Principia Architectonica

By Alberto Campo Baeza

Elephants and the Birds

Rabiya Qayyum Khan FA19-BAR-048

Abrar Ahmad FA19-BAR-037
ARC348:Architectonics Alberto Campo Baeza

STRUCTURE
Architecture can be simultaneously complex and unitary. Structures and Construction in
a building are as important as the “layout” of the parts in the conception and design. In
short, all of these issues must play a role in the developing idea of the Project, from its
unitary conception.

OF ELEPHANTS AND BIRDS

Bridges with large spans and heavy loads are resolved with compound structures either
with huge girders or powerful steel cables capable of resisting massive tensions

HISTORY
The end of the Gothic period produces a certain phenomenon of such dispersion. When
at the start of the previous century structures were generally used in industrial
constructions or bridges.

TECHNOLOGY
Technology has a lot to do with all of this. To make the first compound structures, the
joints were entrusted to rivets and bolts, screws and nuts. Later on, welding could be
trusted

STRUCTURE IS THE KEY.

The structures of the future will be lighter: clear in their conception; simple in their
construction; perfect, durable, and easy to maintain in their final execution. Once again,
structure will be, as it has always been throughout history, the architecture’s central
consideration: structure that establishes the order of space.
ARC348:Architectonics

Principia Architectonica
Elephants and the Birds

Norman Forter
Tower Hearst

• Its façade of rhombuses, which is

pure structure, stands out.

• The structure appears to be

rationally dispersed and broken.

• Demonstration of replacing large

bones with smaller ones.

• Distributed on the façade.

• Exterior structure is resolved by

recourse to dispersion, with beams
and geometric forms.

Material:
Glass and Steel
ARC348:Architectonics

Principia Architectonica
Elephants and the Birds

Mies Van der Rohe

Sky Scraper

• “Disappearance of the façade”

• Dispersed load bearing elements and

façade into smaller parts

• Transparency and Luminosity

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The Invisible Architecture

• Seeing is believing
• Main idea of the reading is reviewing the
cultural shadow of architecture.
• Intangibility - Invisibility

Eight vectors for debate in architecture and

culture:

Duree: Long Term

Context: Situation in which long term factors
become concrete.
Border: Transition between context and object
Programme: Activities
Space: Space is the container of the programme
Identity: Cultural Value of the space
Representation

Three ideologies of contemporary architecture :

Archaism – touchy, feely , durable
Facadism – Belief in Style, Emphasis on the
representative image, looky-glossy
Fascinism – experiential suggestions and emphasis on Rabiya Qayyum Khan FA19-BAR-048
certain atmospheres, brainy-flashy Abrar Ahmad FA19-BAR-037
ARC348:Architectonics

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture:

Robert Venturi in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture talks about how architecture is
rationalized through rejecting and excluding complexities that emerge in architecture because the
building is essentially comprised of multiple paradoxes, from dealing with outside and inside, movement
and immobility etc.

According to him, a visually complex, constructed, environment is necessary and can exist between
regimented order and barren architectural forms.
He used Mies Van der Rohe’s statuesque pavilions that are known for their simplicity.
Venturi is hesitant of the oversimplification of architecture especially when he elaborates
on Mies’s infamous statement on modernism in “Less is more,” to “Less is a bore” because the complex
behavior of people and how they move through their environment is not reflective to one unified,
simplified form.

According to Venturi, complex architecture has multiple meanings which take part in a fluid system. The
meanings contradict one another when analyzed side by side but Venturi suggests that they should be
addressed together, not excluding one or the other for the sake of clarity in simplification.

“It is the difficult unity through inclusion rather than easy unity through exclusion,” acceptance rather
than rejection is ideal to achieve a rich architecture. The “difficult whole” is the challenge to unify the
numerous components that encompass an architectural form.

Barcelona Pavilion / Mies van der Rohe

Rabiya Qayyum Khan FA19-BAR-048

Abrar Ahmad FA19-BAR-037
ARC348:Architectonics

Regional Identity through the Detailing of Carlos Scarpa:

Querini Stampalia is th
e perfect example
that defines how
Culture and identity in architecture are debatable subjects that have preoccupied Scarpa blends the
theorists and architects for a while now. Generally, regional variations in architecture structure with the
owe to geography and the forms that most closely meet the actual conditions of life and existing environment
which most significantly make people feel at home in an environment. They don’t of Venice.
necessarily make use of the soil but reflect the conditions of culture in the region.

• Carlos Scarpa used materials to introduce intangible aspects to regional architecture.

• He combined built structures with materials that helped highlight regional identities.
• Scarpa’s entire hypothesis was based on the historicism of Venice.
• His architectural language is timeless that amalgamates different aspects of a
structure like its legibility, tectonics and the accumulation of elements.
Castelvecchio
Museum used light
and materials to
achieve identity of
the region

Rabiya Qayyum Khan FA19-BAR-048

Abrar Ahmad FA19-BAR-037