Drawing and speculation
John Hejduk was an American architect who is famous as his unique drawing technique that describes architecture as a catalog of architectural monsters.
The particular technique not only expresses his drawing of architecture but only reveals through Hejduk’s belief and understanding of interaction with the world through architecture. The example I chose to research is the victims designed by john Hejduk which is a project of a combination of a serious of structures to commemorate the victims in the Nazi torture chamber as a memorial park. 67 structures are being built during the two thirty-years periods and more structures being added as time passed while essentially illustrated that the victims are existent continuously. The monsters can be defined differently, to my understanding, they are considered as the odd view for beholders. There are some unfamiliar shapes and structures combined as monsters. However, the victims represent the positive side, in his work, he associated the positive and negative symbolism to reveal the specific architectural design. Through his work, he gives each structure a role while the roles signified their functions and context in society. In his draft of victims and monsters, the structures are simple and crude in shapes with few silhouettes and perspectives. In one of his drawings (see figure 1), he shows the structure aligned in a grid and numbered in a sequential order while others display the structures scattered on the plan, describing a sort of variable, incremental town (Favrizi,2015). Also, all the structures are named and each name signified the character of the individual objects in the project.
John Hejduk emphasis on transforming the original architectures into characters of significance to help people better understanding the social context. The one main element that brings up specific communication through the language of architecture is the projection of the functional and expressive capacity. He uses quite expressive meanings in his drawings while connects the human thoughts with the structures to build interconnections as human relationships within the periods. Hejduk revives the figures that inhabited a place by putting them in a relationship with the contemporary citizens. Rarasea (2018) states that each structure was given a character through this nature and to be assigned with that functioned throughout a social storyline and approached the forefront of design with a psychological perspective.
Collect ideas about the world and pass them out through forms; therefore, each building represents and establishes an understanding of the world, which is a testimony to it. This brief is based on the idea of architecture and teaching of the cooper union headmaster. One of Hejduk's major contribution comes from his way of thinking about architecture through an analogical thought that introduced new meanings within his architecture, through the ability of the imagination to create connections between different things and in search of formal synthesis.
Gilley (2010) researches that Hejduk's masques are more than the text or the drawing, as the inspiration. The architectural masque is a compendium of text, symbol, history, and performance which is meant to lead the viewer to a greater comprehension of the citizen’s role in the creation of community. Through the serious work called Masque, Hejduk emphasis that the fundamental issue of architecture is that does it affect the spirit which is made up of the values of an era and the representation of this spirit must strive for architecture to be more than its practical function, to go beyond simple construction and become a support for telling the life of humans. He develops the main theme of the concept Masques which embodies the structure's character and represents the relationship between human beings and symbols. Hejduk ties the city and the principle of Masque because he understands the theatre as a means of giving rules to society and to give a role to each one, within the city which is a scenic space or place of relations with architectures. Each structure represents a character for each inhabitant or institution, and these characters put together make up the character for urbanity, using narrative to make known the meaning of the city through the story of its architecture.
As an architect, we are not only building architectures in our real world, but we are creating and building the worlds, to create horizons of meaning concerning the world we have an image the future and possibilities like an analogous city as a real one.
My project is a series of architectural monsters that includes four main structures. I reveal the design process of each structure, from the simple shape to the final perspectives. I not only learned from the drawing technique of Hejduk but also engage with his particular principles for architecture designs.
The first architecture plays the role of a gardener which functions as a greenhouse for floriculture and ornamental flowers. The solar panels form in triangles trap the energy from the sun for the operation of the greenhouse. The appearance of the panels with sharp corners combines the character of the thorn from the flowers. The sharp view looks like a monster, however, the structure is caring for the fragile and delicate flowers while achieves associating the positive and negative aspects to realize the symbolism.
The second structure acts a role of player to provide various services for fun in a game center. It uses a kind of deconstructive design to split a cube while the notch in curves and lines, the different kinds of geometry both present a sense of interesting. The structure contains multi styles and irregular elements inspire the people’s imagination and creativity which demonstrates the vitality and vigor in the city.
The third term is named Mimih who represents a fairy to protect humans and bring good lucks. It has an odd view like monsters with sharp corners, however, the gruff exterior concealed the virtuous spirits. The particular character realizes the association with both negative and positive symbolism, presents the comprehension of a role and its value.
The last architecture is focusing on the theme of home while it functions as a school building. The building structures as the three dimensional of the words of the home on a plan. It was given the role as a home, not only provides the atmosphere of home for people but also construct a sense of security and belonging for avoiding more accidents and dangers in the school.
Hejduk has said that conception, representation, and realization are for the author three necessary and inseparable passages of the project, which affirm the realism of the artist’s work, the need to start from the critique of reality, and set the construction of reality itself as an end.
References
Fabrizi, M. (2015). A Growing, Incremental Place – Incremental Time: “Victims”, a Project by John Hejduk (1984). Socks-studio.
http://socks-studio.com/2015/11/01/a-growing-incremental-place-incremental-time-victims-a-project-by-john-hejduk-1984/
Fabrizi, M. (2015). [Drawing from victims and monsters by John Hejduk][stock image]. Socks studio. http://socks-studio.com/img/blog/Victims-John-Hejduk-13.jpg
Gilley, A. (2010). Drawing, Writing, Embodying: John Hejduk's Masques Of Architecture. Virginia Tech. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/29724.
Rarasea, S. (2018). 02A Drawing and Notation — A Cataglogue of Monsters: Victims — John Hejduk. Medium.
https://medium.com/@ratusimione.rarasea/02a-drawing-and-notation-a-cataglogue-of-monsters-victims-john-hejduk-261002b9d146
