Words of the Week, week 3

Scale is not just a woman's worst enemy. It deals with the size of an object in relationship to another object. With architecture, scale is a comparison between the size of the building and a person. On paper, it compares a drawing to an actual object. In Stoel's class, drafting is making me crazy. We have been making different views of the furniture we designed and we have been doing them in different scales, such as 1":1' and 1.5":1". Possibly more importantly, though, is what we've been learning in Patrick's class. In ancient civilizations, large scales were often used in buildings to induce a feeling of unworthiness in commoners and an ego boost in aristocrats. Egyptians created hypostyles which consisted of sometimes hundreds of massive columns. Their large size and number dwarf inhabitants as the make their way into sacred areas of the temples in which they were in. In Greece, architects strived to achieve perfect scale. As Blakemore (30) says, “The module for heights of the parts was determined by the diameter of the columns.”


Unity is essential to design. It is the relationship of all parts to a whole. I feel that our teachers are trying to get us as students to discover how everything is unified at some point. Not only, as is obvious, do my IARC classes have similar themes and messages. In my other classes, I can pull pieces of information into something that can be used elsewhere. For instance, Suzanne is having us draw vignettes and figures and entourages. While in classes, I've drawn my teachers and classmates and lightfixtures, etc.



Boundaries have once again been set in our class. The Pathways, Edges and Boundaries project has been reintroduced as a way to influence traffic patterns in the parking lot. My group plans to install six concrete shapes along the side of the Studio Arts Center that will accent the existing plants. In history, boundaries were used to keep people both in and out of areas. The Great Wall of China spans many, many miles in the effort to keep out invaders. The Acropolis in Greece is another walled environment. It acts as a veil to outsiders to encourage them to enter the plateau and see the marvels it has. Features such as columns help to guide foot traffic so that people go to certain points in order. Other areas in Greece had more vague boundaries such as town markets. Roth (222) says that these " boundaries were defined by surrounding houses and public buildings."



Section was very important to the ancient Greeks. They strived to reach their ideals in architecture and each step they took in achieving it spawned its own style. With columns, Doric columns are among the simplest. They serve their basic function of supporting a roof structure but only offer minimal aesthetics. Composite columns, however, take ideas from the other previous styles of columns and emphasize the best features of each.



Vignettes are everywhere. I have certainly adopted vignettes as a great compositional format, capturing key elements to any setting. A vignette could easily be defined as an object and its immediate surroundings. Working with them has helped me make more interesting sketches because it helps me to find a balance with what all is important to the pieces that I'm drawing.