This subject is meant to share the chronological survey of the developments of Western architecture from the beginning of time to the period of Enlightenment, with consideration of the intellectual, aesthetic, technological, political and economic factors which have influenced the design of buildings. These issues are explored with reference to major contemporary examples and the work and philosophy of significant exponents.
PROJECT 1 : Precedent Study
This project is the first I have done that undertook a period of almost the entire 18weeks of the semester. This was because of the different components involved in this project.
The objectives of this project were:
1. To introduce basic architectural theory through a consideration of intentions, concepts, patterns, disciplines, architectural language and contextual relationships.
2. To examine architecture history through a chronological survey, looking at the intellectual, aesthetic, technological, political and economic factors which have influenced architectural design.
The first component involved writing a group essay in which we would describe the chosen building on its design ideas and significant contribution to its culture.
Our building was Castel Sant' Angelo, also known as Hadrian's Mausoleum.
please click the link to view the essay : Castel Sant' Angelo Essay
The second component of this project was to create an Analysis Presentation Board. This component was an individual one. The board had to be hand drawn and hand written and the research information had to include these following :
- Concept analysis (building concept and/or architect concepts)
- Building massing analysis (structure, geometry)
- Circulation Analysis
- Spatial Organization analysis (public vs. private, symmetry & balance, Unit to whole, Repetitive to unique, Additive and subtractive, Hierarchy)
- Building section analysis
individual Analysis Presentation board
For the third part, we had to work in the same group again to build a model of our building to communicate our analysis. The material given was ''balsa wood timber''.
group model showing 1/8th of exterior and half of a chosen cross section of the building
For the final part, also as a group, we had to give a 5 minute verbal presentation to present our model and previous research.
