. So, if the buildings made a difference, unconsciously, people will follow too. Green building should take over. All of these puzzle pieces complete the proponent’s conclusion in Architecture. This student still have a lot to learn about Architecture though, but she hopes that these are what she is going to hold on to up until her working days.

“Throughout my writings I have made it clear that my method imitates that of the architect. When an architect wants to build a house which is stable on ground where there is a sandy topsoil over underlying rock, or clay, or some other firm base, he begins by digging out a set of trenches from which he removes the sand, and anything resting on or mixed in with the sand, so that he can lay his foundations on firm soil. In the same way, I began by taking everything that was doubtful and throwing it out, like sand; and then, when I noticed that it is impossible to doubt that a doubting or thinking substance exists, I took this as the bedrock on which I could lay the foundations of my philosophy.” (Descartes, 1637)

REFERENCES

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Putman, D., 2008. Breaking the Discipleship Code: Becoming a Missional Follower of Jesus Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group Available at:

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Rackard N., 2013. Video: Louis Kahn Talks to a Brick. Brick|ArchDaily [blog], March 2 Available at: <http://www.archdaily.com/tag/brick/>

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