Tectonic into Textile: John Ruskin and His Obsession with the Architectural Surface

Abstract

T his paper considers the architectural writings of John Ruskin (1891Ruskin ( -1900. an important architecture, art and social critic in Victorian England and interprets his preoccupation with surface ornament. The paper reveals that, for Ruskin. architecture was a living entity. His idea of life was influenced by Thomas Carlyle's philosophy of clothes, according to which the human soul was more important than the body and it could be expressed only through clothing. Ruskin translated this notion into an architectural theory. He believed that the soul of architecture was contained in the veneer of decoration that concealed the exterior walls. In addition, he argued that the composition of the decorative veneer exhibited qualities of dresses and textiles. This article terms this as Ruskin's theory of the adorned "wall veil." It argues that this was the motivation for his interest in the architectural surface. The article counters the claim that Ruskin's writings were unarchitectural or, in other words, unconcerned with space, structure and function. It argues that the theory of the adorned wall veil attempted to shift the ontological identity of architecture. It also contributed to the nineteenth century debates on architectural ornament and dress.

Textiles and the Making of Sacred Space

“…24 The architectural motif, modelled on local textiles, seen here is reminiscent of arguments put forward by John Ruskin (1819-1900) -who understood architectural surface (like clothing on a person) to show forth the moral quality of the interior. 25 The Batammaliba example may also remind us of Gottfried Semper's suggestion that weaving (and knotting) of textiles was the precursor to the architectural form. 26 While the ceremonial use of cloth, as described by Blier, lends itself to more religious aspects of fabric, discussed below, the cicatrisation -even though it is not textile with warp and weft -suggests that exterior designs of buildings are similar in affective terms to dress.…”

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and monument protection: A case study

“…Prepričan je namreč bil, da nihče nima pravice spreminjati avtorjeve resnice, in sicer zaradi spoštovanja do avtorja in celotnega človeštva. Tudi Ruskin je videl povezavo med arhitekturo in človeškim telesom, ki ima dušo in je kot taka lahko izražena le skozi obleko oziroma z najpomembnejšim delom arhitekture -pročelnim ovojem, ki mu je bil veliko pomembnejši kot konstrukcijska zasnova prostora in njegove funkcije (Chatterjee, 2009). Zato je vneto zagovarjal nedotakljivost te »obleke«, v svojih delih je pisal o pomembnosti pravilne nege, nadzora in primernega vzdrževanja z uporabo tradicionalnih veščin (Jokilehto, 1999, in Kultermann, 2005, da bi se tako historične stavbe čim dalj časa ohranile in propadle po svoji naravni poti.…”

Birth, Death, and Rebirth: Reconstruction of architecture in Ruskin’s writings

“…More than material, the destruction at stake was a shattering of the toiled privilege of the authorial male self by the imposition of another's vision. These ideas are discussed in detail in Chatterjee (2009a), and the argument of Ruskin's adorned wall veil is developed in Chatterjee (2008).…”