Design Theory

Architectural Design comprises a concept or idea and the materials and resources necessary to build the idea and create a structure. Design ideas may be of many types and materials are similarly of a multitude of possibilities. The fit of idea and materials creates the success or failure of a building.

Traditionally building ideas relate to spiritual values and concepts and materials are natural and dependant upon the architect's ingenuity to mould locally available materials into shapes, surfaces and fittings. For example a traditional church represents the aspirants journey through life towards a union with God. The various parts including the paradise at the entrance symbolize the Garden of Eden, the 2 doors into the vestibule split the waters of humanity in two, the font inside represents the baptism and joining to the church, the naive symbolizes the faithfull and the bishops of the church, the occulus or eye in the chancel the connection with heaven, and the altar the point of contact with God. The church is designed with 2 squares joined together to symbolize the inner and outer teachings of the church. The materials used are often stone, brick, timber, steel, etc. Similarly shops, factories, and houses have spiritual meaning and each reminds the observer of the spiritual, mental and physical nature of creation.

Modern architecture may abstract an idea and execute the building with modern synthetic materials to fit the modern context. A modern idea may be to abstract a house into a "verandah". The concept of verandah with its easy going lifestyle, ventilation, sun control, open plan, easy care materials all relate to the idea of "verandah". Modern ideas often relate to the preservation of the physical environment incuding solar design, low carbon emmissions, and a pragmatic lifestyle. The mental and spiritual realms have in many instances been neglected in modern architecture.

Traditional and modern ideas can unite and in the authors opinion this is where great architecture occurs.

A discussion of the approaches follows. 

TRADITIONAL DESIGN

Traditional architecture symbolizes creation, a persons place in creation and the creative act. Aspects of everyday life act as a religious guide for the population to follow solidifying religious concepts in the third dimension of a created object. Creation was seen as a process coming from the Creator, proceeding to creation and then returning after eventual physical death to the Creator again. Many religions see creation and the creative process in a similar way.

St Lorenz cathedral Nuremburg (see Gothic Europe by Harold Busch; Pub. by B.I.Batsford Ltd, London, 1959, Pg 130)
The active principle (God) is represented here by the Sun - in the top left hand corner of the plate - and the Passive Principle (materia or the mother) by the Moon - in the top right hand corner of the plate. The marriage of these two principles creates all of manifestation in the tradtional approach to design. The combinations of opposites, the yin and the yang in eastern religion, creates balance and all objects. 

Engraving by Robert Fludd of the three levels of existence of man. See Yoga Art by Ajit Mookerjee; Pub. by Thames & Hudson, London 1975, Plate 105.Poor reproduction with apologies.

The drawing illustrates the traditional view of the World of the Senses (Mundus Sensabilis), The World of the Imagination (Mundus Imaginablis), and the World of the Intellect Intellectualis with a link to God).  The various worlds within man areseen as being microcosms of the external macrocosm worlds of existence.

The Creator is seen as directing the creation of all things in traditional design. The Creator is seen like the sun. Just as the sun shoots out its rays far and wide, so too the Creator has many rays which He manifests in all directions. And just as the rays of the sun are part of the sun, so too the many manifestions of the Creator are still part of His Being. It is the nature of the sun to have rays and it is the nature Unity to have many parts.

"He-(God)-must be recognized as the eternal seed in all beings..." Bhagavad Gita ch7 lines 7-12.

Numbers, shapes, location all have significance in traditional design. The pyramids and druidic structures were located to act as reference points with the natural environment to show the solstice and equinox of the seasons and the 12 parts of time. Structures were located upon lines of earths energy upon an axis which connected earth and heaven.

Please also see the following references:

Ananda Coomaraswamy: The Transformation of Nature in Art; Pub. by Dover Pub., NY, 1956
Plato:                              The Republic, trans, by H.D.P. Lee; Pub. by Penguin, 1963
Professor L Peter Kollar: Symbolism in Hindu Architecture; Pub by Aryan Books International, 2001
                                       Symbolism in Christian Architecture; unpublished PhD thesis, Sydney, 1975
Rene Geunon:                 Symbolism of the Cross; Pub. by Luzac, London, 1958
Titus Burckhardt:            Sacred Art in East and West (its principles and methods); Pub. by Perrenial Books, London 1967

MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Modern architecture often removes the person from the spirit world and looks for ideas more in the worlds of the physical and the mental being. The roots of modern architecture at the end of the Nineteenth Century and in the beginning of the Twentieth Century concentrated on the physical aspect of humanity and a pragmatic vision for architecture.

By removing decoration, extra space, complex detailing modern design made buildings cheaper but many argue it has also made buildings lose spiritual content and contact.

"Form follows function" was the modern dictum coined by Louis Sullivan the American architect. The full quote is as follows:

The question revolved around the functions required of the building and the myriad of possibilites of form. Whereas form in traditional design was the idea directing the design in modern architecture it is the outward appearance.

There were many famous modern architects of the early twentieth century including: Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius. Famous architects of the modern era in Australia include Harry Seidler, Walter Burley Griffin, Marion Mahony Griffin and others.

Some of the ideas these architects examined were:

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) - A portrayal of the American prairie and its traverse in structure. The motor car was accommodated in his work and the contemporary mobility of the American public expressed in the long and deep overhangs of his structures. The portrayal of nature in structure using rock and timber and water were typical of his later work. He was also fascinated by the use of glass in modern buildings creating abstract representational patterns in geometric glass cuts.

Le Corbusier (1887-1965) - A Swiss architect who was fascinated with modern materials and their use to create a modern structural concept. He saw a building as a machine for living. He was a Purist who continually pared back building to reach the essential parts of structure. He also represented mankind in buildings with many of his plans having an anthropomorphic shape and this was also true in his buildings sections. Unite d' Habitation's cross section resembles a person with head, body and legs. He believed that making buildings taller would allow more ground space in a crowded Europe for parks and open space. Unfortunately tall buildings were placed on smaller and smaller sites as the 20th Century progressed and his open space vision was not realized by later architects who designed tall buildings.

Chapel Notre Dame du Haut by Le Corbusier, 1954, (Photo Elan Barr 2007). A beautiful departure from the "machine for living" concept. Here Le Corbusier responded to the spiritual demands of the brief and responded in a most unique manner to the magnificent site.

(Ludwig) Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) - Mies van der Rohe was a german born architect who worked extensively in the USA. He believed in modern architecture and clear, simple and concise expression of structure. His buildings used modern materials such as steel frames and glass walls. His idea was to strip away all that was unnecessary in building and be left with "skin and bones" of a building. He often stated the saying: "less is more" to describe an architecture that used as little as possible to create enclosure.The Farnsworth house typified his minimalist approach to design.

Walter Gropius (1883-1969) - Walter Gropius was a German architect. He founded the Bauhaus movement in architecture. He combined the Academies of Fine Art Hochschule fur Bildende Kunst with the disbanded Kunstgewerbeshule to create the Bauhaus, literally "house of building" or building school. He believed that craft and art could combine in the hands of craftsmen to create a new future. In 1908 Gropius worked for the firm of Peter Behrens, where he also worked with in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Dietrich Marcks in Behrens studio. Walter Gropius's architecture was very modern, technologically driven and combined furniture, lighting and architectural design. He designed the Bauhaus building in Dessau which was built in 1925-1926. He designed door hardware including the famous door handles in 1923 with Gareth Steele. The Nazis disliked Bauhaus design considering it communist expression. In 1934 Gropius moved to Britain and then to the USA in 1937 where he taught architecture at Harvard.

Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937) - Walter Burley Griffin was an american architect born in Chicago. He won the competition to design Canberra, the Australian Capital City, and moved to Australia where he designed a number of buildings including houses at Castlecrag in Sydney. He grew up in Oak Park Chicago and after completing his architecture degree in 1899, from 1901-1905 he was employed by Frank Lloyd Wright at  Wright's Oak Park Studio. There he met Marion Lucy Mahony whom he later married. Mahony was responsible for many of Wright's Prairie style house sketch renderings. Griffin also studied horticulture and forestry at university and was, throughout his career, fascinated by the interaction of buildings and landscape. He used symbols in decoration of his work carved or moulded in masonry. He considered the spritual in his work through his study of anthroposophy. He later worked in Lucknow in India where he tragically died from peritonitis developed from a ruptured gall bladder.

TRADITIONAL AND MODERN IDEAS COMBINED

Many modern architects are striving to combine modern ideas of economy, sustainability and low carbon footprint building with architectural solutions which connect the individual and collective spirit to the Creator. Modern architects such as Gregory Burgess, Piano, Gehry, Foster, and Christine Vadasz are examples of those combining a traditional spiritual presence with modern concepts.

Gregory Burgess - Gregory Burgess is a contemporary Australian architect who combines spiritual concepts with practical and environmentally sensitive building design. He aims to thoroughly understand a site and a brief. He has worked with indigenous Australians to create some truly appropriate designs for the Australian site and place. He designed the Uluru Kata-Tjuta Cultural Centre, Northern Territory which seems to fit the landscape with a special purpose and he has designed the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Halls Gap, Victoria. He has also designed a number of schools including Steiner Schools. For a description of his architecture in his own words and images of past and current projects please see http://www.gregoryburgessarchitects.com.au/index.htm .

Renzo Piano - (1937- ) Renzo Piano is a famous modern architect who was born in Genoa Italy. Duirng the 1960's and 1970's he worked with Louis Kahn and Richard Rogers. He designed the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1977 with Richard Rogers. 1995-2001 he designed and was the architect for the magnificent Aurora Tower in Sydney (2001) which is 218m high to the spire tip. It has a colourful multilayered facade with varying degrees of transparency, and multifunctioning operable glazing and shading. Please see http://www.rpbw.com/

(TO BE CONTINUED)