Theory in Architecture

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Theory in Architecture

• ARCH 5395

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1. Context A Historical Perspective

• Historical Development of Architectural Theory
  and its relationship to the broader society can
  be described in terms of four main issues
• Relation to cultural milieu
• Rhetoric
• Design Principles
• Relation to scientific epistemology
• From Advances in Environment, Behavior and
  Design, Zube and Moore,Ed., Essay by L.Groat and
  C. Despres

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1. Context A Historical Perspective

• B. The recent history of architectural theory can
  be summarized in terms of four broad periods
• Renaissance/ Baroque, 1450 1700
• Premodern, 1750 1880
• Modern, 1910 1960
• Postmodern, 1965 present

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1. Context A Historical Perspective

• C. A comparison of the four periods in
  architectural history as viewed with respect to
  the four issues affecting them can demonstrate
  the nature of theory in architecture.
• (See Table 1 in the Reference Material)

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2. Characteristics of Theory

• A. History and Theory are closely related and
  have always been essential to the study of
  architecture.
• Theories are general statements dealing with what
  architecture is, what it should do, and how best
  to do it.
• History deals with theories, events, design
  methods, and buildings.

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2. Characteristics of Theory

• B. Theories are helpful to architects in making
  choices and decisions
• Establishes a procedure
• Orders decisions to make them useful

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2. Characteristics of Theory

• C. Theories in architecture are less rigorous
  than scientific theories which are analytical in
  nature and require rigorous proof.
• D. Architecture Design is synthesizing in nature
• Assimilates and integrates a wide variety of
  elements in new ways
• Suggests directions but cannot guarantee results
• - Pruitt Igoo Housing Project, St. Louis, Mo.
• - Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

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2. Characteristics of Theory

• E. A symptom of the speculative character of
  theory in architecture is the tendency for
  theoretical statements to be manifestos employing
  evocative language
• Louis Kahn The nature of space is the spirit
  and will to exist a certain way.
• Robert Venturi Complexity and Contradiction in
  Architecture

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3. What Architecture is

• A. Theories about what architecture is are
  concerned with identifying key variables such as
  space, structure or social process which should
  generate the form and character of a building.
• B. Theories often take the form or rely on
  analogies i.e. organic or machine-like, etc.
• Analogies provide a way to organize design tasks
  in a hierarchical order.
• Analogies employ what is most important or
  pertinent to that analogy

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3. What Architecture is

• Some recurrent analogies employed in theory to
  explain and direct architecture
• 1. Mathematical Analogy geometry and numbers
  as a basis for architecture, in tune with a
  universal order
• - golden section
• - Greek orders
• - numbers theories of the renaissance
• - Modular (Le Corbusier)

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3. What Architecture is

• 2. Biological Analogy
• a. Organic focuses on the relationships
  between parts of a building or between the
  building and its site
• b. Biomorphic focuses on growth processes and
  movement capabilities associated with organisms.

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3. What Architecture is

• 3. Romantic Analogy
• a. evocative uses associations or exaggeration
  to elicit an emotional response.
• b. associations can refer to nature, the past,
  exotic places, primitive things the future,
  childhood, etc.
• c. exaggeration or excess can intimidate,
  frighten or awe through the use of contrast,
  excessive stimulation, unfamiliar scale or forms.

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3. What Architecture is

• 4. Linguistic Analogy
• a. grammatical model architecture is composed
  of elements (words) that are ordered by rules (
  grammar and syntax) that allow people to
  understand what a building is trying to
  communicate i.e. Greek orders.
• b. expressionist model building as a vehicle
  for the expression of the architects attitude
  toward the building i.e. Saarinens Dulles
  airport conveying flight in its form.
• c. semiotic model a building is a sign a sign
  that conveys information about what it is and
  what it does i.e. Robert Venturis ducks vs.
  decorated shed.

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3. What Architecture is

• 5. Mechanical Analogy
• Buildings are like machines. They should express
  only what they are and what they do, i.e. A
  house is a machine for living Le corbusier

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3. What Architecture is

• Problem Solving Analogy
• Assumes that environmental needs can be solved
  through careful analysis and deliberate
  procedures. It includes three stages
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

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3. What Architecture is

• 7. Adhocist Analogy
• Buildings should respond to the immediate need,
  using materials readily available without making
  reference to an ideal.
• Eames House, Charles and Ray Eames
• Ugly and Ordinary Robert Venturi

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3. What Architecture is

• Dramaturgical Analogy
• Human activities are often characterized as
  theater, and so the built environment may be seen
  as a stage in which people play roles and
  buildings become settings and props.
• Corporate America
• Plaza d Italia, Charles Moore, et. al.

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What Architecture Should Do

• Theories about what architecture should
  accomplish are concerned with identifying the
  goals that the designer and the building should
  satisfy. They are not concerned with a way of
  seeing buildings or interpreting them, but with
  their purposes. These generally take two forms
• General Goals
• Relationships Between Built Environment and Other
  Phenomena

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What Architecture Should Do

• B. General Goals statements about the task of
  architecture.
• 1. Vitruvius made the earliest widely known goal
  statement for architecture which is paraphrased
  to depend on, Commodity, Firmness and Delight.
• 2. Development of social sciences in 19th. And
  20th. Centuries brought about a view of buildings
  as social, technical, economic, psychological
  organizations.
• 3. Current and future changes in peoples
  relationship to the environment require will
  require a building to respond to energy
  efficiency and its impact on the environment.

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What Architecture Should Do

• Relationships Between Built Environment and Other
  Phenomena
• Two central concerns are addressed in these type
  of goal statements
• They represent a dilemma in architecture in their
  contradictory nature.

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What Architecture Should Do

• 1. the first concern of these type of relational
  goals is that architecture should satisfy the
  technical requirements of buildings.
• a. logical structural systems
• b. appropriate materials, construction methods
  and costs
• c. regional and contextual in design

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What Architecture Should Do

• 2. The second concern is that architectures
  primary purpose is social in nature i.e. that the
  building is a background and support system to
  enhance ongoing life processes.
• a. a receptacle for the flow of life it serves
• b. it must be flexible and adaptive to human
  concerns

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What Architecture Should Do

• Other Goal statements
• 1. Occur in response to specific needs of a
  period
• 2. Short term responses that do not direct
  action over a long term
• 3. Function to correct and redirect attention
  to current pressing needs
• a. Le Corbusier in the 1920s saw a need to
  revise the prevailing conception of housing and
  its production.
• b. Operation Breakthrough of the 1960s
  attempted to redefine the way buildings, and
  particularly housing, was constructed.

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How To Design

• A. Theories about how the architect should go
  about designing are concerned with identifying
  appropriate methods of operation.
• - usually directed toward the assurance that
  buildings will accomplish particular ends

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What Architecture Should Do

• B. Concerns of Theories
• 1. Participants relationships of individuals
  and groups during the design process.
• a. private inspired act of an individual vs.
  logical effort of a team of professionals.
• 1) Walter Gropius attempted to integrate
  both views.
• 2) complexity of the building process is
  likely too much to be understood and
  guided by an individual.
• b. inclusion of user groups and others.

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What Architecture Should Do

• B. Concerns of Theories
• 2. Procedures where does the designer begin?
  What decisions should control or generate the
  design?

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What Architecture Should Do

• B. Concerns of Theories
• 3. Typically there are two underlying methods or
  structures for proceeding
• a. inductive begin with the details. Through
  accretion, the details, or partial solutions,
  finally add up to a built form.
• b. deductive design procedures begin with an
  overall intention or idea about the build and
  let the details grow out of that central theme.
• c. seldom is one method used exclusively, but
  it is usually evident which one governs.

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What Architecture Should Do

• C. Priorities
• 1. Problems in architecture are typically
  complex in nature
• a. technical structure, mech., etc.
• b. social users
• c. aesthetic, ecological, political
• 2. Some theories establish priorities
• a. find the essence of the problem and let that
  be the controlling factor.
• - Mies Van Der Rohe Form follows function.
• b. there is an underlying element that needs to
  be expressed in structure and form before
  embellishment is added.

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What Architecture Should Do

• D. Other Theories
• Assert that the design process should take the
  form of a dialog
• Each concern is considered and allowed to affect
  the others in a iterative (repetitious) process
• It is doubtful that true equality can be
  realized.