Sculpture & Architecture
My in depth research about several representative shaped buildings found that considering surrounding context and user's needs are important to a building. Architecture always has a strong and eloquent visual relationship with the surrounding, because the first impression of individual building is as a part of the whole. Therefore, the architecture they create is not stand-alone machines, but environments (Szynalska, 2012). For example, Le Corbusier chiefly built with steel and reinforced concrete in his architecture and worked with elemental geometric forms. He claimed, “ a house is a machine for living in”, he also said, “architecture goes beyond utilitarian needs”, and “architecture is to established emotional relationships”(Sutton, 1999, p.28).
I draw these sketches in Birmingham. This is an example that shows how architecture respond the urban planning, not absolutely, but we can see the historical block and the modern block, residential area and commercial area can be distinguished.
As a case study, I draw the Villa Jeanneret-Perret. This is a good example that shows how a building works better with its surrounding, such as adding green space and plants.
This sketch shows a mountain village that located in southwest of China. Because of the hillside, houses and terraced rice field are built in different levels. It shows how architecture response to geographic feature.
When I draw the architecture features, I found that inhabitants added some additional structure onto their house for getting more conveniently living environment. We can see how local culture and living habit act on architecture through this example.
Analysis - Academic information
The following images are all my own sketches to be the case study.
Fallingwater House, Frank Lloyd. From this picture, we can see design features about windows, balconies and ground floor, which show a good integration between building and natural surroundings.
At the same time, the difference between sculpture and architecture result in the different way of thinking. While the sculptor is depending on the properties of his materials, the architect is constrained by the content of program, the demands of construction, and the cultural codes of the contemporary (Sewing, 2004, p.6). Moreover, architects search for inspiration from within was translated into a quest for a defining social role, an identification of the demands they had to respond to as well as the inevitable acceptance of the need to take into account technological and industrial progress (Favole, 2012, p.8).
