Narrative Architecture
Telling a story without text
[Design method I]
[1]
From Latin, narrativus means telling a story. In mid 16th century architecture from Latin, architectura means the art or practice of designing and constructing building. Started from both of definitions, narrative architecture means an art of designing and constructing building to tell a story.
If novel, fiction, comic, and folktale tell the story by texts and picture. If painting and photograph tell the story by a great picture. If movie tells the story by moving picture and sounds. Architecture tells the stories without texts, but by geometrical form, space, and materials.
Tried to explore the relationship between architecture and narrative into design. Started from a question, how to go down a story to become a logical thinking that bring the human rationality go into the plot of a story and be the player by him/her self. Narrative could be translated into architectural form by envelope materials, route, event, rooms, and also smell, sound and light effects. The story could be found beyond those all. Rooms will give spatial psychology that formed the feel like they are entering into situation and ambient seem like the true story.
[2]
26122004. Sunday, December 26th 2004 very strong earthquake and tsunami attacked and destroyed Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. A global disaster killed 200.000 peoples, destroyed 180.000 houses and 800 kilometers infrastructures along east and west coastal area, forced 500.000 peoples to be evacuated and stayed in tends. The tragedy just happened in 4 hours. Meanwhile the effects are more than just physically damage, but also caused mentally sickness for all victims. Sadness, hopeless, psychological trauma.
The Hope Land. Submitted for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Tsunami Museum Design Competition in 2007. Started by read newspapers, saw the television, and heard the true stories from the victims about the disaster and the effects followed. I imagined the happened till my feel seem like them. Sadness, hopeless, psychological trauma.
When museum was built as a monument.
Where space was made as memorial place.
When event and route were created as a plot of story.
When human was born as the player.
And Allah was only one place for hope.
[3]
Museum was designed to tell the 26122004 true story as implicit for all peoples who saved and life until next generation. Regressive. The story was began from here…
07.00 All just seen clear, bright, peaceful and happy.
07.58 Suddenly in just one of an eyes wink, all change. Change to be dark, chaos, scream, shake, and panic.
08.00 Now calm down and quiet. Meanwhile the feels are shock, trauma, and stress.
09.00 Before could feel normally, suddenly all change again. But now more chaos, panic, scream and hopeless
12.00 Calm and quiet again. But lost everything. Lost the house, farm, money, and also peoples who loved. One by one walk alone between all died. Hope God forgives and guides out from any attempt.
16.00 One by one peoples come out from the past door. Now all happened has become the past that must be remained. Good or worse. In the front has waited the future that must be passed away until God call.
[4]
Architecture seems like an art. It can be combined with a lot of disciplines around the world to make a new modification and creation. Music, fashion, comic, movie, dance, poetry, politic, social, technology, etc. But it must could be proved sequaciously and scientifically. I wish that.
Towards Wise Architecture.
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[...] Today, I heard the term Narrative Architecture for the first time. From Latin, narrativus means telling a story. In mid 16th century architecture from Latin, architect… [...]
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
i read your blog recently. i am an interior design student currently doing my thesis project. i am designing a graphic novel retail based on the concept of a comic book. translating the frame, the play of perspective and the element of the ego and the alter ego of the hero,thus creating a narrative in space. i am slightly confused as to the direction i should take when it comes to design..any suggestions, advice or architects/designers i should look at would really help me at this stage.
Hi Madiha,
try to find and read
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Collected Stories – The Chinese Wall by Franz Kafka
London’s Secret Tubes by Andrew Emmerson & Tony Beard
The Total Library – Narative Art and Magic by Jorge Luis Borges
Secret Underground Cities by N.J. McCamley
War and Architecture by Lebbeus Woods
The New City by Lebbeus Woods
The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk
Narrative doesn´t belong in architecture any more than it belongs in product design or clothes making. People don´t care about architetects´ methods. Making the method of design visible is like deliberately leaving behind the scaffolding and builders´ waste when the work is done. The obsession with narrative comes down to architects´rejection of decoration. Humans like to decorate. We don´t wear boiler suits, we don´t leave our hair uncombed, women like make-up, men like to wear certain clothes, we take care presenting our food (and set a high value on this), So why can´t buildings be decorated externally? Because of a 100 year old culture war. We still decorate buildings but deny we do this. “Narrative” is one excuse for making buildings that deviate from the formula of concrete oblongs and rectangles.
Industrial designers don´t agonise over style and decoration. They listen to what users want and try to provide a solution. They don´t try to express artistic goals when they make things but the things they make can be beautiful and useful. Architecture needs to stop thinking it is an art form. Art is that which serves no direct purpose; it expresses meaning and it represents the world. But we don´t “use” or “need” art like we use and need buildings. Building is a craft which deploys some artistic methods. There ends the similarity. No need for narrative.
Richard.
I believe narrative essential to the creation of useful, and beautiful, buildings. Whilst the narratives above may seem loose and remotely conceptual, they are useful in the manner the architect can initiate the thought process the space s/he is creating. This is possibly not as essential as the following thought; As the design evolves, more detailed narratives enable the architect to envision exactly how the design will be used, thus altogether providing the commodity and delight most of us aspire to create
retarded man, please leave architecture, you have no idea what youre talking about. there is more to all design than just basic functionality. there is a higher level of understanding and perceiving all design. please know that from the smallest to the largest designed objects that we interact with have the ability to touch and affect us in unimaginable ways, therefore it is better to ponder over the profound meaning of designs before we let them out in the world.
you are a retard!
I have used narrative architecture unconsciously as a student because I definitely did not know what it was. But now I use it consciously. Narrative architecture is a methodology towards understanding the design parameters and at which end one would arrive at the design intent. On the other hand, it is also a methodology to present that design intent.
To me, Richard’s narrative is explicitly functional, leaving out emotions and humanity. Le Corbusier walked down that path once, but he ultimately returned with beautiful narration of the human spirit in his Ronchamp Chapel.