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Monumental Architecture vs. the Everyday |
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written
by joelnish / 10.24.2005 |
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| Monumental Architecture vs. the Everyday |
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Assignment |
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Monumental architecture is about power structures, designed to humble the viewer to an idea. There isn’t any space for an individual--that’s the whole point, the forfeiture of one’s own feelings and views to another’s. The colosseum, for example, was able to make people feel good and excited about murder, divert them, humble them to the everlasting power of Rome and immortalize its builder. In a funny way it’s impressive how effective this monument remains. Tourists today wander the halls of the colosseum and are still excited about the mass murders once committed there, made to think about glory, honor, strength and the movie “Gladiator”. Back home the same mass murder would be better symbolized by a horror movie. The colosseum remains a symbol of everlasting power. And if none of this was clear simply from walking the site, tour guides will remind you of this, and tell you name of the emperor who built it.
Housing is completely different: housing without room for an individual really shouldn’t be called housing. What struck me the most was how one house slowly blended into another. The ancient Romans lived next to and on top of each other. Each generation of housing seems to be built on the last, being as intertwined as the community that inhabits it. Every room was different too, each tailored to some forgotten individual standard. Ironically it is the lack of a plan that seems to make the housing so rich, so personal and small.
Yet there was something else that seemed to strike me about the housing, their design seemed geared to living in accordance with nature, with frescos depicting the seasons and thick near windowless walls to keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter. Simple practicality meant many of the buildings were simple brick constructions. This is the exact opposite of monumental buildings, whose unifying feature seem to be their imposition of man on the world—giant phallic buildings that have invented some conception of man’s greatness.
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