An
architectural history of metaphors(c)
(The
partial history of metaphors in selected periods of architecture)
Barie
Fez-Barringten
1011 La
Paloma Blvd.
North Fort
Myers, Florida-33903
USA
bariefezbarringten@gmail.com
www.bariefez-barringten.com
A version of this monograph was published in:"Architecture:the making of metaphors”: by
Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2011.My editor is Edward Hart of Glasgow.
and
and
“An architectural history of metaphors”:
©AI & Society:
(Journal of human-centered and machine intelligence) Journal of Knowledge,
Culture and Communication: Pub: Springer; London; AI & Society located in
University of Brighton, UK;
AI & Society. ISSN (Print)
1435-5655 - ISSN (Online) 0951-5666 : Published
by Springer-Verlag;; 6 May 2010 http://www.springerlink.com/content/j2632623064r5ljk/
Paper copy: AIS Vol. 26.1. Feb. 2011; Online ISSN 1435-5655; Print ISSN
0951-5666;
DOI
10.1007/s00146-010-0280-8; : Volume 26, Issue 1 (2011), Page 103
Abstract
This paper presents a review and an
historical perspective on the architectural metaphor. It identifies common
characteristics and peculiarities - as they apply to given historical periods –
and analyses the similarities and divergences. The review provides a vocabulary
which will facilitate an appreciation of existing and new metaphors.
Keywords: metaphor, architecture,
art, traditional or classical art, ancient prehistoric, modern and
contemporary architecture
Introduction:
History
is a metaphor of time, space and realities segmented into subjects and themes.
The history of metaphors in periods of architecture is one such reality.
Thucydides said: “History is philosophy teaching by example” (Strassler, R. B
(1942) and Santayana said: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to
repeat it” (Santayana (1988). While so many important people have given their
views on history, it is still a vehicle for communicating metaphors because
each of these metaphors encapsulates and recalls the commonplace and artifacts
of its time.
On the
other hand, to modern art and architecture professionals, history is
purposefully ignored in favor of new, innovative and contemporary expressions.
Furthermore, while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, aesthetics is one of
the commonplaces of metaphor. It is personally and culturally of its time and
place but also has some relevance and utility to future generations. In a
sense, historians are cultural “voyeurs” and they actively seek to compare their
own metaphors with others. Do they do so in the belief they will find a yet
undiscovered metaphor in the past which will give them a clue for the future?
Or do they do it in order to clarify the metaphor of their own time? In either
case, metaphorically, they are “carrying-over” and “transferring” from one time
to another by the very act of making metaphors. As many study the Old Testament
to find its law, so historians study history in search of truths: in this case
metaphors and design. As architecture is the process of making of metaphors,
correspondingly each period in history is marked by its own particular
contributions.
Contemporary
architecture is more about unseen and implicit metaphors, where the metaphor is
between elements and factors of program, building technology and social
context. It is more the essence of the architecture; the making of metaphors
than that overview of the apparent historical evidence of these metaphors.
In his
introduction to Robert Venturi's, Complexity and Contradiction, Vincent
Scully observed that 1966 represented an absolute break with pluralism and
initiated the development of what he termed “cataclysmic planning principles”.
In one lecture he observed that contemporary planners and architects had
embraced the idea of destroying the past for the sake of the future. Whilst
eminent domain and commercial interests often result in benefits for the
public, they often do so at a price which neither the public nor the owners can
sustain. By removing and replacing one structure with another, the encapsulated
referent of the past in one context is lost forever. It is arguable that urban
planning which accommodates free enterprise and a role for quasi-government
landmark commissions is more productive in delivering financial viability and
protecting the public good. Since Scully’s statement, such commissions have
flourished and been successful, in one sense referring to the replacement of
landmarks with new buildings and in another with the hegemony of today’s
principles over those of yesterday.
In
psychology, “appreciation” is a general term for those mental processes whereby
an experience is brought into relation with an already acquired and familiar
conceptual system. The metaphoric works were as sensational as the edifices of
the world’s affairs, as monuments were to society’s triumph over evil, nature
and adversity. However, in each period there are exceptions, such as merchant’s
buildings that stood above mass housing; mass housing never nearly replicated
the public buildings. It isn't until later when mass housing, even in Greece
and Rome, replicated scaled-down versions of Greek and Roman temples and the
applied stucco decoration, rendering and false roofs of city townhouses
emulated classic mansions. Even today’s plethora of global subdivision housing
and New England “salt shaker” houses emulated the metaphors of the classic
(Egyptian, Greek and Roman) ideals.
The commonplace to any
one of most of history’s metaphors is the commonplace of the metaphor of them
all; their collective metaphor; the metaphor they all have in common. That is,
that by knowing one you know the others; that one speaks in terms of the other
and that anyone or the collective make the strange familiar.
That is to say: the
example of their commonplaces is turf (area of influence), identity,
security, status, power, protection, shelter and religious purpose and
use (such as rituals, teaching and networking). These commonplaces transfer
from one to the other period in history and represent the collective
commonplace of the history of all metaphors in different periods of
architecture. In any case, “Metaphors simply impart their commonplaces” (Boyd,
R (1993).
Whether central or
decentralized, publicly perceived architectural metaphors are all about names,
titles, and the access the work provides for the reader to learn and develop.
They also symbolize the trade and value of its owner, users and society. In
free- enterprise democratic societies where central government allows for
sovereign citizens to contract, own land and build, there is a rush for them to
emulate historical models to build identity, security, and status into the
ideals of their metaphors. At its best the vocabulary of the parts and whole of
the metaphoric work (building or work of architecture) is an encyclopedia and
cultural building block. The work incorporates (is imbued with) the current
state of man’s culture and society, which is like an “open book” for the
reader. The freedom of both the creator and reader to dub and show is all part
of the learning experience of the metaphor (Kuhn, T. S (1993). In the
metaphoric period of the ‘60s, I coined the term “Pop Arch” to describe the
phenomenon of “popular architecture”.
 |
| Fontainebleau chateau |
“There is not only a
past; there is also a future. No art- and certainly no architecture- is
produced without some awareness of the future. This takes many guises. There is
first the plan of the work to be accomplished and the function to perform. Is
the object a church, a school, a pavilion, a cage, a roadway, a city?”(Weiss,
P. (1971).
 |
| The U.S. Gold Bullion Depository Fort Knox |
| Vauban Fortress |
| Governor's Palace in Williamsburg |
In fact
we can see a relationship between the metaphors of a period in the abstract
quality of an ancient pyramid juxtaposed with contemporary geometric building
designs.
The dimension of the
technical metaphor remarkably subdivides periods but none changed the paradigm
as the indoor and stacked plumbing, structural iron and steel, elevators, electricity
and mechanical heating and air-conditioning.
Ancient
and prehistoric architecture is remembered for its caves and hieroglyphics
while the creation and use of metaphors in architecture can be traced back to
places like Tel Turlu in present-day Syria. Most early human shelters either
took the form of a cave, or as evinced by settlements in the Near East, which
date from 4300BC to 1100BC, the form of mandala-shaped ground excavations. The
word ‘mandala’ means a circle in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India. It
represents wholeness and can be seen as a model for the organizational
structure of life itself- a cosmic diagram. For some the metaphor connects to
earth energies and the wisdom of nature and for others as a device to capture
the images of the countless demons and gods (Gardiner, S. (1974). NOTE: The Romans also had the idea of a Celestial Templum.
These
are metaphors, in that they have two referents which liken themselves to each
other and claim a commonplace. The very fact that mandalas are drawn in the
form of a circle, can lead us to an experience of wholeness when we take time
to make them and then wonder what they mean. In the strict use of the mandala,
there is a central point or focus within the symbol from which radiates a
symmetrical design. This suggests that there is a center within each one of us
to which everything is related, by which everything is ordered, and which is
itself a source of energy and power.
| Mandala |
One can only surmise
from the evidence and findings that, for example, one cave housed a collective
tribe and within there were some who hovered together to secure for themselves
one personal space (turf) (Brown, D. (1991). To be claimed, perhaps this place
in the cave had to be identified, secured and addressed. Continuing the
example, when this same group went and found its own cave, as did so many
others, they may also need to be identified, secured and defended. Each time a
metaphor talks about one thing (the tribe) in terms of another (the sign, the
contour or location of the cave). Roaming away from the cave to the prairies,
rivers and lakes, they dug holes in the ground to copy and “dub” the cave in
the ground, they made metaphors of their cave and the mandalas. Each time
something they can do with their hands (techne’) and their thoughts (concept);
both the primary constituents of metaphor (Gordon, W. J. J. (1971).
The
vertical side of the ground replaced the cave’s walls. They considered new
concepts as being characterized in terms of old ones (plus logical conjunctives)
by the circular mandala form; the metaphor-building clarified their location,
status and value. Virtually every known spiritual and religious system asserts
the reality of such an inner center (Pylyshyn, Z. W, (1993). “The Romans
worshiped it as the genius within. The Greeks called it the inner daemon (a
subordinate deity, as the genius of a place or a person's attendant spirit).
Christian religions speak about the soul and the Christ within. In psychology
they speak of the higher self” (Lakoff, G. (1993).
 |
| Çatalhöyük Hose: Syria |
 |
| The Vitruvian Man Leonardo da Vinci |
It is dramatically
represented by DaVinci's Vitruvian man who is based on the correlations of
ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect
Vitruvius (Lakoff, G. (1993).
| Empire |
The two
referents of the metaphor are the geometrical proportions of the ideal human
figure with scale as the commonplace. As the human figure is to the space so is
the volume (height, width and depth) of the space. A huge volume would dwarf
the figure while a small volume could exaggerate the size of the man. Both
classical and contemporary design takes advantage of scale as a design tool and
itself the apparent metaphor.
In
Ancient Egypt the symbolic pyramids, pottery, and large scale temples gave the
Napoleonic period its “Empire” styles and later still the “Biedermeier”
furniture style. Metaphorically, the pyramids are a mystery as we can see the
referent of the current context; but historians cannot absolutely finalize the
other referent of the metaphor. “The founding and ordering of the city and her
most important buildings (the palace or temple) were often executed by priests
or even the ruler himself and the construction was accompanied by rituals
intended to enter human activity into continued divine benediction”
(Copplestone, T. (1963).
Contrast
this metaphor to contemporary metaphors involving, for examples, Fortune 500
corporate images, a new town or a real estate development, commercial retail
chains (i.e. McDonald's , and public housing or public works projects. The
Egyptian example kept tight control on the overt conceptual metaphor and used
the building as a state instrument.
Often
these are dubbed onto the culture to invest with a name, character, dignity,
title, or style (Kuhn, T. S (1993). Metaphors are often signs and monuments to
spiritual beings in an effort to say ‘as they, so are we’; or “as we, so are
they”. In 21st century democracies, or would-be democracies, such divination
reminds people to distrust metaphors and metaphoric thinking, supposing they
allude to un-popular metaphors of religiosity, anarchy and despotism. Wishing
not to recall the oppression under Turkish occupation, the kingdom of Saudi
Arabia does not maintain the buildings built during that time. In a similar
respect, present-day Germany and Italy are often ambivalent about what to do
with the architectural vestiges of National Socialism and Fascism.
As
noted earlier, contemporary architecture is more about the unseen and implicit
metaphors where the metaphor is between elements and factors of program,
building technology and social context; it is less about the gestalt and more
about its component parts. It is more the essence of architecture; the making
of metaphors than that overview of the apparent historical metaphor. Yet,
today, in synthetic urbanisms, metaphors attract and provide scenarios of
metaphoric lifestyles providing all the mainstay commonplaces. Ancient
architecture was characterized by the tension between the divine and mortal
world, even cities, where metaphor markings contained sacred space over the
outside wilderness of nature. The temple or palace continued this role by
acting as a house for the gods.
Of
these the most famous was the first city of Babylon (Baghdad) built around 600
B.C. in Lower Mesopotamia in the Neo-Syrian Empire. In it was one of the Seven
Wonders of the World: the hanging gardens of Babylon and the famous Ziggurat
which were the focal and spiritual centers of the city. It was amongst
the first urbanizations where urbanizations occurred between 4000 and 3500 BC
(Sundell, G.
(1988) The City of Baghdad was the first city where
its citizens surrendered (primary
definition of Islam) their rights to a “straight easement” to create straight
streets off the walled houses and properties (Hakim, B. (1958). If ever a city
had a metaphoric commonplace it was to be found in the “straight street”.
Perhaps, this is the first sign of a city when its citizens surrender their
rights of space and yield right of ways and easements so that the whole may
function (Akbar, J. A. (1988). The oldest civilization we know is the Sumer -
located in the far south of present-day Iraq. Around 6,000 years ago, the
Sumerians built the world's first city - Uruk – and thus introduced urban
civilization to the world.
(1988) The City of Baghdad was the first city where
It is
at the confluence of the two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates at the site
of what was the Fertile Crescent and is now the present-day location of Basra.
It was urban because it had infrastructure which included water,
sewers, roads and law and order. Metaphorically, the city was a reification of
authority and consensus, represented by the widespread use of “seals” which
point to a rudimentary form of government (Schmidt, J. (1964).
 |
| Gilgamesh |
 |
| City of Sumer |
It is
thought that the expansion was driven by the necessity for raw materials such
as base metals, timber, common stone and oils; as well as exotic goods such as
rare metals, semi-precious and precious stones, of which none was to be found
in the alluvial plains of the south.
The
necessity of these essential goods led the Uruk culture to establish a number
of urban communities along the lines of older trade routes attained by either
tribute to local rulers, small foraging insurgencies and plundering, or more
commonly by reciprocating with labor intensive processed and semi-processed
goods. It produced the metaphor of pomp, pageantry and ostentatious wealth. As
many later cities built trade crossroads, so the city itself was a metaphor of
those commonalities and differences it accommodated (Jeziorski, M. (1993). More
often than not designers were influenced by the existence of similar types than
to re-invent themselves from scratch. Like a dance they emulated one another.
“The architect, be he priest or king, was not
the sole important figure; he was merely part of a continuing tradition”
(Hitchcock, H-P. (1958). Indeed, these master builders made the kind of
metaphors that communicated overtly and left no doubt as to their intent or
meanings. The Egyptian pyramids were early examples of implicit metaphors where
all the metaphors were not for the public but for the gods. They were meant to
communicate but not to the general public. Most were built as tombs for the
country's pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom
periods. As such they were built far away from population centers.
 |
| The largest of the Pyramids at Giza is the "Great Pyramid" |
In
geometry, one form of pyramid is a polyhedron formed by connecting a polygonal
base and a point, called the apex. The pyramid is an elegant metaphor where
each base edge and apex forms a triangle. It is a conic solid with a polygonal
base. The other, a tetrahedron has a three rather than the four side base
(Nuttgens, Patrick (1983). The pyramids are claimed to have many
"secrets;" that they are models of the earth, that they form part of
an enormous star chart, that their shafts are aligned with certain stars, that
they are part of pare of a navigational system to help travelers in the desert
find their way, and on and on. The mystery of the referent is exaggerated
because it is out of our current context and its referent is unknown. The Great
Pyramid is said to contain the metaphor of the “Golden Ratio”. Buckminster
Fuller extended the geometry of the triangle to form the geodesic dome, which
he later explained derives a universal structure seen in the stars (Fuller, R.
B. (1975). The metaphor of the pyramid’s technology depended on nature but was
conditioned by the mechanics of pulleys, cable and the invention of the wheel.
Architectural
metaphors are composed of both conceptual and technical metaphors as {1} art
involves a craft. Little known to historians is that much of the Egyptian
temple architecture (post and lintel) was derived from the “up-river” Sudan.
This exemplifies that although much of our conceptual system is metaphorical; a
significant part of it is non-metaphorical.
“Metaphorical
understanding is grounded in non-metaphorical understanding” (Lakoff, G.
(1993). Our primary experiences grounded in the laws of physics of gravity,
plasticity, liquids, winds, sunlight, etc. all contribute to our metaphorical
understanding where the conceptual commonality accepts the strange.
 |
| Mesoamerican architecture |
Mesoamerican
architecture is mostly noted for its pyramids which are the largest such
structures outside of Ancient Egypt” (Bannister, F. (1996). They are not unlike
the Greek or Roman cities formed on a single spine off which are symmetrically
placed buildings such as temples, markets, baths, halls and ball courts. Over
time and changing periods, like many of the temples in Europe, they were built
over each other and when excavated one can uncover layers of periods of older
temples buried beneath; most notably in Split, in Croatia, where in one
building the layers of time are accessible to the public and can be seen from
outside as well as by climbing down to the lowest level.
A
German ethnologist, Paul Kirchhoff, defined the Mesoamerican zone as a culture
area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by
millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction (Kirchhoff, P. (1963).These
included sedentarism, agriculture (specifically a reliance on the cultivation
of maize), the use of two different calendars (a 260 day ritual calendar and a
365 day calendar based on the solar year), a base 20 (vigesimal) number system,
pictographic and hieroglyphic writing systems, the practice of various forms of
sacrifice, and a complex of shared ideological concepts; intriguing way that
this Greek for middle became the metaphor for the combined culture and its
unique commonplace (Carrasco, P. (2008).
The
Saudi Arabians use the Hydra calendar, which subdivides 12 months into 30 day
intervals and is annually adjusted by the appearance of the moon. What is most
striking throughout Saudi Arabia is the way city grids are oriented toward
Mecca. And if they were not the qiblah and its minbar of the mosque is
built off the grid of its context to face the Kaaba in Mecca. There are many
other details of Saudi Arabian architecture which provides insights into the
way many of the ancient metaphors were designed.
For
western culture the period of ancient Greece resonates till today. Both the
Greeks and the Roman metaphors were based on their orders of architecture
including their metaphoric columns, entablatures, statues and sculptures
(Bannister, F. (1996). Each of these referred to something else; the column was
the tree and capitals defined one from the other order (Doric, Ionic, and
Corinthian), and the entablatures contained depictions of their deities and
heroes. The architecture and urbanism of the Greeks and Romans were very
different from those of the Egyptians or Persians in that civic life gained
importance. During the time of the ancients, religious matters were the domain
of the ruling order alone; by the time of the Greeks, religious mystery had
skipped the confines of the temple-palace compounds and was the subject of the
people or “polis”. The conceptual metaphor embodied Greek civic life
sustained by new, open spaces called the “agora” which were surrounded
by public buildings, stores and temples.
The “agora” embodied
the new found respect for social justice received through open debate rather
than imperial mandate. “Though divine wisdom still presided over human affairs,
the living rituals of ancient civilizations had become inscribed in space, in
the paths that wound towards the acropolis for example. Each place had
its own nature, set within a world refracted through myth, thus temples were
sited atop mountains all the better to touch the heavens” (Bannister, F.
(1996).
 |
| Greek Orders of Architecture |
These
were “analogical transfers”, where instructive metaphors created an analogy
between a to-be-learned- system (target domain) and a familiar systems
(metaphoric domain) (Mayer, R. E, (1993). Later, not unlike classical Gothic,
modern architecture likened to express the truth about the building systems, materials,
open lifestyles, use of light and air and bringing nature into the buildings
environment. Modern architecture went a step further, ridding buildings of the
irrelevant and time worn clichés of building design decoration, and traditional
principles of classical architecture as, for example, professed by the Beaux
Artes movement.
In
modern and Eastern architecture the equipoise achieved by the axiom of “unity,
symmetry and balance” was replaced by “asymmetrical tensional relationships”
between “dominant, subdominant and tertiary” forms, and the influence of
science and engineering on architectural design gave rise to new design
metaphors. The Bauhaus found the metaphor in all the arts, the commonalities in
designing architecture, jewelry, furniture and clothes.
One way
to look at the metaphoric unity of Roman architecture is through a new-found
realization of theory derived from practice and embodied spatially. Civically
this is found happening in the Roman forum (sibling of the Greek agora), where
public participation is increasingly removed from the concrete performance of
rituals and represented in the decor of the architecture. Thus we finally see
the beginnings of the contemporary public square in the Forum Iulium, begun by
Julius Caesar, where the buildings present themselves through their facades as
representations within the space.
As the
Romans chose representations (metaphors) of sanctity over actual sacred spaces
to participate in society, so the communicative nature of space was opened to
human manipulation. None of which would
have been possible without the advances of Roman engineering and construction
or the newly found marble quarries which were the spoils of war; inventions
like the arch and concrete gave a whole new form to Roman architecture, fluidly
enclosing space in taut domes and colonnades, clothing the grounds for imperial
rule and civic order. An unintended consequence was a model for social concerns
and accommodations (public baths, toilets, markets, parks, recreation areas, crafts,
etc.).
The
Romans widely employed, and further developed the arch, vault and dome. Their
innovative use of concrete facilitated the construction of the many public
buildings of often unprecedented size throughout the empire. These include
temples, baths, bridges, aqueducts, harbors, triumphal arches, amphitheaters
circuses, palaces, mausolea and in the late empire, also churches (Bannister,
F. (1996).
Through
the metaphors of law and order, civic pride led to architectural
simplifications of the structure keeping the treasure hidden but exemplifying
the metaphor of the government in its “order” of architecture as metaphor for
the government’s civic order. As the government did, so the architecture exuded
technical and conceptual metaphorical forms of unity, symmetry and balance. As
the Egyptians did, so the Greeks and the Romans built monuments as sign-
metaphors to publicly express consensus toward gods, persons and events.
Temples were built to house the gods such as Venus and Apollo as well as the courts
of justice and senate (Bannister, F. (1996). The architecture metaphors
were the representation residue of the consensus and righteousness of society.
Elsewhere,
“India’s urban civilization is traceable to Mohenjodaro and Harappa, now in
Pakistan. Over a period of time, ancient Indian art of construction blended
with Greek styles and spread to Central Asia. India’s metaphors are their
distinctive design of temples and colorful Hindu art which incorporated
statues, appliqués, pilasters and columns of the many aspects of their deities
including Rama, Saraswati, Hanuman, Ganesha, Devi, and many others
(Copplestone, T. (1963). They were both metaphor of their contextual consensus
while being analogies of their foreign political, social and commercial alliances.
 |
| Chinese Pagodas |
The
ancient Japanese architecture is best exemplified by the metaphoric Japanese
tea house, where bamboo and paper walls remain Japan’s metaphoric cultural
legacy. “Two new forms of architecture were developed in medieval Japan in
response to the militaristic climate of the times: the castle, a defensive
structure built to house a feudal lord and his soldiers in times of trouble;
and the shoin, a reception hall and private study area designed to
reflect the relationships of lord and vassal within a feudal society” (Ching,
F. (2006). Most notably is the Japanese tea house which is “place” but not
“function” oriented. Any function can occur in any area and areas may or may
not be separated by sliding paper partitions. Operations and circulation
metaphor is to the context of the designed landscape which is the architect’s
version of a kind of paradise. Western architecture’s sighting of castles,
estates and private residences learns from this metaphor relating family
occupants to context concerned with topography, surrounds, winds, sun-rise and
sunset and other bio-climatic factors. In the background was origami (the art
of folding paper) which has recently been adapted by mathematicians to design
buildings, sculptures, and furniture made part of the (conditions, operations,
ideals and goals) program. Such systems potentially can result in such
buildings as recently designed for the Emirates (Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi),
Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
Islamic
architecture: Bedouins are nomadic and tent
design and layouts are concerned with the environment of the desert and arrayed
with the tribal metaphors emblems, colors, banners and carpets (Fez-Barringten,
B.(1993). “Each color and combination of colors is distinctive to the family
and “turf” of the tribe. Some distinctive structures in Islamic architecture
are mosques, tombs, palaces and forts, although Islamic architects have, of
course, also applied their distinctive design precepts to domestic
architecture.” Like the retail mall of today the Arabian souks each has
metaphors of their culture, craft and artistic technology. The architecture of
the Arabian souk emulates the Bedouin tents and makeshift gathering of traders.
Arab homes are surrounded by walls and windows clad with mashrabia for
privacy particularly for the family and its women. There is a separate area of
the home for the family and the visitor with separate entrances.
Most
so-called Arab architecture is exemplified by asymmetrical placements of window
opening and decoration. The metaphor of ambulatories and public passages is a
history of surrender and intervention between neighbors and tribes as they
collected in cities like Babylon.
In the 1960s, Frei Otto designed the stadiums
for Munich Olympics using canvas and cables on a mammoth scale based on the
tent cable system developed by the Arabs. Much of this asymmetry is recalled in
both European and Turkish fortresses.
In the 1960s, Frei Otto designed the stadiums
for Munich Olympics using canvas and cables on a mammoth scale based on the
tent cable system developed by the Arabs. Much of this asymmetry is recalled in
both European and Turkish fortresses.
Africa’s
architectural technical legacy is its post and lintel construction where
horizontal, diagonal and vertical elements are attached at their intersecting
joints with hemp forming the outlines of what was later transferred down the
Nile (the northern section of the river flows almost entirely through desert,
from Sudan into Egypt) to Egypt to be the technological metaphor for Egyptian
palaces. These were transferred by the Sudanese to Egypt along with abundant
labor, wood and colorful pigment to decorate the buildings. These tied joints
were later reflected in the capitals and brackets of Greek architecture.
Medieval
architecture was dominated by palaces and castles surrounded by walls where the
court lived within and the serfs lived outside. The serfs’ houses were mud,
thatch and timber copies of the castles technology as poor subordinate -human
relations to those inside the wall. This metaphor was inherited from earliest
Egypt and lasted till their French Revolution (even to big New World cities
like New Amsterdam). The metaphoric-castle vocabulary of the times designed the
great halls, plates to eat off (since they were made of metal or“plate”), and
furniture which were not movable.
It is
the Renaissance where Europeans finally developed movables (moebles).The
medieval world had few movables aside from trunks which housed their belongings
as they had to be ready when raided to escape in an instant. So they sat on the
cases and soon these evolved into furniture with legs and arms, etc. All of
these had metaphoric decorations of animals and natural pallets and trees.
In
France during the so-called Gothic period, technologically the fly buttress and
use of the point rather than the vaulted arch revolutionize large spans and
building design. When considering building rather than tents the Indian,
Persian and Arabians also adopted this analogous pointed arch motif. For
politico-religious reasons (i.e. the Crusades) like the prohibition against the
sign of the cross, the Roman vaulted domes were also banned. The cathedral in
Chartres and Notre Dame in Paris exemplified this technology. Most famous was
the “flying buttress” used to transmit the horizontal force of a vaulted
ceiling through the walls and across an intervening space to a counterweight
outside the building. As a result, the buttress seemingly flies through the
air, and hence is known as a "flying" buttress. Thus the pointed arch
(the thrust of the supports crossed each other at the apex) and the long spans
within gave Gothic architecture its distinctive metaphoric image. 
Renaissance
architecture was all based on the rediscovery of Roman ruins and the revival of
ancient literature which brought both an intellectual, political and artistic
rebirth to all of Europe. Starting in Florence and other Italian city states,
it later spread via France to the whole of Europe. Perspective drawing and
other artistic devices flourished including building, furniture and household
decorative items.
Metaphorical
new representations of the horizon, evidenced in the expanses of space opened
up in Renaissance painting, helped shape new humanist thought (Nuttgens,
Patrick (1983) and the way buildings were conceived and designed.
 |
| Versailles:Baroque architecture |
Queen
Maria Theresa of Austria grasped both the implicit and explicit metaphor and
commissioned her palace to communicate its concern for the human scale and
employed hundreds of artisans to craft furniture, games, and decorations
designed to be metaphors of the color, shapes and forms of nature and
technology. Furthermore, and enamored with the finding of ruins in Italy she
had them transported and some rebuilt on Schönbrunn to connect her time with
the classical past. In fact Emperor Leopold hired Johann Bernard Fischer von
Erlach to produce a design in 1688. Maria Theresa could only be regarded as an
informed client (probably an opinionated one) and she got the “architect of the
court” Nicolo Pacassi to redesign the palace and the gardens. Schönbrunn is an
orchestration of metaphoric factors gathered by a variety of apparently
unrelated crafts and craftsman around them and subjects of the court’s
choosing. By so doing, these crafts were emulated by the court and citizens
exemplifying how human cognition is fundamentally shaped by various processes
of figuration (Gibbs, Jr., R. W (1993). This habitable metaphor was not meant
for the user to fully, continuously and forever recall all that went into its’
production. The palace and its grounds was one metaphor after the other
including the ruins, gardens and statues. Throughout the empire, in an
attempt to make the strange familiar (showing her gratitude to the Hungarians),
matching, copying and emulating the design of other buildings and adapting the
design of one to Schönbrunn adapted to the more familiar building in Vienna and
the surrounding villages.
| Schunbrunn |
| Petit Trianon |
 |
| Chambord |
It was
no accident that when US cities began designing and building they copied the
European models of retail and commercial shops. Even the metaphors of extending
roof heights with false work to be taller than their neighbors were adapted and
still today is practiced in the international style of building design. The
Duomo in Milan is an important example of city-wide and public metaphor where
many artisans were employed to carve the many statues and gargoyles on its
facades. Each carving was a metaphor and the collection of them all
communicated the unity of passion and adherence to the church. This exemplified
the interaction view of metaphor where metaphors work by applying to the
principle (literal) subject of the metaphor to a system of “associated
implications” characteristic of the metaphorical secondary subject. These
implications were typically provided by the received “commonplaces” (general
beliefs or values that are widely shared within a culture) about the secondary
subject: “In this case the success of the metaphor rests on its success in
conveying to the reader some quieter defined respects of similarity or analogy
between the principle and secondary subject.”
Milan’s Duomo is only
one of hundreds of examples of this unified and diverse building metaphor (Boyd,
R (1993).
Remarkably,
the architectural beneficiary of free enterprise, democracy and the sovereignty
of the individual was the modern architecture which was metaphorically demarked
by the so-called Art Nouveau style. Art Nouveau (or Jugendstil – youth
art) which began in Paris and Munich was exemplified by its metaphorical signs
of leaves, vines and nature reminiscent of the tree-like forms of the Gothic
buttresses and arches. Art Nouveau encompasses a hierarchy of scales in design
architecture; interior design; decorative arts including jewelry, furniture,
textiles, household silver and other utensils, lighting and the full range of
visual arts. In some ways it was a precursor to the Bauhaus where modern
architecture really got its start, which eclipsed the Beaux Artes’ eclecticism.
The metaphors of contemporary and modern architecture were their abstract,
cubistic and plain design (lack of embellishments). They strove to be
impersonal, general and metaphorically dead. Not to belabor the
socio-political, design went on a competitive rampage between citizens, but
within the vernacular of the available materials, technology and design theory.
Bauhaus was also committed to achieve high quality design with machine-made
mass production. Modern architecture theory was applied to both public and
private enterprises producing public works and privately owned public
buildings. The use of structural iron and steel and steel reinforced concreted
changed the look, size and scale of building-types, especially the office
building which now, owing to the elevator, could convey people to great heights
to figuratively scrape the sky. Stadia, transportation terminal and
manufacturing buildings could be covered with long span steel beams, cables and
folded plates (some derived from origami). This exercised the “analogical
transfer theory” where instructive metaphors create an analogy between
a-to-be-learned- system (target domain) and a familiar system. (Mayer, R. E
(1993) Technically, not unlike classical Gothic, modern
architecture wanted to express the truth about the building’s systems,
materials, open lifestyles, use of light and air and bringing nature into the
building’s environment, not to mention ridding building of the irrelevant and
time-worn clichés of building design decoration, and traditional principles of
classical architecture as professed by the Beaux Artes movement. For equipoise
“unity, symmetry and balance” were replaced by “asymmetrical tensional
relationships” between, “dominant, subdominant and tertiary” forms; and, the
results of science and engineering influence on architectural design birthed a
new design metaphor. The Bauhaus found the metaphor in all the arts, the
commonalties in making jewelry, furniture, architecture, interior design,
decoration, lighting, and industrial design: even fine art, music and poetry.
They believed that there were principles of design that transferred from one to
the other techne.
 |
| Bauhaus in Dessau Germany |
 |
| Mies Van der Roh: Barcelona Pavilion |
However,
it was certainly affected by the instrumentalization industrialization of
architecture as argued under the maxim "form follows function"
(Banham, R. (1980). A disappointment to the purist was that the mainstays of
ancient metaphors were still alive and well including the commonplaces of turf,
identity, security, status, power, protection and shelter. In fact with the
unleashing of the global real estate boom, real estate investment trusts, and
free enterprise that the inordinate variety of metaphoric iconic building types
dwarfed anything of the past in such historically low-key places as Dubai,
Doha, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Manila, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Sydney, Hamburg,
Singapore, and Hawaii; not to mention the historically notorious places as New
York, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, etc.
Futurist
architecture was a metaphoric term alluding to the past compared with a
later period (Watkin, D. (2005). While it claimed to sever such ties and
present something new, in fact it talked about the future in terms of its
present. It was a metaphor which tried to make the strange (future) familiar by
talking about one time in terms of the other (Gordon, W. J. J. (1971).
“Futurist
architecture began as an early-20th century form of architecture characterized
by anti-historicism (where historicism is a theory that history is determined
by immutable laws and not by human agency) and long horizontal lines suggesting
speed, motion and urgency. Technology and even violence were among the themes
of the Futurists”. The epic film, “The Shape of Things to Come”, based on the
novel by H G Wells, was one of its important achievements. All of this was
eclipsed by contemporary science fiction movie making technologies and concepts
using artificial intelligence, time travel, supernatural and spiritual
manifestations.
Expressionist
architecture style was characterized by an early-modernist adoption of novel
materials, formal innovation, and very unusual massing; sometimes inspired by
natural biomorphic forms or sometimes by the new technical possibilities
offered by the mass production of brick, steel and especially glass. Morris
Lapidus’ Fountainbleu and Eden Roc Hotels are other such fine examples (Curtis,
W. J. R. (1987).
| Seagram Building by Phillip Johnson |
| Falling waters by Frank Lloyd Wright |
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thought, Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Architecture Since 1900, Phaidon Press, London
7
Fez-Barringten, Barie; (1993) Mosques and
Metaphors (Self-published),Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
8
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critical history. Thames & Hudson- Third Edition, (1992) ,London
9
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Pedro, and Paul Kirchhoff; (2008) The Oxford Encyclopedia of
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(Instituto de Antropología (1963), Oxford, New York
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(1964) Gebr. Mann; Berlin: available from
the German Archeological Institute :Baghdad Section; Athens, Greece
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Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture, Architectural Press, 20th
edition. New York
3
Fuller, R. Buckminster; (1975, 1979) The whole
is more than the sum of its parts. Aristotle, Metaphysica; Max Wertheimer
Gestalt theory (1920s) and SYNERGETICS:
Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking by R. Buckminster Fuller in
collaboration with E. J. Applewhite; First Published by Macmillan Publishing
Co. Inc., New York
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Gardiner, S.; (1974), “From Caves to Co-Ops”:
Evolution of the House, MacMillan Publishing Co., New York.
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Way of Knowing: Main currents in Modern Thought: and Synectics: Porpoise Books; Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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products in making sense of tropes; In .Ortony, A (Ed), Metaphor and thought,
Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Hugh, B. ;(1951) An introduction to English
medieval architecture, Faber and Faber, London
8
Hakim, Bassim: (1958) Culture and Built Form,
and Urban Design / Planning; Ara7. Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, the Pelican History
of Art: Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries and bic-Islamic
Cities: building and planning principles; Penguin Books, New York.
9
Jeziorski, Michael; (1993) The shift from
metaphor to analogy in Western science, In .Ortony, A (Ed), Metaphor and
thought, Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, United Kingdom
10 Jencks,
Charles; (1993) Modern Movements in Architecture. Penguin Books Ltd - second
edition. In .Ortony, A (Ed), Metaphor and thought, Cambridge University Press;
Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Kuhn, Thomas S.; (1993) Metaphor in science;
Cambridge University Press. In .Ortony, A (Ed), Metaphor and thought, Cambridge
University Press; Cambridge, United Kingdom
5
Lakoff, George; (1993) The contemporary theory
of metaphor Cambridge University Press
In .Ortony, A (Ed), Metaphor and thought, Cambridge University Press;
Cambridge, United Kingdom
6
Mayer, Richard E.; (1993) The instructive
metaphor: Metaphoric aids to students’ understanding of science ; Cambridge
University Press and in Ortony, A (Ed),
Metaphor and thought, Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, United Kingdom
7
Miller, George A.; (1974) Images and models,
similes and metaphors MacMillan Publishing Co. New York
8
Nuttgens, Patrick;(1983) the Story of
Architecture, Prentice Hall, New Jersey
9
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George; (2008) “Recovering Iraq’s
Past” initiative; The Oriental Institute of University of Chicago: The Diyala
Web site: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/diy/, Chicago
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Nikolaus; (1991) Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter
Gropius, Penguin Books Ltd., New York
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Zeon W.; (1993) Metaphorical imprecision and the “top down” research
strategy Cambridge University Press In .Ortony, A (Ed), Metaphor and thought,
Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, United Kingdom
12 Rumelhart,
David E. ;( 1991 & 1993) Some problems with the emotion of literal
meanings, Routledge, New York: (1991) and reprinted Journal of Pragmatics (1993)
13 Santayana. G. ;(1988) M.I.T. Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Vincent; (1988) American Architecture and Urbanism, Yale University, New
Haven
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R. B.; (1942, repr. 1967, rev. ed. 2008) The Landmark Thucydides studies
by J. H. Finley: Thucydides, c.460–c.400 B.C., Greek historian of Athens
16 Watkin,
David; (2005), A History of Western
Architecture, Hali Publications, London
17 Weiss,
Paul; (1971) The Metaphorical Process: in Main Currents in Modern Thought:
Sept/Oct 1971; Vol28; Number 1, New Rochelle, New York
18 Wells,
H.G.; (1933) The shape of things to come, Hutchinson, UK (Now Random House)
19 Zarefsky,
David; (2005) Argumentation: A study of effective Reasoning, The Teaching
Company, Chantilly, Virginia
NOTE: all images shown in this monograph (as above and below) are not those of the author, but cut and pasted from the www, Internet. They are meant to illustrate the period but not necessarily any particular architect, building or place. Readers may find many such general and specific images on the www. Further, these illustrations do not appear in any of the author's commercially published work. No permissions have been attained from the source of the images and should not be reproduced or used without their permission.
Find partial credits for images below.
1. Temple of Augustus and Livia: //www.touropia.com/ancient-roman-temples/
2. Egyptian The Temple of Isis at Philae, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_temple
3.Fontainebleau Palace: http://www.musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr/
4. Fort Knox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Depository
5.Vauban Fortress: Vauban Fortress://napoleonicscenarios.weebly.com/vauban-fortress.html
NOTE: all images shown in this monograph (as above and below) are not those of the author, but cut and pasted from the www, Internet. They are meant to illustrate the period but not necessarily any particular architect, building or place. Readers may find many such general and specific images on the www. Further, these illustrations do not appear in any of the author's commercially published work. No permissions have been attained from the source of the images and should not be reproduced or used without their permission.
Find partial credits for images below.
1. Temple of Augustus and Livia: //www.touropia.com/ancient-roman-temples/
2. Egyptian The Temple of Isis at Philae, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_temple
3.Fontainebleau Palace: http://www.musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr/
4. Fort Knox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Depository
5.Vauban Fortress: Vauban Fortress://napoleonicscenarios.weebly.com/vauban-fortress.html
6. Governor's Palace in Williamsburg: http://www.history.org/almanack/places/hb/hbpal.cfm
7. Mandala:http://www.jyh.dk/indengl.htm#Mandala
8. Çatalhöyük Hose:Syria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87atalh%C3%B6y%C3%BCk
9. The Vitruvian Man Leonardo da Vinci:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man
10. Empire:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_style
11. Ziggurat: http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/ziggurats/home_set.html
12. Gilgamesh statue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh
13. City of Sumer:http://www.strayreality.com/Lanis_Strayreality/sumerian_civilization.htm
14. The largest of the Pyramids at Giza is the "Great Pyramid": http://www.personal.psu.edu/mkw5102/giza.html
15. Mesoamerican architecture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_architecture
16. Greek Architecture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_architecture
17. Chinese Pagoda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_pagoda
18. Frei Otto: Munich Olympics : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Stadium_(Munich)
19. Cathedral in Chartres: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/chartres-cathedral
20 Versailles:Baroque: http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/ig/Historic-Styles/Baroque.htm
21. Schunbrunn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6nbrunn_Palace
22. Chambord: Bloir: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chambord
23. Petit Trianon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petit_Trianon
24. Bauhaus in Dessau Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus
25. Seagram building: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/seagram/
26. Falling waters by Frank Lloyd Wright: http://www.fallingwater.org/
Researched Publications: Refereed and Peer-reviewed
Journals: "monographs":
Barie Fez-Barringten; Associate
professor Global University
1. "Architecture the making of metaphors"
Main Currents in Modern Thought/Center for Integrative
Education; Sep.-Oct. 1971, Vol. 28 No.1, New Rochelle, New York.
2."Schools and metaphors"
Main Currents in Modern Thought/Center for Integrative
Education Sep.-Oct. 1971, Vol. 28 No.1, New Rochelle, New York.
3."User's metametaphoric phenomena of
architecture and Music":
“METU” (Middle East Technical University: Ankara,
Turkey): May 1995"
Journal of the Faculty of Architecture
4."Metametaphors and Mondrian:
Neo-plasticism and its' influences in architecture" 1993 Available on Academia.edu since 2008
5. "The Metametaphor of architectural education",
North Cypress, Turkish University. December, 1997
6."Mosques and metaphors" Unpublished,1993
7."The basis of the metaphor of Arabia" Unpublished, 1994
8."The conditions of Arabia in metaphor" Unpublished, 1994
9. "The metametaphor theorem"
Architectural
Scientific Journal, Vol. No. 8; 1994 Beirut Arab University.
10. "Arabia’s metaphoric images" Unpublished, 1995
11."The context of Arabia in metaphor" Unpublished, 1995
12. "A partial metaphoric vocabulary of Arabia"
“Architecture: University of Technology in Datutop;
February 1995 Finland
13."The Aesthetics of the Arab architectural
metaphor"
“International Journal for Housing Science and its applications”
Coral Gables, Florida.1993
14."Multi-dimensional metaphoric
thinking"
Open House, September 1997: Vol. 22; No. 3, United
Kingdom: Newcastle uponTyne
15."Teaching the techniques of making
architectural metaphors in the twenty-first century.” Journal of King Abdul Aziz University Engg...Sciences; Jeddah: Code:
BAR/223/0615:OCT.2.1421 H. 12TH
EDITION; VOL. I and
“Transactions” of
Cardiff
University, UK. April 2010
16. “Word Gram #9” Permafrost:
Vol.31 Summer 2009 University of Alaska Fairbanks; ISSN: 0740-7890; page 197
17. "Metaphors
and Architecture." ArchNet.org. October, 2009.at MIT
18. “Metaphor as an
inference from sign”; University of Syracuse
Journal of Enterprise
Architecture; November 2009: and nominated architect of the year in speical issue of Journal
of Enterprise Architecture explaining the unique relationship between
enterprise and classic building architecture.
19. “Framing the art
vs. architecture argument”; Brunel University (West London); BST: Vol. 9
no. 1: Body, Space & Technology Journal:
Perspectives Section
20. “Urban Passion”:
October 2010; Reconstruction & “Creation”;
June 2010; by C. Fez-Barringten;
http://reconstruction.eserver.org/;
21. “An architectural
history of metaphors”: AI & Society: (Journal of human-centered and
machine intelligence) Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication: Pub:
Springer; London; AI & Society located in University of Brighton, UK;
AI &
Society. ISSN (Print)
1435-5655 - ISSN (Online) 0951-5666 : Published
by Springer-Verlag;; 6 May 2010 http://www.springerlink.com/content/j2632623064r5ljk/
Paper copy: AIS Vol. 26.1. Feb. 2011; Online ISSN 1435-5655; Print ISSN
0951-5666;
DOI 10.1007/s00146-010-0280-8; : Volume 26, Issue 1 (2011), Page
103.
22. “Does
Architecture Create Metaphors?; G.Malek; Cambridge; August 8,2009
Pgs 3-12 (4/24/2010)
23. “Imagery or
Imagination”:the role of metaphor in architecture: Ami Ran (based on
Architecture:the making of metaphors); :and Illustration:”A Metaphor of
Passion”:Architecture oif Israel 82.AI;August 2010 pgs. 83-87.
24. “The sovereign built metaphor”: monograph converted to Power Point for presentation to
Southwest Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. 2011
25.“Architecture:the
making of metaphors”:The Book;
Contract to publish: 2011
Cambridge
Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE6 2XX
United Kingdom
12 Back Chapman Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE6 2XX
United Kingdom
Edited by
Edward Richard Hart,
0/2 249 Bearsden Road
Glasgow
G13 1DH
UK
Lecture:
ancient prehistoric, architecture, Architecture is a metaphor, art, metaphor, modern and contemporary architecture, traditional or classical art, Barie Fez-Barringten,
