Coming Full Circle

Community
“Architects have become more interested in interior design, and artists are exploring the built environment as part of their creative practice…” (Massey 219) Architecture and design is a community of ideas that are put together to form structures that that reply to commodity, firmness and delight. It has not been until the past century that design, in terms of a building, has been separated into a community of architects, interior designers, and artists. This community of people work together to design the exterior and interior of a structure and have come to terms of accepting each other. Architects no longer see interior designers and “fluffers” and allow space for the designer to translate the structures interior into the exterior.


Stewardship
With the advancements in technology and the realization that iconic works of architecture need to be restored and preserved, designers and historians have put forth the effort to create sustainability amongst the old and new architecture. "Alongside new builds with sustainable elements, there is also a trend to refit and refurbish existing buildings: a sign of increased interest in sustainability and in the historic past" (Massey 225) The current design area is considers the era of sustainability. The reconstruction and preservation of older builds is done to sustain what is already there. The new architecture that is being designed is making an attempt to reverse the effects that current architecture and society has on the environment.


Authenticity
A design can say something about the designer who created it. It can tell who they are, what they have been though, and where they want to go and this is what makes a design authentic. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Robie house, as well as others, are examples of the authenticity that he puts into his works. Bother notably have cantilevered roofs and the center point or hearth of the home is the fireplace. These aspects are trademarks of Wrights works when it comes to residential design for those who want to get away and have privacy.


Innovation
Innovations are what keeps architecture and design moving in different directions and keeps evolving. As we saw in Monticello, innovations were made within the structure by Thomas Jefferson. He at one point completely demolished the structure to recreate it in a more innovative and interesting style. His use of passive solar heating was something the very few used at the time and Jefferson successfully incorporated this idea into his home. He also has innovations in all of the inventions he created such as the revolving wall door in the dinning room, the pulley system in the dinning room, and the large clock/calendar in the foyer. These innovations have lasted thought the centuries it has been around and are still working today.


Summery
As this semester comes to an end, I take with me a better of understanding of why designers do what they do and how we have evolved from living in caves and wooden huts to the monumental sky scrapers and gravity defying structures we have today. We have revisited the idea of sustainability which was prevalent in the structures of Egypt, and Greece where the structures should stand for more than ten thousand years.