Natura September - October 2013 | Page 59

Patlamış perspektif / Exploded perspective 1- Kapalı yüzme havuzu / Natatorium 2- Spor salonu / Gymnasium 3- Kültür Merkezi / Cultural center 4- Sinema / Cinema these strategies, in an atmosphere where clients are more interested in appearance and speed then functionality and sustainability, architects in China with a more substantive approach have resorted to other more subtle strategies. One of these is the pragmatic separation of architectural form from context and program. In China where form and construction are driving project development the issue of what and where buildings are built, has become secondary resulting in a flexible mix and match approach to architectural form. The forms of a hospital can be applied to a bus terminal; a design for a hotel can be transformed into a school. The use and reuse of architectural forms in a repetitive way from one project to another allows for architects to rapidly recombine a set of formal architectural modules. In this way the architect’s language, while perhaps limited, is articulated in a clear way. Each project while resembling the one before, still retains the architect’s signature. This repetition of form becomes more meaningful when the architect ties these forms to a set of material and architectonic strategies. The application of materiality and expressive structure gives the architecture the clarity required of substantive architecture while still allowing for the repetition required for rapid design and construction cycles. In this approach, while the overall architectural strategy is still largely divorced from program and context, this repetition combined with materiality and structure has the advantage of providing both the architect and builders certain efficiencies. The architect works with a reduced palette sacrificing long-term experimentation with a larger variety of architectural strategies. The builder EYLÜL - EKİM 2013 / SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2013 • NATURA 59