You are on page 1of 16

The Engineers System- Picon

- Blondel tried to reorganized arch. Knowledge the engineer began to appear.


-18th century was not wholly unused to engineer, as since renaissance he had been involved in the construction of
machines, fortifrications, bridges, and hydraulic projects which up until 18 th century was still regarded as a barch of
arch. (before creation of Ponts et chausses)
-during enlightenment arch. And eng. Began to separate developing a specific knowledge and practice different from
the arch/engineers of the renaissance. Developed courses reserved for engineers, and the ponts et chaussees played
key pioneering role in the changes of their roles.
-18th century, landscape was still a relatively recent concept, with the occupation of fixing once and for all the image of
geographical reality. Roads became of economic importance.
-map of france was begun to provide an accurate picture of the realm, history of the map include picard and the
cassini. The meridian from 1670-1718 was triangulated, and was only completed at beginning of 19 century when the
topography of the mountain areas was also established.
-attempt to yield concept of landscape, in measurable and comprehensible terms which were technological and
economic.
-engineers were equipped to taks of managing this territory developing overall planning policies involving the
conquest of nature, social progress, and more extensive activities.
-at end of 17th c. ponts et chaussees was entrusted with maintenance of highways.
-1 architect served as chief engineer, 3 inspectors, and 21 engineers of the ponts et chaussees one for each region of
the kingdom, which were assisted by sub-engineers and technical personnel.
-planning policies were at first too loose and highly inefficient. Reorganization of the administration was required and a
drawing office in paris was set up as the precursor of the ecole des ponts et chaussees.
-creation of drawing office was turning point in planning policies central supervisory institution existed at managerial
lvl. Recruitment and training of Ngineers charged with conception/ execution of public works was combined.
Trained and managed the engineers to pursue careers in Ponts et chaussees.
1756- office went by the title of ecole des ponts et chaussees- with 60-80 pupils at the school. Learned hydraulics,
frame-building, stone-cutting, and the calculation of earthworks.
1st competition to be held at the ecole des ponts et chausees was 1747, then yearly 2-3 competitions would occur a
year. in 1775 the ecole was reorganized and further competitions introduced, and practice of building was a form of
training as the school was still unstructured. There were probationary periods which completed the pupils training,
and allowed for them to familiarize themselves with technical processes used on the site.
Many issues with model of teaching uet it had become a universally admired model by end of 18 th c.
Engineers system and its principles
Territory and planning corps- territory was defined by development policy which the corps of PeChausses aimed to put
into practice.
Engineers at the time were engaged with reformulating the problem of the structuring of space. Rationalizations and
reorganizations of space, conception of design, and the conditions it was executed.
Initially enlightenment saw little real progress in construction/development. In 18 th c. arch and design were still quite
central to the engineers preoccupations, as they rationalized the way workers were conceived and put into practice
occurring at diff levels.

1st lvl- training- engineers acquired knowledge and of formulae which the engineer could call upon during everyday
work. Construction of works which science allowed one to situate w/in theoretical framework. Exhaustive description of
project from arch form to technologies employed and the quantities and prices of the materials.
Continuous process from intitial moment of invention to the effective realization of construction on a building site.
Practice was still similar to that of architecture, drawing up plans, etc. but they were administere into a corps.
The basis of a doctrine
Engineers doctrine not in a technical book, it was rather a form of discourse shared by all the engineers and was
taught at the ecole along with design.
Excercises of style- at the ecole involved writing a dissertation upon a subject chosen by the board of the ecole. The
doctrines derived from nature from which everything seems to stem and posses 2 characteristics 1. Nature is seen as
productive- agriculture, mining of wealth (we need resources). Reason was simply given to the principle acting within
nature to organize it. It sets man on the path of progress.
Engineers kinship with nature and reason- working to increase his knowledge, and did he not also wish to contribute
to the progress of society?
A time before engineers- was before one had overcome the obstacles that nature placed between men, cutting
through mountains to build roads, rendering rivers navigatable, etc.
The improvement of communications- equality of men chiefly concerned production and engineers wished to eliminate
a whole series of obstacles, and the desire for a reasobable society reflected the everyday concerns of the engineers
which had shifted to more general level.
Engineers took from rousseau the idea of the social contract and the nececity ot surrender part of ones individual
liberty to the collectivity or entrust liberty to an authority one had chosen for oneself. Engineers out to be good, and
thus the importance for engineers to have an enlightened mind and a good heart. One when joining the corps had to
take on this spirit of general goodness towards society. An architecture of reason
Architects and engineers
Engineers had taken place in the machinery of state which the architects had previously denied them. But like
architects engineers took their bearkings from design, character, and from taste.
Utility determined the form which engineers designs would assume in the social domain and the use to which it would
be put. While architects entered into negotiations with his patron over the image a design should have. Engineers
addressed himself to a human group whose needs and laws he had himself defined.
Utility for engineers combined technical decisions and expression of the collectivity. Utility would be able to free itself
from convencance and concern itself solely with imperatives of a technical kind. Not as much as an art that decides
the form. Taste and character are no strictly necessary in terms of utility.
Loss of meaning of covenance was linked to engineers perception of nature of society. Engineers unlike architect
respond to the collectivitys needs (country and society and its intitutions) compactness of entities they sought to
unify.
Engineers approach developed alongside arch. Theory, it seemed to anticipate a possible future.
Diff in attitude between engineers and architects led to reformulation of the problem of theory and its relation to
professional practice. It did not mean the same thing to engineers as it did to architects.
Engineers theory is science and calculation while arch is subject of abstract knowledge.
Designs of enlightenment engineers resemble those of architects. Gradual transitions away from architecture to a
separate entity.
Design ceased to have much sig for engineers but remained point of reference for architects.
Architecture has crystalilised around problem of construction. Compare thinking of architects with that of engineers.

c. price
oxford corner house- provide facilities, systems, tools and equipemtn for public to involve themselves in self-pace
skills, techniques, and information retrieval. Scholastic, economic, academic or class structure it encoursages self-pace
exploration by the individual of his curiosity, skill, and mental appetite.
Detroit thinkgridInteraction centre-

1958 program of the hochschule fur gestaltung, Ulm


The HfG in Ulm, Germany began operation in 1953 and moved into building designed by its director Max Bill, in 1955.
Bill studied at Bauhaus designed the buildings and structured its curriculum to reflect and promote the goals of the
Bauhaus on an international lvl as Ulm school of design. It closed in 1968 due to financial trouble- but had lasting
impact on international design, especially electronics.
-in tech. civilization HfG had 2 diff tasks, 1.) desing of industrial products 2.) design of visual and verbal means of
communication.
-school educated designers for production and consumer goods industries and for present day communication (film,
television, broadcasting, advertising, etc.) TRAINING LASTS 4 years.
HfG designed for maximum of 150 students and both faculty and students come from different countries giving
school international character.
School combined teaching and research in an institute for industrilalized building with an institute for communication
under construction.
Buildings were designed by Maxc bill and construction began in 1952 school opened in 1955.
Foundation course
All students follow 1st year foundation course before being accepted into one of 4 departments. The course had 4
purposes
1.
2.
3.
4.

Introduce students to work of departments in which work is based


Make students conversant with important questions for tech. civilization and the way it comminucates with
actual design problems
Trains students to work together and teamwork.
Adjusts lvls in previous education to account for students from diff countries with diff educational systems.

Practical and theoretical courses


Visual methods- experiments in 2 and 3d studes in perception, symmetry and topology.
Workshop practice- wood, metal, plaster, photography
Means of presentation- technical drawing, letter forms, free drawing,etc.
Methodology- intro to mathematical logic, topology, etc.
Sociology- changes in social structure since indust. Revolution.
Perception theory- intro to problems w/ visual perception
Cultural history of 20th c. painting sculpture, arch, etc.
Mathematics, physics, chemistry.
Indust design department

Train desiners in industrial products. Emphasis on scientific and technological disciplines guinding operational
processes in industrial production.

Building department
-

Industrialized building department application of modern methods of production to building techniques and
rejection of traditional methods.

Visual communication department


-

Design visual information in a way that corresponds to its function. (typography, graphic desing, photography,
exhibition, film, television, etc.)

Information department
-

Educates writers for the press, broadcasting, television, and film. Means of communication which on ever
increasing scape shape modern society. Concentration on experimental study.

World planning- fuller


-entire worlds indust. Resources are now preoccupied in serving only 40% of humanity w/ advancing standards of living
provided by worlds progressively enlarging and integrating industrial networks.
Radical tech. innovation needed to make worlds total available resources serve 100% of the exploding pop. Not a
political rationalization. Task can only be accomplished by worlds architects, inventors and scientist-artists.
The soliution of forward livingry design problems is the responcibility of the architerct, but warchitects operate only
when funded by a client so how can they solve a world problem?
It must then only be solved by architects taking initiative rather than leaving the evolutionary advance to political
reforms which become world political crises.
Universities need to dedicate thime and provide intellectual resources available for the design science to be applied to
world-planning. Allowing for organized and progressive discovery and design solution of the comprehensive family of
economic, technical and scientific factors governing such a worl-planning program.
200ft miniature earth with lightbulbs connected to an electronic computer, and patterns introduced into the bulb
matrix would create an omni-directional spherical picture seen all over its surface. Information could be programmed
into the comp. and remembered such as geographical features of earth and the variety of weather conditions. And
paste photographs taken by aerial surveyors so that individual houses could be seen by the naked eye. People would
be able to see whole earth at true scale in respect ot the works and habitat of man.
History of the changing earth could be introduced into the computers memory and provide an accelerating transition
of events around the surface of the Earth summed up in minutes. Can even think ahead and provide reasobable
probability for planner-designers anticipatory advantage and the use of resources.
mini earth should be installed nationally ex. New york by the UN, or at each Olympic games.
If students choose to employ min earth as their facility they will find the Un rich in economic, demographic and
sociologic data. Display of sequences of weather events, worlds electromagnetic field patterns, varying astrophysical
patterns, which we be displayed in motion on mini earth.
24 hour visual phenomenon- disclosing the world news and events on 24hour basis, photographs of data arrays on
their models and could even have small models available in schools and other institutions.
Can even have co-ordination between institutions situated in diff countries to collect and gather data sets. With
interconteninental teams and the designs created would be presented either in original drawing or on two square
meters with media stuck to the panels which could be uses in a microfilm projector to display the students work.
10 year world planning and design program could hold regenerative potentilas. And can catalyse world attention and
recognition of the significance and potentials of their information.

4D experience to architecture.
Architect=Machine symbiosis
-

Designer-machine unity provokes a dialogue and the progressively intimate association of the two in symbiosis
evolving through mutual training or dialogue.
Man-machine dialogue has no historical precedent, on order to have a cooperative interaction b/ween a
designer of certain expertise and a machine of some scholarship, the two must be congenial and share the
labor establishing common language.
Two former barriers between architects and pomputing machines wcan be removed through a natural manmachine discourse, using computer aided design hardware. A vibrant stream of ideas can be directly
channeled from the designer to the machine and back again.
Communication is potential for reevaluating procedures themselves.
In typical life we employ use of gestures between human to human dialogue, manner carries cultural
information, ex. Diff cultures employ diff gestures.
In man-machine communication, such manners are ignored, but such gestures are part of the actual language.
Imagine machines that could after observing your behavior build a predictive model of your conversational
performance. Dialogue would be so personal that you would not be able to use someone elses machine. It
would not be the human designer who would decide when the machine is relevant.
Design dialogue would be of mutual development over the course of multiple interactions. But are we creating
a machine which would stand to have the same faults as the designer himself?
The entire symbiotic system is an artificial intelligence that cannot be partitioned. Man and machine would be
one single cooperative entity.

Natural and not-so-natural computer graphics.


-

Graphic media have been indigenous to architects. Traditional applications range for m the thumbnail sketch
tho the rendering to the working drawing. 3d graphic representation have warrented overcoming of tech
difficulties in describing 3d events.
Machines can do mechanical drawings too, designer could talk to machine graphically and machine can
graphically respond in turn. The message as of late has however been dominated by the medium.
Comp graphics is not synonym for CAD. Graphics mechanism has two familiarities as it is used to imput info
into a machine and outputs info to the designer displaying it on a cathode ray tube screen.
Cathode ray tubes most common input device is the light pen, a stylus that allows designers to detect lines
points or characters and dray about a spot of light to draw lines. Lines are thick and awkward when drawn as
well as costly.
Instant accuracy is offered but not always desirable. Refinement of drawings however is often a step by step
process with sharpening and comprehension.
Comp graphics hardware are still clumsy, and have technical difficulties and wore resolution that graphite on
paper. Slow progression to the research of a sketchpad.
Antisketch nature of present comp sketchpads, second awkwardness 2d documents ex elevations normally
sketched by architect to understand and relay his work , and from these documents a 3d representation can be
extsapolated as a model or perspective drawing.
In computer design- model always exists. And machine can produce a section, perspective, or plan at any
point. All comp. needs is knowledge of wether designer is working w/ lines, planes, or volcumes because each
requires a diff reception.
Comp graph systems, arch is obliged to work in a predetermined mode whose scale and proportions may be
manipulated.

CAD vs computerized
-computerized often mislabeled computer-aided, computers are now available in the home, connected by telephone
lines and sep users are sharing one large machine at same time. (on-line usage)
-computer-aided demands dialogue, events cannot be merely a fast-time manifestation of causes and effects.
Online is not asufficient condition for a comp. aided environment. It requires mutual interuptability for man and
machine, 2 local and didcated pumting power within the terminal 3. Machine intelligence.
In CAD system macvhine may interrupt user to present unsolicited info. Each routine resides in the machine only when
explicitly called into service by a particular users. The machine can listen but cannot interrupt.

The machine of the architect would be composed of additive and subtractive pieces of hardware as determined by the
discipline of its partner. Mechanical partner must have intelligence, man thinks, and the machine calculates.
Can machine intelligence be independent of human intelligence? CAD concerns an ecology of mutal design
complementation, augmentation, and substitution.
Adaptable machines, sensory machines, and parent machines
-

CAD system is too glorified by its peperatioire of operations. Problem oriented language is high lvl computer
language hwose formation and implementation assume specific discipline or set of disciplines. Use of
commands user can implement his own algorithm for determining behavior of the structure.
Probkem oriented language- high level computer language whose formulation and implementation assume
specific discipline or set of disciplines. Gives same illusion of generality as the ridg regiment of services.
Common failure to understand difference between flexibility and adaptability.
Dialogue must be evolutionary. Mechanical partner must be evolutionary and adaptable. Can transform itself to
appear as a special purpose machine. If user machine relationship is only maintained the machine can become
a yes man machine agreeing to and developing same errors as human user.
Adaptable machine must revceive direct sensory info from real world, see, hear, etc. info should pass into
machine through observation channels. Designer does not completely control data that is collected, machine
has capacity to challenge. Machines need capability of overviewing designers, their definitions, activities, and
methods. It can alert human user of other designers practices. 1. An evolutionary mapping of pop desires, 2.
Statistical overlay of solution patters, 3. Images of architects he esteems.
Parent machine would store all building codes, geographic, demographic data, etc.
Arch machine that could observe existing ENV in real world and design behsviours creating an architect with
unsolicited knowledge and unsolicited problems.

New Technology and Architectural Form, 1851-90


The iron problem
-1850- iron was part of everyday life, massproduced decorative embelishments to train sheds. May 1 st 1851, the Great
Exhibition of the Work of Industry of All Nations seeking to educate people on expanding knowledge and golobal
industrialization.
-Joseph Paxtons crystal palace offered little more refinement than tech. offered in greenhouses. Iron had not been
confined to gardens or working edge of cities. Iron had chaging role in early 1800s being introduced in skylights, etc.
Crystal palace
-daunting scale, 1851 feet long, it enclosed 18acres, and even mature trees. With only 9 months of assembly. Set in
Hyde park, the prefabricated building was a monument on display, a 19 th century style invented on its own, which
produced a mechanical ingenuity which would hold impact not only on exhibition buildings but on emergent mass
consumer culture.
-it was considered first great building which was not of solid masonry, changing the standards to which architecture
was held. Being made of glass it serves as an illusion with no play of shadows in which we can gauge the
measurements. It simply blends into atmosphere.
-paxton honed on the idea of a supply kit of parts to meet a tight budget and schedule. Hollow cast iron members
served not only as structural uprights but as a drainage system. It was at once assembly line and then finished
products.
-henry cole- painteded the girders with white. And
-it was true to its materials, expressive in structural principles and aside from difficulties in controlling interior temp,
admirably suited for its purpose.
Gothic revivalists thought the crystal palace set a dangerous precedent. Pugin- declared it most monstrous thing ever
imagined

-the ecclesiologist- declared it was not architecture, but it was engineering of the highest merit. Mechanical ingenuity
is not the essence of either painting or arch, and largeness of dimension does not involve nobleness of design. (Ruskin)
-ruskin- formulated compelling critique of industrial and commercial capitalism in the afterglow of crystal palace taking
theme the rise and fall of mercantile venetian public. He drew dangers of the factory system to the dignity and
freedom of individuals such as that of the prefabricated palace. It fails to give testimony to the diversity of workmen
pursuing their craft. Labour upon architecture.
Ruskin condemned the modern factory system which transformed English landscape in less than 2 generations, he
condemned all cast and machine work claiming it to be dishonest. Architects should work in mason yard with the men,
to understand influence of men vs machine.
Deane and woodwards Oxford Museum
In 1853 oxford university announced a competition for designs for a new museum building to accommodate the great
expansion in scientific teaching (research rather than tutorials)
The exterior faade would be that of gothic secular design with the faade ornamented by hand chissled naturalistic
ornament like that of medieval cathedral facades. Ruskin saw the building as art that was informative in the way it
classified it s mineral type igneous rock on ground floor and sedimentrary specimins above but also the belief that
ornamentation should be done by crasftsmen and skilled working individuals.
Giddeon: constructors
-names of constructors who gave shape to 19th c. are mostly unknown. Actual development occurred anonymously. The
first wave or pioneers were born around 1800, second wave 1830s.
1st wave share a prophetic realization of a worldview that existed nowhere but within a vision in ones mind.
Antoine Polonceau (1778-1847) studied at ecole polytechnique (1797) built roads through alpine passes and
experimented with use of concrete foundations. Erected pont du corrousel (1839) in paris, but concerned with
rationalization of agriculture, improvements in drainage, havrvesting, and soil.
Eugene Flachat (1802-1873) railroad builder, constructor. Built first railroad in France (1837). He made designs for
docks, canals, warehouses, harbor facilities, transatlantic steam shipping, and an alpine tunnel. He participated in the
many great industrial issues, concerning with the wear of trainrails and the organization of large technical societies.
Hector Horeau (1801-72) designer who formulated the decisive building tasks before it was possible to realize them on
such a scale. Wanted buildings that correspond to needs of the age. Designed enormous exhibition halls, libraries,and
market halls.
Henry labrouste (1801-75) attempts to combine architect and engineer into one person: architect-constructor. He won
no prizes for palaces but for prisons, hospitals, and the libraryof sainte-Genevieve. Designs plans according to climate,
material, and necessities of the program. Recognizes function of iron before the railroad, and sees construction as
innermost face of arch. Exterior is only encasement.
2nd wave gustave Eiffel- engineer-constructor, entrepreneur. Attempts to solve problem of arched truss.
The 19th century
-1sty inheritance: to it belongs all fields that somehow stand apart, art, celebration, representation, and private affairs.
-2nd life itself compels its own laws. Surface of the eafrth is transformed (brigdges, harbors, tunnles, etc.)production is
now established around industry, and the regrouping of society begins.
-inheritance should not be neglected. In the field of architecture if we employ the usual stylistic notions to understand
it, we arfe left with nothing but empty shells. Throughout last century one might have built w/ bad conscience or
uncertainty. Pessimistic general attitude with the emerging of individual isolation and integrated constructional design.
-one attempts to find a style w/out realizing these experiments were condemned to fail from the start.

Everything was labled as individualistic but yet in the everyday fields elements of collective design formed. We must
then concern ourselves with this raw material, gray buildings, market halls, warehouses, exhibitions. However
aesthetically unimportant. For within them lies deeper collective meanings.

Background and principles of design.


-round buildings were fairly common in qntiquity before pantheon. Plain circular buildings are easy to lay out. A stake
with a line looped around it for radius is essentially all that is needed. It is difficult to relate curving walls to a
projecting entranceway. Either needs good deal of open space around it or embedded in out structures. If round
building is large the problem of roofing it becomes an issue.
Monumental public building of the round plan valuted over and intended to be entered unlike prepantheon buildings,
was a creation of Roman imperial architects.
Idea of circularity in arch descended from religious buildings and tombs, although circular huts existed in Greco-roman
times, circular houses did not. Some circular tombs and temples were conceived for interior volumes where others
counted the exterior design and the interior was only accessible to few, if any.
Treasury of Atreus (1300bc) was sunk into hillside, and was covered by a vault-like shape made of stones carefully laid
horizontally in circles giving it a half egg shaped look.
Tumulus- a rounded burial mound of earth frequently of great size, common around the eastern Mediterranean. Often
for royalty, sometimes grand constructions built up partly of stone (Hellenistic Greece, romans) contains a corridor or
two and a burial chamber.
-athens late 4th century bc. Agustus and Hadrian built large circular semi-solid tombs of concrete for themselves in
Rome. Roundness was strongly entrenched in funerary architecture.
Greek or roman temples or shrines also known to have circular expaples Temple of Vesta, cylindrical structures or cella
surrounded by a ring of columns. The cella had a door and inside was a space rooded by conical timber frame
supporting roof tiles. (not normally open to public, house of the cult. ) ceremonial backdrop for ceremonies held
outdoors often.
-hellenistic times- buildings round an fairly plain exteriors without colonnades,usually freestanding almost always
dedicated to god, goddess, or group od dieties.
Building tech. based on cast concrete became pop. In 3rd century BCE , in Italy. Such circular deisngs also caught on to
bath houses, palaces, and villas.
Temple of mercury- diameter of pantheon, and 1/8 th volume, and is shouldered into steep hillside, and had no
external entrance as it was part of other structures. Occulus, 2 windows in lower side of dome help to provide light.
Dome is made of concrete like the base but the stones are placed more or less radically to the domes curve. The
lighting effects are similar to those of the oantheon though surfaces are less articulated and scale is smaller.
Centralized market structure was common in the roman world and the circular buildings within could serve many
functions
Neros palace- rome, octagonal atrium of a very large palace wing of the later 60s known as the golden house, and
was not a cult, funerary, or bath building, but instead a palace hall for the ruler. It was built of concrete technology,
and it is a centralized structure, lit by an occulus. Its octagonal shape is no bar to its relationship to the Pantheon. The
octagonal atrium is epitome of process learning the lessons of flammable building materials.
Severus was the architect, and celer his master builder- created culminating stage in creation of centralized interior
architecture. Cage like structure composed of eight piers set at all angles of an octagon. It had an umbrella like vault
overhead and provided and airy well lit space. It is embedded in the palace wing. There are no unnecessary solis for
the arrangement of the elements of the composition. Shape, space, structure and light comine into one.
By end of 1st century AD the domed centralized happ though not common place in roman world was a well understood
building type.

Trajan builders show the importance of valted brock faced architecture had become fully accepted and could be used
for any type of building used similar design to that of pantheon. Came before pantheon. The market had cross vaults
that would form an arcade of arches, and was a multibayed design. Similar to pantheon but not circular like that of
pantheon. Also had semidomed spaces.
Hadrian- experimented with architectural desing at the villa, the temple of appollo was a sort of pantheon, being o
curcular composition of exact diameter and of the same date, the maritime theotre was not vaulted over but consisted
of a circular gallery around a moat around an island. Grand traditions of classical arch were still tied to the vaulted
styles.
In late 1890s excavations were made baside pantheon to try to learn more about Agrippas building. It was likely
rectangular set where the pantheon porch is now but facing south. It was not in form of classical temple either greek or
roman.
Appearance of pantheon in antiquity would have been different than that of today. Forecourt would have existed
outside pantheon and were composed in a familiarly roman way.
Basic scheme of the structure was done in five foot incriments. The corner coums are slightly thicker than others
following classical precedent, the columns are of tinted granite, their bases and capitals are of white marble.
Flanked columns of the porch are met, at the intermediate block by wrought marble pilasters. There was also elaborate
marble veneering.
There are many attmepts to render its original appearance with minimal evidence. 3 cornices are another matter. Their
terracotta and stone elements were originally coated with stucco.
With cornices shadow is everything, it is part of the architectural design, explaining the orders and their use through
millennia and in eery kind of building.
The porch as shown in artists recreation became darker towards the rotunda and when one entered the rotunda it
became reverse light once again became full and unimpeded. In both agrippas and Hadrians pantheon the cella is
wider than the porch.
Tholos temple in a square in rome, built around 2nd century bce was altered some time during 1st century with the
addition of a four columned porch. This may hold link to the design that formed the pantheon. Proportions are similar
of vitruviuss notion that proportions in both architecture and human figure and their sympathetic relationships.
In the pantheon these concpets appear drastically enlarged , and sympathy between forms of roman valuted arch and
spatial potential of human figure is perhaps one of the principle keys to understanding long and continuous influence
of roman architecture. Use of colored marbles and veneers add a baroque like quality although only in terms of visual
qualities. The columns although looking as if they serve to support are more cosmetic as the unseen amountsof
concrete actually support the building.
Columns appear to be holding the solid wall above but in fact unseen valuts and concrete do this work. In the dome
above the perspective coffers and the use of niches give the impression of an expanding space.
First and second zones have vertical matched architectural elements which are abandoned in the dome where 28
radial rows of coffers and a function of seven and fourteen rather than 4 and 8. The coffers do not synchronize with the
verticals below. The coffers enlivesn the effect of the interior. Seen from other positions the edgs of the pyramidal
boxes begin to overlap and suggest a greater depth than the actual. Become complex pattern of light and shade.
Similar to the floor tiles of medusas head enframed by swirl of curves.
On summer solstice the light from occulus moves up in the dome.

Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-Le-Duc
-viollet-le-duc by early 1850s no longer committed to gothic revival in sense of advocating the imitation of gothic
forms but still believed in renewal of contemp. Practice brought forth by employeeing rational constructional analysis
that was feature of Gothic Arch.

Appears in his dictionnaire raisonne de larchitecture francais du xi au xvi- attempted to provide models for contemp
use but to dissect Frances medieval legacy for its imperious laws of logic and native originality and independence
Gothic architecture remained confined within specific limits so long as arch, both in theory and practice remained in
hands of religious establishments. Ther national genius was not slow however in making itself dominant once it freed
itself from Romanesque envelope in which it found so little comfort it exploded.
-construction of vaults, which exert oblique thrusts , and is therfor necessary to maintain them in place to construct a
counter oblique resistance it was necessary.
By middle 12c. builders realized round or semicircular arch had too great thrust to allow it to be raised to great heights
so it was replaced by the pointed arch. Barrel vault was abandoned entirely . they reduced the mass of their structures
and at the same time realized the tremendous resistance strength that the pointed arch possessed. Round arch
eventually was abandoned for the pointed arch.
13th c on arch developed arcordingly to a new method. All the related parts could be rigourously deduced one from the
other. Construction dictates form; piers destined to carry several arches will have as many separate columns as there
are arches and diameter will vary based on the weight the columns must support. Stained glass became a more
common place decoration. Everything necessary to construction became another motif for decoration. Iron work,
supporting structures, sealing, heating and ventilation. These elements were not hidden but rather they would be
ornamented to contribute to richness of arch.
Each ornament will represent fulfillment of some specific need, arch is so tied to national history and character of the
French, that it is only barely understandable why it is more important subject in French history.
Vitruvius
-six principles of art and science of architecture 1.) order- ordering parts alone or as a whole (symmetry implied),
2.)arrangement- design or aptness of placement. 3 Eurythmy or proportion, symmetry, propriety and economy.
-vitruvius principles of durability, convenience, and beauty.
1.archtect should have broad knowledge of learning, knowledge is child of practice (exercise of employment) and
theory *ability to demonstrate and explain),
2.) architects must have scholarship or knowledge to gain recognition, but need knowledge of both theory, and manual
askill.
Architecture depends on order, arrangement, eurythmy, symmetry, propriety, and economy.
Order- gives measure to members either separately or to proportions of the whole. Arrangement means putting things
in proper places invention is solving intricate problems with new principles.
Eurythmy beauty and fitness in adjustments of the members. All correspond symmetrically.
-symmetry- agreement b/ween members of the work itself. Harmony.
-propriety- perfectin of style which comes when constructed on approved principles. It arises from usage when
buildings have magnifiecent interiors with elegant entrance courts to resond. Depends on location to work with the
architecture.
-economy- proper management of materials and of site. Thrifty balancing of cost and common sense in construction of
works. Things must be made within expense. Or difference in houses for class levels.
3 departments of architecture
1.the art of building- public, and private. Public has 3 classes 1.) defensive, 2.) religious, 3.) utilitarian purposes.
Defense- towers, walls gates, etc.
Religion- erection of fanes, temples to gods, etc.
Utility- provision of meeting places for public use (markets, baths, theatres, etc.)

All must be built with reference to durability, convenience, and beauty. Durability if it is sold and well used materials.
Convencience- when it does not hinder use, and appropriate use of building, 3. Beauty when appearance is pleasing
and of good taste.
2. making of time pieces,
3. construction of machinery.

Le Corbusier: towards a new architecture: guiding principles


The engineers aesthetic and arch
-both engineers aesthetic and arch march together and follow one from the other.
-engineer inspired by law of economy and governed by mathematical calculations puts us in accord with universal law.
He create harmony.
- the architect by arrangement of forms, realizes an order which is a pure creation of his spirit. He evokes emotions
awakening something in us by what he creates he determines movements of our heart and of our understanding. We
get to experience a sense of beauty.
3 reminders to architects. Mass, surface, plan.
Mass
We see forms in light, primary forms are beautiful forms cause they can be clearly appreciated. Architects today no
longer achieve simple forms. Work by calculation, engineers employ geometrical forms to satisfy eyes by their
geometry and our understanding by their mathematics. Their work is on the direct line of good art.
Surface
A mass is enveloped in its surface, surface divided up according to directing and generating lines of mass; gives the
mass individuality.
Architects today, are afraid of geometrical constituents of surfaces. Great Problems of modern construction must have
a geometrical solution. Engineers know the exactly determined conditions and make use of form-generating and formdefining elements.
Plan
The plan is the generator. Without the plan you lack order and willfulness.
Plan holds in itself the essence of sensation. Great problems of tomorrow put the question of plan in a new form.
Modern life demands a new kind of plan both for the house and the city.
Regulating lines
Inevitable element of architecture, the necessity for order. Regulating line guarantee against wilfullness. It brings
satisfaction to the understanding. It is a means to an end not a recipe. its choice and modalities of expression given to
it are an integral part of architectural creation.
Liners
Exiss a new spirit , it is to be met with industrial production. Arch is stifled by custom. The styles are a lie. Style is a
unity of principle animate all the work of an epoch which has its own state of character. Our eyes areour unhappily
unable to decern it that day by day we are determining our own style.
Aeroplanes

Product of close selection, logic governs the problem and its realization. The problem of the house unlike the aeroplan
has not yet been stated. There however do exist standards for the dwelling house. The house is a machine for living in.
Automobiles
Must aim to fix the standards in order to face the problem of perfection. Architecture operates within accordance with
standards. The Parthenon is a product of selection applied to a standard. Standards are a matter of logic, analysis, and
study. Based on a problem which has been well stated. It is established through experiment.
The lessons of rome
-architecture goes beyond utilitarian needs, it is meant to establish emotional relationships by means of raw materials,
spirt of order is a unity of intention. The sense of relationships/ architecture deals with quantities.
Illusion of plans
Plan proceed from within to without. The exterior is the result of an interior. Elements of architecture are light and
shade, walls and space. Arrangement is the classification of intentions. Intentions which take into account arch
elements. If they do not speak language of arch then there is error in conception.
Pure creation of the mind
Contour and profile are touchstone of architect. Here he reveals himself artist or mere engieneer. Contour is free of
constraint.no question of tradition or construction nor adaptation to utilitarian needs. Contour and profile are a pure
creation of the mind they call for plastic artist.
Mass-production houses.
-there exists a new spirit for new times, industry is like a flood which rolls towards a destined end. It has given us new
tools, ecomonic law governs our acts and thoughts. The problem of the house is the problem of our time. The
equilibrium of society depends on it. Architecture needs a revision of values, a revision of the constitutent elements of
a house.
Mass production is based on analysis & experiment. Industry on grand scale must occupy itself with building and
establish elements of house on a mass-production basis.
Mass production spirit spirit of constructing mass-production house, living in these houses, conceiving these houses.
If we eliminate dead concepts in terms of a house and look at the question from a critical and objective point of view
we arrive at the house-machine the mass production house, healthy, and beautiful in same way that working tools
and instruments helping in our existence are beautifl. Artists sensibility can add to sever and pure functioning
elements of the house.
Architecture or revolution.
Mass production in building has already begun. In face of economic needs, mass production units have been created
both in mass and detail, and have produced definite results. We need to think consously the method employed and in
the large scale it has been carried out. The machinery of our society oscilates between historical importance and a
catastrophe. It is instinct every human needs shelter, and working class needs dwellings adapted to their needs,
neither artisan nor the intellectual. It is a question of building which is at the root of social unrest today. Arch or
revolution.

Tony Garnier :from an industrial city (1917)


-garniers vision of an industrial city had early origins and this futurist notion holds many intellectual and cultural
forces behind it. The utopian and positivist traditions of fourier and sait-simon or the recently published ideas of
ebenzer howard. There are socialist ideals of public ownership of all land and basic services. And garniers vision owes
much to his own experiments as a municipal architect working in lyon during the war years.
Garnier has a concept of a modern industrial city, built entirely of concrete, uncompromising in its clean unornamented
modern forms.

Principle factories situatied in plain at the confluence of the river and its tributary. Main line railroad passes b/ween the
factories and town which is placed above factories on a plateau.
Higher are the hospitals and like the city are sheltered from cold winds and have their terraces oriented south. Each
elements (factories, towns, hospitals) are isolated so they can expand.
Most satisfactory program for the material and moral needs of the individual has resulted in creation of rules
concerning road use, hygiene and so on. And resulting social order with automatic adoption of these rules so it will not
be necessary to enact actual laws. Distribution of land and supplies will be given over to the public domain. Ex.
Medical supplies, distribution of food,etc.
Materials used are concrete for foundations and walls, reinforced concerte for floors and ceilings. All important
buildings are constructed of reinforced concrete. These two materials are prepared in molds made for this purpose.
Simpler the molds, easier the construction, and less the cost.
Greater sumiplicity of expression in the structure, simplicity of logic. If our structures remain simple, unadorned,
without molding, and bare, then they are able to arrange the decorative arts so that each object will retain purest and
clearest expression and it will be totally independent of the construction.
The use of such materials results in obtaining the horizontals and verticals that are proper to give the construction
calm equilibrium that will harmonize lines of nature.
Other systems of construction, other materials, lead to other forms which would propel forward an interesting study.
The new architecture and the Bauhaus
Can real sig. of new arch. Be conveyed in words? A breach made with past allows us to envisage a new aspect of
architecture corresponding to the technical civilization of the age we live in . morphology of dead styles has been
destroyed and we are returning to honesty of thought and feeling. The general public has been awakened, personal
interest in architecture as something that concerns every one of us in our daily lives has developed.
It is widely recognized that although otward forms of new architecture differ fundamentally in the organic sense from
those of the old, they are not the personal whims of a handful of architects seeking innovation but rather the inevitable
logical product of the intellectual, social, and technical conditions of our age.
Development of new arch encountered serious obstacles at very early age of development.
Ludwig mies van der rhoe: from the office building (1923)
- 19222 mies joined Novembergruppe, another group of architecs and artists committed to modernism. Formed friends
with el lissitzy, Hans Richter, and Werner Graff. All three joined forces to found the journal G, and it was through this
journal that rinciples of the De Stijl and constructivism first became known in Germany. The journal fitted well with
mies beliefs. One of Mies projects published by journal G was his office Building which was a concrete and glass
structure. Symbolic of mies minimalist style of design, and his reference to formalism. It is probably directed both to
expressionism and to the evolving teachings of Gropius at the Bauhaus.
Any aesthetic speculation, doctrine, or any formalism ----we must reject.
Building art is spatially apprehended will of the epoch, changing, alive, and new. Not the past or future, but it is of
today. Only the building creates ,
create form out of the nature of the task with the means of our time. (that is our work)
-office building is a building of work, organization, clarity, and of economy.
-bright, wide workrooms, uncluttered, undivided, only articulated to the organism of the firm, the greatest effect with
the least expenditure of means.
Materiams are concrete, iron, and glass. Ferroconcrete buildings are essentially skeleton structures, supporting girders
of construction with non supporting walls. (skin and bone structure)
Most practical distribution of workstations determines room depth. 16m. double shafted frame of 8m span width with
4m long lateral cantilever brackets on either side, most economical construction principle. Beam distance is 5m.

Post and beam system supports the ceiling panel. Angled vertically upward at end of cantilver arms, becomes exterior
skin and serves back wall of the shelving. Moved to the exterior walls inorder to keep interior uncluttered. Above 2m
high shelving is continuous band of fenestration reaching to the ceiling.
B. Bergdoll the city transformed
-1855- paris was being refashioned by new technologies of machinery and capital. Maron Georges Haussmann (180991) accelerated process of reforming the city. (creation of new boulevards)
-cleared denser city quarters in its projected path to create new boulevards. New hotel du louvre, and attracted new
breed of urban consumers, and tourists from far places.
Hotel du louvre- designed by Alfred Armand project of pereire brothers, who were developers seeking to remap
national territory in the belief it would free up capital and modernize the country promoting general good.
City- gave new impressiong of order, cleanliness, efficiency, and beauty. New streets (over 165km) featured new
churches, markets, and admin. Buildings. Also apartment houses of refinement lined the boulevards. Removal of
working class from the centre and creation of middle class view.
In 1870 the second empire fell. In 1873 the progress of Vienna, the transformation of the old line of fortifications into a
broaf angular boulevard, the ringstrasse offered model for cities whose walls were already worthless. Increasing the
land area with planned extension of gridded blocks, and the term urbanism was born.
By 1900 prestige of French urbanity was international.
Urban reform before Haussmann
-

Frontages of private dwellings forming geometrically aligned streets forcused on afree standing monument
Urnab whole- powerfully consistent visual form, infused in city, with well functioning systems of circulation,
leisure, and santitation.
Around this time engles descriptions of working class slums in manchesete second by socialist literature of
dickens, made it impossible for middle class to ignore living conditions in working class districts.
1842 laws were passed to remove unhealthy dwellings in the name of the greater public good.
Rambuteau launched policy of using street improvements as instrument of states remodeling of urban
spaceand its self conscious chanelling of private development. Improved access to les halles
Pg 8

T. Leslie Built like bridges


1885-1895 2 structural developments that allowed greater height and stability in tall commercial
strucutres as steel replaced cast and wrought iron for girders, and new systems of lateral bracing
were developed.
Lightweight metal frames which absorb and direct these loads of weight on their own. (allowed
greater height) steel was beneficial against windbracing. (Chicago arch)
Structural riveting offered unique opportunities to create still wind-resistant connections and
ductility that steel possessed unlike wrought iron. 1885-95 was period of intense technological
experimentation in tall building construction.
Wrought and cast iron refer to methods of iron production/ chemical content. Cast iron has high
carbon content. Wrought iron had carbon removed and meant loss of strength but increased
ductility (more maluable)
Wrought iron was lighter and capable of resisting tensile stress.

Steel was- ligher carbon content, blasting carbon out of molten ore with air, and then adding
proper percentage of carbon in carefully measured amounts. Could be worked like wrought iron
but was strong like cast iron.
First publicized use of steel in building construction: home insurance building, Chicago 1885. Iron would not be used as
understanding of steel in skyscraper construction was useful in ways the irons were not. Buildings also became free from
massive masonry walls, creating light open structures.
Windbracing- lighter skeletal buildings of increased height, increased area of exposed wall gathers windstrength which
could pry building out of its foundations.
Windbracing masonry walls were then moved inside leaving skins free but taking up floorspace. Shear occurred
throughout colums as structure absorbed the horizontal load of the wind. Wind forces added unpredictable loads from
unknowable directions to the connections b/ween strucutual members.
Design of safe column and beam connections- connections need to be made strong and tight. 4 methods: building mass,
cross bracing, knee braces/ portal frames, and stiff connections.
Masonry walls were reaching their practical limits- metal frame was being seen as efficeitn system for withstanding wind
forces. Like that of bridge engineering.. but engineers couldnt determine how windloads were to be distributed.
To what windvelocity or storm should the buildings be designed to account for? 30 pounds per square foot was adapted
as the max pressure of wind against building some believed it should be 40.
Windbracing became important from 1890-91. Three diff rame based windbracing schemes occurred. Using rod or sway
bracing, knee braces, and portal frames. Sway braces, with proper planning, diagonal braces coul be built into walls but
geometry restricted placement of doors, windows, and other openings, despite being most economical solution (beams
would diagonally cross over two floors)
Common alternative to diagonal sway-bracing was knee brace, shorter diagonal members were placed b/ween colums
and girders to triangulate their junction instead of rods. Inspired by ship building. Low headroom near columns.
Portal frames- arched and triangulated structural shapes which distinction b/ween girder and column was almost
unidentifiable. Uneconomical too much steel.
Paired iron aches provided needed stiffness in buildings short direction and were encased by covered celinings. But
wasted volume and added extra weight.
Lattice girders- emerged in Chicago, if building frame itself could be made stiffer at each major junction it could on its own
develop reliable resistance to windload. Shankland.
Knee bracing with right materials be accomplished within joints between columns and beams themselves. Relied on
hundreds of small joints. Frame could stand on its own, less interruption of open space within. Still relies on columns as
well. Entire frame could absorb and direct wind loads providing multiple paths to channel the lateral loads to the
foundation. moment frame
Fully operational lattice or plate girders only come to use in tall building construction by mid-1890s like a table joined to
other tables above and below. Near time of curtain wall. Stiffness in building frame itself was seen as important part of
windresistance. More spatially efficient solutions required material performance that iron could not achieve alone.
Cast iron, bolts, and rivets
Cast iron construction ws limited by its brittle nature, and possessed neither ductility to allow drilling and could not be
fabricated with sufficient accuracy to allow precision bolting or riveting on site. Easy to stress iron beyond its capacity if it
was slightly imperfect.
No good way to make a perfect connection with cast iron girders. Many had oversized bolt holes. Ex Tay Bridge collapse.
Cast iron fractures when rilled. Bolt holes and turned blots were not really feasible in cast-iron construction.

Riveting- could not be done ith cast iron. It is heating metal plugs to point of soft pliability, inserting them into predrilled
holles in two metal plates and then happering both ends of the plug flat, filling hole completely and holding both pieces
together. Offered lots of stiffness and reliability. Could only be done with wrought iron at the time.
Steel- higher ductility, could be punched easy and more accuracy. Temp bolts would hold members together and rivet
holes would be redrilled and then riveting would occur. 1891 it was common to use drilled and reamed holes in standard
of building steel structures. Cast iron was no longer a suitable material.
Riveting was affordable and rapid process. Over 200 rivets could be made a day by a rivet gang of 5 people with average
cost of rivet under 10 cents.
Problems with cast iron columns
-

Rivet connections were only as secure as the members they joined. Columns were essential to providing stiffness
against wind in all types of wind-resistant frames.
Column in beam had to resist against bending loads it was favoured for round shapes, however closed hollow
colums were impossible to access interior to fix bolts, and were inaccessible for inspection.
Hollow shapes were deemed impratcial too hard to analyse load stress, H shapes had better opportunities to
transmit loads directly to columns centre. These were easy to inspect, and had variations in the thickness of
shapes.
Cast iron was condemned as a structural building material. Engineers opposed it especially after fail of Ireland
building in New York (1897)

Steel columns
-

Advent of steel columns allowed both rigid, moment-transfering connections between girders and columns, they
were more rigid and reliable than cast-iron columns.
Steels ductility, workability, and reliable strength permitted columns whose shapes were better abler to balance
ideal static geometry with ease of fabrication and assembly.
-more consistent products, it could be rolled to precise thin dimensions making bolting and riveting easier. Longer
column lengths allowing for them to be continuous over multiple stories. Were difficult to fabricate or transfort in
lengths greater than 2-3 storeys. They had to be spliced.
Riveting was essential for stiff splices. Steel manufacturers began to produce specialized rolled sections for
columns by 1890.
Prest shape was phoenix column, circular cross section assembled from curved riveted plates w/ straight flanges
at edges to allow multiple rivets on site. Problem with making stiff moment conections. It quickly became difficult
and was dropped from use.
1892- importance of strong connections had eclipsed with concern for ideal structural shapes. Most popular in
Chicago were H shaped box sections assembled from zbars.
Larimer column- two I beams bent at 90 degrees at the center of their web. Like two ibeams perpendicular to
eachother.
Gray column required extensive riveting to fabricate and was high in cost. Was colum of choice in 1890s and was
used through to the 1930s.
Reliance building Chicago, was on narrow plot of land 60x80 and 200 ft tall. Offering little resistance to wind. Use
of gray columns helped to gaurentee secure fit. It was the use of table leg principle rather than tension rods.
Moment frame and wide span b/ween girders contributed to extraordinary light building.
Steel more efficient and better for connections. Less reliance on masonry walls for anything other than
environmental closure.
Wind bracing was one of many technical, economic, and stylisticv developments of late 19 th century.

You might also like