VOICES

Metric: Metric is the most used system of measure in world today, which is applied to know the size or state of something. Developed during the French Revolution in the 1790’s, it was designed to bring order to the traditional methods of measuring in Europe [1] . As designers that’s what we do, we develop and design for concepts that solve problems that conflict against society. We also use the metric when it comes to scaling a figure to fit into a space conceived by us designers to demonstrate the spatial usage.

Precedent: Presence: Most designers have to study an area before he/she decides on the proper solution to fix the problem they observe. Using our current, “Pathways. Edges. Boundaries.” project in studio, the behavioral group had to observe the parking lot for 24 hours in order to get a feel of the parking lot from different times of the day in which a person may inhabit the space. Looking at similar areas that shared the same commonalities we had to arise with an idea to direct passage. The working areas that we took our inspiration from are known as the precedent. A precedent can serve as inspiration for other analogous projects, even something like furniture design. “Although there is a paucity of actual pieces of furniture available for study, documentary evidence from literary sources, reliefs, wall paintings, sarcophagi, and marble and bronze parts extend our knowledge about characteristics of Roman furniture. From these sources it is clear that the Romans relied on Greek prototypes of the Hellenistic period for their inspiration,” (Blakemore 61). Since, presence is how something either feels or is portrayed within a space, the precedent has a way of showing itself whether it’s obvious or not. One example of presence is how the, “…Egyptian antecedents are evident in the design of the stool, a lightly scaled piece, there was no attempt by the Greeks to place animal legs in a directional position,” (Blakemore 42). Although the Greeks didn’t recreate the Egyptian stool, I use this example because it reflects back to the usage of a precedent while at the same time tying the term to presence, because the original idea developed by the Egyptians still shined through.

Precense/Precedent #1

Precense/Precedent #2

Moments: Duality: In one of its many definitions, moments can be defined as a realization during a certain interval of time. “The Artistic focus shifted to the building’s interior, on creating a mystic image of heaven that was the very opposite of the architecture of the workaday world outside,” (Roth 298). Not only is this an example of a moment being created within a space to impacting the spiritually in worship it is also a duality when it comes to tying the church to the heavens because the it makes the two become one. Another Example of the two is Brunelleschi’s Dome in Florence. “Florence took enormous pride in the dome, and humanist scholar and theorist Leon Battista Alberti (1404 – 1472) praised Brunelleschi’s achievement, all the more extraordinary since Brunelleschi had no direct precedent an antiquity; the dome, Alberti said, was “unknown and unthought-of among the ancients,” (Roth 358). What links the two terms together in this example is the design of the dome. I believe that the duality in the dome’s design lies within Brunelleschi’s concept to “…stretch human limits to match the building achievements of the ancients…,” in which the ancients upheld the Gods attempting to build towards them with both structures their spiritually (Roth 357). With this in mind, it is no surprise that the dome creates a moment when one is in Florence due to its towering design over the city making a “bold gesture of civic ambition,” (Roth 358).

Duality


Brunelleschi's Dome Florence, Italy

Synopsis: Building on the foundation of my prior OPUS entry, “Part:Whole,” This set of words truly made me think in tying symbolic gestures to that of the past. Not only this, research for these words showed me how design is more than “just” design it is a play on a person’s psychological state where it be apparent or not.
[1] http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/metric.html