THEORY OF DESIGN

Instructor: Architect Jose Juson  THEMATIC THEORIES

 CLASSICAL
 Research of Architecture - Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
- Research contributes to Design Theory  MIDDLE AGES
 Nature of Design Theory - Medieval (read: Dark Age) anonymous tradition of trade guilds
- Design Theory states facts  RENAISSANCE
- Design Theory aids design - Alberti, Vignola, Palladio, etc.
 Scope of Architecture Theory  STRUCTURALIST
- Includes all that is presented in the handbooks of - Galileo Galilei, Robert Hooke, etc.
architects  ART NOUVEAU (Personal Style)
- Includes legislation, norms and standards, rules and - Eugene Emmanuelle Violett-le-Due, Le Corbusier, etc.
methods  FUNCTIONALISM
- Includes miscellaneous and “unscientific” elements - Walter Gropius, Louis Sullivan, etc.
 Why Design Theory? - modern architecture
- To aid the work of the architect and improve its product  POSTMODERNISM
- Proven theory helps designers do work better and more - Robert Venturi
efficiently  SYMBOLIC ARCHITECTURE
- “Skill without knowledge is nothing”  ECOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE
(architect Jean Mignot, 1400 AD)
 Understanding Design Theory  CLASSICAL THEORIES
- Theory does NOT necessarily mean PRECCED design  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
- PARADISM : every new or established theory applied - Author of the oldest research on architecture
: STYLE - Wrote an extensive summary of all the theory on construction
- Had a thorough knowledge of earlier Greek and Roman writings
 “Ten Books on Architecture”
- De architectura libri decem
- Consists mostly of normative theory of design (based on practice)
- A collection of thematic theories of design with no method of
combining them into a synthesis
- Presents a classification of requirements set for buildings:
: DURABILTIY (firmitas)
: PRACTICALITY or “convenience”
(utilitas)
: PLEASANTNESS (venustas)
 Vitruvian Rules of Aesthetic Form
- Based on Greek traditions of architecture
 - Teachings of Pythagoras : applying proportions of numbers - “Regole generall di architectura”
- Observations of tuned string of instruments  Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
- Proportions of human body - “Regola delle cinque ordini”
- PLEASANTNESS : in accordance of good taste - Concise, facts and easily applicable rules of the five column systems
: parts follow proportions - Based his design instructions on four things:
: symmetry of measures : idea of Pythagoras
: proportions of small number
 THEORIES in the MIDDLE AGES : properties and other instruments
- no documents : good taste
- no person can be attributed for theories  Andrea Palladio (1508-80)
- “I Quattro libri dell’architectura”
 Monastery Institutions - The father of modern picture books of architecture
- Most documents retrieved from the Middle Ages  Philibert de L’orme
- However, archives contain only few descriptions of - One of French theorist who are critical of italians
buildings - Prove that Pantheon’s Corinthian columns had 3 different proportions
- Described only as “according to the traditional model” - Rejected the doctrine of absolute beauty of measures
- “There’s no accounting for tastes” was the rule of thumb
 Development of Building Style  CONSTRUCTION THEORY
- With hardly or no literary research present
- Villard de Hannecourt’s “sketchbook” in 1235 Building Material Architectural Form
- Rotzer’s Booklet on the right way of making pinnacles Amorphic material: Spherical vaulted
- Only through guidance of old masters Soft stone; snow construction
- Tradition binding and precise in close guilds of builders Sheets of skin or textile Cone-shaped tent
construction
 RENNAISANCE THEORIES Logs of wood Box-shaped construction

 1948 – a copy of Virtue manuscript found at St. Gallen  Before Written Construction Theory
Monastery - Architecture created without the help of architects or theory
 Leon Bautista Alberti (1404-72) - Builders used a model instead of mathematical algorithms now used in
- Person in charge of constructions commanded by Pope modern construction
- “On Building” : De re aedifficatoria - Inverted “catenary” model
: one of the greatest works of the theory of  Semi-Circular Vault : Theory by Virtue
architecture “ When there are arches… the outermost piers must be made
: completed in 1452, published in 1485 broader than the others so that they may have the strength to resist
: more emphasis on decoration of building when the wedges under the pressure of the load of the walls, begins to
exteriors thrust to the abutments.”
 Sebastino Serlio  During Middle Ages
 - No written documents survived about theories or models to - Owen Jones : used forms inspired from nature, especially plants
describe the magnificent vaults of medieval cathedrals
 During Renaissance  ART NOUVEAU
- From Alberti onwards, architects began specializing
- Mathematical models by Francis Bacon and Galileo - The first architectural style independent of the tradition of antiquity
Galilei after the Gothic style
: considers load and scientific studies - The example set by Art Nouveau encourage some of the most skillful
contributed to constructions architects of the 20th century to create their private form language
- 1675 : Marquis de Vauban founded a building
depatment in the French army called “ Corps des THEORETICAL TREATISES
Ingenieurs”
- 1747 : Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, special school - Five points of Architecture (1926, Le Corbusier)
founded in Paris where new profession specializing in a. pilotis
construction was organized. b. free plan
--- first engineering school c. free façade
- Other figures of mathematical construction theory d. the long horizontal sliding window
: Robert Hooke e. the roof garden
: Jakob Bernoulli - Architecture as Space (Bruno Zeri)
: Leonard Euier “The crux of architecture is not the sculptural pattern, but instead the
building interiors. These can be seen as “negative solids”, as voids
 PERSONAL STYLE which the artist divides, combines, repeats and emphasizes in the same
way as the sculptor treats his “positive” lumps of substance.”
 Copying from Antiquity - The “personal style” of architects are not necessarily based on laws
- Architecture form antiquity came to a print of perfection of nature or on logical reasoning. More important is that they exhibit a
- Eugene Viollet-le-Duc (1863) coherent application of an idea which also must be clear that the public
: the first theorist who set out to create a totally can find it out. An advantage is also if the style includes symbolical
new system of architectural forms independent of antiquity undertones.

“What we call taste is but an involuntary process of reasoning whose

steps elude our observation. Authority has no value if its grounds are
not explained.”
: the foundation of modern
architecture  MODERN ARCHITECTURE
: did not create a timeless architectural style  Industrial Revolution (1768)
himself, he showed others the philosophical - Arts and Crafts Movement
foundation and method that they could use to a. conservative
develop even radically new form language b. William Morris
 c. John Rustrin b. Adolf Loops “ornament is a crime”
- Electicism c. H.P. Berlage
a. architecture of borrowing d. Frank Llyod Wright
 Fruits of Industrial Revolution 1910’s
Joseph Paxton – Crystal Palace, 1851 - Office of Peter Behrens
Elisha Graves Otis – Elevator, 1857 a. Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe “less in more”
Manufacturing of “Rolled Steel” b. Walter Gropius
c. Le Corbusier
1870’s - 2 Art movements that influenced
 The Great Fire of Chicago, 1871 1. Futurism – simultaneity of movement
- downtown in Chicago was burned and in needs of 2. Cubism – interpretation of space
construction of new buildings 1920’s
- place where first tallest building was constructed  The Bauhaus
 William Le Baron Jenney - “Art and Technology, the new unity”
- made the first skyscraper  Established architects
 Daniel Burnham a. Frank Llyod Wright “organic architecture”
- “make no little plans, they have no magic to stir man’s b. Le Corbusier
blood” c. Mies Van Der Rohe / Gropius
 Louis Sullivan 1930’s
- “form follows function”  International Style

1880’s 1950’s
- Chicago School became the concentration of architectural  The period of Reassessment
development - Universalism
- introduce Chicago Window - Personalism

1890’s  POSTMODERNISM
 The World Columbian Exposition  The center of Postmodernism:
- built in 1863 Robert Venturi “less is bore”
- chief architect: Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law  Philip Johnson
Olmsted - say that a portion of Chippendale building in New York has no function
 Introduce the element of “Discovery”

1900’s  SYMBOLIC ARHITECTURE

- European architecture was notified - “Building as a message”
- Person to notify:
a. Otto Wagner 1. Mathematical Analogy
2. Biological Analogy
- use of plants and ornaments
3. Romantic Architecture
- uses exotic language of form
- vastness; trying to surprise; huge
4. Linguistic Analogies
- grammar; uses words with proper grammar
5. Mechanical Analogies
- Buckminter Fuller
6. Ad Hoc Analogy
- any materials that you can get or available in your
environment such as wood in forest
7. Stage Analogy