Sir Peter Cook's Lecture

Reading my tutor's blog about Sir Peter Cook's lecture helped me understand more of what was being presented by him, as i barely understood anything throughout the whole talk. But despite so, it was a great experience to be able to listen first hand of how a great mind works. In a way, he reminds me of a friendly grandfather telling stories to his little grandchild as he gave so much enthusiasm and excitement as he spoke.

Looking at the contents of his works, at first I just found most of his designs awkward and eccentric, and I kept trying to understand what he was trying to convey but failed miserably. But then I remembered that he is a visionary after all, and visionaries pretty much have a mind of their own, much like a philosopher. It is a wonder as to how are they able to view the world in an entirely different way from all others. They see things that most of us do not. It reminds me of  the modernist during the modernism period when they tried to revolutionize design back then and found it hard to convince the society to accept their ideas. All the while I've only known all these from books and sites, but sitting through the lecture gave me a greater insight to that. It was as if I was the society and he was the modernist trying to convince me with his ideas.

We are now more opened to views and thus more acceptable of his thoughts, but imagine years back when the society wasn't exposed to so much technology and possibilities as we have, so much so that many of us take them for granted without truly understanding its importance.

Many say that technology is the unmaking of mankind. How many times have you heard people saying 'people nowadays don't socialize anymore' or 'kids these days are always engrossed with their iPads instead of playing out'? But are these really merely the result of technology? It has always been basic human nature defend ourselves and blame others instead for anything unpleasant. Think about it, if we were to make an effort to call up our friends instead of writing on their facebook walls or if parents do not spoil their child by giving them an Ipad when they are young, will technology still be the unmaking of us? Things only happen because we want or allow them to, if we stand our ground and not allow technology to take over our lives and blame it for our undoings but rather harvest its potential and use it to our benefits, we would be opened up to much more possibilities than we could imagine. Sir Peter Cook is a good example of how he embraced technology without being overwhelmed by it. He demonstrated using technology in his buildings but at the same time staying true with nature. Below are some pictures of his slides on the day, do pardon the poor image quality:

That's Sir Peter Cook himself in that last picture! A little far though...