Unit Summary: Foundations

Parthenon


UNIT SUMMARY: FOUNDATIONS
My definition of foundation is a strong beginning and/or the start of something big or revolutionary. As a whole, this revealed to me what it means to begin. This entire unit was about the start of specific styles, how these styles were first introduced and how people reacted and used these spaces.
Roth and Blakemore spoke from different perspectives on this idea of new social structures, as well as the architecture that was influenced by these changes. However, they both spoke of them in terms of being created new and being the prototype for future design and influence. For instance, Blakemore writes on page 26, “This period (Greek) was succeeded by the Hellenistic period (c. 330-c.30 B.C.), during which the emphasis was on elaboration of basic forms, the characteristics of which the Romans later copied and adapted.” This very line proves the point that there were eras that succeeded each other and already were being modified and influenced by the previous time period. This idea of foundations has equipped me as a designer to pull ideas from precedents of the past and be inspired by the beginnings of time. I have seen how my own work has been transformed because I have been researching and reading about all of the magnificent Egyptian, Roman and Greek architecture as well as the Diocletian baths. I have spent more time refining the details of my own work in studio and drawing class because I respect and admire the care in which the Romans and Greeks took in their masterpieces of architecture and design.
Major themes that I encountered during the foundations unit were everything from male and female influence in Egyptian pyramids and structures, how architecture and society meet, local and international ideals, what we really needed and what was seen as ideal and prototypes and this thought of fusing prototypes together to create hybrids. Within the history of architecture and design, there are so many fusions that take place, but these fusions of eras and ideas come from original and stated foundations. Movements such as: porch, court, hearth design, column hierarchy, and male and female influence in the sense of being taller and stronger or overwhelming in scale and form are all revolutionary. Also, detail played a huge part in the creation of all of these foundations in design.
In conclusion, there are many parts of design that are the result of hybrids and fusions of influence, but to be changed and a designer of diversity, one must experience the past and how it all began. This unit has been a great step for me as a designer in training and I now find myself researching older buildings and works of art to navigate me towards common goals of past and present designers: commodity, firmness and delight. However, rather than looking at what already is an interpretation of the past, I am researching it for myself and creating my own sense of what the Egyptians meant with hierarchy of pyramids and hieroglyphics on the interiors of their spaces and what exactly the Roman’s and Greeks wanted to say with their use of columns and strong buildings of stone. I can now assess for myself what I view as foundations and how my designs will be forever changed.