Point: Explorations

http://www.scarborough.k12.me.us/wis/teachers/dtewhey/webquest/colonial/images/mappin1.jpg

The Explorations Unit wrapped up our semester for iar-222. Since we’ve studied the Renaissance, we’ve found ourselves in these ambiguous moments in time where the capacity to beget a new [renaissance] we call modernism is challenging. That said, we are still to this day exploring and searching for modernism.Over the period of time the unit covered, and especially with WWII, more and more people were traveling across the world like never before. Some of the movements and eras serving as inspirations from art were: post-impressionism (how to take impressionism and take it one step further), fauvism, cubism, expressionism, and futurism. These were all inspirational to designers and architects, two movements that art and architecture shared were the art deco and art nouveau movements.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/HortaELWI.jpg

              “A key concept shared by all participants is the desire to create a new

               style, divorced from those of the past, that expresses a modern

               urbanized, commercial society”

                        -Buie Harwood, Architecture and Interior Design, 2009

Art Nouveau was an international movement beginning in the 1880’s and lasting until the 1910’s. It was comprised of two different styles, ranging from being called Art Nouveau, Art Moderno, to Jugenstil. The different names were dependent upon where you were in the world, which also determined which of the two styles were used. Art Nouveau and Art Moderno was a stylized organic, curvilinear form where Jugenstil was rectilinear, geometric, and abstract.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Chrysler_Building_detail.jpg

Art Deco was the epitome of a marriage of the entire art world. This included architecture, interior design, furniture, decorative arts, graphic design, book arts, fashion, and film. The movement came from The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, which was a World’s fair in Paris. The actual term “Art Deco” was derived from Arts Décoratifs. Initially seen in Paris during the 1910’s, Art Deco spread across the world until it reached its end in the 1940’s.  It was known for its range from a highly decorative, to a simple geometric style.

http://www.steelform.com/pics_content/bauhaus.jpg

Following Art Nouveau and Art Deco came the Bauhaus. Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School in Germany in 1919. The school was a hybrid between the School of Arts and Crafts at Weimar and the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts, Gropius coined this new institution the Bauhaus. Basic principles of design were stressed at the Bauhaus. As the school gained new professors, and the location changed to Dessau, so did Gropius’s concept of the Bauhaus. Function proceeded aesthetics and firmness, it

s what the whole design process was about; designing around function.

http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/bourke/arch672/fall2002/arts/bauhaus3.jpg

“The Bauhaus believes the machine to be our modern medium of design and seeks to come to terms with it”

                        -Walter Gropius

All of Gropius’s ideas were portrayed in his and Meyer’s design of the new Bauhaus in Dessau. The new school was to serve as a model for what all architecture should become. The school regarding curriculum and the way it’s structured is much like that of what we have here in UNCG’s Interior Architecture department. The first year was about learning all kinds of techniques, ways of building things, new ways to look at materials, objects, and space. With myself coming in to IARC as a second year student, I think that I really missed out on this process of erasing what you know about design prior. After your first year at the Bauhaus where you went through this general curriculum, you could then choose which path you wanted to explore in the remaining duration of your college career. Essentially, the two options were: handcraft and theoretical.  

http://elsternwickstockdaleandleggo.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/06-10-27-mcmansion1222813904.jpg

http://austinzoning.typepad.com/austincontrarian/images/2007/05/21/mcmansion600.jpg

Good design in general? no. Good design for all? certainly not for the neighbors in the second image. These are some examples of poorly designed mcmansions like the ones we looked at in class. My grandmother's idea of cooking was to take a compilation of everything in the panty, throw it all in a dish, put it in the oven, and place it on the table and be done with it. Somehow, it always turned out to be pretty good. It is often seen in this uncertain period of design we're in, "designers" take a compilation of knowledge of precedented work and throw it in a design of a house or building like what seems to have been done in the above images. Well…design doesn't necessarily work quite like grandmother's casserole did. I assume these are just explorations in the design world, and hopefully designers will take notice of the way not to design.

There were many other topics discussed including Scandinavian Design, which I think has a real connection to what design is about today in the furniture industry. In the end, we find ourselves faced with this notion of bemusement pertaining to design. I see the design world striving for the next revival. I think we can have a positive conjecture for a metamorphosis in design in the years shortly to come.   

Counterpoint: Machine

Reading Comp. 7

judith brodsky
it all depends on who's doing the looking

the piece consists of two levels stacked on top of each other. the top piece includes a series of statue like heads of women. the bottom is of a nude woman posing on a couch or bed. at first glance, my eyes land on the woman's face which then leads to her body below. secondly, i see the heads at the top before i read the text that's located in the lower portion above the woman's body.
there's a strong black/white contrast as a whole. with emphasis on the body of the woman, and the heads in the top, i begin to question why might these not be important enough not to hang off the page.
in the explorations unit as with others, we talked about a lot of change. we talked about art and its emphasis on engaging the human body, which i believe this piece really exemplifies. this piece expresses feelings and emotions in a manner that has not been seen often, nor has it been widely accepted. let me also point out this is a female doing this, who's status and voice was lowered in previous units.
i think the woman is perhaps homosexual. the woman is nude with her hand on her nether region and there are only women included most of whom appear to be smiling and accepting this. the text reads "it depends on who's doing the looking" says that some people are going to be against it, others are not, it all depends on who's doing the looking.

yves klein

the next piece is burnt cardboard. it's all about motion and fluidity. there's no focal point, but when your eye does land on a portion, the pattern makes it easy for you to flow and move on to other parts of the piece.



lastly, i choose in the studio. this piece is very different from the others, but again there is movement. it is a painting of an art studio viewed from the artist' eyes. there's a sense of hierarchy with the easel which includes a painting (most important to the artist), secondly, a table holding art supplies in the foreground.

5.0 - book

Open publication - Free publishing

4.0

3.0

2.0 - diagramming: mining for partis

Counterpoint: Clock

Counterpoint: Compass

Reading Comp. 6

[1]


     "art nouveau was a self-consciously modern expression, owning little in a strictly formal sense to earlier historical periods"
                   -leland roth, p.515


art nouveau, also known as other names such as jugenstil all depending on the location, finds its home in france. it was a short movement during the late 19th century, and early 20th century. art nouveau was a movement mainly seen throughout europe and n. america, but who's influence spread throughout the world. i'm focusing on it's influence within belgium, spain, and scotland. 

starting out in belgium, I focus in on the hotel tassel. the tassel is located in brussels, and is designed by victor horta, who is well known in brussels for his art nouveau buildings. horta found inspiration for the building from a visit to an art nouveau exhibit he had gone to in 1892. following shortly after his visit, the construction of the tassel began in 1893. at first, the building seems to fit in with other town-homes in the area, but at a closer look, one starts to observe the curvilinear forms, the columns that seem out of place on the second level, the decorative glass in between the columns, and the semicircular windows trying to escape from the facade. it's not until inside the building, one really begins to see how different it is from the surrounding. the interior has an open-floor plan, curvilinear forms, iron used frequently, and natural light which from the outside, appears to be hidden. 

i find this image which was done a year before the tassel was built to have connections with the building. i think this could be an example of some of the work that inspired horta while at the exhibit. the image of the interior mimics the black and white drawing through the curvilinear forms, and the highly decorated walls, floor, and even the forms in the balustrade.  

next, i travel to spain to talk about anton gaudi's casa mila. construction started in 1905 in barcelona, and it appears to have broken every rule thought of up until this point. gaudi was known to have been greatly inspired by nature, i find this interesting because when looking at the image above, the trees in the foreground seem to completely blend in with the building itself. i also find the building alone to appear not as a building, but some free-flowing form i would expect to find in nature. this notion of biomimicry doesn't end with the facade, but it found throughout the building, roth says its plan looks like "an enlargement of a microscopic cross-section of a plant stem".  

it is known that anton gaudi was influenced by his studies of nature and mathematics, and i think the image above shows connections to gaudi's work. the waves in the image resemble the overall look of the building itself. the waves are flowing and moving in whatever way they wish to, as does the building. the building captures movement with no parameters of form, but the building is successfully constructed only through gaudi's precise and complex system that creates the structure. this is where machine comes into play, and in the image above, the "machine" appears as the ships on the water. 

finally, i arrive in scotland to find the glasgow school of art building. the building was designed by charles mackintosh and underwent construction in 1897. i find the building to be moving forward to more modern times with its simple geometry consisting mostly of a series of squares and rectilinear forms. it does however, have a sense of movement. when viewing the facade, starting with the main entrance, there is a welcoming staircase which leads you to the front door with what appears to be opening arms. there's also some curvilinear forms and iron work found in and around the entrance place. moving on either side of the entrance, the iron work continues in the fence, and the stone gives a notion of waves, capturing motion moving away from the entrance. the image below can connect with the building with the stacking effect of square and rectilinear shapes, through the masonry scale of the building, as well as putting together the shapes and geometry that create the form of the building. 

though all included examples of the art nouveau movement are quite different, they all have similarities and connections to one another. this era was a time where architects and designers did their own thing, they had their own unique ideas, and they showed it throughout their work, this also applies to art work. having said that, the differences among them are to be expected, but some of the things seen in architecture that stayed common were the heavy use of iron, nature, floral, and the notion of movement. 

http://www.laurabielecki.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/victor_horta_hotel_tassel_staircase.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Beardsley-peacockskirt.PNG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Victor_Horta_Hotel_Tassel.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Casa_Milà_-_Barcelona%2C_Spain_-_Jan_2007.jpg
http://picsdigger.com/image/6c5dfdd8/
http://www.cambridge2000.com/gallery/images/PC1313017.jpg
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/images/560/BHC/13/BHC1387.jpg

[2]

"machines for living"

designed in 1929 by ludwig mies van der rohe, the barcelona chair appears to be machine a living space, especially for time period it was designed. the frame on to which the chair lies looks like it was simply extruded from a machine, but was actually the craftsmanship and work of the man was very much involved. this simple design gives a notion of "less is more", it makes the sitting part of the chair appear as if it were floating. on the barcelona's broader context, there is the barcelona pavilion. 

"unrestricted by cost or function"

-massey, p.77 

the barcelona chair was designed to be in the barcelona pavilion, which along with the chair, was built by mies in 1929 and is located in barcelona, spain. the building was built for the 1929 exposition in barcelona. mies' work was considered to be on the high end, and in the pavilion, the unlimited budget allowed him to express that. he used materials such as brass, marble, and plate glass. 

the images above shows how the building looks machine. there aren't any decorations or ornamentation that has been seen heavily in historical design. everything however was placed very carefully, by man. the slabs of marble were certainly cut by machine, but the preciseness of where they are cut, in the way they are put into place, and the way they are harnessed to make sure they stay in place are all done by man. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Barcelonapavilion2010.jpg

http://amhhomeinteriors.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/10/b_a_barcelona_chair_mies_van_der_rohe3.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Pavelló_Mies_05.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Barcelona_mies_v_d_rohe_pavillon_weltausstellung1999_03.jpg

[3]

massey, anne. interior design since 1900

page 101

looking at the image in the massey book, this interior with an oversized zebra print rug appears as if were black and white and dull and cold. using the information describing the space, it is actually an explosion of color. 

alterations summary

kelly 

kara 

alyssa 

kelly talks about the alternatives unit as breaking the rules and testing boundaries. ultimately alternating the way in which we build and design. through this, failure is necessary in order to progress. kelly states "failure isn't always a bad thing, it is how we learn from our past experiences". she relates this to her own design work, giving an example of how in order for her to succeed, she first had to go through a failed step in her design. she speaks on the baroque period as being fluid and gives the example of michelangelo's laurentian library which gives a notion of water embodied in stone. 

kara had a beautifully written summary for the alternatives unit. she explains the middle ages, renaissance, and the baroque time periods. the way gothic emphasized light and verticality. she spoke about andrea palladio's design with mathematical proportions, and how the villa rotunda is "the most widely copied buildings in the world". renaissance is "inside the box", leaving baroque to be "outside the box". louis XIV dominated architecture in france. she sums the unit up by saying the alternatives unit "explores the design world's struggle between established norms and their alterations"

alyssa mentions how we talked about gothic cathedrals, onward to the baroque time period. she talked about breaking the rules and how they can be broken only if one knows how. she then relates what she learned to present day things, including the design world to a heart monitor. the flatlining of the monitor represents stagnation in design.

these essays differed quite a bit i think in what was focused on. everyone had their own ideas and concepts in the way they expressed what they had learned which i found interesting. this differed from the reflections unit, where everyone focused on the same topics. in the alterations unit, i found a common theme to be gothic architecture, and the emphasis it had on light and verticality. 

reflections summary

kacie

leslie 

abigail

kacie shows her knowledge about the unit through talking about revolutions, eastern influence on the west, and relates the unit to her own work. she states that "A revolution has four main steps that are involved", and lists them as "revival (something returns into activity), reform (a change for the better occurs), rotation (uniform variation in a sequence), and cycle (a recurring series of events)". she goes on to talk about eastern influence on the west and how all scales, including artifact, buildings, spaces, and places were affected. she says the reason for the eastern influence is for the west to "escape from what they were used to". she relates the unit to her own design work in the way that every new semester begins a new revolution through her progression as a designer. she experiences "revival, rotation, and cycle" every semester.

leslie begins by talking about the baroque time period and asking questions about the holistic environment. talking about revolutions, she says "rules are no longer holding their value" meaning rules are getting broken. she thought about the way baroque explored outside the box through fluidity. she also talks about how glass and iron are being introduced and are used as the main building material for new structures. the american revolution was brought up and she pointed out the connection with england. she ends the summary stating "color, texture, art, decoration, and ornamentation" are ways the east influenced the west. 

abigail's essay is broken down quite nicely beginning with what she see's the unit to be all about, moving through revolutions, and ends with what she has learned. she starts off by saying the unit is "about revolutions, revivals, cycles and reforms" and moves on to talk about how rules are being broken. eastern influence is brought up in the sense that not only architecture is influenced, but fashion, music, art, and culture as well. these things are what were first influenced, before the architecture itself. after breaking down different revolutions and movements including the baroque, moving through to the japanisme movement, she connects all back to grecian and roman architecture. 

all three essays talk and point out different things in some sort of way. some things that are constant that can be found in all, however, can be noted as revolutions, cycles, revivals, and influences. although worded differently, and focusing on different things, all three can be linked together through 

point: reflections

It is often found that ideas and rules no longer have to be kept within the boundaries of the box in the reflections unit. Some of the themes included in the unit are: theatre, boundaries, fashion, revolution, circles, and politics.

Baroque

With attempting to break away from the renaissance, we begin to move into the baroque time period. The rules begin to alter. There are no boundaries after leaving a period where boundaries are very important. Fluidity begins to emerge. Authority is challenged. The baroque period can be looked at as the period of theatre. Michelangelo, being what helped lead renaissance into the baroque was all about theatre, this can be observed in his work. An example of breaking the rules is his laurentian library stairs. They are breaking the rules in the way that before, there was only one way to get to the center or to where one is going, Michelangelo now has offered multiple options.

Industrial Revolution

Rules continue to get broken, shifted, and turned upside down. Conversations are happening among designers, but no one is listening. The industrial revolution consists of additional revolutions, including the sex, and music revolution. Revolution causes a correction. The revolution is not that the rules get broken, but that it returns back to the rules.

Furniture was still pushed to the perimeter of the room when not in use. Furniture started achieving more flexibility with folding tabletops, and being put on wheels. On the scale of buildings, Thomas Jefferson starts to bring back elements from rome, merging with palladian motifs.

Washington DC

DC was a swampy land that was chosen because it was in the middle of the new colonies and was to itself so it wouldn’t belong to Virginia nor Maryland. The design and layout of the city was designed by pierre l’enfant consisting of a grid system with connecting diagonals. Open spaces were reserved for main buildings except for the supreme court, because it wasn’t needed due to the fact no laws were yet passed. Emphasis on the circle is seen again. The circle represents equality, with the dome representing uniting the nation through centrality. Greek revival over roman revival is seen in federal buildings.

Glass and iron

The greenhouse, which was built by people wanting to grow plant life in a climate different from ideal, began influencing design. There were no limits as to how big these structures could be, as long as you had the money, space, and materials. It was the cheapest way to get a big building, and was applied to train stations, libraries, covering streets (in the manner of shopping malls), and most commonly exhibit spaces, as in the crystal palace.

The machine in the garden

Industry arrives in the garden. Trade routes open up to japan and china. Influence from the east are in the form of objects contained in space, because of the easy transportation. Additionally, fashion/clothing, objects in interiors, and interiors themselves are ways influence occurred. Eastern influence occurs and is the thinking about and wanting a place different from your own. 

Reading Comp. 5

Originating from England, Windsor chairs were first seen in America during the 1720s, and were being made in America by the 1740s. The chair began exhibiting new forms once in America. This was a limitation when in England due to the fact that English chair-makers were required to belong to a guild. This ultimately denied any creativity and breaking-of-the-rules of the already established version.

Creating production and capitalism for others, American chair-makers began teaming up with other crafts people and distributing work in a way of subcontracting. Manufacturers focused on quantity and were able to make alterations to speed up production; For example, they eliminated the cabriole legs found in some English Windsors due to the slowing of production. This stylistic revolution allowed for the freedom of exploring and the creating of more innovative solutions.

Though with being from England, the Windsor became extremely popular in America, and is viewed ultimately as an American chair. The American Windsor, with its rich history, has become a revolution not only in American furniture, but also to the production scene. It is to this day one of the most widely copied styles in America. 

artifact: silk brocade

http://belovedlinens.net/fabrics/Lyon-silk1.html

One of the major ways eastern design and architecture influenced that of the west was through fashion. Fashion became a vehicle of displaying eastern characteristics to the rest of the world both through the transportation of materials, as well as seen depicted in paintings and other decorative art. I found silk brocades to be a nice example of how western designs were copied from the east. Silk in general originally came from china and other asian countries. When silk was first used as a type of fabric in ancient china, it expressed chinese motifs and decoration. This decoration continued when silk found its way all over the world. The western world was influenced by the east by borrowing silk itself as a material, and then even continuing to include the designs and patterns found thereon. 

building: iranistan 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Iranistan,_Residence_of_P.T._Barnum,_1848.jpg

The Iranistan residence was built in 1848 located in bridgeport, connecticut. The mansion was an example of the moorish revival, which was one of many revivals that took place during a short moment in history of only a few-hundred years. The moorish displayed orientalism in design as can be seen in the image included. The Iranistan clearly speaks a connection between the western and eastern worlds. With onion domes, minarets, arches, a finial; the building greatly resembles the Taj Mahal.

space: royal pavilion banquet hall 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Brighton_Banqueting_Room_Nash_edited.jpg

The Royal Pavilion as a building is known to have strong eastern connections, and when increasing the power zooming into the scale of rooms, the banquet hall within the building becomes a pretty notable space in terms of eastern influences. This space includes design motifs from all over the world. The victorian time frame had a notion of "anything goes", which can be seen in this room. The space includes dragons and snakes as zodiacal characteristics from the eastern world; flowers in the form of 2D on the walls as well as 3D in the chandeliers; and asian motifs in paintings, frescos, and mosaics. 

place: hyde park 

http://www.ski-epic.com/2007_london_trip/index.html

One place where east meets west is Hyde Park, London. Hyde Park shows examples of eastern influence by the gardens, water features, and the architecture within. It was home to the Great Exhibition of 1851 which is a prime example of east meets west. The Great Exhibition showcased artifacts from all over the world. It was a place where people from all over would travel and see things with foreign designs and motifs. People would bring the objects back or just a mental image and copy what was seen. 

point: alternatives

In the alternatives unit, we began discussing not only buildings, but furniture much more than before. We went over Palladio's villa rotunda and how it's the most copied building in the world. We arrived at a place in time where people began actually writing about architecture, including Palladio's The Four Books on Architecture. To some, the writing becomes more important than the buildings, and architecture itself. Going through Palladio's design process of the villa rotunda step by step, we begin realizing the notion of centrality. The circle in the center is different and stands out from the rest of the building, and is borrowed from antiquity. The structure begins to resemble a compass in a couple of different ways; the way in which it appears in plan, and the way borrowed elements from the ancient world directs us back to the ancient world. The dome is centralized and is reaching heavenward with a vertical axis. This notion of "reaching heavenward" has been seen before. The villa rotunda however, explores a new notion of a facade on all sides of the compass, which breaks away from the traditional single facaded building. Having included the verticality reaching heavenward, and the facades on all North, South, East, and West sides of the building begins to show Palladio's idea of the perfect world.

We also discussed palaces in more urban areas. As in the villa rotunda, the facade becomes a very important part in the building. The facades of these buildings speak a language of symbolism. The different use of spaces in the building are clearly seen on the facade, which faces the street. The facade appears "rough" at the bottom, and moving to the upper levels, becomes "smooth". The bottom level is typically used for storage, the middle for entertaining, and the top for sleeping. The facades of not only palaces, but government and public buildings as well gives a sense of civic pride. Walkways are covered as you travel through parts of a city.

We discussed and analyzed furniture much like we did with buildings, without distinguishing them in regard to form, but focusing on the design aspect. Furniture reinforced the architectural style and period through including the same elements and geometrical forms. An abundance of items or things throughout the Renaissance led to an abundance of furniture to store them in. Much of it was disguised as being storage devices, but rather pieces of art. In viewing images, scale was often hard to dictate due to the level of detail and the elements of architecture depicted as with columns and pediments. We discussed not only furniture for storing things, but also chairs, tables, other pieces. We saw a lot of wood inlays of different colors and different types of wood. This was used in creating different designs, showing contrast, and also creating borders. The location of furniture almost always lined the perimeter of rooms when not in use, and were moved elsewhere if they were being used.

The alternatives unit covered Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo periods. We learned about the language in which design speaks to people, different cultures, and places in the world. This leads to the discoveries of new ideas, being inspired by different places, and the movement of ideas and objects throughout the world. We also came to terms with the fact that we are still stuck in the renaissance in 2010.

http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Vertige/images/img028.jpg

I believe this image sums up the unit by the way it flows, relating to the different types of architecture talked about and how they build upon one another and flow into a new style. 

reading comp. 4

[1]

Classical elements can be seen throughout. Buildings are symmetrical. When not in use, furniture lines perimeters of rooms. Places borrow and share elements from others. Rooms are oversized and often highly decorative. Characteristics include light scale, mathematical proportions, and geometrical forms. All buildings are symmetrical. Horizontal lines appear on facades representing different floors. All buildings have an emphasis on the entrance. The most common way of expressing this was with porticoes, with the exception of the Russell house. Although the Russell house lacked having a portico, it was still successful in having a defined entrance. This was achieved through having a gate with oversized columns on either side of a walkway, the walkway then leads one’s eye to the front door which stands out in a couple of different ways; the pediment and columns surrounding the door emphasizes it, and there’s contrast among the painted white surrounding the door and the red brick. With most of the artifacts being highly decorative and full of ornamentation, all serve a purpose and are functional.

[2]
Furniture arrangements support room function. Vernacular forms of local materials are used. Houses and furniture are simple. All houses show a strong emphasis on horizontalness. As can be seen in the parson capen house and other New England houses, the upper floor is projected beyond the lower, these are “jettied” floors. This is a technique to avoid sagging. It also creates a horizontal line on the façade representing different floors, much like the lines talked about earlier from across the Atlantic. Box and simple geometric forms are seen in houses and furniture. Horizontal and vertical lines are seen often. “From the time of the Egyptians up to about 1750, monumental Western architecture in any given time or particular region was relatively uniform.” Roth, p441

[3]

Inspired by Frescobaldi's Balletto Terzo and taking from Palladio's villa plans, this is the plan I chose to design. Architectural proportions are argued to be derived from music ones, from that; Palladio came up with ratios as to how rooms should appear in plan. I feel this plan fits best with what was discussed.


[4]
Baroque is said to be the age of theater. I do believe the architecture and design stands as a form of social performance. The Baroque period, in contrast with the renaissance, captures movement. This is seen through all examples of baroque architecture. Theatre of dramatic lighting and color can be seen in Michelangelo’s Laurentian library.

Point: Foundations

Foundation [Merriam-Webster]: 1: the act of founding; 2: a basis (as a tenet, principle, or axiom)       upon which something stands or is supported; 3: an underlying base or support; esp: the whole masonry     substructure of a building; 4: a body or ground upon which something is built up or overlaid

http://www.rama-arya.com/image_library/egypt/pyramids_saqqara1.jpg

The Foundations unit covered various building types, including some that are more than extraordinary. They baffle our minds as to how these magnificent structures were built. This leads me to an important issue, we as designers and appreciators of design should question how these buildings were constructed, and what kind of technology was used in accomplishing these tasks. I believe this unit served as a [foundation] to future architecture and design. Both through the vision of the use of stones, stone being what our present day structural foundation consists of, as well as the different building types introduced giving foundations in design which are still in use today. 

The unit included methods and techniques such as stacking. Stacking can be found in the stepped pyramids serving as a memorial or tomb. It is also seen in the Great Wall of China, where the wall is used to mark a boundary between two empires. This is a great example of how architecture can be used in a more abstract way of storytelling. The wall tells us there were political and social issues among these two empires. 

Male: Female 

The subject of male vs. female was discussed, with one case being the observation of differences between the Pyramids of Giza vs. Hatshepsut's temple. In comparing these two, the first thing to point out could be the fact that the pyramids "stand out" and Hatshepsut's temple seems to "fit in" with the natural environment. We're also dealing with polytheistic religions where there's an established dominance with male gods over  female gods. 

Real: Ideal 

The Minoan and Mycenaean periods took hundreds of years to reach the "ideal", which was the Hellenistic that lasted only 470 years. The Minoan and Mycenaean were formed by the Dorian, Ionian, and Aeolian people. Following this, the [Megaron] was introduced. The megaron began being a 3-sided structure and ultimately ended in the temple form. This being the [Foundation] of classical architecture which was carried onward to present day. 

Greek palaces were very colorful during this time which is a bit contrary to what we see today. Orders consisted of the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite forms, all of which were getting bigger and more detailed as time passed. Temples were built to give eternal respect to those gods or goddesses for whom they were built.

As you wander outward from the "center", you begin to discover where a lot of breaking-of-the-rules and innovation was happening. The center being the major cities where the majority of development was happening.

Rome essentially included the first vision of focusing on horizontal design. A technological breakthrough arose during the Roman time. This discovery, the [arch], and the widely use of concrete lead to various new building types. The arch, which can be seen in almost all examples of Roman Architecture allows for a much bigger space inside buildings. Then came the dome which was derived from the arch, it essentially was an arch which was rotated about its axis. Bread and Circus structures are seen often throughout Roman Architecture. These were recreational buildings that were designed to help relieve the people of what was going on regarding governmental issues. 

One last thing I would like to include is the discussion on the triumphal columns. These columns, such as Trajan's Column were used as memorial storytelling devices for the leaders they were built for. The more powerful the leader, the bigger and taller the column. A theory which has been passed down from the late David Niland tells us these columns, or Wu Wu's, resemble a part of the male anatomy. Wu Wu's can be found almost everywhere we look. We use these vertical elements everyday as landmarks or for example, as a reference point to guide us in an uncommon city. Below, I've included an image of Professor Niland himself in Disney World and highlighted in red are different examples of Wu Wu's. 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5241904&o=all&op=

1&view=all&subj=111413342252261&id=574636327

The theories of design were taken and succeeded by foundations; building blocks in which architecture and design could be built upon. This unit covered an entire host of things including: different methods and building techniques, symbolic reasoning for design, cultural issues, and the overall development of design and architecture dating back to Ancient Egypt moving forth through Medieval Architecture. 

Reading Comp. 3

Cologne:Salisbury
The innovation of using pointed arches and rib vaulting allowed the use of more windows and less structural elements. More windows led to more natural light flooding the interior  space which was very important in the Gothic Era. "stained glass filtered and transformed sunlight so it symbolized divine illumination" as quoted by Roth. The use of glass also created a new way of telling stories. Roth mentions how all other parts of the building tell stories and with the addition of colored glass depicting stories from scripture, the entire building then becomes a Bible for the illiterate. I find Cologne and Salisbury very similar regarding the use of light. Light is of extreme importance during this moment in time, it helps give insight towards a better and [brighter] future. An outlet of less than stellar conditions which were taking place through this time period we're speaking of. Light has taken a vital position in Gothic Architecture. It's uses in the era grow to entail a whole host of things, including but not limited to: natural daylight; an illumination that brings you closer and connects you to Heaven; a story-telling device, breaking away from the sole use of concrete and stone alone to tell stories; and of course the aesthetics of the divine beauty these stained glass forms created.

Cologne:Amiens
 The "Dark Ages" was a time where cultural and economical conditions suffered greatly. Given these circumstances, this period was surprisingly full of structural innovations. A few reasons for this: the people were confident in getting through this hard time; as Roth said, "people looked to temporal life with greater anticipation"; and the church continued to be the "unifying agent across Europe", therefore the buildings which excelled the most were the churches. This bit of information leads me to the assumption that the people involved most were both those who were average civilians and those of higher power in the church. 


Cologne:Florence 
Comparing Cologne and Florence, there are many differences that can be seen. The intersection of the nave and transept show very different conditions. There is this space with several possibilities and Florence for the first time shows the use of a dome. This illustrates the opening into the Renaissance and ending of the Gothic. 




The room in which the woman is working is probably a multifunctional room. There is perhaps an area for sitting and a place for sleeping. It appears to be made up of stucco walls. The windows continue to repeat throughout the room. 







 

Reading Comp. Two

[1]
George Hersey's the lost meaning on classical architecture is a brilliant composition of his understanding through research on culture and how it so greatly influences classical architecture. He begins with the tree and moves on to such things as relating a tabulatum to an offering table. A holy tree, which is extremely sacred to the Greek culture. The Greeks surrounded early structures with trees and columns were originally constructed from wood. Hersey digs deep in the cultural and mythological reasons and influences on architecture. It's something i've never before thought of but through reading his text, I find great validity in all of his arguments. He presents wonderful evidence for everything he speaks of. 

[2]
Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries tells a story about how a man would discover present day situations as ruins in the future. His understanding of his finds are completely distorted from the truth. This man, now can go about misleading others with his own generated perception of what he [believed]  happened at the Motel of the Mysteries, much like the internet today. The internet is a wonderful resource we have today. I would, as well as most people i'm sure, would have a difficult time without the internet at our fingertips. The internet however, can be extremely deceptive. When you base all of your information from the internet, it's possible you could be gathering material posted by someone like the man in the Motel of the Mysteries who shares information based solely on what he [believes] to be true. One could avoid this by having a balanced library of resources i.e. books, internet, periodicals, and videos. then compile this and be sure you don't have contradicting information. 


[3]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Hephaistos.temple.AC.02.jpg

The Egyptian and Greek culture and architecture had many commonalities but they also had a lot of differences. The Egyptians focused more on repetition and symmetry. They had geometric and stylized naturalistic designs. They tended to use a lot of color. Greece focused on proportions and order. Their temples paid more attention to the exterior more so than interior. 

[4] 
The temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the pyramids for other pharaohs are similar in that they make a statement and they both reek power. Hatshepsut's however, is built in to the side of a mountain almost as if it were intentionally trying to fit in. This reason somewhat could be that the mountain is already there, so use what you are already given and built onto the mountain. The problem with that though is I believe if she wanted her temple to stand out like those of the pyramidal forms, that is what she would've got. She perhaps wanted to be more subtle in the design. Regardless of how subtle it may be, it is still a magnificent structure. I think it may even be plausible to compare it to present day civilization; men want these huge hummers, 70' boats, and mansions, which all are to stand out and make a statement that everyone can see. Typically these things aren't what woman fantasize about. So maybe looking at in this way is what the thought process was back then. 

[4]

Harwood's examples of Egyptian furniture describes it being made from things such as: wicker, ivory, leather, linen and other delicate materials. Comparing furniture to tombs, tombs are made up of stone and other heavy materials. Perhaps the reasoning behind this is that tombs are built from these massive and statement making objects such as stone to: 1.) show divine power from the exterior and 2.) these materials are suitable for their eternal purpose. Furniture is built from precious materials which was probably preferred by whomever the user may have been. Furniture didn't have to withstand weather and wear and tear as the tombs did. 

[5]

Both images listed has meaning of what's going on regarding gender. The one on the left has what appears to be a young male of some power position with a woman greeting him, or presenting something in front of him for his approval. This could also be a slave of sorts serving him. The second image has an older male who looks to be of higher power with two women, both of which appear to be serving him.