Saintly month
The multiple Adar, which leaps the Hebrew calendar every 4 years, this time pushed the holidays deep into October, leaving only about ten stammering work days - joyous for the salaried, religious and airline companies, but a time of soul-searching for the self-employed, who scurry to do what no one else will for them. And to crack, asit were, this strange pot that had to stew the present issue, along came the economic crisis, scaring all the hi-techers, the building industry, the suppliers and - god help us - the advertisers without whom the bank account goes anorectic. And the elections, and those pulling the torn strings - all of them converging to test the nerves particularly on these days.
Fortunately, I was invited by the Italian Architects’ Association to give a talk at the “Post-Conflict Peace Buildings” International Convention. What “peace” and what “post “ in our ever conflictual zone, I thought to myself, but then recalled that I myself had written an article logically explaining the simple principle that while ‘conflict’ usually carries a negative connotation, in architecture that is precisely what imbues it with life. After presenting a number of buildings that did not put us to shame amidst the other peace buildings, I ad libbed a sentence that surprised me in its originality: “In an era when climate-aware planning can save 40% of the energy necessary for the maintenance of buildings, a peace building - to my mind - is a building that lives in peace with its environment”.
As I don’t visit Rome too often, I used the three days left to roam around streets that haven’t seen a conflict in sixty years, and that helped me understand what Goethe had meant when he called architecture “frozen art”. Not that they don’t have a lot to be proud of, the Italians, but Tel-Aviv with all its architectural ugliness, parking problems and derelict houses is way livelier, not to mention the 3000-year conflictual Jerusalem, with yet much of this ahead.
And so I walked around Rome with a guide book from 1966, realizing that all the buildings, streets and events were there as if they hadn’t been touched except by the liretta that turned into a euro. Within this “boredom” I reached the Vatican - the domain of Saint Peter, one of the 12 Apostles who first declared Jesus the Messiah. The Hebrew name of the Jerusalemite was Shimon Bar Yonah, and according to Matthew (15, 17-18), the keys to heaven are with him, and not - as many think - with the Jerusalem municipality. This item of knowledge served as a trigger for whoever took part in building the magnificent San Pietro Church: Emperor Theodosius who began it in 386, Leo the First who completed it in the 5th century, architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini who planned the square in front, UNESCO that declared it World Heritage Site in 1980, and many others who contributed to creating one of the most amazing buildings I have ever experienced.
Although the church does not star in contemporary architecture, the conflicts that created it over hundreds of years easily manage to minimize the troubles the world is experiencing these days.
Architect dr. ami ran
The multiple Adar, which leaps the Hebrew calendar every 4 years, this time pushed the holidays deep into October, leaving only about ten stammering work days - joyous for the salaried, religious and airline companies, but a time of soul-searching for the self-employed, who scurry to do what no one else will for them. And to crack, asit were, this strange pot that had to stew the present issue, along came the economic crisis, scaring all the hi-techers, the building industry, the suppliers and - god help us - the advertisers without whom the bank account goes anorectic. And the elections, and those pulling the torn strings - all of them converging to test the nerves particularly on these days.
Fortunately, I was invited by the Italian Architects’ Association to give a talk at the “Post-Conflict Peace Buildings” International Convention. What “peace” and what “post “ in our ever conflictual zone, I thought to myself, but then recalled that I myself had written an article logically explaining the simple principle that while ‘conflict’ usually carries a negative connotation, in architecture that is precisely what imbues it with life. After presenting a number of buildings that did not put us to shame amidst the other peace buildings, I ad libbed a sentence that surprised me in its originality: “In an era when climate-aware planning can save 40% of the energy necessary for the maintenance of buildings, a peace building - to my mind - is a building that lives in peace with its environment”.
As I don’t visit Rome too often, I used the three days left to roam around streets that haven’t seen a conflict in sixty years, and that helped me understand what Goethe had meant when he called architecture “frozen art”. Not that they don’t have a lot to be proud of, the Italians, but Tel-Aviv with all its architectural ugliness, parking problems and derelict houses is way livelier, not to mention the 3000-year conflictual Jerusalem, with yet much of this ahead.
And so I walked around Rome with a guide book from 1966, realizing that all the buildings, streets and events were there as if they hadn’t been touched except by the liretta that turned into a euro. Within this “boredom” I reached the Vatican - the domain of Saint Peter, one of the 12 Apostles who first declared Jesus the Messiah. The Hebrew name of the Jerusalemite was Shimon Bar Yonah, and according to Matthew (15, 17-18), the keys to heaven are with him, and not - as many think - with the Jerusalem municipality. This item of knowledge served as a trigger for whoever took part in building the magnificent San Pietro Church: Emperor Theodosius who began it in 386, Leo the First who completed it in the 5th century, architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini who planned the square in front, UNESCO that declared it World Heritage Site in 1980, and many others who contributed to creating one of the most amazing buildings I have ever experienced.
Although the church does not star in contemporary architecture, the conflicts that created it over hundreds of years easily manage to minimize the troubles the world is experiencing these days.
Architect dr. ami ran
חזרה לגליון 75 back to issue 75
