architrave See entablature. Also refers to the moulded frame surrounding a door or window.
central plan A type of plan that radiates out from a central point with roughly equal axes. This can range from a simple circle through the Greek-cross plan to any polygonal shape. It was common in church architecture in the Eastern Roman Empire and can be seen in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. A more recent example is Richard Rogers’s Dome in London.
cornice See entablature. Also refers to any ornamental moulding projecting outwards from the top of a wall or other element of a building.
entablature The upper part of a Classical façade above a colonnade and beneath the pediment or roof. It is usually divided into three sections: the architrave (a beam or lintel immediately above the columns, ranging from plain in the Tuscan order to decorative in Ionic and Corinthian); the frieze (the middle section, which is often decorated with bas-relief sculptures); and the cornice (the top section immediately below the pediment or roof that projects out from the wall; it is usually decorated in bands that vary considerably between the orders).
fluting Usually refers to the shallow concave decorative grooves that run vertically up the shaft of a column, but they are also found on other surfaces.
flying buttress A buttress is any mass of masonry that is built against a wall to help counteract lateral forces from structures above, such as roofs. A flying buttress – a new development early in the Gothic period – makes use of an arch (full or half-width) to carry the thrust from the wall onto an external buttress or other support to channel it to the ground.
frieze See entablature. Also refers to any decorated band below a cornice on a wall.
groin The intersection where two vault roofs join.
lancet arch A pointed arch, in which the two radii of the arched section are longer than its width. A common feature of Gothic architecture.
micaceous mud Mud rich in fine-grained mineral-rich mica, particularly suitable for making strong sunbaked bricks.
oculus A small, circular, or oval window or opening in a wall or at the centre of a dome.
orders The five orders of architecture are the accepted styles of Classical architecture that codified the decoration of the principal elements of a building, particularly the columns and entablature. The three ancient modes, originating in Greece, are Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, and the Romans later added the plainest order, Tuscan, and the more elaborate Composite. The earliest surviving written description can be found in Vitruvius’s De Architectura of c. 15 BC.
pendentive A form of spandrel (broadly, the area between two arches) that allows a dome to sit on a square or polygonal structure. It does this by being concave in profile and, as it extends out from an angled joint of two walls, converts the angle to a curve.
pier A solid masonry support, more sturdy than a column, that ranges from a massive square-sectioned type to delicate composite piers found in Gothic structures. The term is also used to describe the area between windows and doors.
pronaos The vestibule of a Greek or Roman temple between the colonnade and the main building.
ribbed vault When barrel vaults intersect and the joins are decorated with piped masonry, a rib vault is formed – a development found in Gothic architecture in England.
stoa Either a covered colonnade (Greek) or a covered hall (Byzantine).
trabeated The term used to describe buildings constructed with columns and beams.
‘Vernacular’ is a term used to distinguish the vast majority of buildings that are not designed by architects, but by individuals and communities who rely on long traditions of building from local materials. More diverse than any other type of architecture, the vernacular is evident in all parts of the world and throughout human history. As a category, it can include settler structures (such as huts, farmhouses and towns) and nomadic structures (including dwellings made of canvas, hide, timber and bone). Vernacular architecture closely reflects the cultural values of the people who build it. Often constructed from the same materials as the landscape in which it exists, it can be found standing on stilts by water, cut into rock, open in hot climates, insulated in cold climates. The most common vernacular architecture is domestic, but communal, sacred, commercial and other built spaces can also be vernacular. Such architecture often uses simple methods to achieve sophisticated levels of comfort by controlling temperature (cooling or warming), air (drawing in fresh air and blowing out smoke and smells), and light (shade), and managing complex ‘programmes’ (the mixture of activities that go on inside the building).
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Throughout history, most buildings have been the product of local building traditions working with materials at hand, rather than designed by architects.
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Since Vitruvius in the 1st century BC architects have written about the relationship between what we now call the vernacular and architecture. This is partly to distinguish one from the other, to argue that architecture is something distinct from simply building. But architects have also provided stories or myths about the origin of architecture in ‘primitive’ building to prove that the architectural principles they defend are ‘true’ because they are ‘natural’.
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Nick Beech
Vernacular architecture includes a wealth of building techniques and materials, applied to a wide variety of social and cultural ends.
The ancient Egyptian civilization lasted nearly three millennia, ending with Alexander the Great’s arrival in 332 BC. Early Egyptian construction was typical of many primitive societies, relying on locally abundant materials – in this case, timber, papyrus and reeds. The Egyptians also mastered the manufacturing of sundried hard brick from the rich micaceous mud in the Nile delta that was mixed with sand and straw. Egyptian architecture will always be most famous for its monumental structures. These included palaces, temples such as the colonnaded funerary complex of Queen Hatshepsut (c. 1473–58 BC), and the various pharaohs’ tombs, better known as pyramids. The first pyramid was designed by the architect and engineer Imhotep, and built at Saqqara in c. 2630 BC. Although the profile of this first pyramid was stepped, it set a precedent for later designs, the most famous of which are at Giza outside modern-day Cairo. The largest of these, built c. 2550 BC for the pharaoh Khufu, rose to 146 m (481 ft) and used over two million blocks of stone each weighing between 2 and 15 tons. It remained the tallest manmade structure on earth until Lincoln Cathedral in England was built in 1311.
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The architecture of ancient Egypt encompassed a wide variety of types, from simple structures of sunbaked brick to monumental pyramids of dressed stone blocks.
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The conditions in Egypt were ideal for monumental construction projects. Stone and sand were abundant and river transport easy, and with only one harvest a year the vast numbers of workers required to build the pyramids could spend half the year cultivating the land and half the year on the buildings. As a precedent for the Greeks and Romans, the architecture of ancient Egypt is regarded as one of the primary sources for Western architecture.
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IMHOTEP
fl. 27th century BCE
Designer of the first stepped pyramid and one of the first people ever to be recorded as an architect (later deified)
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Edward Denison
The structures of ancient Egypt were an important precedent for the subsequent development of architecture in Europe.
Classical Greek architecture (c. 500–320 BC) seems familiar because many of its features were subsequently revived and reinvented. While banks, libraries and museums in Western cities use Classical Greek architecture to inform their appearance, these mainly draw on the temple or stoa (a covered arcade). Other building types of Classical Greece include the theatre (a large bowl of steps and seats), the hippodrome (a racing track), and the mausoleum (tomb). Classical Greek architecture is trabeated, which means it is constructed from vertical posts (columns) supporting horizontal lintels (beams). Originally of timber, in the transition to stone these basic elements became increasingly formalized and decorated. The spacing and organization of the elements followed geometric proportions designed to produce harmonious relations between the parts. Lintels were divided into horizontal sections: a plain architrave below a frieze (decorated with relief carvings celebrating historical and mythical events), above that a projecting cornice. Columns were fluted, and the top – the capital – was treated in different ways, resulting in three distinct styles or ‘orders’ of Greek architecture: the Doric has a plain capital; the Ionic has a capital carved to form scrolls; and the Corinthian capital is carved to resemble foliage.
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Classical Greek architecture utilizes a limited structural system of columns and beams, arranged according to delicate geometries and elaborately decorated.
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The Greeks were concerned with how their buildings looked and used optical illusions. Their temples did not use straight lines, since if a beam were completely straight it would appear to sag, and a strictly vertical column would appear to lean outward. Similarly, fluting makes columns appear more slender than plainer columns. All that remains of these temples is the marble, but they were once richly decorated and painted with many colours.
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PHIDIAS
c. 480–30 BCE
Architect and sculptor of the statue of Zeus at Olympia
ICTINUS
fl. late 5th century BCE
Architect of the Parthenon
DEINOCRATES OF RHODES
fl. mid-4th century BCE
Architect and city planner of Alexandria
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Nick Beech
For many European architects, the Greek temple – notably the Parthenon in Athens – represents the finest achievement in architecture.
Roman architecture borrows from the Classical Greek, and can appear similar. However, during the period c. 200 BC–AD 300, the Romans greatly advanced structural engineering, introducing the arch, vault, and dome, as well as a new material – concrete. These innovations affect the scale of Roman architecture because arches can support greater loads and span wider voids than trabeated structures. Massive freestanding edifices, of a size previously reliant on natural features such as hillsides (as in Greek theatres), could be built – famously the Colosseum in Rome, which was copied throughout the Roman Empire. New building types were introduced – baths with high-vaulted ceilings covering rooms and pools, massive basilicas (covered public spaces), palaces and the triumphal arch. Unlike Greek temples, Roman temples were raised up on a high podium accessed by steps that terminate at the pronaos (a porch of columns), emphasizing one side of the building. A new Composite order was introduced, and concrete-and-brick buildings were decorated with extraordinary mosaics of tile. Still, the remains of Roman architecture that might impress us most today were the great public works, the aqueducts, tunnels, bridges and roads that allowed Rome to become a city of one million residents.
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Roman architecture developed from Classical Greek and introduced the arch, the dome, concrete, and mosaic tiles, and expanded the range of building types and their decoration.
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As a result of their innovations the Romans had one architectural problem unknown to the Greeks – how to bring together straight, angular forms with curved forms. This dilemma is best demonstrated at the Pantheon (c. 126), where the glorious domed concrete roof with its oculus in the centre – all held up by a massive drum – seems to bump into the linear columnar porch at the entrance.
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APOLLODORUS OF DAMASCUS
fl. 2nd century
Greek architect and engineer, designed Rome’s Trajan Forum
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Nick Beech
Roman architecture is spectacular in two senses – in feats of engineering and in representing an empire of millions.
The fragmentation of the Roman Empire led to systemic collapse in Western Europe, but in the Eastern Roman Empire laws, customs and building traditions were kept alive in the Byzantine Empire, centred on Constantinople (now Istanbul). This location led to the adoption of customs from the eastern Mediterranean, notably Greek culture and Christianity. The most common expression of architecture in the Byzantine Empire was in religious buildings, particularly churches. An exemplar of this architectural type was the Hagia Sophia (537), commissioned by Justinian I and designed by Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. In the centre of the symmetrical plan rises a huge 32-m (107-ft) diameter dome supported on pendentives that transfer the load onto four massive piers. The audacious design in an earthquake zone proved too daring, and the dome had to be rebuilt on several occasions. However, despite these misfortunes, Hagia Sophia set a benchmark in church construction and design for many centuries. One of the most prominent and enduring features of Byzantine church architecture, besides the use of the dome, was the central plan, based on the Roman temple and early Christian churches and the cruciform plan of Greek origin.
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An eclectic architecture, often utilizing the dome, which reflects the cultural diversity of the Byzantine Empire, centred on Constantinople from the 4th century.
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Although the power and influence of Byzantium began to wane from the 11th century – eventually succumbing to the Turks in 1453 – its architecture continued to influence builders throughout southern and eastern Europe. From Venice’s St Mark’s Basilica (consecrated 1094) to Kiev’s 11th-century St Sophia Cathedral and beyond, the impact of the Byzantine plan and crowning dome is clearly visible on stone and wooden churches of different denominations and sizes throughout much of Europe.
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3-SECOND BIOGRAPHIES
ISIDORE OF MILETUS
fl. mid-6th century
Byzantine architect, engineer, and mathematician who assisted in the design and construction of Hagia Sophia
ANTHEMIUS OF TRALLES
c. 474–before 558
Byzantine architect and geometrician, responsible for the design and construction of Hagia Sophia
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Edward Denison
The symmetrical plan and the dome are key characteristics of Byzantine architecture.
Romanesque architecture marked the first time since the Roman Empire that a consistent architectural language appeared throughout much of Europe. It derived from Rome in so much as it often appropriated such features as round arches and vaulting, although Romanesque architecture was not a continuation of Roman practices and principles. Instead, it was a revival during the Holy Roman Empire of various architectural influences of the Mediterranean region. The first phase was typified during the reign of Emperor Otto I (962–73) and drew on Carolingian and Byzantine precedents, but its heyday was from the 10th to 12th centuries when some of the most advanced vaulting systems (barrel, dome and groin) were constructed, stone was dressed and elaborate details adorned buildings. Aesthetically, Romanesque architecture tends to be heavy, relying on thick load-bearing walls to support vaulted masonry roofs. Churches such as that at Cluny, France (dedicated 1130) were the most outstanding manifestations of the style, but it was also used in military installations and domestic buildings. Romanesque churches are characterized by symmetrical plans, solidity of form, fireproof masonry construction, vaulted roofs, round-arched openings and, in larger structures, arcades of massive supporting columns and piers.
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Romanesque architecture flourished throughout southern and western Europe from the 8th century, and is characterized by load-bearing masonry walls, round arches, narrow openings, arcades and vaulting.
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Experimentation by master builders and stonemasons, not scientific analysis, led to a steady refinement of construction techniques into the 12th century. The features that characterize Romanesque architecture were, ironically, also the attributes constraining its progress. The structurally inefficient round arch was replaced by the pointed arch, liberating the exterior walls from much of their load-bearing duties, and in time giving rise to the next great architectural epoch, Gothic.
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BUSCHETODI GIOVANNI GIUDICE
fl. late 11th century
Architect commissioned in 1063 to design the Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral, Pisa
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Edward Denison
Round arches, load-bearing masonry construction, dressed stone and elaborate vaulting typify Romanesque design.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was born in Rome. Best known today as an architect and writer, he considered himself first and foremost an army engineer and most probably served with the legendary Sixth Ironclad Legion, an artillery unit, where he was in charge of ballistics and siege engines.
Not much is known about Vitruvius – which may not even have been his name – and he was fairly obscure in his own time, although obviously valued in high places, being an essential part of Julius Caesar’s battle team and granted a pension by Caesar Augustus in later life. He only made one actual building, a basilica in Fano that was finished towards the end of his life, and now untraceable, although it has probably been incorporated into the city’s cathedral as happened to so many pre-Christian basilicas.
Vitruvius’s great work was his writing, rather than his building. He compiled the 10-volume treatise De Architectura (usually translated as Ten Books on Architecture), written in Latin and Greek, and probably finished around 15 BC. It is the only work on architecture from Classical antiquity to survive in its entirety and was intended as a building guide for his patron Augustus, the emperor who stated that he ‘found Rome brick and left it marble’. De Architectura is extremely thorough, covering town planning, civil engineering, building materials, temples, the orders of architecture, civic building, domestic building, pavements and plasterwork, infrastructure (sewage, aqueducts, central heating) and the application of science to architecture and machinery.
A seminal influence on Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical architecture, it was well known in manuscript, before being transcribed in the 9th century on the orders of the Emperor Charlemagne. It was read by scholars of all disciplines, including Aquinas, Petrarch and Boccaccio, before being ‘rediscovered’ in the 15th century and publicized by Leon Alberti Battista, who based his own 1452 opus, De Re Aedificatoria, on it. Architecture aside, it is also the principal source for the story of Archimedes’s ‘Eureka!’ moment.
It wasn’t all measuring and materials, however. Vitruvius expressed his three virtues – the Vitruvian Triad of good building: firmitas, utilitas, venustas (solidity, usefulness, beauty) – and his belief that architecture should follow nature and that proportion in building should follow proportion in a human being. It was this that inspired Leonardo da Vinci to produce the ‘Vitruvian Man’, essentially an infographic of the ideas of Vitruvius and an image that remains iconic today.
Born in Rome
49–5 BC
Great Roman Civil War (Caesar’s Civil War), in which Vitruvius fought, possibly in the Legio VI Ferrata (the Sixth Ironclad Legion)
19 BC
Completed work on a basilica at Fanum Fortunae (modern Fano)
c. 15 BC
De Architectura (Ten Books on Architecture) written
after 15 BC
Died
c. 800–25
De Architectura copied in manuscript at the Abbey of St Pantaleon, Cologne, on the orders of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne
1244
De Architectura quoted extensively by Vincent de Beauvais in his encyclopedia, Speculum Maiu
1414
Modern rediscovery of De Architectura by the Classical scholar Poggio Bracciolini
1443–52
Italian polymath Leon Battista Alberti writes De Re Aedificatoria (On the Art of Building) based on De Architectura
1486
First printed edition of Vitruvius in Rome, edited by Fra Giovanni Sulpitius
c. 1487
Leonardo da Vinci draws the ‘Vitruvian Man’
1511
First illustrated edition of De Architectura published in the Republic of Venice
1521
Italian edition published
1543
German translation published
1547
French translation published
1624
Sir Henry Wotton translates De Architectura into English
Gothic architecture emerged in Northern Europe during the Middle Ages, a period in which the Church dominated European cultural life – consequently, the finest examples of Gothic architecture are cathedrals and monasteries. Master stonemasons and their workshops produced buildings of great height that were also full of light. Based on elaborate practical geometry, Gothic architecture combines three key structural elements: the lancet (pointed) arch, which was able to hold a greater load than a rounded arch; this is combined with the ribbed vault, a system of vaulting that provides a ceiling that is higher, lighter and able to join spans of different widths; and the flying buttress, a system of masonry blocks (the buttress), attached with arches to the exterior walls of the building, countering outward thrust from the high ceiling and walls. In combination, these three elements allowed for the replacement of thick walls with tracery, very thin stone patterns holding stained glass. Ecclesiastical buildings were highly decorated with biblical figures, gargoyles (gross monsters), animals, plants and even pagan figures. As with the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome, many Gothic buildings are now bare stone when originally they were richly decorated with coloured paintwork.
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During the Middle Ages a new style of ecclesiastical building emerged in France that used pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses to extraordinary effect.
3-MINUTE ELEVATION
Gothic architecture creates unique experiences – a constant sense of movement as the eye follows the lines made by the ribs of the arches and vaults, a powerful upward lift, and extraordinary displays of light and colour. These buildings were more than houses of God – through the stained glass and carved figures they were engines for the gathering and education of all members of European society.
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ERHARD HEIDENREICH
c. 1470–1524
German master mason, best known for the vaulting at the Church of Our Lady of Ingolstadt, Bavaria
ABBOT SUGER
c. 1081–1151
French abbot of St Denis (on the outskirts of Paris), who, from 1122, built the very first Gothic church
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Nick Beech
A Gothic cathedral is the product of tens, sometimes hundreds, of years of work and the combination of the skills and knowledge of many master craftsmen.
Islamic architecture was born out of the rapid spread of Islam that followed the death of the Prophet Mohammed in 632. Initially, the architectural forms were influenced by regional precedents such as Byzantine architecture and often concentrated on religious structures, including mosques, shrines and tombs. One of the earliest and most significant Islamic buildings is the Dome of the Rock (691) in Jerusalem. The central plan – defined by the octagonal exterior, concentric aisles and central wooden dome – mirrors the contemporaneous centrally planned Byzantine churches. However, with the rapid spread of Islam throughout North Africa, southern Europe and Central Asia, the architecture, like the Islamic religion and culture, became more assured and assumed distinctive characteristics, while also assimilating indigenous customs and traditions and accommodating local construction techniques. Islam’s propagation also saw architecture being employed in secular buildings, such as palaces, civic structures and the home. Despite Islam’s extreme cultural, artistic and regional diversity, common architectural features and principles include the precedence of geometry, the primacy of enclosed space and privacy (in the courtyard) and the abundant use of interior decoration to conceal the structural elements and convey weightlessness, magnificence and beauty.
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Islamic architecture originated in Arabia and spread with Islam from southern Spain across North Africa and the Middle East to Asia.
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Islamic architecture is often referred to as the ‘architecture of the veil’, suggesting that it is an art form devoted to concealment, a hidden architecture. This is apparent both in the design of a building and its place within a group of buildings or city. The exterior of Islamic buildings seldom reveal their function or the layout of the space within, and are often designed to blend in with their surroundings, rather than stand out.
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MIMAR SINAN
1489–1588
Architect and civil engineer of the Ottoman Empire
USTAD AHMAD LAHAURI
d. 1649
Indian architect of Persian origin, associated with the design of the Taj Mahal
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Edward Denison
Islamic architecture often adopted local building precedents across Europe, Africa and Asia.
