Macro:Micro

Impression- An impression of something is when you see something and it makes a statement, and you cannot easily forget that thing because of how it impressed you. When the crusaders went through Europe they were hugely impressed by buildings they saw and they took inspiration from them later. “many later innovations in European castle design were inspired in part by what the crusaders saw of the fortifications around Constantinople.” (Roth 307) In Gothic architecture the designers were out to make a statement. Looking at the Cathedrals and other buildings from that time they are all really huge and detailed. When you look at them you are left with a sense of awe and wonder. Not only do the buildings impress you they impress the design of the future. These designers created buildings that incorporated math and new ideas in architecture that would later be copied in other times and places. In my drawing class we have been doing drawings of things that capture our attention in a building or that impress you. Also in my studio class we have been designing portals that will leave you with a good first impression when entering a door. This is on of the Cathedrals that from the Gothic period.

Porch; court; hearth- The porch, the court, and the hearth are all parts of your average building. These things have been included in buildings from very early on in the world. The porch of a building is literally what it is called, the front porch or the entrance area into the court. The court would be the place where the people gather and they hang out in a home this could be the kitchen or the den/living room. Courts were seen a lot in Gothic architecture Roth talks about one here.“These three buildings, together with the church, enclosed a cloister court, ringed with a portico for easy circulation whatever the weather.” (Roth 310) Then the hearth of a building is not literally a hearth like you would think of on a fireplace it would be the private areas, for example the bedroom would be the hearth of the home. In my drawing class this week we are using this idea in the diagrams that we are doing we have to break up a building into the different parts and this idea of the porch, court, and the hearth is the way to separate the building. In my studio class we have been working on a project in which we have to create a portal or an entry into a room/office in the studio arts building. This project we are building a porch you could say we are building the place that directs you into the room or the place that puts you into the mood that you would need to be in to enter the room. In my drafting class we came up with an area and we drafted it the drafting that I did included a porch, a court, and a hearth. This Drawing is of a Kitchen which is the heart of a house.

Detail- In the Gothic civilization details are very important to the design of the buildings. We have been looking at cathedrals in my history and theory of design class. Some of the details that are seen are the vaulted ceilings with domes and groin vaults; also you see things like flying buttresses and a variety of window shapes and designs. In the gothic period the designers focused a lot on the little things the details. The designers had a variety of ways to add details to a building “Wood, ceramics, stone, and plaster were the materials that provided the base for the decorative techniques employed in the medieval period.”(Blakemore 75) In my drawing class this past week we went to our building that we were assigned on campus my building was the foust building. In the building we had to pick out specific details and we had to draw them. The detail that I choose to draw was a light fixture which is pictured below. In my drafting class we have been looking at drafting more than just the outside walls of a space we have been drafting columns and interior walls and windows learning common dimensions and such. Then in my studio class we have been working on the design of the portal for a door and we have found in designing this that is at actual scale you really have to focus on the details and the craft of what you are designing.

Composition- A composition of something is the overall picture, or the final result, the way that something is put together. In my history and theory of design class we have been studying gothic architecture. Gothic architecture tends to make a powerful statement on its surroundings. The designers of the cathedrals that we have been looking at looked a lot at the overall composition of the building that they were designing we watched a video in class about how these building are put together and they are really complicated however in the end the final statement the building makes is really strong. We talked about how all of the elements are important and how they are composed to make a final product this is an example. “Door leaves were primarily of the board-and-batten variety, composed of vertical boards on one side secured with horizontal battens on the reverse.” (Blakemore 79) In my studio class we have been designing portals and we had to look at the composition we had to combine 5 different designs into one and then relate it to the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut. So the composition was something that was really hard to make relate to all of the different ideas that we had to incorporate. In my drawing class we have been working on a group assignment and when doing a group assignment and when doing a group project you really have to look at what each person is doing because when you put all of your work together you have to make sure that all of your work goes together to make a successful composition in the end. In my drafting class we had to draft a group of different sections of a building and it is a challenge to make sure that all of drawings fit together on the page to a successful overall composition.This is the Queen of Hatshepsut's temple which is a great example of composition in the columns.

Diagram- A diagram is a drawing or a picture of something that is used to explain how something works or it shows the different parts of something. In my history and theory of design class we looked at diagrams of different cathedrals in order to compare and contrast them in their design and there construction. The gothic architects drew out a lot of detailed plans “Abbot Hatio of the monastery at Reichenau prepared a diagrammatic plan of a model monastery the drawing is a most remarkable document, for it is the oldest such architectural plan.” (Roth 310) Also in my drawing class we are doing diagrams of our assigned buildings we have to do 4 different diagrams these are context, function, circulation, and hierarchy. Then in my drafting class we are always working with diagrams in the forms of plans and elevations and section drawings we are showing all of the different parts of buildings. In my studio class we drew diagrams of the different parts of our portals so that we would know how to put it together properly. This drawing is the diagram that we used for the foust building in Suzanne’s class.

Summary- This week’s words are about process and things that you think about before you design a house. When you are designing a house you would make a diagram and you would need to include a porch, a court, and a hearth in the design. The design would need to include details that would make an overall composition that will leave a good impression.