purposes+of+architecture+podcast+-+Teresa+Almeida

Reply: I think architecture originally was only for shelter, even though not from the sun only, but also from the rain, the weather, enemies, the animals etc. It also was used, I have to admit, to symbolize power and what was sacred and what was not. Now a days, it is still used for that but it also has a lot of new applications, due to the fact that society has been evolving for more than 3000 years at least, I think.

Why do people create built environments of such elaborateness?

Because of all the different new purposes of architecture. It is not just a construction to be protected or to represent power, the building has also to say what side of itself is important, it has to be sure that the people inside are comfortable, it has to respect whatever it is at its sides, it could be a church, a park, a cementery, a square, etc

What are the possible purposes of architecture?

"Its purposes go beyond the shelter function of modifying the microclimate. Architecture can… • provide settings for certain activities; • remind people of what these activities are; • signify power, status, or privacy; • express and support cosmological beliefs; • communicate information: help establish individual or group identity; and encode value systems; • separate domain and differentiate between here and there, sacred and profane, men and women, front and back, private and public, habitable and uninhabitable, and so on." This is a quote taken from the reading __The Purposes of Architecture__.