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Abstract
The term ‘responsive cohesion’ combines the adjective ‘responsive’ (reacting, receptive, answering, sensitive) with the noun ‘cohesion’ (forming a unit, holding together). The paper first describes the character of responsive cohesion and examines its relation to the literature on preferences in urban aesthetics. The body of the paper critically examines how responsive cohesion is evident in five urban sites in the city of Helsinki, Finland. These sites range from mixed-use developments to individual buildings inserted into the urban fabric. The paper shows how a quality of responsive cohesion crosses boundaries of aesthetic value, functional value and ethics.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Warwick Fox for discussions about responsive cohesion as the foundational value in General Ethics.
Notes
1. Gary Hack adds the distinction that fine art is often characterized as ‘self-initiated, only loosely constrained by others, and critical in its orientation, while design is responsive to clients or patrons, constrained by materials and costs, and must meet the tests of use’ (Hack Citation2016, 435).
2. See Marshall Citation2016, 409 table 3.
3. Ian Bentley and his co-authors (Citation1985) reflect this combination of art and artfulness in their influential book Responsive Environments.
4. Amongst others, Stephen Bourassa (Citation1991, 18) emphasized a building’s responsibility to its context: ‘the aesthetic object of architecture should not be the individual building, but rather the entire streetscape or landscape’. Christopher Alexander et al. (Citation1987) in A New Theory of Urban Design (1987) argued that the goal of any new work is to ‘heal the city’, responding to the state of the city as a whole and correcting damage.
5. The classical idea of ‘unitas et varietas’ has been adapted to many areas. During the eighteenth century early enlightenment, G.W. Leibniz (Citation[1714] 1995) addressed their relationship in his ‘Monadology’. Later, Wilhelm Wundt (cited in Smith Citation1979) studied the principle as the central idea in his empirical psychology. His ‘Wundt Curve’ plots pleasure against complexity, a distorted bell curve where pleasure grows with increasing complexity until it peaks and there is a sharp decline to displeasure. In the 1930s George Birkhoff (Citation1933) studied the linking of unity and diversity mathematically under the title ‘formal aesthetics’. Both used the terms ‘order’ and ‘complexity’ as conflicting factors that create interest (Zusne Citation1970; Smith Citation1979).
6. See also Mehta (Citation2014); Ewing and Clemente (Citation2013). With the advent of wearable EEG (electroencephalography) monitors that record brainwave activity, such studies can be directly related to an understanding of the underlying neuroscience.
7. While it presents many examples of discohesion, London also offers examples of fixed cohesion in its Georgian squares and grand avenues, and of responsive cohesion where disparate parts come together to make a cohesive whole.
8. A functionalist building opened in 1938 as a result of a 1934 competition won by Jorma Järvi and Erik Lindroos, with Kaarlo Borg involved later.
10. Holl’s own sketch is published at https://www.e-architect.co.uk/helsinki/kiasma-museum-contemporary-art/.
12. Chief designer Marko Kivistö.
13. See ark (Arkkitehti: Finnish Architectural Review) 5/2011 ‘Musiikkitalo atmosphere Holl’.
15. Juhani Pallasmaa Architects (shopping centre, Narinkkatori square, public outdoor spaces on Salomonkatu, Annankatu, Jaakonkatu, Olavinkatu); Helin & Co Architects (commercial spaces, office and apartment blocks); Marja-Riitta Norri Architects (apartments); ARX Architects (Tennispalatsinaukio square); Davidsson Tarkela Architects (public transportation terminals).
16. Partners Kimmo Lintula, Niko Sirola and Mikko Summanen.
17. See ark (Arkkitehti: Finnish Architectural Review) 3/2012 ‘Helsinki design’. Paula Holmila comments that the sculptural Chapel ‘does not take its context into account, for example the old bus station situated too close by’ (32). They are very different, but the dialogue is stimulating and responsive rather than disturbing.
18. [Nils-Erik] Wickberg, a Professor of Architectural History in the Technical High School (which much later became Aalto University), ’… was very much opposed to the Bookshop scheme because he would have wanted to keep the old Kinopalatsi building. … Alvar of course thought that however good a building is, his new one will be even better’ (Vezio Nava 2002, in Charrington and Nava Citation2011, 276).
19. See ark (Arkkitehti: Finnish Architectural Review) 6/2012 ‘Kirjasto Kaisa Library’.
20. The new building was more appreciated by architects than others. Although originally against its demolition, Professor Wickberg finally ‘did admit that the Enso-Gutzeit was better than the Norrmén building which was pulled down out of its way’ (Vezio Nava 2002, in Charrington and Nava Citation2011, 276).
21. Until quite recently most architects were educated at the same school.