Composition is a specific arrangement of elements or items in an overall perspective with a goal to be cohesive and successful. This idea of composition can be found as an element in architecture when talking about decorative elements, exterior elements, and anything else that makes sense in the structure and makes it pleasing.
In the beginning, this terminology came from the Greeks and how they built their temple-like structures for their gods and for their own domestic homes. Every home had a porch area that was usually in the front of the home or structure, a court in the central part of the home, especially when talking about villas in Pompeii, and the all-important hearth are that was the central importance of the entire structure. With this method of categorizing spaces in structures being so used and successful, is found in nearly every structure now in existence. In a modern home for example, the porch is in the front of the house before you enter the structure, the court is your central part of the house perhaps being the hallway were everyone walks to get to places in the home, and the hearth is the most important place in the house being either your kitchen or your living room depending upon what is important to you family. “ The secular basilicas for hearing litigation had been entered from the middle of the long sides, In the new church basilicas, entry was from one end, where a vestibule, or narthex, was created, with an alter placed at the far end in the semi-circular apse. Outside, preceding the narthex, a large atrium forecourt ringed with colonnades…” [Roth 282] Taking reading from the Early Christian/Byzantium chapter, just reading the very description tells the placement and ideal of porch, court, and hearth. The porch being the large atrium outside the narthex ringed with colonnades, the court being the narthex, and the hearth being the alter where the priest leads worship and all-important services are held by. In the middle ages reading another example is exposed, though not in a building you would expect like a apartment of the middle ages. “On entering a palazzo a gate or front door at which a guard was stationed was followed by a standard progression of spaces. The main entrance opened onto the vestibule, from which one entered the cortile, surrounded by an arcaded colonnade; behind this were summer apartments, shops, kitchens, bathrooms, storage areas and so on." [Blakemore 94] Once more, the idea passed from the Italians in the 15 century has a porch (the main front gate from which you enter), a court (being the main entrance to a vestibule and cortile courtyard that leads to everything else), and the hearth (where one can enter into the important areas such as the kitchen and bedrooms).
A diagram is a pictorial presentation of an area or building that helps the viewer to gain a better understanding of the building’s context and circulation patterns. It is hard for the common person like me to understand the full extent of what a building looks like when I can’t visit it myself. Also diagrams are great especially when getting a better picture of buildings of old that may not be standing anymore. “Merchant bankers became new patrons of architecture, and the late buildings of the Middle Ages were buildings they commissioned- their residences, guild halls, and town halls. The large house of Jacques Coeur in Bourges illustrates this new urban type well [14.50,14.51].” [Roth 346] This building from the middle ages is rather complex in its design, because of the visual representation given of the floor plan/section of a merchant’s home a person can perfectly visualize the rooms and towers the adorn the building as major characteristics. Along with reading on the Middle Ages we learned how to construct proper diagrams of our own assigned buildings. For my building, the MHRA building, we had to consider things like diagrams of context that describe the exterior around the building like topography and current standing elements to get a better sense of what is around the building.
The affect a certain item or idea has on one person to another is typically what is described as impression. Though in the case of history and theory of design a better way to say this would be from one culture to another rather just one individual person. In the time of the middle ages, not only was there creation of new ideas and ways to build and decorate spaces, but there was also excavation on the past sites of ancient Rome. “Excavations of Roman sites yielded marble for reuse, stone calcined for lime, and artifacts for collectors. From these, designers either copied or were inspired to adapt Roman decorative detail such as the candelabrum, grotesque images, the compartmentalization based on Pompeian organization for such areas as the ceiling, and the decorative use of classical orders.” [Blakemore 93] The excavations made a vast impression on some of the middle age design society, according to Roth enough so that it made an impression on the culture enough to influence their architecture and decorative elements. Column orders, ornate Roman designs like that of Pompeii and other elements were used as decorative pieces once more in the time of the middle ages even after the fall of the Roman empire.
When talking in the context of details upon a building, details are often extra things added to a particular structure in architecture that add often to its delight, though in some cases like that of columns can also add firmness. Details when describing Gothic architecture are often thought of to be ostentatious and ornate. “In France, this attention to ornament appeared in decorative forms, particularly in the stone tracery of stain-glass windows. The tracery had the wavy fluidity of flames; such curvilinear forms were said by the French to be flambant, “flaming,” or “flamboyant,” a word still used to convey a sense of extravagant excess.” [Roth 342] Front facades of Gothic cathedrals were notorious for being highly detailed in what the building stands for: god, the apostles, and the most common last judgment. The flamboyant cathedral talked about above is Saint-Maclou in Rouen, France; a country in which the Gothic style thrived. Details like that of the MHRA building can be defining details that can only be found in that one building. The circular lowered ceiling is a zoomed in detail that categorizes the unique detail in the Moore Humanities Building.
These words together: composition, porch:court:hearth, diagram, impression, and details, are all words that basically compliment or describe a piece of architecture or artwork. Details in the composition of a building facade or layout help to add visual interest for the viewer and fulfill the ever difficult attempt at delight. Details can create definition to structural placement like the porch:court:heart ideal via different ornate details or colonnades as defining features. Because of these appealing details, impressions on other cultures and other designers are made and it is either recreated or used as inspiration for something new. Finally, diagrams can help document these elements to give the view a better or new perspective on something created in or on top of the structure.
::Sources::
Plan/Section Cathedral Picture and Quotations
History of Interior Design and Furniture By Roth
Understanding Architecture By Blakemore
Drawings and Photographs By myself
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