Alternatives Unit Summary

The Middle Ages was the time of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Renaissance was a time of rebirth and reformation. Designers and architects were exploring new boundaries and breaking rules set by previous styles and architects. Religion was a major motivating source, which is why most architecture was for religious purposes, such as: St. Peter’s church, which was larger motivated by Christianity. The Renaissance began moving outside in courtyards for political purposes. The Ospedale Innocenti celebrated the public square and gave an idea to what designers were addressing in Renaissance building. The Palazza Rucellai collapsed the history and design of the Coliseum and applied it to their design by the use of the columns and levels. The Renaissance also brought in the idea of different views. Compared to the façade views used before, the Renaissance designers began showing a whole second façade along the sides of the buildings. This allowed for more dimensionality in the designs and also to give depth to the buildings other than the interior.
Along with the Renaissance came the abstract and functional idea of Villas. Villas became the working farms to raise food to feed Venice. They were organized around a central circular space. The Villa Giulia was a landscape, garden scape, and building scape linked together to form one space. The interiors and furniture used in the Villas were to bring order out of chaos and to bring things from the past and embed them in the present.
Many architects and designers began testing boundaries and breaking rules. Michelangelo Buonarroti painted the Capella Sistina at the Pope’s request, but began using the idea of disintegrating the wall in the paint so that it provides an illusion of no walls and transforming the viewer into a new space. In the Laurentian Library Vestibule, Michelangelo pushed the columns into the wall, then cut out the space around then to let them be columns for decoration and support. This was much different from the past idea of columns that had to be seen all around with decoration and mainly used for support. He also used the idea of a cascading waterfall for the stairs to give the idea of pouring forth knowledge from the library.
Borromini was a Baroque architect that began thinking outside of the box by trying to fit the St. Maria Pace into a courtyard where there was no room to place a church. He also tried to cram as much fluidity in the St. Ivo as possible while embedding the Trinity into the design itself. Bernini was also a Baroque architect who designed the Trevi fountain by using the idea of water flowing throughout the entire fountain structure.
These designers thought outside their boxes created by architects and architecture before them by taking their ideas and making them their own. The Renaissance was a time to renew architecture from the ideas that were established by the Greeks and Romans years before and applying that to new construction. The Renaissance and Baroque came together by bringing new ideas and adding ornate detail to the designs. These styles helped in establishing architecture for today and the future by giving way to thinking outside the box.

Grammar : Syntax

[Re]Visions: For proper design, revision and vision are necessities. Designers need inspiration to design and then take that inspiration and modify it to work better in the space or environment. Revisions are also made to existing architecture. Renaissance architects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries endeavored to create new rational, mathematically describable forms based on what they understood of the Classical architecture of ancient Rome (Roth 397). They even invented a term to describe their decisive break with the Gothic past, saying their work marked a renaissance, or rebirth (Roth 397).
Audience: Architecture and design are meant to be enjoyed by all viewers. Buildings and cathedrals used to be built for enjoyment by using large scale that allows for the viewer to be transformed into a different atmosphere and puts the viewer at awe of the space. “Illusionisic architectural painting was aimed at extending real architecture into an imaginary space” (Blakemore 159).
Character: Character is what sets a piece of architecture from another. It is the identity of a piece of architecture that gives it personality. Renaissance architects and designers looked to make their designs different and monumental from all other designs. Annibale’s representations were vital, animated, dramatic, and monumental (Blakemore 158). Every designer desires to put character in their designs and to be able to call them their own or make them stand out from the rest.

Transition: Flowing and moving through time and space is transition. Change in styles or attitudes from one to the other or back again makes up transition. To eighteenth century French critics, the curving, heavily embellished architecture of the seventeenth century Rome, with its corkscrew columns and bent entablatures, was as much a deviation from the paper architectural norms as a twisted pear that deviated from the spherical norm, and they applied to that architecture the derogatory Portuguese term used for misshapen pearls: barocco, “baroque” (Roth 398). The transition of names and titles of the time periods marked those times for future reference. Gradually, however, the term baroque came to be used by late-nineteenth-century art historians such as Heinrich Wolfflin in a more positive, descriptive sense, to describe any art that was elaborated, embellished, and complex, compared to preceding simpler forms (Roth 398). But also, these time periods became known by their change in architectural styles.

Datum: A datum line is a point of reference. For architecture, the datum line keeps everything straight and accurate. Drawings and design are kept precise by including a datum line.

Summary: Architects and designers think of the audience and the vision they are trying to capture when designing, then they revise the idea, add in the character and transitions from one space to another. They also use datum lines to distinguish the symmetry and balance in the design.

Prededent Analysis 2

Drawings:
I. Plan View (1/4”:1’)- ink on Vellum
II. Elevation (1/4”:1’)- ink on Vellum
III. North Section (1/4”:1’)- ink on Vellum
IV. South Section (1/4”:1’)- ink on Vellum
V. West Section (1/4”:1’)- ink on Vellum
VI. East Section (1/4”:1’)- ink on Vellum
VII. Orthographic- ink on Vellum
VIII. Isometric- ink on Vellum
IX. Line Drawing- ink on Vellum
X. Perspective Interior- ink on Vellum
XI. Floor Plan- ink on Vellum
Deliverables
I. Introduction
a. The Proximity hotel was designed on the basis of sustainability, visual interest, and
impact on surroundings.
b. Location
c. Purpose
II. Background
a. History and details of planning process
b. Inspiration drawn from surroundings
III. Design
a. Sustainability
b. Visual interest aspects including decorations, outward appearance, and other various
observations
IV. Impact
a. How did this hotel and green building affect the area?
b. How will this effect future construction and design?
V. Conclusion
a. Thesis repeated
b. Wrap up of ideas and paragraphs

P Week

Periphery: Periphery is the outer edge of an area or object. The outer edge can also be called negative space. Negative space can be accentuated with color or design or left alone. Sometimes leaving the negative space or periphery alone can accentuate the positive space better than by adding something that could seem unnecessary. In Renaissance designing, the idea of surrounding doors and walls with columns and pilasters or elaborate decoration was prominently used. They were also used to separate different aspects of the walls in order to unify the design. Sometimes engaged columns instead of pilasters were used to separate panel sections (Blakemore 137). For the scrap booked layout for my Unity project, the different colored backgrounds and framing was unnecessary and took away from the different views of the projects themselves. Although, it was laid out precisely and would have looked good in a scrap book, it was unnecessary for the project at the time. Just like the scrap book page for the Unity project was too much, the graphic done for the Dialogue project was effective because of the emphasis put on the picture with little aspects that did not take away the focus on the diagram.

Portfolio: A portfolio can be the actual paper or cloth case that loose papers are kept in or it can be the loose papers in the case. For our portfolios in drafting, we collaborated all of the work done for the semester up until that time. A portfolio can include anything done in a certain time period or can be collected over years of work. Some use portfolios for job interviews, which can showcase work created or work done in the past, much like a resume. The typical architect of the Renaissance in Italy was exceptionally versatile in that he performed services not only as an architect but also as a painter, sculptor, furniture designer, etc. (Blakemore 91). An architect’s portfolio of work in the Renaissance needed to be versatile in order to have work. Architecture as an independent, rational structure frame is transformed into a unity or fusion of the visual arts propaganda (Roth 404). Architecture has become but one constituent part in what was “a total work of art” (Roth 404). All parts of architecture combined make up a portfolio of its own. Process: The process of design is much like the process of writing a story. They both take inspiration and consideration for all parts included, whether they be furniture or characters. Different periods of time took inspiration from other periods and countries to come up with their own revised version. In western countries stylistic progression was from Romanesque to Early Christian, thence to the Romanesque and Gothic of the Middle Ages (Blakemore 91). Inspiration was also used for statues and other structures like Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa. Bernini re-creates a moment, conveying it in carnal terms so that the observer could easily grasp a transcendent spiritual experience through its mundane physical counterpart (Roth 403). For the Pathways, Edges, and Boundaries project, the Desert group had to draw up ideas of what we each thought would work in the median assigned. The drawings represent process by the ideas flowing onto paper and collaboration of ideas, then some being used in the project. For the Place for Twelve Twigs project from last semester, the process was the amount of iterations done to reach the final product. Process requires multiple iterations and revisions to reach the final goal.
Perspective: Perspective is the way that a person sees from a particular point. When looking into a room, some things seem closer while others seem farther away, but really it has to do with the direction and point the person is standing at, by the way they perceive the room. One-point and two-point perspectives are mostly seen, while three-point or even four-point are not seen as often. One-point perspective is where everything seems to meet at one point on the horizon line, while two-point perspective is when everything meets at two points on the horizon line.
Professional: Professionalism means that a presentation is as neat and understandable as possible. The layout of a project on a board can be done sloppily or be very put together to where the viewer can tell that a lot of time and effort went into the actual planning and placement of many aspects on the board. Professionalism can also be shown by the use of a border on a drafted floor plan. The border should show the name of the designer, title of the project, and date of when completed. The border may be simple, but it really helps to professionally complete the project.

Summary: A project or portfolio should be professional, but also show progression. The viewer should be able to understand the concept from many different perspectives. They should also not be distracted by the periphery, but be able to focus on the project or work itself.

Macro: Micro

Impression: The Greeks and Romans made a huge impression in architecture. The Renaissance time followed many of the same basics that the Romans set out in their architecture. The columns, scale, and materials were widely used hundreds of years after the Roman era. The architects of the Renaissance used the Coliseum as an archetype for the Palazzo Rucellai. They collapsed history and put it in their design by using the different columns on every level. They also used the idea of a dome to represent perfection of divinity. To theorists such as Alberti, the circle and the centralized plan generated from it were highly evocative religious symbols of the perfection of divinity, forms found also in the proportions of the human body patterned, so scripture declared, in God’s image (Roth 365). A dome, placed over the center, became the outward manifestation of this centrally focused plan (Roth 365).Detail: The Greeks and Romans were very detailed in their designs and elaborate in decoration. They used bright colors to paint the outside of their structures, such as the Parthenon. They were also very detailed in the interior as well as the exterior. The Pantheon has an elaborate interior with an open center dome that acts as a sundial. In the portal:panels created for Studio, every detail was explained and necessary to the design. The design for the Foust building on campus is very detailed with the raised roof in the lobby, the older aspects, and the archways of the entrance are known to the building alone. Many of the newer buildings on campus mimic the design and use the details of the Foust building. In Renaissance building, the circle and square became the basic design modules of their architecture, with the boundaries of these modules being delineated by classical columns, arches, and entablatures derived from Roman sources (Roth 362). Renaissance architects sought clearly expressed numerical relationships in their designs, recalling the mysticism of Pythagoras and his followers (Roth 362).

Porch-Court-Hearth: The porch-court-hearth was developed by the Greeks and is still used today in modern buildings. The porch acts as the entrance to the structure, which leads the viewer into the court. The court can be characterized as the open space where people congregate for religious or political purposes. The hearth is the center of the structure. Much like a home the porch is the entrance, or front door, the court could be the living or family room, and the hearth could be the kitchen which is the center of the household where everyone always gathers.
Composition: Beauty was seen to rest in the careful arrangement of proportionally related parts (Roth 353). The structure or make-up of the building is the composition. Gothic architecture was an assembly of parts worked out for each building individually (Roth 353). All the intricate parts of a cathedral or temple makes up the composition. The façade, narthex, nave, aisle, choir, ambulatory, and chevette are all parts of a cathedral and without each one, there would be no grandeur or awe in the structure. The cathedrals were a race to see who could build the largest, most elaborate cathedral during that time. Some builders or architects would leave out important structual parts, like flying buttresses, and without that part, the structure falls. A composition relies on every part and needs each part to function properly. Just like without the columns on the Parthenon, it would never be able to stand or it would not be as massive. For our design, the triangles made up most of the composition and the shadows from the cut out triangles in the top added a new detail that mimicked the shadows portrayed on the Pyramids at Giza.
Diagram: Diagrams are important to building and structure. The plan view of a building can tell a lot of what is on the inside of a structure or even what materials are used to build and dimensions. The diagram for the Foust building shows the circulation through the first floor and the immediate outer edge of the building. The traffic flow is important to a building because it shows what areas are used the most and why. For the Pathways, Edges, and Boundaries project has required many different diagrams for traffic flow through the parking lot, whether it be human or automotive. Diagrams play a huge part in development as well as in understanding a structure.

Summary: Architecture is a composition made up of details, whether small or big, that make an impression on the world surrounding it. A structure can include a porch, court, and hearth that can make it a sort of diagram. Or it could be as simple as an apartment in New York, with open space and no dimensionality.

Foundations Unit Summary

The Egyptians became a foundation for architecture today. With monuments and temples, such as: Queen Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri and the Pyramids at Giza. The templeof Hatshepsut used columns, which introduced the order for columns to the Greeks and the Romans. They came up with the order of the Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, and Composite. Many of the temples built by the Romans used the Ionic order, which was the simplest order out of the four. The Ionic order allowed for the rest of the temple to be seen without the distraction of the outside columns. The Egyptians came up with an adaptive use of buildings with a focus on interiors. The Ionic order also allowed for the surroundings to be clearly seen, which was the Egyptians intent by always working with the site. They also use the idea of making the building an external shell containing integrated and finished interiors. The Greeks took this idea and ran with it by the building of the Acropolis and most importantly, the Parthenon. The Acropolis used the surroundings by the different buildings and the city in the distance. There is not much greenery surrounding the buildings, which was made up for by the elaborate paintings decorating the exterior. The Porch of Maidens on the Erechtheion, faces the Parthenon which points the viewer to the centerpiece of the Acropolis. The Propylaia and the Temple of Athena Nike also help to point viewers and guests to the Parthenon by announcing their arrival and opening at the exact spot that leads to the main point. The Romans also used the idea of emphasis on interior and exterior, by the building of the Pantheon. The Pantheon is massive in size with huge columns along the façade, which invite the viewer inward to see what is behind the shadow of the grand entrance. Once you enter the Pantheon, you are hit with the massiveness and bright light flowing from the hole in the center of the dome. The building was distinct from any other building by becoming a sundial when the sun was above and dome form that was not very common in that time due to the complicated structure. The dome and façade influenced architecture today by the building of the Capital building in Washington, DC. The most prominent idea in architecture was the difference between male and female. The Tower of Trajan represented the male form while the Aqueducts were the female form by the exhibit of the genital areas characterized in the structures. The Egyptians used the male and female form also through the dominating pyramids compared to the temples for women. The Pyramid at Giza built by Khufu was surrounded by smaller pyramids, which represented his wives and servants that did not compare to him in society. Architecture influences society by the idea of male and female dominance and the emphasis on interior and exterior. The use of columns was also a huge part of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architecture and still influences architecture today.
Sources:
http://www.usborderlaw.com/images/capital%20building.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/images/gal_04_dyn.jpg