Hỏi về anh Võ Trọng Nghĩa

Hi minhpi,
You are nearly right at this point. I just wanted to avoid any confusion caused by your words ("modern architecture"), and I thought about "Modernism in architecture". Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes progressive art and architecture, music and literature which emerged in the decades before 1914, as artists rebelled against late 19th century academic and historicist tra***ions ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism ). In my view, this cultural movement promoted "Modern Architecture" to be the trendy style at that time.

But I did not suggest changing you words without a reason. Here are my explanations:
"Modern architecture is over". OK guy, I can shout it out loud in the pub among friends. But it''''s just for fun. If you want to form an academic conversation, you need to consider using the right terms, and much more than that.
Again, I mean the term "modern architecture" can result in confusions.
First of all, "modern" generally means "of the recent times". "Modern architecture" therefore can be understood as "The architecture of recent times". For example, if you live in 2006, modern architecture can be understood as "architecture of the 2000s". You can also see that "Modern Architecture" was dated the 1920s. At that time, that architecture style is new and called "modern", but today, 2006, we should call it different or state it carefully. How about "Postmodernism"? Oh no, don''''t worry about that. I''''m just kidding!
That also explains why writing "Modern Architecture" is likely better than "Modern architecture". Don''''t you see the difference?
The third reason is that "Modern architecture is over" seems unclear. Does "over" means "not used", or "disappeared", or "out-of-date" or "completed"? OK, there is not many buildings using Modern Architecture styles today, so it can be right when saying "Modern Architecture of the 1940s is out-of-date, not à-la-mode anymore". Modern Architecture is not dominant anymore. But an architecture style cannot disappear without a trace, right? What if your client chooses to build his/her own house using a Modern Architecture Style of the 1940s?

I attached an article from Wikipedia as a reference:

MODERN ARCHITECTURE
About the term:
"Modern Architecture" is a broad term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament, that first arose around 1900. By the 1940s these styles had been consolidated and identified as the International Style and became the dominant way of building for several decades in the twentieth century.
The exact characteristics and origins of modern architecture are still open to interpretation and debate, but it''''s generally accepted that modernism was superseded by postmodernism and is now regarded as a historical style.
Origins
Some historians see the evolution of modern architecture as a social matter, closely tied to the project of Modernity and hence to the Enlightenment, a result of social and political revolutions.
Others see modern architecture as primarily driven by technological and engineering developments, and it''''s plainly true that the availability of new materials such as iron, steel, concrete and glass drove the invention of new building techniques as part of the Industrial Revolution. The Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton at the Great Exhibition of 1851 is an early example; possibly the best example is Louis Sullivan''''s development of the tall steel skyscraper in Chicago around 1890.
Other historians regard modernism as a matter of taste, a reaction against eclecticism and the lavish stylistic excesses of Victorian Era and Edwardian Art Nouveau.
Whatever the cause, around 1900 a number of architects around the world began developing new architectural solutions to integrate tra***ional precedents (Gothic, for instance) with new technological possibilities. The work of Louis Sullivan in Chicago, Victor Horta in Brussels, Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Otto Wagner in Vienna and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, among many others, can be seen as a common struggle between old and new.
Modernism as dominant style
By the 1920s the most important figures in modern architecture had established their reputations. The big three are commonly recognized as Le Corbusier in France, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius in Germany. Mies van der Rohe and Gropius were both directors of the Bauhaus, one of a number of European schools and associations concerned with reconciling craft tra***ion and industrial technology.
Frank Lloyd Wright''''s career parallels and influences the work of the European modernists, particularly via the Wasmuth Portfolio, but he refused to be categorized with them.
In 1932 came the important MOMA exhibition, the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture, curated by Philip Johnson. Johnson and collaborator Henry-Russell Hitch**** drew together many distinct threads and trends, identified them as stylistically similar and having a common purpose, and consolidated them into the International Style.
This was an important turning point. With World War II the important figures of the Bauhaus fled to the United States, to Chicago, to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and to Black Mountain College. Modernism became the pre-eminent, and then (for leaders of the profession) the only acceptable, design solution from about 1932 to about 1984.
Architects who worked in the international style wanted to break with architectural tra***ion and design simple, unornamented buildings. The most commonly used materials are glass for the facade, steel for exterior support, and concrete for the floors and interior supports; floor plans were functional and logical. The style became most evident in the design of skyscrapers. Perhaps its most famous/notorious manifestations include the United Nations headquarters, the Seagram Building, and Lever House by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, all in New York.
Detractors of the international style claim that its stark, uncompromisingly rectangular geometry is dehumanising. Le Corbusier once described buildings as "machines for living", but people are not machines and do not want to live in machines. Even Philip Johnson admitted he was "bored with the box." Since the early 1980s many architects have deliberately sought to move away from strictly geometrical designs.
Although there is much discussion as to when the fall of the modern movement occurred, criticism of Modern architecture began in the 1960s on the grounds that it was universal, sterile, elitist and lacked meaning. The rise of postmodernism is attributed to the general disenchantment with Modern architecture.
Characteristics
Modern architecture is usually characterised by:
a rejection of historical styles as a source of architectural form (historicism)
an adoption of the principle that the materials and functional requirements determine the result
an adoption of the machine aesthetic
a rejection of ornament
a simplification of form and elimination of "unnecessary detail"
an adoption of expressed structure
Some catchphrases of Modern architecture
"Form follows function" - first used by sculptor Horatio Greenough, more popularly by Louis Sullivan
"Less is more" - Mies van der Rohe
"Less is more only when more is too much" - Frank Lloyd Wright
"Less is a bore" - Robert Venturi, pioneer of Postmodern architecture; in response to the featureless International Style popularized by Mies van der Rohe
In his 1941 essay "The mischievous analogy" (collected in Heavenly Mansions) the architectural historian Sir John Summerson identified several generalizations and clichés of modern architecture:
it arises from an accurate analysis of the needs of modern society;
it represents the logical solution of the problem of shelter
achieved by the direct application of means to ends;
it expresses the spirit of the machine age;
it is the architecture of industrial living;
it is based on a study of scientific resources and an exploitation of new materials;
finally it is organic
Summerson found that the modernist obsession was not with architecture itself, but with its relation to other aspects of life, and investigated the results.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture
Được ga-lang-thang sửa chữa / chuyển vào 23:29 ngày 26/01/2006

Đứng về cách làm việc, anh Nghĩa giống với một kỹ sư môi trường, khí hậu hơn là một kiến trúc sư. Có xem qua mấy công trình của Ảnh, thấy điểm mạnh nhất của ảnh là về thông gió và chiếu sáng!

ga-lang thang wrote:
First of all, "modern" generally means "of the recent times". "Modern architecture" therefore can be understood as "The architecture of recent times". For example, if you live in 2006, modern architecture can be understood as "architecture of the 2000s". You can also see that "Modern Architecture" was dated the 1920s. At that time, that architecture style is new and called "modern", but today, 2006, we should call it different or state it carefully. How about "Postmodernism"? Oh no, don''''''''t worry about that. I''''''''m just kidding!
you are absolut right. I know the difference between Modern Architecture and modern architecture, that is my faul by expressing this, because I think you all got the point.
LeCor wrote domething about this difference, he always tried to be modern but not to be involved in Modern Architecture.
Anyway I see, you work very serious , maybe therefore I wanna add some points . Whenever one talks about modern architecture, it would be understood as Modern Architecture at the 20s, wouldn`t it? There are here some reason, one of them is, we also have new deffinitions for new trend in architecture like blob, decontruction, visual...so, that one never mistake the 2 names we mentioned.
You are good one, and if you really interested in architecture, I suggest we make a new topic to dicuss about architectur generally, maybe from the biginning of 20s till now.
I am some reason why i try to write in english. ( as an architect from a country like our country, english seems to be one of the keys into a new bigger world, right) And thank you for your supporting. Again: my english is bad, you all can be better, but I try with my hope that we can enter into bigger world confidently.

Hi guys,
I just got some of your points and generally agree with ga_lang_thang. Both of you have been talking about the specific names of some architectural movements (or styles), especially Modern Architecture during the period from 1920s to 1960s.
Modern Architecture, which was practiced and developed by the "God Father" - Le Corbusier, the "King of Minimalism" - Mies Van der Rohe, the "Bauhauser" - Walter Gropius as well as many 20th century renown architects such as Minoru Yamasaki, Oscar Niemeyer, etc..., already passed over as Charles Jencks stated in the book The Language of Postmodern Architecture published in 1977.
However, as you know, Modern Architecture had huge influences on later generations of global architects like Richard Meyer, Tadao Ando, Rem Koolhaas. Furthernore, the dead of Modern Architecture led to the development of later trends in architecture, High_tech; Deconstructivism; New Modern, Post Modern were some of them.
At the beginning of the new century, the recent global architecture is developing rapidly day by day in combination with progressive technologies and social behavior. Many new ideas and theories have been invented and practiced such as bigness, folding architecture, bolding architecture, etc... Therefore, it is so hard to predict the near future of architecture and cities.
Anyway, I think you should create a new topic with an attractive name like "Modernism and new movements in Architecture" or "New Book of Architectural History" in order to discuss about this issue . You can type in Vietnamese instead of English and that may make the topic more interesting and attract more people to join in. Cheers.
Được hot_heart sửa chữa / chuyển vào 12:40 ngày 02/02/2006

Explain me more, guy, I don''t really understand this point. L.C was one of the most important protagonist in the field of Moderne architecture in 20c. Anyway, I strongly agree with your term "modern architecture" rather than that of Galangthang. Generally, the term "Modernism architecture", in my point of view, maybe confuse with contemporary architecture which is not quite precise.
Kéo áo bạn Hot-heart phát. Đang bàn KT hiện đại mà lại lôi "The language of Post-modern architecture" của anh Charles bạn tớ ra nói là thế nào nhở. Đang mới có foreplay mà bạn đã bắt cum rồi thì hỏng

ặ hay, 'ang hỏằi vỏằ anh Và Trỏằng Nghâa, sao lỏĂi chuyỏằfn qua "English for Architects" hỏt thỏ này? Mod 'Âu rỏằ"i? treo? khoĂ? cỏt? chuyỏằfn?

Được hot_heart sửa chữa / chuyển vào 13:09 ngày 02/02/2006

Come on! It''''s just a foreplay, man! Hope that we can hold it as long as possible! Who will cum first?

I know, I know, man. You are talking about Folding Architecture, right? Hang, lock, cut, move, turn, etc...? Haha...
Được hot_heart sửa chữa / chuyển vào 13:11 ngày 02/02/2006