Four Takeaways from Chip Piatti's "Language of Architecture" Lecture

Last Saturday Professor Chip Piatti spoke to a full house about the "Language of Architecture."  Here are some of the things that stood out to me in the context of Historic Salem's mission to preserve historic resources and ensure that new construction fits in the historic context.

#1 - When you build you change the environment three ways:

          1-You change the location you are building in.
          2-You process resources into building materials. 
          3-You change the location that the materials come from.

How does this relate to our historic city?  The intersection of preservation and sustainability is greatly underappreciated in the United States.  In Britain, for example, these two disciplines are grouped together under the name “conservation” with specialties in heritage conservation, landscape conservation, or biodiversity conservation.  

​Without discounting the negative effect humans can have on the environment we have to acknowledge that we are nevertheless part of the environment.  Our bodies are made of the same carbons that birds and beaver are made of, and just like them, we build shelter and edifice, which then becomes part of our built environment, nestled in our natural environment.  Throughout Professor Piatti’s talk he referenced our human connection to the environment, pointing out that one part of a successful city or building is having a connection to the environment.
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But back to the intersection of preservation and sustainability.  When one makes the effort to build something it should balance positive and negative impacts to the environment (natural and civic).  It is particularly critical to acknowledge the overall and long-term environmental impact of extracting, processing, shipping and disposal of materials. This seems like a great time to mention that the greenest building is the one already built -- reusing a building results in dramatically less change to the current environment, less need to create new materials (or dispose of old) and less change to the places from which materials originate.

"The greenest building is the one...that is already built."
          - Carl Elefante, AIA, LEED AP

#2 Architecture is the intersection of art and engineering – and -
#3 The basic elements of architecture begin to form a language of architecture.    

​Architecture is the intersection of art and engineering.  Much of the engineering aspect of architecture relates to the structure.  Much of the art of architecture is the application or manipulation of cultural associations.  Once could argue that “good” architecture is the successful combination of a functional yet beautiful structure with edifying or educational ties to a shared culture.  

Professor Piatti laid out some rules that begin to form the “Language of Architecture,” a logical metaphor because language itself is a basis of culture.  All architecture, he says, uses the interplay of solids and voids; enclosure, the surface of the building; massing, often within a hierarchy of primary and secondary; and volume.  As a community we are all trained in a similar architectural language, by virtue of our existing in a shared space.  Of course, how one uses language can vary widely with a range of style (perhaps acting as a regional accent), intent (poetry, prose, technical) and of course eloquence.

In practical application, let’s consider the use of solids and void.  The exterior of a building gives us a clue about the interior organization, for example window and pilaster locations hint of where walls or columns fall within a building.  When this is done well it feels satisfying to us as observers and users. 

Similarly, massing and volume can give us clues to the type of building we are entering. We use shape and size to understand if a building is a church, a house, a store, a civic space.  Certainly, there is room for creativity in our use of architectural language, but poetry results from masterful use of language, not haphazard assembly of words.  When structure doesn’t relate to façade, when cultural association gives us false or vague information about a building the result is architectural cacophony.

#4 Good cities, like good buildings, have three characteristics:

          1 – Sense of arrival
          2 – Sense of identity/place (unique look or place centric design)
          3 – Sense of connection to the environment.
 
Speaking of the use of language, what does “good” mean as it relates to architecture or city design?  Certainly, this is a subjective discussion, but I think that Prof. Piatti’s outline of a good city or building is something many of us would relate to when we consider our existence in the built environment.  Below are examples of each characteristic in a range of scales.

Sense of Arrival

Sense of Identity or Place

Sense of Connection to the Environment