PRELUDE: The “architecture” drive

(from the book, Exercises in Architecture, learning to think as an architect by Simon Unwin)

To develop as an architect, you need to become aware of the powers of architectural

elements:
• The power of levelled area of ground to establish a place for the ceremony or
performance.
• The power of a wall to separate one place from another.
• The power of a roof to shelter a shade.
• The power of a doorway to allow access…
You have probably taken the such architectural elements and their powers for granted since
you were born. They are part of everyday world. But they are architect’s tools.
We grow up surrounded by products of architecture – rooms, gardens, shops, schools,
cities… They frame our lives but we treat them as the part of given world. We accept without
thought that a wall stops us moving from one location to another while an open doorway lets
us through. We know that our home protects us physically and psychologically but do not
think consciously about how.
As an architect, you need to push through this barrier of familiarity and unthinking
acceptance, to become aware of the powers of walls and windows, doorways and roofs, floors
and thresholds. You need to become aware of how you can use them to set spatial matrix
within which people go about their lives.
The powers of architectural elements are primitive. Animals use them. Human beings
probably used them before we developed verbal language. In a way, they constitute their own
kind of ‘language’, the language of space. This language has no words but it is a form of
communication. It tells about how spaces accommodate different activities; it tells about who
owns which spaces; it tells about boundaries and relationships; it tells about the spatial rules
for doing things. Architecture, like poetry can even elicit emotional response: excitement,
fear, amusement, alienation, trepidation, embarrassment, adoration, privilege….

“Architecture can transform how you behave, who you think who you are, and how you
relate to others.”
 Drawings: La Bajouliere, Loire region of France.

Take this example,

The drawings show a dolmen in the Loire region of France. It was built around five and half
thousand years ago. The dolmen is called La Bajouliere and made of very large and heavy
flat slabs of rock.
What was gained by the enormous amount of effort invested in its construction??
La Bajouliere was covered in a mound of earth, so what was gained was not the beautiful
ornamentation of the landscape. What its construction did was to create a dark and
mysterious interior, separated from everywhere else – an antidote to daunting uncertainties of
the world. It was secure enough to keep out marauding animals and to contain restive spirits
and jealous gods.
The architect of La Bajouliere, and those who built it, made a place, (in their case an artificial
cave) that had not existed before. This is architecture drive: the drive to amend the world, to
accommodate life (and the dead).
General Introduction
It can be difficult beginning to learn do architecture. You will have a notion of what
architecture is- the design of buildings- but when you start trying to do it the ground
disappear from under you. Doing architecture is different, fundamentally different, form
(probably) anything you have consciously done before. I say ‘consciously’ because one of the
ways to get a grip on doing architecture is to acknowledge and awaken the architect that you
already are: the architect that used to make dens under the tables and houses up trees, that still
sometimes huddles around a campfire or sits on the lip of a precipice.

What is Architecting???
You are an architect but you want to explore what that means. You would like to better at
architecture so you need to practice. You need to understand what it means to be an architect,
how to begin to think architecturally and develop your skills and fluency in this grand and
subtle art.
“The first step is to realize that architecture is a ‘DOING’ word.”
Non-architects may tend to treat buildings as products of providence rather than of minds
with ideas. The media present buildings as object to be looked at, enjoyed or criticized
(usually the latter). But you have to think of architecture differently- as something you do
rather than just use or look at. There are buildings or even cities of the future that will never
come into existence without you thinking of them first.
There are gaps in the built fabrics of the world waiting to be filled by your imagination. You
are not just the spectator of architecture; you are a player.
Even though architecture is one of the most fundamental things we human being do in
making the world in which we live, it is represented in English only as a NOUN.
‘To design’, ‘to draw’, ‘to build’ do not adequately convey what it means,
“If there were such a verb “to architect”.
Incidentally, or perhaps significantly, the ancient Greek did have a verb for doing
architecture- ἀρχιtέκtων, (arkhitekton)
It means ‘to give form to….’, as in:
• To give form to a house with its places to cook, eat and sleep;
• To give form to a theater by drawing a circle on the ground surrounded by seats for
spectators;
• To give form to a city by laying out streets, squares and walls;
• To give form to temple of GOD.
We could (and do) use the verb ‘to design’ for all these, but somehow ‘to architect’ evokes
something more profound, a more primal relationship with the world, in which a mind enters
into a proactive relationship with its surroundings and make sense of (gives form to) them by
organizing (recognizing, choosing, arranging, structuring, constructing, composing,
moulding, even excavating….) them into places for occupation and use.
In this sense architecture is not merely the art concerned with the cosmetics appearance of the
building, nor only the technology concerned with their construction; it is fundamental to
existence.
We cannot live in the world without occupying and at least trying to make sense of it in terms
of the places in which we do things.
Architecture is philosophical, without words, it is the medium through which we set the
spatial matrix for just about everything we do.
Everyone ‘architects’ their world - the physical (and philosophical) setting in which they live
- at some level, even if it is only setting up a temporary camp or arranging furnitures in a
room.

Example: A girl ‘architects’ her world.

Let us assume, it is a sunny day in early autumn. A young girl (we could call her Eve) has
decided to sell apples from the tree in her family's garden. She places a barrow of apples just
outside her gate and sits at a table nearby waiting for passers- by. This is an example of the
‘architect’ in everyone.
Eve’s small composition of elements has more subtleties than one might at first think. It is
positioned adjacent to, but not obstructing, the gateway, where she can withdraw easily into
(the safety of) her family territory (defined by the garden edge) for the more apples or for a
drink, and where her parents can watch to see she is all right (out there, in the threatening
world). As well as barrow of apples, the girl has small chair and table with a box of plastics
carrier bags and a beaker for money. She has arranged these minimal elements straddling
the walkway, to punctuate rather than block the progress of a passer-by. Her back is
protected by hedge. She is shaded by a tree in the grass verge along the roadway… Gateways
(thresholds) are always places of transaction, where we meet visitors and say farewell.
Building on this, and using other things that are already there, Eve has established
(‘architected’, given for to) a rudimentary shop (for selling apples). For a short time, she has
changed the world (a tiny part of it) and herself (into an architect and a shop keeper). This is
the power of architecture.
Architecture is of course, concerned with many other things too – especially the construction
of buildings (walls, roofs, etc.) and the aesthetics and the symbolic appearance of the
results… neither of which are minor concern – but it begins with giving form to places for
occupation and use. And ‘giving’ in this sense includes both recognizing the possibilities of
things that are there (in this example the pavements, hedge, gate, trees…) as well as
amending and adding to them (with the barrow, table, chair….). Eventually (if the planning
authorities allowed) Eve might want to add roof and walls… to make permanent shop. Then
she would worry about how to build it and how it would work.

Why do we study Introduction to Architecture???

To Introduce –
• The field of architecture and its relation to Society, Culture, Religion, Economy,
Climate, Technology, Geography, Geology
To Understand –
• The profession of Architecture and its relation with allied profession
• The role of Architecture in Nepal and the Career opportunities scene.

Definition of Architecture
Architecture could be basically defined as ‘the art and science of designing and constructing
buildings’. As a word, ‘architecture’ can carry several other meanings, such as:
• ART: The product or result of architectural work: buildings, urban areas and
landscapes.
• SCIENCE: A style or method of building characteristic of a people, place or time.
• DESIGNING: The profession of designing buildings and other habitable
environments by architects.
 • CONSTRUCTING: The conscious act of forming things resulting in a unifying or
coherent structure.

Source: Ching, F., Visual Dictionary of Architecture

In its most simple form, architecture is the design and organization of spaces, and in its most
common form, it is the design of buildings, their interiors and surrounding spaces. The
architect acts a designer, who can work in a wide range of scales, from a scale as large as the
planning of a city, up to a scale as small as the design of a chair.
At a same time, the word architecture has also been defined in many ways by different
architects, philosophers, thinkers…
Architecture is nothing more and nothing less than the gift of making places for human
purposes. – Spiro Kostof (an architectural historian)
Architecture is generally conceived, designed and realized, built in response to an existing
set of conditions. These conditions may be purely functional in nature or they may also reflect
in varying degrees, the social, political and economical climate.
- Francis D. K. Ching in “Architecture: Form, Space and Order”

You employ stone, wood and concrete and with these materials you build house and palaces.
That is construction. Ingenuity is at work.
But suddenly, you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: “This is beautiful.”
That is architecture. Art enters in.
My house is practical. I thank you, as I might thank Railway engineers or the Telephone
service. You have not touched my heart.
- Le Corbusier in his book “Towards a New Architecture (1927)”

Architecture is:
Art Art of building design
Creative art
Utilitarian art
Social art
An unavoidable art
Mother of all arts
Science Includes systematic process / Design process and principles
Systematic way of doing things
Skillful technique
Technology Structure and enclosure (Building erects with the help of technology)
Comfort, safety and protection
Proper use of material
Architecture is scientific art of designing built environment.
Architecture is science of planning the elegant, beautiful and comfortable buildings for the
human purpose.
Architecture is art of organizing spaces.
Architecture is the art which gives element of surprise to buildings.
Architecture is poetry of construction and a frozen music.
Architecture also is:
 • A physical record of human activity / Printing machine of all ages
• A non-verbal form of communication
• Matrix of civilization
• Innovative and creative work for human comfort
Etymology of the Word ‘Architecture’
Etymologically (in terms of the root of the word), the word ‘architecture’ comes from the
Greek arkhitekton (ἀρχιtέκtων), which is a combination of the word arkhi, meaning “chief”
or “master”, and tekton, meaning “mason” or “builder”.
In line with the etymology, architecture used to denote both the process and the product of
designing and constructing buildings; and the architect used to be known as the “master
mason” or “master builder” in the past.

Origin of Architecture
Architecture is one of the oldest professions in human history. It appeared with human
being’s need of shelter to protect himself from the weather and danger outside. It first
evolved as the outcome of needs (like shelter, security, worship etc.) and means (like the
available building materials and skills). As human cultures progressed, building became a
craft and later the formalized version of that craft, which is practiced by educated
professionals, is called ‘architecture’.

Fig: The Great Cave of Niah, Malaysia, (human remains dating to 40,000 years)

Fig:
Shelter of
Chumash
and
Ohlone
Indians,
USA,
Photo by
Painting: Primitive Maori shelter, New
Natural form, Man-made form, Architectural artifact
As the famous architect Louis I. Kahn says “architecture is what nature cannot make”.
Indeed, human beings are one of the few animals that can build buildings. Structures that
some animals build, such as some birds’, bees’, or white ants’ nests, indeed resemble our
buildings in terms of their structural economy.
For example, a certain bird in South America (Rufous-breasted Spine tail) builds a two-room
nest, with rooms tied to each other by a tube-like structure.
Or, white blind ants build structures out of mud on the ground.
Or, the sea mollusk nautilus builds a shell around itself out of calcium carbonate. As it grows,
this nautilus adds a new and bigger volume to its shell, and the small, emptied part of the
shell is filled with nitrogen, which gives the shell the quality of floating in the water. These
older parts of the shell are left as the record or the heritage of the animal’s history.

Fig: Nest of Rufous-breasted Spinetail, South America, Photo by: ProAves Colombia

Fig: White ant nest, Africa Nautilus shell

Similarly, architecture is the shell of the human species. It is the environment that we build
for ourselves. However, unlike the animals, we as human beings “think” while we are making
buildings. Our act of building our buildings is a conscious process.
This is what differentiates man-made structures from animals’ nests. Animals produce their
nests or shells as a result of their genetic coding. We on the other hand, build our buildings
consciously to meet some requirements and we not only meet those requirements but we give
expression to some values and sensations, such as cultural values.

Parthenon in Ancient Greece made to Taj Mahal in India made as a mausoleum to

honor the Greek goddess Athena honor the Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife
Mumtaz Mahal

As our experience and knowledge develops and as the cultural and environmental
circumstances change, we change and evolve this architectural environment. But if we want
to protect our identity, we should take optimum care in protecting the “shell” of our past.
Because that “shell” (or architecture) of our past is the physical record of our lives, our
successes and aspirations. It is the cultural heritage that is left to us.
As famous thinker John Ruskin said: “Great nations write their autobiographies in three
manuscripts–the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not
one of these can be understood unless we read the other two; but of the three, the only quite
trustworthy one is the last.”
As rightly said, architecture is like the history and literature of one nation in built form. It is
the record of the people who produced it and could be “read” as the history or literature of
those people. It is a nonverbal way of communication and it is the quiet record of the people
who produced it. We can understand a culture’s history and literature from their architecture
and likewise if we want to understand the architecture of any period or culture (in the past or
today), we should understand the history and literature (deeds and the words) of that period.
 Big Donut shop in Los Angeles
1954, Henry J. Goodwin

Empire State building, New York

(1932, Shreve, Lam and Harmon associates)

This way for example, Empire State building in New York (built in 1932, Shreve, Lam and
Harmon associates) tells us about capitalism and the urban values of 20th century, and the Big
Donut shop in Los Angeles (built in 1954, Henry J. Goodwin), even though it is a bad
architectural example, tells us about the living style of American people, their car dominated
life and desire for savory fast food.
Therefore, architecture is the art that we cannot avoid. We can avoid and not see other arts
one way or another, such as painting or sculpture, but architecture, like it or not, affects us
and shapes our behaviors all time, as we live in and around it. We have the feeling of awe
when we are walking in the hypostyle hall of Karnak temple in Egypt, or under the dome of
Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, or when we see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water House
with all its beauty within the environment that surrounds it. Or more commonly, we are
affected by the color of the room we are in.

Hypostyle
hall of
Karnak
temple,
Egypt
Suleymaniye mosque by Mimar Sinan, Istanbul
 A room painted green
Falling Water House, Pennsylvania,
USA by Frank Lloyd Wright

However, architecture is not just art. Architecture deals with form and gives very much
importance to how that form looks, but it also deals with function and how that function
affects form. This is what differentiates the art works, such as sculpture, from architecture.
Architects think also of other things such as function or structure, next to form, beauty and
expression. Moreover, art does not have to be beautiful. Art expresses the sensations,
feelings of the artist through the forms he/she chooses, with or without purpose or beauty.
Architecture is not that free.

Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917 Weeping Woman with Handkerchief

by Pablo Picasso, 1937
Fundamentals of Architecture
The earliest surviving written work on architecture is Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius’ De
architectura (Ten Books on Architecture), which was written in the early 1st century AD.
Vitruvius has written in his book that a good building must satisfy three main qualities, which
are
• firmitas, (firmness)
• utilitas, (functionality)
• Venustas, (beauty)
Referring to firmness, functionality, and beauty, Vitruvius denoted that a good building
should be firm, useful, and beautiful and that the architect should strive to fulfill each of these
three qualities as well as possible.
Since ancient times, these basic elements of architecture (firmness, functionality and beauty)
have remained essentially unchanged. Accordingly, architectural products (or buildings)
should still be firm, which means that they should stand up firm and solid, and remain in
good condition; they should still be functional, which means that they should be useful and
function well for the people using them; and they should still be beautiful, which means that
they should please the senses of the people who view and use them.
Therefore, architecture should try to reach the optimum combination of firmitas, venustas and
utilitas, meaning the firmness of structure, beauty of the form (and space), and the
functionality of the building. For this reason, the profession of architecture is in between the
arts, the science and the humanities. Therefore, the architect should equip him/herself with
the knowledge of many branches of study, such as aesthetics, building technology, sociology
etc., to be able to produce architectural works that meet the needs of people properly.

Therefore, the ultimate test of architecture is made with the following questions:
1. Is the building functional? (Could it be used effectively and easily?)
2. Is the building firm? (Is its structure firm enough to carry all the weights it should
carry, such as its own weight, its users’ weights, and the forces of the wind and the
earthquake? And, are its materials durable enough to withstand many years of use?)
3. Is the building beautiful? (Does the building give visual delight to the user and the
viewer; is it aesthetic and pleasing?)

• organizational patterns,
relationships, clarity, hierarchy
• formal image and spatial definition
• qualities of shape, color, texture,
scale, proportion
• qualities of surface, edges, and
openings.

• approach and entry

• path configuration and access
• sequence of spaces
• light, view, touch, sound, and smell

• structure and enclosure

• environmental protection and
comfort
• health, safety and welfare.
• durability and sustainability.

• user’s requirements, needs,

aspirations
• socio-cultural factors
• economic factors
• legal constraints
• historical traditions and precedents.

• site and environment

• climate: sun, wind, temperature,
precipitation
• geography: soils, topography,
vegetation, water
• sensory and cultural characteristics
of the place
(Source: Ching, F., Architecture: Form, Space and Order)
Technics refers to the theory, principles or study of an art or a process.

Scope of Architecture
As the etymology indicates, the architect has to act as the “master builder” and see the
building both as an object of design and as a process of building. Therefore, he/she has to
have a full command of both the form, function, and structure of the building, and also other
factors such as the site characteristics, materials, lighting, heating and acoustic conditions,
color and texture of buildings.
First of all, architecture takes place at a site or a context. The site of an architectural project
affects and determines very important characteristics about the project, such as its layout,
orientation, approach, views, relationship with the environment, and materials (as they would
differentiate according to the climate).
Secondly, to be able to create comfortable environments for people, architecture takes care
of the lighting, heating and acoustic conditions of the building, as well as the color of spaces
and the texture of the materials. It considers how light affects and travels within the building,
how the building is heated or ventilated, how it reacts to sounds (acoustics), what colors it
should have, and the textural sensations evoked by the materials used in it. After all, a
completed building is a sensory experience.
Besides these, architecture can also carry a symbolic function. It can have a symbolic content
to be conveyed to its users or viewers. This symbolic content could be perceived easily in
religious and governmental buildings. A courthouse for example could be made to be
intimidating consciously, or a religious building could be built to create the feeling of awe.
Moreover, architectural works could act as icons of cities, such as Eiffel Tower in Paris or
Chrysler building in New York.

Reichstag (German Parliament Building) Germany

Eiffel Tower in Paris Chrysler building in New York Reims Cathedral, France
Architectural production and creativity
Architectural production is a process that includes the stages of thinking, designing and
drafting. This process starts with the development of a “concept”. A concept is the initiating
idea of the project and can be formed by way of considering several factors, such as the
function and site conditions of the project, a possible structural system, or the historical and
cultural context of the site.
This “concept” starts to take “form” by including the “functions” attached to it. Then, this
“form” is further shaped “structurally” and “materially”. Finally, the form is realized in three
dimensions by taking care of the sound related (acoustics), light related (illumination) and
spatial considerations.
As other design disciplines, architecture is an act of problem solving that requires a creative
thinking process. These problems need creativity because they do not have predetermined
methods (as in mathematical formulas or theorems) for their solutions. Each
designer/architect has to find their own methods themselves for each and every different
design problem.
When a designer is given a design problem, his depth and range of design vocabulary affects
both how he understands the problem and also how he shapes his answer. If one’s
understanding of a design vocabulary is limited and the range of possible solutions to the
problems are also limited.
The concepts and methods for different design problems can be formed by getting inspired
from past architectural solutions and architects, by getting inspired from nature by analogy or
metaphor, or most favorably by total innovation of new forms and structures. Architectural
creativity exists when the architectural work is both original and appropriate.
An example to inspiration from past forms:

Pantheon, Rome, Italy (126 AD) Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC, USA (1943)
An example to an analogy to nature:
 A picture of an armadillo The SECC Conference Center in Glasgow,
Scotland
(by Foster and Partners in 1995-1997)

An example to creativity and originality in architecture:

Villa Savoye Poissy by Le Corbusier, 1929- Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe
31

Falling Water (Kauffman) House National Congress of Brazil

by Frank Lloyd Wright, USA by Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia, 1958
The Timeline of Architectural Influences
The Ancient World
The history of architecture is intrinsically aligned with the history of civilization. While our
nomadic ancestors had developed sophisticated forms of temporary shelter – some of which
are still used today, such as the yurt tents of the peoples of the Mongolian plain – the change
to a more sedentary form of existence fueled the need for permanent shelter.
The first such built forms fulfilled the function of providing shelter from the elements, for
example, the first known houses at Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia. They also served to protect
property and people through fortifications and to establish cultural identity. Beginning in the
fertile alluvial valleys along the rivers Tigers and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, which occupies
much of modern-day Iraq, the early Sumerian civilization produced the origins of much of
the architecture that was to follow.

Fig: Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK, 3100–2000 BC,

Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument. It is composed of
earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and is one of the most
famous prehistoric sites in the world. Archaeologists think that the standing stones were
erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC although the surrounding circular earth bank and
ditch have been dated to about 3100 BC.
The Stone Age comprises of three periods, Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. Neolithic
cultures created great stone structures in the landscape of the British Isles. Often forming
large stone circles, these structures are impressive due to their scale, method of construction
and the connections that they appear to have with the tracks in the sky of the sun and moon.
The most impressive Neolithic structures can be found in Wiltshire, England, the Orkney
Isles and in Ireland, both in the east at Newgrange and in the west in the Aran Islands.
Stonehenge, however, is probably the most well-known Neolithic structure. The stone circle
formation on this site dates from around 3100 BC. Initially Stonehenge was a series of holes,
commonly described as an ‘earthwork’. This was superseded a thousand years later by the
next stage of construction, which involved transporting the stones. To get the stone to the site
it had to be loaded onto rafts and carried by water from the southwest coast of Wales, along
the rivers Frome and Avon and eventually across land to its resting place on Salisbury plain.
The next stage was the arrival of the sarsen stones (the largest of which weighed around 50
tones); these were transported from Marlborough Downs near Avebury in north Wiltshire,
about 40 km north of Stonehenge.
Stonehenge was not built out of necessity. It is not a construction concerned with
shelter, but instead represents a spiritual connection with the natural and celestial
worlds.

Fig: The Pyramids at Giza, Egypt, 2600 BC,

Pharoahs saw the building of these tombs as an expression of their reign, much as
international corporations and governments of today build taller and more expensive
buildings as symbols of their power and importance

ANCIENT EGYPT
In contrast to the city states of Mesopotamia, which were often warring with each other, the
Nile (in its final 1100km journey to the Mediterranean) was surrounded on either side by
desert, and this made assault from the outside more difficult and resulted in a society that
remained untainted by external influences for more than 3000 years. During this period the
Egyptians developed architecture that was characterized in the early dynastic periods by
pyramidal burial tombs formed above ground and, later, by the richly decorated tombs in the
Valley of the Kings.
In both instances the buildings reflected the strongly held Egyptian belief in life after death.
This belief was mirrored in everyday life too, and experienced as a series of dualities: night
and day, flood and drought, water and desert. This belief and such dualities explain why the
Valley of the Kings is located on the western side of the Nile, the horizon on which the sun
sets, while the temples and settlements of Luxor are on the eastern side, the horizon of the
rising sun.
This symbolic positioning of ancient Egyptian buildings was further enhanced by the
precision with which they were constructed. The pyramids of Giza were built (around 2600
BC), accurate to 100 mm over their 150metre perfectly square base, and the apex of the
pyramid creates a precise geometric form derived from the golden section. Within each
pyramid, small passages running from the burial chambers are precisely aligned with celestial
constellations, as these were seen as the resting place to which the soul of the pharaohs would
travel in the afterlife.
The scale and exactness of execution of these structures is breathtaking, and required, even
by today’s standards, an enormous feat of engineering, not least in sourcing the several
million stone blocks used in their construction. These stones were quarried in Upper Egypt,
some 640 km from the site, and were transported by water before being raised into position.

The Classical World

In architecture, the influence of Roman and Greek civilizations is found in the concepts,
forms, ideas, decorations and proportions that have been reinterpreted as renaissance (in
fifteenth-century Italy), Georgian (in nineteenth-century London) and American colonial
styles. There is an enduring sense of elegance and balance to classical architecture and ideas.
ANCIENT GREECE
While the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt formed the foundations of architecture, it
was in the societies of ancient Greece that the language of the discipline was first formalized.
Much of our modern culture finds its origins in the civilization of classical Greece. Political
democracy, theatre and philosophy derive from a society that, having mastered the supply of
food, found they had spare time to think, reflect and better understand the rules of the world
around them. Some of the greatest minds in history, Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras, laid
down the patterns of thinking that would dominate western culture for the next 2000 years.
The Hellenistic architecture of ancient Greece (produced during what is described as the
‘golden period’), reached such refinement and quality that it subsequently earned its
definition of ‘classical’.
Today, reference to the classical language of architecture alludes not only to the form, but
also to the way in which the architects of ancient Greece developed an architectural
methodology that could be applied to all building types.
The literal building blocks of this methodology are the columns used to support the
construction. These columns are in one of five forms, according to the slenderness and
embellishment of their design. These forms are: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and
Composite, and rank in order from short and squat to slender and elegant. Collectively they
are known as the five orders.
The diameter of each column not only determined its height, but also the space allowed
between columns and therefore the overall ratio and proportions of the building it was
supporting. Each individual element of Greek architecture had a mathematical relationship to
every other element, making the building an integrated totality.

The Five Orders of Classical Architecture

The public buildings of the ancient Greeks and Romans were almost all designed using the
five ‘orders’ of architecture.
The orders are expressed according to the design of the column and the details of the upper
parts of the façades carried by each. The five orders are: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and
Composite, and their designs range from simple and unadorned to highly decorative.
The numbers in this diagram refer to the column’s height/diameter ratio. For example, the
Tuscan column’s height is seven times its diameter.
This modular system, where the width of the column determined the proportions of the
building, created a formula for design. This blueprint could be equally applied to a small
house or a whole city and in so doing a connected and harmonious architecture could be
created.
Many examples of Ancient Greek classical architecture remain, and perhaps the best known
is the Acropolis in Athens; the symbolic center of the classical world. The Acropolis is
effectively a fortified collection of individual buildings centered on the great temple of the
Parthenon. This architectural icon was a place of worship housing a giant (16-metre) ivory
and gold covered statue of the goddess Athene, patron of the city. Although few had the
privilege to view the statue, the building’s exterior was an expression of civic and national
pride.
Its frieze, the band of sculpted panels that surrounded the building above the column line, is
considered to contain some of the finest works of art ever made. The subject of much
controversy, they are now housed in the British Museum and depict the Great Pantheon, the
four-yearly ritual robing of the Athene, with such lifelike execution that solid marble seems
to flow in the folds of material in the gods’ gowns. This highlights the value that the Greeks
placed in observation and understanding of the human form.
The classical world also devised urban planning. In cities, such as Miletus and Priene, the
social order was reflected in their houses and focal public buildings, assembly halls and
gymnasia, which were all carefully laid out on a grid plan. Above all, their urban planning
focused on the interchange of goods and ideas, and the ‘agora’ or marketplace might be
considered the public heart of the Greek city.
In addition, the architects of Ancient Greece produced great amphitheaters, able to
accommodate an audience of 5000 with ease, providing perfect sight lines and acoustics,
qualities that many architects find it hard to emulate today.
Fig: Pantheon (interior), Rome, Italy AD 118–126
The Pantheon is one of the great spiritual buildings of the world. It was originally built as a
Roman temple and was later consecrated as a Catholic Church. It has a central opening or
oculus that allows light to travel through the building creating a sense of depth on the
coffered ceiling. The roof is a dome sitting on top of a simple plan.

ROME
Architecture is perhaps, above all else, a practical concern, and the concept of buildings as
works of engineering formed the underlying principle of Roman architecture. Adopting the
classical language of Ancient Greece, the Romans, rather than innovating, refined their
buildings and construction techniques. Of these methods, the arch is the legacy of Rome to
the history of architecture.
Ancient Greece had largely limited much of its architecture to a series of columns connected
together by lintels to support a pitched roof. This system restricted the forms that buildings
could adopt as their proportions were determined by the maximum span of the horizontal
modules. The development of the arch enabled greater spans and curves in plan to be
realized. Also, far greater loads could be transferred, enabling much larger and less
orthogonal structures to be achieved. Some of the first examples of these structures, the
Colosseum and the Pantheon, although decorated with classical columns, owe their vast scale
to the arch, which underpins their structure.
 Fig: The Colosseum, Rome, Italy,
AD 72–82

The Colosseum is a giant

Amphitheatre in the centre of Rome.
Originally capable of seating 50,000
spectators, it was used for
gladiatorial contests and public
spectacles. Although it is now in a
severely ruined condition, the
Colosseum has long been seen as an
iconic symbol of Imperial Rome and
is one of the finest surviving
examples of Roman architecture.

The Medieval World

The fall of Rome and the descent of western civilization into the cultural chaos that
characterized the Dark Ages prompted a very different view of architecture from that which
had existed in the classical world. In times of uncertainty, unsure as to his own abilities to
understand the world around him, man often turns to external sources to govern the future.
For this reason, the medieval period saw a turn away from the secular towards the divine as a
source of certainty.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
The primary purpose of much medieval architecture was to communicate the biblical
narratives to the largely illiterate masses. To serve this purpose, medieval cathedrals
developed a unique form that reduced structural mass and allowed stained glass to illuminate
the interior with the divine light and message of a Christian God.
In addition to this, the desire to escape the torments of earthly existence and seek solace in a
heavenly realm brought about an emphasis on the vertical, resulting in an architectural style
of ascension. Directing the eye heavenward, the Gothic style characteristically employed
pointed arches and placed structure outside of the building. A great example of this is to be
found in St Chappelle, close to the other great gothic cathedral of Notre Dame, on the Isle de
la Cité in Paris, France. A vertical architectural emphasis is seen on its exterior with towering
spires that once served as pilgrimage beacons (reflecting the belief that the taller the spire the
greater the city’s piety).
Gothic architecture also adopted a very precise and often complex geometric organization
where sacred ratios, echoed in the natural world, were employed as a celebration of the divine
mind.
In domestic structures the heights of the classical world were lost and Gothic architecture
regressed to a largely vernacular type, using local ideas and materials and often based on
timber frame construction. While primitive in
many respects, the overall results of the construction methods employed by medieval
carpenters were of considerable technological ingenuity. The use of local materials in much
of their natural form gave the buildings an intimate connection with their regional landscape
and location. This is a characteristic that has recently been reinterpreted by the ‘green’
architecture movement.
In addition to this, the piecemeal development of towns and cities through the period
produced irregular urban planning, which gave many towns a certain charm and sense of
character. Towards the end of the medieval period, the re-emergence of secular concerns
gave rise to more substantial structures based around trading activities. At the smallest scale,
this was evident in the many market crosses erected in provincial towns, and at the other end
of the spectrum, saw the construction of some of the finest medieval structures, including the
Doge’s Palace in Venice, Italy, which was one of the few secular constructions crafted to the
level of a medieval cathedral.

Fig: Chartres Cathedral Historical Development, Emma Liddell, 2007

This diagram demonstrates how Chartres Cathedral has evolved from the construction of its
early Gallo-Roman inner chapel (dated AD c.500), to the Gothic cathedral (dated AD
c.1260) that we are all familiar with. Each new phase of building wraps around the previous
one.

Fig: Santa Maria del Fiore (The Duomo),

Florence, Italy,
Filippo Brunelleschi, 1417–1434
This octagonal dome dominates the Santa
Maria del Fiore. Brunelleschi drew his
inspiration from the double-walled cupola
of the Pantheon in Rome. The distinctive
octagonal design of the double-walled
dome, resting on a drum and not on the
roof itself, allowed for the entire dome to
be built without the need for scaffolding
from the ground. This enormous
construction weighs 37,000 tonnes and
contains over four million bricks.
The Renaissance
Few times in the history of architecture show the sort of rapid and fundamental changes in
attitude as was witnessed in Italy at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

HUMANISM
This period saw a rejection of medieval scholasticism and a revived interest in classical
architecture. Those architects who had known Gothic building in Europe, but vividly
remembered the great architecture of the Roman Empire, began to reconsider the classical
language of architecture. This line of inquiry gathered pace in Florence where wealthy, self-
confident merchants and new banking families such as the Medici became patrons to a small
group of architects who had started to revalue and tentatively experiment with the classical
language of architecture.

To a previous generation, the works of the ancient classical world had seemed a form and
complexity beyond experience. The new sensibility sought to understand classical
architecture based on the validity of man’s reasoning power and his ability to understand the
world through observations and intellect rather than any preordained explanation.

Filippo Brunelleschi 1377–1446,

Brunelleschi was born in Florence, Italy. Initially trained as a sculptor, he then studied
sculpture and architecture in Rome with Donatello. In 1418 Brunelleschi won a competition
to design the Duomo of the Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. His design was the largest
dome over the greatest span of its time. Brunelleschi’s duomo is made up of a series of
layered domes and the space between each is large enough to walk through. He was also
responsible for inventing machines to assist with various aspects of architecture, from raising
large weights to a better understanding of perspective.

The Baroque and the Enlightenment

The beginning of the eighteenth century witnessed a new age of reasoning. Copernicus,
Kepler and Galileo overturned the established geocentric Christian cosmology and asked that
if the earth and man were no longer at the center of the universe, then what other established
beliefs could be brought into doubt? This notion was met with an enormous burst of
intellectual inquiry, which sought to establish the new rules that would govern what was
increasingly considered to be a ‘clockwork’ universe.

Modernism
The beginning of the Enlightenment had been accompanied by political revolution, but the
modern world was initiated by another kind of revolution; that of industry. The development
of steam power at the end of the eighteenth century changed what had been a predominantly
rural population to an urban one and the cities at the heart of industry grew rapidly.

IRON AND STEEL

The new materials of the industrial revolution, such as wrought iron and steel, were quickly
transferred into construction applications. This development marked a paradigm shift from
bespoke, heavy, load-bearing construction to lightweight factory-produced building elements.
The world celebrated the new products of mass production through a series of trade
exhibitions. Most architecturally notable were those in London in 1851 and Paris in 1855. In
London, the exhibition was housed in the enormous custom-built structure of Crystal Palace.
Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Crystal Palace used standard components of prefabricated
cast iron lattice which was infilled with glass panels to form a greenhouse of enormous
proportions. Paxton’s Crystal Palace used these newly available materials to their limit,
borrowing traditional forms and structurally reinterpreting them.

Joseph Paxton 1803–1865,

Paxton was an English architect and keen gardener. His work at Chatsworth House in
Derbyshire saw him experiment with framed glass structures that would allow him to grow
and protect sensitive and delicate plants. From these Paxton developed designs to build the
Crystal Palace for London’s Great Exhibition in 1851. The project was the most innovative
use of glass and steel at the time and was of an unprecedented scale. The Crystal Palace was
intended to be a temporary structure, but was moved to Sydenham in South London after the
exhibition had finished.

The project was the most innovative use of glass and steel at the time and was of an
unprecedented scale. The Crystal Palace was intended to be a temporary structure, but was
moved to Sydenham in South London after the exhibition had finished.

In Paris, the properties of cast iron showed how lightweight construction could be employed
to achieve previously unseen heights. The Eiffel Tower soared some 312 metres in the
Parisian skyline and its skeleton frame was to be the forerunner of the tall buildings and
skyscrapers that were to follow.
But the opportunity to show what could really be achieved fell to the US. In 1871 a fire
destroyed much of the city of Chicago. Faced with a blank sheet for the city, architects again
used the framing principle as a basis for construction but this time with steel, far stronger and
proportionately lighter than iron. It was used to construct the first high-rise building in the
world.

Louis Sullivan, credited with the phrase ‘form follows function’, was perhaps the first great
architect of the modern age. His Carson Pirie Scott building (in Chicago), was a simple frame
structure that allowed clear expression without decoration. This was a radical break from the
classical ornamentation that had previously characterized much civic building.

GLASS AND CONCRETE

Along with iron and steel, two other materials also came to characterize the modern
movement: sheet glass and reinforced concrete. Mies van der Rohe had seen the possibilities
of new float glass production methods, which could create a material that would enable
transparency and structural honesty, and would herald a spirit of openness that was to mark
the new utopian age of the twentieth century. Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion design,
an exposition building constructed in Catalonia in 1929, reduced the structure to a series of
columns that supported a flat roof, with non-loadbearing partition walls made of glass and
thin veneers of fine marble to divide the spaces within. In conceiving architecture as a spatial
continuity from inside to outside, Mies van der Rohe also broke the historic paradigm of the
interior being a series of spaces enclosed by solid load-bearing walls and punctured by
windows and doors. Instead, he produced an open plan in which space flowed seamlessly
through the building, unhindered by the mass and solidity of the structure. His was the ‘new’
architecture: open, light and elegant.

fig: The Barcelona Pavilion (interior), constructed for

the International Exposition in Barcelona of 1929,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1928–1929,
The Barcelona Pavilion was the German Pavilion for
the 1929 World’s Fair in Barcelona. It was an important
building in the history of modern architecture, known for
its simple form and use of extravagant materials, such as
marble and travertine.

Fig: The Barcelona Pavilion (exterior),

The pavilion’s structure consisted of eight steel
posts supporting a flat roof, with curtain glass
walling and a handful of partition walls. The
overall impression is of perpendicular planes in
three dimensions forming a cool, luxurious
space. The pavilion was demolished at the end of
the exhibition, but a copy has since been built on
the same site.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1886–1969

Born in Germany, Mies van der Rohe was part of
the group that established the Bauhaus school. He was an architect, teacher, furniture
designer and urban planner, who questioned all aspects of design. Mies van der Rohe also
questioned the idea of walls, floors and ceilings, reinventing architectural language to
become planes and points.

Mies van der Rohe’s significant buildings include the Barcelona Pavilion and the Seagram
Building in New York. These buildings are two of the most important pieces of twentieth-
century architecture in terms of their use of material and subsequent form.

DE STIJL
In the twentieth century, the Dutch artistic movement, De Stijl (the style) began to connect
the ideas of artists such as Theo van Doesburg to the notion of physical space. In the De Stijl
journal van Doesburg explored the notion of space in relation to surface and colour.
Similarly, Gerrit Rietveld developed ideas of space, form and colour in the design of his
furniture and architecture.

Proponents of De Stijl sought to express a new utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order.
They advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and
colour. They simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions, and used
only primary colours along with black and white.
fig: The Schröder House, Utrecht,
The Netherlands, Gerrit Rietveld,
1924–1925,
The Schröder house is a kind of
three-dimensional puzzle; it takes
space and connects it both
vertically and horizontally using
colour to signify the vertical and
Horizontal planes. The interior
walls move to reveal larger open
spaces. Everything is reinvented
inside the house; all processes of
living have been observed and
responded to. The bathroom needs
to be discovered and is unveiled in
a cupboard. Sleeping, sitting and
living are interweaved in one
space. It is an experiment of space,
form and function.

Theo van Doesburg 1883–1931,

Theo van Doesburg was one the
founders of the De Stijl (the style)
movement, which was concerned
primarily with ideas of art and
architecture. Interested in abstraction of colour and form, De Stijl employed a visual code
that connected colour and plane. Primary colours and black and white were used in both art
and architecture to explore space and form.
PURISM
During the modernist period, Swiss architect Le Corbusier (born Charles Jeanneret)
established principles of architecture that responded to Renaissance ideas and dogma. These
governing rules were less about determining the form and more about establishing a direction
for an architectural response.
Another important development for Le Corbusier was the modular system that, following the
tradition of Leonardo da Vinci and Leon Battista Alberti amongst others, suggested that
architecture needs to be centered around the proportion of the human body. The concept of le
modulor created a measuring system that used human anthropometric dimensions as a way of
determining form and space, and this system informed and underpinned the design of Le
Corbusier’s furniture, buildings and spaces.
Characteristics of Modernist Architecture (Corbusier’s five points of architecture)
1. Pilotis: these are columns elevating the mass of the building off the ground.
2. The Free Plan: this is achieved through the separation of the load-bearing columns
from the walls subdividing the space.
3. The free façade: this is the result of the free plan in the vertical plane.
4. The long, horizontal ribbon window.
5. The roof garden: this restores the area of ground covered by the structure.

fig: Le Modulor, London 2006,

Le Corbusier, 1943–1947
Le Corbusier explicitly used the
golden ratio in his modular
system for the scale of
architectural proportion. He
saw this system as a
continuation of the long
tradition of Vitruvius, Leonardo
da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, the
work of Leon Battista Alberti,
and others who used the
proportions of the human body
to improve the appearance and
function of architecture. In
addition to the golden ratio, Le
Corbusier based his system on
human measurements,
Fibonacci numbers, and the
double unit. He took da Vinci’s
suggestion of the golden ratio in human proportions to an extreme: he sectioned his model
human body’s height at the navel with the two sections in golden ratio, then subdivided those
sections in golden ratio at the knees and throat; he used these golden ratio proportions in the
modular system.

References:
• Exercise in architecture, learning to think as an architect – Simon Unwin.
• Form Space and Order – Francis D. K. Ching.
• The fundamentals of Architecture – Lorraine Farrelly.
• A visual dictionary of architecture – Francis D. K. Ching.
• Introduction to Architecture, Lecture Notes.
• Ten Books on Architecture – Vitrivius.