Opus #3

Scale is a measurement of an object or drawing that interprets and makes sense of something to the person reading it. Scale can be used to help understand and determine how big or small an object or person may be in space compared to other objects or structures. When designing a wall to understand the construction of the wood frame a 1":1' scale was used to build a model of the real wall face in order to get a better understanding of the construction without actually building a real wall. Full scale size plays a big part in Design History and Theory in making something noticeable or for something to stand out like with the Pyramids of Giza and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. To give a general idea of just how big a scale these pyramids are Roth states, “The pyramids are virtual mountains, at the time the largest buildings in the world, hauled block by block from the Nile. The base of Khufu’s pyramid covers just over 13 acres (5.3 hectares); it is big enough to contain the plans of the cathedrals of Florence and Milan, the basilica of St. Peter in Rome, as well as St. Paul’s and Westminster Abby in London, and still have room left over.” (Roth 197) The scale of the Pyramids can literally swallow many of the other pieces of architecture created long after, so the scale compared to a human even is almost unimaginable. The reason for this extreme scale is that the Pharaohs wanted people to know the superiority of the pyramids even after they were long gone, building a pyramid was a huge accomplishment and took a vast amount of labor. So essentially the bigger the structure, the more memorable accomplish it would become. "The enormous scale of the monuments was due to the nature of the material and the methods of excavating the stone blocks, transporting them, and lifting the blocks into position." (Blakemore 2) Blakemore suggests that the reason for the extreme scale may also be the materials available to the Egyptians when constructing these massive structures. I think this might have been an attributing factor, but I also theorize from what Roth said and what was in class that it may also have been used to establish a form of hierarchy to the people in Egypt and to other people in the world to portray Egypt's thriving society.



Aside from the extreme scales of people and architecture in Egypt, interiors and the people that interact with them can be more of a realistic scale. In the watercolor vignette above the scale of people and their surroundings in and with architecture give a sense of scale and understanding to a space in everyday life with figures.



The collaboration of items or parts in design that makes sense to a person and design wise can only be best described as unity. Unity can be portrayed with shapes, color, & format of design. Unity of colors in a simple sketch vignette can create unity throughout a piece of artwork that can help to lead your eye around the page and keep interest of the observer like with the reoccurring orange color in the vignette above that moves from the walls to the seating in the restaurant portrayed. Unity can be interpreted as a united group of people as well, like with the Greeks in History and Theory of Design. " The agricultural economy of the Greeks was based on small farms individually owned and operated, and both this economy and the rugged landscape prevented consolidation of the many separate Greek city-states into a single centralized nation. None the less, the Greeks shared a common religion and a rich subtle language that set them apart..." (Roth 217) Before the people of Greece, there were various greek speaking city-states that could not come together into one nation. But with the combined ideas of the similar Greek city-states similar ideas would go for the perfect ideal in which Greeks attempted to achieve through their architecture with the Megarons and later the temples to gods like the Parthenon.


A cut view that helps a person to understand information better from a view that is not normally seen unless the object is cut in half is called a section. In drafting during the drawings on Pat’s Chair/Table/Workspace section drawings were done so that information could better be interpreted as to what the piece of furniture looked like. If there was a hidden support not normally seen from the elevation views or the plan views of the drawing the reader of the drawing would be able to better understand the construction of the piece of furniture. For example, in my section of Pat's furniture piece there are horizontal and vertical supports in sections of my desk/table that can be seen better from a section view. Without the section this would not have been communicated. Sections are present in the book History of Interior Design and Furniture in the form of architectural sections to help the reader get a better understanding of the space that had existed at one time in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, not just the outside layer but the inner parts of architecture and how rooms and such where structured.


Boundaries are defining lines that can dictate the beginning and end of something in architecture or in a piece of artwork even. In a watercolor vignette, boundaries aside from that on the paper are unclear. The idea is to let the color fade off into the white of the page and give the illusion of a boundary. Boundaries were apart of Greek ideal and architecture as well. "Running around the building [Knossos Palace] was a sophisticated plumbing and drainage system. In places, the palace walls were four and five stories high in a series of setbacks around light courts and stairwells." (Roth 217) Boundaries can also be physical as referenced from the Knossos Palace, walls can be boundaries to keep things in, keep people out, and even mark territory as the Greeks did. "The Megaron consisted of an entry porch formed by projecting walls framing two columns, a vestibule, and the throne room, nearly square, with its roof carried by four columns (virtually the same arrangement was found at Mycenaean and Pylos)." (Roth 218) Another example of boundaries being used are shown in the planning and building of the Megaron, the precedent to the temples. The walls created on the structure are boundaries to those who are not priests to the building out of the sacred structure since Megarons and later temples where considered to be used for religious purposes.

Vignettes are drawings that have no definite boundaries, when using vignettes with watercolor the idea is to let the color fade out to give the illusion of other objects or boundaries in the composition. Vignettes are not only in watercolor, they can be done in mediums of pen and ink, graphite pencil and colored pencil. Vignettes are considered stories without words, ideals and views of different cultures can be similar to the description of a vignette because there is no definitive ideal, everything and every culture is different and the lines of right and wrong are faded and unclear. Greek ideals and Egyptian ideals are different already because of the different views on what is important such as between what you do in life and what you do in the afterlife.

In short, scale is an important aspect of consideration in architecture and design as well as when drafting so that information can be better interpreted to the person reading the drawing or understanding the structure. As well as scale, sections can also help to give more information to a person to help better the understanding of the structure, of a piece of furniture, or even how a society's way of life was like from those interpretations. Boundaries give limit to structures and property while the unity of colors, scale, and shapes makes a piece of architecture successful with the information given. Vignettes mold into the concept of boundaries, scale, sections, and unity into drawings and architecture via mediums like watercolors or cultures like Egypt and Greece.

::Sources::

History of Interior Design and Furniture By Roth
Understanding Architecture By Blakemore