Scale and Space

Architecture is a field unto its own. However it is possible to skim the surface of the History
of Art to talk about the major inventions and ideas that humans have created to make houses,
mausoleums, places of worship and commerce. If you have ever tried to build something
larger than a baseball with paper or cloth or blocks of wood, you know that what you build
must be reinforced so that the material can travel across space without falling down.
Architecture, because of its scale and because the structure is made to create space in which
to work, to live and to store material; needs to be attentive to the forces of the physical world.
In different places in the world walls are made with paper, ice, living rock, mud and glass, all
of which would be impractical in other places in the world. Beyond the engineering of the
design, a knowledge of materials and a knowledge of the forces of nature are requirements
for successful architecture.

Space spanning Construction Devices; Art History, Stokstad, Introduction, Notes and
Diagrams on Architecture
Gravity pulls on everything, presenting great challenges to the need to cover spaces. The
purpose of the spanning element is to transfer weight to the ground. The simplest
space-spanning device is post-and-lintel construction, in which uprights are spanned by a
horizontal element. However, if not flexible, a horizontal element over a wide span breaks
under the pressure of its own weight and the weight it carries. ​
Corbeling, the building up of overlapping stones, is another simple method for transferring
weight to the ground. Arches, round or pointed, span space. Vaults, which are essentially
extended arches, move weight out from the center of the covered space and down through the
corners. The cantilever is a variant of the post-and-lintel construction. When concrete is
reinforced with steel or iron rods, the inherent brittleness of cement and stone is then
overcome because of metal’s flexible qualities. The concrete can then span much more space
and bear heavier loads. Suspension works to counter the effect of gravity by lifting the
spanning element upward. Trusses of wood or metal are relatively lightweight spanners but
cannot bear heavy loads. Large-scale modern construction is chiefly steel frame and relies on
steel’s properties of strength and flexibility to bear great loads. The balloon frame, an
American invention, is based in post-and-lintel principles and exploits the lightweight,
flexible properties of wood.

Early man spent some of their lives in caves for shelter, protection from large dangerous
animals and to gather members of the group for shared experience. All areas where humans
chose to live did not have cave spaces. Man built structures to recreate the benefits of the
cave.

The stone houses, Skara Brae, Orkney Islands, Scotland used corbeled stone for the
protection that humans need against the weather. The stones are laid upon each other with a
slight overhang on the interior side of the building so that the stones can create a smaller and
smaller opening as the layers are built to the top. The position rlationship and the weight of
the stones kept the stones in place so that they could span the space. Hide or sod covered the
final open space to complete the enclosure. All the building supplies were local and
accessible.

In contrast the plans of the Citadel and Palace Complex, Sargon II, Khorsabad, Iraq takes us
back to the scale of the architecture we spoke of in an earlier lecture. The drawing shown
reveals spaces that were in the plan to be built. The spaces were designed to not only house
and protect but also open spaces were designed where a social group could meet for various
purposes providing space for activities beyond the necessities of life. Unfortunately, perhaps,
after Sargon II died the project was left unfinished.

Column and Colonade; Stokstad p. 101

A column is a cylindrical, upright pillar that has three sections: a base, a shaft, and a top,
called a capital. Most columns are freestanding and are used to support weight, usually a
floor. When used decoratively and attached to a wall, a column is referred to as an engaged
column or attached column. A colonnade is a row of columns supporting a horizontal
member. Egyptians used columns, with and without bases, in their temple complexes, in
forms that are based on river plants. Persian columns use the same elements very differently.

The Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece, 1300-1200 BCE a beehive tomb uses the earth
and corbeled stone like the houses of Sara Brae, but on a grander scale. The tombs were the
graves of the wealthy and were filled with precious objects along with the corpse. The roof of
the structure is a corbelled stone vault that meets in the middle and relies on a final capstone
to finish it. A mound of earth which is much more permanent that hide or sod covers the
stone roof.

The detail of the Citadel, Tiryns, Greece 1300-1200 BCE is an example of the thick walled
corbel-vault from the inside. Stone is cut and placed in such a manner that the other stones
support its weight. The stones all push against each other to allow the stones to travel across
space with out falling down.

Greek Temple Plans, Stokstad p. 164

“The simplest early temples consist of a single room, the cella or naos, with side walls
incorporating pillars projecting forward to frame two columns in antis (literally “between the
pillars”) (a.) In a prostyle temple (b) the columns form a portico, or walkway, only across the
building’s front. An amphiprostyle temple (c) has a row of columns (collonade) at both the
front and back ends of the structure, not on the sides. If the colonnade runs around all four
sides of the building, forming a peristyle, the building is peripteral (d); if the surrounding
collonade is two columns deep, the temple is dipteral (e)."
Greek Architectural Orders; Stokstad p. 165

The three classical Greek architectural orders are the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian.
The Doric and the Ionic orders were well developed by about 600 BCE. The Doric is the
oldest and plainest of the three orders. The Ionic order is named after Ionia, a region occupied
by Greeks on the west coast of Anatolia and the islands off the coast. The Corinthian order, a
variation of the Ionic, began to appear around 450 BCE. And was initially used by the Greeks
in interiors. Later, the Romans appropriated the Corinthian order and elaborated it, as we
shall see.​
The basic component of the Greek orders are the column and the entablature, which
function as post and lintel. All types of columns have a shaft and a capital; some also have a
base. Columns are formed of round sections, or drums, which are joined inside by metal pegs.
In Greek temple architecture, columns stand on the stereobate.​
The Doric order shaft rises directly from the stylobate, without a base. The shaft is fluted
but not as deeply as the other orders. At the top of the shaft is the necking, which provides a
transition to the capital. The Doric capital itself has two parts, the rounded echinus and the
tablelike abacus. As in the other orders, the entablature includes the architrave, the frieze, and
the cornice, the topmost, projecting horizontal element.​
The Ionic order has more elegant proportions than the Doric, its height being about nine
times the diameter of the column at its base, as opposed to the Doric column’s
five-and-a-half-to-one ratio. The flutes on the column are deeper and closer together and are
separated by flat surfaces, fillets. The hallmark of the Ionic capital, which has a thin,
cushionlike abacus, is the distinctive scroll volute. ​
The Corinthian order was originally developed by the Greeks for use in interiors but came
to be used on temple exteriors as well. Its elaborate capitals are sheathed with stylized
acanthus leaves, and sometimes rosettes, and they often have scrolled elements at the corners
and a boss, or projecting ornament, at the top center of each “side.”

The Model of the Acropolis Athens 400 BCE at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto shows a
different use of space in contrast to the Sargon II Citadel. These buildings conform to the
existing tiered land formation. The most exalted space at the top of the hill is given to the
temples of the gods with the largest, the Parthenon dedicated to the Virgin Athena.

The Altar from Pergamon, Turkey resides in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin 166-165 BCE.
It is an example of architecture from the Hellenistic period and is a magnificent, welcoming
raised entry to a shrine. The entry surrounds the viewer with the activity of relief sculpture of
battling Gods and Titans that are larger than life and that are carved almost away from the
wall in high relief.

Arch, Vault, and Dome; Stokstad p. 226

“The basic arch used in western architecture is the round arch, and the most elemental type of
vaulting is the extension of the round arch, called a barrel vault. The round arch and barrel
vault were known and were put to limited use by Mesopotamians and Egyptians long before
the Etruscans began their experiments with building elements. But it was the Romans who
realized the potential strength and versatility of these architectural features and exploited
them to the fullest degree.

The round arch displaces most of the weight, or downward thrust (see arrows on diagram), of
the masonry above it to its curving sides and transmits the weight to the supporting uprights
(doors or window jambs, columns or piers), and from there to the ground. Arches may require
added support, called buttressing, from adjacent masonry elements. Brick or cut-stone arches
are formed by fitting together wedge shaped pieces, called voussoirs, until they meet and are
locked together at the top center by the final piece, called the keystone. Until the mortar dries,
an arch is held in place by wooden scaffolding, called centering. The inside surface of the
arch is called intrados, the outside surface of the arch extrados. The points from which the
curves of the arch rise, called springings, are often reinforced by masonry inposts. The wall
areas adjacent to the curves of the arch are spandrels. In a succession of arches, called an
arcade, the space encompassed by each arch and its support is called a bay.

The barrel vault is constructed in the same manner as the round arch. The outside pressure
by the curving sides of the barrel vault usually requires buttressing within or outside the
supporting walls. When two barrel vaulted spaces intersect each other on the perpendicular,
the result is a groin vault, or cross vault. The Romans used the groin vault to construct some
of their grandest interior spaces, they made the round arch the basis for their great
freestanding triumphal arches.

A third type of vaulted ceiling brought to technical perfection by the Romans is the
hemispheric dome. The rim of the dome is supported on a circular wall, as in the Parthenon.
This wall is called a drum when it is raised on top of a main structure. Often a circular
opening, called an oculus, is left open at the top.

Roman Architectural Orders; Stokstad p. 227

Both Greek and Roman orders-columns with their entablature-are known as classical orders.
Each order is made up of a system of interdependent parts whose proportions are based on
mathematical ratios. In Greek and Roman architecture, no element of an order could be
changed without producing a corresponding change in the other elements.​
The Etruscans and Romans adapted Greek architectural orders to their own tastes and
uses. For example, the Etruscans modified the Greek Doric order by adding a base to the
column. The Romans created the Composite order by incorporating the volute motif of the
Greek Ionic capital with other forms from the Greek Corinthian order. The sturdy, unfluted
Tuscan order, also a Roman development, derived from the Greek Doric order by way of
Etruscan models. In this diagram, the two Roman orders are shown on pedestals, which
consist of a plinth, a dado, and a cornice.

The following black and white photograph, that does not loose detail in the shadows, portrays
the inside of the Atrium House of the Silver Wedding Pompeii early 1st Century BCE. The
house is built around a pool and the roof is open above the pool. There is a feeling of light
and a constant supply of fresh air that is a great change from cave walls and low, corbeled
stone roofs. There is an elegance of space here that affects the human spirit. The rooms off
the atrium and the walls of the building protect the family members. The openness of space is
calming and gives a sense of release.

The Pont du Gard, Nimes, France from the late 1st Century BCE is an example of the
engineering of the Romans. The enormous structure functioned as an aqueduct to carry water
from its source to inhabitants or the crops in the field. There are three levels to the aqueduct
each is an arcade with rows of open arches. The arcades were designed to diminish in width
as well as height as they rose from the arcade below.

The oval Colosseum 72-80 CE in Rome, as we saw before, was an important part of Roman
life. Look at all the arcades that open to the outside. This openness allows a freedom of flow
to the masses of people who assemble in the space. Compare the feeling one has when he
waits in the chambers of the Pennsylvania Station in New York City with their the low
ceilings and the need to funnel through tight spaces to get to the trains. In the Colosseum
openness is continued in the design of the theater space. The roofless space is exhilarating
when filled with people, contained but open.

The weathered Arch of Titus 81 CE is a triumphal arch that commemorates the success of the
Roman campaign and capture of Jerusalem 70 CE. It is an isolated object that stands on its
own, unconnected to other structures. The triumphal parades of victorious generals would
march troops, conquered slaves and spoils of war through the arch. The massive building has
a ceremonial purpose rather than a practical purpose.

In Rome the major area of the Pantheon 125-28 is a rotunda design. The viewer enters a full
temple entrance that masks the experience that occurs when she enters the round space. It is
another example of the attempt to create a huge space and to maintain the feelings of
openness. It has a 29 foot wide oculus at the top of the dome where air, sunlight and rain
enter into the space

The vaulted arches of the remnant of the Basilica Maxentius and Constantine 306-13 are what
remain of another example of the design of a large, open space. The space was created with
the use of groin vaults, now gone, and barrel vaults, shown below. The three windows on the
back wall allow plenty of light into the open space. The arches of the barrel vaults are
decorated and reinforced by the sunken panels called coffers. The original building had been
designed with additional light from clerestory windows that illuminated the huge space.

Basilica-Plan and Central-Plan Churches; Stokstad p. 298

The forms of early Christian buildings were based on two classical prototypes: rectangular
Roman basilicas and round domed structures-rotundas-such as the Pantheon. As in Old Saint
Peter’s in Rome, basilica-plan churches are characterized by a forecourt, the atrium, leading
to a porch, the narthex, spanning one of the building’s short ends. Doorways-known
collectively as the church’s portal-lead from the narthex into a long central area called a nave.
The high-ceiling nave is separated from aisles on either side by rows of columns. The nave is
lit by windows along its upper story-called a clerestory-that rises above the side aisles’ roofs.
At the opposite end of the nave is a semicircular projection, the apse. The apse functions as
the buildings symbolic core where the altar, raised on a platform, is located. Sometimes there
is a transept, a horizontal wing that crosses the nave in front of the apse, making the building
T-shaped; this is known as a Tau plan. When additional space (a choir) separates the transept
and the apse, the plan is called a Latin cross.​
Central-plan structures were first used by Christians as tombs, baptism centers
(baptistries), and shrines to martyrs (martyria). (The Greek-cross plan, in which two similarly
sized “arms” intersect at their centers, is a type of central plan.) Instead of the longitudinal
axis of basilican churches, which draws worshipers forward toward the apse, central-plan
churches such as Ravenna’s San Vitale have a more vertical axis. This make the dome a
symbolic “vault of heaven,” a natural focus over the main worship area. Like basilica,
central-plan churches generally have an atrium, a narthex and an apse. The naos is the space
containing the central dome, sanctuary, and apse.

Pendentives and Squinches, Stokstad p. 310

Pendentives and squinches are two methods of supporting a round dome or its drum over a
square or rectangular space. Pendentives are structural elements between arches that form a
circular opening on which the dome sits. Squinches are bracelike constructions or corbels,
fitted into the walls upper corners beneath the dome. Because squinches create an octagon,
which is close in shape to a circle, they provide a solid base on which a dome may rest.
Byzantine builders experimented with both pendentives (as at the Hagia Sophia) and
squinches. Elaborate squinch-supported domes become a hallmark of Islamic interiors (as at
Cordoba’s Great Mosque).

The interior of the Hagia Sophia creates a volume of space that is a cause for awe. The top of
the dome seems to be in the clouds it is so far away. As you can see from this particular
photograph the sun streams in from many angles to flood this enormous space with light. At
first look the space may not seem to be so great until you notice that the lamps that hang
down look as though they are just above the floor, but they are in fact well above the height
of a human head. If you zoom into the photograph you can just see two figures under the
largest chandelier.

The interior of the Cathedral of San Marcos does not hold quite as much space, the barrel
vaults and colonnades are heavier and close the space, but the wall decoration creates another
kind of awe. Gold and color, mosaic tile covers the inside of the Byzantine vaults and domes
that makes a different kind of light. The space undulates up and down as the eye travels
across the repetition of the domes and vaults.

Mosque Plans; Stokstad p. 345

The earliest mosques were pillared hypostyle halls such as the Great Mosque at Cordoba.
Approached through an open courtyard, the sahn, their interiors are divide by rows of
columns leading, at the far end, to the mihrab niche of the qibla wall, which is oriented
toward Mecca.​
A second type, the four-iwan mosque, was originally associated with madrasas (schools
for advanced study). The iwans-monumental barrel-vaulted halls with wide open, arched
entrances-faced each other across a central sahn; related structures spread out behind and
around the iwans. Four-iwan mosques were most developed in Persia, in buildings like
Isfahan’s Masjid-I Jami.​
Central-plan mosques, such as the Selimiye Cami at Edirne were derived from Istanbul’s
Hagia Sophia and are typical of Ottoman Turkish architecture. Central-plan interiors are
dominated by a large domed space uninterrupted by structural supports. Worship is directed,
as in other mosques, toward a qibla wall and its mihrab opposite the entrance.

Arches and Muqarnas; Stokstad p. 347

Islamic builders used a number of innovative structural devices. Among these were two arch
forms, the horseshoe arch and the ogival, or pointed, arch. There are many variations of each,
some of which disguise their structural function beneath complex decoration. Technically, a
muqarnas is a corbeled squinch. . . Muqarnas may be used singly or in multiples. Originally
they serve a structural purpose as interlocking, load-bearing, niche-shaped vaulting units.
Over time they became increasingly ornamental, intricately faceted surfaces. Thy are
frequently used to line mihrabs and, on a larger scale, to support domes.

A magnificent invention that captures the flickering quality of light is in the Muqarnas Dome,
Hall of Abencerrajes, Palace of Lions 1380 in the Alhambra, Spain. A honeycomb structure
fills the inside of the dome with shadow to offset the light that pours in the windows below it.
The muqarnas are so complex that the arrangement of the elements does not quickly reveal
themselves as units, which adds to its mystery and beauty.

A more sophisticated and complex enclosed interior space at the Palace of Lions Gardens,
Alhambra has some similarities to the Atrium House at Pompeii. There are porches with thin
columns with elaborate capitols that reveal the views of the contained courtyard that had been
designed for a magnificent garden. There is a play of open roofed, full sun areas against
roofed, shaded areas; all elegantly designed for dance and music and poetry.

Calligraphic scripture from the Qiran lines the walls of the courtyard and iwan in the Mosque
Sultan Hassan, Cairo 1356-63. The open space is discovered after entering a large, dark foyer,
walking up steps and following the turns of corridors to the burst of open space. There is no
roof over the central area. Four enormous alcoves called iwans, with pointed arch vaults
make room for prayer and classrooms. One of them has the qibla wall to orient towards
Mecca and acts as the mosque. The space is open and the walls are high. There is such a
strong experience of space when the observer travels through tight, dark space to arrive at an
open, splendid space.
Stupas and Temples; Stokstad p. 375
Buddhist architecture in South Asia consists mainly of stupas and temples, often at monastic
complexes containing viharas (monks’ cells and common areas). All of these may be
structural-built up from the ground-or rock-cut-hewn out of a mountainside. Stupas derive
from burial moundsand contain relics beneath a solid, dome-shaped core. A major stupa is
surrounded by a railing that creates a sacred path for ritual circumambulation at ground level.
This railing is punctuated by gateways called toranas, aligned with the cardinal points; access
is through the eastern torana. The stupa sits on a round or square plinth; stairs lead to an
upper circumambulatory path around the platform’s edge. On top of the stupa’s dome a
railing defines a square, from the center of which rises a mast supporting tiers of disk shaped
“umbrellas.”​
Hindu architecture in South Asia consists mainly of temples, either structural or rock –cut,
executed in a number of styles and dedicated to a vast number of deities. The two general
Hindu temple types are the northern and southern styles-corresponding to North India and
South India, respectively. Within these broad categories there is great stylistic diversity.
Hindu temples are raised on plinths and are dominated by their superstructures, towers called
shikharas in the North and vimanas in the South. Shikaharas are crowned by amalakas,
vimanas by large capstones. On the interior a series of mandapas (halls) lead to an inner
sanctuary, the garbhagriha, which contains a sacred image. An axis mundi runs vertically up
from the cosmic waters below the earth, through the garbhagrihas’s image and out through
the top of the tower. Unlike a Buddhist stupa’s axis mundi, however, that of a Hindu temple is
implied rather than actual.​
Jain architecture consists mainly of structural and rock-cut monasteries and temples. Jain
halls and temples have much in common with their Buddhist and Hindu counterparts.
Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples may share a site.

The Cave Temple of Shiva, Elephanta, India mid 6th Century is carved from living rock. It
has three entrances. There are no windows; the entrances provide the only light. The three
sources of low light create a feeling of other-worldliness. Pillars, statues and bas-relief
enliven the complex space. The plan of the arrangement of interior elements is based on
overlapping mandalas which intentionally create a space that confuses and takes the
participant out of the normal relationship of the body to its quotidian environment.

Pagodas; Stokstad p. 414

Pagodas are the most characteristic of East Asian architectural forms. Originally associated
with Buddhism, pagodas developed from Indian stupas as Buddhism spread northeastward
along the Silk Road. Stupas merged with the watchtowers of Han dynasty China in
multistoried stone structures with projecting tile roofs. This transformation culminated in
wooden pagodas with upward–curving roofs supported by elaborate bracketing in China,
Korea, and Japan. Buddhist pagodas retain the axis mundi masts of stupas. Like their South
Asian prototypes, early East Asian pagodas were solid, with small devotional spaces
hollowed out; later examples often provided access to the ground floor and sometimes to
upper levels. The layout and construction of pagodas, as well as the number and curve of
their roofs, vary depending on the time and place.

The Pheonix Hall at the Byodo-in Temple, Uji, Japan1053 is symmetrical, communicating
great calm. The glorious Buddha inside the Hall is surrounded by ethereal Bodisahtvas whose
bodies even though they are made from wood seem to be pure spirit. The artists who made
them understood completely the belief in the teachings of Buddha and they were able to
convey the concepts in the form of the sculpture.

Compare the massive Todai-ji, Nara built 1199. The central space of Todai-ji is filled with the
Bronze Buddha, which is 48 feet tall in a space that is 60 feet high. The mass and the color of
the Buddha are inspiring and overwhelming. The interior space of the temple seems to be
filled with the Buddha, but the scale is deceptive, the interior space is larger than it feels.

The Great Friday Mosque, Djenne, Mali was rebuilt 1907 in the style of the first mosque built
in the thirteenth century, 1202. The shape of the plan of the outer walls is a parallelogram,
they are made of adobe brick, which is clay and straw that is allowed to dry in the sun
without being fired in a kiln. The engaged columns on the sides of the outer walls are
structural as well as decorative; they help to support the tall walls. Torons are the name of the
wooden beams that protrude from the walls. Their function is to anchor the scaffolding used
each year to replaster the surface of the outer walls.

The Romanesque Church Portal; Stokstad p. 517

The doorways of major Romanesque churches are often grand sculptural portals. Wood or
metal doors are surrounded by elaborate stone sculpture arranged in zones to fit the
architectural elements. The most important imagery is in the semicircular tympanum directly
over the door lintel. Archivolts-curved moldings formed by the voussoirs of which the arch is
constructed-frame the tympanum. Spandrels are the flat areas at the upper corners of the
tympanum area. On both sides of the doors are jambs carved in the form of jamb columns,
typically decorated with figures, called jamb figures. Pedestals sometimes form the bases of
jamb columns. The receding jambs form a shallow porch leading into the church.

Notice the change in space in the view below, of the Nave of the Abbey Church Sainte-Foy
1120. By the position of the row of arches and the banks of windows in the apse, attention is
directed forward toward the action that takes place at the altar in the sanctuary. The eye is
also pulled up towards the light that emanates from the dome positioned before the sanctuary.
The windows above the arches, and the light colored stone with little decoration add a
lightness to the feeling of the space. A dark stone or elaborate decoration might cause a
feeling of claustrophobia.
The arrangement of architectural elements in the Nave of the Abbey Church Saint Savin sur
Gartempe, Pollou France 1100 vary and give a variation to the feeling of the space. Here the
barrel-vaulted roof that has been decorated does not have any direct light. The subtly
patterned stone columns rise to an impressive height, they have an arch to join them together
and allow more light than if the columns had risen directly up to the ceiling. Again there is a
dome before the sanctuary and apse that combines with the windows behind the altar to allow
the sun to flood the space. The attendants of a service face the apse. This altar is on a raised
platform.

The Nave of the Church Sant’Ambrogio Milan 1117 communicates a different feeling from
the last two examples. The space is wider; light from a dome illuminates the space. The
sanctuary has three windows and a mosaic on the upper part of the half domed space. The
arches above the lower, taller arches do not have a bright light source from outside. The
feeling of this space is more cave like that the first two examples. There is a tall groin vaulted
space at the end of the nave and before the open dome. The look of the space is austere the
space lacks decoration, light and any that soaring space with directional pull.

In the Nave of Chartre Cathedral 1134-1220 we again encounter magnificent space and light.
The scale of the interior of the church creates the feeling of awe for things and situations that
are bigger than us. The light that enters the space above the arches and pilasters is a dappled
light in comparison with the full strength of other casement arrangements. The stained glass
windows that travel around the outside walls are spectacular in their coloration and story
telling as well as their quality of light.

The arrangement of the stained glass windows in Sainte-Chapelle Paris 1243-48 is

spectacular. The color and the stories surround the space with bountiful information to satisfy
the interest in the dogma and philosophy of the tales as well as the sheer pleasure of the
visual stimulus.

The views of the Arena Chapel eastern wall and the Arena Chapel western wall show another
more cave like space that does not rely on outside light. The walls are covered with images
by Giotto of the stories of Christianity. The stories of the history of Bible create a mind space
that engages the participants in the services. This mind space is illuminating and is as
effective as a flood of sunlight. The splendid barrel-vaulted, ultramarine ceiling negates the
closed space to create a feeling of a rich, clear, blue sky. The pattern of the tile floor ties
together the images on the walls to maintain a feeling of the walls and floor as one unit.
Three bands of images travel across the ceiling from one side wall to the next adding to the
feeling of complete, unified space.

The Dome of the Florence Cathedral 1417-36 designed by Filippo Brunelleschi is one of the
icons that has come to symbolize Florence. The design of the dome was an engineering
marvel in its time. It is constructed with a double shell of masonry with an oculus and lantern
at its top. Notice the change in shape of the dome with the different vantage points of the two
photographs; one taken from the height of the base of the lantern and the other from the
street.

Leon Battista Alberti designed the Façade of the Church of Sant’Andrea. The complex
entrance structure is a composite of barrel-vaulted spaces with coffers, entablature, pediment
and pilasters on pedestals. The nave of the Church is an enormous barrel vaulted space.
Alberti made reference to the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine by using with lateral
barrel vault spaces in tall side chapels that line the main nave of the church.

Renaissance Palace Façade; Stokstad p. 685

By the middle of the fifteenth century, more artists had become students of the past, and a
few humanists had ventured into he field of art theory and design. Leon Battista Alberti
(1404-1472), a humanist-turned –architect, wrote about his classical theories on art before he
ever designed a building. Alberti’s various writings present the first coherent exposition of
early Italian Renaissance aesthetic theory, including the Italian mathematic perspective
system credited to Brunelleschi and ideal proportions of the human body derived from
classical art. With Alberti began the gradual change in the status of the architect from a
hands-on builder-and thus a manual laborer-to an intellectual expected to know philosophy,
history, and the classics as well as mathematics and engineering.​
Wealthy and noble families in Renaissance Italy built magnificent city palaces. More than
being large and luxurious private homes, these palaces were often designed (often by the best
architects of the time) to look imposing and even intimidating. The façade, or front face of a
building, offers broad clues to what lies behind the façade: a huge central door suggests
power, rough, rusticated stonework hints of strength and the fortifications of a castle;
precious marble or carvings connote wealth; a cartouche, perhaps with a family coat of arms,
is an empathetic identity symbol.​
Most Renaissance palaces used architectural elements derived from ancient Greek and
Roman buildings-columns and pilasters in Doric, Ionic, and/or Corinthian orders, decorated
entablatures, and other such pieces-in a style known as classicism. The example illustrated
here, the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, was built for the Farneses, one of whom, Cardinal
Alessandro Farnese became Pope Paul III in 1534. Designed by Sangallo the Younger,
Michelangelo, and Giocomo della Porta, this immense building stands at the head of and
dominates a broad public square or piazza. The palaces three stories are clearly defined by
horizontal bands of stonework, or stringcourses. A many layered cornice sits on the façade
like a weighty crown. The moldings, cornice, and entablatures are decorated with classical
motifs and with the lilies that form the Farnese family coat of arms. ​
The massive central door is emphasized by elaborate rusticated stonework (as are the
building’s corners, where the shaped stones are known as quoins), and is surmounted by a
balcony suitable for ceremonial appearances, over which is set the cartouche with the Farnese
arms. Windows are treated differently on each story; on the ground floor, the twelve windows
sit on brackets, and the window heads are topped with architraves. The story directly above is
known in Italy as the piano nobile, or first floor (Americans would call it the second floor),
which contains the grandest rooms. Its twelve windows are decorated with alternating
triangular and arched pediments, supported by pairs of engaged half columns in the
Corinthian order. The second floor (or American third floor) has thirteen windows, all with
triangular pediments whose supporting Ionic half columns are set on brackets echoing those
under the windows on the ground floor.​
Renaissance city palaces, in general, were oriented inward, away from the noisy streets.
Many contained open courtyards. Classical elements prevailed here, too. The courtyard of the
Palazzo Farnese has a loggia fronted by an arcade at the ground level. Its Classical engaged
columns and pilasters present all the usual parts: pedestal, base, shaft, and capital. The
progression of order from the lowest to the highest story mirrors the appearance of the orders
in ancient Greece: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
Baroque and Rococo Church Facades; Stokstad p. 753
The two facades featured here demonstrate the shift of taste in architecture – from classicistic
to expressionistic – between the beginning of the Baroque and the end of the Rococo. At one
end of the spectrum is Giacomo da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta’s Roman Baroque
façade for il Gesu of about 1576-1684, which like Renaissance and Mannerist buildings, is
still firmly grounded in the clean articulation and vocabulary of classical architecture. At the
other end is Pedro de Ribera’s portal for the Hospicio de San Fernando, now a municipal
museum in Madrid, which was designed about 150 years later, in 1722. Ribera’s portal is
Rococo taken to extremes, in which there is nearly a meltdown of heavily encrusted, highly
elaborated ornament in the Churrigueresque style.​
Il Gesu’s façade employs the colossal order and at the same time uses huge volutes to hide
and aid the transition from the wide lower stories to the narrower upper level. Verticality is
also stressed by the large pediment that rises from the wide entablature and pushes into the
transition zone between stories; by the repetition of triangular pedimental forms (above the
aedicule window and in the crowning gable); by the rising effect of the volutes; and most
obviously by the massing of upward moving forms at the center of the façade. Cartouches,
cornices and niches provide concave and convex rhythms across the middle zone.​
The sandstone portal ensemble of the Hospicio is as much like a painting as architecture
gets, and although the architect used classical elements (among them cornice, brackets,
pedestals, volutes, finials, swags, and niches) and organized them symmetrically, the parts run
together in a wild profusion of theatrical hollows and projections, large forms (such as the
broken pediment at the roof line), and small details.

The design of the colonnaded Square 1656-57 that Gianlorenzo Bernini added to Saint
Peter’s Basilica altered the visual impact that the viewer experiences when approaching the
Basilica. Over centuries Saint Peter's was altered with additions that did not communicate
unified look. The Square completely changed the situation by creating an elegant space that
prepares the observer for the elegance within the church by creating a large open and elegant
space that surrounds the viewer and leads him into the enclosed space.

Louis Le Vau and Charles Le Brun designed the Palais de Versailles 1668-85. After the death
of Le Vau, Jules Hardouin-Mansart completed the design and construction. Hardouin-Mansart
designed the famous Hall of Mirrors. The imported Venetian mirrors were an extreme
expense. The grandeur of the enormous three-storey Palace is refined with a balance of
verticals and horizontals. As was noted about Bernini’s Vatican Square, the perception of the
human on the ground is important to the feeling of the welcoming quality of the building.
Calm and order along with elegance help to achieve the feeling of harmony, to prevent the
architecture from being overwhelming and threatening.

Andre Le Notte designed the Versailles Gardens 1668-85. Le Notte combined long views
created with great expanses of lawn with areas that had precise geometrical designs of
gardens, called formal gardens. The gardens were augmented with terraces, great stone
sculpture and fountains. There is a Grand Canal that continues for a mile, giving the visitor a
sense of a great body of water whose edges are not easily sensed.

The Mughal ruler Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in Agra, India1632-48 as a Mausoleum for
his wife, Mumtaz-i-Mahal. The exterior is made of white marble with Indian, Persian and
Central Asian elements. There are 4 minarets (towers) with chattri, a pavilion, on top. The
main dome sits high atop a drum, which together creates a beautifully complex and pleasing
shape. There are 4 octagonal chatris on the four corners of the roof.

The building’s central space holds octagonal, marble, openwork screens that form the
cenotaph, a monument or tomb for people who are buried elsewhere. The central area of the
interior is two stories tall which amplifies the sense of space. The grounds are planted with
fruit trees and cypresses whose symbolism represents life and death. The reflecting pool
amplifies the grandeur and symmetry of the white marble mausoleum. Entry portals are
framed by verses from Koran in calligraphy made from black marble. The spandrels outside
of the arches are worked with piedra dura, which is inlaid semi precious stones that add a
translucent color to the marble.

Shoin Design; Stokstad p. 862

Of the many expressions of Japanese taste that reached great refinement in the Momoyama
period, shoin architecture has had perhaps the most enduring influence. Shoin are upper class
residencies that combine a number of traditional features in more-or-less standard ways,
always asymmetrically. These features re wide verandas; wood as framing and defining
decorative elements; woven straw tatami mats as floor and ceiling covering; several shallow
alcoves for prescribed purposes; fusuma (sliding doors) as fields for painting or textured
surfaces; and shoji screens-translucent, rice-paper-covered wood frames. The shoin illustrated
here was built in 1601 as a guest house called Kojo-in, at the great Onjo-ji monastery. Tatami,
shoji, alcoves, and asymmetry are still seen in Japaneses interiors today.​
In the original shoin, one of the alcoves would contain a hanging scroll, an arrangement of
flowers, or a large painted screen. Seated in front of that alcove, called tokonoma, the owner
of the house would receive guests, who would contemplate the object above the head of their
host. Another alcove contained staggered shelves, often for writing instruments. A writing
space fitted with a low writing desk was on the veranda side of a room, with shoji that could
open to the outside.​
 The architectural harmony of shoin, like virtually all Japanese buildings, was based on the
mathematics of proportions and on the proportionate disposition of basic units or modules.
The modules were the bay, reckoned at the distance from the center of one post to the center
of another, and the tatami. Room area in Japan is still expressed in terms of the number of
tatami mats, so that, for example, a room is described as a seven mat room. Although varying
slightly from region to region, the size of a single tatami is about 3 feet by 6 feet.

Inka Masonry; Stokstad p. 880

Working with the simplest of tools-mainly heavy stone hammers- and using no mortar, Inka
builders created stonework of great refinement and durability: roads and bridges that link the
entire empire, built-up terraces for growing crops, and structures both simple and elaborate.
At Machu Picchu, all buildings and terraces within its 3-square-mile extent were made of
granite, the hard stone occurring at the site. Commoner’s houses and some walls and certain
domestic and religious structure were erected using squared-off, smooth-surfaced stones laid
in even rows. At a few Inka sites, the stones were boulder size: up to 27 feet tall.

The Inka ruins at Machu Picchu, Peru are 9000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains.
The settlement living quarters and central open field hang on to the steep mountain's side
along with Temples and sacred images sculpted into stones. The small, terraced agricultural
fields travel all the way down the mountainside to the valley.

The Skyscraper; Stokstad p. 1065

The evolution of the skyscraper depended on the development of these essentials: metal
beams and girders for the structural support skeleton; the separation of the building-support
structure from the enclosing layer (the cladding); fireproofing materials and measures;
elevators; plumbing, central heating, artificial lighting, and ventilation systems.
First-generation skyscrapers, built between 1880 and 1900, were concentrated in the
Midwest, especially in Chicago. Second-generation skyscrapers, with more than twenty
stories, date from 1895. At first the tall buildings were freestanding towers, sometimes with a
base, like the Woolworth Building of 1911-1913. New York City’s Building Zone Resolution
of 1916 introduced mandatory setbacks- recessions from the ground-level building line- to
ensure light and ventilation of adjacent sites. Built in 1931, the 1,250-foot, setback-form
Empire State Building is still one of the tallest buildings in the world.

When you visit the Metropolitan Museum it is possible to stand in several places to observe
where new additions were added to original spaces. A viewer can see walls that had been the
outside walls of original building. If the viewer pays attention it is possible to feel the
difference of the spaces when the viewer walks from one space into another. Today there are
fewer experiences of the built spaces that are created with this technique of additions. Most
new building is developed in the fresh starts after older buildings have been leveled to make
way for a completely new space. An argument for this approach is that it is more efficient
than repairing and reconstructing the old.

​
An enormous battle was undertaken to save Grand Central Station in New York.
Preservationists were horrified with the dehumanizing effects of New York Pennsylvania
Train Station as a basement addition to the building of Madison Square Garden. The razing of
Pennsylvania Station added to the weight of the argument to save Grand Central Station.
While many were less enthusiastic about the old Pennsylvania Station which was deemed to
be too "ugly" and industrial in design, the compression of space in the new station can be felt
as oppressive. Compare the contemporary photograph of Grand Central Station and the 1944
photograph of Pennsylvania Station.

Central Park was designed by Frederick Law Ohlmsted. His famous design was based on a
philosophy that argued the importance of varied, open space for human relaxation. City
dwellers are able to wander and engage in out door activity as a respite for the dense
population and regimentation of cities.

The powerful, visionary Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum in New
York City. The entire original design of the gallery walls is based on a spiral ramp that
courses along the building’s outer wall leaving an enormous open courtyard and space in the
middle. Visitors to the Museum can look over the edge of the ramp walls and they will have a
direct view to the ground level. Artwork is exhibited on the walls that runs alongside the
viewer and are observed while the viewer walks up and then down the ramp. The museum
has made additions to the original design for exhibitions of their collection and visiting
exhibitions. The new spaces have the normal room structure with square, floor to ceiling
walls. The design of the new space was well thought out. It does not alter the old space and in
fact it aids the experience of the ramped exhibition space through contrast.

Gustave Eiffel, a civil engineer, designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The tower is 984 feet
high; it was the tallest building in world when it was built 1887-89. The entire building was
constructed from iron lattice-work. It was designed for a competition to represent the Paris
Universal Exposition and is non functional. Originally seen as an ugly example of the
brutality of the industrial age, it quickly became a symbol, an icon for the city of Paris. It is
maintained as a tourist site so that visiting people can embrace Paris from its observation
decks.

Antonio Gaudi y Cornet designed the Casa Mila apartment building 1905-07; the organic
principles used to design the structure of the building were part of the Art Nouveau
movement that was a reaction against the harshness of industrialization with the Eiffel tower.
The walls of the apartment house are curved. Unlike many spaces where the façade is a false
front, the interior walls replicate the curves of the outside walls. Although the framework of
the building is steel, the surface is distressed stone that aims to communicate the look that is
created by time and wear by the natural elements of wind, water and sun. Similar to the
famous iron work of Hector Guimard who created designs for the Paris Metropolitan Subway
entrances, Gaudi used organic shapes for the ironwork on the exterior ornament of the Casa
Mila building.

The design work of Walter Gropius was driven by the intention to create spaces that were
concerned with the functionality of the structure and its space. The Fagus Factory’s 1911-16
functional exterior is a curtain wall, the mostly glass exterior created a light filled space that
made a bright and pleasing environment for the workers. Gropius is one of the originators of
Modernist architecture. This group had a strong reaction against ornament on architecture,
linking it to a degenerate culture. The Modernists believed in the purity of functional design.

Le Corbusier (Charles-Eduard Jeanneret) designed a home for one of his clients. It is known
as the Villa Savoye in Poissy-sur-Seine 1929-30. The reinforced concrete slabs were raised
off the earth on steel posts, the roof was flat so that the inhabitant could use it for a terrace to
enjoy the sun and the expanse of the sky. The ribbon windows are wrapped around the entire
building and the construction is called a curtain wall because the walls do not bear weight but
are attached to the frame. The thinking at this stage of Corbusier’s work is concerned with
pure, orderly, rational planning.

Louis I Kahn evolved his thinking into an anti-modernism approach to design. He designed
each building with the distinct feeling for how the building was to be used rather than
subjecting a specific approach and style. The Yale University Art Gallery has movable walls
that allow the inner space to adapt to the needs of the exhibition or the needs of the
University’s Architecture School. The center of the building has all the fixed needs of
plumbing and other services. The floors are designed to be the ceiling of one level and the
floor of the next. One exterior wall that faces toward a street and the Architecture School
across the street, has an openness to the outside, allowing the viewer to look out and the
outsider to look in.

Philip Johnson’s AT&T (now Sony) Building in New York is another example of
postmodernism. The building has very high ceilings on every level, causing the building to
appear to have many more floors than it does. The treatment of the exterior alludes to the
International Style buildings that surround it. But Johnson broke away from the austerity of
skyscraper design by adding a scrolled ornament on the top of the building. In the forest of
skyscrapers, the topmost design can be its signature identity. The material of the façade of the
building is pink granite.

The design of Frank O Gehry of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain 1997 is an
example of his intense interest in sculptural form. The organic shape of the reflective titanium
covered structure, is a free form shape that changes as an observer circumnavigates the
exterior. The entry space is cavernous and capable of accommodating the largest of
contemporary art work. Its style can be called Expressionist Modernism.

Zaha Hadid designed the Bavarian Motor Works Central Building in Liepzig, Germany 2005.
Different levels of workers cross paths and have access to the dramatic spaces of the building.
The huge spaces with dark and light areas add a grandeur to the workplace which is in
keeping with the branding identity of the product; luxury, high performance automobiles. The
interior images of the BMW Plant show the proximity of the assembly worker's space with
the open spaces.