Building Sculpture/ Sculpture Building

According to a deliberately generalized interpretation, the aim of architecture is

to create a viable and usable space. This space is an emptiness spreading in three

directions, bounded by material on all sides. Space itself is not even perceptible,

but rather is the spatial order, the „spatiality” of the material limiting masses and

surfaces, which is the (architectural) piece of art itself. The history of thousands

of years of architecture has been mostly focused on two directions oriented by

gravity, i.e. vertical and horizontal expansion. To satisfy one's own needs, man

basically sought the harmonious proportional system in these two dimensions in

which they could create a "reasonable" and "comfortable" built environment for

themselves.

Space and human scale are closely related: the space becomes itself by being

transmitted to human scale. One can be moving around in space, and this

movement is not only for practical purposes. By moving inside an interior of the

building we experience the characteristics and atmosphere of a given space. We

perceive the surfaces and masses creating it, and we sense its materiality and

impact on us. It becomes our own intimate space by our movement in it and the

physical and spiritual experiences we gather while there.1

Sacred architecture, on the other hand, evolved along a completely different

logic, far from the practical aspects of the creation of residential spaces. When

tombs and shrines, and later churches were created, the form, the aesthetic

effect, the desire to please the God (s) shaped primarily the character of the

space, and this approach determined the evolution of sacred architecture in

different cultures. Certainly, it can be said that in many cases of "architectural

communication" with the transcendent, the given age’s essence of knowledge

accumulated.

1 Extract from GNAB’s 2018 concept

Just think of one of the most monumental examples of royal burial sites, the

Egyptian pyramids. To date, the technical execution of these constructions is

merely an assumption as to how these gigantic blocks of stone were put together

for a building standing for several thousand years. In this way, these geometric

"signs" themselves, created in the natural environment, reinforce the mystery

surrounding them.

In later times, in the case of cathedrals also built of stone, the contemporary

knowledge and high technology are summed up. We can see all the knowledge,

experience and tradition accumulated by that time put in stone. All of this is "an

attempt to summarize the natural and spiritual conditions of the whole culture

as an unitary spiritual organization of mankind," writes Max Dvorak art historian.

Reims, Cathedrale Notre-Dame. Photo: Markus Brunetti

The cathedral is a Gesamtkunstwerk masterpiece, influencing all the senses of

man, creating the sense of direct celestial connection for the faithful. The

enormous dimensions, the sight of light effects induce some kind of sublime

stupor, amplifying the subjective sensation which essentially led to the

development of perspective (Panofsky). The emergence of this central point of

view meant a radical change in the worldview that has only been replaced by

today's mosaic-like fragmented vision, influenced by the computer.2

The peak of architecture has always been the sacred buildings that can be

interpreted as works of art, but the architecture of residential buildings was

increasingly influenced by formal perfection, typically from the time of the

Renaissance. The enrichment of citizenry effected the building of edifices for the

middle class’s own purposes, more and more fulfilling the comfort and practical

needs of the inhabitants, as well as the aesthetical norms of the era. These

buildings were built for a long term, if not for eternity.

An important turning point for our subject is the period of the industrial

revolution, when the production of goods and the demand for them became

more and more distant, making the correlation of planned production and

consumption indispensable. The international market needed product

demonstrations where demand and supply could meet, and products made with

the latest technology could be displayed. In the middle of the 19th century,

world fairs began to be organized, which, due to their temporary nature,

provided the ideal experimental terrain for a new "genre": the transitional

(ephemeral) architecture. The latest technical achievements were shown

through these ephemeral architectural works created by the boldest form

solutions. Naturally, in these "fleeing structures" the function of the interior is

irrelevant, only the formal appearance and the innovation of the applied

technology is fundamental.

The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World Fair, was not only an exemplar in

combating the heights records of skyscrapers up until 1931, but also served as a

model for the tried-and-tested technology, as steel construction spread in

structural architecture. Furthermore something got invented in almost every

phase of the two and a half year-long of construction. For this reason, the tower

not only was a symbol of the 1889 Paris World Fair, but also of the era of the

Second Industrial Revolution.

2 J. A. Tillmann: http://www.c3.hu/~tillmann/konyvek/tavkertek/katedralis.html (accessed 23 July 2018)

Plan for the Eiffel Tower, 1889

The building of virtually no practical purpose and originally destined for

dismantling, is today one of the most well-known buildings in the world, a

monument that can be interpreted as a functional sculpture because of its

powerful symbolism.

The Statue of Liberty in New York was built

almost at the same time as the Eiffel Tower

and its function is also very similar to the

tower in Paris. It is almost as well-known as

the Eiffel Tower but we call it a statue for

some reason. It is likely that the name can be

explained by the structure’s figurativity, as

regarding its function it is a lookout and

lighthouse which base functions as a

museum.

The statue’s head at the Paris Fair, 1878

If we agree that both buildings can be interpreted on the border of sculpture and

architecture, the Eiffel Tower as a building is more of a statue, while the Statue

of Liberty functions as a building. This assumption is reinforced by the fact that

the builder of the statue, Bartholdi, needed serious engineering assistance in

solving the structural problems of the huge statue, entrusting Gustave Eiffel, the

owner of the firm that designed the Eiffel Tower.

The whole height is 93 meters from the ground to the top of the torch

Concerning its concept, symbolism and function, the Atomium of Brussels (1958)

fully fits into the concept, which − interestingly − is neither a statue nor a

building, but simply defined as an edifice/structure (for instance in the referring

article on Wikipedia in Hungarian). The initiator of the Atomium, Andre

Waterkeyn, and the architects working on its construction had the same purpose

as for the Eiffel Tower: to create an emblematic imprint of a time period − in this

case, the demonstration of the development of science and the importance of

the arrival of the atomic age by creating a monument-building-sculpture.

Concept: Andre Waterkeyn, Architects: Andre and Jean Polak

From fine art’s aspect, the 165 billion magnification of the atomic structure of

iron can be considered as a gigantic, conceptual installation, in which the

adequate language of form of the era is also encoded. Just like the tower in Paris

and the Statue of Liberty in New York, this building has also become a symbol of

its hometown, the city of Brussels, and, like its counterparts, despite its originally

planned temporality, it can be still visited today, preserving its original function.

The beginning of the 1960s was about the space age, as the 1964 New York

Expo's message was about breaking away from the natural environment, the

possibility of conquering space, the Moon and other celestial bodies.

Accordingly, although the organizers planned to give a significant role to fine

arts, the most visited part of the exhibition was the most popular genre, the

"Space Park" with the US rockets that had been to space just like spacecrafts’

models.3 By the second half of the century, the Moon landing took place,

telecommunication achieved enormous results, and the general feeling spread

increasingly that not only the transformation of the whole Earth, but also the

mapping and the conquest of space were around the corner.

3 András Kapitány: Experimental Architecture (doctoral thesis), Hungarian University of Fine Arts, 2012.

"Thanks to the widening range of

electronic media by the end of the ’60s

humanity had come to share an

increasing number of experiences:

people could listen to and hum the tunes

of the same beat song all around the

world, let alone the fact that the landing

on the moon was broadcast both in the

East and West independently of

political-ideological commitments. At

first globalisation lulled people into the false security of togetherness, but soon

the first oil crisis also gave the first warning about the finiteness of the planet’s

reserves. The growing frequency of nuclear explosions and major environmental

pollutions highlighted the vulnerability of the Earth; consequently, scientists,

artists, conscientious laymen and sometimes even politicians were urged to join

forces and act together to find solutions for the increasingly troubling problems

of the climate, environmental pollution, overpopulation and globalisation. "4

Some architects,

driven by this sense

of mission, began to

design buildings on

both sides of the Iron

Curtain, both in

Western Europe and

in the US as in the

Soviet sphere of

interest, creating a

kind of crazy race that was intended to demonstrate man's creative genius.

The special, sometimes totally dysfunctional buildings that were born at this time

can often be regarded as a self-serving, creative demonstration, which gesture

again associates the genre of architecture with the field of fine arts and

sculpture.

4István Erőss: Nature Art, Líceum Kiadó, 2011. p. 18.

A few gems from this utopistic, yet − in today’s eyes− brutal and inhuman

architectural period.

Former Auditorium of the Industrial Technical College, Tbilisi

Soviet Union, bus stop

Soviet Monument

Architect Ron Herron imagined giant cities on stilts that could be transported around the globe, forming new cities

themselves, 1964

In Hungary, in the 1970s, a group of organic architects whose ideologist and

fundamental personality was Imre Makovecz, was formulated against the

"cubic" residential blocks and public buildings of centralized design institutes.5

Regarding their language of forms, the architectural school took inspiration from

the Hungarian folk art, while they turned to the tradition of folk architecture

concerning their use and processing of materials. Their buildings of ancient

sacred symbols, motifs also often show the characteristics of fine arts: signs of

sculpture and installation. But while this special, visionary architecture truly

produced works of architectural novelty in case of sacred or symbolic buildings,

their public and residential buildings are often criticised for their functional

imperfections.

Church of the Holy Spirit, Paks, 1987-1988

5 Imre Makovecz, the theoretical and practical founder of the movement, on the occasion of his exhibition held in 1976, highlighted the sources from which he gained his inspiration and knowledge of organic architecture: peasant art, medieval small town culture, Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture and Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy.

Imre Makovecz's most important building that sums up organic architecture, was

also made for a world fair. Makovecz recognized that when designing an

exhibition pavilion, one can free their imagination and create an installation

completed with symbols, as the aspects of functionality, practicality, or

mechanical perfection are irrelevant. In the Hungarian Pavilion in Seville, wood

is the dominant material, but not only as an ornamental element, but also as a

structural one. This architectural approach seemed to be a complete paradigm

shift as it is indicated well by the fact that the pavilion was one of the main

attractions at the Seville Fair in 1992. It was listed among historic heritage sites

in Andalusia in 2008, therefore it took the „fate” of the Eiffel Tower as it cannot

be dismantled or demolished.

Imre Makovecz, Hungarian Pavilion, Seville, 1992

The increasing ecological problems, the rising energy prices, and the desolation

of soulless concrete architecture have generated worldwide demand for

designing viable, economical and sustainable buildings in the past few years. The

discovery of renewable energies, environmental awareness and energy saving

have led to designing houses that have the least harmful effects on the

environment, trying to minimize the ecological footprint of the inhabitants.

These houses are built exclusively from natural materials, such as cob, wood,

stone, straw, possibly extracted from the surrounding area. The strict constraints

regarding the material, of course, greatly affect the possibilities of formal

appearance, sometimes limiting, other times encouraging the most daring

creative formal solutions, often showing similarity with classic land art works.

Bio House, Hungary

Pueblo SacBe

As I have tried to highlight the examples mentioned above, the relationship

between architecture and sculpture has long been existing and in many cases

there is a passage between the two fields. However, in almost all cases, the

trangression became a permanent value in such buildings where either sacrality

was the primary criterion or the building had no function of a residential building.

These still visible and popular buildings are typically built for burial sites,

lookouts, monuments, and temporary exhibition pavilions. In the light of all this,

my encounter with the SacBe community − a living and vibrant example of how

the boundaries of architecture and sculpture may blur even in the case of

residential buildings − seemed to be revealing. For the formation of creative

buildings here, however, one has to put aside the notion of designing a building

at a table or on a computer screen and return to a more ancient, natural

architectural tradition. In the following, I would like to introduce this unique

creative method of building and the community's operation in a nutshell.

Referring to the accelerated events of our day, it seems that the decisive task of

the man of the 21st century will be the radical transformation of mindsets and

values. We are on the rise of new ideologies formulating along the proposed

solutions to the new challenges of the new millennium. More and more people

feel the need to give up the idea of perpetual expansion and put themselves into

a broader perspective, living under a new ideological system, following a

meaningful and sustainable vision of the future.

This endeavour has inspired the initiator of SacBe, the Canadian Ted Rhodes,

when he came up with the plan of a sustainable village and embarked upon its

realization. He bought and parceled a 54 hectare area and gave the opportunity

to build houses on the site to people, who, beyond identifying with the values of

eco-architecture (which can be dictated merely by actual trends), are also willing

− even concerning their lifestyle − to take on a consistent approach to

environmental protection and respect for nature, while seeking for mutual

respect and harmony with the community members. The project, launched

twenty years ago, has overcome many difficulties and progresses nicely towards

the goal. Their achievements so far are encouraging, and Pueblo SacBe can be a

model for a community organized within a new ideological system.

The selected area is located on the shore of the Caribbeans, in the intact jungle

of the Yucatan Peninsula, not far from the seaside resorts.

The Caribbean weather, the 300 sunny days a year, the rich flora and fauna, the

underground freshwater natural pools (cenote) 6 make it ideal and at the same

time attractive for those

who want to buy land here.

The parceled sites of varying

size and characteristics, and

therefore sold for differing

amounts, make the

connection to the

community more accessible

to a relatively broader group

in social terms.

Ground plan of the parceled area

6 The cenote is a natural pit-like karst formation. Although it occurs in several parts of the Earth, it is most common in Mexico, and most frequent in the Yucatan Peninsula. The majority of the most well-known cenotes are there, too.

Some sites have their

own cenote, which, of

course, is a price

increase factor.

Others are small in

size and can be found

in more remote areas,

so their price is more

reasonable.

Cenote, the natural basin

beneath the ground

Regardless of the size and value of the site, everyone has to accept the

construction and behavioral rules in a contract, drawn up by the leaders of the

"Pueblo SacBe Civil Association". Their "codex" is based on maintaining a

harmonious relationship with the environment. Aside from some of the

interventions that are indispensable for the construction process and are

recorded in the rules, it is not possible to cut wood and damage the original

natural environment. Any harmful emissions are not allowed, including

wastewater or any other

pollutants. The energy

source is provided by solar

panels and wind turbines

designed by community

members according to their

own needs, but in some

cases a generator can be

used, especially at

construction sites.

Beyond ecological awareness, these limitations are necessary due to the risk that

any contamination would lead to the disappearance of the natural, crystalline

water resources underneath the surface.

Constructions do not require a licensed plan, everyone builds a house that is in

accordance with their own tastes and preferences, but if they ask, they can get

help and advice concerning solving static problems or the formal realization of

the edifice. During the construction, materials found on the site or in the vicinity

are used depending on the size of the house, sometimes in combination with

reinforced concrete. As a result of the application of the local materials and the

imprint of the builder of the community, formal similarities can be discovered in

many cases, even though everyone is the creator of their own house (house-

sculptor, as they call themselves).

Sometimes "Gaudesque" solutions

dominate, otherwise we may find

traces of the ancient culture of

indigenous inhabitants in the area. For

that matter, the community uses the

knowledge of indigenous people day by

day during construction works,

creating a healthy and living

relationship between the two

communities. In my experience, there

is no shortage of original ideas, but it is

no shame to use earlier ones as

everyone adds their own ideas thus

they shape and expand the range of

form solutions.

The impressive aspect of the buildings of SacBe are not only their plasticity and

their sculptural appearance. The interiors are also brilliant both in terms of use

of materials and form solutions. These buildings fit their surroundings and the

external natural environment in a completely authentic yet original way. The

exuberant organic forms of the vegetation of the nearby rain forest are evoked

in the interior design of bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms.

Although the whole workflow process is somewhat directed, it is greatly

influenced by the form and quality of the locally-found materials to be used.

Accordingly, spontaneity, improvisation, playfulness always play an important

role in the execution. The shape of tree branches, the shape of the available sea

shells, the color of recycled glass bottles determine the outcome of the

construction process.

One can get more uncertain by being confronted with the end result (not by

being aware of all the

above mentioned

characteristics)

whether the building

is really a building or a

three-dimensional

plastic work that is

functional and

habitable but most

likely to be in the

category of sculpture.

Since wastewater emission is not allowed, every house has a stabilization pond,

but we may find the extreme idea where the toilet is located on the top of the

four-storey house and the wastewater flows downstairs through the conical

structure, where it is filtered by the roots of various plants and eventually gets

to the stabilization pond.

Some of the houses, due to the financial possibilities of the owner, emerge above

the level of the rain forest and serve as a lookout with a magnificent view - just

like the Maya pyramids in the area, but fortunately not in a pompous, immodest

way.

The nationalities of the owners, initially only working as a construction

community, are diverse. There are members from Mexico, Germany, England,

Italy, Belgium, Brasil, Canada, Russia, Colombia, Peru, Sweden, Norway, Spain,

Holland and Slovakia, but there is also a wide variety of personal interests and

qualifications among the members. We may find artists, architects, musicians,

businessmen and other professionals among them, all of whom want to use their

skills and knowledge for the benefit of the community. There are those who

make their living by teaching drawing or music, and there are those who lead

eco-tours or give yoga lessons.

The activities of the numerous creative participants have shown the need to

build a community space where performances, music, theater plays, or simply

celebrations take place.

The communal space being built in 2013

Since it is a closed area, access to the Pueblo SacBe area is possible only with the

permission of an owner, but of course there are open events that are freely

accessible. In my personal experiences, the everyday life of the community is

characterized by calmness, there is no rush, everybody lives their lives by their

own rhythm and enjoys the heavenly environment. Like that, residents resonate

with their lifestyle, we can say, demonstratively, an accelerated social, economic

and cultural environment. They entrust the reorganization of the world to urban

center engineers and they are happy with the natural environment far from the

organized playground of aggressive business and culture policies that they shape

and carefully arrange in accordance with their own needs. They are capable to

make their own houses free of conventions, creatively and responsibly,

according to their own taste. This creative process is positively influenced by the

fact that − thanks to the ideal climate − minimal machinery is required, a

centrally licensed plan is not a precondition for the construction of houses, and

the ban on harmful emissions also helps the process. With the necessary

financial resources, the reward of accepting eco-conscious behavior and

constraints is that we can live in our own artwork under paradise conditions.

Looking at the activity of SacBe as an external observer, we can conclude that

the essence of this unique organization is to re-evaluate the social position of

creative people and to reorganize disintegrating communities according to new,

ecological point of views. It includes the possibility that the community members

create a residential building unshaken by conventions, and form the external

plasticity of the building/statue in an authentic, innovative way, but not at the

expense of the quality of the interior, habitable spaces. Thus, the liveable

sculpture could be born.

István Erőss