# Micro-Architecture

## “Micro-Architecture”

### 1.Sum
* Questions of form and style from 1978 onward:
-- from Bauhaus and Art Deco(20 30s) to ”Post-”
-- questions of form and style are being approached with an adventurousness
* Result in:
-- adds a new cultural dimension to mundane objects
-- brings the designer back into the public eye,and effectively polishes up corporate images 企業形象.
* In the design of utility objects approach:
-- about “attaching” decorative elements to a basic shape or highlighting the various constituent parts
-- is rapidly gaining ground over the integrative approach of Functionalism (which seeks to present the image of an organic whole without extraneous ornament )
- [ ] electrical appliances:
-miniaturisation of the technical components
- [ ] table culture:
-the problems of working such materials
(as glass,earthenware,porcelain or metal )
that may impose limitations on the agglomerative

#
### 2.Evidence
* Architectonic principles - "table-top"accessories as "Micro-Architecture"
-- was originally coined in Italy
-- Scale and proportion
-- most of the leading figures in the field are architects (Post-Modern paladins like Graves,Hollein)

* early 80s:
- [ ] Italian metal goods manufacturers Alessi :
a series of the silver "Tea and Coffee Piazzas"(pl.435-445)
-- <Piazza, 廣場>
-- limited, 11 stars*99 sets (E 12000),
-- premiered in 1983, at the Brera gallery in Milan and at the Max Protetch architecture gallery in New York

-- Institution:
as channels of distribution serving to emphasise the "cultural"quality of these wares.

-- silver:
in the tradition of similarly ambitious projects of the Vienna Workshop
(30s, Art Deco tableware)

--For the first time in many years,the theories and principles that govern industrial design are again the same as those applied in architecture.

- [ ] Ceramic objects
-Matteo Thun, founder member of the Memphis
-appeals unashamedly to the emotions (borrowing elements from the cultures of ancient Egypt and the Mayas or zoomorphic in its imagery, ornithological theme)
(pl.446-455)

### 3 Semantic chaos and way out:

* new nternational network "iconophiles"

-- the intermingling of the various fields of culture
-- constitutes a semiotic continuum: boundaries begin to dissolve -between reality and its interpretation, facts and opinion or comment -so as between different arts form, such as film\graphic art\design\fashion)

* the "semantic chaos" in our postindustrial society

-- but to which we should attempt to give some sort of structure
-- Thun shows us where it could lead: the product designer should avail himself of this repertoire, without becoming bogged down in nostalgia…he should create new combinations that are meaningful in our day and age.

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## “Micro-Architecture” thinking in design

### 1.idea-life style-“table landscape”-commercial strategy
1) Designer as consultant -Thun
* “Style” in market
* "cool"neomodern design; Memphis; Archetype…
*Das barocke Bauhaus (pl.456-459)
<<
-Stylistically,"Bauhaus Baroque"stands for the paradoxical combination of aristocratic extravagance( i.e.gold and ornamentation) with the austere formal discipline of classical Modernism
-this,a degree of mancipation is required that has most nearly been achieved in milieus/context(where design is open to the influence f mass media such as advertising and film)
-California or Japan rather than in Europe-accordingly,Thun advocates the enrichment of European design with a "fresh breeze of Pacific fragrances".>>

- [ ] WMF
- [ ] Quartetts


- [ ] Swid Powell

2) independent brand
- [ ] family-run manufactory, Heide Warlami (Vienna Workshop)


### 2.technic-material-style
- How architectural associations can be pushed into the background by the choice of material and technique (pl.505-515).
- “style”:
*Archetypal reductionism, Memphis, Minimalist items
*High-tech, but more focus on aesthetic, emotion between object and human


### 3 Micro-Architecture and jewelry
- occupy as important a place as items of table landscape
- diversity of creations
- [ ] goldsmith's workshop, "Four Orders in Gold and Stone'in allusion to the classical


## Conclusion
- self-identity by object----fasion
- emulation, comsuming and mass media