Most people don't even notice scale in their everyday lives, but it is all around us. Everything has scale in relation to something else, and the goal of the designer is to recognize this and consider it in their design. Scale has many meanings though depending on what it refers to. In architecture it refers to "how big a building is, relative to the size of the average human being".[1] It can refer to an individual room, a building, a community, a region, or a nation. So this means that in architecture, both exterior and interior, it has to be considered who is using it when focusing on scale. For example, the Temple of Amon at Karnac is large in scale to show the hierarchy of the civilization. Which leads to a second meaning of scale, which is a measure of class and hierarchy. Robbie Blakemore states, "Egyptian society was highly stratified. At the top of the hierarchy scale was the pharaoh, or king, whose powers were divine and who represented god on earth."[2]After this came the middle class then the peasants of society. This scale in hierarchy can be seen all through history, especially during the reign of the Egyptians. A great example is the pyramids at Khufu. The largest in scale was reserved for the pharaoh, then the three smaller were for his wives and mother. And yet another meaning of scale is shown through art. This week I learned how important scale figures are in a drawing and how they need to have the right proportion to make a composition complete. 
[WRAP-UP]
[UNITY]
When I hear the word unity i think of multiple pieces coming together to form one whole. The key to balance and harmony all leads back to unity, thus unity is extremely important in interior architecture. Unity has to be reflected in drawings and designs to clearly state my vision to a client. In history, there are also many examples of unity. For example, the "Greeks identified themseves, whatever their individual city-state, as Hellens and their land, as a whole, as Hellas".[3] Even though the mountainous terrain might have caused a gap between the city-states they still would classify themselves as one. One of the ways they did this is because, "the Greek language became an international mode of communication."[4] Thus the land was unified by the language and culture. Also, in history we learned that the Egyptians had unifying architecture. For example, their "temples were more than places of worship; they combined centers of learning and administration for the nation."[5] The Egyptians combined buildings for more than one purpose thus unifying them in their effectiveness. Another example would be the Khufu pyramids and Hatshepsut's temple. Both were unified with with their surroundin
gs. The pyramids lay in the desert but the contrast drastically so the pharaoh gets all the attention. The temple however almost blends in with the land to keep robbers away.
[SECTION]
Completely opposite of unity, section means a part of the whole. Section can refer to taking part of something away to focus on the other half. In drafting, we use a section drawing to show parts that have been cut away. In studio I had to show a section of a wall, the corner, to accent where my artifact goes. It was better to show part of the wall because it drew the viewers eyes to the one focal spot. In history we learn about different sections of both the world and a society. We learned about both Egypt and Greece this week in class. They are two separate sections of land but they share many similarities with each other. Within these two societies there are also more sections. There is a section of hierarchies as well as a section between male and females. Furniture is a section of architecture that showed such. Blakemore states, "Chairs were status symbols and, consequently, were used by nobility and high officials."[6]In Egypt there was a clear distinction between the rights of a male and female. referring back to the pyram
ids of Khufu, the largest was for the male, whereas the smaller were for the female. Also, in comparison to the Temple of Hatshepsut the pyramids are much higher and massive reaching closer to the gods. And finally, architecture also has a section of parts of any place. The three pieces are the hearth, court, and porch. A great example of this is the Parthenon.
[BOUNDARIES]
Boundaries is a very interesting word that this week had very separate meanings. In drawling, sometimes ignoring boundaries is a way of somewhat letting the viewer use their imagination. When the whole picture isn't there it's almost a guessing game of what really lies behind the faded edges. Boundaries can also refer to physical boundaries such as ones made by walls. It can also mean the boundaries between different nations and city-states, such as in Greece. Within these landscapes even more boundaries are formed. The Khufu pyramids at Giza are a perfect example of how architecture is created on the landscape and creates its own boundaries. In comparison, the Temple of Hatsehepsut is an example of how architecture is created in the landscape. The temple is built within the cliffs making the boundaries a little harder harder to tell. Hatshepsut's temple dosn't have clear boundaries like the temples, but it is still clear to see how it fits into the landscape.
[VIGNETTE]
A vignette doesn't give the whole story. It's almost like a mystery, because you know the main focus but what lies beyond that? This week we really focused on making vignettes that were composed well and showed color. It was hard to determine what to include, and what not to because it was important to make a unified piece. History itself is like a vignette. Most people only know the basic facts and advances of a society, but beyond that it gets blurry of what really happened. To really know all about a society one would have to do intense research to get all the facts, and even then pieces would be missing, or the edges of the whole picture would be faded. A vignette is like your point of view, or what you are seeing. In my contemporary morals class we are learning about how to express your opinion. This class is somewhat like a vignette, because you have your point of view, but the edges are blurred because you have to take in account the opinions of others. So really your views are not set in stone, rather they are still being added to.
This week was all about proportion and technique. On whatever scale, anything from furniture to large temples, technique defines the piece. A successful piece of work is one which is unified in its aspects and represents a sense of boundary. The boundary can either be apparent or not, but it still defines the space. It sections off the landscape from the architecture. Architecture tells a story which paints a picture of the past. It is like a vignette of past cultures and societies around the world.
[CITATIONS]
1-Roth 75
1-Roth 75
2Blakemore 3
3-Roth 217
4-Roth 219
5- Roth 203
6-Blakemore 17
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