What does it mean to be timeless?
Architects are always using the term “timeless” -it’s easy to throw around. It’s easy to say that a building is revered because it’s so timeless. But what does “timeless” actually mean in terms of all of the design decisions and physical results involved with a building? What are the nuts and bolts of timeless design in architecture? Today’s post takes a crack at our definition of timeless design and ,like most everything on the BUILDblog, it’s open source –we’ll get the ball rolling with our top 10 but feel free to add your thoughts.
To illustrate our ideas, we’ve paired each topic with a lesser-known work. While it’s convenient to point to the Sydney Opera House or a building designed by Louis Kahn when discussing timeless design –these structures are unique to the point of being exclusive. We want the images in today’s post to be more accessible, more a part of the everyday fabric. Here goes…
Permanence: timeless design is relevant for several generations, it outlast trends, fashion statements and society’s infatuation with styles. It is made of materials and methods that will last a century or more.
Marine Sciences Building on the UW campus designed by Liddle & Jones, landscape by Richard Haag, 1967
It matters: timeless design plays a necessary role in society. It solves problems.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe RR Grain Elevator in Chicago built by John S. Metcalf Company, 1906
Adaptable: timeless design is open and flexible. It deliberately organizes the functional elements, like structural walls, and allows for big open spaces that can be altered and changed over time as needed.
John Deere Headquarters designed by Eero Saarinen, 1964
Buildings should be buildings: timeless design isn’t derived from a poem, it’s not a “response” to a previous design movement. Timeless design is serious, it doesn’t play games. It is not a statement or symbol for something else. Timeless design concerns itself with the needs of living and working.
Equitable Building in Portland, Oregon designedy by Pietro Belluschi, 1948
A strong relationship with natural elements: timeless design takes advantage of sunlight and shade. It keeps the heat in and the rain out. It integrates the environmental systems into the architecture without making a big deal about it.
Raymond Loewy House in Palm Springs designed by Albert Frey, 1947
Honesty: timeless design looks like what it’s doing. It illustrates the construction methods to the viewer and reveals how the building goes together.
Simpson-Lee House in New South Wales by Glen Murcutt, 1994
Relevance: timeless design is made of current materials and methods. It respects the traditional by not copying it or getting in the way of it.
Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto, designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, 2006
Weathering: timeless design allows the process of weathering to improve the architecture. The effects of sunshine, wind and rain are significant; timeless architecture allows these factors to not only play a role, but to make the architecture special.
Maison de Verre in Paris designed by Pierre Chareau, 1932
Geometry: timeless design uses the principles of natural proportions and the golden section.
Storer House in Los Angeles designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1923
Confidence: without being egotistical, timeless buildings belong right where they are.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, designed by Jørgen Bo and Wilhelm Wohlert, Claus Wohlert, 1958 to present
By gsid, June 1, 2011 @ 5:41 am
guys i love you but isn’t saying that only modern architecture can be timeless a stretch? if so, then why do so many people love to re-use old, traditional buildings? wouldn’t the fact that we constantly rehab romanesque or art deco buildings be a sign that they are timeless as well? i’m not saying arguing that traditional architecture is the end-all-be-all, but one cannot open up the argument for timeless architecture without paying proper respects to, say, Louis Sullivan, etc.
By Build LLC, June 1, 2011 @ 7:44 am
@gsid -I see what you’re saying. I think architecture from any time frame can achieve timelessness -the point we’re trying to drive home is that it should be designed and built with materials and methods from their respective time period. For instance we consider the Gamble House by Greene and Greene to be a timeless example of architecture. In 1908 the materials and methods of the craftsman style were current. Perhaps we should have added the term “authentic” to our roster -that might be a more appropriate description.
Totally agree on the re-use of traditional buildings -so long as the older building and the new remodel are authentic to their own time.
Great comment.
By Andrew Carman, June 1, 2011 @ 8:19 am
Not to dumb it down too much but the criteria you are offering add up to simply non-sucky design. Which is fine with me–design gets outmoded really because it was probably not the best idea to begin with, not because it “followed a fad” since to one degree or another all design does that, as well it should.
False traditional-modern dichotomy sounds like a decent post idea, huh.
By archaalto, June 2, 2011 @ 1:29 pm
all fantastic precedents here guys. i was pleasantly surprised by the grain tower image, which i admired as a kid growing up in kansas. the ones i saw were not only the tallest things around [skyscrapers of the plains] but nearly a half mile long in some instances.
i know this may already be implied under the multiple categories above, but I think “sense of place” really has a huge contribution to the timeless qualities of a building. you could argue that time is relative [to many things!], so the building must therefore be relate to its place in a significant manner to realize the full potential of being timeless. fallingwater would not have the same impact on a flat desert site [or in suburbia], and the pantheon would not feel as expansive in a rural setting.
also-to evoke a feeling of the eternal or the immortal, the best buildings represent the past and the future all at the same time, and therefore are a representation of the present. time cannot exist without place, just as our minds cannot fathom age without our bodies.
don’t want to get too carried away in a blog comment [maybe too late], but this is definitely an expansive topic. thanks for sharing.
By Darell, November 12, 2011 @ 9:16 pm
and perhaps- timeless design evokes and fosters a higher sense of being in our ordinary lives. that’s what separates it from the rest.