FEBRUARY 2009 » book review

Defining Universal Architectural Excellence

Architectural Excellence in a Diverse World Culture
by William T. Baker
Images Publishing Group Pty. Ltd., Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia; 2008
144 pp; clothbound; 133 illus.; $49.95
ISBN 978-186470-279-8

Reviewed by Clem Labine

William T. Baker has shown in more than two decades of architectural practice that he can create traditionally inspired residences of elegance and refinement. His work has been published in this magazine (among many other places) and he has received the Arthur Ross Award for Architecture as well as several other design awards.

However, designing a home with exquisite proportion and detail is one thing; creating a set of guidelines for defining universal excellence in architecture is a very different undertaking. Yet that’s the challenge Baker sets for himself in his new book, Architectural Excellence in a Diverse World Culture. His goal is to set forth “objective criteria by which architecture may be properly judged”– and not just architecture in the U.S., but architecture for the world’s various societies.

He feels universal yardsticks for measuring excellence are needed because of growing uniformity in building design around the world – creating a global sense of “placelessness.” All too often, the author states, designers ignore regional tradition and ornament and thus impoverish the world’s built environment. Baker’s hope is to “promote discussion and further study among the professional community . . . to embolden each culture to develop its own unique voice in its architectural expression in a dynamic way.”

Certainly that’s a laudable goal. The book’s central thesis is that there are five culturally neutral principles that produce great architecture. According to Baker, great architecture: provides continuity with the tradition of a shared past; has rationalism as its basis; follows Nature’s scale, proportion, rhythm, and symmetry; bases its form on function; is wise in its choice of materials. Architecture that adheres to these five principles, asserts the author, is most likely to endure over time and come to be considered architecture of excellence.

In addition to the five principles, there are a number of other corollary factors that Baker believes also contribute to excellence, including culturally relevant ornament, regionally unique building forms and reproducibility. On this last point, in the book’s introduction, architect and teacher Michael J. Crosbie declares: “Architecture that is socially relevant and responsible is always reproducible.”

Baker boldly contends that there is such a thing as good taste and bad taste – certainly not a universally popular idea in these relativistic times. He follows by stating that “an understanding of the principles underlying aesthetics is necessary to adequately form judgments about the merits of a building’s design.”

After setting forth his central thesis, the author follows with five chapters, each devoted to further exploration of the five principles. Beautiful full-color plates of great buildings of the world illuminate these five chapters, including such architectural icons as the Parthenon, the Pantheon, Hagia Sophia, St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Trinity Church in Boston, etc.

Baker is most persuasive when showing how historic landmarks from various cultures follow the five principles he has laid out. When he gets to contemporary buildings that apparently deviate from many of the five principles, however, Baker falls back on generic descriptions and seems to shrink from rendering critical judgments. For example, as part of his chapter on “Materials and Design,” Baker introduces the idea of “architecture as sculpture,” and among the examples he presents are Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Disney Center in Los Angeles. Although to this reviewer neither project seems to adhere to Baker’s five principles – and don’t offer much in the way of reproducible prototypes – the author seems reluctant to register a critical comment.

The penultimate chapter is titled “Time Is the Final Arbiter,” and that’s where it seems the author inadvertently throws his five principles under the bus. Barker states that “. . . time is the ultimate arbiter in matters of aesthetics” and then reviews a sampling of 20th century architectural landmarks. For instance, Baker gives a descriptive analysis of the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, which seems to violate several of the five principles. Yet Baker demurs from declaring whether or not the house passes his test for excellence; he’s willing to defer to “time” to make that call. A similar treatment is accorded the Pompidou Center (see photo).

The “time will tell” argument seems to undercut the case the author makes in the final chapter where Baker argues for more aesthetic rigor in architectural education and the profession in general: “. . . . architecture schools need to adopt principles for architectural excellence that will provide a foundation for future work.” And then further in the chapter: “To forego the training of design professionals in the principles of aesthetics is to condemn a culture to a built environment of uninspired architecture.” Yet this reviewer would find it difficult to teach objective principles of aesthetics if at the same time one has to tell students to wait for the passage of decades to discover if their application of the principles has been successful and thus architecturally excellent.

Baker deserves great credit for raising the question of how to critically evaluate architectural excellence – and asserting that there are objective aesthetic principles that can be taught. But for this reviewer, the author doesn’t develop the practical applications of his principles to a satisfying degree. The final sentence in the book should be: “To be continued . . .” TB

Clem Labine is the founder of Old House Journal, Traditional Building and Period Homes magazines. He has received numerous awards, including awards from The Preservation League of New York State, the Arthur Ross Award from Classical America and The Harley J. McKee Award from the Association for Preservation Technology (APT). He is also a regular blogger on the Traditional Building and Period Homes websites.

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