If you were to ask an average person to cite a few examples regarding ‘storytelling’, you’d be surprised at how rarely architecture or buildings would pop up in their narrative. More often than not, storytelling is associated with the most explicit of the arts – painting, literature, film-making or even in more profoundly abstracted forms like music or dance. It is, frankly put, not all too baffling that the idea that buildings, places and spaces can render themselves in a storytelling format often evades the human mind as we see ourselves shaping our dwellings, horizons and places of convergence into those having a drastic functional aura about them—with many a building being practically indistinguishable from another resulting in a general monotony.
What could have been an area’s indigenous and unique template to tell its story has now morphed into a collective international gauge to express a superior quality of life. Yet, the storytelling ability of architecture persists, through buildings that have been to the buildings that are yet to come. Let’s take a couple of instances where architecture has managed to change our perspective through storytelling.
Etched into Stone
From the beginning of time, man has been keen on leaving behind a story in the places that he conquered. Strewn about in paint on the walls of the world’s first cave dwellings, one can stumble across tales of family, community, nature, hunting and sometimes even being hunted.
As with the progression of time, the man moved from spaces that were easily available to him to those that he managed to craft from the scratch. One can’t help but marvel at the many monoliths left behind by the early man, what may have been their purpose? Why had he planned these structures the way that he had? – Are several of the questions that still loom over our heads when we consider structures like the Stonehenge which are still being ‘debunked’ and prodded for a thorough story.
Unlike the early man, his latter predecessors were niftier when it came to telling their tales. This can be testified by many structures around the world especially temples. A lot of these temples told stories of mythology and ancient royalty—be it through the hieroglyphics of Egypt about gods, the dancers that adorned Indian temples, the wars waged on Roman Pediments to the well-crafted facades of the Bayon which likened their kings as supernal beings.
Chiselled through the decades and even centuries in some cases, these structures hold stories that are the pride of the nations they are housed in and very much remembered by the rest of the world for the same. People travel miles to see these spaces for the stories and the perspective of the men that laid them in place.
The Skies under a Ceiling
From grandeur that was reserved for the public buildings and the gods during the Classical Era, architecture took a shift during the eras of Renaissance, Baroque and eventually Rococo. One saw the intensity of the many arts thriving and being glorified as a unified whole in stories of the many buildings that spanned three centuries.
With its threshold rooted in Greek and Roman architecture, the Renaissance Era was one of the first instances in history where finesse and grandeur were not just reserved for the facades but also the interiors of the buildings. Many a painter was commissioned during this time to paint various stories on the internal walls and ceilings of the heavens, angels, cherubs and even biblical stories.
This manifested in the idea of exhibiting an ‘illusion’ through architecture. Spaces were given the illusion of seemingly being bigger or open to the skies to transform the perspectives of the occupants. In particular, Michelangelo’s breathtaking masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel ceiling is often regarded as one of the major artistic pinnacles of human civilization.
Another branch of the theme of illusion that was explored during this time was the idea of trickery or play in architecture. This can often be seen during the later-Renaissance in the architecture followed by Andrea Palladio and his counterparts. He used the mechanism of trompe l’oeil to give illusions of streets, corridors, doors, windows and sometimes even cabinets. Centuries later, similar themes have been explored extensively by Charles Correa in his Kala Academy and Cidade de Goa.
Eventually, as Rococo took over, one could see a more humane take on the Roman ornamentation brought into these interiors. This was a slow shift and in some ways the makings of organic architecture and the predecessor to the idea of incorporating actual green spaces into the buildings that was explored much later.
During this time, the stories told were that of regality and luxury in the form of golden swindling vines, an abundance of curves, glimmering mirrors and chandeliers. This was the beginning of a story that explored themes of glamour, lavish and high-end aristocratic lifestyles.
Through Heights and Stacking
The periodic theme of building in height was explored substantially during the Gothic Era. There was a need to build in height to create a series of buildings that were not based on any of the ornate and pristine facades that had ever been commonplace by then but rather a whole new style of building. Gothic Architecture mostly revolved around religious buildings that needed to instill a feeling of awe within the visitor.
Here, one sees a story of devotion that is constructed from the perspective of feeling small and fragile in a seemingly large and imposing facade. Much of Europe was taken over by storm with rising spires, colourful stained glass and rosette windows and the swooping buttresses and ribbed vaults that initially helped achieve a considerable amount of height. The gradual trend of a man warming up to tall builds can be pinpointed in and around this era.
With time, building in height wasn’t just reserved for religious buildings, as all trends go. The idea of having a series of tall builds took over the world starting with the dawn of Industrialization. There was the need to accommodate a steadily rising population in the cities. Individual housing could not be a solution anymore as it was land prices that skyrocketed.
Often accredited to the city of Chicago and what from them on was called Commercial Style or the Chicago School of architecture, builders came up with the solution of providing modules of habitation stacked in height. This was the beginning of a new age of habitation that is now the face of most developed and developing cities—the apartments. One saw the story of a new age of communal living and social interactions and slowly the face of our cities was occupied by towering concrete giants. With time, there was a constant interplay of varying styles on the facades of these apartments with movements like Minimalism, Metabolism, Bauhaus, etc.
Rekindling Man and Nature
Towards the end of the 20th century, global awareness regarding climate change and the irreversible depletion of fossil fuels had established itself as an unavoidable reality. A myriad of countries turned themselves into sustainable building practices and thus, the story of man and nature symbolizing an interwoven narrative as opposed to two separate entities was established.
People have started appreciating spaces that are more in tune with nature in a global setting that is still predominantly saturated with an international style. Over the decades, architects have managed to craft spaces that are seamless with nature to the point where one cannot tell the other apart.
Like Nation, Like Landmark
Most human beings are capable of retaining certain imagery, smell, feeling or sound concerning a place. More often than not, with the evolution of civilization, people often leave behind a certain ‘something’ to remember them by, as seen with many monuments around the world.
The legacies of the common man as well those with privilege are marked on the walls of numerous facades. Following are a few instances where the entire cities or monuments managed to craft a narrative about themselves that have deliberately or otherwise helped others in altering their perspectives about the same.
The Pyramids, Egypt and El Castillo, Mexico
Two separate iconic monuments from two different corners of the world, one used as a grand royal sarcophagus for the Egyptians whereas the other being a temple for the Aztecs. Their portrayal with time has often filled people with wonder and speculation as to how superstructures of that magnitude could be crafted in that day and age. From ghosts to alien invasions, the stories and speculations that these two monuments have unknowingly managed to craft are unrivalled.
Cappadocia, Turkey
A tourist hotspot that is currently known for its ‘fairy chimneys’, hot air balloons and frescoed churches, the natural wonder that turned into a settlement over thousands of years was not the stuff of fairytales. Cappadocia was rooted in hardship, with people crafting living spaces into natural rock formations to evade capture and prosecution. Yet today, it expresses a narrative of magic and wonder set amidst brilliant sunsets.
Jodhpur, India
A popular destination that is often remembered for its distinct blue buildings—Jodhpur was not made the way that it is to be visually pleasing. The colouration of the city is the aftermath of building techniques to repel pests as well as to create climatically sound places.
Eiffel Tower, Paris
An exhibit that was too dearly loved that it had to stay, this fateful building is iconic to the point where one cannot separate it from the narrative of Paris or France. The structure is now synonyms with romantic holidays, Parisian nightlife and a global symbol of love.
To conclude, architecture has always been working behind the curtains when it comes to peoples’ perception of the world around them and how the stories of different places unfold. It has proven itself crucial in terms of normalising some new aspect to the story that is new or alien. One can even argue that the field of architecture has indeed played a major yet subtle role when it comes to the acceptance of a certain design element or style throughout history.
At the end of the day, though not at face value, architecture does turn the wheels when it comes to storytelling.
