Talk:Forms in architecture

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The 'philosophical essay' reads like an architecture graduate student essay - and, like many of its kind, is entirely synchronic. Kant and Eisemann enter the argument against Vitruvius and Wright. Then there's the list of elements, which at least is useful, even as sorted. I've tried to clean it all up, but may end up simply cutting the essay. It's very idiosyncratic, even if the idiom was all the rage in the late 20th century, it's very time-bound. Derrida is no longer of much interest and Bourdieu (as of 1/2002) is dead. --MichaelTinkler

there was a very elegant and bizarre 'grouping by geometry' that included headings for point, line, plane, and volume. Very neat, except that under 'point' the Theorist had put palace and capitol, while leaving basilica under plane. Since all three of those are building-types, and, I suppose, volumetric, they should have been under 'volume'. Except that the division is silly. So I put them under a spatial organization below. Gosh, this needs work. MichaelTinkler

The MEANING of building elements & thus the meanings in Architecture are very poorly treated here.The rich term of archetype is not seriously tackled-rather treated as a poor assembly of philosophy which is very sad if not ignorant lack of understanding that archetype patterns in architecture have conveyed the wisdom of cultures down thru the centuries via the medium of Architecture- thus to stand outside a "medieval Cathedral" is to stand beside the worlds creation but to stand by a modern architectural works is to stand outside a building. The deep expression of culture in form especially in medieval architecture is just mind blowing The search for the meaning in form is the search for the fantastic. Mike Purtell

this page doesn't seem to be very helpfulChwe 02:02, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] definition of architectural form

An understanding of architectural form flows from the use of geometry to generate or define. Form relates to the structure of the building, so two buildings carrying different archetypal embellishments may easily have an identical form. A definition of architectural form would encompass a range of form generation techniques with examples of the kinds of forms that are produced. There are only a handful of genuinely different form generation methods, so it is not a difficult task. Explaining architectural forms by describing individual elements is unproductive, rather like describing a sonnet by discussing the sound made by various letters of the alphabet. To grasp architectural form you need to grasp the entire structure, not read symbolism into particular embellishments. The embellishments or the design motives used to stylise the exterior of a building might be interesting and worthy of study but they do not represent the architectural form of the building. It is the confusion between surface modelling and architectural form that is the source of difficulty in this article and for that reason it should be removed. John Tolhurst