Aesthetics Report by: SR De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design & Arts Architecture Program 3rd Term S.Y. 2016-17 July 2017

1. FORMALISM
AESTETA
3T SY 2016-17

2. Quick RundownMay 8 – 11 Questions (PLATE # 4 soon)
May 15 – 5 Metaphysical Projects of Western Architecture
May 22 – PLATE # 1 (A Question of Aggragation)
May 29 – Architectural Determinism
June 5 – Kantian Philosophy
- PLATE # 2 (Concept vs. Experience)
June 19 – POST DESIGN RATIONALIZATION
(Romanticism vs Factality)
July 3 – Hegelian Dialectics
July 31 – Formalism
- PLATE # 3 (Mathematician’s House) CONCEPT
August 4 - PLATE # 3 (Scale Mode)

3. Formalism
The term formalism describes an emphasis on
form over content or meaning in the arts,
literature, or philosophy.

4. Formalism (Art)
In art history, formalism is the study of art by
analysing and comparing form and style—the
way objects are made and their purely visual
aspects.

6. The context for the work, including the reason
for its creation, the historical background, and
the life of the artist, that is, its conceptual
aspect is considered to be of secondary
importance.

7. Formalism (Literature)
• It is the study of a text without taking into
account any outside influence.

8. Formalism (Philosophy)
Formalists within a discipline are completely
concerned with "the rules of the game," as there
is no other external truth that can be achieved
beyond those given rules.

9. How does Formalism in architecture
being “controlled”?

10. Construction Lines

11. EARLY EXAMPLES
Ad Triangulum
in Gothic Architecture

12. Construction Lines
• Hidden Lines
• Guide lines
• Xlines
• Construction lines are temporary linework
entities that can be used as references when
creating and positioning other objects or
linework.

13. VILLA LA ROTONDA by Andrea Palladio

16. Why is this important?
Their purpose is to instigate a personal
investigation of architectural design based on a
particular assumption:
Without denying individual creativity and
innovation, there is ample evidence of a canon
of fundamental design strategies shared by
architects worldwide;

17. Why is this important?
A close examination of the work of greatest
architects – Michaelangelo and Le Corbusier, for
example – reveals that much of their success
was due to their ability to interpret these design
strategies in fresh ways that made them seem
new.

18. Contemporary students of architecture tend to
assume that the dramatic technological
advances of the recent past and the present
place them in an entirely different world of
ideas than the one of their predecessors.

19. [Hanlon] Argue that despite differences in
appearance and in methods of
construction, at the conceptual level of
composition little has changed over
thousand of year of formal exploration.

20. Architectural Design is essentially – PATTERN MAKING.

21. Are you ready to learn basics of
Formalism?

22. Five Formal Properties
• Number
• Geometry
• Proportion
• Hierarchy
• Orientation

23. 1 Number
THREE MAJOR LOBES
TWO MINOR LOBES

24. 2 Geometry
Division by 45 degrees

25. 3 Proportion
2:√3 rectangle

26. 4 Hierarchy
Primary veins
Secondary veins
Tertiary veins
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

27. 5 Orientation
Horizontal axes
Vertical axes

28. Maple Leaf Analogy
What is most fascinating about this rigorous
system is that among the countless maple leaves
nature has produced, no two leaves are ever
exactly alike.
The underlying rules of a maple leaf pattern
(number, geometry, proportion, hierarchy, and
orientation) ensure consistency without
uniformity.

29. 1 Number
Three major lobes
Two minor lobes

30. 1 Number
Number is the fundamental property. They
assume that all physical phenomena are in
essence numerical.
Some structures are relatively easy to discern
whereas others, such as chaotic structures of
weather systems, are extremely complex.

31. 1 Number
Common feature of space
and time as we ordinarily
experience them in
architecture such as rhythm
and cadence, are numerical
progressions.
House in Bangalore

32. 2 Geometry
Division by 45 degrees

33. 2 Geometry
Geometry is the shape of number. Like numbers,
geometries in nature vary widely in complexity.
Geometry is an underlying ordering mechanism
that establishes a consistent language of form
for a given phenomenon.
Each geometric figure has intrinsic qualities.

34. 2 Geometry
The square, for example, is defined by its four
equal sides and right angles.
In architectural design, the relation of geometric
figures is a visual language that is central to our
reading of pattern.

35. House Plan by Frank Lloyd Wright

36. 3 Proportion
2:√3 rectangle

37. 3 Proportion
Proportion is the ratio of numbers with a
geometric figure or among parts of a larger
composition.
Le Modulor by Le Corbusier

38. 4 Hierarchy
Primary veins
Secondary veins
Tertiary veins
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

39. 4 Hierarchy
Hierarchy indicates the relative importance of
the parts of a composition and is dependent on
number, geometry, and proportion, since each
of these attributes to the identity of each part
and its position relative to others.
Nature avoids uniformity because forms in
nature respond directly to the distribution and
collection of energy.

40. 4 Hierarchy
Since sources of energy are concentrated or
intermittent, not uniform, forms must organize
themselves hierarchically to produce structures
that mediate between places of high
concentration of energy and those of low
concentrations.

41. 4 Hierarchy
Analogously, in architectural patterns, not all
parts are of the same significance. We can
consider them in respect to energy as well –
literally in respect to natural light, but also
figuratively to their visual, emotional, and
spiritual energy.
The Cathedral of Christ
the Light by SOM

42. 5 Orientation
Horizontal axes
Vertical axes

43. 5 Orientation
Orientation operates in two ways in patterns:
externally and internally.
All natural phenomena are oriented in space in
some way, in response to forces around them,
such as sunlight or magnetic field.

44. 5 Orientation
• They may be oriented externally
toward patterns outside
themselves, such as the sun or a
direction of movement.
• They are also oriented internally
by virtue of an organization of
their parts (e.g., the axis of
symmetry that controls the
position of the head, thorax, and
abdomen of a beetle indicates its
direction and movement).

45. 5 Orientation
Likewise, in an architectural design, we find
buildings oriented externally toward distant
objects, such as the Kaaba in Mecca for
mosques or the polestar for some Anasazi Kivas.
Internally, orientation may take the form of an
axis of symmetry, but there also may be a series
of changing orientation in a choreographed
movement though linked segments of space.

46. 15 minute break

47. 1 Number
Number’s role in architectural composition
The designer arranges parts of a composition in some way – sequentially or repetitively
producing RHYTHM. RHYTHM is not REPETITION

48. 1 Number
Number’s role in architectural composition
The designer arranges parts of a composition in some way – sequentially or repetitively
producing RHYTHM. RHYTHM is not REPETITION

49. 2 Geometry
The geometric conception dominates the form.
The crossings are square in plan,
The dimensions of this square produced the planning module for the entire church
Church of saint Michael, Hildesheim Germany

51. It is a tour de force
of elemental
three dimensional forms;
Cubes
Cylinders
Pyramids
Cones
Church of saint Michael,
Hildesheim Germany

52. 3 Proportions
Schroder house
by Gerrit Rietveld

53. 3 Proportions
Despite the complexity of
design, Rietveld relied on a
traditional proportion for the
building as a whole: the golden
section is the basis for both
the plan and the section.

54. 3 Proportions
The rationale for the use of an
abstract ratio such as the golden
section has two theoretical bases;
First, since much of the natural
world appears to be ordered by
the golden section (including
our own bodies), humans are
presumably predisposed to find
it aesthetically pleasing.

55. 3 Proportions
The second theory is that
because it can be subdivided
systematically to produce identical
Ratios at different scales, its use
Achieves a harmonic relation
Among the parts of a composition.
HARMONY

57. 4-5 Hierarchy & Orientation
Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul Turkey
By Mimar Siman

58. The center of this large complex of buildings is a mosque. Sinan
perfected the compositional system, derived from Byzantine
precedents, by which relatively small domes, half domes,
monumental arches, and buttresses supported a fully hierarchical
composition that produces a cascade of volumes from the center
to the periphery.

59. A formal orientation of a building, as distinct from a processional
orientation, fixes internal elements of a plan to an external
phenomenon – for example, a cardinal direction, another bldg, or
a view. As with all mosques, in this case it is a distant referent, the
Kaaba in Mecca.