Brick

I used to dislike bricks. I thought bricks were such an old fashioned and obsolete material for construction, I thought of bricks as boring and outdated.

It was not until I was told that bricks are beautiful material with its beautiful colors. This simple statement was uttered by my teacher when I was in Singapore Polytechnic. Yes, it was just a purely simple statement of his opinion but it stroke me hard. The thought of bricks as obsolete was so obvious to me that I did not even consider it as possible for people in the contemporary period to regard it as beautiful. My obviousness was shattered, how could I see things so shallowly?

Then there came Louis Kahn with his conversation with brick:
You say to brick, "What do you want, brick?" Brick says to you, "I like an arch." If you say to brick, "Arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete linter over an opening. What do you think of that, brick?" Brick says, "I like an arch."

The significance of the conversation lies in our respect towards materials. We cannot just do whatever we like towards the materials, because materials, too, have feeling and pride. It is our task as architects to bring out the best in it, Our skill will determine how good the materials will be once constructed.

I had the urge to record this thought because I happened to come across an article at Domus about brick. I thought and daydreamed of how wonderful it will be if I have a chance to do a building with just bricks.

Questioning

' As one person remarked, "A good question is greater than the most brilliant answer," and that is true. A good question is one that touches Realization; it touches Order, whereas an answer is very fragmentary in comparison to it. I never really got to Architecture by simply taking convenient things; it was through the unfamiliar that I learned and realized what architecture really was. '

Louis Kahn

***

"Avoid using colors! None of you can handle it." he said, more than three years ago. His words haunted most of his students ever since, for they had become a dictum of our architectural design. I like such teacher with strong opinion, someone you find excitement in agreement over disagreement.

I observed people who are dictated by such rule and gave up on the exploration of colors. They are good

 listeners and followers, they do not question. Hence, the rule shackles their creativity.

I observed people who are not bothered by the rule. They are inspiring, but they are fools. They are not bothered by the rule because they did not listen and pay attention.

I observed people who are constantly questioning the rule.
Why were we told not to use colors? Why can't we handle colors?
These people are generally slower but they are the people who will excel in the long run.

Silence and Light

Inspiration is the feeling of beginning at the threshold where Silence and Light meet. Silence, the unmeasurable, desire to be, desire to express, the source of new need, meets the Light, the measurable, giver of all presence, by will, by law, the measure of things already made, at a threshold which is inspiration, the sanctuary of art, the Treasury of Shadow.

The artist offers his work to his art in the sanctuary of all expression, which I like to call the Treasury of the Shadow, lying in that ambiance: Light to Silence, Silence to Light. Light, the giver of presence, casts its shadow, which belongs to Light. What is made belongs to Light and to Desire.

I likened the emergence of Light to a manifestation of two brothers, knowing quite well that there are not two brothers, nor even one. But I saw that one is the embodiment of the desire to be, to express, and one (not saying "the other") is to be, to be. The latter is nonluminous, and the former, prevailing, is luminous. This prevailing luminous source can be visualized as becoming a wild dance of flame that settles and spends itself into material. Material, I believe, is spent Light.

Silence and Light. Silence is not very, very quiet. It is something that you may say is lightless, darkless. There are all invented words. Darkless--there is no such word. But why not? Lightless; darkless. Desire to be, to express. Some can say this is the ambient soul--if you go back beyond and think of something in which Light and Silence were together, and may be still together, and separate only for the convenience of argument.

by Louis Kahn

Material

Realization is Realization in Form, which means a nature. You realize that something has a certain nature. A school has a certain nature, and in making a school the consultation and approval of nature are absolutely necessary. In such a consultation you can discover the Order of water, the Order of wind, the Order of light, the Order of certain materials. If you think of brick, and you're consulting the Orders, you consider the nature of brick. You say to brick, "What do you want, brick?" Brick says to you, "I like an arch." If you say to brick, "Arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete linter over an opening. What do you think of that, brick?" Brick says, "I like an arch."

It is important that you honor the material you use. You don't bandy it about as though to say, "Well, we have a lot of material, we can do it one way, we can do it another way." It's not true. You must honor and glorify the brick instead of shortchanging it and giving it an inferior job to do in which it loses its character, as, for example, when you use it as infill material, which I have done and you have done. Using brick so makes it feel as though it is a servant, and brick is a beautiful material. It has done beautiful work in many places and still does. Brick is completely live material in areas that occupy three quarters of the world, where it is the only logical material to use. Concrete is a highly sophisticated material, not so available as you think.

You can have the same conversation with concrete, with paper or papier-mache, or with plastic, or marble, or any material. The beauty of what you create comes if you honor the material for what it really is. Never use it in a subsidiary way so as to make the material wait for the next person to come along and honor its character.

by Louis Kahn

Joy

Somehow joy was in every ingredients in our making.

When the world was an ooze, without any shape or direction,

there must have been this force of joy that prevailed everywhere

and that was reaching out to express.

And somehow the word joy became the most unmeasurable word.

It was the essence of creativity, the force of creativity.

I realize that if I were a painter about to paint a great catastrophe,

I could not put the first stroke on canvas without thinking of joy in doing it.

You cannot make a building unless you are joyously engaged.

by Louis Kahn