IAR 221 Foundations

Throughout history evidence that architectural design comes from previous or natural design is very significant. Theses designs might have double meanings, maps of meanings, and subcultural meanings. These ideas were presented by Dick Hebdige. For example The University of Greensboro is a school where people go to get an education and hopefully someday graduate. That would be the obvious meaning of the school. In my opinion the double meaning of UNCG could be that it’s a place for a new life or new experience. When observing the maps of meaning aspect, you would analyze how UNCG relates to Greensboro. How does UNCG affect Greensboro as a whole? It would make Greensboro sort of a college community. Last but not least when analyzing the subcultural meaning of UNCG, you might want to go into the history of the building. UNCG used to be a women’s college before it became co-ed. What meanings lie beyond that?

Other material culture aspects that are valuable to consider are description, deduction, and speculation. Describing an object, space, building, or place you want to use formal analyzes. This includes looking at things such as color, shape, texture, cultural meanings, etc.  When using deduction, you take into consideration how it makes you feel or what emotional/sensory response you obtain from it. Lastly when speculating you want to use creative out of the box thinking. These three ways of analyzing were presented by Jules David Brown.

 These basic building blocks such as groves, stacks, and circles acted as prototypes for structures like Stonehenge in 3000 BCE. Groves, circles, and stacks are elements that are found in nature. The three basic elements aided in constructing architectural spaces. Some objects included two qualities, qualifying these objects as hybrids. From groves the delightful columns were constructed. The archetype selection includes Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The structures of Greece took from these primitive aspects and built structures such as the Parthenon and the Colosseum. The Parthenon’s porch consist of columns that give the structure firmness, whereas for the Colosseum they’re just for aesthetics. Romans adopted aspects of Greek design and developed their cities.

The Romans had a variety of different design elements as well as building structures. Buildings such as the Colosseum, Basilica, and Amphitheatre all display arches and domes. These two structures of design were very popular during the Roman era. Not only are arches and domes aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but they also give a different type of stability other than just post and lintel. The most important structure that ran through Rome was the aqueducts that carried water into the city. The arcades along the aqueducts allowed them to be built along greater distances so the romans could have fresh clean water. The city of Rome was built on a grid that had main roads that crossed and a certain point. This is called cardo and decumanus. The Romans also had to modify plans to accommodate geography.

In our modern day society we continue to analyze ancient designs and use them as the foundations of our civilization.

 

Source:

http://gaininginsight.com/blog/archives/590