Robert Venturi: Learning from Las Vegas (1972)

*May His Soul Rest In Peace*

Do 'Ducks' facilitate Good Energy?

Robert Venturi argues about the concept of 'ducks' versus 'decorated sheds'. According to him, 'ducks' are buildings that explicitly represent their functions/ideas through their architectural design and shape whereas 'decorated sheds' are those where the architecture is very generic and could be multi-functional. In this case, their functions are notified using sign and decors like in restaurants or casinos. 

 
     

         Fig1:Hangzhou Int'l Conference Centre
           Photo credit: https://www.ihg.com/intercontinental

Fig2: Hangzhou Grand Theatre
Photo credit: http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0901

Fig3: Hangzhou Gov. Office Building
Photo credit: https://www.archdaily.com/152681/

Building onto this concept, I recently came across a video about a city called Hangzhou in China. Some of the prominent buildings in this city are those that are shaped like a Sun (Fig1), a Moon (Fig2) and one that represents 6 people hugging (Fig3) - all of which comes under Venturi's concept of  'ducks'.

According to the Chinese, good energy in the surrounding is a  symbol of success whereas bad energy is of failure. Keeping this in mind, the buildings in China are designed to facilitate the positive energy.

The idea behind these three buildings in that, the Sun and the Moon attracts the positive energy from the near by river which flows through them and onto the third one (Fig4). This energy indeed is spread across the city. It is believed that this idea of urban planning, focusing on the energy of the place, is one of the main reasons for the nation's huge  success. Shopping malls, hotels and resident buildings are all designed to facilitate energy flow through them. They believe in the ancient concept of Feng Shui which is followed even today.

Here, these 'ducks' are ‘Heroic and Original’, symbolically implicit, connotative and abstract, and therefore impoverished through their lack of ornamentation. Whereas, the 'decorated sheds' are the opposite: Ugly and Ordinary, explicitly symbolic, denotative and familiar and therefore, even though sheds may be seen as too generic a form, they are enriched through their layers of meaning. For example, some other residential towers in Hangzhou follow a typical form but are designed with excessive holes (openings) to increase the energy flow.

Feng Shui: "Positioning of objects can influence the energy of the place."

Fig4: Graphical Representation of energy flow through the three buildings
Photo credit: Aashika Shibu

 Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swzIKwqAIMI