Methodology - cont'd

Steven Holl








In his book, Intertwining, Holl presents architecture as a symbolic or metaphorical hermeneutical concept that comes from poeticizing phenomena rooted in human experience. Everyday perception and the pleasure of living are what constitute our metaphorical experience of the world. In practice, Holl employs the natural phenomenon of light as one medium for conveying or inducing metaphorical experience into his work.

Holl uses the term “enmeshing” as a merging of object and field, where the resultant is an architectural experience. This experience is an interaction that is part of a shifting foreground, middle ground and background – part of a shifting context and necessary to continue experience and discovery. Space is defined in terms of perspectival or parallax – that the shifting movement between objects makes for a visually tectonic landscape.

Holl’s phenomenological architecture calls for overt mass and the perception of its gravity as a tectonic. The weight of low, thick walls conveys power. Expression of mass and material, within their tectonic properties, is dynamic in contrast to what is lightweight. Parti, form and geometry are not fixed by meaning. Individual constructs are as much a part of themselves, as they are in relation to the whole. As an abstract, no geometry is inferior or superior to another, the idea that drives the architecture is inherent in the whole expression.

But, architecture transcends geometry; it is a link between concept and form. For Holl, meaning is a fusion of site, its phenomena and idea. Architecture can be an expressive gesture, but also carries with it, responsibility for ontological mapping. Concepts define a field of inquiry and that investigation helps form meaning. “…the idea is the force that drives the design. The field of inquiry sets the focus and the limit and the rigor of the work.”[i]

Holl’s closing statement is one of optimism;

“Architecture must remain experimental and open to new ideas and aspirations. In the face of tremendous conservative forces that constantly push it towards the already proven, already built, and already thought, architecture must explore the not-yet felt. Only in an aspiring mode can the visions of our lives be concretized and the joy shared with future generations.”

Holl’s writings support the notion that meaning is a fusion of site and idea, and that object and field are in shifting dialogue with each other. Architecture is composed as a canvas or frame over which the landscape can be imprinted for view. Movement is associated with a changing context, and thus changing experience.



[i] Holl, Steven. Intertwinning. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. pg. 15.