Week 7: God's Architecture and Politics in Architecture

Week 7: God's Architecture and Politics in Architecture 

My initial thoughts and knowledge

My overall knowledge is quite limited. Although having visited a lot of cathedrals, churches and other places of worship on travels in France and Italy, I have never looked at them architecturally, but instead for their beauty and tranquillity. However since listening to this lecture I have been out at churches in Oxford and been able to spot the different styles that were discussed.
Christchurch cathedral Oxford
I have always had an interest in politics and when the second part of the lecture was on politics in Architecture I was very interested to find out more.




My notes and take away from the lecture

God's Architecture
You define place by marking the ground-can be a mark on the ground
                                                         -by a naturally occurring                                                                          phenomena
We started by looking at places that have developed over time for example Stonehenge in Wiltshire. This is a place of mystery where at the time it was made it was believed to be of prehistoric importance for cults of the sun.
Stonehenge

Islam
The lecture then went on to look at how Islam also affects architecture.
Kaaba
- For example the Kaaba- the Grand Mosque in Mecca (Kaaba means cube)
- The Kaaba is the most holiest of sights to Muslims, therefore they perform the Hajj
- Even when they are at home they orientate themselves towards Mecca when praying.

Grand Mosque Cordoba Spain
Examples of other great
Mosque Casablanca

Mosques- Casablanca Morocco where instead of depicting people there are great, ornate, geometric murals
Another example is the Grand Mosque in Cordoba, Spain


Christian Faith Communities
Isolated Monastic communities are what churches started out as
    - A place of study
    - A place of prayer
    - A place of refuge
    - A place that was self sustaining
These were just a few of the things a monastic community contained
Within Christianity there are many sub religions:
    - Anglicans
    - Catholics
    - Baptists
    - Methodist
Since the early days of the church it has evolved.
In the lecture we looked at symbolism
    - Wells Cathedral
        - 1175
Wells Cathedral
        - 80 years of making
        - First Cathedral in the gothic style
        - The stain glass windows tells stories of the          bible
        - The west wall has 300 sculpture from medieval         times
        - Impact of light allows for amazing shadows
Saxon Church
    - Saxon Church in Bosham
        - shows use of natural light
    - St Margret's
        - High Anglican church
Buddhism
- Moon gate is a point of entrance
    - Threshold
- Usually set with in beautiful landscapes
- Amazing roof lines

-Jain Temples of India
    -Oldest Faith system
    -Concept of Karma
-Hindu temples
    - Usually highly decorated and often colourful
-Judaism
    - Belief in Sing faith
Borgund Stave

Returning to Christianity
- Borgund Stave
    - A contemporary church

Politics of Architecture
- Lebbeus Woods
    -Women in politics
    -First Woman to be Riba president 2009
        -Ruth Reed
        -73rd president
        -111years after the women were first admitted into Riba
-AJ 100 figures show a decrease from 12% to 11% of black asian and minority ethnic
-Riba dropped international Women's Day cookery class after backlash March 2019

Politics of division
-Literally 
    - House of commons
        - Seating arrangements makes divisions
-Compared to Scottish parliament

Malaysia
-decision to move the country towards being classed as developed-wawasan 2020
- Results in a dramatic change

Climate Challenge
- Riba declared the climate change is the biggest problem to architecture

Architecture of the homeless
- not enough done by gov

What I learnt
I found the whole lecture very interested and learnt a lot. I think that I can take forward is to consider everything such as the religion. I learnt a lot about different genres of architecture

What I am reading at the moment

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

 by Matthew Frederick

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