- Sep 2016
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atlspaceplacerhets17.robinwharton.net atlspaceplacerhets17.robinwharton.net
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buildings reflect our cultural values. Once created, they not only become symbolic representations of those values but also serve in their own way to enforce those values actively, making sure that they are adhered to and followed. In this sense, as anthropologists point out, the material world is reflexive: architecture, in the words of the social theorist Mark Gottdiener, “possesses the dual characteristics of being both a product of social relations and a producer of social relations.”1
In the article, "Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Rural Communities," it is asserted that implementing simple projects such as local parks, benches, and sidewalks can influence a community to get out on the streets and influences the social constructs of the community. Take the Reflection Pool for instance, pictured above.
Project for Public Spaces. "Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Our Rural Places." Project for Public Spaces. N.p., 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 31 Aug. 2016. -
But even in times of historical recordkeeping, most people do not write about themselves and most do little that makes others want to write about them. But everyone makes, or buys, and uses things,
Analysis of artifacts and things are a sort of way to keep someone alive. Some believe that as long as someone is talking about you or saying your name, you are never really dead. So in a way, analysis brings certain times and places and people back to life. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/46464-do-you-not-know-that-a-man-is-not-dead
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In its form, then, the room adheres to all the conventions proper to educational space in the United States.1'
By analyzing the classroom's construction, rather than just its contents, the classroom is decidedly different than any other room with desks and chairs. This classroom also seems more strict than some others of today's time. The symmetry of the room and classic set up of the desks speak volumes about the importance and seriousness of the education in that time and how classic its learning structure is.
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As mentioned, archaeologists deal little if any written documentation for early periods.
Most people, for example, would not document that they visit a community park often or that they walk to and from work, but in looking at the sidewalks and parks and benches or lack of these things, it can be determined if a certain community does these things or not.<br>
Project for Public Spaces. "Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Our Rural Places." Project for Public Spaces. N.p., 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 31 Aug. 2016.
“Bucharest, June The 1St 2015, Crowded Park On A Summer Afternoon, Heat Wave, Family Time, People Having Fun Stock Footage Video 10439756 - Shutterstock.” Accessed September 6, 2016. http://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-10439756-stock-footage-bucharest-june-the-st-crowded-park-on-a-summer-afternoon-heat-wave-family-time-people.html. -
And of course if we are looking for “traces of people doing things,” then it is easy to see that one of the main things people did in the past was to build and/or use buildings, and with such objects we do not have to rely on what people said about them. We can, if the buildings have survived, interpret them for ourselves.
Placemaking seeks to implement buildings and community involvement based on what the community's identity is, so by analyzing the structures of the area, it can be understood what the community's identity is. Project for Public Spaces. "Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Our Rural Places." Project for Public Spaces. N.p., 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 31 Aug. 2016.
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tell us about human behavior both past and present.
Placemaking helps to create a thriving community by furthering its community involvement and creating jobs and activities, but it is a careful practice that works not against the history and present identity of the community, but rather with it. Project for Public Spaces. "Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Our Rural Places." Project for Public Spaces. N.p., 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 31 Aug. 2016.
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"Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Rural Communities" Summary: Rural communities from all over the country are struggling to find a way to support their local economies and provide a stable future for them. They face the problem of having to figure out how to do these things effectively by using what they have available to them as far as financial and human capital. This way to do this is to develop solutions within the community using placemaking to create a sense of place and connectedness. To integrate placemaking into these rural communities, partnerships have been formed and have provided training programs for community leaders, serving to inform and also network the rural areas with potential regional funding partners. These partnerships allow the communities to not merely submit, but rather to integrate the important parts of the community’s identity into the future plans rather than wiping them out entirely. Main Streets are full of history and provide the identity of the place, and the objective of placemaking is not to erase these aspects, but rather to help them thrive by creating more places by attracting members of the community to become engaged. For this reason, the process of placemaking must be undertaken by the community in order to ensure positive outcomes.<br> Furthermore, placemaking creates spaces for people to be involved, rather than a space primarily for cars. This can be achieved by implementing low cost, projects to include parks, benches, and fun programs on the street to get people walking. The idea behind getting people to interact within their communities is to create place attachment to assure that young people stay rooted to their communities. However, it can be difficult to carry out these projects due to lack of funding or resources, so Lisa Mensah explains that “partnerships between sectors is central to making rural areas thrive,” so that rural regions can have an effective, lasting impact (Project for Public Spaces).
Project for Public Spaces. "Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Our Rural Places." Project for Public Spaces. N.p., 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 31 Aug. 2016.
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Without some kind of technique for interpreting the architectural language of the house, we likely cannot read the physical evidence of the structure as a social or cultural text.
There is a certain way to read architecture. Without the basic training, it is almost impossible to accurately read a structure. If you do not have a basic understanding of how to read a structure, it is likely that you will misinterpret it in context.
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building’s appearance is never left to chance, but rather is based on a system of culturally determined ideas of what is considered suitable or beautiful to behold (f
Nothing is random, especially in a building's construction, just as no word that an author writes is random to his story. A lackluster appearance in one house may show that the particular inhabitant is not concerned with appearance or that they have insufficient funds. A group of these houses point to an overarching cause in the community. Similarly, an ornate residence may point to a more flashy resident with the means to decorate.
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“historic architecture is one aspect of the past that we can still see, touch, experience . . . and part of what attracts us to old buildings is their insistence on communicating, in some outmoded dialect we do not entirely understand, the energy and purpose, the achievements and hopes, the disappointments and hardships of those who made and used them.”
This is interesting because most people are at least somewhat intrigued with old things. They are interesting, and it is because there is a story behind it. If there was no such interest or wish to understand these things, history would not be a class and museums would not be so crowded.
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then we need to utilize the widest possible range of sources, and buildings are one such source (
One cannot only view one building and accurately draw conclusions about it. It takes analysis of various buildings and artifacts in order to determine what is normal and average and distinguish each building from the other in order to know the full history and context.
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- Countless now nameless immigrants moved through tenem ents like this one in New York City’s Lower Hast Side neighborhood on their way to the American Dream. The people are gone, but the buildings remain.
Even though the people are no longer living, they left artifacts, things, and a legacy. The example here about a neighborhood is just one of many. For instance, many soldiers who fought and died in wars are not all named but because of what they did and the things we do have, we remember them and know they existed. Likewise, not all men and women who were enslaved are documented. Therefore, documentation through words is not always reliable, so further investigation into "things" is necessary.
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