Note. When the text of Aesthetics of built form was submitted as part of a PhD thesis in 1996, the Notes were greatly extended. As the reader may prefer to ignore them, they have been collected into separate web pages of which this is one. They are a mixture of: simple page references; additional examples or quotations to justify generalisations; and some afterthoughts.
[9.1] This assumes cost can be estimated with reasonable accuracy. See Holgate (1986a) TAISD, Chapter 4 (pp. 47-9) for some problems of measurement.
[9.2] Aesthetics adds between five and seven per cent to capital cost.
Private communications including Fritz Leonhardt and Jörg Schlaich.
The Moseltalbrücke in Germany.
Sources: Civil Engineering - ASCE April 1975, pp.60-64; and Linse,A. and Wössner,K. Kochertalbrücke - Entwürfe einer Grossbrücke. Bauingenieur v.53 (12) (Dec. 1978), pp.453-63.
[9.3] Organisation of aesthetic input into bridge design and responsibility for finance.
At the time of writing I quoted the report of the Tay Road Bridge Joint Board (1966), Allan (1976), Murray (1981), and Ministry of Transport (UK) (1964) to represent British interest in this field. The last is a guide which includes the recommendations of the Royal Fine Arts Commission, a body which was conventionally invited to comment on the aesthetic qualities of major bridge designs. US practice was represented by the design of a Colorado highway bridge reported in Engineering News Record, 5 Jan. 1978, p.15 and Elliott (1983), Silver and Bell (1976), and Zuk (1975). German concern for bridge aesthetics is exemplified by Leonhardt (1982).
[9.4] Munce on question of identity in relation to the British mining industry. Munce (1960), pp.205-6.
[9.5] … a careful consideration of visual impact is often necessary in order to ensure that a structure gains the approval of the planning authorities.
See e.g. the design of the Tyne Metro reported in Civil Engineering (UK) Nov. 1977, pp. 31-5, the design of an electrostatic particle accelerator tower on a prominent ridge (New Civil Engineer, 5 May 1977, pp. 24-5), and the design of the Hull Tidal Surge Barrier (Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers, Aug. 1980, pp. 417-54 and discussion, Aug. 1981, pp. 581-91).
[9.6] Ove Arup on "aesthetic accountancy": Arup (1969), p.7, col.2.
[9.7] The sort of trade-offs that are made between visual effect and structural logic are illustrated by the difference in appearance between two suspended roof structures, the Swimming Pool at Wuppertal (see der Bauingenieur 9/1957 p.344, or Deutsche Bauzeitung 10/1957 p.1189), and the Terminal Building at Washington International Airport (see Howard 1966, pp. 234-69). In the airport terminal, the roof has been given a literally rakish aspect by making one side higher than the other. The way in which the roof hangs from the columns is dramatised by making the supports poke through the roof and then turn over to pick up the cable. It could be argued that this detail is fussy and silly in terms of force transmission, but it contributes to the general air of lightness and draws attention to the nature of the structural action. In contrast the swimming pool roof seems sober, despite its innovative form. The structure is balanced, and although the load-bearing system is obvious, at least to an engineer, it is not emphasised other than by the line of the catenary on the end walls, whose logic is clouded by the vertical joints. Thus the swimming pool scores higher on true structural logic and economy, while the air terminal scores higher on aesthetic impact. To be fair, the designers of the swimming pool were presumably working within constraints not present at Washington. The budget was probably much tighter, and the need for seating of spectators would make it impossible to achieve the transparent lightness of the airport building, whose top storey houses nothing more than counters and booths. (The usual photograph is taken at the level of the elevated approach road and gives the impression of a single-storey building at ground level.) The engineer reader may be protesting at this stage that the dramatic effects at the Dulles airport terminal have no worth in comparison to structural logic: that it is much better to have the satisfaction of doing a good honest job, as at Wuppertal, than to have played the fool as at Dulles. Most architects would disagree. Such differences of opinion are inevitable, and the point of aesthetic debate is not to establish 'the truth', but to try to establish the validity of one's own position, at the risk of being seduced by the opponent's position.
[9.8] Quotation: "The work of the Engineer, pure in its origins …"
This is an unsigned caption in Cahiers d'Art, Paris, 1926, No.5, p.114, cited by Banham (1960), p.251.
[9.9] Le Corbusier quotation: "Shall we see engineers …"
I used the quotation provided by Banham (1960), p.252. This follows the wording of Etchells's English translation of Le Corbusier's Urbanisme (Le Corbusier 1971, pp.57-8). However, Etchells has 'mere reason' in place of 'pure reason'.
Corbusier's argument that [engineers] lack passion.
This was also based on Banham's treatment (Banham 1960, p.252). The word 'passion' appears on p.56 of Etchells's translation (Le Corbusier 1971) in conjunction with 'taste' and 'sensibility'.
[9.10] Klaus Ostenfeld quotations. Civil Engineering - ASCE (1976), p.54.
[9.11] Interdisciplinary organisations. A brief review and a number of references are to be found in Holgate (1986a), TAISD, Chapter 8, pp.105-7.
[9.12] Potential for a more robust form of beauty.
This theme has been developed at greater length in Holgate (1986b) and Holgate (1987b).
[9.13] In my original caption I described the lateral portal frames as a later addition. This was based on an unrecorded verbal source. The truth is more complex. Portal frames were provided from the start, but consisted of vertical posts carrying a circular arch of trussed metal construction. (An example is preserved in the middle of a roundabout in the township.) These were replaced by rectangular portal frames in 1979 (see Fredericks B. R. et al, Echuca Bridge footway and lattice arches. pp.59-65 in Multi-disciplinary Engineering Transactions, Australia. Vol. GE17, No.2, Dec. 1993, pp. 63-4.) The new rail bridge is reported in Constructional Review (Australia), August 1989, pp.51-59.
[9.14] Readers will have their own preferences. The flying buttresses of a Gothic cathedral are a good example, although some knowledge is required to understand their function. They are best viewed from the ground and are not well revealed in Fig. 4.1. Other suggestions are [AOBF] Figs 1.3, 3.24, 3.25, 4.14, 4.17, 4.21, and 8.1.
[9.15] … the sort of 'inadvertent symbolism' of which Charles Jencks has provided so many examples.
See Jencks (1984), especially pp. 39-50 and particularly p.50: "Surprisingly, many modern architects deny this most potent metaphorical level of meaning … Instead they concentrate on the supposedly rational aspects of design - the cost and function as they narrowly define them. The result is that their inadvertent metaphors take metaphorical revenge and kick them in the behind …"
[9.16] Hidden structural action.
In certain cases, such as the space truss, the 'instinct' even of the engineer is liable to prove untrustworthy. See Medwadowski's example of a church roof at Berkeley (Medwadowski 1983, Fig. 28, p.13). See also recent developments in retaining wall construction. The traditional buttressed wall, often used even in reinforced concrete construction, expresses its structural action reasonably clearly, though the rearward portion of the base slab is concealed. However, the vertically-cantilevered retaining wall is now being superseded by systems such as reinforced earth, grids, and sheet piling. (Construction Moderne (1985) March, p.10.)
Torroja (1958a) discusses this question at length in his Chapter 17. See particularly p.276 where he notes that while we would not want to deceive, we would not want to go to the opposite extreme of painting the line of the reinforcement on the side of a reinforced concrete beam.
[9.17] Scott on spires: (1924), p.103.
Scott notes, "in so far as they are vivid …" (1924), p.109.
[9.18] Scott on the dome of St. Peter's, Rome: Scott (1924), p.112.
Scott quotation "The sweep of the lines of Michael Angelo's dome …" (1924), p.116.
Scott's arguments concerning the perception of structural action are developed in pp. 103-6 of his book. Discussion continues to p.119.
[9.19] Potential difficulties in co-operation between engineer and architect …
See Arup's statement quoted on p.86 of TAISD (Chapter 7) to the effect that the architect is an artist and therefore considers it normal to be leader of the design team in order to produce an artistically coherent artifact. See also the comments of Bill Glass of Bechtel Inc, San Francisco, quoted in Shellenbarger (1979, p.51). "From what I understand, the work on power plants is pretty much engineering and the architects are there to put facades on power plants and that sort of thing."
For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, most bridges were designed by engineers to a minimum-cost criterion and 'prettied up' by complaisant architects. In recent decades, a move away from design by public-service engineers and towards design by competition has led to architects taking a leading role. The result has been more expensive - though more visually exciting - bridges. In some cases the illogicality of their structural action has caused distress to observers who have a strong engineer's aesthetic.
[9.20] Jörg Schlaich … structural engineers are at least fifty years old before they have sufficient command of their art to be really creative.
Personal communication.
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