AGING GRACEFULLY : EFFECTS OF TIME, GROWTH AND CHANGE IN ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

Architecture attempts to persist in time. Yet it does not. Buildings are aimed towards a perfection of finish at the completion of construction, only to attempt to resist the effects of aging as it gradually grows less perfect over time. The unquestioned preference for the pristine and unblemished dissociates us from reality and fosters a high consumption and high maintenance building environment. If we are to truly embrace this age of sustainability, we need to venture back to nature, to reconnect with reality, and relook at this common understanding that ‘new’ is better and ‘old’ is always undesirable. Striving towards a perfection of image prevents us from seeing a more profound truth, a greater beauty to be found in the tinge of age of time-matured aesthetics. Thus how can a building grow gracefully? How can it adapt to the time-imposed transformations caused by climate and user? In a critique against the finite and pretentious nature of Modernist architecture that dominates the developing cities of Asia, this dissertation argues for a return to the principles of vernacular architecture. This dissertation hypothesizes that vernacular architecture succeeds where modern architecture fails in the engagement with the domain of time, because it is unpretentious and user-oriented, and therefore adaptable through time and various uses.