The Use of technology as visual expression in contemporary architecture

Abstract

"You go through a heavy industrial area of large city and there it all is, the technology. In front it are barbed wire fences, locked gates, signs saying NO TRESPASSING, and beyond, through sooty air, you see ugly strange shapes of metal and brick whose purpose is unknown, and whose masters you will never see. What it's for you don't know, and why it's there, there's no one to tell, and so all you can feel is alienated, estranged, as though you didn't belong there. Who owns and understands this doesn't want you around. All this technology has somehow made you a stranger in your own land. its very shape and appearance and mysteriousness say, "Get Out" You know there's an explanation for all these somewhere and what it's doing undoubtedly serves mankind in some indirect way but that isn't what you see. What you see in the NO TRESPASSING, KEEP OUT signs and not anything serving people but little people, like ants, serving these incomprehensible shapes. And you think , even if I were a part of this, even if I were not a stranger, I would be just another ant serving shapes. So the final feeling is hostile,..."(Pricing, Robert M.p16) In times when cataclysms and traumas of every description are being treated with increasing complacency it will be difficult to believe that architecture can any longer make a significant impact on, let alone shock, society. That it continues to do so is simply because architecture is difficult to ignore. It is unavoidable. Society is compelled to experience it on a more less daily basis, as it has done throughout history. History is littered with examples of buildings and structures which have 'shocked' societies. It may be early examples such as the Egyptian pyramids or the more recent Lioyd's headquarters in London or the Prompidu centre Paris. More often than not, each example represented advances in design, technology, philosophies, which have left an indelible mark on history and which still, confound to this day. The anaysis of public buildings particularly in the west has shown that there were distinct influences on the choice of their character and structural systems. These influence were instrumental is not only the choice of the main structural material, but in the articulation of the structural form of the building as well. Despite a very complex interrelationship and interdependence, the influence shows a distinct hierarchical relationship. The influence were in order of their magnitude: social and economic (socio-economic), building technology and architectural expression.