DIFFERENCE IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AT THE SAME LOCATION - The Old and The New  

    This picture above shows two different views of the same area in the urban environment of Port of Spain. The left side of the picture shows a view of the Nicholas Tower located on Independence Square. This building is relatively new (2003) and is used for commercial purposes mainly. The building may not have any major attached feelings to it as compared to maybe a historical  building but the meaning attached to it may be perceived as solely development, meaning that people would cherish this building because to them this gives off the perception that the city is developed or developing, maybe those persons would want more building like this built around the area. 

    In comparison, the right side of the picture shows a different perspective of the particular location. In this point of view, the more "trendy" building is seen in the immediate background while there is a old building at the fore front. This old building is among several more developed buildings yet no one thinks to tear it down and build another high rise building.Why??Even though it might be a case where the owners wouldn't want to sell, it might also be because this old building can actually mean something to someone or even the owners. Maybe there are attached feelings or memories associated with the building and those feelings would be drivers to the owners or even other people to encourage leaving this building standing.

     I for one can relate to feelings or memories attached to the building, for as long as I can remember, this building was always there, it looks the same minus a few broken windows and a little weathering of the building, but every time I pass this building I am reminded about times when my father would take his car there to fix or the big mascot of the man made of wheels that always made me laugh. For me this is not a simple building but a memory in the past therefore personally this building has a lot of meaning. While historical building within urban areas tend to be more appealing to the eyes, it does not mean that the value of this building is lowered to some people. However this is the case with some people which would just decide that the building is old and run down and is not promoting beauty within the capital in any way and should just be broken down.           

           

In the past post, we see that Hall and Barrett referred to the fact  that the differences in architecture in the city relates to different meaning and different types of attachment  As seen with the Nicholas  Tower, people's attachment to this building would be based on the perceived idea of development within the city. Also with the older or "historical" building, people would have strong feelings based on memories or feelings they have attached to this place. 

You can take a look at this link, it gives good insight to protecting historical buildings within urban spaces and some cases studies are included, really interesting stuff 

 http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/urbanbuildings/urbanbuildings.htm

The first part of this article also gives some good insight into meaning of older or historical buildings in cities.

http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/newsletters/26_2/contemporary.html

This link is very interesting in terms of the first picture as it shows great constrast with an older or historical building surrounding by more modern building in an urban city 

http://www.melbourneplaces.com/melbourne/russell-house-the-oldest-residence-in-melbourne%E2%80%99s-cbd/

MIXTURE OF URBAN ARCHITECTURE 

This is a picture of Port of Spain, it was taken in front of city Gate, one of the main points of entry into this city. This picture depicts a mixture of different architecture within the urban space and the different buildings all have different meaning to different people and also serve different purposes within the city. As seen in the picture, there are some newer and more "trendy" building within the city as seen by the glass building in the centre of the picture for example.In the picture there are also some older buildings as seen by the more shorter buildings. The mixture of architecture within this urban space could be based on history, for example one of the Tatil buildings on the left side of the was one of the first building of that size to be built, this give a historical meaning to the building. Within this picture, one can see the different meanings of attachments of the different building based on the type of architectural design.       

 

According to Truman Hartshorn, there is a presence of strong emotions for a particular site due to some attachment or identity we have with a particular location. According to Hall and Barrett, urban buildings can be considered cultural relics and also show levels of consumption within the city. 

You can also take a look at this study that was done about a similar topic:

http://fspu.uitm.edu.my/cebs/images/stories/ajebs12may2010c5.pdf

REFERENCES

Hall,Tim and Heather Barrett. Urban Geography. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print 

Hartshorn, Truman. Interpreting the City: An Urban Geography. United States of America: John Wiley and Sons, 1980. Print 

 

INTRODUCTION

I know that architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as I was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived. so architecture I know to be a Great Spirit (Frank Lloyd Wright (1939 in Brooks et al. 1987: 7)

As the urban environment expands, the architecture of a city becomes increasingly apparent. Some urban environments incorporate the old architecture of a city with new and improved designs so as to keep the meaning of some of these buildings .These building not only contain beauty but also have some sort of meaning attached to them, be it cultural or strictly for commercial purposes. However the combination of the new and the old can either be gruesome or contain beauty. 

This blog focuses on the different architectural designs of an urban environment and explains the percieved meaning attached to these buildings. Do these buildings have any meaning attached to them at all???