THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE

AR8201
EXPERIENCING ARCHITECTURE
BASIC OBSERVATIONS:

 The architect works with form and mass just as the sculptor does, and like the
painter he works with color.

 Architecture is a very special functional art ,it confines space ,so we can dwell in it,
creates the framework around our lives.

 In other words, the difference between sculpture and architecture is not that the
former is concerned with more organic forms, the latter with more abstract.
Palazzo Havnegrade,copenhagen,completed
vendramincalergi,venice,complete 1865
d 1509
 English bridge made out of brick and the other Palazzo Punta di Diamanti in Rome
made out of natural stone.

 So both materials are quite similar, but its expression is completely different,
because of the way it is used.

 The organic shaped English bridge has the impression of something that was
kneaded and moulded.

 It has a very soft expression.

 Lever house. New York city, skid more, Owings and Merrill, architects.

 Example of harmony and rhythm as the result of the creative process in

architecture.

 An English bridge of the great

canal building period at the

beginning of the 19th century.

Example of a “soft” form made

of brick.
 This in contrast to the sharp edged and clear-cut shape of the diamonds of the
Palazzo Punta di Diamanti.

 Palazzo Punta di Diamanti in Rome. A building with a typically “hard” form.

Expression of material :

 Impressions of hardness and softness, of heaviness and lightness, are connected

with the surface character of materials.

 The horizontal balconies and terraces of Frank Lloyd Wright house “Falling Water”
are in big contrast with the vertical elements.

 The light coloured smooth surfaces of the concrete balconies seem much lighter
then the rough stone surfaces of the vertical elements.
 Heavy granite column stands directly on the lighter paving material, shattering the

pattern of the brick paving.”

 A building can be made to appear heavier than it actually is, and it can also be
made to appear lighter than it is.

 The upper part of the Doge Palace in Venice, for example, appears light although it
is solid. This is achieved by the use of light colours in a checkered pattern. The
heavy granite column seems to sink into the softer clinkers, because of the
expression of the material and it also chips of the pattern of the clinkers.
SOLIDS AND CAVITIES IN ARCHITECTURE :

 Solids and cavities represent the positive and negative, consciousness and
unconsciousness in architecture.

 Solids are being the things we see, definite forms of structures, columns, walls,
etc… One can experience solidity consciously through visual and touch.

 Cavities, on the other hand, are the spaces in between, which define themselves
through other explicit forms surrounded.

 People often do not aware of the presence of cavity itself, without the initialization
towards solidity.
 However, architects are not only aware these, but their work’s instinct can be
classified into “structure-minded” and “cavity minded”.
WHAT IS EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE ?

 Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting,

originating in Germany at the beginning of 20th century.

 Typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective distorting it
radial for emotional effects in order to evoke moods or ideas.

 Expressionism was developed as an Avant Garde style before the first world war.

 The style extended to a wide range of the arts including expressionist architecture,
painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music.
 Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that developed in

Europe during the first decades of the 20th century.

 Expressionism transforms reality rather than seeking to imitate it.

 Characterised by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials, formal innovation,

and very unusual massing, at times inspired by natural biomorphic forms.

 New technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steel and
especially glass.
CHARACTERISTICS
 Expressionist architecture was individualistic.

1.Distortion of form for an emotional effect. 2.Subordination of realism to symbolic

or stylistic expression of inner experience.

3.An underlying effort at achieving the new, original, and visionary.

4.Profusion of works on paper, and models, with discovery and representations of

concepts more important than pragmatic finished products.

5.Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.

6.Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as caves, mountains, lightning,

crystal and rock formations.
7.Tendency more towards the gothic than the classical. Also tends more towards the
Romanesque and the rococo than the classical.

8. Conception of architecture as a work of art.

9. Brick as main visible building material.

10. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM.

11. NEO EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionist architects of the 1920s

 Adolf Behne
 Hermann Finsterlin
 Antoni Gaudí
 Walter Gropius - early period
 Hugo Häring
 Fritz Höger
 Michel de Klerk
 Piet Kramer
 Carl Krayl
 Erich Mendelsohn
 Hans Poelzig
 Hans Scharoun
 Rudolf Steiner
 Bruno Taut
EXPRESSION IN ARCHITECTURE:

 Communication of quality and meaning.

 The functions and the techniques of building are interpreted and transformed by
expression into art, as sounds are made into music and words into literature.
 The nature of expression varies with the character of culture in different places and
in different times.
 The boundaries of a style may be national and geographical (e.g., Japanese, Mayan)
or religious (e.g., Islamic) and intellectual (e.g., Renaissance).
 The principal forces in the creation of a style are tradition, the experience of earlier
architecture;
 The components of expression, which communicate the particular values of style,
are content and form.
EXPRESSION = COMMUNICATION

 The aspect of content is the communication of the structural significance of

materials and methods.

 The characteristics of materials that are important in expressing design techniques

are the properties of their composition (e.g. Structure, weight, durability) and the
way they are used in structure. ( factors of expression through materials)

 All materials used depend on the function of space, eg. Shopping mall needs glass
walls to display, trial room needs solid covering.
WORKS OF ARCHITECTS:

ERICH MENDELSOHN :

 born March 21, 1887

 died Sept. 15, 1953

 San Francisco, Calif., U.S

 German architect known initially for his Einstein Tower in Potsdam, a notable
example of German Expressionist architecture.
EINSTEIN TOWER
 Architect – Erich Mendelsohn

 Location – Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

 Project year – 1921

 The Einstein Tower, Potsdam, was Mendelsohn’s first major work and continues to
be his most renowned creation.

 This structure typifies his interest in an architecture of abstract, sculptural

expressionism.
CONCEPT

 The complexity of shapes that make up the tower reflects on the one hand, a great
sense of artistic freedom.

 Follows the ideas of Mendelson on what he called “functional dynamics”.

 Continuing its forms modulate the light throughout the day by generating a series of
unique and original futuristic visions.
SPACES
 The experiments being carried out in the tower needed a laboratory completely
isolated from the outside light and temperature changes in order to accurately study
the theories of Einstein on the bending of light to subject her to a significant
gravitational field.

 Hence the widening of the base of the building that achieve the objective through
the thickness of the walls and antechambers prior to be laboratory.

 To get the light captured by the telescope to the lab than were available a system of
mirrors at 45 degrees that reflected light from the top of the tower to its base.
FORM

 Merged opposing concepts based on formal strategy of relating mass and motion to
embody a functional program inside the monument.

 The scale and materiality that attribute the iconoclastic quality to the tower are
balanced by the rhythmic composition of volumes that surround it.

 The arrangement of the curvilinear masses serves to excite a sense of movement

within the heavy formations.

 The arrangement and manner in which form would enclose the interior occupations
became a representation of and monument to the sciences of mass and motion.

 By making the outer ‘shell’ of the building a resemble machine like organism which
was explored from dynamic functionalism.
SEMIOTICS AND ARCHITECTURE
the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation

 ARCHITECTURE:

 The process of meaning formation in architecture.

 Semiotics is a discipline, in which culture, society and natural phenomena are

explored as signs. The fundamental question in semiotics is how meanings are
formed.
Characterization of Sign and Symbols :
Three models
 Charles Jencks Model

 Giovanni K Koening Model

 Bonta’s Model
Giovanni K Koening Model
Bonta’s Model
Meanings of the Architectural Symbols
 Connotation and Denotation are two principal methods of describing the meanings
of words.

 Connotation refers to the wide array of positive and negative associations that most
words naturally carry with them.

 Whereas denotation is the precise, literal definition of a word that might be found in
a dictionary.
Parliament House, Canberra

 Symbol of national unity and commitment to democratic purpose.

 Form reflects history, cultural diversity

 Symbolism in context

 Difference between symbol and referent

 Message of unity and aspiration which is more profound than writing.

 Intentional index Bonta’s model of is used.

NUTSHELL

 Every form has some meaning but associated meaning are an essential requirement.

 Both the building have almost same form of expression but different form of
content.

 Interpretation is an action which is developed within society.

 Meaning formation is a social consensus where the society’s taste matches meaning
associated to the architectural form.