ANALYSING ARCHITECTURE

Defined area of ground

The difinition of an area of ground is fundamental to the identification of many if not most types of
place. It may be no more than a clearing in the forest, or it may br a pitch laid out for a football game.
It may be small, or it may stretct to the horizon. It need not be rectangular in shape, nor need it be
level.
Raised area, or platform
A raised platform creates a level horizontal surface lifted aabove the natural ground. It may be high or
low. It may be large a stage or terrace be medium sized a table or latar : it may be small atep or
shelf
Lowered areab , or pit
A pit is formed by excavation of ground surface. It creates a place which is below the natural level of
the ground. It may be a grave, or a trap, or even provide space for a sbterranean house
Marker
A marker identifies a particular palce in the most basic way. It does so by occupying the pot and by
standing out fromthe surroundings. It way be a tomnstone, or a flg on a golf course, it might be a
church steeple or a multi storey office block.
Focus
The word focus is the latin for heart. In architecture it can mean any alement upon which
concentration is brought be bear. This might be aa fire palce, but it colud also be an altar, a throne, a
work of art
Barrier
A barrier divides one place from another. It could be wall, but it might also be a fence or a hedge. It
could be a wall, but it might also be a fence, or a hedge. It colud even be a dyke or a moat, or just the
psychological barier of line on the floor
Roof or canopy
The roof divides a place from the forces of the sky, sheltering it from sun or rain. In so doing a roof
also implies a defined area of ground beneath it. A roof can be as small as a beam over a doorway or
as big as a vault over a foot ball stadium
BASID ELEMENT OF ARCHTECTURE
Supporting posts, or coumns
Other basic architecture elements which identify places include
Path
A place along which one moves which one moves, which might be straigt or trace an irregular route
across the ground surface avoiding obstacles
A path might also be inclined as ramp, a stair, or even a ladder. It might be formally laid out, or
merely defined by use line of wear across the countryside
Openings
Doorway throught which one may pass from one place to another, but which are also places in their
own right, and windows through which one can look, which allow passage of light and air.
Historically, a more recent basic element is glass wall, which is a barrier physically but not visually.
Another is the suspension rod or cable, which can support a platform or roof, but which also depend
literally upon a structural support above
Basic element such as these can be combined to create rudimentary architecture forms.
Barier can be combines to form enclosure, which defines an area by putting a wall around it
Wall and roof create a cell, defining separated from every where else. Giving a roof the supporting
columns it needs, create an aedicule ( right ).
The buliding stand on a plat form and consists of walls which define a cell, which is suuounded by
columns. The clomns together with thw wall of the cell support the roof. The cell is entered through a
doorway, out-side of which is a small platfrom in the side of which is small platform in the form of an
altar.
MODIFYONG ELEMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
The basic element of architecture as described the previous chapter are abstract idea. When, by being
bulit, they are given pysical form, various addtional factors come into play.
In their physical realisation and our actual experience of them, basic element and the places they
identify are modified, by light, by colour, by sounds, by temperature, by air movement, by smells, by
the qualities and textures of materials used, by use, by scale, by the effects and experience.
Light
First amongst the modifying element of architecture is light. Light is a condition of architecture, but
it can also be used as an element. The way in which light contributes to the identification of places is
part of architecture. Light contributes to the ambience of place.