Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 24.02.20091 Theory of Architecture(EAPS4202) Lecturer 1 General Aspects of Architecture Theory & History (Part I) Dr. Hazem

Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 24.02.2009 1

Theory of Architecture(EAPS4202)Lecturer 1

General Aspects of Architecture Theory & History (Part I)

Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf

University of Palestine

Faculty of Applied Engineering & Urban Planning

Dept. of Architecture, Interior Design & Planning

Theory of Architecture:Meaning & Understanding It is a theoritical and scientific criticism and/or a

phylosophical explanation to issues related to architecture design;

Architecture theory is useful to judge; criticise and soundly assess the design process;

Architecture articulates intent; From the cosmological ordering of the universe in

antiquity to the more prosaic commercial domination of the urban landscape in our contemporary cities, architecture has always played a central political role in ordering human interaction in the public domain.


Theory of Architecture:Expressive Role Architecture today has gradually become faced with a crisis

of meaning; Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières (1721–c.1793) defined the

role of architecture as a language expressive of its destination and purpose.

The aim of architecture was accordingly to communicate the character and social status of his clients, but he also believed that buildings could evoke human sensation responding to the mind and move the soul.

It is claimed that the essence of architecture was fictional and poetic.


Theory of Architecture:Expressive Role Ever since antiquity, Vitruvius had established the

expressive role of architecture in his definition of the term “decorum.”

For Vitruvius, however, architecture expressed an order that transcended its materiality; it spoke of the order of the universe.

Important cultural changes motivated by the Scientific Revolution transformed the very nature of architecture in the late seventeenth century.


Theory of Architecture:Expressive Role: 18th Century A questioning of the natural foundation of architecture

(the reliance on the analogy between the architectural orders and human proportions) plunged the whole discipline into a potential crisis of meaning.

Eighteenth-century architects began to explore the expressive power of architecture as the product of a personal, culture-specific imagination, but struggled to maintain its shared language so as to preserve its sense of purpose and “meaning.”


Theory of Architecture:Expressive Role: 18th Century (1728–99): the period states that architecture is an art

that addresses our senses by communicating various impressions to them.

Moreover, it is an art that fulfills the most important needs of social life.

Architecture at the time could communicate moral principles by modulating the lives and emotions of its inhabitants: it compares architecture to a poem that can evoke in us emotions related to the use of a building, revealing its character.


Theory of Architecture:Expressive Role: Late 18th Century The images that [buildings] present to our senses should provoke

within us feelings that are analogous to their destined usage. Indeed, this visual poetry was the primordial role of architecture

for the architects of the late eighteenth century. It distinguishes between construction and the process of conception,

emphasizing that architecture is not the “art of building,” as Vitruvius had claimed. Vitruvius mistook the effect for the cause, since conception, this production of the mind, is the first and essential dimension of architecture. “

The art of building, therefore, is only a secondary art that will appropriately be called the scientific side of architecture.


Architectural Transformation:18th Century Architectural theory underwent some radical

transformations, especially in the work of Jean Nicolas Louis Durand (1760–1834).

Architecture became an art of efficiency in which buildings must be composed rationally to avoid wasteful expenses. The question of expression became incidental, subordinated to the primary utilitarian concerns.

Durand’s concern was the rational plan towards more efficiency in terms of the relationship between the use of walls and the surface area covered by the building.

By rejecting the symbolic role of architecture and focusing on its usefulness and functionality, Durand re-defined the discipline as an applied science, and initiated an important paradigm shift in architectural theory.


Alternative projectfor the Church ofSte. Geneviève inParis (the FrenchPantheon) (1819)

Architectural Transformation:19th Century From the nineteenth century, mainstream architecture was indeed

regarded as a functional discipline, less concerned with the questions of expression than its utilitarian role.

The notion of program, considered an important constituent of architectural meaning, articulated through discursive language as social conventions, through the use of mythological analogies, or through poetic language as fiction, was reduced to its more pragmatic requirements.

Architects ceased to be concerned with the expressive nature of their work because they believed that expression would be conveyed automatically by “solving” the functional requirements of the program. The search for meaning in the notion of character was reduced to a syntactic interest in typology.


Architectural Transformation:20th Century Architectural theory has exceeded the discussion of functionalism,

with complex structural forms being calculated by computers, and with innovative building materials being generated by science, any imaginable – or unimaginable – shape can now be built.

This extreme freedom to manipulate the form of our built environment has led to recent architectural structures based on organic evolutionary growth and proliferation.

In this essence, Greg Lynn has proposed a “blob architecture” whose primary objective appears to be unexpected shapes: the dream of absolute formal innovation in architecture.


Architectural Transformation:20th Century This model of organic growth produces buildings that are more

functional than any rational building.

It denies, however, that their appearance should be interpreted as a formal expression. In other words, any parallel between the formal generation of architecture and the program it is meant to enclose is purely coincidental.

Even though the relevance and application of functionalism continue to be challenged in the early twenty-first century, questions of architectural expression are still pressing, because if architecture’s communicative role in language is relinquished, it may also lose its right to “perform” in the public domain.


Character Theory18th century Is how architecture would expresses

individual character. It considered architecture as an expressive

language, and thus preserved the public relevance of architecture as a means of establishing order despite the rise of the subjective individual.

The inter-subjective dimension of architecture, expressed as character.


Character Theory18th century It describes the potential of private architecture to

express the individual character of its owner on the urban stage, and thus preserve the public role of architecture through language.

the expressive role of architecture reflected his personal fascination with the theatre and its ability to move the souls of spectators.

The theatre provided him with a pervasive analogy to demonstrate the relevance of architecture as a new form of language but lacks architectural value.


Summary Scholars have either emphasized the apparent contradiction

between the poetic language of The Genius of Architecture and his more technical texts on architecture, or tried to reconcile these works by regarding The Genius as a technical manual on the hôtel particulier.13

Meanwhile, virtually nothing has been written about his plays, his novel or his description of a picturesque garden. Yet, these “secondary” works provide important clues for understanding the true lesson of The Genius of Architecture: not only to define the conventional distribution14 of an hôtel particulier, but to convey the tension of architectural space akin to that of an erotic encounter.


Summary The mode of discourse in Le Camus’s treatise is far from purely

technical. Its frequent use of theatrical metaphors to speak about architectural concepts such as gradation of ornamentation, succession of spaces, and emotional climax shows his intention to develop an “architecture of the event” that demands to be reenacted by every visitor/spectator of the architectural scenery.

As we shall see, the temporal dimension of architectural experience is structured around a fictional narrative that provides a key to unlock the true meaning of The Genius of Architecture, and that may suggest a way to recover the expressive role of architecture today.


Documents

Prepared by Dr. Hazem Abu-Orf, 24.02.20091 Theory of Architecture(EAPS4202) Lecturer 1 General Aspects of Architecture Theory & History (Part I) Dr. Hazem