This document discusses the history and principles of architecture. It begins with early shelters like caves and huts before moving to stone age cities. It then discusses the Roman architect Vitruvius and his principles of durability, convenience and beauty. Various architects and their works are discussed in relation to these principles, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Philip Johnson. The document advocates considering factors like speed, movement, views and the desires of materials in architectural design. It argues that information architecture is architecture within information spaces.

1. Christina Wodtke
@cwodtke
www.eleganthack.com
PUTTING THE
ARCHITECTURE IN
INFORMATION
ARCHITECTURE

2. A SHORT HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURE

3. Cave

5. Hut

7. Stone Age City

9. VITRUVIUS
firmitas, utilitas, venustas : : durability, convenience, beauty

10. Durability
“Durability will be assured when foundations are
carried down to the solid ground and materials
wisely and liberally selected” Vitruvius

11. The hotel had several desig
features that made up for i
foundation:
The reflecting pool (visible
the picture above) also
provided a source of water
for fire-fighting, saving the
building from the post-
earthquake firestorm;[1]
Cantilevered floors and
balconies provided extra
support for the floors;
A copper roof, which canno
on people below the way a
roof can;
Seismic separation joints,
located about every 20 m a
the building;
Tapered walls, thicker on lo
floors, increasing their
strength;
Suspended piping and wirin
instead of being encased in
concrete, as well as smooth
curves, making them more
resistant to fracture.[2]

12. I’m searching for “my
architect, not
“movies, directors,
actors”
Technical Earthquakes

13. Social Earthquakes
If people post jobs in
discussion areas, any user can
move them to job board
If people use
connection invites to
spam/market, they
can be reported.

14. Convenience
“When the arrangement of the apartments is
faultless and presents no hindrance to
use, and when each class of building is
assigned to its suitable and appropriate
exposure” Vitruvius
Sound familiar?
We’re talking
usability!

15. ckspace headquarters in in a former mall. The
lding is so usable for moving people around, it's
sily repurposed.
bert Venturi calls this a “decorated shed”

16. Malls online
epitomize
convenience,
and are typically
extremely
usable.
Anthropologie is
elegant and
functional.
This simple
model could be
repurposed for
any side dealing
with objects and
metadata

17. The MIT project, they were interviewing
me for MIT and they sent their facilities
people to Bilbao. I met them in Bilbao.
They came for three days.
W: This is the computer building.
Bilbao did not G: They were there for three days and it
rained every day. And they kept walking
leak. I was so around. I noticed they were looking
under things and looking for things, and
proud. they wanted to know where the
buckets were hidden, people putting
buckets out. I was clean. There wasn't a
bloody leak in the place. It was just
fantastic. But you've got to -- yeah,
well, up until then, every building
leaked.
W: Frank had a sort of -- sort of had a
fame -- his -- his fame was built on that
in L.A. for a while. You know, Frank,
you've all heard the Frank Lloyd Wright
story when the guy -- the woman called
and said, "Mr. Wright, my -- I'm sitting
in the couch and the water's pouring in
on my head," and he said, "Madame,
move your chair."
G: So, some years later I was doing a
little house on the beach for Norton
Simon, and his secretary was kind of a
hell-on-wheels type lady -- called me
and said, Mr. Simon's sitting at his desk,
and the water's coming in on his head,
and I told him the Frank Lloyd Wright
story.
W: Didn't get a laugh.
G: No. Not now either.
http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry
_asks_then_what.html

18. I call it the "Then What?"
Okay, you solved all the
problems, you did all the
stuff, you made nice, you
loved your clients, you
loved the materials, you
loved the city, you're a
good guy, you're a good
person... and then what?
What do you bring to it?
See his great TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_gehry_asks_then_what.html

19. “Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance
and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and
have seen no occasion to change.” Frank Lloyd Wright

20. Beauty (delight)
“when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and
when its members are in due proportion according to correct
principles of symmetry.” Vitrvius

21. “Less is more.”
~
Mies

22. SEAGRAM BUILDING (Philip
Johnson did interiors, 1957) Seagram
Building
This logical and
elegant 38-story New York City
skyscraper (525'
H) has
alternating
1957
horizontal bands
of bronze plating
and bronze- Is this Beautiful?
tinted glass and
decorative
bronze I-beams
which

23. “Less is a bore.”
~
Venturi

24. Is this Beautiful?

25. Do we dictate
what is beautiful
by constraining
user choice?

26. Or support
passionate use that
may not meet our
aesthetic
standards?

27. Beautiful
Durable Convenient

28. Push harder, further
ARCHITECTURE

29. Servant and Served Spaces
‘I do not like ducts; I do not like pipes. I hate
them really thoroughly, but because I hate them
so thoroughly, I feel they have to be given their
place. If I just hated them and took no care, I
think they would invade the building and
completely destroy it.’
The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn,
1962

30. Services (settings, in
this case) are
separated from
served)

31. Services intergraded
with served is easier
to comprehend and
use

32. Centre Pompidou was designed with services revealed rather than hidden

33. Revealing things usually
only available to
employees, such as
statistics can provide
interest and beauty
inherit to the product.

34. Views
Hey, it’s the
Arc de
Triomphe!

35. Views into other
services

36. Views into the
service before
you sign up

37. Speed
5 mph 25mph 60mph
Medieval architecture designed to be walked by, prairie houses to drive by slowly at
suburban speeds, and the strip for freeway speeds

38. Speed
60mph 25mph 5 mph
Consider speed of use in design; do not slow interface with details upon sign up, richer
interface for where people linger and socialize

39. Movement

40. Why are our compositions so static? How should the eye move through this?

42. nd if you think of Brick, for
instance,
and you say to Brick,
"What do you want Brick?"
And Brick says to you
"I like an Arch."
And if you say to Brick
"Look, arches are expensive,
and I can use a concrete lintel
over you.
What do you think of that?"
"Brick?"
Brick says:
"... I like an Arch"”

43. And if the material wants to be tall?

47. Flipboard might be
an example of
digital architecture.
It is beautiful,
functional, durable,
delightful.
Flipboard
understands the
medium; it affords
movement in a
variety of directions

50. Even if you use the “wrong” gesture,
Flipboard reacts correctly.

51. Many Architects are Artists
How many digital designers are? Why shouldn’t they try?
The courage and commitment to bring new things in the world,
even at the price of failure, might invigorate design.
Five Principles for a New Architecture:
1. Pilotis elevating the building.
2. Free plan
3. Free façade
4. Long horizontal windows
5. Roof garden
Le courbusier

52. The question we need to be asking:
IS IT ARCHITECTURE YET?

53. “You start with the client’s
program,” Mr. Breuer observes.
“That’s not architecture, but it’s
the groundwork. Architecture
grows out of it.”
~On Architecture

54. Good architecture is still the
difficult, conscientious, creative,
expressive planning for that
elusive synthesis that is a near-
contradiction in terms:
efficiency
and beauty.
On Architecture, Ada Louis
Huxtable

55. Information Arcitecture is
Architecture
in Information Spaces

56. “Modern Systems! Yes indeed! To
approach everything in a strictly
methodical manner and not to waver a
hair’s breath from preconceived patterns,
until genius has been strangled to death
and joie de vivre stifled by the system–
that is the sign of our time.” Camillo Sitte