Select a work (just one) from the list provided below and discuss it through one of the four components of ‘realness’ – presence, significance, or materiality, (but not emptiness). Keep the paper focused on proving your point about one of the components. Use elements about culture, geography, climate, natural resources, materials and methods of construction that support your idea. Essay to be at least 1000 words. Papers less than 1000 words will not be able to receive an A.
Include descriiptive pictures of the building/place. Use other sources beyond the textbook for more information about these buildings/places. Looking at pictures and videos of the places helps tremendously.
Choice of buildings/places:
The Parthenon
Hagia Sophia
Stonehenge
Ise Jinguand a Longer video
Step Wells of India
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Angkor Wat and Mogao
Machu Picchu
Palladio and the Villa Barbaro
Your checklist:
Intro paragraphs: Two paragraphs, the first paragraph: discuss which component of realness you have chosen is, what it means, and why it is important for good architecture. The second: discuss the building you have selected and which three examples of the component of realness you are going to give. DO NOT GIVE A HISTORY OR GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING.
Body paragraphs: A paragraph or two using at least three different elements of the building or place we studied to illustrate the component of realness. Discuss what those elements are, and how they are used to make that component happen in the building/place.
Repeat body paragraphs: for remaining two examples that illustrate the component of realness.
Include descriiptive pictures of the building/place that illustrate your points.
Conclusion paragraph: A paragraph tying your building/place and component of realness to how you apply what you learned about the component of realness to all architecture in general. How/why is it important to have, think about, or consider? Why does it matter?
1000 words : Papers less than 1000 words will not be able to receive an A.
Upload to this assignment a MS Word or PDF document. Click the assignment folder title above to get inside where you can submit the paper.
Reread the sections of For an Architecture of Reality, but briefly, remember these definitions of the components of ‘realness’:
Presence: How the building/place makes you feel when you view it. Is it dominating, timid, fanciful, scary, overwhelming, majestic, imposing, inspiring, etc.
Significance: Why is the building/place important? Is it the events that took place there, the people who designed and built it, what it means to the identity of the city, what it symbolized?
Materiality: What is special about what it is built out of, how those things go together, the effect the materials have on the inhabitant, are they honest or allusive, tactile or keen?
Not Emptiness: Why is this not an essay option? Because it is very difficult to understand and then apply in a short time.
