New Substances

Information Technology and the Renewal of Architecture. 

“ The basic theme of the article is that the renewal of architecture we have been experiencing over the past few years, is not merely a matter of taste, fashion or language but that, in fact, new substances are being affirmed and, with these, new crises and opportunities”. The article shows us that if we start from real crises, the importance of our solution stands on how functional it is and not only based on the esthetical part.  In every era the big ideas came from big crises. This is how the modern architecture was born. Turning crises in opportunities. We are facing the same problem again and this time we are not finding the solution on the industry but on the information.

The information that is changing the architecture so fast. Today’s society is globally known as the information society. The author collects all the arguments on how today’s crisis is transforming the opportunities in the discipline of architecture in three substances:

-Urbanscape. In this part we deal with a macroscopic phenomena such as “brown areas”. Our society has less need for this areas especialy when they are located near on in the city. They represent a big opportunity for us if we find the right solution.  Architecture is creating spaces between the new and what already exist.

-Landscape. In this substance we are trying to connect as much as possible the architecture with the nature. It is our chance to give nature what we have taken from her. Especially in high density areas we need to insert as much greenery as possible. Also when we are trying to create green areas we should be very carefull not to use them as fences, but as a way to connect the people, the city and the nature together.

-Communication. When we create a building, we decide how it is going to communicate. This kind of communication should be both subjective and objective. A building is no longer good merely if it works and is efficent, but must both give and say more: even symbols and stories when useful.

In conclusion, we should be conscious that we are living in a world that everyday is facing new developments, innovations, new ways of advertising, more needs and wants leading to higher demands and on the other side bringing also debates and conflicts. Referring to the article, the main point was emphasizing the importance of these “new substances” as they play an important role nowdays in this information society where we are living. Today we are self-aware of their values and importance different from the previous years where the main aim was only using them up. Luckily, despite the fact that now we know their significance, on the other hand we have opportunity to be part of this “revolution of the technology” and to use its main source: the computer. To sum up, our aim should definitely be, finding new ways to interrelate perfectly these two main sources that we have in our hands by keeping in our mind always the question how?

reference: http://www.arc1.uniroma1.it/saggio/articoli/it/manifesto.html