buildings: reading, writing, interpreting

Vitruvius, via Barnet, urges us to consider three aspects of buildings:

1. function or utility
2. firmness or structural soundness
3. beauty or design

So far, so good.  Barnet also offers suggestions about how an essay about a building might be organized and the sorts of topics (e.g. color, light, materials, etc.) that might be discussed.  I'm all in favor of good writing and I'm convinced that Barnet's advise about how to "read" a building is likely to help us do this well.  Nonetheless, there are two other aspects of a building that I'm interested in, but which are not central to this chapter: symbolic meaning and community.

In his discussion, he offers examples that point to the symbolic function of buildings, or to their meaning, which is related to but not quite the same thing as their function.  Of course some buildings are intended to make a statement, while others just do so because human beings are seekers of meaning and we will make meaning out of whatever materials are available.

While these three factors all assume human action in design, construction, and use, the people who use the building are not Barnet's primary concern.  Some buildings are no longer in ordinary use, but most buildings were constructed with the expectation that they would be used.  I"m curious about how our reading of a building might also contribute to our understanding of the communities that use them.  More specifically, could we use the same three foci to consider a community?

1.  What is the community's reason for being?  What is its purpose?
2. How sound is its structure, organization, and institutions?
3. What beauty or delight does the community generate?  What good does it offer?

All of this calls to mind the work of St. Olaf faculty member Mary Griep.  In her current body of work,
ANASTYLOSIS PROJECT, she re-presents 12th century sacred buildings from around the world.  Rather than writing about them, she constructs scale drawings that also incorporate techniques such as collage.   Of course she can not include an American building in this project, nonetheless, her work provides an inspiring example of paying close attention to the details as well as to the whole.  Each drawing highlights the beauty of the building and suggests its meaning.