Re-Valuing Profi le / For When Shape Falls Flat

MUCH ATTENTION OF LATE HAS DRIVEN THE RETINAL READING OF A BUILDING’S OVERALL SILHOUETTE FROM A SPECIFIC VANTAGE AS A MEANS OF EMBEDDING OVERALL COMMUNICATIVE IDENTITY THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL FORM. RECENT DISCOURSE SURROUNDING THE PROJECT OF “SHAPE” SPECIFICALLY BUILDS ON THE 1972 DILEMMA RAISED IN THE CANONICAL TEXT OF LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS, IN WHICH ROBERT VENTURI AND DENISE SCOTT BROWN ESTABLISH TWO MEANS OF COMMUNICATION WITHIN ARCHITECTURAL FORM, DECORATION AND FIGURATION. WHILE THE FORMER PARADIGM ESTABLISHES COMMUNICATION THROUGH A PROCEDURE OF APPLIED ASSOCIATION TO GENERIC ARCHITECTURAL TYPES, THE LATTER COULD BE DESCRIBED AS A MANIPULATION OF THE BUILDING’S OVERALL WHOLE IN CREATING AN ‘OBJECT TO BE READ.’¹ SUCH A FORMAL OBJECT-READING RELIES ON RECOGNITION OF THE BUILT OBJECT IN TERMS OF A DISTINCT AND OFTEN FAMILIAR OUTLINE EMERGING FROM A GESTALT SILHOUETTE OF THE BUILDING’S GEOMETRY. SINCE 1972, THE FIGURATIVE HAS SPAWNED COUNTLESS SUB-PROJECTS IN ARCHITECTURAL FORMAL DISCUSSION CENTERED AROUND THE LEGIBILITY OF A BUILDING’S WHOLE, UTILIZING PROFILE AS THE CENTERPIECE FOR THE GENERATION OF COMMUNICATIVE CONTENT. THIS PAPER WILL EXPLORE ARCHITECTURE’S PAST, CONSIDERING THE POSSIBLE USE OF PROFILE A S A STRATEGY FOR COMMUNICATION AT THE SCALE OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PART IN LIEU OF THE WHOLE.

Volume Editors
Jasmine Benyamin, Kyle Reynolds, Mo Zell, Nikole Bouchard & Whitney Moon

ISBN
978-1-944214-28-9