Coming full circle

Community We had a party for the IAR community last week and I'm sorry I missed it. I could not get in at the gate because I came alone and left my phone at home and was unable to call someone to let me in. Bummer.
One of the notable aspects of critical regional reactions to imported Euro-American Modernism was the reaffirmation of community of creating environments for groups of people living and working together in ancestral traditional ways. pp 607 Roth
As far as Interior Architectural Design goes we are coming full circle in our now global economy. The world has become a smaller place to live. A Global community your neighbor may have been born anywhere in the world and for now the house next door may look like everyone else's on the outside but the interior will be of the culture from which they came. With the high level of immigrants into America and Europe people from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and South America have a determinate influence on style of furnishings. For example people from the Middle East don't sit at a table to eat they sit in a circle on the floor. Many African countries still use their hands to eat with instead of table ware. People from Mexico and South America like to paint their homes in bright color that remind them of their homes were they came from. These are just some examples of change happening in American and European cultures. Since the 1990s with the rapid change in electronic communication and constant change in communication devices we are able to do business globally communicated with countries all at the same time. Do banking electronically. Work from home, go to school from home or even home schooling our children not attending a building except for the main home. Before 2008, the Housing market for the past forty years has been mainly healthy but now this is no longer so. The fall of the housing market has caused a financial crisis across this country and across the world. What will be the out come of this crisis with people all over losing their way of making a living.

How does this effect architectural style we are already across major cities in the US cutting back on new construction of housing and most cities are in trouble finding funding to preserve historic homes. Some cities across the US are thinking about using for housing the huge van's shipped with goods from China that stay empty in stock yards in major cities .
According environmentalist it is a good low cost living structure that stays cool in summer and due to insulation between the panels warm in winter. Use and reuse /sustainable living? I agree with Patrick in class when he mentioned stewardship. Sustainability means good stewardship of what we have in natural resources, water, soil , food, housing and building. Many store front are going empty and homes all over the country are going into foreclosure meaning empty homes. What impact will this have on the near future. Even here in Greensboro N. C. I see beautiful homes up for sale by owner due to the staggering economy. Times are a little frightening today what impact will this have on the near future for us as Designers?

Future designers will have to come up with inovated ways for housing, will we have communal homes like some in the 1960's. Will homes become smaller and close together? Will historic building be used for other purposes? Will there be a need for a School building if everyone communicates by electronic means? Who will be the new Designer to invent the best econological way to create housing that will be sustainable for 100's of years.in the future. As an older American most of us have cut down, cut back and realized that "less is more" from Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe.

(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 PROJECT:BETWEEN SILENCE + LIGHT

CRAFT: This past week-end we took a trip to Falling Water in southwest Pennsylvania's Laurel Heights. Here we visited the house that Frank Lloyd Wright built for the Edgar Kaufman family in 1936-37. This house was built on a small waterfall in a wood mountainous area fo Laurel Heights, Pennsylvania. It was exciting to see how this house was crafted out of the natural landscape part of the juting mountain became part of the houses structure. I notice that the stone fireplace in the living room was part of the outside rock cliff. I really enjoyed every bit of seeing Falling Water. Wright has even crafted the funishings in the bedrooms, living rooms, cabinets, and furniture. This house is constructed of verticals and hoizontals. The verticals being the supporting walls, which are made of gray lime stone. and the horizontals cantilevers are cast in reinforced concrete. Wright wanted to cover the cantelevers with gold left or a thin layer of aluminum but Kaufman rejected both ideas. They decided on ware earth tones. The craft in the home and furnishing are as geometric as the house itself making for more spaceious area. Windows everywhere made for a fresh spectacular veiw.

Although we had visited Monticello first, in Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson. This house was built on the Palladian, Classical style home. Thomas Jefferson was also an inventer. He had made clocks and pulleys for opening and closing door. Monticello is a lovely looking home but I wonder how cramped it might have been with all the people who resided there. Thomas Jefferson was constantly finding ways to craft new inventions into his home, such as double payne windows in the dinning room. In the entranceway a clock that told the time of day and month of the year as well. Jefferson had sky lights nearly in every room of the house to bring in more daylight. One of the most unusual things about this house are the eliptical archways through out the house. This was my second trip to Monticello I remember visiting here as a child in Jr. High school.

The grounds were beautiful and I learned something new I did not know then that Jefferson hid his slaves underground as well as his servants. Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd US president. He is the author of the Declaration of Independence. He considered himself a yeomen farmer, promoted republicanism. He was also a horticulturist and inventor, also founder of the University of Virginia. He was also known as a lover of books. He is considered by some the greatest of US Presidents.

Public/Private: Falling Water was suppose to be a country retreat for the Kaufman family but so many people came to visit they had to build another out of the way home six miles away.

Thomas Jefferson keep his personal life private it is believed he sired many children by a house servant slave. Although Wrights son lived with his parents he had his own personal private quarters. The outside and inside stair wells provided a privacy to the Falling Water house.

Jefferson's bedroom was the only private room in the house at Monticello even though there were windows all around the room. The Portico in the Monticello home is considered a public place, here Jefferson like to show off artifacts from his travels and interest in his life.

The guest house at Falling Water was above the main house giving the guest a private area and as well as the Kaufmans.

Technique: One of the techniques used in architecture of Falling Water was compression and release. Where Wright felt that a stair well was a waste of architectural space so he made these areas narrow and then when one finally reached a room, this area was open wide. Jefferson used a series of pulleys to operate the Great Clock he made and had place in the portico of his home.

Jefferson also actually had an underground subway so to speak were slaves and servants went about their daily tasked unnoticed. The Arts and Crafts technique was to hand craft furnishes to the best quality rather than the new automated way with nearly no quality controls in place.

The Arts and Crafts of American would use innovation of machines to make furishings one due to lack of workers but a high demand for furnishings for the middle class homes.

Language: Thomas Jefferson would speak seven different languages fluently. The language of the home at Falling Water was congruent with the environment it was built from. There is a horizontal and vertical congruentcy in the structual form of the house at Falling Water.

Monticello was comprized of the elements surrounding the house, it was made in harmony with its surroundings. The windows and sky light let the out doors in all around Monticello the same is true for Falling Water as well. The elements to build the house were found locally except for the wood floor which came from North Carolina, North Carolina Walnut. Hardward for the doors and cabinets most likely came from local sources. Jefferson believed in separation of church and state and freedom of religion this is why quakers settled in this area. They believe in self sufficiency and making most the items needed for daily living. They craft furnishings for the home themselves and clothing, cook ware as well and utilities for cooking. We could see many of the old time hand crafts still available today as we stayed at the inn outside of Pennsylvania.

Virtual: One thing that I noticed in Falling Water was that everything was virtually proportional the furnishing fit exactly in the rooms. The closets were flush against the walls everywhere in the house everything had a specific place where it belonged. Wright did not like clutter and refuse to make room for it. The windows gave the illusion of not being incased as it was built to let more of nature in and not block light or fresh air of the mountain side and sounds from coming into the house. When the windows were opened at Falling Water it gave the feeling and sounding of virtual running falls into the house this was a beautiful sound to me I could really enjoy living at Falling Water. Mirrors and wall paper patterns gave a room a virtual sense of enlargement or closeness depending on the technique used. Mirrors can make the room seem larger while wall paper can make a room cozy and smaller depending on the pattern use.

RE- Actions

Rotation: This week in Design class we had projects dealing with shadow and light.
last week we went on a nature hunt which I spoke of earlier. I found a bird's nest in my mail box. This was so appropriate because I was looking for an iterration for my project. I created
at first attempt, an abstract form made of cardboard showing shadow and light using cutouts and cardboard shavings for the birds nest with artificial glass stones representing all the rain we had lately. Well after I presented this, I needed to go back to the drawing board and re-think my design. So what I presented at class on Monday was much better. My plan at first was to bring in a design nearly in the same shape but at the 19th hour I decided to do something totally different using the same ideation. (Pictures to follow), I created a abstract design using the 1/4 in mpf by cutting into unusual design strips representing the twigs and leaves the birds picked up and put in my mailbox. I created a artifact which cast shadow and light any which way it was rotated. Many of my classmates had created unusual designs that actually rotated.This was a very fun project. After my first presentation I modified my design to cast better shadow and light.



From my Design History class a form of rotation is Bernini's use of an oval to solve his design problem in the great piazza in front of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. "(After incessant vacillation between central and longitudinal plans, the final decision was made to extend the nave from Michelangel's east arm.) Roth 408. He divided the piazza into two parts the portion next to the facade being a trapezoid and the more distant portion an oval enclosed by curved Tuscan Doric colonnades focusing on two fountains where an Egyptian obelisk existed. According to Bernini
this represented the motherly arms of the Catholic church.
In my reading I notice how major designers and architects keep rotating from one style of design to another examples: Gothic, Romanesques, Baroque, Rocco, etc ;and back to the basic of Greek and Roman orders. Away from the principles of Vitruvisus and back to these basic principles of architectural design.

The Arts and Craft movement was initiated by William Morris in 1860.

Morris wanted to change standards of design from machine made furniture to hand made in the way of Gothic architecture was made by trained artisans. He believed in uncomplicated furniture design. His Red House ,the home he built was made of common read brick, and inside was wood stained moldings and built in wooden furniture and free-standing pieces modeled by medieval designs. Morris established a group of artisans to create furniture, tableware and other artifacts for the domestic home. P. 493 Roth. Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Frances Annesley Voysey were greatly influenced by Morris.
Frank Lloyd Wright was connected to the American Arts and Crafts movement were he deviated from that of Englands Arts and Crafts movement with the inclusion of the Art and Crafts of Machines. " the architecture of the future would out of necessity be built of machine formed elements; the modeen architect woul d be obliged to embrace the machine in every aspect of design." Roth 494

I use to live in Springfield Illinois and visited a home built by Frank Lloyd Wight for
The Dana Thomas house in Springfield Illinois. This home was built on the Pairie style design where he brought the outside in the building. I loved visiting this site which sadly to say is now closed due to lack of funds to renovate this historical home. This home was built in 1904 the ceilings were very low. I believe because people back in those days were very small people even the clothing show on the beds in the bed rooms were so tiny for adults today. No one I know could fit these articles. There was a library in the lower level and even a built in bolling alley for entertainment. Dana Thomas was a socialite of the day in those times.

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

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.

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.