Architects watch movies (8): Seeing the tranquility and brightness of Kang: My architect: the journey of a son

You ask the brick, "What do you want to be?"

The brick said, "I want to be an arch."

You said,' Arch is very expensive. I can replace you with concrete structure. What do you think?'

The brick said,' I still want to be an arch.' "

It's been a long time since I sat in front of the computer so patiently and absorbed in watching a movie, and I haven't spent a long time recalling the details in the movie, eager to write something down. For these reasons, I think I need to sit down quietly again and seriously "talk about my thoughts".

[About movies]

As the title "My Architect: A Son's Journey" reveals, this is a son's journey to find his father. If we put aside all the real environment, I think this theme can also be made into a touching film about regression, introspection, tolerance and forgiveness. The son is an illegitimate child. He got his father's approval, but it was not made public. When he was born, his father was sixty-two years old, but he died at the age of eleven. In these short eleven years, he and his father have only few memories. My father occasionally visits him and his mother and tells him bedtime stories, like all fathers, but such a warm scene is rare. There is always a feeling of being forgotten, neglected or even abandoned in my heart, and I can't let it go. So when he was in his thirties and forties, he decided to find his father, get to know him and find the answer for himself. And this journey gave us a profound architectural course, because his father was not an ordinary person, but-Louis? Kang ()

[About Louis? Kang]

Before that, I knew little about Kang, far less than Cobb and Wright. Knowing that Kang was doing the homework of "Analysis of Master Works" in Grade Two, a girl in the class chose Kang's "Fisherman's House". She said, "I especially like Louis? Kang's building. " I know this, that is, I know. I still pay little attention to Kang's works. Except this fisherman's home, others probably saw it and didn't remember it carefully. It's just that when people talk about Kang, they can think: Well, I know this person is also a master.

Kang was born into a Jewish family in Estonia. At the age of three, he immigrated to Philadelphia with his parents, a city he called "a little boy can find a lifelong career". When he was in high school, he accidentally took an architecture class. Because of this class, he decided to take architecture as his lifelong pursuit. "I realized that only architecture is life." But this road didn't go smoothly, and he never found his own direction. It was not until 195 1 that he visited a series of ancient countries, such as Egypt and Rome, that he finally made clear his direction: to design modern buildings, but to have the feeling and style of historic sites. By this time, he was in his fifties.

Kang is a poet and philosopher in architecture. He loves "quietness" and "light" and pursues eternal expression in architecture from simplicity. In the film, with the Jin Beier Art Museum as the background, Kang said: "Art works are not creatures, and they can't walk or run, but the control of light can give all the fluidity to art works, illuminate the magic of human fingers, the magic of mind and the magic of technology. How real and beyond it is."

But Kang is as simple, paranoid and unsociable as many artists who persistently pursue art and are loyal to their own ideas. He always works day and night. No matter other people in the studio can't stand this life, he will call his partner at three in the morning and shout, "That model you made sucks!" " "Hang up right away. I have to say that it is the tolerance of the host, companions and family that has made Kang. Kang is lonely, so he is always on the road. He is the kind of person who will pack up and travel at any time and suddenly appear in front of you one day. A few days later, he was found dead in the toilet of Pennsylvania Railway Station. A friend said: "Although it is a tragedy to die in the railway station, it is very consistent with his life ... He is a nomadic people at heart. "When people found Kang, they found that the address on his passport had been erased. He has three families, but he doesn't know where his home is.

[About family]

"Kang likes women," said an old friend, but his attitude towards women was criticized by many people. He has three women. The first one is his wife who has been with him all his life and has a daughter. He gave birth to a child to the last two women, but he didn't marry them. The three families were not far apart, and they didn't meet for the first time until Kang's funeral.

It can be said that Kang is the kind of man who is immersed in his career. His neglect of the three families was almost the same, and all three women gave full understanding and tolerance, which surprised me. The first person interviewed, Ann Ding, Kang's second woman, is also an architect. In that era when single mother was a great shame, she was pregnant with Kang's child. When Kang learned this, he said something nonsense: You should relax from a "philosophical point of view". The elderly Ann talked about it in distress situation. "This means that I must be very philosophical for the rest of my life." She hid in Rome alone, gave birth to a daughter, and then returned to Philadelphia to design a shower room project with Kang, which Kang called "discovering herself". The second person interviewed, the seeker's biological mother, a landscape architect, will feel embarrassed when talking about the past. She participated in the design of Jin Beier together with Kang, and because of her relationship with Kang, she was sometimes locked in the studio to work alone, and later the inauguration ceremony was not invited because of Kang's wife's obstruction. But recalling these, the old man still said with tears in his eyes, "... this is the price I have to pay ... I think it is worth it ..." Kang's wife died before filming, leaving only an interview video, in which she told their lives. In fact, this family has always been supported by her, because Kang didn't often take over the project until his death, and she also took hundreds of thousands of debts for him. What comes to mind is an old saying in the "Sanctification": a good wife is less harmful. It should be said that this master can achieve the highest achievement, besides his own talent and hard work, the support and tolerance of these three women behind him can not be ignored.

[About architecture]

? Such a trip, naturally, can't help but mention architecture, because my previous neglect of Kang has become my "remedial journey". Kang's architecture is my favorite, modern and industrialized, but it gives people a classical sense of silence. At Salk Institute, his most satisfying work is that in his famous square of flowing water, a canal stretches into the distance like the central axis, with neat rows of buildings on both sides. The whole square has no green space and no trees, but it is like a pilgrimage site for ascetic monks. When I was watching a movie, I looked through my notes on architectural history, looking for Kang's works that might flash by, but this time I strongly felt that when you see the real building, its three-dimensional image and the people inside, you can really appreciate the building. For example, in the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India, when I saw the Indian architect Dorsey who was assisting in the design at that time sitting in Louis? When I talked about this design and Kang in Kang Square, this group of buildings really appeared in my mind, otherwise it would only stay in the simple lines in my notebook: Dorsey 1962~ 1974, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India. I don't know why the textbook didn't even mention Kang's name when it mentioned this design. Only by walking into the National Convention and Exhibition Center in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, can we appreciate the respect of Bangladeshi civilians for Kang, and understand why Bangladeshi architect Wells, who participated in the design, said so excitedly, "It is almost impossible to have such a building in a country like ours ... Since we invited him, he felt it his responsibility to be the Moses here ... On the surface, he gave us this temple, but in essence, he gave us democracy. This is where we started to improve ... "The Jerusalem synagogue, which failed to be put into practice, is probably Kang's greatest regret. As a Jew, he didn't design a great Jewish building for his country. As a master who pursues perfection, this is a great regret in life.

[others]

What excites me at the beginning of the movie is to see Philip alive? Johnson, seeing him coming out of his famous glass box to say hello and chat with you, and then seeing smiling I.M. Pei, wanted to say that Mr. Bei looked almost like a foreigner when he was old. Later, he saw Gary in his studio. It is really exciting to see such a real master at once. To me, these people are just stiff names in the book. I also watched the video of Kang's lecture at Penn State University, and the most impressive paragraph was:

"If you want something to have the value of existence, you must consult nature before you start designing.

Take bricks for example.

You ask the brick, "What do you want to be?"

The brick said, "I want to be an arch."

You said,' Arch is very expensive. I can replace you with concrete structure. What do you think?'

The brick said,' I still want to be an arch.' "

All the students laughed, and Kang went on to say, "It is very important to respect the materials you use. You should know what the material wants to be. We must respect bricks, let bricks play the greatest role, and can't let bricks be wronged. "

[Conclusion]

A movie that touched me very much, there are many words in it, so I can't repeat them because I can't remember the original words clearly. There is a sense of responsibility and mission of architects, not only for the society, but also for their own ideals.

Yesterday, I just read an article written by Mr. Lu Yikang about "Order is". I like Kang's summary at the end of his article and draw a conclusion:

"So, in addition to Kang's three human desires: thirst for knowledge, desire for convergence and desire for health, I'm afraid there is also a desire to be alone.

Because in solitude, people can stay away from the public and drown in the quiet darkness.

Immersed in non-light, external feelings can be illuminated by quiet and bright order.

It is not in the dark that inner thinking can reach the real starting point of reality and be measured.

"No light" and "No darkness" are different interpretations of "silence" by Kang.

Separate, just for the convenience of speculation. "

Some opinions and statements in this paper are quoted from the Internet.