delineation
between earth and heaven lies
essence of desire
see the photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
They are the most visually obvious elements of any metropolis. It could be argued that they are to modern civilization what Gothic cathedrals were to medieval people, what the temples were to the ancient Greeks, and what the pyramids were to the ancient Egyptians. They represent the culmination of our hopes and dreams.
The human experience is increasingly an urban experience, with 80 to 90 per cent of the population living in an urban environment. A small percentage of urbanites live in gleaming cities with topless towers, buildings so tall we call them skyscrapers.
Increasingly, these structures are surfacing around the world. Their presence dominates wherever they are congregated. Grouped together they are called a skyline, forming a demarcation between earth and heaven. We interact with them in several ways: we design and build them; maintain them; work and live in them. We see them as part of our urban landscape. As products of human development in its myriad manifestations they are expressions of the human psyche. An inspection of the architecture of these buildings is one way to examine the sensibilities of the society responsible for their creation.
When components of these structures are scrutinized, many elements and their relationships become apparent which are difficult to perceive when seen in the context of a cluttered urban environment. Texture, geometry, perspective, colour, line, shape and proportion are unique to every building, and tell a story about the individual or group behind its design. The juxtaposition between glass and marble, reflection and solidity, or translucence and opaqueness, reveals the dynamic character of the building’s purpose.
Not only is a building a place to work or live in densely populated areas, it says something of its makers. The visually isolated components shown in these photographs allow our mind’s eye to wander. Intimate emotional connections emerge from these images that would otherwise be impossible to make when the building is viewed in situ. Unable to see the entire structure we are left to imagine where the lines of perspective lead and to ponder what lies behind their reflective veneer.
These images reveal evidence of human intervention not only through the building’s design but by the simple fact that they exist – that they have been built. People work and live in these structures but what we see is only the surface. We are not privy to the joy, agony, laughter or tears of the people behind the façade. We can only witness and try to surmise the purpose of the building, both on a practical and metaphorical level. The images show beautiful and impressive structures, but they are also alienating and inhuman. These are towers of power, but they also confine their inhabitants in a very unnatural space with little or no access to natural surroundings. The ambivalent nature of these constructions echoes the ambivalent nature of the human condition: we can create beauty, but also ugliness. Encased in glass, with a solid core, the grid- like web of lines encloses and defines our hopes and aspirations.
In Stanley Kubrik’s movie 2001: A Space Odyssey a monolith appears to a group of proto-humans. Its baffling nature challenges the creatures’ view of themselves and each other and compels them to a higher level of comprehension. In this age of technology and materialism, these modern-day glass and concrete monoliths have surpassed cathedrals as the structural representation of humanity’s reach toward some kind of enlightenment. The striving for materialism as represented by the bank towers and luxury condominium residences has outpaced our striving for spiritual illumination.
Like their human makers, buildings have a lifespan. The cloudless morning of September 11, 2001 brutally reminded us that towers fall. Although they seem permanent, unmoving and solid, towers are built to sway and without a strict maintenance regimen, deteriorate and collapse. Reminded of our own mortality through their impermanence, it is important to recognize that this too shall pass and make way for something new. There is hope. Surely a species that can build such grand and magnificent edifices can aspire to push even further the delineation between earth and heaven.
