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Showing posts from September, 2016

What is Ornament ?

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John Lewis department store in Leicester, UK Foreign Office Architects Ornament disguised as a pictogram and making the best possible use of modern technology is making a comeback and is no longer a crime.  Definition :  Two- or three-dimensional decoration,  sculpture, carving etc. for the surfaces or spaces of  a building or other object. The need for ornament appears to be a universal one. an aspect of human condition which can be found in the caves of prehistoric man, in the pyramids and tombs of Ancient Egypt, the temples of Greece, the Middle Ages, the geometric ornamentation of Islam, and the patterned wall papers and textiles of today.  There are two aspects/ schools of thoughts that are basically for and against ornamentation, as in the current time 21 century, a decline in the use of ornaments are noticed due to the minimalist movement and idealism architects seem to be adapting, ornaments are to be an integ...

Architecture Basics : Foundations

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Definitions | Foundations, Pile, Retaining wall Foundation  A subterranean structure designed to transmit the structural loading of a building to the underlying ground. Formation, subgrade, subsoil, ground; the bearing layer of soil or rock below the substructure of a building or other construction. Parts of the Foundation  Pile In foundation technology, any vertical structural member of concrete, steel or timber used in series as a foundation on types of soil with poor or uneven bearing capacity; they transmit building loads deep into the ground or to bedrock, or function as earth retaining structures; vertically loaded piles are generally called bearing or foundation piles. Types of Concrete Piles:  Driven pile, precast pile Batter pile, raking pile, inclined pile Underreamed pile, belled pile, pedestal pile, enlarged base pile End-bearing pile, point-bearing pile Friction pile, cohesion pile Cast-in-place pile, in-situ pile, bored pile Pile casing Augered pile, bored p...

What is Form ?

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Etienne-Louis Boullée | Cenotaph for Newton Difference between definitions in English and German : Principles of Gestalt  English : Ambiguous meaning, it can mean shape and idea or essence.  German : (Gestalt : an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.) censorial perception, the form as the idea of something.  * Read more abut the principles of Gestalt patterns here   http://www.fusioncharts.com/blog/2014/03/how-to-use-the-gestalt-principles-for-visual-storytelling-podv/ Aristotle on Form : he central image from Raphael's The School of Athens (1509-1511), depicting Plato (left) and Aristotle (right). Plato is depicted pointing upwards, in reference to his belief in the higher Forms, while Aristotle disagrees and points downwards to the here-and-now, in reference to his belief in empiricism. *In a platonic conception of form by Aristotle, form is an ideal known to the mind through intelligence, not senses. It is linked to material...

Architecture Basics : Domes

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Definition of a Dome:  A hollow, flattened or raised hemispherical roof structure, often of masonry, which rests on a circular, square or polygonal base, it can be supported by columns or piers that transition to the dome through squinches or pendentives. TYPES OF DOMES | MASONRY DOMES : 1. umbrella dome, melon dome pumpkin dome, parachute dome 2. cloister vault, domical vault 3. sail vault, sail dome 4. dome on corbelling 5. dome on squinches 6. pendentive dome 7. half dome, semi-dome, conch 8. calotte, saucer dome 9  .corbelling 10. squinch 11.  pendentive RIBBED VAULTS 12.  tripartite vault 13.  quadripartite vault 14.  sexpartite vault, hexapartite vault 15. octopartite vault *Corbel, definition on the further reading page : A masonry bracket projecting from the face of a building surface to provide support for an overhanging object or member. Corbelled arch, corbel arch; a false arch composed of a series of stones corbelled out from either si...