HUMTEK Architecture and its cultural dimension

1. HUMTEKArchitecture and its cultural dimension FIGURING DISFIGURING REFIGURING Camelia Elias

2. aspects of form • architecture and culture • ethnic domain • tension and harmony • permanence and harmony • harmony by geometry/geometrical design • linear dynamic /dynamism • forces/organization • complexity and contradiction

3. architecture and culture • the architect presents an image of a culture • architecture reflects patterns of human activities and rhythm, cognition and affect: walk, sleep, safety, emotion, calm, abruptness of life, moral stature, religion, childhood, complexity of life • architecture EMBODIES the fullness of being • finds itself in the interplay of forms

4. tension and harmony • form as signal • form as symbol • diagonal, vertical, horizontal lines • permanence in a building has to suggest the essence of its role over a period of time

5. dynamism • basic geometry • horizontal and vertical planes • distorted form • symmetry/asymmetry • balance • linkage • generic/specific (a square; a chipped square)

6. forces and organization • natural phenomena can be understood in terms of ‘forces’ • differ in magnitude and intensity • a house on a hill is different from a house in the plain

7. complexity and contradiction • Frank Gehry vs. Le Corbusier • futurist architecture vs. baroque