History of architecture from Egyptian to Modern

1. Architecture

2. Egyptian 3000 BC to Roman period
 Funerary Buildings –
 Created for Monarchs & Nobles
 Stepped Design
 Granite, limestone, and sandstone
- Both sun-dried and kiln-dried
bricks were used extensively
 Hieroglyphics were decoration as
well as records of historic events.

3. Egyptian
 Temples
 Columns/Colonnades
(post & lintel)
 First stone capital =
papyrus flower
 Nile floods deposit fine
clay, allowing ceramic arts
to develop early

4. Egyptian
 Sandstone, limestone, &
granite available for
obelisks, sculpture, and
decorative uses.
 Ramps – build on the way
up, decorate as it’s taken
down

5. Mesopotamia –
Babylon, Assyria, Persia
 Planned city building, cobblestone
streets, and architecture itself have
their beginnings here
 Mud brick on a raised plinth
(platform base)
 Walls are ornamented on the
outside with alternating pilasters
and recesses
 Flat roofs, supported on palm
trunks, (assumed) Ziggurat

6. Mesopotamia
Saddam’s Palace
Ishtar Gate

7. Greek
 The temple is the best known form
of Greek architecture.
 These biggest and most beautiful
buildings reflect the importance of
religion.
 The political purpose - to celebrate
civic power and pride.
 Beauty lies in ratios & proportions =
The Golden Mean

8. The Greeks developed three architectural systems, called orders, each
with their own distinctive proportions and detailing.
Doric Ionic Corinthian
The Doric style is sturdy and the
capital is plain. This style was
used in mainland Greece and
the colonies in southern Italy
and Sicily.
The Ionic style is thinner
and more elegant. Its
capital is decorated with a
scroll-like design (a
volute). This style was
found in eastern Greece
and the islands.
The Corinthian style is
seldom used in the Greek
world, but often seen on
Roman temples. Its capital is
very elaborate and
decorated with acanthus
leaves.

9. Greek
 Buildings were usually a cube or a
rectangle made from limestone
which was cut into large blocks.
 Marble was readily available. It was
used mainly for sculptural
decoration, only used as structural in
the very grandest buildings of the
Classical period.

10. Etruscans
700 B.C. – 280 B.C. (Fall of Rome)
 Palaces, public buildings,
and early temples made of
wood and brick, so nothing
remains.
 The Etruscans also built
aqueducts, bridges, and
sewers which were built so
well they still exist today.

11. Etruscan
 Etruscans are credited with
the true stone arch
 Etruscan architecture was
really the beginning of
Roman architecture.

12. Roman
 Roman art and architecture
shaped by extensive
borrowing, first from
Etruscans, then from Greece.
 One architectural technique
that came into use by
experimentation was the arch
and vault.

13. Roman
 To support the tremendous
weight of the arches, it was
necessary to transmit the
force of gravity from the top of
massive piers to the
foundation of the arch. The
Romans achieved this feat
through the use of the
Keystone block.

14. Roman
 Circular structures were
common as well,
exemplified by the Temple
of Vesta, the Pantheon and
the Castel Sant'Angelo.

15. Roman
 The word "arena" is Latin
for sand. Sand was
spread across the
amphitheater fighting floor
to soak up blood.

16. Early Christian
 Early Christian builders
adapted structures that had
long been used in the
Hellenistic and Roman worlds.
(recycled buildings)
 Adistinct emphasis was
placed on the centralized
plan, which was of round,
polygonal, or cruciform shape.

17. Early Christian
 Developed from Roman
secular basilica
 Rectangular space
separated by two rows of
columns making a nave
and two side aisles
 Separated clergy from
congregation

18. Byzantine
 A continuation of Roman
and early Christian
architecture.
 Eventually combined
architecture of the near
east, with the Greek cross
plan for the churches.

19. Byzantine
 Brick replaced stone,
mosaics replaced carved
decoration, and complex
domes were erected.

20. Ancient America - Mayan
 Monumental construction
 Buildings erected on
platforms
 Upper walls decorated with
continuous frieze
 Lime stucco painted vivid
colors

21. Mayan
 Every day dwellings were rectangular
 Two doorways were placed directly opposite
each other to allow for the free flow of air.

22. Romanesque
 Romanesque is characterized by a
use of round or slightly pointed
arches, barrel vaults, cruciform piers
supporting vaults, and groin vaults.
 The great carved portals and church
facades
 Stone sculpture seems reborn in the
Romanesque.

23. Romanesque
 Romanesque seems to
have been the first pan-
European style since
Roman Imperial
Architecture and examples
are found in every part of
the continent.

24. Gothic
 Originating in northern France
(Denis) in the twelfth century,
Gothic spread rapidly across the
continent and England, then
invaded Scandinavia, confronted
the Byzantine provinces.
 Made appearances, under the
aegis of crusader and explorer in
the Near East and the Americas.

25. Gothic
 There is no fixed set of
proportions in the parts, and no
standard relationship between
solid and void. The result is a
distortion.

26. Gothic
 Light, open and aerial.
 Emphasizes verticality
 Features almost skeletal stone
structures
 Great expanses of glass (stained)
 Sharply pointed spires
 Flying butresses
 Ribbed vaults
 Pointed arches
 Inventive sculptural detail

27. Renaissance
 Rebirth of classical art and
learning
 Classical orders, round
arches, and symmetrical
composition
 The golden mean

28. Renaissance
 The ideals of art and architecture
became unified in the acceptance
of classical antiquity and in the
belief that humanity was a measure
of the universe.
 The rebirth of classical
architecture, which took place in
Italy in the 15th century and spread
in the following century through
Western Europe, terminated the
supremacy of the Gothic style.

29. Chinese
 Simple, rectangular, low-
silhouetted buildings
 Stone and brick for
permanent structures
 Wooden frameworks on
platforms with nonbearing
screen walls

30. India
 All surviving architecture is
stone
 Post and lintel, brackets and
corbels
 Rhythmical multiplication of
pilasters, cornices, moldings,
roofs, and finials
 Overgrowth of sculpture
decoration

31. Japanese
 Exclusively timber
 Strong Chinese
influence
 Pavilion structures
with nonbearing walls
 Tiled, hipped roofs are
widely projecting and
upward turning.
 Garden

32. Mannerist Period
 Exemplified by the works of
Giorgio Vesari, Bartolomeo
Ammarati

33. Baroque Period
 Highly ornamented façade,
giant and twisted columns,
broken pediments, and
common decorative motifs

34. Classic Period
 The classical style found its
full expression in 17th century
architecture in the Palace of
Versailles, built for the court of
King Louis XIV by Mansart
and Le Vau

35. Modern Period
 The Bauhaus, founded by
Walter Gropius in Weimar,
Germany in 1919 was
responsible for the
development of an
International Style of
architecture and design

36. END