The poetics of earthquake in architectural design

Abstract

Here «poetics» is derived from the 'Aristotelian' suggestion that artifacts (here architecture) are imitations of something in life, and that we enjoy them - even if they imitate painful or unpleasant things - because in experiencing them we learn something about what they imitate; in this case earthquake. Therefore the title suggests an imitation of geological forces and their effects, from a depiction of faulting to an expression of the dynamics involved. However the term «poetics» also implies an emphasis of the metaphorical, figurative, allusive and connotative aspects of earthquake. The expression of energy, violence, uncertainty and chaos can be seen in the work of deconstructive architects as well as architects like SITE and Morphosis. While this kind of architectural response is more evident in twentieth century architecture than in earlier design, as a balance to totalitarian tendencies, it is also seen by some as containing 'newness'; offering the possibility of a new order out of chaos. It is the destructive and creative nature inherent in earthquake that makes it a powerful, if ambivalent, metaphor.