1988 Master of Architecture
Ornament

Ornament is defined as something that lends grace or beauty. It has also been defined as an embellishing note not belonging to the essential harmony or melody. Herein lies the dichotomy of ornament, comprehended as a positive principle in one mien, but seen as near superfluous in a divergent light.

Leon Battista Alberti perceived ornament to be a fundamental part of architecture, so closely related that it is seen as an overriding principle in the organization of architecture. To Alberti, it is the synthesis of the building and the ornament that forms architecture. Yet while declaring its fundamental value in design and organization of an edifice, Alberti professed that ornament is applied.

Architecture has always revolved around the concept of ornament and architects have always defined themselves by their relationship to ornament. Architects have often been judged either by their skill in employing ornament or by their skill in attempting to deny or control ornament. It is this relationship that allows the architect to practice architecture. It is also this relationship that forms the basis of my proposal. I will examine a number of buildings, both modern and historical, through a lens that reinterprets them in terms of ornament. Specifically, I am interested in exploring and exploding the standard definition of ornament.

The popular conception of ornament has remained incarcerated within the definition of figurative or representational ornament, this of course being the most recognizable type of ornament. However, I believe there is a great deal of ornament fundamental to much of modern architecture that has either gone unnoticed or been disguised. This fundamental ornament, that of material, spatial, structural, and abstract, began to obscure the “functionalist doctrine” line between building an ornament. The modern architect, denied figurative and representational ornament, either by choice or necessity, began to exploit other means of ornament to separate themselves from the engineer.

I have chosen a number of buildings that I feel exemplify the types of ornaments outlined above. My method of study will include a series of analytical drawings, such as axonometric drawings, perspectives, sketches, detailed elevations, and surface and pattern studies.