Noted architectural historian Spiro Kostof stated: “Architecture, in the end, is nothing more, and nothing less than the gift of making places for some human purpose.” This almost deceptively simple definition captures the essence of what we call architecture. The definition is broad enough to include the Paleolithic caves inhabited by early humans, the great Gothic cathedrals, and modern Levittowns of hundreds of nearly identical suburban houses.
The characteristics of individual works of architecture reflect this definition and derive from the interplay of three elements that are inseparable from one another: purpose, the reason for the building to exist; design, the shape that a building takes in response to its perceived purpose; and structure, the way the building is put together out of its constituent parts.
Paleolithic Architecture
The earliest known humans who left evidence of their dwelling places were hunters who followed migratory game herds and did not establish permanent living places. They did, however, seek shelter in caves and huts to which they regularly returned. These primitive dwellings were the earliest beginnings of architecture.
Caves Beginning around 40,000 years ago in Europe, the modern humans who displaced the earlier Neanderthals began to create domestic and ceremonial spaces in caves that were often elaborately decorated with wall paintings. A typical example is the cave at Lascaux in southwestern France, which was inhabited between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. Not only does it contain evidence of daily life, but its walls are painted with pictures of animals and humans of exquisite sensitivity; these paintings are believed to have had religious or magical significance.
Structures The earliest known structures built by humans (Homo erectus) are at Terra Amata in southern France, dating to about 380,000 years ago. The site consists of some 20 huts built of branches held in place by large stones arrayed in oval rings. Small groups of people occupied the encampment regularly each late spring, leaving it abandoned until the following spring.
Ice-age huts built of mammoth bones that would have been covered by hides have been found at many sites in eastern Europe, including a famous example at Mezhirich, Ukraine, dating to about 15,000 years ago.
Neolithic Architecture
A warming climate about 10,000–12,000 years ago brought about the end of the last ice age. Improved techniques of managing game herds and harvesting wild plants led to an increase in population, which in turn required more intensive development of food sources. As people began growing crops and domesticating animals they began to form permanent, settled communities.
Dwellings Neolithic people in many parts of the world built small houses of woven tree limbs, pitched roofs, roof beams held up by supporting posts, and walls filled in with mud. In some places the houses were large enough to accommodate numbers of families, and in other places groups of houses were ringed by stones with paths between them defined by rows of stones.
Monuments In parts of western Europe from the Neolithic period through the Bronze Age and into the Iron Age, people built circular or linear arrays of stone (megaliths) of surprising size and complexity. Many of these ceremonial monuments still exist, the most famous of which is Stonehenge, in southwest England. There, from about 2750 to 1500 B.C., successive builders erected enormous stones in circular formations. There are many theories to explain the purpose of Stonehenge. The inner circles open toward a stone over which the sun rises on the summer solstice. The prodigious effort of construction and the elaborate layout of the stones suggest that Stonehenge must have been a ceremonial place central to the builders’ culture.
Western Asian Architecture
In the area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in western Asia, Neolithic settlements became larger, wealthier, and socially more complex. With the rise of civilization beginning about 7500 B.C., people gathered together in cities and produced a profusion of impressive architecture.
Western Asian builders invented construction methods that were as important as their architectural forms. An absence of large stones for building, especially for long beams between columns, forced builders to find other ways of covering wide enclosed spaces. These included the round arch built of voussoirs (wedgeshaped stones or bricks) and the dome. In later times arches and domes would become central to some of the greatest works of architecture.
Towns and Cities The earliest surviving evidence of a town is Jericho on the Jordan River, where settlement began around 7500 B.C. Built largely of mud bricks and in successive waves of construction, the settlement already showed traits that would characterize later cities: a population much larger than prehistoric villages, a perimeter wall to defend against enemies, and public buildings set among private dwellings.
Temples and Ziggurats With the growth of cities, organized, state-sponsored religions appeared, and temples became a key element in the urban fabric. Temples evolved from small shrines in prehistoric villages into one of the most striking forms of architecture, the ziggurat. In its classic form, the ziggurat was a stepped pyramid set on a platform with stairs leading to the summit—a place nearest to heaven—where the supreme god was worshipped. The ziggurat of Ur-Nammu in Ur, built around 2000 B.C., is a well-known example.
In the first millennium B.C., temples of the Assyrian Empire (in present-day Iraq) were elaborately decorated with free-standing stone sculptures and narrative sculptural reliefs. One of the finest monuments of late Mesopotamian architecture, the Ishtar Gate of the Babylonian Empire (ca. 575 B.C., now at the Staatliche Museum, Berlin) is made of blue-glazed brick and decorated with reliefs of bulls and other sacred animals.
Palaces As the social order became more complex, the ruler became more dominant and palaces began to overshadow ziggurats. Huge palaces were built by the Assyrian kings. Rock-cut tombs and cities of the eastern Mediterranean, such as the city of Petra (in present-day Jordan) show Greek influence, as do the buildings of the Persian Empire, rivals of the Greeks. The palaces of Persepolis (in what is now west-central Iran) exemplify the sophistication and imagination achieved by the Persian architects. Built by Darius (ca.550–486 B.C.) and his son Xerxes (519–465 B.C.), the complex includes both Greek-influenced hypostyle (having roofs supported by columns) temples and palaces and Mesopotamian-style narrative sculptural reliefs.
Egyptian Architecture
At the same time that literate city-states were forming in western Asia, people along the Nile River in northern Africa were also developing an advanced civilization. In contrast to western Asia, there was an abundance of sandstone, limestone, and granite with which to build.
Tombs and Pyramids Early Egyptian kings were considered gods, and their tombs reflect the importance of perpetuating their life after death. One of the first architects of record was Imhotep, who designed the pyramid complex at Saqqara in 2680 B.C. as King Zoser’s tomb. Equally famous are the three pyramids at Giza, built about 2570–2500 B.C. The largest and oldest of these, the pyramid of Cheops, was originally 482 feet high and 760 feet square, and occupies about 13 acres. The manipulation of the huge stones used to build these structures required both the large-scale mobilization of labor and the invention of ingenious engineering techniques.
Temples Later pharaohs were buried in more modest tombs, furnished with sculptures and painted pictorial reliefs. For example, the tombs of Mentuhotep, about 2050 B.C., and Queen Hatshepsut, about 1500 B.C., at Deir el-Bahri, are considerably smaller than the pyramids at Giza. The temple replaced the tomb as Egypt’s dominant architectural work. The temple of Karnak—dedicated to the sun god Amon—was built in stages over a period from about 1525 B.C. to about 1350 B.C.; Karnak’s hypostyle hall is one of the great works of ancient architecture.
Greek Architecture
The architectural building types and orders developed in Greece began a long evolution in European, and eventually American, architecture that continued well into the 20th century. Early Greek building was influenced by both the monumental Egyptian buildings and the use of columns to achieve a powerful visual effect. Greek architects brought the hypostyle building to an unprecedented level of beauty and refinement. An abundance of fine-grained native marble provided them with an excellent building material.
Temples The most important and influential Greek building was the temple. Greeks believed in a pantheon of gods, and temples were dedicated to individual gods. The temple form began evolving in the 11th and 12th centuries B.C., took its characteristic form during the period beginning in 700 B.C., and reached a high point of refinement after 400 B.C.
Temples in their final form were set on a stylobate, a rectangular platform of three steps. A peristyle, a row of columns, was placed at the periphery. The columns supported a horizontal entablature. At the short ends a triangular pediment closed the ends of the pitched roof. Within the peristyle was a cella, or naos, a structure that housed a statue of the dedicated god or goddess and associated treasures.
Architectural Orders Greek architects also developed architectural orders called Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Each is easily distinguished by its fluted columns.
The Doric order was the first developed, and its column has a simple capital between the shaft and the entablature. The proportion of the width to height is less than in later orders; the effect of a Doric temple is of superbly proportioned solidity. The best known Doric temple is the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens (447–432 B.C.), dedicated to the goddess Athena and designed by the architects Callicrates and Iktinos.
The Ionic order denotes a style of columns that have a capital with scroll-like volutes that spread the load where the column meets the entablature. The column is more slender than the Doric, giving Ionic temples a graceful appearance. The Erechtheion (421–405 B.C.) on the Acropolis in Athens, is an example that also includes a porch with carayatids, draped female figures, taking the place of columns that support a roof structure.
The Corinthian order, though not often employed by the Greeks, is distinguished by column capitals with acanthus leaves. The columns are tall and graceful like the Ionic and support Doric or Ionic entablatures interchangeably. One of the few examples is the Olympieion in Athens designed by the Greeks but built by the Romans.
Other Building Types Though the Greek temple became a seminal icon for future architects, the Greeks developed other building types that provided models for Western architecture. The open-air theater, usually carved from a hillside, consisted of an orchestra, stage, and auditorium. The stadion, an athletic arena, was long and narrow, straight at one end and circular at the other, with tiered rows of seats on three sides. Greek democracy was reflected in the agora, an open-air forum where citizens gathered to hear speeches, discuss issues, shop, and socialize. And sometimes adjoining the agora was the stoa, a simple structure, usually long and narrow, with a flat or pitched roof that housed court sessions, shops, banquets, and public gatherings in general.
Roman Architecture
The Romans were great empire builders and equally great architectural builders. As they conquered societies from western Asia to the Atlantic Ocean, they created daring new structures as they shaped their architecture in the service of an imperial society. Roman ideas about architecture are known from the writings of the architect and theorist Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (46–30 B.C.), whose Ten Books on Architecture remains one of the most important works ever written on the subject.
Roman architects copied the true arch, using voussior stones, from Etruscan buildings in the north. The arch and its expanded variants were crucial to the prodigious achievements of Roman architects. Extend an arch in a single direction and the result is a barrel vault; a barrel vault intersected by another barrel vault is a groin vault; an arch rotated through 180° becomes a dome. These structural elements are very common in Roman buildings.
The Italian peninsula provided a variety of building materials, including travertine, tufa, peperino, lava, and marble, as well as sand and gravel. The latter were basic to the Roman invention of concrete, which allowed them to create unprecedented new building forms. Sand mixed with lime and water became very hard and, when shaped by wooden forms, liberated Roman architecture from the limitations of post-and-lintel structures.
Forums The evolution of Roman forums reflects changes in Roman governance. When Rome became a republic in about 500 B.C., nominally governed by elected representatives, Roman architects adapted the Greek agora for their forums. The Roman Forum in the heart of the city of Rome is the most important of its kind, and its ruins today give a sense of its scope.
As the empire grew through conquest and political power passed from the people to the emperor, later forums were constructed more to impress the populace with the majesty of the emperor than as democratic meeting
places. Adjacent to the Roman Forum are the more impressive imperial forums of the Emperors Vespian, Augustus, and Trajan.
Temples Roman temples began by imitating the Greek peristyle, but with columns that engaged the cella instead of standing free. Roman architects freely used the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, even mixing them on the same building. To the three Greek orders, Roman architects added the Tuscan and Composite orders. Tuscan columns had a plain capital similar to Doric, but were not fluted. Composite capitals blended Ionic volutes with Corinthian acanthus leaves.
The Romans were not bound by past examples, however, and created new architectural forms for worship. The Pantheon in Rome is a round structure with a portico and crowned by a magnificent dome that is just over 142 feet across and 142 feet high. The rotunda was constructed in A.D. 120–127 and, though the building has undergone changes over the years, it is in good condition and preserves the impressive feeling of the great space under the dome.
Baths The Romans were fond of bathing, and public baths were important elements of civic architecture throughout the empire. Some were enormous and architecturally complex. The buildings enclosed three main rooms visited sequentially by the bathers—the warm room (Tepidarium), the hot room (Calidarium), and the cool room (Frigidarium). Wide barrel-vaulted ceilings covered many of the rooms, and beneath the floor were systems of ducts that brought hot air from nearby furnaces to heat the rooms.
Theaters and Amphitheaters Other places of diversions for citizens of the Roman Empire were theaters and amphitheaters. Roman theaters were similar to Greek theaters except for the decreased size of the orchestra between the auditorium and the stage. Roman builders also built free-standing theaters instead of carving them out of convenient hills, as with the Theater of Marcellus in Rome, built in 23–13 B.C.
The amphitheater, either round or oval, with seating surrounding the arena, was a Roman invention. The Colosseum in Rome, completed in A.D. 80, seated 50,000 spectators and is a structure of great complexity, including stairs and aisles to the seats, and a labyrinthine system of rooms and passages under the arena for animals, workers, and machinery.
Aqueducts and Bridges Roman engineers understood hydrodynamics and built large arched aqueducts to carry water across rivers and ravines to large cities throughout their empire. The Aqua Claudio aqueduct (A.D. 38–52) serving Rome is a well-preserved example, as are the Pont du Garde (ca. 19 B.C.) in Nimes, France, and the Segovia aqueduct (ca. A.D. 100) in Spain, in use until the late 19th century. Roman bridges were arched structures similar to aqueducts.
Basilicas Adjacent to most forums were basilicas, which contained law courts and commercial activities. Basilicas were often rectangular, with the length twice as long as the width, and featured a central nave, two or four lower side aisles, and a circular apse at one or both ends with seating and an altar for sacrifices before ceremonies. Two rows of columns supported the nave ceiling in the four-aisle model, two more rows of columns supported the two-aisle ceiling. Often clerestory windows in the nave walls above the aisles admitted light into the interior. The ceilings were either timber trusses or barrel vaults.
Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture
In the centuries following the death of Jesus of Nazareth the fabric of the Roman Empire began to weaken. As the populace began to convert to Christianity, they needed new places of public worship.
Basilican Churches In contrast to Greek and Roman temples that enclosed statues of the deities while worshipers gathered outside, Christians brought worshipers indoors. For this they developed the rectangular basilican church, a building creatively adapted from the Roman model.
Romans entered basilicas on the long side, but Christians entered their churches through an atrium, an open colonnaded court at the end. Crossing the atrium, worshipers entered the church proper through a narthex vestibule, into a central nave covered by a timber roof where they heard the services. At the far end was a half-domed apse derived from the Roman apse. In front of the apse was an ambo, or pulpit, for Bible reading and services. Early churches were oriented with the apse facing west while the priest faced east toward the congregation. The basilican church became the basis for Christian churches for centuries thereafter.
Byzantine Architecture In A.D. 330, the Christian emperor Constantine I moved the capital of the empire to
Byzantium (later called Constantinople, now Istanbul), on the Bosporus Strait. Byzantium offered no good building stones, which forced builders to import marble and other fine stones; it also fostered the use of concrete, which made possible bold new interior spaces.
Byzantine architects found a new expression for Christian worship beyond the rectangular early Christian churches. Borrowing the western Asian dome, they created interiors of soaring spaces. They solved the problem of placing a circular dome over a square space by inventing the pendentive, a triangular piece in the corners to provide the transition between the square and the dome. The outward thrust of the dome was transferred to half-domes at the sides, or to buttresses. Inside, the architects enhanced the effect of the space with glittering mosaics. The supreme example of Byzantine ecclesiastical design is Hagia Sophia, the Church of the Holy Wisdom, in Constantinople; it was designed by the architects Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Miletus, and built in 532–537.
Romanesque Architecture
After the fall of Rome in A.D. 476, the early Christian basilican church underwent gradual changes. Eventually this gave rise to a new form, called Romanesque, that spread rapidly beginning in the 11th century. There was no pure form of Romanesque; each country’s culture, available building materials, and climate shaped its version of the Romanesque church.
Italy The spatial organization of Italian Romanesque churches is different from early Christian churches, though they continue a basic basilican plan. The atrium is abandoned in favor of a decorative treatment of the western façade leading directly to the narthex. The transept, an intersecting structure at 90° to the axis of the nave, forms a Latin cross with the nave; the chancel is extended beyond the transept, with the apse terminating the central interior space in the east. Rounded arches and wood-trussed ceilings are carried over from early Christian churches, but barrel vaults now frequently replace timber ceilings. Towers are added either attached or separate from the church.
Italian Romanesque churches, with the availability of fine stones such as marble, were often faced in contrasting colorful marbles and had small windows to filter the bright sunlight. A striking example is Pisa Cathedral, built in 1063–1092. The exterior is faced with alternating bands of red and white marble, and the west façade is enlivened with rows of arcades.
France In the south, French Romanesque churches often had only a nave with no aisles, while in the north there were aisles and a nave. Windows were narrow, especially in the sunny south. Saint Sernin in Toulouse, built in 1080–96, is a well-preserved example of southern French Romanesque; the Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen, also known as Saint Etienne, built in 1066–77, is a splendid example of northern Romanesque.
Germany German Romanesque churches differ from Italian and French by including more towers, transepts, and apses at both east and west ends. Windows are larger and roofs steeper to shed winter snow. The availability of suitable stone varied with region and resulted in stone construction in some places and brick in others. A fine example of German Romanesque is Worms Cathedral, built in 1110–81.
Gothic Architecture
In the 12th century, political and religious competition played a major role in the development of a new kind of architecture that came to be called Gothic. While Gothic builders produced many important halls and castles, their supreme achievement was in the equipoise of the elements of architecture—purpose, design, and structure—in Gothic cathedrals.
France Gothic architecture began in France. The kings of France sought to consolidate their power over the monasteries that owed their allegiance to the pope, and they wanted an architectural expression different from the Romanesque monasteries. Just north of Paris, Abbé Suger responded by creating the first Gothic choir at Saint-Denis, begun in 1144.
Three structural elements are at the heart of Gothic cathedrals: the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, and the flying buttress. Gothic builders created an entirely new ecclesiastical expression with these structural elements. Walls, freed from having to support heavy vaults, could be much lighter and pierced by large clerestory windows that could rise to the vaults themselves. The ribbed vaulting and flying buttresses allowed the height of the nave to be built higher and higher. The exteriors of Gothic cathedrals were carved in a delicate profusion of statues, windows, and arcades that often combined with towers on the western end to give a sense of verticality to the whole.
The unique power of the Gothic cathedrals, however, was the result both of their structure and of the interior
that the structure created. The great height of the naves, with the pointed vaults and clerestory windows, drew the eyes of worshipers upward toward heaven. Multicolored light filtering through the stained glass windows created a feeling of reverence that was enhanced by the biblical scenes in the windows that served to instruct worshipers.
The choir at Saint-Denis was almost immediately emulated as cities in the Île-de-France, the area surrounding Paris, competed to erect higher and more elegant Gothic cathedrals. First was Chartres (1140–1260), followed by Notre Dame in Paris (1163–1235), Rheims (1212–1300), Amiens (1220–1280), and others.
Germany French Gothic soon spread across Europe, and in Germany this often took the form of the “hall church,” in which the aisles were the same height as the nave. The Frauenkirche in Nuremberg (1354–61) is an example, as is Cologne cathedral (1248–1880).
Spain Spain enthusiastically embraced Gothic architecture. The result was a number of fine cathedrals and churches in major cities, including Toledo (1226–1493), Burgos (1220–1500), and Seville (1401–1520)—the largest medieval cathedral in Europe.
Italy With a few exceptions, Italy seemed inhibited by its classical heritage and never caught the spirit of French Gothic, beyond employing pointed vaulting and windows. For example, Siena cathedral (1245–1380), with its thick walls without flying buttresses, lacks the Gothic verticality found elsewhere in Europe. Milan cathedral (1385–1485) in the north (closer to the influence of France and Germany) is a notable exception, with its delicate pinnacles, flying buttresses, and high stained glass windows.
England After the Norman conquest in 1066, England began importing ideas, words, and architecture from France. The first Gothic cathedral was erected at Canterbury (1174–1400), designed initially by William of Sens (d. ca. 1180) from France. Many Gothic cathedrals and churches followed, among which are Salisbury (1220–58), Westminster Abbey in London (1245–1740), and York Minster (1261–1324). With their lower vaults, extended choirs, and square apses, English Gothic cathedrals have their own character in the canon of Gothic architecture.
Renaissance Architecture
In the late Middle Ages, scholars began to rediscover the classical writings of ancient philosophers and scientists, and there was a growing humanistic rejection of the medieval world, including Gothic architecture. Architects, now considered artists rather than simply master builders like their medieval predecessors, became individually identified with their buildings; many drew inspiration from the classical models of Greece and Rome, and included rounded arches in their designs.
Italy The problem facing Renaissance architects was to adapt classical models to buildings that did not exist in ancient times. A competition held in 1418 to design a dome to complete the cathedral of Florence that had been begun in 1296 during the Gothic era was won by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446). His design is a masterpiece of blending a Renaissance dome with an Italian Gothic cathedral.
In Rome, St. Peter’s Church was begun in 1506 by Donato Bramante (1444–1514). After his death, a succession of architects changed the design several times until Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) was brought in at the age of 72 to redesign the structure, including the dome.
The Renaissance architect with the longest-lasting influence was Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), who worked in Venice and Vicenza. A number of his villas, including the Villa Capra (1560’s)—also known as the Rotonda—set the design for centuries of domestic and public architecture. His influence was also spread by his Four Books on Architecture, a theoretical work of idealized buildings that ranks among the most important written works about architecture. In it he implicitly rejected the Gothic style while paying tribute to the Romans—who, he said, “in building well, vastly excelled all those who have [lived] since their time.”
France In France Italian Renaissance architecture became the model for a number of châteaux and palaces, including the Palais de Fountainebleau (1528), designed by Gilles Le Breton (1506?–58). But the transition from Gothic was not always smooth; Saint Eustache in Paris (1532–89), begun as a Gothic church, was finished in Renaissance details, including round arches.
Germany Renaissance architecture came slowly to Germany and had a limited impact there. Heidelberg Castle (1513–1612) had many additions over time that reflect different periods of German Renaissance architecture. Political and religious turmoil in Germany inhibited the building of significant new churches during the 16th and 17th centuries, limiting the influence of the Renaissance style.
Spain Spain’s wealth and power rose to its zenith during the Renaissance, and its architects had ample opportunities for major works. King Philip II built the imposing palace of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (1559–84) near Madrid, begun by Juan Bautista de Toledo (?–1567) and finished by Juan de Herrera (1530?–97). Granada cathedral (1529), designed by Diego de Siloe (1495?–1563), is a fine example of a Spanish Renaissance church.
England Renaissance architecture came last to England, and was practiced while the Continent was entering the Baroque period. Inigo Jones (1573–1652) studied in Italy, especially Palladio’s buildings, and his subsequent work strongly influenced English Renaissance design. Jones’s Banqueting House in London (1619–21) is a famous example of his work. The Great London fire of 1666 provided Christopher Wren (1632–1723) the opportunity to design many parish churches of ingeniously differing designs, as well as Saint Paul’s Cathedral (1675–1710), with its monumental western façade, splendid dome, and barrel-vaulted interior.
Baroque Architecture
The term Baroque (possibly from the Portuguese word barroco, an irregularly shaped pearl) was originally used to mean grotesque, excessive, or bizarre. Baroque architecture created palaces and churches characterized by elaborate and often fanciful decorative elements.
Churches The great Baroque Catholic churches were designed and built after the Counter-Reformation. Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), one of the great Baroque architects, asserted that churches should “reach out to Catholics in order to reaffirm their faith, to heretics to reunite them with the church, and to agnostics to enlighten them with the true faith.” Bernini is best known for the magnificent colonnade (1629–62) that forms the piazza in front of the entrance façade of Saint Peter’s.
Baroque architects manipulated interior spaces to be more plastic and flowing than ordered Renaissance spaces. Using stucco, an inexpensive and infinitely malleable material, they created free-flowing surfaces and elaborate decorations that would have been too expensive to carve in marble and other fine stonework.
Francesco Boromini (1599-1667) was one of the most daring in manipulating spaces. His church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1638–41) in Rome, with its oval plan, curvilinear walls, and dome that flows up from the walls, is a superb example of Baroque architecture.
Palaces and Gardens French Baroque architecture was expressed most characteristically in palaces and their associated gardens. Until the late 17th century, the Louvre in Paris was the king’s official residence, and successive kings enlarged it, joined it to the Tuileries palace, and extended an elaborately planned garden, designed by André Le Notre (1613–1700), along the banks of the Seine. The buildings themselves were restrained and classic—hardly the Baroque of Italian churches—but their relationship to the extended garden created a new sense of transition between the city and the palace.
When King Louis XIV decided to move his main residence to Versailles in 1677, he greatly enlarged the existing palace into the largest in Europe. He also commissioned Le Notre to lay out the gardens. The palace and gardens, with their enormous scope and subtle symmetry, became the model for palaces throughout Europe, such as the Hermitage and other palaces along the Neva River in Peter the Great’s new Russian capital of St. Petersburg.
The Baroque was succeeded by the Rococo style, even more refined and decorative and often incorporating chinoiserie and other exotic elements. A noted example is Frederick the Great’s summer palace, Sans-Souci (1745–47), at Potsdam.
18th- and 19th-Century Architecture
The Age of Enlightenment—led by philosophers and scientists who relied on the power of reason to challenge accepted values and beliefs—had a profound and lasting impact on architecture. No longer were architects and their patrons certain about the immutable models of the Greek, Roman, Gothic, or Baroque builders. Architects of the Enlightenment created a welter of movements, revival styles, and schools that vied with one another for supremacy.
One such movement was neoclassicism, which stripped excess ornament from Baroque forms to reveal their basic geometry. A related movement in Great
Britain was the 18th-century Georgian style of domestic architecture, championed by the brothers James Adam (1728–92) and Robert Adam (1730–94); notable examples are the terraced houses at Bath and the New Town district of Edinburgh. The first half of the 19th century also saw a Gothic revival, such as the English Houses of Parliament (1835–70) by Charles Barry (1795–1860) and Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812–52). In Germany the Gothic revival resulted in the scrupulous completion of Cologne cathedral in the 19th century from medieval designs.
Classicism was not dead during this period, but it took new forms. An important impetus to rethinking classicism was the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, formed after the French revolution in 1789; it taught that classical forms could be adapted to new kinds of buildings, such as bridges and office buildings. Its students, who came from a number of countries, returned home to produce new buildings in the classical manner. Examples are found virtually everywhere in Europe.
Technology Until the 19th century, most large buildings were constructed of stone, masonry, and wood. The Industrial Revolution yielded two new materials of great importance to architects: inexpensive iron, and glass produced on a large scale. When iron became cheaper than masonry, some 19th-century architects recognized its expressive potential. For example, Pierre-François-Henri Labrouste (1801–75) designed the library of Sainte-Geneviève (1838–50) and the Bibliothèque Nationale (1854–75) in Paris using classical Roman forms, but with iron construction and ample glass fenestration.
Probably the most striking iron and glass building of its time was the Crystal Palace in London, designed by Joseph Paxton (1803–65) for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Assembled entirely of cast iron members, standard sheets of glass, and wooden supports, the transparent building showed the world that new kinds of architectural experiences were possible using industrial technology.
The Skyscraper As land prices rose steadily in the heart of rapidly growing cities, there was a need to make maximum use of a given lot. The answer was to build vertically, and the industrial age had provided the means: the development of steel as a construction material, and the invention of the elevator.
The type of building that became known as the skyscraper was born in Chicago, where two visionary architects grappled with the aesthetics of tall building design. William Le Baron Jenney (1832–1907) and Louis Henri Sullivan (1856–1924) pushed their buildings up to new heights and clothed them in ways that plainly celebrated their verticality. Sullivan’s Wainright Building in St. Louis (1890–91) epitomizes his famous statement that a tall building “must be every inch a proud and soaring thing.” The maxim that “form follows function”—that is, the look of a building must be subordinate to its purpose—is also attributed to Sullivan, and was later taken up by 20th-century architects.
Modern Architecture
Architecture at the dawn of the 20th century underwent a seismic change as significant as any in its history. An American architect and a small group of European architects broke free from historical models and created a new architecture called “modern.” This new architecture was enabled by a new material, reinforced concrete, that combined the compressive strength of concrete with the tensile strength of steel and could be shaped into structures that were previously impossible.
Frank Lloyd Wright A seminal modern architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) paradoxically influenced but stood apart from nearly all of his modernist contemporaries. After serving an apprenticeship with Louis Sullivan, Wright opened his own office in 1893 and began designing houses in the Chicago suburbs. By the early 1900’s, he had developed his distinctive Prairie houses with their open plans arranged around large central fireplaces, and hovering hipped roofs parallel to the ground. The Robie House (1906–10) in Chicago is a masterpiece of Prairie design. Wright also produced two major large works that had a lasting impact on European architects, Unity Temple (1904) in the suburb of Oak Park, and the Larkin Company Administration Building (1903–06, demolished) in Buffalo.
Some of Wright’s greatest works, which were at odds with orthodox modernism, came after he turned 60 years old. In the 1930’s he surprised the architectural world with Fallingwater (1936–38), a country residence in western Pennsylvania with cantilevered reinforced concrete terraces built over a stream, as well as the curvilinear brick Johnson Wax Building (1936–37) in Racine, Wisconsin. His Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1956–59) in New York City, with its spiral exhibition ramp, is a major work realized in his last years.
But Wright’s Usonian houses, designed in the 1930’s to be affordable to middle-class owners, were perhaps his most important achievement. The Herbert Jacobs House (1936) in Madison, Wisconsin, was an early example of his method of conserving of space by allowing the living room-dining room-kitchen to flow into one another without walls. Countless tract homes, including the post-World War II Levittowns, later mirrored his conservation of interior space.
Early European Modernists In 1910–11 the German publisher Wasmuth brought out two illustrated volumes of Wright’s work that caught the imagination of his European contemporaries. European architects quickly grasped the spirit of Wright’s rejection of historical models, his free flow of interior spaces, and the beauty of the sensitively proportioned plain exterior surfaces.
Five significant European architects developed a functional approach to design, using modern materials primarily in large commercial buildings: Peter Behrens (1868–1940), who designed a notable turbine factory in Berlin (1908–09); Otto Wagner (1841–1918), who designed Vienna’s Post Office Savings Bank (1904–06); Adolf Loos (1878–1933), who designed Vienna’s starkly geometric Steiner House (1910); Hendrik Petrus Berlage (1856–1934), who designed the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (1898–1903); and Auguste Perret (1874–1954), who designed the church of Notre Dame in Le Raincy (1922–24).
Bauhaus and the International Style One of Peter Behrens’s young assistants, Georg Walter Adolf Gropius (1883–1969), went on to surpass his mentor in his contribution to modern architecture. His major influence began in 1919, when he founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, a school that combined craftsmanship with design and brought together artisans, painters, sculptors, and architects.
In 1926 Gropius moved the Bauhaus to Dessau, into a radical new building complex he had designed that was laid out on a pinwheel plan and constructed of concrete, steel, and glass. It became an icon of what came to be called the International Style. The interconnecting buildings were designed to foster the interaction of designers and craftspeople to create mass-produced furniture, utilitarian household objects, and low-cost housing. The ideal of inexpensive mass-produced items was never achieved, but some Bauhaus designs, especially furniture, have ironically become widely sold as luxury items.
The last director of the Bauhaus (appointed in 1930) was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), born Ludwig Mies. Mies’s stature does not rest on his association with the Bauhaus, however, but with his many buildings based on an intense study of new building materials, their aesthetic potential, and the plasticity of architectural space. He developed his ideas in a series of houses built over a 10-year period, culminating in the Tugendhat House (1928–1930) in Brno, Czech Republic. The house stands on a sloping site, constructed of concrete and steel, with carefully defined interpenetrating living spaces, and a glass wall facing the view, part of which retracted to open the interior to the air.
In 1938 Mies became director of the architectural department at Illinois Institute of Technology. There he tested his ideas on the simplification of architectural elements that he summed up in his famous phrase, “less is more.” The design idiom he developed at IIT and in later buildings, particularly his bronze Seagram Building (1954–58) on Park Avenue in New York City, influenced building design in hundreds of cities in America and Europe.
Le Corbusier Born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, Le Corbusier (1887–1965) traveled widely and met many early modern architects. He sought to reconcile his deeply felt responses to their work with the historical works he studied in his travels, particularly Greek temples.
In the 1920’s, Le Corbusier found a vocabulary for domestic architecture that resulted in one of the great works of modern architecture, the Villa Savoye in Poissy, France (1928–30). Standing alone in a field, the pristine white house is supported on pilotis, slender concrete columns that carry the load of the floors and free the interior to be developed into flowing horizontal and vertical spaces. In a seminal book, Towards a New Architecture (1923), he delivered his notorious dictum, “The house is a machine for living in,” but his houses were elegant, with hints of classicism, and far from machinelike.
The New Modernists Classicism and historicism slowly lost the struggle with modernism, and the International Style became synonymous with it. After World War II, modern architecture—broadly defined—was the new orthodoxy.
Building on the works of the old masters, a new generation of architects found a wide range of expression within the modern idiom. These architects include Finnish Hugo Alvar Hendrik Aalto (1898–1976), who began in a
strict International Style but later softened his work, as demonstrated by the Baker House dormitory (1947–49) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Eero Saarinen (1910–61), who moved creatively between International Style-inspired designs such as the elegant rectilinear General Motors Technical Center (1948–56) in Warren, Michigan, and the sculptural, birdlike concrete TWA Terminal (1956–62) at Kennedy Airport in New York; Philip Cortelyou Johnson (1906–2005), who worked with Mies on the Seagram Building and established his own modernist credentials with the Glass House (1949) in New Canaan, Connecticut; Minoru Yamasaki (1912–86), who is best known for the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center (1966–73, destroyed); and I.M. Pei (b. 1917), born in China, who practiced in America and found new expressive forms in modernism.
Probably the purest of the new modernists is Richard Alan Meier (b. 1934). Early in his career he established a vocabulary of impeccably white buildings, composed mostly of abstract rectilinear forms, like the Smith House (1965) on Long Island, New York. His Getty Center complex (1989–97) in Los Angeles is the latter-day International Style writ large in a major work.
Beyond Modern Architecture
If modernism, and especially the International Style, had become an orthodoxy following World War II, it was never universally accepted. Though widely practiced in commercial and public buildings, modernism had never caught on in domestic building. Only a few, and usually wealthy, clients could both afford and want to live in the iconic concrete, steel, and glass houses epitomized by Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye. Frank Lloyd Wright, alone among the early giants of modern architecture, continued to produce his Usonian houses for less affluent clients.
Postmodernism By the 1960’s the sense that something important in modernism was missing was captured by Robert Venturi (b. 1925) in his highly influential book, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966). His argument is suggested in his criticism of the aesthetic purity of late modernism: “Less is a bore.” Lacking, he said, were elements of the ambiguity found in much of historical building, and this lack risked “separating architecture from the experience of life and the needs of society.” His book, together with his designs—including his early Guild House (1960–63) in Philadelphia and the Vanna Venturi House (1963) in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania—were a catalyst for the movement that came to be called postmodern.
Postmodernism is characterized by often outsized fragments of historical orders (such as arches, broken pediments, and keystones) and other incongruous elements appearing on otherwise plain buildings, creating the kind of complexity and contradiction Venturi admired. Good examples of Postmodernism include Philip Johnson’s AT&T building (1979) in New York City, with its Chippendale top above a traditional skyscraper design, and Michael Graves’s (b. 1934) Team Disney Corporate Headquarters (1986) in Burbank, California, with Disney’s Seven Dwarfs serving as enormous caryatids on the entrance façade.
Skyscrapers The skyscraper continued to evolve during the 20th century, mostly in America, but not in the radical new International Style. Many American architects adopted the Art Deco style—an eclectic combination of Egyptian, Aztec, and other exotic elements—to decorate tall buildings. The Chrysler Building (1928–30) by William van Alen (1882–1954) and the Empire State Building (1930–31) by the firm of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, both in New York, are conspicuous examples. Rockefeller Center (1929–39) in New York is an arrangement of slablike buildings in restrained Art Deco, designed by a group of leading architects and laid out in a superb urban plan.
In the late 20th century, skyscrapers became a form of competition between nations. The race was on to build the tallest building. Since then a succession of countries have announced the construction of new skyscrapers taller than the last announced building. Though these buildings featured designs that distinguished one from another, height was the predominant element, not bold new designs.
At the same time, other clients hired forward-thinking architects to reconsider what a tall building might be. The rise of Hong Kong as a world financial and commercial center provided architects wide latitude to experiment. Among the most creative of their buildings is the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters (1986) by the architect Norman Foster. The interior space is free of any supporting structure but wears its supports on the outside like an exoskeleton. Its unobstructed views of the harbor give it the advantage of good feng shui, a traditional design system that includes the belief that enterprises with a direct view of water will prosper.
The DZ Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt am Main (1993) by the firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is an example of a tall building that is distinctive, but also exceptionally sensitive to its surroundings. Set on a main street along which the city planned a grouping of tall buildings intended to suggest the city’s prosperity and to attract tourists, the building subtly reflects nearby office towers with its divisions and breaks. A cantilevered crown at the top identifies it at a distance without overshadowing its partners along the street.
A more recent tall building that is distinctive for its design rather than height is the Central Chinese Television Tower (CCTV) in Beijing (a fire in a nearby building delayed construction and its opening date is uncertain) by OMA, the firm founded by Rem Koolhaas and his colleagues in 1975. The architects avoided what they call “the exhausted typology of the skyscraper” in a “hopeless race for the ultimate height and style.” Instead, the building is a folded loop of intersecting structures designed to include production, broadcasting, and administration. The spaces flow into each other and are meant to encourage chance encounters among the workers and the resulting collaboration that is vital to a creative medium.
Architects as Stars Throughout most of history, with a few notable exceptions, architects have labored anonymously. It wasn’t until the Renaissance that architects were recognized as true artists to be identified with the buildings they designed. But well into the 20th century very few architects or their buildings were known outside of a comparatively small group of connoisseurs, clients, historians, and architects themselves. About mid-20th century that began to change.
For the first time, commercial developers began to construct buildings that were promoted as being designed by “celebrity architects.” Living in an apartment tower or condominium designed by a star architect brought a special cachet. An early example is the 860-880 Lake Shore Drive twin-tower apartments in Chicago (1949) designed by Mies van der Rohe in glass and steel that advertised its world-renowned architect. Though financing was difficult at first, these unconventional buildings have become trademarks of Meis’s work and were designated a Chicago Landmark in 1996 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. A new way of identifying star architects was created in 1979 that helped to spread their fame: The Pritzker Architecture Prize. Awarded annually to a living architect, or architects, the award was established by the Pritzker family of Chicago and was modeled on the Nobel Prizes. The intention was to create a greater public awareness of buildings and to stimulate greater creativity among architects. The prize has become the ultimate accolade an architect can receive. Now developers or builders can chose among a list of laureates and know that they can’t go wrong if they choose one from the list. In New York there are now apartment and condominium buildings advertised as being designed by Richard Meier and Frank Gehry, whose names now have commercial value in the real estate market.
The non-Western world includes a number of architectural traditions that developed largely independently of one another and, until recent times, of European influence. Major religions, particularly Buddhism and Islam, created distinctive architectural styles that transcend national boundaries.
East Asian Architecture
Beginning in the second millennium B.C., China developed a distinctive form of architecture for palaces and other signficant structures. A raised platform was constructed of compacted earth, on which wooden pillars were erected to support a bracket-work roof shingled with tile. The spaces between the pillars were filled in with brick, stucco, or other materials, but the entire load of the building was carried by its pillars. Palaces and temples built in this style were generally laid out on a north-south axis, with doorways facing southward.
The Forbidden City, a palace complex in the center of Beijing, is the best-preserved group of ancient buildings in China. The great beauty of the individual buildings, the relationship of the buildings to one another, the open spaces between them, and the subtle changes in level both outside and inside the buildings, create one of the greatest of all architectural complexes. It was built during the Ming period (1368–1644), although most existing buildings were built or reconstructed early in the Qing period (1644–1911).
Chinese-style pillar-and-bracket architecture reached
Japan in the sixth century, with the spread of Buddhism to Japan via Korea. The world’s oldest surviving wooden buildings (seventh century), at the Horyuji near Nara, exemplify this style. The Phoenix Hall of the Fujiwara family mansion at Uji is the world’s only surviving example of a palace in Tang Dynasty (618–907) Chinese style.
Architecture in the Chinese style coexisted in Japan with an older native style, in which rectangular buildings, often with thatched roofs, are raised above ground level on stiltlike pillars; this style survives principally in Shinto shrines. The characteristic Japanese wooden house, with straw-mat floors and internal dividing walls of paper, is a late development, dating from the 14th century. The 17thcentury Imperial Villa at Katsura, near Kyoto, is regarded as the epitome of Japanese domestic architecture.
Japan’s military heritage is expressed in castle architecture. Rising above the modern city of Himeji is the handsome Shirasagijo (Castle of the White Heron), a fortress built, and rebuilt, from 1333 to 1618. Several moats protect the outer perimeter, while narrow and twisting alleys—exposing invaders to fire from above—lead to the heart of the complex. The Daitenshu (Main Tower) has five exterior levels but seven stories in the interior.
South Asian Architecture
South Asian architecture began with the great Indus Valley cities such as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro (2500–1500 B.C.). The evolution of religious belief and associated cultural expression, from ancient and elite Brahmanism to later and more popular Hinduism, gave rise to numerous local forms of Hindu temples devoted to various gods; these characteristically were built from stone or brick and had a tall tower above the main entrance gate. In many parts of India, temples, complete with pillars supporting interior ceilings, have been hewn from solid stone; well-known examples (seventh century) are at Mahabalipuram, in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
As Hinduism spread to Southeast Asia from India, it led to the creation of many monumental works of architecture, such as the temple at Prambanan (ca. 900), in central Java, Indonesia. The finest architectural expression of Hinduism in Southeast Asia is the Temple of Angkor Wat in what is now Cambodia. Constructed of sandstone by King Suryavarman II from 1113 to 1150, though not completed during his reign, Angkor Wat was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and its central stepped pyramid represented the cosmic mountain Meru. In the 15th century, Angkor fell to invaders and its temples were abandoned.
The coming of Islam to South Asia, and especially the establishment of the Moghul Dynasty in 1526, added an overlay of international Islamic architecture to the older indigenous forms. (See “Islamic Architecture.”)
Buddhist Architecture
Buddhist architecture originated in South Asia, but developed largely outside the Indian peninsula. Its basic form is the stupa, originally a domed temple topped by a narrow spire; this underwent many transformations as Buddhism spread throughout central, eastern, and southeastern Asia.
The domed stupa is substantially preserved in Buddhist architecture in Southeast Asia, for example the bell-shaped shrines atop the mandala-mountain of Borobudur (central Java, Indonesia, ca. 800). The most spectacular example is the great bell-shaped dome, covered with tons of gold leaf, of Shwe Dagon Temple, on a hilltop in the city of Yan’gon (formerly Rangoon), capital of Myanmar (formerly Burma).
In Central Asia and East Asia, the dome of the stupa shrank, and the spire became enlarged, producing the characteristic building known as a pagoda. The Chinese city of Xi’an, once the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, is home to the Great Wild Goose Pagoda. Originally constructed during the Tang Dynasty in A.D. 652 as a square, five-storied pagoda, it was later rebuilt to seven stories. It is 240 feet tall, constructed of brick, and was built to house Buddhist sutras (scriptures) brought from India by the monk Xuanzang.
Islamic Architecture
The characteristic Islamic building is the mosque, designed to enclose a large space to hold large numbers of people for communal prayers. The usual design, inherited from Byzantine church architecture, is a square building surmounted by a dome. A mihrab (arched niche) indicates the direction of Mecca, toward which worshipers face while praying. Adjacent to the mosque may be a minaret, a tall tower from which the call to prayer is chanted five times daily. Mosques of this basic design (but with local variations of style) followed the spread of Islam across North Africa to Spain, and across Asia to India, China, Indonesia, and beyond.
The first major surviving Islamic building is the Qubbat al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock) in Jerusalem. It was originally built by the caliph Abd al-Malik in A.D. 692. Octagonal in shape and surmounted by a dome, it is a transitional building between contemporaneous
Byzantine architecture and later pure forms of Islamic architecture, and was partly modeled on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (328–336) built by Emperor Constantine I.
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, many important Islamic buildings were built in what is now Istanbul, including the Süleymaniye Mosque (1550–57). Commissioned by the sultan Süleyman I (ca. 1494–1566), the mosque was designed by the court architect Sinan (1489–1578), and is a part of a complex that included theological colleges, schools, a hospital, an alms-kitchen, a bath, and the tombs of its founder and his wife. It is a masterpiece of design, engineering, and construction, and the account books that have survived make it the best documented of the great Ottoman buildings.
In India, the Jami’ Masjid (Friday Mosque) in Old Delhi is the largest of the many mosques that were built by its Mughal emperors after successive Islamic invasions and migrations. The emperor Shah Jahan (1592–1666), who also built the Taj Mahal, supervised the construction from 1650–56 and regularly attended Friday prayers there during his reign. It can accommodate more than 20,000 worshippers for communal prayers. Also in India, at the center of the city of Jaipur, is the City Palace (1727), which combines elements of Mughal and traditional Rajasthan architecture. It is constructed of pink-colored sandstone and matches the rest of the central buildings in this “pink city.” Today the Chandra Mahal (Moon Palace) in the City Palace is still the residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur.
African Architecture
The meaning of the word zimbabwe has changed over the years, but came to be used to designate the “ruler’s court” or “house”; the largest of all was Great Zimbabwe in what is now the country of Zimbabwe. Though settled by A.D. 500, the great stone walls and mud buildings for which the site is best known were built in the 14th and 15th centuries, and had an estimated population of over 10,000. Scholars believe the stone walls were not for defense but were symbols of the ruler’s power. Beginning in the 15th century Great Zimbabwe declined and was eventually abandoned.
In Ghana the remaining Ashanti (or Asanti) traditional buildings are the last examples of the once great Ashanti civilization. The Ashanti reached their height in the 18th century and in the 19th century fought the British colonizers in battles that largely destroyed their villages. Made of earth, wood and straw, the remaining buildings near the city of Kumasi are vulnerable to the elements.
Indigenous American Architecture
At its height in the sixth century A.D., the city of Teotihuacán, near present-day Mexico City, had an estimated population of 200,000 and was the sixth most populous city in the world. It was laid out on a grand scale along the north-south Avenue of the Dead with the Pyramid of the Moon at the north end and the Temple of Quetzalcóatl at the south end. East of the Avenue of the Dead, and just north of the intersection of the East and West Avenues, is the largest structure, the Pyramid of the Sun, which faces west toward the setting sun. The city collapsed in the seventh or eighth century and its population apparently dispersed.
The city of Uxmal in northern Yucatán, Mexico, is considered by many scholars to be the finest work of Mayan architecture. It is in the Puuk region and flourished from about A.D. 800 to 1000. The conquering Spanish gave its buildings names that do not correspond to their use in Mayan times. Notable among these are the Pyramid of the Magician, the Nunnery, and the Governor’s Palace. The complex was laid out to emphasize sight lines between the buildings and to align with astronomical phenomena, including the setting sun on the summer solstice. The Mayans abandoned the site following the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.
Set in a spectacular site in the southern mountains of Peru, Machu Picchu was built by the Incas in the 14th and 15th centuries. Scholars differ on the exact purpose of the site, but its size and the sophistication of its construction indicate its importance in Inca civilization. The inhabitants were supported by agriculture on a series of terraces irrigated by an intricate system of channels and canals to direct rainwater to the fields. After the Spanish conquest in the 16th century the city was abandoned, but was rediscovered and excavated in the 20th century.
In southwestern Colorado, most of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde were built by the Anasazi (“ancient enemies”) culture from A.D. 1230 to 1240, though they had been living in the area for 500 to 1000 years. They built multiroomed living structures in the eroded cliff sides below a mesa and cultivated the land on the mesa. Their cliff dwellings and structures elsewhere on canyon floors are considered the most elaborate and sophisticated Native American architecture.
In the late 13th century the Anasazi abandoned the site for reasons that are still not understood.
The Acoma pueblo in northwestern New Mexico is one of the oldest continuously occupied villages in the United States. It sits atop a mesa and is believed to have been inhabited for a thousand years. In 1598 its original buildings were destroyed by Spanish invaders, but were rebuilt in the early 17th century. Today it is inhabited by families who pass the right to live in individual dwellings down through their youngest daughters.
agora open area for assemblies, meetings, and markets in ancient Greece.
aisle division of the main structure of Roman basilicas and Christian churches into lateral areas adjacent to, and on both sides of, the nave.
acropolis group of main temples on an elevated section, or hill, in ancient Greek cities.
ambo pulpit or stand in Early Christian or Byzantine churches used for readings.
amphitheater outdoor theater, either round or semicircular, with tiered seats for the audience.
apse semicircular, polygonal, or square end of a Roman basilica or Christian church.
aqueduct means of channeling or carrying water; arched Roman aqueducts carried water over rivers and valleys.
arch curved structure that spans an opening and is usually formed by voussoirs; see corbeled arch.
arcade series of arches carried on columns; can be attached to a wall or freestanding.
atrium court with open roof; in Roman houses it included a basin to catch rainwater; in Early Christian churches, a forecourt with colonnade leading to the church entrance; in modern times often a glass-covered interior.
auditorium in an amphitheater, the circular or semicircular area of tiered seats for the audience.
barrel vault continuous semicircular ceiling.
basilica Roman meeting hall with high central nave, clerestory windows, apse, and often side aisles, used for law courts, meetings, and other assemblies; adapted in Early Christian churches; see basilican church.
basilican church early Christian church based on the basilica with central nave and clerestory windows, two or four side aisles, an apse at one end, and covered with a timber roof; the basilica remained a basic Christian church building type until modern times.
broken pediment pediment that has a gap where the apex would be.
buttress heavy structure against a wall that carries the outward thrust of a vault or dome down to a lower support or the ground.
cantilever beam or other structural member that projects past its support at one end and is free at the other.
caryatid sculpture of a figure, usually a draped female, used in place of a column.
cathedral church where the bishop presides; other churches in the bishop’s area of authority are subordinate.
capital highest part of a column where it meets the entablature; design reflects different architectural orders.
cella room in a classical temple that houses the statue of the god of that temple; same as the Greek naos.
chancel extension of a Christian church, usually beyond the transept, that includes the choir and apse.
choir area in the chancel, usually immediately beyond the transept, in which the choir is seated; can also mean the entire chancel.
Classical architecture architecture of ancient Greece and Rome; also applied to later buildings based on Greek and Roman forms.
clerestory windows windows in the walls of a nave that rise above the roofs of the side aisles.
cloister covered and often colonnaded structure in monasteries, with open courtyard in the center, that is reserved for monks or nuns.
colonnade row of columns supporting a beam, entablature, or roof structure.
column cylindrical vertical support member; see post.
composite order combination of Corinthian and Ionic orders; the capital has acanthus leaves and scroll volutes.
concrete structural material, composed of cement, water, and aggregate, that can be cast in a multitude of shapes; see reinforced concrete.
corbeled arch arch constructed of horizontal stone layers in which each layer projects beyond the one below until they meet at the top of the arch.
Corinthian order Greek order with slim fluted columns and capitals decorated with acanthus leaves.
crossing space created in a basilican church where the nave is intersected by the transept.
cupola small dome, sometimes on a top of a larger dome.
dome circular convex structure that covers an interior space; sometimes mounted on a drum; semicircular domes often cover apses and can also act as buttresses.
Doric order Greek order with sturdy fluted columns and plain capitals.
drum circular or polygonal wall that supports a dome.
elevation projection of a building from one side onto a vertical plane showing the arrangement of windows, roof, etc.; see plan and section.
entablature horizontal structure supported by columns in classical architecture.
entasis slight convex swelling of the sides of classical columns to counteract the optical illusion that a column with straight sides is slightly thinner in the center than at the top and bottom.
fenestration windows.
fluting vertical grooving of columns and pilasters.
flying buttress detached vertical structure adjacent to vaulting that arches over to the main structure at the point of outward thrust from the vault and carries the thrust down to a lower support; a feature of Gothic cathedrals that permits thin walls and large clerestory windows; see buttress.
forum open square in ancient Rome used for assemblies, meetings, and business; often surrounded by a colonnade with adjacent basilica and temple.
groin vault ceiling structure that is formed when one barrel vault intersects another.
hall church church in which the side aisles are as high, or nearly as high, as the nave.
hypostyle room with roof supported by rows of columns.
Ionic order Greek order with slim fluted columns and capitals decorated with scrolls, or volutes.
lintel horizontal beam supported by columns, as in post and lintel construction.
mosaic small, usually rectangular pieces of colored glass or stone set into walls by plaster or mortar and arranged in designs or pictures.
mosque Muslim holy building.
narthex anteroom or vestibule spanning the full width of the building at the entrance to an Early Christian church.
nave in Roman basilicas, the central section higher than the side aisles and illuminated by clerestory windows; in Christian churches, the central section from the entrance to the transept that is usually higher than the side aisles and illuminated by clerestory windows.
naos Greek name for the room in a classical temple that houses the statue of the god of that temple and other treasures; same as the cella.
Neolithic the “New Stone” Age beginning in about 8000 B.C., when polished stone tools appeared, settled agricultural communities were formed, and animals were domesticated.
orchestra in ancient Greek and Roman theaters the circular or semicircular area in front of the stage; often used for singing and dancing that accompanied performances on the stage.
orders in classical architecture, the design of columns and entablature according to defined models. See Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, and Tuscan orders.
Paleolithic the “Old Stone” Age that began when the first crude stone tools appeared about 750,000 years ago.
pediment originally the triangular structure closing the end of a pitched roof of a classical temple; later used to describe any crowning structure over a door or window; see broken pediment.
pendentive curved triangular piece in the corners of a square or rectangular space that forms the transition to a circular drum or dome.
peristyle row of columns that surrounds the outside of a structure such as a temple or the inside of a courtyard.
piazza open paved area in a city surrounded by buildings or other structures.
pilaster flat column attached to a wall, usually for decorative purposes.
Times focus
By the Architects, for the People: A Trend From the Past
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
When the city planning board in Newark, New Jersey voted to approve construction of a four-block-long mixed-use development, the decision was barely noticed outside a small circle of civic boosters. But it was a turning point in the career of the project’s architect, Richard Meier.
For decades Mr. Meier, with his trademark dark suits and leonine white hair, has been a fixture on the New York social scene, where he often rubs elbows with his moneyed clients. And his designs, from second homes in the Hamptons to international art museums, have become known for an almost unbearable, and expensive, refinement. He is the Martha Stewart of the Modernists.
But the Newark development, a complex for middle- and lower-income tenants to be known as Teachers Village, takes Mr. Meier, 75, back to his roots, to a time more than 40 years ago when he devoted as much energy to subsidized housing as to beach houses. Despite the project’s modest budget of $120 million, its tautly composed and thoughtfully laid out forms reflect the same intelligence and care found in most of Mr. Meier’s work.
Teachers Village is not only the most impressive of several new initiatives in Newark, but also the most dramatic example yet of what is shaping up to be a significant and hopeful trend in architecture. After a long period in which America’s greatest talents seemed to work almost exclusively at the service of the wealthy, there are signs that their efforts are trickling down to other segments of society.
If things continue this way, it may actually mean a renewal of architecture’s onetime commitment to elevating the lives of ordinary people. Such a renewal is not likely to be as ambitious—some would say naïve —in its social aims as President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty and the Modernist architecture that was dominant at the time. But it could lead to a fresh engagement with some of the challenges those movements took on, an engagement informed by the lessons of their failings.
Mr. Meier’s career in particular neatly reflects the historical ups and downs of the past half century. In the late 1960s, he was approached by the newly created Urban Development Corporation of New York State to design a 523-unit project in the Bronx. As an alternative to the conventional tower-in-the-park model, he created three midrise buildings that were lifted up on columns to invite the neighborhood into their central courtyard.
But by then the backlash against large-scale Modernist housing—and the government programs that paid for it—was in full swing, as even progressive projects like Mr. Meier’s failed to deliver on their promises. Modernism of every stripe was condemned, sometimes unfairly, for a tabula rasa approach to planning and insensitivity to local contexts.
Mr. Meier has gone to greater lengths than in the past to merge his new design with its context, not just by breaking it down into several buildings, but also by using strategies like a pedestrian passageway cut between two of the charter schools. In an effort to diminish the monumentality of a building that houses two schools, part of it will be clad in white metal panels, part in brick. And the few existing buildings worth preserving will be restored.
The design incorporates some of the sensibilities that can be found in Mr. Meier’s higher-end projects. The apartment buildings include small, open courtyards and outdoor terraces, bringing light deep into their interiors. In each building a ground-floor retail level is conceived as a glass band, imbuing the floors above with an air of weightlessness. This effect is reinforced by the irregular pattern of the apartment windows, which gives the facades a cubist feeling.
If the project succeeds in revitalizing Newark’s bleak downtown—or even if it simply manages not to be swallowed up by the decay around it—its most important impact may be to help open eyes again to architecture’s potential role in addressing complex urban challenges.
Mr. Meier said, “You always hope what you build has arms, that they reach out and affect others. You want to feel you’ve done something that allows other positive things to happen.”
pilotis columns that support the main structure of a building above the ground, with the ground level left open; often used by Le Corbusier.
plan projection of a building or other area onto a horizontal plane showing the arrangement of rooms, walls, doors, etc.
portico covered entrance supported by columns.
post vertical support member like a column; see post and lintel.
post and lintel construction system consisting of columns supporting beams.
Pritzker Architecture Prize An annual award given to “honor a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.” Established in 1979 by the Pritzker family of Chicago, the award is modeled on the Nobel Prizes.
refectory dining hall in a religious or secular building.
ribbed vault vaulting that is supported by a system of ribs that support the ceiling between the ribs.
reinforced concrete concrete with steel bars cast in the places where external loads force the concrete to be in tension; the bars absorb the tension, which concrete cannot; elsewhere the concrete absorbs the compression resulting from external loads.
section view, or projection, of a building as if it were cut by a plane vertically or horizontally, showing interior spaces and structure.
stage raised structure in a theater behind the orchestra on which the performance takes place.
stoa roofed portico in ancient Greece with columns in the front and a wall at the back.
stucco plaster material that can be molded into a multitude of shapes; important in Baroque and Rococo buildings.
stylobate raised platform, usually the top step, of a temple or other structure on which the columns are placed.
transept structure that crosses the long axis of a church at 90°; on one side of the crossing is the nave and on the other the chancel.
truss rigid structure made of interlocking triangular members used to span open spaces; early trusses were of timber while later trusses were of iron, steel and other metals.
Tuscan order Roman order with slender columns and plain capitals, without fluting.
vault elongated arch that forms a ceiling or roof.
volute scroll-like form used in the Ionic order.
voussoir wedge or triangular shaped stones that form arches or vaults; see corbeled arch.
ziggurat stepped pyramid in ancient western Asia set on a platform with stairs leading to the summit where the supreme god was worshipped.