Sunday, January 16, 2011
Time
If we look at ancient civilizations such as the Aztecs or Mayans who used the sun and moon to dictate much of their design, would one be able to claim that these civilizations were more advanced in the concept of time than we are today? Do designers knowingly use time as a concept or reasoning to the form and functions of a building in today's age? Is the idea of 'time' something designers only discuss or is it really scrutinized when designing a building or planning a city? To what extent should the idea of 'time' affect the design of a building?
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The design of a building has great opportunity to fasten the human experience and time through the cycle of the sun. Through science we understand the sun's position in the creation of calculated time. If we orient our buildings to celebrate it's importance to the human experience and function, are we more attuned to time and timelessness?
ReplyDeleteI think that if we do orient our buildings to celebrate the sun's importance to the human experience and function. When designers do this, then the occupants have more of an awareness of the time of day and the changing of seasons, where as if someone was in a building with no windows, wouldn't that person lose complete track of what time of day it is and the whole concept of time?
ReplyDeleteI do think that some designers use this concept of time to help form their buildings in the addition to the functions. But I feel most times this is unknown to them until the reflection upon it.
With today's technology and the advancement in certain renewable technologies, that designers are becomeing more aware of the sun and its path and this is becoming more integrated into the designs of buildings. From pure evidence, we still do not understand the paths of the sun and moon intertwined into architecture as well as the Aztecs and Mayans, because everything about their cities was planned out based off of some astrological cycle or path.
Today we may be more intuned with the scientific facts and numbers based on these cycles. But I think the ideas why these ancient civilizations did what they did with their buildings and city layouts still eludes us today.
I agree with Jim. The city layouts of these long past cultures still elude us today. It is however hard to say that we are not conscious of the patterns of the sun as we design today. Every building trying to gain one or more of the various environmentally aware certifications has taken the time to figure out what the sun patterns are and how they are going to impact the energy loads on their proposed building and site. The struggle for new buildings exist in the urban fabric that has been created with more influence from economics than the environmental context. Designers that are now more concerned for the environmental context are having to work with what already exist, a grid that doesn't necessarily acknowledge the context.
ReplyDeleteTo say that the Aztecs and the Mayans understanding or concept of time is more advanced that ours is not founded. The average person in the states understands that the sun rises is above your head around the middle of the day, sets at night, and then the moon rises, and when it sets the pattern repeats. one would expect that the people in these civilizations experienced the same phenomenon day in day out. I feel the average person from both of our times are all we can compare. To say that they had a few people that knew way more about the sun patterns than our brightest minds doesn't quite seem fair.
Time should be a grand consideration as we develop the technologies and building systems of the future. What materials will last the longest and embody the least amount of energy. Someone discussing their manifesto explained a building facade that was rebuilt every so many years using the same local materials. These buildings have lasted for generations, with minor improvements. Time is a huge consideration for buildings. The longevity of a material or building system can be the selling point. Buildings are designed to last a certain amount of time. The numbers in years a building should last today are low, but that number has more recently been realized as being too low. A shift has begun in the minds an hearts of designers globally. The realization that we need to design for the future is crucial.
The question is not whether we know more or less about the sun and the moon and their temporal implications than ancient cultures, rather how do we today make solar and lunar qualities a significant influence in the design decisions we make in more ways than just the pragmatic response to environmental control? Have we lost the capacity to write them into the narratives of our lives? Have they really become so one-dimensional for us?
ReplyDeleteI think that there is a lack of integration in today's buildings with the story and notion of time. Even though we are designing to technically enhance building performance with the integration of solar and wind considerations, these are a one-note. There is an inherent disconnect for this modern culture between ourselves and nature. We have surrounded ourselves with the delusion of stuff-culture. Ancient civilizations were operating within the base connections between human and nature. They seemed to be much closer to the narration of themselves. This simple sophistication is perhaps something we've been losing as technology jams its way between us and nature. There must be an active pursuit not only of the technicalities of environmentalism but of the emotive and sensorial texture of story, time and the nature of the human condition. I don't think we've lost the ability, we must just be earnest.
ReplyDeleteI believe that when comparing modernity with the habits and design intents of past cultures like that of the Aztecs or Mayans, one shouldn't ask who had/has a better understanding of the sun, the moon, or even time itself, but rather what does it all mean to each respective culture, or individual project even. A number of works from antiquity have survived today due in part to how they were constructed and what they were built of. The heavy stone that makes up the temples are not the same kind of stones that were used to construct an individual families home, and in that point alone one can begin to realize that there were other factors even in past societies that influenced their architecture beyond their fascination with celestial bodies.
ReplyDeleteIn today's world, yes there has been a considerable amount more attention being shown towards solar conditions for the sake of ecological concerns. This however is far from being a new concept, and all that one has to do is look back to WWII factories and note the windows and orientations of the buildings and how they relate to the sun's movement during a work day. Even cultural habits were adapted back then with the implementation of daylight savings in order to better optimize for the war effort.
It is true that solar orientation has been gaining considerably more attention within this very short recent period of time, but it is a trend that will cycle in and out well into the future. There are many different factors at play when it comes to designing and conceptualizing, and even when it comes to laying out a city. It was noted in a previous comment about the orientation of city grids. Other factors beyond the sun though that influence such things were travel time of the common pedestrian, horse drawn carriage, and later on the automobile. The greatest influence though upon the layout of modern cities since the age of antiquity would have to be water. Whether it is the layout of streets to be perpendicular to the waterfront to allow for the easier movement of goods or the distribution of roads in order to optimize the natural presence of fresh water. These are just a few other factors that have influenced the layout of cities and even the orientation of individual buildings besides the sun and moon. So which is more important though? Efficiency of transportation to minimize continuing carbon costs? Or perhaps providing a lower demand on a potentially over stressed water infrastructure.
Well, I had my train of thought interrupted by a phone call so those of you who managed to read through my nonsense to this point should count your blessings. I was originally planning on typing at least ten times as much as this...
The historic cultures of the Aztec, Inca and Maya of South America were deeply spiritual in their societal organization: Much like the ancient European cultures who worshiped many Gods to smile upon them good fate throughout the year, or the native cultures of North America, the South American peoples didn't view the world through the lens of science in the sense that we do (Microbiology, Physics, Modern Astrology) but they knew how frail they were on this earth and were aware of their mortality on a day to day basis. If a drought or war struck, a substantial percentage of their community was gone. The Aztec made continuous human sacrifices to keep the sun moving. They also created an incredibly exact calendar and yes, oriented some of their buildings in tune to the solar path.
ReplyDeleteModern society, especially those concerned with the solar orientation of their LEED certified multi-million dollar project, do not generally come face to face with mortality on a day to day or even month to month basis. We do not see the world through the same lens as those even 10 years younger / older than us. Because of modernization and technological advances we do not have the same concerns or priorities of cultures past.
It is comparing apples to apples to say that either society is/was more or less in touch with time in their building designs: Designing to please the [gods] or designing to please the [client]. Architectures of now and the past speak to time in designs in different ways, whether through metaphorical intent, placement of spaces and materials, or through simply standing/ adapting to the test of time.
I think it is fair to say we are spiritually less in touch with each other and the world around us now than many cultures past have been... Are integrating the sun, moon, and a sense of time in our designs where we should be focusing our energy to try and reconnect with the earth? Is the greater intent to encourage a spiritual awakening that helps us gain greater understanding of the natural cycle of the universe, a better grip on our own narrative, our mortality, and ideally a deeper respect for each other?
"Have we lost the capacity to write them into the narratives of our lives? Have they really become so one-dimensional for us?"
ReplyDeleteWith the current demands on design utilizing our past references (sun, moon, wind) in a more pragmatic means, it isn't surprising that the more romantic side of Time and narrative gets lost in the scientific fact.
I do believe that currently the design of buildings has lost touch with the connection to our environment. As more and more of our civilization moves toward urban environments do we have the capacity to resurrect a connection to the solar patterns? Today we design our buildings to filter these effects throughout the interior spaces mitigating the suns influence to our workspaces (computer screens). When Corbusier finally designed the world’s first glass façade on the west side of his housing structure, he realized the strength of a sun beating into his apartment through an unprotected modern material- glass. Our closest response today to integrating the pattern of the sun into our lives would be daylight savings. Our day to day activities have migrated more and more to the illusional structure of time we have built for ourselves and so I wonder, is it a conflict between the two or can they both be celebrated?
ReplyDeleteI think that time is one the many filters and can be applied to the architecture and the design. Sometimes the architect doesn't give thought about how his building will look in 100 years. Some of what will happen we don't know. maybe in future our building will be moved or destroyed.
ReplyDeleteBut this idea of time applied to the architecture is a good lens to use.
I don't necessarily believe that the ancient civilizations were more advanced in the concept of time but I would argue that they assigned more hierarchy to its importance. I would guess that current designers, if they are good, would take into account the sun and mood considering light has a profound effect on many designs. Whether or not the importance assign to it today depends on the architect. Overall I would say that the ancient civilizations put more hierarchy on the sun and moon because it was something they had a lot of access too and more than likely had a religious connection to it. Unlike today we have many concepts to consider and assign importance to.
ReplyDeleteThroughout history our conception of time has changed. We haven't lost our knowledge of it, we simply perceive it differently. As our cultures have advanced, we have looked at time in smaller and smaller increments, and I believe this trend will continue into the future. The stock market provides just one example of this progression. In the 1980s the average stock was held for 7 years before it was traded. Presently, the average stock is held for 6 months. This change in scale is a result of how quickly we can exchange ideas. As designers it will become more and more difficult to think about time in long increments, but the sky provides one way to reconnect to time on a larger scale.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this, "I believe that when comparing modernity with the habits and design intents of past cultures like that of the Aztecs or Mayans, one shouldn't ask who had/has a better understanding of the sun, the moon, or even time itself, but rather what does it all mean to each respective culture, or individual project even."
ReplyDeleteOur culture doesn't depend on time as much as a more "primitive" culture would. It's not important for the average person of today to completely understand the moon and sun cycles and how they change with the seasons. It's not necessary to know when to plant and when to harvest - one just needs to know when the grocery store opens and closes.
Things that are essential to survival will drive the civilization to create things based upon it. Cultures such as the Aztecs and Maya may not have had the tools we do today to understand the passage of time or the scientific background to understand why things behave in the manner that they do. But with enough observations, they were able to create systems that became more and more refined estimations of the actual data. The Mayan calendar is slightly more accurate than the Gregorian calendar we use today, for example.
Our architecture reflects things that are important to us. Time comes into play in other ways - we don't spend long amounts of time in hallways, but gather in larger rooms such as living rooms and dining rooms. Many architectural theory books discuss creating winding or longer hallways so that the people traveling in them observe things differently, so we think about time on a smaller scale. We think about saving time and stamina, with efficient, less-effort-for-us things like elevators and revolving doors. We think about planning around the pattern of daily life with rooms for parts of the day - sleeping, cooking, eating, relaxing. This wasn't as common in earlier cultures, with their multi-purpose rooms, or even lack of split-up rooms within a structure. So while we think about time on a smaller scale by planning around the hours, we create more rooms.
Ancient cultures thought about time on a longer scale - Maya and Aztec used the "Long Count" which represented the time since the beginning of the era. They focused on creating patterns which repeated over long spans of time. It makes sense that their buildings reflect a similar ideology where they are not divided up into rooms that work by the hours, but instead as monuments that don't seem to change...it observes the passage of long spans of time...just like they did.
I think that the relationship between time and the sun makes this blog pretty open ended.
ReplyDeleteThe sun is on a schedule and we do indeed knowingly design around the sun. An example of this are photovoltaic panels which depends heavily on the exposure time of UV rays.
Additionally, green spaces in general rely on a strategic design with respect to the sun, and time.
The Mayan and Aztec people were most definitely attuned to atmospheric design and concept, as well as architecturally driven to incorporate inscriptions and story-telling in their structures. Their buildings were not so much structurally sound as they were dedicated to their peoples' belief systems and sacrificial rituals as a clear indication that Mayan and Aztec architecture was not driven by time as longevity but as creating a legacy for the future through story telling.
ReplyDelete