Seating arrangements : an elementary lecture in functional planning !
"Main idea behind every space is to go to the essence of the activity". This expression helps us understand the real importance of space and form. To just define and later on design a space is not enough to give to it an approach with its activity. The architect must understand the essence, aim, use of the area to later on connect it with its context. And to achieve this more than just an application of knowledge is required, you must put in use culture, philosophical and psychological knowledge, all of which make architecture a humane and scientific inquiry. However, even though humanity has an important role in architecture itself, and "form follows function" in modern times functionalism is going far away from it.
An elementary planning problem is the arrangement of the seating. In order to understand that there is no stereotype , but need to recognize the essence of what is going on some examples have been given! On of them is Psychotherapy! For four important schools of therapy there are four radically different plans which include : the Freudian session, Face to Face across a table, Character Analysis and Gestalt therapy. The therapist may lie behind the patient in order to give him the needed relax with its own thoughts and associates, he may stand face to face with the patient across a desk to give to the patient courage, strength and ego to orient himself and behavior. He may sit alongside and give directions, just like seating on a group. So, all in all to plan seats and space for a psychotherapist's office you should have a nice understanding of the essence and the agenda of the therapy.
The same approach is found on the Religious services. At the Roman catholic plan the essential act is hearing the Mass. The priest devotes himself to the altar, next to which is the chore. The opposite happens at the Protestants where the minister faces the congregation to address them while interpreting the sacred text. A whole different example are the Orthodox Jews. They have no priest or minister, the people themselves get grouped around the reading table of the scroll and engage in careful exegeses of the law. Even at the Quakers we can not find a religion leader, not even a law, just a small congregation where people sit together and silently commune.
Similar principles of understanding the proper places of seating go further on a major human function, eating. From the communal preparations to those who sit down at a common table and see the act of eating as a relaxing background, to the dining on a round table to create the sense of a family. Eating on a Convention banquet where people sit accordingly to their importance or on a public counter, all by yourself, as a choice to avoid surveillance and anxiety of talking to strangers.
The illustrations of seating arrangements could continue further, with many other manners and approaches placed in different constructions. But, in the end they all take us to one undeniable conclusion :
While building and planning one should think accordingly ! Find the main essence, understand the context, follow the original purpose and as a result you will create a flexible design, what is more a functional place !
"Main idea behind every space is to go to the essence of the activity". This expression helps us understand the real importance of space and form. To just define and later on design a space is not enough to give to it an approach with its activity. The architect must understand the essence, aim, use of the area to later on connect it with its context. And to achieve this more than just an application of knowledge is required, you must put in use culture, philosophical and psychological knowledge, all of which make architecture a humane and scientific inquiry. However, even though humanity has an important role in architecture itself, and "form follows function" in modern times functionalism is going far away from it.
An elementary planning problem is the arrangement of the seating. In order to understand that there is no stereotype , but need to recognize the essence of what is going on some examples have been given! On of them is Psychotherapy! For four important schools of therapy there are four radically different plans which include : the Freudian session, Face to Face across a table, Character Analysis and Gestalt therapy. The therapist may lie behind the patient in order to give him the needed relax with its own thoughts and associates, he may stand face to face with the patient across a desk to give to the patient courage, strength and ego to orient himself and behavior. He may sit alongside and give directions, just like seating on a group. So, all in all to plan seats and space for a psychotherapist's office you should have a nice understanding of the essence and the agenda of the therapy.
The same approach is found on the Religious services. At the Roman catholic plan the essential act is hearing the Mass. The priest devotes himself to the altar, next to which is the chore. The opposite happens at the Protestants where the minister faces the congregation to address them while interpreting the sacred text. A whole different example are the Orthodox Jews. They have no priest or minister, the people themselves get grouped around the reading table of the scroll and engage in careful exegeses of the law. Even at the Quakers we can not find a religion leader, not even a law, just a small congregation where people sit together and silently commune.
Similar principles of understanding the proper places of seating go further on a major human function, eating. From the communal preparations to those who sit down at a common table and see the act of eating as a relaxing background, to the dining on a round table to create the sense of a family. Eating on a Convention banquet where people sit accordingly to their importance or on a public counter, all by yourself, as a choice to avoid surveillance and anxiety of talking to strangers.
The illustrations of seating arrangements could continue further, with many other manners and approaches placed in different constructions. But, in the end they all take us to one undeniable conclusion :
While building and planning one should think accordingly ! Find the main essence, understand the context, follow the original purpose and as a result you will create a flexible design, what is more a functional place !
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