Intentions in architecture

This book highlights the use and intentions of architecture.

Perception is a learned attribute that is interpreted during childhood and is developed as we get older. This is part of the socialization process. We are taught how to behave and how things are supposed to be. Our knowledge is based on interactions and signs. Interactions contain values that are not a defense mechanism but a schema that we learned during childhood and continues development into our adolescence. Schematizations are stereotypes that fit our perception and eventually become fossilized. Norberg Schultz describes the concept of an open-minded elderly person as a dutiful concept but emphasizes the rarity.

The schema does not only pertain to the perception of culture, but also the motor and sensory apparatus. Children draw a line based on the preconceived notion of what a line is. A line on a paper will be a reference that is copied and correct based on that reference. The historical inference that in art Euclidian systems were rarely seen until the renaissance periods but there was the knowledge of how to do so. This phenomenon hints at the schematic value of these systems as an aesthetic precedent. Gestalt principles become an emphasis in the text. The social understanding of perception becomes evident when referencing other societies such as the Chinese and Zuni cultures as it has to do with color. The schema is attached to feeling and the feeling is dictated by the culture. We see and hear what we expect because those are the things that we are exposed to. The architecture then is preferably banal as it pertains to culture.

Symbols are abstract and are completely culturally driven. The symbol is similar to a value system and those are completely semantic. This means that symbols have no scientific backing where the placement of the symbol can be tested and put on a measurable range. This becomes the difference between science and art and the Metacognition that is required for each of these two categories. The categorization of art is a physical need for visual satisfaction, defined as taste. These understandings can be closely categorized as obsessions that elevate the observer instantaneously “Immediate Gratification”. The symbol is categorized by “probability structures” or styles. This means that no pattern universally produces an emotional state. Architecture then requires a degree of repetitive participation. The banal then becomes the clarification of socially articulated but there is a higher chance of emotional reciprocation within culturally similar observers within spaces. This can be categorized as social control. Symbols can be altered but there cannot be an introduction to new cognitive intention in the architecture. In the architect-client relationship, the arguments are generally about symbol which contains aesthetic.

A theory is attached to the relevance that an architecture has the collective direct knowledge of the society as a whole. The concept is then attached to the taste of the society and reiterating the physical attributes of the existing structure. conceptual ideas such as “frozen music” and the “module” all become measurable concepts that can be scaled and redistributed along with a topological reference. All of these theories must take into account the relationship that they have to the human body for them to be functional and pragmatic. The movement of a person is very predictable due to the limitations of the average person. Keeping in mind that people move forward becomes a constant variable in design practice. Symbolic moves are already categorized by these conditions as they are preconceived and reiterated architectural motifs. Categories are then separated into structure texture color and other physical attributes of a structure. The slight derivation of these cultural attributes becomes the degree of originality that it possesses. In the technical scheme, the goal is usually perfection which has ideal incrementation.

The act of building has a goal of control of the environment. in architecture, cultural objects become a platform for activities. Social structures bind us to the function of a space. The schematic boundaries produce phycological reactions to disruptions. Our fear of danger makes us construct domiciles to protect ourselves. Other social structures such as churches and banks are symbolic along with the objects inside of them. Dangers and other phycological disruptions change depending on climate.

The functional frame is based on use and action possibilities “affordances”. Actions of a certain programmatic element have a certain need in the space that is necessary to satisfy that need. Generally, in architecture it is optimal to use the minimum required space for that affordance. Actions are generally in succession and require multiple action affordances in one programmatic element. A bedroom is not just for sleeping. The programmatic elements can then be categorized as separate stages. Each stage contains actions that the actor plays, and they are at times observes to that action, but the architect becomes the narrator. Each stage is a stage for ritual, but the stage cannot be altered to the point where the stage becomes unacceptable for the action. The stage can be changed slightly but the audience still needs to understand the context that they are in. This can be done by illuminating the object that the actions surround. Christian talks about how in churches precious stones were often used to accomplish illumination.

Detail and element are parts of the gestalt. Gestalt, as It pertains to architecture, has elements that blend into a functional hole. The corner becomes an undesired structure and doors and windows become switches that activate spaces. The gestalt eliminates compositional elements and a monolith can be added to or subtracted from. Once the scale changes and the user begins to interact with the object or building, in this case, there is an interaction with topological elements. the topological elements contain rhythms of similar parallel lines which imply continuity.