Bora Malko

     Daylight is an interesting element when it comes to architecture. It is in constant motion, changing by the minute and impossible to be controlled. But it can however be utilized artistically.      There are three main categories of how daylight has become a factor of architectural building and design. The first one is the " Bright Open Hall" which is typical for warm climates. It consists simply of a roof held on supporting columns allowing for a bright and airy interior. Rasmussen mentions Philip C. Johnson's house in New Canaan as a good example of such building typology, which regardless of the transparent glass box effect manages to create an indoor feeling. He also explains the concept of "excellent  light" which refers to the quality of light instead of its quantity. A poor light  for instance would be light coming from a ninety degree angle, or differently called front light. It diminishes the textural effect of the object and provid...

     The Greeks once stated that it makes the soul happy to work with clear mathematical ratios and therefore the tones produced by strings of simple proportions affect our ears with delight. Regardless of the Greek's reasoning, it was obvious that man possessed an intuition which made it possible for him to understand simple mathematical proportions as well as visual dimensions in the physical world.      According to Rasmussen, Architecture employs simple dimensions and is metaphorically referred to as frozen music.  One proportion that has attracted great attention throughout the years is the Golden Section. Le Corbusier based his work (Le Modulor) on this proportion which is most closely related to the ratio 5:8. The Golden Section is said to be better experienced in natural phenomena in which there is a rhythmic progression proportions such as small shells.      Rasmussen has taken a comparison between Palladio's Villa and o...

     Frederick A. Jules, the author of this study,  has stated that buildings represent a form of communication, with their very own vocabularies and syntax. As taken from Webster's definition on the word itself, to communicate "is to  convey knowledge or information of;  to make known". Thinking of the primary purpose of architecture, one might say that it is  to provide for the basic need for human shelter, and yet architecture does seem to also provide information, thus express certain ideas. As any other communicating medium, architecture is in constant need of different techniques to achieve what is called an Architectural  Statement.      To begin with, a good architecture work is a building that manages to convey good communication. The Greek temple is taken as such an example in Frederick's study where on the same line of thought Hegel has argued that " Just as perfection and degradation coincide in the temple, there is als...

One of the most significant ways of distinguishing and classifying types of design is in terms of the sense or senses primarily adressed, e.g. as visual, auditory or audiovisual. These types of design will be explored and explained further on, based on Thomas Munro's study. The first one we are introduced with is Visual, Static, Surface Design, which is mostly presented in two dimensional space, with a flat, curving or even polyhedral surface. It's usual elements are line, color and texture which may sometimes have slight variations of surface, shape, mass and void shape. There are three main subdivisions distinguished from this design. Strip Design is mostly extended in one dimension lengthwise and is developed through addition or division of units.  Design variations can appear through it's dimensions, be them flat or slightly three dimensional. Munro emphasizes that a design which is actually and preventatively flat may be suggestively three dimensional, giving illu...

Considering the meaning of art, one might come across a question such as 'What is art associated with?'. In the sense of the primary goal of this study, regardless of what art is commonly associated with, it should by no doubt include all the arts of the Visuals, Literature and Music.  A connection between these three different forms is made by Schopenhauer as he argues that all arts aspire to the condition of music, its freedom of creation making it stay above the others. But nonetheless all Art has a common intention, which is "to please". According to Herbert Read,  Art itself is an attempt to create pleasing forms, and this sense of pleasurable relations between shape, surface and mass is the sense of beauty. He at the same time agrees that beauty is extremely relative. So how are we to ever decide on what is and what is not art considering that art is not necessarily related to beauty? If we take to consideration Benedetto Croce's theory of aesthetics, Ar...

On this quest to determine the most fitting explanation to Architecture, we come across many definitions given by different intelligentsia related in some way directly or indirectly to Architecture. The first one we encounter, to later on use it as a means of negation, is the definition given by Ruskin who states that Architecture is nothing more but ornament added to building. The statement is immediatly rejected by the author while he moves on to Even Ferguson with a slightly bettered but yet not correct version, agreeing that: "Architecture commences when some embellishment is added to the building which was not strictly a structural necessity." It is later proved wrong by this analysis's  author, through an analogy with poetry which he develops  into a truth of Architecture and its sublimity related to simplicity and abstraction. The argument continues with an explanation from Vitruvius who believes that Architecture, as a master art, is integrated into knowled...

A semi 3D Diagram conducted through Photoshop by me, which portrays linear perspective in a new light, as detached from architecture but at the same time part of a universe where architecture thrives in its many forms, be them natural or man made.