Reading Analysis

The symbolic fall of the berlin wall in 89 marked the beginning of a new era, and that is not only a political one; but it affected the world as a whole with the growing technology and the opening of the world. This idea was first introduced in LeCorbusier's Toward an Architecture when he studied the ideal city planning, studying Roman cities specifically. LeCorbusier compares the grid system with the networked one, and as a result, he along with Mies Van Der Rohe reveal a preference in the Grid one, reflecting the packed donkey way, since it provided stability and order, during time of instability, the cold war.

However, with globalization, architecture is no longer just a part of aesthetic visualizations in the city, but had to solve social, political, economic and many other factors conflicting in the world. Hence as complexity took over, new means were to be applied in architecture. For some architects, that did not create any challenge. For example, Frank Gehry found a way that breaks even between the limiting simplicity of the grid organization and the complexity of the networked organization. In his Guggenheim Museum, Gehry evolves from a grid plan organization to complex shapes, and not regular linear and geometric lines and shapes.

The idea of the simple versus complex could be applied not only on the organization of the city, but also on the planning of a building’s structure or even the program and circulation of a specific building could be based on these different organizational methods.

Moreover, architecture is no longer looked at as an art, however, it is now a simple outcome or reflection of economic and social effects in the cities. Thus, site planning is no longer taken into consideration, knowing that grid organization is no longer the most effective organization of a plan, and stability may be attained in any site condition using the networked organization with irregular shapes.