1.0 Introduction
The profession of architecture refers to the rendering of services associated with design and construction of buildings and their environments. Such services include, but are not limited to consultation, evaluation, planning, provision of preliminary studies, designs, construction documents, construction management, and the administration of construction contracts.
Though architecture is seen to play only a small part of human lives, when the society is considered at large, it becomes very useful for human needs such as shelter, social function, technology, art, economics, politics, science and more . According to Adam (2008), this explains why architecture can be viewed as a mirror to society. For this purpose, architects
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Most Ghanaian, residents value the attractiveness of their homes and environment. Most newly built homes are generally regarded negatively and are associated with the bottom end of the market (Popular Housing Forum, 1998) . In Ghana, there exists a strong preference for traditional housing with character of the neighbourhood. However, the appearance and safety of the neighbourhood is more important than the house itself. MORI (2002) found that the presence of good scenery and views becomes an important factor in making a community a suitable and pleasant place to live. MORI’s study argued that the level of satisfaction with the home relates to whether the resident felt safe in their homes. Cozens (No date) noticed visible signs of decay to increase criminogenic activity and reduced defensibility emphasising the importance of keeping properties and surrounding areas well-maintained. He also found that different types of dwellings were perceived as more prone to crime. Terraced housing was identified as the most defensible form of high density development with high rise flats being the most susceptible. Leather (1998) realised that natural views seem to increase human satisfaction. He further cited a very useful example which reflects a study of workers in a wine production facility in which he determined that these …show more content…
Based on the research, the recorded visitor numbers within DCA had exceeded 300,000 in each of its first three financial years. Of these, Tayside residents represented approximately 60% of all exhibition visitors in 2001/02. The One Five Two shop generated a turnover of £72,000 in 2001/02, of which crafts accounted for 39.5%. Several local craft producers benefit from supplying the shop, which helped to promote their work. Community and education work is a significant part of DCA’s activity, although the ability to meet demand has been constrained by staffing and finance. The Jute Café had a turnover of £120,095 in 2001/03. DCA can also be attributed to creating 258 jobs in the Tayside area, whether through direct employment or business development. Finally, the distinctiveness of DCA has grown through the architect’s vision in making the building part of the city as a whole. The use of windows allowed both light to come into the building and allow visitors to look out onto
He suggests that the use of “electronic imaging prevents imagining and promotes thinking about architecture rather than bring architects, contractors, clients and critics to think within architecture” (275). Inspired by Frascari, the strategy of technography is encouraged (278). This is a “different way of thinking about the relationship between a [working] drawing and a future building. Rather than “simply Cartesian, technical lines showing edges, corners and joints these technographic drawings reveal both the symbolic and instrumental representations of the future building.. it is to make visible what is invisible”. Ridgway remarks, “The fact that any of this could be considered contentious indicates that extent to which architects have become alienated from the heart of their profession” (279). He asserts, “Part of any technography must be an acknowledgement of the historical context of construction knowledge. This is not only so we can better understand our rich architectural ancestry, but because it re-establishes a connection with the origins of our profession in building” (279). Rather than a “miniature projected representation of an imagined building, details are drawn as poetic constructions themselves, following the logic of drawing and not building and representing the “built detail symbolically, in addition to instrumentally. The symbolic and practical are one and the same thing” (280). “What are the symbolic qualities we are trying to embody in our buildings and how would we represent them in drawings?” becomes the question (278). These drawing “may not be easy or straightforward to understand or interpret.
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...
In order to create innovative public architecture, considered to be the most civic, costly, time intensive and physical of the arts, the project holds a degree of risk, strife, and negotiation . Overcoming these tasks and creating worthy public architecture is a challenge designers try to accomplish, but are rarely successful. The people involved in a potential public building, can be larger than the building itself. Public architecture tries to please all, even the doubters and critics, but because of the all these factors, a building is closer to failing than succeeding.
The essence of modern architecture lays in a remarkable strives to reconcile the core principles of architectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. However, it took “the form of numerous movements, schools of design, and architectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying such classification, to establish modernism as a distinctive architectural movement” (Robinson and Foell). Although, the narrower concept of modernism in architecture is broadly characterized by simplification of form and subtraction of ornament from the structure and theme of the building, meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose; the visual expression of the structure, particularly the visual importance of the horizontal and vertical lines typical for the International Style modernism, the use of industrially-produced materials and adaptation of the machine aesthetic, as well as the truth to materials concept, meaning that the true nat...
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...
Context- The purpose of this presentation is to inform my fellow classmates about the main concepts that inspire African Architecture and to show how these concepts can have effective applications in modern society.
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 design 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 lives. It fails to relate human life and needs to the buildings built.
Remarkably, unlike in the description of art or music, the notion of atmosphere remains largely unaddressed in architecture. Atmosphere, can be argued, is the very initial and immediate experience of space and can be understood as a notion that addresses architectural quality, but the discussion of atmosphere in architecture will always entail, by definition, a certain ambiguity. After all, atmosphere is something personal, vague, ephemeral and difficult to capture in text or design, impossible to define or analyse. Atmosphere, Mark Wigley says, “evades analysis, it’s not easily defined, constructed or controlled”.
Being an architect is a very important thing, you have a large amount of responsibility. You control a large aspect of someone’s life whether it is where they walk in a shopping centre or where they sleep and eat, and that is why it is very important to design for yourself and your client. You have to imagine the space as if you were there, you need it to be
Buildings reflect the values and ideas of society within periods. The role of architecture in shaping society and vice versa largely depends on the period in question and who or what affects first. The Enlightenment, and the subsequent period the Post-Enlightenment, reflect the biggest change for current ideas regarding architecture and society and current theories. At the same time, individual identities and understanding of society, progress and truth all follow a similar evolving path. It is during this dramatic shift in thinking that the role of architecture to society and the idea of progress and truth becomes a more complex relationship. How this relationship works and its implications is based on the theory that there is a direct link between the two. One cannot develop without the other. Who leads whom and to what extent they influence each other is evident in architectural trends and pioneering works by architects such as Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry amongst others.
In Laugier’s book, “An Essay on Architecture,” he addresses early architects’ ignorance. Laugier explains how architects did not study nature and the set rules nature has already created for us. In his Essay, he reveals the flaws that many early buildings throughout Europe posses. Some of the more general flaws he exposes are disproportioning in architectural design, unnecessary placement, and ignoring the primitive and original purpose of a building all together. Therefore, Laugier believes appropriate and appealing architecture can only be designed and crafted when the architect behind the building has followed the rules of nature.
The profession of architecture, the possible career as an architect, taking steps to gain a position and education as well as the set growth and prospects of this profession. According to Lee W. Waldrep (2010), author of the book Becoming a Architect “A Guide to Careers in Design, an architect is an imaginative person who designs a wide range of structures for buildings”(p. 2). These structures not only have to be aesthetically pleasing, but must also meet the safety requirements. Architects have to compete with other architects to attract customers by presenting designs. This process is generally based on building a reputation as an architect. Due to the nature and the amount of time devoted to designing, architects
“Architects plan, design, and observe construction of facilities used for human occupancy and of other structures” (The Top 100: The Fastest-Growing Careers for the 21st Century, Fifth Edition 27). In 2010, 2 percent of U.S employment, about 2.3 million people, possessed jobs in architecture and engineering. The majority of architects tend to be civil architects, with about 249,120 workers, followed by mechanical and industrial engineers (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2). Architects have to design buildings that satisfy their clients and protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Architects need to take aspects into consideration such as climate, soil, state building regulations, zoning laws, fire r...
However, architecture is not just the future, after all, buildings are intended to be viewed, traversed and lived by us, people. Despite this, many architects today rarely think deeply about human nature, disregarding their main subject matter in favour for efficiency and an architecture of spectacle. In this there seems to be a misconception that underlies much of architecture, that is, human’s relationship with the city, the building and nature. In much of today’s architecture, people are treated with as much concern much as we treat cars, purely mechanically. The post-modern search for the ‘new’ and ‘novel’ has come to disregard the profound affect design has on our lives, impacting our senses, shaping our psyche and disposition.
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.