Of Modernism and the Simplicity of Profundity

One of my favorite aspects of modernism in architecture is the unstated upholding of the ideal that that beauty lies not in the flourishes of flair but in the simplicity of a space well-designed.

To the right is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building in New York, in many ways the archetypal modernist building. It is a beacon of clarity, simplicity, functionality, and beauty. And the beauty comes from the preceding adjectives. It is in the clean lines and clear purpose that the structure stands so mightily.

I guess the point is that sometimes the simple reveals the profound.

Sometimes the gleam in a child's eye can reveal the most momentous of joys.

Sometimes the laughter between friends can rekindle hearts and memories alike.

Sometimes a simple song can open up the doors of heaven.

Sometimes a smile from across a room can change the declension of the day.

Sometimes a tear can be as hopeful as it is mournful, as much an indicator of a future as a remembrance of the past.

Sometimes less is more.

Of Modernism and Form Following Function

I fear I am becoming a "design nerd". You know, one of these people that lauds or evangelizes a product for great design, regardless of it's functionality in my world.

Still a fuzzy concept? Let me explain. I would really like this bicycle. It is ultra-light, based on quality historical design, uber-functional, and pretty dang cool looking. And it is $690. Ya, for a bicycle...designed for intra-city transportation. Not a mountain bike or a racing bike...just a run-to-the-grocery-store-to-grab-some-milk bike.

And yet it is the design that is so alluring. It is no more complicated than it needs to be. It is no heavier than it needs to be. It doesn't have unnecessary bells or whistles and yet it isn't left so spare so as to discount the beauty of a creation either. It is well-designed.

This bicycle showcases the best aspects of the architecture phrase "Form follows function". This is basically the idea that the space or creation should first remain beholden to the functionality intended and then allow the form to coalesce around that desired use.

So some of us buy houses with formal dining rooms. And most of us will never host a formal dinner in our entire lives. Really, I would wonder if the formal dining room isn't just bad design. Wouldn't we rather have more room for casual entertaining, family activities, or some other oft-repeated pasttime? And yet the majority of new suburban homes offer some sort of formal living and/or formal dining space.

As such, we have a lot of homes with seldom sat-in couches and seldom-used crystal because function has become slave to form.

Our lives are this way.

We often allow the terms of our cultural existence to dictate our practical being. We hear the lies from marketers and shrug them off only to wonder if they may be right after all...

You need a bigger car...

You need a nicer house...

You need a $690 bicycle...

You should make more money...

You should study something that pays well...

You should be like everyone else...

Because we live in a mass-produced world and a culture of efficiency, there is a temptation to fall in line and have the function of our lives fit into the form (the mold) that has been set before us.

We can choose instead to listen to the wisdom of American architect Louis Sullivan, who declared in 1896:

It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression,
That form ever follows function. This is the law.

The way of our life should be slave to the direction we are heading. Those of us who claim Christ should organize our lives not after the form of a world fascinated with its own consumption, but rather with the functionality of the Christ-life as our primary driver.

I don't know what that looks like for your specifically. What I do know is that many of our lives would look very different if they would follow the simple credo of a fringe 19th century architect. And it may not look like everyone else's...it may be weird or derisive or even painful. But it will be true. And that must be a good thing.

Good design matters. In what order is your life being designed?

Modernism Week: Of Modernism and Legacy

This is part 1 of a week of posts related to modernism. An explanation as to why there is a week of posts on modernism can be found here: LINK

Julius Shulman is the the world's most celebrated, respected photographer of modernism. It is his photo of the Stahl House (Case Study House #22) that in many ways defined Los Angeles and architectural modernism.

Watching Julius Shulman interact with his subjects, the structures that were his life's work in capturing, was mesmerizing. Shulman could almost relate to the building he was charged with photographing. He could sense it's potential, find it's good side, and place it in such a light so as to capture it in an almost eternal sense. He took an architectural style that can lend itself to coldness and practicality and infused great beauty. He found the nuances that others could not see. He, very simply, defined modernism for the world to see.

Almost as captivating as Shulman and his work was the way that architects, designers, and homeowners received him. He was uniformly honored and cherished. He was beyond architectural squabbles and personal entanglements. He was revered. He was held in a place of suspended deity, a stellar being that was at once orbiting on the perihpery of a movement and completely one with the movement itself.

Julius Shulman was purposed to one thing. He caputred the best of modernism. And he captured it better than anyone else. It is his legacy.

So the questions becomes: What one thing are you purposed to do?

What is it for which people will remember you?

What will your legacy be?

Of Modernism: Modernism Week

Well, hello there.

A couple weeks back, the wife and baby were gone for a week, visiting family in California. I was left alone, bachelorized.

In my week at home alone, I managed to take in a documentary I've had on my "to-watch" list for awhile. As a fan of architecture, modernism, and design, I sat in awe of "Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman". It brought forth a veritable stream of tangential thought-lines and, as such, I'm going to unpack them this week in blog form. We'll call it "Modernism Week".

We kick it off today with "Modernism and Legacy".

Trailer for the film below...

We Are Them

"They feed us a hostile society ... 'it’s them, everyone outside, they're nasty and they’re going to kill us.' So they force us to retreat to our little enclave in suburbia, and we enter our cocoon to navigate through the hostile territory, along with everyone else. We don’t realize that we are them."

- N. A. Salingaros

Read "Connecting the Fractal City" by N.A. Salingaros here:

http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/connecting.html

Art Imitating Life?

Time is Money? Being Versus Doing

As a College Pastor, I am frequently confronted with students worried about what it is they will do when they get out of school. I am constantly trying to change the conversation from what they will "do" to what they will "be", mainly because we have become obsessed with (and identified by) career. But should we be?

Let's admit that we live in America and no one is likely to go hungry after finishing college. So the question is not how are we going to earn money, but how will we live this life (a small portion of which involves making money).

And so we have to rearrange our thinking. We have to stop meeting people and asking them "what do you do" and start asking them "how's your life". I mean, really, it's a much more interesting question with a whole possible range of provocative answers. I get blank stares half of the time when I ask it as people have to mentally shift out of auto-pilot and engage in actual thought in order to answer the question. And, not surprisingly, every so often someone answers honestly.

"Not so good, man."

This is where life happens. This is where eternity or infinity or destiny gets established. Not in pay stubs or job fulfillment, but in relationships, both vertical and horizontal.

So let's agree together to stop worrying about what it is we have done, are doing, or will do. If He provides for the birds and lillies... Right?!?! It's going to work out just like it is supposed to...

And just in case you hear the phrase, "Time is money", feel free to correct that person.

Life is more than money. And time was never money. And, no matter, one day we'll all be Gone.

Love y'all.
Kyle