Opus Week 7

P-Week

Periphery comes from the Greek word periphéreia meaning circumference. Periphery is the external boundary of a space and can be defined in architectural terms as the planning and division of space. Tying to our class discussion of Renaissance architecture the centralized courtyard is an open public area for guests in the Renaissance home. The periphery is marked off on all four sides where the courtyard gives way to the private rooms of the home. Visually this is saying that the boundary for guests stops at the periphery of the courtyard unless they are invited further into the home. You can find courtyards and plans as so in the villas and Palazzos of Italy such as the Pallazo Farnese and Pallazo Medici (Roth 376)

As designers and artists we put together our work in a Portfolio in order to look at our work as an overall picture. We see how we've improved and what we need to work on. In a broad sense architects do the same thing over time with building forms and materials. Architects look at what was successful and build upon that. The Renaissance was very much about reviving the successful parts of ancient architecture and re-working the details. The French took the ideas of the Renaissance and revived them even further (Blakemore 97). As building materials and other factors come into play we are always searching for more advanced ways of building through looking back at old techniques and improving on techniques that could be more successful. Looking at a detail in time the arch, which was extremely popular in Roman times, was transformed into a pointed arch in medieval times. Ste. Marie Souiallac features the first renditions of a pointed arch. Later the arch became even more pointed in the middle. This earie church also has detailed sculpture built into its columns of twisted bodies of people and animals. The columns and wall reliefs remind me of the column of Trajan in that they tell a story through sculpture rather than frescos. Looking at this church sends chills down my spine.



Design process can be long and drawn out in that there are so many steps one should take in order to create something original and well thought out. First one must do research, possibly a precedent analysis. Next the designer needs to brain storm ideas making sketch models and determining which ideas are successful and scraping the ideas that do not work. Then doing a series of more final models and eventually a scale model will help the designer understand how their creation works structurally and visually overall. Once a project comes to life and a designer's creation is actually built there is a whole new process of steps that come into play when physically bringing a design to life. From a history of design standpoint the architect Brunelleschi began studying Roman architecture in order to help him with his arch designs, this is like the first part of a design process in doing research or a precedent analysis (Roth 357).

Perspective is the way one views something. Blakemore talks about optical illusions in architecture through frescoes on walls and ceilings. The Sistine Chapel painted by Michaelangelo breaks the mold of simple wall frescoes in churches. Everything from the floor to the walls to the ceiling is painted with detailed depictions of biblical figures. The way the frescos are painted on the ceiling and the curve from the arches spaning across the periphery create a curved materpiece that makes it difficult to find where the wall ends and the ceiling begins. This is all because Michaelangelo painted with the perspective that these areas should be rounded and so he didn't paint the celing as flatly as he painted the walls. Thus the perspective he created is one of the most famous pieces of art in the world (Blakemore 154).

There are numerous professional design jobs today however in the 14th and 15th centuries there were mostly tradesmen, artists, and collaborators that worked together on constructing buildings. Similar to today however there were a few professionals that were well trained in the arts such as Brunelleschi who was both an artist and architect and known for the Duomo (1). Today architects are trained in drawing and the arts and many are artists on the side from being involved in architecture, IARC's own Tommy Lambeth, Stoel Burrows, and Suzanne Cabrera are all artists in their own right. A design professional today is usually trained in a broad range of subject areas and has a main focus where they are most talented or interested in.

1. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=hgk