Architecture might look like a journey of five years, but it leaves a lifelong impact. It affects how one perceives spaces, including public spaces, skyscrapers, and community projects. Before entering the field of architecture, one doesn’t know about the technical details. But, once a person starts understanding the different aspects of architecture, they look at spaces differently.
For example, a person having ample knowledge about architecture, observing the above photograph, would have understood the materials used, the importance of lighting, the style, the detailing of carving, the play of colors, and the one-point perspective it displays. But the same photograph, if observed by someone with scarce or no knowledge regarding the architecture, wouldn’t have noted the elements.
Even among the people who understand architecture, there is a variance in each individual’s perspective. Not everyone looks at one space as the same. This difference in viewpoint gives individuality to space and helps it stand out.
The change in the way one perceives built structures and the elements associated with them starts after the first week of architecture school. Various concepts, ideologies, principles, and terminologies are introduced to the students that help them absorb the segments of the field.
Slowly and steadily, students are introduced to basic skills like sketching and conceptualizing and then basic subjects like the materials, construction, services, and history. Students are then taught the different processes like Site Analysis and Site Mapping.
Perspective in Public Places
Public space is a place outside the boundaries of an individual or small-group supervision, used for a miscellany of often-overlapping operational and symbolic processes. But in architecture, public spaces are considered more intricate and organic than they seem.
Public spaces include roads, parks, gardens, public squares, and beaches.
A person who is not well versed in architecture would observe the factors like relaxation and rejuvenation of these spaces. People who know architecture will, in addition to those feelings, also relate to the types of fauna present, the type of perspectives, the line weights, the difference in scales and proportions, the usage of shapes, and the context of built form.
Monotonous landscapes are observed to raise stress among the public of the locality. Even a person with zero knowledge regarding architecture gets affected by the boring buildings and landscapes. The human mind gets confused and is reminded just how far out of its natural habitat it is. Hence, architecture holds a power consciously or unconsciously to improve or degrade one’s mental health in general, as mentioned in a 2009 paper by Murray Krelstein, MD, ‘ Have you ever felt awe and wonder?’.
The orientation and design of public spaces plays a major role. Architecture will always serve more than simply a functional purpose.
Perspective in Skyscrapers
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building with multiple floors. It is the most common definition of a skyscraper given by any man/woman. But an architect would define it more structurally as a substructure of piers beneath the ground, a superstructure of columns and girders above the ground, and a curtain wall hung on the rafters.
A skyscraper was initially fascinated by forming a beautiful and mesmerizing skyline. Currently, skyscrapers highlight material usage, structural stability, wind-resistance power, and height.
For example, the world’s tallest structure, Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, is considered an architectural marvel. This massive structure is in the form of a triangle for better Aerodynamic Optimization (to reduce the effect of the wind and enhance the stability). The Y-shaped plan maximizes the view of the Arabian Gulf. Burj Khalifa is provocative of the onion domes predominant in Islamic architecture.
Perspective in Sacred Spaces
A sacred space is one that meaningfully confines a broad combination of different places. It includes structures built for religious purposes.
Temples, mosques, churches, and monasteries are a part of these sacred spaces. These sacred spaces are recognized because they perform religious activities, not because they have strange physical or aesthetics.
But after gaining knowledge about architecture, one is charmed with the features these spaces display. Be it the carvings in temples, the intricate sculptures in a mosque, and the elements of a church.
For example, The Lotus Temple has 27 marble-sheathed leaves that shine above an enchanting green landscape. Inside this gigantic structure, tourists can admire the exposed concrete structure of the leaves and the picturesque steel and glass skylight.
References:
- “A Change in Perspective of Architecture Instilled by Knowledge.” RTF | Rethinking the Future, 4 Aug. 2021, www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/narratives/a4780-a-change-in-perspective-of-architecture-instilled-by-knowledge/. Accessed 27 May 2022.
- Breeders, Bee. “The Role of Architecture in Shaping Communities.” Architecturecompetitions.com, architecturecompetitions.com/the-role-of-architecture-in-shaping-communities.
- “Sacred Space | Encyclopedia.com.” Encyclopedia.com, 2014, www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sacred-space.
- The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Skyscraper | Building.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 11 Oct. 2017, www.britannica.com/technology/skyscraper.
- Leewardists – Instagram
