Monday, September 23, 2013

Unit Summary

Retrieved from http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/Colonytraderoutes.jpg

The beginning of this class we discussed how a straw from star bucks is related to many different concepts and represents different ideas. The circle of the straw representing unity and life. By understanding this idea or concept we then applied it to Stonehenge where we looked at the way it was constructed and where it was constructed. Big stone was placed strategically in a circle with two circles within that circle. Whoever built this had the same idea that the straw portrays which is unity and life. After that we moved into Egypt, Rome and Greece where we discussed and learned about circles groves and stacks and how they are seen throughout these three civilizations architecture. The pre history time era can be represented by a circle. Many of the structures built were in this shape. The Egyptian structures can be represented as stacks. The stacks are what give the idea of the pyramids. The Greek civilization which includes groups with stacks on top. This gives the idea of the temples that they created. Rome was represented by circles with perpendicular lines that intersected the circle. This represents the idea of centrality and ultimate authority.  Greece brought to the design world the arch which ended up being a major change in architecture. With the arch being created this led rise to the dome. The buildings in Rome were created using similar structures from Greece. Yet the buildings that Rome created served as the example for future buildings and even some of the same ideas and concepts can still be seen today in architecture.

Heading into the gothic time period cathedrals were the main focus in architecture. In class we demonstrated how the cathedrals were unstable by using coke cans and stacking them. Majority of the cathedrals studied had different aspects about them. Many were used just as religious purposes, some were built before the towns around them were and some were built after the town was. Salisbury cathedral was built in about two centuries, almost collapsed and was only used as a cathedral. The forms that represented the churches were a circle with a rectangle attached, a circle within a rectangle, a rectangle with a small rectangle to represent a cross with a circle located in the middle, and a circle within a square. The circle within a square has a dome which was copied from the past architecture. The stain glass was also different depending on where the church was located. Some glass let the sun pass through and others reflected the light. There are some significant differences in the east and west. The west constituted many diverse types of structures. The architecture from the ancient time was good while gothic was bad. The east on the other hand wanted to maintain the same ideas and concept that they always had and didn’t strive to change that. For them it worked well. During this time period people started to wander the earth and this brought new ideas between the east and west. This also was a start to many new architectural ideas.
The image I chose I think represents unit one because with trade and the expansion of the new world it also brought two different places together. Even in the ancient world trade was an important part of life and the design world.

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