Architecture and Surface
I n the city one is surrounded by multiple layers of architectural surfaces which both serve our interests and sustain them. Perhaps it is inevitable that we are captured by the arresting surfaces in the city, those of the immaculate, the polished, and the jolly. Our impression of the city is often shaped by its constructed face, the manifold, inviting aspects of frontal façades. Yet, along with the smart and healthy surfaces, we also notice the extra-ordinary images of the seemingly accidental, sick, dumb, morose, and uninviting surfaces, often tucked behind, beside, beneath or beyond the immaculate façades. Though the city consists of aggregated bodies of architecture, it ialso includes the in-between where space is conditioned by what is unused, unoccupied and at times, unwanted. While the areas enclosed by frontal facades easily become glorified public spaces — a kind of beautiful display, the in-between spaces of the dismal surfaces can be seen as a special kind of setting, a different kind of exterior room. Within these hidden passages and the unreachable spaces, one discovers spatial and surface patterns without which the city fabric would be crippled. While the beautiful and carefully designed façades sustain the interests of the city spectators, the hidden surfaces of the areas in-between serve the interest of those who dwell within the city. Both the glossy and the gloomy surfaces should always be seen as integrated Their continuity, differences, moments of transformation and disruption, all represent more than skin-deep details. They represent the way the city is being used and occupied. Without the differences between the carefully-maintained frontal façades and the beaten-up surfaces, the city itself becomes inarticulate.
In the city. How are we surfaced? Tonkao Panin
It is the relationship between the ensembles of architectural surfaces that lend materiality to the city’s boundaries.
Born: France Registered architect:Thailand
Current research: Architecture in Vienna: the dialectic between the concepts of space and surface.
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O n S ite review
S urface
I ssue 9 2003
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