Chair Experience

Hello, again! So I'm here with another post for tonight (trying to get a little ahead on my homework for next week). This one will be referring back to those chairs from class today, but more importantly the one my group was assigned. My group was assigned the Purple-Womb chair by Saarinen. Something my group and I had to do together was to describe this chair using ten words. So here's the list:

1. Texture: the fabric had a specific feeling to it the was a cross between rough and soft.
2. Symmetry: the chair was the same all throughout; if split in half, each half would look the same.
3. Color: as the title proclaims, the chair is purple.
4. Unity: the whole flow of the chair works due to the different elements and principles working together to create the whole composition.
5. Lines: specifically curvy, line can be found throughout the whole chair; some of the lines are straight, but the majority of them are curved.
6. Form: the way the inside of the chair forms gives the impression of form.
7. Scale: we were told this chair comes in different sizes, so that's part of scale; another part is that a person can feel a lot smaller than they are when sitting in this chair.
8. Adaptable: when someone walks into a room and sees this chair, the instantly know their in a comfortable place.
9. Comfort: the cushions are squishy and the fabric used feels nice against your skin.
10. Accessible: it's easy to clean because the cushions are attached with small clasps that release for cleaning.

Below is an image of me sitting in the chair in a way that truly represents what this chair is meant for. By the way, I loved this chair! It was my favorite out of all of them.

Modern Chairs

Hello, all! So I come to you today with an assignment about modern chairs (as seen in the title of this post) and how the sense of being "modern" has changed. This information will be based on the chairs viewed in class. Today, I heard in class that modernism is based on what's the most current thing around, that everyone who creates something considers it modern. The chairs today all seemed to be modern in their own ways, especially in what their specific functions were (where their meant to be used). Some of them were office chairs that ranged from comfortable to super stiff/scratchy--the blue one all the front of the line was worst one, and I call it "The Angry Man's chair." There was one chair meant for a tea room, and it was pretty uncomfortable for me because I like to lounge a lot. That's where the rest of the chairs came out to be more appealing since they were all mean solely for your comfort.
 In my eyes, modernism is using the clients wants/needs for how they live or work and creating something that completely describes what their searching for. It's creating something that is new, innovative, and has a distinctive use.
When it comes to scale, I think it just depends on which chair we were talking about. Thinking back to the tea room chair, the back of it was actually very tall--not only in comparison to the other chairs, but also to anyone standing next to it. On the other hand, there was one chair that was made of what looked to be wood and it sat very close towards the ground. Then there's another chair (referred to as the "Womb") that actually comes in three different sizes. However, aside from the fact that it has more than one size, it's still relatively large for a person when they sit in it. When I sat down, I felt like I was sinking down into the chair. So overall, scale just depends on the chair.
 

Multiple Modernisms

Hey, guys! So I'm here today to make a post about the idea of multiple modernisms and my take on them.
The different parts of modernism in design includes nature, people, material, and symbol. Nature deals with the everything located outside and around the object/building/structure. People deals with who's interacting with it. Material is what the object/building/structure is made of. Symbol represents what the object/building/structure is made for and what it's supposed to do; it's basically its purpose.
An example that I've chosen is my Sony Blu-Ray DVD player. I chose this object because it has a very sleek exterior and has a way to connect to Wifi because it includes Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. It even has a USB port in the front of it. The Blu-Ray player is a modern object because it has uses that regular DVD players don't, which makes this a better version of what was "best" before.
Below is a picture I took!

Sony Blu-Ray DVD player with WiFi
Taken by me

National Style

Hi, guys! Today I'm going to be working on an assignment dealing with national style in the nineteenth and  twenty-first centuries.
Two main national styles of the nineteenth century I noticed throughout the videos that were given were Greek Revival and Modernism. Both were very important for several reasons; they represented the significance of whatever building they were constructing (White House, etc.) and the progression of the country with how it was moving forward from industrial revolution ("Crystal Palace" of New York).
The most important of these two national styles (in my opinion) would be the Greek Revival. I feel this way because this style is incorporated into some of the greatest buildings in our nation. These buildings include not only the White House, but also the Lincoln Memorial, the First Bank of the United States, and more! Our country has plenty of structures that were built based on this style, and all of them represented a level of importance. That's why I feel like Greek Revival played a large part in the nineteenth century national style of the United States.
Now in the twenty-first century, the national style seems to have gradually changed into Modernism. This is seen strongly in most building in the big cities, and these buildings are often very important. An example of Modernism in the twenty-first century would be the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. The building was finished in 2003 and was designed by Frank Gehry. The sleek lines and surfaces of this structure appear to be very modern, hence why I chose it to represent twenty-first century Modernism.
Below will be a picture and the link for the website I got the picture from.

The Disney Music Hall in Los Angeles, CA.
http://gearpatrol.com/2013/11/14/twenty-one-coolest-buildings-twenty-first-century/

Hunt-Morgan House: My Selfie with the Facade

Hello, back again! This time I'm going to include a picture of me (it's not technically a selfie) in front of the Hunt-Morgan house. I'm going to be discussing how light and color interact on the facade.
So for the most part, the building is a deep red from the bricks and has some white elements from the doors, windows, trims, etc. The lighting throughout the day truly does effect the feel of the house from the exterior. Early morning to mid-afternoon, it'll probably have a very welcoming feeling. However, when it's late afternoon to night time, it may not have such a welcome feeling because of how dark the bricks would appear when there isn't as much visible light. During the day, the welcoming feeling might actually come from the areas of white from the windows, doors, and trims throughout the facade. All in all, I think it mainly just depends the type of feeling someone would have of the building.
Down below is a picture of me in front of the Hunt-Morgan house!

Hunt-Morgan House: Analysis

Hello, everyone! So today I went over to the Hunt-Morgan house for this assignment, and I found it to be very interesting. I think it's actually going to help me in one of my other classes now that I've gone!
Okay, so in this post I'm going do an analysis of the overall building based on the given prompts and then I'll put up another post with the selfie.
1) I do agree that the architectural elements (specifically) is a large part of the general design of the dining room and parlor. I feel this way because both rooms include large windows, the protruding areas in the walls, fire places, etc. If not for these elements, there'd only be basic lines throughout both rooms. However, because of the protruding walls, large windows, etc. there's now natural light, slight depth, and a sense of overall balance within both rooms.
2) The master bedroom has actually stayed the same for the most part. Within the room lies intricate lines and form from the furnishings. In the daughter's room, there was a lot going on with the dark shades of color and the heavy pattern of the wallpaper. Also, there was a sense of contrast due to the dark colors of the walls and furniture to the pale-colored fire place. The exhibit room mainly shows space (to me) just because that's all I was able to get out of it, design-wise.

The Impact of Palladio

Hello, all! Today I come to you with an assignment about a man named Andrea de Pietro, better known as Palladio. His work was known to be very abstract and sensual, and was well-known for his villas. He inspired the Palladian Motif: one dominant form with two side pieces. After all of the work he out into architecture, he's still influencing the architectures of today. His work is important because it adds to the glossary of design ideas for future designers to reference back to. For instance, I've gone around Lexington a lot within the past two weeks and I've seen things that dealt with Palladio. An obvious example would be the palladian windows on the houses within the historic districts. They help add a balance to the overall composition of a building. All in all, Palladio is still effecting today's architecture in great ways.

Villa Angarano in Bassano del Grappa

Hey, guys! So I'm here with yet another assignment and I had to do another scale drawing. This time, though, it was of a specific villa; I was assigned Angarano.

Hey, I'm back! This assignment is about that 8x8 I did a little while back. Now everyone's 8x8 is put up and our next assignment was to go and take a picture with the final product. Since I had been there with some of my classmates, we decided to take the picture together! I've posted the picture below to Instagram and Facebook as well. Some difficulties that I ran into when drawing my 8x8 was of course the matter of getting the proportions right. When drawing something to scale, you realize that you have to fully observe the image or space given to you; you have to take in everything you see to then create a small image of it, which can be pretty difficult at times. Overall, that was my only issue.

Travel Image

Hello yet again! This is the final part to the Road Trip assignment, and I have to reflect what I know about scale and principles/elements to talk about a trip that I've been on. So last December I went on a trip with my parents to go to Slade, Kentucky to visit the Natural Bridge. It's basically this huge rock structure that was naturally made and it looks like an actual bridge. When we went there, we had to go along this super difficult trail in order to get to so we could see it up close. When looking at the image below, you can see that line and depth are visible because of the overall shape of the outline of the bridge and because shadows are casted into the few openings on the surface. Harmony is shown here because there's a general flow throughout the image when looking at the shape and what's surrounding the bridge. When discussing scale, you can see that this bridge is pretty large because of how far it goes width-wise. I wasn't able to get a picture of myself next to the bridge because there wasn't an area to go in order to get a picture for that.

On top of the Natural Bridge in Slade, Kentucky with my dad.

Map Comparison

Hi, everyone! I'm back again with the next part to the Road Trip assignment. With this one, I'll be talking about the difference between the Map of Lexington and Evirons and the Map of Travel Time from Lexington, Kentucky when discussing scale. In the Map of Lexington and Environs (map 1) shows a single city and has some areas shaded in to probably represent all of the historic districts and whatnot. When viewing this map, it kind of brings a whole new perspective of the actual size of Lexington, which is relatively large. Viewers can see all of the different lines that mark where the roads/streets are, and that especially shows the scale of the city if you know where those roads are and if you've ever had to travel throughout the city before. The Map of Travel Time in Lexington, Kentucky (map 2) is meant to show the amount of hours it'd take to travel from Lexington to different parts of the United States. This map makes the viewer realize just how small Lexington is in comparison with the whole country when discussing scale. It's especially seen when seeing the amount of time (in hours) it takes to travel from Lexington, considering the fact that you wouldn't think it'd take that long visually.
 
Map 1: Map of Lexington and Environs

Map 2: Map of Travel Time from Lexington

Road Trip Comparison

Hi, guys! So there's going to be a few assignments going through today since I'm working on the whole Road Trip exhibit assignment, along with trying to get ahead on some work. So this part of the Road Trip assignment involves discussing the issue of scale in an image that I found in the exhibit. The image I'll be using is the "Southern Railroad Depot, Excursion Mystery Team (Lexington train station) (1932)." In the image, there's a noticeable vanishing point. Scale is shown through not only the people standing by but also by the posts that are laid out throughout the image. These things help you realize the size of the structure the people are under. Also, the building off in the distance shows the size of the overall structure in comparison. Something that could have helped the viewers understand the scale would maybe be if there hadn't been so many people in the image at the time because then you'd be able to see more of the structure itself. Maybe then you'd be able to see if there are more levels or not.

Southern Railroad Depot, Excursion Mystery Team (Lexington train station) (1932), Lafayette Studios photographs.

Hi, guys! So today I've decided to work a little ahead and just go on to the next assignment now. The assignment pertains to religious architecture and what it means to involve religion into architecture and design. Architecture is about expressing a small idea into a large three-dimensional figure; this is especially true with religion. Regardless of location, religion is always a solid idea within any city or even country. Most structures dealing with religion seem very monumental and ornamental, and this is because all of those details are coming together to show the importance of that area's faith. Faith plays a ginormous role in most societies, and this was definitely portrayed back in the day with structures such as the Hindu temples in India. They have so many intricate details that it makes it almost obvious to tell that they're religious pieces. The details usually include stories, hence why it seems so obvious.
Below is an image of a Hindu temple that I found online. I'll be attaching the URL address for it underneath!

https://indianjourneys.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/images-of-jain-india/

Hey, guys! Today's post is about scaling. I was given a 1x1 square with part of an image on it, and my assignment was to scale it up to 8x8. So here's an image of my 8x8!

Hello, everyone! So today I have to do a unit summary over Unit 1. Along with 250-300 words, I have to include three images that are annotated that somehow relate back to the points that I’ll be making.

So Unit 1 was about the elements and principles of design, and I learned a lot overall. We were given assignments over buildings on campus and buildings throughout the country or world. Throughout the whole unit, I learned more and more that I had no idea about beforehand. An example of this is annotation. The skill of annotating has helped so much with understanding the elements and principles; it helps to visualize them in the most basic and simplistic way even if it’s super elaborate, even aside from thinking about whether it's a building/structure or some kind of random object. Annotating can be used on an image to help take notes as well so you can come back to it later on. I’ve kept all of the images that I’ve printed out and annotated on just for the fact that I took notes on them and don’t want to lose track of them.

I think it was very interesting learning about all of these different types of styles and architectural designs during this unit. We learned about gothic designs, designs that range back all the way to ancient times, and so on. We also had to work on case studies, which were a whole new experience for me. The assignment called for details about whatever building you were assigned; in my case, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Even just talking about this building with my discussion group made me understand more about it, so when I went and did more research I felt even more “in tune” with this building.

The unit as a whole was not only interesting based on the content, but it was also enlightening. So without further ado, here are three annotated pictures that I believe represent my points. The images used are all from my other classes that I have this semester.

Hello, again! I'm here now to talk about what I think modernism is and then show you something that I believe to be "modern." So, from my perspective, I believe that modernism is when you take something that's traditional and put a different twist on it to try to make it better for future use, whether it be a building/structure or even an object. Something that I personally have is the Breeze litter box that's apart of the Purina: Tidy Cats brand. The reason I think this design is a representation of modernism is because it's a more efficient way for my cat to use the bathroom. It's cleaner and doesn't give off that typical bad odor that one would normally smell when around a litter box. In the image below, I put the materials that are needed for this product which includes the pads and the pellets. The pads go into a tray in the bottom to hold the urine and can last for up to two weeks. The pellets serve as the "litter," but are odorless and easier to manage when cleaning out waste. They're said to last about a month. (All of the timelines are based on how many cats are using the one litter box; in my case, it's only one.) The Breeze litter box loses a few of its points with how someone could visible see the waste. However, this is one of the only cons in comparison to all of the pros.

Hi, everyone! So I'm now working on another comparison assignment. This time it's between Acropolis and Xianyang. I'll be going over three similarities between them. (By the way, I think I found the differences in the last assignment instead of the similarities!)

   The first similarity I found is with how history is held between the two. In Xianyang Palace, for instance, the history is held by the terra cotta statues that were left there to guard the palace. The view from above shows both line and contrast--line because of the arrangement of the vertical statues and the separation of the walls, and contrast because of the continuous pattern between the statues and walls. Then, at the temple of Apollo in Didyma, the building is left in ruins and this is how the history is kept. Even in ruins, one could see that form and rhythm are visible--form because shadows can be found when looking at the rectangular steps and cylindrical columns, and rhythm because of the repeated arrangement of the ruined columns and statues that were found there. Overall, both places have history within the ruins of their structures.
    The second comparison between the acropolis and xianyang are the details within what they created. With any of the temples and other buildings in Greece, a lot of details go into them; even their columns are specific to whomever is being worshiped at these temples. The three different types (doric, ionic, and corinthian) all show proportion and emphasis--proportion because each size represents specific characteristics about who's being worshiped, and emphasis because the lines of the columns lead up to the top and down to the bottom where the majority of the details lie. Next, there's the statues that were taken from the Xianyang Palace and put into exhibits for audiences to see. These statues have details all over them and were obviously meant to be seen as actual people with how they're portrayed. They show texture and harmony--texture because someone could physically feel the visible ridges on the statues, and harmony because of the way the statues' armor overlaps and progresses throughout the whole composition. All in all, both the acropolis and xianyang carry a lot of details in their creations.
   Finally, both the xianyang and acropolis tell specific stories and myths with their creations. With the Zianyang statues that were left in the palace, it was said that the "warriors" were put there by Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi to watch over the palace. Based on the arrangement of this "army," unity can be found with how the statues are set up (distance apart and the length of the rows). Then there's the Sacred Way in Delphi, Greece. This was known as the home to the Oracle, the being who was able to predict the future and is known throughout the mythological history of Greece. The plans for Delphi show shape and balance--shape because of how the buildings and structures had to be drawn, and balance because of the arrangement and distance between all of the structures/buildings. In conclusion, both the xianyang and acropolis had stories to go along with their creations.

Hello, I'm back! Today, I'm turning in an assignment over a comparison between Salisbury Cathedral and Amiens Cathedral. Read below if you're interested:

   While Salisbury Cathedral and Amiens Cathedral are similar, they're also very different. One way that they're different is through the amount of time it took to construct these memorable buildings.  Amiens took about two-hundred years to build; the construction date went from 1220 to 1410. On top of that, Amiens ran into a few mishaps with the overall structure. However, Salisbury took only about thirty-eight years of construction, so it was built from 1220 to 1258. The Salisbury Cathedral was basically built within a single generation, which is good because then parts within the construction plans wouldn't have been changed due to different people being in charge.
   Another difference between these two cathedrals are the towns surrounding them. Amiens, although it is technically the focal point of the city (previously known as Samarobriva), wasn't built until after the town was already there. This means that it was built only because it became necessary when they needed a specific place for worship. On the other hand, Salisbury was built before its city was. So it is literally the focal point, at least in my eyes. It was built originally just for a place for worship and was meant to be free-standing; the city was built around it.

Hello, everyone! I'm here again with another assignment. This time I had to find some examples of CIRCLES, GROUPS, and STACKS. I then had to annotated them and write about some elements and principles I was able to see in them. However, I will tell you now: I actually had to annotate them through my computer instead of printing them out because I'm not out of ink! So hopefully these don't look too bad. By the way, I got all of these images from design.uky.edu/spacesandplaces.

In case you can't read this one, it says "The Mortuary Temple of (Queen) Hatshepsut could be seen as stacks, but I see it as GROUPS. The use of LINE helps the whole overall composition of the building. TEXTURE can also be found when you take a closer look at all of the statues along the pillars. BALANCE is also found through the space between all of the pillars."