1. BOOK REVIEW: Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
CHAPTER 7: Contradiction Adapted
The Facades of two eighteenth century Neapolitan villas express two kinds, or two
manifestations, of contradiction. In the Villa Pignatelli the mouldings, which dip,
become string courses and window heads at once. In the Villa Palomba the
windows, which disregard the bay system and puncture the exterior panels, are by
interior needs. The mouldings in the first villa adapt easilv to their contradictory
functions. The windows of the second villa clash violently with the panel
configurations and pilaster rhythm: the inside order and the outside order are in an
uncompromisingly contradictory relation. In the first facade contradiction is adapted
by accommodating and compromising its elements- in the second facade
contradiction is juxtaposed by using contrasting superimposed or adjacent elements.
Contradiction adapted is tolerant and pliable. It admits improvisation. It involves the
disintegration of a prototype and it ends in approximation and qualification. On the
other hand, contradiction juxtaposed is unbending. It contains violent contrasts and
uncompromising oppositions. Contradiction adapted ends in a whole which is
perhaps impure. Contradiction juxtaposed ends in a whole which is perhaps
unresolved.
If "contradiction adapted" corresponds to the kid glove treatment, "contradiction
juxtaposed" involves the shock treatment. Juxtaposed directions create rhythmic
complexities and contradictions. Super adjacency is inclusive rather than exclusive,
relating contrasting and otherwise irreconcilable elements, containing opposites
within a whole. It can accommodate the valid non sequitur, and allow a multiplicity of
levels of meaning, since it involves changing contexts--seeing familiar things in an
unfamiliar way and unexpected points of view. It is in contrast to the perpendicular
interpenetration of space and forms characteristic of the work of Wright. Super
adjacency can exist between distant elements. Superimpositions change as one
move in space. Super adjacency can also occur where the superimposed elements
actually touch instead of being related only visually. A vivid tension evolves from all
these juxtaposed contradictions. Some city planners, however, are now more prone
to question the glibness of orthodox zoning and to allow violent proximities in their
planning, at least in theory, than are architects within their buildings.
CHAPTER 8:Contradiction juxtaposed
2. Le Corbusier supplies a rare modern example of juxtaposed contradictions in the
Millowners' Building in Ahmadabad. From the important approach from the south, the
repetitive pattern of the brise-soleil invokes rhythms which are violently broken by the
entrance void, the ramp, and the stairs. These latter elements, consisting of varying
diagonals, create violent adjacencies from the side and violent super adjacencies
from the front, in relation to the rectangular static floor divisions within the boxlike
form. The juxtapositions of diagonals and perpendiculars also create contradictory
directions: the meeting of the ramp and stairs is only slightly softened by the
exceptionally large void and by the modified rhythm of the elements at that part of
the facade. But these contradictions in the visual experience are even richer when
you move closer and penetrate the building. The adjacencies and super adjacencies
of contrasting scales, directions, and functions can make it seem like a miniature
example of Kahn's viaduct architecture
