Foundations summary

The beginning of Theory and History of Design class has been on foundations. We have looked at early time periods and the progression of architecture throughout these eras. We first looked at ancient Egypt where we studied pyramids such as The Pyramids at Giza and Hatshepsut’s Tomb. In Egypt pyramids were built to house the bodies of pharos and their belongings. Sometimes pets, slaves and wives were sacrificed so that they could join the pharaoh in the afterlife and were also placed in the pyramid. Most were built with polished limestone with a gold point on top. These materials were used to help the pyramids stick out among the sandy terrain of Egypt. They were also used to intimidate the commoners of Egypt, telling them that they were to stay away because they were of little importance compared to the pharaohs. We then moved onto Greece where we really started to see architecture take a stylized form. While discussing Greece we talked about The Acropolis. Athena’s home the Parthenon sits on The Acropolis as the most important thing. When you walk onto the Acropolis it is set up so that you see the Parthenon first. It is the largest building and all other buildings lead your eye to it. For example on the Porch of the Maiden’s the maiden’s breasts are pointing toward the Parthenon. The Parthenon is the only building that has Doric columns again showing you visually that the Parthenon is important above everything else. We learned in this section about the three main parts of any piece of architecture. They are the porch, court and the hearth. The porch is the first thing you come to and it lead into the court, the court is where people will most be found in Greece the courts were mostly used for political speeches or religious purposes. The hearth however was strictly for the main person of the household in the Parthenon the hearth would be Athena’s bedroom. The last stop we made in the foundations unit was Rome. We saw that Rome used Greece as a precedent for their building style. Rome was focused on competition. We learned about the competition between Roman leaders to build the tallest and greatest columns; we compared this to the wu wu or male genital parts. In some cases the columns were stolen. The Romans also believe in heaven and the idea that they could reach heaven. In the dome of the Pantheon there was an oculus that was open to the sky, the Romans believed that his was a gateway to heaven. The inside of the Pantheon was made of tile so the weather that came in through the oculus did not have a degenerative effect on the interior. The idea of architecture started off with building upward forms with some unfinished interior spaces and transformed into large buildings with great detail. The foundations unit showed the beginning of architecture and helped me to better understand why architecture is the way it is now.

The building that I think best describes the foundations summary would be the Pantheon. In Rome they really began to understand the idea of making interior spaces functional. The Pantheons most noted feature is the oculus which is always open to the weather. The inside is made of tile showing you that the Romans thought about the materials they were using and how they would withstand weather. Rome had clearly captured architecture and all architecture now has been based off of the foundations of Egypt, Greece and Rome.












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