THEORY OF DESIGN
● Research of Architecture
- Research contributes to Design Theory
● Nature of Design Theory
- Design Theory states facts
- Design Theory aids design
● Scope of Architecture Theory
- Includes all that is presented in the handbooks of architects
- Includes legislation, norms and standards, rules and methods
- Includes miscellaneous and “unscientific” elements
● Why Design Theory?
- To aid the work of the architect and improve its product
- Proven theory helps designers do work better and more efficiently
- “Skill without knowledge is nothing”
(architect Jean Mignot, 1400 AD)
● Understanding Design Theory
- Theory does NOT necessarily mean PRECCED design
- PARADISM : every new or established theory applied
: STYLE
⮚ THEMATIC THEORIES
● CLASSICAL
- Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
● MIDDLE AGES
- Medieval (read: Dark Age) anonymous tradition of trade guilds
● RENAISSANCE
- Alberti, Vignola, Palladio, etc.
● STRUCTURALIST
- Galileo Galilei, Robert Hooke, etc.
● ART NOUVEAU (Personal Style)
- Eugene Emmanuelle Violett-le-Due, Le Corbusier, etc.
● FUNCTIONALISM
- Walter Gropius, Louis Sullivan, etc.
- modern architecture
● POSTMODERNISM
- Robert Venturi
● SYMBOLIC ARCHITECTURE
● ECOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE
⮚ CLASSICAL THEORIES
● Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
- Author of the oldest research on architecture
- Wrote an extensive summary of all the theory on construction
- Had a thorough knowledge of earlier Greek and Roman writings
● “Ten Books on Architecture”
- De architectura libri decem
- Consists mostly of normative theory of design (based on practice)
- A collection of thematic theories of design with no method of combining them into a synthesis
, - Presents a classification of requirements set for buildings:
: DURABILTIY (firmitas)
: PRACTICALITY or “convenience”
(utilitas)
: PLEASANTNESS (venustas)
● Vitruvian Rules of Aesthetic Form
- Based on Greek traditions of architecture
- Teachings of Pythagoras : applying proportions of numbers
- Observations of tuned string of instruments
- Proportions of human body
- PLEASANTNESS : in accordance of good taste
: parts follow proportions
: symmetry of measures
⮚ THEORIES in the MIDDLE AGES
- no documents
- no person can be attributed for theories
● Monastery Institutions
- Most documents retrieved from the Middle Ages
- However, archives contain only few descriptions of buildings
- Described only as “according to the traditional model”
- “There’s no accounting for tastes” was the rule of thumb
● Development of Building Style
- With hardly or no literary research present
- Villard de Hannecourt’s “sketchbook” in 1235
- Rotzer’s Booklet on the right way of making pinnacles
- Only through guidance of old masters
- Tradition binding and precise in close guilds of builders
⮚ RENNAISANCE THEORIES
● 1948 – a copy of Virtue manuscript found at St. Gallen Monastery
● Leon Bautista Alberti (1404-72)
- Person in charge of constructions commanded by Pope
- “On Building” : De re aedifficatoria
: one of the greatest works of the theory of
architecture
: completed in 1452, published in 1485
: more emphasis on decoration of building
exteriors
● Sebastino Serlio
- “Regole generall di architectura”
● Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
- “Regola delle cinque ordini”
- Concise, facts and easily applicable rules of the five column systems
- Based his design instructions on four things:
: idea of Pythagoras
● Research of Architecture
- Research contributes to Design Theory
● Nature of Design Theory
- Design Theory states facts
- Design Theory aids design
● Scope of Architecture Theory
- Includes all that is presented in the handbooks of architects
- Includes legislation, norms and standards, rules and methods
- Includes miscellaneous and “unscientific” elements
● Why Design Theory?
- To aid the work of the architect and improve its product
- Proven theory helps designers do work better and more efficiently
- “Skill without knowledge is nothing”
(architect Jean Mignot, 1400 AD)
● Understanding Design Theory
- Theory does NOT necessarily mean PRECCED design
- PARADISM : every new or established theory applied
: STYLE
⮚ THEMATIC THEORIES
● CLASSICAL
- Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
● MIDDLE AGES
- Medieval (read: Dark Age) anonymous tradition of trade guilds
● RENAISSANCE
- Alberti, Vignola, Palladio, etc.
● STRUCTURALIST
- Galileo Galilei, Robert Hooke, etc.
● ART NOUVEAU (Personal Style)
- Eugene Emmanuelle Violett-le-Due, Le Corbusier, etc.
● FUNCTIONALISM
- Walter Gropius, Louis Sullivan, etc.
- modern architecture
● POSTMODERNISM
- Robert Venturi
● SYMBOLIC ARCHITECTURE
● ECOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE
⮚ CLASSICAL THEORIES
● Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
- Author of the oldest research on architecture
- Wrote an extensive summary of all the theory on construction
- Had a thorough knowledge of earlier Greek and Roman writings
● “Ten Books on Architecture”
- De architectura libri decem
- Consists mostly of normative theory of design (based on practice)
- A collection of thematic theories of design with no method of combining them into a synthesis
, - Presents a classification of requirements set for buildings:
: DURABILTIY (firmitas)
: PRACTICALITY or “convenience”
(utilitas)
: PLEASANTNESS (venustas)
● Vitruvian Rules of Aesthetic Form
- Based on Greek traditions of architecture
- Teachings of Pythagoras : applying proportions of numbers
- Observations of tuned string of instruments
- Proportions of human body
- PLEASANTNESS : in accordance of good taste
: parts follow proportions
: symmetry of measures
⮚ THEORIES in the MIDDLE AGES
- no documents
- no person can be attributed for theories
● Monastery Institutions
- Most documents retrieved from the Middle Ages
- However, archives contain only few descriptions of buildings
- Described only as “according to the traditional model”
- “There’s no accounting for tastes” was the rule of thumb
● Development of Building Style
- With hardly or no literary research present
- Villard de Hannecourt’s “sketchbook” in 1235
- Rotzer’s Booklet on the right way of making pinnacles
- Only through guidance of old masters
- Tradition binding and precise in close guilds of builders
⮚ RENNAISANCE THEORIES
● 1948 – a copy of Virtue manuscript found at St. Gallen Monastery
● Leon Bautista Alberti (1404-72)
- Person in charge of constructions commanded by Pope
- “On Building” : De re aedifficatoria
: one of the greatest works of the theory of
architecture
: completed in 1452, published in 1485
: more emphasis on decoration of building
exteriors
● Sebastino Serlio
- “Regole generall di architectura”
● Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
- “Regola delle cinque ordini”
- Concise, facts and easily applicable rules of the five column systems
- Based his design instructions on four things:
: idea of Pythagoras
