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Course Code.

: Arch 3222
Undergraduate Program
Theory of Architecture II Semester 6 // Year 3 // 2010 E.C
Prepared By: Kidus Yohannes//Bsc Arch.
INTERPRETATION IN Interpretation of content
Physiological and

ARCHITECTURE
psychological interpretation
Formalistic interpretation
Luis I. Kahn
• Architecture is what
nature can’t do.
• A city should be a
place where a little
child walking through
the streets can
imagine what he or
she would like to be
some day.
Le Corbusier
• Architecture goes beyond utilitarian needs…
suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am
happy and I say ‘this is beautiful’. That is
architecture Art enters in.
• Architecture only exists when there is a poetic
emotion.
• Architecture is the masterly, correct, and
magnificent play of masses brought together in
light.
Frank Lloyd Wright
• No house should ever be built on a hill or on
anything.
• It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill
and house should live together each the
happier for the other.
• The good building is not one that hurts the
landscape, but one which makes the
landscape more beautiful than it was before
the building was built.
Walter Gropius

• Architecture begins where


engineering ends.
• A modern, harmonic and lively
architecture is the visible sign of a
true democracy.
Philip Johnson

• All architects want to live beyond


their deaths.
• Architecture is the art of how to
waste space.
Richard Meier

• Architecture is a social art.


• It is concerned with quality of life, and
this concern must find form through the
nature of our work.
Oscar Niemeyer

• Neither is it the right angle, which attracts me,


nor the straight line, hard, inflexible, made by
men.
• What attracts me is the curve, free and sensual,
the curve I find in the mountains of my country, in
the winding course of its rivers, in the waves of
the sea, in the body of the beloved woman.
• The universe is made out of curves - the curved
universe of Einstein.
• Architecture is a frozen music
• Architecture is inhabited sculpture.
• Architecture concerns itself only with those characters of an
edifice which are above and beyond its common use.
Interpretations of architecture
by Bruno Zevi
1.Interpretation of content
2.Physiological and psychological interpretation
3.Formalistic interpretation
Interpretation of content

• Political interpretation
• Philosophical-religious interpretation
• Scientific interpretation
• Economic-social interpretation
• Materialist interpretation
• Technical interpretation
Political interpretation

• When was the golden age of Greek architecture? Why?

PERICLES

• Turks occupied Constantinople in 1453…
• In 1933, the Nazis came to power in
Germany and this determined the end of
the Bauhaus.

Hagia Sophia
Bauhaus
Philosophical-religious interpretation
• Architecture is the visual aspect of history.
• The protestant reformation marked the final
hour of Gothic architecture in England and
the beginning of the renaissance.
Scientific interpretation

• Euclidean geometry, shaping the conscious being according to


specific measurable dimensions, went hand in hand with Greek
spatial sensitivity.

• The law governing


space in the
renaissance resulted
from perspective, from
the possibility of
objectively fixing a
three dimensional
body.

• Without the fourth dimension of


cubism, it would never have
occurred to Le Corbusier to suspend
the Villa Savoy on piles or to make
all four façades of the building
equal thus destroying the
distinction between main, lateral,
and rear elevations that was
implicit in perspective
representation.
Economic-Social Interpretation

• Architecture is the
autobiography of economic
systems and of social
institution.
• Similar architectural forms
appear whenever similar
economic conditions
appear.
Symbolist application
• “Aren't the skyscrapers of New
York the symbol of satanic
individualism, of the power of the
trusts, casting a shadow on all the
buildings around them?”
Materialist Interpretation

• Architectural morphology can


be explained by the
geographic and geological
conditions of the places where
particular monuments are
situated.
• Temperate Regions
• Cold Regions
• Hot Regions
Technical Interpretation
• Architectural forms are determined by techniques of
construction.
• It is not enough for a building actually to be solid; it must also
have an appearance of solidity.
Physio-Psychological Interpretation

• The Egyptian Age of fear

• The Greek Age of grace

• The Roman Age of force

• The Gothic Age of aspiration

• The Renaissance Age of elegance


THE ART OF THE NATIONS… by Kahlil Gibran


• The art of the Egyptians is in the occult
• The art of the Chaldeans is in calculation
• The art of the Greeks is in proportion
• The art of the Romans is in echo
• The art of the Chinese is in good manners
• The art of the Hindus is in the weighing of good and evil
• The art of the Jews is in the sense of doom

• The art of the Arabs is in memories and exaggeration


• The art of the Persians is in preciseness
• The art of the French is in finesse
• The art of the English is in analysis and self-righteousness
• The art of the Spaniards is in fanaticism
• The art of the Italians is in beauty
• The art of the Germans is in ambition
• The art of the Russians is in sadness.
• The art of the Ethiopians…….
Theory of empathy (responsiveness)

• Looking at architectural features we “vibrate” in affinity with


them, since they arouse reactions both in our bodies and in our
minds.
• Symbolist empathy: reducing art to a science
• ‘A building is nothing but a machine for producing certain
predetermined human reaction.’
• Architecture moves continually under the continuous rotation
of the sun.
Applications of empathy to geometrical
elements

The horizontal line


• Sense of inherent, the
rational, the intellectual,
belonging to the earth.

The vertical line


• Symbol of infinite, ecstasy,
emotion, heavenly

Straight line - confidence,


rigidity, strength
Curved line - hesitancy,
flexibility, decorative values
The cube - integrity, a feeling of certainty.
The circle - sense of equilibrium, of majesty, control over the
whole of life.

Sphere - perfection, the final


conclusive law
Formalist Interpretation

Interpretation according to rules and principles to which


architectural composition must correspond.
• Unity, • Style,
• Contrast, • Urbanity,
• Symmetry, • Emphasis,
• Balance, • Variety,
• Proportion, • Expression,
• Character, • Contrast,…….
• Scale,

Unity in variety??

“Form… is the inherent essence


that an architect had to recognize
in an architectural program before
it was contaminated by practical
considerations.”

Luis I. Kahn

The whole should be greater


than the sum of it’s parts

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