Architecture is...

Architecture is a process.  A creative process that involves a language that is like no other.  A language that describes and depicts a story.  Architecture is about lines, shapes, and cavities.  Architecture needs rhythm, balance, scale, and order.  Architecture has texture, color, and lighting.  Architecture is a form of art, which relies heavily on functionality.  That is what architecture is to me...

3D Map

Character Diagram

Story Map

Chapter X: Hearing Architecture

Chapter IX: Color in Architecture

Chapter VIII: Daylight in Architecture

Chapter VII: Textural Effects

Chapter VI: Rhythm in Architecture

Chapter V: Scale and Proportion

Chapter IV: Architecture Experienced as Color Planes

Chapter III: Contrasting Effects of Solids and Cavities

Chapter II: Solids and Cavities in Architecture

Chapter I: Basic Observations

Experiencing Architecture - Chapter VII; Textural Effects

• Certain Native American tribes made entire buildings out of clay, which were smoothed and resemble plastered walls.
• Two tendencies arises in architecture: rough, which emphasizes structure, and smooth, which hides it. Some buildings have stuccoed walls so that you see only the plaster surface. On the other hand, in some buildings brick is uncovered revealing the regular pattern of the courses.
• In certain periods one tendency usually dominates the other; however, there are also buildings in which both are employed together to obtain effective contrasts.
• Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water is an example in which rough and smooth combine to create contrast. The rustic limestone are set against smooth blocks of white cement and shiny glass and steel
• It can be said the materials with poor textural effects are improved by deep relief, while materials of high quality can stand a smooth surface an appear to be best without relief or ornament.

Experiencing Architecture - Chapter VI: Rhythm in Architecture

• In architecture, one can experience rhythm of subtle variations within strict regularity.
• The simplest method is to use a regular repetition of the same elements.
• The Quirinal Palace uses rhythm in the windows, which are formed as squares one above the other and framed in broad, heavy moldings. The distance between windows, both horizontally and vertically, are exactly balanced.
• The term rhythm is borrowed from other arts involving a time element and based on movement, such as music and dancing.
• Architecture itself has no time dimension, no movement, and therefore cannot be rhythmic in the same way as music and dancing are.
• Architecture from various periods must be looked upon as expressions of changing rhythms.
• The Spanish Steps in Rome has a rhythm which is comparable to an old-fashioned dance - the Polonaise.
• The rhythms of modern day architecture are entirely different from those in the past.
• Frank Lloyd Wright has created many completely symmetrical compositions, while in others he abandoned both symmetry and the right angle in favor o triangles and hexagons or entirely rounded forms.
• The Baker House's design is based on the life of the students who occupies the building.
• Each room has a unique location, and each room has been arranged with an eye to the needs and comfort of its inhabitant.

Experiencing Architecture - Chapter V: Scale and Proportion

• Architecture, which often employs simple dimension, has been frequently called frozen music; however, comparison of architectural proportions with musical consonances can only be regarded as a metaphor.
• The Golden Section: A line segment is said to be divided according to the golden section when it is composed of two unequal parts of which the first is to the second as the second is to the whole.
• Frederick Macody Lund sought to prove that historical works of architecture were based on the proportions of the golden section
• Ivar Bentsen's design for a philharmonic building was based on the ratios 2:3, 3:5, and 5:8.
• A proportion study by Le Corbusier, "Le Modulor," is based on a man who is 183 cm tall and with raised arm 226 cm. His height divided according to the golden section gives 113 cm corresponding to navel height which is at the same time half of his reaching height. The man's height and reaching height is divided up in diminishing measurements according to the golden section. According to Le Corbusier, this man represents the essence of harmony.
• Le Corbusier believes that "Le Modulor" satisfies both the demands of beauty and funtional demands. For Le Corbusier, "Le Modular" is a universal instrument, which can be used all over the world to obtain beauty and rationality in the proprotions of everything produced by man.

Experiencing Architecture - Chapter IV: Architecture Experienced as Color Planes

• We do not perceive everything as either mass or void. Distant objects appear two-dimensional and flat.
• Venice was built right out into the shallow waters with brightly painted palaces completely pierced by windows and columned loggias. Instead of emphasizing weight and solidity, Venice allured with gaiety and movement.
• Venice had and idealized image of the Orient and they cherished the wealth of colorful merchandises from three continents.
• The people of Venice adorn there windows with costly rugs to create an atmosphere of splendor, which can still be seen today during festivals.
• The mosaic floors in S. Marks are costly carpets fashioned of colored stones.
• The Doges' Palace has massive walls above and completely pierced below; however, there is no feeling of top heaviness. The effect was achieved by facing the walls with white and rend marble in a large checkered pattern, while the columns are so thin that appear like edgings and no longer like supporting elements.
• By the late Renaissance, new architectural ideals were brought into the city. Buildings no longer depended on color planes for effects but on relief, on massiveness and dramatic shadows.
• Many buildings in Venice were made to appear lighter than they really were by using color; however, by the late Renaissance, buildings which appeared light was no considered real architecture because it was thought that buildings should be solid and look solid. So in order for an edifice to appear grander weight and ornament were added.
• It was not until this century that architects concentrated their efforts on the creation of a weightless architecture.

Fellow Classmate

Experiencing Architecture - Chapter III: Contrasting Effects of Solids and Cavities

• The rhythmic alternation of strikingly concave and concave forms of Porta di Santo Spirito produces an effect of order and harmony. There is a fitting interval between the contrasting shapes so that the eye can get its fill on the previous one before passing on to the next.
• Contrarily, Michelangelo's Porta Pia has no sense of balance or harmony. It is deliberately restless, which to Michelangelo was an effort to create an architecture that was felt to be dramatic.
• If an architect wants his or her building to be a real experience, he or she bust employ combinations of forms, which will force the spectator to active observation.
• A three-dimensional composition in which the spectator is expected to perceive both convexities and concavities demands an energetic effort and a constant change of conception. 
• After the efforts of the Renaissance to create a pure and simple style, there followed a period in which artists all over Europe threw themselves in a mannered experimentation. In architecture they employed classical columns, portals, mouldings and cornices that had come down to them.
• Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne in Rome has a deep cavity cut into the solid block, which appears darker behind the light pairs of columns.  A stone passageway leads to a little court where the same contrast of cavity and columns is repeated.  The two sides of the the tiny court are formed by a colonnade with a barrel vault, which has three light openings cutting obliquely into the cylindrical surface of the ceiling.  From this court another passageway leads to a smaller court of different character and from there through dark archways to the rear street.
• Palazzo Massimo's composition is full of light and dark and open and closed.
• In Pennsylvania, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water is a combination of cavity, rock, architecture, and sculpture. 
• The house is composed entirely of horizontal masses that seem as natural as the rocks of the waterfall. 
• Wright uses rough-hewn stone, smooth slab of white concrete, and windows of glass and steel.
• The large living room has a stone floor, which uses parts of the very rock on which the house is built.
• The walls are made from glass and stone.
• Falling Water is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's endeavors to bring architecture into harmony with nature. 
• Police Headquarters in Copenhagen is a composition of regular cavities joined together in a dramatic sequence leading to a an innermost rectangular court where the huge stone cylinders of columns are set up in effective contrast.
• The employment of masses and cavities together in effective contrasts leads to works which lie in one of the peripheries of architecture.

Experiencing Architecture - Chapter II: Solids and Cavities in Architecture

• Portals are often described as "gaping," which can be seen in the Portal of Palazzetto Zuccari, Rome, where the entrance of the building is formed as the gaping jaws of a giant.
• Animation of a building makes it easier to experience its architecture as a whole.
• "View through the Keyhole," one of the sights of Rome, is an example of viewing reality as if looking at a photograph. Through the keyhole, one gets the view of the sequestered precincts and the distant view of the dome of St. Peter's. The view of the keyhole was deliberately planned from a fixed point, where nothing interferes to distract your attention.
• By association, we are able to recognize images or objects just by looking at it. For example, we can tell if a building is a church just by observing certain characteristics or elemental details, such as a steeple or maybe even a cross.
• Building materials is the medium or architecture.
• Architecture should incorporate both solids and voids ("cavity") for visual balance.
• Ordinarily, convex forms are seen as figure, while concave as ground.

Experiencing Architecture - Chapter I: Basic Observations

• Architecture has been called Fine Arts for centuries, along with painting and sculpture.
• Architecture is not produced by simply adding plans and sections, and it cannot be explained; it must be experienced.
• Architects works with form and mass just as a sculptor, and like a painter he works with color; however, unlike sculptures and paintings, architecture is a functional art.
• Architecture confines space so people can dwell and utilize them.
• Architecture's main purpose is not only to be seen from the outside. It's shapes are formed around human beings to be lived in.
• Since architecture revolves around people's lives, architects must be aware of people's surroundings and way of life. What may seem right and natural in one cultural environment may not fit in another; similarly, what is fitting and proper in one generation may not blend with the new generation.
• Copying architecture from a past era can be disastrous. Buildings that are copied from the past may seem awkward and stand out with buildings of the current era.
• An architect's work is intended to live on into a distant future; therefore, an architect's design should be ahead of its time when planned, so that it will be in keeping with the times as long as it stands.
• Good architecture is one that is being utilized as the architect had planned.
• Unlike other branches of art, architecture is incapable of communicating an intimate, personal message from one person to another. It lacks emotional sensitivity. However, rhythm and harmony must be attributed to the organization which is the underlying idea of the art.
• Architecture may seem cold and abstract, but no other art form is more connected to a person's daily life.
• Form can give architecture an impression of heaviness or lightness, for example: a wall built of large stones will appear heavier as opposed to a wall that is smooth, even though the smooth wall may actually be heavier.
• Impressions of hardness and softness, of heaviness and lightness, are connected with the surface character of materials. The human eye has the ability to see such differences without the need to touch the material.
• Most buildings consist of a combination of hard and soft, light and heavy, taut and slack, and of many kinds of surfaces. To experience architecture, one must be aware of all these elements.

Architecture is...

Architecture is universal. It is considered as art, just like a painting or sculpture. It can be abstract or straight forward. It can be geometric or curvilinear, or even organic. It can be symmetric or asymmetric. Architecture is three dimensional. It can be experienced in many different ways and seen in many different views. You can walk around it. You can walk through it. You may even be able to walk above it or even down below. Architecture is functional. Architecture has a purpose. It is habitable. It is what many call home. It is where many come to work, to visit, to experience. Architecture can be historical. It is what sets cities apart from one another. Architecture is a landmark. Architecture is everywhere. It can be made out of almost anything. Architecture is creativity. Architecture is...universal.