The Architect at Work

If we try to separate certain capabilities of an architect, we’ll see that there are different types of professions that study the same thing, but what makes an architect different from every other professional and artist, is the way of generating the three dimensional forms of buildings. From different studies, Geoffrey Bawa came across three more significant ways of designing that Architects use: pragmatic, iconic, analogic and canonic.

Pragmatic design is the way of generating a space by it’s natural surroundings, thus site analysis is an important part on this type of design. We can identify form of design being used since the beginning of humanity, when they use leather to create shadows, or when they created igloos to survive the low temperatures.

Iconic design is the way of designing according to a certain image that is proved to be efficient for a certain reason. For example in some cultures a couple of families live in one big house and in some others only one family lives in a smaller house, because there’s an image created for them that they that’s the type of design for their living style. In Albania, when the bunkers were proved to be efficient, there were more than 750.000 of them built through the whole country.

Analogic design can be understood by the meaning of it’s name alone. Just like the analogic words in literature, who have similar usage to each-other, the same is for this type of design. So when an Architect creates a design based on a concept that is already familiar, we have an analogical design.

Canonic design is the grid created in a design so regularity, pattern and order can be achieved. We can see this type of design in Plato’s four primary bodies, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple Plan and many other examples that we occur on our day to day life.

The Architect cannot solve a building design problem without generating a three-dimensional design. 

Seating Arrangement

On our day to day life, we come across different types of surroundings and environments, whether it is at the doctor’s, business office, cinema etc., the space is usually designed in a way to fit and go together with it’s purpose. There are different types of design patterns that we see everywhere that are known to be in a specific way because they are more effective likewise. We’ve studied this occurrence previously when we got to learn about Archetypes, and how there are some rules that are always the same in every building. Every parliament, every university class and so on have a different seating arrangement according to the tradition that is thought to be more effective. For example in our studio every one of us have our own desks, we are in groups of four and we are free to discuss with each other, on the other hand, on our Math class we share a desk with a friend and we can’t talk during the lecture. In some meeting rooms all the participants sit around a circle table and everyone is equal and has the same importance as everyone else, contrariwise there are meeting rooms where all the chairs are turned to on main chair who is usually the leader of the meeting and who has a more important role. Little details like the way we sit and interact might go across our minds but they indirectly affect us every day, so we have to put more thought on the way we design the seating areas of a room/building.ery day, so we have to put more thought on the way we design the seating areas of a room/building.

Solids and Cavities in Architecture

Architecture is an art that on first glance is given to us by visual observation. Something that is mistaken often is that we put focus only on the part of the design that is there (solids) and we forget how important the parts that are missing (cavities) are.

The way we look at designs and sketch our ideas is more important than we are aware of. There’s solid-minded architects and cavity-minded architects. This depends on the way the architect chooses to start a design, from the solid part or the spaces. For example, in some cathedrals the detail and uniqueness of the design is focused on the mass solid part (Gothic Architecture), in some others it is focused on the big spaces on the interior of the cathedral (Renaissance Period).

Frank Lloyd Wright shows a perfect example on Falling Water about the ways to achieve harmony between them two, and now to use them as just a vast ornament, which has failed a lot of times previously when other architects have tried to achieve it. Frank Lloyd Wright on his design shows the most important and beautiful ornament that other architects have misses: nature.

This class in my opinion was one of the most important ones because it connected really close with the studio designs that we make. For example in our two cubes we had two different main focuses, because in the first cube we had to think about the cavities we were going to create from the amount of Styrofoam that we carved and in the second cube we had to design with solids around cavities. In the current studio design we also have to put a lot of thinking when it comes to solids and cavities and the way we are going to portray them in our design.

I think learning more about the importance of solids and cavities will benefit us a lot even in the future projects and throughout our Architecture journey because it is one of the most crucial parts while designing.

From the past to the present

What makes Architecture unique from all the different arts is the need for building construction thinking.

Nervi made an experiment where he looked at architectural works from two different aspects: from a Builder’s point of view and from a non-technicians point of view.

After the dual investigation he came to the conclusion that a building may be perfect technically and not be aesthetically pleasing, but an architectural work that is aesthetically pleasing is always accomplished on it’s technical side. This is because if we make a technically perfect work, the rules followed and it’s correctness make it aesthetically pleasing.

Building technology has to make use of the solid materials, define spaces on their particular functions and protect the structure from external elements.

The most important part of building correctly are:

Stability- a building has to have resistance to external forces. For example in places with a lot of earthquakes building construction changes to adapt to the needed conditions.

Durability- different materials are used to support different conditions so durability can be achieved.

A functional structure and economic efficiency are the result of the proper proportioning of the sizes and relationships of spaces.

If we compare architectural projects from the past up until very recently, the technological refinement and addition of ornament have improved massively, but that doesn’t mean that they haven’t been acknowledged in the past as well. For example, if we see the columns of the buildings, they are built for technical means, but the refinement and decoration of them in the top and bottom shows us that even if it has been improved drastically, people even in the ancient Greek period had the aesthetic sense and were conscious of this fact.

To sum this up, the relation between building construction and technology has always been there and there are many building that show this. They go together and to have a successfully constructed building we have to express and achieve both of them.