Have you ever pondered upon the fact that a random person created a style and it got a huge clout which made that style into a statement making it a standard to follow?
Be it in art or architectural creative fields, we often learn about certain styles and it's elements, subconsciously knowing the fact that a person made these style's rules out of their mere imagination and we all follow them by heart. The adaptation of style makes it famous and brings in a era dedicated to that particular phenomenon. For example le Corbusier laid the rules of modernism and we till date follow it. so were the rules of traditional architecture which a person in past must have thought of and bought it into reality. People of present preach the architectural styles of past and call it as their traditional style.
The debate
We often get entangled into a furious debate about the preferences of styles in creative fields. Some may incline towards their traditional way of building and some might go with the trend considering it cool. But a hot topic on debate occurs often is -
Is modernism stealing the individuality of cultures?
A big question, as many people consider modernism getting the major acceptance is killing the individuality of styles of traditional architecture of different cultures.
Each and every cultures has specific styles of architecture dedicated to their values and artistic preferences. It is usually derived directly from local settings which are site specific and in hue with social and cultural context.
For example the intricate gothic, neo classical, Islamic, Indian etc carvings and details. Some architectural details showcases the history through sculptures. Some traditional works of architecture comprises of pitched roof with steel bars on the wall and the list goes on.
The cultural value this style of architecture holds surely represents the individuality based on socio- economical aspects. As people truly believed in putting so more to the design which is still appreciated and accepted.
Traditional styles encompasses certain relevance to the past of the related culture. Since the modern architecture which has same rules worldwide has been hot subject of the era and has bought new style but this style being super simplistic, classy and slick has anyway took over the unique styles of construction and design of each cultures as people are evolving into modern era of glass and concrete leaving the old artistic style to be far away. As people now just find these styles in historic buildings and rarely into regular buildings.
Which has bought this question as modernism stealing the individuality of cultures.
But on the other hand if we donot evolve into new set of styles and use our mind into creating something new then what is the point of human brain's million of years of evolution?
Aren't we supposed to grow and build something new which our future generation will call old style and create something extraordinary and feasible design which will top our style and thus letting the chain continue.
Modernism generally include simplistic curves lines and angles which focuses on the structural elements and it's purity. The traditional decorations, elements and history telling sculptures are all eliminated in modernism.
The sleekness is on trend not just exterior but interior is much more appreciated when it's all modern be it any restaurant or residence, People are picking this specific style.
Modernism got plenty of colours popping and basically the lines and angles remain simplistic. It is widely accepted and appreciated.
But this style comes up with monotony.
The monotonous High rise
We mostly witness the structures these days to be of metal, glass and concrete façade as these three are the prominent face of exterior of any high rise.
Since high rise are constructed for vertical inhabitation of people on smaller portion of land and there are uncountable usages of high rise building but considering the fact that rarely any high rise building are set apart in appearance is true. The monotonous look of most of the buildings is bitter truth of today's modernism. Idolising a single look and makeing multiple copies of that will only bring in boring structures all around.
Wonder if all the cultures accepted just one style and just stop experimenting with it like it happens today mostly then how boring our cultural values must be now. That goodness that people from past were well rooted in design values and considered it as an important aspect of their lives.
Keeping a foot in almost any public space like mall etc feels like they are usually simplistic and basic more look alike. There are only handful of structures in any city which are truly set apart. Sadly people donot consider going out of limit maybe constraint to time or money but still creating similar structures is go to new reality.
I had a first hand experience with this reality. Actually modernism can be very specific and creative considering how creative and in depth you are ready to go for the design but people {In my case the project seniors and client} didn't had that zest of creating out of the box but under modernism and they went with the similar design as most of the building follows.
Thus bringing in the point of discussion i.e. -Is modernism stealing the individuality of cultures?
The Partial Solution
The solution is very simple, I believe modern is equality important as traditional architecture. But in order to restore the individuality which clearly modern architecture lacks, People needs to be more concerned and sensitive towards design, conceptuality and not just functionality.
Understanding, evolving and adding in their two cents of ideas would be beneficial as it will bring rise to much creative, individual and unique designs which will not be monotonous and will possess some quality and will be known for decades by it's cultural roots and not just same glass façade.
To be honest this is quite hard to follow since most of people are not concerned for design and as long as this attitude of most of the society doesn't change, It will be hard to break the chain of monotony.
What are your two cents on this subject? let's discuss some solution to the problem of modernism stealing the individuality of cultures.
