Weighing the Words, Reading Architecture Ella Chmielewska andAliki Economides
Considering weight as architectural significance we ask: How does architecture convey its weight in a particular context? We consider two important sites in cities that we know intimately. But before attempting to read the buildings, we propose to weigh the words and see how their particular meanings may inform our contextual reading.
l anguage is a constant of human culture; it is our first carrier of col - lective meaning. It is also dynamic, resonating differently in different cultural-linguistic contexts. 1 In English, in addition to denoting quantity, weight implies a burden and the actions of carrying, lifting, holding up. There are connotations of comparing, measuring, and assessing, which imply deliberation and assigning value. Thus in the spatial characteristics of the word, we find a verticality, both in terms of gravitational force and as a vertical axis serving as the basis for comparison and measure. In Polish, weight and importance are conjoined in the word waga , which means a balance, a scale, as well as being the root of several noble terms such as bravery ( odwaga ) and solemnity ( powaga ). In this context, the word weight contains two directional attributes: verticality (connot- ing gravity and anchoring) and horizontality (the lateral, communicative quality expressing value and relation). The words importance and weight, then, differ in their communicative dimensions in different languages, and indeed in their implicit spatiality. In relation to architectural meaning, no matter what the language, to consider weight as only vertical (i.e., as simply the opposite of lightness) limits the richness of possible readings. We take weight, here, as both importance and gravity. We look at two important civic buildings, the Toronto City Hall and the Warsaw Justice Building, both created during an optimistic epoch in the development of each city: the post-war building boom and metropolitanisation of the city of Toronto, and the post-communist institutional re-building of Warsaw.
In both cases designs were chosen through a competition process. An open, international competition in 1958 for the new Toronto City Hall generated over 500 submissions from architects in 42 countries. 2 The closed competition for the Justice Building in Warsaw was organised by the Association for Polish Architects (SARP) in 1991 with only a few local architects invited to participate. 3 In both competitions, the symbolic dimensions of the buildings and their expression of democratic ideals were of paramount important. The new Toronto City Hall with its public square was complete by 1965 and heralded as the city’s most important landmark; one that ‘transformed the image of the city’ and offered itself as both ‘a symbolic object and a highly successful civic square.’ The design of Finnish archi- tect Viljo Revell was praised for its ability to communicate twentieth century notions of progress, as well as for forming a strong identity with neighbouring civic buildings. The winning scheme was not only ‘bold’ and ‘fresh’, but its image and form obediently espoused ‘a modern vocabulary.’ 4 The City Hall has a strong vertical presence and is a focal point of the city. The connection with the community, however, is through its connection to the Civic Square, which metaphorically receives the lateral spread of the building’s weight.As a well-used public space, the square manifests the literal meaning of the city’s aboriginal name: toronto , place of meeting.
City Hall,Toronto.
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O n S ite review
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I ssue 10 2003
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