1. Harrison
Yamamoto
ARCH
511
2010.09.15
In
“The
Art
and
Craft
of
the
Machine”
Wright
challenges
two
prominent
members
of
the
art
establishment
by
supporting
the
use
of
the
machine
in
art.
The
two
members
of
the
art
establishment,
Morris
and
Ruskin,
believe
that
through
the
use
of
machines
art
or
craft
will
be
marginalized
as
a
result
of
mass
production.
Mass
production,
which
uses
the
machine,
will
flood
society
with
cheap
items
that
are
copies
of
each
other,
thus
removing
the
artist’s
persona
and
eventually
doing
away
with
the
profession.
Wright
on
the
hand
champions
that
the
machine
is
a
tool
that
must
be
mastered
in
what
ever
form.
He
gives
the
example
of
working
with
wood.
The
artist
has
learned
from
the
use
of
machine
how
to
appreciate
the
formal
qualities
of
wood.
Through
two
short
passages,
van
der
Rohe
explains
the
relationship
between
technology
and
architecture.
In
his
speech,
van
der
Rohe
believes
that
architecture
and
technology
are
a
single
expression
of
an
age.
That
as
technology
appears
and
matures
it
is
physically
manifest
in
architecture
and
vice
versa.
In
“Industrialized
Building”
he
defends
the
use
of
mass
production
in
construction
methods.
Saying
that
mass
production
has
entered
into
all
other
fields
and
will
inevitably
spread
into
the
built
environment.
His
critics’
opinion
is
that
mass
production
will
change
the
nature
of
their
buildings
but
van
der
Rohe
rebuffs
that
stance
by
stating
that
it
is
technology
that
is
the
driving
force
behind
form
creation.
In
a
chapter
named
“Architecture
and
the
Engineer’s
Aesthetic”,
Corbusier
defines
the
relationship
between
the
engineer
and
the
architect,
whose
two
professions
are
the
rivalry
that
must
coexist.
Essentially
he
states
that
the
architect
deals
with
metaphysics,
such
as
emotion,
while
the
engineer’s
world
is
grounded
in
physics
or
reality.
Corbusier
then
makes
a
rallying
call
for
architects
to
stand
up
and
take
the
lead
in
the
designing
of
the
built
environment.
He
is
dissatisfied
with
the
relationship
between
the
laymen
and
the
architect
and
that
the
engineer
has
overtaken
the
architect
in
professional
reputation.
The
last
text,
“All
that
is
Solid
Melts
into
Air,”
is
a
philosophical
expose
of
the
duality
of
being
a
person
living
in
the
modern
world.
Berman
who
is
not
an
architect
tries
to
reconcile
the
irony
and
conflict
of
modernity.
Personally,
I
found
this
text
a
little
on
the
dense
side
since
he
references
other
philosophers
that
I
am
not
familiar
with
but
I
feel
that
this
text
tries
to
explain
the
phenomena
discussed
in
the
other
three,
which
is
modernity’s
effect
on
architecture.