Unit 1 Summary

Week 1: Looking inward and outward, humans materially encounter the cosmos + construct inhabitable signs + symbols as objects, spaces, buildings + places.

Week 2: circles, groves + stacks stand as humanity’s first elements + principles of design throughout a world populated by diverse human expression.

Week 3: the buildings atop the Athens acropolis serve as archetypes for all western architecture + design; elsewhere, humans expand groves + stacks.

Week 4: diverse building types abound in the west. Empires stand tall throughout the world. Trade routes bring people, goods + ideas into proximity.

During the first week of this class we talked about the idea of scales within and beyond human beings and Stonehenge and Giza and what they both represent.  On the first day of class we discussed Jules David Prown’s model “Mind in Matter”.  In this model Prown says that an artifact corresponds to patterns in the mind of the perceiver and can be assessed through a three-step process:

Description: a physical inventory, a content analysis, and an analysis of form.

Deduction: the links between material and perceiver’s world through sensory engagement, intellectual engagement, and emotional response.

Speculation: creative imagining in the eyes of the perceiver through hypothesis.

On the second day of class we discussed the possible meanings and significance behind Stonehenge and the Pyramids at Giza in Egypt.  We talked about how the circular form at Stonehenge was symbolic because circles symbolize equality, sacred spots, or important objects.  Then when we discussed the Pyramids at Giza we talked about how it is one of the oldest cities and they left documentation of their civilization through images.  Each side of the pyramid pointed in a different cardinal direction; North, South, East, and West.  Then the tip of the pyramid pointed straight up at the sun.  The pyramids also show hierarchy by the slaves being represented at the base because they were the majority and the base is the biggest part of the pyramid.  Then the center was the rest of society and the very tip is Rah the sun god that the Egyptians worshiped.

Image from: http://www.planetware.com/picture/pyramids-of-giza-egy-gzgrtpy.htm

During the second week of class we went over how circles, groups, and stacks are used in architecture from the past and then we connected it to architecture from today around UNCG campus.  We covered the four elements of circles, groups, stacks, and people.  When they were building early forms of architecture they were trying to model the things that they saw around them.  The circles were used to represent the sun and the moon or for marking sacred spots.  I have also noticed how often they mark important objects or moments as well.  The groups represented groves of trees or groups of people.  Stacks were used to represent mountains and gathering common resources.  People were used in architecture to imitate or imply the human body or things that look like humans.  When we went on our tour around campus I realized that these elements are used all over campus there are columns on the front of the buildings that represent groups, domes and circles to represent the circle element, and stacks are represented through the buildings that show the break in the levels on each floor.  However, in the walk around campus I was not able to find anything that represented the people element.

In the third week of classes we found historical architecture that used one or more of these four elements. 

For the third week we talked about how temples and palaces contain both groves and stacks together.  Then we moved on to talk about order and proportion in architecture and how the Ancient Greek culture tried to make the real seem ideal.  We also discussed the different types of columns.  The Greek columns included the Doric, Ionic, and the Corinthian and the Roman columns included the Tuscan and the Composite.  After we covered the types of columns we moved on to talk about the progression of the layouts of the Greek temples and then to talking about the Acropolis and the temples within it.  After going over the Acropolis we moved on to talk about the Xianyang palace and then compared and contrasted the two and how they use the four element and the principles of design. 

Image from: http://builderbug.com/modules.php?name=Encyclopedia&op=content&tid=12

Then in the forth week in class we moved from the ancient Greek world to the Roman Empire.  First we learned about the three conditions that good architecture follows.

         “The end is to build well.  Well building hath three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight.”

-       Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639)

The Element of Architecture, 1624

Wotton borrowed these three elements from Vitruvius’s idea of the three conditions.

         Utilitas: useful arrangement, quality, and interrelationship of spaces

         Firmness: performance: stability, integration, and safety

         Venustas: ability to create a sense of place and a positive effect

-       Vitruvius (ca. 80 BC – ca. 15 BC)

-       De Architectura (Ten Books of Architecture)

We then applied these ideas to Roman architecture.  We talked about how a circle and a cross are both very important and when one is laid on top of the other the center of the cross at the center of the circle is a very symbolic or sacred place.  We also talked about the aqua ducts, basilicas, arches, columns, coliseum, the pantheon, and their symbolic meanings.  We also talked about the significance of having things on axis and how axis’s help to lead you through a space or divide a space.

Image from: http://cms.fhsdschoolse.org/lisasmith/Rome/tabid/22043/Default.aspx