1999 Master of Architecture
Searching for Symbiosis

A unique modernism in the Swiss/Austrian region of the world is hosting a rebirth of an architecture with materialistic influences. These vernacular extractions, focused on self-awareness rather than self-promotion, point to a new generation of circumstantially driven design methodologies akin to the mindset found in both Asian and Nordic cultures. These regional architects are stimulating the idea that design can be discovered and created from the idiosyncrasies unique to a given site and situation and bring a new understanding to the virtues that built solutions can be revealed rather than merely placed. A heightened attentiveness of cultural sensitivity as well as an instinctive understanding of materiality is orchestrating their architecture, which seems to be intrinsically linked to its location.

Unlike the holistic design approach found in Asia and Scandinavia, our Western society often pursues unbalanced solutions, and the sensual and ethical issues of our architecture are addressed unevenly. However, their coevolutionary solutions unveil characteristics that are suggestive of the symbiotic man/ nature relationships and comprise a hedonistic presence through their materials—the ambience often phenomenalistic. The essence of this suggests symbiosis and should be defined with more clarity.

On Symbiosis

The idea of symbiosis finds its origins as varied as the disciplines to which its term has been applied. As a philosophy, symbiosis includes issues from economics to religion, as well as throughout biological constructs. Simply defined, symbiosis is the intimate living together of two dissimilar organisms in a mutually beneficial relationship. This textbook definition favors the scientific realm of the living world, pointing to the mutualism developed by particular animals and microorganisms. Symbiosis is more abstractly enlightened throughout the teachings of the Indian Buddhist philosophy of “Consciousness Only” (absolute nondualism) as well as in Japanese “Mahayana Buddhism” (concept of emptiness). Even though symbiosis as a design methodology is traceable to the fertile Edo period in Japan, its current role in our modern (Western) society exists emaciated, as specialization distances “the part from the whole.” Due to this remoteness, the profession of architecture, once positioning a more encompassing stature, has become lethargic. Lacking the infrastructural finance to commit to research, our profession should look to concepts and technologies that are available or developing in nonarchitectural fields that have potential applications within architecture. These influences will undoubtedly alter the definition of the existing architectural problem.

Dualism, the By-Product of the Modern Machine

The discoveries of contemporary design have foundations extending from fractal or dualistic propositions. Polar contrasts such as beauty and utility, form and function, architecture and the city, human scale and urban scale, exist in opposition. The purity of modern rationalism is at the heart of this dualism. Even though rationalism has played an important role in industrial society, it has also led us to disdain and devalue philosophies emphasizing the role of consciousness, spiritual phenomena, and emotions—thinning the realm of true experience. As a result, contemporary man (predominately Western society) places economic and technological considerations ahead of fundamental human values and treats aesthetic considerations as something unnecessarily added to function. Objects are increasingly determined only by their usefulness while our human relationships progressively degenerate to the mere exchange of information. The machines most representative of our time (TV, phone, camera, computer) deal exclusively with information and therefore deny all but the shallowest forms of human experience. Human life is predicated on experience. “The whole of our existence, the essential chaos of life, the complex nature of functions, the ambiguity lost through clarity are elements missing from modernism.” A binomial stature has been its by-product.

Austria and Liechtenstein

Denmark, France, and the Netherlands

Finland, Norway, and Sweden

Germany

Switzerland