For BATU Syllabus, Lecture 1. 2017-18, Sem I

1. HISTORY OF
ARCHITECTURE
2017-18
ROHIT RAKA

2. MODULE 1
Introduction to the ANCIENT CIVILIZATION their social
systems and culture.
PRE-HISTORY
Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Neanderthal rituals,
settled farming, hunter gatherer shelters.
SETTLEMENTS LOCATION: river banks, valleys, fertile
soils.
Underlying values of relationships between Man,
Nature & Society.
MODULE 2
River Valley Civilization: MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATION
Salient features of ZIGGURATS and their development.
Generic TEMPLE LAYOUT
PLACE COMPLEX/ CITADEL
MODULE 3
River Valley Civilization: EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION
Salient features of important buildings.
Temple and temple complexes: CULT TEMPLE &
MORTUARY
MASTABA – development of typical components
PYRAMIDS – Standard mortuary complex layout of
pyramids.
MODULE 4
River Valley Civilization: INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
Salient features, important buildings, Public buildings
and Citadel.
COURSE WORK
PART A

3. COURSE WORK
PART B
MODULE 5
Aryan Invasion, tribal republics, religious philosophies:
UPANISHADS, JAINISM, BUDDHISM, spread of
Buddhism in Mauryan kingdom, Stupa at Sanchi, rock
cut architecture, Buddhist Architecture.
MODULE 6
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
CLASSICAL ORDERS: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian
Salient features of important buildings.
Temple types basis on column layout.
Discussion on HELLENIC temple(PARTHENON, ATHENS)
with HELLENISTIC TEMPLE (ATHENA POLIAS, PRIENE)
Public Buildings and Square: Agora, Stoa, Prytaneum,
Bouleuterion, Tholos, Gymnasium, Theatre.
MODULE 7
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
Introduction, their social systems and culture.
Contribution in new materials and structural
systems(construction techniques).
Ex: Pozzolona, Cementae, Stone blocks, Stone
masonry, Arch, Vault, Dome.
Salient features of important buildings: Forums of
Rome, Adequate, Theatres, Baths, Basilicas.
MODULE 8
Meso-American

4. The true necessity of studying history is to ‘KNOW’ the
knowledge of our existence in this world.
It not only helps us to develop our ‘CRITICAL
THINKING’ but numerous problems of our present and
our coming future could be solved by critically
analysing our past.
If you don’t know where you come from then you
don’t know where you are, If you don’t know where
you are you don’t know where you are going, If you
don’t know where you are going then you are
probably going wrong.
WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY HISTORY?

5. Studying history of architecture will help us to
comprehend how our shelters and other built forms
evolved over the years and if we could draw
elements from our past to make our buildings more
sustainable.
It will also guide us how our structures were driven by
culture, economy, religion, social and political
aspects and how the architecture is relevant to the
time thus helping us to create built form which is
timeless and everlasting for the future.
The problems of our future cannot be truly solved if
we don’t analyse our history and our present.
WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE?

6. GEOLOGICALTIMELINE

7. HISTORY
(With understandable
records)
PROTOHISTORY
(Records but cannot be
understood)
PREHISTORY
(No History)
MAKINGHISTORY
Archaeological remains helps to reconstruct the history. Radiocarbon dating and
Dendrochronology helps to go back in time

8. EVOLUTIONOFHUMANS
Humans are inhabiting the earth for more than 1 Million years. They have gone through a numerous
amount of changes including their anatomy, behaviour, socio-cultural activities etc.

9. P R E H I S T O R Y
MODULE 1

10. WHAT IS PREHISTORY?
Period before invention of writing.
Prehistory can be dated back till the creation
of universe .
Prehistory also can also be dated back till the
creation of life on earth.
Prehistory also can be dated back when the
human came into existence.
STONE
AGE
CHALCOLITHIC
AGE(Metal Age)

11. PALEOLITHIC
(Old Stone Age)
HOMINIDS
MESOLITHIC
(Middle Stone Age)
HOMO ERECTUS
NEOLITHIC
(Late Stone Age)
HOMO SAPIENS
STONEAGE

12. PALEOLITHIC (OLD STONE AGE)
• First use of stone tools.
• Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man existed during this time.
• These early humans lived as hunter and gatherers.
• Used stone tools with single sharp edges.
• Used cave art to depict life (painted cave walls: usually animals)
• Developed fire by rubbing stones.
MESOLITHIC (MIDDLE STONE AGE)
• Developed needle and thread and made clothes out of animal skin.
• Controlled fire and developed language.
• Made pottery and cave paintings.
• Hunted and gathered food and stored them for later use.
• Settled villages near rivers, lakes.
• Used bows and arrows and other tools .
• Began to tame animals.
NEOLITHIC (LATE STONE AGE)
• Made pottery, carved object from wood, built shelter and tombs.
• Only Homo- Sapiens lived during this age.
• Farming/Agriculture started.
• Built mud brick houses, places of worship.
• Specialised jobs came into existence.
• Cultivated land using animal.
• Used stone mortar and pestle to grind grains.
• Developed religion, EX: Megaliths, Nature is GOD, Prayed to the ancestor.
HUNTINGANDFOOD
GATHERING
ANIMALHUSBANDRYANIMALHUSBANDRY

13. ASPECTS THAT LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF
DWELLINGS DURING PREHISTORIC TIMES
NATURAL DETERMINANT:
• Topography (location)
• Natural Resources
• Building Materials and technology
MAN MADE DETERMINANTS:
• Trade
• Political Power
• Religion
• Defence
• Mobility
• Ethnical issues
HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS

14. MAN AS NOMAD AND CAVE DWELLER
HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS
• Earth has been estimated to be formed about 4 billion years ago.
• Homo Sapiens(the existing species of man) believe to be existing since 500,000
B. C.
• Earliest man did not settle anywhere as he wandered around in the search of
food.
• His brain wasn’t developed enough to make structures for shelter and its
protection from natural calamities and wild animals.
• Nomadic humans live either in the caves or on the trees for the protection.
• These caves at times were wrestled from the wild animals and gained their
charge through attacking and conquering. ‘FIRE’ was also used for such
cases.
• Humans needed protection from other wild animals & natural calamities, he
also required easy access for food and water.

15. HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS
Thus, eventually these ape man came
together and concentrated in the area. This
offered following things:
• Good supply of less ferocious animals for
hunting
• Good water supply (round the year)
• Areas less prone to Earthquakes, floods
and droughts.
• Moderate climate and not too harsh
conditions.
MAN AS NOMAD AND CAVE DWELLER

16. • Came together but lived individually
• External forces acting like extreme climate
conditions, availability of water, food for hunting
and gathering.
External forces are dominating.
• Gradually started living together in small groups to
protect themselves from external forces and fight
collectively.
External forces are dominating.
• People started living in groups and mild rivalry
started to develop amongst them.
• Because of development of science and
technology the external forces are taken care of
collectively by the groups.
• Internal forces generated with the help of science
and technology to overcome the external forces.

17. HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS
Started about 3 to 4 lakh years ago. Man
started living in groups for common causes:
• Defence against wild animals.
• Domesticating animals.
• Offensive and defensive activities.
• Division of labour.
• Development of tools.
• Discovery of fire.
• Common code of behaviour in the group.
It was still a nomadic life (groups moving from
one place to another in search of water,
food and security)
In course of time man observed that the
animals which he could capture and tame
concentrated more in the plains, near the
river banks.
MAN IN BARBARIC STAGE

18. In these river plains:
• Food was assured. (Animals for hunting).
• Water was assured (river).
• Animals could be easily hunted (running or
climbing on the trees, unlike on that of the
hills)
• Natural disasters like volcanoes,
earthquakes and fire hazards are less.
• Common code of behaviour,
communication within the group helped to
establish early stage of ‘culture’.
• Agriculture was discovered.
• On observation of animals man learnt to
live on fruits. He realised that unlike food
from trees was more assured, easy to
obtain than that from hunting.
• Thus, settlements started to become
permanent.
• Knowledge of time, year and season was
gained and started.
• Development of agriculture gave a lot of
time for the man to develop art and
socialise. (Art, philosophy and science was
developed)
MAN IN BARBARIC STAGE
HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS

19. Up to about 12,000 B. C. the barbaric age
continued.
Discovery of metals was noteworthy.
• Diversity in production.
• Storage and more complex distribution of
spaces.
• More security against wild animals was
possible but security against inter group
rivalry was needed.
• People became more observant of nature
thus science and astronomy developed
more.
• To secure themselves from rival groups they
developed ‘Mysticism’ and ‘Witchcraft’
START OF CIVILIZATION
HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS

20. LEADERSHIP IN THREE DISTINCT AREAS
EMERGED:
1. Political and Administrative Leadership: In
charge of defence and protective
functions.
2. Economic Leadership: At command of
political leadership. In charge of
Agriculture and Weaponry.
3. Religious Leadership: Art, Philosophy, Ethics,
Science, Code of Conduct(independent
of Religious and Economic leadership)
START OF CIVILIZATION
HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS 2 TYPES OF CULTURE EMERGED
IN HILLY REGION
Meat eating owing to
limitations in
agriculture.
People were more
aggressive and
subsequently became
industrially advanced.
IN PLAINS
People were less
aggressive
More advanced in
Art and culture,
philosophy and
science but not
necessarily in
technology.

21. PREHISTORIC STRUCTURESHISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS
DWELLINGS:
Housed small communities and sub sheds which housed domesticated animals.
Timber posts braced at the top with timber beams.
Multiple housing started to emerge.
Skara Brae: Small island off Scotland.
10 small stone houses linked with stone alleys form a
compact organism.
Each house has single room.
Used native stone (to make everything including furniture)
DWELLINGS THE MONUMENTS THE TOMBS

22. PREHISTORIC STRUCTURESHISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS
THE MONUMENTS:
Class structure in a community was not seen in architecture of dwellings, though social
distinction was implied in the monumental tombs.
The commons were disposed by burning the body or leaving them on the ground to rot
whilst the privileged were buried with stone tombs.
MENHIR:
• Upended massive boulders were the simplest form of MEGALITH MONUMENTS
• Menhirs were aligned either in a line or in a circle.
• The intend of the Menhir was not to enclose any space but rather due to its height
and mass (visible from a distance) they acted as directional foci.
• The Menhirs also acted as ‘rotational foci’ and gave a reference point to the humans
to move around.
• Menhirs are the best example of how humans started to organise space ‘Spatial
Organisation’
• The Central monuments, Fountains, Statues exemplify the same principle.
Menhir’s near town of CARNAC, Northwest tip of FRANCE

23. PREHISTORIC STRUCTURESHISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS
THE TOMBS:
DOLMEN: In contrast to Menhir these stone tombs were designed as enclosed spaces.
The basic form of a dolmen is a simple box like structure made of several upright slabs for
walling with more of less flat stone as the slab.
This type of structural arrangement is also called as
‘Trabeated System’.
Arrangement of Columns and Slab
Other elaborate types are ‘The Gallery Grave’ and ‘The Passage Grave’

24. STUDY OF FOLLOWING DWELLINGS
• Passage grave, New grange, Ireland.
• Hagar Qim, Malta
• Stone Henge
• Terra Amata
• Bambuti Hut
• Tongus Hut
• Huts made of Animal Skin
• The Lapp tent
• Brushwood hut
• Round house, Israel
• Stilt House
• Tepees of American Indians
• Trullo- Italy
• Yurts- Mongolia
• Catal Huyuk, Turkey.
HISTORYOFHUMANSETTLEMENTS

25. PREHISTORICDWELLINGS
TERRA AMATA
• LOCATION: Near Nice, Southern France.
• DATED: 400,000 years ago.
• Oldest man-made structure of which we have
evidence.
• They were oval in shape of about 8 to 15 meters
in length to 4 to 6 meters in width.
• About 15 people were required to built it and
were occupied for limited period of time.
• The huts were then left to collapse and new huts
were put near them or over them.
• The huts were made of branches or saplings set
close to each other in the sand as a
palisade(fence), then braced on the outer side
with a ring of large stone.
1

26. PREHISTORICDWELLINGS
TERRA AMATA
• Along the long axis in the centre the hut was
lined with posts to hold up the roof.
• The digging to built the roof was carried out
by fire hardened wooden spears, the pruning
and trimming with hand axes made of
pieces of flint or limestone.
• Use of the HUT: The hearth was in the middle,
protected from the prevailing N-W wind by
the screen of pebbles.
• The immediate area around it was free of
litter indicating that there the band (humans)
must have slept.
• Further out from this social focus of the hut
there were work spaces like kitchen or even
toilet area.
• These were seasonal campsites and were
occupied during springs when the season
was moist and cold.
LOUVRE
1

27. PREHISTORICDWELLINGS
THE CAVE AT LASCAUX
• LOCATION: Montignac, Southern France.
• DATED: 20,000 years ago.
• As humans evolved both building technology
and the ritual use of architecture became
increasingly sophisticated.
• The role of the shelter was pushed beyond mere
housing.
• Caves were treated like sanctuaries and this
ritual use of caves had transformed caves into
religious architecture.
• Art thus made a tangible range of meaning in
these hidden sanctuaries of the earth.
2

28. PREHISTORICDWELLINGS
THE CAVE AT LASCAUX
• Animals in hunter’s point of view are the most
important part of its survival.
• The hunter being weak needs to overcome the
strength and power of the animal. Whilst the
human hunted more and more animals which
meant less animal for him to kill, thus painting
Reindeer, bison, deer and horse was a paradox
to achieve the required abundance of animals.
• Painting also served as a part of motivation to
overcome animal strength.
• The cave at Lascaux was developed by a
community for many generations (extensive
overlapping of paintings)
• Thus, the present merged with the past and the
future.
• The complex natural architecture of the cave
was respected and the paintings were made
without any alteration in the cave architecture.
2

29. PREHISTORICDWELLINGS
STONEHENGE
3

30. PREHISTORICDWELLINGS
STONEHENGE
3

31. ASSIGNMENT
• Describe with the help of sketches prehistoric
settlements and their architectural features.
• Explain the significance of ‘Cave Paintings’ in
prehistoric time.
• Explain how the river valley civilization came into
existence.
• Sketch tools used by ‘Prehistoric’ man
• Explain Stone Henge and its alignment in brief
along with appropriate sketch.
• Sketch Pre-historic structures: Terra Amata,
Menhir, Dolmen, Lapp tent, Tongus hut, Lascaux
cave, Bambuti Hut, Gallery Grave, Passage
grave, Teppes American hut, Skara Brae,