Having discussed the historical background of architecture in Tashkent, it is evident that the architectural style of the city was influenced by two dominant forces: Islam, which shaped Tashkent's culture and religion since the 7th century and the Russian dominating aesthetic of Modernism, that replaced any existing religion, traditions and heritage. These two approaches to architecture will be discussed in this chapter; in particular general characteristics, materials, view on emptiness, geometry , calligraphy, significance of power, and technological aspects.
Islamic Tradition is based on a mysterious organic natural order, encouraged by craftsmen practices. Its architectural and urban forms have evolved over time adapting to topography, climate, surrounding environment and outside historical, political, and intellectual forces. (REFERENCE) Its architectural stylistic characteristics accent unity, harmony and continuity, timeless elements that guide the order of societies and our lives in them.
The 20th century saw the rise of a movement that has been called Modernism - a new aesthetic for a new way of life, that is functional and dramatically different in its concrete simplicity, machine structure and efficiency supported by the use of new materials and technology. It arose at the time of the industrial revolution (1920s), as a challenge to history and cultural references and celebrated the absolute break from the past, finding inspiration in the present day world. It raised visual and philosophical concerns with mechanization, aspiration with universality and internationalism. (REFERENCE - Gavin's Notes)
As major activities of Uzbek people were centered around agriculture and land cultivation, the architecture has reflected the surrounding landscapes, inspired by nature and its free-flowing organic unity. It based on natural forms and structures and simple local materials. "More deeply it (Islamic Architecture) was part of a spiritual continuum of survival and fertility, life and death, that linked earth to spirit." (Pearson 2001: 30)
For example, the special feature of Tashkent was a mauza, a wide (4 -6 km) ring of gardens and cultivated land outside the city walls. This green zone had been well maintained with planted trees and shrubs and constant water supply. The area was partitioned into different configuration and size sites, depending on its owner's prosperity. Sites belonged to the city dwellers especially living in central districts, and were mainly used only in summer. After 1865 the territory of old mauza had been modified to become the center of the new European Tashkent.
Conforming to the Modernist tendencies in architecture, Tashkent was designed with huge rectangular concrete houses that became, as planned by the architect Le Corbusier, machines for living. Mechanization remolded the order of the Uzbek society, made inroads on the form of the city, and transformed the surrounding countryside into a wider field of industrial production. The infrastructures of railways and steamship lines modified relation of space and time and changed the whole concept of place in Tashkent. Modernist architectural discipline intended to universalize this aesthetic, where it could become suitable for all times and places.
We live on earth yet so ignorant of earth and all the treasures it holds.Rumi. (Khodadoost 1997: CLAY, LIFE, and PEOPLE)
Materials
The choice of material for these approaches to building also justifies the purpose of Islamic and Modern architecture. Clay is one of the oldest materials used for building construction in Uzbekistan. The advantages of clay as a building material are: it is cheaper than concrete production and is readily available at most building sites. It has very high thermal capacity that enables it to keep the inside of a building cool when the outside is hot and vice versa. It is a good noise absorbent and it is easy to work using simple tools and skills.
Clay architecture has formed basic architectural mechanism and traditions in Uzbekistan. Clay is smooth in shaping different forms retains it's shape forever after drying or burning gaining more strength and more sticking. It has organic, plastic properties that benefit the construction and maintenance purposes of architecture. The clay was used in construction for its everlastingness (eternal), able to confront different erosion factors and accept nature conditions.
Despite its good qualities, the material has the following weaknesses as a building material. It has low resistance to water penetration resulting in crumbling and structural failure. It has a very high shrinkage / swelling ratio resulting in major structural cracks when exposed to changing weather conditions. It has low resistance to abrasion and requires frequent repairs and maintenance when used in building construction.
However, there are several ways to overcome most of these weaknesses and make earth a suitable building material for many purposes. Burnt-clay, for example has good resistance to moisture, insects and erosion and create a warm environment. Burnt-clay, used in architecture has a vibrant effect, the aesthtic quality, that cannot be achieved with concrete.
Concrete is the material of choice of modernists. (Le Cobussier) It offers a number or advantages. It is very strong in compression and its strength increases with time. Concrete is Resistant to corrosive action of water as well as excellent for fire protection. It is durable and resistant to wear. Concrete is also highly resistant to moisture and other weather conditions, and does not corrode or decay. Concrete has the ability to store heat, which helps reduce energy consumption and it can provide a comfortable indoor climate. This helps insulate building environments from fluctuations in outdoor temperatures. Concrete has good sound insulation properties, because the sound insulation capability of a material is typically dependent on its mass, the relative weight of concrete positions it as an optimal sound insulation material for most structures. (Guice 2001: 17)
Empty rectangular panels of raw concrete lost the texture normally found in natural materials, such as wood or clay. Concrete's colour and texture, are not its natural, inherent qualities but artificially imposed on it. Removing natural color and texture from the environment concrete denies two of the human senses: colour vision, and touch. Two more senses, hearing and smell, are assaulted when concrete is used in interior walls. Since concrete is acoustically "hard", it produces an unpleasant echo compared to the more pleasing echo from acoustically softer materials such as wood or clay. In addition, raw concrete surfaces tend to give off powder with time that not only has a unpleasant smell, but also poses a respiratory health hazard.
Concrete's rigidity and massiveness can cause the rapid failure of the structures in earthquakes. Therefore, using concrete is inappropriate to the inherent aspects of Tashkent as a place, as its history attests this an important facet of the city. A buildings' huge inertia would keep it in one place, while the ground moves in all directions. However, afterwards it quickly crumbles the concrete, and destroys the structure.
All in all, clay with its naturally adjustable qualities allows the flexibility in production, based on the intuitive gradual development of arhcitecture as craft. The rigidity and the fast firming quality of concrete requires the predetermined plan for construction, which means the modernist arhcitecture had taken a design approach to building. Therefore, the materials and building methods justify the very important disticntion between craft and design approaches to Architecture in Tashkent. However, the major difference between the Islamic and the Modernist approaches is not so much in its material qualities, because, as it was identified are in some cases similar, but the methods of consctuction. The Islamic clay architecture reflects the individual craft attention to building and the materials and the most observable Modernist architecture was the mass produced living environment, lacking the link to the human beings.
Craft vs. Design
The distinction between the craft and design is deeply rooted in the differences of cultural and social order through history. Some aspects had already been illustrated in different contexts. However, it is very important to state a clear definition of craft and design in the social circumstances of Tashkent�s architectural environment.
Architecture in the Islamic Tashkent society before the Russian period in history was based on craft practices. Whereas, after the establishment of Soviet Regime in Uzbekistan, architecture became more controlled and structured.
I shall call a culture unselfconscious if its form � making is learned informally, through imitation and correction. And I shall call a culture selfconscious if its form � making is taught academically, according to explicit rules. (Alexander 1964: 36)
Adopting Christopher Alexander�s observations to Tashkent�s architectural practices, the unselfconscious culture of Islamic craft is based on the following characteristics. It is learned through imitation and correction. It is the result of gradual adaptation. It is based on closeness and immediacy of materials. It affords immediate action in reaction to failure. It supports the impermanence of constructions because. Craft is based on cultural heritage and tradition.
To summarise, in the Modernist selfconscious society architectural discipline is learned academically, according to explicit rules. It allows dynamic, rapid changes to occur. Materials are no longer close to hand. The reaction to failure is less direct, frequent repairs and readjustments are less common. Buildings are more permanent, frequent repair and readjustment less common then they used to be. The firmness of tradition dissolves in favor of universal design and sameness.
Technology
Without access to modern technology, Islamic architecture had been developed and continuously improved over many centuries, attempting to build or enrich the inner life and spirituality for living, and in this process acquiring its uniqueness and power of the individual creations. �the owner is his own builder � the form�maker not only makes the form but lives in it. (Alexander 1964: 49) Material blocks, glazed tiles, frames and bricks were produced individually by hand and construction process had been closely supervised to achieve perfection. Modernist technologies became another sign of domination and power status. Machine-worship became a tenet of faith, as if mechanization could be thought of as identical with the social and historical path of progress. (Curtis 1996: 203) The potentials of technology rejected traditional religious mythologies as motivations in our lives. Mass produced building blocks and standardized construction techniques lack the diversity, which is the essential part of living, which leads to the withdrawal of the sense of creativity from buildings, eliminating a sense of life from them.
Emptiness
Both, Modernism as well as Islamic Tradition is found to make use of the white flat surfaces, however, their approaches are very different. Modernist critique of ornament in flavor of flat, clear emptiness and the importance of colorlessness in modernism were chosen to obliterate any sense of history, any sense of the body, and to suggest a timeless aesthetic divorced from life�s dirty realities. The lifeless emptiness of modernist architecture can also be perceived as a sign of superiority of the powerful ideology.
Islamic teaching of emptiness on the other hand has more spiritual tendencies and contradicts the dead oppressive modernist blank space, silence and despair. Islamic Tradition changes the perspective to view emptiness and finds inspiration, loving the emptiness that is full.
I've said before that every craftsman
searches for what's not there
to practice his craft.A builder looks for the rotten hole
where the roof caved in. A water-carrier
picks the empty pot. A carpenter
stops at the house with no door.
Workers rush toward some hint
of emptiness, which they then
start to fill. Their hope, though,
is for emptiness, so don't think
you must avoid it. It contains
what you need!
Dear soul, if you were not friends
with the vast nothing inside,
why would you always be casting you net
into it, and waiting so patiently?
This invisible ocean has given you such abundance,
but still you call it "death",
that which provides you sustenance and work....
Rumi (Rainfield 2001: 10)Geometry
In Modern architecture, geometry manifests more in materials, structures, and mathematic notions of proportion and symmetry - on the macro scale of architecture: massive flat walls, straight lines and constrained big blocks of concrete. Islamic tradition took detailed studies of nature's forms, exotic pattern systems, fractals and hidden organic grids in geometry and elegant ornamental techniques, on the micro level.
Significance of Calligraphy and its Religious Impact
Islamic Religious Architecture relies on decorative themes and calligraphy that play a central role in architecture independently of material, scale and technique. There are several reasons why this happened. Firstly, it is because the centre of the Islamic religion was NOT the figure of Muhammad himself, but the Koran which, according to Islam is the word of God. In a sense the whole of the religion is focused on this written word produced in Arabic script. Secondly, there was a restriction in early Islam against the production of images of human beings and animals. Therefore, Islamic Architects and Craftsmen used the Arabic script as a decorative instrument. Not only did it give colour, texture and detail to forms, but since it used quotations from the Koran as decoration, it gave every object a religious significance.
Like Allah, the limitless one, building forms, spaces and ornament seem to cascade, like fractals, into the distance without end. (Pearson 2001: 32)
The informational meaning of ornamental calligraphy on architectural surfaces escapes most non-Muslims. People who understand the language and respect its content connect instantly with a building through the message of the text, which establishes a deeply emotional link to an individual. Those who cannot read the script can only imagine the powerful meaning it endows on a built structure. All of us can observe the incredible degree to which the calligraphy achieves meaning just in design terms.
Modernism, however, is an affront to many religions, by denying their architectural expression, suggesting that in architecture, decoration and ornament are quite inessential, while space creating and the relationships of masses are its true essentials. Petrus Berlage (Curtis 1996: 153) It arrogantly opposes the basic principle of connecting an individual to the universe - hence to God - through color, design, sculpture, and calligraphy. Modernism forbids sensory connections and the word of God (and God's name) from being used in an architectural setting.
Salingaros picked up an interesting aspect of Modernist aesthetics and argued that:
This war against ornament and decoration actually hides an ideological failure in modernism: the lack of a cultural basis. That should not be surprising, since modernism deliberately sought to destroy all ties (and reminiscences) of historical architectures. More than any other group of architects, those trained in the modernist school showed no respect for preserving architectural masterpieces of the past. True to their fundamentalist beliefs, non-modernist buildings held no value for them. Older buildings continue to pose a danger for the modernists' empty assertions, since ordinary people can connect emotionally to their surfaces. As in other fanatical movements, it is essential to erase any examples that contradict official dogma. (Salingaros 2001: www)
Signs of Power
Rapid development, massive importation of technology, planning, design and constructional expertise present Modernist demand for progress and power, which also reflects on its Architecture. Crisp verticals, clean horizontals, no fuzzy detailing - are the declaration of power, mega structure and distrust of the city. The system must acknowledge the dangers of the city, and therefore provide architecture as a promise for security from them. Modernist architecture proclaims the power of the ideology and the insignificance of the individual.
Modernists striving for power led to the development of cloned style, standardized concrete paneled buildings, mass-produced architecture, which rejected humane characteristics and tended to rationalize and abstract the process. Modernist design involved idealistic new way of thinking about Architecture, which had clearly evolved from the philosophy of bringing everyday life to a standardized shape. Learned, explicit, planned, intending to cause global, permanent changes, Modernism stood in opposition to the long established traditions of Islamic style, which was developed from a gradual adaptation to the natural conditions, and reflecting its culture and spirituality.
There are very distinct differences between the Islamic Tradition and the Modernist Aesthetic, which separately create two distinct styles in architecture. Tashkent's city fabric had adapted both of these place making techniques to its contemporary view and arrived at the style which mixes the elements of Modernism with Islamic symbolism in order to construct place that conforms to the social and political regimes. The next chapter examines the compromise that had been achieved in architecture of Tashkent to minimize the clash of differences between these two contrasting and conflicting approaches.