Simon Unwin, the author of the book ‘Analysing Architecture’ says that the ‘the purpose of architecture is to design buildings’ is an unsatisfactory definition because the definition limits architecture to just the designing of buildings. He feels that architecture involves more than just designing buildings. He also believes that the definition fails to explain the real purpose of architecture and transfers the problem of comprehending the word ‘architecture’ to the word ‘building’. This definition doesn’t go in-depth to analyze and understand the essence of architecture in our everyday life. It fails to relate human life and needs to the buildings built. The author explains architecture as an identification of place. Architecture starts by People and their activities are an indispensible component of architecture. People are contributors and participants of architecture unlike in other arts like paintings, plays, music etc. where people are mostly spectators to be entertained. Architecture is an art that we see and use every day and everywhere. ‘Through identifying places and organizing them, we make sense of the world we inhibit’ (Unwin, 2014). Places organize our experience of the world and manage our relationship with other people. Architecture also helps us understand people, societies and culture. The way people organize places is related to their beliefs and their aspirations, their opinions and their world view. As world view vary, so does architecture. Architecture is interpreted and created differently by people and societies. Conditions imposed on architecture like people using and paying for the products, activities a place can accommodate etc. yield very different types of architectural products for people to use like residential buildings, commercial towers, educational facilities, places of worship, sports stadiums etc. The true essence and spirit of architecture is understood and acknowledged by people whose activities it
So rational engagement with architecture is a more effective means to comprehend and understand architectural form.
Sam Ridgway in The Representation of Construction emphasizes the role of representation in architecture stating, “The world of architecture is a world of representation” (268). He continues writing, “Architects do not build buildings; they represent them, mainly through drawings, models, words and numbers. In turn, buildings are also interpretations or representation of these mediating instruments and artifacts that precede their construction” (268). It is through realizing that representational tools are “value laden” that contemporary architects may move forward from the “ideological stagnation plaguing most architectural creation” (269). Comparing the preceding eras to the contemporary era, “there is an inverse relationship
The book, Towards A New Architecture by Le Corbusier is not at all what one would expect. Thinking that the great master architect would limit himself t...
Architecture is such a wide thing when we talk about buildings and projects. Architecture is defined as the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings. One of the Renaissance man who not only define...
world of living to make it their own, they are placemaking. Placemaking extends beyond the act of
Over the last four years of studying architecture, I have seen the power that it has to shape communities, shape lives, and to create new ways that people interact with each other. The way architecture can help enhance living and allow for creation of new interactions of people is one of the reasons I find the subject so interesting. The way architecture can shape a whole culture and the way that the culture then in turn shapes the architecture is fascinating to me. Architecture is also not a static subject, it is constantly evolving and adapting with time to take on new forms, create new spaces, and to provide commentary on the history of our time on Earth. The depth that architecture has, and the evolution of the subject is something I have fallen in love with through my study of it. However, when I first started out studying architecture, I had no idea of the depth that the subject had, and it was an incredibly daunting realization; however, it was as equally exciting. I have always had a love for learning and architecture has just fueled that fire. Even after completing my bachelors degree, the learning has not stopped. I get to learn something new about architecture daily, and getting to say that is an opportunity I am thankful to have. It is not just about the learning however, its
Jencks believes “the glass-and-steel box has become the single most used form in Modern Architecture and it signifies throughout the world ‘office building’” (27). Thus, modern architecture is univalent in terms of form, in other words it is designed around one out of a few basic values using a limited number of materials and right angles. In...
In the process of development of human society, architecture and culture are inseparable. Cuthbert (1985) indicates that architecture, with its unique art form, expresses the level of human culture in different historical stages, as well as the yearning towards the future. According to his article, it can be said that architecture has become one of the physical means for human to change the world and to conquer the nature. Consequently, architecture has been an important component of human civilization. Since 1980s when China started the opening and reforming policy, a variety of architectural ideas, schools and styles have sprung up. Accompanying with a momentum of...
Architecture is the concept of bringing structure, materiality, form and space together as a whole, provide people with enclosed atmosphere to experience. Considering this, it is important to identify that materiality and the purpose of details has been a key methodology to bringing architectural intentions into the design in an affective manner, more over producing an architectural expression. However, this position is rather declining in architecture, reducing tectonics and materiality to being secondary to form and space. With the start of modernism, the attempt to achieve minimalistic style has caused detailing to increasingly develop into a decorative aspect of a building, neglecting its individual contribution to architecture.
Buildings, like individuals, are embellished distinctively, making some look excellent and critical and others plain and customary. Each building has an exceptional history. Like individuals, buildings age and change with the times. A few buildings are offered "surgery" to restore them to their unique state; others buildings "kick the bucket" from disregard, mis chances and ailment. An alternate probability is that a building of one style might later experience a significant conversion into the style of an alternate time period, making it look fully changed. The architecture of the United States has comprised of a wide assortment of styles all around its history. Home styles in the U.S. are locally assorted and the shapes they have assumed have been affected by numerous different sorts of architecture. The outcome is a varied blend of distinctive home styles that can frequently be found inside the same neighborhood, even on the same road or square of that road.
What is architecture? Is it the practice of designing or rather the art of designing buildings? Is architecture the necessity of shelter? If so, then when did humanity transcend living in caves and progress on to communal living as seen in the remains of Catalhoyuk? Humanity did not stop the progression of architecture at communal living; architecture continued to evolve to accommodate the ever increasing needs of humanity. Has architecture existed since the days that humanity resided in caves and simply evolved with humans to become the modern day building method? These questions and many more have been asked and debated for centuries, and as architects we study the arguments and ideals of the greatest of the host who have asked: what is architecture?
By the end of 18th century, with the industrialization of steel and glass, architecture began to take on a different role in the society. Architecture was no longer about building structures for an individual, but was about concerning with beauty, style, and aesthetics within the technology of space (Conway 8). The idea that building plus art equals architecture was no longer valid, as the equation undermined the true meaning of architecture. In Understanding Architecture, Hazel Conway states, “the allocation of living space is economically, socially, and culturally determined” (6), when discussing the purpose of architecture. This means that the surrounding environment of the building, also referred to as built space, is often intertwined with social relationships. Built space can be defined as the philosophical way of referring to architecture. To a certain extent, the architecture becomes about the philosophical investigation into built space, rather than establishing a single building. Through the examples of artists and architectures, such as Rachel Whiteread, Robert Smithson, Meis Van Der Rohe, and Gordon Matta-Clark, this paper will demonstrate how art pushes architecture into critical examination of built space. In doing so, it will be evident that artists and architecture define sculpture, object, prototype, installation, network, building, assemblage, and/or habitat differently.
To understand if and how architecture has had an influence on the way people think and act in the past is an important aspect of questioning architecture’s influence today. Bentham’s Panopticon, and his ideas of surveillance, power, and discipline, have been examined and discussed by a wide variety of people including Foucault. Foucault’s main focus was on the exercise of power in its different forms and the control exercised through its architecture. An interesting view raised by Foucault in his study of the Panopticon is that liberation or oppression is not manifested in architecture by itself. This does not mean that they cannot be made part of it. ‘Positive effects’ could occur when the ‘liberating intentio...
The role of the architect is a question that evokes a spectrum of answers from Norman Foster’s definition; ‘Architect is an expression of values… the way we build is a reflection of the way we live.’ [Foster, cited in Tholl, 2014: Online] This debate of who and what an architect should be and do is not a recent one to emerge but has lead many architects and designers as far back as Vitruvius [15BC] to produce documentation on what they believed to be the make-up of an architect. In Vitruvius’ ‘The Ten Books On Architecture’ he quickly establishes two fragments that make an architect, the manual skill and the theory and scholarship.
The branches of architecture are civil, sacred, naval, military, and landscape architecture. The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates. Architecture is a form of art as well as a science. It is an art because it is a way to express your creativity. With architecture being a form of art it is an outlet for creativity and a way to express your views on society. There is one architect per 2,000 head of population. However, only 20% of buildings are actually built by architects. This means we are in need of more architects!