In the text of (Saint Jerome , The desert .. the study ) , Alison Smithson showed a duality in approaching St.Jerome . A duality through the back and forth movement between environment and education , civilization and desert . Smithson discussed the pictures that was done in the renaissance that talked about the life of St. Jerome, and this illustration showed the importance of learning from the environment as a sociological fusion as well as elements in terms of harmony in nature . St.Jerome who traveled to explore has his pictures drawn in the era of exploration and the evolution , and in the renaissance years . Alison Smith showed the importance of the role of the Saint as his life is inspiring and how he lives a nude life and how this nudity leads to exploration and knowledge . Moreover , the text itself shows a continuous sequence about changes through out history and that currently we are going back to the idea of environment and fusion between sustainability , education , and society.
Overall View !
Since their presence on Earth, human being tried to adapt with the environment to maintain their survival. Materials, weather condition, food, location, protection … all were important elements to achieve this continuity. In this cycle architecture was an important theme in terms of developing this relationship between human and environment , exploring new concept like (inside, outside, shelter , individuality as well as gathering information and apply them to their current conditions . On the tributaries of Mesopotamia, people developed structures based from their available bamboo trees to form a shelter . There was were the idea of Iwan was developed and used in many places across Mesopotamia and Persia . Consuming environment in that time was a matter to construct and to survive , and within this stereotype architecture was evolved and developed (from a drawing to a building) and from a shelter to a village .Religion , Ethics , and spiritual thoughts was always in parallel with Architecture , not only in terms of constructing temples , churches , mosques and religious buildings , but also in terms of how a life of priest , saint or a prophet influenced later on architects and painters that always illustrated drawings about the coherence between saints and religion with environment and its resources . Saint Jerome (The Desert … The Study – Alison Smithson ) text about painting the life of St.Jerome reveals the importance of the civilization in studies as well as the importance of knowledge and exploration .
During the middle ages , architects , painters , and researches explored other continents and advanced their studies to integrate in in Architecture as well as other topics , yet these development lead to a fusion of industrial movement (industrial revolution ) that consumed most of the earth’s renewable and non renewable sources to integrate it with all kinds of daily life and non daily life products . Architecture as well had its switch after industrial Revolution and that was obvious in the art noveau as well as the communist movement and current contemporary designs. Contemporary architecture is towards more green . Green in terms of preserving nature, going back to the elements in nature , its considerable ideology that goes back and forth between early ages and current time .
In conclusion , availability of materials was then in the early ages a concern to spontaneous design , which means that people are obliged to use materials from where they live , but now and after all these revolutions and changes , architecture is going back to the idea of purism and self-sufficiency through eco-friendly approaches and how architects with their designs can integrate more the technology we achieved in an eco-futuristic approach .
by Mohamad Yassin