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

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• 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

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Modern 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/

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• 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=

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