"In architecture as in all other operative arts, the end must direct the operation. The end is to build well. Well-building hath three conditions: Commoditie, Firmness, and Delight.
- Sir Henry Wotten, The Elements of Architecture, 1624
In the past week we have been looking at how commodity, firmness, and delight are accomplished in design. We then looked at how these three principles related to both architecture in the Roman Empire and today, here on UNCG campus. These three principles originated from the words utlitas, firmitas, and venustas.
Utlitas: useful arrangement, quality, and interpersonalship of spaces
Firmitas: performance, stability, integration, and safety
Venustas: ability to create a sense of place, a positive effect.
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| Front Entrance to MHRA |
The building on campus that I think shows these three elements the best is the Moore Humanities and Research Administration building (MHRA). I think that this building fulfills commodity, firmness, and delight. The front entrance of the building is a circular form made of glass and steal with a concrete shell on the outside of it with double five sets of double doric columns for support. The materials that make up the front entrance to this building are glass, steel/metal, tile, stone, and concrete. As for the space just inside of the entrance there is a circle and when someone is standing in the center of that circle or on axis the ambience is much better than it is if you move off center/axis in that circle. Radiating out from this circle are different colored tiles imbedded inside the larger white tiles that keep you on axis as you move into the space and as they get further into the space they get further apart. Theres places on the floor are also mimicked through the lighted squares in the ceiling that also carry your eye on axis through the space. Another thing that leads you through the space is the glass walls that are at the front, in the front office space, and at the back entrance that lead you eye from the front of the space to the back of the space. The use of the two different colors of tile help to separate the areas where there are classrooms and the areas where the administrative offices are because the stone on the side where the offices are is tan whereas the stone on the classroom side is dark grey.
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| View from Front Entrance |
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| Administrative Offices |
The frosted glass on the front entrance into the office space serves as a somewhat translucent barrier between the entrance to the building and the lobby of the offices without completely closing them off from one another.
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| View of Front Area of Administration Offices |
There are several layers of columns at the front entrance to this building. First there are the cement doric columns at the very front of the building. Then there are the plain cement columns right up against the glass and steel beams in between the glass that are directly behind them mimicking their form. Plus, there are even hollow fatter columns on the inside of the building imitating all of the exterior columns.
When it comes to circles and their corresponding 3D forms as marking sacred spots I think that the circle used in this building does mark a sacred spot. Aside from it being the entrance into the building it is also the central point between the classroom section of the building and the administrative offices side of the building. This circle also marks the beginning of the axis expressed in this building with the small colored tiles radiating out from it and leading you into the building. Not to mention if you stand in the central circle that those small tiles create then your voice carries much better than if you are standing off axis or even on axis but not in that center spot because of the ambience effect of the building. So for those reasons I do think that the circle in this building marks a sacred spot within this building.
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