Arched and Vaulted Forms in Architecture - Coursework Example

1 Essentially, by the utilization of the simplest terms and words available, architecture is the planning, designing and blueprinting of buildings and any other types of structures - both large and small - which is being carried out by an architect. Unlike any other constructive enterprises, architecture is more than just creating the blueprint of the structure or merely just outlining the details of the buildings construction but it goes beyond that. Is the deliberate and careful fashioning of a meticulously thought piece of art by consolidating the different geometrical forms and shapes that demonstrates idea and eventually apply them in actuality. It is an artistic expression of a conceptualized thought. Nevertheless, different from the typical and customary artwork and concepts, architecture combines the beauty of art and science by integrating the principles embodied in the mathematical and physical sciences in order to establish a more accurate, stable and long-standing structures. Construction of structures turns out to be logical and therefore architectural as soon as it is well-organized, timesaving, economical and ecologically accountable that emerges instantaneously. In cases where it is the plainest and arguably the most modernized structural design, finding out about the solution for the task placed for it, and at the same time imaginable in its time of life and its chronological significance, construction will achieve the characteristic of flawless suitability and becomes the representation of the mechanical facts and information of a certain cultural assembly. Likewise, it becomes well-thought when the structure is completed to lay emphasis on its minimalism and to demonstrate its method of support with the intention of understanding both of them straight away. 2 The science and art of construction and building of large scale structures, however, merely turned out to be a rudimentary feature in architectural theory in the course of the Roman Era, all through the time of Christs birth. Nothing like the current trends in architecture wherein most architectural artworks are based on the concepts of the physical sciences with the idea for structural efficiency, the architecture during the past eras where mostly symbolical, decorative and representative in nature. "Before then architecture had been almost exclusively symbolic in form and decoration. The symbols that were materialized in the Egyptian pyramid, Sumerian ziggurat, Hindu stupa, and Japanese pagoda were the most powerful expression of each cultures religious beliefs. They were designed according to the most complex and all-embracing symbolic systems; their shape, decoration, dimensions, and orientation to the sun were the result of the most profound meditation. But they enclosed little or no internal space. They were works of architecture but not of construction" (History-world, 2002). When a smartly done and lasting construction sealing off space substituted the representational architecture of embryonic cultures, another latest kind of architecture took place. It turned out to become a possibility for any geographical location to refine and modify architectural artwork using the varied elements of construction which gives characteristic feature for each and every structure contingent to its purpose. Many aspects of the society has embraced distinctive identification by adopting the different elemental factions of architecture in churches, schools, hospitals, malls, etc. fenced in a fitting edifice and bedecked to press out its unique character. 3 Many cities around the globe are known for their excellent and marvelous taste of architecture. This does not only make them known the world over and attract millions of tourist each year but it gives them a distinctive characteristic that separates them from other countries and cities in any part of the world. The cities of Rome in Italy, Constantinople, as well as the Isfahan, are known for their highly-symbolical and decorative architecture by its generous utilization of vaults and arches is the heart of their architectural gain. We can observe that these cities are made up of structures embellished with different colors, forms, shapes and architectural building techniques. Their internal openings likewise turned out to be manifested in their figure and decorations as observed in almost all of the Islamic mosque and Gothic churches around the world. With the advent of the Renaissance period in the European continent around 1400, a new kind of architectural idea was born in which both the build and the internal space were maneuvered to fabricate an artistically attractive depictions of architectural arts like those in pictures, paintings and in sculptured artworks. The highly-crafted and complicated symbolism of primeval and medieval art died out. As a replacement was a completely "human-centered" operation of form and figure in order to give off visual enchantment. The interpretation of the architectural artworks during the Renaissance period paved the way for cutting-edge and contemporary architectural designs. During the 19th century, a monumental development in the architectural arts took place with a pictographic and attractive designs of buildings and large other structures - as in churches, governmental buildings, colleges and universities, hospitals and many others - instituted in it, giving the impression of being surrounded with real pictures. However, the concurrent societal progress, development in the communal setting, science and technology, and the manufacturing industry 4 bumped into this latest idea of architecture, advocating that buildings could be a substantial source of catalytic factors for social improvement given that they are crafted, fashioned healthily and efficiently. Hence it happened that after the "theater-set" architectural perspective of the Fifth Avenue in New York City there had occurred housing projects that looked like hospitals which drastically stuck many architects in the rut of confusion and trouble, perturbing whether they are going to work as decorative artists or as urban planners. The Symbolic Role of Architecture The primeval idea of architecture - probably even during the times when its name has not yet been discovered - was to erect temples or large other structures wherein people can come together and worship their gods. The chief purpose for any construction of large-scale buildings before was predominantly religious in nature. On or after the advent of established inhabitation approximately 10,000 BC to the Roman Empires dominion over power, dwellings were erected of the feeblest and poorest construction materials and hence were not anticipated to live longer that its occupants. A small number of early cultures like the Assyrians, Minoans and the Persians constructed enormous, massive structures that were to be inhabited by the members of the monarchial family and pontifical figures. Architecture began as a result of a religious impetus and was therefore highly representational in nature. Most of the structures built during these times and earlier were made up of shaped, polished stones, and are laid out and put together in a circular shape or on lines. One of the most famous examples of this particular architectural idea is the Stonehenge in England that is best known for its incredible complexities. According to Encyclopedia Britannica (2012) it was built in six stages between the period of 3000 and 1520 5 BC, transitional stages from the Neolithic Stage to the Bronze stage. The stones are clustered into "four concentric circles" (History-world, 2002) and "two of which two of which are formed by paired uprights bearing huge capstones" (History-world, 2002). With respect to the relationship embodied between geometry and time and due to the fact that Stonehenge is arranged in a line with the sun “at the summer and winter solstices" (History-world, 2002), the Stonehenge was considered by the people as a perfect indicator of time and functioned as a colossal calendar in which ceremonies were carried out on important periods of the year. Moreover, the same stone arrangements of semi-circle formation were likewise assembled in some random places in England as well as in France. Europeans used group of stones extended over by roof lumps also known as "dolmens" and lone stones that were mounted on the extremities were also built in huge quantities. In Egypt, the architectural symbolisms frontrunners are the famous pyramids. The Egyptian pyramids were considerably more advanced and far more complicated and more immense in dimensions but are rather comparable in its symbolical meaning: consecrated stones. The completion of some all-encompassing irrigation developments presented the impression that Egyptians were prepared and well systemized to create and build large-scale structures. In addition, since Egypt was a rich location for limestone, construction materials had never become an ordeal to them. There are many other countries who have displayed rich architectural history and these architectural sophistications are manifested in their excellent and highly-artistic structures that reflect their cultural heritage. One of which is India. A human civilization occurred around 300 BC on the eastern part of Mesopotamia within the premise of the Indus River Valley. From it 6 there formed the Hindu culture of the country that delivered another distinguishing temple configuration: the stupa. The most primitive example still continues to exist in its completeness is that at Sanchi, built all through the first century. Unlike the Egyptians, more is still recognized about the allegory and representation of the stupa because it still exists until now. In Japan, during the first centuries of the Christian era, Buddhism scattered to the east from India through China, turned out to be an establishment in Japan in 600 AD. The famous stupa of India resurfaced in Japan but in a much more modified outer shell: pagoda. The first and unspoiled persisting pagoda can be found in the convent of Horyuji, constructed in 607 AD. The pagoda, unlike any other historical edifices, is made up of wood which is the chief construction raw material in Japan. Its essential form is that of a house that is duplicated vertically. This type of architectural mastery is very common in Japanese temples and old spots that are randomly erected within the country. The widening roofs or tops of each level shows the distinctive formation in the pillars, beams, and joists fixed together by highly crafted braces topped off in the houses, temples and citadels in Japan and China. Nevertheless, there is a limited space in each level and an artifact of the Buddha is mounted in the stone foundation of the high pole that increases the total height of the pagoda, appearing at the topmost part as a finial. Placed all over the base of the pole are four effigies stand facing the four prime points. In Greece, the Greek temples are the supreme and the more illustrious of the first religious styles which developed one thousand years before Jesus Christ was born. The Greeks constructed long-lasting structures - all made up of stones - almost completely exclusive for devout cenotaphs just like in Egypt, Sumerian and in India. Different from other countries which 7 constructed monumental structures, the Greek temples were not huge fields of opening but statue compartments holding gods holy representation. These chambers were available only the priests. The Greek temples has always been considered to be of basically different from and greater to most other early religious forms in part because of the delicate enhancement of the prime epitomes - the Parthenon - in part because of its minimalism and in part because of it expose the occurrence in Greece of a logical and rational attitude and methodology towards architectural arts that swapped their previous principles. The Early Architectural Significance of Space and the Introduction of Modern Architecture The Roman Empire that was established by Augustus Caesar that dominated Western Europe for 5 centuries, modernized the political and economic realm of the world. Almost the complete world turned out to be a lone consolidated state. On behalf of the democratic government of Greece, its devoutness and its individuality was the Roman totalitarianism and pragmatism. Enormous affluences have taken place. “By the first half of the first century BC, concrete vaulting was firmly established in Rome, as it was in the towns of central Italy” (Lancaster, n.d.). Europe and the Mediterranean regions blossomed with merchandizing cities that is tenfold times the extent of their forerunners with shared facilities and services unremarked beforehand: the basilicas, theatrical buildings, and circuses. Today, these are constant masonry structures as were the residence and high-rise residences that shield that whole city. This architectural transformation made happen by the Romans necessitated two innovative factions: the discovery of a latest and state-of-the-art technique - the concrete vaulting - and the 8 arrangement of labor and investments on a large scale in order for them to hasten the process of construction, erecting speedily the plans of the architect. Romans discovered new ideas in building construction by the using a fluid mixture of "lime and small stones" (History-world, 2002) poured down into the empty centers of the ramparts polished with bricks or stones, "and over curved wooden molds, or forms, to span spaces as vaults" (History-world, 2002). The Mediterranean is such an active volcanic region as is an area rich with a stone termed as "pozzolana". Pozzolana was used then to fabricate concretes that was feathery but was enormously hard-wearing. It was developed by the Romans 100 BC and was initially utilized for walkway walls and foundations of large structures like the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia. The tarnished emperor Nero decided to make a total rebuilding of region and commanded to use another material plus the great fire, apparently set up by no less than the disreputable emperor himself, paved way for the entire transformation of the architectural styles of the city. "Here broad streets, regular blocks of masonry apartment houses, and continuous colonnaded porticoes were erected according to a single plan and partially at state expense. The Domus Aurea itself was a labyrinth of concrete vaulted rooms, many in complex geometric forms. An extensive garden with a lake and forest spread around it" (History-world, 2002). An inspiring sequence of dominical cathedrals and basilicas was erected just about the same period as San Vitale, particularly in the Eastern Roman Empire. A small arena - about 107 feet diameter - is reinforced on four trilateral, three-sided vaults in order for the two half-domes to unseal on both sides and either. The Byzantine church - which was one of the most successful 9 architectural creations of the Byzantine Empire - was interred in the new sandstone city wherein another set of domical structures were situated close at hand. However, symbolic architecture had discovered a new and mighty method in the impressionistic adornment of the interior part of religious structures. For example, the internal portions of the Baths of the Caracalla were ornamented with pieces of Greek architecture, and some walls had been coated with paints in implausible theatrical architecture and sceneries. Today, the inside portions of the Byzantine church was wrapped with glass miscellany bits. These portrayed Biblical settings and imageries of saints were set side by side a constant gold backdrop. These architectural developments have persisted until today. As a matter of fact, depictions of some Biblical characters and scenes are famous in most Catholic churches around the globe. The advancement of the building campaigns during the Romanesque period were a little slim, but, as compared to the massive progress of economic and construction might of the Gothic period, which commenced in the last stages of the 12th century. In France, a latest and more effective, time and money-consuming methods were applied in architecture by the use of masonry vaults. The Roman vault was a steady and reliable amount of concrete that was molded using a wooden rack and left there until it solidifies. Stone arches were famous during this period and the vaults being utilized were lighter yet stronger and the thrusts were more intensely improved. Starting 1194, there was a significant change on the weights of the vaults as they were made lighter but more efficient for both large and small scale buildings. The vaulted construction using concrete materials discovered and developed by the Romans were passed on to the Islam. This practice brought about high-level architectural 10 artwork and design. It was imparted to the Islamic empires following the establishment of religious congregations in 622. Islam, the same with Christianity, necessitated vast roofed interior rooms for worship. It was realized through the construction of wide wooden roof buildings apportioned by various supports as used in the construction of the Mosque of Cordoba. Albeit vaulting was allowed in some other geographical locations and empires, it was not allowed to Islamic palaces. As a result, they have improvised on their construction elements by using "four deep tunnel vaults open from each side of a courtyard with a dome extending the vault on the side facing toward Mecca. This became the model of the great Egyptian and Iranian mosques of the 16th and 17th centuries. It is seen expanded in scale and ornamented in glowing blue ceramic tile in the Royal Mosque (Masjid-i-Shah) at Isfahan" (History-world, 2002). The Islamic practice bolted remarkably with the erection of Taj Mahal which was built during the Muslim regime between 1630 and 1648. It is a catacomb shrine that is shrouded with marbles. Italys first person to become involved with the architectural artworks was Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. He was considered to be a Renaissance architect because of his one and the same abilities in different arts: sculpture, painting and of course, constructing structures. However, there was a rather big dissimilarity; Bernini was a devoted Catholic and an amateur associate of the Jesuit Order. His faith was resembled and manifested on his artworks which were platform sets for the staging of the Catholic ceremonials. Bernini used a different architectural method in the form of "curving and angled colonnades" (History-world, 2002). Linking this to the papal residences, he built the Scala Regia, which was finished with histrionic, melodramatic touch by the use of hidden light sources and a growing reducing of width as it ascents. Most of the Italians and other nationalities interested with historical architectures 11 consider the little church of San Andrea al Quirinale as his greatest work. Its form, contrary to the usual shapes of structures, was not circular but nearly oval in shape. A hidden light lights up a visualization of figures at the altar that look seemingly levitating in the actual space of the structure. The intellectual and stationary architecture during the 16th century was transformed into an active and real type of architecture in the 17th century. The initial phase of the transition from Gothic to Renaissance is occasionally called as Tudor, where the time period is typically so-called "Elizabethan, and was later changed into Jacobean beginning 1603 up to 1630. Church construction had fundamentally clinched in England, on account of a religious disorder and because of the occurrence of an additional of primeval churches, the last being in part the consequence of excessive building in the "Age of Faith". "The most important example is St Johns Church, Leeds (1634), which is entirely Gothic in structure and general design, but contains magnificent Jacobean (strictly ‘Carolean’) interior woodwork fittings. The Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean periods, however, saw a great boom and revolution in the building of houses and of grammar schools and colleges" (Talktalk, 2012). The derivation of the word "Baroque" is unclear, albeit it may have developed from the Portuguese term "barocco" which means a incongruous or distorted pearl. The world was first applied mockingly, far as the word "Gothic" was primarily one of the disdain. It utilizes generous loads of curved forms, strong lines and abounding colours. It is predominantly sensory and the embellishing elements attract almost instinctively to the senses through means that no other architectural style can correspond. However, it was "is theatrical, intensely three-dimensional, almost grotesque in its lavish use of curves and embellishment (Talktalk, 2012). 12 "Palladianism, style of architecture based on the writings and buildings of the humanist and theorist from Vicenza, Andrea Palladio (1508–80), perhaps the greatest architect of the latter 16th century and certainly the most influential" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012). Palladio cogitated that architecture must be ruled by logic and purpose and by the ideologies of classical ancient times as it was recognized in persisting structures and in the literary works of the 1st century by architect and at the same time theorist, Vitruvius. "Palladianism bespeaks rationality in its clarity, order, and symmetry, while it also pays homage to antiquity in its use of classical forms and decorative motifs" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012). Neo-classicism, also known as neoclassical architecture, was a revitalization of the classical, architectural artwork that existed between the 18th and the 19th centuries. The advancement was more related to the whole traditional volumes. It is illustrated by sumptuousness of scale, the plainness of the geometrical applications, the artistic usage of pillars and columns and partiality over empty walls. “The ideal form that neoclassical architecture looks at was the temple. Which was represented classical architecture in its purest form. Columns were used to carry the weight of the buildings structure. But later they became used as a graphical element. Roof is usually flat and horizontal and often is visible from the ground. Neoclassical architecture style had no domes or towers” (World of Level Design, 2008). References: Architecture 2002. History-world. Retrieved from: http://history- world.org/greek%20architecture.htm Byzantine architecture 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 23 April, 2012, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1365642/Byzantine- architecture David, R n.d., “English baroque architecture”, Britain Express, viewed 24 April 2012, From http://www.britainexpress.com/architecture/baroque.htm Lancaster, L n.d., “Concrete vaulted construction in imperial Rome: Innovations in Context”, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1 – 10, viewed 24 April 2012, http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/42020/excerpt/9780521842020_excerpt.pdf Neoclassical architecture 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 23 April, 2012, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1383512/Neoclassical- architecture Neoclassical architecture 2008. World of Level Design. Retrieved 24 April 2012, from http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/architecture/neoclassical/neoclassical_architecture.php Palladianism 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 23 April, 2012, From http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439906/Palladianism Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture 2012. Talktalk. Retrieved 24 April 2012, http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0061924.html Read More