Throughout the year Amsterdam is one of Europe’s foremost architecture and design city, not only because of 17-th century rings of canals. Amsterdam is where modern architecture developed organically between facades of historical buildings. Since it is not a very big city, all sites of interest are within acceptable distance, this is why Amsterdam is so popular with lovers of architecture.

Canal rings houses
The old centre was formed by rings of canals with unique mostly 17th century residences of wealthy merchants, financiers, craftsmen, doctors, lawyers, politicians and artists. Because of lack of space, these houses were mostly narrow, not more than 30ft wide (9 meters). They are are characterized by big narrow windows, decorative gable tops, very narrow stairs inside and pulley outside to transport larger objects to upper floors. Very often the residences served also as businesses. Merchant’s houses had their storage in attics and cellars. Sometimes the lift was installed in the middle of the house plan, to transport the goods between floors. The office of the merchant was usually on the ground floor. Like in Venice the canals were the main way of transporting the goods.
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Trellises have been a favorite landscape architectural element throughout the ages. Some serve as partial walls, screening off less desirable views, others to enframe a view. All of which support flowering plant material, usually varieties of vines. Trellises are formed into many shapes and sizes, different configurations to serve various needs: Overhead trellises create a ‘landscape room’ beneath while an arched trellis may serve as a ‘gateway’ into the garden itself. The focus of this article is upon the architectural-building material from which the trellis is constructed; it is not of wood, metal tubing or from expensive wrought iron.

When I was touring northern Italy and Spain I was struck by the timeless beauty of wrought-ironworks, fashioned out of the architecture of the buildings and into the garden trellises. It was not so much the ornate details that I found so interesting as I found the strength and durability of the material to be: it tested time, only growing more attractive. Later, back in the U.S.A. and practicing my profession as a Landscape Architect I found that wrought-iron was not often affordable except in only the most selective of projects (i.e. those with very, fat budgets). Read the rest of this entry »

Modern day technology allows for a more complex design when creating the patterns of geometrical shapes that are used for the production of buildings. In the present day the modern perspective leaves a lot of consideration out of the process, with the design of buildings in common areas of living. In retrospect the schooling of an institutional system, had no windows, in the original part of the school, for natural sunlight to enter into the classes, or hallways. This reflection goes into the structures of the modern day civilized areas, of the economically focused on construction of buildings, to not have the natural habitat of nature, present. The comparison is dependent on the view of what is considered important.

There is a connection from the classical days of the design of building to the modern day style. In the overall decision of the design, the whole inside to the outer accessibility area to include common, modern day, and casual access, but in timed sequenced. Making available the areas of use for whatever purpose chosen, in the designated parts of the building. This accessibility includes the population of the area surrounding the building; availability of such a resource is a step towards combining a highly technological possibility, with a social aspect. By integrating and applying a technological implementation, to include a larger mass of people, is in need of the insights of the many different degrees of intuitional thinking. A process that should, as a principal include the natural light of the sun, as a devised source of the natural habitual construction of the design.
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This article will give a brief introduction to architecture, its origins and a look at how important it is in the world today and in the past.
Architecture is the practice of design buildings and other physical structures. It is often considered a form of art and science due to the massive amount of technical knowledge required to implement a design that has been created from nothing.
Architects have many factors to consider when constructing a building such as mass, texture, materials, light/shadow, cost, construction and technology. All of these factors are manipulated in order to create an end design that appears both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
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