Conceptual architecture is a form of
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
that utilizes
conceptualism
In metaphysics, conceptualism is a theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between nominalism and realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical c ...
, characterized by an introduction of ideas or concepts from outside of architecture often as a means of expanding the discipline of architecture. This produces an essentially different kind of building than one produced by the widely held 'architect as a master-builder' model, in which craft and construction are the guiding principles. In conceptual architecture, the finished building as product is less important than the ideas guiding them, ideas represented primarily by texts, diagrams, or art installations. Architects that work in this vein are
Diller + Scofidio,
Bernard Tschumi,
Peter Eisenman, and
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a ...
.
Conceptual architecture was examined in the essay "Notes on Conceptual Architecture: Towards a Definition" by
Peter Eisenman in 1970, and again by the ''
Harvard Design Magazine'' in autumn 2003 and winter 2004, by a series of articles under the heading "Architecture as Conceptual Art? Blurring Disciplinary Boundaries". But the understanding of design as a construction of a concept was understood by many
modernist architects
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
as well. To quote
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whi ...
on
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
:
:It doesn't work, it doesn't have to work. Wright had the shape conceived long before he knew what was going into it. I claim that is where architecture starts, with the concept.
[Louis Kahn quote from Frampton, Kenneth. ''Modern Architecture, a critical history.'' page 245.]
See also
*
Conceptual art
Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called instal ...
Bibliography
*Eisenman, Peter (2004). ''Eisenman Inside Out: Selected Writings, 1963-1988''. Yale University Press.
*Frampton, Kenneth (1992). ''Modern Architecture, a critical history.'' Thames & Hudson- Third Edition.
*"Architecture As Conceptual Art?". ''Harvard Design Magazine.'' Number 19, Fall 2003/Winter 2004.
References
20th-century architectural styles
Architectural theory
+
Conceptualism
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