(Pair)ing Down

Mediation/Celebration:
In our communications and Design class we were assigned first a window treatment that had to present duality and medication and celebration. We went through a process of twelve different drawing showing negative/positive,in/out,front/back,
dark/light and so on. We were allowed to use MDF board and paper or one other liner element. This project is now a continuation of another project that has to do with making a mediative.celebrative room out of the two offices on the first floor,room 118 and room 120. We had to get the dimenision of the room do a plan, plan elevation and three sections also reconstruct the room as one unit eleminating the middle wall choose to make the now office into a lounge for graduate students a place to relax mediate or sleep if need, as well as a mini public gathering place.

In Interior Architecture class the Arts and Crafts designer were more mediative in their craft of furniture making it was well made but rather plain and sterile.It was comfortable and well made but not as exciting as the Art Nouveau designers like Victor Horta with his Winter Garden. Celebrative style of Art Deco or Contemporary American design of Frank Lloyd Wright with his etched class windows in the SC Johnson and Son Administative building in Racine Wisconsin.

Opus: Road Trip

Roots: a source or origin















The word roots has many definitions but as used in Architect I believe it means when a design element became established or fixed in the history of design. As one style becomes the forerunner of another. For example the roots of Jefferson home in Monticello was designed on the Greek and Roman columns. Jefferson used the Ionic columns on his home and at the University of Virginia as well. While visiting I saw a few Corinthian columns too. Here are photos of the columns used at Monticello and UWV. Classmates getting camera ready. This trip was exciting.

During the eigthteen century modern architecture took it's roots from various revolutions, starting with the democratic and industrial revolution. There was a shift against authoritiarian governance to a democratic /republic form of government. The revolt against church and state resulting in the power of the people to govern themselves. With scienfic investigation came the agricultural revolution a change in the way seed are planted and crop rotation which created greater yield and better production of food not only for people but livestock as well. People became healthier produced larger populations around the world. Medical investigation , Edward Jenner's investigation in 1750 produced a vaccine against small pox. With the expansion of the population a new type of architecture is need to house this population. Alone with this came the industrial revolution: transportation, mass production of goods, clothing, food and shelter.
This brought about the rise of the middle class. Revolts against monoarchical rule over the colonies in America resulted in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, written by Thomas Jefferson. .....That all men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.....

In my Design and communication we had material boards to comprize each student was given three words to research and collect information and present to the class. Below are three of my

material boards. My words were silk, seagrass, and marble.

Materiality: In the nineteenth century the industrail revolution had a vast effect on first Britains society with the emerging new economy the population as a whole experienced new found wealth. Middle class people (bourgeoisie) wanted to show off their prosperity and emulate that of the upper class folks. People of this time followed Victorian style of decorating which proved to be too elaborate and excessive for the small homes and cottages they lived in. The more elaborate the home the more show of wealth and properity. Two books were written to show the average homemaker the proper way of decorating a home and other social skills one was Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, England 1861. The other was E. B. Duffey's What a Woman Should Know, America 1871. John Ruskin took issue with the excessiveness of the Victorian style of materiality and wrote a book call the The Seven Lamps of Architecture, here he expressed his distain for the excessive cramming of things into a room to show wealth which really serviced little purpose and made the average person home life miserable because it cost so much to buy these thing the average family really could not aford. Ruskin promoted the simply style of cottage fashion which he believed was a much healthier way of living. Ruskin influence William Morris to start the Arts and Crafts Movement to get away from over production and mass produced furnishing. Simple lines and materials indigeious to the local was used to produce hand crafted furishings. Pp 7-13, Massey.
Even today with the way our economy is failing people are rethinking consummerism and materialism, using what they already own or replacing with second hand or antigues handed done from family. Excessiveness is no longer in vogue and people are returning to a simpler way of living just to survive these trubulent economic times.

The key concept of the Arts and Crafts movement was the chair which was hand made and the joints were visible. It was believed that the more clearly express the construction the more honest the piece. This lead to the Antigue Movement in the late 19th century. William Morris founded the Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. foreshortened to Morris Co. where hand crafted quality furnishings were made. Morris inspired the Aesthetic Movement of the late 1860's and 1870's an alternative style of reformist design in Britain that influenced American design as well.
Other inspirations came from Japanese designs as well with their simply lines and blue and white porcelain articles and silk prints and laquered furnishings.
Books and magazines made it easier to share information with England and other countries and back to America again.

The concept of compression and release was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright. In this design function he felt that stairs was a waste of space, therefore he made the stairwells very narrow until you reached the room which was wide open space. The last have of this semester has been in the compression and release mode. Having so much work to do in such little time I find compression and looking forward to when this semester ends will be the release I so much desire.

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.

Opus Project: Voices

How do structures speak? What do they long to say? The designers of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral built it to have a particular voice. The national shrine, as it is called, has been regarded as the American voice of the multitudes of Catholics around the world and thus our presence in the Catholic church. What does it say and to whom does it speak?

The plan of the structure determines the language by which a building will engage in dialogue. It has a clear set of rules and atmosphere - a metric. Being a earthly representation of something far grander, it has to imply something bigger than anything we could possibly produce. Pointing to something that can only be meagerly represented by scale, the tower is the predominant ediface remniscent of the wu, wu's of Rome. This is the 'yard stick' against which everything else is measured. Being the first thing one would sense, whether visually or audibly, it directs visitors along the first portal into their experience of the Cathedral.

Presence is only dictated by emphasis. Black is defined by white just as the bell tower is defined by the landscape and structures near it. A grand spire pointing to the blue heavens above ringing out the presence of church, literally, is the representation of the omnipresent voice of God. The patrons of the church come from all over the world each hoping to have their voice engraved into the memory of this stucture, ringing out with each toll of the bell.

A moment is marked by the memory imprinted on it. A moment is actually the crecendo of smaller less significant step like moments. There is a cadence created by the steps you must endure to reach the gates, which by no mistake represent the presense of the Creator. I remember taking my first steps up to the dual portal seen here. I can't help but remember the excitement swelling in me to see what lie inside. The stucture whispers to you as you secrets of an wonderous afterlife represented by the Godly arch embracing the smaller portal made for men. This was my moment imprinted in the memory of this structure, personal, secret and absorbed by thousands of others.

Once inside the feeling created resonates hollowed emotion. Perhaps this is my own personal experience, or perhaps the effect of the visual aura all centered around the long aisle welcoming my personal journey to the altar. To the left and the right are several smaller chapels all representing the presence of the Blessed Mother to the world representing every race and nationality. Each of which have set a precedent for the style in which the entire Cathedral has been built. Each personal and welcoming chapel give visitors a sense of the scale of history represented by the this Romanesque-Byzantine Style stucture. It was decided to use Romanesque Byzantine over Gothic because "While Gothic appeared to lift the people to God, the Roman Style or the Byantine endeavored to bring God down to the people on earth." http://www.national/ Shrine.com.

There is a duality with this Shrine to The Immaculate Conception Catherdral now known as a Bacillica since 1990. Not only is it a place for worship but it was built on the ground of the Catholic University of America a distinct center of learning for lay people and Catholic seminarians. I have always enjoyed visiting the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception from the time I was a little girl and my Grandmother first took me there. When ever I go home to Washington D. C. I try to make it a point to go visit there.

Photos: from http://www.national/ Shrine of Immaculate Conception
In my readings I realized that the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was built with the money from Women's Guilds just as they did at the birth of Christian Cathedrals in ancient times. At first the directors, Bishops, Cardinals of the church were seeking funding from wealthy

families. Pope Pius x in 1913, made the first contribution to building a National Catholic Shrine in the United States. The invision started in 1846 to build a Cathedral that rivaled the great Cathedrals of Rome and Europe. The Shrine was not completed until 1959 due to lack of funding political striff and both the Depression and WWII. Construction resumed in 1954 and was completed in 1959. Twenty years late Pope John Paul II was the first Pope to visit the then National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The architecture of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is neither imitative or duplicative of any other church in the world. It's architectuer is Romanesque-Byzantine in style and its construction is entirely of stone, brick and mortar without steel structual beams, framework or columns. Romesque design in architecture is defined by the massive size, thick walls, arches piers, groin vaults, towers and ornamented ambulatories the form is symmetrical in comparsion to Gothic structures. The dome is the dominate feature in Byzantine architecture and is one of the great advances in church architecture. (ww.w. natioanlshrine.com)

Byzantine architecture was superceded by Romanesque style. A circular or elliptical dome was placed over a square or rectangular room by means of pendentives. The triangular construction
strengthened and supported the base that holds the dome. Architect for this design was Charles D. Maginnis(1867-1955).

www. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception .

Drawing of a Basillica Plan and Arcade of a Byzantine Catherdral.

Opus Project, Parts: whole

The source of my sketches comes from the Julius Foust building. We've developed groups to study the layout blueprint of a building. I want to add more of what I see when drawing these sketches but they are quik sketches and the boundaries of the area in which I have to work are constraint.

Archetype: Prototype: Hybrid:

After the fall of the Mycenaean civilization 12th century BCE.

One type of building was dominate the temple. For the Greeks the temple was the abode of the gods. The archetype of the temple was a singe room or hut a crude form of temple emerged. This was a wooden structure with upright columns completely ound and central chamber. It is believed that the temple with it's colonnade was an attemp to create a sacred grove. The columns replace the first ones made of wood. The Doric , Ionic and Later the Corinthian orders became promient. The Archetype was the Doric a post and lintel system also known as trabeated. Triglyphs are instinctive of the Doric order. The beams project beyond the walls and are cut off and ornamented.

The orders a structual system for organizing cmponent parts played a crucial role in Greeks search for perfection of ratio and proportion. The Column, shaft, capial, and entablature were measured and decoreated acording to one the three accepted modes. Doric: Archetype, Ionic: Prototype, and Corinthian the hybrid.

Doric columns are without a base, usually fluted and topped by a simple squat capital. Can vary from four to six times the diameter at the base ofthe saft the Doric entablature consist of a plane architrave, a frieze alternating trigyphs and metopes, and a plain crowning cornice.

The Ionic which was used on the temple of Athena Polias at Priene 340BC was feminine , slender, and beautiful. It's style was based on a women's body. The Ionic entablature evolved in various stages, but in its most characteristic form consisted of an architrave divided into three broad bands known as fasciae a continuous frieze either plan or sculpted and often elaborated cornice bearing dentils or tooth like blocks. Ionic columns are always set on a base the parts between the shaft and the crepidoma. The capital bears to spirals volutes and

supports the entablature. The columns were fluted usually twenty-four and deeper than Doric channels. The volute is a spiral scroll that adorn the Ionic capital this was tough to come from the nautilus shell form.

P. 100 The Grammar of Architect. Emily Cole.

The most ornate and slender the orders was the Corinthian. The base of the Corinthian and Ioni columns are similar. The Corinthian capital had two rows of carved acanthus leaves at the base. Above the base were large acanthus leaves from which the volutes stem at the corners of the abacus; the smaller volutes

curved toward the center just under the abacus.. The sides of the abacus could be concave resulting in points at the corners supported by volutes. The etablature was developed in three planes each might have been separated by a carved molding. The frieze as normally decorated with a band of sculptural relief. The Greeks orders were adapted by the Romans and used mostly as decorative elements change the Doric order to more slender Tuscan Doric with smooth base and smooth unfluted shaft. 2.9 p 31 Roth. Other major additions was a composite order formed by placing the volutes of the Ionic cpito aop the  curled acathus leaves of the Corinthian. Romans also made a decorative adaptation of merging a column with a wall a Pilaster.

Prototype for Greek furniture was wood. Oak, maple, cedar, boxwood, olive, citron and beech was used in making furniture. Hierarchy in Greek society shown in the homes of the more affluent families by the furniture type the mural on the walls, and the mosaic flooring. Some of the furniture that archologist have found was made of copper, bronze, iron and marble. The Colosseum was the best example of bread and circus. Entertainment to take the public's mind off their problems.