Voices

The affect a building has on a person, place, or thing is known as presence. If a structure is built to be massive compared to a person on a smaller scale then the building seems intimidating in presence. A best example of this first time this was realized is with the Giza pyramids in Egypt, the Pharaohs wanted everyone to know the might of their accomplishments and therefore build colossal structures for their own afterlife that would still hold that same captivating and awe inspiring presence against the test of time. “In terms of furniture display, while the Greeks were concerned with refining types where form and proportion were of major import, the Romans focused on ostentatious display, often through extravagant ornamentation.” [Blakemore 46] Romans used the affects of presence in a more ornate and extravagant way through the elaborate decoration on their buildings, furniture, and the column orders used like the ionic and Corinthian column orders were utilized as more a decorative element to help tell a building’s story then a support element, an example of this being the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, France.



Presence can also be referred to when talking about the assignment of Suzanne's class where we had to emulate an artist's style of drawing. Using my own drawing of the MHRA building interior the presence of the artist's style was shown rather then that of my own.


A precedent is similar to a prototype of something, it is the precursor or beginning idea that influences the structure and design of a more current or modern structures or items. Greek and Roman cultures are the source of this influence of precedent in most all of the structures that are around today because they are the basis of structure and design that we use today. For example the MHRA building still houses design elements like the column in it's own design to achieve a certain affect, though the column cannot quite be distinguished between a Doric or Ionic it is still a precedent from ancient times. "After Constantine, however, this emphasis of Roman life on the here and now was gradually replaced with a different concern for the hereafter through the influence of a new religion that reshaped the way Romans began to think about the world and themselves." [Roth 275] Though the precedent of Roman and Greece was slowly more influenced by religion after the time of early Christian and the Byzantine the themes and style of Roman architecture still existed within the new churches constructed: arches, vaults, and columns still existed as an important part of architecture in the changing world. The drawings done in another artist's style can also be identified as a precedent in that the inspiration drawings influenced our own drawing style in order to achieve a desired effect.


Moments in a piece of architecture or artwork are visual ideas present in a design that make the structure successful or make the structure stand out or just give the moment meaning like the break room in the MHRA building that provides a moment of relaxation for people. "Outside, preceding the narthex, a large atrium forecourt ringed with colonnades was added where the unbaptized withdrew during the Mass of the faithful. At Saint Peter's entrance to the atrium was through an imposing propylon or gate." [Roth 282] The mere description of this basilica overflows with visual images of moments that give the places in the church symbolism. Moments like the imposing gate and the colonnaded atrium make the structure visually successful in the feelings the basilica was to convey. Outside of the world of architecture, creating our black and white original models in studio, it was assigned to create thumbnails of the model that illustrated the moments present in the structure. For example, the many curling white tendrils of paper and the triangular cut outs are considered moments because they help to illustrate the concepts from class like contrast of colors and shapes and duality of dark and light that are present in the story.


Duality is when something behaves in two different ways or has two parts or meanings to it. We see this occurrence appear a lot in architectural spaces in current times with a living room in someone's house and that of history with the amphitheater in Athens. By the term of duality, application can be to something physical like a convention center with two or more different uses for a space to something symbolic like a place for bathing and a place to socialize in Rome with the Baths of the Diocletian."The ceiling plane in the hall was the most prominent focal point of this space and when it was, in addition, the most decorative of the open trusses, the amount of attention it commanded was intensified." [Blakemore 73] Even something as basic as a truss in a piece of architecture in the middle ages could be defined by the vocabulary of duality, it provided a focal point and strength to the structure while also becoming a decorative piece to be admired by visitors. When talking about the passageway project, my creation had duality as well because it could be described by two words, hierarchy and contrast because of the contrasting shapes and colors along with the swirls in the background and triangles popping out in the foreground.

A common unit of measurement for an object or piece of architecture when helping to describe the scale of something is considered a metric. The scale of something like a metric is very important in that it helps produce a picture to someone as to just how massive or minuscule something is. In talking about the Baths of the Diocletian metric can be used as a way of thinking about a certain building system and how they show dualities. The Baths are huge in scale compared to a scaled person and in order to better understand this a unit of a metric or metric system would be needed to understand proportion and the reason for it. “As functional and social needs shifted over the course of the Middle Ages, So did the placement and measurements of the structures.” [Blakemore 71] Metrics are not always set in stone, they can always change depending upon new needs of a structure as described by Blakemore about the middle ages, the same types of measurements and structures cannot always just exist as they once did if the needs and commonality changes over time, sometimes things must change in order to sustain. Another example relating to metric and even presence as well is the Church of San Vital in Rovena, Italy, its unbelievably high ceilings caused by the valted structures and large windows make one to feel like they have stepped into a powerful and heavenly place of worship because of the metric scale causing this implication.

All these words are 'voices' for the structure we have covered, metric being the voice of translation when describing meaning and use. Precedent the voice of the past to knowledge of why things are built the way they are and what has presence in buildings that exist now along with how they make a person experiencing the space feel. Moments in a structure can help to create dualities in meaning and function depending on how a space is viewed and what is successful.