Reflections Unit Summary

Reflections unit is all about looking back and seeing visions to make better things in the future.  After war in the twentieth century, Americans wanted to be different from the English by not copying their style.  Instead they liked the smooth surfaces to make three-dimensional forms and they had a love for the exotic.  Europe was more focused on geometric figures.

Reflections is about how the new changed from the old.  Castle Howard had a planned landscape and it looks like it is all naturally laid out.  It looks like nature as you would find it when it really is not actually naturally laid out.  Colonial North America was trading and producing wood to sell to London.  The classical world was coming together through trade with North America (the naturalized world).  Plantations were growing like crazy in the United States.  Plantations were built to have a nice landscaped yard and well developed house where you could live in comfortably and grow crops.  They were very beautiful with chimneys on each ends of the house to provide heat in the South.  In the North they had centralized chimneys to provide heat all areas of the house because it is mostly cold in the North throughout the whole year. 

Revolutions started happening during wartime and the contemporary style was evolving.  Everyone was in depression from the war and needed entertainment and happiness, so they started to build factories, exhibitions, train stations, orangery, greenhouses, and arcades.  Places such as the Crystal Palace in London was a place that provided a “lifting of the spirit,” heavenly experience.  These gardens also provided health with less disease instead of filth and slums.  It was the first real skyscraper and soon everyone wanted to be the city that had the biggest skyscraper. 

Reflections was a time when the East met the West.  Trade routes were being made and everyone started to trade.  It was the new thing to do at this time.  Through trading, Americans learned of different styles that everyone had and then started incorporating their ideas into the American culture and arts.  The Chinese made designs specifically meant for different countries other than their own.  This is why you find many things that are made in China these days. 

Materials became a big part in the building world.  The use of machinery was in need to be put into use during this time.  The big city of Chicago, the second city, is well known for its building sizes, quantity, and materiality of the buildings.  Steel iron was discovered and everyone wanted to use it because it was cheap, easy to bend, and made a great supporting façade.  Concrete and glass were also used a lot because of their availability and great use.  Glass was expensive though.  When you assembled all parts together it was a well-built structure.  New building types turned into art and they influenced each other. 

Reflections is all about a time for change and how society changed with new developments. I was a need for meaning with a romantic past and hope for a better future.  We can learn that the past can be used for studies for inspiration and copying.  There was a lot of hope and that is what we today strive for, hope for a better future.