Macro to Micro

With the development of the temple came a tripartite system. The temple form is split up into three parts: the porch, the court and the hearth. This system of parts is representational of hierarchy within religion.

^porch : court : hearth

PORCH: a covered area adjoining an entrance to a building and usually having a separate roof; portico; “place of transition” (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

COURT: The residence of a sovereign or similar dignitary; an open space enclosed by a building or buildings; an open space enclosed wholly or partly by buildings or circumscribed by a single building; “a place of gathering” (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

HEARTH: home; “for the special people” (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

^ The Inside of the Pantheon

The porch acts of a place of transition, leading into the court where people gather to celebrate or worship the hearth. The hearth is the most important place in a temple or church, because it is where the altar or sculpture of the god is. For example, in the Parthenon, the steps lead up to the porch (or entrance) where people transition into worship in this holy building. The court is the inside rectangle created by the colonnades, where people gather to worship. The hearth is where the sculpture of Athena sits. This is the most important spot because this temple is built for Athena, and therefore, where Athena sits is the shrine. This system is very clear in the megaron and citadel of Greece; however, this system becomes less obvious and more symbolic with Roman architecture. For example, the Pantheon contains a porch, a court and a hearth, but not in that order. The porch of the Pantheon is the large portico on the outside of the building, where the massive columns stand. Inside the Pantheon, the court and hearth are literally the same space (above). This does not necessarily mean that there is no difference between the two. In this structure, the oculus complicates things. The court may be the entire circular structure inside, but the hearth is where the light through the oculus strikes. This light is sacred in that it aims to bring heaven on earth, and therefore, where the light strikes is the hearth, and depending on the time of day, the location of this hearth differs. The tripartite system is again used in the basilica form, which then leads to the church form. In the Basilica of Constantine, the porch is at the narthex. The court is the aisle from the narthex to the apse, as well as the seating for worship. The hearth is at the apse, where the speaker (the priest) stands, making the speaker the most important person in the basilica. In the gothic cathedral at Amiens, France, the porch is at the narthex and this porch is made sacred by the human figures sculpted on the front façade. However, the sacredness of this cathedral increases with each part. The court is on the inside, in the aisles, and underneath the vaults. Different from other forms, though, the hearth is where the two crosses intersect in the cruciform. This transept creates an unforgettable moment in the church. This tripartite system is just one of the many diagrams used to build in the foundations of architecture.

DIAGRAM: a design/drawing that makes things easier to understand; the layout of ideas in an order that connects all of those ideas (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

^ "context" diagram from drawing class

^ Church of San Spirito

If one is trying to successfully communicate a design, a diagram is probably the best tool. This is because a diagram illuminates the direct relation between the parts of the whole design. While some professionals use a plan to explain their idea, others use diagrams to incorporate context, hierarchy, circulation and function. In drawing, along with creating our own diagrams (above), we read a packet that informed us about the different diagrams and how they work to clarify different points. Roth makes a similar connection in “Understanding Architecture”. “Galileo Galilei wrote that it was not possible to understand the “book” of creation “if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. This book is written in a mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometric figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it” (Roth, 360). This is like the use of architectural plans; if one is not an architect, there is a definite possibility that that person may not comprehend the plan as well as the architect. This is due to the lack of familiarity with the symbols as well as the uses of line weights and other variations. During the Renaissance, more specifically the rise of humanism, Vitruvius made a connection between the temple form and the form of the human body. “Ideal systems of proportion, he observed, can be found in the perfect proportions of the human body” (Roth, 359). This use of the diagram of the human body led to the creation of the ideal proportions in the building system, as well as the increase in importance of horizontal forms. An example of the use of diagram is Brunelleschi’s Church of San Spirito in Florence (above): “the visitor would see a fully three-dimensional representation of a building as a constructed perspective, each architectural element assigned a precise place in a rationally ordered scheme” (Roth, 365). This emphasis on elements in a certain order brings us to our next theme: composition.

COMPOSITION: a product of mixing various elements or ingredients; an arrangement; (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

^ The Foundling Hospital

A composition is noticeable when various elements (color, texture, light, etc) are unified to make one design. These elements are organized in a particular order so that they give way for an interaction. Above, I included two drawings that acted as warmup exercises. The hands have a sense of composition in that I used both hatching and color to create a more interesting design. If I had just left the hands as contour, they would have been plain and incomplete. There is composition in my dinner drawing because I had a method while drawing it. I drew the whole, and then picked out the parts and placed them carefully and orderly on the page, incorporating text along the way. Without having a quality of composition, a design is not a design, but a mess of ideas. Once a designer has succeeded in creating a composition, he or she has succeeded in unification, as well as commodity, firmness and delight. In the architecture of the Renaissance, one of the main goals was to create a new architecture, and “stressing a balance of vertical and horizontal elements” (Roth, 353). This combination of two elements that are potential opposites creates a rather interesting composition. With the desire to combine vertical and horizontal elements, there was also a need to use “ideal geometric forms discussed by Plato in Philebus- forms generated by straight lines and circles” (Roth, 359). These shapes were soon incorporated in several buildings. In the Foundling Hospital in Florence (above), “across the front of the building and facing the piazza, an arcade with monolithic Corinthian columns carried the lightest of semicircular architraves and stretched entablature. The columns are spaced exactly as far apart as they are tall, defining squares in elevation” (Roth 362). Something that I feel is crucial to know when trying to understand the word “composition” is that it creates a rhythm, like a musical composition, whether it’s that of Bach or Beethoven. “There are no intellectual discordances, but rather perfect conformity through proportional harmony” (Roth, 367). Composition is about a harmony, all the elements being different notes, or instruments, or beats. Detail also helps a composition become more interesting.

DETAIL: a small and subordinate part; a part of a whole; a part considered or requiring to be considered separately from the whole; the small elements that collectively constitute a work of art (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

^ Santa Maria del Fiore

As a part, detail is an extremely important element. It gives style (a distinctive characteristic or manner), meaning, and individuality to a design. Above, I decided to use a drawing that I did showing detail of a scarf that I own. The detail of the pattern gives away the brand of the scarf. A detail is something that is site-specific. In our drawing class, we were asked to draw a detail that represented our building. For example, in our group we were assigned to the Mossman Building, and Tracy drew the floor detail, emphasizing the importance of the use of brick in our building. Thinking it important to the Mossman building, I drew the distinct benches (above) which allow for seating and comfort in the student accomodated building. Detail played an important role in Renaissance architecture as well. For example, in The Dome of Florence Cathedral (above) “Brunelleschi’s study of Roman architectural detail and his inventiveness are seen in the white stone lantern he designed to cover the top of the dome” (Roth, 358). This detail on top of the dome causes it to stand out, and makes it Brunelleschi’s own. The use of detail in the Renaissance was also a way of referring back to ancient achievement. For example, the new Saint Peter’s Church (below) used the Doric columns, but Bramante furthered this detail by designing the frieze himself, incorporating detail of instruments used in the Mass. “Hence in form, proportion and ornamental detail, the diminutive building recalls Roman architecture at its purest, re-created and reshaped in the service of the church” (Roth, 372). This detail in Saint Peters was expanded even more when Michaelangelo painted Frescoes on the ceilings of the dome. All of these details being used in these influential buildings had a major impression on the Renaissance era.

IMPRESSION: a characteristic trait or feature resulting from influence; marked influence or effect on feeling, sense or mind (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

^ "New" St. Peter's basilica

As the course of our history class has moved on, we have talked about numerous ways that different buildings make impressions on people. Socially, baths have a huge impact in that they provide “bread and circus” for the people. Religiously, the pyramids and temples were built with the desire to bring heaven to earth. This idea of universality between heaven earth continues with the construction of the gothic cathedral, and even more so with the rebirth of the Christian church during the Renaissance. The use of circles and the centralized plan served religious purpose in the Church: “the circle an the centralized plan generated from it were highly evocative religious symbols of the perfection of divinity, forms found also in the proportions o the human body patterned, so scripture declared, in God’s image” (Roth, 365). The symbolism of these forms creates a religious impression on the people housed in the church. Once a person walks into a church, there is an immediate transformation from earth to heaven. In Bramante’s quest to build a new Saint Peters, he focused on making it “bigger than Constantine’s church, embodying the ideals of the new architecture and proclaiming the power of an invigorated Christianity while surpassing the achievement of pagan antiquity” (Roth, 372). In terms of building churches, it was all about proclaiming the power of religion. This idea still exists in church and temple construction today.

Summary
The word “macro” is usually used to describe something as large, or long, while the word “micro” does the opposite, describing something as small or short. These two words work together in comparison. This comparison could be incorporated in design to identify both important and unimportant aspects of a design. As for the words above, I believe that these two words (macro and micro) could be used in many different contexts. All of these words have ways that they could be macro or micro in a design. The combination of porch, court and hearth definitely goes with the word “macro” in that it was a major influence of building procedure for so long. Diagram would go with macro as well, because there is nothing more important in design than being able to get your ideas across. Without a clear layout of ideas, a designer is lost, and so is their client. Composition tags along with micro and macro. A composition is a macro thing made up of micro parts (the elements of design). Now, I don’t mean to say that these elements aren’t important; just that they are quite micro compared to the whole product or composition of a design. Detail could also be used with micro and macro. Detail is a “macro” part of a design, especially as architecture develops and ornament becomes more incorporated. However, detail is very micro in that each detail means something, so like the elements of design, detail is just one thing that makes up the entire whole of the design. Impression is macro, without a doubt. One of the reasons why designers design a room is to appeal to the senses to create interaction. The impression that a design has on its “experiencer” is a major part of the success or lack thereof. All of these words were scattered among the architecture of the foundations unit (impression in Egypt, detail in rome, diagram in Greece, etc). However, all of these words are brought together in the era of the Renaissance, as the people look to bring all aspects of the ancient world into one revival.

- Pictures taken from flickr