毫無建築概念學生所學到的
This morning I had to attend a student-led seminar for my social geography course, with discussions based on architectual designs in Downtown LA. Anyway, based on our conclusion, we were quite mean to the city's architecture.... or perhaps ideology....
But I got really hooked on what this person brought up as we were discussion southern California's brutalist architectures. When I heard this term, with little background in architecture, I literally LOLed in front of the whole group. Brutalist architectures? I was like "what? so do the walls and poles and bricks abuse people? or ceilings designed to crash on you at some point?" And I was thinking, "oh wow I know American people can be quite repressive sometimes with crackdowns and things, but I never knew they'd go as far as carrying this aggressiveness into their buildings". (I am utilising ANNA AN's way of mind and logic, not the best thing to do when you're talking about serious stuff)
Just as I was about to make a fool of myself and speak my mind, phew, the person defined the term. I forgot the exact words, but it falls somewhere along the lines of what wikipedia says: a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from modernist architectual movement. Heavily related to academic's favourite victim of criticism, Le Corbusier's "raw concrete" to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post WWII buildings. And they're also very squary, with repetitive angular geometries.
Ah~ I get it I get it. I still think the term is really mean, it's not THAT bad, Brutalist architecture lol.. and once again we blame it on poor Le Corbusier.
And right away, she told us how this is related to SFU's high suicide rates.
I visited the school a couple times on Burnaby Mountain. The time that I really took a thorough tour was in early September, so I actually found the campus to be quite pleasant especially with the grass fields, ponds, and it's factory-like interiors with some of the newer buildings, I thought that was kind of cool and green. But the problem is with the original huge building that was established when the school was opened in the 1960s (peak of Le Corbusier trend?) When I saw my friends' SFU student cards with the building as its background, and at once I thought the school looked a bit like....... a jailhouse. Now I heard this from my professor but I'm not sure if it's true, apparently, the designer, Authur Erickson, also designed quite a lot of jail houses around the globe. (and he also built UBC's Museum of Anthropology and Koerner Library)
So in fact, they say Ericson's preference of jail-like buildings doesn't look very pleasant to everyone, thus causing high suicide rates. There ends the discussion cos we ran out of time. But I kept on thinking about how brutalist building of SFU relates to suicide rates. I guessed out of nowhere, "So students are grossed out by the buildings that they're taking their own lives?" Well I didn't dare to say this outloud, I just cannot imagine how such micro environments can influence one's psychological well being... but I guess I was close to the point. Google gave me this:
Simon Fraser University is with no doubt one of the leading academic school in Canada. There have been many educational and athletic accomplishments achievedby this great university. Therefore, attaining the leading role of educationrequires the university to impose strict standards and demand high levels ofexpectations from its students. But how does this impact the students who areperhaps new to this life? And how does the campus life contribute to the wellbeing of these stressed students? Simon Fraser University Burnaby campus isfamous for its suicide rates. What exactly causes these high suicide rates? Thedark and depressing halls that resemble hospital corridors and the greyconcrete walls which become dark and moldy looking when wet imitate prisonwalls is what many students claim to be the leading cause. The fog that sweeps through the campus diminishingthe little green visible on the campus life adds a dreary feeling and somehowmanages to tire students out even more. Dr. Connie Coniglio of the SFU HealthCounseling and Career Centre stated in March 22, 1999 peak article, ‘“theamount of rain and lack of sunlight makes it feel pretty gloomy up here…theweeks without sun can have a psychological impact on people"’(Marley,1999). Dr. Coniglio also includes that the 18 to 24 age groups can be at aparticularly high risk for suicide, due to identity and relationship issues,academic challenges, and development issues. Addressing these issues regardingcampus life, the university can have a positive impact on psychological andbehavioral effects on students. Perhapschanging the campus design and adding additional programs to reduce thepressure and stresses a student faces on a daily basis at SFU campus will notonly reduce suicide rates but also help to achieve a more positive environment.
UBC Museum of Anthropology
Koerner Library - UBC
