19AR03007

HUMANITIES
Semester III

Faculty : Ar.Sriparvathy Unni

ar.sriparvathy@gmail.com
+91 8281926256
 Module Contents
MODULE 1
Sociology and Its Relation to Architecture
• Definition of Sociology; nature, scope and utility of
Sociology; branches of sociology.

• Different social processes - cooperation, conflict,

competition, accommodation, assimilation, progress and
evolution.

• Forms of social organization: society, community, family,

culture.

• Different family structures and architectural responses to

different family types and housing typologies (traditional
and contemporary).

• Relationship of social, economic and political systems to

the built environment, relevance in Architecture.
RELEVANCE OF SOCIOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURE
One may ask, what is the relationship between the individual and his or
her environment or social setting? What is the relationship between
people and their culture? Architectural sociology approaches these
questions in examining how architectural forms both influence and react
to socio-cultural phenomena. A large proportion of our human
experience and social interaction occurs in the buildings in which we live
and work. Therefore, architectural sociologists use sociological perspective
to enhance building design.
Architectural sociology is defined as the application of social theory and
methods to the architectural design process. It provides quantitative and
qualitative research tools to anticipate how designs impact people on a
variety of levels. This thing is, sociologists need not necessarily be
architects, but architects have to necessarily be sociologists to understand
how people think and react to element in the built environment.
RELEVANCE OF SOCIOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURE

• A building is many things: a stylistic

statement, a form shaped to its
function, and a reflection of its era.
• Architecture is dependent on socio-
economic, political and cultural
processes for its various
transformations.
• Built environment not only represents
the society that produces it; it also
reconfirms its supremacy and
contributes to assuring its continuity.
ARCHITECTURE AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS
• Buildings keep traditions alive, reproducing what has
survived the test of time.
• The built environment is a powerful tool for organizing,
sorting and ordering people and their activities.
“Organization operates via social communication’s
dependency on human beings as mobile bodies in
space, while articulation operates via social
communication’s dependency on human beings as
perceiving/comprehending subjects. The unique
expertise or competency of architecture is therefore the
establishment of order, of organizing, framing and
priming of social communications and interactions.”
• Space materializes social relations; it is created
according to visions, characteristic of historical periods,
power hierarchies and images of a good society.
ARCHITECTURE AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
• Architecture has been a major source of revenue generation for societies around
the world for centuries, mainly through the tourism industry.
• Architecture can be utilized as a basic instrument to stimulate the tourism
development in particular regions. The distinctive, emblematic architecture can be a
travel destination itself.
Consumerism - architecture as a device of the behavioral economics
• The need to create spaces that deftly projects the
public’s needs and demands which triggers them to
spend money on commodities has led to carefully
designed commercial public spaces, shopping malls
and shop interior decorations.
• Economic gain serves as a premise to aid architects in
creating places authentic in their expression, full of
significance and attractive to consumers.
• Through consumption and use of commodities like
branded clothes, furniture, cultural and prosaic articles,
we define ourselves, our identities and our position in
society.
• As a result, public spaces have to be transformed into
commercial spaces. Public squares, streets, centers are
subject to spectacular transformations from open
spaces to indoor malls, galleries or shopping centers to
provide more available and comfortable space to
realize consumption dictate.
Corporate architecture

• Architecture plays a significant role in the complex

process of building a firms’ corporate identities and
selling its brand.
• Architecture of corporate office buildings - through
their original form – must be noticeable, explicitly
identifiable with the particular brand and testify the
high quality of the brand’s products.
• Corporate architecture performs the advertising role
for the utilitarian products as if they were the exhibit
items. Architecture plays the role of the economic
instrument and explicitly influences the company
profits.
• Architecture alludes to the history and context of a
place, enhancing its identity. It reflects the values the
local inhabitants that identify with. It increases people’s
attachment to a place they live in.
• According to French philosopher Henry Lefebvre – “urban environment is a result of
current economical circumstances. The space does not simply exist, the space is subject
to constant redefinition caused by continuous market conditions.”
• Currently the relations between human and his environment are extremely significant.
The more professionally we influence a consumer the more effectively we achieve our
strategic economic aims.
• Architecture becomes an inherent element of the economic strategies constructed to
trigger-off a definite financial result.
• Architecture, with a multitude of expressive symbolisms and means, supports the creation
of competitive advantages in world economy.
ARCHITECTURE AND POLITICAL SYSTEMS
• “Architecture is a political act, by nature. It has to do
with the relationships between people and how they
decide to change their conditions of living. And
architecture is a prime instrument of making that
change – because it has to do with building the
environment they live in, and the relationships that
exist in that environment.” - Lebbeus Woods
• Common understanding is that the built environment
is bound to be political. Yet from the recent past, the
combination of architecture and politics tends to
evoke undemocratic proofs - totalitarian leaders
designing monumental edifices and avenues for
eternity.
• If authoritarians consider themselves architects,
architects may like to act like authoritarians - they can
create something for the people, but not anything
meaningfully seen as ‘of the people’ nor ‘by the
people.’
• Modern architectural movement of the post-war
period was inspired by revolutionary ideas of radical
socialism and equal movement. This fails to express
modern concepts of democracy in an adequate
architectural form, and both of them demonstrate a
stylistic canon that dominated and misled the
architectural shaping of a democratic society.
• Daniel Libeskind – “it’s not so much the process as the
architectural and spatial ‘product’ which ultimately
has to be democratic.”
• He talked about creating a space for people, not just
corporations. “What is a space for people? One
possible answer is - a space where citizens recognize
their polity and themselves as subscribing to
democratic values.”
• These thoughts are fated to become more important
in current time - the era of remarkable urbanization,
new planning and building challenges around the
world.
• Democratic architecture provides usable areas where
citizens can gather, debate or protest.
• For the past 3000 years, architecture has been linked to
the ruling class of absolute power. Ruling bodies use built
environments as tools to exercise their authority - to
declare their political intention.
• Both the introvert Egyptian pyramids and extrovert
Roman edifices or Gothic cathedrals are linked to a small
group of elites who use the communicational power of
architecture for imposing their perspectives of the world
and people.
• This custom has culminated in Germany in the last
century, turning architecture into a tool for propagandas
and glorification of country’s foreign and domestic
politics.
• Rustic decoration of ground floors accentuated firmness
and formality in representative buildings, with facades
which hid their inner organization. Upper, richly decorated
zones of the exteriors, were frequently used to emphasize
the irrelevance of a small man before the superiors.
• A building project, once complete, will change the society that built it. It’s the idea
that a building could directly catalyze a transformation, so that the society that finishes
building something is not the same society that set out to build it in the first place.
• Implementing an architectural action, a transformation in the social and political fabric
is being made.
• Architecture becomes an instigator; it becomes an initiator. The power of an idea,
metamorphosed into architecture, the reminder of what is and was, can act as a tool of
control, intimidation, planting ideals into the general public and changing perceptions
of their surroundings.
• Scale draws attention to the building’s significance by emphasizing its height, length,
width and depth. Built forms presented as large or tall, vertical in height or horizontally
massive compared to its surroundings, with dramatic sculptural effect can symbolize
authority. There are five most often mentioned reasons for this need:
- Emphasis of dominancy and control
- Evocation of impressiveness in order to be remembered
- Assertion of identity in the world
- Visual prestige and dignity of the patron
- Projection of influence in society
• In Roman Empire, the atmosphere and the public
buildings were crucial to how the public would respond to
their speeches and messages. Their giant concrete
statements were designed to intimidate and overwhelm,
but with community gatherings in mind. The overwhelming
greatness of these buildings, their colossal size and
complex design, enforced the nation’s ideologies.
• Catherine the Great’s Palace in Russia, designed in 1752
for the wife of Emperor Peter I, is an example which
projects a play of façade elements and picturesque
decoration, signifying the ruling power of the monarchy.
• Another clear, most recent example is Dubai - a city
almost non-existent during the 80s. Through Dubai, the
strategy of the ruling body via architecture in order to
entertain, gain support for the government’s campaigns
and encourage unity in a new-built city, can be seen.
Immense architectural achievements were created in an
attempt to gain the loyalty of the masses, leaving the
consumption of the energy used to create these
monuments as a secondary issue.