MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE
Jia (Sally) Huang—Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal
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Jia (Sally) Huang—Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal
About the Award
A graduate who displays excellence throughout their academic career.
As defined by Zygmunt Bauman, post-modern society is in a liquid state of existence, exhibiting the characteristics of fragility, temporariness, vulnerability, and an inclination to constant change. Society suffers from an acute malaise: one that leaves architecture ill-suited to contend with the rapid and uncertain changes. The principle of architectural modernism has traditionally meant to present an ephemeral snapshot of the creativity of the era, however, the style of modernism quickly became monumentalized and thus became misaligned with the initial ideological spirit of a fluid and light modernity. The dilemma between “modern” and “-ism” shows that modernist architecture is merely an image of modernity, but was not itself actually modern.
In our liquid modernity today, architecture needs to become synchronized with the true character of liquidity and be responsive to and reflective of the characteristics of this hyper-modernity. To contend with the plasticity of society, architecture also needs to instill within itself the nature of liquidity, ephemerality, flexibility, adaptability, and resiliency to rapid and constant change, and embody the spirit of the liquid times. Liquid architecture aims to respond to this dialectic of ephemerality, fragility, and ambivalence, to reconstruct the fundamentals of architecture itself.
A graduate who displays excellence throughout their academic career.
As defined by Zygmunt Bauman, post-modern society is in a liquid state of existence, exhibiting the characteristics of fragility, temporariness, vulnerability, and an inclination to constant change. Society suffers from an acute malaise: one that leaves architecture ill-suited to contend with the rapid and uncertain changes. The principle of architectural modernism has traditionally meant to present an ephemeral snapshot of the creativity of the era, however, the style of modernism quickly became monumentalized and thus became misaligned with the initial ideological spirit of a fluid and light modernity. The dilemma between “modern” and “-ism” shows that modernist architecture is merely an image of modernity, but was not itself actually modern.
In our liquid modernity today, architecture needs to become synchronized with the true character of liquidity and be responsive to and reflective of the characteristics of this hyper-modernity. To contend with the plasticity of society, architecture also needs to instill within itself the nature of liquidity, ephemerality, flexibility, adaptability, and resiliency to rapid and constant change, and embody the spirit of the liquid times. Liquid architecture aims to respond to this dialectic of ephemerality, fragility, and ambivalence, to reconstruct the fundamentals of architecture itself.
