Ancient Arcitecture essays

Ancient Arcitecture essays Looking around Eugene, one can see the obvious heritage of architectural ideas. There are domes, fluted pillars, arches, and many other styles that were originally conceived in the ancient world. The influence of Greece, Rome, and the Renaissance can be seen literally everywhere. One place these ideas come together is the facade of the Christian Church at 1166 Oak, between 11th and 12th Street. The front of the building would make any citizen of ancient Athens feel at home. The wide steps rise up to the stately row of Doric columns, which support a beautiful cornice and pediment that could have been found on a temple in any Greek city-state. There is a sense of balance and harmony. Of course, a person from ancient Greece would wonder why the building is painted white, when all the statues and public buildings of his time were painted in vivid colors. When the people in the Renaissance time revived the Greek and Roman ideas of architecture, they added to it the mathematics derived from Newton and Galileo. Because of the newfound knowledge, engineers could calculate the stress and strain that they put on pillars and domes. This allowed much more accurate building of large spaces. Therefore, it is not unusual to see a dome rising behind such a Greek facade like it does on the Oak Street church. Christopher Wren, the Renaissance designer of St. Pauls Cathedral in London, was one of the first to face the challenge of a large dome in the center of a church. The dome that is the main feature of the church in Eugene is following in this pattern. It is interesting to speculate why this style of building was used on structures that have been built so long after the original impulse. I think that it is because the buildings like this church give an air of solidity and steadfastness in a hectic western town like Eugene, which has very little history of its own. Compared to the thousands of years that the Greeks and Roman buildings h...

Ross Barnett, Segregationist Governor of Mississippi

Ross Barnett, Segregationist Governor of Mississippi Ross Barnett (January 22, 1898–November 6, 1987) served one term as Mississippis governor, but he remains as one of the states most well-known chief executives due in large part to his willingness to imprison civil rights protesters, defy federal law, incite insurrection, and function as a mouthpiece for the Mississippi white supremacist movement. Despite the jingle used by his supporters during his anti-integration years (Ross is standing like Gibraltar; / he will never falter), Barnett was, in reality, always willing to harm others to advance his own political interests when it was safe to do so, but surprisingly docile and submissive when the possibility emerged that he might himself have to spend time in prison. Fast Facts: Ross Barnett Known For: 53rd governor of Mississippi who clashed with civil rights activists and tried to bar James Meredith, an African-American, from enrolling at the University of MississippiBorn:  January 22, 1898, in Standing Pine, MississippiParents: John William, Virginia Ann Chadwick BarnettDied: November 6, 1987, in Jackson, MississippiEducation: Mississippi College (graduated, 1922), Mississippi Law School (LLB, 1929)Awards and Honors: Mississippi Bar Association president (elected 1943)Spouse: Pearl Crawford  (m. 1929–1982)Children: Ross Barnett Jr., two daughtersNotable Quote: I have said in every county in Mississippi that no school in our state will be integrated while I am your governor. I repeat to you tonight: no school in our state will be integrated while I am your governor. There is no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived social integration. We will not drink from the cup of genocide. Early Years and Education Barnett was born on January 22, 1898, in Standing Pine, Mississippi, the youngest of 10 children of John William Barnett, a  Confederate  veteran, and Virginia Ann Chadwick. Barnett served in the U.S. Army during World War I. He then worked a series of odd jobs while attending Mississippi College in Clinton before earning a degree from the school in 1922. He later attended the University of Mississippi Law School and graduated with an LLB in 1929, the same year he married schoolteacher Mary Pearl Crawford. They eventually had two daughters and a son. Law Career Barnett started his law career with relatively minor cases. I represented a man in a replevin case for a cow and actually won it, he told the University of Southern Mississippis Center for Oral History Cultural Heritage. He paid me $2.50. (Replevin refers to a legal action whereby a person seeks to have his property returned to him.) In his second case, Barnett represented a woman suing for the cost of a side saddle ($12.50), which had been taken by her ex-husband. He lost that case. Despite this early setback, during the course of the next quarter-century, Barnett became one of the states most successful trial lawyers, earning more than $100,000 per year, funds that would later help him launch his political career. In 1943, Barnett was elected president of the Mississippi Bar Association and served in that post until 1944. Early Politics Barnetts older brother Bert actually sparked Ross Barnetts interest in politics. Bert Barnett was twice elected to the position of chancery clerk of Leake County, Mississippi. He then successfully ran for a state senate seat representing Leake and Neshoba counties. Ross Barnett recalled the experience years later: I got to liking politics pretty well, following him around- helping him in his campaigns. Unlike his brother, Barnett never ran for any state or local offices. But with the encouragement of friends and former classmates- and after decades of practicing law and a successful stint overseeing the states bar association- Barnett ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of Mississippi in 1951 and 1955. The third time was a charm, though, and Barnett was elected governor of the state after running on a white separatist platform in 1959. Governorship Barnetts single term as governor was marked by conflicts with civil rights activists who protested in the state. In 1961, he ordered the arrest and detention of approximately 300 Freedom Riders when they arrived in Jackson, Mississippi. He also began secretly funding the White Citizens Council with state money that year, under the auspices of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission. Meredith Crisis In 1962, Barnett tried to prevent the enrollment of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. On September 10 of that year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the university must admit Meredith, an African-American, as a student. On. Sept. 26, Barnett ordered state troopers to prevent Meredith from entering the campus. Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, riots erupted over Merediths pending enrollment. President John F. Kennedy ordered U.S. marshals to Mississippi to ensure Merediths safety and allow him to enter the school. Barnett relented on Oct. 1 after the marshals threatened to arrest him, and Meredith became a student at the school known as Ole Miss. Barnett left office at the end of his term in 1964. Later Years and Death Barnett resumed his law practice after leaving office but stayed active in state politics. During the 1964 trial of Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers murderer Byron de la Beckwith, Barnett interrupted the testimony of Evers widow to shake Beckwiths hand in solidarity, eliminating whatever slim chance there might have been that jurors would have convicted Beckwith. (Beckwith was finally convicted in 1994.) Barnett ran for governor a fourth and final time in 1967 but lost. Years later, in 1983, Barnett surprised many by riding in a Jackson parade commemorating the life and work of Evers. Barnett died on Nov. 6, 1987, in Jackson, Mississippi. Legacy Although Barnett is most remembered for the Meredith crisis, there were several significant economic developments during his administration, David G. Sansing writes on Mississippi History Now. Sansing notes: A series of amendments to the state’s workmen’s compensation law and the enactment of a right to work law, made Mississippi more attractive to outside industry during Barnetts term. Additionally, the state added more than 40,000 new jobs during his four years as governor, which saw the construction of industrial parks throughout the state and the establishment of a Youth Affairs Department under the Agricultural and Industrial Board. But it is the Meredith controversy that will likely forever be most closely linked to Barnetts legacy. Indeed, former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who talked by phone more than a dozen times with Barnett before and during the crisis, drew a crowd of 6,000 students and faculty when he gave a speech at The University of Mississippi in 1996. After poking fun at Barnetts response at the time, Kennedy received a standing ovation. Historian Bill Doyle, the author of  American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962, says that Barnett knew integration was inevitable but needed a way to let Meredith enroll in Ole Miss without losing face with his white, pro-segregation supporters. Doyle said: Ross Barnett desperately wanted the Kennedys to flood Mississippi with combat troops because thats the only way Ross Barnett could tell his white segregationist backers, Hey I did everything I could, I fought them, but to prevent bloodshed, in the end, I made a deal. Sources John F. Kennedy, The Mississippi Crisis, Part 1: The President Calling. American Public Media.Learn About Ross Barnett. Famousbirthdays.com.McMillen, Dr. Neil. â€Å"Oral History with the Honorable Ross Robert Barnett, Former Governor of the State of Mississippi.† The University of Southern Mississippi Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.AP. â€Å"Ross Barnett, Segregationist, Dies; Governor of Mississippi in 1960s.†Ã‚  The New York Times, 7 Nov. 1987.â€Å"Ross Robert Barnett: Fifty-Third Governor of Mississippi: 1960-1964.†Ã‚  Mississippi History Now.

The Korean War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Korean War - Essay Example That policy was reiterated in 1945 at the Yalta Summit. It was further agreed that until Korea became independent, it would be under the joint trusteeship of the United States, China, and the Soviet Union. 1 The world's first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan on 6 August 1945; Russia entered the war on 8 August; and the Japanese surrendered on 14 August. With the sudden and unexpected Japanese surrender, there was great haste to cobble together plans to accept the surrender of Japanese field forces and to disarm them. The opportunistic Soviet declaration of war on Japan, coming two days after the first atomic bomb was dropped, made it necessary to agree on a line of demarcation between the zones within which the United States and the Soviets would accept the Japanese surrender. The U.S. State Department wanted the American zone to be as far north on the mainland of China as possible, including key points in Manchuria. The Army did not want to go into an area where few other forces were close at hand. In the planning for the surrender, two young American colonels, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, from the War Department's Operations and Plans Division (OPD), were assigned the task of findi ng a line. Neither was particularly knowledgeable about Korea or the Far East, although Rusk had served briefly with Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell in China during the war. They retired to an office and pondered over a National Geographic map. The Army wanted to have two ports, Inchon in the north and Pusan in the south. North of Inchon, there did not seem to be any natural geographic division. They settled on the thirty-eighth parallel. The Soviets agreed. Later Rusk learned that in the early 1900s, the Russians and japanese had, initially, proposed the thirty-eighth parallel as the dividing line between their respective spheres of influence. There has since been suspicion that the Soviets took agreement on the thirty-eighth parallel to be an acknowledgment of their historic sphere of influence.2 The U.S. XXIV Corps came ashore at Inchon to carry out the U.S. occupation mission. The Soviet Army moved down from the north, closed on the thirty-eighth parallel, and sealed the border. All subsequent attempts to proceed with a coordinated policy toward Korea failed. The occupation was not a happy task. Lieutenant General John R. Hodges, the XXIV Corps commander, called it the worst job he ever had. The troops disliked it intensely. In Japan, one commander addressed his incoming troops, warning them to behave and saying that they had only three things to fear -- diarrhea, gonorrhea, and Korea. In the south, the Koreans were not willing to wait for "due course" to achieve freedom and independence. They wanted it right away. And there were competing groups of all political stripes ready to take on the job. 3 The wisdom of maintaining American troops in Korea was questioned almost from the very start. To the Joint Chiefs, the troops were needed elsewhere. In the years that followed, with the Cold War becoming more frosty, force levels dropping, and other needs increasing, the question became more urgent. It was not a decision easily made. An ongoing discussion of the subject continued from 1947 to 1949. It revolved around the strategic value of Korea, its political importance, and its importance in contributing to U.S. prestige. In April 1947, the joint Strategic Survey Committee noted, "This is one country within which we alone have for almost two years carried on ideological warfare in direct contact with our ideological opponents so that to lose this battle would be gravely detrimental to the United States prestige and therefore security." 4The State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (prior to the formation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) concluded: ". . . the U.S. cannot

Rewrite article from a quantitative to a qualitative study Essay

Rewrite article from a quantitative to a qualitative study - Essay Example Compounded with the aging population of registered nurse, the problem is yet to be solved. The author identifies high turnover and increased cost of replacement as a major research problem. Current literature contains numerous research articles on job satisfaction. However, most of these literature materials analyze the problem from a business perspective. Although health organizations operate under fundamental business principles, job satisfaction issues require professional analysis. Ideally, the article intends to express severity of the looming nurse’s shortages, determine the leading factors, and hypothesize possible solutions to the nurses’ recruitment and retention question. The author intended to develop sufficient solution to fundamental research questions. Firstly, the author wanted to establish the role of job satisfaction in employee retention. Additionally the article explores the role of workload and incentives on recruitment and retention of specialized n urse. Issues of remuneration and the need to harmonize the salary of nurses with those of other civil servant also featured in the article. The researcher utilized quantitative techniques for (n=62). Questionnaires were the main research tools applied in the research. Samples were drawn from qualified nurse in critical and surgical care units of five Southern States Hospitals that were identified for the study. The researchers distributed 201 questionnaires, of which 121 were considered valid. The nursing job satisfaction scale NJSS was used alongside the questionnaires to gauge the level of satisfaction among nurse (Davis, Ward, Woodall, Shultz, & Davis, 2007). Additionally, other researchers relied on demographic materials to collect essential information. Critical information acquired from demographic materials included level of education, experience, and age and employment status of nurses. Participation in the research was on voluntary basis. This element was essential in ensur ing equal participation of nurses from different specializations. Although the research did not consolidate all possible cases, it achieved a fair coverage. Independent variables in the study included new recruitments, highest attained qualification for nurse, age, and level of incentives. Independent variables included rate of employee’s turnover, new applications and rate of employee retention. The choice of independent and dependent variables favored the research questions. Arguably, the research design allowed the researcher to respond to the initial research questions. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS (Version 14.0). This analysis was conducted using an independent t test to differentiate between surgical and critical unit nurse. The quantitative research did not establish significant differences between critical unit nurses and surgical nurses in terms of job satisfaction. Additionally, the study established that both units experienced equivalent rate of employee turnover. Ideally, job satisfaction among health workers is independent of salary scale and professional level of individual employee. Being a quantitative study the research intended to measure response of independent variable from subsequent changes in independent variables. Alternatively, if the study were qualitative, the researcher would be concerned with change of human behavior from change in each of the

Sexuality in Aubrey Beardsleys Story of Venus and Tannhäuser Essay

Sexuality in Aubrey Beardsley's Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user Aubrey Beardsley wrote The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user during the fin de sià ¨cle, the end of the Victorian Era. This decadent work, following Baudelaire's credo "art for art's sake first of all," portrays sex and sexualities in a playful manner. In addition to mocking conventional Victorian moral codes, and parodying pornographic conventions, The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user also supports Foucault's idea that the Victorian Era witnessed a diffusion of sexualities. The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user was originally toned down and modified for publication in 1897 in The Savoy, a magazine that Beardsley served as art editor, under the title of Under The Hill. According to Stanley Weintraub, Venus and Tannhà ¤user was "the literally undisciplined and Rabelaisian original. But the longer manuscript's [Venus'] first eight chapters had sufficed for only four refashioned chapters of the purified and playfully footnoted Savoy text [Under the Hill]" (168). Venus and Tannhà ¤user is a decadent work, though the term "decadent" is difficult to define. As Elaine Showalter notes, the term had antithetical connotations at the end of the century. On the one hand, it was "the pejorative label applied by the bourgeoisie to everything that seemed unnatural" (169). But artists who embraced decadence as an aesthetic credo " . . .rejected all that was natural and biological in favor of the inner life of art, artifice, sensation and imagination" (170). Heather Henderson and William Sharpe note that these opposing connotations are typically combined in standard definitions of the term, since "In most cases the word [decadent] suggested an ultra-refined sophistication of taste allied wit... ...ory of Venus and Tannhà ¤user." Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890's: An Anthology of British Poetry and Prose. Ed. Karl Beckson. Chicago: Academy, 1981. 9-46. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Vol 1. New York: Vintage, 1978. Gillette, Paul J. Introduction. The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user. By Aubrey Beardsley. New York: Award, 1967. 21-67. Henderson, Heather, and William Sharpe. "Aestheticism, Decadence, and the Fin de Sià ¨cle." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Victorian Age. Ed. Heather Henderson and William Sharpe. New York: Longman, 1999. 1936-1938. Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Sià ¨cle. New York: Penguin, 1990. Weintraub, Stanley. Beardsley: A Biography. New York: Braziller, 1967. Zatlin, Linda G. "Beardsley Redresses Venus." Victorian Poetry 28.3-4 (1990): 111-124. Sexuality in Aubrey Beardsley's Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user Essay Sexuality in Aubrey Beardsley's Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user Aubrey Beardsley wrote The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user during the fin de sià ¨cle, the end of the Victorian Era. This decadent work, following Baudelaire's credo "art for art's sake first of all," portrays sex and sexualities in a playful manner. In addition to mocking conventional Victorian moral codes, and parodying pornographic conventions, The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user also supports Foucault's idea that the Victorian Era witnessed a diffusion of sexualities. The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user was originally toned down and modified for publication in 1897 in The Savoy, a magazine that Beardsley served as art editor, under the title of Under The Hill. According to Stanley Weintraub, Venus and Tannhà ¤user was "the literally undisciplined and Rabelaisian original. But the longer manuscript's [Venus'] first eight chapters had sufficed for only four refashioned chapters of the purified and playfully footnoted Savoy text [Under the Hill]" (168). Venus and Tannhà ¤user is a decadent work, though the term "decadent" is difficult to define. As Elaine Showalter notes, the term had antithetical connotations at the end of the century. On the one hand, it was "the pejorative label applied by the bourgeoisie to everything that seemed unnatural" (169). But artists who embraced decadence as an aesthetic credo " . . .rejected all that was natural and biological in favor of the inner life of art, artifice, sensation and imagination" (170). Heather Henderson and William Sharpe note that these opposing connotations are typically combined in standard definitions of the term, since "In most cases the word [decadent] suggested an ultra-refined sophistication of taste allied wit... ...ory of Venus and Tannhà ¤user." Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890's: An Anthology of British Poetry and Prose. Ed. Karl Beckson. Chicago: Academy, 1981. 9-46. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Vol 1. New York: Vintage, 1978. Gillette, Paul J. Introduction. The Story of Venus and Tannhà ¤user. By Aubrey Beardsley. New York: Award, 1967. 21-67. Henderson, Heather, and William Sharpe. "Aestheticism, Decadence, and the Fin de Sià ¨cle." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Victorian Age. Ed. Heather Henderson and William Sharpe. New York: Longman, 1999. 1936-1938. Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Sià ¨cle. New York: Penguin, 1990. Weintraub, Stanley. Beardsley: A Biography. New York: Braziller, 1967. Zatlin, Linda G. "Beardsley Redresses Venus." Victorian Poetry 28.3-4 (1990): 111-124.

Holidays & Christmas Carnivals Essay

It is hard to find someone, who does not like Christmas. This is one of the most favorite holidays, when families get together, decorate the house, install Christmas tree, prepare some favorite meals, or even arrange parties. And, of course, give and receive presents! I had many interesting celebrations of Christmas, which were different from each other. Once in primary school we arranged a Christmas carnival. There was a beautiful Christmas tree, a lot of delicious meals and music, and, of course, Santa Claus with his presents for every child. Once, on the day before the Christmas my parents decided to make some huge shopping. We bought full truck of the things for house, starting from armchairs, kitchenware, and ending with decorations. So we spent all the Christmas vacations enjoying our new stuff and arranging it. In my secondary school times I had a table mate, who happened to break her leg right on the eve of Christmas. So I bought some presents and chocolates for her, and went to the hospital to bring some happiness to that girl, whose family was rather poor. When I was 14, we went to my aunt’s place for Christmas. I spent some great time there, because I like my cousins very much and we always have a lot of fun together. We played games and had some amazing night forest hike in Christmas night. Two years later the family of my aunt joined my family in celebrating Christmas. So together with my cousins we went to a bowling club and had amazing evening of playing bowling. I proved to be really good in that! And then we had a good party at home again. Once, before having traditional Christmas family gathering, we went to a music club with my friends. There a female band named Rockland Ladies played live. That was impressive: we were dancing and having pretty good time! The last Christmas I spent in a ski mountain camp with my university friends. We went to one of the ski resorts in Colorado and had some great Christmas vacations on the opened air! I think that it is wonderful to celebrate Christmas holiday in a new way every year. That is how I can recreate myself, have some perfect rest and get ready for a new year, and also receive many positive emotions and different unforgettable impressions. Bibliography: †¢ â€Å"Christmas. † Christmas Carnivals. Compare Infobase Pvt. Ltd. 3 Nov. 2005 .

Parametricism The House Style of the Future

What will our houses look like in the 21st century? Will we revive traditional styles like Greek Revivals or Tudor Revivals? Or, will computers shape tomorrows homes? Pritzker Laureate Zaha Hadid and her longtime design partner Patrik Schumacher have pushed the boundaries of design for many years. Their residential building for CityLife Milano is curvaceous and,  some would say, outrageous. How did they do it? Parametric Design Most everyone uses computers these days, but designing exclusively with computer programming tools has been a huge leap in the architecture profession. Architecture has moved from CAD to BIM — from simplified Computer Aided Design to its more complex progeny, Building Information Modeling. Digital architecture is created by manipulating information. What information does a building have? Buildings have measurable dimensions — height, width, and depth. Change the dimensions of these variables, and the object changes in size. Besides walls, floors, and roofing, buildings have doors and windows that can have either fixed dimensions or adjustable, variable dimensions. All of these building components, including the nails and screws, have relationships when they are put together. For example, a floor (whose width might be static or not) might be at a 90 degree angle to the wall, but the depth length may have a range of measurable dimensions, arcing to form a curve. When you change all of these components and their relationships, the object changes form. Architecture is made up of many of these objects, put together with theoretically endless but measurable symmetry and proportion. Different designs in architecture come about by changing the variables and parameters that define them. Daniel Davis, a senior researcher at a BIM consultancy, defines parametric within the context of digital architecture, as a type of geometric model whose geometry is a function of a finite set of parameters. Parametric Modeling Design ideas are visualized through models. Computer software using algorithmic steps can quickly manipulate design variables and parameters — and display / graphically model the resultant designs — faster and easier than humans can by hand drawings. To see how its done, check out this YouTube video from sg2010, the 2010 Smart Geometry conference in Barcelona. The best laymans explanation Ive found comes from PC Magazine: ...a parametric modeler is aware of the characteristics of components and the interactions between them. It maintains consistent relationships between elements as the model is manipulated. For example, in a parametric building modeler, if the pitch of the roof is changed, the walls automatically follow the revised roof line. A parametric mechanical modeler would ensure that two holes are always one inch apart or that one hole is always offset two inches from the edge or that one element is always half the size of another. — from Definition of: parametric modeling from PCMag Digital Group, accessed January 15, 2015 Parametricism Patrik Schumacher, with Zaha Hadid Architects since 1988, coined the term parametricism to define this new type of architecture — designs arising from algorithms used to define shapes and forms. Schumacher says that all elements of architecture are becoming parametrically malleable and thus adaptive to each other and to the context. Instead of aggregating a few platonic solids (cubes, cylinders etc.) into simple compositions  Ã¢â‚¬â€ like all other architectural styles did for 5000 years  Ã¢â‚¬â€ we are now working with inherently variable, adaptive forms that aggregate into continuously differentiated fields or systems. Multiple systems are correlated with each other and with the environment....Parametricism is the most potent movement and avant-garde style in architecture today. — 2012, Patrik Schumacher, Interview On Parametricism Some of the Software Used for Parametric Design GenerativeComponents by BentleyRevit and Maya ® 3D by AutoDeskProcessingGrasshopper, algorithmic modeling for Rhino Building the Single-Family Home Is all this parametric stuff too expensive for the typical consumer? Probably it is today, but not in the near future. As generations of designers pass through architecture schools, architects will know no other way to work than to use BIM software. This process has become affordable commercially because of its component inventory capabilities. The computer algorithm has to know the library of parts in order to manipulate them. Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software keeps track of all building components and where they go. When the digital model is approved, the program lists the parts and where the builder can assemble them to create the real thing. Frank Gehry has been a pioneer with this technology and his 1997 Bilbao Museum and 2000 EMP are dramatic examples of CAD/CAM. Gehrys 2003 Disney Concert Hall was named one of the Ten Buildings That Changed America. Whats the change? How buildings are designed and built. Criticism of Parametric Design Architect Neil Leach is troubled by Parametricism in that It takes a computational and relates it to an aesthetic. So the question of the 21st century is this: Are designs that result in what some call blobitecture beautiful and aesthetically pleasing? The jury is out, but here are what people are saying: Although they look sci-fi futuristic, they are also curiously one-dimensional, for nothing ages faster than yesterday’s vision of the future. Just ask Jules Verne. — Witold Rybczynski, 2013Architecture is NOT ART although FORM is our specific contribution to the evolution of world society. — Patrik Schumacher, 2014Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia — Named by The Telegraph (UK) as One of the Worlds 30 Ugliest Buildings (no. 14)The Guardian described Zaha Hadids proposed design for Tokyos 2020 Olympic stadium as looking like a gigantic bicycle helmet plonked down in the gardens of the Meiji Shrine.Parametricism is ready to go mainstream. The style war has begun. — Patrik Schumacher, 2010 Confused? Maybe its just too difficult even for architects to explain. We believe that there are no parameters to design, say a group of architects calling their firm Design Parameters LLC. No limitations. No boundaries. Our work over the past decade reflects this best....anything can be designed and built. Many have questioned exactly this: just because anything CAN be designed and built, SHOULD it? Learn More Parametric Design: a Brief History, AIA California Council (AIACC), June 25, 2012 (also read the comments area at the end of this article for the names of more parametric pioneers)Parametricist Manifesto, 11th Architecture Biennale, Venice 2008Rethinking Architecture blog by Jaroslaw CeborskiDesigning with Nature: Designing with Parameters – What’s Next?, The Architecture Foundation, February 27, 2014Lost Amid the Algorithms by Witold Rybczynski, Architect, June 2013, Posted online July 11, 2013Do You See a Pattern? by Witold Rybczynski, Slate, Dec. 2 2009Are Drafters Done? Read More The New Mathematics of Architecture by Jane Burry and Mark Burry, Thames Hudson, 2012The Autopoiesis of Architecture: A New Framework for Architecture by Patrik Schumacher, Wiley, 2010The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume II: A New Agenda for Architecture by Patrik Schumacher, Wiley, 2012Inside Smartgeometry: Expanding the Architectural Possibilities of Computational Design, Brady Peters and Terri Peters, eds., Wiley, 2013Computation Works: The Building of Algorithmic Thought by Xavier De Kestelier and Brady Peters, eds., Architectural Design, Volume 83, Issue 2 (March/April 2013)A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Oxford University Press, 1977The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander, Oxford University Press, 1979Elements of Parametric Design by Robert Woodbury, Routledge, 2010, and the companion website elementsofparametricdesign.com/ Sources On Parametricism - A Dialogue between Neil Leach and Patrik Schumacher, May 2012 [accessed January 15, 2015]Lost Amid the Algorithms by Witold Rybczynski, Architect, June 2013, Posted online July 11, 2013 [accessed January 15, 2015]A Total Makeover: Five Questions To Patrik Schumacher, March 23, 2014 [accessed January 15, 2015]Patrik Schumacher on parametricism, Architects Journal (AJ) Uk, May 6, 2010 [accessed January 15, 2015]Patrik Schumacher – Parametricism, Blog by Daniel Davis, September 25, 2010 [accessed January 15, 2015]Zaha Hadids Tokyo Olympic stadium slammed as a monumental mistake and a disgrace to future generations by Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian, November 6, 2014 [accessed January 15, 2015]About, Design Parameters website [accessed January 15, 2015]