Point: Foundations

Alyssa Hankus

IAR 222

10-06-10

With each new structure there is some semblance of the ones that came before it. “Past architecture serves as the blue prints for architecture to come. “ Of course we are given the choice to either duplicate previous works exactly, or to morph it into something else, still using it as a precedent in some way. With that we are given the idea of the prototype, the archetype, and the hybrid. I have had such an attachment to the idea of using previous architecture as a blueprint for a reason I cannot describe. I suppose it is because we are always paying homage to the past through everything we do, and with that we are holding the past close to our hearts.

While we have an eye to the future, we are constantly turning our focus back to the past. In the foundations unit this became clear. We saw examples of this through the transformations made from ancient Egypt through Greece, and then the Roman Empire. The common threads through each were the ideas of stacking, circles, and horizontal lines across the earth. These examples first started with Egypt and its pyramids. The Egyptians discovered new formations, sound structures, and genius methods of building.  They were able to create substantial structures, from materials indigenous to the area (sandstone, and limestone). Considering the mass the Egyptians had to use methods of stacking, done in a precise manner.

We then move to the Grecians who adopt the idea of stacking, however they implement it in different forms. An example would be their columns. In order to construct the individual column they must first form sections of the column and stack them into place. The Grecians created cylindrical columns instead of rectangular, thus altering the Egyptian design.

In the previous examples Egypt was the prototype, Greece the archetype, and Rome became the hybrid. Prototype is “an original type, form, or instance serving as a basis or standard for later stages”(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prototype). Archetype is “an ideal example of a type; quintessence” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/archetype). Hybrid is “Something having two kinds of components that produce the same or similar result” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hybrid). While Rome borrowed the ideas from Greece with the orders (Corinthian, Ionic, and Doric), as well as similar structures for their temples, they improved them, and made them their own. For example, the Pantheon of Rome and the Parthenon of Greece. Rome took the “blueprint” of the Parthenon and altered it, and perfected it with the building of the Pantheon. They perfected the use of concrete, and the dome with the coffered ceiling, as well as the manipulation of light that provided a mystical, humbling experience.

http://www.thegreenhead.com/2009/09/architects-crumpled-blueprint-paperweight.php

The image I chose was a blueprint paperweight that has been distorted from its original form. To me this sums up the idea of the journey from prototype through archetype to hybrid, the paperweight being the hybrid. Also much like the way Greece changed the use of the temple into a place of worship from the use of a burial place that the Egyptians purposed it as, the blueprint in the image takes on another use as a weight.