Faith

         When we look at historical buildings of faith we see detail. To express faith in architecture and design means a great deal of things. The Egyptians and many others used a pyramid layout to express their form of faith. The pyramid represented the four corners of the world being shined on and the all knowing eye. Faith is something that anyone can have, and is something that will never leave you unless you leave it. We see the designers take their idea, or form of faith, and turn it into a worldly structure. It is a way that God, or whatever the highest entity of a religion may be, can be expressed in physical form. Many chose to use intricate design on structures to represent what their faith is. In the Hagia Sophia many skylights were installed so that light could beam in, representing the light of God. As Thomas Fuller said "Light, God's eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building."

The image of the cross represents my Christian faith and it is a universal Material used all over the world. When I look at it, I am reminded of the sacrifices that were made for us by Jesus Christ.

The Power of Ten

               The Power of Ten is a rather cool concept. My specific square was the top layer of skin on the man's hand at 10^(-2). When I first saw it I was overwhelmed and honestly questioned what I got myself into. I had to sit back and take it square by square. As you can see in the photo below my drawing is composed of lines going every which way. The hard part about this was following the lines and getting them in the correct squares. First I picked out the lines with the most emphasis and drew those. Then I went one square at a time and then connected the lines accordingly on the square next to the previous until I finished. 

Unit Summary 1

          When I came to this class I honestly had no idea what it was going to be about. Truthfully I thought it was going to be something similar to what you would see on HGTV and I was wrong. We have covered objects and spaces, principles and elements, and more. We took an educational trip to the Hunt-Morgan house in Lexington and were educated on the ways of the 19th century.

 The second picture I posted means a lot to me as far as this class goes. It was our first blog post and I had no idea what I was doing. I know know what all of that means which indicates I have been taught well in this class. It represents the importance of the principle and elements of design and how they teach us to better understand a design. The elements and principles are all around us and will never leave. If a person were to walk into a completely blank room, there would still be principles and elements! I believe that anything in the world can be described in someway or another. Take a color for example; how does one describe the color blue? We can say it is "cool" or "soothing." If a color can be described, then anything can.

I chose this last picture to remind me about everything we have learned and the value of the class. Now when I watch HGTV I will be reminded that design is way more than what is on TV.

Roman Worksheet

Campus Reconnaissance

         

         

          Unfortunately I do not have access to a drawing because I was not in class to be able to draw it. I took it upon myself to walk around campus and look at White Hall Classroom Building, the Engineering Quadrangle, and Miller Hall. Each one of these buildings is unique to itself but if you look close there are more similarities than what meets the eye. Everywhere you look on the buildings you see lines represented by bricks. All of the buildings have many windows to let light into the classrooms for natural light. The buildings are made out of brick with a white brick/stone border. The actual shapes of the buildings contrast each other though. White Hall is basically a square with three floors. The building face is split up into three different levels with beams running from top to bottom that give it balance. There is emphasis placed on the overhang creating a floating effect. The Engineering Quadrangle is made up of more complex buildings with different shapes on it. In the image above we see a rectangle shaped building with a half cylinder in the middle of the roof and two towers on the sides that contrast each other. Miller Hall is the oldest of them all but looks the nicest and best kept. It represents depth and harmony by the horizontal stack shape it is in. The emphasis on this building starts from the bottom of the stairs and goes all the way up to the roof point giving it a steeple look. I think that Miller hall and the Engineering Quad makes a cohesive statement but not whitehall. My favorite is Miller hall because of the overwhelming effect I get when I see it. The light in cooperated with the nature makes for a beautiful view.

Modernism

When I hear the word modern I think of simplistic, easy to use, non stressful surrounding.When we call an object or place modern it basically translates to most updated. We think of a futuristic productive look. The building itself has a simplistic transparent look mad of all glass. It as if it was a part of nature. The apple in the middle appears to be floating giving it a futuristic vibe. As we go down the stairs once again made out of glass we go into the basement of the Apple store. It has a spaceship like design to it. It is the perfect displays of balance and harmony.

Hunt-Morgan Home

          As I wandered into the dinning room of the Hunt-Morgan house it was as if I was in a time machine. The house was built in the 19th century (1814) and it uses the styles and concepts accordingly. A large part of the design is through coordination of architectural elements, furnishings, wall colors, and objects. For example the house was built federal style meaning that the right side of the house mirrored the left giving it pure symmetry. Another example were the baseboards that matched the color of the Chinaware which was typical of wealthy families in the 19th century. My favorite piece was the glass about the front door. There are 13 individual pieces of glass that unify to represent the 13 original colonies.
          As we marched up the stairwell the tour guide told us about the floors being made of a red oak but as soon as we got upstairs the floors changed to a contrasting, "more modern" wood. The upstairs was turned into a boarding house for employees of a local college and they took the floor up and put in the new floor. The wood was thin in width and using the element of lines, it looked as if it stretched the hallways further than they were. The first room we saw was the master bedroom. It, like the rest of the house, had a sense of harmony as you progress through the bedroom.  Down the hall was the daughters bedroom, designed unlike any other part of the house. The room has a flower like pattern on the walls that will catch your eye as soon as you walk in. The woman that lived there redesigned the house to cater to her needs, one of which was the flower wallpaper. The granite fireplace was added to burn coal in place of the traditional wood fireplace. At the time the home had a lighter feel to it as America was parting ways with England's ways of life. When this woman redesigned the room she got rid of the "lighter" look and went back to the solid, heavy furniture that England was known for. The civil war memorial showed how military, materialism, men of war, and war itself has drastically changed over time. Back in the Civil War era they wore uniforms that were almost like robes. The uniforms had a think heavy looking texture to them and they were rather dull. When you look at uniforms today you see all types of colors and camouflage patterns. It is amazing to see how people lived in the 19th century and how contrasting parts of everyday life were compared to everyday life today.

Cathedral Analysis: Salisbury and Amiens

 The Salisbury (below) and Amiens (above) are two cathedrals build around the year 1220. Each of these are prime examples of Gothic cathedrals. The Salisbury is located in Salisbury, England and across the water is the Amiens cathedral located in Amiens, France. The cathedrals were built with extreme detail. There are stone statues on the outside of both of them. They both use three arches with an opening in the middle in go inside. Each of them have column like structures on the corners of the cathedrals.

Acropolis vs Xianyang

When comparing both the Xianyang and the Acropolis they bold show balance throughout their structures. The Acropolis uses the columns and the base to show balance where as it is the variety of roofs around the Xianyang that give it balance. Both sit on a base with stairs going up to it. The acropolis looks more like an open inviting place and Xianyang looks like a place that only royalty can go to, in my opinion. When we look at the Acropolis we see the shape of a box with a roof on it. The Xianyang is the outline of a pyramid. The colors of the building

are opposite of each other; light and dark. Each structure is different but the both represent a place of rich history and honor.

The Lever House (case study 1)

                                     

Stonehenge

"English Heritage." Stonehenge. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2015. 

          After learning about Circles, Groups, and Stacks it is obvious that Stonehenge is a combination of circles and groups. The circles represent the unity of people and natures wonders giving someone a sense of enlightenment. This backs up my statement that Stonehenge is more of a spiritual site rather than religious. Many cremations and bones were found on this site so one could say that maybe the people were worshipping the dead but I do not think this is the case. If this were religious it would be serving a specific religion and I personally believe that this site was created for anyone seeking some type of spiritual awakening. Many people commented that this site could also be for time keeping and that is an important thought to keep in mind.

Circles Groups Stacks

I chose the image of the Chemosphere to represent circles. Circles represent the moon and the sun; this building overlooks all others like the sun or the moon overlooking earth. There is emphasis on the supports of the Chemosphere almost turning it into a sort of diamond shape. The lines protrude out in each direct and come to a point making it seem like one can grasp this magnificent stucture.




Marina City is a residential and commercial set of buildings in Chicago, IL. I chose this image because I have seen them in person and they are two focal points of the city that draw wonder to tourists. The balcony rooftops make a leaf pedal-like pattern around both buildings. The bottom half of the building, parking garage, and the upper half, living/working space, provide contrast.

I chose the ultimate focal point for Chicago architecture to represent a stack, Trump Tower. It looks like there are four different skyscrapers stacked on top of each other and the needle at the top represents the building reaching toward the heavens. Each of the buildings or "stacks" provides a rhythm making the viewer go from one to another until they get to the top. The glass represents color as the sun hits it, beaming the rays back on to the city.

Nursing Building

• The texture of the building is flat and rough due to the concrete and brick.
• The contrasting principle is the white/grey building and the red/brick colored column on the right side of the building.
• The lines on the building all run either straight across or straight up and down which gives it a solid feel when looking at it.
• The emphasis of the building is focused on the protruding brick column .
• The shape of this building is made up of various squares and rectangles.
• There is an apparent movement from left to right. The windows and the framing of the windows make it appear this way.