The goal of this assignment is to explore your reactions to a building or space through a critical description and
analysis of its formal qualities and composition.
Select a building or space that provokes in you a strong reaction, either positive or negative. Your first
paragraph might be devoted to this purely subjective and emotional response (e.g. “As I entered the lobby, I
was felt an uncontrollable urge to break into song…”). Then concentrate the rest of your essay investigating the
how and why of this reaction. Pay attention to such factors as massing (vertical, horizontal, symmetrical,
asymmetrical), spatial arrangement and rhythms, materials, color, textures, ornament. How do these specific
characteristics coalesce to create an experience or visual effect? Do you think that your response was
intended by the architect? If not, is it the result of the forms and spaces or the product of your own experience
and associations?
Do not hesitate to use drawings and diagrams to support your exposition.
Sample Solution