Alternatives

The New Rome:

Change comes to the Roman Empire. Constantine becomes the Emperor of Rome after Diocletian abdicates the throne. Emperor Constantine relocates the entire Imperil City of Rome to a New Roman Empire call Constantinople. Under the influence of his Mother Helena,a devote Catholic, Constantine accepts the Christian religion founded by Jesus of Nazareth. A new religion sect among the Jews of Palestine took affect like wild fire across Rome, Greece, Asia Minor, North Africa, Egypt and then Europe. In just a century this religion was spread from twelve disciples to thousands and tens of thousands across the then know world. Do to the belief in Jesus the Christ( Son of God). Christianity comes to the Roman Empire. Even the year changed due to this Prophet, Man Son of God, to the Year of Our Lord. (Anno Domini). Roth 277.

Churches under the direction of Constantine began to develop all over the new Roman Empire. It is believed that due to Constantine's faith in Christ he was able to defeat the Persians who came to conquer the New Rome. Under the influence of his mother Helena, Constantine builds a Holy Roman Empire and the first Cathedral of Rome the Basilica of St. Peter. This church the largest of it's kind was built over the burial site of St. Peter the head of the new church of Christ. Before Jesus was crucified he commission Peter as the head of his church. "Upon this rock you shall build my church....and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." verse from the Christian bible verse. This Basilica stands even today in the 21st Century.

Constantine took an active role in Church doctrine and policy. He became the new Vicar of Christ the Enternal King. Pagan religions were abolished or at least not to be publicly worshiped. Christianity becomes dominate. At first the early christians were persecuted for their faith and they had to hid to worship this all changed under Constantine. There was a council at Nicaea which resulted in the Nicene Creed a decree in which all Christians were to follow and even exist to this day. Later when the church becomes so powerful the christian church begins to persecute heretics or non believers.

The Basilica of Saint Peter of Rome is one of the largest basilicas in Rome. It is now called Vatican City. It is 90.7 meters long and 21 meters wide. This basilica forms a T resembling the cross on which St. Peter was crucified. The architect Zenobius is credited with this construction. Other churches are built through the New Rome now known as Constantinople.

The Visigoths coming from upper Europe, Hungary and Germany began to conquer the western half on the Roman Empire. The city of Rome is deviated in 410. The Visigoths moved out of Italy and settled in what is now France and Spain. The Ostrogoths from Russia settle in the Eastern part of Rome and this area becomes known as France. The Burgandians in the south establish an area called Britain. The Anglos and the Saxons from Denmark over run now Britain but the borders of Constantinople are protected from all of this movement and change.

Constantine builds a Mausoleum to his daughter Constantina. Due to all the vandalism in Europe, Monasteries began to be developed to preserve learning and writings. Monasticism is developed to protect and nurture classical literature and a new institution arises called Monastic copists. Groups of Monks began to organize into "orders "in southern Egypt.

Basil the Great establishes Monasteries in the East and Martin of Toures does the same in France. In the 6th century under Benedict of Nursia the Rule of Monasteries was established and monasteries began to crop up all over Europe.

The Emperor Justinian comes to power in 527. Under Justinian rule two major developments happened the codification of Roman law and the Church building. This code was an attempt to get rid of corruption in the government. The common people began to revolt against this rule and burned the city of Rome and a beautiful cathedral of Hagia Sophia.

The Hagia Sophia was a grand Byzantine Church one that Justinian was determined to rebuild. This church was built with the remains of Ancient Greek and roman pagan temples. This signified the use of re usable materials. This church was finished in 527 AD.

Justinian employs two experts in the theory of physics and statics to rebuild the church of Haga Sophia. Hagia Sophia was an achievement never before done not as large as the Pantheon but just as grand if not more. The dome of the Hagia Sophia elevated 120 ft in the air a cube surmounted by a dome. This was supposed to represent the Universe. It collapse again in 558 twenty years after completion. Constantinople is captured by the Ottoman Turks and the Hagia Sophia falls into Turkish hands and becomes an Mosque.

There is a shift in the Byzantine church, Eastern and Western Byzantine churches separate. The Pope of Rome is no longer Pope to Eastern Byzantine Churches . The Orthodox churches of the east expanded to Serbia. Bulgaria, and Russia.

The Middle Ages becomes The Age of Enlightenment :

The Dark ages come and end with the rise of Charlemagne the Frankish Empire. A stable feudal system emerges. The Crusades against the Muslins were : Charlemagne reestablishes Centers of learning in the Frankish Kingdom. Monasteries began to flourish all over the west. They became liberies for ancient scared and pagan text.

The revival of Roman Architecture results in the construction of an Octagonal Chapel on the Byzantine church of San Villae in Ravanna. This was designed by Odo of Metz built of cut stone and central vertical space covered with a stone vault. Domestic construction began wood framed homes Manor homes.

Charlemage of France becomes the next emperor. He is against Iconlastics in the churches and has them removed and replace with crosses and foliage. He believes that too much attention is put on decorating the churches, that this might have something to do with the problems in the Byzantine church. One of the oldest drawings to survive the Middle Ages was the Plan by Abbot Haito of the monastery of Saint Gall. Monasteries were used as hotels for travelers.

The Architect of Islam: Byzantine Empire lasted 900 years after Justinian's reign . A new religion is preached by a prophet Muhammad, in Mecca. This religion spread across Arabia, Persia, Syria,Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and Algeria in the west. Then to Pakistan and Hindu Kush in the east. Christians were allowed to practice their religion as long as they paid taxes. Islamic Architect brought mosaics and vibrate colors to their buildings. The domes of the mosque were spherical, smooth, with colorful glazed tiles.

High Middle Ages: The Romanesque churches had round arches, massive vaulted naves and very little light. Gothic Architecture is invented in 1141 for Suger, abbot of the monetary of Saint -Denis a small town next to Paris. He and his team integrated a number of improvements in late Romanesque church architecture by including pointed arches and rib vaulting. Gothic architecture was physical, assertive, had a positive disposition on the here and now. While Romanesque period focused only on the here after.

This period a joy in human existence coincided with the adoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. She exemplified womanhood and raised respect for woman and motherhood.

In 1066 Normandy conquers England which develops into the 100 Years War from 1337 to 1457. This marked the end of the Middle Ages. A new economy develops from the end of the crusades or because of it, one is the growth of cities and trade. Agriculture and woolen cloth was a very important industry in England, Flanders and Italy. A new class of people derives from this the French called Bourgeois, (city dwellers). This new class of merchants, bankers began to rival the nobility and clergy. They began to be able to build homes of their own and not just keep funding the development of churches.

The Middle Ages end after the Black plague and a great famine kills over 2/5th of Europe's population.

Renaissance Architecture: During the renaissance period there was a return to the classical orders. This period was characterized by harmony, clarity and strength. A revival of linking the old standards with the new. An interest in antiquity, literature, philosophy and mathematics. Urban planning became important. Filippo Brunelleschi brought back the Greek and Roman style of building architect. He developed a basilica design with the plan in which squares of the crossing was the module repeated to make a Latin cross. Basilicas were based on Corinthian style arcades. Merchants families began to build homes for the urban life.

The city of Florence created a new form of domestic architecture. Shops were on the first level and living quarters were upstairs. Brick was widely used in these structures. St Peter's Basilica in Rome is rebuilt. The designer Donato Bramante using the old corthinian orders reinterpreted the circular temple for , constructing a peristyle around the central sanctuary. A hemispherical dome covers the interior as in the Pantheon. Andrea Palladio brings back the classical elements of the column, entablature, pediment and the arch.

Doric order columns dedicated to St. Peter and also included emblems of the papacy on the metopes of the frieze. Some of the other architectural builds of this time were: Palazzo Farneses, Rome, Library of Venice, Venetian Palaces, Palazzo Cihiericati, Vicenza. By the 16th Century Rome had become the center of power and princes of the church. These are the works of Andrea Palladio.

Baroque and Rococo Architecture come into being in the 17th and 18th CE.

Baroque church in Roman was created by Ignatius Loyola. The church of Gesu Rome. Loyola founded the order of the Jesuits ( Society of Jesus). Symbolic and well as illusionist schemes were used to play on the emotions as well as the intellect of the parishioners. A new style of architecture was used based on repetitions and distortion of the classical Renaissance motifs. Broken pediments, giant orders, and convex and concave walls were used by baroque architects. Bernini, and Gorromini were commissioned to remodel older palaces. They used open loggias, grand staircases and emphasis on entrances. Painters and sculptors adorned the architecture with great fresco cycles.

In France King Louis XIV has the Chateau de Versailles rebuilt. The palace and gardens of Versailles was developed in different phases from the 17th to 18th century. Major sculptors and painters of the day were employed to make this undertaking a "Monarch Triumphant" Urban Villa's are created, the development of Hotels where the interior was based on the decorative style of Versailles.

In the 17th century London is nearly burned down in the Great Fire of London 1666. Acts were passed to rebuild the city. Christopher Wren was the architect to redesign the city. He used inventive barogue soluctions involving distortions and adaptations. Among his work was Trinity College Library, Cambridge, England, St. Jame's Piccadilly, and St. Paul's Cathedral.

Rococo Style was a decorative movement that developed in the early 18th century. In the hotels of Parisian nobility the style came from the rich decorations and ornamentations of Versailles. Designers of this style based their architecture on more intimate scale and comfort. Rooms were arranged by decorating them with light, colorful and playful schemes in panels and door frames that disappeared in the walls. Walls merged with the ceilings. A few Rococo style churches were St Paul and St. Louis in Paris. Germany used this style more than France.

In England in the early 18th century a movement to "national taste" came into the arena. This was about the reforms that Inigo Jones and Palladio used to get away from the extravagant "deformities" of baroque architecture. Inigo Jones changed English architectural ideas with the theories that Palladio wrote in his "Four Books of Architecture" . This was a revival of the classical thought. The appeal of Palladio's treatise was a proportional system of orders, based on careful study of the ruins of antiquity. Palladio used the work of Vitruvius to establish his "Four Books of Architecture".

Some of Inigo Jones works are the Queens House, Greenwich, England, and the Banqueting House at Whitehall.

In the United States in the mid 18th century Thomas Jerrerson uses Palladian's treatises to create his home in Monticello, Virginia. This was a two story house with a portico detailed from Palladio's designs of the Doric and Ionic orders. Later Jefferson remodels the house with French republic details.

Grammar:Syntax

Revisions: The Renaissance period was a period of revisions. Gothic architecture was being rejected by the Italians. They thought of Gothic Architecture as crude and barbaric, uncivilized. The Florentine Italians began to revisit the age of antiquity of Rome and Greece.

They believed that human history was not divinely ordained as Christendom had taught during the period called the dark ages. This was a period of new architecture built and designed around mathematical science and scientific interpretation. This was a time when the thinking artists, architect, sculptor, inventor began to break away the the dominance of the Roman Catholic church. This new architecture concept of mathematical clarity and rationality in the Divine of the Universe. Roth 353 Renaissance artist firmly adhered to the Pythagorean concept " ALL is Number." Architecture is considered a mathematical study which works with spatial units where laws of perspective was discovered... (Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles of the Age of Humanism. 1949 re quoted from Roth p.353.

This new architecture was represented by Filippo Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital in Florence Italy. This building was based on Roman sources governed by the arrangement fits parts and proportional systems. This was an example of architecture based in human intellect not conveying religious dogma but to provide for the human needs. This was a hospital that catered to orphaned children.

Renaissance was a time when man began to look at the artisan as a Humanist Scholar. Works of the ancient scholars began to be revisited, Cicero, Virgil, Greek thinkers and philosophers Plato and Aristotle. This generation of scholars were not interested so much as to how the "Church" wanted them to think and see the world about them. They wanted to see the world through their own eyes, mind and thought. The appreciation of natural landscape was on of the important contributions of the Renaissance.

As this relates to my study of History of Architecture, in Communication Art class this week we took a nature walk and looked for natural elements that related to us as individuals as we walk this journey through our lifetime. We all had to write a story that was important to us as individuals and then from our finding create a abstract design that represented this story or important moment in our lives. I chose the story about the birth of my first child, my daughter Lena.The memory of the birth of my first child was one of the most memorial times of my life. This time of year being spring I thought of the renewing of the earth a rebirth. A time when all things become new again.

I found yellow daffodils growing along the edge of the grounds of my back yard and choose this as a iteration for my new project. We are using MDF 1/4 material to create a light abstract design. This takes some thinking about how to work with this material to make a structure that is of good craft, to scale, showing original thought relating to light, balance, and relate to our vision of our story. An unusual thing happened this past Sunday. I don't always check my mail. I noticed on Friday there were sticks in my mail so I picked them out and threw them on the ground. Well, Sunday morning I went to check my mailbox before leaving the house an a whole birds nest was in my mail box what a inspiration for rebirth how appropriate.

These are objects of my inspiration for my project in Design Communication class. In Design drafting class and Communication Design class this week we are studying perspective drawing we are drawing to scale a room with furniture.



Brunelleschi creates the Dome of Santa Maris Della Flora using methods of study from ancient Rome in the creation of the Pantheon. He later created this dome in two parts a dome inside a dome. Nothing had ever been created before like this. The most striking part of this dome was the lantern he designed to cover the top of the dome. Vitruvius is revisited the architectural bible for the new generation of humanist patrons and architects was the Ten Books of Architecture. Ideal proportioned forms were derived from ideal geometric forms by straight lines and circles as well as solids created by these forms in three dimensions. (Plato called these forms "eternally and absolutely beautiful" p.359 Roth



Vitruvius believed that ideal system of proportion can be found in the human body. Also he described hoe platonic Philean shapes, the square and the circle are incorporated in the proportions of the human body. ( In drawing class we had to draw our designs to scale using the human form.) Even in drafting class we a drawing furniture which uses circles and squares-geometric forms.


Renaissance architects sought clearly expressed numerical relationship in their designs. They used Pythagoras theories. "Galileo Galiliei said that it was impossible to understand the "book"

of creation if we do not learn the language grasp the symbols in which it is written" This book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures. " I would consider this datum a set of written rules for the creation of design.
Leonado Da Vinci 's drawing of the ideal Vitruvian Man, 1485-1490 the form of the human body contained with the essence of the ideal form. ( The perfect geometry of circle and the square) as well as ideal proportional relationships. p 360 Roth.


Image of Vitruvius Man in perfect proportions.




Vitruvius also inspired Leon Battista Alberti 1404-72 to write the first architectural treatise of the Renaissance. The most important to him was the layout of interiors. In our Design class this week we are learning about the layout of the interior of a room. Andrea Polladio 1508-80 used pure architectural term in spatial relationship. Yet it's said he often broke his own rules. Fundamental to the Renaissance theory of beauty was the theory that spatial movement within spaces was enhanced by calculating mathematical ratios. Part of the equation was based on a measure of the human body, the module and multiples of it thus determining the proportional relationship. This system affects both real and fictive architectural space with in a defined scale proportion of the room.

We come to the English Renaissance 1500-1600 when King Henry VIII revised the control of the Catholic Church of Rome over England. After The pope of Rome refused to sanction the annulment of the Kings marriage to Catherine of Aragon the widow of his brother and then his marriage to Anne Boleyn King Henry VIII was excommunicated from the Church. He then made himself Papel of the Church of England. There was a major transition in Church control of government and Monarchal government. The consequences of this move dissolved the properties of the Monasteries and were sold to private families. The monasteries were transformed into palatial residences. Since secular interest cause professional men, wealthy men began to finance the building of their own homes and furnishings. Due to the emancipation of the laity education became a priority. Libraries were added to buildings by the end of the 16th Century. Henry VIII invited the Italian artisans to introduce renaissance to England.

Only minor changes were made in furniture design the main interest was on comfort and display. Homes were sparsely furnished some with multi functional. Example was the chair/table where the back of the chair served as a table top when folded down rested on arms parallel with the floor. The chest was designed for storage of valuables, linens and clothing was occasionally used for a been to table. This is the same usage for today's 21th century time. People still use chest as coffee tables and storage for valuables. Chairs, benches, stools, and settles were the primary types of setting. A special chair for the Lord of the manor as he presided over activities was the wainscot chair. This was a open armed chair in which the armrests extended beyond the arm support ending in a swirl.

Elements of Design....every living thing needs a home

We're doing a new project on things found in nature could this be a coincidence right at my front door. I might have to get a new mail box for my mail.

Woke up this morning to find something other than mail in my mail box. Oh oh either my mail has to find a new place or the birds do....Humm

"Spring is eternal " author unknown.

"A little maddness in Spring is wholesome even for the king" Emily Dickerson

2nd Choice Buckmister Fuller...Geodesci dome

R. Buckmister Fuller's Geodome home in Carbondale, Ill from 1960 to 1971.

The photos above are pictures of Buckmister Fuller's geodesic dome the Epcot in 1967 and The Buckydome home of Buckmister Fuller and his wife Anne. 

R. Buckminster Fuller spent much of the 20th Century looking for ways to improve human shelter by: Applying modern technological know-how to shelter construction. Making shelter more comfortable and efficient, and Making shelter more economically available to a greater number of people. (quoted from the Buckmister Fuller Institute.org.)

The diagrams above should how a geodeic dome can be constructed.

A dome at Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California Nov. 2005. Mass ensemble and o2 Creative solutions present show inside a musical geodesic dome.
The ChicagoTribune is featuring an article about the Chicago Architectural club getting ready to present a exhibition presenting ideas and philosphy- Buckmister Fullers dome. MCA's show on Buckminster Fuller opens window into inventor's creative mind. " Do more with less," Fuller preached, in contrast to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's mazim of "less is more".

"Buckminster Fuller Staring with the Universe" which opens Saturday at the Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.

1. My objective in featuring Buckmister Geo-dome is to give a brief history on the man and his invention,
2.  Show examples
3.  Draw a plan and views of the Geodeic Dome and a scale model.
4. Show how this type of architectural style can be used today.
5. I am presenting two different projects for your approval.
   

Kathleen Clay Edwards Library Analytical Draft

The Kathleen Clay Edwards Library is located in the 98 acre Price Park, which includes a bird and butterfly meadow, and reading garden, walking trails, ponds and wetlands. The library has an extensive collections of nature, gardening and environmental resources for children and adults. Bird and butterfly meadow is 2.5 acres of sloping hillside. Price Park is dedicated Land Conservancy members Jean and Bob Mccoy and Carolyn and Don Allen.

Greensboro Parks and recreation, Stormwater Management, and Piedmont Land Conservancy collaborated to use material called GrassPave, an interlocking frid filled with gravel and soil and grass grown into it to create pervious parking surfaces near the meadow. This surface will reduce untreated rainwater runoff from flowing directly into the nearby creek. This creek was previously eroded but with the help of North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement, and the City of Greensboro buffer plants have been added and reconstruction to the stream for a more stable condition.

Above show the south end of the building and a draft drawing of the building. This Library was built and opened in 2004. Teague, Freyaldenhoven & Freyaldenhoven architects and planners of Greensboro, N C. constructed this building and site.

Spacious reading room for children and a patio on the southeast side of the building. Floor plan of the building and various views picture below.

1. This is just an overview of how I plan to present this Environmental Library.
2. The construction plans
3. Why was it built
4. Who were the architects and what kind of work have they previously done
5. What makes this library different from other libraries in the county or country.
6. A plan drawing and elevated drawing of the building will be presented.
7. Also a scale model of the building and the surrounding area.
   

Drafting drawings

The following are different view of Pat's chair 

Drawing of an pencil


Scale figure and scale of Pat's desk/chair
Crit Room 3rd floor plan



Drawing of Jeff's Building

Opus Entry: P Week

Periphery-boundaries, in my drafting class we are continuing to work on our Boundaries,Pathways and Edges project. My group is called the Oasis group and we are nearly complete with this project. We wanted to construct a pathway for students and faculty traveling from the parking lot to the Gatewood Arts building a better way to navigate through the parking lot. This is a photo of our Oasis area still under construction.


Periphery can also be used in another way as in relations to being spatial . During the French renaissance era residential structures were of three types: manor houses, town houses, and chateaux. Manor houses lacked fortification of a castle yet they did have a wall or moat for protection around the periphery. Town houses came in two types hotels for the wealthy merchants and professional men and Maisons for middle class or lower working class.
The plan for a town house included a court around which a building was constructed on more than one side. A screen wall in which the entrance was placed separated from the street.
Castles and chateaux were get-away places for the aristocracy. These dwelling were definitely protected by moats or drawbridges and circular towers.

Another way of looking at periphery in the Renaissance era was in 1593 when the Republic of Venice began construction of Palmanuova a fortress city believed to have been designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, p.360 Roth. This city was enclosed by a nine-pointed star, with bastions for artillery around its perimeter. "Antonio Averlino known as Filarete, meaning "lover of virtue" was the first Renaissance designer to use the ideal form of the circle as the basis for a city plan."
Text from Filarete, II trattato d'architettura"
p. 361 Roth. See picture to left.








These drawing and pictures present perspective drawing two on the left are from my Drawing and Communication class we are studying perspective drawing in this class we also had done a perspective drawing and plan drawing of the college architectural building. My group is doing the Julius L. Foust Building. We have just finished putting up a wall diagram of drawings of this building in the hallway of our Gatewood studio building. The Julius L. Foust Building is an historic landmark and is the only orginal facility remaining from the State Normal and Industrial School. The Julius I.Foust Building is officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places as of September 11th. 1980. Located on the grounds of University of NC at Greensboro in Guildford county.

The drawing to the left is a perspective painting used in the French Renaissance era as an optical illusion. Frankly I have never seen anything like this even in my travels to European castles. I find this fascinating. Renaissance artists often used principles of exact perspective to creat optical illusions of three-dimensional spaces. Through the use of fresco techniques painters played a significant role in "trompel'oeil painting of walls and ceilings by depicting the illusion of depth and distance within Italian Renaissance buildings. The style of paintings of whole walls came from the romans as a main way of treating walls.

Four styles of wall treatments were catagorized by August Mau in the late 19th century. Incrustation, Architectural, Ornate and Intricate. Our book used the terms first, second, third and fourth styles. Stucco relief was introduced in the incrustation period for illusionism. The Architectural style used paint and perspective rendering three dimensional construction (trompel l'oeil architecture). Large scale human figures began to be used. In the third style ornamentation began to be applied to architectural elements. Thin columns, pilasters, and friezes were used and in these aedicular arrangements illusionistic landscape pictures were depicted without imphasis on the human figure. The last style Intricate or 4th style no attempt was emphasized with spatial illusionism. In the 4th style bands of Dado divided into segments with illusionistic perspective drawings. The Romans had introduced the screen wall columns arranged in front of a load bearing wall. Columns were the source for prominent wall design.

Building Selection and Justification 2nd

I am chosing R. Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic dome. We have recently studied domes in our history and Theory class in Greek and Roman architecture with the Pantheon and then to the domes of the Monastic times with Justinian's Byzantines Hagia Sofia. This was considered the most perfect structure since the time of Solomon. Constantine's Basilica of St Peter at Rome which still stand today. The church of San Marco had five domes symbolizing the Greek cross. LaterIslamic temples were introduced to Persia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa. Eventually incompacing all of North Africa, Spain in the west and Pakistan and the Hindu Kush to the east. Their temple implimented designs and color such as the Masjid-l-Shah Mosque, in Ifahan, Iran.

Fuller's created a spherical dome for different reasons than the architects of ancient times. He was seeking a means for a better life for the common man on earth. He was one of the first to progagate a systemic worldview of energy and material efficiency in the fields of architecture, engineering and design. Fuller was concerned about sustainability and about human survival under the existing socio-economic system. He defined wealth in terms of knowledge, as the "technological ability to protect, nurture, support and accomodate all growth needs of life."

Fuller was most famous for his lattice shell structures _geodesic domes, which can he seen as part of the military radar stations, civic buildings, environmental protest camps and exhibition attractions. However the original design cam from a Dr. Walther Bauerfeld. Fuller is given full credit for this design in 1954. The geodesic dome is based on extending some basic principles to build simple tensegrity structures (tetrahdron, octahedron, and closely packing of spheres, making them light weight and stable.

Photo from Wikimedia. Montreal Biosphere 1967.

Kathleen Clay Edwards Library

The Kathleen Clay Library opened September 10, 2004 named after a philanthropist who donated 2.5 million to Piedmont Land conservancy to protect Price Park. Teague, Freyaldenhoven and Freyaldenhoven (TFF) Architects ensured construction of the library to be environmentally conscious and minimized the impact on the park. This Library features natural cork flooring, carpet tiles made of recycled materials ply-bent wood chairs which is the most sustainable process of furniture making. The Greensboro city council contributed $250,000 to complete this project. The land that
the library is located was previously owned by Jefferson Pilot and was sited for the company club house. Kathleen Clay Edwards donated this land in honor of her grandparents Julian and Ethel Clay Price founders of Pilot Life Insurance. The Piedmont Land Conservancy now holds permanent easement rights on the park to ensure that the land is always used as a passive park. Out of all the libraries I have visited in my lifetime this one is the most serene peaceful and beautiful library. It is built with natural wood and brick almost giving it a cabin in the woods effect.
The library is rather small but large in the way the facility is ulitized. This is the first environmental library of it's kind in North Carolina and probably the country this I will have to research more. I have visited many different libraries throughout the country and many have much to offer in the way of books and tapes and magazines and documents. Different programs are offered to the public for adults and children which is universal to most libraries. Somehow this one is a little different in the way it is run. The library water supply comes from a cistern system outside the southern building wall. The maintenance program for the grounds has an irrigation system that automatically keeps the plants and trees watered. Plants were planted that could survive a drought. (More to follow later)

Comparison of the Cologne, Amine

The Cologne Cathedral in Germany represents the more Gothic style as opposed to the Romanesque style. This structure is very similar to the Amiens Cathedral, using proportions of width to height to dictate the design, It also has flying buttresses in similar style to Amiens, except these support some of the tallest vaults in the world. The Cologne Cathedral is definitely more gothic compared to the others. Two towers indicate the entrance of the Cologne's Cathedral constrasting with other German Cathedrals. Its details are more impeccable when it comes to its facade. As beautiful as it looks on the outside, it's even more fascinating on the inside. It measures 144 by 86 meters and was considered the tallest building in the world until 1884.

This is not a church, this is a work of art which is admired worldwide. Much like the other cathedrals, it stands as a symbol of religious power. It was probably the most technologically advanced building of it's time. Amines has two towers and matched the rest of the Cathedrals in France, Notre Dame of Amines France. Notre Dame of Amines France was named after the Blessed Virgin Mary. Other Amiens Cathedrals are Chartres in 1194, Rouen in 1202, and Reims in 1211. High Gothic pointed broken ribs vaulting sketetonized structure and exterior flying buttress. Gothic structure seems higher than they actually are because of the vertical elements and the sense of light.

The Salisbury Cathedral a horizontal line was stressed by lateral extension of the Cathedral by keeping the vertical dimensions much lower and by stressing the horizontal moldings and string courses of masonry marking the edges of the three horizontal divisions of the interior elevations.

Salisbury Cathedral 78 ft long and 81ft high and naive is 37ft wide the vault is 81.1.2 ratio less than the Amiens or Beauvais France. The building frame is a true skelton eleminating wall mass these cathedrals housed religious relics which the populace worshiped. During this time the hammerbeams trusses were developed. Merchants and Bourquois funded the Cathedrals by loaning money to the churches. Duomo of Florence (a failed construction) Perpendicular style rounded headed arches of the Romanesque lower arcade overlaid with delicate tracery broad clerestory windows the entire east wall is filled with an enormous window. Lierne vaults mulitplied to the point of looking like filigree. Florence became the center for trade in the South/Bruges became the same in the northern center of Flanders. Below is a Cologne Cathedral

plan drawing.

Macro to Micro

This photo is my iteration of a portal door
before we decided what the portal would actually look like.

This is the abstrat design I made to represent symmetry next to one showing hierachy on our portal project.

Various photos of our project Portal ...Great Wall of China
Classmates working on project

Composition: The last couple of weeks first year class has been working on a continuation of our artifact encompassing design words such as symmetry, balance, construct, proximity, and order and others....This week my group was given the assignment for the great wall of China. We came up this a design for out portal which is a composite of all our vocabulary words and readings from history, design class and perception and design class. Our portal design we first did to smaller scale before committing to the true size. From micro scale we produced our artifact to macro scale. The photos above show my iteration of the portal and our groups final portal construction for Environmental Design class project.
In our Perception and communication class my group was assigned the Foust building and this week we are designing diagrams to show more detail that the usual plan of the building. There is a color coded functional plan, sometimes called the "bubble diagram". These are also used in city planning were black and white drawing won't do. Three different diagrams are used in this way . The Matrix Diagram showing proximity of building spaces to one another in a facility. the bubble Diagram conveerts the decisions which were recorded in the matrix into a different more useful graph and the Zoning diagrams where aditional layers of information are superimposed over multiple copies. (1. and-out from Suzanne Caberra's class). E. T. White Space Adjacency Analysis. Mark-up of the Foust Bldg. basement offices in blue, lounge light blue, stairs and lab sky blue,
This drawing is a mark-up plan to show relationship to the area and where offices and rooms are in the basement. Greater detail can be shown on a more detailed orthographic plan.

The Monastery of Cluny III show an extremely detailed plan of the monastic abbey with courts, forecourt, service court, approach court, the narthex or porch, the great portal, the hearth in the far back of the structure to the side of the main church are serveral other courts and building to service the religious community.

The most glorious and stupendous achievement was the construction of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral which was a combination of church and Empire. The dome of this cathedral though not as large as the Pantheon was higher. The attention to details in windows and lighting the surfaces curving and intersecting made this struction seem to be in motion bathed in the mystical suffused light. All the magnicent details put into this shrine would cause the participant to become awestruck at the spectacular beauty of this shrine." When the Hagia Sophia was finished on December 27, 537 Justinian reputedly enter the church with the Patriarch of Constantinople and exclaimed "Glory to God, who has deemed me worthy of this task. O, Solomon, I have surpassed thee" Justinian gave definitive form to this Byzantine architecture, fusing the Roman constructive practice with Greek science in the service of theological speculation, with an oriental luxuriouness celebrating the mystery of Divine Wisdom." P 292 Roth. This was definitely East meets West in architectural design.

Following an earthquake in 553 the done of the Hagia Sophia collasped but was rebuilt with a steeper hemispherical profile. When the Byzatine penditve had been developed round domes were place over square volumes this was know as the quincunx plan.

In studying the Cathedral and Gothic churches these were enormous undertakings to build such hugh Cathedrals in Europe which many still stand today. This monumental task in honoring God has never been duplicated in this present day era. Although many Catholic churches still build on the Byzantine and Romanesque design but not nearly as much in this twenty first century.

These Shrines and Catherdrals and Castle leave an lasting impression on anyone who has actually visited these structures many that still stand today even after many world wars and internal conflicts. It is amazing to me how architecture in Europe and the East can last so long where much of our architecture in the United States does not last not even in it's mere three hundred years history.

My hope after living in Europe in the late 1970's is that we as American's would hold onto some of our historic buildings and churches. I know that we are a young country but still it would be wonderful to pass our hertiage to generations to come instead of constantly tearing down and puting up newer and cheaper materials that don't last but a few decays insteads of a few centuries. When I lived in Germany in 1973-76 the house I lived in was three hundred years old and magnificently beautiful. The walls of this house were atleast a foot thick concrete walls. . Perhaps that has something to do with the longevitity of the houses in Europe. I have never seen anything in the states built so well.

A plan and arcade front of an Byzantine church.


These are a composite of projects from Design Studio class showing symmetry. The abstract design fans in black and white and silver shows symmetry by being mirrored on the silver back ground. This was drawn to scale of 1/4"=1' .

This design was my interpretation of heaven and earth...the earth being dark and heaven the opposite being light with an gold ribbon as my linear element keeping them together. This was from and old fable about the beginnings of life.

The design to the left is an abstract showing again symmetry with an silver element in center.