In architecture and the decorative arts, ornament refers to the decoration being used in embellishing parts of an object or building. A vast of the motifs employed in ornament is drawn from patterns, animal and human figures, plants, and geometrical patterns. The ornaments are made of wood, metal, glass, or ceramics and have symbolic meanings. According to Bédard (2), ornamentation, in architecture, applies to various styles used in distinguishing traits of buildings, the household items, and furniture. There are three core types of ornamentation used by architects. These include mimetic, applied, and organic ornaments. Imitative or mimetic ornament takes the form of symbolic significance while the applied decoration intends to add more beauty to the structures. Consequently, organic ornament is used by the architects as an inherent in the constructions’ materials.
Bédarde (6) elaborates that ornamentation continues to be enhanced by many artists since it adds beauty and is significant to the artists. However, the ideology of innovation rejects the supposed decadence and wastefulness of a mass production of various ornaments. While some artists consider ornamentation as a crime and destruction of the natural resources, the essay finds ornaments as a significant art that must be facilitated to promote nature and good work by the architects. Therefore, the study focuses on why ornament is not a crime, but an essential art.
Arguing For Ornamentation
Ornament starts as luxury and an entertaining art, something that emerges from an individual desires to celebrate and communicate. The more an ornamented building or object, the higher the labor hence higher cost. However, Andersen (129) argues that with machine production and industrial revolution there occur significant changes in ornamentation. As a result, decoration became cheaper thereby coinciding with the economic requirement for growth and development. Immediately ornament gets cheap, the elite tastes decline and more vulnerable an ornamented the object becomes. This becomes the birth of modernism in ornamentation as outlined by Veblen, Morris, and Loos (Bédard, 18). With the addition of morality, stripping-off or the ornaments become the ethical duty leading to the moralising debates about modernist. Based on this, contemporary architects are, continuously engaging in modern ornamentation. There are significant uses of ornaments as outlined below
Uses of Ornaments
Ornament as a channel for communication- Ornament, in architecture serves as a public platform through which artists share their experience and delights in a collective form. Architects chose to communicate their messages through various ornaments, but ornamentation has profound reasons of its presence. In his study Schmidt (131) outlines that in a highly developed and productive country ornament does not exists as the natural product of the nation’s culture hence representing a degenerative or backwardness tendency. As outlined by Adolf Loos in his article “ornament and crime,” Adolf describes ornamentation as a source of crime and waste of resources while citizens continue to starve (Johnson, 313). However, the study disagrees with Adolf Los since ornament plays essential role in the current art.
As a key property of a built architecture, ornament is necessary for architects and individuals to interpret the space and perceive it as coherent whole. For example, the pure walls, plate windows, and door are present in modern ornament. However, since 1960s, there are streams of modernism recognizing the depth of ornamentation as a cultural symbolism and its significance in communication and continuity.
Scale promotion of arts- As outlined by Architect Robert venture of the United States, “when the modern architects randomly abandon the ornaments in objects and buildings” the architects unconsciously design buildings and objects that were ornaments. According to Johnson (315), decoration helps in relating the different scale areas to one another. Consequently, it embodies different levels of scale to enable individuals to relate to a building or objects. For example, London Fashion Architecture Taste (FAT) sees an ornament as an indispensable and inherent segment of architecture, but according to Adolf Loos, ornamentation is a waste of craft, effort, and labor (Bédard, 18).
FAT regards ornament as communicative device and less as the guilty pleasure. For example, partner sean Griffiths’s building in East London is an ornament that asks questions about symbols, townscape, archetype, and familiarity. Therefore, decoration symbolises a pride of a place and skills of the architect. Ornaments dictate the aesthetic of cities of various nations by assisting aesthetically democratise the built environments. As a result, including an aesthetic value in an object is a gift, but not a crime as describe by Adolf Loos.
Ornaments promote values and policies of the nation or company-Making a building or an object which is already important to the senses facilitates the value of that building or the object. However, the real crime is to suppress or deny a human desire an opportunity to create, graceful, beautify, and fashion into an image that can only be visualized by the mind. Balık, Deniz, and Açalya Allmer (42) assert that by endorsing ornaments, it essentially means that the nation or individuals are endorsing their strategies. Additionally, architects use ornaments to attempt and re-embed uncommon modernism into the living society through a two-dimensional depiction or real individuals. The study disagrees with Adolf since with the contemporary techniques and production it is possible to achieve intricacy and complexity in ornamentation with less effort. Therefore, form should follow function.
Bédard (14) outlines that ornamentation suggests ways in for the consumers and act as s functional role. For example, the Olympic stadium “Bird’s Nest” in Beijing is architectural ornament. With the real monarchial buildings, ornamentation becomes inherently classist. Ornaments are essential parts of the art since they are key forming in an individual identity.
Ornaments surrounding our designs and accessories people wear reflect the personal decisions that describe the type of a person. While modernism perks ornamentation, modernists end up establishing the architecture which is trapped in logic and on the fear of decor. In his study Andersen (143) explains that without realising modernism, architects build prisons around themselves. More significant ornament represents the culmination of architect’s experience, training, and craft that provides meaning to their job and business. Denying this from the architects and other artists Andersen argues that this removes their personality from their job, it dehumanizes the work of architects. As a result, it may lead to production of low quality work. For example, Adolf Loos describes the scenario where he is more willing to give more funds to the shoemaker than what is anticipated. This brings more joy to the cobbler until Loos brings up a condition that his shoe must not include any form of ornament (Bédard, 19).
Based on Loos arguments, it is certain that ornament continues to necessitate the psychological and physical association with the human beings. Consequently, ornamentation is a tangible mechanism of striving to involve the human psyche through achieving the balance between complexity and monotony. For example, as the architects bent on the “total design” like uber-modern and proto-modern , ornament was the main solution to challenges of heterogeneity of anew industrialized architecture. In surveying the writings on buildings and objects, an individual can identify three major aspects of ornament since the 18th century. These include structural role where ornament describes the ideal morphological of nature underlying the living organisms. In symptomatic aspect, ornaments betrayed the anxieties about a fast industrialization of the architecture. Therefore, it is necessary to consider what makes the best designs for architecture
What Makes a Good Design?
There are five personality characteristics that make up a good architecture. For an architect to be considered an effective and successful there is hard work put in place so that the important qualifications and skills are achieved. However, Sparrow, Paul and Heba Makram (250) assert that it is handy to have distinct traits and qualifications that majority of the prosperous architects have and continually apply in their jobs on a regular basis. These include passion as every best architect requires possessing passion in their art. Second, an architect must be an easy going person to cope up with emerging challenges. Third, to have a good design, there must be confidence among the artists. Other factors to consider for best designs include adaptability and creativity (Sparrow, Paul, and Heba Makram, 261). As a result, these qualities improve ornamentation as they are characterised by modernism techniques and skills leading to the production of high quality art as compared to arts in in the past years. Despite its significance, Adolf Loos and other artists outline many reasons why they consider ornament as a crime and source of severe criminal activities in recent architecture as described below
Ornament as a Crime
Many people arguing against the ornaments outline that ornamentation is produced by criminals and strugglers that slow down a cultural progress of the countries and humanity. For example, Loos argues that ornament itself commits severe crimes by damaging men and youths’ health and creating a decline in cultural and economic growth of the nation. Moreover, Balık, Deniz, and Açalya Allmer (56) elaborate that Adolf describe ornament is a waste of the natural resources and source of pollution to the environment since it involves using the available natural material that are essential in enhancing human environment.
Since ornament is currently not a natural product of civilization, it represents degeneration or backwardness hence inflicting damage on the employees since they are not adequately remunerated (Sparrow, Paul, and Heba Makram, 251). Ornament is characterized by poor working conditions in woodcarving and turning enterprises, and criminally low prices. For example, the de- constructivism is a key major challenge associated with ornaments. Therefore, producers of ornaments must work for over 15 hours to earn better wages that a modern employee receives within 8 hours. For example, the American architects work for 8 hours while Chinese, UK, and African carvers work for 16 hours. For example, Adolf in his article “ornament and crime” outlines that modern ornament has no connection to culture and human, but involves use of many materials and resources hence wasted labor and health. However, the essay disagrees with Adolf since in absence of modern ornaments there would not be better cities and objects.
Conclusion
Ornament as an art involves embellishing objects and buildings. The decorations have symbolic meanings that deliver vital messages to the society and consumers. The three types of ornament include mimetic, applied, and organic ornaments. Ornamentation adds beauty to the buildings hence attracting more consumers. Moreover, modern ornamentation has increased employment for many people hence high revenue collection by the government that facilitates economic growth. Through introduction of modern technology in ornamentation, artists such as Adolf Loos view ornament as a crime since it involves wasting resources and labor. Furthermore, they argue that ornamentation degenerates human culture. However, the essay does not support these artists since ornament is not a crime but an essential crypt that enhances outlooks, attracts tourists, provides employments, and promotes nature. As a result, the United Kingdom and other governments across the globe should promote ornamentation.
Works cited
Andersen, Bjørn Schiermer. "On the Aging of Objects: Ornament and Crime." Theory, Culture and Society 33.4 (2016): 127-150.
Balık, Deniz, and Açalya Allmer. "Simulating Craftwork in Contemporary Architecture." The Journal of Modern Craft 10.1 (2017): 37-57.
Bédard, Jean‐François. "Ornament in Architecture." Companion to the History of Architecture (2017): 1-21.
Johnson, Michael. "Modernist Architecture and Design in Europe." The Modernist World (2015): 311-320.
Sağlam, Hakan. "Re-thinking the Concept of “Ornament” in Architectural Design." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 122 (2014): 126-133.
Schmidt, Leoni. "Architecture van Brandenburg in an era of waste crisis." South African Journal of Art History 30.2 (2015): 129-135.
Sparrow, Paul R., and Heba Makram. "What is the value of talent management? Building value-driven processes within a talent management architecture." Human resource management review 25.3 (2015): 249-263.
