Week 8 assignment: essay – interrelationships reflection apa format | Applied Sciences homework help
- Do you agree with Ponti? 2. If you agree, refer to examples that corroborate Ponti’s point. 3. If you disagree, refer to examples that do not corroborate.
3Gio Ponte, In Praise of Architecture. New York: F.W. Dodge Corporation, 1960. FIGURE 6-12 Louis le Vau and Jules Hardouin- Mansart, Palace of Versailles, France. 1661–1687. France was governed from this palace from 1682 until the French Revolution of 1789. Its immensity was designed to house the entire Royal Court in a place several miles from Paris, the official capital of France. ©Ingram Publishing/SuperStock RF jac16871_ch06_121-162.indd 136 12/11/17 11:47 AM 137
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space with solid partitions, are weaker in inner centrality than buildings without such divisions. The endless boxes within boxes of the Seagram Building (Figure 6-6) negate any possibility of significant inner centering, adding to the unearthiness of this cage of steel and glass. Buildings in the round, other things being equal, are the most internally centered of all. In the Pantheon (Figure 6-13), almost all the inner space can be seen with a turn of the head, and the grand and clear symmetry of the enclosing shell draws FIGURE 6-13 Giovanni Paolo Panini, Interior of the Pantheon, Rome. Circa 1734. Oil on canvas, 50½ × 39 inches. The Pantheon dates from the second century. It is notable for being one of the only Roman buildings still in use and still intact as it originally was. The interior space is overwhelming in part because it contrasts dramatically with a very plain exterior. Source: Samuel H. Kress Collection/National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. jac16871_ch06_121-162.indd 137 12/11/17 11:47 AM 138
CHAPTER 6
us to the center of the circle, the privileged position, beneath the eye of the dome opening to a bit of the sky. Few buildings root us more firmly in the earth. The massive dome with its stony bluntness seems to be drawn down by the funneled and dimly spreading light falling through the eye. This is a dome of destiny pressing tightly down. We are driven earthward in this crushing ambience. Even on the out- side, the Pantheon seems to be forcing down (Figure 6-14). In the circular interior of Wright’s Guggenheim Museum (Figure 6-8), not all of the inner space can be seen from the privileged position, but the smoothly curving ramp that comes down like a whirlpool makes us feel the earth beneath as our only support. Whereas in buildings such as Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, mass seems to be overcome, the weight lightened, and the downward motion thwarted, in buildings such as the Pantheon and the Guggenheim Museum, mass comes out heavily and down. Sky-oriented arChiteCture Architecture that is sky-oriented suggests or is symbolic of a world as the generating agency that enables us to project our possibilities and realize some of them. A hori- zon, always a necessary part of a world, is symbolic of the limitations placed upon our possibilities and realizations. The light and heat of the sun are more symbolic than anything else in nature of generative power. Dante declared, “There is no vis- ible thing in the world more worthy to serve as symbol of God than the Sun; which FIGURE 6-14 The Pantheon, Rome, exterior. 117–125 CE. The Greek facade, eight Egyptian marble Corinthian pillars, hides the drumlike structure of the building, which was used as a Christian church starting in the seventh century. ©Canali Photobank, Italy jac16871_ch06_121-162.indd 138 12/11/17 11:47 AM 139
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illuminates with visible life itself first and then all the celestial and mundane bod- ies.” Total darkness, at least until we can envision a world, is terrifying. That is why, as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes proclaims, “The light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” Architecture organizes a world, usually more tightly than nature, by centering that world on the earth by means of a building. By accentuating the natural symbolism of sunlight, sky, and horizon, sky-oriented architecture opens up a world that is symbolic of our projections into the future. Such architecture discloses a world by drawing our attention to the sky bounded by a horizon. It accomplishes this by means of making a building appear high and centered within the sky, defying gravity, and tightly integrating the light of outer with inner space. Negatively, architecture that accents a world de-emphasizes the features that accent the earth. Thus, the manufactured materials, such as the steel and glass of the Seagram Building (Figure 6-6), help separate this building from the earth. Positively, architects can accent a world by turning their structures toward the sky in such a way that the horizon of the sky forms a spacious context. Architec- ture is an art of bounding as well as opening. PERCEPTION KEY Sky-Oriented Architecture 1. Identify the most sky-oriented building in your local community. Photograph that building from an angle or angles that support your choice. Stained glass, usually framed within a wall, is activated by penetrating light. Outside, the great western rose window of Chartres (Figure 6-3) is only of sculptural interest. Inside, on a sunny day, the cascade of flashing colors, especially blues, is overwhelm- ing. No photograph can capture the sublimity. There is a “strangeness.” Our sight is wired to see light falling on objects rather than shining through them.