UNIT SUMMARY #2

This unit was entitled reverberation and there are many different definitions of reverberation. In one context it means the echoes in a room that one hears following the original sound. In a sense that is how architecture is. New design is constantly echoing the designs that have come before it.  Each time a design is being thought of, the designer is searching for something. They are searching for the best, the newest, and the most visually enticing design.  Rules were made throughout design history and then design needed something different; something that wasn’t so ‘cookie-cutter; something that didn’t follow the rules. As it is said about many things, rules are meant to be broken, and this applies to design. After breaking the rules of design we started to return back to the rules that we decided to stray from.

Romanesque Cathedral

http://montyandcalvi.blogspot.com/2007/11/descrive-visit-to-place-santiago-de.html

One of the main things that were discussed throughout this unit was cathedrals.  Cathedrals draw in the eyes of people because of how strong and tall they stand. There are different styles of churches that we looked at such as the gothic church. We related architecture and design to music. As Friedrich Von Schelling said, “Architecture is music in space, as it were a frozen music.” Each style of architecture and each type of building has its own ‘theme songs’. For example in a church you may have organs or lighter instruments playing music that will carry through the high ceilings and across the rows of seats. In a temple in India the music may consist of instruments such as the Tabla or the Sitar. Architecture is frozen music and with each different piece of architecture there is different music.

Gothic Cathedral

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jayzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/8.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jayzine.com/10-largest-cathedrals-in-the-world

As I said earlier, we design a set of rules and then break them. Now design is searching for something new so it starts breaking all the rules that have been set. We stand as a player in the scene in the Baroque period and then we break away even more and morph into the Rococo style where everything is over the top, decorated, and embellished. The design world has acquired the ‘ins and outs of design’ by not only following the rules but breaking them as well. At this point we know more about design than we ever have before and it is thanks to us being curious and not sticking to just one aspect of design. Just as people travel, so does architecture and design. We jump into Colonial expansion where we transmit our design knowledge and ideas to any and everywhere that we can get them. Design, as it once was, becomes simple once again. 

 French Rococo style Chairs

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/35384/French-Rococo-chairs-by-Louis-Delanois-in-the-Bibliotheque-de

Design is like a child; it can never sit still and always wants what it can’t have; it opens doors that weren’t supposed to be opened; design is growing and ever changing. Architecture will always be searching for the next best thing and discovering new modernistic designs.