architecture what is it?

architecture what is it?

definitions of architecture

What is architecture anyway? Is it the vast collection of the various buildings which have been built to please the varying taste of the various lords of mankind? I think not. No, I know that architecture is life, or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived. So architecture I know to be a Great Spirit. -Frank Lloyd Wright, from AN ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE, 1939

The Architect is the rival of nature, and out of it can form another nature...he can subject the world to the newness that stimulates the chance movements of his imagination. -Claude-Nicholas Ledoux (18th/19th century)

Pantheon, Rome A.D. 120-4 Guggenheim, New York 1959 Guggenheim, Bilbao 1997

Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens 447-432 B.C.

I would certainly never have entered this profession only to become a copyist. -Francesco Borromini San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (facade), Rome Italy, 1665-76

Architecture is the will of the epoch translated into space. Until this simple truth is clearly recognized, then new architecture will be uncertain and tentative. Until then it must remain a chaos of undirected forces. The question as to the nature of architecture is of decisive importance. It must be understood that all architecture is bound up with its own time, that it can only be manifested in living tasks and in the medium of its epoch. In no age has it been otherwise.

Notre-Dame, Paris West Facade, 1163

We who love architecture and recognize it as the great sense of structure in whatever is music, painting, sculpture, or life itself we must somehow act as intermediaries maybe missionaries. -Frank Lloyd Wright Pablo Picasso: Three Musicians Dizzy Gillespie Le Corbusier: La mer

architecture vs. building

architecture is an art

architecture goes beyond providing mere shelter.

the purpose of architecture is to enrich the lives of those who come in contact with those works.

the purpose of architecture, the purpose of art, is to evoke a strong, positive, emotional, memorable response.

an order, not the order

Architecture, as opposed to mere building is the realization of a manifest order, appropriately conceived, logically developed, conditioned and disciplined, coherent through consistency, animated with wit, and enlivened with spirit.

A work of architecture must address a single, strong, identifiable idea that is developed through the details. The design must play upon the single idea with all parts relating back to and informing the whole.

Profile and contour are the touchstone of the Architect. Here he reveals himself as artist or mere engineer...there is here no longer any question of custom, nor of tradition, nor of construction, nor of adaptation to utilitarian needs -Le Corbusier

Architectural design cannot be charted. It starts with the emotional, it starts with the intuitive.

there is a tendency is to take something simple and turn it into something that is so complex that it becomes incoherent. the essence of architecture is very modest.

reading structures analysis/synthesis/analysis

analysis n. pl. analyses 1. a. The separation of an intellectual or material whole into its constituent parts for individual study. b. The study of such constituent parts and their interrelationships in making up a whole. c. A spoken or written presentation of such study: published an analysis of poetic meter. 2. Chemistry. a. The separation of a substance into its constituent elements to determine either their nature (qualitative analysis) or their proportions (quantitative analysis). b. The stated findings of such a separation or determination. 3. Mathematics. a. A branch of mathematics principally involving differential and integral calculus, sequences, and series and concerned with limits and convergence. b. The method of proof in which a known truth is sought as a consequence of a series of deductions from that which is the thing to be proved. 4. Linguistics. The use of function words such as prepositions, pronouns, or auxiliary verbs instead of inflectional endings to express a grammatical relationship; for example, the cover of the dictionary instead of the dictionary's cover. 5. Psychoanalysis. 6. Systems analysis. [Medieval Latin, from Greek analusis, a dissolving, from analein, to undo!: ana-, throughout; see ana- + lein, to loosen; see leu- in Indo-European Roots.] Synonyms:!!assay, breakdown, dissection, dissolution, division, inquiry, investigation, partition, reasoning, resolution, scrutiny, search, separation, study, subdivision, test

synthesis noun Etymology: Greek, from syntithenai to put together, from syn- + tithenai to put, place 1 a : the composition or combination of parts or elements so as to form a whole b : the production of a substance by the union of chemical elements, groups, or simpler compounds or by the degradation of a complex compound c : the combining of often diverse conceptions into a coherent whole; also : the complex so formed 2 a : deductive reasoning b : the dialectic combination of thesis and antithesis into a higher stage of truth 3 : the frequent and systematic use of inflected forms as a characteristic device of a language

Longitudinal section of six-cylinder Ricardo Engine Exploded axonometric plan of Crawford House by Morphosis

thesis noun 2 a : a position or proposition that a person (as a candidate for scholastic honors) advances and offers to maintain by argument b : a proposition to be proved or one advanced without proof : HYPOTHESIS 3 : the first and least adequate stage of dialectic -- compare SYNTHESIS 4 : a dissertation embodying results of original research and especially substantiating a specific view; especially : one written by a candidate for an academic degree hypothesis noun Etymology: Greek, from hypotithenai to put under, suppose, from hypo- + tithenai to put 1 a : an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument b : an interpretation of a practical situation or condition taken as the ground for action 2 : a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences 3 : the antecedent clause of a conditional statement synonyms HYPOTHESIS, THEORY, LAW mean a formula derived by inference from scientific data that explains a principle operating in nature. HYPOTHESIS implies insufficient evidence to provide more than a tentative explanation <a hypothesis explaining the extinction of the dinosaurs>. THEORY implies a greater range of evidence and greater likelihood of truth <the theory of evolution>. LAW implies a statement of order and relation in nature that has been found to be invariable under the same conditions <the law of gravitation>. antithesis noun Etymology: Late Latin, from Greek, literally, opposition, from antitithenai to oppose, from anti- + tithenai to set 1 a (1) : the rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences (as in "action, not words" or "they promised freedom and provided slavery") (2) : OPPOSITION, CONTRAST <the antithesis of prose and verse> b (1) : the second of two opposing constituents of an antithesis (2) : the direct opposite 2 : the second stage of a dialectic process

The studio promotes ARCHITECTURE as the ability to organize, manipulate and articulate the constant and variable component parts of size and shape, treatment, location, and orientation. The studio presents architecture as a language of sequential placespaces, path-spaces, servant and transitionspaces.

In this studio the student is introduced to an iterative series of design processes within a defined set of constraints and a focused set of issues. The design process accumulates step by step in an incremental and additive cadence.

architecture can be regarded as systems of systems: of structures (physical, organizational, programmatic, psychological, sociological, etc.) of rational, intellectual, and emotional order or logical consistency. of constants and variables (theme and variation). of subliminal balances; surprise and spontaneity; handling the common, uncommonly of sequence or movement; transitional elements; points of decision with cues, clues, and references. of synthesis; parts to make up the whole. of signification or meaning? the making of better and meaningful places to live, play, and work. a system of beginnings, middles, and ends.

The Key Architectural Questions: 1.! The five major components of architecture: how does the architect control (1) size, (2) shape, (3) location, (4) orientation, (5) and treatment? 2.! How does the architect define constant and variable elements and relationships? order, structure, logical consistency. 3.! How does the architect manipulate, orchestrate, and integrate place-spaces, path-spaces, and transition-spaces into multiple dynamic sequences of movement? the unfolding of space; an experiential art yielding aesthetic, invigorating, and interesting architectural experiences. 4.! How does the building interact and relate to its site? What is the building"s relationship to the ground? How does the building"s profile relate to the sky and horizon beyond? How are differentiated views framed? 5.! How does the building change its appearance under variable external conditions? rain, snow, sun, cloudy, fog.

reading structures

If there is one project that should please an Architect and, at the same time, fire his genius, it is a Public Library. In addition to giving him an opportunity to develop his talent, it has the precious advantage of enabling him to devote it to the scholars who have made their age illustrious.... The building that is most precious to a Nation is undoubtedly one which houses all acquired knowledge. An enlightened sovereign will always be in favour of methods that contribute to the progress of the arts and sciences. E.L. Boullée. L Architecture: Essai sur l art. 1793

In order to test out these ideas, the vehicle for the studio engages libraries or reading structures. The studio begins with an intensive design analysis project. The analysis examines the underlying conceptual components of honorific reading structures. The analysis concludes with a field trip experiencing exemplary works of architecture. This is followed by a design synthesis project. The procedures, technical elements, formal ordering systems, vocabularies, and formats discovered in the analytic phase act as generators for the design of a small community reading structure (library) located in the historic Village of Glendale, north of Cincinnati, Ohio. The semester concludes with a second design analysis project focusing on the construction of a large scale sectional model derived from the design synthesis project.