Sunday, May 5, 2013

Different Kinds of Architecture and my Favorite Aspects of their Techniques

Early Modernism:
Asmara Historic City Center
What I do like is the beginning of the tiered box type roof that I see a lot in modern architecture, and the wrought iron railing is a nice touch in my opinion since it accentuates the balcony. However, I don't like the front, as it does not fit with the sharp cornered designs of the rest of the house. It also just out as the rest of the house is  a flat surface more or less, and this focuses all of the attention on it and the curve is not supposed to be in a modernist design. This surely fits into early modernism as it has some of the major points of modernism but is still developing into what it is today. In my opinion, if they had put an overhang with another accentuated balcony on top and made it mostly glass-walled with the planks on the sides to give some cover, the house would have benefited tremendously.

International style:
Le Corbusier
What I like about his type of design is how they use the technique of elevation by support over the landscape. It uses a very industrial look almost like a warehouse on stilts, and uses white in most of its designs. Many shapes are used, and the angles are precise and perfect. The thing that I don't like about his king of architecture is how symmetrical it is, and if the architect had brought the right side down to the ground and then took different levels of that design with different depths and widths and had then slowly shrink as they go up, it would benefit the design immensely.

Brutalist Architecture:
Brutalist work building
Brutalist architecture is in my opinion is the most intriguing, as it is different from all of the other forms of modern architecture  It uses rough concrete in almost all of it's designs, and is mainly used for apartment/work buildings. It displays rough concrete squares and rectangles and is precise. It's pillars and supports are few but large. In my opinion, this architecture is useful and interesting in downtown buildings, and the only thing that I do not like about them is the fact that it is the same height on all sides. If an architect was to imply different levels with different rough rectangles, it would make the building seem less controlled and look really different.

Contemporary Architecture:
Contemporary Building
Contemporary architecture uses many different levels and different angles to form many skewed shapes that sit precariously upon one another. I also uses many overhangs and seemingly unstable supports to put across the idea of defying gravity. This style is used mainly in office buildings and large business buildings because a house of normal size would be hard to use many levels and overhangs in. To be effective, this design idea needs to be used in extreme sizes, and the one thing about this technique that I don't like are the continuous windows that are used.

Neo-Modern Architecture:
Neo Modern Apartment Building
This technique uses shapes and angles that defy the idea of straight walls and defines buildings from all other forms of modern architecture. In this technique, angles contradict and lead to one another while the windows always stay straight, which even more accentuates the angles. Personally, I am not a fan of this kind of Architecture.