AN ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL

  PIER LUIGI NERVI NAME : PIER LUIGI NERVI   BORN : 21 JUNE 1891, SONDRIO, ITALY NATIONALITY : ITALIAN    EDUCATION : UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA IN 1913 OCCUPATION : STRUCTURAL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT   KNOWN FOR : HIS INNOVATIVE USE OF REINFORCED CONCRETE.    EARLIER JOBS : SERVED IN THE CORPS OF ENGINEERING OF THE ITALIAN ARMY DURING WORLD WAR I FROM 1915 TO 1918   AWARDS :  GOLD MEDALS BY THE INSTITUTION OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS IN THE UK THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS (AIA GOLD MEDAL 1964)  .IN 1957, RECEIVED THE FRANK P. BROWN MEDAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE AND THE WILHELM EXNER MEDAL. HIS  THEORY In his writings, Nervi constantly reminded readers that 90 percent of his contracts were awarded in competitions where the governing factors were economy and speed of construction. He thrived on these limitations and, indeed, "never found this relentless search for economy an obstacle to achieving the expressiveness of form" desi...

  THE KNOSSOS PALACE, GREECE         INTRODUCTION The PALACE OF KNOSSOS is located in Crete city, in Greece. It was a major part of the MINOAN CIVILISATION The Palace had three water management systems -water storage, water harvesting, drainage and sewage system. Long-distance systems for transporting water to the urban areas had been developed since prehistoric times due to the mountainous terrain of Crete city. Conduits carried water from mountain springs to Palaces and cities ,utilizing a combination of open channels and closed pipes in Knossos . The main source of water supply at the palace of Knossos, initially, was the spring of Mavrokolymbos, a pure limestone spring located approximately 500 m southwest of the palace. As population increased ,other water sources developed from further distances and incorporated into the water supply system. A conduit made of terracotta was used to convey water from a water spring on the Gypsadhes hill to Kn...

 A CITY IS NOT A TREE By Christopher Alexander   ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christopher Wolfgang Alexander (born: 4th October 1936, in Vienna, Austria) is a widely influential British-American architect, design theorist, and currently a professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. As a theorist, teacher, author, practicing architect, and builder, Alexander has taken it upon himself to question everything, from construction details and the effects of color to the process by which a global species makes and remakes its environment and, beyond, to the objective bases of beauty itself. Questions like, what is an architect? What is a good building? Should architects strive for beauty in their work? What is beauty? Christopher Alexander has explored such fundamental questions in greater depth or breadth, or with greater persistence, clarity, and originality of thought.  His theories about the nature of human-centered design have affected fields beyond architecture...

  THE POETICS OF SPACE BY: GASTON BACHELARD ABOUT THE AUTHOR At the twilight of his career, he decides to take a new approach by reflecting on literature and poetry and using imagination to explore a reality that is not subject to reasoning.  His implicitly urges architects to base their work on the experiences as it will engender rather than on abstract rationales that may or may not affect viewers and users of architecture. He also discusses psychoanalysis and the work of the psychiatrist Carl Jung. Comparing the psychoanalytic and phenomenological approaches to his subject matter, he sees merit in both, but finds the phenomenological approach preferable. He observes that imagination is a major power of human nature. He packs his text with lyrical quotations, helping the reader to imagine the house as a place sewn together from poetic images, facets and stories. THE REVIEW  A densely lyrical, almost magical book on the experience of architecture It is a non-fiction phil...

   HOUSE FORM AND CULTURE BY : AMOS RAPOPORT   THE BOOK  COMPILES OF THE EFFECTS OF THE CULTURES AND THE  HOUSE FORM AND CULTURE PRESENTS CROSS- CULTURAL STUDIES OF DWELLINGS, BUILDINGS AND SETTLEMENTS WITHIN THE FIELDS OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY.  ABOUT THE AUTHOR AMOS RAPOPORT BORN ON 28 MARCH 1929, WARSAW.  AN ARCHITECT AND ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF ENVIRONMENT-BEHAVIOR STUDIES (EBS). HE IS THE AUTHOR OF OVER 200 ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS IN THIS FIELD, INCLUDING BOOKS THAT HAVE BEEN TRANSLATED INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING FRENCH, SPANISH, GERMAN, PERSIAN, JAPANESE, KOREAN AND CHINESE.  HE HAS HELD HONORABLE AND VISITING POSITIONS IN MANY UNIVERSITIES AROUND THE GLOBE, IS PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE. HIS WORK HAS FOCUSED MAINLY ON THE ROLE OF CULTURAL VARIABLES, CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES, AND THEORY DEVELOPMENT AND SYNTHESIS.                    ...

TEXTURES AND PATTERNS This is a short story about the experience I had during my elective in the second semester of my first year for architecture in KRVIA. It's an experience about how got to learn about an interesting aspect which is important for architecture as well has so many perspectives to it called as 'PHOTOGRAPHY'. So, this was the time around November-December when generally our winter electives are held. We do get to choose them according to our priorities and interest in the elective available. This photography elective was my second choice because first one was something related to crafts in paper. When we students as group of student met for the first time it was all different energy altogether. Then we met the elective guide who was very excited for the elective week and wouldn't enough to see what quality of work we could produce in that given time slot. He showed his and other photographers work through books, articles and ppts. The work was really gre...

MY TRAVEL BUCKET LIST We all have that particular bucket list of the places or designed structures you wanna visit once your lifetime, see it with all open eyes and feel it all by your heart. So, here's a list of beautifully designed structures particular to a space, place and environment, I want to desperately be there to touch, feel and sense everything over there.  1. COUNTRY CHARM  Created by an architect and photographer in the Hungarian  mountains. Made of wood and glass the exterior is designed to merge the house with forest that surrounds it. 2. SEA SHELTER Built on the South Fyn Archipelago in Denmark this part of a project which stretchers to 50 shelters in five different designs. They are designed to be used by bird watchers which will ensure peace and quiet for any visitors. 3. WINDOWS ON THE WORLD  Situated in West Virginia this eclectic of it's use of recycled windows and is owned by a fashion designed and a photographer. The couple built the ...