"Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the pathways to dwell in." This quote is taken from the bible and i think it makes a great deal of sense to use it as the basis of my foundations unit summary. This first half of the semester was spent with Roth and Blakemore searching within the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Rome, and Greece to find out where our foundations came from. They believe that at the foundation of every piece of architecture, there exists commodity, firmness, and delight. The reason why this quote is so appropriate is because all of these civilizations, although at great distances, have a common foundation: religion.
Egyptians based all of their architecture on religion. They used order, symmetry, and geometry to create these structures that have stood the tests of time and their infatuation with religion was shown through passage both literally and abstractly (real and ideal). While the Temple of Amon creates a literal passage in the front by using large scale figures (hierarchy), the temples of Giza create an abstract passageway to the afterlife through symmetry. The Egyptians also split their architecture to male vs. female structures. While the temples of Giza, built to house the pharaoh was built up and on top of the ground with a sleek finish to contrast the surrounding area. The temple of Hatshepsut, built to house the queen, was carved out of a mountain in context within the surrounding area. Its structural emphasis was also horizontal rather than vertical like the pyramids.
LIMESTONE
The Greeks, although separated by many city-states had a unified design style based on their religion. As we ventured into the Acropolis that housed many of these temples that venerated the gods, we learned about the three main parts to an architectural space (large or small) porch, court, and hearth. The Greeks believed that these gods stood for various things and built according to their character. The Temple of Athena is a piece of true perfection within the acropolis because the Goddess Athena was supposed to be all knowing and all-powerful. This building captures the goddess through it’s grandiosity, symmetry, and detail. A smaller less detailed building that sits on the top of the acropolis is the Temple of Athena Nike. This building describes its goddess best through position and size. The goddess Athena Nike was the messenger to Athena therefore it has to be at the top to see what is going on below. It is also very similar in detail to Athena because the goddess was a close part of Athena. All of these architectural pieces portray commodity, firmness, and delight and are the prototype of western architecture today.
The Romans became the archetype culture of the Greeks by taking and perfecting many of their ideas such as religion. The Roman culture is the perfect balance of ideas from East to West. Like the Greeks at one time the Romans believed in many gods, in fact the same gods with different names. For example the goddess Athena became Minerva. At this point in time the Coliseum became a structure of great importance, the mother of all entertainment. Its circular structure provides a surrounding view of the focal point in the center and its slight inclination with hight provides everyone with an unblocked view. This became the prototype for today's hybrid: the theater. Once the roman empire fell Christianity became the sole religion. At this time may romanesque and gothic cathedrals were constructed such as St. Peter's Basilica. Architects played with the ideas of light, though windows and stained glass and height through stretched orders to create a reaching for the heavens or a heaven on Earth. The presence of Christ radiates from the hierarchal ribbed ceilings and domes down the nave onto the alter.
Through the progression of time, from generation to generation Architectural styles have been created, modified, copied or made new. This is the ever going cycle of not only architecture but of everything in life. Although this is true we can never forget our foundations just as a christian does not forget his lord because without the first stone, a piece of architecture cannot be created.
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