Thursday, August 30, 2007

Week 1: Architecture Form Space & Order

14 comments:

Andre Vandenburg said...

Architecture, form space and order are yet again, rules to designs. Architecture for me is the way I structure my designs. Space in this passage can be related to positive and negative space. These rules in my opinion are designed to keep your work symmetrical and proportional. Architecture, space, order, form, symmetry, and rhythm can all be found in an artist’s work. But many artist use these rules subconsciously, me personally to try and incorporate all these design wills I'm working and constantly thinking about might drive me nuts.

Nat said...

As a designer, I have to say that it is a bit intimidating to see all the rules and guidelines found in Architecture: Form, Space, and Order by Francis D.K. Ching. This, however, does not detract from the fact that I know these elements to be a crucial part of design. By being aware of conceptual elements such as point, line, plane, and volume, I am more likely to improve upon my ideas since I will be studying the roots of each design. While I still have a lot to learn about the basics, I know that the more comfortable I am with them, the more likely my designs are of being structurally correct and in turn aesthetically beautiful. Just as the point turns to a one-dimensional line, the line to a two dimensional plane, and the plane to a three-dimensional volume, so will I grow as a designer as long as I am aware of the basics of design. Figures can't exist without their background, and I can't be a credible designer unless I have my own, the knowledge of form, space, and order.

Tara Ghazanfar said...

This reading has first of all shown me how important the elements of points, texture, shape, and size, positive and negative space are. They are all essential to a designer for anything he might want to create. I must say that I have never really paid attention to these rules. I would just create something without thinking about the measurements or anything related to these elements. I can also see how mathematics is important for the design process, but to be honest I have never thought of it as something useful in my life. Yet again, I know I must start paying more attention to order, the space or background I am using while creating. I also appreciated what was said about rhythm. In fact while travelling for example, I find it very poetic to just stare at all these different motifs, I think they are essential to an architect.

Ryan Hussain said...

After reading "Architecture, form, space, & order" by Francis D.K. Ching I must say it has made me reconsider the importance of following design guidelines. I agree that form space and order are very important elements to consider in the design process, and every great designer should know what these elements are, and know how to effectively use them. In architecture I've noticed that there are many rules to follow which makes it seem like designers are limited to use their creativity, since they are forced to follow a set of rules and only those set of rules if they wish to be successful. However, from an artists' point of view I feel that art is free form, and can be made out of anything today and presented in any form, which gives the designer a sense of freedom to release their creative thoughts and ideas. From my point of view I believe there is a rule for everything, there are rules for patterns, there are rules for techniques and rules in society as well, and we must follow them in order to maintain order, even as designers.

eider said...

After reading "Architecture Form, Space & Order" by Francis D.K. Ching I admire designers a lot more. I can`t believe that creating something can have so many rules or guidelines. I find it amazing that this rules exist because I believe that they help a designer express the feeling that should be expressed. It does scare me as a designer because I am not one hundred percent sure that I can always realize when to apply each rule but thanks to this exert I have been pointed out what things can help me when designing such as form, space, and order.

Jooyeong (Heather) Moon said...

The Architecture; Form, space, and order reading was totally astonishing, yet it made me step back from the screen because of the guidelines and mathematical applications that I have never engaged in before. Positive and negative spaces were mentioned in the beginning of the reading and made me to realize that I must think about how objects occupy limited space to create interesting visual forms. Also, I could see that math plays an important role in the process of design like measurement and proportion. I usually do not pay enough attention to those guidelines. Most of the time, I just go with what looks good to me. As a designer, I will keep those rules and try to apply them in my designs.

Xiaochuan (Ami) Wang said...

Point, line, plane and volume are the basics of architecture or any other visual forms. As fundamental and crucial as they are, I feel their guidelines are intimidating. It’s interesting to think about how different arrangements of any of the four interact with the human mind to create a visual presentation that could be coherent, pleasing, awkward or disturbing. It involves a lot precise calculations in which produces functional results. Architecture and three-dimensional relationships are my weak points; the article was very helpful for me to become more aware of how the fundamentals work.

Hoon Lee said...

I like architecture because it involves geometry; the precision, formality, and patience it requires to design. Also, the mathematical analysis and formulas involved in architecture are something I appreciate being a person who loves math. But most importantly, Architecture is so formalized and standardized that I think it would teach me as an impatient person to just follow the rules, and not take shortcuts to finish up things.

Jae Yong (Jordan) Lee said...

I was impressed from the term, mind’s eye, in this reading. In my understanding, it means to imagine how an object looks like from three dimensional perspectives. When Francis, who is the author of this reading, explains the term, form, he uses two terms to describe internal and external structure. Francis uses two and three dimension to explain the notion of mass and volume. Also, Francis states that shape of an object configures the characteristic of the form of object. Size of an object has a relationship to a segment of an entire form. According to Francis, color may define how heavy an object is to others. Lastly, Francis states that texture of an object may define the amount of light that makes reflection of an object. In addition, the part where Francis explains the term, hierarchy, he defines hierarchy’s size, shape, and placement. It was quite impressive that I was able to learn a new way to critique an architectural art work. I can critically analyze architectural art work by evaluating its’ size, shape, and placement. When I was a senior in High School, I didn’t know how to critique on an architectural art work. As of right now, I know how to critique any kind of portfolio more effectively than before.

joanna said...

After reading these pages i realized i didn't really like architecture because it involves a very strict scheme. It is so precise and technical that it makes me wonder how designers deal with it all the time. I see it as maths. Everything has to be exact and there are precise rules that have to be followed. Even if i know they lead to good final results i find it hard to stick to these sorts of rules. However, these are the basics and i still think that you can't have a perfect work unless you stick to certain rules and processes. It's hard and intimidating at the same time to see how everything comes together in architectural design.

emi said...

This reading shows how the “design guidelines” used in Architecture and just as well be applied to any other form of art. The reading emphases on how the Architectural design while following the principles of design and its mathematical aspects also analysis the audience and how they may view a piece of Architecture. These are things we follow in painting, graphic design or any other form of art. With this reading we do not only now know the Principles which design travels through (space, line, rhythm, and plane) but we learn how to use these to analyze art as well. Little things of how points become planes and the properties of a form I have to say personally I understand. I mathematical concept such as the structure of the Parthenon, I have to say lost me. But what I consider compositional guidelines of any art work I felt where also examined in this reading. Such as forms and space, placing of forms; radical or clustered, and how primary forms are simpler to our minds along with adding shapes to make volume. Finally “Architecture Form, Space & Order” explained all element of designing and how hard it is to design correctly, while at the same time keeping in mind an audience.

Dahyang(winnie) said...

When I read “Architecture, from, space, & order” by Francus D.K. Ching, it seemed more like science to me but I learned how significant the elements of points, shape, size, texture and positive and negative space are in the design process. Moreover, it is important to every designer to know how to effectively use them in their designs. When I saw some designs in “Architecture form, space & order”, I realized that design could be liberal but also very precise and exact depends what I design. Before I read it, I didn’t know much about architecture design because I wasn’t really interested on it. It was more like mathematics science to me. However, I was quite surprised that how these all elements, which are mentioned in the reading, come together and create great architectures.

Carlos said...

I found this to be interesting because of the way way the author talks about the relationship and relevance between each form in different ways, from simply connecting them between each other to the complexities of the axis between the forms when they are in symmetry and repetition and hierarchy as well. though I admit this article used more math than I understand, still got the general idea of the design concepts and I do agree that these are concepts that could easily become the backbone of design if there were any design rule rather than guidelines.

Anonymous said...

Just looking at the house across the street out of my window makes me feel somewhat high after reading this. The reason I say it is becuase of the primary elements of form of any object. I could tell that, even if not visible, there are lines and planes making the shape possible. I can look at any object now, and understand how theyre organically composed now.