Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Piwakawakalulu's Introduction to Architecture

Some people would say that architecture is an expression and application of geometrical order. Personally, I think architecture is mutually the course and creation of planning, scheming and making, and is mostly building a structure within the confines of art, confines in which the possibilities are innumerable. This actually may be the perfect reason for people to be able to think outside the box and make something no other human being has ever made before instead of building the same, standard-type buildings. 

Being an architect is not something to be gained by mere knowledge; it also needs practice, a dose of creativity, and an enormous amount of patience. Of course, knowledge plays significant role in architecture, especially because architecture greatly depends on science; without it, there will be no way to guarantee the structure will stay upright on its foundation.

According to http://math.utsa.edu/ftp/salingar.old/Laws.html, there are three laws of architecture:
  1. Order on the smallest scale is established by paired contrasting elements, existing in a balanced visual tension.
  2. Large-scale order occurs when every element relates to every other element at a distance in a way that reduces the entropy.
  3. The small scale is connected to the large scale through a linked hierarchy of intermediate scales with scaling factor approximately equal to e = 2.718.
It is said that the first two laws oversee the two ends of level, which are the very small and very large; and the third law oversees the connecting of the two scales. Each law brings forth some discrete consequences; and together, these laws describe a set of master rules for architecture. Their direct consequences are said to match up to reality and are validated.

Some people say that being a great architect is a tremendous challenge and adventure. Although there are countless possibilities in architecture, our human minds are not always capable of thinking outside the box and thus our creativity and imagination is put to the test. This is the fun in being an architect.

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