Role of Culture in Architecture

"This study gathers and interprets the earliest extant references to architects in ancient Greek philosophy, as found in select works of Plato and Aristotle.  Throughout this review, Plato and Aristotle [are] shown to consistently present architectonic agents as exemplary civic and intellectual leaders, acting in awareness of their own (and others’) limits, with knowledge of the most appropriate archē, and with a view to the most comprehensive aims—the common good. This discloses an alternative and more accurate etymology of architects: not as master-builders but as leaders and makers of beginnings (archai). The aim of this essay has been not only to rediscover the discursive beginnings for a renewed philosophy of architecture, but to suggest how these philosophical 'archai' might help present-day architects reimagine the full relevance of their still contested role."

This paper investigates an approach to the use of fractals in architectural design. Two major aspects are discussed. First, the effect of the direction of the line segments on the generated fractal, as well as, the proportions between the generator and the initiator. Secondly, the meanings attached to the lines segments that constitute the fractal are based on some known architectural organization. The goal is to develop a basis for using fractals to suggest architectural forms.

Cesare Brandi dedicated great part of his theoretical reflections to identifying the essence of art. His concern was fuelled by the fact that the precious treasury of Italian art was at risk of disappearance after the World War II. As founder of the Istituto Centrale del Restauro, he was responsible for the protection of the architectural heritage. Therefore, the preoccupation in finding the most authoritative theory was more than justified and consequently his philosophical journey is one of the most consistent in the Italian art theory scene.

His theoretical corpus overcame the Crocean idealism that preceded him and incorporated new approaches to study art, and architecture as art, such as phenomenology and semiotic studies. Since his philosophical journey seemed devoted to a theoretical understanding of art, this paper offers a mapping of how, by considering architecture as a work of art, Brandi approached, at least in his Restoration Theory, its conservation as the rest of the fine arts.

We argue, he did not consider the qualities of architecture’s inhabitation within his theory, influencing for a long period the way in which Italian conservation culture considered the built environment. Architecture, by this influence, lingered in the middle for a long time, between the role of the dynamic and changing place of human dwelling and the one of support of the intemporal work of art.

ABSTRAK Studi ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui persepsi masyarakat menganai citra kawasan atau identitas kawasan cagar budaya Trowulan, kualitas dan kepentingan untuk menentukan upaya atau arahan pengembangan yang dapat ditetapkan kedepannya. Upaya yang dilakukan untuk menciptakan citra kawasan yang memiliki sense, sehingga dapat menjadi identitas dan karakter kawasan cagar budaya Trowulan. Desa Trowulan dan Desa Sentonorejo menjadi objek studi didasarkan karena kedua desa merupakan desa yang memiliki kandungan situs yang banyak dan memiliki tingkat kepadatan linggan atau arca yang tinggi. Sementara Kecamatan Trowulan merupakan wilayah yang dapat menggambarkan dan mengingatkan kembali dengan kebesaran Kerajaan Majapahit. Peninggalan Kerajaan Majapahit yang banyak ditemukan pada Kecamatan Trowulan perlu dilestarikan sehingga setiap generasi dapat mengetahuinya. Keberadaan situs dapat memberikan karakter dan identitas bagi Kecamatan Trowulan. Masyarakat yang menjadi pengguna kawasan perlu untuk diketahui pandangan atau persepsinya mengenai kawasan tersebut sehingga akan mempengaruhi partisipasi masyarakat dalam melestarikan warisan budaya. Studi ini menggunakan empat analisis, yaitu pemetaan kognitif, penilaian makna kultural, pemaknaan kawasan, dan Importance Peformance Analysis (IPA). Hasil studi menunjukkan bahwa kawasan cagar budaya Trowulan memiliki citra positif sebagai kawasan yang mempunyai nilai sejarah. Dengan memiliki 6 elemen bangunan dan lingkungan pembentuk identitas di kawasan cagar budaya Trowulan, yaitu Kolam Segaran, Museum Trowulan, Pendopo Agung Trowulan, Situs Kedaton, Lantai segienam, dan Kompleks Makam Troloyo. Kata kunci: citra kawasan, kawasan bersejarah, persepsi masyarakat. ABSTRACT This study is done to know public perception about the image and identity of a region, which is Trowulan Cultural Heritage, quality and quantity to know the way for developing the region. Effort will be done to create a sense of this place so could be an identity and character Trowulan Cultural Heritage. Trowulan Village and Sentonorejo Village can be object of study because both villages have so much historical sites. While Trowulan district is a district than can describes and reminds about Majapahit Kingdom. Relics of the Majapahit Kingdom that found at Trowulan District need to be preserved so everyone can know about it. The existence about those sites can provide character and identity Trowulan District. The user community area need to know about perception of the area so could affect community participation in preserving the cultural heritage. This research use four analyzes, they are cognitive mapping, assessment of cultural meaning, the meaning of region, and Importance Performance Analysis (IPA). The result of this study is the historical district has positive image as district that has a historical value. Those six building and environmental elements which built identity in Historical District Trowulan are Kolam Segaran, Museum Trowulan, Pendopo Agung Trowulan, Situs Kedaton, Lantai Segienam, and Kompleks Makam Troloyo. Keywords: image of place, historical district, public perception.

Esta propuesta parte de las premisas bosquejadas en el VIII Coloquio de la AIER, para reflexionar con más detalle sobre la llamada “arquitectura de poder”, sus fuentes y emisores, su razón de ser y su difusión por el Imperio, prestando especial atención a la "serliana". Indagaremos sobre el viaje de las formas –ligadas o no a contenidos concretos– y sobre sus canales de transmisión, que proyectaron imágenes cuya carga simbólica y de prestigio tuvo gran trascendencia durante siglos. Destacaremos el papel del espectador y su cultura visual a la hora de enfrentarse a estas producciones, bajo los conceptos que nos hablan de la “elocuencia” de los implicados en su uso: presentación y representación, emisión y transmisión, visión y revisión, imagen e imaginación.

ABSTRAK. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkap pemahaman tentang ruang publik pada rumah tinggal masyarakat Jawa. Untuk itu dipilih rumah-rumah tradisional masyarakat Jawa tipe joglo di desa Jagalan Kotagede Yogyakarta sebagai representasi aspek bentuk. Untuk representasi aspek fungsi dipilih tiga adat dan upacara daur hidup yaitu kelahiran, perkawinan dan kematian. Pendekatan dasar yang digunakan adalah strukturalisme yang dikembangkan oleh Levi Strauss dikombinasikan dengan pengkategorisasian aspek dalam arsitektur oleh Capon dan perputaran aspek fungsibentukmakna oleh Salura dan Fauzy. Langkah yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini adalah mengungkap struktur permukaan aspek fungsi dengan menelusuri elemen-elemen dan relasi sintagmatik dari kegiatan pada adat dan upacara kelahiran, perkawinan dan kematian. Pada saat yang sama juga dilakukan pengungkapan struktur permukaan aspek bentuk melalui penelusuran elemen-elemen dan relasi sintagmatik dari rumah-rumah kasus studi. Langkah berikutnya adalah melakukan analisis oposisi biner untuk mendapatkan relasi paradigmatik antara struktur permukaan aspek fungsi dan struktur permukaan aspek bentuk. Hasilnya kemudian diinterpretasi lebih lanjut dengan mengkaitkannya dengan konsepkonsep yang hidup dalam masyarakat. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa ruang publik pada rumah tinggal masyarakat Jawa merupakan bagian integral masyarakat Jawa dalam rangka menemukan keselamatan dalam hidup.

This article explores the architectural history of the Soviet workers’ club by analysing one of its emblematic examples, the Zil workers’ club by the Vesnin brothers. The aim is to understand how clubs attempted to forge the new Soviet citizen and his relation to Soviet culture and politics.

ABSTRAK Pura Luhur Dwijawarsa merupakan pura Khayangan Jagad yang tertua dan terbesar di Malang. Terdapat aktivitas ritual kebudayaan dan keagamaan yang dilaksanakan di Pura Luhur Dwijawarsa. Tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk mengetahui ruang ritual yang terbentuk pada Pura Luhur Dwijawarsa. Metode yang digunakan, yaitu deskriptif kualitatif guna mendeskripsikan proses terjadinya aktivitas ritual. Hasil studi menunjukkan bahwa aktivitas ritual keagamaan lebih dominan dengan penggunaan ruang utamanya berada pada utama mandala yang dianggap ruang paling sakral. Ritual kebudayaan yang berhubungan dengan siklus kehidupan manusia lebih dominan menggunakan ruang yang non sakral sebagai ruang utama, seperti ruang nista mandala dan lapangan parkir. Hal tersebut dikarenakan faktor pelaku yang terlibat serta itensitas penggunaan ruang ritual yang berbeda-beda. Kata kunci: aktivitas, ritual, ruang ritual ABSTRACT Pura Luhur temple Khayangan Jagad Dwijawarsa is the oldest and largest in Malang. There is an activity of cultural and religious rituals held in Pura Luhur Dwijawarsa. The aim of this study is to determine the ritual chamber formed in Pura Luhur Dwijawarsa. The method used is descriptive qualitative to describe the process of ritual activity. The results showed that the activities of religious rituals are more dominant with the use of the main hall are in the main theater which is considered the most sacred space. While cultural rituals related to the human life cycle is more dominant in the non-sacred space as the main room like a mandala insult space and parking lot. That is because the factors and actors involved intensities space usage of different rituals.

(English) Architecture is one of many cultural products made by humans. There is a process of signification (semiotics) between architects, architectural objects and community within the process of the making of a cultural products. Signification that occurs tend to be visual. Architects convey their ideas through the elements which are arranged in particular architectural objects, and the public can understand an architectural object through its existing physical form and details. This study aims to identify how the semiotic process occur in people in seeing an architectural object. This case study uses a historical building as an object, as a form of a cultural product from the past that still continues to exist until today. So how the influence of architecture, culture, and history, can be seen through semiotic processes that occur.

(Indonesian) Arsitektur merupakan salah satu dari sekian banyak produk budaya yang dihasilkan oleh manusia. Dalam menghasilkan produk budaya, terdapat proses pemaknaan (semiotika) antara perancang, objek arsitektural dan masyarakat. Pemaknaan yang terjadi cenderung secara visual. Perancang menyampaikan ide yang dimilikinya melalui elemen-elemen yang menyusun suatu objek arsitektural, dan masyarakat dapat mengerti suatu objek arsitektural melalui bentuk fisik dan detail yang hadir. Skripsi ini ingin mencoba melihat bagaimana proses semiotika yang terjadi di masyarakat dalam melihat suatu objek arsitektural. Studi kasus yang diambil merupakan bangunan peninggalan sejarah, sebagai bentuk produk budaya dari masa lampau yang masih terus ada hingga sekarang. Sehingga dapat dilihat bagaimana pengaruh antara arsitektur, budaya, dan sejarah melalui proses semiotika yang terjadi.

Salama, A. M. (2011). Anti-Vitruvian Architects and Contemporary Society. Architects for Peace, September, Melbourne, Australia.

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Certain issues keep presenting themselves on the map of discussions about architecture and its role as a profession in contemporary societies. Recently, I came across two web interventions that highlight some of these issues. The first is a video clip on You Tube, titled “is the architect obsolete?” and the second is an article on the website of DesignIntelligence by Helena Jubany, titled “The Social Responsibility of Architects” These were a trigger for this editorial in which I re-iterate some of the issues I presented in my earlier writings.

While practicing architecture works very well for some professionals, many are suffering from norms, traditions, and customs adopted by the profession itself. This is due to the fact that the profession still clings to the antiquated notion of an architect or designer waiting in an office for a client to come in with a project. It is also due to the fact that architects do not know how to convince others of their value. The question here is why? Is it the ineffectiveness of professional organizations, is it the notion of ‘starchitects’ that dictates the architectural scene in many parts of the world? Well, it might not be so difficult to offer a validated answer!

More can be found here or download the complete article
http://archpeace2.blogspot.com/2011/09/anti-vitruvian-architects-and.html

This article shows how the media of film can be
integrated, explored and can add value to architectural design studios
and practice. It elucidates how film may offer an alternative position
in architecture, where landscapes and cities are thought, planned
and developed in closer relation to their spatial and sensory effects
on humans. It underscores that the film camera can work as a kind
of amplifier of how we, with our bodies, perceive space and project
space. In the Landscape Film studio at the University of Copenhagen
the film medium was tested as a combined registration and design
tool for a new nature park south of Copenhagen. The final studio
films and designs show how resonating recordings of sound, time
and a bodily presence may simulate an Einfühling that inspires an
alternative architecture of relations: the ambient, the changeable
and the volatile. They also emphasize that an ability to work with
bodily experience in both physical space and abstract design
space is strengthened through the exploration of the film medium.
Film becomes a “resonance tool” or “membrane” for the perceiver
and conceiver, and contributes to a greater awareness of a bodily
preconsciousness in architecture.

This paper considers the nature of the speculative architectural project, its distinction from building,  its relationship to a particular aspect of mimetic inquiry, and the implications of  the rise of technique -- in particular, its influence on the mimetic capacity of a speculative architectural project. Architectural speculation is considered through the relationship of "making" and "place," evidenced in the admittedly unlikely conjunction of Gothic Scholasticism, surrealist theater, and the Cinquecento conceptual model of disegno. This paper explicates their interrelationship through reconstructing a program that invites participation in the collective mimesis of a speculative architectural project.

El concepto primordial del Islâm es at·tawhîd (Unicidad). Habitualmente, se suele reducir la dimensión de esta unicidad a una concepción meramente teológica, entendida como unidad de la divinidad. Idea que no precisa de aclaración para todos los musulmanes al vivenciar un único Dios que no es concebido a partir de una ser plural. Pero entender la Unicidad sólo desde esta perspectiva acabaría por reducir el concepto que vertebra y articula la creación y el entendimiento de esta filosofía como unidad de toda la creación.

This paper reports the preliminary findings of Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s eight week archaeological field school at the Kincaid site, a major Mississippian period (AD 1000-1450) mound center located along the Ohio River in southernmost Illinois. The purpose of this research, in addition to training a new batch of archaeologists, is threefold: to explain the intra-site diversity at this important but understudied site, to examine prehistoric identity as it is revealed through such diversity, and to improve the interpretability of magnetometry survey at Kincaid and elsewhere with complementary in-the-ground data.

In designing a cultural centre the Architect faces the challenge of how to best express the key cultural and traditional features of a society. This paper studied how tangible and intangible cultural and traditional features were identified, adapted, conceptualized and ultimately expressed by Architect’s in the design of cultural centres. Case study based qualitative research is used to analyze cultural centres, based on four variables; namely, the cultural and traditional specific features used by the designer, design concept, choice of location, and the building materials and construction technology used. The results revealed the various techniques used to express cultural identity; which include the use of abstract or direct mimicry of tangible and/or intangible cultural and traditional features in form, spatial patterns, surface ornamentation, building materials and techniques, and the location of buildings in areas that reinforce the cultural and historical identity of the society. The paper concludes that a combination of various techniques is the most commonly used and effective way to express cultural identity. The outcome of this research will hopefully provide architects and other designers with an understanding of the techniques used in expressing cultural identity, and possibly serve as a tool for criticizing and analyzing future works.

The Madurese known as the public nomads, they have the distinct culture, unique, stereotypical, and stigmatic. The cultural identity was considered as a description of the individual and communal identity of Madurese behavior and living. Kotalama Settlements in Malang-East Java, is one of the points spread Madurese migrants in Malang. Malang has different geographical conditions with Madura island as a place of their origin, so they need to adjust that condition. This study was conducted to determine values of Madurese culture that can be found in Kotalama settlements-Malang as a Madurese migrant's residential areas in urban environments. The descriptive qualitative method with discourse analysis approach through in-depth interview on key person used to determine the Madurese cultural value. The results showed: the basic character of tolerance, loyalty, trust and consistent in socializing among Madurese migrants; territorial formed on the basis of equality as a fellow Madurese migrant, and personal space is achieved by limiting the outdoor and indoor space like on the Madura island. It can be concluded that the moral ethics of society in behaviour and social interaction with the environment is the values of cultural that show the Madurese migrant identity in Kotalama settlements – Malang Keywords: The Madurese cultural values-Kotalama settlements-Malang 1 e-maill: [email protected] *

This special issue of Architecture and Culture on the ethics, power and politics in the stories of collecting, archiving and displaying architecture media draws attention to curatorial responsibilities in finding the proper placement for architecture collections, and how accessibility, reproducibility and promotion impact the cultural, economic and socio-political role of architecture media. And Yet It Moves questions the relevance of translations from place to place when mobile architecture media moves between offices, buildings, archives, exhibition spaces and websites. How does mobile media generate a dynamic trans-mediated construction and construing, finding renewed significance over time? 1 This is also the subject of the parallel publication to this journal, The Routledge Companion to Architectural Drawings and Models: From Translating to Archiving, Collecting and Displaying by the same editor (forthcoming). 2 Architect and historian Robin Evans (1944-1993) outlined the imaginative role of the translational gap between drawings and buildings. 3 Yet, translation does not end when buildings are built,

Abstract It is tempting to construct theory about the Other using binary oppositions. Lacanian psychoanalysis avoids this by stressing the geometry of the Borromeo knot, whose three rings embody both sequentiality and self-intersection. This essay organizes Lacan’s topological options around a “secondary virtuality” by (1) considering Mladen Dolar’s expanded account of anamorphosis, (2) connecting the architectural void to the problem of non-enclosure of the standard figures of projective geometry immersion – the Möbius band, cross-cap, and Klein bottle - and (3) taking Pappus’s theorem, the origin of projective geometry, to the twisted and folded spaces of the uncanny, where unheimlich (“un-homely”) directly implicates architecture as an agency of topological transformation. Two examples, Chesterton’s “The Queer Feet” (1911) and the 1951 science-fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, demonstrate the continued relevance of Pappus’s idea of secondary virtuality to Lacan’s correlation of the Other and ‘extimacy’.

This paper explores the perceptions of public and private information spaces through the creation of a novel experience, known as Chattr, wherein a physical public space was created within which people's conversations and actions were subject to some of the rules that would normally apply to interactions taking place in online social networks. The authors consider people's experience of Chattr at two different venues, and use games design as a lens through which to evaluate such hybrid experiences. This games lens frames Chattr as a system whose formal structure is governed by rules operating at three levels: constitutive, operational and implicit, and helps identify how differences in each venue altered the nature of the experience. We believe using game design in this way, to frame physical/digital spaces, helps a greater understanding of the complexity of our interactions in such spaces by revealing how the different digital and physical rules governing these spaces ultimately affects our behavior.

Publications in architectural theory have predominantly taken on the form of textbased books, monographs and articles. With the rise of trans-disciplinary and practice-based research in architecture, new opportunities are opening up for other forms of architectural theory, such as film-based mediums, which promises to expand and alter the convention of the written practice of theory.

Javanese and Islamic acculturations adhere to the people living at Dukuh Krajan. Javanese social and cultural aspects affect the spirit of Islamic activities. This is obvious by the use of Javanese/Islamic calendar system in every ritual. Yet, the high value of togetherness and communality is decreasing. This change will result in abandoning culture and growing social problem. It also influences the change of common space in the neighborhood. Therefore, it needs exploration on communal space established through Nyadran ritual. The purpose is to maintain the existence of the communal space as well as to develop togetherness and communality for the next generation. The study employs qualitative design with rationalistic approach. The data were collected through observation and interview. The communal space is formed by the activity, the physical area, the doers and the ritual time. The use of communal space in Nyadran ritual reflects togetherness and mutual cooperation value establish...

Publications in architectural theory have predominantly taken on the form of textbased books, monographs and articles. With the rise of trans-disciplinary and practice-based research in architecture, new opportunities are opening up for other forms of architectural theory, such as film-based mediums, which promises to expand and alter the convention of the written practice of theory.

Javanese and Islamic acculturations adhere to the people living at Dukuh Krajan. Javanese social and cultural aspects affect the spirit of Islamic activities. This is obvious by the use of Javanese/Islamic calendar system in every ritual. Yet, the high value of togetherness and communality is decreasing. This change will result in abandoning culture and growing social problem. It also influences the change of common space in the neighborhood. Therefore, it needs exploration on communal space established through Nyadran ritual. The purpose is to maintain the existence of the communal space as well as to develop togetherness and communality for the next generation. The study employs qualitative design with rationalistic approach. The data were coUected through observation and interview. The communal space is formed by the activity, the physical area, the doers and the ritual time. The use of communal space in Nyadran ritual reflects togetherness and mutual cooperation value established as the result of the sense of care and the social awareness to share spaces for public interest. Akulturasi budaya Islam danJawa masih melekat pada kehidupan masyarakat Dukuh Krajan. Kegiatan Islam suasananya dipengaruhi oleh aspek budaya dan sosial Jawa. Tergambar jelas pada pemakaian kalender Jawa/Islam pada setiap kegiatan budaya. Namun, nilai-nilai kebersamaan dan kegotongroyangan dalam kegiatan sosial budaya saat ini semakin berkurang. Perubahan ini akan berpengaruh terhadap beberapa budaya setempat yang tersisihkan, dan masalahmasalah sosial yang mulai berkembang. Dampaknya akan berpengaruh juga

This article presents an interpretation of nostalgia in which it is traced back to its original meaning as an emotion concerned not with time, but with place, the Alpine mountains of Switzerland, which in the early nineteenth century became associated with notions of the medieval past. With recourse to nineteenth-century anthropological theories of cultural evolution, an attempt is made to explain the term's shift in meaning. Nostalgia, as an emotion glorifying authenticity, was and still is propelled by imagery created in a wide variety of media. It found early and long-lasting expression in the international popularity of the Swiss chalet.