INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EAST AFRICA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
D E PA RT ME N T O F A R C H I T E C T U R E

A R C H 11 0 3 : T H E O RY O F A R C H I T E C T U R E I

LECTURER: HALIMA ABDULMALIK

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 INTRODUCTION TO ORIGIN OF ARCHITECTURE
The origin of architecture can be traced back to ancient civilization such as the Egyptians, Greeks and
Romans, who developed advances building techniques and styles that have influenced architecture to
this day. Architecture has evolved over time and has been shaped by cultural, social and technological
developments, as well as artistic and aesthetic movements.
1. What is Architecture?
 Architecture is a discipline that aims at satisfying human needs: functional, aesthetic and
psychological.
 Architecture is more than just glass steel and concrete. It is beyond solving problems and
understanding the context beyond site. It is a practice of delivering solutions that fits, while creating
greater meaning.
 Architecture is the theory of civilization’s past, present and future!
 Architecture is a living story of how society’s values are reflected and affected by the environment.
 Architecture is a practice of giving birth to form and function from concept and purpose.
 Architecture gives shape to light and shadow in order to give purpose and meaning to a space.

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 ARCHITECTURE -- ORIGINS
 The origins of architecture can be traced back t the earliest human civilization, where people built
shelters to protect themselves from the elements of danger and to provide a place to live and work.
Over time, as civilizations became more complex and people’s needs change, architecture evolved to
accommodate these changes and became more sophisticated.
 Some of the earliest examples include Egyptians, the temples of ancient Greece and Romes, castles
and cathedrals of medieval Europe.
 Buildings evolved out of the dynamics between (shelter, security, worship etc.) and means ( available
building materials and craftsman skills).
 As human cultures developed and knowledge began to be formalized through oral traditions and
practices, buildings became a craft and “architecture” is the name given to the most highly formalized
and respected version of craft.
 The earliest surviving written work on the subject of architecture is DE ARCHITECTURA, by the Roman
architect VITRIVIUS in the early 1st century.

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 VITRIVIUS
 Vitruvius, in full Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, (flourished 1st
century BC), Roman architect, engineer, and author of
the celebrated treatise De architectura (On
Architecture), a handbook for Roman architects.
 Little is known of Vitruvius’ life, except what can be
gathered from his writings. Although he was identified
by the emperor to whom his work is dedicated. Since
Vitruvius describes himself as an old man, it may be
inferred that he was also active during the time of Julius
Caesar. Vitruvius himself tells of a basilica he built at
Fanum (now Fano).
 His ideas pertaining to architecture and society, in
general, went on to form the world of buildings as we
know it today. He was a firm believer of, ‘Everything can
and should be measured.’

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LIFE AND WORKS OF VITRIVIUS

 De Architectura’ is among the earliest comprehensive

works known to mankind on architecture that codified
building practices across an entire kingdom of the Roman
Empire. This treatise, now popularly called ‘Ten books on
architecture’ consists of all the major architectural
achievements of the great Roman and the Greek Empire. It
talks about temples, town planning, columns and orders,
mills, surveying, building equipment and materials,
domestic heating etc. It is also said to be among the first
books on architectural theory.

 Vitruvius also explains proportions in this book with the

help of the human body as a unit. This later on, during the
Renaissance period, led Leonardo Da Vinici create one of
his best-known drawings, the Vitruvian Man. Not just Da
Vinici but many more Renaissance architects such as
Niccoli, Brunelleschi, and Leon Battista Alberti found their
rationale and inspiration in this book.

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LIFE AND WORKS OF VITRIVIUS

 Vitruvius in this book, also talks about the pillars of

architecture, which are the guiding factors for any
architect, with the first pillar being history. The Roman
architect knew the importance of history when it came
to architecture. He talks about the conquest of the
Carrhae by the Romans (The Battle of Carrhae was one
of the first major battles between the Romans
and Parthians) and how the wives of the defeated were
taken as slaves. Caryatides, sculpted female figures that
serve as columns in public buildings immortalize in
stone, the sins of the people of Carrhae and the burden
of those wives. According to Vitruvius, history played an
important role in architecture as it deals with the social
behavior and culture of an empire.

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 LIFE AND WORKS OF VITRIVIUS
The other pillars included
 Art, Drawing, and Geometry – Ideas transformed into architectural shapes;
 Physics – How a building interacts with the forces of nature;
 Philosophy – Higher the meaning, higher the purpose of the architectural shapes;
 Medicine – How a building affects its occupants;
 Law – A building and the conflicts that it creates;
 Astronomy – Solar paths; Music – A vocal representation of math and harmony.
These pillars of architecture devised by Vitruvius went on to shape the world of architecture forever.
Even today, when one talks about architecture and planning, one talks about these factors. De
Architectura became a guide book of sorts for many architects to come and played a major role in
making the world of buildings what it is today. All of the experience and traveling with the military
helped Vitruvius devise such well-defined principles regarding architecture.

Vitruvius, in his book speaks of the three qualities a building must possess.
 Usefulness or utility, the function;
 Strength and durability, the structure;
 Beauty, the form. This means a building must be sustainable, stable, beneficial, and beautiful. A
statement that is true, even for today.
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 GESTALT IDEAS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION.
Gestalt principles are an important set of ideas for any designer to learn and their implementation
can greatly improve the aesthetics of a design as well as its functionality and user-friendliness.
 The human brain is exceptionally good at filling in the blanks in an image and creating a whole that
is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s why we see faces in things like tree leaves or sidewalk
cracks.
 This principle is one of the most important underlying ideas behind the gestalt principles of
perception.

 In the simplest terms, gestalt theory is based on the idea that the human brain will attempt to
simplify and organize complex images or designs that consist of many elements, by subconsciously
arranging the parts into an organized system that creates a whole, rather than just a series of
disparate elements. Our brains are built to see structure. and patterns in order for us to
better understand the environment that we’re living in

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 GESTALT IDEAS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION.

 Leaving white space around elements of a design is the first thing that usually comes to mind. But
then there are designs that use that white space to infer an element that isn’t actually there (the line
hidden between the E and X in the FedEx logo).

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 GESTALT IDEAS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION.
 There are six individual principles commonly associated with gestalt theory: similarity, continuation,
closure, proximity, figure/ground, and symmetry & order (also called prägnanz). There are also some
additional, newer principles sometimes associated with gestalt, such as common fate.

• LAW OF SIMILARITY
It’s human nature to group like things together. In gestalt,
similar elements are visually grouped, regardless of their
proximity to each other. They can be grouped by color,
shape, or size. Similarity can be used to tie together
elements that might not be right next to each other in a
design.

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 LAW OF CONTINUITY

 The law of continuity posits that the human eye will

follow the smoothest path when viewing lines,
regardless of how the lines were actually drawn.
 This continuation can be a valuable tool when the
goal is to guide a visitor’s eye in a certain direction.
They will follow the simplest path on the page, so
make sure the most vital parts they should see fall
within that path.
 Since the eye naturally follows a line, placing items in
a series in a line will naturally draw the eye from one
item to the next. Horizontal sliders are one such
example, as are related product listings on sites like
Amazon

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 LAW OF CLOSURE

 Closure is one of the coolest gestalt design

principles. It’s the idea that your brain will fill in the
missing parts of a design or image to create a whole.
 In its simplest form, the principle of closure allows
your eye to follow something like a dotted line to its
end. But more complex applications are often seen
in logos, like that for the World Wildlife Fund. Large
chunks of the outline for the panda are missing, but
your brain has no problem filling in the missing
sections to see the whole animal.

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 FIGURE/GROUND

 The figure/ground principle is similar to the closure

principle in that it takes advantage of the way the
brain processes negative space.
 Your brain will distinguish between the objects it
considers to be in the foreground of an image (the
figure, or focal point) and the background (the area
on which the figures rest). Where things get
interesting is when the foreground and background
actually contain two distinct images, like this:

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 FIGURE/GROUND

 In general terms, your brain will

interpret the larger area of an image as
the ground and the smaller as the
figure. As shown in the image above,
you can see that lighter and darker
colors can influence what is viewed as
the figure and what is viewed as the
ground.

 The figure/ground principle can be very

handy when product designers want to
highlight a focal point, particularly when
it is active or in use.

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FIGURE/GROUND

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LAW OF SYMMETRY AND ORDER
 The law of symmetry and order is also known as prägnanz, the German word for
“good figure.” What this principle says is that your brain will perceive ambiguous
shapes in as simple a manner as possible. For example, a monochrome version of
the Olympic logo is seen as a series of overlapping circles rather than a collection
of curved lines.

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 LAW OF SYMMETRY AND ORDER
Your brain will interpret the image on the left as a rectangle, circle, and triangle, even when the
outlines of each are incomplete because those are simpler shapes than the overall image

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 LAW OF COMMON FATE
 While common fate was not originally included in gestalt
theory, it has since been added. This principle states that
people will group together things that point to or are
moving in the same direction.

 In nature, we see this in things like flocks of birds or

schools of fish. They are made up of a bunch of
individual elements, but because they move seemingly
as one, our brains group them together and consider
them a single stimulus.

 a flock of birds illustrates the principle of common fate

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