Exam 1 Review

Question 0

Urban Design cont.

Answer 0

“The common ground between architecture and town planning” (Gosling & Maitland)

“The interface between architecture, landscape architecture and town planning” (Bentley & Butina)

“An open system that uses individual architectural elements and ambient space as it’s basic vocabulary, and that focuses on social interaction and communication in the public realm” (Cuthbert)

Question 1

Contemporary Urban Design

Answer 1

Evolving from an initial, predominately aesthetic, concern with the distribution of building masses and the space between buildings.

Has become primarily concerned with shaping urban space as a means to make, or re-make, the ‘public’ places that people can use and enjoy.

Question 2

Urban Design: Scale

Answer 2

“The intermediate scale between planning (the settlement) and architecture (individual buildings)”

“Urban designers needs to be constantly aware of scales above and below the scale at which they are working.”

Also awareness of the relation to smaller buildings and overall typography of the area.

Question 3

Traditions of thought in the field

Answer 3

Aesthetic objects for looking at- visual artistic tradition emphasizing form.

How people use and experience space- social usage tradition

Question 4

Synthesis

Answer 4

Place making: urban places as physical/aesthetic entities and as behavioral settings

Question 5

Emerging

Answer 5

Sustainable urbanism: “delivering quality of life locally & mitigating against unwanted consequences globally.

Question 6

Gatje on Great Public Spaces

Answer 6

Call them squares, piazze, places, or platze, the essential elements of success are those of a sense of enclosure and pleasant usefulness.

Question 7

Utility, integrity, and delight

Answer 7

Utility- usefulness
Integrity- structurally sound
Delight- beauty of structure

Three qualities for a successful building

Question 8

Typography (Ground Plane)

Answer 8

“Lay of the land” the contour of the space (slope, flat, hills)

Section- a vertical slice through the ground plane)

Substrata: historical and geological

Question 9

Materials (Ground Plane)

Answer 9

Artificial or natural, aka “hard” or “soft”

Question 10

Organization, or layout (Ground Plane)

Answer 10

Axes (pathways, sight lines)

Circulation (human movement patterns)

Question 11

Depth (Edge)

Answer 11

Abrupt or gradual

Question 12

Height (Edge)

Answer 12

Scale, relative to human figures

Question 13

Subdivision (Edge)

Answer 13

Arrangement of elements (such as building stories an defenestration, plantings)

Question 14

Integrity (Edge)

Answer 14

Degree of closure: continuous or interrupted edge?

Question 15

Plan shape (Edge)

Answer 15

Shape of ground plane defined by edges

Question 16

Sculpture (Contents)

Answer 16

It’s nature and placement

Question 17

Water Features (Contents)

Answer 17

Pools, fountains, waterfalls, etc.

To animate a space. Consider the noise.

Question 18

Furniture (Contents)

Answer 18

Benches, lampposts, receptacles, etc.

Question 19

Plantings (Contents)

Answer 19

Their nature, number, and disposition–> how it is placed or arranged in relation to other things

Question 20

Scale quote

Answer 20

The rule of thumb is that for the observer an opposite wall should be close enough for one to recognize its architectural details, and, therefore, be able to judge its scale instinctively.

Question 21

Fenestration

Answer 21

The arrangement of windows and doors on the elevations of a building

Question 22

Catalhoyuk (Anatolia)

Answer 22

East Mound, level 6 houses, c. 8,000-7,700 BCE

Question 23

Ur (Mesopotamia)

Answer 23

Ziggurat of Ur Nammu c. 2,000 BCE

Question 24

Khafaje (Mesopotamia)

Answer 24

Temple Oval, c. 3,000-2,000 BCE

Question 25

Khorsabad (Mesopotamia)

Answer 25

Place of Sargon II, c. 706 BCE

Question 26

Concentricity, elevation, centrality, spatial sequence

Answer 26

Not only serves to signal interrelationships among corresponding tiers within a concentric structure but also tends to focus the readers attention on the axes at the center of such structures.

Question 27

Defining the early city

Answer 27

Permanent/monumental architecture
Density/ size > 5k
Writing/ written record
Surplus agriculture: countryside supplies, city controls
Division of labor
Social hierarchy related to labor specialization
Math for accounting
Political hierarchy to control distribution of resources
Laws/legal code to maintain order

Question 28

Acropolis

Answer 28

Hilltop site

Question 29

Agora

Answer 29

A public open space used for assemblies and markets

Question 30

Axial

Answer 30

Along a straight line

Question 31

Oblique (non-axial)

Answer 31

Curving, winding, not approaching straight

Question 32

Greek vs. Roman

Answer 32

Greek
Athens: Acropolis and Agora c. 5thC BCE
Adapted, oblique, organic

Roman
Rome: Colosseum and imperial Fora 1st BCE
imposing, axial, grid

Question 33

Formal vs. Informal

Answer 33

Formal- design is plain and clear

Informal- can only be grasped by what eyes see on street. 3d, depends on masses, angles, and shapes of buildings

Question 34

Forum

Answer 34

Civic and religious center of entire city

Emperors competed with predecessors to build the grandest forums, and need for multiple to serve the entire roman population.

Also, a marketplace