![]() ![]() In Laudomia, the city is composed of three identically named sides: that of the living, the dead, and the unborn. What is the aim of the city under construction unless it is a city? Where is the plan you are following, the blueprint? We will show it to you as soon as the working day is over… they answer. When one asks if stopping the construction will cause the city to fall to pieces, the reply is: “not only the city.” Soon, it is made apparent that this constant work is being ordained by the cosmic order of the stars, and though this does not directly compare to the threats of global warming, both are natural conditions that call for an architecture to abide by them, to prevent Thekla’s demise. This notion is apparent in the city of Thekla, which is constantly under construction “so that its destruction cannot begin”. As a result, global environmental change will dictate architecture’s role more than ever, in order to mediate this and assume a coexistence with its landscape. Now in the age of the Anthropocene, our definition of what constitutes as natural is more varied than before, given our drastic alteration of the natural world in which architecture itself is complicit. According to others, the gods live in the buckets that rise, suspended from a cable, as they appear over the edge of the wells… ![]() The city’s gods, according to some people, live in the depths, in the black lake that feeds the underground streams. The importance of water is further embodied in the people’s shared cultural understanding its importance both as a substance and in formulating a kind of landscape architecture, hold elements of the divine. ![]() One example is that of Isaura, a “ city of the thousand wells” built over a deep lake, where “the inhabitants dig long vertical holes in the ground and succeed in drawing up water, as far as the city extends.” Water, as a vitality of life, is a major driving force behind the formation of a necessary architectural typology (in this case, the dam) as well as the relationship between the city and its people. Nature plays a key role in many of the cities that Marco describes, at times dictating with a certain omnipotence the very functioning of architecture and the behavior of its inhabitants. Image © Karina Puente FrantzenĪrchitecture’s Reliance On Nature’s Omnipotence So, for each city, after the fundamental information given in precise words, he followed up with a mute commentary, holding up his hands, palms out, or backs, or sideways, in straight or oblique movements, spasmodic or slow. Marco himself resorts to a more abstract identification of cities, providing genuine translation not possible through the specificity of visual wordplay. Though architecture is fundamentally a visual field and medium, it is important to allow for an unintentional evolution of meaning and understanding through one’s own sensory experiences, as a result of a slightly passive hand of the architect. Polo describes the city of Tamara, laden with signs of all sorts, where “the eye does not see things but images of things that mean other things.” This is telling of our current over reliance on distinct symbolic communication, and a reduction of the image to encompass certain connotations. Yet, the impact of this highly visual culture seems to go unnoticed at times. And yet each piece of information about a place recalled to the emperor’s mind that first gesture or object which Marco has designated the place. Now his accounts were the most precise and detailed that the Great Khan could wish and there was no question or curiosity which they did not satisfy. This demonstrates our inherent reliance on specific imagery to create understanding a facet that is an integral part of architecture. Throughout the narrative, 55 versions of city life are described with enthralling character, the first of which is Diomira, “a city with sixty silver domes, bronze statues of all the gods, streets paved with lead, a crystal theatre, a golden cock that crows each morning on the tower.” Details such as these constitute the overall visual communication between Marco Polo and us, as we assume the role of Kublai Khan, contributing to the successful creation of fictional cities through typologies and artifacts. ![]() Much of Invisible Cities’ charm can be attributed to the specificity of its writing, and as a result, its narration. Visual Specificity As A Cultural Language ![]()
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