The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998/Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso/A/Architecture/INFOTEXT

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art of designing structures. The term covers
the design of the visual appearance of
structures; their internal arrangements of
space; selection of external and internal
building materials; design or selection of
natural and artificial lighting systems, as
well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing
systems; and design or selection of
decorations and furnishings. Architectural
style may emerge from evolution of techniques
and styles particular to a culture in a given
time period with or without identifiable
individuals as architects, or may be
attributed to specific individuals or groups
of architects working together on a project.
early architecture Little remains of the
earliest forms of architecture, but
archeologists have examined remains of
prehistoric sites and documented villages of
wooden-post buildings with above-ground
construction of organic materials (mud or
wattle and daub) from the Upper Paleolithic,
Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods in Asia,
the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.
More extensive remains of stone-built
structures have given clues to later
Neolithic farming communities as well as to
the habitations, storehouses, and religious
and civic structures of early civilizations.
The best documented are those of ancient
Egypt, where exhaustive work in the 19th and
20th centuries revealed much about both
ordinary buildings and monumental structures,
such as the pyramid tombs near modern Cairo
and the temple and tomb complexes
concentrated at Luxor and Thebes.
Classical The basic forms of Classical
architecture evolved in Greece between the
16th and 2nd centuries BC. A hallmark was the
post-and-lintel construction of temples and
public structures, classified into the Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian orders and defined by
simple, scrolled, or acanthus-leaf capitals
for support columns. The Romans copied and
expanded on Greek Classical forms, notably
introducing bricks and concrete and
developing the vault, arch, and dome for
public buildings and aqueducts.
Byzantine This form of architecture developed
primarily in the Eastern Roman Empire from
the 4th century, with its center at Byzantium
(later named Constantinople, now Istanbul).
Its most notable features were churches, some
very large, based on the Greek cross plan
(Hagia Sophia, Istanbul; St Mark's, Venice),
with formalized painted and mosaic
decoration.
Islamic This developed from the 8th century,
when the Islamic religion spread from its
center in the Middle East west to Spain and
east to China and parts of the Philippine
Islands. Notable features are the development
of the tower with dome and the pointed arch.
Islamic architecture, chiefly through Spanish
examples such as the Great Mosque at Córdoba
and the Alhambra in Granada, profoundly
influenced Christian church architecture, for
example, the adoption of the pointed arch in
Gothic architecture.
Romanesque This style flourished in Western
European Christianity from the 10th to the
12th centuries. It is marked by churches with
massive walls for structural integrity,
rounded arches, small windows, and resulting
dark volumes of interior space. In England
the style is generally referred to as Norman
architecture (an example is Durham
Cathedral). Romanesque enjoyed a renewal of
interest in Europe and the US in the late
19th and early 20th centuries.
Gothic Gothic architecture emerged out of
Romanesque. The development of the pointed
arch and flying buttress made it possible to
change from thick supporting walls to lighter
curtain walls with extensive expansion of
window areas (and stained-glass artwork) and
resulting increases in interior light. Gothic
architecture was developed mainly in France
from the 12th to 16th centuries. The style is
divided into Early Gothic (for example, Sens
Cathedral), High Gothic (Chartres Cathedral),
and Late or Flamboyant Gothic. In England the
corresponding divisions are Early English
(Salisbury Cathedral), Decorated (Wells
Cathedral), and Perpendicular (Kings College
Chapel, Cambridge). Gothic was also developed
extensively in Germany and neighboring
countries and in Italy.
Renaissance The 15th and 16th centuries in
Europe saw the rebirth of Classical form and
motifs in the Italian Neo-Classical movement.
A major source of inspiration for the great
Renaissance architects - Palladio, Alberti,
Brunelleschi, Bramante, and Michelangelo -
was the work of the 1st-century BC Roman
engineer Vitruvius. The Palladian style was
later used extensively in England by Inigo
Jones; Christopher Wren also worked in the
Classical idiom. Classicism, or
Neo-Classicism as it is also known, has been
popular in the US from the 18th century, as
evidenced in much of the civic and commercial
architecture since the time of the early
republic (the US Capitol and Supreme Court
buildings in Washington; many state
capitols).
Baroque European architecture of the 17th and
18th centuries elaborated on Classical models
with exuberant and extravagant decoration. In
large-scale public buildings, the style is
best seen in the innovative works of Bernini
and Borromini in Italy and later in those of
John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Hawksmoor, and
Christopher Wren in England. There were
numerous practitioners in France and the
German-speaking countries, and notably in
Vienna.
Rococo This architecture extends the Baroque
style with an even greater extravagance of
design motifs, using a new lightness of
detail and naturalistic elements, such as
shells, flowers, and trees.
Neo-Classical European architecture of the
18th and 19th centuries again focused on the
more severe Classical idiom (inspired by
archeological finds), producing, for example,
the large-scale rebuilding of London by
Robert Adam and John Nash and later of Paris
by Georges Haussman.
Neo-Gothic The late 19th century saw a Gothic
revival in Europe and the US, particularly
evident in churches (Ralph Adams Cram`s work
in the US - for example, St John the Divine,
New York) and public buildings (the Houses of
Parliament, London, designed by Charles Barry
and A W Pugin).
Art Nouveau This architecture arising at the
end of the 19th century countered Neo-Gothic,
using sinuous, flowing shapes for buildings,
room plans, and interior design. The style is
characterized by the work of Charles Rennie
Mackintosh in Scotland (Glasgow Art School)
and Antonio Gaudí in Spain (Church of the
Holy Family, Barcelona), and design elements
were used especially in France but also in
England and the US.
Modernist This style of architecture,
referred to as the Modern Movement, began in
the 1900s with the Vienna School and the
German Bauhaus and was also developed in the
US, Scandinavia, and France. With
Functionalism as its central precept, its
hallmarks are the use of spare line and form,
an emphasis on rationalism, and the
elimination of ornament. It makes great use
of technological advances in materials such
as glass, steel, and concrete and of
construction techniques that allow
flexibility of design. Notable practitioners
include Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der
Rohe, and Le Corbusier. Modern architecture
has furthered the notion of the planning of
extensive multibuilding projects and of whole
towns or communities.
Postmodernist This architecture emerged in
the US, Japan, and Europe in the 1980s, with
one trend toward high-tech forms and another
reverting back to using simplified or
geometric elements from earlier styles to
decorate traditional forms.