Unit Summary One

When the semester started and we began our studies into the history of design, we picked the very best place to start our journey... the very beginning of humans and the buildings they constructed. One of the first main ideas we began to see is how early cultures were very consumed with the ideas of circles, stacks, and columns.

The entire ideas of this section were about the foundations of architecture, and how early people and civilizations first started to build, and the ideas that they wanted to convey to the world through the buildings and structures that they created. Many of these structures that they built, no matter where they were in the ancient world, had very similar ideals and concepts in the structures. Almost all of what we saw and talked about in the ancient world had connections to circles, stacks, and columns.

 The first is Stonehenge in England. There has been tons of questions and mysterious on what exactly this building was all about. It is a circular structure, that is perfectly set up to correlate with the movement of the sun throughout the year. This shows us that the ideas of the sun and the moon, and their movement and involvement with these people, was something that was important to their lives.

In ancient Egypt, huge stacked up structures were made, better know as pyramids. These were tombs for their passed on kings and queens. The way that these structures were built put a lot of focus on five distinct points in our world by representing north, south, east, west, and up into the skies. This also makes us see how their religion, which placed focused on higher gods, and the connection between the tomb and how it connected it with the afterlife that meant so much to them in their society. It literally is a standing representation of society and plays on the concepts and ideas of hierarchy through the way that the structure is built up. The slaves stand as the bottom all the way up through the priests and pharaohs, up to the top point which stands for the gods and their realm.












The ancient Greeks built many structures, and most had emphasis on these ideas of columns, or groves. Groves seem to resemble trees, or a grouping of things. It isn't a coincidence that they put many of these columns in front of gathering spaces for people such as temples or public gathering spaces. One of the best examples that I can think of that represents this, and we also spent quite some time talking about this in our unit is the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It was very important to the Greek society and everyone in the Greek world would come to this place to worship the goddess Athena.

Next we began to study our very own UNCG campus and how many of these building concepts can still be found today in modern structures. We looked at many buildings and the ideals of how they now use circles, stacks, and columns. I came to realize many of the ideals that we hold today to these design ideas, are still very similar to how the ancient world used these same structures. We also discussed the ideas of firmness, commodity, and delight, and how they applied to the buildings here at UNCG.

Through our campus tours we saw so many examples of these around UNCG. It is like living and breathing architectural history on this campus. A living, breathing, and functional museum if you will.

Finally, we reached a point in the ancient world where we saw people had finally began to travel and follow trade routes throughout the world, like the Silk Road. Through this process, not only were goods traded to far off places, but so were ideals, and even architectural concepts. People began to see that no matter what the culture, we all have similar things in the buildings that we create.

By the end of the unit, we have seen how humans began to think about the world that they live in. We then we saw how they used this to construct buildings in their own cultures, and then people started to expand and travel, and people began to give each other ideas that they later applied to their own cultures.

This brings us up into what we now know as the common era, and many of the previous concepts we have seen in architecture will continue on, and even see how later cultures and civilizations expanded on these ideas, and even in ways, made them their very own.

A Story of a Dinner Party

Tonight they come, and they are coming to dine. My space will host a window to the world, and everyone attending is involved, even if they are far away.

I have 8 friends coming, all bringing a seat of personal choice to dine in, and a plate from their own dinning room collections. I want these pieces to speak to them personally and feel that these two pieces reflect some part of themselves.

Three of my guests, I have never even met. They will be involved with their own lives, at their own homes, but will be connected with my group all the same through computer-connected screens via satellites. My home will be open to them, just as if they were standing in my living room. They can speak, to us, and can hear our conversations.

The idea of my dinner is in the style of true potluck. I have asked my guest to bring dishes commonly given by the U.N, to starving nations. Rice, beans, water, flour tortillas, lentils, and chickpeas, fish, chicken.

The guests arrive and we begin talking, and drinking cocktails in the sitting area that no sitting furniture, everyone uses the chairs they brought for themselves. The screens have been turned on and our remote company has logged into the party. They are from all over the globe.

We all enter the kitchen to help prepare the meal. We all combine our brought foods, and help one another prep the food and help cook. The computer screens in the kitchen help us see ho our global friends cook their meals.

After the meal has been cooked we line up the food on the sideboard in the dinning room. Everyone puts their plate on the table and pull up their dinning chairs from the living room.

The centerpiece of the table has flowers and bright red colored vase, the lighting is warm, and an accent wall of Zebrawood can be seen across from the sideboard. Three chairs already sit at the circular table. The can be turned on, and now we can see our three remote guests, just as if they were at the table with us, and they have prepared their meal as well, and are ready to dine.

We sit and chat, though two of our remote members have limited English-speaking skills, they are included all the same. The meal, all though simple, was filling, and we all feel we have a better understanding of the meals given to the people of the world who need humanitarian help.

The night ends, we say goodbye to our global pals, and my guest slowly start to pack up their plates and chairs.

I feel a sense that I truly connected with the planet tonight in a personal, global, and understanding way.  I silently head off to bed, knowing that the world in some way, just got a little closer and connected, by both technology and social interactions paired with the age old tool of dinning and connecting over a meal.

Table design by Diane Von Furstenberg

Reading Response Five: Songyue Pagoda

Not only its artistic structure is at a very high level, but also its construction techniques are quite accurate. Therefore, the Pagoda of Songyue Temple has an important position in the history of Chinese ancient architecture.

all photos and beginning quote provided by www.yeschinatours.com

Color Week

Poetry (Blog Post Five)

a rhythmic scale flowing up and down like the sun's rise and fall
waves cannot challenge a tempo of these sorts, for waves fall and break
sails try to mimic, but the style isn't quite their speed

up and down my eyes follow the ridges, a man-made mountain raising up into gods sky, but his hand didn't do so much for this creation

his order has been thrown. no longer is his unity in effect.

this is nothing short of visual opera, with highs and lows
with tones that give the skin chills

no beat or lyrics can be heard
but emotion pours out into my soul
and the very echos of the stone call to me to say
music is my legacy, and my existance is part of the worlds harmony.

and just like a clap of thunder, silence falls back into place
and i am left appulading all alone
within my head, and within my heart.

photo of a building in Kansas City, MO
photo credited to Scott Beck

Babette's Feast

I found the movie Babette's Feast to be a very insightful and inspiring film. It was about the bringing people together over a meal to connect, and celebrate in ways that perhaps they had never experienced before.


You could tell that many of the elders who sat down to this meal had never had an eating experience like this before at all, while to the French company, this was as common as any other meal.


Food has always been a tool used to bring people together and teach one another about our own cultures. A lot is told about ourselves through our food. It is a collection of our cultural experience.


Religion was another barrier that had to be jumped over this meal. Many of the older people of the village felt that to drink wine was to indulge in anti-religious ideals, while the French find drinking wine harmless and quite a necessity when it comes to great dinning.


I feel the climate and the location of where they lived caused them to have many different ideas on how to eat a meal and how the entire ordeal should run. They had little light of day, which I think caused much to be done in those few hours, and to dine for lengthy periods like that were just not possible, but the human contact and interaction that is needed to stay a happy and an interlocked community was neglected. This meal I think for a brief moment allowed these people to connect.


I liked the idea of the film, that something so simple like food, could bring people together and give them an experience never had before, and even bring people of a community closer together.

EUC: Sacred Circle within the Hustle (Blog Post Four)

Standing under the high circle ceiling just inside the EUC one feels a sense of power and prestige. Thin slits of light creeping in against the wall and the floor. All round is the hustle of campus life, people going to class, getting a bite to eat, shopping at the campus store, or grabbing a quick coffee or sitting down to do homework.

It is the heart of the campus.

The area provides a very wide entrance into the building. There is a lot of traffic coming in and out of these doors, so a very wide room allows many people to come and go easier.

The roundness of the room allows also quick and easy access to both the campus book store, and the restaurants.

The light wood panels and the marble mural on the flower allows it to be a very warm inviting area that feels welcoming and inviting human usage.

One of the first things I notice when entering this area that you have both coming and going traffic and people who choose to stand and chat for a moment or two with friends either after a meal or before going on there separate ways heading to classes.

The ceiling top allows for light to reflect very well from both the sun and lighting that gives off a very soft and warm glow.

Since there are stores, eating establishments, and the connector to the library ahead, this dramatic entrance allows for the idea of it marking and important area for many campus life things are just beyond this room.

The EUC is an important building to the college life at UNCG. That is why I believe the circular entrance room is very fitting for the spot it has been placed on the UNCG campus. It allows for mass traveling of people, with a warm and welcoming area for also meeting and conversing. It fits with the functions and purpose of the EUC building.