Cheryl Joseph
E603B
March 7, 2006
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http://www.utexas.edu/tours/mainbuilding/people/schooldeaf.html
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Good morning, Board of
Regents. Thank you for this opportunity
to discuss my architectural vision for the
Before I discuss the benefits of Gothic architecture, I will attempt to define the style. According to Ruskin, Gothic architecture “is made up of many mingled ideas, and can consist only in their union.”[1] There is no single characteristic signifying an onlooker that a building is Gothic. Instead, a combination of forms and elements make up the Gothic style and provide a means of evaluating the strength of the Gothic influence on the building. The elements of Gothic include savageness, changefulness, naturalism, grotesqueness, rigidity, and redundance.[2] The outward form typically consists of a steep roof rising into a gable, pointed arches and gables adorning windows and doors, cusped or foliated arches, and shafts with bases and capitals.[3]
There are several
benefits to Gothic architecture, including a historical atmosphere and
increased inspiration, imagination, creativity, and freedom.
Primarily, Gothic
architecture reminds students of the tradition of their college and the history
of the world. The Gothic architecture employed
by Yale,
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This is an example of
Gothic architecture at http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Student_Center-Wellesley.html
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inextricably associated with education.”[4] Structurally, the architects and constructors of Gothic buildings aspire to “impose ritual in the presence of a great company.”[5] Historical reflection is important both inside and outside of the classroom. In the classroom, the architecture serves as a concrete reminder to students of knowledge they are learning in class. By experiencing the architecture, the students gain a different understanding of their education and are more likely to remember what they learn. Outside of the classroom, the Gothic architecture instills a sense of ritual and tradition in the students that may make them more tied to the University.
Furthermore,
Gothic architecture inspires those who occupy the buildings. The Gothic structure conveys a “world of
unabashed opulence and splendour, of rich color, of visible, unashamed evidence
of material success and its concomitant belief in the increasing prosperity and
irreversible progress of the civilized world.”[6] Upon arriving at the campus, students are
called to remember the past triumphs that have led to the prosperity of the
present. In doing so, they also
acknowledge society’s remaining potential and are motivated to learn. Additionally, the “space, light, structure,
and the plastic effects of the masonry...organized to produce a visionary
scale” make the Gothic structure’s size seem larger and grander than it may
actually be.[7] This enormous size can be humiliating to a
new student. As a student at
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details of Gothic architecture carry
an air of importance that makes students actually desire to study in pursuit of
goals.[8] On the left, I have brought a photograph of
Literature also supports the power of Gothic
architecture. In Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons,
Gothic
architecture also encourages students and professors to realistically display
imaginative or controversial ideas.
While the Romans symbolically represented ideas, the Goths left no need
for interpretation.[10] For example, the mosaic of Torcello represents
the purgatorial fire as “a red stream, longitudinally striped like a riband,
descending out of the throne of Christ, and gradually extending itself to
envelop the wicked.”[11] On the other hand, a Goth realistically
depicted the fire with bursting flames pouring from Hades’ gate.[12] With similar examples of directness
surrounding students and professors, they will be less likely to downplay
controversial ideas with metaphors or hypothetical scenarios. Instead, they will be reminded to bring these
symbols to the forefront and engage in heated debates that will test and
strengthen their knowledge and convictions, producing graduates able to
strongly defend their opinions.
Additionally,
Gothic architecture provokes creativity in two ways.
First,
Gothic architecture places an emphasis on creativity through God. Gothic architecture evolved from Romanesque
church architecture.[13] Initially, the chief patron of Gothic architecture
was the Roman Catholic Church.[14] For instance, Notre Dame Cathedral, picture
on the left, is an early example of Gothic architecture. Additionally, Gothic elements have a
religious connotation. For example, the
arch has acquired an association with religious uplift.[15] This idea is seen at
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www.yale.edu/onlinetour |
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This is Notre Dame Cathedral, one of the most famous Gothic structures in the world. http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Notre_Dame_Cathedral.html |
library, pictured on the right, so
closely resembled a church that the school is rumored to have fooled donors
into believing they had built a church with donations. Similarly, in I Am Charlotte Simmons,
Second,
Gothic architecture reflects freedom that produces unique and creative thought. According to Ruskin, “wherever the workman is
utterly enslaved, the parts of the building must of course be absolutely like
each other.”[18] Gothic architecture, however, is
characterized by variation.[19] For example, the pointed arch’s proportions
can be changed in numerous ways, the grouped shaft may be varied in its
groupings and in the resulting proportions, and the tracery allows for endless
changes in the sizes of the bars.[20] Gothic architects clearly are not enslaved by
a particular model. This freedom
encourages students to undertake unique endeavors. By employing different architects to design
different buildings, each building will differ in its features. All of the buildings, however, will be united
under one architectural style. This will
show students that many products can come from the same principle, encouraging different
applications of the knowledge they are learning.
This flexibility also
allows the Gothic architect to design a building for its specific purpose,
making the building itself contribute to the students’ education. Gothic architecture allows the rooms,
windows, common spaces, and height of the building to be unique for the needs
of each construction’s purpose.
Next,
I will discuss the natural aspects of my design.
First, Gothic architecture incorporates nature. Whereas the Greeks and the Romans depicted foliage as unnatural and lifeless clusters, the Gothic architect and sculpture noticed the lack of knowledge and life in the forms.[21] The Goths turned to true leaves and began incorporating more nature into their works.[22] Eventually, this became a common characteristic of the style.[23]
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In
addition to the style of the building, I propose a large garden behind the
structure. This garden would provide a place
for students to relax between classes, as well as a natural environment for
students to complete their studies. The
garden would be orchestrated around the existing trees to combine beauty and
color with the natural landscape.
Incorporating
nature into the campus is beneficial for several reasons. According to John Newman, destroying nature
in construction of the building will leave students with nowhere to relax and
recuperate after hours of serious studying.[24] In a bustling world of noise and distractions,
students must have a retreat from the stress of daily life. In the garden, students will also be able to act
on their childhood tendency of nature-based discovery. I can recall many times that I have strolled
past local parks and seen children digging in the dirt and watching the
birds. They are able to connect all
aspects of nature to form a whole conception.
At the University, students will discover a wide variety of knowledge,
making connecting this knowledge an important task. When they are able to return to their
childhood ability to interact with the entirety of knowledge through nature, they
will hopefully rediscover their ability to form strong connections between
material and experience. With everything
connected, they will remember more, enhancing their education.
Furthermore, the
The garden will
also contain sculptures as a symbol of humility. In comparison to the Greek sculptor who
couldn’t confess his own errors or shortcomings, the Gothic sculptor “believing
that all is finally to work together for good…neither seeks to disguise his own
roughness of work, nor his subject’s roughness of make.”[25] Thus, Gothic sculptors portray both the
virtues and errors of the sculptor and of the subject, leaving the viewer to
form a unique judgment of the sculpture’s situation. In this sense, the Gothic sculptures that
will adorn the gardens surrounding the building will introduce incidents of
daily life and provoke arguments from the students. Being in a place that encourages this type of
thinking will constantly remind students to make objective decisions based on a
situation. By understanding if one part of
the sculpture is left out, the judgment would be different, students will
hopefully begin to see the importance of giving all information when asking
people to make a decision.
Although modern
architecture is often praised for looking into the future, Gothic architecture
gives students a glimpse at the past, humbling them with its size and
representation of human progress. The
inspiring and argumentative characteristics of Gothic architecture give way to
the future, ensuring the University graduates students who have encountered an
array of knowledge and learned to form and defend their own arguments. The nature I have included in my design
promotes necessary relaxation in the face of this great intellectual stress.
Now that I have discussed the architectural style and gardens I will be following, I will briefly describe the specifics of the building. If you choose to support my architectural style, I will further explain the building. I recommend a Gothic building with wide corridors, grand rotundas, a two thousand seat auditorium, nine lecture halls, and thirty classrooms build in three stages, the west, central, and east wings.[26]
I
hope you, the Board of Regents, will find this plan a workable proposal for the
architecture of the future campus of The University of Texas.
Ruskin’s
Impact at the
The
initial forty-acre site of the
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