Reflections Unit Summary

As we leave the Renaissance, or some say as we still remain within, architects and designers continue to test boundaries, break the rules and change them. With the rising middle class, there was an additional push to have available to them what the wealthy possess. But what will that look like? What will that be? We again see the design cycle's reflections to classical elements.

Architecture Parlent revolts against the expressionism and opulence of the Baroque movement to re-write the rules of design. They reflect back to classical order and rationality to cease the theater on the landscape. But as we have seen, this too would cycle back. In the interim it is again questioned, what is architecture? Is it sculpture? Is it purely a place to be inhabited? Design competitions depict the practice to be as important as the built form. Structure and planning return to a place of prime importance.

Architecture follows suit. Some designers create mere copies of past buildings onto new landscapes. Some create masterpieces of craft, showcasing handiwork and structure as the basic tennents of good design, and still others embrace the new world, new technologies, new society to create elements and buildings never before seen. They all search for modern. What makes them different from classical designs? What makes them unique? What makes them exciting? All fight for relevancy in an ever-changing world at an unprecedented pace. And again we see clean lines and craftsmanship bend toward expressionism, opulence and back. The cycle continues, fashions change, new buildings revolt against those that came before.

Reflecting to the past you see the same cycles continue, one in which designers strive to create, strive to be unique, but also strive to be produce the "perfect" building. One who's elements all can be evaluated in relation to its commodity, firmness and delight. As new technologies develop, new building types are required and new structural systems come into existence, designers now have new means of determining or expressing these three tenents of good design.