Ruin cities : sources of nostalgia, consolation, revenge, tectonic landscape and inspiration

Abstract

Ruin cities haunt our imagination and arouse our curiosity for a number of reasons. Those features in them that interest an artist are the characteristic of timelessness that they accrue over the years. Furthermore, they serve as inspiration for creative works. Composers like Felix Mendelssohn and Jean Sibelius, artists like Giambattista Piranesi and Giorgio De Chirico, and architects like Aldo Rossi, Alvar Alto and Giorgio Grassi come to mind. By making reference to the notion of the sublime, this paper will consider selected instances where ruin cities served as touchstones of creativity. In architecture, motifs from ruins are not simply transferred to the new design but also transmuted, where in art and music these processes occur implicitly through a change of medium. While the creative processes in art, music and architecture are analogous, it is not easy to establish common ground among them. In architecture it is less difficult to grasp these processes than other fields because we are dealing with tangible aspects like monumentality, structure, texture and fabric. Indeed, monumentality, structure and texture can equally be used in musical appraisals and architecture. In the works of architecture we explore the inventiveness that comes about as a result of architects using ruin cities as analogues. Needless to say all inventions are inventive derivations, a fact that is of relevance to the practice and pedagogy in creative fields. We hope our study will therefore shed light on the analogical procedures involved in selected creative fields.

Bouvallige stede prikkel ons nuuskierigheid vir n aantal redes. Die onvoltooide aard van ruïnes in sulke stede stel hulle in staat om n glorieryke verlede op te roep en hartseer uit te straal. Hierdie kenmerke, naamlik tydloosheid, onvolledigheid en melankolie het juis sommige musici, kunstenaars en argitekte geinspereer. Werke van komponiste soos Felix Mendelssohn en Jean Sibelius, kunstenaars soos Giambattista Piranesi en Giorgio De Chirico en argitekte soos Aldo Rossi, Alvar Aalto en Giorgio Grassi kom by n mens op. Dit is egter nie net die produkte van hierdie kreatiewe persoonlikhede wat van belang is nie, maar ook die proses waardeur hulle inspirasie van ruïnes in bouvallige stede verkry het. Deur te verwys na die idee van die verhewe, word gevalle waar sulke ruïnes as bronne van kreatiwiteit gedien het, hieronder ondersoek. Motiewe van ruïnes in argitektuur, word nie bloot oorgedra na nuwe ontwerpe nie, maar word oorgedra en onwikkel of verander. Dit is anders as in die geval van musiek en kuns waar hierdie prosesse natuurlik plaasvind weens veranderde medium. Terwyl kreatiewe prosesse in musiek, kuns en argitektuur analoog is, is dit nie maklik om n gemenedeler te vind nie. Dit is in argitektuur makliker om hierdie prosesse te verstaan omdat mens met tasbare aspekte soos struktuur en tekstuur omgaan. In die argitektoniese werke wat hieronder bespreek word, ondersoek ons vindingrykheid. Dit is na alles die vindingryke afleidings wat relevant is vir die pedagogiek in enige kreatiewe veld.