Architecture originally emerged to fulfill the basic human need for shelter. Over time, architecture took on additional purposes beyond the purely practical, including symbolizing social and cultural meanings. Architecture is now understood to serve four main functions: 1) as a container for human activities, 2) to modify the external climate, 3) as a cultural symbol, and 4) as a consumer of resources. Architecture has evolved from addressing mere physical needs to also expressing social status and identity, and creating lifestyle commodities desired beyond basic necessity.

1. +
Task of Architecture

2. Why architecture exist in the first
place?
Accommodating
Activity
Spaces
4
Function

3. +
The search for shelter
Shelter: A structure affording protection from rain, wind, or sun; in
wider sense, anything serving as a screen or a place of refuge from
the weather. – Oxford English Dictionary

4. +
sheltering

5. +
sheltering

7. +
The primitive hut
Man wants to make himself a dwelling that
protects but does not bury him…
Let us look at man in his primitive state
without any aid or guidance other than his
natural instincts. He is in need of a place to
rest.
Abbe Laugier’s Essay sur l’architecture, 1755

8. +
The discovery of creating
shelter
Drawing from Viollet le Duc’s Dictionnaire
raisonne de l’architecture, 1856

12. +
FIND PLACE for SHELTER
MODIFYING PLACE by MAKING FORM
(STRUCTURE) for ACCOMODATING
ACTIVITIES (SPACES)
Need space for (dry)
activities: shelter1

13. +
sheltering

15. THE BUILDING TASK [Schulz-65]
1. Physical Control
2. Functional Frame
Concern with the relation between building & surroundings
Activities of a number of persons need a practical architectural frame

16. the BUILDING TASK [Hillier, Musgrove, O’Sullivan-73]
1. Container for human activities
2. Modifier of given climate
Internal spaces which will exist in physical relationship with each other
Modifyer boundaries between the enclosed space & the external environment

17. + 2
MAKING FORM (STRUCTURE) for
ACCOMODATING WORSHIP ACTIVITIES
(SPACES) IN A CERTAIN PLACE
Need space for
religious activities
Containing “settled” activities

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Placing the religius form : highest hirarchy

29. +
MAKING FORM (STRUCTURE) for
ACCOMODATING SERVICES ACTIVITIES
(SPACES) IN A CERTAIN PLACE
Need space for other
activities
Containing “settled” activities3

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U
BP
MP
IP
MCK
BA
MI
IK
MT CN

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37. +
Utilitas
Firmitas
Venustas
Function: both sheltering activities and symbolizing societies’ cultural and social condition
from biologi: firmus and latin: firmness meaning “stable, strong, firm, steadfast”
Aesthetics, beauty
VITRUVIUS : architecture should embodied

38. +
Function
Context
Free
For
m
Structure
Meaning
Form

39. + Need space for other
activities
Containing “settled” activities
4

40. Utilitas
Sheltering Symbolizing
Creating
Activity
Spaces
4
1 2
Practical Symbolical

42. Physical Control Functional Frame Social Milieu Cultural Symbolization
Container of
human activity
Modifier given
climate
Cultural Symbol Consumer of resources
Sheltering
Activities
Needs

43. [Hillier, Musgrove, O’Sullivan-73]
3. Cultural symbol
...Symbol operates even when the architect has intended it would not (so called ‘functional’)
4. Cultural Symbolization
It’s evident that the cultural symbolization is closely related to the formation of the social milieu :
-social structure-symbol system
[Schulz-65]
3. Social Milieu
A social factors which should enter the architectural concretization : -status /role in groups -institution
The building task

50. s y m b o l i s i n g

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ARTICULATING (SIGNING) FORM (STRUCTURE)
TO MAKE MEANING for IDENTITY
Need identity, distinct from other
Symbolizing forms and activities
5

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[Hillier, Musgrove, O’Sullivan-73]
4. Consumer of resources
All building material must developed further. Each operation adds to its value.
The building task

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ARTICULATING (SIGNING) FORM (STRUCTURE)
TO CREATE LIFE STYLE and COMMODITY
Wants another value
Co modifying forms
5

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87. Needs
And now ….
Wants
b e f o r e a f t e r
Needs
Wants

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Is it sheltering / physical needs? Or social / symbolizing needs ? Or just want
another value: symbolizing personal and commodity.

90. What is the TASK of Architecture ?

91. Physical Control Functional Frame Social Milieu Cultural Symbolization
Container of
human activity
Modifier given
climate
Cultural Symbol Consumer of resources
Utilitarian Symbolization
Practical
Symbolica
Sheltering
Activities
Symbolising
Commodity
Needs
Wants

92. + And the story
goes…..
needs or wants
remote?