Architectural planning

The architect usually begins to work when the site type and cost of a building have been determined.

Planning the environment.The natural environment is at once a hin­drance and a help, and the architect seeks both to invite its aid and to re­pel its attacks. To make buildings habitable and comfortable, he must con­trol the effects of heat, cold, light, air, moisture, and dryness and foresee destructive potentialities such as fire, earthquake, flood, and disease.

The placement and form of buildings in relation to their sites, the dis­tribution of spaces within buildings, and other planning devices discussed below are fundamental elements in the aesthetics of architecture.

Orientation. The arrangement of the axes of buildings and their parts is a device for controlling the effects of sun, wind, and rainfall.

Within buildings, the axis and placement of each space determine the amount of sun it receives. Orientation may control air for circulation and reduce the disadvantages of wind, rain, and snow.

The characteristics of the immediate environment also influence orienta­tion: trees, land formation, and other buildings create shade and reduce or intensify wind, while bodies of water produce moisture and reflect the sun.

Architectural forms. Planning may control the environment by the de­sign of architectural forms that may modif y the effects of natural forces.

Colour. Colour has a practical planning function as well as an expres­sive quality because of the range of its reflection and its absorption of solar rays. Since light colours reflect heat and dark colours absorb it, the choice of materials and pigments is an effective tool of environmental control.

Materials and techniques. The choice of materials is conditioned by their own ability to withstand theenvironment as well as by properties that make them useful to human beings. One of the architect's jobs is to find a suc­cessful solution to both conditions; to balance the physical and economic advantages of wood against the possibility of fire, termites, and mold, the weather resistance of glass and light metals against their high thermal con­ductivity, and many similar conflicts.

Interior control. The control of the environment through the design of the plan and the outer shell of a building cannot be complete, since ex­tremes of heat and cold, light, and sounds penetrate into the interior, where they can be further modified by the planning of spaces and by special con­ditioning devices.

Temperature, light and sound are all subject to control by the size and shape of interior spaces, the way in which the spaces are connected, and the materials employed for floors, walls, ceilings, and furnishings.

Today, heating, insulation, air conditioning, lighting, and acoustical methods have become basic parts of the architectural program.

Planning for use. While environmental planning produces comfort for the senses (sight, feeling, hearing) and reflexes ( respiration ), planning for use or function is concerned with convenience of movement and rest.

Differentiation. The number of functions requiring distinct kinds of space within a building depends not only upon the type of building but also upon the requirements of the culture and the habits and activities of the indi­vidual patrons. A primitive house has a single room with a hearth area, and a modern one has a separate areas for cooking, eating, sleeping, washing, storage, and recreation. A meeting-house with a single hall is sufficient for Quaker religious services, while a Roman Catholic cathedral may require a nave, aisles, choir, apse, chapels, crypt, sacristy, and ambulatory.

Economic planning. Major expenses in buildings are for land, materials, and labour. In each case they are high when the commodity is scarce and low when it is abundant, and they influence planning more directly when they become restrictive.

When land coverage is limited, it is usually necessary to design in height the space that otherwise would be planned in breadth and depth, as in the ancient Roman insula (apartment houses) or the modern skyscraper. When the choice of materials is influenced by cost, all phases of architectural design are affected, since the planning procedure, the technique, and the form of buildings are dependent on materials. High labour cost influence the choice of techniques and, consequently, of materials.

  

  AFTER - TEXT EXERCISES

 

1. Match the beginnings of the sentences to their ends using the information from the text.

1. To make buildings habitable         a) the environment by the design of architectural forms

and comfortable the architect…        b) is an effective tool of environmental control

2. Trees, land formations, and           c) room with a heat area

other buildings create…                    d) must control the effects of the natural environment   

3. Planning may control…                 e) light and sound penetrate into the interior

4. Extremes of heat and cold…          f) a nave, aisles, choir, apse, chapels, crypt, sacristy and

5. The choice of materials and           ambulatory

pigments…                                          g) shade and reduce or intensify wind

6. A primitive house has a single…

7. A Roman Catholic cathedral

may require…

 

1. Answer the questions.

 

1. When does the architect begin to work on the project?
2. What are the main aspects of architectural planning?
3. What are the fundamental elements in the aesthetic of architecture?
4. What must the aesthetic control to make buildings habitable and comfortable?
5. What is the planning for use concerned with?
6. What are the major expenses in building?

 

1. Give the English equivalents.

     

Отразить атаку; пригодный для житья; расположение, положение; результаты воздействия солнца, ветра и дождя; создавать влажность и отражать солнце; важное

(эффективное) средство контроля; выбор материалов для строительства; способность противостоять воздействиям окружающей среды; отопление, изоляция; кондиционирование воздуха; освещение, акустические методы; функциональное планирование; боковой неф; склеп, ризница, часовня; расходы; влиять на выбор материалов; зависеть от требований заказчика.     

       

Вариант 3

ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE

The first step in architecture was simply the replacement of wooden pil­lars with stone ones, and the translation of the carpentry and brick struc­tural forms into stone equivalents. This provided an opportunity for the ex­pression of proportion and pattern. This expression eventually took the form of the invention or evolution of the stone "orders" of architecture. These orders, or arrangements of specific types of columns supporting an upper section called an entablature, defined the pattern of the columnar facades and upperworks that formed the basic decorative shell of buildings.

The Greeks invented the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. The Romans added the Tuscan and the Composite. The oldest order, the Doric, is subdivided into Greek Doric and Ro­man Doric. The first is the simplest and has baseless columns as those of the Parthenon. Roman Doric has a base and was less massive.

The parts of Greek Doric — the simple, baseless columns, the spread­ing capitals, and triglyph-metope ( alternating vertically ridged and plain blocks) frieze above the columns — constitute an aesthetic development in stone incorporating variants on themes used functionally in earlier wood and brick construction. Doric long remained the favourite order of the Greek mainland and western colonies, and it changed little throughout its history.

The Ionic order evolvedlater, in eastern Greece. About 600 BC, in Asia Minor, the first intimation of the style appeared in stone columns with cap­itals elaborately carved in floral hoops — an Orientalizing pattern familiar mainly on smaller objects and furniture and enlarged for architecture.

It developed throughout so called Aeolic capital with vertically spring­ing volutes or spiral ornaments to the familiar Ionic capital, the volutes of which spread horizontally from the centre and curl downward. The order was al ways fussier and more ornate, less stereotyped than Doric. The Ionic temples of the 6^th century exceed in size and decoration even the most ambitious of their Classical successors. Such were the temples of Artemis at Ephesus in Asia Minor and the successive temples of Hera on the island of Samos.

The Corinthian order originated in the 5^th century BC in Athens. It had Ionic capital elaborated with acanthus leaves. In its general proportions it is very like the Ionic. For the first time the Corinthian order was used for temple exteriors. Because of its advantage of facing equally in four direc­tions it was more adaptable than Ionic for corners. There are not many Greek examples of the Corinthian order. The Romans widely used it for its showiness. The earliest known instance of the Corinthian order used on the exterior is the choragic monument of Lysicrates in Athens, 335/334 BC.

A simplified version of the Roman Doric is the Tuscan order. It has a less decorated frieze and no mutules in the cornice. The Composite order is also a late Roman invention. It combines the elements from all the Greek orders.