Architecture: Carte Blanche

Mostly, there is wispy

Fleeting notions

Of reality,

Momentary,

Waiting,

Wondering about significance,

Mostly, it is commotion

Getting carried away

In the action

Of knowing nothing

Respecting the unknown

Until next time

Quenching a thirst

For rehydration of tactility

Exposing the wounds

Pooling and drawing

In questions that tumble

Kneeling, begging for more.

Mostly, it will be done,

without delay in journey

Toward a solution

Looking longingly at the solution

Perpetually out of reach,

Always certain,

To bring more questions.

Process for a Saco Lake Bath House by Sean McGadden

Architectural Theory is:

The evolution of the objective principles and subjective values that guide individuals and collective decisions about, and assessments of one's own and others architectural works

The means by which architects or architectural scholars situate themselves
Unlike the term Philosophy because it is practical and concrete
- Theory fulfills pragmatic and rational purposes when put in practice
- Philosophy suggests something more hypothetical or ephemeral
Humans trying to make sense of the world around them
Less easily prescribed because it is diverse and vast:
- Many theories of other fields can be classified as explanatory
  - As in the Pythagorean Theorem in Mathematics
- Others can be classified as exploratory
  - As in String Theory in Physics
- Architectural Theory does not fall under either category
Organized under less formalized more individualistic paradigms
- Many theories are the writings of individual architects
- Highly subjective
- Theories exists through conversations in academies and practices beside formal writings and treatise
Part science, part history, part ideology, part sociology and part aesthetic judgement
An oscillating series of dichotomous points of interest

Theory began with Vitruvius in the First Century BCE. Ten Books on Architecture

Laid out very practical guides to good design with regard to:
- The construction of towns
- Infrastructure
- Public buildings
- Private residences
Included discussions of many ideals that are still relevant today:
- material properties and usage
- Proportion
- Geometry
- Site orientation

Published theory did not re-emerge again in written texts until the Renaissance with Alberti and his treatise that resembled those of Vitruvius. The Art of Building in Ten Books.

Many thousands of works have been published since then. The vastness of architectural theory that exists speaks to the subjective nature of it and the difficulty in creating any all encompassing blanket theory for architecture. Despite this, I propose that theory can be categorized under three organizational super structures:

Theories of Architectural Technology
- Principles of structure
- Ventilation
- Drainage
- Lighting
- Etc..
Theories of Architectural History
- Social phenom and patterns
- Linguistic analyses
- Physical artifact analysis
- Etc..
Theories of Architectural Design
- Organizational strategies
- Design methods
- Spatial concepts
- Aesthetic judgments
- Etc..

Debating a Discipline:

Dialectic philosophy answers that all arguments will contain an argument and counter argument as well as a synthesis of both points of view.

It is not about choosing a side more than it is about recognizing both sides are necessary to perpetuate the conversation.

Architectural Theory operates along a continuum or gradient of ideas.

Tectonics, Use and Site: These are the three constants in architecture and theory. They are the cyclical integration of diverse sometimes conflicting issues regarding these within theory.

I wonder about many things. Often, having to do with architectural pedagogy. What determines a specificity of thought more than a time and a place? I argue music and architecture are among the arts that most clearly engage with time and space. Architecture is only relevant in the ways in which it is also highly contextual. Music also attaches itself to such ideals. Music is much more explicitly prescribed in its emotive techniques. Architecture, however, has the more elegant and less intrusive ability to be ambiguous.

In the more specific context of a project, one can be much more relevant in making a commentary on architectural discourse. Let us consider Light. With even more specificity, let me set this analysis of light to a secluded site located in the mountains on the edge of a pond with only a hiking trail as access. Light becomes much more ephemeral and primitive. Here it filters through the foliage and bounces off water and rock. The light is repetitive but also random with other factors of weather and season. The colors of light differ as well. Orange and red in the fall, greys and whites in winter, greens and blues in the spring and summer. The Architecture that effectively deals with light acknowledges these simple truths. An engagement with natural site elements is also therefore necessary. Streams and rocky outcroppings are interesting for they represent natural processes resulting in built and defined environmental nodes. The trees take on a more enveloping and massive textural landscape. The water becomes a new threshold. The hiker goes from; trail to wild pond shorefront as a threshold from land to water. The stream, as threshold from land to land and in this case from nature to architecture.

Establishing a threshold is first necessary. The most obvious departure for this idea is at the convergence of stream, trail, land, and water. Architecture can be elegantly nestled among these thresholds only exiting its notion as a threshold between and unto nature.

Mimicry of terrain is a way this architecture begins to become a part of or from nature while an emphasis on containment and the envelope are the necessary division of what is not of or from nature itself.

There is great joy in the formulation of a plan of architectural pursuit. There is a carte blanche that is spread across the earth from which humanity has the opportunity to develop and sculpt. This act of construction and planning brings forth all the ideal virtues we see in people and the divinity of nature. It has the chance to become something of a higher magnitude than what is already existing. It longs for something divine, something unearthly, while fully embracing all of its earthly and material constituents.