Bora Malko

     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...