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Styles of Architecture
What is Architecture?
 Architecture is the art and profession of
designing buildings.
 The word Architecture (Greek) has a
historical meaning:
 May refer to a building style of a particular
culture or to an artistic movement such as
Greek, Gothic, and Renaissance
architecture.
What is Architecture?
 Architecture has many artistic qualities but
must also satisfy practical considerations.
 Example: Office Buildings
 A building cannot just be aesthetically
pleasing.
 Needs to accompany the comfort and
efficiency levels for people in it.
 If the building does not fulfill comfort, it fails
architecturally.
Architectural Style
 Architectural style is a way of classifying
architecture largely by morphological
characteristics:
 Form
 Techniques
 Materials
 Architectural style is a way of classifying
architecture that gives emphasis to
characteristic features of design, leading to a
terminology such as “Gothic” style.
Neolithic Architecture
 Also known as “Stone-Age” architecture contains
some of the oldest known structures made by
mankind.
 Distinguishable by Paleolithic and Mesolithic
making and use of stone tools.
 Neolithic cultures have been shown to have
existed in southwest Asia as early as 8000 B.C.
to 6000 B.C.
 The peoples of the Americas and the Pacific
region remained at the Neolithic level up until
the time of European contact.
Neolithic Architecture
 Neolithic Architects were great builders who
used mainly mud-brick to construct houses
and villages.
 Houses were plastered and painted with
ancient scenes of humans and animals.
 Many of the more famous Neolithic structures
were remarkably made by enormous stones.
Stonehenge
Egyptian Architecture
 Due to lack of wood most Egyptian
architecture was made with mud-brick and
stone.
 Minerals included sandstone, limestone, and
granite, which were generally used for tombs
and temples.
 Most ancient Egyptian towns have been lost
because they were situated in the cultivated
and flooded area of the Nile Valley.
Egyptian Architecture
 Temples and tombs have survived:
 Built on ground unaffected by the Nile flood
 Constructed of stone.
 Egyptian architecture is based mainly on its
religious monuments such as Pyramids.
 All monumental buildings are post and lintel
constructions, with flat roofs constructed of
huge stone blocks supported by the external
walls and the closely spaced columns.
Temple of Ramesses II
Neoclassical Architecture
 Neoclassical style produced by the
neoclassical movement during the 18th
century.
 Neoclassical, or "new" classical,
architecture describes buildings that are
inspired by the classical architecture of
ancient Greece and Rome.
Neoclassical Architecture
 A Neoclassical building is likely to have some
(but not necessarily all) of these features:
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Symmetrical shape
Tall columns that rise the full height of the building
Triangular Pediment
Domed roof
 Examples: U.S. Capitol Building, White
House, Slave plantations
Roman Architecture
 Adopted from Greek classical architecture.
 Constructed new structural principles based on
the development of the arch and a new building
material, concrete.
 First to utilize two forms of roof design, the arch
and vault.
 Vault is an arched roof or ceiling (dome).
 Eliminated use for columns to support roofs.
 Columns used mainly for sculptural decoration.
Roman Architecture
 Romans built more kinds of structures
than any earlier civilization.
 In addition to houses, temples, and
palaces, Romans constructed
aqueducts, public baths, shops,
theaters, and outdoor arenas.
Colosseum
Pont du Gard
Gothic Architecture
 Mainly flourished in western Europe from the
1100’s to 1400’s.
 New systems of construction allowed for
architects to design churches with thinner
walls and lighter piers.
 Piers extended several stories high and into
the roof area making individual columns like
ribs on an open umbrella.
 Ribbed vaults are most distinguishable
characteristic of Gothic architecture.
Gothic Architecture
 Other styles included pointed arches, stainedglass windows, flying buttresses.
 Flying buttresses were brick or stone arched
supports built along outside walls.
 Emphasizes vertically and a skeletal stone
structure.
 Pointed arch was introduced for both visual and
structural reasons. Channels weight onto the
bearing piers or columns at a steep angle.
 Gothic cathedrals could be highly decorated
with statues and paintings.
Renaissance Architecture
 Beginning between the early 15th and the
early 17th centuries in different regions of
Europe.
 The Renaissance style places emphasis on
symmetry, proportion, geometry and the
regularity of parts
 Orderly arrangement of arches, niches
replaced the more complex proportional view
of medieval buildings.
 Renaissance buildings have a square,
symmetrical, planned appearance.
Renaissance Architecture
 Facades (front of building) are symmetrical around
their vertical axis.
 The columns and windows show a progression
towards the center.
 Domestic buildings are often surmounted by a
cornice.
 Windows may be paired and set within a semicircular arch.
 Roofs are fitted with flat or coffered ceilings. They
are not left open as in Medieval architecture. They
are frequently painted or decorated.
St. Peter’s
Modern Architecture
 Building styles with similar characteristics, primarily
the simplification of form and the elimination of
ornament.
 Dominant architectural style, particularly for
institutional and corporate building, for several
decades in the 20th century.
 Use materials such as iron, steel, concrete, and
glass.
 The most commonly used materials are glass for
the facade, steel for exterior support.
 Modern architecture seen in most skyscrapers.
Modern Architecture
 Modern architecture is usually characterized
by:▪
 a rejection of historical styles as a source of
architectural form (historicism)
 an adoption of the principle that the materials and
functional requirements determine the result
 an adoption of the machine aesthetic
 a rejection of ornament
 a simplification of form and elimination of
"unnecessary detail"
Art Deco Architecture
 Popular design movement from 1920 until 1939.
 Popular themes in art deco were trapezoidal,
zigzagged, geometric, and jumbled shapes,
which can be seen in many early pieces.
 materials such as aluminum, stainless steel,
lacquer, etc.
 Bold use of stepped forms, and sweeping curves,
symmetry and repetition,.
 Art Deco style celebrates the Machine Age
through explicit use of man-made materials
(particularly glass and stainless steel)
Post-Modern Architecture
 Began as American style whose first
examples are generally cited as being from
the 1960s
 Diverse aesthetics, styles collide.
 Postmodernists feel buildings fail to meet the
human need for comfort both for body and for
the eye.
 Most post-modernists works are small
buildings such as houses and stores.
 BASICALLY, ANYTHING GOES!
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African Architecture
Chinese Architecture
Indian Architecture
Islamic Architecture
Japanese Architecture
Persian Architecture
Spanish Architecture
Canadian Architecture
Indonesian Architecture
Mesoamerican Architecture