The Temple Church, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting places to see in this town.

Having to choose from many fascinating destinations this one is, without doubt, one of the oldest and packed with history of England, which makes it an amazing place to contemplate today and yesterday.

The uniqueness of this place was seen also by writers like William Shakespeare and Dan Brown, who placed their characters within the walls of this building.

In the mid-12^th century, the Knights Templar or Red Knights (called like this because of the red crosses they wore and popularly known as soldier monks) had their London headquarters at the site in High Holborn. But by the 1160′s the order outgrew the original site and bought property near Fleet Street for establishment of a larger monastic compound. The order itself was called to life after the success of First Crusade (1095-1099) and was protecting pilgrims traveling to and from the Holy Land.

The new Temple Church was consecrated on 10^th February 1185in a ceremony conducted by Heraclius, the Crusader Patriarch of Jerusalem.

On that day the church was round, as the Templars churches were build to a circular design to remind them of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, a round, domed building raised over the site where Christ was buried.

The walls and grotesque heads were pained: the walls probably with bands of many colors.

Everybody entered through Norman doors, to find the firs free-standing Purbeck columns ever cut; above them curved in two dimensions Gothic arches rising to the drum. A chancel with the altar, two thirds of the present chancel’s length, stretched to the east.

But lets go back to the role of the shape of the church.

In every Templars church they tried to recreate the sanctity of the holy place. That’s why here, in this round space took place the most important events from a Templar life; masses, initiations.

Also here the important knights were buried; William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, adviser to King John and regent to Henry III. Also his sons are buried here.

All the knights are on their back, but are otherwise positioned in different ways, some have their legs extended straight out while others have their legs crossed, some wear tunics, some wear full-length robes..

They lay in frozen in stone, forever alert in defense of their father long forgotten cause. Their eyes are open, they are portrayed in their thirties, the age that Christ died and at which the dead will rise on his return. They are not memorials of the past but reminder of what is yet to come. Knights swords are ready for the battle, they are waiting to be called to life, to arms and to the defense of the most sacred place on earth.

Such burial was devoutly to be desired; for to be buried in round was to be buried “ in“ Jerusalem.

But not so may years after the consecration the Holy Land was recaptured by Saracens and the Knight work came to an end. Having started poor, holy, and dedicated to the protection of pilgrims Knights grew rich and this made them a target for envious enemies. So in 1307 they were charged with heresy, blasphemy and sodomy, thrown into the Tower of London. The Knights of Malta (Hospitallers) obtained control of the property.

Soon after the property was rented to the two collages of lawyers, who came to be identified as the Inner and Middle Temples. The two collages shared the use of the church. Like this the Temple Church became the “collage chapel” of those two societies and continues to be maintained by them to the present day.

The King Henry VIII brought next change to the church, he abolished the Hospitallers, confiscated their property and provide a priest whom he gave a title “Master of the Temple”.

Another interesting fact from the history of this building is the Battle of the Pulpit, where two newly appointed Masters were preaching on Sundays one after another, Richard Hooker and Walter Travers. There was a lasting result of this, Hooker published his teachings as Ecclesiastical Polity and became recognized as the founding of Anglican theology.

The church survived Great Fire and was refurbished by Sir Christopher Wren. Soon after that an organ was introduced to the church and were played also by George Hendel. They survived until the WW II and were destroyed in the fire raid that gutted the whole building.

In 1841 a the walls and ceiling were renovated in the Victorian Gothic style. The object of this was to bring the church to the original appearance, but none of the work remain for the building was heavily destroyed by War.

Restoration took long to complete. The choir, containing new organ was the first area of the church to be rededicated in March 1954. Two architects Walter and Emil Godfrey were able to use the beautifully carved wooden reredos designed by Wren for his XVII-century restoration. After being removed it spent over a century in the Bowes Museum, and now is re-installed in its original position. The church was rededicated in November 1958.

One might expect the Temple Church to be dark and thickly atmospheric, but later renovations took away a lot of its gloomy mystery. Still, its an amazing Gothic Romanesque church, whose chancel, “the Oblong” has been accused of perfection. The cream-colored Caen stone from which the church is build gives it a shiny and glorious look.

You can enter to the building via either west Norman doors, highly decorated and carved with many arches, that was the common way of entering the site. Or you could use the south, smaller and less presentable entrance.

Coming from the west we enter the Round Church, the most important space in whole building. Its light and airy, gives the feeling of being somewhere holy. The inner circle of the contraction is created by six columns that are caring the weight of a beautiful, high drum with a first floor balcony. the drum itself is lighten with 6 arched windows what gives an amazing, angelic sort of feeling of the space. No wonder that this was the most inspiring and most cherished place in the whole church. Moving towards the chancel we enter the inner nave long for around 70 feet. Two rows of five of beautiful, slim cross shaped columns are carrying the weight of the cross ribbed chilling. its important to mention the color of the interior, all the building is raised in light color when the columns are made of Purbeck, which is in dark grey, what gives the space quite dramatic feeling. From the everyday grayness by prayer and believes we can be uplifted to a heavenly lightness and brightness.

In the middle of the inner nave we have a place for choir, a very important aspect of the church itself, who is cherishing and continuing the music tradition since the beginning of XIX century.

The congregation sits opposite themselves, on the left (north) and right (south) side of the church.

The altar with beautifully carved wooden reredos, designed by Wren is situated on the west wall.

In my opinion this is one of the most beautiful and peaceful place in London, and if we bare in mind that its located in the heart of busy lawyer world in the center of London it can become an oasis for anyone who is coming to visit this wonderful piece of architecture which puts together the past, present and the future..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Church

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/london-temple-church

http://www.lodgephoto.com/blog/temple-church-london-and-the-da-vinci-code/11/

http://vrcoll.fa.pitt.edu/medart/image/England/London/Temple-Church/London-Temple-Church.html

http://www.templechurch.com/

El Lissitzky

The artist could be an agent for change

“das zielbewußte Schaffen” (goal-oriented creation)

El Lissitzky (Eliezer Markovich Lissitzky) , 1890-1941, Russian painter, designer, teacher, and architect. Lissitzky studied at Darmstadt and later taught at the Moscow Academy of Arts, collaborating with avant-garde artists and architects. Begun in 1919, his series of abstract geometric paintings entitled Proun (an acronym for “project for the affirmation of the new” ), as well as his many prints, were key works in Russia’s supremacist movement. Lissitzky left Russia (1921) after Lenin issued an edict against the avant-garde. Living in Germany, he introduced supremacist and constructivist ideas to László Moholy-Nagy and had a significant influence on the Bauhaus movement. Before returning (1928) to the Soviet Union he designed the Russian section of the Cologne Newspaper Exhibition, one of his many severely abstract exhibition designs. Lissitzky was also an important innovator in typography and advertising. His writings about architecture include Russia: The Reconstruction of Architecture in the Soviet Union (1930).

Between 1925 and 1928 Lissitzky lived in Hanover, where he confounded a number of periodicals propagating the most progressive artistic tendencies of the 1920s. In the winter of 1928–29 he returned to Moscow, where he continued to be an innovative force. His experiments in spatial construction led him to devise new techniques in exhibiting, printing, photo-montage, and architecture, which have had much influence in western Europe.

As extremely creative person he had an amazing influence on his fellow artists.Also as a teacher all his life he was trying to bring new to his pupils.

The idea of teaching through art is amazing though, brings fresh ideas in an easy and reachable way to everybody. That’s why his saying “ The artist could be an agent for change” is quite important to me.

In my spatial proposal “Studio Umbrella Project” I’m also creating sort of lesson, not only because of the musical aspect of it, but also visual. Construction can be assembled anywhere, under any kind of background, which is giving an opportunity to the performed to draw attention also to a different aspect, for example, a graffiti can be an very easy but powerful way of showing particular issues that are close to us.

In my firs attempt I build Studio Umbrella under a graffiti which was treating the subject of bad taste in music, the artist is asking us “how to kill Lady Gaga?”, and my answer to it is.. give to the audience sounds and experience after what their minds are going to be set up for better and more valuable aspects in life.

Lets do it with Studio Umbrella Project, bounce the music further into the crowd with especially mounted umbrellas, push the good vibes deep into the city! Fight the closed-minded and shallow!

My SOCIAL COMMENTARY….

As one of the early pioneers of Modern Architecture Le Corbusier attempted to discover a new style of architecture that would be appropriate for the 21st century. Like many influential architects of the time, Le Corbusier believed that the new century provided the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. He strived to create a modern architectural aesthetic based upon science and reason, utilizing technology and industry, for this new age.

By starting from first principles Le Corbusier aimed to rationalize house design through scientific investigation. He studied the way in which modern industry had developed functional items, such as the ocean liner, and tried to apply these ideals to the problem of housing. By harnessing the potential of new materials, particularly re-enforced concrete, Le Corbusier aim to create a logical modern living space.

He formulated his thoughts in the journal L’Espirit Nouveau before further developing his ideas through the construction of the Domino house, a geometric form intended for mass production. These ideas culminated in Le Corbusier’s manifesto – Five Points Towards A New Architecture, which is embodied by the Villa Savoye, and perhaps best demonstrates his search for an appropriate new aesthetic for th emoders age.

The pilotis (supporting columns). The house is firmly driven into the ground – a dark and often damp site. The reinforced concrete gives us the pilotis. The house is up in the air, far from the ground: the garden runs under the house…

The roof garden…the garden is also over the house, on the roof… Reinforced concrete is the new way to create a unified roof structure. Reinforced concrete expands considerably. The expansion makes the work crack at times of sudden shrinkage. Instead of trying to evacuate the rainwater quickly, endeavor on the contrary to maintain a constant humidity on the concrete of the terrace and hence an even temperature on the reinforced concrete. One particular protective measure: sand covered with thick concrete slabs, with widely spaced joints; these joints are sown with grass.’

Free plan: ‘Until now: load-bearing walls; from the ground they are superimposed, forming the ground floor and the upper stories, up to the eaves. The layout is a slave to the supporting walls. Reinforced concrete in the house provides a free plan! The floors are no longer superimposed by partition walls. They are free.’

Horizontal windows: ‘The window is one of the essential features of the house. Progress brings liberation. Reinforced concrete provides a revolution in the history of the window. Windows can run from one end of the facade to the other.’

Free facade: The columns set back from the façades, inside the house. The floor continues cantilevered. The façades are no longer anything but light skins of insulating walls or windows. The façade is free.’

(Quotations from Le Corbusier are from the house’s visitor brochure published by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux.)

Constructivism

‘the streets our brushes, the squares our palettes’

Changes in art are happening not only because someone had a good idea. Sometimes they are happening because of a political reasons. This is why we could observe it in Russia, where after the October revolution artists started to create in different ways for the masses of uneducated and poor people, who were living for many years under the hard hand if a Tsar.As much as involving itself in designs for industry, the Constructivists worked on public festivals and street designs for the post-October revolution Bolshevik government.

“the streets our brushes, the squares our palettes”.

As a part of the early Soviet youth movement, the Constructivists took an artistic outlook aimed to encompass cognitive, material activity, and the whole of spirituality of mankind. The artists tried to create works that would take the viewer out of the traditional setting and make them an active viewer of the artwork.

One of the most important designers of this movement was Vladimir Tatlin. After the 1917 Revolution, he worked for the new Soviet Education Commissariate which used artists and art to educate the public. During this period, he developed an officially authorized art form which utilized ‘real materials in real space’. His 1919 project for a Monument of the Third Communist International marked his first foray into architecture and became a symbol for Russian avant-garde architecture and International Modernism.

The model for the Monument to the Third International, 1919.  A 400-m high tower with a metal frame composed of two spirals narrowing in the upward, comprised four volumes in the internal space behind the skeletal frame of the main volume. These volumes each hanging over another rotated at different speeds. The bottom cube that was the siege of the Comintern legislative bodies was to rotate at a speed of 1 turn a year. The truncated pyramid – the location of the executive bodies 1 turn a month, the cylinder with the secretariat rotated at a speed of 1 turn a week and the semi-sphere completed the composition. The tower is not so much a utility object as a striking romantic artistic symbol of the Revolution.

The original model for the Monument to the Third International was built of everyday materials – wood, wire, cardboard, metal, and paper. With these ordinary materials the form of a very extraordinary structure was realized. The Monument was to be twice the height of the Empire State Building and be made of glass and iron. The purpose of the construction didn’t stop there. The structure was to be fitted with a projector that could illuminate a cloudy sky with daily mottoes.

Unfortunately, many of Tatlin’s works, also his paintings and sculptures, are able to be studied only through photographs; the originals have disappeared or disintegrated. Nevertheless, Tatlin remains an important figure in the history of 20^th century Russia.

Industrialization

“We are the men of the great hotels, the railway stations, the immense streets, colossal ports, covered markets, luminous arcades, straight roads and beneficial demolitions. “

How powerful these words are? What massage are they carrying? Who are they talking to? Who is saying them? Are they strong enough to change the way of life and our days?

The time has shown us that the answer to this questions is  just in front of our eyes; everything what we see and how we live is an effect of this Manifesto. Those brave people from the beginning of the century laid a firm foundations for a change .A change not only in architecture but also in a way of living. The Industrialization gave us a massive use of concrete and reinforced steel, glass and iron. That allowed us to build much higher, simpler, slimmer and bolder buildings. Industrialization gave us a new way of commuting, a train, a car, an aeroplane. We want to live more, faster, richer, fuller. We want to brake away from unnecessary and follow the new. We want to build in a new way.

Peter Behrens, the father of architectural reform, the major designer of factories and office buildings in brick, steal and glass. In 1907 got involved with (Allegmaine Elaktrizitats-Gesselshaft, literally General Electricity Company) and became artistic consultant and fist ever industrial designer, the person who is thinking about the form, function and the connection between the product and the consumer. For the first time ever the company had designed whole identity; publicity, logo, publicity. It was Behrens’ creativity that first established the “corporate identity” concept as the basic element of the philosophy of an industrial company and its brands.

“Design is not about decorating functional forms – it is about creating forms that accord with the character of the object and that show new technologies to advantage.”

The Turbine Factory in Berlin-Moabit most successfully displays the industrial nature of most of his buildings.
The building was originally 123 m long, 25 m high, and 25 m wide, but was lengthened to more than 200 m in 1939. It is constructed of steel, concrete and glass, and is particularly distinguished by the inward-inclined glazed areas between the steel uprights along its length, and by its façade, which bears the company logo and the inscription ‘Turbinenfabrik’. Architectural historians have debated and will debate whether the building was intended to be functional or monumental. None would doubt its quality.

In my spatial design I’m using the advantages of the industrialization, the construction is made of 1mm mild steal, which gives is endurance, strength and simplicity. Its simple form follows the easiness of assembling.

EASY TO CARRY…

EASY TO ASSEMBLE…

ET VOILA!

Ornament and Crime

In 1908 Adolf Loos writes an essay, “Ornament and Crime”, which rapidly became a theoretical manifesto and a key document in modernist literature. In the essay, Loos’s “passion for smooth and precious surfaces” informs his expressed philosophy that ornamentation can have the effect of causing objects to go out of style and thus become obsolete. It struck him that it was a crime to waste the effort needed to add ornamentation, when the ornamentation would cause the object to soon go out of style. Loos argued against decoration by pointing to economic and historical reasons for its development, and by describing the suppression of decoration as necessary to the regulation of passion. He believed that culture resulted from the renunciation of passions and that which brings man to the absence of ornamentation generates spiritual power and attacked contemporary design as well as the imitative styling of the nineteenth century and looked on contemporary decoration as mass-produced, mass-consumed trash.To Loos, the lack of ornament in architecture was a sign of spiritual strength. He referred to the opposite, excessive ornamentation, as criminal – not for abstract moral reasons, but because of the economics of labour and wasted materials in modern industrial civilization. He argued that because ornament was no longer an important manifestation of culture, the worker dedicated to its production could not be paid a fair price for his labour.

Loos acted as a model and a seer for architects of the 1920s. His fight for freedom from the decorative styles of the nineteenth century led a campaign for future architects.

“The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects”, he proclaimed, thus linking the optimistic sense of the linear and upward progress of cultures with the contemporary vogue for applying evolution to cultural contexts.

One of the good examples of his work is the Villa Karma, (he was a primary designer, 1904-1906 – Hugo Ehrlich finished the design) on Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, it was his first major project, and here he was experimenting with what modernism was and yet still referencing the classical tradition more than in his later projects.

The classical Doric columns that are used on a loggia, but also at the front entrance. Their presence is striking against the slick and austere façade of stucco. There is also the statue of a face to the left – a classical element.

The most famous room in the house is the master bathroom. Its done in a black marble, the bronze doors are studded. The sink is between the 2 doors, this room is enormous – a veritable temple to cleanliness!

Also the library deserve mentioning, it shows the decorative (but not ornamental) use of marble and wood with large windows overlooking the lake. The corner of the room shows another modern take on ‘tradition’ – a stained glass window.

The back of the house, which faces the lake, takes advantage of the views with steep garden terracing, big windows and countless outdoor rooms.

The idea of simplicity in decoration is very close to me and it my proposal Studio Umbrella Project, I’m using minimum of it, the idea itself and the form are the ornament. The form speak for itself.

Art Nouveau

Despite its emphasis on nature, Art Nouveau was predominantly an urban style, created to decorate the streets and interiors of modern industrial cities, which had expanded rapidly during the last third of the nineteenth century. The cities represented in the exhibition demonstrate the international variations of Art Nouveau. Although each city developed its own version of the style, all shared similar ideas and goals.In addition, the rectilinear style favoured by many Art Nouveau artists prefigured the geometric simplicity and abstracting tendencies of much twentieth-century art and design. Art Nouveau transformed object, whether it was produced by a craftsman with traditional knowledge handed down over centuries or by industry.

In every country Art Nouveau took different path and new ways of expressing were created.France, for example, with its Ecloe de Nancy gave it a new influence. The work of Victor Horta and Hector Guimard transformed the way of looking at the objects of everyday world and gave them a new perspective from the world of art.

In Vienna founded by a progressive group of younger Austrian artists, the Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 in opposition to the exclusion of foreign artists from exhibitions of the Viennese Academy. Led by the artist Gustav Klimt, its first President, members of the group included the designer and architect Josef Hoffmann, Kolomon Mosser and Josef Maria Olbrich. Olbrich designed the decorative Secession Building in Vienna (1898), with Moser contributing stained glass and other decorative work in the interior. Hoffmann designed the Ver Sacrum room at the first Vienna Secession exhibition in 1898, Ver Sacrum being the title of the periodical closely associated with the group. During this time, architects focused on bringing purer geometric forms into the designs of their buildings.

The first signs of “Art Nouveau” in Britain can be recognized in the last 2 decades of XIX century. In Glasgow Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle were designing new interiors, textiles and apply arts. Mackintosh created buildings notable for the elegance and clarity of their spatial concepts, the skilful exploitation of natural and artificial lighting, and skilful detailing. He felt that each design should work as a whole to which each carefully contrived detail contributes.

In Barcelona, Spain, Casa Batlo and Casa Mila by Antonio Gaudi are the most influential.Over the course of his career, Gaudi developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement. With little regard for formal order, he juxtaposed unrelated systems and altered established visual order. Gaudi’s characteristically warped form of Gothic architecture drew admiration from other avant-garde artists. Although categorized with the Art Nouveau, Gaudi created an entirely original style.

German Gesamtkunstwerk which translates as complete, unified or total work of art. As an idea it was unite all the fields of art, from architecture, through sculpture, painting, apply arts and get rid of the boundaries between them. According to them the design of the façade of the building should create a one, join composition with a interiors, used colours, furniture, and even the clothes of a lady’s living in them.

My current design practise lies very close to the program of Gesamtkunstwerk. By creating an outdoor stage for a street performer I emphasize the value of design and a place where the performance is being held. The artist is free to choose the site and the background for it; whether its a busy street with a grey build-up area or a colourful and diverse architecture. The creation itself is eclectic and combines the frame made to hold a very common item of everyday life which is an umbrella. As for the site of my project I have chosen a busy street of Shoreditch, just in front of a well known night club where the performer can create a powerful show which combines his music, aesthetic and visual aspects of the location, in this case very intriguing graffiti of ROA. The interesting point of the site is that the graffiti is changing in time, new artists are coming and creating new graffiti, so the background for a following performance can be different the the previous one.