Civil Architecture and Lessons Derived for Technological Architecture Paper Example

1). Summary of civil architecture and lessons derived for technological architecture

Architecture refers to the art in which the buildings are designed and constructed. Civil architecture has been undergoing evolution since as early as when the human societies were formed to boosts accuracy, design, quality, and styles. It can be said that architecture and art are interrelated in that most of the public works have been designed with the chief purpose of aesthetics, thus involving the craftsmen. Also, the interiors and exteriors of the buildings have been acting as the showcases for the fine art paintings. Finally, the programs of the public buildings have been going together with the artistic movements such as the Rococo and Baroque styles.

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Historically, the ancient architecture was projected to foster security as well as to please gods. Such functions have been growing in importance as the societies become more productive over time. The earliest known architecture is the Egyptian architecture. It merged because of the early civilization in the region around the Mediterranean in Egypt. The architecture was characterized by the unique styles of acting as massive burial chambers in the pyramids, for the dead kings. The design was quite monumental, structurally complex, with the use of lintels and posts.

Additionally, there is the Sumerian architecture which developed in Persia and Mesopotamia. It evolved as a style owing to the Sumerian civilization, which came up with a type of stepped pyramid known as the ziggurat. They were built in the form of mountains to bring the people and their rulers closer to gods. Besides, there was the Early Irish Architecture which was developed towards the end of the stone age period, at 3300 BCE. The structures were characterized by being built using large stones, such as the Newgrange passage tomb. Subsequently emerged is the Minoan Architecture between 1700 - 1400 BCE. It was at the same time the first European art which developed at the island of Crete. It made use of the materials such as the mudbrick, stone, and plaster in the construction of palaces and doomed burial chambers.

Later, developed is the Greek architecture which developed between 600 - 27 BCE. It was spearheaded and inspired by the builders and stonemasons in Greece. The marble, limestones, terracotta, and bronze were used in the construction and decoration of the buildings. The Roman and Gothic architecture followed, and subsequently, there was the Baroque architecture of 1550 - 1790 CE. It is a more elaborate and detailed style. There is the manipulation of light, texture, color, and perspective. They were finally followed by the 19th-century architecture but a revival of the old styles in Europe and America. The twentieth architecture ahs have been dominated by the new technologies, construction materials, and building techniques.

In the comparison of engineering and architecting, engineering entails deduction while architecting is inductive. Also, engineering entails the mathematics and hard sciences while architecting involves the following of the learned guidelines.

Technology has widely influenced the field of architecture. The technologies involving computational designs has enabled the generation of architectures using software and algorithms. Also, the interactive physical mechanisms can get built which correspond to the environment, hence adapting and can thus be evolved more conveniently where necessary. It is done using the current digital tools as well as computational techniques. Further, there is an element of the use of hardware such as the robotics, electronics, fabrication machines, and sensing for designing computational design that is currently redefining the architecture.

2). Summary of architecting heuristics

Architecting heuristics have been developed and help in characterizing the fundamental spirits of systems engineering. They are utilized as methodologies when solving technical problems at hand for the system engineers. Amongst them is the one explaining that all the systems are valid if they deliver the performance within the constraints. In this case, it is a usual requirement that the performance requirement, the function requirement, as well as the cost requirements for the system, is brought out. It concerns that all the scalar elements of the availability and usability of the system are expressed quantitatively.

Moreover, there is a heuristic going that the system level architecture optimizes to assists the specialist disciplines, and yet also contains them. In this case, it is argued that the main function of the system architecture is not to arrive at the final technical decision. However, its function is to make the architecture decisions which enable other engineering disciplines to arrive at the quantified system objectives in so far as the adaptability, security, and usability are concerned.

Besides, there is a heuristic going that ''we don't know if something will work until we try it out.'' It means that any person can be able to estimate the impacts of particular solutions on the requirements. There can also be new experimental knowledge concerning similar architecture. However, the underlying denominator is that each of the new systems is unique and the only way to access their effectiveness is to experiment them.

There is also a heuristic going that the system models cannot be relied on, and their only justification is when there is no other realistic way to represent the future system economically. ; It means that the expected system characteristics cannot be entirely established and their effectiveness determines their applicability for use. A heuristic that systems need to be built to tolerate change and expansion beyond the current stakeholder needs implies that the technical quality requirements covering the adaptability of the system cannot be measured or contracted but are continually improved unnoticed. It is however costly and is meant to improve on versatility to adverse uncertainties beyond human capabilities.

The heuristic stating one cannot economically satisfy all critical stakeholder needs, so the job is to increase value - to - cost ratios in the long term comes from the fact that the set of stakeholders and their requirements are quite large. Thus, their profitable subsets are selected since they cannot be all satisfied. Also, the heuristic going that the most critical needs and critical designs are probably soft, not hard, and most system engineers are not social engineers implies that motivation is essential for all system engineers for them to perform well. There is also a heuristic that ''don't ever try to build it all at once - evolve the system based on the highest value early, and aim to learn from realities rapidly.'' It mentions that there is too much to be developed in the systems engineering and should get done stepwise towards complexity.

The heuristic that ''contractors will deliver better value for money if paid only for the value delivered, not for work completed.'' It insinuates on the importance of well remunerating and rewarding system engineers to more deliver their best. Lastly, the heuristic '' manage the detail through focusing on the high - level measurable objectives, not through bureaucracy '' implies that the critical objectives of the projects can be summarized, which can then be used to ease such activities as funding. It is because they are measurable hence easy to focus energy on them.