 

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE – II - FIRST YEAR - SEMESTER 2 (Reg. 2013)

In their physical realization and our actual experience of them, basic elements and the places
they identify are modified by,

• light

• colour

• sounds

• temperature

• air movements

• smells (and even possibly by tastes)

• the qualities and textures of the materials used

• use

• scale

• the effects and experience of time

As abstract ideas, basic elements are subject
to complete control by the designing mind.
Modifying elements may be less compliant.
One might decide on the precise shape and
proportions of a column, cell or an aedicule,
but how it sounds, or is lit, or smells, or
changes with time is a more subtle issue.
Control over modifying elements is a
continuing and evolving battle.
Though use of the basic elements may be the
primary way in which a designing mind
conceptually organises space into places,
modifying elements contribute a great deal to
the experience of those places.
It is impossible to convey fully in drawing, but the architecture of
these steps consists in more than just their visible form. The
place in the drawing stimulates nearly all the senses;

 The deep greens of the leaves, the colours of the flowers and
the patterns of light and shade stimulate the sight

 There is the sound of moving water in nearby fountains

 The smell of warm vegetation and the perfume of oranges

and bougainvillaea

 The variations in temperature between the hot and sunny

places and the cooler and shady places

 The textures of the cobbled pathways

 If one were to pick one of the oranges or a grape the taste

would contribute to the place too.
Generalife, Alhambra Granada, Spain
LIGHT
Light is a condition of architecture but it can also be used as an element.

Light both natural and artificial can be manipulated by design to identify particular places and to give
places particular character.

Light can be related to the activity in a place.

 A jeweller at his workbench needs strong light over a particular area.

 An artist in her studio needs constant and even light by which to paint.

 Children in school need good general lighting for work and play.

Daylight can be exploited in making places.

Its qualities can be changed by the ways in which it is allowed into a building.
LIGHT
The way light is admitted into the side chapels at Ronchampis similar in effect to that of light filtering
down an old broad chimney stack.

Using light ‘scoops’ Le Corbusier identified the places of the side altars with daylight softened by its
reflection off white roughcast walls.
LIGHT
Ralph Erskine used a roof-light cum light scoop to identify the place of a small winter garden at the
heart of the house in the middle of a single-storey villa at Storvik, Sweden.

Villa at Storvik, Sweden

LIGHT
Light from an electric club is more constant and controllable than daylight

 It can be switched on and off

 Precisely varied in intensity, colour and direction

One of the most intense uses of electric lighting is in the theatre, but any place can be considered as
a ‘theatre’ and lit accordingly.

A spotlight can identify the place of an actor, a singer, a painter, an object anything on which attention
is to be focussed. Beams of light can also work in the opposite way, drawing attention to their source.

A spotlight can be used for focus. Beams of light draw attention to source.
LIGHT
The way in which light contributes to the identification of place is part of architecture.

Decisions about light play their part in the conceptual organization of space, and affect the ways in
which basic elements of architecture are used.

Light contributes to the ambience of place.

One is likely to make the quality of light in a place of contemplation or

worship different from that in a place for playing basketball or one for
performing a surgical operation.
LIGHT
Without changing the physical form of a place its character can be radically altered by changing the
way in which it is lit. The dramatic changes occur in a room when it is lit in different ways, at different
intensities and from different directions.
LIGHT
Light can make the fabric of a building seem to dematerialise.

A well lit, completely smooth surface of which, one perhaps cannot see the edges, can appear to lose
its substance and becomes like air.

The absence of light can have a similar effect.

The surfaces in the distant recesses of the interior of a gothic church can seem to disappear in the
gloom.
LIGHT
Light can be constant in some places and light can change in others, like in some buildings (shopping
malls) electric bulbs supply light which is exactly the same all the time.

Erecting a roof under a desert sun creates a patch of shade.

A roof, which in some climates be considered as protection against rain,

is also a shade.
Putting a roof light in it can be like making a clearing in a forest, creating
a pool of light surrounded by shade.

A lone lamp in a dark

street identifies a
place, a red light
A roof light in a room identifies a place of light.
identifies somewhere
more specific.
LIGHT
The doors of ancient Greek temples faced
the morning sun.

The early morning red light must have

illuminated the figure of god within.

The sun’s horizontal light, striking deep into

the interior of the temple helped to identify
the place of the image of God at a particular
significant time of day.

Temple of Zeus
LIGHT
The ceiling of the large church of
Monastery of La Tourette designed
by Le Corbusier a relatively small
rectangular roof-light. As the Sun
moves across the sky, through the
dark interior a rectangle of its beams
tracks like a slow moving search light.
LIGHT
The side chapel of the same church Le
Corbusier used deep circular roof lights, like
broad gun barrels with brightly coloured inner
surfaces, to illuminate the places of altars.

Monastery of La Tourette
LIGHT
Architect Antonio Gaudi created a place of
darkness in which columns and vaults melt into
shadow, lit only by the stained glass windows.

This chapel rather than making a clearing,

recreates the forest, with stone tree trunks and
coloured dappled light seeping under a canopy
of shade.
COLOUR
Colour with light can play a part in identifying a place.

A room painted a particular shade of green has a particular character, and is likely to be known as
‘Green room’, a room lit only by a blue electric bulb has a particular character, a room lit by
daylight passing through coloured glass windows has a particular character.
COLOUR
Different colours and qualities of light may seem to suggest different moods.

Issues of colour are inseparable from light.

Light itself can be any colour, the apparent colours of material objects are affected by the colour of
the light that falls on them.

Colour plays a part in place recognition.

Colour is also used in coding.

COLOUR
In directing someone we describe with colour.

A coloured line indicate a place you should wait.

A change of colour in paving or carpet might indicate a particular pathway or giving it special
importance or help people find their way.
TEMPERATURE
Temperature has always been a central consideration of architecture when though of as
identification of place.

One of the fundamental purposes of architecture is to make warm places in cold climates...

... and relatively cool places in hot climates.

TEMPERATURE
Temperature may or may not be associated with light.

The temperate zones of the northern hemisphere a south facing wall can make a place which is both
bright and warm from the light and heat of the sun.

An air-conditioning outlet can identify an attractively warm place on an icy day, which emits no light.

Similarly, a bright room can be cold, a dark one warm.

Temperature is constant and unvarying temperature interiors in some buildings by carefully

controlling the air-conditioning and computer systems.
TEMPERATURE
In some old houses, there maybe places with different temperatures like,

A warm place by fire – a cool hallway

A warm attic – a cool cellar

A warm living room – a cool passageway

A warm courtyard – a cool pergola or verandah

A warm kitchen – a cold ice-house

So when moving from place to place one passes through zones of different temperature related to
different purposes and providing different experiences.
TEMPERATURE
Temperature is involved with ventilation and humidity, together they can identify places.

A fresh breezy place can be refreshing after a warm, humid one.

A warm, still place is welcomed after a cold windy one.

In ancient palaces with a hot, dry climate had open terraces and tiny courtyards shaded from sun
and positioned to catch or produce air movement to cool the interior spaces.
TEMPERATURE
The front elevation of Altes Museum in Berlin designed by Karl
Friedrich in the 19th century, there is a loggia, once open to the
outdoor air, containing a pair of stairs from ground to first floor and
looking over the square in front of the museum.

Before the loggia was enclosed with a glass curtain wall, the place
provided a reminder of the fresh air and the openness of the outside
as a contrast to the enclosed interior of the galleries.
SOUND – the places making sound
Sound can be as powerful as light in identifying place.

Places can be distinguished by the sounds they make or by the ways in which they affect sounds
made in them.

Some religions use sound to identify the places of worship, by bells, gongs or wind chimes etc.

A place maybe distinguished by the sound of the wind in the leaves of its trees or by sounds of stream
or fountain of water.

An examination room or a library or a monastery refectory by its silence.

A restaurant by its taped background music.

Hotel room experience might be spoilt by the constant hum of air-conditioner.

A particular place in city might be associated with the music of a particular busker.
SOUND – the places affect sound made within
A sound in a cathedral which is large and with hard surfaces, will echo.

A sound in a small room with a carpet, soft upholstered furniture and curtained windows will be
muffled.

The monastery of La Tourette by Le Corbusier seems to hum of its own volition because of its hard
parallel concrete surface that reflect and even magnify every small noise like someone’s shoes
scraping the floor or someone clearing their throat.

American architect Philip

Johnson designed a small
art gallery as an extension to
a house. At the centre of
each gallery one’s voice
seems amplified.
SOUND – the places affect sound made within
In an amphitheatre, if one stamps at the central focus, the sound reflects back from each step in turn,
extending it into a string of echoes which produce a very rapid ‘machine-gun’ sound.
SMELL
A place can be identified by its smell.

A public lavatory tends to smell differently from a ladies hairdresser’s to a perfume shop and a
fishmonger’s another.

The character of an old library is partly due to the smell of polished wood and musty leather book
bindings.

An artist’s studio due to the smell of oil paint.

Food halls in department store cultivate odours of roasted coffee. Fresh baked bread etc.

Chinese temples are pervaded by perfume of burning incense .

The bedroom of an adolescent boy might be distinguished by the smell of unwashed socks or
deodorant.

Different parts of garden might be distinguishable by the perfume of roses, jasmine, etc.
TEXTURE
Texture is a characteristic one can see – relates to sense of sight, it can also be felt – relates to sense
of touch. In both ways, texture contributes to the identification of place.

Texture can be achieved by surface application of paint or polish or fabric, but it is also related to the
innate qualities of materials and the ways they can be treated and used.

We identify places by changing their texture,

By repeatedly walking the same route across a field or a yard we wear away a smooth path, we
inadvertently define the pathway.

When the pathway is defined with grit or cobbles or pavers, we consciously define the pathway.

These changes are apparent to our eyes but they are also appreciated by our sense of touch, through
our feet.

Changes of texture are useful in dark and for people with partial sight. In some places road crossings
are indicated by a change in the pavement texture.
TEXTURE
In old houses, the places of hardest wear around the doorways were often identified and protected by
large slabs of stone, or aprons of cobbles.

Floors and pavements figure so prominently for textures identifying place because it is through our
feet that we make our main tactile contact with the products of architecture.

Carpets change the texture of floors. Making them warmer and more comfortable, particularly to bare
feet.

Around a swimming pool there is conflict between the need for comfort for feet and the need for a
non-slippery texture.

If the top surface of low wall is also intended as a casual seat. Then the texture is changed from hard
stone, brick or concrete to soft fabric or timber, thereby identifying it as a place to sit.

Beds are essentially matters of changes of textures- making a place upon which is comfortable to lie
and sleep.
SCALE
Scale is about relative sizes.

The drawing shows a man standing on a rather small

stage.
But if this man is only a piece of stage dressing, and
that the real man on the stage is actually the dot
between its legs, one’s perception of the size of the
stage is dramatically changed.
SCALE
A scale on a map or drawing indicates the size of things to its reality.

In architecture, scale refers to the size of something relative to oneself.

The experience of a place is radically affected by

its scale.
A football pitch and a small patch of grass in a
back garden, though both defined areas of grass
present very different experiences because of
their different scales.

This is the doorway to the acropolis in Athens. Its

scale is appropriate to the gods rather than mortals.
TIME
Time is the last modifying element, since time takes…..time.

Although architecture produces lasting products, none of them is immune to the effects of time.

Materials change – develop a patina or deteriorate

Original uses become more ingrained in a building or are displaced by others

People make places better with time or alter them for new uses.

Sometimes the effects are positive, sometimes negative.

They are usually considered to be ‘natural’ in that they are not subject to control by human decision,
but that does not mean that they cannot be anticipated and used positively.

It is possible to choose materials or to design generally with maturity rather than early use in mind.
TIME
Time is a modifying element, in another sense, one which is more under the control of the designer.

The product of architecture takes time to get an impression, like any other art forms.

We see a great deal of architecture illustrated by photograph in books and journals, but this is not of
course the way in which it is intended to be experienced.

When we experience a building in its physical existence there are many stages to the process.

There is the,

 discovery,

 view of outward appearance,

 approach,

 entrance,

 exploration of interior spaces (which takes greatest amount of time)

TIME
Some architects consciously try to manipulate the temporal experience of the
products of architecture.

All processional architecture encapsulates time.

In ancient Athens there were processions which led from the agora, up the
acropolis, to the Parthenon. The route took time.

Great cathedrals encapsulate time it takes to pass from the entrance, along
the nave, to the altar.

In Villa Savoye Le Corbusier used time as a modifying element of architecture.

The three floor plans show the way we approach it, enter it, and exploring
within it.

He created a route – an ‘architecture promenade’.

The approach works when one is on foot or in a car.