Monday, March 21, 2011

REPETITION ACROSS THE WORLD- BP 9


Colonial Expansion in regards to design means taking an idea from another place or even time period and recreating it as ones own.  This means a place could take an idea for a church and then use that to guide their design but add in their own variations that apply more to the materials available and the current time period.

One place I notice Colonial expansion to America is in today's cathedrals.  I instantly think of Gothic cathedrals because the church I attend to has many gothic characteristics.  In France and Germany the gothic style was popular for a long time and verticality was important, as well as the detail.

St. Leo's the Great, a cathedral in Winston-Salem, NC that shows gothic characteristics both inside and out.


St. Leo's with a layout similar to England's Salisbury cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral, England.  This church has certain points that are more vertical than others, similar to the extremely shrunken version of St. Leo's.

STAINED GLASS is another object that has come from other parts of the world and expanded into America. 
LANGUAGE:
Words: Verticality, Gothic, Color, Glass, Light, Scale, Hierarchy, Status

Phrase:  In Europe the importance of the churches were to be larger than the last one and to show the status and wealth.  Gothic cathedrals were a time of experiment in order to be taller and taller.  Once expanded to America, the same message applied, however to a much smaller scale since none of the cathedrals were as grand and large as the ones in Europe.


From America to other parts of the world I feel as though one of the major concepts in our design is SCALE.  Our designs are always trying to be bigger and larger and some examples of how we have achieved this are with our buildings in cities.  Another contributing OBJECT in design that has been repeated throughout the world is our fascination with cars.  Our class is currently in the time of the industrial revolution, and the first car was invented in America.

In America even in cars and objects we tend to focus on size.  For a long time the main purpose of design in cars was to make it larger and more appropriate for the American Dream family that included children and dogs and white picket fences.  Now however, the design is changing back to the beginning, repeating itself, so that cars are smaller and use less gas.

Other parts of the world adopted cars as well, however their own spin was added onto their designs in order to fit their location and life style.  In larger cities in Europe, they have really small cars due to the business and large amounts of pedestrians.  
LANGUAGE:
Words: Transportation, space, accommodating, dream, status, dependable, applicable

Phrase: In America the purpose of space, scale, and size were of importance.  Once it expanded throughout the world the surrounding environment was more important in regards to the size and looks of the vehicle.

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