The SOURCES we use to create things must be considered when looking at almost anything created by the human mind. A perfect parallel is found in the relationship between artists and their sources in both music and architecture. Both music and architecture have been around for thousands of years and both can be traced back to having significant developments made by the Greek culture. With thousands of years of music being created, there still exist only 12 notes. It is purely amazing to me that so much different music has been created using only twelve notes. As you would expect though, this means that a lot of ideas must have been recycled. They absolutely have, the 12 bar blues progression has been used for the past century by American blues players. The simple structure for music that was created can be heard as the SOURCE for rock and roll music still today. This is not unlike how the arches developed by the Romans are echoed in modern architecture and the Romans have thus become our source. If we take that one step deeper, we learn that the Romans had a source as well, the Greeks. The Romans no doubt literally stood on the shoulders of the Greeks architecture as exemplified with the use of putting their arches on top of the Greek’s post and lintel use of columns. The Romans used Greece as the source for their inspiration but made modifications to make it their own… “Like the Greek temple, however, the Roman temple had columns, but these were primarily at the front, supporting the gable roof over the entrance to the cella, the enclosed sacred chamber.” ( Roth, p. 250) This drawing is of the front arches of the Foust building. Roman architecture was the SOURCE of inspiration for these arches.
ARCHETYPE : PROTOTYPE : HYBRID : The way the Greeks approached the way their society. Archetype : the pursuit of the IDEAL. Prototype : the process used to get to the ideal. Hybrid : bringing two methods or ideas together to create something new. The Greeks demonstrated their use of these things throughout their architecture. The construction of the many temples they built was their process of building prototypes in an effort to try to discover their ideal temple. They reached the climax of their achievements with the construction of their ARCHETYPE structure, the Parthenon. This great temple was to be the house for Athena, the greatest and most IDEAL structure built to date. “The aspects the have made the Parthenon so special from the time of its creation include the extraordinary precision of its construction and the subtleties and refinements used in its design. (Roth, p. 237) Not far from the Parthenon was a great example of the HYBRID structure located in the Acropolis, the Erechtheion. This structure connected with ancient mythology with the porch of the maidens and its iconic columns. This is a sketch of one of the columns on the porch of the maidens on the Erechtheion.
ENTOURAGE. I have to be honest and say that the first thing I think of when I hear this word is the HBO show. Haha, But as strange as it may seem, there are some parallels between the idea behind the show and how the word relates to what we are learning today. In general, ENTOURAGE refers to the things that come along with the things of importance or focus. In the show, the entourage would be the group of friends that revolve around the main character of the show. In Greece it applies to the Acropolis. If the Parthenon is the centerpiece and focal point, all of the other structures surrounding it in the Acropolis are its ENTOURAGE. In Rome, the furniture and accessories that were found in their buildings would be the entourage of the space and help send the message of importance of whoever owned the furniture. “Generally, Roman furniture displayed an intense interest in opulence and revealed a costly and exuberant taste; it was often more ornate then the Greek.” (Blakemore, p. 61) This is a contour drawing of a lead chair that was that was used by the Romans.
Furniture also played a big part in the exemplification of HIERARCHY in Roman society. As Blakemore says on page 62 in regards to stools, “As a seat of honor and symbol of legal authority, it was used by high magistrates or by the emperor; in representation of these it is revealed that the person seated has a higher status than the person standing beside him.” In our time, the fact that you get a seat doesn’t mean that you are more important than anyone else, but where you get to sit every day usually does have some sign of how important you are when talking about offices. When exploring the 2nd floor of the Foust building, I met the man who occupies the hexagonal office on the left in this picture. I’m not sure what his position was, but he definitely had a higher position than most of the other people in the building. This was apparent because of the obvious HIERARCHY of the building offices… just like in Rome; more important people get more fancy spaces and furniture.
The Romans made use of three different types of columns to demonstrate ORDER on the outside surface treatments of the great Colosseum. The three levels from bottom to top have the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns built in as a “pylaster.” The Doric column representing the feminine, the Ionic representing the masculine and the Corinthian representing the hybrid. As Roth says on page 265, “The outer curved wall was opened up by super-imposed arcades of travertine faced with engaged orders – unfluted Doric at the lower level and Ionic on the second level…” I think this image of a section view of the Colosseum shows a powerful parallel between the order in the figurative sense, with the columns as well as the order in the physical sense, in how the building stacks on top of itself and builds from the ground upward.
All of these elements are essential PARTS of the way we as people understand and engage architecture and design as a WHOLE. What I think is most important, is for us to comprehend how each of these parts are interrelated and as I have talked about throughout this entry, work together to make each other stronger.
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