Opus Three

Scale

Scale can be interpreted in various ways. Scale is important in design, making an artifact in a space to big can take away from the design and can be over bearing or can show off a key piece. Throughout history humans have used scale to show power. According to Blakemore, “Class distinctions were reflected in the décor and size of a house”. In ancient Egypt the scale of a pharaohs building were large to show their power over ordinary town’s people. At the temple of Hatshepsut the building had large man like figures that towered above the common people, as if to give a warning to any intruders. The scale of buildings varied between males and females as well. The male’s temples were taller and pointed to the heavens, as if to say they were part of the gods. The female temples like that of Hatshepsut were smaller in height, to show they were less powerful than the men. In modern times, designers have to consider scale as well. They have to consider how the place will be viewed by the consumer. Banks use scale of their buildings to show wealth and security. The material of the buildings has changed, but they too make one think twice before robbing the place.

Unity

Unity is how different objects come together as a whole. For instance, in ancient Egypt and Greece, the people were a polytheistic society, who wanted to pay tributes to the gods. They created unity by designing buildings that connected the real life with the afterlife. The pyramids in Egypt created an invisible line that went up into the heavens and united the two together. The sun would beam down onto the top of the pyramids and travel equally throughout the rest of the pyramid to the land. The Greeks created the Parthenon as a temple to celebrate Athena the Goddess of wisdom. The columns on the corners are closer together than all the rest of the columns thus creating entasis, so that if the invisible line was drawn again it would come together at a point above the earth. This could possibly be interpreted as their way of bringing Athena down to the earth, uniting the Gods with the land. In present day our work must all come together to create a unified space. Consideration must be like the ancient Greek and Egyptian societies thus connecting our ideas to the space itself.

Boundaries

The earth created boundaries for humans and from then on we have created boundaries for ourselves. The water limits how far humans can expand our reign over the earth. The Egyptians settled along the Nile and eventually made a country villa on the space outside of the town. This villa was a “Walled enclosure and [its] dependencies” that only had a defined gate to determine who could enter. (Blakemore 6) Across the water, the Greeks had the Acropolis that had a wall and a gate that is similar to what the Egyptians were creating. They set up boundaries to show they owned the land and wanted to protect their wealth. The idea of putting up walls to protect ourselves has woven its way into our everyday lives. We have walls put up in our houses with doors to decide what is shown to our guests. It is our duty as designers to create walls that give our customer a sense of security in that space.

Section

Section like unity can be interpreted in many ways. In design we create sections of various views of a space to show what the overall look is to the design. Walls are sliced into to display the materials used, the feel of the space, and depth to the design. Another view of section is that our basic house structure is influenced by that of ancient times. This is further stressed by Roth in his book “Modern civilization has added very few new basic building types to those that arose from the needs created in Neolithic times” (Roth 175) The very basic outline of a house was set up as a “tripartite arrangement [that] begins with the reception spaces and is followed by the great hall and a private section. (Blakemore 6). The Egyptians had the portico, hypostyle, and the naos. (Blakemore 2-3). The Greeks similarly had the porch, court, and hearth. Almost every architecture space has those clearly defined sections at the core. One receives guests at the door (porch), and then proceeds to the living room to converse (court), and the bed room is only for designated people (hearth).

Vignette

Vignette as we learned in Suzanne’s class captures a moment in time by drawing. History at its core is a vignette. It tells a story from architecture, drawings, writing, and so on. The design of artifacts captures that moment in time and it is up to present day humans to decipher what the true reasoning was behind that piece. Our vignettes that we did for class captured the moment of different locations. To me my picture of a man at Panera Bread made me think he was having a bad phone call by his body language. Another individual may think that he was having a stressful day and it had nothing to do with the phone call. That captured moment can be viewed in many ways just like that of history.

Sources

Blakemore, R. G. (2006). History of Interior Design & Furniture. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Roth, Leland M. "Understanding Architecture." Its Elements, History, and Meaning. Cambridge: Westview Press, 2007.