'the acrobat'
"the acrobat is no puppet,
he devotes his life to activities,
in which, in perpetual danger of death,
he performs extraordinary movements of infinite difficulty,
with disciplined exactitude and precision...
free to break his neck and bones be crushed.
nobody asks him to do this.
nobody owes him any thanks.
he lives in an extraordinary world,
of the acrobat.
result: most certainly!
he does things which others can not."
poem as dictated by Balkrishna Doshi (a+u)
Balkrishna Doshi(b. Poona, India 1927)
Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi was born in Poona, India in 1927. After he
completed his studies at J. J. School of Art, Bombay in 1950 he became a
senior designer on Le Corbusier's projects in Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.
In 1956 he established a private practice in Vastu-Shilpa, Ahmedabad
and in 1962 he established the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Environmental
Design. He also founded and designed the School of Architecture and
Planning in Ahmedabad. Doshi has worked in partnership as Stein, Doshi
& Bhalla since 1977.
Over the years Doshi has created architecture that relies on a sensitive
adoption and refinement of modern architecture within an Indian
context. The relevancy of his environmental and urban concerns make him
unique as both a thinker and teacher. Architectural scale and massing,
as well as a clear sense of space and community mark most of his work.
Doshi's architecture provides one of the most important models for
modern Indian architecture.
References
Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and
Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-8230-2539-X.
NA40.I45. p45.
|
| Resources |
Sources on Balkrishna DoshiWilliam
J R Curtis, Balkrishna Doshi. Balkrishna Doshi : An Architecture for
India. New York, Rizzoli, 1988. ISBN 0-8478-0937-4.
— Out of print, but you can request an open search for
this book at Amazon.com
James Steele. Rethin |
*****
這本詩集及連結圖片很值得我們"參"讀.
我還只是入門.還有許多不懂的地方.譬如說本文談到Modulor的圖 似乎在基金會的圖找不到.....
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cover of the original work
The Poem of the Right Angle (
Le Poeme de l'Angle Droit) is a series of 19 paintings and corresponding writings composed by the influential Swiss architect
Le Corbusier. Aside from his seminal manifesto
Toward an Architecture, The Poem of the Right Angle is considered to be his most lucid synthesis of personal maxims.
[1]
Introduction
The Poem of the Right Angle was composed over a period of
seven years, from 1947-1953. The paintings are arranged symmetrically in
seven rows, or "zones" and read across, in order, 5, 3, 5, 1, 3, 1, 1
such that the entire composition appears top-heavy and cross-like.
Corbusier referred to this organization as an
iconostase, or
iconostasis. Each zone, lettered
A-G, is assigned a title and corresponding color. Le Corbusier was very interested in classic themes of
alchemy,
and each piece, as well as the significance of its placement in the
color-coded sets, draws from and illuminates the dialectic of opposites
inherent in alchemical processes.
[2]
A. Milieu (Environment-Green)
Green is the alchemical symbol of the primal matter of the universe. Le Corbusier uses this zone as a taxonomy of natural cycles.
A.1. Representative of the cyclical nature of the sun
-
-
- ...the two rhythms
- which regulate our destiny:
- A sun rises
- A sun sets
- A sun rises again
A.2. Representative of the water cycle, an important part of alchemy and "a matrix for a dualistic universal confrontation."
[3]
The level establishes where
stops the descent of the wates
to the sea
the sea daughter of droplets
and mother of vapors. And
the horizontal defines
the liquid content.
A.3. Introduces earth symbol, cardinal symbols, and man as
procreator. It also is the first passage that directly references the
right angle, here as a symbol of life, living and "uprightness".
Upright on the terrestrial plateau
of things perceptible to you
contract with nature a pact of solidarity: it is the right angle
Upright in front of the sea vertical
there you are on your legs.
A.4. Uses figure-ground and heavy contrast to remark on the role of chaos in the divide between the conscious and unconscious
The law of the meander is
active in the thoughts and
enterprises of men forming their
ever renewing avatars
But the trajectory gushes out
from the mind and is projected by
the clairvoyants beyond
confusion
A.5. Very similar to the actual cover of the work, it is split
down the middle and the clasped hands signal contradiction and
reconciliation of opposites, which Corbusier stated were the only ways
to ensure human survival. In a similar painting, the clasped hands
symbolize the architect and the engineer working together.
I have thoughts that two hands
and their interlocking fingers
express this right and
this left unrelentingly
unified and so necessary
to reconciliation.
The only possibility of survival
offered to life
B. Esprit (Spirit-Blue)
This zone represents the links between nature, architecture and the cosmos.
B.2. "Le Modulor" - Corbusier's Modular Man, an iconic
illustration of proportion, is juxtaposed with a shell, which Corbusier
regarded as an archetypal female form. The shell form also embodies the
same proportional values as the Modulor, based on the Golden section.
Its value is in
this: the human body
chosen as admissible
support of numbers...
.....Here is proportion!
B.3. This is an overty architectural frame. Floorplates and a
foundation are clearly depicted, and an owl, a classic symbol of wisdom,
is clearly visible in the foundation.
Cleared of obstacles better
that before the house of
men mistress of his form
takes up her abode in nature
Complete in herself
making her case on all grounds
open to the four horizons
B.4. Another architectural frame which illuminates the concept of the
brise soleil through the sun above and the "secret world" below.
The clock and the solar
calendar brought to
architecture the "brise-soleil"
installed in front of the windows of
modern buildings
C. Chair (Flesh-Violet)
Corbusier's tribute to the flesh consists of more complicated
figures representing the animal world and all of its creative
capacities.
C.1.
Some oxen of burden pass
every day in front of my window.
Because of being designed and redesigned
the ox - of pebble and of root
becomes bull.
C.2.
They are innumerable who
sleep but others know
to open the eye.
Because the profound refuge is
in the great cavern of
sleep that other side of
life in the night.
C.3. This is the centerpiece of the iconostase, which Corbusier dedicated to his wife.
Tenderness!
Shell the Sea has not ceased
to throw us the wreckage of
smiling harmony on the shores.
Hand kneads hand caresses
hand glides. The hand and the
sea love one another.
C.4. The center line is quite overt, which may indicate that
the image can also be undestood when turned 90°, a practice Le Corbusier
was fond of.
They are but
half, giving to
life only one half
And the second part comes
to them and fuses
And good or bad comes to them
the two
who met!
C.5. The image of a woman's body with a unicorn's head is a motif that is also seen in the mural of Le Corbusier's
Swiss Pavilion at the Paris University Campus (C.I.U.P.), as are 3 other plates from the Poeme.
The galley sails
The voices singing on board
As all becomes strange
and is transposed
is transported high
and is reflected on
the plan of happiness
D. Fusion (Red)
D.3.
Do not overwhelm then he
who wants to take his part of the
risks of life - Let
the metals fuse
tolerate the alchemists who
besides leave you outside
the cause
E. Caractère (Character-Clear)
The ascription of the "clear" color frames this zone, which represents light and will reborn in man.
E.2. The complex image of many women and a horse is achieved through phenomenal transparency and separation of color from line.
The amazons are ready
to leave to go to come back and
to leave again and
to fight combat always
soldier.
The amazons are young
they do not grow old.
E.3. This is the most reproduced image from the series. The
motif of the clasped hands seen in A.5. is repeated, along with a
crescent face, indicative of the moon.
Categorical
right angle of the character
of the spirit of the heart.
I mirrored myself in this character
and found myself
found at home
found
Horizontal vision in front.
E.4. This image recalls some of Le Corbusier's paintings from the 1930s. It is orthogonal, architectural and labyrinthine.
Will appear I sense it
the splendor of brut concrete
and the grandeur which it will
have had to think the marriage
of lines
to weight the forms
To weight...
F. Offre (Offering-Yellow)
F.3. The symbol of the open hand appears as an "offering", and
the interior lines and contours reveal traits and hidden
characteristics.
It is open since
all is present available
seizable
Open to receive
Open also in order that each
comes there to take
G. Outil (Tool-Purple)
E.3. The presentation of a "tool" is an analogy to the
Philosopher's stone, both the solution and the question, thus establishing the cyclical nature of the work.
one has
with a piece of coal
traced the right angle
the sign
It is the response and the guide
the fact
a response
a choice
External links
Notes
- ^ Le Poeme de l'Angle Droit. Le Corbusier. Tokyo: GA Gallery, c1984.
- ^ Moore, Richard A. Alchemical and Mythical Themes in the Poem of the Right Angle. Oppositions (Winter 1980): 110-141. Cambridge : MIT Press for The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, 1980.
- ^ Moore 117
