Between Earth and Sky

dc.contributor.authorWunder, Stevenen
dc.contributor.committeechairSchnoedt, Heinrichen
dc.contributor.committeememberGreenwood, Jane Britten
dc.contributor.committeememberWeiner, Frank H.en
dc.contributor.departmentArchitectureen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:51:36Zen
dc.date.adate1998-05-07en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:51:36Zen
dc.date.issued1998-06-28en
dc.date.rdate1998-05-07en
dc.date.sdate1998-06-28en
dc.description.abstractArchitecture lies in the relationship between material and structure, in particular the poetic of constructed form. By poetic, I am referring to, as Kenneth Frampton put it, "the original Greek sense of poesis as an act of making and revealing." Through the dialogue of constructive elements, materials, the making of form and the resolution of structural forces, beauty and meaning arise. "Tectonics" is defined as "pertaining to building or construction in general" especially in reference to architecture. Gottfried Semper went further to use tectonic to define the qualities of making inherent in the constructed act. He broke down types of construction into that of using elements for a framework, such as wood frame construction, and that of using compressive mass to build an enclosure, such as block or stone work. The qualities of these he called "tectonics" and "stereotomics," respectively. Frampton discusses the ontological consequences of these differences: "framework tends towards the aerial and dematerialization of mass, whereas the mass form is telluric, embedding itself deeper in the earth. One tends toward the light and the other toward dark. These gravitational opposites . . . may be said to symbolise the two cosmological opposites to which they aspire; the sky and the earth." Human existence finds itself at the juncture between these opposites. Semper regarded the joint as "the primordial tectonic element" around which all building defines itself. Then in a sense architecture embodies the fundamental way man perceives his existence.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Architectureen
dc.format.extentiv, 28 pagesen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.otheretd-4598-122724en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-4598-122724/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/36728en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartetd.pdfen
dc.relation.isformatofOCLC# 40108028en
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subject.lccLD5655.V855 1994.W863en
dc.titleBetween Earth and Skyen
dc.typeThesisen
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
thesis.degree.disciplineArchitectureen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Architectureen

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