ASSIGNMENT 3. DATA STRUCTURES Part 1. COLLECTION TITLE: Building Function and Architectural Style Over Time and Culture Part 2. DATA STRUCTURE Database field Structure Name Structure Function Time Frame Location Architectural Features Rules Required, Non- Repeatable Required, Repeatable Optional, Repeatable Required, Repeatable Required, Repeatable Part 3. TABLE WITH VALUES Structure Name: Taliesin West Taliesin West Structure Function: Residence, Vacation Home, Winter Home, Studio Time Frame: 1937 Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, United States, Mountains, Mesa, McDowell Peak, Sonora Desert, Desert Architectural Features: Frank Lloyd Wright, National Historic Landmark, Single Story, Flat Roof, Low Ceiling, Rock, Wood, Concrete, Natural Light Structure Name: Shotgun House Structure Function: Residence Shotgun House Time Frame: 19 th century, 20 th century, 1932 Location: French Quarter, Marigny, New Orleans, United States, Urban, American South 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 1
Architectural Features: Shotgun Style, Railroad Apartment, Narrow, Rectangular, Raised Foundation, Overhang, Gable, Shutters, Wood Frame, Wood Siding, Brick, Stone Schloss Neuschwanstein Structure Name: Neuschwanstein Castle Structure Function: Residence, Castle, Palace, Retreat Time Frame: 1869 (construction begun), 1892 (construction ceased) Location: Schwangau, Germany, Bavaria, Mountains, Alpine Architectural Features: Eduard Riedel, Romanesque Revival, Castle Romanticism, Gothic, Gatehouse, Turret, Gable, Balcony, Pinnacle, Brick, Limestone, Sandstone, Marble, Steel Marble Boat Structure Name: Marble Boat Structure Function: Residence, Summer Home Time Frame: 1755 (original construction), 1860 (destruction), 1893 (rebuilt) Location: Beijing, China, Kunming Lake, Long Corridor Architectural Features: Pavilion, Two Story, Balcony, Deck, Slated Roof, Rounded Archway, Arched Window, Stained Glass, Stone, Wood, Enamel 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 2
Monastery Structure Name: Sapanta Peri Monastery Structure Function: Monastery, Church, Commune, School Time Frame: 1391 (original construction), 1703 (destruction), 2003 (rebuilt) Location: Sapanta, Maramures, Romania, Ukraine, Forest Architectural Features: Dorel Cordos, Spire, Tower, Steeple, Wood, Oak, Stone Cathedral Structure Name: Blagovishensky Cathedral Structure Function: Cathedral, Orthodox Church, Church Time Frame: 1888 (construction begun), 1901 (construction completed) Location: Karl Marx Square, Kharkov, Ukraine, Former Soviet Union Architectural Features: Neo- Byzantine, Fencing, Bell Tower, Tower, Dome, Domed Roof, Arched Window, Facade, Arch, Brick, Plaster Farmhouse Structure Name: Barfroestua Hedmarksmuseet Structure Function: Museum Exhibit, Regional Museum, Historical Landmark Time Frame: Location: Hamar, Norway, Mjøsa Lake, Hedmark Museum 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 3
Architectural Features: Sverre Fehn, Log Cabin, Farmhouse, Arched Doorway, Rounded Entrance, Slanted Roof, Thatched Roof, Sod Roof, Square Window, Stone Foundation, Wood Stone Landing Cabin Structure Name: Winter Cabin Structure Function: Residence, Vacation Home, Winter Home Time Frame: 1920s Location: Northern Michigan, Perkins, Michigan, United States, Forest, Wilderness Architectural Features: Emil Casmir, Log Cabin, Rustic, Single Story, Slanted Roof, Pitched Roof, Shuttered Window, Shuttered Door, Wood, Log Taj Mahal detail Structure Name: Taj Mahal Entrance Structure Function: Islamic Tomb, Tomb, Mausoleum Time Frame: 1631 (construction begun), 1653 (construction completed) Location: Agra, India, Riverbank, Garden Architectural Features: Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, Mughal, Interlocking Arabesque, Spire, Marble, Archway 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 4
Structure Name: Taj Mahal Taj Mahal full Structure Function: Islamic Tomb, Tomb, Mausoleum, Gateway, Mosque, Guest House Time Frame: 1631 (construction begun), 1653 (construction completed) Location: Agra, India, Riverbank, Garden Architectural Features: Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, Mughal, Interlocking Arabesque, Archway, Spire, Dome, Minaret, Calligraphy, Marble Part 4. NARRATIVE. Collection title: Building Function and Architectural Style Over Time and Culture I am not quite certain what the ramifications are of a collection title what makes for a good title, a poor one or how the title might change the experience of the user group. In giving the collection a title, I aimed for one that respects the work of the instructor and students who comprise the user group. I understand the importance of words for students who might be new to their endeavors. The manner in which words are presented matters, especially if one is new to a field or does not have a great deal of knowledge about the material presented. As a student new to the library world, I am overwhelmed by the new words, expressions and titles. I am overwhelmed by the alphabet soup. So I understand that in some unconscious way, a carefully worded title might make a difference to my initial level of understanding, even if I am not immediately aware of it. FIELDS. I considered the special interest the instructor of the class teaching our user group had: connecting building function to architectural style over time and across culture. It was very important to keep that in mind, as I honed database field down to five. Structure Name: This field defines the information unit, and as such it is required. Although I considered making it repeatable, I came to understand its importance as a unique identifier. Initially I thought about using image name or building name rather than structure name. In the end I decided image name might not be very valuable to the user group, although it would obviously make it easier for those in our class to distinguish between the two images of the Taj Mahal. I ultimately decided on structure name rather than building name due to the fact that 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 5
Name: René Radusky the Taj Mahal is actually a complex of buildings, the Marble Boat is a pavilion, and the farmhouse image is part of a larger museum exhibit that includes other buildings. Structure Function: Since building function is something that was presented as important to the user group, I included it and made it required. I considered the importance of keeping this field repeatable, in the cases where either the structure function had changed over time, an individual building had more than one function, or a series of buildings in a structural complex had functions different from each other. Time Frame: Although the members of our user group are fairly unfamiliar with architecture and architectural terminology, I thought it was fair to assume that they would understand that no building or structure was built in one day. To that end, I thought time frame could encompass a specific date as well as a range. I made it repeatable to the extent that it could account for buildings that were destroyed, rebuilt or never completed. Location: It is clear to me that location and setting are not the same thing, but that given the user group and perhaps considering that I myself probably know less about architecture than the average person interested in a beginning course on the subject location can be understood to encompass setting. For the user group, I think wilderness could be understood as a location, but Agra, India not necessarily understood as a setting. As such I made the field required, and repeatable to the extent that a structure may appear in multiple locations, or may have been re- built in a different location. Architectural Features: Clearly, this field needs rules that are required and repeatable, in order to be of any use to the user group. I admit, however, to trying to name a field that might include architectural style, building type, attributes and construction materials. Something that could include for instance, Interlocking Arabesque, spire and white marble. I considered naming the field Architectural Detail, but in reality something like a minaret is a feature, not a detail and construction material could be either a feature or a detail. VALUES. Obviously, a great deal of thought has to be put into the assigning of values. It helped me to think of the values as individual pieces of data: words exactly representative of what a member of a particular user group would be using for searching information. To that extent, except for rare occasions, I kept the values in the singular form. One exception for instance, was shutters, since I felt the word could have such a completely different meaning in the singular form that it might be ignored as a search term. Structure Name: Certainly, assigning values to a few structure names was challenging. Most of all, I asked myself what would be appropriate, given consideration to the targeted user group. I am of course, not sure I always came up with the best answer. In the case of the Neuschwanstein Castle, I considered Schloss Neuschwanstein, but ultimately decided it was in 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 6
Name: René Radusky the best interest of the user group to include the word, castle. Somehow, it felt disingenuous and perhaps anti- intellectual as well, to change the names of the Sapanta Peri Monastery, Blagovishensky Cathedral and Barfroestua Hedmarksmuseet. Assigning different structure names to the two images of the Taj Mahal was a challenge as well. In the end, I never really did come to understand what the partial image was, which is why I gave it the name Taj Mahal Entrance, although I did assume I was looking at part of the tomb, and assigned values related to function, time frame, location and architectural features, accordingly. Structure Function: This was by far, my favorite part to research and work through. I very much enjoyed coming up with as many terms as I could to describe function. It was particularly interesting to me in terms of the religious structures, and the buildings that were part of larger complexes the tomb at the Taj Mahal and the farmhouse museum exhibit where so many terms were applicable. Time Frame: I found this fairly straightforward and was pleased that my database structure set- up worked well. I had to pay attention to initial construction dates, destruction dates, rebuilding dates, dates where different buildings of one architectural style were individually and repeatedly built over time, and in one case a building that was never completed. Location: Much like the case with structure function, I found this field enjoyable to populate. Again, I attempted to find as many terms as I could to both pinpoint location and describe setting. Initially, I was hesitant to define location as something that might encompass setting. This fear dissipated as I worked through the images. I quickly came to understand not only that a user group with limited knowledge might appreciate and agree with my defense, but that in the end a setting might give someone a great deal of information related to how a structure needed to be built, in order to fulfill its desired function. Architectural Features: I used this database field to aggregate a great deal of information. In the beginning I was uncomfortable with my decision, feeling I was lumping information into what might really be a field of miscellany. However, I came to understand that a user group with limited background knowledge might feel comfortable with the actual values I was assigning to the attributes. Interestingly, the first image quickly made me ask myself if I could assign the name of the architect in this case Frank Lloyd Wright as a value to this given attribute. After all, he is so well known that to a group of people who don t know much about architecture, he might in and of himself be a feature, no? You will notice that after a struggle, I did indeed go on ahead and consistently include the name of the architect, when known. REFLECTION. More than anything, I positioned questions of granularity, specificity, consistency, precision, aggregation and discrimination within a larger framework question: How important is it for the designer of a database to actually know something about the material the user group 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 7
is working with? How important was it for me to have some background in architecture? Or did it actually work to my advantage, that I could easily have been a student in the class comprising the user group? Keeping the important points the instructor had for the students comprising the user group in my mind at all times, was invaluable in deciding on and honing down my database fields, and coming up with the rules. After that, I was constantly questioning my own defense of my named fields, to the extent that I wondered if my assigned values would hold any water with someone who actually knew something about architecture. Did I know enough to actually aggregate the work my group mates had done, when assigning descriptors to images? After research, did I then know enough to aggregate values that in reality, an architect could argue had very little in common with each other? How could I discriminate between two images of the same structure, when in reality I knew almost nothing about what I was looking at, and the research did not much help? Or at least, did not much help me. 3. Describing Information Resources - Template Page 8