22. Transformation

Movement

One primarily experiences architecture by moving through it. Movement in architecture is the dynamic change in a building’s essential forms due to movement through it. In my formal analysis of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, the pathway to the central chamber becomes a dynamic journey through analyzing its formal organization. The large front doors lead to a long and thin entrance room that goes into the rectangular gridded area, which comprises the lead up to the main area and builds suspense by making the column spacing slightly larger right before the center room. This center room is then enormous by comparison of the previous rooms and is square with a circular dome above it. Through formal organization, the process of moving through the building creates a dynamic sense of drama that builds until one reaches the center where St. Peter’s tomb is. Another example is a slightly more static idea where a specific movement decides the arrangement of geometries for the rest of the building. In the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, the atrium contains ramps that lead between floors and define the rest of the building’s forms, which are based around it. Thus circular movement upward influences the building’s form, showing how circulation through a building can define form.

Clockwise from the top right:

A formal analysis I did of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

The interior atrium of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Designed by Richard Meier and Partners. Photo by Tarawa.