Arts and Architecture (Egypt)

Arts and architecture will always reflect someone’s worldview. By observing the arts and architecture of a society, we can have an idea of what that particular society value or belief in, because art and architecture reflects both soul and the passion of a society. Therefore, art and architecture plays a very important part of a culture, and a culture is a religion externalized. In this journal, I will talk about the characteristic of modern architecture, the comparison with the Egyptian architecture, and also the problem in the modern architecture.

According to the encyclopedia, Modern architecture is characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. The first variants were conceived early in the 20th century. Modern architecture was adopted by many influential architects and architectural educators, however very few "Modern buildings" were built in the first half of the century. Therefore because the trends in the modern architecture today are minimalist style, therefore it reflects to the people’s simple worldview. People in modern days focus to the beauty of the building regardless of the belief. For the self application, I can see that everything people makes or do will refracts their worldview and the way they think. Therefore I should be more discreet in my words and actions so that I may reflect my good worldview to other people.

According to the encyclopedia, Ancient Egyptian architects used sun-dried and kiln-baked bricks, fine sandstone, limestone and granite. Architects carefully planned all their work. The stones had to fit precisely together. Ramps were used to allow workmen to move up as the height of the construction grew. When the top of the structure was completed, the artists decorated from the top down, removing ramp sand as they went down. Exterior walls contained only a few small openings. Hieroglyphic and pictorial carvings in brilliant covers were abundantly used to decorate the structures, including many motifs, like the scarab, sacred beetle, the solar disk, and the vulture. It shows that the Ancient Egyptians are very detail in their architecture which is very contradicting with the modern architecture. The Egyptians’ main focus in their architecture is their belief rather than focusing to the beauty. This kind of architecture shows that they have a worldview that belief in the afterlife and they care more about the afterlife rather than their present life in this world. For the self application, I can see that the Egyptians are very faithful to their belief and they are very consistent. I need to learn from them to be consistent in everything I do or think about. Rather than changing my goals every day, I would rather write my goals down and be consistent to those goals.

For the conclusion, arts and architecture will always reflect someone’s worldview. By observing the arts and architecture of a society, we can have an idea of what that particular society value or belief in, because art and architecture reflects both soul and the passion of a society. Therefore, art and architecture plays a very important part of a culture, and a culture is a religion externalized. We can see in the modern world that people focus mostly on the appearance of the architecture that doesn’t make much affect to their life, but if we view from the Egyptians point of view, we can see that the Egyptians architecture have meanings that will help their life in the afterlife they belief in.