“Commodity, firmness, and delight”
-Sir Henry Wotten

“Architecture is what nature cannot make”
-Louis Kahn

Roth, Understanding Architecture pg.3

“Design… deserves attention not only as a professional practice but as subject of social, cultural, and philosophic investigation.”
-Richard Buchanan & Victor Margoin

“Beauty will result from the form and correspondence of the whole”
-Palladio

Physical control
Functional frame
Social context
Cultural symbolism
- Chistian Norberg-Schulz

By beginning to study design at an older age than most, I have discovered that a great amount of the information I have collected through the years is wrong or just uninformed. By learning to make connections between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects or areas of design, I believe that I can learn to merge many styles or techniques together .

Cycles

The cyclical nature of design from one century to the next or even every twenty years is, I think, human kind at a young age gets tired of a style or design rejecting as old, then as we get older that same style feels comfortable and is revived by an older population with more income or teenager with more disposable income rebelling against the establishment.

Translation

The carrying over of design from our past is becoming more necessary than it has been in the last 100 years. Revisited energy efficiency techniques and sustainable practices can now be translated into our future buildings and houses. Green Roofs and Clerestories from Egypt, minimal disturbance practices from Greek design, and using material that come from a 500 miles radius were all imperative for sustaining life and reducing the impact on society so it could grow to what it is today.

Story

Any whole object is made of many parts down to the cellular level. The Power of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames brought the thought of how insignificant we as humans are and of how we need to keep written stories and details surrounding the making of all our greatest and maybe not so great art, architecture, and achievements. It seems that so many records where never kept or were destroyed, that it is hard to trace our own design history or story to this point.

Artifact

The Stone structures at Carnc, Avebury, and Stonehenge bring to mind a sculpture garden. Could this not be the World’s first art gallery? These artifacts have baffled scientist for years looking for a why, and simply not appreciating the structures beauty. I agree they must be studied further, but dismantling them to understand them is scraping the paint off the Mona Lisa to see what is underneath.

Multiple views

I am just beginning to acquire knowledge on design outside of and including architecture, but already there seems to be an endless supply of different views on which elements are important. There are also many similarities in what one wants to achieve as the end result. Christopher Alexander wants to strip away the confusion but he seems to be restating the same core as Architects and Designer in the Roth book.