POINT: FOUNDATIONS

"Beauty will result from the form and the correspondence of the whole, with respect to the several parts, of the parts with regard to each other, and of these again to the whole; that the structure may appear an entire and complete body, wherein each member agrees with the other, and all necessary to compose what you intend to form."

-Andrea Palladio

Upon leaving the theories unit in history in which we discussed Stonehenge and what not; we then proceeded to enter the foundations unit. Before getting into the foundations unit we had talked about building methods in which we had already explored. Those methods we had covered were circles (Stonehenge), lines (Hypostyle Hall), and finally stacking (Pyramids of Giza). And the foundations unit began with the first settlements really; those settlements would be Mesopotamia, China, Ohio Valley, and Teotihuacan. And in these the early settlements you had different forms appearing and also some common ground, in China you had a wall that was basically used to divide and identify a boundary among the land. In Ohio Valley you had a massive landmark that took the shape of a serpent. And another was Teotihuacan in which you actually had residential complexes being shaped and pyramids as well to form one larger inhabited city one could say. Then next we enter the legendary Greece in which we see the first area of Europe to have advanced civilizations emerge. And because of this we see things that are new but still borrow a little from previous. Incorporating some combinations of stacking, lines and also circles depending on how you look at it. Seeing these forms couldn’t be more justified than by looking at the site of Acropolis where you’ve got the Parthenon, Propylaea, Erechtheum, and the Temple of Athena Nike. After departing from Greece we enter Rome and it’s different I’d say. It’s about new technologies, materials, forms, living with the past and adapting to the present. And in Rome we see the first uses of concrete and vaulting and a new, exciting form... the dome. Possibly the hands down, most recognized structure in Rome is the Pantheon in which you’ve got a temple facade slapped right on the front of a massive dome backing the structure. Inside of the structure you’ll find a ginormous circular area which features a coffered dome that leads your eye upward to a gorgeous open oculus and allows the space to be naturally lit and lit differently depending on the suns direction. Throughout Rome you have new forms and techniques that appear; those being: bath, market/forum, basilica, coliseum, arch, temple, aqueduct, villa, dome, road and lastly the mosaic. So I think that’s basically in a (nautilus) shell that’s what the foundations unit covers. It’s about establishing what can be done and what will be done for hundreds and hundreds of years after they’ve passed on. It’s about leaving your mark as in Egypt, or bringing forth a tradition and passing on a legacy for others to follow as seen in Greece, and lastly it’s about being new and almost “modern” like in your ways and completely doing things in a new and upbeat sort of way like Rome. Foundations are what structures essentially are built upon and from there we can only build up or out and we have to choose from that foundation what we will do, whether it be something completely different and unseen or it be something that borrows on previous forms/structures.