CC2 STATEMENT

YUSUF RAHMAN
After having the opportunity to study cultural context both CC1 and CC2
lectures of architectural history and urbanism in depth, this has broadened my
understanding and knowledge of architecture as a whole and widened my
perspective on how history has huge part to play in societies architecture at
large by analytical and systematically research.
I will touch on in detail the understanding of cultural settings that involves
environment, languages, customs, memory of place, gender and lifestyles are
all elements that architectures consider and prerequisites for designing. The
relationship between cultural practices and contemporary architecture, which
has orthodoxly been perceived as conflicting, must to be explored as a key
compound for sustainable architecture and urbanism. The historical urban and
natural landscape gives a sense of community representation that maintains
an interactive measurement for currently uneven architectural and urban
space. The key value of cultural resilience in architecture and urbanism is the
focus on the momentum of community participation through activating its
dormant memories and refreshing its living ones through a new holistic design.
From all the lectures we received during the course of cultural context from a
wide range of different lecturers and speakers, I had an insight in depth for
many fascinating and interesting topics such as Maja Jovic touching on the role
of architecture in a post-conflict environment which is paramount in today’s
world looking at monstrosities take place round the globe architects must be
constantly combating this and planning for reconstruction of the once so
beautiful environment. Whereas, on the other hand I vividly remember the
lecture of Mehrdad Borna which was the answer to post-conflict by designing
healthy cities a rebuilding communities and cultures by restoring not only the
structural buildings around them but giving them hope and optimism through
architecture, this taught me that where there is a illness there is always a cure.
Sean Griffiths reminded us of the importance and need of becoming an
architect and how they a humongous role in society. Furthermore, I recall the
lecture of Kate Jordan on introduction to gender and architecture as this was a
very fruitful and beneficial reminder of how gender has a massive role to play
for example, women will design certain aspects differently to a man as they
both have different thought processes and are both shaped by many factors
also gender is a statement and each gender has its own needs like taking into
account i.e. public spaces which will need to cater for both male and female so
this requires a different design process. Also delving deep into history and
heritage with Shahed Saleem we went through a journey of what heritage is
and who decides it alongside the uses of it and how this all has a knock-on
effect on local communities and architecture surrounding it.
Lastly, some of my personal favourite topics which I feel I benefitted the most
from was interim spaces and creative uses in the 21st century this pushed me
and allowed me to have an open mind when it came down to the use of spaces
in urban area. Looking at places closer to home such as Newham, canning town
made me to relate more as I have been to these locations and never thought
about utilising the spaces as I now understand after this lecture. Assisting me
in my understanding and methodology were a few references which are the
backbone of architecture and the fundamental principles of how one must go
their thought process are; The 5 points of architecture from Le Corbusier, eyes
of the skin by Juhani Pallasmaa and De architectura from Vitruvius.
In addition to this, I really enjoyed the seminars we had provided after the CC1
and CC2 series of lectures as this allowed us to become more interactive with
our tutors and exhort our means of communication with them by using their
expertise and skill to reach the pinnacle of our understand and communicating
with our classmates bouncing and benefitting off them and building on ideas to
going out on field trips with them such as Paddington station and London
central mosque. Therefore through a combination of both lectures and
seminars allowed me to conduct research both in a group settings and
individually to start my illustrated essay. All my time in research and the
lectures really complimented each other and gave me a foundation in my
understanding and allowed me to freely express myself using the architectural
language with my own thoughts and views.
In conclusion, after critically analysing all my research and interests I have
made the decision to talk about in my dissertation the change from vernacular
to modern architecture in middle east and how it has developed throughout
time.
The middle east has a rich and important history of architecture from the
dome of the rock constructed in Jerusalem to the ottoman empire building the
Haga Sophia alongside many other grand buildings and structure producing an
entire empire. There are a few key elements that are only unique to Islamic
architecture for example Arabesque (islimi), calligraphy, water and light. We
see this being replicated throughout the globe in giant arches, columns and
courtyards. One of the key issues in the act of designing with cultural
indications in the Middle East is how far the planned is taking over the
spontaneous and vice versa. The plans signifies modern projects where there is
always an established programs offered by clear terms of reference in order to
design a structure with a specific function. The illustration and expression of
cultural and contextual meaning is of utmost importance in order to
understand a current setting and nurture a new one. It is about the images in
the collective memory that provide signs of communal expressions of how a
form is implied. Thereafter, I want to explore all the difference of climate
throughout the world and how the builders and designers dealt with the
environmental issues such as sun, rainfall, flooding, wind and humidity during
the course of building these magnificent structures.
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