--- Mike Devonshire <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Mr. Gehry's structures illustrate a denial of
> the issue of maintenance of materials, a concept
> which, unfortunately, will likely get passed on to
> subsequent generations of designers.

Twybil

I'd say it's already far too late to be worrying about
passing on a denial of the issue of maintenance of
materials to subsequent generations of designers, for
our friends from the Bauhaus started the fashion a
long time ago.  ][<en has mentioned Frank the elder's
problems with reinforced concrete (should Fallingwater
actually be called Falling lumps of concrete?), and
one of the reasons that DOCOMOMO was set up in 1990
was because the lack of maintenance on early Modern
Movement architecture had led to such deterioration
that the buildings were going to be bulldozed.  After
all, mild steel window frames with channels to collect
the water aren't exactly a maintenance-free design!

For that matter, I referred to Gaudi in my original
posting. One of the salutary experiences of a day in
Barcelona viewing Gaudi buildings was the
juxtaposition of continuing new construction and
active conservation proceeding side by side on the
site of La Sagrada Familia. I love that building - and
for a moment that day, thought about resigning my job
and staying in Barcelona to help with the building.
But it has a wonderful collection of maintenance
problems so that the construction/conservation teams
will never leave the site.

And then, as a Sydney-sider, I've had the experience
of working at Utzon's Sydney Opera House.  Some of the
maintenance challenges on that building are daunting.
Yet we would not question in the slightest the manner
in which the building was designed or detailed - nor
can we contemplate changing the design in any
significant manner.

Nevertheless, I personally wouldn't want to have to
come up with a method for conserving some of the
details I've seen on Gehry's buildings ... take the
house that really got him all that publicity back in
the early 1980s ... wonder what that looks like now?

Cheers

david



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