ielements architecture kyle grasso venice ca

Path Historically, a more recent basic element is the glass wall, which is a barrier physically but not visually.Īnother is the suspension rod or cable, which can support a platform or roof, but which also depends literally upon a structural support above. Other basic architectural elements which identify places include: Supporting posts, or columns and which allow passage of light and air. This could be provided by walls, but it could be by. Supporting posts, or columns needs support. A roof can be as small as a beam over a doorway, or as big as a vault over a football stadium.īecause of gravity a roof needs support. In so doing, a roof also implies a defined area of ground beneath it. The roof divides a place from the forces of the sky, sheltering it from sun or rain. It could even be a dyke or a moat, or just the psychological barrier of a line on the floor. It could be a wall but it might also be a fence, or a hedge.

This might be a fireplace, but it could also be an altar, a throne, a work of art, even a distant mountain.Ī barrier divides one place from another. In architecture it can mean any element upon which concentration is brought to bear. It may be a tombstone, or a flag on a golf course it might be a church steeple, or a multistorey office block. It does so by occupying the spot and by standing out from the surroundings. It might be a sunken garden, or perhaps a swimming pool.Ī marker identifies a particular place in the most basic way.

It may be a grave, or a trap, or even provide space for a subterranean house. It creates a place which is below the natural level of the ground. It may be large-a stage or terrace it may be medium-sized-a table or altar it may be small-a step or shelf.Ī pit is formed by excavation of the ground's surface. It need not have a precise boundary but may, at its edges, blend into the surroundings.Ī raised platform creates a level horizontal surface lifted above the natural ground. It need not be rectangular in shape, nor need it be level. It may be small, or it may stretch to the horizon. It may be no more than a clearing in the forest, or it may be a pitch laid out for a football game. The definition of an area of ground is fundamental to the identification of many if not most types of place. It cannot be said that the following list is complete, but at the most basic level this palette includes: Within these conditions the architect has a palette of conceptual materials with which to work. Principally these include: the ground, which is the datum to which most products of architecture relate the space above that surface, which is the medium that architecture moulds into places gravity light and time (few examples of architecture can be experienced as a whole all at one time processes of discovery, approach, entry, exploration, memory, etc. In physical terms the primary elements of architecture are the conditions within which it operates (which have already been mentioned). And they should be considered not as objects in themselves, but in the ways in which they contribute to the identification (or making) of places. These are not the physical materials of building-bricks and mortar, glass, timber, etc.- but the conceptual elements of architecture. Now that we have sorted out a working definition of architecture and its fundamental purpose-conceptual organisation, and identification of place-we can begin to look at the 'materials' that are available to us in doing architecture. Places can be identified by a range of basic elements: defined areas of ground, walls, platforms, columns, roof, door.

Ielements architecture kyle grasso venice ca