When creating something in architecture, you may find that a lot of builders are going to copy or get inspiration from other designs along the way. There can be some unique features present as well, but they may use something within the new design that looks familiar or has been done before.
Some people like it when this happens, and some do not. You may hear the term pastiche occur in architecture to help refer to this but may not know what that even means.
Pastiche in architecture is just going to be the imitation of the character or style of other buildings, explains Couvaras, architects in Sutherland Shire. This borrowing of styles from other buildings is not necessarily a negative thing, though some people do look at it as negative. Some believe that the use of pastiche within architecture will produce unauthentic reproductions of the past. Others believe that if something works, why change it?
There are many reasons to use pastiche in architecture and many reasons to avoid it as well. Let’s take a closer look at pastiche and learn more about how this works and why it is so important to architecture as well.
Pastiche in architecture is going to happen when the builder decides to borrow or use inspiration from other buildings in order to help them create a new one. This can sometimes seem like a bad idea, but it has been done for years and years, making it a well-established form of building.
The architecture may notice that a certain archway in another building will work well in this one, or they may want to try a similar paint color. While some may assume that this is lazy work and is just a form of copying, this can be a great way to utilize beautiful styles in the new work that they are creating.
There are different reasons why a home builder would choose to use this kind of technique in the work that they do. They may find that there is something comforting about old things. This is true whether it is an old comfortable shirt that you love or an old building.
It is not uncommon for people to like historic buildings, even old farm homes that seem to exude warmth and make you feel comfortable.
There is a sense of comfort in these buildings, a sense of the unknown and the mystery as well, which can provoke us to work with our imaginations to see how it was and how it used to be built. The form, the details, and the embellishment presented within the architecture will convey all of the skill and care of previous architects and the hard work they put into the buildings that they did.
Many homebuilders want to try and capture this on their own with a new building that they create. They want to take in some of the same styles and characteristics for a new home or another building that they are responsible for.
Some architects are able to do this really well and can create a new masterpiece with a little inspiration from the past. Others may find that when they try to add in some of these items, it does not go that well for them.
The biggest critique of this style of building and architecture is that it does not allow for that much creativity to come in. When the architect spends all their time just copying the past, they are not able to make something new or bring the architecture into the modern times. This is why many recommend learning from the past, rather than imitating it.
There are a lot of great things about the past and some of the historic buildings that we see, but none of the best things about them can be reproduced. It is impossible to truly replicate or recreate what has been done, and attempts to do this can look like bad imitations that turn people off. This is not the look or appeal that the architect is going for.
Using the past as inspiration to further your project and help you to stand out from the crowd with something new is a much better option. This will ensure that you get the best results, the most unique vision, rather than copying something else that is not going to look good when it is all done.
The idea of pastiche itself is not necessarily a bad one. Many have been able to utilize it with varying degrees of success. But when it is used to just copy and create something unauthentic, it can harm the building and turn the others off from it overall. Getting inspiration from the past, rather than copying the past, is a much better way to do things.
