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. 

Point: Theories

The theories unit covered material on practice <opposite> theory, culture, the design cycle, foundations, alterations, reflections, and explorations. We discussed how these played a major role in the conceptual/idea stage, the completed stage, and the life span of design. 

Wotton dubbed good design having commoditie, firmness, and delight. Having discussed this in great detail, we learn design should include function; a church should be designed so that individuals are able to worship. Function however, should not be so basic. Worship does not require a "St. Peter's" to worship or any building of any kind for that matter. A designed church although, should have seating and perhaps a pulpit. But digging deeper, there is more much more function to be thought of. First, how is the building designed to create good acoustics? If the space is rather large, the voice of the preacher or priest or whomever it may be should be well distributed throughout the room. Visual contact is important as well, by raising the pulpit, or raising the seating row after the next so that someone in the back row is able to see down to the pulpit. 

Architecture is a part of design where time, geography, and culture are all tied together. Various cultures have their own unique way of creating foundations for design and building. China, for instance, focuses on ordering systems such as axiality and hierarchy. This was embedded before conceptualizing of design began in lieu of designing first, and come up with ways of incorporating this afterwards. Before the easy access of trading information through internet and visits across the world, cultures would over time come up with new, innovative ideas on how to improve their current design strategies. As seen in nature and dealing with biometrics, when there is growth on the inside, there also needs to be growth on the outside accommodating that which is within. 

Culture is important in design, culture can also be broken down into subcultures. An example of this would be something one thinks of to be great, because it gives them enlightenment (culture), on the other side, the person who thinks in a negative way about this something is the subculture. 

Architecture includes aedicule in more situations than what you would think. Aedicule is implied space created by a form. When sitting at Frank Lloyd Wright's table in the Robie House, the high backs on the chairs creates an implied space, a room of sorts within the table you are sitting. This, i think is a great example of how aedicule is used in architecture. 

As alterations were mentioned before, they are seen all throughout the design world. When something is invented or discovered, it seems that alterations or advancements never end. There are constantly ideas brewing up for a new and better way of making something function better, make it stronger, and to make it look better. Examples of these can be seen everywhere you look. In order to advance , there is often times of failure. Depending on how you look at things, if you're a optimist or pessimist. Failure can be good, very bad, or not even exist at all. Cell phones are interesting regarding their rapid advancements. There is constantly new technology available for cell phones. Overtime, there has been the ability to make them extremely small. This can be very convieneint as far as putting it into a pocket but there's a point where it gets too small. This has been recently, people don't want a phone there're unable to dial a phone number on because it's so small. Manufactures once had a goal of reaching the smallest possible, now that it is achievable, it's no longer the goal.