So far in the semester in History, we have been learning a lot about porch, court, and hearth. Ever since the basic structure was outlined in ancient Egypt, the tripartite has been in effect. The porch is the entrance where one decides who gets to enter. Next is the court, which is the gathering place where people can meet to talk. Finally is the hearth where only a select few are allowed to go. In the acropolis in Greece, this arrangement is easy to point out. The porch is at the main entrance where Athena Nike’s temple sits above for news. The court is the wide open stretch of land that leads up to the hearth of the Parthenon. Ancient Greece was not the only one to have this arrangement, in present day homes, in which this outline is set up to section off rooms into private and public spaces.
Detail
This week in Suzanne’s class we focused on details of buildings. Details are element of design that makes the building unique. They are tiny elements that make the building recognizable by just seeing them. When we were given the assignment to draw details for Suzanne I chose to do the concrete wall facing on the Mossman Building. No other part of UNCG’s campus has this on the front of the building. It’s a small thing but on a larger scale it is what makes up the entire building.
In history we have been learning about the cathedrals during the Renaissance. The people were convinced that the world would come to an end, and the church was the only hopeful salvation. The cathedrals used geometric shapes that correlated with the genetic code of the universe, and if the world were to end the cathedrals wouldn’t be destroyed. This detail is incorporated into all the Cathedrals of that time period. Another detail that the church had was the ribbed vaulted ceilings. The ceilings were a series of triangles making up a square to hold up the cathedral’s roof. This detail was not only for delight but was symbolic of the church holding together the town, because without the church the towns would be sent into even bigger chaos.
Diagram
Designers use plans to show the outline of a building that includes fully detailed setup of the building. The plans are not that interesting to look at, not to mention regular people would not know how to read them correctly. Luckily there are diagrams to show circulation patterns, function, the context, zoning, and other elements to help the consumer understand the layout of the design. These diagrams are nicer to look at as well. They can include colors, pictures and shapes that make it look more like a work of art, rather than a boring set of lines.
Composition
Composition
Composition is a key element to design, without, the design would be a mess of different pieces. Composition would be better to describe parts to a whole, considering different parts (details) make up a composition that in turn creates a whole. The details have to come together to create a unified piece of work. For instance, at Salisbury Cathedral there are many different elements coming together like the high ceilings at the crossing point of the crosses, versus the low span of the entire building. These elements come together by having the ribbed vaults connecting the two throughout the entire building making it into a glorious composition. The geometry in making the cathedrals was quite like Vitruvius did by connecting the proportions to the human body itself “Ideal systems of proportion, he observed, can be found in the perfect proportions of the human body” (Roth 359). At Amiens Robert first walked the measure of a man and made a fifty foot square, from there he used a series of crosses and angles to create the mammoth sized building. The connection between man and architecture is a beautiful way of connecting the details together to create a composition.
Impression
From what I have gathered so far in History, I feel like impression is all about how architecture affects us personally and how it carries with us throughout the remainder of our lives. It is how we perceive a building, and what the building tells us without the designer there to explain. The cathedrals were all about impression when they came in to take over when the Roman Empire fell away. The cathedrals were a safe haven to the town’s people and gave them a place to create “order out of the chaos”. The dynamic effect that the church had on the towns people both physically and spiritually created an impression on the way the world would go from then on. Once you enter through the doors of the gothic cathedrals it takes a hold of you with its beauty and epic height. Once one has visited the cathedrals, they will take that experience with them throughout the remainder of their lives. As present day designers, we all must have a way of impressing the client in our own unique ways. We want to have an effect on someone that carries with them throughout the lifetime and that they never want to forget.
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