Critical studies crs201(compact)

Critical S t u d i e s
CRS 201
4th Semester
Department of INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
Module Tutor : Ar.Bikash Saud Ansary

Week:01
Lecture:01
Topic: Egyptian Period

Egyptian Period
• Evolution of Mastabas’s Interior and Architecture
• Evolution of Pyramids

Mastaba
A mastaba is a type of Ancient Egyptian
tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular
structure with outward sloping sides that
marked the burial site of many eminent
Egyptians of Egypt's ancient period.
Mastabas were constructed out of mud-
bricks or stone.
Example of a mastaba

Example of a mastaba
Conjectural Section

Evolution of Royal Pyramids
The stepped Pyramid
The Bent Pyramid
The Royal Pyramid
The Pyramid of Djoser (Zoser), or step pyramid (kbhw-ntrw in Egyptian) is an archeological remain in the Saqqara
necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the city of Memphis. It was built for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser by his vizier Imhotep,
during the 27th century BC. It is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex in an enormous courtyard surrounded
by ceremonial structures and decoration.
Step pyramid Zoser Saqqara

The Bent Pyramid
The Bent Pyramid, located at the royal necropolis of Dahshur, approximately 40 kilometres south of Cairo, of Old
Kingdom Pharaoh Sneferu, is a unique example of early pyramid development in Egypt, about 2600 BC. This was the
second pyramid built by Sneferu.
The lower part of the pyramid rises from the desert at a 55-degree inclination, but the top section is built at the
shallower angle of 43 degrees, lending the pyramid its very obvious "bent" appearance.
The bent Pyramid at Dahshur would have surpassed the height of the Great Pyramid had it been completed as designed, but
the foundations could not support the weight and the plans had to be changed.

The Royal Pyramid at Gizeh
The Great Pyramid of Giza (also called the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three
pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,
and the only one to remain largely intact. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu
(Cheops in Greek) and constructed over a 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-
made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Originally the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth
outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still
be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid's construction
techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and
dragging and lifting them into place.

Temple Complex: The Hypostyle Hall

Egyptian art, architecture & the interiors

Week:02
Lecture:02
Topic: Greek Period

Basic Information
•Greek Civilization is known through 3 sources:
Monuments themselves,
Roman copies
Literary sources- (these often conflict)
•Greeks were the first people to write at length about their own artists- this
literature was collected by the Romans- through this writing, we know what
Greeks thought were their greatest achievements in architecture, sculpture
and painting
•Greek civilization started out as tribal groups- the Dorians, who settled
mostly on the mainland, and the Ionians who inhabited the Aegean islands
and Asia Minor
•Greeks remained divided into small city-states (the polis) but united
themselves for all-Greek festivals. Rivalry between states stimulated the
growth of ideas
•Eventually the rivalry helped bring an end to the Greek civilization
(Athens v. Sparta in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC)

The Archaic Period
Temple of Hera I
Paestum, Italy ca. 550 BC
• The Greek temple
was the house of
the God or
Goddess, not of his
or her followers.
These temples
were not places of
worship, but rather
places for the
worshipped.
• Most of the
temples would
contain figural
sculpture that
would embellish
the God’s shrine as
well as to tell
something about
the deity
symbolized within.
• This temple is a prime example of early Greek efforts at Doric temple
design
•. The entire area of the temple is 80 ft by 170 feet.
• Most of the frieze, pediment, and all of the roof , have vanished.
• The plan of this temple was different in that it contained a ridge-pole
that allowed no place for a central statue of the deity to whom the temple
was dedicated.
• It also contained three columns in the antis instead of the canonical

The
Temple of Aphaia
Aegina, Greece ca. 500-490 BC

The Parthenon depicts
beautiful proportions. The
columns are well-spaced,
with slender shafts are a
more refined version of the
squat and bulging Doric
columns.
The stylobate and the
peristyle columns leaning
inward slightly depict the set
of specifications its unique
place in the structure
dictated.
Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon
Acropolis, Greece, ca 447-438 BC
The algebraic symmetria of
the parts may be expressed
as x=2y+1 where x is the
larger number and y the
smaller. Thus, the temple’s
short ends have eight
columns and the long sides
have seventeen.
The stylobate’s ration of
length to width is 9:4 .
(9=(2x4)+1.

Optical Correction
• a) One major innovation of the Parthenon
was its mixture of Doric and Ionic elements.
While the external structures of the temple
were Doric, the central structures of the
temple made use of Ionic elements. A
sculptured Ionic frieze encircled the whole of
the cella and replaced the Doric frieze over
the pronaos and opisthodomos and the
treasury contained tall, thin Ionic columns. In
addition, all 92 of the external Doric metopes
were decorated with architectural sculpture.
• b) Another major innovation was the use of
several optical refinements. In no other
ancient building was the complexity of
optical correction carried to such an intricate
extreme.
• 1) Inclination (the inward tilt) of the columns
created the illusion of perspective in the
building's elevation. All the other vertical
elements of the temple including the long
walls of the cella also inclined in sympathy
with the peristyle.

Art & Artifacts
François Vase,
Chiusi, Italy ca. 570 BC
•Attic black-figure volute crater
Created by Kleitas and Ergotimos
• Named the François Vase for the
excavator who uncovered it.
• Found in Italy, where it had been
imported from Athens, Greece
letting us know the value of
Athenian pottery during this era.
• Much of the depictions on the
vase are of Achilles, the great hero
from Homer’s Illiad.
• Also present is the
centauromacy, or battle of the
centaurs and the Lapiths (a
northern Greek tribe).
• Figures are depicted in profile
with frontal eyes and frontal torsos.

Art, artifacts, & Interiors
•The vase functions as a grave marker depicting the
funeral procession of an obviously well respected
individual.
•The magnitude of his funeral procession speaks to
the wealth and position of the deceased family in the
community.
•Contains no reference to an afterlife
•The nature of the ornamentation of these early works
has led art historians to designate these as
GEOMETRIC. (all empty spaces are filled with circles
and M-shaped ornament. No open spaces.)
Geometric Krater from the Dyplon
Cemetery
Athens, Greece, ca. 740 BC

Week:03,04
Lecture:03,04
Topic: Roman Period

Basic Information
Romans had a huge admiration for Greek art. This was evidenced by the extreme
number of Roman copies from Greek original art. The Romans copied paintings, but
focused their attention to their love of Greek sculpture.
Unlike the ancient Greeks, very little has been documented on Roman artists who
enjoyed individual fame. The Roman virtue was communal and focused less on the
individual. This can be noticed not only in their government, but also in their artwork.
Much of the work created in the Golden Age of Rome was left unsigned, which speaks
clearly to the lacking importance of the individual in the Roman society.
Roman society was very tolerant of alien traditions so long as they did not threaten
the security of the state. New provinces were not made to adopt Roman traditions.
Law and order were imposed on these new provinces, but religion was not forced.
The result was an amalgamation of many traditions from the Etruscan, Near Eastern,
and Egyptian cultures, therefore Roman style is not consistent because of the vast
number of cultural influence on the art.

Pompeii and the Cities of Vesuvius
Brawl in the Pompeii amphitheater
Pompeii, Italy, ca. A.D. 60-79
This painting that is found on the wall of a
Pompeian house depicts an incident that
occurred in the amphitheater in A.D. 59. A
brawl broke out between the Pompeians and
their neighbors, the Nucerians, during a
contest between the two towns.
The fight left many wounded and led to a 10
year prohibition against such events.
The painting shows the cloth awning
(velarium) that could be rolled down from
the top of the cavea to shield spectators from
either sun or rain. It also has the distinctive
external double staircases that enabled large
numbers of people to enter and exit the cavea
in an orderly fashion.

The Roman Architectural Revolution

General view of wall paintings from Cubiculum M of the
Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor
Boscoreale, Italy, decorated ca. 50-40 B.C.
In the early Second Style Dionysiac mystery
frieze, the spatial illusionism is confined to the
painted platform that projects into the room.
This cubiculum is a prime example of mature
Second Style designs in which painters
created a 3-D setting that also extends
beyond the wall.
All around the room the painter opened up the
walls with vistas of Italian towns and sacred
sanctuaries. Painted doors and gates invite
the viewer to walk through the wall into the
created world. Their attempt at perspective
was intuitive and it not conform to the ―rules‖
of linear perspective that would later be
discovered by the Renaissance masters.
Although this painter was inconsistent in
applying it, he demonstrated a interest in, but
lacking knowledge of linear [single
vanishing-point] perspective. It was most
successfully employed in the far corners,
where a low gate leads to a peristyle framing
a tholos temple [see detail on next slide].
Intuitive perspective was a favored tool of Second Style
painters seeking to transform the usually windowless
walls of Roman houses into ―picture-window‖ vistas that
expanded the apparent space of the rooms.
Interiors

Aqua-Ducts
Pont-du-Gard, Nimes, France 16 B.C.

Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after A.D. 81
When Vespasian’s older son, Titus, died
only two years after becoming emperor, his
younger brother Domitian, took over.
Domitian made this arch in Titus’s honor on
the Sacred Way leading into the Republican
Forum Romanum.
This type of arch, the so-called triumphal
arch, has a long history in Roman art and
architecture, beginning in the second
century B.C. and continuing even into the
era of Christian Roman emperors.
This Roman arches celebrated more than
just military victories, as they often
commemorated events such as bulding
roads and bridges.
Triumphal Gate:

Colosseum, Rome, Italy
70-80 A.DAmphitheatre:
The Colosseum
This monument for most people represents
Rome more than any other building. In the past
it was identified so closely with Rome and its
empire that in the early Middle ages there was a
saying:
―While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall
stand; when falls the Colosseum, Rome shall
fall; and when Rome falls- the World.‖
The Flavian Amphitheater, as it was known in its
day, was one of Vespasian’s first undertakings
after becoming emperor. The decision to build
the Colosseum was very shrewd politically. The
site chosen was the artificial lake on the
grounds of Nero’s Domus Aurea, which was
drained for the purpose.

Colosseum, Rome, Italy
70-80 A.D
By building the amphitheater there, Vespasian reclaimed
for the public the land Nero had confiscated for his private
pleasure and provided Romans with the largest arena for
gladiatorial combats.
The Colosseum takes its name not from its size- it could
hold up to fifty thousand spectators- but from its location
beside the Colossus of Nero, a huge statue of the
emperor portrayed as the sun, at the entrance to his
urban villa.
It was completed in 80 A.D.
Amphitheatre:
The Colosseum

The Pantheon
Pantheon,
Rome, Italy. 118-125 AD
With the new Emperor Hadrian in power, work
on a new temple dedicated to all the gods began.
This temple became known as the Pantheon.
Excluding the use of an eight Corinthian column
facade, the temple was completely revolutionary for
it’s time.
The dome of the Pantheon steadily decreases
in thickness from the base to the top. In the very
middle there is an open ―Oculus‖ that is used as
a skylight, and the only lighting of the building.
The ―Oculus‖ measures 30 feet in diameter.
To prevent overweighing the roof of the
Pantheon not only did the thickness decrease as
it neared the middle, but pumice was also used
in its creation. Decorative panels were also
carved on the inside of the dome to help keep the
weight down.

Apotheosis of Antoninus Pius and
Faustina, Rome, Italy 161 A.D.
This relief keeps to the classical
tradition with its elegant, well
proportional figures, personifications,
and the single ground line
corresponding to the panels lower
edge.
The Campus Martius (Field of Mars),
personified as a youth holding an
egyptian obelisk reclines at the lower
left corner. Roma (Rome personified),
leans on a sheild decorated with the
she-wolf suckling Romulus and
Remus on the right. Roma is bidding
farewell to the couple ascending to
heaven.
Faustina died 20 years earlier than Antoninus. By
showing them going to heaven together, the artist is
suggesting that Antoninus had remained faithful to his
wife for 20 years. This concept had never been used
with portraits of the elite.
Art

Week:05
Lecture:05
Topic: Assignment

Week:06
Lecture:06
Topic: Byzantine Period

Architecture
Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus
Hagia Sophia,
Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, ca 532-537
The Art of Byzantium
Even though the walls and floors are lavishly decorated with
colored stones from around the world, what distinguishes Hagia
Sophia from the interiors of Roman buildings is the mystical quality
of the light that floods the interior.
Byzantium's grandest building and
one of the supreme accomplishments
of world architecture; its steel-less
structure is about 270 feet long and
240 feet wide. The dome is 108 feet in
diameter, and its crown rises 180 feet
above the ground. In scale, Hagia
Sophia is like the Pantheon, the Baths
of Caracalla, and the Basilica of
Constantine.
However, the building's present
external aspects are much changed
from the origial appearance; the first
dome collapsed in 558 and was
replaced by the present one, greater
in height and stability. Huge
buttresses were added to the
Justinianic design, and four Turkish
minarets were constructed after the
Ottoman conquest of 1453, when
Hagia Sophia became an Islamic
mosque.

The architects were ahead of their time in
that they used pendentives to transfer the
weight from the dome to the piers beneath,
rather to the walls. In this, the space
beneath the dome was unobstructed and
allowed room for windows in the walls,
which created the illusion of the suspended
dome. This technicality can be explained by
experts today, but was a mystery to
Anthemius' and Isidorus' contemporaries in
the 6th century.
Additionally, the fusion of two independent
architectural traditions [the vertically
oriented central-plan building and the
horizontally oriented basilica] was previously
unseen, and was the successful conclusion
to centuries of experimentation.
Interior
Hagia Sophia
Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey,
ca 532-537

The mystical quality of the light that floods the
interior has fascinated visitors for centuries. The
canopy-like dome that also dominates the inside of
the church rides on a halo of light from windows in
the dome's base.
The forty windows create the illusion that the dome
is resting on the light that comes through them--like
a "floating dome of heaven." Thus, Hagia Sophia
has a vastness of space shot through with light and
a central dome that appears to be supported by the
light it admits.
Light is the mystic element that glitters in the
mosaics, shines from the marbles, and pervades
spaces that cannot be defined. It seems to dissolve
material substance and transform it into an abstract
spiritual vision.
Hagia Sophia
ca 532-537
Structural Method: The Pendentive

The poet Paulus described the vaulting as
covered with "gilded tesserae from
which a glittering stream of golden rays
pours abundantly and strikes men's
eyes with irresistible force. It is as if
one were gazing at the midday sun in
spring."
The use of the gilded mosaics serves to
create a more radiant light when the sun
hits it; the light is more complex and
multidimensional and creates a different
aura than if the light had just hit a plain
mosaic.
The gilded mosaic changes the color of
the light to a softer, more ethereal realm
that lends itself to the atmosphere of
Hagia Sophia.
The Lighted Dome on Pendentive
Hagia Sophia
ca 532-537

Week:07
Lecture:07
Topic: Gothic Period

Gothic Art, Architecture & Interiors
In the mid-sixteenth century, Giorgio Vasari, the
―father of art history‖, used ―Gothic‖ as a term of
ridicule to describe the late medieval art and
architecture. For him, Gothic art was ―monstrous and
barbarous,‖ invented by the Goths. Vasari and other
admirers of Greco-Roman art believed those uncouth
warriors were responsible not only for Rome’s
downfall, but also the destruction of the classical style
in art and architecture.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
contemporary commentators on the Gothic buildings
considered them to be ―opus modernum‖ or modern
work. They viewed these towering cathedrals as an
exciting and new decoration style. They regarded
their new buildings not as deviations from the
classical style, but rather images of the City of God.
The Gothic style first appeared around France in
1140. In southern France and elsewhere in Europe,
the Romanesque style still flourished.
Although it became an internationally acclaimed style,
Gothic art was, nonetheless, a regional phenomenon.
To the east and south of Europe, the Islamic and
Byzantine styles still held sway.
The Gothic period was a time not only of great
prosperity, but also turmoil in Europe. In 1337, the
Hundred Years’ War began, shattering the peace
between France and England.
In the fourteenth century, a great plague, the Black
Death, swept over western Europe and killed at least
a quarter of its people.
From 1378-1417, opposing popes resided in Rome
and in Avignon in southern France during the political-
religious crisis known as the Great Schism.
Above all, the Gothic age was a time of profound
change in European society. The centers of both
intellectual and religious life shifted definitively from
monasteries to cities.
In these urban areas, prosperous merchants made
their homes, universities run by professional guilds of
scholars formed, minstrels sang of chivalrous knights
and beautiful maidens at royal ―courts of love‖, and
bishops erected great new cathedrals reaching to the
sky.

Gothic Art: Structure of the Architecture
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Interior
―Fan Vaults‖ in a King’s Chapel
Chapel of Henry VII, Westminster Abbey
London, England ca 1503-1519
The decorative and structure-disguising qualities of the
Perpendicular Style became even more pronounced in its
late phases. This is a prime example of such pronounced
style.
In this chapel, the earlier linear play of ribs became a kind
of architectural embroidery, pulled into uniquely English
―fan vault‖ shapes with large hanging pendants resembling
stalactites.
The vault looks like something organic that is hardening in
the process of melting. Intricate tracery recalling lace
overwhelms the cones hanging from the ceiling.
The chapel represents the dissolution of structural Gothic
into decorative fancy. The architect released the Gothic
style’s original lines from their function and multiplied them
into uninhibited architectural virtuosity and theatrics.
The Perpendicular Style in this structure well expresses
the precious, even dainty, lifestyle codified in the dying
etiquette of chivalry at the end of the Middle Ages.
A Contemporaneous phenomenon in France was the
Flamboyant Style seen in Churches such as Saint-Maclou

Week:08
Lecture:08
Topic: Renaissance Period

St. Peter's Basilica
and
the Sistine Chapel
by Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr.
The front entrance to St. Peter's
Basilica is an enormous piazza
framed by two long, curving
colonnades -- a design that
symbolizes the arms of the Roman
Catholic Church reaching out to
embrace the faithful. The piazza
can hold some 300,000 people with
room to spare.

In 1570, Andrea Palladio (1508 –1580)
published I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) in
Venice. This book was widely printed and responsible to a great degree of
spreading the ideas of the Renaissance through Europe. All these books were
intended to be read and studied not only by architects, but also by patrons.

I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) was published in
1570, in four volumes written by the architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), whose name is
identified with an architectural movement named after him known as Palladian architecture.

The Palladian window
The Palladian, or Serlian, arch or window, as interpreted by Palladio.
Detail of drawing from Quattro Libri dell'Architettura.

Week: Mid term
Lecture:
Topic: Assignment

Week: 09
Lecture:09
Topic: Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau,1890-1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that
developed in Europe and North America at the end of the nineteenth century. The exhibition is divided
into three sections: the first focuses on the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, where Art Nouveau was
established as the first new decorative style of the twentieth century; the second examines the sources
that influenced the style; and the third looks at its development and fruition in major cities in Europe
and North America.
At its height exactly one hundred years ago, Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an
international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of
artists and designers, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the modern age. During this
extraordinary time, urban life as we now understand it was established. Old customs, habits, and artistic
styles sat alongside new, combining a wide range of contradictory images and ideas. Many artists,
designers, and architects were excited by new technologies and lifestyles, while others retreated into
the past, embracing the spirit world, fantasy, and myth.
Art Nouveau was in many ways a response to the Industrial Revolution. Some artists welcomed
technological progress and embraced the aesthetic possibilities of new materials such as cast iron.
Others deplored the shoddiness of mass-produced machine-made goods and aimed to elevate the
decorative arts to the level of fine art by applying the highest standards of craftsmanship and design to
everyday objects. Art Nouveau designers also believed that all the arts should work in harmony to create
a "total work of art," or Gesamtkunstwerk: buildings, furniture, textiles, clothes, and jewelry all
conformed to the principles of Art Nouveau.

René Lalique
French (1860-1945)
Dragonfly woman corsage ornament, c. 1897-
1898
gold, enamel, chrysoprase, moonstones, and
diamonds
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
© 2000 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York/ADAGP, Paris

Victor Horta (January 6, 1861 - September 9, 1947) was a Belgian architect.
John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art
Nouveau architect." Indeed, Horta is one of the most important names in
Art Nouveau architecture; the construction of his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels
in 1892-3 means that he is sometimes credited as the first to introduce the
style to architecture from the decorative arts. Born in Ghent, he was first
attracted to the architectural profession when he helped his uncle on a
building site at the age of twelve. He studied in Ghent, but left to become
an interior designer living in Montmartre in Paris. There, he was inspired
by the emerging impressionistand pointillistartists, and also by the
possibilities of working in steel and glass.

Week: 10
Lecture:10
Topic: Art Deco

Early 20th Century styles based on SHAPE
and FORM:
Cubism
Futurism
Art Deco
to show the „concept‟ of an object rather than creating a detail of the
real thing
to show different views of an object at once, emphasizing time, space
& the Machine age
to simplify objects to their most basic, primitive terms

Week: 11
Lecture:11
Topic: Modern Period

Modern Architecture
Architectural History

High Modernism
• The Bauhaus
– Workshop Wing
• Lifted above a setback half-basement zone
• Appears as a pure quadratic volume of glass,
suspended weightlessly in midair

High Modernism
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/wcapts2.html

High Modernism: Early Le
Corbusier
• Le Corbusier
– Rivaled in the early- and mid-twentieth
century only by Frank Lloyd Wright
– Believer in High Modernism
• Strong Classical idealism
– Designed the Villa Savoye

Corbusier
• Villa Savoye
– Located outside of Paris
– Considered on of the major icons of 20th
century architecture
– A superb fusion of functionalism and dazzling
formal invention

Corbusier

High Modernism: Early Mies van
der Rohe

Late Modernism: Later Frank Lloyd
Wright
• Frank Lloyd Wright
– Important structures of his later career
• Fallingwater House
• Guggenheim Museum

Wright

Wright
• The Guggenheim Museum
– Located in New York City, NY
– 1956 – 1959
– Derives from Wright’s earlier masterpiece, the
Larkin Building
– Interior features a large spiraling ramp that
descends downward
• Art is displayed on the walls of the ramp
• Viewers descend the ramp to view the art

Late Modernism: Later Le
Corbusier
• Le Corbusier
– Still maintained a ferroconcrete model in his
later works
• Utilized it to create bold sculptural effects in his
later works
– Major structure
• Notre-Dame-du-Haut, France

Corbusier
• Notre-Dame-du-Haut
– Located in Ronchamp,
France
– A church that made an
extreme statement as
to Le Corbusier’s style
– Sited atop a hillside

Corbusier

Modern Architecture
Architectural History
ACT 322

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow,
1930

Week: 12
Lecture:12
Topic: Assignment

Week: 13
Lecture:13
Topic: Post Modern & Hi Tech

PORTLAND BUILDING15-story municipal office building located at 1120 SW
5th Avenue in downtown Portland, Oregon.
Opened in 1982.
Distinctive block-like design and square windows, an
icon of postmodern architecture.
In 1985, the building was adorned by addition of the
hammered-copper statue Portlandia above the front
entrance.
The building remains controversial among Portlanders as
well as the entire architecture field for its revolutionary
design which was a rejection of the Modernist principles
established in the early 20th century.
The design was selected as the winning design in a large
scale design competition with Philip Johnson as one of
the three members of the selection committee.
Many structural flaws, said to be due to a lack of funds,
came to light shortly after the building's completion.
The building's failings are the subject of much humor
and contempt by the civil servants who work there.

RICARDO BOFILL
• Ricardo Bofill (born December 5, 1939) is a Catalan architect of Jewish
descent.
• He was born in Barcelona and studied at the Architectural School in
Barcelona, and later in Geneva.
• Bofill is one of the main representatives of postmodernism in architecture.
In 1963 he gathered a group of architects, engineers, planners, sociologist,
writers, movie makers and philosophers: The Taller de Arquitectura was
founded, an international team which for more than 40 years, has gathered
great experience in urban planning, architecture, landscaping, interior,
furniture and product design.
Today, hundreds of projects around the world validate our capacity to design
in harmony with specific, different local cultures.
www.bofill.com

Week: 14
Lecture:14
Topic: De construction

Deconstructivism
• Deconstructivism, or Deconstruction, is an approach to building design that
attempts to view architecture in bits and pieces. The basic elements of
architecture are dismantled. Deconstructivist buildings may seem to have
no visual logic. They may appear to be made up of unrelated,
disharmonious abstract forms. Deconstructive ideas are borrowed from the
French philosopher Jacques Derrida.
• As the 1990s opened, Pomo was surpassed in media attention by Decon—
deconstructivist architecture—represented by prominent figures like Peter
Eisenman and Frank Gehry. As with Pomo, Decon borrowed freely from
literary studies: a building was a "text" with no intrinsic meaning other than
what was brought to it by "readers"—observers, critics, architects
themselves. History had little to offer because knowledge is subjective,
noncumulative. The architect was therefore free to design any thing in any
way. The resulted surpassed even Pomo in its radical disassembling and
reconstructing of parts to form heretofore unimagined wholes, perhaps most
famously represented by Gehry's Guggenheim Museum (1991–1997) in
Bilbao, Spain.

High Tech Architecture
• High-tech
buildings are often
called machine-
like. Steel,
aluminium, and
glass combine
with brightly
colored braces,
girders, and
beams. Many of
the building parts
are prefabricated
in a factory and

Paul Klee Center-Three waves
of steel in the outskirts of Bern
that bring together the work of
Paul Klee – an artist
• Renzo Piano is the most admired
architect of the present times (even
more than Sir Norman Foster)
• Italian- has offices in Italy and Paris,
called ‖Building Workshop‖-employs
not more than 50 persons- maintains a
family atmosphere.
• Artisan style work, eco sensitive
• Exact geometries, exquisite details,
and luminous spaces.
• In the work shown, he moved away
from his usual style and conceived a
topographic and sculptural gesture, so
memorably unique, that alludes to the
undulating terrain of hills and has had
as many defenders as detractors

Week: 15
Lecture:15
Topic: Islamic Architecture

Islamic architecture encompasses
a wide range of both secular and religious
styles from the foundation of Islam to the
present day, influencing the design and
construction of buildings and structures in
Islamic culture. The principal Islamic
architectural types are: the Mosque, the Tomb,
the Palace and the Fort. From these four
types, the vocabulary of Islamic architecture is
derived and used for buildings of lesser
importance such as public baths, fountains and
domestic architecture.[1][2]

Persian architecture
The Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran
The Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century led early Islamic
architects to borrow and adopt some traditions and ways of the
fallen Persian empire. Islamic architecture thus borrows heavily
from Persian architecture and in many ways can be called an
extension and further evolution of Persian architecture.
Many cities, including Baghdad, were based on precedents such as
Firouzabad in Persia. In fact, it is now known that the two designers
hired by al-Mansur to plan the city's design were Naubakht (‫,)نوبخت‬
a former Persian Zoroastrian, and Mashallah (‫هللا‬ ‫شاء‬ ‫,)ما‬ a former
Jew from Khorasan, Iran.
Persian-style mosques are characterized by their tapered brick
pillars, large arcades and arches each supported by several pillars.
In South Asia, elements of Hindu architecture were employed, but
were later superseded by Persian designs.[7]

Islamic (Mughal) architecture
Another distinctive sub-style is the
architecture of the Mughal Empire in India in
the 16th century and a fusion of Arabic, and
Persian elements. The Mughal emperor Akbar
the Great constructed the royal city of
Fatehpur Sikri, located 26 miles west of Agra,
in the late 1500s. The most famous example
of Mughal architecture is the Taj Mahal, the
"teardrop on eternity," completed in 1648 by
emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife
Mumtaz Mahal who died while giving birth to
their 14th child. The extensive use of precious
and semiprecious stones as inlay and the vast
quantity of white marble required nearly
bankrupted the empire. The Taj Mahal is
completely symmetric except for Shah
Jahan's sarcophagus, which is placed off
center in the crypt room below the main floor.
This symmetry extended to the building of an
entire mirror mosque in red sandstone to
complement the Mecca-facing mosque place
to the west of the main structure. Another
structure that showed great depth of Mughal
influence was the Shalimar Gardens.
The Badshahi Masjid, literally the 'Royal
Mosque', was built in 1674 by Aurangzeb. It is
one of Lahore's best known landmarks, and
epitomizes the beauty and grandeur of the
Mughal era.
The Taj Mahal in Agra, built by Shah Jahan as
a mausoleum for his wife, represents the
pinnacle of Mughal Islamic architecture in
India and is one of the most recognisable
buildings in the world.

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