history and theory of architecture I

8/7/2019 history and theory of architecture I

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A Decade of Architecture Education in Universiti Sains Malaysia:

Preparation for Asian Renaissance .

1. Background: Globalization Redefined

1.1 Globalization, expressed in many ways, is at best Eurocentric.

1.2 Globalization: Holistic, All -Inclusive Quranic Ideology2. First Challenge: Developing and Adopting the Model of Production2.1 From The Book of Allah, 114:1-3

2.2 From A Hadeeth

2.3 Adopting the Basic Production Model as the Model of Architecture Production

3. Second Challenge: Deploying & Monitoring Model of Architecture Production

3.1 Deployment of Production Model

3.1.1 Challenges & Experiences Conference, 2007.

3.1.2 Student Activitism: Penang Declaration of Architecture, 1997.

3.1.3 Courses: Introduction to the Built-Environment, 1997-2007.

3.1.4 Policy: UIA Accord, 2000.

3.1.5 USM Architecture Program Niche: Ekotektur, 20043.2 Monitoring Model Development

3.2.1 Architect in Practice (E2B)

3.2.2 Architect in Networking (E2I)

3.2.3 Architect in Education (E2E)

4. Third Challenge: Packaging Model for Distribution

4.1 Intention

4.2 Act

4.3 Product

Final ChallengeReferences


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1. Background: Globalization Redefined

1.1 Globalization, expressed in many ways, is at best Eurocentric.

Contemporay discourses are built on almost a single ideology identified by Edward Said as

Orientalism , an idea rooted in Eurocentrism, whose nature is extremely divisive. [1]Architecture education (hence practice) is no exception. The overall challenge inarchitecture education now is to understand and switch to an alternativ e ideology whichshall enable it to sail through the waves of globalization pre and post Renaissance of Asia.

The globe is typically represented as shownin Figure 1. Europe is centered, East and Weston its right and left respectively. The east isfurther fragmented by having the Middle,Near and Far which does not really fit in

the dictum West Is Best, hence the needfor North-South dialogs to legitimate

discourses on First -Third worlds or Developed-Developing countries, fragmentationmaintained.

Figure 1: Typical representation of the world.

More recently the Pacific Rim was coined in this already fragmented geo -graphics adding tothe collection of disinformation, perhaps the impetus for the term challenges in thisconference.

Taking a different vantage point,centralizing the Pacific Ocean, we get quitea different perspective of the world as thePacific Rim gets to be more unified henceclearly defined (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Pacific-Centered World.


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It may just be a good base map to tell

us different stories, for example, the

European Renaissance Gold, Gospel

& Glory exercise (Figure 3) which has

been embedded in many cultures.

Figure 3: Eurocentric Pacific-Splitting

Spree.

More popular readings such asencyclopedia entries add to this

disinformation library. One example is

the rendering of Asian Empires within

which the Islamic Empire is located

(Figure 4).

Figure 4: Exclusive map of Islamic Empire

in Asia.

Excluded from this entry is an

empire around MaLaKa (Figure 5),

reduced by historians to a mere city

whose name was purportedly derived

from the Malaka tree, a tall story for an

empire, MuLK (Kingdom) derived from

the divine word MaLiK (King).[2]

Figure 5: Excluded is the Islamic Empire

of Malaka.


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1.2 Globalization: Holistic, All-Inclusive Quranic Ideology

Globalization is really an age-old phenomenon described in Al-Quran as shown in

Figure 6.

He has ordained for you the diin

which He commended unto

Prophet Nuh, and that which We

revealed to you [Muhammad],

and that which We commended

unto prophets Ibrahim and Musa

and Isa, saying, Establish the diin,

and be not divided therein ...

AlQuran, 42:13. Figure 6: Part of 42:13, AlQuran.

Ordained so, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa,

Isa and Muhammad did what

they were told (Figure 7), while

you (i.e. us) have been told the

same.

Figure 7: Doing what was instructed.

The fact that all the apostlescould establish The (one and

same) Diin was primarily because

it was preceded by its downfall,

the result of doing what was

prohibited, i.e. being divided

(Figure 8).Figure 8: Continuum in establishing The Diin.


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Remnants of this division can still

be seen today from the groups of

people rejoicing in what they

have with them (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Division of Islam.

When Nuh established The Diin ,

there was a civilization it

displaced, that destroyed by the

Great Flood. That civilization was

however reestablished during the

downfall of Nuhs governance

only to crash again during the

destruction of the Tower of Babel

(Figure 10).Figure 10: Natural cycle of global governance.

The cycle repeated to witness the Drowning of Pharaoh, the Fall of Rome and the

Fall of World Order (Global Governance) and may even be extrapolated to

anticipate the natural and inevitable fall of the New World Order and theRenaissance of Asia.

Using this schema to look at explanations of History of World Architecture or World

History of Architecture it seems that a predominantly Orientalist/ Eurocentric

ideology is revealed.


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History of architecture chooses to

begin after Ibrahim, zooming in the

periods other than the periods of

Governance by People of The Book,

viz. Egyptian, Graeco-Roman,

Christian/ Byzantine and

Renaissance/ Modern or

contemporary architecture (Figure

11).

Figure 11: Linearhistory of world architecture.

Islamic architecture (by implication Islam) is disinformatively appropriated the Post-

Muhammad period, far from the holistic Islam, a term coined by Ibrahim. From the

location of the Renaissance/ Modern period following the Dark Ages (bright for

the Governance of People Of The Book), the eurocentricity of this linea r narrative is

obvious. History of architecture is therefore a narrative of the downfall of the

Governance of People Of The Book. It is within this Eurocentric ideological construct

that Islamic architecture lost its substance, reduced to merely form (Figu re 12).

Figure 12: Architecture of the dead.

And this is just one example of the of a eurocentric deconstructive exercise making

up the basis of our ideologies today and should be debunked. This constitute the

single main challenge of a series of challenges we face today.

2. First Challenge: Developing and Adopting the Model of Production

Whatever the situation Asia and the world would be in time to come, the asset of


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any program of architecture is its ideology which must depart from its Eurocentric

relatives. What is needed is a concerted effort to understand and develop an

alternative ideological seed so that all actors in the production of architecture shall

be accommodated and not excluded. To do thi s we need to look at what

eurocentrism diametrically opposes, i.e. the authority of The Book, The Reading, The

Differentiator(and 50 other lesser known titles).

2.1 From The Book of Allah, 114:1-3

In Chapter 114, Mankind, Allah defines Himself as Ruler, King and Master of Mankind

(Figure 13),

Figure 13: Allah as Ruler, King, Master.

As Ruler He outlines His RULES; as King He

sets the requisites of His KINGDOM, as

Master he defines the criteria of His

SERVANTS. While servants are actors, the

kingdom is a site on which His rules

apply; this is expressed in Figure 14.

Ruler King Master

Rules Kingdom Servants

RULE SITE ACTOR

Figure 14: Basic Elements of Production 1.

2.2 From A Hadeeth

It is narrated on the authority of Amirul Mu'minin, Abu Hafs 'Umar bin al -Khattab who

said, I heard the Messenger ofAllah said, Actions are (judged) by niyyah

(intention).

This may be summed up as follows: a

niyyah (INTENTION) is judged to

determine the value (ACT) of an action

(PRODUCT) hence the basic element of

production, intention, act, product INTENTION ACT PRODUCT


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(Figure 15). Figure 15: Basic Elements of Production 2.

Refining the basic models further, we find that an intention must belong to an Actor

(student, teacher, architect, client, community, authority); Rules (law, regulation,canon, convention, custom, rite, ritual) govern the Act (learn, unlearn, build,

supervise, manage, enable, inhabit, experiment); this produces on the Site (earth,

town, kampung, board, paper, web), a Product (idea, model, schema, building,

community, kampung, state, order).

Production must therefore involve all the six elements derived from the trinary of

Actor (with Intention), Rule (that defines an Act), and Site (Product location). This is

the Basic Production Model (Figure 16).

Actor Rule Site

Intention Act Product

Figure 16: Basic Production Model.

2.3 Adopting the Basic Production Model as the Model of Architecture

Production:

Understanding the basic Production Model, it may then be reworded - an Actor

(with Intention) Acts (by the Rules) to produce a Product (on Site). The model

/paradigm (Figure 17) may thus be stated as follows:


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Figure 17: Production Model.

an architecture production is the making of a product (located on a sitesomewhere) by an actor, acting (and going by the rules) on an intention.

3. Second Challenge: Deploying & Monitoring Model of Architecture

Production

3.1 Deployment of Production Model

3.1.1 Challenges & Experiences Conference, 2007.

This conference may be summed up as shown

in Figure 18. Actors (architects/ architectural

educators and educationists) with their

intentions (theories and models of education)

act (function in architecture programs using

methodologies and techniques) based on

specific rules (culture, economy, technology)

to generate products (practice, experience)

which would be used on a site (rapidly

changing Asia). All would be useful in the

production of the Asian Renaissance. Figure 18: Conference Framework.

3.1.2 Student Activitism: Penang Declaration of Architecture, 1997.


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As opposed to using the Renaissance

anthropocentricity, students of architecture

from ten institutions of higher learning in

Malaysia, and guests from Singapore and

Thailand, experiencing the pressure of the

globalization, agreed to shift direction by

formalizing it in the Penang Declaration of

Architecture for Millennium 3 in 1997 (Figure

19). This was held during the annual national

architecture workshop (Minggu Alam Bina),

themed 1, 2, 3 Univers suggesting the

quantum leap necessary to adopt a universal

model of architecture production.

Figure 19: Penang Declaration of

Architecture, 1997.

An analysis of the Declaration is shown in

Figure 20.

Subsequent workshops explored this mode of

production. The forthcoming workshop in

2008, again to be hosted by USM would

hopefully be taking Architecture Production

into yet another area closer to the model.

Figure 20: Analysis of Penang

Declaration.

3.1.3 Courses: Introduction to the Built -Environment, 1997-2007.

The Production Model is also deployed to

underlay the freshmen course, Introduction to

the Built Environment and Human Settlement.

Minus the nano and extra-terrestrial scales on

both extremes, the Production Model provides

an overall map of the realm of th e production

of the built environment (Figure 21) from which

students may then choose their profession, well -

aware of the overall context of environmental

production. Figure 21: Course Schema.

While some students may just study for their examinations, some who went beyond


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only to came back after their graduation to exchange ideas on the practicality of

the Production Model in architecture practice, education and networking.

3.1.4 Policy: UIA Accord, 2000.

Three years after the Penang Declaration of Arc hitecture, the Ministry of Educationof Malaysia in 2000 mustered representatives from all architecture programs in the

state universities to work out a strategy to address the UIA Accords Recommended

International Standards of Professionalism in Architec tural Practice (the Accord)

which had seemingly threatened the authority. One of the statements of concern is

That courses must be accredited/validated/recognized by an independent

relevant authority, external to the university at reasonable time interval s (usually no

more than 5-years), and that the UIA, in association with the relevant national

organizations of higher education, develop standards for the content of an

architect's professional education that are academically structured, intellectually

coherent, performance-based and outcome-oriented, with procedures that areguided by good practice.

USM took a different stand from the Ministry

as UIAs expressed intention to legitimate

architecture education programs in

Malaysia seemed to have fitted into the

Production Model (Figure 18) except for one

component; the rule, specified as

procedures that are guided by goodpractice.What would constitute

procedures guided by good practice?

Figure 18: UIA Accord for Accreditation

of Architects Education

Perhaps this is best answered with a question,

Do they then seek the law of the jahiliyah? And who is better than Allah for a

people who have firm Faith. Al-Maidah 5:50.

After several discussions and submission of proposals from all universities, the issue

was frozen. It seems that The Council for Architectural Education Malaysia (CAEM)

have adopted the Accord in evaluating architectural syllabus for the Institutes of


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Higher Learning in Malaysia; the production of yet another Eurocentric hegemony.

3.1.5 USM Architecture Program Niche: Ekotektur, 2004

Under the guidelines of the Union of International Architects now, the Ministry of

Education of Malaysia, in 2004, instructed each faculty of architecture program inMalaysia to define its niche, its specialty, fort. Again the Production Model was

used to map out areas that each staff member was working on in Teaching,

Research and Consultancy. As the predominant rule was agreed to be Natural Law,

keywords were suggested, and finally ECOTECTURE was adopted to best represent

USMs niche.

3.2 Monitoring Model Development

3.2.1 Architect in Practice (E2B)

Gary Chen (USM Class of 99), after having set

up his own practice, realized the limits of

building jobs in Malaysia. He left for Singapore

to take on jewellery design projects when he

remembered the Production Model and Year 2

projects, and started his blog (Figure 22). If at

all, the Production Model has enabled GC to

take control over the overall production, sad or

otherwise. Figure 22: GC Atelier Blog.


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3.2.2 Architect in Networking (E2I)

Iskandar Shah (USM Class of 98) chooses not to practice architecture but maintains

his intention to design by setting up his own design enterprise which implicitly adopts

the Production Model in the integration of architecture with media, film, animation

and the internet (Figure 23) to produce various proposals in various localitiesincluding the Middle East.

Figure 23: Right Hand Fingers Creations

Deploying the Production Model has allowed Right Hand Fingers to state that his

employees are all university dropouts whose intentions differ substantially from

existing architecture institutions and would generate substantially different products.

3.2.3 Architect in Education (E2E)

David Yek (USM Class of 00) runs a one-

man office and contributes to the

Taylors College Architecture program as

a studio-master which keeps generating

controversial projects. Having examined

the studio projects, it was found that

David had used the Production Mod el

within or without the studio. The intention

to explore/ experiment produced

products which are not within the norms

of conventional architecture.

Figure 24: Studio, Taylors College, 2005.

That seems to be the nature of the Production Model.


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4. Third Challenge: Packaging Model for Distribution

4.1 Intention

To prepare strategies in educating architects in this region, it necessarily involve

communities and governments.

4.2 Act

Based on the adoption of the centrality of the Supreme Power, consolidate and

share resources of participating institutions, be they education, practice or non -

practice.

4.3 Product

Global Architecture Program (GAP).

Final Challenge:

GAP generating global actors (teachers, students, architects, communities) useful in

the holistic design and management of the globe. After all

And I (Allah) created not the jinns and humans except they should enslave to

Me. .

References

1. AlQuran . Arabic & multi -lingual translation: http://www.al -islam.com/eng/ , 3 English

translations: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/, Muhammad Asad. The Message of

The Quran. Dar Al-Andalus, Gibraltar 1980.

2. Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft Corporation, 2006.

3. Foucault, Michel. The Order ofThings: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, Vintage

Books Edition, Apr 1994.

4. Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), Routledge, 1972.

5. GC Atelier. http://gcatelier.blogspot.com/.


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6. Imran Hosein. http://www.imranhosein.org/ .

7. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), University of Chicago Press,

1962.

8. Penang Declaration of Architecture for Millennium 3, 1997 (unpublished).

9. Right Hand Fingers Creations Ateliers. http://www.righthandfingers.com/

10. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books; London: Routle dge & Kegan Paul;

Toronto: Random House, 1978.

11. UIA: http://www.aia.org/about_uia, UIA Accord: http://www.uia-

architectes.org/image/PDF/Pro_Pra/ACCORD.pdf, UIA Accord, Malaysia:

http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects/files/UIAMalaysiaApplication.pdf

[1] There is a long history behind Eurocentrism, a recent explication by Imran Hosein seems

daunting.

[2] Islamization of SEAsia needs an alternative view from what is normally attributed to

commercial expansionism.

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