POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE of TABACO

100, Panal, Tabaco City, Albay

Course Code:

Course Title: Art Appreciation

Course Description:

Art Appreciation is a three-unit course that develops students’ ability to analyze, and
critique works of art. Through interdisciplinary and multimodal approaches, this course
equips students with a broad knowledge of the practical, historical, philosophical, and social
relevance of the arts in order to hone students’ ability to articulate their understanding of the
arts. The course also develops students’ competency in researching and curating art as well as
conceptualizing, mounting, and evaluating art productions. The course aims to develop
students’ genuine appreciation for Philippine arts by providing them opportunities to explore
the diversity and richness and their rootedness in Filipino culture.

Credit Unit/s: 3

Prerequisite:

Duration: SY: 2021-2022

Instructor: Albert B. Bocalig

Consultation Time:

Consultation Venue: Google Meet

Architecture
2.1 Introduction:

Architecture is defined as the art and science of designing buildings and structures. A
wider definition would include within this scope the design of any built environment,
structure or object, from town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to furniture
and objects.

2.1 Learning Objectives:

By the end if this module, you will be able to:

1. Acquire basic theoretical orientation in Humanities and learn the different
concepts and terminologies related to Arts and Humanities.
2. Examine the essence and nature of man that makes possible his self-
expression and contemplation in the world of arts.
3. Gain insights on the origin, development, meaning and importance of arts in
man’s cultural and social life.
2.2 Tools:

Internet:
2.3 Learning Concepts:

A. Architecture

Technically, architecture is the practice of building design and its resulting products
and culturally architecture is to building and its equivalent in printing world is literature.
Some Persian, Greek and Roman architecture ruins are documents of history and their
culture. Like the Roman Forum and Coliseum, they testify to and are solid evidence of the
advanced technology and culture employed by the early civilization, and so they are also
considered as a big mass of artifacts for archaeologist.

Sir Hentry Wotton quoted that building has three conditions:

1. Firmness
2. Commodity
3. Delight

Modern architecture on the other hand sometimes rule out the aesthetic and cultural values of
the structure in exchange of sophisticated and advanced technology and for it to be more cost-
effective. Its emphasis is on the technical demand, price and firmness more than aesthetic.

B. Building Materials

Architectural designs and constructions are highly influenced by the availability of

construction materials within the country, neighboring territories or trade partners.

 Lumber – Large areas of the world were once forested and still other countries boast
of their dense and thick forest thus lumber is the one most common building material
employed.
1. Timber is a large piece of wood usually squared and measured by board feet.
2. Wood was once widely used as frames for construction but later replaced by
steel.
3. Carpentry is the work or occupation of building or constructing using woods;
or things made out of wood.

 Stone – Many kind of stones are also employed in construction and even in sculpture.

1. Building with stone is called masonry.

2. Marble is dense crystallized rock which is usually preferred by ancient and
even modern construction because they are incombustible.
3. Granite rock is a coarse grained igneous rock usually dark colored that provide
both durable building materials and adds to the beauty of the construction.
4. Mortar provides cohesion between brick of rocks:
a. Mortar was once made of elementary materials like lime and sand.
b. Romans first employed natural cement with inert substances which
gives a better finish.
c. Waterproof cement was invented in the early 19th century.

 Some countries and regions lack both timber and stones and thus employed earth
itself.
 1. Other fashioned with earth or mud to form a wall, or made them into sun-
dried bricks.
2. Earth or mud is mixed with unconventional building materials. It is mixed with
almost anything that is widely available like grass, animal manure, and even
corpses like in the Great Wall of China.
3. Later the bricks were baked in kiln, and this process later resulted to
advancement of another form of craftsmanship like poetry and porcelain
making.

 Steel is one of the modern construction materials which provides strength and
foundation of the structure:

1. Steel is a strong alloy of carbon and steel.

2. It was once primarily used in the military and not in architecture.
3. The abundance of steel in the 18th century and rolling mills produced steel rod that
replaced traditional wooden frames.
4. The advent of steel in architecture revolutionized construction and allowed man to
construct almost everything within the reach of his imagination.

 Glass are transparent solid substances

1. It is made out of melted sand mixed with oxides like lime or soda.
2. It once fashioned Byzantine and Gothic architecture in stained-glass windows.
3. The enhancement of industrial process and advance technology exploited all
the building potential of glass in the 20th and 21st century.

C. Construction

 Spanning is one of the basic problem of construction is how to connect one wall to
another and to provide roof.

1. Spanning connects one wall to another and provide roofing in the construction.
2. Post-lintel construction – uses of limited or supporting beams:
a. It was placed horizontally across the top of post or columns.
b. Additional beams put on top or connected to another beam that forms a deck
that can become walls or floor for the upper floor.
c. It was widely used in Greek construction.
3. Arches are curved structure that forms the upper edge of an open space such as a
window, a doorway, or the space between a bridge’s supports:
a. In a flat plane of a wall, arches were used in rows, supported by piers or
columns to form an arcade.
b. For roofs or ceiling, a sequence of arches one behind another may be used to
form a half-cylinder (or barrel) vault to cover larger centralized space.
c. An arch may be rotated to form a hemispherical dome.

4. Vault is an arch-shaped structure, usually of masonry, used as the ceiling of a room or

other enclosed space, as the roof of a building, or as the support of a ceiling or roof.
a. The simplest vault is a barrel, or tunnel, vault, the roof of which is shaped like
half a cylinder and is supported by straight walls.
b. The annular vault is almost the same as a barrel except that the passage is
curved and making an impression of a ring.
c. A groined vault is the intersection of two vaults, and the juncture where they
meet is called groin.

5. Dome is hemispherical root usually placed in cathedral or churches.

a. Pendentives are
portions of
spherical vaults, or spherical triangles, placed in the corners of square or other
polygonal structures to form a circular base for a dome above.
b. Pendant is hanging architectural member formed by rib.
c. More complicated vaults include ribbed vaults, in which the inner vault surface
is subdivide by a number of independent supporting arches, or ribs.
d. A further refinement is the fan vault, most common in English late Gothic
structures, in which the ribs are multiplied and grouped in the shape of an open
fan.

D. History

 Mesopotamia – The arts and buildings of the ancient Middle Eastern civilizations that
developed in the area (now Iraq) between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from
prehistory to the 6th century BC.
 Egypt – The urban culture of Egypt also developed very early. Its political history was
more stable, however, which strong continuity in the development and conservation
of tradition. Granite, sandstone, and limestone were available in abundance. These
circumstances, in a cultural system conferring enormous power on rulers and priests,
made possible the erection, over a long period, of the most awesome of the world’s
ancient monuments.
 Indian and Southeast Asia – Hindu traditions are rich in visual symbols, the early
stone architecture of India was elaborately carved, more like sculpture than building,
especially as the designers did not emphasize structural systems and rarely faced the
task of enclosing large spaces.

 Chinese Architecture – China has a traditional reverence toward ancestors, the

stable and hierarchical life of the Chinese extended family proverbial. It is reflected in
the formality of the Chinese house, built in rectangular form, preferably at the
northern end of a walled courtyard entered from the south, with auxiliary elements
disposed in a symmetrical fashion on either side of the north-south axis. This pattern
was the point of departure for more lavish programs for mansions, monasteries,
palaces and eventually whole cities.

 Japanese architecture – The Japanese houses developed differently. Japanese

expresses a deep poetic response to nature, and their houses are more concerned with
achieving a satisfying relationship with earth, water, rocks, and trees than with
establishing a social order.
  Greek architecture – The Greek temple emerged as the archetypal shrine of all time.
Unlike the Egyptians, the Greeks put their walls inside to protect the cella and their
columns on the outside, where they could articulate exterior space.
 Roman architecture – Use of the arch and vault introduced curved forms, curved
walls produced a semicircular space, or apse, for terminating an axis. Cylindrical and
spherical spaces became elements of design, well suited to the grandiose rooms
appropriate to the Roman imperial scale.

 Medieval Architecture – Two major architectural developments were initiated by

historic religious events. The first occurred in 312, when the Roman Emperor
Constantine the Great conferred recognition on Christianity, which led to the
development of Christian architecture. The second, the promulgation of Islam in about
610 by the Prophet Mohammad, spawned Islamic architecture.
 Renaissance Architecture – The Renaissance, literally meaning “rebirth”, brought
into being some of the significant and admired works ever built. Beginning in Italy
about 1400, it spread to the rest of Europe during the next 150 years.
 Industrial Age – Disenchantment with baroque, with rococo and even the Neo
Palladianism turned late 18th century designers and patrons towards the original
Greek and Roman prototypes. Selective borrowing from another time and place
became fashionable. Skyscraper, Reinforced Concrete, the Bahaus (out of this word
designs), innovative designs, international style, post-modern architecture are some of
the significant division in modern day architecture.

2.4 Activity:

Matching Type: Match category A to category B and write the letter of the
correct answer on the blank provided.

A B
1. Firmness a. Cultural artifacts
2. Commodity b. Intended use of the structure
3. Delight c. Durability of the building
4. Modern Architecture d. Cost effective.
5. Ancient Architecture e. Beauty of the structure
6. Stone f. Granite
7. Glass g. Narra
8. Glass h. Terracotta clay
9. Steel i. Metal brace
10. Bricks j. Stained glass window