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Symbolism in Architecture

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T J Jokonya

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May 23, 1997, 3:00:00 AM5/23/97

to malvin whang

Hope this is not too dated:
Just on one or two of the points or queries(??)
I don't believe their is a collective unconscious.
Any consciousness(??) sub- un- or actual has to be influenced by
experience, environment, culture, and family.
One example is the front door you spoke of when in many
cultures there is no door as such. And in many others no designation
of front or back as there may be many or only one.
If you are interseted in readings within this area
I find anthropological and archeological writings helpful,
also look for Clifford Geertz. Its important to look at contemporary
writings rather than, pioneering works which while important are now a
little dated and biased.
tj
malvin whang wrote:
>
> this is the second time i am posting this. i have received great
> responses from many different sources. i am hoping that more input can
> be gathered from even a wider variety of people browsing through
> usenet. thanks please take out $ in my address for replies.
>
> i am a grad student at UC Berkeley in architecture. i am doing my
> thesis on the symbolism in architecture, how buildings may speak to the
> collective unconscious through symbolism and how architects may design
> for all people, regardless of culture, gender, socio-economic, etc.
> buildings that speak too all humans through a primoridal language of
> symbols to communicate function, circulation, etc.
>
> when you, as a non-architect, approach a building do you know where the
> front door is? is that because of cultural ideas about the front door,
> ownership of real estate, etc.?
>
> architects have touched upon the idea of symbolism through some writing,

Andrew Little

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May 27, 1997, 3:00:00 AM5/27/97

Malvin...
A study of mice in a maze showed that subsequent generations of mice
solved a maze much faster than unrelated mice. Another study showed that
after mice in North America had solved a particular maze; unrelated mice
in the UK show the ability to solve the identical maze faster.

I have no idea where I heard this, or whether I believe it. Ideas like
this are sometimes heard on "Quirks and Quarks" on CBC radio. Possibly
someone out there can verify.

It's interesting how certain technological advances appear at the same
time at different places on the globe, with no apparent communication
between the discoverers.

I tend to double cross cultural, universal architectural symbolism, but
some fundamental psychological research would be very interesting.
...Andrew

...........................................................
Andrew Little Architect lit...@freenet.calgary.ab.ca
504 1015 Cameron Ave SW
Calgary AB T2T 0K2 (403)244-3256
...........................................................

On Fri, 23 May 1997, T J Jokonya wrote:
> Hope this is not too dated:
> Just on one or two of the points or queries(??)
> I don't believe their is a collective unconscious.
> Any consciousness(??) sub- un- or actual has to be influenced by
> experience, environment, culture, and family.

...snip

> malvin whang wrote:
> >
> > this is the second time i am posting this. i have received great
> > responses from many different sources. i am hoping that more input can
> > be gathered from even a wider variety of people browsing through
> > usenet. thanks please take out $ in my address for replies.
> >
> > i am a grad student at UC Berkeley in architecture. i am doing my
> > thesis on the symbolism in architecture, how buildings may speak to the
> > collective unconscious through symbolism and how architects may design

..snip

IonaDove

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May 28, 1997, 3:00:00 AM5/28/97

The mice story is really about rats and a sciientific experiment conducted
by Dr, Rupert Sheldrake. It is, I believe, quoted in his A NEW SCIENCE OF
LIFE. He conducted the experiment in Edinburgh. As one of Scottish blood
myself, I immediately understood that Scottish rats were intellectually
superior!

IonaDove

J. Alexandre Airosa Alves

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May 29, 1997, 3:00:00 AM5/29/97

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_01BC6C21.F3ADB760
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

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The JOTA 96, is formed by a technical Staff with largest experience in
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Steve Hampton <sham...@king.igs.net> wrote in article
<01bc687f$ddbe41e0$2131...@shampton.king.igs.net>...

>
>
> > > i am a grad student at UC Berkeley in architecture. i am doing my
> > > thesis on the symbolism in architecture, how buildings may speak to
the
> > > collective unconscious through symbolism and how architects may
design

> > > for all people, regardless of culture, gender, socio-economic, etc.
> > > buildings that speak too all humans through a primoridal language of
> > > symbols to communicate function, circulation, etc.
>
>
>

> Try "The Art & Architecture of Freemasonry"
>
------=_NextPart_000_01BC6C21.F3ADB760
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<html><head></head><BODY bgcolor=3D"#FFFFFF">Please let us to introduce our =
company: JOTA 96, has as principal activity, the Mechanical =
Projects of Special Thermal Installations (ventilation, air conditioning =
and heating systems). The JOTA 96, is formed by a technical Staff =
with largest experience in Projects and Operations in buildings. This =
Section is in charge of Engineers Joaquim Airosa Alves and Jos=E9 Pires =
da Costa, graduated by Minho University in Energetic System. We are =
very interest in  work with other companies that need our =
services. Please, if you want to know better our servive please =
contact. Airosa Alves jot...@mail.telepac.pt http://www.jota96.pt Steve Hampton <sham...@king.igs.net> wrote in article <01bc687f$ddbe41e0$2131...@shampton.king.igs.net=
>... > > > > > i am =
 a grad student at UC Berkeley in architecture.  i am doing =
my > > > thesis on the symbolism in architecture, how =
buildings may speak to the > > > collective unconscious =
through symbolism and how architects may design > > > for =
all people, regardless of culture, gender, socio-economic, etc. > =
> > buildings that speak too all humans through a primoridal =
language of > > > symbols to communicate function, =
circulation, etc. > > > > Try =
  "The Art & Architecture of =
Freemasonry" > 
</body></html>
------=_NextPart_000_01BC6C21.F3ADB760--

Kevin Willmorth

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Jun 3, 1997, 3:00:00 AM6/3/97

Andrew Little wrote:
>
> Malvin...
> A study of mice in a maze showed that subsequent generations of mice
> solved a maze much faster than unrelated mice. Another study showed that
> after mice in North America had solved a particular maze; unrelated mice
> in the UK show the ability to solve the identical maze faster.
>
> I have no idea where I heard this, or whether I believe it. Ideas like
> this are sometimes heard on "Quirks and Quarks" on CBC radio. Possibly
> someone out there can verify.
>
> It's interesting how certain technological advances appear at the same
> time at different places on the globe, with no apparent communication
> between the discoverers.

I thought that was intriguing too, untill we did some actual research on
the subject and found that it doesn;t happen at all the way it might
appear in hindsight.

For example, the industrial revolution supposedly occured globaly around
the 1910's. Seemed the whole earth changed from agrarian to
industrialised nations in a decade or so.

Reality is, the industrial revolution started with the mechanisation of
materials for cloth making in the late 17th century, in England. This,
coupled with an earlier occurance of shipping trade, creating a demand
marger than local economies could provide, created the birth of
industrialization. Europe first, then Asia, where shipping was a big
deal. The U.S. was a later commer, in the early 19th century with the
cotton gyn (sp) and other goodies. Some countries still have not evolved
from aggrarian yet, like middle China, Africa, Central America,
Indonesia, they are starting now, in the late 20th century. That's 300
years of evolution. One thing feeding into another, leading to another.

The first computers were mechanical devices, driven by steam, in the
late 18th century, then to electro switches, then tube systems, then
transister based, then finally micro processors. The whole concept took
over 300 years to evolve to its current state.

We tend to mark revolutions at some point in time that keystone or
iconize a particular activity or idea, generally at a point when it is
recognizable and impacting a large segment of the population. This makes
things look somewhat sequential and spontaneous, but the reality is,
those points in time are the culmination of many many years of
activities, often not even related, that crash into one another at some
point making all the components appear to be part of a larger
hommogeneous idea, that spontaneously arose from the mist. In reality
it's just a quirk in the way we look at history.

Another example was in nuclear weapons development. It struggled to
create fissionable materials for several years toward the end of the
first big experiments. Meanwhile an interior designer was developing new
broad cloth looming processes to create super-fine fabrics. When that
technology was used to develop ultra fine screening for seperation of
materials, the whole weopons business was able to get on with its work.
Two unrelated activities, one large revolutionary step in science.

Manned flight took about 900 years from the first ideas to eventual lift
off of real aircraft with power. Automobiles evolved over a period of
about 150 years in several countries at different times, many giving up,
others forging ahead, then the internal combustion era was born, from
the top of water wells (first IC engine use), buring a waste product of
the petroleum industry, forged in plants using equipment used to build
steam locomotive components.

The interactions that create a given outcome are what we might consider
the "spontenaity" (sp) or sudden ideas, but are nothing more than a
point in time when several desperate ideas end up in one pot, creating
something completely new, that floods the globe at once, as each segment
is able to integrate several other components to duplicate the
accomplishment rapidly. No single idea and all its related components
can really be traced to a singular global apifany.

I was really disapointed actually, having written a whole novel based on
the idea that ideas seemed to combust arounf the world. In the effort of
trying to prove it and include some fact in the fiction, I ended up
killing off a really fun story.... so goes life I guess.

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