Tuesday, March 31, 2009

opus Project/ 9th Week Prompts


[Re]visions

During the 18th and 19th century the world was in a process of having new vision in the architecture world. New things and new ideas were coming through and people were exited. The modern epoch was shifting away from authoritarian and dictatorial governance to democratic republics. This meant new growth of powerful corporations, increase of population and the reviving of a new era. This meant the search for a pure and uncorrupted art and architecture. Roth says, “In architectural terms, this meant that the purest architecture, that most suited to fundamental human needs and to basic human society, was what had appeared at the dawn if civilization”(Roth 443). So basically, the era of the 18th, 19th and almost 20th century was about people having new visions and reviving what was left behind creating revision but without imitation.




In my photography class revision is a key instrument to have in mind whenever someone takes a photograph. In order to take a good picture one has to have a vision, a understanding of what is the picture going to be about. All pictures are good as long as it has a meaning and that the photographer had a vision before taking it. Normally tends to happen that when someone takes a picture with no vision at all, the picture will be vague and just meaningless. In this case one would revise the picture and retry again until you get an idea of what is one's vision about.




Transition + Character

The changing in the social class was becoming a big influence on the materials used for interior desing. The Victorian middle class was the primary responsible to demand a higher production of interior structures. This was a big movement because now not only people with political power could afford furniture, art works, etc but also a middle class society. This led for a reproduction in extreme amounts to satisfy the needs of the people. Massey says, “… all-pervasive the Victorian middle-class desire to express comfort and wealth, the aesthetic standard of the interior disturbed contemporary critics, and a large body of writing appeared during the nineteenth century to give advice on taste and interior desing”(Massey 8). What Massey says is incredible because he demonstrates that the Victorian middle-class was not an insignificant class but instead it was so significant that numerous of critics were almost obliged to write about interior design and how is it done. This also created a sense of character within the objects. Since the production of furniture, wallpapers, textiles and carpets had to be multiplied to satisfy the costumer machines were incorporated. This questioned the authenticity and lack of character that all these interior decoration had originally. The original idea was that everything had to be hand-made, with the joints visible. Massey says, “The more clearly expressed the construction the more honest the piece, and the greater the contrast with the machine-carved, highly polished veneers of mainstream taste.”(Massey 15). The understanding of interior decorations is not only about how it looks but also how and by who is made. Massey makes clear the point that by having something hand-made it naturally have more character than any other furniture made by a machine.








In my Human Studies class we have talked about the way relationships should work out. In class we were told that when a relationship is not working the couple must know that there is something that is not going right and that they must fix it. In order to get to a solution and resolve a problem there has to be a transition from a status of negativity to positiveness. The studies shows that when someone has the heart beat over 70 beats per second, one is incapable to reach for a solution. Therefore in order to get to a solution one must relax and be positive, have a change of character. Changing character also works when the relationship is in a tense situation. For example, use the "I" statement instead of the "you". If your girlfriend or boyfriend is doing something that bothers you, then you should use the I statement in oder to get your point across in a constructive way. Instead if you use the "you" statement it will normally tend to be a negative comment and not constructive. So one should have a change of character if one wants to fix a problem in your relationship.

Datum

Datum is defined as something that contains a single piece of information. That could be a single line or a story carved into a wood furniture made by hand. Furniture made by a person and not by a machine was considered more valuable and therefore more appreciated. I piece of furniture had lines and stories embedded into the wood creating uniqueness to the furniture because every furniture was made different. Blakemore says, “There was a preference for plain surfaces, and when ornamentation was employed it was largely in the form of cast-metal decoration; to a significant degree the latter replaced carving. When carving was used it was accomplished by hand and was usually for pieces for the very wealthy. (Blakemore 367) Blakemore draws a line between the art of handmade furniture and a machine made furniture. This is because it was impossible for a machine at the time to create datum and the only way to do it was hand-made. Therefore it tends to be more expensive those furniture’s that contained a special engraving.





In my Design Perspective class we have discussed about centers and wholeness. A set of centers make wholeness and wholeness is in itself whole. But the fact that a single point or line put together with other lines and points can create wholeness and therefore create life is interesting to think about. Datum is a single point or line that provides information and I think that we can relate datum to centers. Because centers are the providers that give information to a given structure. A structure becomes alive when there is a complete set of centers creating wholeness.




Audience




Reflection

This week prompts have illustrated that we have come to a moment of reflection and a intent of understanding what architecture really is about. Reviving of the classical architecture but without imitating or replicating it. The 20th and 19th century is an important phase in the history of art and architecture because from those century we are who we are today. We are connected and often use the same ideas and visions that our ancestors had. Still today we are transitioning and moving to greater things upon serious reflection. And not only in architecture but also in other areas like photography where revision and vision is a key fact for success. This week prompts makes us reflect and understand the development of human kind in every aspect and field that we could imagine

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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Unit Summary.Alternatives.

Unit Summary. Alternatives.

The first unit in class was about the foundations of architecture and how did technology, power, firmness, hierarchy, influence, delight, commodity, etc affect architecture in its foundations so that later there could be new alternatives. The alternatives I refer to were the new architectural ideals such as, the Renaissance, Gothic, and Baroque. These architectural ideals emerged from the basic foundations of the classical.

All these architectural ideals emerged from what we call the “Dark Ages”. Since the Roman Empire had been basically the biggest and strongest empire in the world, when the Roman Empire collapses there was no one to look up too. But many people think that the Roman Empire had collapsed suddenly on a particular day, but the reality was that, Roth says, “It was more a gradual transformation, occurring over more than a century, making the change from a pagan empire to a Christian Empire”(Roth 275). Therefore, when the Roman Empire falls there is a switch of authority indirectly given to the only standing out “authority” left that was Christianity. From here every architectural structure build was surrounded by the Christian faith. Temples that were dedicated for the Gods and basilicas were even transformed into a Christian living space, Roth says, “ The basilica had originally been devised for public gatherings… It was a simple matter to replace the small altar devoted to the emperor with one at which the Eucharist, or ritual communal mean, could be celebrated” (Roth 280). From this idea of Christianity, the Gothic and Renaissance emerged. 

The Gothic style was a style that was subsequent to the Dark Age and a complete opposite of what the Carolingian Renaissance consisted in. The Renaissance was built majorly to recapture the Roman models rather than creating something bazaar like the Gothic’s did. The idea of the Gothic churches was to create a lighter and more visual transparent architecture. Roth says, “Gothic architecture was also the physical expression of a new, assertive, and positive outlook on life here and now, as contrasted to the emphatic focus of the Romanesque period on a life in the hereafter”(Roth 324) What Roth says is very important because he points out the difference of peoples interpretation in Christianity and how does that affect the architecture. So one can observer that the Gothic cathedrals are more barbarous, decorative, detailed and with less universal norms, an architecture adaptable to any situation. The renaissance is more about reviving the classical world following a basic set of norms. This architecture was all about balance of vertical and horizontal elements in forms reflecting human proportions, a proportional system. Vitruvius was a strong believer of this, Roth says, “Ideal system of proportion, he observed, can be found in the perfect proportions of the human body (Roth 359). Also the integration of the manipulation of the landscape came to consideration in the Renaissance. 

Renaissance was in theory trying to write down the rules of architecture. These rules were somehow exaggerated and taken in different interpretations. This characteristic ideal we call it the Baroque. Roth describes the Baroque architecture as deliberately complex, he says, “instead of clarity, there was ambiguity; instead of uniformity of elements and overall effect, there was studied variety; instead of regularity, contrast”(Roth 398). The idea of being complex is based in many reasons. One of them is because they believed that the classical world was transformed into a more visually and plastically complex Hellenistic architecture. The baroque was an emotional architecture, were you could see life and meaning in an exaggerated way, almost uncontrollable.

The uncontrollable interpretation of architecture made many things possible. The Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture were big major alternatives that emerged from a same foundation. Each architecture ideal became one unique idea overall. Today we see all these ideas of space, light, movement, perspective, duality, and many other components as one whole idea. We have gathered all the information and applied it in our own interest. Therefore, this unit leads us to reflection over these architectural ideals emerged from our basic foundations.



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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Opus Project/ 8th Week Prompts

[Re]Visions

Reflection + Movement

After the classical times, several ideas were emerged. The renaissance and the gothic were the leading examples of the results of the dark ages. But after Gothic started to fade, the renaissance began to rewrite the rules of architecture. One of them included the integration of water in sculptures, structures, and landscapes. This was a totally new thing and it became very common to use it for plazas, castles and many others things. In the case of sculptures, the movement of the water gave more life than the usual to these sculptures. Water became a form to reorganize the society. In the case of the castles, the kings included big pools of water in the their yards so that, with the reflection of the water, the Kings territory could look twice as big as it really was. Adding water to sculptures and structures was definitely thinking “outside the box”. It seems that in my Desing Perspective class there is a lot of thinking outside the box too. In our text, by Christopher Alexander, we read that there are fifteen properties in nature. These properties were derived from years of thinking outside the box and understanding what does a living structure consist in. All of these properties are related to every building we see today and in the ancient buildings as well. Some of the fifteen properties are the alternating repetition, positive space, good shape, local symmetries, contrast, simplicity, etc. These properties reflect a significant aspect of a living structure. Even in the ancient times, without knowing these properties, people had the idea of a living structure. Adding water and movement to sculptures and structures reflected the idea of integrating life and the properties of nature.






Rotation

From the Renaissance something called the Baroque architecture emerged. The renaissance was more about the rationality of things, but the Baroque was all about emotions. Roth says. “Baroque architecture was made deliberately complex. Instead of clarity, there was ambiguity; instead of the uniformity of elements and overall effect. There was studied variety; instead of regularity, contrast”(Roth 398). So basically, what the Renaissance was not then the Baroque was. But something they agreed with was the rotation of the style of buildings. Instead of building something vertically high (a wuwu) they decided to build horizontally long. This rotation from height to length was a new thing. The longer was the building and gardens, the more powerful the king was. The territory, like Roth says “ symbolizes the centralized focus on the person and absolute power of the king” (Roth 420).





In my English class we have talked about the subaltern and the social classes. We have come to realize that there is constant rotation on social classes. Throughout history we have learned that the subaltern changes and it rotates with other social classes. Some people are considered subaltern for decades, but the fact is that within time these groups will eventually become no more subalterns because that particular class has been rotated or substituted by some other inferior social class. So there is a constant rotation of social classes throughout life.



Illumination

Illumination has always been an important aspect for almost every structure. In the gothic era the most dramatic innovation was the virtual elimination of the structural walls. This was made in order for light to be flourishing inside the cathedral. Large scales of windows that were decorated with biblical stories substituted the walls. Roth says that light is the “’channel of communication’ between the living outside and the living within (Roth 171) The idea of the Gothic Cathedrals was to make sure that once you were inside of the chapel there was a complete different sensation of light. The idea of the colored windows also made it seem artistically unique.



Also illumination is so crucial for photography. In my class of photography we have learned how light can work for us and also against us. When one takes a picture, one has to calculate how much illumination is the camera filtering. There are some ways of you can filter the light so that you can control the amount of light. The danger of not doing this is that pictures can get exposed. When there is too much light then the picture is going to be completely white. If there was no light at all the picture is going to be entirely black. So illumination in photography is as crucial as illuminating Gothic cathedrals.



By: Thorothea Lange

Technology

Throughout the development of Modernisms a few things emerged. After the industrial revolution, technology had advance already and the economy started to grow stronger. The fact that there was technology, one could be informed faster of what was going on at the time. In this case, one could know how things were running in other countries, how do people live, how do the houses look like. Also the manipulation of Iron and the ability to rounded up made things even easier to build. Roth says “ The increased manufacture of consumer goods was dependent on the production of less expensive component materials, and of these, the most important one was iron” (Roth462) Indeed the iron made things happen faster and cheaper. This way a new whole idea of building was starting to become reality. The origins of Modernism had begun.



The technology used in my weight lifting class is impressively advanced. Every class we have to do at least thirty minutes of cardiovascular. The teacher provides us with a machine that counts how fast are you going, how many calories you are burning and even it calculates the heart rate. Thanks to technology we can exercise in my weight lifting class with a more accurate count of how much am I getting out of my exercise and how much more should I demand myself in order to do better and become stronger.


Conclusion

In this weeks prompts I talk about the reflection and movement in the classical world and how rotation, illumination and technology are vital movements in the architectural history. There is a strong classical influence in every little piece of who we are. We can see how technology  has advanced and how easy things are when we have it handy. Photography and the position that people have in society, all has to do with the idea the movement in society in every aspect. The reflection of every little thing makes us intellectually stronger. 



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Friday, March 20, 2009

Deliverables Articulation

I. Introduction 

II.    II.Architects.

a.     Why where they chosen for the project.

b.     Born/died

c.      Inspiration

                                               i.         Where did they get the ideas?

d.     The role of George Izenour

 

III.  III.The Theater

a.     The impact in society/History

                                               i.         Cultural and historical influences

                                              ii.         Explain who Teresa Careno is.

                                            iii.         One of the cultural complex more important in the Country and in Latin America

 

b.     For who and for what purpose was build. 

                                               i.         Functions

                                              ii.         Desing

 

c.      Organizing Space

                                               i.         Capacity

                                              ii.         Open/close spaces

                                            iii.         Different halls

1.     Jose Felix Rivas hall

2.     Rios Reyna Hall

                                            iv.         Big columns and hexagonal roofs.

 

d.     Materials

                                               i.         Concrete

                                              ii.         Glass

                                            iii.         Details

 

e.     Artistic Value

                                               i.         Meaning

                                              ii.         From who?

                                            iii.         Naturalistic meaning/value

                                            iv.         Plastic Art

 

IV.   IV.Conclusion

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Teresa Carreño Theater





The Teresa Carreño Theater is on of the most important cultural complex in Latin America. The theater was build by three architects Tomas Lugo Marcano, Jorge Pizzani and Vincenzo Gemito with the idea of creating a theater that symphonic and popular concerts, operas, ballet and theater could be held in a same facility. The theater was inaugurated in two phases, the Jose Felix Rivas room was inaugurated on february 1976 and later on the Rios Reyna room and the rest of the complex opened on April 1983. The theater is named after a famous Venezuelan pianist. The  Rios Reyna hall has the capacity to hold 2400 people. This hall is usually made for symphonic spectacles, operas and ballet. The Jose Feliz Rivas hall instead is smaller and holds 440 people. It is currently the official building for the Venezuela Youth Orchestra.

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Opus Project/ 7th Week Prompts



Process

During the early Renaissance the Landscaping was still not taken in consideration. But later on, the idea of using landscape developed an important role in buildings. Roth says, ”This new awareness and appreciation of the natural landscape was one of the important contributions of the Renaissance” (Roth 356). Landscape was also made to show of the wealth of the owners of the residence. But landscaping is a process that takes time and dedication. To desing a garden on has to take into consideration several amounts of things. For example, what type of plants, what kind of color, how much water, which flowers are the prettiest ones, most expensive, etc. The process of designing a garden is also not something that has an immediate result. So in order to see the desing of the landscape in full completion one must wait a period of time. The process of landscaping is complex and delicate one. That is why, landscaping, is also used to show off wealth and not only beauty.










In my Photography class “process” is also a common word used often when developing a film. To develop a film one has to go through different process to obtain a picture over a piece of paper. One of them is to process the film in different types of chemicals called: film developer, stop bath, fixer, fixer remover, and wetting agent. These five chemicals are the ones that will give you the chance to develop a picture. If one does not do this process well the picture might show up. These chemicals are crucial when it comes to developing a film.



































Perspective

Vitruvius was a roman Architect who wrote the “Ten book of Architecture” which was considered the bible for the new generation. Vitruvius’s ideas derived from the ideal geometric forms discussed by Plato. From Plato, Vitruvius became with an idea of symmetry and proportion using the human body as a base. Roth says, “ideal system of proportions, he observed, can be found in the perfect proportions of the human body” (Roth 358). Therefore this game a different perspective to many people when it came to build something in proportion. This new development of considering proportions gave a new perspective to every structure.

Perspective is a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships. In my class of Desing Perspective we have been talking about how “ levels of scales” can give life to things. Christopher Alexander says, “Levels of scale among functional centers affect the practical behavior of the building, and make it more capable of supporting life.” (Alexander 150). Therefore the ability to create different levels of scales can give a unique perspective to the building. A structure that has only one level of scale it is more likely to have less life than the one that has more levels.





Professional

Vitruvius is an example of a professional in the aspect of Architecture. He is the author of the book “De Architecture” today known as the “Ten Books on Architecture”. For many, Vitruvius was considered the first Roman Architect. Vitruvius introduced the idea of symmetry, proportions through the human body. He proved that by using the square and the circle and incorporating it to the human body one could find the proportion over things. Vitruvius idea of proportion was later drawn and titled the Vitruvius man, which was drawn by another professional called Leonardo da Vinci.

Also in my English class I remember reading a book by C. S Lewis. As Vitruvius is a professional in the world of architecture, C. S. Lewis was a professional in the world of literature. He was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century and arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day. Lewis wrote about thirty books, among them, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters. His fictional literature, analytical essays and children’s literature was how he became to have a big audience. Graduated in Oxford with his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, he became the most influential writer in literature history.




Periphery

In Florence a new way of building was emerging, a new standard of urban residential desing. This new desing on the villas was mostly promoted by merchants and people with money and power. Roth says, “ In most of the palazzi and villas, the architects confidently devised a blend of ancient Roman architectural themes with local tradition” (Roth 376) But this mix happened to be in the façade of the buildings. The periphery normally consisted in one same type of façade, but it later devolved differently with different shades, sizes, and columns in every side of a façade.

Also in my Desing Perspective class we have been talking about “boundaries”. Periphery is known as a external boundary of any surface or area. We talked in class that every living center is often formed by boundaries. Christopher Alexander believes that there are two purposes of the boundary that surrounds a center. The first purpose is to focus attention on the center and this helps to reproduce the center. Second, it unites the center, which is being bounded with the world beyond the boundary. These two purposes are the ones that give the “boundaries” meaning.





Portfolio

In my Photography class we have to come up with a portfolio at the end of the semester. What this means is that during the semester we have been developing pictures and collecting them throughout time. The goal is to get the best works and put them together and later turn them in. The portfolio is a small history of whatever you have been doing according to a period of time. A portfolio shows the time and work someone has put into. For many people a journal could be considered a portfolio or a book of literature could also be considered a portfolio. In the case of Plato, he wrote a book called “The Last Days of Socrates” that told the story of a brilliant man who was executed because of his personals ideas and believes. If it weren’t for Plato we would have not known who Socrates was. A portfolio is a short story or narrative of your own work, effort and appreciation.





Reflection

After reflecting over every prompt of this 7th week I have come to realize the evolution of the world in every aspect. The architectural movement as well as the literature and the photography movement. They are all simultaneously working out to become an influence in the world. I believe that throughout the class we have encountered every step of history and understand it more in depth. And as a result one realizes that history is built by little pieces of small changes that are reflected later on in any professional field.

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Monday, March 16, 2009

Fallingwater



Fallingwater was started in 1936 and finished in 1939. This house was build by a famous American Architect called Frank Lloyd Wright. This house is probably known as the best private house in the United States and a landmark of international architecture and is also considered to be Wright’s architectural masterpiece. Wright’s ideal house was of a living place completely at one with nature. By building a house over a waterfall with materials that are also connected to its surrounding this ideal house is made possible. This house is an example of the shift that architecture takes regarding nature. Before things were built disregarding the fact that nature was an important factor when it comes to build a structure. But Wright does break this traditional way of doing things and believes that nature should be embedded with any structure. He believes that by considering nature, the structure takes a whole different view of what it naturally looks like. It gives life and personality to the structure itself in a genuine way. So I pick Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd.

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Opus Project/ 6th Week Prompts

Impression

In the Gothic era the cathedrals were build with a particular purpose, Roth says, “ the physical impression of a new, assertive, and positive outlook on life here and now”(Roth 324). Buildings in the Romanesque period were meant to show the importance of the after life and that life on earth was just a path to get there. But the Gothic cathedrals transformed this believe by impressing the people with a new architecture. Gothic cathedrals tended to be very tall and artistic so that people owed respect to the buildings. Not many people liked this impression of a new style of architecture, those people called the Gothic architecture Barbarous. Barbarous is referred to Barbarians, which meant, ignorant or lacking of culture and refinement.

Also in my Photography class we have a session where we critique the pictures of others and of ourselves. The first thing on analyzes is the impression one receives from the picture. For example, one begins critiquing by saying, “it feels like” or “it looks like”. Many people say this when it comes to critique a picture because the first impression is never certain. The phrase “it feels like” normally means that you have mix feelings of the picture, that is, the picture might make you feel happy but at the same time you are not very sure. So the impression is a very important feeling that describes a picture and the best part is that there is no right or wrong answer.




Details

Also as we have been talking about the Gothic Cathedrals we can realize and appreciate the amount of details these Cathedrals have. In terms of the outside and in the inside of the Cathedral everything is decorated and detailed. These enormous windows created a new sensation of light and color inside and outside of the Cathedral. Roth says, “The most dramatic innovation was the virtual elimination of the structural walls of the church; in their place appeared membranes of colored glass depicting stories of scriptures. Thus, in stone and colored glass, the entire building became a Bible for the illiterate, and what was specially important, the visual imagery was known and accessible to all-lord, merchant, servant, and serf alike”(Roth 328) Basically the Cathedrals were incredibly illuminated giving the cathedral its own sense of life and accessible to all public. Is interesting also how light and details can give life to a structure. In my class of Desing Perspective we have been discussing what does life mean and how can a picture or a building can have life. Christopher Alexander believes that “each stone, rafter, and piece of concrete has some degree of life” (Alexander 28). Furthermore, he talks about the wholeness as an indispensable thing needed to understand life. I believe that the windows and the art contained in them give life to the Cathedral because the amount of details of the windows gives a sense of wholeness and therefore a sense of life.





Composition

Gothic cathedrals are an example of composition. Composition means the result of different ideas, things that when put together creates a one whole product. So in the Gothic Cathedrals one can see that there are so many components that put together the Cathedrals. Normally the cathedrals took a long time to build so the architects tended to died and replaces by other architects and so on. Every time an architect died, the new architect normally added some new things to the Cathedral. As a result, after years of construction, the Cathedrals were a product of different ideas that were combined together by different architects. Also, I enjoy cooking and the good food is only good when is composed by the right ingredients. For example, in Valentines Day I cooked dinner for my girlfriend and I had to make sure that every ingredient was perfectly measured and the food was perfectly cooked. At the end, with some candles and a nice put dinner table with petals around it, made the dinner and the food just delicious. The dinner, which was composed with food, petals, music and candles, made the best St. Valentines Day my girlfriend ever had.





Diagram

A diagram is a graphic desing that explains the arrangement of spaces and it also gives you a visual perspective. In the case of the Gothic cathedrals they are so big that when one is inside it is not easy to tell the form of the cathedrals, but when one sees it in a diagram one realizes that almost all Cathedrals are build in a shape of a cross. In my Weight Lifting class, we have to build a diagram that illustrates the amount of weight we lift, how many repetitions and how much time to rest. The idea of the diagram is to demonstrate that towards time we can see the amount of weight and repetition increasing and always to target to a higher goal. If we didn’t have a diagram like that, it is hard to see ones improvement in regard of muscle power and resistance.




Porch:Court:Hearth

These elements are the ones who separate the interior of a structure. For the Greeks, Romans and even today we normally divide our houses or buildings in these three divisions. The porch is the welcoming part of the building; it tends to have a separate roof but not necessarily an open space. The court is already inside of the building and is normally enclosed. The court is where people hang around and enjoy and last the hearth. The hearth is not necessarily the section where the fireplace is at, but instead is where the life of the building is. In the case of the Greeks, they city was planned to have a porch, that was the entrance of the city, later the court, where the basilica would stand, and public baths as well and the hearth where the temples laid on. In my case, the kitchen is the hearth of my house because is in the kitchen that all my family is together or when friends come they normally go to the fridge to see what’s to eat. So in my house I have a porch and also a court but the hearth of the house is in the kitchen.




Reflection:

This week we have mostly discussed the Gothic Era. This Era was conformed by several components that lead to create incredible things. New details were added to cathedrals which created a whole new impression to people. The impression originated by the idea of the life "here and now" and not the "after life".  The diagrams were also based on a cross-like structure. The cross was the most important thing for the Gothic architecture because it represented the cross where Jesus Christ was crucified and died. Since the main purpose to build was for Christianity, by doing so people who helped financially supposedly had a place in the "after life". This week prompts relates very much with the architectural structure of the Gothic Era but also in my daily life and my other subjects. Impression is applied not only in architecture but in my photography class by discussion what kind of impression one feels like with the picture taken. Also Composition, Details, Diagram and Porch:Court:Hearth are related in my other work with its own personality.

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Monday, March 2, 2009

Unit Summary. Foundations.

Unit Summary

Foundation Unit.

During this unit I have pondered the thought of what does foundation exactly refers to. Foundation is known as something that keeps a building or house stand together, or the foundation of an ideal in which an institute stands for. The word itself brings many concepts leading to different interpretations but at the end it feels like all these different concepts are poured and blend into a funnel that later produces a special product. That special product, as I call it, is support.

I believe that the foundation unit is about support provided to keep houses structurally standing and also to keep ideas, family values, governments, and religion structurally intact. Surprisingly architecture is, like Le Corbuser says, a “cultural instrument” that provides support to the world and like Roth says, “Architecture is the crystallization of ideas, a physical representation, a record of beliefs and values of the culture that produces it”(Roth 159). Therefore architecture is the foundation of time, empire, influence, power, hierarchy, loyalty, firmness, commodity, delight, etc.

Architecture has build a dialogue with history that provides us, students and scholars, with rich material so we could understand that we are influenced by a ancient century and all of what we consist today is because of our ancestors, such as, Greece, Rome and Egypt. In the case of Greece we explore the definition of hierarchy and the different social classes. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, says that in a society there are freemen and then slaves. Architecturally, Greeks adopt a “post and lintel” construction from the Egyptians. Because of the post and lintel construction the Greeks were able to create temples made exclusively for the Gods. Since the Greeks build for the Gods temples had to be build perfect with the best materials and with firmness so that it could last forever. There was also an artistic attention to the temples and columns. There were different columns, from the simplest (Doric) to the most elegant (Corinthian). This idea was to make emphasis in the importance of the building and to be more lavished of artistic delight. But after all, people have come to conclude that the Greeks were the begging of a theory that the Romans took over and put it to practice leaving the Greeks behind. From Romans we discover the cement and the ability to manipulate the materials. The ability to manipulate the materials made it affordable to the Romans to build fast and high with the new technology of the arches. Romans were not inclined too much in decorative aspects but in fact they wanted to build in grand scales. Although, they did have some sense of sculpture and art influenced by the Greeks. This gives us the sense of the power that architecture has among the people and how influential can it be. The Romans focused on the city as its basic constituent element. Aristotle says that Romans were “political animals” and yes they were. The buildings made during the Roman Empire were meant to illustrate the power of the empire and for also for the citizens to enjoy, unlike the Greeks. Buildings like the coliseum and the Parthenon could be a perfect example of such achievements. After the Roman Empire falls, lots of new theories and ideas started to submerge and things like the Gothic era and The Renaissance were created. From these eras, Christian religion and cathedrals with a geometric structure began to be the dominant aspect in architecture. Every building was created with the presence of Christianity. This idea became international, Europe being the primary continent following this new sense of architecture.

All these architectural “movements”, from Egypt, Greece, and Rome to today’s world represent an enormous presence of human development in all senses, that is, religious, political, architectural, etc. Egypt based on slavery, Greece based on slavery and free men, and Rome based on Empire and Families and today a mix of every single piece of these powerful societies. Architecture has provided today’s world a foundation of technology, power, firmness, hierarchy, influence, delight, commodity, etc. that is supported by its own mutating architecture leading us to bigger and new alternatives.


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Posted by Carlos Bethencourt at 6:29 PM | | Comments