Theory of Architecture

ARCHITECTURE AS A VEHICLE OF EXPRESSING, SYMBOLISM AND

COMMUNICATION
ARCHITECTURE AS A VEHICLE OF SYMBOLISM
Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an
abstract idea.

An action, person, place, word, or object can all have a symbolic meaning.

When an author wants to suggest a certain mood or emotion, he can also use
symbolism to hint at it, rather than just blatantly saying it.

Symbolism in Architecture
Term coined by Charles Jencks in the 1980s to describe architecture with a
strong degree of personification or with allusions to cultural ideas, historical
references, and other pre-Modernist themes, or in which there were visual
jokes, puns, and mnemonic motifs.
 SYMBOLISM OF STONEHENGE - A SYMBOLIC MONUMENTAL CALENDAR

Architecture has originated in the religious impulse and it always remains symbolic.
Stonehenge; one of the earliest permanent constructions, consist of huge stones
roughly shaped and arranged in lines or circles as seen at Stonehenge in England.

Architecture has originated in the religious impulse and it always remains symbolic.
Stonehenge; one of the earliest permanent constructions, consist of huge stones
roughly shaped and arranged in lines or circles as seen at Stonehenge in England.
The stones were set up by several successive peoples inhabited the region between
3000 and 1600 BC.

They are grouped in four concentric circles, two of which are formed by paired
uprights bearing huge capstones. Because they are arranged to align with the sun at
the summer and winter solstices, it is generally assumed to serve as a symbolic
monumental calendar in which rites were performed on significant days of the year.
SYMBOLISM OF PYRAMIDS - THE ABSTRACT SYMBOL OF SUN WITH
ITS RAYS REACHING DOWN TO EARTH

The Egyptian pyramids are far more sophisticated and larger in size compared to
the Stonehenge; yet are similar in the embodied symbolism. These colossal
pyramids symbolically represent the sacred stones. Egyptians worshipped the sun
god often represented by a symbolic pyramidal stone; ben-ben.

The Egyptian Hieroglyph for the sun is a

triangle divided horizontally into three
zones; red, white and yellow. The huge
ben-bens seem to signify the sun god with
the top yellow zone spreading its rays
upon the earth with the bottom red zone.
It has been conclusively established that
the pyramids are symbolic ben-bens; the
abstract symbol of sun with its rays
reaching down to earth.

Egyptians who believed in "life after death" also believed that when Pharaoh dies, he would
ascend in sun's rays to join his father, the sun god. Thus pyramid also symbolizes a staircase
used by Pharaoh (a ruler in ancient Egypt ) to ascend heaven.
OBELISKS
Obelisks, on the other hand, are often used to signify power and achievement, since
these monumental vertical stone pillars defy gravity. An interesting case of symbolic
communication is generated as the Pope attempted to signify the triumph of the
church by translocation of the obelisks to Rome and capping it with Cross.
SYMBOLISM OF STUPA - SYMBOLIZES SACRED MOUNTAIN.

Indus Valley marked the evolution of the Hindu culture that created a
characteristic temple form; the Stupa that symbolizes sacred mountain.
Stupa, an ovoid mass of stone blocks became taller over the passage of time.
The deity was placed deep inside a small, unlit womb chamber at its core,
below its peak. The idol was originally placed in rock-cut caves, deep inside
cliffs. Many centuries later, the Hindu temple emerged out it as a
freestanding structure symbolizing the mountain in which the deity was
formerly contained.
SYMBOLISM IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE
Made Office architecture studio has proposed a symbolic design as a recognition
of unity around the European Union. The potential project is titled The European
Spiral, which rises up from the ground in a circular pattern.

At night the entire building lights up, and is also draped in the flags from the
countries involved with the European Union. Interestingly, the flags are mixed
together so that it's hard to tell what area belongs to which nation, which is
exactly the point. When lit up against the night's sky, the entire structure stands
out and acts as a true symbol for the unity of the EU.
The various levels are the building can be accessed through ramps throughout
the structure, allowing people to move to the top and see the views from above.
 LOTUS TEMPLE - THE SYMBOL OF PEACE

Lotus Temple is one amongst the most famous places in delhi.Lotus Temple is also Konown as
Baha'i Temple in Delhi is often compared to the Sydney Opera Lotus Temple also known as the
Baha'i Temple.
Baha'i Temple is a major feature of Delhi and is well known for its appearance. There is no doubt
that in years to come the temple will prove to be a mecca for the visitors. Baha'ism is considered to
be a syncretism of the nine great religions of the world and traces its genesis to its prophet
Baha'ullah, born in Persia in the twentieth century.
Personifying Lotus in the temple does not merely mean giving a lotus shape to the edifice but it has
a message to the people of India in the form of a manifestation from the almighty. Lotus is a symbol
of peace, purity, love and immortality. It is this particular specialty of Lotus flower which makes the
flower an important icon in Indian culture and society. This is why the design of Lotus temple has
been inspired by lotus flower.
The design looks like a half opened Lotus flower with 27 freestanding "petals" made of marble. The
ARCHITECTURE AS A VEHICLE OF EXPRESSING

EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and

painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of 20th century.
typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective
distorting it radially for emotional effects in order to evoke moods or
ideas.

Expressionism was developed as an Avant Garde style before the first

world war.

The style extended to a wide range of the arts including expressionist

architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music.
WHAT IS EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE?

Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement that

developed in Europe during the first decades of the 20th century in
parallel with the expressionist visual and performing arts that especially
developed and dominated in Germany.

Expressionism transforms reality rather than seeking to imitate it.

Appearances are only semblance, claims the expressionists;

Expressionism is the way of expressing something in and around

something that is felt emotionally, from all the things that happen
phenomenally. This is one of the movements in architecture in the
20th century, mainly in Europe, where at that time people fought in the
World War I, including the architects at that time. The political and
social problems also influence the architecture, in places like Germany,
Austria, and Denmark.
EXPRESSIONISM CHARACTERISTICS

Distortion of form for emotional effect.

Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic expression of inner

experience.

An underlying effort at achieving the new, original and visionary forms.

Abundance work on papers and models with discovery and

representation of concepts.

Tendency more towards gothic that the classical style.

BRICK EXPRESSIONISM. Expressionism that uses brick as main visible

building material.

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM.

NEO EXPRESSIONISM
SOME EXPRESSIONISM BUILDINGS EXAMPLES

EINSTEIN TOWERS

TWA TERMINAL

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO

GLASS PAVILION COLOGNE DEUTSCHER WERKBUND EXHIBITION

WALTER GROPIUS’S MONUMENT

EINSTEIN TOWER IN POTSDAM-BERLIN

The Einstein Tower is an astrophysical

observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in
Potsdam, Germany designed by architect Erich
Mendelsohn. It was built to house a solar
telescope to support experiments and
observations

Tower built to symbolise Einsteinian concepts. It

was designed to hold Einstein's laboratory.

The tower was an anthromorphic form.

Mendelsohn wanted the building to be moulded
rather than built, without angles and with
smooth, rounded corners.

The building was covered in brick and covered

with concrete.
Exterior Skin.

The smooth and seamless quality of the exterior skin was

achieved through the exploration of concrete and stucco
on brick. The materiality adds a plasticity that softens
the monumental qualities of the building.

The exterior skin was left up to Mendelsohn’s

expressionist discretion, the building’s interior was
derived as a product of function. The Einstein Tower was
conceived of in order to prove the Theory of Relativity by
means of measuring the shifting spectrum of the sun
through a large and powerful telescope.

Interiors

The interior of the building was determined by a program

of rigid scientific requirements which dictated the
volumes that would be required. In direct contrast to
Mendelsohn’s concept of movement for the exterior, the
inner tower, which was to encase the instrumentation,
had to be void of movement in order to provide accurate
measurements.
A 150 foot tower was needed to house the scientific
equipment for the building. Such a prescribed and highly
engineered interior program served as a ‘functional check’
on Mendelsohn’s form.

Mendelsohn was commissioned to provide a ‘shell’ for the

functional workings of the interior

The arrangement and manner in which form would enclose

the interior occupations became a representation of and
monument to the sciences of mass and motion.

The monumental tower was functionally required, but its

dynamic expression also served to celebrate the newly
discovered technology and efficiency.

By making the outter ‘shell’ of the building resemble a

machinelike organism, Mendelsohn explored a dynamic
functionalism.
EINSTEIN TOWER IN POTSDAM-BERLIN
TWA TERMINAL, NY -EERO SAARINEN

The terminal is sculpted as a symbol of flight-abstract and not

intentionally as a landing eagle as it has often been described.

The expressive curves of the design creates attractive spacious halls

and a rare degree of exhilaration for an airport terminal.
 The expressive curves of the design create attractive, spacious halls
and a rare degree of exhilaration for an airport terminal. The period
bright orange carpets are gone, and the atmosphere is a more
contemporary cool with the tone set by the purple-tinted glazing, but
the romance of flight is very much alive

Eero Saarinen himself says about his design: ‘…a building in which the
architecture itself would express the drama and specialness and
excitement of travel… a place of movement and transition… The shapes
were deliberately chosen in order to emphasize an upward-soaring
quality of line. We wanted an uplift.’
All the curves, all the spaces and elements right down to the shape of
the signs, display boards, railings and check-in desks were to be of a
matching nature. We wanted passengers passing through the building to
experience a fully-designed environment, in which each part arises from
another and everything belongs to the same formal world.
ARCHITECTURE AS A VEHICLE OF COMMUNICATION

Architecture has invariably taught us to believe that buildings are

communicators; Infact Man writes on earth through buildings which can
then be read as texts to denote their functions, the period and the
context they are built in.

Communication can be Verbal, Non-Verbal, Written and Visual. Non-Verbal

communication is the intangible experience of the building and Visual
Communication is what one observes through pictures/drawings or the
building itself.
 We can think of architecture as just
another form of cultural practice. And
like them, it too is a form of media. Its
literal media may be the material it
specifies: brick, stone, glass steel,
concrete or whatever.

But it becomes a medium in and of itself

through the way it arranges these
materials. The arrangement of these
materials into form and space turn them,
like the arrangement of words on a page,
pixels on a screen, or paint onto canvas,
into information. We can think of
architecture, then, as a concentration of
information assembled into built form