McNabb-Lily-222-S20-1.1a

Assignment 1.1
Lily McNabb
Arch 222
5/1/20
1) Buildings used to be built following strict rules based on how that certain type of building should look. For example, all mosques followed the same layout and rules making them all look very similar, regardless of location or any other environmental or geographic features. Now, these preconceived notions of how a building “has” to look are starting to change. Architects are rethinking how the building relates to the field to create buildings that relate to the local, authentic, culture instead.

2) Shown by a computer model, birds flock together in a predictable pattern based on a few rules, even when they are not told to do so. This same phenomenon happens when humans move through a space in a predictable way under usual conditions. An unusual condition, like a crowd, changes this behavior in unpredictable ways. Crowds are nearly impossible to control and predict, and therefore hard to build for. The only way to be prepared for the unpredictable is to create a space that is flexible enough to support many different activities and ranges of people. A useful building would be able to support the normal, predictable, human patterns as well as the unpredictable ones with this flexibility.

3) A building that is connected and responds to its landscape will be a longstanding building because it responds to the site instead of a specific purpose. This leaves room for the building to do many things and house many purposes. This includes responding to the climate, topography, surrounding buildings, sunlight etc. We can never predict what the needs of future generations will be, so creating a space that is flexible enough to support different activities, but unique enough that it makes sense in the landscape and responds in a way that supports general activities will lead to the most useful use of the space. Also, from a sustainability perspective, reusing is way better than rebuilding or even remodeling.

4) A lot of buildings are solely about the building itself, sticking out of the ground. The reading discusses how the spaces the building creates around it, the ground in figure-ground, are just as important- if not more important. Those spaces connect to the outside world, which is much bigger than the building itself, and probably affects more people than the building ever will. Putting thought into those spaces may not be instinctual for architects who are trained to focus on the building itself, but is so important for connecting to the landscape and building an overall stronger structure with more ways for people to occupy the space.

5) The reading talks about how monuments and skyscrapers are traditionally very vertical- which serves as one way to announce their importance to the world. In old cities like Rome, significant buildings like churches stick out over the general skyline to show importance as well. The author suggests that instead of verticality, the new way of marking importance will be through intensity and thickness of the surrounding structures. Lots of things will be attracted to the important structures showing their importance without announcing it though height.