[MUSIC] In our last video, we introduced you to form and space which are basic elements of visual composition. Now, before we start showing you how you manipulate these elements by using the principles of visual composition. Let's just stop for a moment and consider what forms and spaces can be like because very often these mere properties of form and space can affect our perception and evoke feelings or even meanings, symbolical meanings. So, let's just consider what form and spaces can be like. Let's start with forms and let's start with the most obvious property which is the shape. In general, in architecture we would consider that forms can be either geometric or organical. Now, let's see if you can see which is which. I imagined that, you could just realize, just by looking at them, that the geometrical forms are the ones that are derived from a simple geometrical figure, such as cubes and spheres. While organical forms are more, sort of, smooth and unpredictable and as you already see all around you, it's the geometrical forms has been pretty dominant in architecture throughout the ages. And there are practical uses for that because it's much easier to build a straight walls than curved walls. And also obviously, we will always need horizontals to walk in or vertical surfaces to hang our works of arts. But we can see in recent years emergence of more sort of organic architecture. And the reasons for that is the technology have been developed so it's getting even easier to explore let's say, form in more free way. Second important property when talking about form is material, what these forms are actually made of. In architecture, probably the most important characteristic of materials is and most obvious one is transparency. Because transparent materials connects spaces visually where opaque materials separates spaces. But there's also another way that materials speaks to us and it's by inducing the feelings of likeness and heaviness. Let's consider two different houses, both of them made of stone and glass. First house has a base of stone and then the upper part made of glass, while the second house has it in reverse, the bottom part in glass and the top part made of stone. Now in the first house, we see that if the composition feels natural because the bottom part made of stone almost blends in with the ground. And then the upper part made of glass feels very light almost as if it's taking off. On the other hand, we take a look at a house that has the bottom part made of glass. We feel that the part of the stone which is hovering above their glass makes some sort of feeling of heaviness, as everything was going to crumple and fall down which, not necessarily needs to be a bad thing. If this feel of tension is something that we want to create then we might want to use this sort of composition which is, let's say top heavy. This is the Form, the shape I'm going to give you of the Forum. Let's just consider also the properties of space that are really important for our psychology of our perception. Most important properties of space are the size and proportion. That is very common sense. Let's consider our houses. We know this thing that the better house is the bigger house. And so the bigger, for example, our living room is the more comfort we will have. And that's true, but only to a certain point because if our living room becomes as big as an airplane hanger, then we will feel a strong discomfort because we will feel small. And humble, in the middle of such a big space which is not something that for we want to feel in our, in our house. So important things to consider when we think about size is the size, of the space you create should always relate to the activities that take place there. So such a huge place for living room is not good, but for example, if we consider things like temples, which are always big. The big spaces is actually producing this feeling of humbleness which is good because then we have a feeling that we're facing something bigger than ourselves. So again, consider the size of the space according to the activity that you want to put in there. Same thing goes with the proportion. If we talk about temples, they are often, we can see that the proportion of these spaces, are very, let's say, vertical. And this verticality invokes in us feelings of awe or aspiration to something bigger, again bigger than ourselves, or something divine. But these same kind of proportions in a small space induce completely different feelings. So for example, if we have a small room with really high ceilings, we would feel very intense discomfort, because we will feel trapped. And, in fact, in a small room, high ceilings can work even worse than low ceilings, because as we see more of walls, we feel more entrapped and limited. So when you consider designing the spaces, I would advise that you should always consider size and proportion at the same time. Because they are interrelated and the same proportions can cause different feelings depending on the size of the space. Finally, let's just mention something that's very obvious, that in architecture we deal with interior and exterior spaces. So interior spaces are those that are limited by walls, exterior walls and roofs, while exterior spaces are everything that exists around the buildings that we create. When you consider exterior space, you always must take a look at the environment because it's not only our building that creates space. Exterior spaces are created by the communication and visual relationships between what we create and what's already there around the building. One very important and less thought of kind of space that exists between interior and exterior space is a transition space that acts as called threshold space. The threshold space is as a transition position between interior and exterior and it's something we can consider it's not completely space that is completely enclosed like an interior. But it's not completely open, so it's something maybe a kind of space that might have sort of a roof but it doesn't have walls, or it has walls but it doesn't have roof. This threshold or traditional space is really important point of interest for architects because this transition between the exterior and the interior where that's really affects the way we perceive architecture. If we have just, a facade with a door and no transitional space. We feel like sort of abrupt feeling of disconnection even between interiors and exteriors. And that's why these threshold spaces are often the focal point of architecture because they make our experience of space much richer. So now, that you know what from the space can look like, let just move into principles, and we'll show you how to deal with form space to create works of art. [MUSIC]
