Harmony and Modular Proportions
The overall proportions and scale of a building are often largely determined by the spaces within and are related to the type of building, its status and location. In many cultures the buildings which are large and stand out from their surroundings are those that serve a civic, religious or community purpose.
Sometimes the scale of a building is designed o deceive people. A larg building may be detailed so as to look smaller or larger. Barningham Hall, Norfold , designed for Sir Edward Paston , is a very large building but it apperas smaller because it is divided up vertically into a number of different elements .
Scale may be used to emphasise certain features of a building. The scale of an entrance may be enlarged to draw attention to it or to lend significance to the building; or it may be simply large because it is to be used by large numbers of people. Sometimes relatively small features may be exaggerated to lend unexpected drama to a façade .
Façades and its character
Although buildings are three-dimensional and may be viewed from four sides , and from above if from an aeroplane , we usually only see one side at a time. Most commonly it is one façade that first confronts us. and makes the intial impression on us. Many buildings front onto a street and are designed so that the street façade is more important than the others. The street façade is usually the one that contains the main entrance and often the most important rooms will look over the street. We call this the main façade. It is often designed to impress visitors and it will perhaps include sculpture of elaborate decoration.The rear and sides of the building which are not seen so often may employ cheaper materials and be relatively plain.
Façades may be symmetrical or asymmetrical. The general emphasis may be vertical or horizontal. The number and size of features can alter the character of a façade. Few small openings place the stress on large areas of wall, a solid mass; many large windows break up the wall emphasising the voids. The façade may appear simple or complex and it may appear quite different at different times of day, according to how the light falls on it. The emphasis on the various elements determines whether an aspect is stressed or if the façade is balanced.
Façades can be subdivided intovertical sections call bays . The divisions may be marked by any regular vertical feature such as arches , columns, pilasters, buttresses or windows. Thus a façade can be discussed in terms of the number of bays and their treatment.
The repetition of elements and their arrangement may create a rhythm within the façade . Many varied but repeated elements may suggest a restless rhythm , simple elements widely spaced may create a gentle rhythm, and many large , bold elements a vigorous rhythm. The spacing and size of elements may be utilised not only to suggest a 'stately , serene, and meditative' feeling, while cloely spaced columns may appear 'tense and forbidding'.
The exterior is designed to keep the heat or rain out, and the warmth in. Small windows with louvred shutters permit air to circulate but keep out the hot sun.
In some buildings elements which are essiential to protect the building from the weather may be hidden and their visual impact minimised. In classical buildings where clarity of form is given precedence it is often difficult to see how the rain is dispersed from the building since drainpipes are hidden within walls or relageted to the rear, parapets hide the pitched roof and gutters , and in the case of some buildings by Edwin Lutyens the gutters are set into the sloping roof and can only be detected by a break in the slates two of three courses from the eaves.
To create crisp , geometric, undecorated forms modernists designed buildings with minimal, if any , sills below windows or weather coping above openings and at the top of walls. This has led to the concrete surfaces of the walls becoming streaked where the rain washes over them in areas where the climate is inclement.
While some buildings have exteriors that are open and welcoming to strangers, others are deliberately forbidding. Forts and castles require massive, battered walls with few opeings , save slits for firing arrows to deter attackers. Their defensive purpose lends a bleak monumentality to their form.
Today shopping malls may attract shoppers with a broad colourful canopy over a large doorway but architects of blocks of flats , concerned to minimise vandalism and crime, may deliberately design the main door to be unobtrusive to discourage casual visitors.
Another way to think about the exterior form of buildings is in terms of the structural elements that are essential to making them stand up, Some buildings openly express their structure, in others it is given little prominence. The huge , defensive loadbearing walls of forts and castles are openly expressed , as are the buttresses to support vaults or domes which regularly punctuate the walls of medieval churches and mosques.
The decoration of buildings may be the result of the use of particular features of materials , or it may take the form of painted or sculptural surfaces. During the Middle Ages in Europe glass in church windows was subdivided by branching curved mullions carved in stone which we call tracery , there were diaper patterns in brickwork using burnt headers , and structural timer faming was employed in an ornamental manner. In Italy during the renaissance church façades might be decorated with coloured marble facings .
Decoration may take the form of painted or sculpted surfaces. In medieval cathedrals the sculptural decoration is part of a symbolic programme and designed both to educate and impress visitors.
In the 1930s art deco factories and cinemas were enriched with decorative façades to make them appear up-to-date and enticing and glamorous. However,classicists reduced or stripped the decorative details of their buildings to the minimum.
Classical forms and decoration may be used to encourage people to feel comfortable with buildings and to harmonise buildings with their surroundings as at Richmond Riverside, London ,by Quinlan Terry 1988. The classical forms also lend status to this office complex.
Harmony and Modular Proportions
Many buildings throughout the world have been designed according to carefully calculated proportions. This can be proved when we look at function and space. Close examination of a façade may reveal the use of a geometric grid, and if we mesure the length and height of a façade , the dimensions of windows and their spacing and other prominent features which compose a façade , we may find the employment of related measurements based on ratios or harmonious proportions.
Many buildings are simple and have little ornament give pleasure because of the careful use of proportions.
We can observe various features and the particular emphasis gien to parts of the building but to understand these fully we need to do more than just look at façades. We need to understand the function of each part, the districution of spaces within the building , the materials and structural system employed.