Architecture based in context

Relevance of architecture as per its role in other forms of media? Preservation / dialogue about
architecture in other than building
Playtime Jacques tati
Parody of modernity (technocratic/modern life)
Continues to make modern arch relevant in pop culture

Why is arch relevant?

Testimonial of human civilisation: development of culture and society
Evidence of epochs: movements and ideas/innovations in engineering

Space and society in the antiquities (ancient Greece / classical rome)

Master builders of medieval – architects & patronage system
Enlightenment: What the historians consider the long 19 century, revolution/emancipation
Urban expansion – city as spectacle

Western as ideological framework rather than geographical distinction

Modernisation: Urbanism & capitalism (as main form of economy) – and how these influence the
styles
Rationalism/functionalism as principles

Hand and machine: change of means of productions from hand to industrial/machines

(mechanisation)

Unadorned surface: ornament as crime; based on economy & mode of production

Reconstructing tradition: idea of tradition is developed in modern period as a contrast; ironic that
instead of it being inherited, they reconstruct/reinvent tradition

Avant gardes to functionalism: tied to corporate culture

Visionary architecture: ruins of metropolitan areas – ideas on how to enhance life through new
systems

Complexity and contradiction: critique from 1960-1990s of modern archi

Seminar:
Crafts in relation to technology
William morris the revival of handicraft
-relation to the technology of the medium

Opacity and transparency (unadorned)

Main elements of modern arch design
Colin rowe transparency: literal and phenomenal
Two types of transparency

Tradition and creation

Kenzo tange tradition and creation of Japanese architecture
How it’s translated to form of archi, and how it relates to modern life
Considered ancient civilisations of Greece and rome as how architecture came to be
Golden age of Athens pericles
Imperial rome under

The greeks chasing greatness

Age pf pericles
Time of stability 30 year peace treaty
Legacy in built form: 2 urban sanctuaries
The Acropolis and the Agora

Agora- sanctuary of people / civic centre

Acropolis – sanctuary to gods and state treasury
Two sanctuaries linked by Panathenaic way (route for celebration of Athena)
Behind agora is where people stay

Acropolis – sanctified site with temples dedicated to various gods, for devotions and savred
ceeremonies
Propylaea as entrance

Temples were painted with bright rich colours

State treasury housed in acropolis because most secure

Panoramic views
The idea of the greek picturesque
Mobile spectator following prescribed route
Buildings are imposing and symmetrical when viewed (strong visual balance)

Rhythm
Sense of scale of Athena statue in comparison to building scale
Parthenon is not approached frontally, movement of colonnade and visual effect

Erechtheion – also approached from an angle

Size of order determine scale and ratios

Columns = support, entablature = what are supported

Doric = height 6x base
Ionic = slenderness of women = height 8x base, volutes like hair ringlets
Corinthian = maiden

Parthenon of perfect symmetry

Andronitis men’s space (front)

Gynaikonitis – women’s quarters (rear)
The Greek city of Athens prized itself as being an ‘open city’. Porosity is achieved through the use of columned
porticoes in buildings and permeability with the gradual transition from internal to external public spaces.
Uniform dignity of the built environment is expressed in architecture.

Hadrian
Consolidation of power across empire
Pantheon of the gods – pagan temple
Created the roman city – roman castrum origins
Historical layers and rebuilding
- roman forum
- Hadrian’s villa, Tivoli

Domus – roman household

-geometry and sequence
-class, function, access

Pantheon – not to specific but to all, which was unique

Flexibility of use

Vitruvian man

Provincial towns checkerboard arrangement on roman grid plan

Porticos to facilitate movement along strong central axis