Research paper of 8 pages

27 Aug 2019

Ph.D Luca Guido

ARCHITECTURE AS SPACE

Introduction

Architecture has been for a long time subject to criticism and vague analysis that ignores the content and focuses on superficial appearance. This is the main reason why architecture is compared to paintings and sculptures. The position that the general public takes concerning architecture is largely affected by historical views that are in books and articles. Critics tend to concentrate on the pictorial values just like they would in paintings and sculptures and this diverts their interests from the greatness of architecture 1. There are permanent guiding principles inscribed in traditional architecture that can be used in appreciating modern architecture. It is only by providing the public with the real value of architecture that they will learn to appreciate it without being vague 1. The major task remains for the second generation of modern architects to overcome the challenge of functionalist movements and then establish a cultural order that appreciates the real impact of architecture on human life. The following are some approaches that can be used to reclaim its position in comparison to art like music, paintings, and sculptures among others.

Body

Architecture faces a unique challenge of physical immobility because pieces of architectural work cannot be transported to other areas like paintings and sculptures. The public who might be interested in them must travel and physically visit the sites. The other challenge is the lack of a comprehensive description of the architectural works. The architects use technical terms like rhythm, symmetry, solids and voids, harmony, and other technical registers that an average person does not understand 1. The authors of architectural journals should find legitimate terms to use in describing the works and strive to make the essence of architecture clear to everyone. The historians of architecture should provide coherent methods of studying a building from a spatial point of view 1. It is important to think of architecture as space and focus on the specific properties that make it distinguishable from other forms of art.

Architecture works in three dimensions vocabularies that accommodate man into the construction. Paintings are also unique in expressing three to four dimensions despite being drawn in two dimensions. Sculptures work in three dimensions but man is not incorporated inside 1. This makes architecture unique and important because an architect will present a representation of the exterior and a sketch of the interior of a building. The architectural volume is represented in plans, elevations, and cross-sections that can then be explained as floors, walls, and specific rooms of the building. The necessity to measure the distances between horizontal planes and describing them as space is the real protagonist to architecture.

Conclusion

Architecture is not solely defined by the measurements of length, width, and height of structural elements, but by the space enclosed inside and where man lives. The abstract beauty of architecture on paper may be ruined if there lacks a balance in the actual building 1. The real understanding of architecture is on the direct experience of space and there should be deliberate efforts to enhance that understanding. This is the main reason that architecture is set apart from other forms of art because man is inside the whole structure 1. We should learn to understand space as the central factor in criticizing architecture rather than having haphazard approaches that praise space abstractly and not the concretely experienced space.

Bibliography

1Bruno Zevi, Architecture As Space. How to look at architecture as space. 186 Photographs Drawings Plans