Explore one distinctive change between old architecture design and with what we have in the present.
"Do you think old architecture should be keep? Keep or destroy. What do you think?" - asked by my lecturer in today's class.
This question makes me ponder. In fact, society is also facing this issue. Everyone has different mind. As architecture technologies and styles evolve, there has always been tension between contemporary and historical buildings, and the people that advocate for them. Conservationists believe that it is important to prolong the lives of old buildings through carefully planned preservation practices to preserve history that the buildings represent. On the other hand, contemporary architects and their supporters are in favor of technological and architectural change and progress that become to represent the present. In midst of this over-arching debate exists the topic of “architecture of additions” where contemporary structures are built in conjunction to existing buildings (Byard, 1998). The interplay between the old and the new often sparks controversy. Some cases are seen in a positive light, where the old architecture is given new life without destroying its spirit and history. On the other hand, other cases such as The Crystal, receive criticism for overpowering the original architecture.
Mostly historical architecture built as temple, church and palace. This can be evidenced by the architecture that still retained to the present.
Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens
Old architecture
The Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, also known as the Olympieion, was built over several centuries starting in 174 BCE and only finally completed by Roman emperor Hadrian in 131 CE. Its unusually tall columns and ambitious layout made the temple one of the largest ever built in the ancient world.
The temple was given extra grandeur by being built in an open space of 250 x 130 m. This area was enclosed by a low poros wall buttressed with regularly spaced Corinthian columns set along the interior face. A propylon gate in Hymettan marble was placed in the north-west corner of the wall. There were originally 104 columns. The columns are capped by highly decorative Corinthian capitals carved from two massive blocks of marble. Within the cella were gigantic chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statues of Zeus and the temple’s main benefactor Hadrian, who was given equal status to the great Greek god.
The temple suffered over the centuries and much of its material was re-used in other buildings so that today only 15 of the temple’s columns are still standing.
The Greeks spoke of Mount Olympus and strove to emulate the gods by building on top of mountains. The early people who built towers of stone in Zimbabwe had some kind of religious or even scientific reasoning behind what they were building. Each place had its own nature, set within a world refracted through myth, thus temples were sited atop mountains all the better to touch the heavens.
Thus, we know that mostly the historical architecture was built for faith and power.
the crystal by daniel libeskind at royal ontario museum
New architecture
The structure is composed of five interlocking prismatic structures made of glass and aluminum on steel frame, and it functions as the new main entrance to the museum. Although the structure does not touch the original Neo-Romanesque architecture built in 1914 except for the connecting bridge, it greatly alters the aesthetics and experience of the museum. The Crystal has been highly controversial, with some praising it as a contemporary monument, while critics have attacked its aesthetic, function, and purpose. For example, The Crystal makes it hard to display exhibits, because all of the interior walls are slanted. Overall, the design controversy surrounding the addition has taken away much of the attention from the actual contents of the Royal Ontario Museum. The architectural style of this building follows the "rules" of deconstructivism which is a development of postmodern architecture. Although there typically are no "rules" in architecture to classify a building to a style, the term "deconstructivism" has stayed and is used to incorporate a general trend within contemporary architecture.
For this, the difference between old and new architecture has shown obviously. The style, usage, materials have distinctive change. There are a lot of ornamentation with the old architecture and focus on the overall feeling in order to show majestic to people. However, the new architecture is more on clean lines, regular and irregular geometrical shapes with more stronger and obvious than the past. It is more futuristic design.