Running head: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE, INDIVIDUALISM, AND ARCHITECTURE

The Relationship Between Culture, Individualism, and Architecture

Ashley N. Mattingly
University of Kentucky

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Ole Scheeren: Why Great Architecture Should Tell a Story, utilizes visual aids, sensory
details, and comparisons to convey that great architecture embodies the culture and community
surrounding it. Scheeren views the functionality of a building as not just the ability for a piece of
work to withstand natural disasters or corrosion, but to move past the hierarchical feeling and
status of a skyscraper. Functionality to him, is to manipulate space and design to create an
environment that favors the individuals living and working there.
As an architect with various awards, Scheeren establishes an appeal to ethos through
images of breathtaking architecture that he has played a part in their creation. However, he
makes clear that he is not the single hand in their creation. Showing a list of four-hundred
engineers and architects that worked on the headquarters of Chinas national broadcaster, his
argument about collaboration and unity becomes more credible.
The original idea for the structure of the headquarters was a skyscraper. However,
Scheeren presents that a skyscraper creates a hierarchical feeling with the best at the top. As the
headquarters house a major business, collaboration and communication between each department
played a large role in the revised design. Intertwined with meeting and chat rooms, departments
are walled off but in a close enough proximity that collaboration is guaranteed. The skyscraper is
restrained by design. The only way to get information from the bottom to the top is to travel up
the chain. Although, in a business setting every department must work in a collaborative fashion
to get the job done. This can be difficult when information at the bottom needs to be delivered to
the top fast. The revised trapezoidal design of the headquarters provided enough creativity in the
design to not only look interconnected but be interconnected with more discussion spaces than
departments.

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Images of the headquarters are presented. The image of the finished structure itself and
another image of the headquarters dissected into different the different departments, discussion
rooms, etc. give the simile, you think of architecture no longer as built substance, but as an
organism (Scheeren, 2015) a new meaning. The audience can now see the department's acting
like organs of the giant cooperation and every employee like single cells. All of them are equally
important in accomplishing their one goal, keeping the business alive. The visual aids appeal to
pathos by projecting the ideas of unity, collaboration, and triumph.
It's not a number, it is the people, it is a community that inhabits the building,
(Scheeren, 2015) is the central idea around the large apartment complex in Singapore presented
next. Instead of constructing rows of skyscrapers, Scheeren and his team turned them on their
sides, stacking them to create a hexagonal complex. The design is appealing to logos; before
there was a lack of privacy due to the towers being too close. This created an undesirable feeling
of closeness combined in isolated towers, and now there is a platform that gifts residence with
privacy and community courtyards.
Not only does this building provide residents with opportunities to make relationships
through the ample community space, but it provides one-hundred twelve percent of more space.
This creates more room for potential apartments and nature at a revolutionary scale, and the
structure itself provides more shading appealing to the geographical location of Singapore in
relation to the sun. The apartment complex presents that the interconnections of a buildings
structure are not just about the feeling of unity, but it is logically the better choice. It is designed
to not only appeal to residents interests, but the economic and environmental interests as well.
Although Scheeren presented his argument utilizing ethos, pathos, and logos from his
building designs and comparisons, he should have addressed any awards the buildings presented

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were given. To receive this information, you had to read his biography on the ted talk website.
Providing these awards would have created a better appeal to ethos. Also, the appeal of ethos
could have been strengthened by testimonies from employees or residents from the structure
presented. Testimonies of how the broadcasting headquarters have changed due to the new
environment would have assisted the audience in understanding how a structure can really affect
collaboration and unity in a business setting.
While there are still improvements Scheeren could make to his speech, the use of visual
aids and comparisons provided an ample amount of insight into how great architecture is tailored
to culture and individuals and how it makes all the difference.

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References
Scheeren, O. (2015). Ole Scheeren: Architect Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/speakers/ole_scheeren
Scheeren, O. (2015, September). TED Talk: Ole Scheeren: Why Great Architecture Should Tell
a Story [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/ole_scheeren_why_great_architecture_should_tell_a_story