Architecture - Commodity, Firmness, Delight

architecture

Table of Contents

Introduction
Use
- Architectural types
  - Domestic architecture
    - “Vernacular” architecture
    - “Power” architecture
    - Group housing
  - Religious architecture
    - Places of worship
    - Shrines and memoria
    - Funerary art
  - Governmental architecture
  - Recreational architecture
    - Theatres
    - Auditoriums
    - Athletic facilities
    - Museums and libraries
  - Architecture of welfare and education
  - Commercial and industrial architecture
- Architectural planning
  - Planning the environment
    - Orientation
    - Architectural forms
    - Colour
    - Materials and techniques
    - Interior control
  - Planning for use
    - Differentiation
    - Circulation
    - Facilitation
  - Economic planning
Techniques
- Materials
  - Stone
  - Brick
  - Wood
  - Iron and steel
  - Concrete
- Methods
  - Wall
    - Load-bearing wall
    - Nonbearing wall
  - Post-and-lintel
  - Arch
  - Vault
  - Dome
  - Truss
  - Framed structures
Expression
- Content
  - Symbols of function
  - Expression of technique
- Form
  - Space and mass
  - Composition
  - Scale
  - Light
  - Texture
  - Colour
  - Environment
- Ornament
  - Mimetic ornament
  - Applied ornament
  - Organic ornament
Theory of architecture
- Distinction between the history and theory of architecture
- Distinction between the theory of architecture and the theory of art
- Functionalism
- The art of building
- “Commodity, firmness, and delight”: the ultimate synthesis
  - Venustas
  - Utilitas
  - Firmitas

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It has been generally assumed that a complete theory of architecture is always concerned essentially in some way or another with these three interrelated terms, which, in Vitruvius’s Latin text, are given as firmitas, utilitas, and venustas (i.e., structural stability, appropriate spatial accommodation, and attractive appearance). Nevertheless, a number of influential theorists after 1750 sought to make modifications to this traditional triad (1) by giving its components a radically different equilibrium (such as the primacy given by the 18th-century French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée to the effects of geometric forms in light or the claim made by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand that the ...(100 of 24717 words)

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