Fourteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Architectural expression plays a significant role in the process of conceptualisation, as it represents the first impulse towards the recognition of meaning an architectural design denotes. With the rapid technological development, the role of architectural expression became superfluous, leading towards an architecture devoid of qualitative aspects. This paper demonstrates the underlying logic of two conceptual approaches, where the figurative aspects denote the essence of creative work, but embody the aesthetic and qualitative value. These approaches relate to the visual appearance but imbue distinct spatial and formal qualities, where the symbolic expression not only affects built form, but clearly defines the structure of space. This paper aims to define a theoretical framework and demonstrate its variety through several precedents. Precisely, elaborate on the concept of enclosure as mask as the richest source of symbolic expression and concept of mimesis and its manifold from philosophy, aesthetics to architecture. A comparative method is used by virtue of in-depth analysis of modernist and contemporary precedents, where the symbolic and iconological value of building design embody the essence of built work. The precedents will be evaluated according to six determinants of architectural form by Paul Rudolph (1956). Finally, this paper attempts to clarify the manifold of connotation these approaches have, where the conceptual in architecture refers to the intention which carries universal qualities from design process to build work, and where the concept of mask and mimesis represent tools in contemporary design towards an architectural expression denoted by variety of meaning.