6. Context

Context

Context in architectural design refers to the variety of cultural, precedential, and locational factors about a project’s site that influence its design. For example, one is more likely to see a building designed to look like a log cabin in a heavily forested mountain region than to see one be a beachfront property on the ocean. Precedential context would occur in the emulation of specific precedents in a design. My collage of the SIS building in London with the Temple of Kukulcan in Mexico shows this by combining a premodern precedent with a modern building. From this, one can see the similarities and how the SIS building plays with the pyramid’s original design. Cultural context is a little different, though, and can be much more widespread. Established norms about building construction can lead to a building’s forms being designed in a certain way. The Al-Farooq Mosque in Atlanta, Georgia, uses the architectural details and shapes used in mosques in the Middle East and North Africa and brings it across the world to the United States to keep that connection with hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world. Thus context can even be influential in a building’s forms from thousands of miles away.

From top to bottom:

The exterior of the Al-Farooq Mosque in Atlanta, Georgia designed by EDT Construction. Photo from EDT Construction.

A collage I made of the SIS building in London with an image of the Temple of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza.