Brianna Trapp

10/06/2016
Context

When navigating a new city, shopping mall, or your own house is the dark, we
all use the same basic things to find our way around. We use the context around us
to locate where we are and where we need to go. In a new city this can be the
relationship of one building to the other, in a mall it can be the smell of the food
court that lets us know we are getting close, and in our own home it is our
knowledge of our home that allows us to move around with some ease. These same
Ideas can and are applied in architecture to make our cities and buildings more
legible.
(The Image Of The City)
Cites actively participate in marketing and branding their image
[generating] their own physical contexts. (The Sage Handbook of Architectural
Theory 253) A city, when considering context, is an image rather than as a 3D
environment that we travel through. In The Image Of The City, Kevin Lynch, tells us
of different ways we can make a mental map of our environment, and in turn we
can use this to understand who we can make architecture that helps to improve
such map. Alexander used context as a synonym for environment every
design problem begins with an effort to achieve fitness between two entities: the
form in question, and its context. (Dialectical Readings in Architecture: Site)
Continuing along the same thought that Alexander had, architect is designed
to solve problems, and make relationships between two entities. These connections
are made through context. Context starts with the are that the building is being
built in. Where is the building? What materials best represent the area or
neighboring buildings? By incorporating this context our building can either blend in
and seem to belong to an area or can stick out amongst its neighboring buildings.
With both comes cons and pros, but can both be used effectively. This allows the
viewer to place a building or park into their mental map, which can help make
relationships between other existing markers. Context goes beyond just a
building; it is the relationship between many buildings. As before this can be
through materials, but it can also be seen in differing heights of buildings, normally
in larger cities the taller the building the closer to the middle of the city you are.
These pieces of context can allow the viewer to understand the city more, and help
the architect to make better decisions when planning. Context lastly refers to the
experience we get from a building or place. In a quiet neighborhood, your
experience and the experience you expect to have is completely different than that
of the busy streets of a city.
In all context, can be summed up into 3 main categories. First, environment
meaning where the building is in relation to is larger picture, ie building in Alaska vs.
New York. Second, the relationship between different pieces in the city, and how
they can become unified with one another or be completely separate. Lastly, the
experiential quality of a place. These three things not only allow the viewer to better
understand a city, but allow architects to design with these in mind to make the city
better.

Brianna Trapp
10/06/2016