Volume 1: No 1, 2012

 Next issue | Archive

Volume 1 (1); December 25, 2012


Article Information / Abstract

Download

Original Research, A1

THE POLITICAL SYNTAX OF AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN TRADITION

Mammadov A1

J Art Arch Stud, 1(1): 01-10, 2012

ABSTRACT: This essay arose out of a new intellectual stream that specifically aims at understanding the role of politics in the perception of nature in American environmental design tradition. No doubt that a range of tendencies, movements, and styles in environmental design reflect certain perceptions and ideologies about the relationship of society to the natural world. They also represent the changing perceptions of natural and cultural landscapes in design practice over time and place. In this changing perception of landscape, it is the objective of this essay to explore the notion of resistance as the principal issue to understand the political power of environmental design for social change. Environmental design is a domain of politics because it produces a practice as a system of social and cultural power that emphasizes the transformation of both natural and cultural landscape at once. Its apprehension thus requires an ideological analysis; yet, it should be supplemented by an understanding of social relations, hierarchies, and power relations within society, institutions, grassroots organizations, and social groups involved in the general process of production of cultural patterns. The analysis, in other words, has to expose the ways in which the social production of space is reproduced, performed, perceived, and made available to the public in a cultural setting.

KEY WORDS: Ideology, Political Syntax, Environmental Design

pdf_icon

Original Research, A2

DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF ARCHITECTURAL FIELDS

Ersoy M

J Art Arch Stud, 1(1): 11-17, 2012

ABSTRACT: In this, definitional context no emphasis is placed on the difference between products of. Architectural work and the others, for, from the point of general conditions within which they are produced, the related parties, whether they belong to physical environment or social, are no different. The process, in the pre-industrial or industrial eras, has the basic stages of: The definition of need, information gathering, mental production (design), material production and use. From the point of the social groups involved with the production, again in both eras there are workers, artists, designers, or craftsmen as against the society with its various classes and strata. Therefore at least for this investigation, our belief is that it is not the individual elements or parts that create the crucial factor for the nature of the total but the relations among these parts, whether they belong to one time or other. Furthermore it should also be mentioned that production, here is taken as one of the principal activities of man. Other than its basic nature due its relation to consumption, it has a creative and constructive aspect which is the core of all scientific and artistic work. Production, therefore, is taken with the meaning of not only producing exchangeable goods, but the meaning of both producing goods to be used physically and producing new values of social and individual nature.

KEYWORDS: Architectural Design, Social Production, Industrial Production, Consumption

pdf_icon

Original Research, A3

SPATIAL QUALITIES WITH A CASE STUDY (THE TEKKIYE SULEYMANİYE)

Hakky O

J Art Arch Stud, 1(1): 18-23, 2012

ABSTRACT: The Tekkiye Süleymaniye in Damascus is considered by many as the finest piece of Ottoman architecture in Syria. It symbolized the might of the Ottomans and affirmed their presence in Damascus. Notably, it had all the reasons to be a special piece of architecture: the patron was the great Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent; the architect was Sinan, the master of Ottoman architecture, and the city was an important station along the pilgrimage route. By the time the Ottomans entered Damascus in 1516, their architecture was coming very close to it is fully maturity and was almost reaching its zenith. By that time, he was a well experienced master who was very capable of designing complex projects. In fact, while he was working on the design of the Tekkiye Süleymaniye, he was involved in a yet much more important and grandiose masterpiece of his: the Süleymaniye Külliye in Istanbul. Also, there were two very legitimate reasons for the Tekkiye Süleymaniye in Damascus to enjoy special attention and care in its design and construction. It was a royal foundation, first of all, which carried the name of one of the greatest Ottoman sultans. Moreover, it was built in Damascus, a very important city on the way to Mecca, and the last main station before venturing through the desert. Hence, it was essential that it represented the Ottoman might. Understandably, the project was to be handled by Sinan himself. However, because of his involvement in the Süleymaniye and the simple fact that the Tekkiye was relatively distant from Istanbul, Sinan only designed it, but did not actually supervise its construction. It is also thought that because of these very two reasons, Sinan chose a simple composition for the Tekkiye. The actual supervision of construction was done by one of Sinan's most capable assistants who was, it is believed, an Iranian by the name of Malla Aga.

KEYWORDS: Case Study, Tekkiye Süleymaniye, Qualities, Site, Design

pdf_icon

Original Research, A4

THE CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN WITH A CASE STUDY

Grove M

J Art Arch Stud, 1(1): 24-31, 2012

ABSTRACT: If “green” is an environmental concept applicable to the design and construction of buildings and landscapes, then we should not limit the scope of the concept solely to the natural environment. Rather, we should include key “environments” in which designers operate, including the socio-cultural, political, and natural environments. In this paper, I present a case study in “green” design that expands the scope of the concept and recognizes the interrelationship between these multiple environments. Using recent construction and renovation on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley as the case, I show how these environments are mutually supportive. Moreover, I argue that if designers simply consider the natural environment, their laudable goals may never be realized. In the first part of the paper, I provide a background on the project and its physical and socio-cultural setting. Second, I discuss how the different “environments” were addressed in the planning and design of the project. I then introduce specific “green” strategies that were employed in the design of the new and renovated buildings. These include considering renovation as the first imperative, thinking holistically about the entire campus, and applying a simplified approach to “greening” the buildings. I conclude by offering suggestions for future designers interested in reducing the environmental impact of their buildings.

KEYWORDS: Sustainability, Adaptive Reuse, Human Context

pdf_icon

Original Research, A5

THE EFFECT OF PUBLIC HOUSING IN PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABILITY WITH A CASE STUDY

Ozen M, Tracey B

J Art Arch Stud, 1(1): 32-39, 2012

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the rise and fall of public housing in North America in order to explore the principle of sustainability. By extension, it addresses the concept of sustainability as it relates to the city. Urbanity is simultaneously the most and least sustainable form of development. While extremely sustainable from the point of view of density (economies of scale, efficient use of infrastructure, etc.), it is highly vulnerable to social, political and economic forces. Such forces can easily trump the environmental sustainability of any building or community. The death and transfiguration of key portions of our public housing stock provides insights into this phenomenon – for which I will use Toronto’s Regent Park as a case study. The redevelopment of this 69-acre parcel aims to transform a failed social vision into a model for sustainable community development.

KEY WORDS: Public Housing, North America, sustainable development

pdf_icon

 Original Research, A6

EFFECT OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH

Gianovian B

J Art Arch Stud, 1(1): 40-46, 2012

ABSTRACT: This paper describes metaphorical engagement of ecology as a strategy for designing human inhabitation catalyzed by and supportive of healthy urban ecosystems. A case is made for the importance and timeliness of collaboration and conceptual association between architects and landscape ecologists. Next, the Australian architect Richard Leplastrier’s notion of architecture as “furnishing with particular purpose this larger room we are in” suggestive of both the architect’s role and the context of an architectural undertaking – is examined as a prototype for approaching problems of design in an environmentally sensitive manner. A pilot studio attempt to engage ecological issues through metaphor is described, and building from this experiment and Lepastrier’s statement, a palette of “human act/environment” case study metaphors is offered for use in design. Lastly I offer a methodology for testing these metaphors in advanced architectural design studios and evaluating their influence on students’ design thinking and the environmental responsiveness of projects that result.

KEY WORDS: Architectural Design, Landscape Ecology, Metaphor

pdf_icon

Original Research, A7

STUDIO THEORY IN POETICS AND PRACTICE

Araz A

J Art Arch Stud, 1(1): 45-57, 2012

ABSTRACT: When we practice, we practice in spaces, most commonly described as "rooms". The rooms we inhabit come to describe our ways of practice. Equally, through their inherent limits, the rooms we work in come to define our ways of working. Large dreams may well be dreamed in small spaces, but, in small spaces, large sculptures can only be modelled, and constructed as fragments. In an effort to describe these limitations and to explore the possibilities of practice, we give special names to rooms. Kitchens are where we cook - from the popular Latin, cucina to cook. This embedded meaning makes sense except that the connection is not immediate and obvious to those untutored in Latin. The lack of obvious reference adds the possibility of radical obscurity. Do all words mean something else, or do some words just mean themselves? And, which ones are which? In its lack of an obvious semantic reference, the word "kitchen" becomes translucent. Through this process of passive disguise, the everyday kitchen acquires a nominal mystique: it is a kitchen not simply a room for cooking. The Bauhaus, mythological in its importance, sounds much less auspicious when renamed "the making house". The same is true when we exchange the semi-magic term "studio" for its companion term "study". A study is a place where intellectual contemplation takes place; a studio is a place where artistic making takes place. One room is for theory and abstract matters, the other is for practice and sensory matters. We enter each space already disposed to construct things or contemplate ideas and yet in each room we are making. By attending to how we name our working spaces we are able to shift attention from expected purposes towards the possibility of new ways and understandings of practising. By colliding studio with study we can arrive at a composite making place: Studio Theory. Here we may see ourselves work as we work.

KEY WORDS: Poetics, Room, Space, Studio Theory, Design

pdf_icon