Amandas Blog

When I tell people that I am taking a ceramic class, they always comment or make reference to creating dinnerware or pottery. I admit that I myself always just thought of terra cotta in that context. Not until we were assigned to this next project did I think about the true possibilities you can achieve with terra cotta . Even after knowing that it’s so durable, I honestly never thought of it being a popular material to use for architectural purposes. Just like everyone in the class has been commenting, when you think of the city of New York, large shinny metal skyscrapers come to mind. However from what I have learned from this article is that terra cotta can almost mimic any material in an architectural world. In frequent cases, there must be a profound examination to be able to correctly detect terra cotta; that’s amazing to me. It shows the endless possibilities and gets me excited enough to think outside the box for our final project. It will also be interesting to see what other people in the class will come up with. I even have noticed myself taking a second look at the walls that surround me and appreciate what many don’t. It’s fascinating to read that architects are moving toward wider ranges of material after several years of using steel and glass. Terra cotta, with all its benefits,has riled more companies in to gain newer, more original ideas in ornament, color and surface patterns. After gaining this knowledge, I look forward to noticing the change (even in the slightest detail) over the next years; how will companies begin to use terra cotta next?