21st Century

The ideas that are coming out of the 21st century have a creative spark to them. I love the idea of taking an old space and turning it into a new one and using it for a totally different purpose than its intended use. It has been a dream of mine to live in an old building in a big city that has been renovated into a condo with rustic brick walls and tall ceilings. My whole life I have considered myself as a sort of visionary and that I could see and grasp spaces different than most but I could never really explain it. It was cool to see that technology help create these complex spaces and turn them into a drawing on the computer. I was shocked to see the percentages of materials that are put into buildings. It made it more real to actually see a physical percentage. I am a outdoors person; skiing, hiking, wake boarding , you name it. Biophilic designs speak to me in a way because of my bond with nature. It is cool to see how us humans can start a process for nature and then nature completely takes over and turn into a mature form.

Concrete Encounter

For this exercise we were told to bring a jewelry box, rubber glove, or a can and ballon; I chose a jewelry box. As a group we mixed together 4 cups of concrete mix and 1 cup of water. Once we mixed it together we poured it into each of our boxes and added our own personal touches to them. After my box dried I pealed the cardboard off around the concrete and it formed an 8x4x1 inch box (coaster).
This activity was interesting to me because I got to see how this material comes together and forms from the bag, a powder, to a hard block. We had several issues making our mixture thick enough to pour. If the mix was runny, then we need to get more mix. There are many similarities with my creation and the creation of the mud brick. Each form uses a material and mixes together with water to form its hard shape as it dries in the sun. Concrete was first formed from volcano ash which is similar to the powder that is in the concrete mix. We see this material take on three forms over a span of 24 hours. First in the powder form, then in the liquid form for pouring, and lastly in a strong solid form. 

The image to the left shows the concrete drying at about 18 hours.


















                                                                       The final product

Creating our masterpeices 

Unit Summary 2

This unit of our class has broadened my views on design as a whole. I did not recognize the concept of scale until then. Scale can be portrayed in many fashions and each designer has his or her own perspective. The scale helps us compare or contrast what is being shown to us. We see different sizes and shapes representing that. As we looked at the chairs in class I pondered the idea of how people think and what makes them say “this is what I have made because…,” and so on about scale. Most of design is opinionated art work with guidelines. The scale shows us new viewpoints about objects and space; and how they interact. It is important that the scale is appealing to the eye and will stick out in our mind. The scale is not like any other principle we see in unit 1 because it involves so much more than just what is on paper. Scale can be an art form in itself. Any design ever constructed can be out to scale and tell us something about it; It can paint an image for us. 

The image below shows us a large open room that shares a table and a couch with a fire place, but we see the break in the wall that obviously divides this large room into two sections, or separate open rooms. (Dining room and Living room)

In the photo above we see the inside of a castle where elegancy and beauty reside. There is immense detail put into each piece of the room to help show scale.

Material Thoughts

We see materials playing a role in today's and yesterday's societies. We saw that the hut derived from fires. The people of that time wanted to bring the warmth of fire with them, so they created this warm room that they called a hut. These huts made the people of that time competitive and innovative. This is how we start to further in "technology" and efficiency. These increases in technology succeeded through the stone age and so on. Things of nature are turned into everyday materials. We see the idea of stone and brick still heavily used in society today. The idea that material  can express emotion but rhythm and texture powerful. The hieroglyphs show us stories with texture and detail; it can bring emotions out of us. In the picture below (The Lever House) we see both structures of the whole standing up on stilts or columns. The material of concrete (columns) represent a subtle feeling of power because its a little above everyone else; that is how I see it.

Chairs

After looking at the chairs my sense of modern did not really change, but it more came together and made sense. In modern looks we see odd or opposite sides shapes come together to form a new looking version of a normal object. I have had a problem understanding scale for quite sometime and seeing the chairs helped understand that concept. The chair with the tall back is what stood out to me when I think of scale.

Case Study 2

The Lever House is a transparent building (all glass) made of many different flat surfaces. I tried to make the surfaces stand out in the rendering above so that the viewer could understand what the designer was trying to do. The designer used vertical bands of windows on the horizontal building and contrasting used horizontal bands of windows on the vertical building.We see an emphasis on the corner of the tall building where the two horizontal walls come together. You could scale it and say it looks like a giant chair for a giant company.

Timeline

The timeline was interesting to see come together. The facts that ideas from so long ago can still stand today blows my mind. The key thing we learned about design evolution is that concepts and ideas are constantly getting passed on and improved. It is one big circle.We see the evolution of materials used in buildings. If we compare materials used with the amount of buildings still standing from that specific time period, it can help us visualize which materials are better. The only thing that the timeline is missing is an example from each time period.

Multiple Modernisms

Multiple modernisms are various movements around design. It is about an idea in a whole rather than a particular idea. It is always changing so it can not be specific but more broad. Nature, people, material, and symbol are key aspects. The architects mentioned on the website encompassed the idea of multiple modernisms and give us examples that we use today; such as Wright's Robie House. We see multiple modernisms in objects that we run into everyday.

The image above is a chair by Rudolph Schindler. You can see the modern detail on the chair. Emphasis is on the rounded edge that curves into a side table.

"Designing Home: Jews and Mid-Century Modernism." 'Ask Harriete' N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. 

National Style

          The idea of National style can be argued in many different ways. We see Roman and greek revival as the mode of design. In my own opinion I do not think that there is a true dominant, or specific style that can describe our nation but I tend to see more Greek style which incorporates temple styles. This style is seen in America and  ranges from state capitols, to banks,estates and even small homes. We see buildings such as the Tennessee state capitol that are a greek structure that represents pureness. The styles of the 19th century incorporated more light into the buildings with the use of different windows. Bay windows came into play with new houses being built. With respect to the civil war, we see two sides of America that completely disagree with each other. It was the industry versus agriculture. Each of them represents a different aspect of design. With the industrial revolution we see warehouse items, turned to art as we flow into the 20th century. We see classical ideas come together with modern ideas to form a super building. The Chrysler building is a good example of that. Below is an image of the Trump Building that represents modern design  the 21st century. I believe that all business strive for this type of building and the power of the building.

Pope Villa

         

Benjamin Latrobe is an extremely important designer in history. His works can be found all over the United States. Most of his structures can be found in important locations such as The White House in Washington, DC. This suggests that he was the best designer of his time. If the government trusted him to design these buildings to hold the country's most important people, he must have been talented. The first owners of the Pope Villa had made one of the front rooms into an office and as the years went by new owners took over and turn the office into a dining room. This is similar to the palladio idea in the sense that things change or ideas can be different. The wallpaper in the drawing and dining room was falling off of the walls and withering away. Many houses in those days would not have wallpaper everywhere. The room is falling apart along with its wallpaper. The image below shows the current condition of the room and we can see that the ceiling the wall and wallpaper need to be repaired to make it a safe living condition.

Emo Villa Vedelago

The Impact of Palladio

     Palladio's works are a thing of beauty and elegance. Each structure is truly different than the other and each piece puts the viewer in awe. The San Giorgio Maggiore is an incredible design that almost looks like its own city. As people look across the water they think "who made this and what is it?" This work is important because he used ideas from sacred designs to add some flare to it. We see his work across the world in places like Italy, England, and America. His work is important because it is all so large scale and extravagant. Palladio has created many important buildings in history and some of them still exist today and are still in use. We can see the hand print of Palladio all over the world and how he has left his mark on us.

Rule Book

Having rules in design are very important because rules are what keep things in order. Imagine a building put together with no guidelines or rules; it could be total chaos. It creates an order within the system.  When you go to more specific parts of the world the buildings have to be a certain look or shape or size. Some cities have ordinances where so buildings in the world would not be able to be put there. I liked the idea in the western rules; using stacks. It saves a lot of space. I think that there are rules and their use is to guide a design and please the viewer or question the viewer of the structure. They can tell stories of the past that can give us clues to how a specific civilization was. I personally can not think of any other rules to add to the list. My favorite rule is the inner world rule. I appreciate nature and natural things on earth.

This is an image of the Empire State Building in New York City, New York. We see the rule, layers and groves and stacks when possible, from the western world. This is the third tallest building in NYC. We can see if emphasizes surface because this picture is taken far away yet we can still see the detail in the design. The building also adds a lot of perspective to the city its self but standing out.