Counterpoint : MAP

Our first COUNTERPOINT was to use all four of the FORMS (2D, 3D, word, & paragraph).

....practice makes perfect!!! Not my favorite!

Perspective Fun

A place for waiting

A place where people relieve themselves!

A place for eating, sleeping and relaxing

Point : Alternatives

This unit was all about reaching new heights, breaking rules, and moving towards a new era. Cathedrals reflected towards the heavens and continued the ideas of having a place for people to gather, worship and collectively give thanks to their believes. While the Renaissance changed everything with introducing new figures and finding alternatives to what the Gothic era believed with the the right way of assembling sacred forms while using more than one style. Villas stuck with the basics of geometry and bringing in the importance of nature.

Cathedrals defined the Gothic era, using features like the pointed arch, flying buttress, and distinct vertical elements. They differed among cities but all related back to one another in some form. The main idea was to climb higher toward heaven and the One. Cross appearances were use as the ground plan of most cathedrals, lining the walls with stain glass telling biblical stories. Most cathedrals started with the basis of a "golden square" that lead to the importance of the center bringing together the two halls, defining the boundaries of the central point, and repetitions of the geometric form created a flow within the cathedral. The Florence Cathedral in Italy made the decision to break the rules of Gothic architecture when built.

Lacking the common Gothic buttresses used on other cathedrals, Florence Cathedral's builder, Filippo Brunelleschi, found them unnecessary to the foundation. The addition of the dome started a theme of the Renaissance that was used within villas. Most villas relied on the simple geometries of squares and circles, while still using an architectural feature, like the dome, to guide upwards. Villas tied in the aspect of nature with the addition of porches looking outward and long galleries placed on the side of the structure that allows the most light in and looking toward gardens, like the one at Hardwick Hall in England. The idea of allowing there to be one main facade that was decorated more than others due to the placement towards the seaport or market. The Renaissance also showed values of society with the separation of public and private in residence buildings.

Even though the Renaissance era began, the presence of Gothic roofs were mixed in with structures and Baroque features made an appearance in ways such as curvilinear staircases. Therefore the Renaissance can also be defined with the idea of one building can contain more than one style. Textiles began to enter as evidence inside the building to which style or combination of styles where used to decorate the structure.

Point- Foundations

Foundation can be defined as “the basis on which a thing is founded or is supported.” I believe that the pyramids, tombs, and temples covered in this unit are connected by a common foundation of materials, building methods, and underlying meanings for each design.

Pyramids in Egypt and Mexico housed some of the first societies that used the repetition of stacking as a building method to increase size, as well as a method of displaying the hierarchy of the structure. Teotihuacan, “City of the Gods”, in Mexico contains two main temples called the Pyramid of the Moon and Pyramid of the Sun.The sun and moon were symbols for life and death and with the placement of the two different pyramids the culture further understood the importance of their own journeys toward death. The Pyramid of the Sun is the third largest in the world and the location of the pyramid allows many important astrological events, in terms of agriculture and belief systems of the society, to be seen. Therefore the height, orientation and details of the man-made building were significant to the role of the society it is built in and the higher powers they believe in. Another thought to the height of pyramids is that with more power displayed in size, the higher need to protect the civilization and with the advantage of height the people can see enemies coming from farther away.

Tombs were common structures in Egypt that housed the remains of important leaders of a community. The larger and more impressive the burial site, symbolized the more influential that leader was on its culture. Stone was the most common material used due to its availability and durability but the higher the stones were stacked and the addition of limestone, gems, and other precious items increased the importance of the deceased buried within. For example, the Great Pyramid of Giza is monumental in size and houses the remains for the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu. He reigned for twenty-three years and was followed in reign by his sons.

The prototypes for temples began in Egypt along the lines of Gods of the living and dead, built into the sides of mountains and build up from the sand. Temples quickly developed a common foundation of materials, structure, and purpose. Stone continued to be the material used, columns became a familiar element, and a place of scared gatherings. Greece and Rome grew to be the place that I think of when I hear talk of temples. They both began expanding the ideas of columns as a progressional element and enhancing the experience their societies had within the temples of Gods and Goddesses.

All of these structures are connected by the original goals of wanting to literally reach the divine powers they worshiped, give importance to each structure built, and out due any other cultures foundation.

Reading Comp #3

Cologne & Salisbury

Light is present in all Gothic cathedrals. The use of pointed arches extending to the heavens allows as much light as possible in on walls while the light itself can also dim through stained glass “emphasizing the mystery of faith”. Windows within cathedrals are all about an experience with the heavens, weightlessness, biblical stories. The higher the building could reach the larger the windows could be, illuminating interior features. Cologne Cathedral houses a golden reliquary that is thought to contain the Three Magi of Christmas. The placement of the shrine is above the high alter, making this area the main focus of the Gothic cathedral. The windows surrounding the high alter and The Shrine of the Magi help emphasize the fire-gilded figures and semi-precious stones on the shrine, as well as help tell the biblical stories of the Middle Ages with images and scenes in the stained glass. At any time of the day the windows allow light to flow in and highlight the most ambitious piece in the cathedral. While the Cologne Cathedral contains an actual artifact of high importance, Salisbury Cathedral’s is most known for its notable central spire. Besides the significant spire, “An old saying records that there are as many pillars as there are hours in the year, and as many windows as there are days.” Salisbury Cathedral is similar to Cologne due to the use of continual biblical references on pointed arched windows and stained glass, letting in light aluminizing the interior beauty.

Cologne & Amiens

Cologne and Amiens share the same basic features of Gothic cathedrals like exterior statures, interior crossing square and cathedral choirs, as well as the same trial and error development. Cologne Cathedral was built on top of the site of a fourth century Roman temple, followed by a simple square church, the “Old Cathedral”, which burned down, allowing the development of the present Gothic church to begin. Amiens was built ca. 340 but later a fire destroyed most of the city, construction on a Romanesque cathedral began but it was destroyed by fire as well initiating the planning for a cathedral that would house the head of St. John the Baptist. With both Cologne and Amiens upright, a constant battle of keeping the structures intact left designers and engineers of both regions experimenting with flying buttresses. The strong efforts of the community to keep these cathedrals intact during times of world wars, contradict the chaos outside their place of worship.

Cologne & Duomo

Cologne Cathedral follows a cruciform plan with the traditional crossing allowing massive amounts of light in at the intersection, while Duomo Cathedral branches off by focusing the control of light at the free-standing dome in the center. The cruciform plan, flying buttresses for support, pointed arches, and square crossing define Gothic cathedrals like Cologne. Duomo Cathedral has an octagonal crossing, wooden structuring to support construction and a central dome that implies the ending of Gothic and beginning of the Renaissance.