Metropolis (1927)

   Metropolis, movie in 1927 directed by Fritz Lang. I did not have many chances to watch the movie like Metropolis before, however I think it is a easy-understanding movie, even though it is a silent film, It is a visual representation of the  modern restorations of machinery to the human. How the machines affects human's behavior and society. Also the affect differ to different classes of people, which it separated in the movie. There is two level of people, one is ,city society consists of important people and elites, who live on the surface, and the worker city which is "in the depth" underground.

   The city is ruled by Joh Fredersen who create sophisticated metropolis and he also built Eternal garden for his son, Freder who never going to the working city before. One day after he saw a women and group of children coming from the surface, and the women said to him "These are your brothers and sisters". Since that day Freder seek the women and entered worker city. He surprise to see all the metallic moving, the workers have to stand there and control the machine all the time. Suddenly,the accident occurred because the exhaustion of the workers, thus the explosion. Son reported the incidence to his father. Freder try to talk to his father about what going on down "in the depth" compare to the city on the surface" and stated that those people are the one who built the city. Since his father don't listen to him, Freder is going down to the workers' city and swap the shift with one of the workers himself, because he hopes to find that girl before.

   Meanwhile, recently the head controller of the worker city found wried plan, which he did not know what it is at the time. As a result, Joh Fredersen went to Rotwang,the inventor. The inventor who loss his beloved women, Hel, have re-created a machine women to keep his beloved women lives. Then, Joh asked  Rotwang about the wried plan, the inventor tell him that it is a plan of 2000-year-old catacombs deep below the lowest levels of the Metropolis. After that, Joh want to go down and see what happened down there at the catacombs. Catacombs is like a cathedral for the worker, giving hope to the workers and reminds them of heart.

   Personally, the story is very wide to discuss, cause it is a silent film where you mind flow with it. For me, the main elements that I can get from the film, one is that the social status or social level problem is exist in 1927, in Industrial age. In that the one who powerful control and live on the surface while the slave are working underground, which is represented zombie-like in the film. Indeed, in the film the workers are also had been treated like a machine themselves. It could represent the society environment at that time. It rise concern of what is happiness in life. From the movie, we can see a clear different in environment and activities and occurred from above the ground and underground level. And, it also create doubt like how long the workers are going to stay in this way before they going to start uprise. When the scientist, Rotwang shows Joh his new invention, the machine man, it is not fully function like  real human being at all. Human is unique and machine couldn't compare with. Second is the relationship between machines and the workers. Since the invention of the machine, the workers are also becoming a machine, in the way they have to always stand stationary to control it. They does not need their heart to work just needed head and hand. I think that what the film trying to remind the people of a machinery impact could have disadvantages. I make us forgot that we are human, we are not the machine.


Refference : 

"The future of architecture"

From Bauhaus to our house storied by Tom Wolfe in 1981.

>After reading it, From my understanding, the reason that Wolfe is against the idea of Bauhaus and modernism is because the from it too simple and it is the same in design. For example, glass box, flat roof, white colour. I also really like the idea of the future architecture in the texts "no longer depend on the patronage of the nobility ex merchant, the state client. " you have to accept the form with no alteration, special order loud talk from client.

>In the old day, Egypt, Greek and Roman,the architecture is more than a building, house, or public. It is also a hidden message to the people or contain a religious means in to an architecture. Like the pyramid , or Parthenon. The architecture used to be huge and used to be a visual representation of the glory, the achievement, power and also it transfer the culture value. However, they did not really focus on the functional of the architecture. In other words, to minimize the architecture for it function only. On the other hand, Bauhaus style aims to create simple building not a grand scale and elaborate because they are focus on the usage. For instance, the worker housing. American architect bring the style and develop it to be modernism.

> For example : Small House


It is a house designed by Kazuyo sejima. (SAAN). The house located in the middle of Tokyo. The objective of the house is try to maximize the space. The method that use in the construction is stacking in that each floor has different height and weight. The building is modern and focus on the functionality of the building.