Toa 2 Unit 1

Architecture is a non-verbal form of communication, a mute
record of the culture that produced it.

Architecture is not only about material environment, for buildings
express our aspirations, our hopes for the future and our beliefs.
Factors that lend meaning in architecture are
- Location (environment, climate affects form)

- Form (scale, color, texture, space, rhythm)
- Structure (materials & construction)
- Aesthetics (beauty exterior and interior)
- Function (purpose, use, style)
This constitutes the reality of our physical experience.

Buildings not only exist in reality but metaphorically, they express meaning and give certain
messages-just like our homes give certain messages about us.
Meaning in architecture
Architecture as a vehicle of expressing, symbolism and communication
Guggenheim Museum - Wright described a symbolic meaning to the building's shapes, "these
geometric forms suggest certain human ideas, moods, sentiments as for instance: the circle,
infinity; the triangle, structural unity; the spiral, organic progress; the square, integrity.
The first and most fundamental of Buddhist architectural monuments, the Buddhist stupa serves
as a marker for a sacred space, a symbolic representation of the Buddhas burial mound.
Wainwright Building by Louis Sullivan - The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory
and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer
exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line.
What is meant by symbolism in architecture?
When architectural forms become the vehicles of contentin plan, elevation, and decorationthe
visual expression or meaning it gives to the viewer is the symbolism of that building. Their
symbolism can be understood consciously or unconsciously, by association to a building one has
seen before and by the fact that it suggests certain human experiences.
Ex. the Buddhist stupa - a symbolic representation
of the Buddhas burial mound.
Describe how connotative meaning is achieved in architecture?
Connotative meanings are associate values and symbolic

content that are subject to personal and cultural interpretation
which can change in time.
Ex. The spires of gothic cathedral Charles cathedral- can stand
for realm, values or goals of Christianity.
Discuss with examples to illustrate that architecture implies : symbolic content, associative
value and unity of intensions.
Buildings are central to our need for SHELTER & SECURITY and they SYMBOLIZE aspects of
these needs in their FORM.
A HOUSE SHELTER & WARMTH SYMBOLIZES home over a deep level.
Pitched roof, doors and windows symbolism of European climate if it had a flat roof it
might appear alien be disliked lack of meaning
Why?
Because this was the form that shed rain & snow most effectively.
Symbolizes shelter.
Chimney symbolizes existence of warmth.
Aesthetic - Dramatic rooflines seashells or sails.
Physical form refers both literally and symbolically to its maritime position and to the sailing boats
in Sydney Harbour.
Many architects expressed symbolism in their works.
F.L.WRIGHT prairie houses - early 20th century.

Dominant features centrally placed hearth & chimney.
Symbolizing heart of the home & roofs with overhanging eaves symbolizing shelter.
Meaning
Meaning in
in architecture
architecture
Buildings have denotative meaning - spatial and visible forms ( intrinsic)
& connotative meaning that evolved out of tradition and social use.(extrinsic)
A doorway means of gaining access to a building.

Its significance & recognition can be recognized from its scale and type.
Thus, meaning of a door intrinsic to it.
Form relates to function extrinsic meaning.
In housing of certain periods & places, we can recognize which rooms

are socially significant by the size of the windows.
In the Georgian terrace, windows at 1st floor level are taller than the rest indicate importance of
reception rooms in this floor.
Exterior indicates how the interior of the building functions INTRINSIC MEANING becomes
part of the architectural language of this period.
Architecture provides the environment for our lives.
Buildings are not just physical places of shelter, but places in which social rituals are enabled.
In 19th century, a range of building types evolved to house the new developments of that
inventive century.
Factories, warehouses, banks, railway stations, department stores, law courts, town halls,
apartment blocks & offices developed forms that were not rigidly fixed, but became recognizable.
In theatre, we dont expect a bank manager. Town hall doesnt look like a railway station.
The FORM communicated the purpose.

Over a period of time, the buildings that housed social, legal, religious and other rituals evolved into
FORMS that we associate with the buildings function.
It is a 2 WAY PROCESS the building provides

the physical environment &
setting for a particular social ritual
Ex. travelling by train, going to a bank as well as the symbolic setting.
The meaning of buildings evolves by experience and we in turn read our experience into
buildings.
BUILDINGS gives an empathetic reaction in us through these experiences.
It is also determined by our culture, our beliefs and our expectations.
Door design using warning symbols of spikes.

Maratta Fort, Pune, India
They tell stories, for their form & spatial organization gives us hints about how they should be
used, so they form a narrative.
The physical layout encourages some users and inhibits others.

If a building breaks from familiar conventions, we may not be able to read message about its role &
its function and leads to confusions.
Spatial symbol of political power spread construction of Palace of Parliament (originally Peoples
House), 1984-1997, Bucharest, Romania.
Here the form and structure gives the massiveness of the building.
Communication of openness through architecture: transparency of the law courts architecture

communicates openness. Design: Sir R. Rogers, Bordeaux.
Here the material and the structure contributes to the openness and transparency.
Symbolic space, transferring emotions through atmosphere Taj Mahal mausoleum symbol of
sadness, love, eternity and sensitiveness
Example of perceived focal point and attention centre basing on spatial symmetry.
Dome of the Rock Temple Mount, Old City, Jerusalem.
We do not go backstage in a theatre unless especially invited.
Inside a law court the precise location of those involved in the legal process is an integral part of the
design and an essential part of ensuring that the law is upheld.
Narrative architecture based on meaning and metaphor

Was the inspiration for Daniel Libeskinds winning design
for the rebuilding of New Yorks World Trade Center (WTC) site.
The challenge of the WTC site was to provide a memorial for those who
lost their lives on 11 September, 2001, while at the same time providing
sufficient prime office, commercial and retail space for the developers.
Before working on the project, Libeskind visited the site in order to find its voice.
His winning design showed torn, shard-like business towers rising around the centre of
remembrance, the sacred space at the heart of the design, the grave of so many who lost
their lives. The design includes the tallest tower in the world, reinforcing the message of US
indomitability.
Daniel Libeskind sprang to fame partly as a result of two completed buildings, the Jewish Museum,
Berlin, 198998, and the Imperial War Museum North, Salford, 2002.
The Jewish Museum is part museum and part monument.

Lines connecting the points in Berlin where Jews lived and the broken Star of David are among the
symbolic references that generated the fractured, zigzag forms and slit openings in the walls.
At its heart is a tall void, the Holocaust Tower, a narrow, dark grey, triangular space some three
storey high, very quiet, with no sound from the world outside, dimly lit from a vertical strip window at
the top of the apex of the triangle.
This powerful, frightening space dramatizes and symbolizes absence, evoking the memory of
those millions of Jews killed in the Second World War.
At the Imperial War Museum the intersecting curved fragments of the

design speak just as much of a world shattered by conflict as do the
military exhibits on display inside.
At various periods a new language of forms and a new architecture were consciously evolved.
One of the aims of modernism in the 1920s and 1930s was to try to evolve a new architecture fitted
to the twentieth century, based on new materials, new techniques of construction and a
rethinking of the design of buildings.
The Beijing National Stadium is meant to

symbolize great nature on the earth.
It tried to liberate architecture from an obsession with style and its aims were universal. Modernism
became an international force,
but in so doing modernist buildings tended not to respond to particular cultures or to particular
environments.
By contrast, in the 1980s postmodernism tried to reassert a sense of local identity. Postmodern
architecture was essentially about communication.
The Team Disney Building Michael Graves.
The front faade is a Post-Modern interpretation of the

Parthenon, with dwarfs, nearly 20 feet in height, holding up the
pediment and facing a pedestrian plaza and reflecting pool.
Initially postmodernism was a reaction against the high-rise apartment blocks, the commercial
developments and the use of concrete that was associated with modernism in the 1960s. Such
architecture alienated people, said the postmodernists, because
it did not communicate, so postmodernism set out to communicate.
This it did by borrowing styles from previous periods, or by quoting details from
adjacent buildings and the surrounding environment. New housing developments could be neo-
Georgian, or incorporate elements such as gables, dormers and tile hanging which derived
from traditional architecture of the pre-industrial era.
The Harold Washington Library in Chicago.

The top of the building is made with glass, steel and aluminum with
ornamentation referencing mannerist architecture, which is applied
against vernacular walling. The building was ornamented with owls in
1993, which symbolizes knowledge.
Postmodern commercial buildings featured classical, gothic and many other styles on their
facades as a means of communicating and as a way of attracting prestigious clients. These
elements were restricted to the exterior of the building and became in effect a mask which had little
or nothing to do with what went on inside.
Richmond Riverside, 1988, is an office development by Quinlan Terry on the river Thames that is
widely liked by the local residents of Richmond.
They liked its scale, which is in harmony with the adjacent townscape, the variety of the
materials used and the traditional feel to the whole complex.
This has been achieved by using a classical vocabulary that was claimed by the architect to
constitute real architecture true to its context and appropriate.
Real architecture in this particular instance meant solid brick walls and slate roofs, or roofs
hidden behind parapets and classical elements which according to the architect are eternal and
universal, and therefore appropriate to all periods.
Means of expression in architectural composition
Architecture is a vehicle of expression. Justify this statement with examples.
To meet the laws and basic rules of the architectural composition in order to realize constructions
which satisfy all the structural, functional and aesthetic conditions, the architect has at his disposal
some means of expression, among which the most commonly used are : form, sincerity,
truth, laconism, variety, etc.
Heydar Aliyev Centre
Means of expression is linked by :

- personality of the architect,
- and it depends on the buildings destination,
- the place of its location in the environment,
- and what effect or impact are wished to be obtained.
Expression by FORM it starts from the need to obtain a unity between the content and form of
the architectural work, being known that by form the architect expresses the content, giving it
aesthetic value.
The form of the built assembly or of the parts of it may suggest contradictory feelings, such as:
- forms developed on the horizontal are rational and stable, allowing accurate assessment of
volumes and masses, thus providing a fairer balance of the composition;
Fallingwaters, Pennsylvania F.L.Wright

Terraces working as extended balcony planes emphasize strong horizontality, sense of unity by the
relationship of planes.
- forms developed on the vertical give a feeling of infinity, limiting the volumetric clarity of the
object and making more difficult to obtain a balanced composition;
Renzo Piano, latest project, the Shard, elegant, light and detail oriented building, Pianos Shard
consists of several glass facets that incline inwards but do not meet at the top. This creates a
feeling of infinity and aspiring feeling because of the verticality.
- the ordered geometric forms provide order and stability for the architectural assembly,
facilitating the obtainment of compositional unity;
Buckminster fuller, the architect, Geodesic dome, spherical form in which lightweight triangular
or polygonal facets consisting of either skeletal struts or flat planes, largely in tension, replace the
arch principle and distribute stresses within the structure itself.
- the random forms complicate the understanding of the content of the assembly and suggests
indecision and relative balance.
Designed by American architect Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao building
represents a magnificent example of the most groundbreaking 20th-century architecture. Gehry's
design creates a spectacular sculpture-like structure, perfectly integrated within Bilbao's urban
pattern and its surrounding area.
The most important feature of the built forms is their artistic expressivity, a feature through which
the architectural work manages to communicate with the viewer and inform him, provoking
some emotional states.
The expression by SINCERITY and TRUTH is a mean to express the content and functionality of
architectural work by form, by volume and proportions or by the treatment of surfaces.
The new Olympic Sports Complex

Santiago Calatrava
Truth and sincerity can be also means of achieving the aesthetics (depending on the mastership of
the architect), the most accessible and open architectural space through sincerity is the
front space used especially in designing public buildings for a great affluence of people:
buildings for travelers, sports and exhibition complexes, commercial and cultural centers, etc.
The sincere expression in the exterior architecture of the interior content (function) does
not imply the neglect of aesthetics of the architectural forms, in time the method of sincerity
allowed the achievement of outstanding architectural works.
But the exaggeration of sincerity in expressing the content of the interior (of function) has
sometimes led to the emergence of contested architectural currents.
The opposite of sincerity in architectural expression is obviously the deception or insincerity,

that is though often even necessary in the architectural composition. examples: - strongly glassed
facades and curtain walls that mask the structure although do not reflect the content, they permit
the achievement of a unitary and balanced modern architecture - or the use of false supporting
elements sometimes in the ancient architecture atlantes and caryatids, allowed the achievement
of valuable and aesthetic architectural compositions.)
Insincerity, however, can often produce many damages to architectural composition, reducing
its aesthetic value and making it ridiculous. ex. Neoclassical architecture
The LACONIC expression in architecture means the expression of the content and message
the architect wants to transmit through his creation by means of a few simple methods.
As a form of expression laconism involves craftsmanship, talent and a good handling of

architectural composition rules, and the Romanian folk architecture is a good example for this,
although its creators (commonly folk masters without a proper training in architecture) relied more
on common sense of proportions and intuition than on the knowledge of architectural composition.
(a), and a religious residence the church of the Moldovia Monastery

(b), where the simplicity and the purity of the form, the harmony of proportions and the
laconism of decorations assured the success of the architectural composition.
The harmony of proportions, the purity of the form and the function, the simplicity and
poverty of decorative elements are the main characteristics of laconism in architecture, and
many times it results in a harmonious creation, with great aesthetic value.
Michael Graves, architect

Denver Public Central Library
VARIETY, as a way of expression in architecture, anticipates the use of diversity and contrast
with the scope to avoid the monotony or uniformity of the architectural composition.
As way of expression in the concept of a construction, variety can refer to shapes, volumes, colors,
constructive details, etc. but it must not be exaggerated because it can easily lead to lack of unity
and balance in an architectural composition.
The character of the architectural creation
Through the CHARACTER of a building, we understand that fundamental particularity (or

distinctive feature) which makes it outstanding from the buildings with the same function, and even
from the buildings with different functions.
The character of an architectural composition can be expressed by shape, size, color, style, age,
beauty, etc. and it results from the impression the composition produces on people, from the
feelings and sensations it awakes in someone.
Architectural creation can be of the following types:
specific character of a functional program pointed out by the general characteristics of a
large functional program (housing, educational and cultural buildings, commercial buildings, social
buildings, industrial and transport buildings, etc.
The Mahindra United World College of India, Pune Charles benninger. The purpose is to
create a global village with a marked sense of difference and community.
The concept of the Grand Canal Square Theatre and Commercial Development by Daniel
Libeskind is to build a powerful cultural presence expressed in dynamic volumes sculpted to
project a fluid and transparent public dialogue with the cultural, commercial and residential
surroundings.
peculiar (individual) character pointed out by the characteristics of buildings from the same
functional program, individualizing each building by size, volume, shape, structure, color, etc.
(even if they have the same destination);
character of the epoch(history) - given by the architectural conceptions and ideas generally
expressed in a certain period.
Kyushu University New Campus Master Plan 2001- Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
In the Master Plan, nine targets are laid out, pointing to the creation of an excellent research and
educational environment. A block plan for Engineering, Science and Center zones has been
created based on the Master Plan.
Santa Maria della Vittoria Gian Lorenzo Benini. The curvaceous walls is an outstanding
characteristic of Baroque buildings, gives the illusion of movement within the designs.
A building can also be classified from the impression it makes on the viewer:
monumental character the result of a large, symmetric composition with clear and solemn,
sober and well balanced feeling. It is the case of the great architectonic achievements of antiquity
(the Parthenon, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, etc.), Gothic Age, Renaissance, Baroque,
Classicism and contemporary age;
picturesque character expressed through variety and richness of colors, forms and details
(baroque architecture), through diversity, movement and rhythm, free, unsymmetrical compositions
imposed by non uniformity of field. e.g. Erechtheum.
bizarre character opposed to picturesque - that are devoid of character (called strange)
exotic character the same like unusual bizarre, exciting (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese
architecture, etc.);
graceful character expressing fragility, fineness, delicacy obtained from using supple and
elegant shapes and fine composition details, delicately proportioned (e.g. the decorative rocaille
and rococo from the French Baroque.
The concept of the folly : They have no purpose other than as an ornament.
Traditionally Japanese Architecture Style, has been derived by wooden structures, raised from
the ground, with tiled and thatched roofs.
Rococo is often asymmetrical and abstract initiated in France. Naturalistic flowers, branches,
trees, whole rustic scenes, and also Chinese motifs are sometimes playfully introduced into rocaille.
The character expressed by a buildings outside can sometimes reproduce the character of
the architect, the character of a building often being compared with the human one.
Thats why there are used expressions like: silent, happy, refined, vulgar, slender, solid, agitated,
sad, strange building.
Alberto Campo Baezas work within the context of contemporary architecture, it is best to imagine
a large ultra-silent and tightly sealed chamber sitting in the middle of a rock concert.
Architecture, in collaboration with artist Rose Nolan, created the Hello House in Melbourne,
Australia a renovated Victorian shop with a bright brick facade.
Casa Mila Antonio Gaudi - One of the amazing features of this building is that there is not one
straight line.
The scale in architectural composition
One of the most important problems of architectural creation is the one of optimal dimensioning
of construction elements, of interior and exterior spaces and the proportions of architectural
objects, such that they all fit perfectly in the surrounding ambient (built or natural).
the human scale the comparison between the building or the component with the human body
or its proportions; it is based on the idea that the architectural space is designed for humans.
the proportional scale as a result of the comparison between buildings or between building
elements;
physical scale results from the functional and structural dimensioning of buildings and it refers
to the impression made on the viewer.
The different elements that compose the basic
identifiable parts of the man-made or built
environment are broadly classified as roof, wall,
door, window, column, stair and floor.
Good architecture is a balanced composition of
these elements.

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Architecture is a non-verbal form of communication, a mute

record of the culture that produced it.

Factors that lend meaning in architecture are

- Location (environment, climate affects form)

This constitutes the reality of our physical experience.

Describe how connotative meaning is achieved in architecture?

Connotative meanings are associate values and symbolic

Many architects expressed symbolism in their works.

F.L.WRIGHT prairie houses - early 20th century.

A doorway means of gaining access to a building.

Form relates to function extrinsic meaning.

In housing of certain periods & places, we can recognize which rooms

The FORM communicated the purpose.

It is a 2 WAY PROCESS the building provides

Door design using warning symbols of spikes.

The physical layout encourages some users and inhibits others.

Communication of openness through architecture: transparency of the law courts architecture

Narrative architecture based on meaning and metaphor

The Jewish Museum is part museum and part monument.

At the Imperial War Museum the intersecting curved fragments of the

The Beijing National Stadium is meant to

The Team Disney Building Michael Graves.

The front faade is a Post-Modern interpretation of the

The Harold Washington Library in Chicago.

Heydar Aliyev Centre

Means of expression is linked by :

Fallingwaters, Pennsylvania F.L.Wright

The new Olympic Sports Complex

The opposite of sincerity in architectural expression is obviously the deception or insincerity,

As a form of expression laconism involves craftsmanship, talent and a good handling of

(a), and a religious residence the church of the Moldovia Monastery

Michael Graves, architect

Through the CHARACTER of a building, we understand that fundamental particularity (or

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