TECTONICS : ORNAMENT AND AUSTERITY -- Yap Jia Cherng 1001642857

ORNAMENT IN ARCHITECTURE TODAY

        Ornament in architecture today, plays an important role in expression and also impression. A function of a building can be roughly determined by its ornamentation. Before going deeper into it, ornamentation nowadays had already combine firmly with the envelope of the building, or even the structure of it. It blends nicely with the building and serves not only expression of architecture, but also physical function. Moreover, ornamentation in architecture today makes a building stands out with significant identity, it shows how a culture being evolved, transformed, adapted along the ages. I would like to use Polish Pavilion for Shanghai by WWA Architects to support my opinion.

        This pavilion is officially opened on 1 May 2010 during a festive ceremony in the exhibition area of  Expo 2010 Shanghai, by Marcin Mostafa and Natalia Paszkowska of WWA Architects.

        The exhibition is housing pavilions from countries all over the world, each pavilion must have strong national identity in order to stand out as an attraction, and to express their country for visitors. The stylish exterior of the pavilion is inspired by the traditional folk-art paper cut-out of Poland. The architects explained that “The structure décor to draw on and make reference to tradition, but ultimately to be that tradition’s contemporary reinterpretation, a creative extension into the present day by way of inspiration rather than replication.”

        I strongly agree with the architects, that these ornaments nowadays does not means nothing, in this particular building the ornament has blend perfectly into the structure, the facade, the meaning and the function. The pavilion can still be a pavilion in plain exterior, it functions, it shows aesthetic, but in cannot tell what this pavilion wants to do,  it cannot tell where this pavilion belongs to. The ornaments is traditional, but it does not tell that this building is traditional or belongs to an elder epoch, even the ornaments did not come out as same as the traditional one, in terms of scale, method and original intention of doing it. The ornament now is the opening of the building, the secondary structure of the building, the roof of the building, and the floor of the building, but among this two classifications, the same thing is that it still shows who you are. This fully displayed how ornamentation gets along with the generations, and the transformation of it.

 The ornamental exterior is made of CNC-cut plywood mounted on a steel structure.

The roof can be access and proceed to the viewing point.

        The outcome of this pavilion reflects the state of the specific culture at that point of time, but the ornaments is not " new " nor " degenerate " or come out from nowhere, it brings along with the old stories and evolved into the current state. The ornaments in this pavilion plays a role in structure, envelope, openings and also beauty with the stories of the country.

        Ornaments in architecture today shows culture, express artistic value, and it is produced with new technology (using lesser time) which allows the creation to go more further, even function as structure. The role is no longer just a cover to express something, it can be any part of building if designed intentionally.