Architecture and Mathematics: An Introduction for Elementary and Middle School Children (original) (raw)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2006
N o book reveals the ''Roman'' character of De architectura better than Book 4, the Preface to which forms this dedication to the Emperor Augustus Caesar. Vitruvius, in his ambition to write a ''complete and orderly form of presentation,'' obviously felt he was setting a historical precedent. Even more enchanting to later generations is his often-repeated discussion of the origin of the three architectural orders: the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. These stories are sometimes said to compose the ''mythology'' of architecture, fables that were eventually discredited by the rational forces of the Western Enlightenment, but once again they demonstrate the anthropomorphic basis of Vitruvian theory. One sentence within this passage that should not be overlooked is his admission that the proportions for both the Doric and Ionic columns changed after some ''progress in refinement and delicacy of feeling.'' Renaissance humanists, operating from a very different aesthetic basis, regarded this
Constructing Architectural Theory
s Eupalinos ou l'architecte, Socrates and Phaedrus encounter each other in the afterlife where their conversation takes them to the subject of architecture, and a certain Eupalinos, a master architect whom Phaedrus had known. Phaedrus shares with Socrates the contents of his discussions with Eupalinos regarding the art of architecture, its perfection, and the concern for order that occupied this architect's mind. This discussion of the architect's knowledge and skills and his evident love of his art, evoked a vivid memory in Socrates who then recounted to Phaedrus an event from his youth which had a pivotal significance in his life. Socrates had been walking by the sea when a mysterious object that had washed ashore attracted his attention. Upon examination, the partially eroded object left Socrates unsure as to whether it was a product of nature or of human artifice. This uncertainty compelled him to reflect upon a number of themes: the object, the matter and the form; the indivisibility between the maker and the made; the principles that inform construction; can principles and the act of construction be separated? and what is the relation between the necessary and the beautiful? A difficult choice presented itself to the young Socrates who hesitated between becoming a philosopher or an architect, because he hesitated between to know and to build, between the philosopher that he will be and the architect that he never was. Socrates the philosopher confesses that he always held within him an incomplete architect.
The Public Value of the Humanities
Architecture is, like all areas of the arts and humanities, a complex affair, and involves a very wide range of people and personalities, ideas and philosophies, theories and actions. But, more than any other artistic endeavour, architecture is also an inherently interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary practice, and is inextricably linked to our everyday world of business, work, leisure, health, environment and social life. We can do almost nothing in our lives without encountering architecture, whether as offices, housing, hotels, sports facilities, hospitals, train and bus stations, or architecture in drawings, fi lms and video-games, or architecture as part of the hidden world of communications and virtual technologies. For this reason, the UK's research into architecture must-and does-deal with a wide spectrum of concerns, all of which have the potential to impact directly on our lives today. Architecture and architects Architecture is perhaps most often thought of as being the product of architects-that is as the product of a single person or of small groups of people, and of their thoughts, designs and actions. One of the most important areas of architectural research is, therefore, into who these fi gures were in the past, and who they are now and in the future. Who is 'the architect' and what does he, she or they do? (Saint Andrew 1993; Hughes 1996; Kostof 1987). There are, of course, many important architects in the UK who have made a major contribution to our society and cities. From Christopher Wren in the seventeenth century and John Soane in the eighteenth century through to Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster today, architects have used their considerable artistic imagination, technical innovation and entrepreneurship to produce some of the most signifi cant and lasting constructions in the contemporary world. These are important fi gures to understand, not only in terms of themselves but also in terms of how their ideas and designs have reached out far beyond their own buildings and have had a pervasive infl uence throughout the world of art, design and the creative industries. Much of what we see and understand as 'architecture' in the world today is because of a relatively few number of architectural designers and thinkers, and, as a result, we need to record and explore this important historical and cultural legacy. The more detailed results of this research are, however, frequently quite surprising, for they tell us that 'the architect' is, very often, not a single kind of person at all. Such research reveals, instead, that an architect might be a builder, a developer or a technician, or that an architect might be an artist,