INTERVIEW WITH AN ARCHITECT
Editor's Note: The following interview was conducted over the phone by Jed R. ('15) on February 16, 2014 for his precalculus class.
Author's Note
Roberta Feldman is an innovative and successful architect with a lot of words of wisdom, as well as a position at the School of Architecture at Illinois State University. She is my great aunt. Ever since I was a little boy, I visited Chicago, and throughout my childhood I always seemed to be entranced by the numerous public and personal works of architecture she had completed. I felt that I wanted to interview her because she is a very experienced architect and teacher of architectural design, and has the occupation that one day I might enjoy doing myself, and has inspired me to design and create my own works, of course not used in actual construction and architectural firms, but with a pencil and paper. When I was 7, Roberta and her husband Richie entered me in an architectural competition and I had to build an ecologically friendly home, and won first prize, with her help and inspiration of course. I felt that interviewing her was a no-brainer, and I also felt that mathematics and architecture have many considerable connections that in my mind couldn’t be overlooked, especially if this is the profession that I will be considering in my future. I felt that Roberta would be a perfect person to formally introduce me to this field of study and would give me a subjective response to the numerous questions I pre-prepared for her.
This was a very beneficial interview for me and I learned a significant amount of ideas regarding architecture that I hadn’t known before. Roberta very clearly contextualized and explained many unrecognized qualities that many people extrinsically don’t recognize. I realized that architecture required a significant understanding and comprehension of physics, and applied sciences and mathematics like calculus and trigonometry, but I never realized that the simple functionality of a space was so crucial in its success. Simple qualities and properties of a space such as ceiling height, the types of materials used, the quality of the materials used, and aesthetic traits are very central in selling finished works, and understanding the economy and housing markets in actuality play incredibly central roles in successfully completing and selling a product. I also found the idea of “Human Scale” to be very important and interesting; understanding that humans are part of the space adds to its functionality as well as to its aesthetic qualities, and “can make something functional into something livable”, as Roberta put it. As of right now, I don’t have any pressing questions for Roberta because the ones below were the ones that interested me the most and were the most relevant. But I am quite sure that in the future, there will be plenty of more questions to ask her and conjectures to make.
Interview
How did you use math in designing structures and how significant are they in these processes? What mathematical theories and topics did you encounter in your studies?
-We used the human body as a measurement system, no meters and centimeters, but American System of Feet,
-We use it constantly in figuring heights and dimensions based on the size of an average person and making it ergonomic and functional for the normal human
-This Affects bathroom heights and kitchen counter and ceiling heights and we similarly use this in determining the heights of buildings that have minimums and maximums to be built at, similarly also to how much of a property we can use for a foundation
-Encountered trigonometry and calculus in doing drawing and converting full-scale to percent scale when calculating the size of things in relation to the total structure it is considered the most significant mathematical conversion in architecture
-Physics influences engineering in terms of what will stay up/fall down, the concern of the weight of building (which is called compression “compression”), wind resistance, resonant frequencies, and pressure systems and atmospheric properties
Do you think math is significantly central in architecture? Is it connected to sciences like physics? How important are they in designing structurally sustainable buildings?
- Think about the scale of human body--all measurement systems taken from the size of feet, early on the body was used a measuring device and the relationship of the body to the size of the space
-An example is the Pantheon; you enter through a dark and small space (walls contain you) and the scale is tight, then you walk into domed space similar to a mosque and has openings in the dome, which creates an enormous contrast of space to size
-Typically many of these architects at the time wanted people to be in awe of God and to make seem incredibly significant
-Math is incredibly important in designing sustainable living spaces and buildings and in understanding the pressure systems affect the tension of specific structures as well as the materials that have different properties and do different things, such as carrying weight in different ways
What has your experience taught you about math and its importance? What discoveries linking mathematics to architecture are the most significant to you?
-The Human scale is the most important scale and needs to be fully understood before building structures--there is no scale implied in programs on computers, this notion has to be understood completely and thoroughly before going into a project
-Trigonometry and Calculus, while significant, are all essential--they provide the assurance that structures would stand up and is incredibly influential in the successfulness of a structure architecturally and mathematically
-Economics is a significant portion of architecture as well, especially in residential architecture, because houses that are aesthetically beautiful are more sellable; knowing also the state of the market and understanding how the market works also affects certain projects as well as the people who invest in them
Give me an example of when you used mathematics on a specific project or model.
-When she built her own house in Indiana she had to look at the zoning and spacing of the house on her property, what was acceptable to build and what wasn’t, had to find a land engineer, and need to look at slopes and graphs and scales
-Engineering of the land and the house itself played in enormous role in the success of the project, which was very difficult considering the unbalanced land and also the quality of the property, which at the time was thickly wooded, and had large rocks and a creek
-Had to be concerned about septic systems and flow speeds/rates/placement
-When you build the structure everything previously discussed comes into play and different systems in the house represent different mathematical applications
- How does one represent three dimensions, in two dimensions?
- For example: Choosing angles, Law of Sine and Cosines become incredibly important, as well as the measurement of lengths in comparison to angles and the rest of the structure--it is significantly more complex than simply just the lengths of things
- Sequence of movements through the house is important, angles give different views and provide the people inside with different feelings; cartography and mapping is incredibly important in building homes and structures
Roberta Feldman is an innovative and successful architect with a lot of words of wisdom, as well as a position at the School of Architecture at Illinois State University. She is my great aunt. Ever since I was a little boy, I visited Chicago, and throughout my childhood I always seemed to be entranced by the numerous public and personal works of architecture she had completed. I felt that I wanted to interview her because she is a very experienced architect and teacher of architectural design, and has the occupation that one day I might enjoy doing myself, and has inspired me to design and create my own works, of course not used in actual construction and architectural firms, but with a pencil and paper. When I was 7, Roberta and her husband Richie entered me in an architectural competition and I had to build an ecologically friendly home, and won first prize, with her help and inspiration of course. I felt that interviewing her was a no-brainer, and I also felt that mathematics and architecture have many considerable connections that in my mind couldn’t be overlooked, especially if this is the profession that I will be considering in my future. I felt that Roberta would be a perfect person to formally introduce me to this field of study and would give me a subjective response to the numerous questions I pre-prepared for her.
This was a very beneficial interview for me and I learned a significant amount of ideas regarding architecture that I hadn’t known before. Roberta very clearly contextualized and explained many unrecognized qualities that many people extrinsically don’t recognize. I realized that architecture required a significant understanding and comprehension of physics, and applied sciences and mathematics like calculus and trigonometry, but I never realized that the simple functionality of a space was so crucial in its success. Simple qualities and properties of a space such as ceiling height, the types of materials used, the quality of the materials used, and aesthetic traits are very central in selling finished works, and understanding the economy and housing markets in actuality play incredibly central roles in successfully completing and selling a product. I also found the idea of “Human Scale” to be very important and interesting; understanding that humans are part of the space adds to its functionality as well as to its aesthetic qualities, and “can make something functional into something livable”, as Roberta put it. As of right now, I don’t have any pressing questions for Roberta because the ones below were the ones that interested me the most and were the most relevant. But I am quite sure that in the future, there will be plenty of more questions to ask her and conjectures to make.
Interview
How did you use math in designing structures and how significant are they in these processes? What mathematical theories and topics did you encounter in your studies?
-We used the human body as a measurement system, no meters and centimeters, but American System of Feet,
-We use it constantly in figuring heights and dimensions based on the size of an average person and making it ergonomic and functional for the normal human
-This Affects bathroom heights and kitchen counter and ceiling heights and we similarly use this in determining the heights of buildings that have minimums and maximums to be built at, similarly also to how much of a property we can use for a foundation
-Encountered trigonometry and calculus in doing drawing and converting full-scale to percent scale when calculating the size of things in relation to the total structure it is considered the most significant mathematical conversion in architecture
-Physics influences engineering in terms of what will stay up/fall down, the concern of the weight of building (which is called compression “compression”), wind resistance, resonant frequencies, and pressure systems and atmospheric properties
Do you think math is significantly central in architecture? Is it connected to sciences like physics? How important are they in designing structurally sustainable buildings?
- Think about the scale of human body--all measurement systems taken from the size of feet, early on the body was used a measuring device and the relationship of the body to the size of the space
-An example is the Pantheon; you enter through a dark and small space (walls contain you) and the scale is tight, then you walk into domed space similar to a mosque and has openings in the dome, which creates an enormous contrast of space to size
-Typically many of these architects at the time wanted people to be in awe of God and to make seem incredibly significant
-Math is incredibly important in designing sustainable living spaces and buildings and in understanding the pressure systems affect the tension of specific structures as well as the materials that have different properties and do different things, such as carrying weight in different ways
What has your experience taught you about math and its importance? What discoveries linking mathematics to architecture are the most significant to you?
-The Human scale is the most important scale and needs to be fully understood before building structures--there is no scale implied in programs on computers, this notion has to be understood completely and thoroughly before going into a project
-Trigonometry and Calculus, while significant, are all essential--they provide the assurance that structures would stand up and is incredibly influential in the successfulness of a structure architecturally and mathematically
-Economics is a significant portion of architecture as well, especially in residential architecture, because houses that are aesthetically beautiful are more sellable; knowing also the state of the market and understanding how the market works also affects certain projects as well as the people who invest in them
Give me an example of when you used mathematics on a specific project or model.
-When she built her own house in Indiana she had to look at the zoning and spacing of the house on her property, what was acceptable to build and what wasn’t, had to find a land engineer, and need to look at slopes and graphs and scales
-Engineering of the land and the house itself played in enormous role in the success of the project, which was very difficult considering the unbalanced land and also the quality of the property, which at the time was thickly wooded, and had large rocks and a creek
-Had to be concerned about septic systems and flow speeds/rates/placement
-When you build the structure everything previously discussed comes into play and different systems in the house represent different mathematical applications
- How does one represent three dimensions, in two dimensions?
- For example: Choosing angles, Law of Sine and Cosines become incredibly important, as well as the measurement of lengths in comparison to angles and the rest of the structure--it is significantly more complex than simply just the lengths of things
- Sequence of movements through the house is important, angles give different views and provide the people inside with different feelings; cartography and mapping is incredibly important in building homes and structures
