IAR 222 Foundations: Point

In this past section we have covered foundations, in the sense that Egypt, Greece, and Rome were all major starting points and important bases for the rest of the world's influence in architecture. For example, a major influence for women becoming architects may have been cause by the Hatsheput Temple which was designed by the Queen of Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut. This may have caused many inspirations around the world to different women, including me even now to go into design. Since she designed and built her temple, it shows how different countries respected and treated the idea of gender differences.

In the foundations unit, we also covered Greek architecture an

d design which focused on the idea of real: ideal. I take this statement as portraying the world in a realistic way, but also somewhat "sugarcoating" it by making things look more excellent than they may have been. For example, the columns on the end of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece are smaller than the rest because of the angle at which you are looking at it creates an optical illusion and makes you eye think all of the columns are the exact same size. This creates an idea in my mind: making the imperfect look perfect, or the other way around the perfect look imperfect, which is what I think the Greeks may have settled their whole idea of architecture around. Greece was also a water-oriented culture. My first thought when I hear the word "Greece" is white buildings with blue roofs. I think their purpose in doing this was to contrast the blueness of the sea by painting the buildings white, but then bringing back the blue with the roof top color. What I gained from this unit was that the Greek's wanted to perceive themselves as more glorious and powerful than they maybe even were.

Another foundation for architecture would be the city of Rome. Rome created an extravagant pleasure within their modern city. The Romans were very intrigued by the Greek's, which is another reason why Greek architecture is a foundation for other country's inspirations for architecture. The Romans created a foundation for the rest of the world through their technological breakthroughs. The Romans created the aqueduct, villa, dome, road, arch, and mosaic. All of these things back up how the Romans use assimilation and adaption for their basis of design. Their way of designing is typically using a large scale that orders for space and diverse building types. Because of all of these methods they came up with, the Romans had the longest lasting empire in the world and because of their intuitiveness and productivity they were able to accomplish many aspects that changed architecture for the rest of the world. The foundations unit explained many standpoints of where certain ideas of architecture came from and how they affect the world we now know. Even though some buildings may be new now, almost all of the ideas may date back to the foundations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.