Assignment C Rhetorical Precis: Analysis of a Book Review and a Main Source

Colin Rowe’s and Robert Slutzky’s “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal” asserts that architectural elements can be viewed equally from more than one point of view. To support their claim they cite buildings from influential architects that display the duality of space, planes and structure. The author’s purpose was to communicate the possible contrasting understandings of transparency in terms of it’s literal and phenomenal realities in order to add depth to a once simplified concept of design. Given the technical writing in the article the intended audience are architectural professionals, scholars and art theorists.

Daniel Naegele’s review of Colin Rowe’s “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays” explains that Rowe’s essays provide conditions where ideas and buildings can be constantly questioned and developed. To support his claim Naegele quotes Rowe’s work and extracts the opposing words he uses to describe, compare and contrast different architectural situations. The author’s purpose was to explain how Rowe chooses to manipulate his vocabulary to create an ambiguous view in order to constantly raise questions that improve and evolve the architecture field. Given the technical writing in the article the intended audience are architectural professionals, scholars and art theorists.

Bibliography

Naegele’s, Daniel, reviewer. “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays” [Review of the book “The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays”]. Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 2002, pp.81-84

Rowe, Colin, Robert Slutzky. “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal” MIT Press Perspecta, Vol. 8 (1963), pp. 45-54

Book Review by Daniel Naegele

Excercise 3.1: Sources, Annotated Bibliography Continued

Hayes, Michael. “Critical Architecture: Between Culture and Form” MIT Press Perspecta, Vol. 21 (1984), pp. 15-29 This source is a critical article on culture and form. This article analyzes architecture’s relationship to the changing times and the needs of new generations. They support their claim through case studies and psychological academic sources. This sources is useful to the thesis because it overviews the concepts used to blend the interior and exterior. Specifically Mies van der Rohe’s buildings where he attempted this exterior interior blending to connect people with the calm of the natural elements contrasting the hectic modern lifestyle.

Rowe, Colin, Robert Slutzky. “Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal” MIT Press Perspecta, Vol. 8 (1963), pp. 45-54

This source analyzes cubist artwork to describe the dynamic of phenomenal transparency. They attest that overlapping forms, that do not destroy one another’s shapes, are awarded transparency because the viewer cannot distinguish which is in the foreground and which is in the background. This source is useful to the thesis because it explores the theories of transparency. The types of transparency used are physical, the inherent quality of the material, and phenomenal, the perceived overlapping of space. These concepts can be applied to the thesis when overlapping and merging the qualities of interior and exterior spaces.

Excercise 2.0: Sources, Beginnings of Annotated Bibliography

Blau, Eve. “Transparency and the Irreconcilable Contradictions of Modernity,” Praxis 9 This article defines transparency through its visual and physical phenomena’s by the juxtaposition of spaces or the literal qualities of the materials. This article is written for architectural scholars to better understand the different types of transparencies and when to utilize them. This source is useful to the thesis because it helps define elements that will spark the curiosity in the occupant to explore the space.

Eliasson, Olafur. “Your Engagement has Consequences.” In Experiment Marathon: Serpentine Gallery. Edited by Emma Ridgway. Reykjavik: Reykjavik Art Museum, 2009: 18-21.

This article asserts that our experiences on what we perceive are always in motion and dependent on the individual and their memory. By utilizing experiments with context and engagement they’ve shown how each situation is always in motion and different for each person. This article is useful to the thesis because its phenomenological concepts evoke a way of thinking about the “unfolding journey” as not only a physical path but also a psychological trail of interaction.

Holl, Steven, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Alberto Perez Gomez. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. San Francisco, CA: William Stout, 2006.

This source is a book composed of three essays that are thematically linked by the idea that all the senses are needed to completely experience architecture. They assert that human perception and phenomenology play the largest role in architecture. The authors provide evidence to this claim by referencing case studies and outlining the buildings to provide examples of how materials and methods are used. The essays are written for an audience of researchers, students and architectural scholars. This source is pertinent to the thesis because it outlines the methods necessary to engage all of the occupant’s senses, thus helping to create elements that will entice the user to embark on the “unfolding journey” this thesis seeks to create.

Frampton, Kenneth. Introduction to Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture (Cambridge and London: MIT Press), 1-27.

This source is a chapter excerpt from a book focusing on tectonic meanings, origin and uses. The author presents a walk through the history of tectonics in different cultures, focusing on completed works and their building techniques in order to define a methodology in their use for the occupant. This book is written for an audience of researchers, students and architectural scholars. This source is useful to the thesis because it defines how tectonics has developed throughout cultures and how it can be used to engage the occupant in their surroundings.

Marder, Michael. Phenomenology of Distraction, or Attention in the Fissuring of Time and Space, Research in Phenomenology 41 (2011) 396–419

This article asserts that distractions are an emersion in situations where our perceptions are constantly changing. The author sources psychology scholars to define distraction and attention as different parts of the same concept. This article is written for students, researchers and architectural scholars. This source is pertinent to the thesis because it explains the phenomenology of distraction and helps it to better define ways to eliminate or reduce the causes.

Pallasmaa, Juhani. Six Themes for The Next Millennium. in Architectural Review.   (July, 1994),  74-79.

This article critiques the direction western architecture design has moved in its principles and execution. Pallasmaa outlines his own six themes for how architecture can become more attractive in our new millennium, which he based off of the six manuscripts by Italo Calvino. This source is relevant to the thesis because of its theoretical implications that silence is more than just a lack of noise but of turning your consciousness to yourself.

Thesis Prep 2 | Mind Maps

TP1: Architectural History or Landscape History?

"Architectural History or Landscape History?"By Dell Upton, University of California Berkeley

1. Citation: Dell Upton. “Architectural History or Landscape History?” Journal of Architectural Education. (1984-), Vol. 44, No. 4. (Aug., 1991), pp. 195-199.
2. Argument: Upton argues that architectural history has been a biography of designers and instead should encompass human experience and social interaction to evaluate work.
3. Author: Dell Upton was educated at Colgate and Brown. He earned his Ph.D. American Civilization, at Brown University; a M.A. American Civilization, at Brown University and a B.A. History, English, at Colgate University. He is a Professor of various courses focusing on the architectural and the cultural. He was a consultant and chief catalogue essayist for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2000 exhibition Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861. Upton has a multitude of published works including: Another City: Urban Life and Urban Spaces in the New American Republic 2008, Architecture in the United States 1998, Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia 1986. He is also working on a world history of architecture. (http://www.arthistory.ucla.edu/people/faculty/dupton/)
4. Method: Upton argues that architectural history has been a biography of designers and instead should encompass human experience and social interaction to evaluate work. Dell Upton makes his argument by describing how previous accounts of architectural history are more a biography of the designer and builder. How each time period is viewed is marked by a certain building or designer. This way of defining history lacks a focus on the human made environment. He cites sociological analysis to support his claim. For example, “defining a distinctive realm of expertise and of devising a mechanism for limiting entrance to its practice.” This source elaborates on how professionalism started and the tools it uses to be more exclusive. The universal notion of style has been refined and preserved since the renaissance by people who are not part of vernacular and who gained professional status from certain education and training. Upton looks extensively into sociological writings on cultural hierarchy to explain why some works are considered aesthetically pleasing and others not.
5. Key words: Human landscape, cultural landscape, perception
6. Map: Please see Mind Map attached.
7. Evaluate: Sources selected: “Aesthetics as an Intellectual Network” by Casey Haskins and “Space and the Perception of Time”by Victoria Meyers
8. Rationale: “Aesthetics as an Intellectual Network”by Casey Haskins branched off from Upton’s ideas of the notion of aesthetics being created by the high cultured professionals. He argues that aesthetics of all kinds including art and music are monopolized and governed by a select group of high cultured professionals. He believes philosophical aesthetics is shared throughout all of the creative fields and he argues that they play off each other. “Space and the Perception of Time”by Victoria Meyers branches off the keyword perception that I selected from Upton’s article. She discusses how light, shadow, and textures affect the user’s perception and how it can be manipulated. Haskin’s ideas of high culture contribute to Upton’s thesis by reaffirming his claim that professionals in their fields produce our preconceived notion of aesthetics. While Meyer’s concepts on perception outlines the characteristics needed to create the human experience and social interaction Upton asserts is needed to evaluate architectural work.

ingrid siliakus: paper architecture

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/18555/ingrid-siliakus-paper-architecture.htmlworking with paper, amsterdam-based artist ingrid siliakus creates miniature works of architecture with highly intricate details. the three-dimensional pieces incorporates the structural nature of a 90 degree angle to delineate, in a manner resembling pop-up books, a skyline, clusters of buildings, network of stairs,  and more. the effect is often dizzying and evoke the aesthetic of M.C. escher with its orthogonal read. delicate yet solid in its build, some of the paper sculptures are capable of collapsing down into a two-dimensional pack.

Architecture as void

Massing models, form and space. What is architecture really? Well a wall is a wall and we can all agree to that, but the wall isn’t the most important part of the space, the part we reside in, the part we notice, the part we move through, is the void. When people enter a space they comment on the feel of it, the openness, the light, the smallness of it. Rarely a comment is “I like the direction of the walls” more of how the wall influence the nothingness of the space. The walls may direct your eye but the focus is usually to a space beyond, next to, or around it. It’s placement, position, and form all influence on how the space is shaped. It can be used to frame, block or embellish various spaces. Indeed mass and void engage in a symbiotic relationship but it is within the void that creates the notable change in a person’s reaction to it. Doors and windows are appreciated because they transition us through space, either physically or visually. But they also are a non-entity; besides the windowpane and door that act as protection from the outside they still are the void in the wall or roof of which they reside.

In terms of Urbanism:

People appreciate what is not there; a park is a park because it is a break in the forest, an open patch of grass. A plaza is appreciated because it is a break in the urban fabric, people can move, gather, and use the nothingness that is the open space in urban fabric. The ability to have nothing there allows for the inhabitants to fill it in any way they see fit (laws permitting), with carts for selling items, chairs for viewing the surrounding activities, or an area to run and catch a Frisbee.

Arial view of Roman Campe de Fiori (Center) and Piazza Farnese (Bottom Left)

Camp de fiori after market clean up. Getting ready for the nightlife.

On the contrary too much void can be distressing for people. Structured open spaces are appreciated because of their break in the dense fabric surrounding it. Overly wide-open spaces can pull away from the human scale. Trees vegetation and other “human scale” elements may work vertically but not horizontally. For example it is much easier to walk twenty NYC block then it is to walk from one farm to the next a mile away.

So architecture needs the mass to create the void and the mass must be carefully crafted and detailed, but the mass must also serve as the means to mold a well thought out void.

Bauhaus: Beginning of Modern Architecture

When I first enter the Bauhaus, the beginning of modern architecture, I find myself unimpressed. Sure, it has cool aspects, nice modern looking furniture and interesting lighting. Other then that it's pretty bland, but that's what the idea was about right? Only using what is necessary to complete the needs of the inhabitants. Sounds pretty sad for "modern architecture" but I suppose before Picasso could create his abstract art he had to start with the bare beginnings. So Gropius was right in stripping down architecture to what was necessary, giving us the options now to build off the simple and bring the post modern era into a new more complicated form of expression.