With this reading I learned the importance of commodity, firmness and delight. These are three important factors brought to our attention by the roman architect Vitruvius. The element of function, something that on the surface, would appear most straightforward, but that, since the mid-twentieth century, has proved extremely troublesome. Function, or the pragmatic utility of an object- its being fitted to a particular use- was a criterion analyzed by such Greek philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon. Until reading this passage in the Roth book, I didn't realize that the english language only has one word for function. Even though like the Inuits who have many words for snow as opposed to just our one word for it. We need variations to describe different kinds of function. The alternative so far is to make compound words such as circulatory function or acoustical function. After reading about function and its importance and taking all the factors of commodity, firmness and delight into the designing and building of a space I realized what all goes into the thought process of a building. I now view buildings differently and try to understand where the designer was coming from and trying to understand their thought processes and reasons for things within the interior and on the exterior. When we took the tour around campus to look at buildings and find circles I never realized how many circles there really are around campus, whether they are "crazy" circles or your traditional circle and what they represent. Most places where you find a circle are gathering places for people. Where they meet and greet and hold important functions. The circle represents many things such as wholeness, and the universal symbol of unity. Circles can be found everywhere in todays architecture as well as ancient architecture, such as stonehenge. The same thing can be said for arches and domes. These qualities can be found even in modern buildings. The arch which was created by the romans remains to be easy on the eyes as well as provides support for structures. Construction of ancient arches are held together by a keystone. A stone carefully constructed and placed in the top center of the arch. When removed the arch can crumble. All of these things I will now take into account when building or designing things in the future. Arches and circles still hold my attention when looking at modern buildings and spaces.
Photo Citations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94736346@N00/264212354
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/learning_modules/maths/02.TU.03/img/IM.1470_zl.jpg&imgrefurl=http://been-seen.com/articles/art-and-design/tubular-tower&usg=__n6o8772TujbuhEsSCtNIRM2MiE4=&h=363&w=550&sz=53&hl=en&start=0&sig2=eooHhqpScpJrETUu_vca5g&zoom=1&tbnid=ixg7jiU8jSYZjM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=194&ei=BThcTYGbNYGDtgee_92YCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcircles%2Bin%2Barchitecture%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D835%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=512&oei=BThcTYGbNYGDtgee_92YCw&page=1&ndsp=36&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&tx=65&ty=107
No comments:
Post a Comment