Architectural Styles

Art Deco• (1925-1940) • Identifying Features:

– Smooth wall surface, often stucco – Smooth-faced stone and metal – Polychrome, often with vivid colors– Forms simplified and streamlined– Geometric designs including

zigzags, chevrons – Towers and other vertical

projections, presenting a vertical emphasis

• Machined and often metallic construction materials for decorative features.

• These were the buildings of the future: sleek, geometric, dramatic. embraced the machine age.

Greek• Original Structures:

– The first Greek structures were built very primitive and basic

– The houses were mainly built with a • circular shape• oval shape• apsidal shape• rectangular shape

– mostly square, but some were oblong– had the entrance at one of the short end – used mud bricks and stones in the mud with reeds or brush to

help build the house – most of the houses had one room, there were very rarely two

• The Original Structure (cont)..– The next group of settlers were the Minoan architects– Their towns were mostly residential with little or no

temples and public places. – their houses were private and had many rooms

• To separate rooms, they would use only pillars

• The stairways were a very prominent feature for these massive homes.

• The Three Orders: (known for column style)

– Doric• Starts with some wood shafts, which was replaced by stone.

– top of the shaft, were circular pads with a square block of wood over it.

– The vertical columns were used to support the beams called architraves.

• To form the ceiling, other beams were laid across the building with their ends on these architraves.

• On the end of these beams, they could be channeled to make a triglyph.• On the top of a triglyph there would be

another beam which would be placed for the overhanging rafters.

– These type of beams were referred as to a mutules.

Column

Entablature

– Doric (cont)• The finishing touches for the

roof had to have a flat gables called pediments.

• The gutter ran along the top of the pediments and ended at a lion's mouth. This acted like a drain.

• The materials that were used for the roofs were thatch and the terra-cotta and marble.

TempleColumn’s dimensions were 4-5 meters high

Column

• The Three Orders (cont.)– Ionic

• Columns were more slender • Their dimensions were eight to nine meters high• The columns had a molded base placed under

them and then sculpted figures on the lower part of the shaft were added.

• At the top of the shafts, were rectangular blocks of stone, which were carved in the shape of hair or other wave and line shapes.

Entablature

Capital

• Three Orders (cont)– Corinthian (not widely used due to its detail. Too fancy, to much)

Entablature

Greek

• Greek Revival:– IDENTIFYING FEATURES:

• Gable or hipped, low-pitch roof• Dentil cornice emphasized with wide band of trim -- cornice

represents classical entablature (includes cornice, frieze, architrave)

• Porches: square or rounded columns (usually Doric)• First style to use gable-front floor plan (gable end facing the

street, representing Greek temple)• Temple-front entryway with entry door surrounded by

rectangular transom and sidelights (never rounded like federal).

Greek Revival– Dominant style in America, 1820-1850

• Also called "national style" due to popularity• first American architectural style to reach

West Coast • The Greek Revival movement becomes

widely accepted throughout the early U.S. as a symbol of the new democracy.

Renaissance• Italian:

– Architects based their theories and practices on Classical Roman examples.

– Study the ancient buildings and ruins, especially the Colosseum and Pantheon

– Classical orders and architectural elements:• Columns • Pilasters• Pediments

– Renaissance architecture is characterized by:• Harmonious form• Mathematical proportion• A unit of measurement based on the human scale.

• Entablatures• Arches• Domes

The

Louv

re

• French:• The characteristics of the style:

– ashlar masonry accentuated with rusticated quoins– architrave framed windows – doors supporting entablatures or pediments, – a belt or string course that may divide the ground or first floor from

the upper floors– small square windows that indicate the top story. – imported from Italy during the early 16th century and developed in

the light of local architectural traditions

– “French Renaissance" is a term often used to describe a cultural and artistic movement in France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century.

– The French Renaissance traditionally extends from (roughly) the French invasion of Italy in 1494 during the reign of Charles VIII until the death of Henri IV in 1610.

• Jacobean style: – blended medieval and

renaissance styles – characteristic of formal

structures – transition from Elizabethan

to Pure Renaissance – Predominant after Queen

Elizabeth's reign – Tends to be more unified

and consistent

• Elizabethan style:– blended Medieval and

Renaissance styles – characteristic of large noble

houses – transition from Medieval to

Renaissance – Predominant during Queen

Elizabeth's reign from 1558-1603

• English:– In England the Renaissance was potent force in

England during the 16th century – During this period two distinctive styles emerged:

Modern• Emerged in the decade after World War I, the

mid-nineteenth century to the 1970s • Also known as International style, Neue

Sachlichkeit, and functionalism• An emphasis on shape, form, light, and

transparency– ideological faith in utopian rationalism and

functionalism, as the core elements of this movement.

– From the outcome of the humanist belief in individual reason:

• foundations of the movement lie in earlier Renaissance and Enlightenment thought.

• The modernist objective to understand and master nature

Falli

ng W

ater

by

Fran

k Ll

oyd

Wrig

htModern cont..

• Intellectual basis that shaped the aesthetic program of high modernist architecture: – Beauty lies in the ability of the

rational mind to extract formal rules from the surrounding world, making transparent the universal mechanics of the perfect machine.

– The emphasis on geometry and form follows, with surface decoration and style at best irrelevant, at worst deceitful.

• functionality becomes the clearest expression of rationalism. http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/

ha/html/modern.html

Modern• The style features:

– smooth stucco wall surfaces– rounded corners– a flat roof with coping– an asymmetrical facade– corner, glass block– and round windows – horizontal grooves or lines to emphasize – a streamline quality.

Medieval• Spanned from 1066-1603• Romanesque Period:

– Norman era– Copied the pattern and proportion of the architecture

of the Roman Empire – Chief characteristics:

• barrel vaults• round arches• thick piers• few windows

– Extremely uncomfortable • dark, dank and cold

Tudor: English Country • Imitate English architecture from the early 16th century.

• Some Tudor houses mimic humble Medieval cottages -- They may even include a false thatched roof.

• Other Tudor homes borrow ideas from late Medieval

palaces.

• They may have overlapping gables, parapets, and beautifully patterned brick or stonework.

• • These historic details combine with Victorian or

Craftsman flourishes.

• Gothic:– Began in 12th century France

• "The French Style“• Renaissance critics appalled at the abandonment of

classical line and proportion called it "Gothic“– In reference to the imagined lack of culture of the barbarian

tribes– Light, spacious, and graceful– Advances in architectural technique learned from

• Arab world during the Crusades– Led to innovations such as:

» The pointed arch» Ribbed vault» The buttress » Heavy Romanesque piers were replaced by slender

clusters of columns» Window sizes grew» Height of vaults and spires grew

Gothic cont..

• Free standing sculpture instead of being incorporated in columns

• Windows filled with color• Churches have elaborate decoration,

especially the "tracery", or stonework supporting the stained glass windows.– 1200 to 1300 - Early English Gothic Style

(also called Lancet)– 1300 to 1400 - Decorated Gothic Style – 1400 to 1500 - Perpendicular Gothic Style

Some Other Styles:• Prehistoric• Ancient• Bamanesque• Baroque• Rococo• Georgian

• American Colonial• Neoclassical/

Idealist • Victorian• Art + Craft

Movement• Art Nouveau

Apsidal

• A semicircular of polygonal termination or recess in a building, usually vaulted and used at the end of a choir in a church

Bibliography:• http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~twp/architecture/• http://library.advanced.org/10098/greek.htm• http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/greek_arch.html• http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~twp/architecture/artdeco/• http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0833538.html• http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/ha/html/modern.html• http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/575c2/d1d79/?frdir=yes• http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/ha/html/modern.html• http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/itar/hd_itar.htm• http://www.essential-architecture.com/STYLE/STY-R02.htm• http://library.thinkquest.org/C005594/renaissance.htm• http://www.castles.me.uk/medieval-castle-architecture.htm• http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Medieval_art_and_architecture.htm• http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/659490.html• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/Architec/

RenaissanceArchitecture/ImagesfromItalianRenaissance/ImagesItalianRenaissance/03.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/Architec/RenaissanceArchitecture/ImagesfromItalianRenaissance/ImagesItalianRenaissance/ImagesItalianRenaissance.htm&h=266&w=400&sz=40&hl=en&start=8&um=1&tbnid=2w_bU0e0lQ3T5M:&tbnh=82&tbnw=124&prev=

• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tnevni.com/arch_styles/images/eclectic_italian_640.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.angelfire.com/mn/thursdaynighthikes/summit_arch6.html&h=411&w=700&sz=71&hl=en&start=76&um=1&tbnid=ATyFSgcBEdqTrM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=140&prev=

• http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.buildkeowee.com/Portals/0/English-Country-2.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.buildkeowee.com/YourNewHome/5HomeTypes/tabid/58/Default.aspx&h=330&w=500&sz=49&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=uWlfHASbxmIljM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=130&prev=

• http://www.buildkeowee.com/YourNewHome/5HomeTypes/tabid/58/Default.aspx