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New Village of Gourna and Vitruvius’s Three Architectural qualities
New Village of Gourna and Vitruvius’s Three Architectural qualities
From his book Architecture for the Poor, the village of Gourna is one of Fathy’s most renowned projects in the world as the book primarily focuses on the tragic history of the village. The village was partially built in the mid 1940s following the need for government to resettle a whole community of entrepreneurs living on pharaoh tombs from Luxur and help in solving the rural housing problem that affected the government’s operations in the country. Even though the village of Gourna is significant for for its tragic history, the architectural design of the village compounds its significance as one of the renowned architectural designs in the world.
As the father of sustainable architecture in the Middle East, Fathy’s Gourna village is his major representation of respect for traditional and sustainable architectural designs characteristic of the country’s poor population. He distasted western architectural techniques and materials used in construction such as steel and concrete because they were not suitable to the country’s climate and the limited skills of craftsmen at that time. Majority of his architectural designs resembled the Nubian’s vernacular architecture whose houses were popular for their vaulted and domed roofs of mud and brick. Moreover, mud bricks were also used in making walls and were considered suitable due to low costs and environmental conditions in the Upper regions of Egypt.
The Gourna Village is one of the most popular housing projects in Egypt and the world due to Fathy’s vision of the village contained in his book Architecture for the Poor. His designs relied on orientation, local materials, ventilation, traditional building methods, and energy preservation techniques that were inevitable to consider in a country like Egypt. He mentions in his book that the Gourna village though not seen to completion was not an experiment, but the establishment was a social construction based on the culture and tradition of Egyptians.
The Gourna village is an indication that attractive compositions and forms are determined by the nature of architecture used in the construction process. When discussing the nature of Architecture, Roth utilizes Roman architect Vitruvius three architectural qualities to use when determining the nature of an architectural design. According to Vitruvius, an architectural design must possess firmness, commodity, and delight qualities to sustain the high standards of architectural design. Vitrivius alleged that architecture was a replication of nature, and humans needed to construct their houses and buildings from natural materials and elements provided by the earth. This echoes Fathy’s arguments for basing the architectural design of Gourna village on indigenous vernacular architect, which utilized the natural elements provided by nature in designing the village.
Firstly, a good architectural design had to be firm. Firmness is related to the structural resilience of the architectural design. The design of a building or house must be durable and show signs of performance for the outlined purpose. Moreover Vitruvius insisted that the materials used in constructing a house or building must also be durable. Therefore the three qualities ensure that a building is firm to sustain its operations.
However, even though a building may portray firmness, it may fail to achieve its purpose if it does not offer utility to the people who inhabit it. Vitruvius insisted that an architectural design chosen for a building or a house had to match the functionality. Moreover, it had to consider the unique needs and desires of the population inhabiting it. For a building to achieve the quality of utility, it had to be useful to all the intended people or purposes and demonstrate its ability to satisfy their needs and desires.
Finally, the quality of beauty is insisted by Vitruvius as integral when considering the nature of an architectural design. It is beauty that separates architecture from engineering as the architectural design offers visual and sensory appeal, which Vitruvius referred to as architectural delight. Using the design principles of proportion, contrast, and harmony, beauty should change the utilitarian purpose of a building and make it pleasing to the eyes, ears, and mind. This will make it express pleasure and approval for its intended purpose. According to him, the difference between a good and great architectural design is the skill to craft a stylish solution to the delight of a user.
Through the prominence of his book Architecture for the Poor, many scholars in the world are astonished by the architectural vision that Fathy had for the new Village of Gourna, which he had perfectly designed to suit the needs of the population that was being resettled from Luxur. Many argue that even though the housing project was not completed due to lack of political will during emergence and spread of politics of modernity in Egypt, the village was a successful architectural design done by Hassan Fathy. The village and its various attributes are considered one of the most attractive architectural designs in Egypt and portray the three qualities of a successful design proposed by Vitruvius.
On the quality of utility, Fathy ensured that the houses making the village of new Gourna were designed according to the varying needs and desires of the community inhabiting old Gourna. As a result, he employed a social worker as his partner to interview and incorporate the opinions of villagers about their needs for a house design. It is through participatory planning and the need for resettlement structures by the government that influenced Fathy’s plan for new Gourna and the manner he designed each house. In order to ensure preservation of temperatures in the country, Fathy adopted the three Nubian vernacular architectural essentials of altering perceived temperatures. His houses were common for their courtyards that had breezy pierced walls, carved window screens that provided ventilation, and wind catch that were forgotten, but appropriate technologies in the modern industrial era. Even though many in the modern world attribute these technologies to poverty and traditional eras, they present the distinctive Arab and Egyptian architecture adopted from the desert that nationalism in the country ignored in favor of the industrial west.
The inner courtyard has been the most efficient form of air conditioning in conventional desert architecture. Its property of trapping cool air at night and releasing during the day to the other rooms in the claustra ensures that high temperatures of the day are controlled. Another air conditioning technique was in the mud bricks that were used in building the roofs and walls of traditional houses and the many shrubs, trees, and other plants, which assisted in cleaning the air to protect people from dusty winds.
Fathy’s architectural design of the Gourna village also satisfies Vitruvius quality of firmness making them one of the successful housing projects in Egypt and across the world. His choice of traditional building materials such as adobe in constructing houses in the village portrayed the firmness of the structures proposed in the village. Through the instruction of soil-mechanics specialists and structural engineers, he turned dried mud bricks and reinforced them with straw to make adobe that was used for constructing the walls and roofs of buildings. His passion for adobe was the ability of the building material to last for millennia, but also because of its thermal qualities, which would readily solve the problem of high temperatures in the country. Many of the structures in Egypt built using adobe are more than three thousand years old. Moreover, the building material was readily available and fitted the architecture of his buildings as adobe was not appropriate for houses with straight lines and right angles, which Fathy did not intend to built in the new village of Gourna.
The architectural design of the new village of Gourna is a representation of the Arab and Egyptian cultures, and their historical connection to the cultures and traditions of the desert people. As the country moved towards modernism, the Egyptians easily identified with the industrial west, which introduced modern western architectural techniques and building materials. This was witnessed in the lack of political will to implement the housing project. However, the beauty of the new village of Gourna is reflected in the unique Arab and Egyptian architectural designs, which characterizes various attributes of the village. Its beauty is boosted as Fathy designed it to serve as a tourist attraction town in the Lower Egypt valley as many tourists would arrive to seek its rich ancient Egyptian history.
New Trend Report
New Trend Report
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New Trending Report
The emergence of social media, autonomous internet access, and the increase of tablets and smartphones have changed the demands and anticipations of media users. The outcome is an astonishing variety of new digital products and services, which function and exist as new trends. As the emerging media introduce new features and change their algorithm, social media trends similarly undergo an evolution. This paper aims to educate, inform, and report on one of the lasted new trends hitting the industry in social media and emerging data.
Virtual reality is one of the new trends hitting the industry and the emerging media. In overview, virtual reality signifies a computer-generated environment with objects and scenes that appear to be real, making the user feel they are immersed in their surroundings. A device known as a Virtual Reality headset is normally used to perceive this environment. Virtual reality happens to be the future of social media in a way that not only can individuals enrich existing friendships, but they can also make new friends through the ever-growing catalog of social Virtual Reality experiences (Anbarjafari et al., 2017). Virtual social media users can possibly create avatars and then put on headsets to walk around customized virtual worlds, play games, meet up with friends, explore other users’ published worlds, or build places they want to visit. For instance, perceiving Virtual Reality as the future of social media interaction, Facebook acquired Oculus back in 2014 with an idea to unite the globe in a more consequential way.
After the arrival of virtual reality headsets a few years ago, VR has drawn a lot of attention. The future of Virtual Reality appears limitless, and there is strong interest from individuals across industries and the media (Anbarjafari et al., 2017). The buzz about this new trend started with the introduction of the PC-connected Oculus Rift prototype in 2010. The trend progressed from PC-tethered headsets to console-tethered headsets and mobile-tethered headsets between 2014 and 2017. One common thing is that the buzz surrounding Virtual Reality during 2016 has been inevitable. During this year, the consumers’ headsets were launched, and the market started to shape up. With the release of the Oculus Rift in March 2016, the phase of virtual reality actually commenced (Kruzan & Won, 2019). This new trend has been generating buzz since 1990, but the Oculus Rift was the first high-end virtual reality system to reach the consumer market and delivered the kind of experience consumers had been longing for.
The Facebook brand got everyone’s attention about this new trend. Other virtual reality stocks that have got everyone’s attention about this new trend include Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL), Sony Group Corp. (SONY), and Apple Inc. The worldwide virtual reality market is now witnessing a rise in competitiveness among several corporations. The market comprises several major players, such as Google, Oculus, Samsung, Lenovo, and HTC. The use of virtual reality in the entertainment and sports industry played a big part in getting people’s attention about this new trend. Location-based entertainment, gaming, music, and theatres are expected to witness the benefits of virtual reality technology. People are paying attention to this new trend because it proliferates through different aspects of their lives (Kruzan & Won, 2019). As a result, individuals face very new different ways of communicating with each other in social media and other emerging data. People are also giving this new trend attention because some of the biggest names in smartphones, social media, and consumer electronics gave this trend a major boost in a series of announcements at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Another thing is that virtual reality is breaking investment records and is important to all major players.
Virtual reality is much different from others in the industry. It is different from others in that it can create sensory experiences, including sound, virtual sight, and touch. Apart from being used in the gaming world, it is also being developed by unique Interactive to create virtual representations of architectural designs. It is unique in that it simulates a physical presence in the real world or an illusory world, allowing the user to interact with the world.
Virtual reality can be compared with Augmented Reality and also Mixed Reality. Augmented reality signifies an enhanced version of the physical world that is achieved through using digital visual elements, sound, and sensory stimuli delivered via technology. On the other hand, mixed reality signifies an amalgam of physical and digital worlds, unlocking natural and intuitive 3D human, computer, and environment interactions. The main difference between Virtual reality and augmented reality is that VR entirely takes over the senses and experiences of an individual, whereas AR just adds to real-world experiences. Another thing is that AR uses a real-world setting while VR is entirely virtual. The difference between virtual reality and mixed reality is that VR users have a completely virtual experience. In contrast, mixed reality users interact with virtual elements added to augmented reality users’ real-world experience.
Virtual reality has both pros and cons. Among its pros is that it is innovative and enjoyable, provides realistic scenarios, improves retention and recall, simplifies complex problems or situations, and has little risk. Virtual reality allows users to connect and share on an entirely whole new level. It aids users to meet friends anywhere in the world and share experiences that would not be conceivable in the real world. When it comes to its cons, it is quite expensive, lacks flexibility, it has functionality issues, and it is often an isolating individual experience. It is also a fragmented market and is slow for demos.
One of the examples of how this trend has been used or implemented in the campaign is in the New York Times newspaper. A couple of years ago, the New York Times delivered Google Cardboard glasses to all of their subscribers in order to watch virtual reality movies (Anbarjafari et al., 2017). The result is that the emotional greatness that that this campaign provided viewers reinforced brand loyalty for all three of the products: the New York Times, the glasses, and the featured movies. Some of the lessons learned from this are that virtual reality plays an important part in social media and technology. It plays a part in brand campaigns and marketing. Users are always ready to embrace new technology, and virtual reality develops creativity. Lee at al., (2021) assert that mass communication says virtual reality experiences feel real and appear unmediated. Lastly, constructivism is the underlying learning theory used to discuss this trend. It is a learning theory suggested as an instructional design and development model.
Reference
Anbarjafari, G., Haamer, R. E., Lusi, I., Tikk, T., & Valgma, L. (2017). 3D face reconstruction with region based best fit blending using mobile phone for virtual reality based social media. arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.01089.
Kruzan, K. P., & Won, A. S. (2019). Embodied well-being through two media technologies: Virtual reality and social media. new media & society, 21(8), 1734-1749.
Lee, S. A., Lee, M., & Jeong, M. (2021). The role of virtual reality on information sharing and seeking behaviors. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 46, 215-223.
New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus
New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus
The main reason why Charles C. Mann wrote the book ‘New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus’, was to expose a chain of myths that surrounded the pre Columbian. The author writes that the history they were taught while in school about the pre Columbian America was wrong nearly in every aspect. The author writes that Indians were in Columbia much longer and were there in much greater number than earlier thought. The Indians were so successful at working on the landscape.
Mann tries to come up with three main points, synthesizing decades of academic work on the pre Columbian inhabitants, the effect of the aged world pathogens, animals and plants, migration of the Ice Age, the configuration and fall of complex societies in Mesoamerica, Northern and Southern parts of America and other related topics. The work of Mann is very wide in capacity ranging from space and time from the Ice Age of Beringia to the Amazonia’s 20th century and illustration on the minor literature in archaeology, anthropology and history.
Mann’s book was written to general audience and his conclusions were based on interviews, personal observations and also on academic literatures. Most of Mann’s findings are recognizable to educational historians. The most fascinating features of the Author’s book is how learning in the past twenty and over years had little effects on dispelling the pernicious and tenacious myths of what the Americans were like before the Europeans arrived.
The first asset of the book is its expert preference part, in direct and lucid writing style of the underpinnings of the outlook. The asset of this book also shows how the thoughtful Indians known as the Paleo hippies deprives the Europeans of the human agencies they are always thought of possessing. Mann clearly states that the great collapse of the population was due to disastrous decisions on the roles that were played by the leaders. The Indians begun to experience pathogens like drought immediately they sited accountability in the hands of the Europeans.
The other asset of the book to scholars who have the Atlantic belt is the balance it creates between the civilizations of Mesoamerican and the Northern and southern America. The Europeans reached in the landscape when their population had already gone down. The third asset is where Mann summarizes the tense and dense scholarly arguments that surround his various subjects and the implications these subjects have on the today’s political questions. For example, the author argues that the presence of the large Columbian population that was at the centre of the Amazon lead to the constant expansion of the area and has posed destructive effects to the region’s ecosystem. The Indians, Europeans and Americans were very wasteful.
The book is very important especially for undergraduate classes because it works as means of introducing scholars to the expansive implications and minutia and of educational debates. Mann makes interesting assertions on food and food production. The author claims that the first cities in America dating from 3000 years B.C were on the Peruvian coast and one of them was Norte Chico. Mann dismisses the connection between the complex, urbanization and Neolithic Revolution societies that are found in most of the world civilization books. Notre Chico was not interested in food crops because they fed on prolific fish that came from the Humboldt Current therefore cultivated only cotton.
The other food related point in the book is the cultivation of maize and the combinations of beans, squash and maize from both horticultural and nutritional perspective. This theme of this story is an assertion that the New and the Old world were equal in their accomplishment, population and civilization. In the author’s view, the unexplained and unexpected difficult progression whereby maize was hereditarily engineered from discouraging and ambiguous wild grass makes it an artistic accomplishment on same level with those of traditional and antique Eurasian civilizations.
The most striking and unfamiliar assertion in the book is the confirmation for numerous inhabitants centers that were found in Amazon. The author argues that the region had a large population because of the type of the soil found in there which is known as terra preta. The soil is enriched with charcoal therefore more durable and fertile as compared to the acidic soil found in the rain forest.
The author of the book has a marvelous eye for detail and imagery. The suggestion that the Europeans got into a world that was distorted by diseases attacking non local plants and animals is outdated. The evidence of an ecology that was thrown out of balance and the newest way to articulate the point are the images that were used by the Europeans to express the recompense of the American continent like, the boundless herds of bison and the enormous flocks of traveler pigeons.
Despite these virtues, there are boundaries in the attempt to cover so much in single volume. In his comparison of Eurasian and American civilizations, the author is very fast in seizing the dimension of cities and the probable populations so as to compare them. During his comparison, Mann is slow in stressing that London and Cahokia played very different roles.
The final section of the book is very disappointing. In the section, the author describes how the Europeans observation of and interaction with five or six nations stimulated the Americans morals of freedom and person autonomy. The author ropes his element by pointing out that the English settlers always ran off to reside with the Indians during the early time of settlement.
Mann incorrectly assumes that the white Indians were primarily drawn by entice of Iroquois traditions and those in Plymouth were likely to flee hunger. There were no Indians who ran away to unite with the Haudenosaunee: English who were in England were terrified by the Mohawks as they regarded them as the as fierce cannibals while those in Jamestown were far away. Some Indians were captured and Mann tries to explain why most of the captives were unwilling to return from the French families. Mann outlines another scholarly controversy which is known in other word as the Iroquois influence thesis.
The author outlines the scholarly controversy and for the first time, exclusive of naming it or acknowledging the fact that there are wiles on both the sides of the matter. In this section, the author abandons the important distinction between later reminiscences and the first hand accounts. The members of the Tea Party in Boston famed themselves as the Mohawks and not because they had affirmed themselves as rebels but because they wanted to depict themselves as Americans. The moment Indians stopped playing vital role in daily lives, source of food, esteemed allies and feared enemies, many writers came up who wanted to right about them concerning misinformed motivation.