Unit Summaries (Foundation)

From the reading from Roth, it is clearly shown that circles and stones played a very important role in the beginning interior designs. In England, Stonehenge, a giant structure made up of larger vertical stones and everlasting qualities, provided time and passage. The use of large and heavy stones made it possible to stand through any possible threat. The nearby lake was said to have passage qualities. For example, when people died they would celebrate their bodies at Stonehenge and sail the dead bodies downstream. Stonehenge was a “stopping place” on their journey to Heaven. In Egypt, pyramids such as the “Pyramids at Giza”, provided safe passage and eternal life for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu.
The Pyramids at Giza were also an experimental and simple structure that showed off the male properties. Unlike the Temple for Hatshepsut, the Great Pyramid at Giza used a simple triangular shape, which symbolizes the male species. It shows this by its formation and how it is erected from the ground. The Temple for Hatshepsut, an after thought of the pyramids at Giza, used higher technology and had functionality. The grand columns and its verticality signified a female building.
As centuries passed in time; the technology increased ten-fold. In Greece, the Acropolis showed much improvement from the previous eras. The Parthenon showed how the Greeks tried to reach the ideal world. In the Pantheon, the designers used the diameter of the columns to measure the entire building. The Erechtion, was built after the Parthenon to show Greece’s past, present, and future. As a feministic building, the architect integrated nudist woman figures into the columns that face the Parthenon.
The Doric column that is placed strategically into the Parthenon is a prototype to the columns that later are installed into Roman architecture. After the Doric, came the Ionic and Composite columns that were more elaborate and extravagant. Another prototype would be the arches. They went from the regular arches and soon developed into groin vaults and in turn evolved to grand cathedrals.
During the thirteenth century the infamous French Cathedral, Amiens, was built and changed how society viewed churches. The construction of the Amiens Cathedral threw the society into the Dark Ages. It affected the society by its grandeur and high style components of the cathedral. Church going became more extravagant due to the flying buttresses to the intricate design on the west façade, made church going extravagant.
To describe the foundations unit with one structure I would say it was the Greek Parthenon. The Parthenon for Athena demonstrated how Greece tried to show the ideal. The Parthenon also casts a shadow over Greece and affected the Greece society. The Parthenon shows passage and time by the prototypical “porch, court, and hearth” template, which was later integrated into gothic cathedrals centuries later. The Parthenon was a stepping-stone in design and architecture. It demonstrated the intricate details and measurements to a near perfect design. Even today it is capable of standing the test of time to show eternal life of the goddess Athena.