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Proceeding from the following quote, briefly explain Ginzburg’s historical
model of stylistic change, referring back to Volliet-le-Duc and Gottfried Semper
wherever appropriate.
“A Flower grows in the field because it cannot help but to
grow: thus it cannot contemplate whether or not it is appropriate to the field
that existed before it. On the contrary, by its very appearance, the flower
transforms the general image of the field” Ginzburg talks about the formal
development of styles and how the modern architecture is grown from the past but
isn’t necessarily based on the past.
These ideas are very much shared by Semper.
This growth is singular and linear, based on a preceding proposition, each out
growing the latter, but not continuing the old. “…a person making use of the
achievements in electricity cannot, under any circumstances, be forced to revert
to steam power. Gottfried Semper explains this form of thinking very well in
that, we learn from the past, we cannot copy it, as this is a waste but rather
we cannot turn our backs on this existing knowledge, and previous epochs. The
development and changing of styles is a meshed concept. There is no end or
beginning of styles. Ginzburg explains the life of a particular style as a
growing organism in that it is born, “lives out its youth”, matures and lives
out it’s old age, but never dies, but rather atrophies.
This is why the actual
timing of a style is impossible to track, for there is no death of a style, the
life of the style atrophies. Styles cannot be erased because they are not
physical elements to knocked down and demolished.
So when an epoch forms, there
is a trace of the old style, a marking, like a child would have of his parents.
Each style has a genetic imprint of its parent, history. “A flower grows in the
field because it cannot help but to grow…” A flower germinates in the grown and
is thus, it is born.
This organism grows in its field, no choices, no
alternatives, but it still grows. This flower could wither and die, for what
difference would it make? But does it know that it’s individual expression of
color and aroma could be the single characteristic that beautifies its
surroundings. A style that in it’s own being, transforms a hideous field into a
breathtaking space.
This theory of style stands true to the linear growth of
architecture. Style will continue to grow and thrive, without its own
predetermined plan. Each bit of architecture is born, and lives through
maturity.
This excerpt is taken from the given quote above. It assesses the
revolution Ginzburg prescribing for Russia. Ginzburg talks about how the
architects in Russia, like the flower, doesn’t have the choice of banishing the
historical development of architecture. But that their styles can transform this
field into a flowering spectacle.
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