THEORY OF DESIGN

- Consists mostly of normative theory of design

(based on practice)
- A collection of thematic theories of design with
 Research of Architecture no method of combining them into a synthesis
- Research contributes to Design Theory - Presents a classification of requirements set for
 Nature of Design Theory buildings:
- Design Theory states facts : DURABILTIY (firmitas)
- Design Theory aids design : PRACTICALITY or “convenience”
 Scope of Architecture Theory (utilitas)
- Includes all that is presented in the handbooks of : PLEASANTNESS (venustas)
architects  Vitruvian Rules of Aesthetic Form
- Includes legislation, norms and standards, rules - Based on Greek traditions of architecture
and methods - Teachings of Pythagoras : applying proportions of
- Includes miscellaneous and “unscientific” numbers
elements - Observations of tuned string of instruments
 Why Design Theory? - Proportions of human body
- To aid the work of the architect and improve its - PLEASANTNESS : in accordance of good
product taste
- Proven theory helps designers do work better : parts follow proportions
and more efficiently : symmetry of
- “Skill without knowledge is nothing” measures
(architect Jean Mignot, 1400 AD)
 Understanding Design Theory  THEORIES in the MIDDLE AGES
- Theory does NOT necessarily mean PRECCED - no documents
design - no person can be attributed for theories
- PARADISM : every new or established theory
applied  Monastery Institutions
: STYLE - Most documents retrieved from the Middle Ages
- However, archives contain only few descriptions
 THEMATIC THEORIES of buildings
 CLASSICAL - Described only as “according to the traditional
- Marcus Vitruvius Pollio model”
 MIDDLE AGES - “There’s no accounting for tastes” was the rule of
- Medieval (read: Dark Age) anonymous tradition thumb
of trade guilds  Development of Building Style
 RENAISSANCE - With hardly or no literary research present
- Alberti, Vignola, Palladio, etc. - Villard de Hannecourt’s “sketchbook” in 1235
 STRUCTURALIST - Rotzer’s Booklet on the right way of making
- Galileo Galilei, Robert Hooke, etc. pinnacles
 ART NOUVEAU (Personal Style) - Only through guidance of old masters
- Eugene Emmanuelle Violett-le-Due, Le Corbusier, - Tradition binding and precise in close guilds of
etc. builders
 FUNCTIONALISM
- Walter Gropius, Louis Sullivan, etc.  RENNAISANCE THEORIES
- modern architecture
 POSTMODERNISM  1948 – a copy of Virtue manuscript found
- Robert Venturi at St. Gallen Monastery
 SYMBOLIC ARCHITECTURE  Leon Bautista Alberti (1404-72)
 ECOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE - Person in charge of constructions commanded by
Pope
 CLASSICAL THEORIES - “On Building” : De re aedifficatoria
 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio : one of the greatest works of the theory of
- Author of the oldest research on architecture architecture
- Wrote an extensive summary of all the theory on : completed in 1452, published in
construction 1485
- Had a thorough knowledge of earlier Greek and : more emphasis on decoration of building
Roman writings exteriors
 “Ten Books on Architecture”  Sebastino Serlio
- De architectura libri decem - “Regole generall di architectura”
 Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola --- first engineering school
- “Regola delle cinque ordini” - Other figures of mathematical
- Concise, facts and easily applicable rules of the construction theory
five column systems : Robert Hooke
- Based his design instructions on four things: : Jakob Bernoulli
: idea of Pythagoras : Leonard Euier
: proportions of small number
: properties and other instruments  PERSONAL STYLE
: good taste
 Andrea Palladio (1508-80)  Copying from Antiquity
- “I Quattro libri dell’architectura” - Architecture form antiquity came to a print of
- The father of modern picture books of perfection
architecture - Eugene Viollet-le-Duc (1863)
 Philibert de L’orme : the first theorist who set out to create a
- One of French theorist who are critical of italians totally new system of architectural forms
- Prove that Pantheon’s Corinthian columns had 3 independent of antiquity
different proportions
- Rejected the doctrine of absolute beauty of “What we call taste is but an involuntary process of
measures reasoning whose steps elude our observation.
Authority has no value if its grounds are not
 CONSTRUCTION THEORY explained.”
: the foundation of modern
Building Material Architectural Form architecture
Amorphic material: Spherical vaulted : did not create a timeless architectural style
Soft stone; snow construction himself, he showed others the philosophical
Sheets of skin or textile Cone-shaped tent foundation and method that they could use to
construction develop even radically new form language
Logs of wood Box-shaped construction - Owen Jones : used forms inspired from nature,
especially plants
 Before Written Construction Theory
- Architecture created without the help of  ART NOUVEAU
architects or theory
- Builders used a model instead of mathematical - The first architectural style independent of the
algorithms now used in modern construction tradition of antiquity after the Gothic style
- Inverted “catenary” model - The example set by Art Nouveau encourage some
 Semi-Circular Vault : Theory by of the most skillful architects of the 20th century to
Virtue create their private form language
“ When there are arches… the outermost
piers must be made broader than the others so THEORETICAL TREATISES
that they may have the strength to resist when the
wedges under the pressure of the load of the - Five points of Architecture (1926, Le
walls, begins to thrust to the abutments.” Corbusier)
 During Middle Ages a. pilotis
- No written documents survived about theories or b. free plan
models to describe the magnificent vaults of c. free façade
medieval cathedrals d. the long horizontal sliding
 During Renaissance window
- From Alberti onwards, architects began e. the roof garden
specializing - Architecture as Space (Bruno Zeri)
- Mathematical models by Francis Bacon and “The crux of architecture is not the sculptural
Galileo Galilei pattern, but instead the building interiors. These
: considers load and scientific studies can be seen as “negative solids”, as voids which
contributed to constructions the artist divides, combines, repeats and
- 1675 : Marquis de Vauban founded a building emphasizes in the same way as the sculptor treats
depatment in the French army called “ Corps des his “positive” lumps of substance.”
Ingenieurs” - The “personal style” of architects are not
- 1747 : Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, special necessarily based on laws of nature or on logical
school founded in Paris where new profession reasoning. More important is that they exhibit a
specializing in construction was organized. coherent application of an idea which also must be
 clear that the public can find it out. An advantage 1920’s
is also if the style includes symbolical  The Bauhaus
undertones. - “Art and Technology, the new unity”
 Established architects
 MODERN ARCHITECTURE a. Frank Llyod Wright “organic
 Industrial Revolution (1768) architecture”
- Arts and Crafts Movement b. Le Corbusier
a. conservative c. Mies Van Der Rohe / Gropius
b. William Morris 1930’s
c. John Rustrin  International Style
- Electicism
a. architecture of borrowing 1950’s
 Fruits of Industrial Revolution  The period of Reassessment
Joseph Paxton – Crystal Palace, 1851 - Universalism
Elisha Graves Otis – Elevator, 1857 - Personalism
Manufacturing of “Rolled Steel”
 POSTMODERNISM
1870’s  The center of Postmodernism:
 The Great Fire of Chicago, 1871 Robert Venturi “less is bore”
- downtown in Chicago was burned and in needs of  Philip Johnson
construction of new buildings - say that a portion of Chippendale building in New
- place where first tallest building was constructed York has no function
 William Le Baron Jenney  Introduce the element of “Discovery”
- made the first skyscraper
 Daniel Burnham  SYMBOLIC ARHITECTURE
- “make no little plans, they have no magic to stir - “Building as a message”
man’s blood”
 Louis Sullivan 1. Mathematical Analogy
- “form follows function” 2. Biological Analogy
- use of plants and ornaments
1880’s 3. Romantic Architecture
- Chicago School became the concentration of - uses exotic language of form
architectural development - vastness; trying to surprise; huge
- introduce Chicago Window 4. Linguistic Analogies
- grammar; uses words with proper
1890’s grammar
 The World Columbian Exposition 5. Mechanical Analogies
- built in 1863 - Buckminter Fuller
- chief architect: Daniel Burnham and Frederick 6. Ad Hoc Analogy
Law Olmsted - any materials that you can get or available in
your environment such as wood in forest
7. Stage Analogy
1900’s
- European architecture was notified
- Person to notify:
a. Otto Wagner
b. Adolf Loops “ornament is a
crime”
c. H.P. Berlage
d. Frank Llyod Wright
1910’s
- Office of Peter Behrens
a. Ludwig Mies Van Der
Rohe “less in more”
b. Walter Gropius
c. Le Corbusier
- 2 Art movements that influenced
1. Futurism – simultaneity of movement
2. Cubism – interpretation of space