On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time

by Mohsen Mostafavi, David Leatherbarrow

On Weathering illustrates the complex nature of the architectural project by taking into account its temporality, linking technical problems of maintenance and decay with a focused consideration of their philosophical and ethical implications.In a clear and direct account supplemented by many photographs commissioned for this book, Mostafavi and Leatherbarrow examine buildings and other projects from Alberti to Le Corbusier to show that the continual refinishing of the building by natural forces adds to, rather than detracts from, architectural meaning. Their central discovery, that weathering makes the "final" state of the construction necessarily indefinite, challenges the conventional notion of a building's completeness. By recognizing the inherent uncertainty and inevitability of weathering and by viewing the concept of weathering as a continuation of the building process rather than as a force antagonistic to it, the authors offer alternative readings of historical constructions and potential beginnings for new architectural projects.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Philosophy

148 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 1993

About the author

Mohsen Mostafavi (1954) is an Iranian-American architect and educator. He is the Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has been the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University, and the Chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet but provocative little argument. Renaissance architects used rustication as an expressive tool and understood how water and wind would age their work.

Modernist architects, since the start, since Corbusier, have put forth the fiction of the building's surfaces as hygienic, pure - white - blank slates. Guess who wins?

[Jon Zellweger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a huge contribution to my master’s thesis, now completed —ahem— 21 years ago. Someone pejoratively accused it of being a coffee table book, and there are lots of images. But the text is quite useful for design thinking, even today. Our authors frame how a shift in the industrial age with Modernism put an immense emphasis on agelessness, sanitized perfection and experimental “progress” which translated to using new materials and construction methods to create flat, white boxes. While there is great variety in the Modern ouevre, the thrust of this particular agenda towards lightness, health, etc was overpowering. The author’s make a sound argument that to this day, architects and lay-people alike, embrace newness, maintenance-free materials and eschew the marks of aging or wear and tear. However, history demonstrates a more nuanced understanding by earlier master builders and the myriad black and white images throughout the book bear witness. The open question that fascinated me then and still does today is how designers can celebrate the ambiguity between a building’s birth and demise and plan for weathering to enhance ever-evolving character. The architect cannot assume a building should be embalmed in appearance and function when handing the keys to the owner, but needs to anticipate the greater arc of occupancy and aging. The marks of weathering can be a design asset, imparting beneficial character for everyone’s delight.

[Liliana Amundaraín · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy to read! An overview of the role of weathering in architecture by comparing works from the Reinassace period with others of the Modern era. It's a "surface" approach enlightening questions on the inherent transformation of any building by natural causes.

[Yuen Phuket · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inevitable natural forces that thoroughly leave its trance on building skins, lessons and comparisons from the past to modern age with explanations on how they react and develop to be meaningfully aged with weathering.

[Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

"..มิติแห่งกาลเวลาภายในอาคารนั้น สามารถเปรียบได้กับประสบการณ์ของเราเกี่ยวกับเวลา ในทุกช่วงของชีวิตเรา จุดที่ผ่านมาแล้วไม่ว่าจะเกิดขึ้น ณ​ช่วงเวลาอันห่างไกลเพียงใด เวลาเหล่านั้นยังคงมีตัวตนในปัจจุบันเสมอ.."
หนังสือที่อ่านแล้วรื่นรมย์ในบ่ายวันอาทิตย์เล่มนี้พูดถึงมุมมองของสถาปนิกต่างยุตที่มีต่อสถาปัตยกรรมและสัจธรรมของการเกิด การมีตัวตน และการเสื่อมสลายของสรรพสิ่งผ่านสถาปัตยกรรม คิดว่าเป็นหนังสือที่เขียนไม่ง่ายเลย เพราะการเขียนเรื่องเกี่ยวกับเวลาให้เห็นภาพชัดๆเป็นเรื่องที่ไม่น่าง่าย แต่ต้องอาศัยการสังเกตและใคร่ครวญมากมากมายที่เดียว