Romanticism-- THE AGE OF ENLIGHTMENT

Romanticism is the first architectural movement that expresses architecture in a phenomenal and an emotional means. The age of Enlightenment is also referring to the age of reasons. It is actually the time where architects begin to find the real meaning of architecture and the original source of how European architecture had become. This had lead to “THE GRAND TOUR”--> The journey to find architectural ruins, paintings, and sculptures in order to understand and become reasonable of what had already exist! For this, they would bring back paintings and duplicate sculptures of what they had seen from the journey to create a sophisticated appearance.

This also led to the movement of “Phenomenology” in the age of Romanticism.  It is the architecture that played mostly with our consciousness, on how we make sense and perceived of the world.  The feeling of “SUBLIME”—Counter reaction to pure reason, was created. It is the biggest aspect of portraying architecture toward people. On how the architecture tries to evoke the feeling of overwhelm and greatness as visitor get in toward the architecture.  This Feeling can be described as “Vastness”, “Infinity”, and Magnitude in Building”.

I believe that the feeling of sublime has been used since the early architecture was created. Just like ancient Egyptian Architecture that they would focus on God’s scale to create the sense of sacredness toward to the visitor; with the use of Doric Columns, Sculptures and etc. The Acropolis is also tries to give the visitor the perfect angle in seeing the architecture in a sublime way!

Baroque Architecture

Baroque Architecture was the movement that tries to break the rules of Renaissance architecture in many ways. This movement was first lead by Michelangelo, where he takes the most classical figure of Christianity and distorts the reference.

“The reformulation of rigid Renaissance principle”

It was the movement that tries to deconstruct the exiting rules and proportion of classical elements in Renaissance architecture. It was portrayed to be the opposite of Renaissance architecture. Where there would be no perfect geometry and ornamentation would be very expressive and massive. The Pediments would also be broken down in to three layers, multi-dimension cornice, paired column and etc. This made the architecture become very expressive than ever before!

The Baroque movement is somehow similar to the Post-Modernism Movement, where both of them try to break the rule of the existing rules and movement! This significantly shows that through out history, Architecture has tried to be changing all the time in any matter. Where new architects would try to find new rules in order to overwhelm the old ones. And yet, architectural movement would still be on going in the future in parallel with the society! 

Renaissance

       Renaissance is the period of perfection! Perfect symmetry and proportion are portrayed on every piece of artwork and architecture. This ideal is what gave the Italian Renaissance uniqueness on their characteristics that specify its style. Donato Bramante is one of the earliest and greatest architects that create a legendary to this creation of perfection.

        Santa Marai Presso San Santiro was the project that Bramante tried to play with perspective paintings to create a perfect symmetry. The choir was supposed to be built in order to create a perfect symmetry, but it was not build because of the placement of the road. Therefore, Bramante painted the perspective view of the choir as an illusion to trick the viewer in thinking that it’s a perfect symmetry that continues.

        

     St. Maria Della Consolazione is simple but powerful work that Bramante had design to portrayed the meaning of proportion and symmetrical. The church is centrally planned surrounded by 4 symmetrical circular domes, and covered with a dome on top. 

JUNK SPACE

            Rem Koolhaas is one of the architects that had created a strong ideal to the history of the postmodernism movement. Since he love to read and was once a writer, and later became an architect. He had valuably declared his manifesto from the book called “Delirious New York”. The ideal of “JUNK SPACE”--->was described to be something that cannot be describe. Giving the idea of a space that is endless with times and space.  Junk space is always endless where the people inside would have no notice of times, and weather of the outside world. The space was design to be able to expand endlessly, where everything are arranged to give the flow toward the people. This is the answer to a space that ignore context, because it already has its own meaning of context within themselves.

“Within each building between each Building”

            The idea of endlessness has also lead to the phenomenal creation of the elevator and escalator. Which would bring people through the space endlessly!

          In my opinion, Junk space is a very big influential aspect toward the way of living of people. It had vividly divided the essence of hierarchy of people toward spaces. The division between the bourgeois and that non-bourgeois can be strongly pulled out by looking at the Junk Space and the Space outside.

Central World is a very big example of this idea of dividing different hierarchy! As seen that the bourgeois are trapped inside the luxury endless mall that would hide them from the outside world. Where they would have no notice that there are many small un luxury vendors outside surrounding the space. This gives a very big contradiction of what Junk space had created to the society. Where groups of people would have no consideration of the other groups; creating a separate cultures. 

Post Modernism

Post-modernist is a movement that was first foreshadow by Louis L Kahn but one of the really first architect is Venturi. The movement rejects all idea of modernist such as the idea of blending in classes together or the idea of not using the reference to the past and triggering the memories of the time of the great depression. Post-modernist refer to something in their building such as Frank Gary where he refer to the beginning as the fish for his architecture but he abstract it to fit the flow, circulation and the movement of the people. The form then become abstract but through deforming and changing it to fit and go with the flow.

Romanesque building is one of the building styles that consider the user and circulation a lot. They use sculpture as a trick to attract people inside and the footpath that allow people to circulate around to see relics without disturbing the people inside listening. Even the shape of the aisle adjusts to the way people flow and circulate around.

The Modern City

The movie "Play Time" portrayed the International style of modernism into the city of Paris in such a mechanical industrialize city. Paris was illustrated as a large mass production and auto-mobile city; with repetition of similar buildings and massive car. All materials are use in glasses and colored with grey, which is the significant of entirely manufactured city! The environment is accurately control, clean, and is entirely uniform, but some what seem unfriendly to live because everything are the same; people, city, and etc.

"Dead looking environment"

The architecture was designed to highly controlled the environment, which every one are portrayed to be equalized in the modern city.

This method of modernism movement, however does not fit Louis I Kahn's method. Kahn was the first to really open a way of thinking toward post-modernism. His belief of looking back toward history and bringing back the space. He reconsider the past in the new light and redefine aesthetic of modernism after he had studied at Rome. and had finally analyze "LIGHT".

Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies

"Silence and Light"...."Voids and Light"

After Louis I Kahn, Robert Venturi was the first architect to reject modernism and make a movement toward post-modernism. He believes that modernism is redundant of pure form that are mostly dead looking environment. He declare that "LESS is a BORE", and its the era of "Both....And". Venturi first building was his mother house, he used the vernacular architecture to express on the building with the taste of historical element to define the differences between modernism and post-modernism. The idea of showing that structure form that are useless and express it out as an ornamentation instead.

Modernism

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe is another influential architect of the modern city. His modular concept of the modern world is parallel to Le Corbusier, however he is far more minimal on the structure and many principles.

“Architecture is the will of the age conceived the spatial item”

After Word War One, everything was destroyed and there were no architecture left. Therefore, Mies Van Der Rohe’s style is to create the architecture for the modern era; the idea of abandoning the historical culture, materials, and political influence to create a new pure modern world. Mies’ movement toward modernism is to abandon all ornamentation of the building, and use mechanical structures to emphasize ornamentation instead…… “structures were express as a piece of jewel”; ornament.

Barcelona Pavilion's pole; purely ornamented

Barcelona Pavilion- very minimal structure. " LESS IS MORE"

The Barcelona Pavilion is the ideal concept of Mies' modular movement. His repetition of making every piece of his works disappear to the surrounding nature; making everything very pure and simple (minimize). All of his building will use very little materials such as steel structures and glasses. He does not only design the structure of the pavilion, but also design the famous Barcelona Chair.

The Metropolis and the Modern World

The Babel Tower (Bourgeois)

"In the depth....what if one day those in the depth rises up again?"

The World Beneath (Non-Bourgeois)

"The hands of the holder know nothing of the dream of the workers"

The Metropolis is a modular of a modern city that was thought to be during the 20^th century, the perspective of an industrialized city with machine and mass production. The city of two worlds: one deep below the Earth’s surface lays the poor workers that were treated inhumane as if they were robots; working all days and night. The other high above the surface lays the bourgeois who live peacefully. The whole notion is represented as a machine-liked century, where the poor are force to work for the rich, where there is no more individualized. Machines are represented as an evil demon that could take away the workers’ life in any possible time.

Le Corbusier- Domino House

However, Le Corbusier's modular of a modern city is to benefit the non-bourgeois, where everything are conserve and has multiple program; Domino-House after WWI. Houses are design for living and are drawn on a form from factory that is functionally determined not ornamentally determined; functional as a machine.

Le Corbusier- Radiant City (La Ville Radieuse)

Le Corbusier also declare his manifesto of the "Radiant City" of the modern world. It is a modern form of living where city is broken up in the specific usage of zones. Such as residential zone, commercial zone, educational zone and etc. It is a modular concept for better living where every people have the same right and have an equal amount of space to live (14sq. m/ person).

" A better future, that is not classify"

Modernism Movement

The Vienna Secession was the biggest movement from the classical. It was the period of disillusion of capitalism, where they are suspicious of what they see and distance them self from the pass. By changing to serve the architecture for only the non-bourgeois, the concept had changed from the ornamental to industrialize. It was the machine age where hand crafted decoration and ornamental was rejected and consider as a waste of time. The modernism movement had played a major role on how people think about architecture. The method of mass production and machine liked material were use to serve as ornamental itself. However, distinctive period of architectures still serve as a good historical record on how far human have developed.

China Pavilion; Shanghai Expo 2010

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 was the purpose for every country all around the world to promote their cultures and traditions. . Most Chinese beliefs were influenced by Confucianism, which gives rise to the belief in “Heaven, Earth, Rulers, Ancestors, and Masters”. The Temple of Heaven, one of China’s most famous places, is round on the outside and square on the inside. The round outer wall represents heaven and square inner wall represents the earth. The traditional Chinese beliefs have a very strong influence on the architecture of the Chinese Pavilion, because the usage of red color and seven shades represent Chinese culture as good luck and wealth. The layered wooden beams and bracket were the basic elements of traditional Chinese architecture; often seen used in the Forbidden City. The form of the building was also similar to the style of joinery bracket sets or also called Yingzao-fa shi. The Pavilion is face to the front of the pond which express the energy that flow through the complex. This is also related to the belief in Feng Shui of the Chinese people. Overall, the Pavilion is elevated up higher than every pavilion in the Expo to indicated the powerful of the Chinese and to let it been seen through out the expo.

Light and Architecture

Light is one of the most vital aspects in Architecture. Where lights play a major role on how the architecture is seen. Since ancient time, Architecture uses light to tell story and to express the atmosphere of the space that is given. Ancient architectures such and Greek and Egyptian uses light to express the feeling of power to the people. For example the Pantheon at Athens was designed so that light could pass into the building and shine straight to the statue of Athens to represent the powerful and sacred. The sun god of Ra was represented as light, where the pyramid is pointed to the sky to illustrate the path to heaven. This is to be said that light is a powerful tool that could use to create and intangible feeling that is express out to the people from the architecture.

The Abbey Church of St Denis- The lighting effect of the sun that shines through the glass would give the feeling and atmosphere of heaven to the Cathedral.

Gothic Architecture is a good example of how light is incorporated into architecture. The way they increase windows to create the lighting effect also changes the structure of the building. Having the invention of the flying buttress would increase the height of the ceiling and provide more space to install the glasses.

Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque architecture emerged during the early medieval period. The style and architectural uses are influenced by the Byzantine and Christian architecture. The use of Roman arches were incorporated to the buildings, by transforming it into semi-circular arches to decorate window opening. The arches are usually made of bricks to show the new age of the building. Roman domes were not used any more, therefore heavy thick walls were carry by vaults. This lead to the decreasing of lights that would shine in to the building, making it kind of dark inside.

Moreover, the beliefs and religious teachings where place on to how the buildings were basically used. The influence of how the Christian believe in the spaces of teaching and gathering were reflected on to the style. Universities such as University of California Los Angeles also use Romanesque architectural style to express the meaning of educational space. This way, the Romanesque architecture would create a symbolic icon that it is a place for learning.

Indian Architecture

Indian civilization is rich in its religions, with three major religions, which consist of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Therefore, these religions are the major influence of Indian architecture. Their religions are express on to the form and shape of their architecture. Symmetrical is the basic form of how they design their temple. This is because they believe in energy, and unsymmetrical plan would destroy the path of the energy to the building and people itself. The Taj Mahal is a very sacred place on how they translate their symmetrical belief on to a piece of architecture.

The Taj Mahal was built by Shaha Jahan fro his wife Mumtaz. The building was a perfect symmetry except for Shaha Jahan's tomb.

The Taj Mahal was design to be seen in a perfect perspective view, in which the viewer would see it in its most beauty. This method is sort of similar to the Pantheon in Greece where viewer have to see it in a 45 degree angle to see it in a perfect beauty. As like Taj Mahal, the building was elevated parallel to the river that would give the feeling of heaven. It is visible all boat traffic that passes by.

Park 51

Project Park 51 is a new Islamic Community Center located near Ground Zero. There had been many controversies regarding to the idea of this new Islamic center. It was referred to be the Ground Zero mosque and could be a thread to the community where it is and insult toward 9/11 situations. Although America is a place that except every race and religion and Park 51 is a place for peace but it is not acceptable for them, since its location and situation does not fit the consequence of feeling due to the horror that happened at 9/11.

Even though Park51 look like an ordinary building as the surrounding, but it has a meaning underneath. The strong and intense beliefs of the Islamic are expressed through this geometric form. An example of this geometric form is the façade. Although the building was not built in the same form as a Mosque, it still has the patterns and intricate designs used in typical Islamic art.

In most Islamic buildings, there is symbolic repetition in its pattern and tilling order. This shows that the form never ends, leading to the belief that the Islam religion doesn’t have and end to it

Roman Empire

Roman empire was overflowed with wealth and knowledge. They were once considered to be the greatest empires of all. This is because they came up with many new technologies such as arches and public spaces. These new inventions create a positive effect to the people, which allowed them to be able to expand their empire. Roman architecture was first to really consider public space; this is because of their large population than the Geek. It led to the formation of basilica during the Hellenistic era. Saint Peter’s Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, consisted of many arcuated ceiling. The invention of arch allowed them to be able to build larger scale structures.

The Byzantine and Early Christian Architecture

The Byzantine and Early Christian Architecture was basically based on religious believe, having the use of light and number as a tool to lead for good fortune of their religion. However, Christianity is the religion that is based on congregation worship, where people have to gather around and worship to do activities together. Therefore, there should be place for them to gather around. Nevertheless, Christianity is persecuted during that time, so they have to hide their activities from Rome. Christianity had to be practice clandestinely at home. They believe in burial to cremation, but had to do it in abandoned quarries or catacomb. The religion was not presented clearly and they use roman architecture to camouflage their religious practices. Most of Roman's public space were transformed into Christian use. For example the Roman gathering basilicas which served as law courts in the Roman became the sacred place to worship for the Christian, this is because of the strong influence.

Vitruvius Principle

Vitruvius principle of architecture has become the standard beauty of architecture today. The idea of creating a perfect perception of true beauty to the people toward the architecture. The Parthenon had proven the real eurhythmy, as it is well plan with its arrangement that create an elegance effect, making it into one single ideal of work. The building was oriented that it had to been seen from a perspective view of 45-degree angle to see the true beauty. It is also describe in the rhythm of 2x+1=w, creating one cohesive form of architecture. It also shows the symmetry and repetitions of columns.

Le Corbusier

After the rise of ancient Greek architecture, Roman architecture emerged. Classical architecture was use as a tool for innovation. It became the Renaissance age where people would copy every aspect of ancient Greek architecture such as columns, statue, white buildings, and etc to apply it to themselves; believing in its perfection and also representing their power. It is the period of exploring, where history is the future and history is taken from the past to build history. In other word, ancient architecture was retrace in modern architecture. This is similar to Le Corbusier’s notion of pure form. Le Corbusier has return back to the origin of all architecture, which is the use of geometrical forms such as cube and cylinder. He is the very first architect to start modernism.

Villa Savoye built between 1928 and 1931 is the example of Le Corbusier manifesto of new architecture; having the famous “Five Points”. Villa Savoye was design with pure geometrical form that is supported by columns to elevate the building form the ground that allows the continuity of grass. The roof serves as garden and terrace. Having free floor plan to allow the wall to be placed freely and where needed. Long horizontal windows to provide air ventilation and lastly, free designed facades to serve as the skin of the wall and windows.

Tanado Ando's 4x4 house.

Ancient Greek

In ancient Greek architecture, the beliefs of God and Goddess have played a major role on how the Greek pursue their life. It is quiet similar to the ancient Egyptians, however, Greek focus more on the vital of human more than the God; not like the Egyptians do. Ancient Greek architecture focus more on the structure

that they see compare to the real world. Analyzing human anatomy forming it in to columns (Doric; proportion based on human muscle). Studying the proportions and structure of the real scale and adapting it to their architectures. They reflect their victory and beliefs on their work, and pay more attention to the details. Even though the Greek built temples for their god, but they still make it visual for human. Just like The Parthenon, it got its own perfect scale, where we would see a perfect vision of the temple on the right angle. Everything is perfect on numbering of columns, lighting, and sculpture. Not like the Egyptian that everything has to base on the god scale; Having big columns and etc. Overall, ancient Greek is proud of their victory and life, showing what they have and expressing it out to their temples and buildings, recording their beliefs out on the stone. Therefore it last till today world.

Ancient Egyptian

Egyptian’s ancient architecture has been a big influence and had dominated most of the present world’s architecture. It has inspired the modern world and has evoked the method of stability and sustainability. As ancient Egyptian has built many monuments across the period of time, it does not only record the pre architectural style but it also tells story and record history. From the Old Kingdom, to the Middle Kingdom, and to the new Kingdom, ancient Egyptian has learned many progressive methods to build and refine their monument. Having the example from Sneferu’s 3 Pyramids. The Onion Pyramids, the Bent Pyramids, and the Red Pyramids have shown Sneferu’s effort on building a perfect pyramid. Later, Egyptian has a major change in their belief of building pyramid for their Pharaoh. In the New Kingdom, they have created their first Temple; the Amon Temple (“Earthy Paradise”). The temple is not only for the dead Pharaoh, but it is also a living complex for library and educational fair. The temple is stored with repetition of columns, decorative ornaments, and serious of lighting effect. These architectural knowledge and style has form the basis of many country’s architectural style across the continent, such as the Greek and the Roman’s column; the Patheon. Lastly Egyptian ancient pyramid has also inspired contemporary architecture such as The Lourve’s glass pyramid in Paris.

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