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Nathan Fong. ARCH Cultural Landscapes Assignment Three

Norbert Schoenauer. Cities, Suburbs, Dwellings In the Post War Era.

After the 1950s, an automobile based society meant that a complex infrastructure of limited

access autoroutes had to link large urban agglomerations. Due to its pollution,cars have caused

the death of trees and sick ones. Neglect of land use regulation resulted in negative housing:malls drained the inner city. Malls turned into commercial hubs but inaccessible to pedestrians.

Schools and churches were also drained into the suburbs.Urban renewal meant that highways

divided older communities. Cities became clogged with commuter traffic. Modern buildings

broke the community spirit of the city. Streets were widened trees fell for local high rises,

destroying the community feeling. Liveliness and security in the inner city decreased. Layering

meant shops, restaurants and banks on the first floor while professionals received more light and

quiet on the second floor. This model of mixed use meant less traffic (how?) and proved

successful in Paris.

Henry Glassie. Vernacular Architecture. Buildings, like poems and rituals, realize culture. Theirdesigners rationalize their actions differently. Some design as their ancient peoples way. Others

claim they are universal laws of science. All are created from the smallness of their own

experience. Architects are born into an environment that conditions their notions of comfort and

beauty, body comfort and social propriety. As children we toddle into space, dwell to feel at

home. These first acts deposita core connection in memory: red clay, curls of wood, an orchard

and a shotgun. White painted pine boards call to mind sounds of dogs and old men on

porches.Culture accumulates into a resource of association and gathersorder aesthetically.

Experience widens, memories deepen, Culture complicates through learning. Memories endure

in the strange caves of the brain. Vernacular embodies values that appear alien to the academic

world. Folk implies enmity towards progress in academia. Vernacular strived for diversity

and comprehensiveness in the reality of difference and conflict. Instead of the focus on form and

types of housing, the local people taught him to focus on their values. In Ireland, thatching

rooves were economical, beautiful and functional.The community made connections as they

helped to thatch the roofs. Metal was ugly and heralded the times of social disorder in Ulster and

the untying of the community.

Holl, Rural and Urban House Types in North America.There are two cultures rural and urban.

Typology of houses was arrived at in a posteriori way. For example, a universal belief in equal

rights resulted in expressing individuality in the US.

For Bela Bartok, practice came before theory.Rural houses have the same principles: a recurring

plan, proportion to details; geometry; and ornamentation built from crafts. Urban houses: have a

sense of street or place; a faade, walls, and a relation to the city morphology.These rural houses

are telescopic, plantation and store-front etc