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2006 AIA Los Angeles Design Awards ID q720.92

From the weekly readings on ‘Poetics of Space’ and other related books you have read; discuss the meaning and significance of metaphors. Using appropriate examples of metaphors translated into spatial designs, explain:

1. How metaphors can be a useful tool in conceptual development.

2. How these metaphors are related to the social/political/geographical/programmatic context.

3. How the psychology of the inhabitants are affected by these metaphors.

You may focus on a particular designer or an idiosyncratic design movement from 1950 – 2006. Illustrate your 3000-word essay with appropriate sketches and photographs. Academic conventions in writing research papers are required.

Credits Breakdown

Forum participation                       - 10%

Individual essay                             - 35%

Academic writing conventions     -  5%

______________________________

Assignment 3 total credits           - 50%

References:

Metaphors in Design  - Charles Jencks, Karim Rashid

APA academic writing conventions - Citation style

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________

From the weekly readings on ‘Poetics of Space’ and other related books you have read; discuss the meaning and significance of metaphors. Using appropriate examples of metaphors translated into spatial designs, explain:

1. How metaphors can be a useful tool in conceptual development.

2. The relevant metaphors related to your research topic.

3. How these metaphors can be translated into design strategies within your design narrative for design project B.

You may focus on contemporary case studies that are directly related to your research topic. Illustrate your 3000-word essay with appropriate sketches and photographs. Academic conventions in writing research papers are required.

Credits Breakdown

Forum participation                       - 10%

Individual essay                             - 35%

Academic writing conventions     -  5%

______________________________

Assignment 3 total credits           - 50%

References:

Metaphors in Design  - Charles Jencks, Karim Rashid

APA academic writing conventions - Citation style

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Research Topic 3: Index

Andy’s Research
Metaphors: It’s Relationship, Significance and its Impact in Design

Christine’s Research
Metaphors: A Creative Design Approach or Theory?

Joey’s Research
Metaphors for Inspiration

Leena’s Research
Metaphors in Design

Metaphors for Inspiration by Joey Chong

METAPHORS for Inspiration

“… for if a City, according to the opinion of philosophers be no more than a great House and on the other Hand the House be a little City…”

Leone Battista Alberti[1] 

DEFINITION OF METAPHORS

Ask any average person to define metaphor and they will tell you what we were all taught in grade school. “The difference between a metaphor and a simile is that a simile uses “like” or “as”. In fact, the word “metaphor” has a much deeper and pronounced meaning to it. Originally, the word “metaphor” was a Greek word meaning “transfer”. The Greek etymology is from Meta, implying “a change” and herein meaning “to bear, or carry”. In modern Greek, the word, “metaphor” also means transport or transfer. [2]

A metaphor carries an idea from one are of thought to another. In the simplest case, this takes the form “The [first subject] is a [second subject].” More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way. The device has been used in literature, especially in poetry, where with few words, emotions and associations from one context are associated with objects and entities in a different context. [3]

Metaphors have an essential creative role in literature and the arts, in planning, architecture and design. They provide a system of thought that can supplement or bypass logic. A creative fusion of two entities takes place in a metaphor and it constructs meaning of an essential part of creativity.

In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain. For example, using one person’s life experience to understand a different person’s experience. A conceptual domain can be any consistent and orderly organization of experience. This idea and a detailed examination of the underlying processes was first extensively explored by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in Metaphors We Live By. [4]

George Lakoff is a professor of linguistics. Although his research involves questions surrounding certain linguistic construction, he is most famous for his ideas about metaphor to human thinking, political behavior and society. Lakoff is famous for his concept of the “embodied mind” which he has written about in relation to mathematics. Recently, he has applied his work to the field of interest in politics and found a progressive think tank, the Rockridge Institute.

Lakoff’s original thesis on conceptual metaphor was expressed in his book with Mark Johnson entitled Metaphors We Live By in 1980. [5]

In most cases, metaphor has been seen within the Western scientific tradition as purely a linguistic construction. Lakoff’s work has been the argument that metaphors are primarily a conceptual construction and indeed are central to the development of thought. He says, “Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” For Lakoff the greater the level of abstraction the more layers of metaphor are required to express it. Conceptual metaphors typically employ a more abstract concept as target and a more concrete or physical concept as their source.

At some point of time, Lakoff, Chomsky and Jacobs all devoted a significant amount of time to events which are happening at this moment and political theories. All pointing towards linguists or theorists of conceptual metaphor that may lead to channel their theories into political activism. On the other hand, if conceptual metaphors are as basic as all of them seem to think, they may literally have no choice in doing so.

Lakoff also suggests that the cognitive-metaphor position has no objections to the scientific method instead considers the scientific method a finely developed reasoning system used to discover phenomena which are subsequently understood in terms of new conceptual metaphors. [6]

Metaphors can be identified under three broad categories, namely, intangible, tangible and combined. Intangible metaphors are those which are created with particular individuality such as a concept, an idea, a human condition or a particular quality. Tangible metaphors are those which can be visualized such as a castle or the roof of a temple as the sky. Lastly, combined metaphors are a mixture of both intangible and tangible metaphors. [7]

A metaphor, according to I.A. Richards in The Philosophy of Rhetoric in 1936, consists of two parts, namely, the tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the subject from which the attributes are borrowed. However, there are various different types of metaphors which have been identified under the above mentioned categories. Following are types of metaphors that can be found.

TYPES OF METAPHOR [8]

1. an extended metaphor or conceit is one which sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons

2. a mixed metaphor is one that leaps, in the course of a figure, to a second identification inconsistent with the first one where two commonly used metaphors are confused to create a nonsensical image

3. a dead metaphor is one in which the sense of a transferred image is not present >>> dead metaphors, by definition, normally go unnoticed. Some people make a distinction between a “dead metaphor” whose origin most speakers are entirely unaware of (such as “to understand” meaning to stand underneath a concept) and a dormant metaphor, whose metaphorical character people are aware of but rarely think about (such as “to break the ice”). Others, however, use dead metaphor for both of these concepts and use it more generally as a way of describing metaphorical cliche

4. an epic or homeric simile is an extended metaphor containing details about the vehicle that are not, in fact, necessary for the metaphoric purpose. This can be extended to humorous lengths

5. a synechdochic metaphor is one which a small part of something is chosen to represent the whole so as to highlight certain elements of the whole.

6. an active metaphor is one which by contrast to a dead metaphor, is not part of daily language and is noticeable as a metaphor

7. a complex metaphor is one which mounts one identification on another

8. a compound or loose metaphor is one that catches the mind with several points of similarity

9. an absolute or paralogical metaphor(sometimes called an antimetaphor) is one in which there is no discernible point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle

10. an implicit metaphor is one in which the tenor is not specified but implied

11. a submerged metaphor is one in which the vehicle is implied or indicated by one aspect

12. a simple or tight metaphoris one in which there is but one point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle

13. a root metaphoris the underlying association that shapes an individual’s understanding of a situation >>> a root metaphor is different from the previous types of metaphor in that it is not necessarily an explicit device in language but a fundamental, often unconscious, assumption. Religion provides one common source of root metaphors, since birth, marriage, death and other universal life experiences can convey a very different meaning to different people, based on their level or type of religious conditioning or otherwise.

14. a conceptual metaphor is an underlying association that is systematic in both language and thought. For example in the Dylan Tomas poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” the conceptual metaphor of “A Lifetime is a Day” is repeatedly expressed and extended throughout the entire poem.

15. a dying metaphor coined in his essay Politics and the English Language, George Orwell calls a dead metaphor one that has been worn out and is used because it save people the trouble of developing original language to express an idea. It is all but dead. In short, it is cliche.

The category of metaphor can be further considered to contain the following specialized subsets. However, there are certain types of metaphor which have not been identified and some are not universally accepted.

• Allegory :   an extended metaphor in which a story is told to illustrate an important attribute of the subject

• Catachresis :   a mixed metaphor (sometimes used by design and sometimes a rhetorical fault)

• Parable :   an extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson

Throughout this century, the use of metaphor as a means of communication to architectural creativity has been rather popular. This usage has been found to be a very powerful tool. This usage is found to be more useful to the creator than to users or critics. In some cases, the best metaphors and their best uses are those that can not be visualized by users or critics, thus these metaphors became the creator’s “little secrets”.

Metaphors also act as an useful tool to the architecture instructor. In recent years, many instructors have used them and through design exercises, it is possible to test and to develop students’ fantasy and imagination. For those students who are already imaginative, they will not have problems with “metaphor” and “metaphor” will only act as an extra tool that expands their fantasy and imagination. [9]

Metaphors have been widely used in literature and language and metaphors are often associated with simile.

So, what is the meaning of metaphor in space? How can metaphors be translated into spatial designs?

Winston Churchill enjoyed the experiences of large-scale metaphors and he used them to manipulate large-scale concepts. In 1942, he saw the south shore of the Mediterranean as a springboard for an attack on “the soft underbelly of Europe”. The idea was almost instance. In 1946, he told an American audience that “An iron curtain has descended across the Continent”. This metaphor framed the Cold War period and may have inspired the Berlin Wall. [10]

Churchill used the “iron curtain” and “spring board” metaphors for strategic planning

Winston Churchill admired the master of metaphor, William Shakespeare, like most English authors do. Shakespeare often created new words by fusing older words so that the meaning of “an idea from one area of thought to another” still exists. Shakespeare also created metaphors that reflected Churchill’s and many other’s “view of their native land”.

This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings.

William Shakespeare [11]

A fortress; a precious stone; a blessed plot; a nurse; a mother: these metaphors have had a profound influence on Britain’s strategic planning. The power of metaphor has been greatly appreciated by respected architectural educators, who have even considered it to be the basic principles or facts of imagination which will offer opportunities to see one’s work in another light, probe new sets of questions and suggest new interpretations.

Japan’s leading literary critic, Kojin Karatani is perhaps best known for his imaginative readings of Shakespeare, Soseki, Marx, Wittgenstein and most recently Kant. His works, of which Origins of Modern Japanese Literature is the only one previously translated into English, are the generic equivalent to what in America is called “theory”.

Karatani’s writings are important not only for the insights they offer on the various topics under discussion but also as an example of a distinctly non-Western critical intervention.

Kojin Karatani is a Japanese philosopher who teaches at Kinki University, Osaka and Columbia University. He is the author of Architecture as Metaphor (MIT Press, 1995) and Origins of Modern Japanese Literature. He founded the New Associationist Movement (NAM) in Japan in 2000. [12]

Karatani detects a recurrent “will to architecture” that he argues is the foundation of all Western thinking, traversing architecture, philosophy, literature, linguistics, city planning, anthropology, political economics, psychoanalysis and mathematics. In Architecture as Metaphor, he analyzes the complex bonds between construction and deconstruction, thereby pointing to an alternative model of “secular criticism”, but in the domain of philosophy rather than literary or cultural criticism. [13]

As Karatani claims the “will to architecture” is practically non-existent in Japan, he must first assume a dual role from his point of view. One that affirms the architectonic (by scrutinizing the suppressed function of form) and another one that pushes formalism to its collapse (by invoking Jurt Godel’s incompleteness theorem). His subsequent discussions trace a path through the work of Christopher Alexander, Jane Jacobs, Hilles Deleuze and several others.

Finally, the drive that motivates all formalization, he confronts an unbridgeable gap, an uncontrollable event encountered in the exchange with the other thus his speculation turns towards global capital movement. While in the present volume he mainly analyzes familiar Western texts, it is precisely for this reason that his voice discloses a distance that will add a new dimension to our English-language discourse.

Metaphor can be helpful in achieving the “new” at many points in the building and the design/conceptual process. Ever since the discovery of the cave, humans have made use of nature’s geological formations. [14]

Only recently, the developments in structural engineering have made it possible to engage the earth’s surface as a building element in its own light. With an increasingly awareness of our planet’s limited natural resources and with landscape architects exerting ever-greater influence on contemporary design, the most acclaimed architectural practices from around the world are building into the earth, merging man-made forms with the contours of the land.

The results are at once preternatural and breathtaking. From Zaha Hadid’s Tram Terminal in Franceto Snohette’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, from Future System’s hill-burrowing house in Wales to Antoine Predock;s Spencer Theatre in the United States, over fifty projects expose the breadth and depth of this new direction in architecture. [15]

Geometrical metaphors are essential to city planning and regional development. Planners speak of grid cities, radial cities and organic cities, though it is only the street patterns that have these characteristics. The advantages of having these metaphors came from the help they give to planners in thinking about large and complicated issues. [16]

Alternative town geometries - when drawing or planning “rectangular”, “radial” and “concentric” cities, planners are overusing their metaphors

“Buildings replace the land. That is architecture’s original sin. A building makes something new but does not do so in a void. What was once open land, filled with sunlight and air, with a distinct relationship to the horizon, becomes a building. The artifices of human supersede what nature has deposited on a given place. The bulk of a building stops air, sunlight and views. The memories that we built up around that particular place, either individually or as a culture, also disappear. In their place is a structure that is new, if only for a moment and that aspires to have a perfect form, function and appearance. Some buildings even hope to move as far away as possible from the land on which they rise. In all cases, a building is one thing above all else - not the land.” [17]

More attractive metaphors create more popular buildings. In the Water Pavilion for the Delta Works, Neeltje Jans, the Netherlands, the edge between water and land becomes blurred. Nox demonstrated the fluidity of form which expresses how the Dutch make land out of water and how water itself takes many forms to allow from transportation and field irrigation.

The pavilion is a monument to an element that is threatening the life-giving. On one hand, it is a timeless object whose abstraction yet brings to mind prehistoric creatures and on the other, it is a fluid sculpture of natural conditions with shapes that are complex enough to demand continual interpretation or experience. [18]

“Articulate” comes from the Latin for “jointed”. Designers have found the idea very useful. But it is only a metaphor. Patently, it is not possible to design a town without having a series of views or joints between successive spaces.

The Tree of Life has been a significant symbol since ancient times and can still guide spatial planning. Jung believed that the tree symbolizes the growth and development of psychic life, as distinct from intellectual life (Smith et al., 1989). The Tree of Life represents humanity;s undying sense of bring part of a continuous process which extends from our distant past into the life hereafter.

One finds the Tree of Life in manuscripts, in textiles and in architecture. In the Bhagavad Gita, for example, “They speak of an imperishable tree with its root above and branches below. It leaves are the Vedas; he who knows the tree, is the knower of the Vedas’ (Smith et al., 1989)”. A good king was one who planted trees along the sides of the roads to provide shade. Abercrombie’s open space plan for London might have gained strength from being conceived as a Tree of Life. Individuals and community groups could think that they were adding branches, leaves and roots to the tree. [19]

Anthropomorphic metaphors can also be used to plan spatial relationships. A path can be thought of as kissing a hill. The hill can hold a conversation with another hill. One of the two hills can be clad with a forest. The edges of the forest can be frayed or cut on the bias. A town might crown the hill or march through a valley. Anthropomorphic metaphors help people relate to places. Longer metaphors, in the form of stories, allow more sophisticated relationships.

In the summer of 2000, a beach appeared in the middle of Queens, New York. As part of an ongoing series of site-specific installations by architects at Rs.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York collaborative SHoP used closely spaced slats to lay out a ripping landscape through the courtyards in front of the building. Lawn chairs and beach umbrellas completed the feel of sandy beaches and dunes frozen into hillocks and caves but whose articulate surfaces gave them an urban sensibility.

In May 1968, the situationist promised “the beach below the paving stones”. SHoP, however, made a new beach - perhaps revolution can be avoided through art? [20]

CONCLUSION

Metaphor is being used increasingly in recent years as it acts as a reflecting tool and also bringing an idea from one area of thought to another. Therefore, a concept, an idea, a human condition or a particular quality can be re-looked upon.

Metaphor for Inspiration?

The word “inspiration” means stimulation or arousal of the mind and feelings to a special activity or creativity. From my point of view, metaphor’s existence inspires architectural and spatial design. This existence created new ways of looking and perceiving a particular element and therefore opened new doors to future designs. From all the research I have gathered, metaphors are used universally and are inspirational in all dimensions.

FOOTNOTES AND REFERENCES

[1] Quoting from Leone Battista Alberti in POETICS OF ARCHITECTURE: Theory of Design, Anthony C. Antoniades, Van Nostrand Reinhold, United States of America (1992)

[2] Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphors

[3] Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphors

[4] Reference from METAPHORS WE LIVE BY, Chicago, University of Chicago Press (1980)

[5] Reference from METAPHORS WE LIVE BY, Chicago, University of Chicago Press (1980)

[6] Reference from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff

[7] Reference from POETICS OF ARCHITECTURE: Theory of Design, Anthony C. Antoniades, Van Nostrand Reinhold, United States of America (1992)

[8] Extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphors

[9] Reference from POETICS OF ARCHITECTURE: Theory of Design, Anthony C. Antoniades, Van Nostrand Reinhold, United States of America (1992)

[10] Reference from http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/architecture/7.2-metaphor-and-planning.htm

[11] Quoting from William Shakespeare in http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/architecture/7.2-metaphor-and-planning.htm

[12] Reference from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojin_Karatani

[13] Reference from ARCHITECTURE AS METAPHOR, Edited by Kojin Karatani, Translated by Sabu Kohso (1995)

[14] Reference from LANDSCRAPERS: Building with the Land, Aaron Betsy, Thames & Hudson, London (2002)

[15] Reference from LANDSCRAPERS: Building with the Land, Aaron Betsy, Thames & Hudson, London (2002)

[16] Reference from http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/architecture/7.2-metaphor-and-planning.htm

[17] Quoting from LANDSCRAPERS: Building with the Land, Aaron Betsy, Thames & Hudson, London (2002)

[18] Reference from http://www.noxarch.com/flash_content.html

[19] Extracted from http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/architecture/7.4-metaphor-and-space.htm

[20] Reference from http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0501/shp/index.html and http://www.ps1.org/cut/press/shop.html

Metaphors: A Creative Design Approach or Theory by ChristineWonoseputro

WHAT IS METAPHOR?

The word metaphor derived from grammatical language or phrase of expression. In language grammatical structure, the word metaphor defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. The word metaphor itself derived from Greek phrase: metaphoric rhetorical trope – which in the simple case, a metaphor describe as a first subject is being equal as the second subject in some ways. Thus, the first subject can be economically described because of the implicit and explicit attributes or meaning from the second subject, in order to enhance the description of the first one. Being known in its usage in literature, especially in poetry, metaphor has been described in few words, emotions, and associations from one context with objects and entities in any other different context or meanings.[1] The meaning in linguistic could be the denotative meaning and connotative meaning. The denotative means the positive, the real meaning of a context. Connotative means the implicit meaning of words, sometime it could be the negative or the hidden meaning of a word.

The basic of metaphor is almost similar with the term analogy in literature, but metaphor itself is more powerful and assertive than analogy itself [2]. Metaphor has the similar acknowledgement and closely related to other terms and grammatical structure that use in grammatical style such as simile, metonymy, allegory, hyperbolic, parable, pars-prototo, totem pro-parte,and synecdoche.

Basic on George Lakoff’s statement about metaphor, this grammatical term has the relation between the source and the target. Source means the thing or object which sends the message or the impulse, and target means the recipient of the impulse itself. The target could be audience or viewer. Being related to the target or the audience or the viewer, metaphor has been describe open interpretation which this kind of language style sometimes has being known as cognitive language, which its interpretation depends on the mind of the viewer itself.

TYPES OF METAPHOR IN LINGUISTIC:
Basically, there are 3 kinds of metaphors [4]

a. Dead metaphor,is one in which the sense of a transferred image is not present. Example: “to grasp a concept” or “to gather you’ve understood.” Both of these phrases use a physical action as a metaphor for understanding (itself a metaphor), but in none of these cases do most speakers of English actually visualize the physical action. Dead metaphors, by definition, normally go unnoticed. Some people make a distinction between a “dead metaphor” whose origin most speakers are entirely unaware of (such as “to understand” meaning to stand underneath a concept), and a dormant metaphor, whose metaphorical character people are aware of but rarely think about (such as “to break the ice”). Others, however, use dead metaphor for both of these concepts, and use it more generally as a way of describing metaphorical cliché.

b. Extended metaphor sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons.

c. Mixed metaphor is one that leaps, in the course of a figure, to a second identification inconsistent with the first one. Example: “He stepped up to the plate and grabbed the bull by the horns,” where two commonly used metaphors are confused to create a nonsensical image.

Other typeof metaphors which have been recognized but not universally accepted :

1. An active metaphor is one which by contrast to a dead metaphor, is not part of daily language and is noticeable as a metaphor. Example: “You are my sun.”

2. A complex metaphor is one which mounts an identical identify on another. Example: “That throws some light on the question.” Throwing light is a metaphor and there is no actual light.

3. A compound or loose metaphor is one that catches the mind with several points of similarity. Example: “He has the wild stag’s foot.” This phrase suggests grace and speed as well as daring.

4. An absolute or Para-logical metaphor (sometimes called an ant metaphor) is one in which there is no discernible point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle. Examples:

                   I.  “The couch is the autobahn of the living room.”

                   II. “Six Flags is the aquarium of roller coasters.” An implicit metaphor is one in which the tenor is not specified but implied. Example: “Shut your trap!”

5. A submerged metaphor is one in which the vehicle is implied, or indicated by one aspect. Example: “my winged thought”. Here, the audience must supply the image of the bird.

6. A simple or tight metaphor is one in which there is but one point of resemblance between the tenor and the vehicle. Example: “Cool it”. In this example, the vehicle, “cool”, is a temperature and nothing else, so the tenor, “it”, can only be grounded to the vehicle by one attribute.

7. A root metaphoric the underlying association that shapes an individual’s understanding of a situation. Examples would understand life as a dangerous journey, seeing life as a hard test, or thinking of life as a good party. A root metaphor is different from the previous types of metaphor in that it is not necessarily an explicit device in language, but a fundamental, often unconscious, assumption. Religion provides one common source of root metaphors, since birth, marriage, death and other universal life experiences can convey a very different meaning to different people, based on their level or type of religious conditioning or otherwise. For example, some religions see life as a single arrow pointing toward a future endpoint. Others see it as part of an endlessly repeating cycle. In his book World Hypotheses, the philosopher Stephen Pepper coined the term and proposed a theory of four ultimate root metaphors–form-ism, mechanism, organic-ism, contextual-ism.

8. Aconceptual metaphor is an underlying association that is systematic in both language and thought. For example in the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” by Dylan Thomas uses the conceptual metaphor of “A Lifetime is a Day” is repeatedly expressed and extended throughout the entire poem.

9. Adying metaphor : essay of George Orwell, calls a dead metaphor one that has been worn out and is used because it saves people the trouble of developing original language to express an idea. It is all but dead.

        Similar through the explanation above, Antoniades, [5] the author of Poetics of Architecture, describe these kinds of metaphor in his own architectural language terminology:

a. Tangible metaphor or the visual metaphor is similar to the analogy of form. Such as if you build a hamburger stall, which adopted the form of hamburger and people will recognize that the building is a hamburger’s stall.

b. Intangible metaphor is the metaphor of text or context. This is the extension of tangible metaphor, that architecture is not only playing with visual image of the form, but it play with the hidden message of it.

c. Combine is the combination of tangible and intangible metaphor.

METAPHORS, GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE, AND ARCHITECTURE

The demolition of Pruit - Igoe’s building as the” death” of modern era.

Architecture which is form of visual art and communication, also bring visual language of communication. Becoming the part of visual language, architecture contains of grammatical structure is sending its impulse of messages. Grammatical structure builds the proper visual language to transfer the idea and body of concept from its author.

The word “metaphor” appears in Post Modern Architecture — the form of protest to modernist architecture. In his book, The Language of Architecture [6] Charles Jencks wrote that architecture itself can be read as a language. As visual language, architecture has its own grammatical structure to state the mind. And metaphor is become one of the most powerful Post Modern Architecture’s tool, to state critic and parody of the Modern era. It strongly states the failure of modern architecture and make joke of the death of modern era.

In post modern architecture, the position metaphor as architectural grammatical structure is becomes the part of the grand “SEMIOTICS”, the system of sign in Architecture. Basically, Semiotics and the system of sign are rooted on Ferdinand de Sausage’s Structuralism Concept in Linguistic and Levi-Strauss in Anthropology. Structuralism always divide the phenomena of things in elements that is believed the caused of abstraction [7]. Structuralism believes that the relation between objects or elements is caused phenomena [8]. Structuralism teach us that to understand the phenomena of things or objects, it always see matters in what they have called: THE BINARY OPOSITION. Structuralism is seen everything in this life in its own way, such as:

a. Cause and effect (J.J Rousseau)

b. Speech and writing (C. Levi-Strauss)

c. Presence and absence, signifier and signified (Ferdinand de Sausure)

d. Non material – material (Antoniades)

According to the concept of philosophy that being stated by those philosophers, Architecture adopt that philosophical thinking. Architecture itself is being seen as the most complex and complicated branch of knowledge from “ART”, which its manifestation is in visual and material. Architecture is being bound by gravity, climate and weather, topography, hierarchy, movement, space, and other things such as memory, social hierarchy, soul, programs, and many other things. That is why architecture is facing a lot of things, in order to accommodate a lot of programs and natural bounds. At last, the complicated oppositional of architecture has to be translated into material. The process of transformation of abstract aspects into material is being called as the process of “Metaphoric Process”. The most “successful” metaphoric process is probably Notre Dame du Haute - Ron champ Chapel of Le Corbusier, which begins the idea of a crab, but could be interpreted as many other things by its viewers.

Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp chapel - multi interpretation of metaphor.

The multi interpretation of Ronchamp

According to Prijotomo’s [9] lecture notes, post modern era itself differ into the “post-modern” [10] era or called the after or late modern era and the post- modern architecture or the new modern architecture. Both of them has different technique and different translation system in using metaphor of architecture. The late modern and its architect, such as James Stirling, Robert Venturi, and Charles Moore choose more conventional items as his own metaphorical tools.[10] From Asian architecture, Tadao Ando has also been being known as the late modern architect from the eastern world that use nature and the poetic of nature to form his metaphoric tools in architecture. The new modern or neo modern architect, which most of them is being known as deconstructionist architect, is dividing into deriddean architects and non-deriddean architects.

Scheme of “Post Modern Architecture”:

Post-modern Architecture:

1. After Modern Era:

a. Late Modern Architecture ( Tadao Ando, early Gehry’s works,etc )

b. Post Modern Architecture ( James Stirling, Charles Moore, Robert Venturi, etc. )

2. New Modern Era

c. Neo Modern Architecture: Richard Meier,etc- High Technology ( High _tech ) : Norman Foster, etc

 d.Deconstruction

1. Deriddean( Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi )

2. Non- Deriddean( Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelblau, Morphosis, etc.)

   Lebbeus wood ’s dystopia of the future - the metaphor of non- deriddean architecture

       The Deriddean Architecture would look like the”simplest” deconstruction architecture in using the metaphor of form, because their playing tools is the text and the revelation of text in design. The word conservative doesn’t mean that they use the simplest metaphor. Mostly deriddean architect play with the intangible metaphors or the extended metaphors. Source has stated that this deconstruction is the most complicated and hard to understand. They adopted Derrida’s concept from “Of Grammatology”, which is wrote by Gayatri C. Spivak [11]. Peter Wiseman and Bernard Tschumi are two architects that have been intensively used this concept. Setiawan [12] called these two architects as the metaphors of text. The manifestation of their designs is not as chaotic and fractal as the non- deriding architects. Aaron Betsky, [13] wrote his book The Violated Perfection”, which categorized 210 architect of the non deriding Architect, into 5 main groups:

1. Revelatory Modernist:” Pure form has contaminated, transforming architecture into an agent of instability, disharmony conflict” that is the proper statement of this kind of architecture. According to its concept, this group is the most conservative in non -deriddean architecture. They use function, principle of abstraction, and composing the fragmentation of pieces, programs, and contexts to fabricate metaphors of architecture. Emilio Embasz, Jean Nouvel, Helmut Jahn, Eric Owen Moss, and Gunter Benisch are part of these architects.

2. Shard and Sharks: the most radical of deconstruction architecture. They play with slate and plane. The composition is chaotic and fractal. The metaphor is rebellious [13], chaotic, and the beauty of ugliness. Prijotomo called this kind of deconstruction as the “ugly duckling” –the hidden beauty of design. As being mentioned by Gehry in his Inaugural Lecture in NUS, October 2006, he use his architecture as the

Frank Gehry In His Inaugural Lecture at Singapore, being drawn as the Simpson and his concert hall model.

       metaphors of urban chaos, the mixed use topography and the messy environment. He said that architecture is become mirror of its era, giving archieves to next generation about how that time when architecture is being stated looked like . So, as what Himmelblau has stated, that architecture has mission to carry, as a story teller. Architecture must burn. Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Kazuo Shinohara, Coop Himmelblau, and Gunter Domineg are the part of Shard and Sharks movement.

Zaha Hadid

Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry’s Fred and Ginger building - metaphor of Fred and Ginger, a famous dancer couple.

3. Textualist: this group has also being told as the” built language” architecture. They feel that architecture as the interpreter must be used as the creative probability of interstitial composition between language, photography, and movie. Ben Nicholson, Steven Holl, Bernard Tschumi, and Diller are parts of this group.

4. New Mythologist : using the utopia as myth which has existed along the time, and being revaluated by the failure of “International Style” as the utopia of Modern Architecture, this new mythologist create dystopia or vision of self destruction which is not developed in human minds to stay preserve the life. This group tries to create the new utopia of the past, present, and the future. Being inspired by the science fiction movie and time machine, Lebbeus Woods, Paolo Soleri, and Hodgett & Fung design association are parts of this group.

5. Technomorphism : the metaphor that being used is the metaphor of machine and technology. Architects think that technology is being created to help human. Technology make space and time become shorter and easier. For example in medical world, the life support of human being has already been helped by machine , such us artificial and metal bone, machined heart support, artificial blood vein, and the latest innovation in Japan, the androids. This group of architect has been translating technology and its impact in human life as technomorphism deconstruction. Betsky mentioned that Macdonald and Salter, Toyo Ito, Morphosis, and Holt is the part of this group.

SOUTH EAST ASIA EXPERIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE OF METAPHORS : THE SOCIAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, AND POLITICAL CONTEXT IN ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION

How about South East Asia Architecture? Learning from architecture and design development of the world, the impact of globalisation and post modern language also give the strong influence through south East Asia and other developing countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines. The using of Metaphors as one of the Post-modern tool in doing the design, many young architects create innovation in design. The post-modern world has brought communication and media closer to people. The information become open source and the global network of architects give strong influence through South East Asia education and development, too.

Work of Ito, Gehry, Hadid, and many other architects can be found everywhere in South East Asia, including Singapore. According to this situation, some Seminars and Design Conference in South East Asia, Young architects’ conducts public discussion in developing the language of own local identity of South East Asia’s architectural design tools. For example Singapore has 25 - 40 young architects, which actively publishing their portfolio of works and sharing their way of thinking in design. In Indonesia, AMI[14] (Arsitek Muda Indonesia) or the Young Architects of Indonesia become the front liner of new design innovation. MARA in as a school of architecture in Malaysiastart to think about the root of Malay architecture and developing the language of Malay architecture.They conduct the first Malay Architecture International Seminar in 2005, collaborated with trisakti University and National University of Singapore. Nowadays, South East Asiakeeps developing their own architectural language in order to finding their own local genius. Dr. Johanes Widodo from National University of Singapore [15] has mentioned that as Eastern World, we have to develop our own identity in architecture, by finding and keep searching our own local architectural language. Nowadays our scholars and architects still borrowing western grammatical language to perform their building design. South East Asian architects has to be brave enough to show their own local heritage of metaphorical transformation.

Learning from Japan, which has  probably been the most active in searching and developing Asian local values as the grammar of metaphor in design. Japan has Kisho Kurokawa, Tadao Ando, and Toyo Ito have been globally known as Asian front liners in developing “new language” that brings Asiato the world through its architectural metaphors. Kisho with the concept of Architecture of Symbiosis, Symbiosis, Metabolism, Information, Recycle, Ecology, Intermediate Space, Fractal, etc. has been the most influence Japanese architect of symbiosis and metabolism metaphors.[16] Kisho’s concept of design has been recognize worlwide, and architecture public has apreciate his works. ( Kisho Kurukawa :The Philosophy of Symbiosis ( 1992 ) ).

Trying to be one step ahead, Deconstruction Architecture Seminar has been presented in Surabaya, Indonesia, Sardjono Sani[17], as the representation of AMI has stated that through his own understanding, he produce the design. He looks at architecture as media that can produce programs that adopted complexity and contradiction. The complexity is architecture is depends on architects subjectivity, modernity and it dependence of hierarchy, and human as an object of form and space. So, he said that he does not want to be trapped in deconstruction or any other form of style, but, he has his own of thinking [17]:

a. That his architecture could be interpreted as multi dimension of interpretation, because architecture as a branch of art is open to many interpretations.

b. In Architecture, the most important is “the life” inside of it, the changing of its context and the “eternal” value of space and form that could be used by the users.

c. Taoism, Surrealism, Dadaism,are his tool to help him producing his own architectural metaphor. The design progress is being helped by using theme in design scenario, understanding the aim, meaning, and individual response (client) along the design progress. Architecture is not only work by the subjectivity of the architect, but must be done progressively with the client.

Learning from those experiences, it will be a great homework for South East Asia and a lot of school of architecture and design to produce scholars that proud of their own local architectural grammar.

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

1. Metaphor is the transformation process from abstracts into material or visual image. Analogy is the fundamental level of metaphor. In analogy, the concept is directly applied to design or context without process.

2. Metaphor is part of system of sign or Semiotics. Semiotics, which divide into icon, symbols, and Sign, is the representation of denotative and connotative meanings in linguistics into architecture. This signify, signified, and signifier is the three points that construct the semiotics system.

3.  Design approach or theory? Probably it is the most difficult question to answer, because most architects still use it as a design tool. To make it as a theory, I think it still need a long road toward recognition. In my own undestanding, metaphor as part of of architectural tool is strongly bound with the local context and local understanding. To become a theory, metaphor should be recognized as a general and global concept. Actually, the using of metaphor is not a new issue in architecture. Ancient Architecture, which use a lot of signs and symbols has already adopted it as a grammatical tool to represent their concept, especially for spiritual and sacred buildings.

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FOOTNOTES

1. Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor: ” In language a metaphor ( from the Greek : metapherin … ) is seeming relate the two subjects that seemingly unrelated subjects… “, IA Richard , The Philosophy of Rhetoric ( 1936 )

2.Anthony C. Antoniades, Peotic of Architecture : Theory of Design ( 1992 )

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff

4.Quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor

5.Anthony C. Antoniades, Poetic of Architecture : Theory of Design 1992 : 30

6. Charles Jencks, The Language of Posmodernism ( 1991 )

7. Geoffrey Broadbent, Deconstruction : A Student Guide, London Academy Edition ( 1991 )

8.Heidegger in Dr.Bagoes Wirjomartono, The Conception Background of Deconstruction Architecture, presented in Seminar of Deconstruction Architecture in Surabaya, 1995.

9. Dr. Joseph Prijotomo, Hand Book of Theory and History of Architecture - Architecture Department of Petra Christian University Surabaya (199

10. Charles Jencks, The Language of Posmodernism ( 1991 ): The metaphor after modern era is slightly conventional, vernacular, and parodical. The vocabularies that they use is borrowing the value of the past, such as using the greek or roman column as joke to critic the modern architecture and the international style. Compare to new modern vocabularies, the emotion is  brutalism, chaotic, and rebellious.

11. Aaron Betsky, Violated Perfection : Architecture and Fragmentation of The Modern, New York, Rizolli International Publication ( 1991 )

12 Aaron Betsky in Aloysius Joseph Setiawan , The concept of Derridean and Non-Derridean in Architecture of Deconstruction, presented in Seminar of Deconstruction Architecture In Surabaya ( 1995 )

13.Frank Gehry In Inaugural Lecture In National University of Singapore, October 2006 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_gehry

14.AMI - Penjelajahan 1992 - 1995, AMI : The Long Toward Recognation ( 2005 )

15. Quoting from Dr. Johanes Widodo in International Malay Architecture Seminar in Jakarta : “Today our architects still borrow western language to produce their own methapors… south east asia architects must be proud of its own local vocabularies….” ( 2005 )

16.Contemporary Japanese Architects, Taschen ( 1995 )

17.Sardjono Sani in Aplication of Deconstruction Architecture, presented in Deconstruction Seminar In Surabaya ( 1995 )

Metaphors in Design by Leena Deshpande

Metaphor is a powerful, conceptual tool for structuring and thinking about an unusual, new, or abstract of experience or knowledge in terms of another aspect that is more familiar or concrete. Many designers use spatial metaphors to classify and structure the expected environment by the end user of a selected space. Although spatial metaphors provide a useful framework for development and inspiration they also raise additional challenges. While looking at the ways the metaphors highlight, emphasize, and enable some ways of thinking about design, these reflections may point us to new ways of seeing and doing design.The term metaphor meant in Greek “carry something across” or “transfer,” .The transferring of things and words from their proper signification to an unseemly likeness or approximate a psychological sense of an encounter.Design metaphors are influential devices that can help to describe and explore new ideas in terms and concepts found in more familiar domains.   

“…one generation’s realizations of a metaphor can become part of the next generation’s experiential basis of that metaphor” (Lankoff 1993). 

Many have argued that the power of a metaphor to explain, organize and structure the unfamiliar terms answers to problems that are due to use of that metaphor.

 Why are some designers more creative than other?  What are the personalities attributes of creative people. Fundamentally we conceptualize design as a process. This has also been design as a cyclic process or period of convergent and divergent activities. Each of these conceptualization help us justify our actions and decide what to do next. Very often we conceptualize a design as a process with the solution as being the goal. Metaphors play a large role in design and structuring our thought about how we can approach .They can act as an intuition, provoke imagination and inspiration. Metaphors are indirect representation of a concept which makes it more interesting. If any design solution is too direct or specific then it kills the spirit and impact. Metaphor is pervasive in every day life, not just as in language but in thought and action.       

Our ordinary concept system in which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. (Lakoff & Johnson, Metaphors we live by1980).Metaphors in their more traditional sense are regularly applied to design in the role of inspiration and image. This is undoubtedly a dominant tool to improve and guide the design process. the influence of Metaphors in design we are studying here is both subtle and more pervasive.

 In the dictionary, the meaning of a “metaphor” is: A figure of speech in which a word or a phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an explicit comparison. E.g. All the world’s a stage- Shakespeare. In describing what is taking place in a vibrant metaphor such as “Society is a sea “the power of particular metaphor lays in its use in particular context of understanding and surroundings. With metaphor, we can build layers and layers of understanding such that the metaphor is refined, and thus a long to create (X )one object from  translated in to (Y) another object. Understanding the problems people experience and digging beneath the surface to reveal the underlying causes, and either creating or applying solutions .In this metaphor the essence of design is not a collection of methods; the essence of design is critical thinking. Critical thinking is what is needed to discover the underlying causes of the experienced problem, and recognize the actual potential causes from mere appearances. In other words metaphors is a tool or bridge designers use to connect with users through physical appearance, performance and function or even emotional value of the space. A metaphor activates imagination and transfers the user into other world.  

  Our behavior in certain space is always linked to surroundings. The space determines some particular purpose of our existence, may be working, playing, traveling etc. Initially before this modern materialistic world design and creation of space was a more social and vernacular process with certain aspects of culture. Bryan Lawson (2001) .The requirement of spa