DAISY AMES

Last year there were PhD bag-lunches in which everyone in the MED and Architecture programs were invited to a short presentation and discussion about the work of a Yale PhD student. They were great! However, sometimes the faculty (Kurt Forster, Mario Carpo and Daniel Sherer) out-numbered the student attendance, but nevertheless created a very lively discourse. This year, with the threat of these meetings being discontinued, YSOA has decided to name these discussions and cater them - huge improvement and huge incentive for others! Joseph Clark kick-started the first of the series of “DIALOGUES” in the 3rd floor conference room. The attendance spiked from last year’s 10 people to nearly 30. 

Joseph spoke about the role of proportion and the human body in Le Corbusier’s oeuvre that eventually led to the development of the Modular and the integration of the golden section as a device for design. Architecture often calls on music to help explain some phenomenological occurances, so when rhythm (metre) was introduced into the discussion, it quickly became theory-based. While Wittkower maintained that the comparisons between the Renaissance modulation and the Modular Man were completely abstract, Heidegger similarly worried that we were moving away from the traditional ways of living if we base physical manifestations on “forced” modulation from the “spoon to the city,” as Massimo Vignelli says. Emmanuel Petit commented on the systematization of the modular in relation to tempo, the spaces in between music notes on the page, as it begins to have acoustical and aural connotations. Furthermore, the ear is the governing engine behind human balance and stability, so the conversation moved from modulation in physical form to an investigation about posture and the way we carry ourselves within that physical realm. Since posture accentuates human proportions, it would seem that Corbusier’s Modular is just the same representation of accentuated naturalistic proportions. It was an amazing discussion and a glimpse into all the things architects consider when designing.