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  • The Crystal Palace was probably the first exhibition hall of

    2018-11-06

    The Crystal Palace was probably the first exhibition hall of functionalism that utilized the technological advancement of Bleomycin Sulfate iron and glass for its building materials and light structural frames for its construction. Banham (1974) praised Paxton\'s Crystal Palace for its functional design of regular rhythm that measures and controls the pieces of infinite space. In contrast to Galleria Victoria Emmanuelle II, built in 1877 and designed by Guiseppe Mengoni, the Crystal Palace is made of purely industrial materials and structural design that show the awareness of technological contemporariness. As a masterpiece of the 19th century exhibition hall, the Crystal Palace has successfully integrated the natural and man-made environment into a functional building; its ingenuity for environmental control of air circulations and daylight penetration is exemplary for green building design. Unsurprisingly, David Gissen puts it correctly that the design of Crystal Palace falls into a big and green sustainable building (Gissen, 2002: 11). Banham\'s position on architecture is probably well represented in his “Theory and design in the first Machine Age” that unveils the rigorous nobility of functionalism. In this respect, Banham realized the unfinished project of modernism in fulfilling machine aesthetics and functionalism in the mid 20th century. Indeed, the technologically driven innovations inspire many architects to make architecture with the mode of mass-production. Technological rationalization for building design, construction, and building materials have led many modern designers to produce repetitive and dull forms. However, it does not mean that the social agenda of modernism for egalitarian and democratic design has ended. As a matter of fact, technological innovations for modernism are just the tool of architectural production. It is considerably the part of the solution for social injustice and inequality of the right for having home. Dumb and boring modern buildings are seemingly not the consequence of its functionalism, but simply the side effect of the modern mode of rational production. It is the reason why Banham still believed in and celebrated technological innovations with its unstoppable drive to continuously increasing transformation (Sennott, 2001: 107). In dealing with the question of beauty, a great architecture for Banham has been “conceptual” and has been “image making” (Banham and Banham, 1996: 13). Structure, function, and form are not simply to be integrated in its whole composition, but it is necessarily conceptual in its content. A conceptual design in Banham\'s mind is neither about proportion and symmetry nor about architecturally governing principles for the unity of form and function, in terms of Platonic geometry. For this matter, Banham speaks of a conceptual design in terms of functionalism either with formal or “aformal” design solution (Banham, 1999: 14). In fact, a conceptual design can be achieved through asymmetry and free form. Design with freedom is probably the key to finding delicate interconnection between elements, factors, and resources. In other words, Banham endorses creative technology for this search, instead of being firm within a certain school of design.
    Concluding remarks
    Introduction
    Analysis
    Conclusion
    Introduction Over the past 50 years, complexity has been regarded as a metaphor that boosts the argument on the issues of cities. Many informal descriptions of complex systems related to the concept of self-organization and evolution exist, including, “highly structured system which shows the structure with variations” (Goldenfeld and Kadanoff), “systems in process that constantly evolve and unfold over time” (Author, 1999) or “the system featuring a large number of interacting components whose aggregate activity is nonlinear and typically exhibits hierarchical self-organization under selective pressure (Rocha, 1999). Self-organization is the centrality of the theory of complex system that provides common language, and conceptual and methodological framework in studying cities and urbanism (Portugali, 1999). The complex system is characterized by its unpredictable outcomes. None of the traditional analyzing methods can predict the behavior of a complex system because of its unpredictable outcomes. Simulation is the only option (Batty, 2004). This paper attempts to simulate the spatial evolution of Xi-di village in Anhui province according to the principles of complex system. In this setting, we define the simple rules or interactions that give rise to spatial evolution based on the theory of cellular automata.