ARCH 84312

Site, History, Type, and Allegory:
The Poetics and Rhetoric of the Classical Tradition in Rome
ANALYSIS: WHAT IS IT
analysis noun (pl. -ses): detailed examination of the elements or structure of something,
typically as a basis for discussion or interpretation
• the process of separating something into its constituent elements. Often contrasted
with synthesis .
ORIGIN late 16th cent.: via medieval Latin from Greek analusis, from analuein
‘unloose,’ from ana- ‘up’ + luein ‘loosen.’
—OED
There seems to be a general confusion at our School about what is expected in an analysis
exercise. Like any “creative” act (and analysis is, perforce, “creative” or inventive), it cannot
be precisely codified. At the same time, some of its essential approaches and techniques can be
spelled out, which will follow. But, a priori, my overall expectation is that you will pursue
analysis with a creative, investigative mind, under one guiding rule: you are trying to puzzle
out what is going on that was intended, or at least comprehended, by those who made
whatever it is you are analyzing (it is therefore “objective,” directed toward the object and not
the subject—i.e. you and what you “feel” about it). To be rigorous and rational, analysis
cannot be as subjective as a Rorschach test; it demands, therefore, an understanding of the
context within which the forms were created, or the why of them.
It can be argued that all of the places we will explore this semester attempt to be
synthetic environments, i.e. they strove in one way or another to not be recognized as
composed of discrete pieces. At the same time, each manifests a clear (albeit sometimes
contradictory within the group) attitude toward the disposition and expression of the parts of
which they are composed (from programmatic to architectonic elements). Therefore, to be
credible here your analyses must both pull apart and show how these buildings synthesized
their components.
Some Tactics
Comparison and contrast: look at similar types that take on different forms, or similar
forms for different types
Graphic juxtaposition: to what extent is the same story being told in plan, section and
elevation
Compositional structure: document sequence, rhythm, hierarchies, positive ambiguities
(or multiple readings)
Some Techniques (remember, analysis is graphically reductive by nature)
figure/ground (Nolli), primary/secondary/tertiary, axial/symmetry lines, sequential
overlay, exploded axons, axons generally, juxtaposing two different kinds of graphic
info (e.g. plan and vignette), keyed/”scanned” 1 dwgs. (e.g. ABCBA), etc., etc.
Some Approaches
Process (Design in reverse): try to work out what was intended by the maker(s), or
how they got to the final product (e.g. by assembly, synthesis, transformation, etc.);
not all buildings or places are composed in an additive process (i.e. “buildings made of
other buildings”), but they often do have discrete components (functional or
otherwise); it is a fact in Rome that most of the best architects tried to synthesize, not
distinguish, the diverse parts of which their compositions were made (think of the parts
of the body to the whole)
Relationships: document physical/spatial relationships like bay rhythms, bilateral or
local symmetry, alignments/axes, etc.; remember, in the urban realm these relationships
are as much between buildings as proper to any one building
References: try to work out the sources for the ideas the buildings or spaces depend
upon (typologies, precedents/models from near and far, etc.)
1 scansion noun: the action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm.
• the rhythm of a line of verse.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin scansio(n-), from scandere ‘to climb’ ;