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TO QUOIN A FREIZE
“Frozen music” is the most popular but most misleading definition of
architecture around. It was coined by Von Schelling and typifies a 19th
century German romantic formalist view of architecture as sculptural art. It
was gently satirised in the 1950s by humourists Flanders and Swann as “music
is defrosted architecture”. Von Schelling’s definition ignores
architecture’s utiltarian functions. Nearer the mark and equally popular is
“Commodity, firmness and delight”, Sir Henry Wotton’s 17th century take on
Vitruvius, though it sounds disturbingly like a 60s bra advert. In other
words, buildings must stand up, give pleasure and, in today’s parlance, be
fit for purpose. The Greeks had a word for it, but did they? The only
relevant Ancient Greek word is “architect” or “master builder, so
“architecture” is simply that which is done by architects. Clearly a case
for the ARB to pronounce upon.It was not until the Victorians that definitions addressed the social and
political nature of architecture. For Ruskin it was “An art for all to learn
because all are concerned with it” and Morris saw it as “The moulding and
altering to human needs of the very face of the earth itself”. Participation
and eco housing no less.The modern movement masters provided their own definitions. Le Corbusier’s
was ”The masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together
in light”, a conveniently vague definition for an architect who would work
for any regime, however unsavoury, no doubt echoed by today’s starchitects
whose moral compasses are equally obscured. Mies’ portentous “The will of
the epoch translated into space” also leaves plenty of room for political
manoeuvring. Hitler,of course, more demolition contractor than architect,
understood that architecture was a political tool, “Stone documents, the
expression of the utility and power of the nation”.Today definitions seem to have gone out of fashion. Monumental architecture
during the profligate period from the 1990s to 2008 was more “commodities,
futures and deregulation” than Wotton’s sedate description. Or perhaps
“Frozen money” would be more apt.Our current era’s obsession is with energy conservation and retrofitting,
much loved both by politicians, who see it as a source of righteous
taxation, and architects who take it as a neo-functionalist opportunity to
wallow in alternative technology. The best definition for this must be Ian
Martin’s ironic “Architecture is frozen carbon”. Praise the Lord and pass
the microwave.
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