The Renewal of the Façade

Abstract

Basing his analysis on Alois Riegl’s principle of the haptic and the optic, Janák elaborates the shifting tendencies of different historical periods towards concentric or frontal design in architecture, explaining that the dominance of one or other of the styles in any given period was due to its coincidence with the ideals of the time, and that the present period is still searching for its ideal. He draws much of his understanding of the respective styles from an unpicking of the ways in which the hand and the eye are used as “tools” in the perception (and creation) of architecture; the former allowing an objective, whole perception of a building, and the latter restricting the conception/perception of the object to that which is visible from one particular standpoint. In line with this, dominance of the hand favors concentric design, while dominance of the eye favors frontal. He goes on to explain that his search for the ideal of the time has led him to conclude that it is the eye which is favored by Cubist architects, as the perception of the eye in the façade enables an understanding of space and creation of volume.

Keywords:

• architecture
• Cubism
• haptic
• optic
• Alois Riegl
• Czech Cubism

Notes

1. Pavel Janák, “Obnova průčelí,” Umělecký měsíčník II (1912–1913): 85–97.

2. Digital Collections of The New York Public Library, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-bb5e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99/book?parent=30386f00-c5ee-012f-3b6c-58d385a7bc34#page/107/mode/2up (accessed 23 October 2016).

1. Translator’s note: the pairs “the eye–the hand” and “vision–touch” are used in the translation for the author’s “the eye–the touch.”