ARCHITECTURE

• The word "architecture" comes from the Latin

architectura and that from Greek αρχιτέκτων
(architekton), "master builder", from the combination
of αρχι- (archi-), "chief" or "leader" and τέκτων
(tekton), a "builder" or "carpenter".[8][9]
• While the primary application of the word
"architecture" pertains to the built environment, by
extension, the term has come to denote the art and
discipline of creating an actual (or inferring an implied
or apparent) plan of any complex object or system.
 architecture
is the activity of designing and constructing buildings
and other physical structures by a person or a
machine, primarily done to provide socially
purposeful shelter. A wider definition often includes
the design of the total built environment, from the
macro level of how a building integrates with its
surrounding man made landscape to the micro level
of architectural or construction details and,
sometimes, furniture. Wider still, architecture is the
activity of designing any kind of system.
 architecture
• creative organisation of materials and
components in a land- or city-scape, dealing
with mass, space, form, volume, texture,
structure, light, shadow, materials, program,
and pragmatic elements such as cost,
construction limitations and technology, to
achieve an end which is functional,
economical, practical and often with artistic
and aesthetic aspects.
 Historic treatises
• The earliest written work on the subject of
architecture is De architectura, by the Roman
architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century
• Durability - it should stand up robustly and remain in
good condition.
• Utility - it should be useful and function well for the
people using it.
• Beauty - it should delight people and raise their spirits.
 Historic treatises
• Leone Battista Alberti, in his De Re Aedificatoria, saw beauty
primarily as a matter of proportion, although ornament also
played a part. For Alberti, the rules of proportion were those
that governed the idealised human figure, the Golden Mean.

• In the early nineteenth century, Augustus Welby Northmore

Pugin wrote Contrasts (1836) that, as the titled suggested,
contrasted the modern, industrial world, which he
disparaged, with an idealized image of neo-medieval world.
Gothic architecture, Pugin believed, was the only “true
Christian form of architecture.”
 Historic treatises
• The 19th century English art critic, John Ruskin, in his Seven Lamps of
Architecture, published 1849,[16] was much narrower in his view of what
constituted architecture. Architecture was the "art which so disposes
and adorns the edifices raised by men ... that the sight of them"
contributes "to his mental health, power, and pleasure".
• The great 19th century architect of skyscrapers, Louis Sullivan, promoted
an overriding precept to architectural design: "Form follows function“.
While the notion that structural and aesthetic considerations should be
entirely subject to functionality was met with both popularity and
skepticism, it had the effect of introducing the concept of "function" in
place of Vitruvius "utility". "Function" came to be seen as encompassing
all criteria of the use, perception and enjoyment of a building, not only
practical but also aesthetic, psychological and cultural..”
 EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE
• the two predominant building materials used in ancient
Egypt were sunbaked mud brick and stone, mainly
limestone, but also sandstone and granite in considerable
quantities.[
• stone was generally reserved for tombs and temples, while
bricks were used even for royal palaces, fortresses, the
walls of temple precincts and towns, and for subsidiary
buildings in temple complexes.
• Egypt houses were made out of mud collected from the
Nile river. It was placed in molds and left to dry in the hot
sun to harden for use in construction.
 EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE
• Also, many temples and tombs have survived
because they were built on high ground unaffected
by the Nile flood and were constructed of stone.
• Although the use of the arch was developed during
the fourth dynasty, 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.
 EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE
• Many motifs of Egyptian ornamentation are
symbolic, such as the scarab, or sacred beetle,
the solar disk, and the vulture. Other common
motifs include palm leaves, the papyrus plant,
and the buds and flowers of the lotus.[7]
Hieroglyphs were inscribed for decorative
purposes as well as to record historic events
or spells.
scarab, or sacred beetle
solar disk
vulture
 The Great Sphinx is thought by most
“Father of Terror,” Egyptologists to represent the likeness of King
Khafra

Carved out of the surrounding limestone

bedrock, it is 73.5 meters (241 ft) long, 6 m (20
ft) wide, and has a height of 20 m (65 ft),
making it the largest single-stone statue in the
world.
also called Khufu's Pyramid or the Pyramid of
Khufu, and Pyramid of Cheops, is the oldest
and largest of the three pyramids in the
Giza Necropolis bordering what is now Cairo,
Egypt, and is the only remaining member of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is
believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for
Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu
The Karnak temple complex, universally
known only as Karnak, describes a vast
conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels,
pylons and other buildings. It
Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the
River Nile in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was founded in 1400 BC.
Known in the Egyptian language as ipet resyt, or "the southern harem", the temple was
dedicated to the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and Chons and was built during the New Kingdom,
the focus of the annual Opet Festival, in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile
from nearby Karnak Temple (ipet-isut) to stay there for a while, with his consort Mut, in a
celebration of fertility – whence its name.
The architectonic organization taking like basic
element the column is an essential
contribution of the Egyptian art, like is it the
foundamentatión of the beauty in the
mathematical reason of the proportions, is to
say of the relations between the parts that
integrate the building.
 Mesopotamia
• (from the Greek meaning "The land between
the two rivers")[1] is an area geographically
located between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq,[2]
as well as northeastern Syria,[2] southeastern
Turkey,[2] and the Khūzestān Province of
southwestern Iran[3][4].
mud brick Houses
The materials used to build a Mesopotamian
house were the same as those used today:
mud brick, mud plaster and wooden doors,
which were all naturally available round the
city,[27] although wood could not be naturally
mud plaster made very well during the particular time
period described. Most houses had a square
center room with other rooms attached to it,
but a great variation in the size and materials
used to build the houses suggest they were
wooden doors built by the inhabitants themselves [1]. The
smallest rooms may not have coincided with
the poorest people; in fact it could be that the
poorest people built houses out of perishable
materials such as reeds on the outside of the
city, but there is very little direct evidence for
this.[28]
ziggurat (Akkadian ziqqurrat, D-stem of zaqāru "to build on a raised area") was a temple tower
of the ancient Mesopotamian valley and Iran, having the form of a terraced pyramid of
successively receding stories or levels. Some modern buildings with a step pyramid shape have
also been termed ziggurats.
The Ziggurat was dedicated to the moon
Nanna (or Suen. The name Nanna is Sumerian
for "illuminator."), in the Sumerian city of Ur in
ancient Mesopotamia
CAD rendering of Sialk's largest ziggurat based on
archeological evidence.
According to Herodotus, at the top of each ziggurat was a
shrine, although none of these shrines has survived. [5]
One practical function of the ziggurats was a high place
on which the priests could escape rising water that
annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for
hundreds of miles, as for example the 1967 flood.[6]
Another practical function of the ziggurat was for security.
Since the shrine was accessible only by way of three
stairways,[7] a small number of guards could prevent non-
priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of
the ziggurat. These rituals probably included cooking of
sacrificial food and burning of carcasses of sacrificial
animals. The height of the ziggurat allowed the smoke to
blow away without polluting city buildings. Each ziggurat
was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard,
storage rooms, and living quarters, around which a city
was built.[8]
 GREEK ARCHITECTURE
• Common materials of Greek architecture were wood,
used for supports and roof beams; unbaked brick used for
walls, especially for private homes; limestone and marble,
used for columns, walls, and upper portions of temples
and public buildings; terracotta, used for roof tiles and
ornaments; and metals, especially bronze, used for
decorative details.
• Architects of the Archaic and Classical periods used these
building materials to construct five simple types of
buildings: religious, civic, domestic, funerary, or
recreational.
Temple of Hera: restored ruins at Olympia.
A 1908 illustration of the temple as it might have looked in the 5th century BCE
Most buildings were rectangular and
made from limestone or tuff, of which
Greece has an abundance, and which
was cut into large blocks and dressed.
Marble was an expensive building
material in Greece: high quality marble
came only from Mt. Pentelicus in Attica
and from a few islands such as Paros, and
its transportation in large blocks was
difficult. It was used mainly for sculptural
decoration, not structurally, except in the
very grandest buildings of the Classical
period such as the Parthenon.
The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-
states. Early in Greek history (900s–700s BCE), free-born male land-
owners who were citizens would gather in the agora for military duty
or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later in Greek
history, the agora served as a marketplace where merchants kept
stalls or shops to sell their goods under colonnades.
The palaestra was the ancient Greek
wrestling school. The events that did not
require a lot of space, such as boxing and
wrestling, were practiced there. The palaestra
functioned both independently and as a part of
public gymnasia. A palaestra could exist
without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium
could exist without a palaestra.
bouleuterion or council chamber, a
large public building which served as a court
house and as a meeting place for the town
council
As is usual for Greek theaters (and as opposed
to Roman ones), the view on a lush landscape
behind the skene is an integral part of the
theater itself and is not to be obscured.

A 2007 study by Nico F. Declercq and Cindy

Dekeyser of the
Georgia Institute of Technology indicates that
the astonishing acoustic properties are either
the result of an accident or the product of
advanced design: The rows of limestone seats
filter out low-frequency sounds, such as the
murmur of the crowd, and amplify/reflect
high-frequency sounds from the stage.[1]
 ORDER OF GREEK ARCHITECTURE
• In their original Greek version, Doric columns
stood directly on the flat pavement (the
stylobate) of a temple without a base; their
vertical shafts were fluted with 20 parallel
concave grooves; and they were topped by a
smooth capital that flared from the column to
meet a square abacus at the intersection with
the horizontal beam (entablature) that they
carried.
Doric columns
The Ionic order column
originated in the mid-6th
century BC in Ionia, the
southwestern coastland and
islands of Asia Minor settled
by Ionian Greeks, where an
Ionian dialect was spoken.
The Ionic order column was
being practiced in mainland
Greece in the 5th century
BC. The first of the great
Ionic temples, though it
stood for only a decade
before an earthquake
leveled it, was the Temple of
Hera on Samos, built about
570 BC–560 BC by the
architect Rhoikos.
Vitruvius wrote that the
Corinthian order had been
invented by Callimachus, an
architect and sculptor who was
inspired by the sight of a votive
basket that had been left on the
grave of a young girl. A few of
her toys were in it, and a square
tile had been placed over the
basket, to protect them from the
weather. An acanthus plant had
grown through the woven
basket, mixing its spiny, deeply
cut leaves with the weave of the
basket
 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
• The Architecture of Ancient Rome adopted
the external Greek architecture for their own
purposes, which were so different from Greek
buildings as to create a new architectural style
• The use of vaults and arches together with a
sound knowledge of building materials, for
example, helped enabled them to achieve
unprecedented successes in the construction
of imposing structures for public use.
The Colosseum or Coliseum, originally the Flavian
Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian Anfiteatro
Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of
the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the
Roman Empire. It is one of the greatest works of
Roman architecture and Roman engineering.
Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction
started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian
and was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further
modifications being made during Domitian's reign (81–96).[1]
The name "Amphitheatrum Flavium" derives from both
Vespasian's and Titus's family name (Flavius, from the gens
Flavia).
The Latin word basilica (derived from Greek,
Basiliké Stoà, Royal Stoa), was originally used
to describe a Roman public building (as in
Greece, mainly a tribunal), usually located in
the forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic
cities, public basilicas appeared in the
2nd century BC.
Byzantine Architecture
 The Byzantine Empire[3] and Eastern Roman
Empire are recent names used to describe the
Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered
on its capital of Constantinople, referred to by
its inhabitants simply as the Roman Empire, its
emperors continuing the unbroken succession of
Roman emperors, preserving Greco-Roman legal
and cultural traditions;
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the
Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually
emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity
from what is today referred to as the
Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman
Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the
Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium.
Byzantium, "New Rome", was later renamed
Constantinople and is now called Istanbul.
Early Architecture of the
Byzantine Empire
Prime examples of early Byzantine architecture date
from Justinian I's reign and survive in Ravenna and
Constantinople, as well as in Sofia (the
Church of St Sophia). One of the great
breakthroughs in the history of Western
architecture occurred when Justinian's architects
invented a complex system providing for a smooth
transition from a square plan of the church to a
circular dome (or domes) by means of squinches or
pendentives.
A squinch in architecture is a
piece of construction used for
filling in the upper angles of a
square room so as to form a
proper base to receive an
octagonal or spherical dome.
A pendentive is a constructive
device permitting the placing
of a circular dome over a
square room or an elliptical
dome over a rectangular
room. The pendentives, which
are triangular segments of a
sphere, taper to points at the
bottom and spread at the top
to establish the continuous
circular or elliptical base
needed for the dome.
The Church of St. Irene
Hagia Sofia
The Middle period of Byzantine
history saw no ambitious architectural undertaking. From
the years of Iconoclasm we have only the Church of Hagia
Sophia in Thessaloniki. Another major building, the
Assumption church in Nicaea, was destroyed in the
1920s, although the photographs survive.

It is presumed that Basil I's votive church of the

Theotokos of Phoros (no longer extant) served as a model
for most cross-in-square sanctuaries of the
period, including the Cattolica di Stilo in southern Italy
(9th century), the monastery church of Hosios Lukas in
Greece (ca. 1000), Nea Moni of Chios (a pet project of
Constantine IX), and the Daphni Monastery near Athens
(ca. 1050).
Narthex
In early Christian
architecture a portion of
the church at the west
end, separated from the
nave by a low wall or
screen and reserved for
the catechumens,
energumens, and
penitents who were not
admitted amongst the
congregation.
Naos
The naos is the space
where the congregation
stands during the
service.
BEMA

The altar stands in the central bay, or

bema, which is sometimes

provided with a synthronon, or
bench, where the clergy may sit. The
prosthesis is used for the preparation
of the eucharist, and the diakonikon
houses liturgical vestments and texts
used in the celebration of mass.[
 Hosios Lukas

The 11th-century monastery of Hosios Lukas in

Greece is representative of the Byzantine art
during the rule of the Makedonioi.
Cattolica di Stilo
Saint Sophia
Cathedral in Kiev
(present day
Ukraine)
Comnenian and Paleologan periods
Kalenderhane
Mosque (Turkish:
Kalenderhane
Camii) is a former
Eastern Orthodox
church in Istanbul,
converted into a
mosque by the
Ottomans. With
high probability
the church was
originally
dedicated to the
Theotokos
Kyriotissa. This
building
represents one
among the few
still extant
examples of a
Byzantine church
with domed
Greek cross plan.
The former Church of the
Pantokrator( today mosque of Zeyrek) in
Istanbul viewed from
Saint Mark's Basilica in Italy
The Chora Church (Turkish Kariye Müzesi, Kariye Camii, or Kariye
Kilisesi — the Chora Museum, Mosque or Church)
Gapan Church: Byzantine architecture-inspired
Romanesque architecture is the term that is used to describe the architecture of Europe which
emerged in the late 10th century and evolved into the Gothic style during the 12th century. The
Romanesque style in England is more traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.
The word ‘Romanesque’ was used to
describe the style which was
identifiably Medieval and prefigured
the Gothic, yet maintained the
rounded Roman arch and thus
appeared to be a continuation of the
Roman tradition of building, albeit a
much simplified and less technically
competent version.
Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, its thick
walls, round arches, sturdy piers, groin vaults, large towers and
decorative arcading.
San Vittore alle
Chiuse, Genga,
Italy, of undressed
stone, has a
typically fortress-
like appearance.
The interior of St
Gertrude, Nivelles,
Belgium, has a king
post roof.
Bayeux Cathedral, the crypt has
groin vaults and simplified
Corinthian capitals.
Santa Maria in
Cosmedin (or de
Schola Graeca) is
a basilica church in
Rome.
The "blind arcade"
beneath this window at
Canterbury Cathedral
has overlapping arches
forming points, a
common decorative
feature of Romanesque
architecture in England.
Gothic architecture is a style of
architecture which flourished during the high and late
medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture
and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture.
Originating in 12th-century France and lasting into
the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known
during the period as "the French Style" (Opus Francigenum),
with the term Gothic first appearing during the latter part of
the Renaissance as a stylistic insult.
The term "Gothic", when applied to architecture, has
nothing to do with the historical Goths. It was a
pejorative term that came to be used as early as the
1530s by Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was
considered rude and barbaric.[1] At the time in which
Vasari was writing, Italy had experienced a century of
building in the Classical architectural vocabulary
revived in the Renaissance and seen as the finite
evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and
refinement.
 Characteristics of Gothic churches and
cathedrals
• The Gothic style, when applied to an
ecclesiastical building, emphasizes verticality
and light. This appearance was achieved by the
development of certain architectural features,
which together provided an engineerical
solution. The structural parts of the building
ceased to be its solid walls, and became a
stone skeleton comprised of clustered columns
, pointed ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. (
A buttress is a support--usually
made of brick or stone--built against
a wall to support or reinforce it. A
flying buttress is a free-standing
buttress attached to the main
structure by an arch or a half-arch.
A buttress is a support--usually
made of brick or stone--built against
a wall to support or reinforce it. A
flying buttress is a free-standing
buttress attached to the main
structure by an arch or a half-arch.
A buttress is a support--usually
made of brick or stone--built against
a wall to support or reinforce it. A
flying buttress is a free-standing
buttress attached to the main
structure by an arch or a half-arch.
 Plan of
Amiens Cathedral

Most Gothic churches, unless they are entitled chapels, are of the Latin cross (or
"cruciform") plan, with a long nave making the body of the church, a transverse arm
called the transept and beyond it, an extension which may be called the choir, chancel or
presbytery.
 A characteristic of
Gothic church
architecture is its
height, both real
and proportional. A
section of the main
body of a Gothic
church usually
shows the nave as
considerably taller
than it is wide.

The Gothic east end of Cologne Cathedral

represents the extreme of verticality. (nave-
19th century)
Light
One of the most
distinctive
characteristics of
Gothic architecture is
the expansive area of
the windows as at
Sainte Chapelle and
the very large size of
many individual
windows
Majesty
The facade of a large church or cathedral, often
referred to as the West Front, is generally
designed to create a powerful impression on
the approaching worshipper, demonstrating
both the might of God, and the might of the
institution that it represents. One of the best
known and most typical of such facades is that
of Notre Dame de Paris.
The Baguio
Cathedral
Baroque architecture, starting in the
early 17th century in Italy, took
the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture
and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion,
expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New
architectural concerns for color, light and shade, sculptural
values and intensity characterize the Baroque. But whereas
the Renaissance drew on the wealth and power of the Italian
courts, and was a blend of secular and religious forces, the
Baroque was, initially at least, directly linked to the
Counter-Reformation
 Important features of Baroque architecture
include:
• long, narrow naves are replaced by broader, occasionally circular forms
• dramatic use of light, either strong light-and-shade contrasts, chiaroscuro effects
(e.g. church of Weltenburg Abbey), or uniform lighting by means of several
windows (e.g. church of Weingarten Abbey)
• opulent use of ornaments (puttos made of wood (often gilded), plaster or stucco,
marble or faux finishing)
• large-scale ceiling frescoes
• the external façade is often characterized by a dramatic central projection
• the interior is often no more than a shell for painting and sculpture (especially in
the late Baroque)
• illusory effects like trompe l'oeil and the blending of painting and architecture
• in the Bavarian, Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian Baroque, pear domes are ubiquitous
• Marian and Holy Trinity columns are erected in Catholic countries, often in
thanksgiving for ending a plague
dramatic use of light, either strong light-and-
shade contrasts, chiaroscuro effects (e.g.
church of Weltenburg Abbey
opulent use of
ornaments (puttos
made of wood (often
gilded), plaster or
stucco, marble or
faux finishing)
illusory effects like
trompe l'oeil and the
blending of painting and
architecture
I.M. Pei, Architect - Herbert F. Johnson
Museum of Art at Cornell University

Modernist architecture emphasizes

function. It attempts to provide for
specific needs rather than imitate
nature. The roots of Modernism may be
found in the work of Berthold Luberkin
(1901-1990), a Russian architect who
settled in London and founded a group
called Tecton. The Tecton architects
believed in applying scientific, analytical
methods to design. Their stark buildings
ran counter to expectations and often
seemed to defy gravity.
The Einstein Tower (Einsteinturm) in Potsdam is
an Expressionist work by architect Erich
Mendelsohn, 1920

Expressionism evolved from the work of avant

garde artists and designers in Germany and
other European countries during the first
decades of the twentieth century. Key features
of Expressionism are: distorted shapes
fragmented lines
organic or biomorphic forms
massive sculpted shapes
extensive use of concrete and brick
lack of symmetry
many fanciful works rendered on paper but
never built
Neo-expressionism built upon expressionist
ideas. Architects in the 1950s and 1960s
designed buildings that expressed their feelings
about the surrounding landscape. Sculptural
forms suggested rocks and mountains. Organic
and Brutalist architecture can often be
described as Neo-expressionist.
Berlin Holocaust Memorial by Peter
Eisenman

Structuralism is based on the idea that all

things are built from a system of signs and
these signs are made up of opposites:
male/female, hot/cold, old/young, etc. For
Structuralists, design is a process of
searching for the relationship between
elements. Structuralists are also interested
in the social structures and mental
processes that contributed to the design.
Structuralist architecture will have a great
deal of complexity within a highly
structured framework. For example, a
Structuralist design may consist of cell-like
honeycomb shapes, intersecting planes,
cubed grids, or densely clustered spaces
with connecting courtyards.
Architect Peter Eisenman often brings a
Structuralist approach to his works.
The Bank of China Tower, 1990, by Pritzker
Prize-winning architect Ieoh Ming Pei

As the name suggests, Formalism emphasizes

form. The architect is interested in visual
relationships between the building parts and
the work as a whole. Shape, often on a
monumental scale, is the focus of attention.
Lines and rigid geometric shapes predominate
in Formalist architecture. You will find
Formalism in many Modernist buildings,
especially in Bauhaus and International Style
architecture. Architect I.M. Pei has often been
praised for the "elegant formalism" of his
works.
High-tech buildings are often called machine-
like. Steel, aluminium, and glass combine with
brightly colored braces, girders, and beams.
Many of the building parts are prefabricated in
a factory and assembled later. The support
beams, duct work, and other functional
elements are placed on the exterior of the
building, where they become the focus of
attention. The interior spaces are open and
adaptable for many uses. The High-tech
Centre Pompidou in Paris appears to be turned
inside out, revealing its inner workings on the
exterior facade.
Bauhaus is a German expression meaning
house for building. In 1919, the economy in
Germany was collapsing after a crushing war.
Architect Walter Gropius was appointed to
head a new institution that would help rebuild
the country and form a new social order. Called
the Bauhaus, the Institution called for a new
"rational" social housing for the workers.
Bauhaus architects rejected "bourgeois" details
such as cornices, eaves, and decorative details.
They wanted to use principles of Classical
architecture in their most pure form: without
ornamentation of any kind. Bauhaus buildings
have flat roofs, smooth facades, and cubic
shapes. Colors are white, gray, beige, or black.
Floor plans are open and furniture is
functional.
The Bauhaus school disbanded when the Nazis
rose to power. Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe, and other Bauhaus leaders
migrated to the United States. The term
International Style was applied to the
American form of Bauhaus architecture.
International Style is a term often used to
describe Bauhaus architecture in the United
States. The name came from the book The
International Style by historian and critic
Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect Philip
Johnson. The book was published in 1932 in
conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art in New York. The term is again
used in a later book, International Architecture,
by Walter Gropius. While German Bauhaus
architecture had been concerned with the
social aspects of design, America's
International Style became a symbolism of
Capitalism: The International Style is the
favored architecture for office buildings, and is
also found in upscale homes built for the rich.
One of the most famous examples of the
International Style is Le Corbusier's United
Nations Secretariat building. The smooth glass
slab dominates New York's skyline along the
East River.
The Paulo Mendes da Rocha Residence in São Paulo, Brazil by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, 2006 Pritzker
Architecture Prize Laureate

The term Brutalism was first used in the early 1950s to describe the simple concrete
buildings designed by Le Corbusier. Stark and angular, Brutalism grew out of the
International Style, but the designs may strike you as less refined. Brutalist buildings
can be constructed quickly and economically. Brutalist architecture has these
features:
Precast concrete slabs
Rough, unfinished surfaces
Exposed steel beams
Massive, sculptural shapes
The Prizker Prize-winning architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha is often called a
"Brazilian Brutalist" because his buildings are constructed of prefabricated and
mass-produced concrete components. Shown here is his home in São Paulo, Brazil.
One important trend in Modernist architecture is the
movement toward minimalist or reductivist
design. Hallmarks of Minimalism include: Buildings
are stripped of all but the most essential elements
Emphasis is placed on the outline, or frame, of the
struture

Interior walls are eliminated

Floor plans are open
Lighting is used to dramatize lines and planes
The negative spaces around the structure are part of
the overall design

Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe paved

the way for Minimalism when he said, "Less is more."
Minimalist architects drew much of their inspiration
from the elegant simplicity of traditional Japanese
architecture. Minimalists were also inspired by a
movement of early twentieth century Dutch artists
known as De Stijl. Valuing simplicity and abstraction,
De Stijl artists used only straight lines and
rectangular shapes. The Mexico City home of the
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Luis Barragán is
Minimalist in its emphasis on lines, planes, and open
spaces.
The new main central branch of the Seattle
Public Library was designed by the Dutch
architect Rem Koolhaas and opened in 2004.

Deconstructivism, or Deconstruction, is an
approach to building design that attempts to
view architecture in bits and pieces. The basic
elements of architecture are dismantled.
Deconstructivist buildings may seem to have no
visual logic. They may appear to be made up of
unrelated, disharmonious abstract forms.
Deconstructive ideas are borrowed from the
French philosopher Jacques Derrida.
The Sydney Opera House, designed by Jørn
Utzon, winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize
in 2003

Frank Lloyd Wright said that all architecture is

organic, and the Art Nouveau architects of the
early twentieth century incorporated curving,
plant-like shapes into their designs. But in the
later half of the twentieth century, Modernist
architects took the concept of organic
architecture to new heights. By using new
forms of concrete and cantilever trusses,
architects could create swooping arches
without visible beams or pillars. Organic
buildings are never linear or rigidly geometric.
Instead, wavy lines and curved shapes suggest
natural forms.
Philip Johnson's At&T Headquarters (now the SONY
Building) is often cited as an example of
postmodernism.

Postmodern architecture evolved from the

modernist movement, yet contradicts many of
the modernist ideas. Combining new ideas
with traditional forms, postmodernist buildings
may startle, surprise, and even amuse. Familiar
shapes and details are used in unexpected
ways. Buildings may incorporate symbols to
make a statement or simply to delight the
viewer. Philip Johnson's At&T Headquarters is
often cited as an example of postmodernism.
Like many buildings in the International Style,
the skyscraper has a sleek, classical facade. At
the top, however, is an oversized
"Chippendale" pediment.
The key ideas of Postmodernism are set forth
in two important books by Robert Venturi:
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
and Learning from Las Vegas.