- Feb 2017
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atlspaceplacerhets17.robinwharton.net atlspaceplacerhets17.robinwharton.net
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The study of vernacular architecture has been around long enough, however, to have achieved some stability, patterns, and conventions, and our interest here is to highlight some of these commonalities in a way that presents a fairly unified, declarative statement of what the field is all about
These patterns and conventions that have been formulated in the study of vernacular architecture have surfaced from a long effort by people to record information through analysis. As technology continues to evolve, further progressions to discover patterns can be made potentially through assortment of data and the application of computer technology.
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The physical properties of the room, so constructed, ensure that these values are enforced and that those who use the room adhere to them as well.
When applying this particular statement to Robert Steuteville's "The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl", it takes on a very dark and morbid approach. By replacing the physical properties of the room with the thoroughfares and adopting Steuteville's conjections, we are thereby enforced to travel these roads under dangerous conditions that have mounted significant evidence increases in death as a whole for those who travel them because of failed infrastructures.
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Determining history through buildings has its drawbacks, certainly. One has been mentioned already: the time it takes to do fieldwork. Another problem is the uneven rate of survival of buildings. Smaller houses tend not to endure, so the material record may be skewed in favor of the elites, just as the written record is.
Misperceptions of analysis and manipulation of evidence problems that can arise when analyzing architecture, and similarly are issues that Robert Steuteville would agree with in his article, "The morbid and mortal toll of sprawl".
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culture’s aesthetic preferences by simply looking at the way construction materials are treated.
This is interesting because there are vast differences amongst materials used for architecture from culture to culture from natural wooden floors to stucco walls and ceilings.
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Buildings and assemblages of buildings make excellent sources of information about everyday people and everyday life because they exist in great numbers and are complex enough to shed light on many aspects of human behavior, from attitudes toward the use of space to aesthetic traditions and technological know-how.
This makes me think about the gentrification that is occurring throughout Atlanta, and more specifically with the construction of condos and demolition of buildings. For instance, the destruction of "Thunderbox", a practice space for musicians in Atlanta had a story to it. That story has now vanished architecturally speaking, and has been replaced with a new wave replica of buildings that have no character, i.e. condos. However, the end of one buildings story can be the beginning of another buildings story, thus the condos story begins with the forced displacement of some of Atlanta's most prolific musical artists.
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people need things— objects, artifacts, however they are referred to— to live in the world, and we make those things, not randomly or by chance, but systematically and intentionally through our culture.
While we have made objects and artifacts throughout time that most certainly were systematically or intentionally designed out of necessity which shed light on cultural aspects, conversely, I'd argue that there are also objects that were not intentionally designed and may have been created randomly. There are mistakes that have led to the creation of objects, unintentionally.
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Bernard Herman tell us at the beginning of their guide to architecture in the Mid- Atlantic region, “are the best teachers of ordinary architecture. Books, drawings, photographs, and written documents are invaluable, but, inevitably, we learn the most about buildings by taking to the field— by looking, evaluating, measuring, questioning, and looking again.” Fieldwork the recording of buildings in situ with measured drawings and photographs— is one of the distinguishing features of vernacular architecture as a field of study (
I appreciate the acknowledgement offered in this paragraph to the importance of physically examining buildings in person. I also feel that this suggestion, while referring to a different subject matter, can also be applied towards Robert Steuteville's article on the morbid sprawl of thoroughfares. The fact is that information can be perceived differently. Steuteville stated that people's perceptions to the statistical increase in traffic deaths revolved around a lack of attention due to smart phones or whatever devices that deter attention. This information could be seen through a different light and processed in a sense more conducive to Steuteville's if people would survey these areas in person and well as drive the routes themselves. Likewise, information about a building can potentially be perceived differently if only viewed from a source such as a photograph and never examined physically.
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