Neolithic • Of the neolithic period/late stone age • 6,000 BC to 2700 BC • Important examples are ○ Gobekli Tepe, Turkey ○ Jericho, the Levant ○ Nevali Cori, Turkey ○ Mehrgarh, Pakistan ○ Knap of Howar, Skara Brae, Scotland • Characterised by primitive materials like mud-bricks and wattle and daub
Ancient Mesopotamian • A huge time period, extending from 7000BC to several centuries AD • Key characteristics are mud-brick buildings and ziggurats, e.g. In the city of Uruk, and the Ziggurat of Ur
Ancient Egyptian • Another huge time period, from 3000 BC to 100 AD including many styles • Religious belief was important in architecture and urban planning • Characterised by mud-brick and sandstone, decorative columns, colours, astronomical alignment • The column, the obelisk and the pyramid have had a lot of influence
Ancient Greek • Divided into pre-classical from 2700 to 1100 BC, and classical/hellenist, from then to 200AD • Pre-classical was minoan/mycenaean, with plaster/stone/wood construction • Key features of pre-classical are flat roofs, low buildings with up to three floors, and the inverted column, often made of wood • Notable building is the palace of knossos • Hellenist architecture is characterised by post-and-lintel, with columns supporting a large roof, open walls. The columns were also narrow at the top, to show growth from the ground • Modern interpretation is of white marble and sandstone, but often they were painted • Urban planning centered around open spaces, the agora
Ancient North American • Includes Native American, Inuit, Mississippian etc • Noted for large earthen platforms and mounds, and impermanent buildings
Etruscan • 700 - 100 BC • Heavily influenced Roman style, but still a distinctive architectural style
Roman • 600 BC to 600 AD • More elaborate in general than greek, but many styles preserved • Development of concrete, greater use of the arch, vault and dome, previously unused • Introduction of the vault led to large enclosed spaces
Persian • 550 to about 200 BC (range is very fuzzy, plus or minus several centuries) • Characterised by eclectic style due to vast empire • Geometric, repetitive forms, rich tiling, calligraphy, floral etc. • Built on a huge scale, heavy influence on later islamic architecture • Key sites include Pasargadae, Persepolis, Ctesiphon
Islamic • Very fuzzy time period • Large range of styles, both secular and religious • Key types include Abbasid buildings, mosques
African • Huge range of time periods and styles • Gujrati, Islamic, Roman/Greek influences • Extensive research needed
Indian • Large time period, from Indus Valley onwards • Includes hindu temple, buddhist, islamic, classical etc. • Key sites - Mohenjo Daro, Harappa, Indus Valley • Rock-cut architecture developed, and single-block buildings • Examples are Vishvanatha temple, meenakshi temple, golden temple, Buddhas of Bamyan
Buddhist
Oc Eo • One of the earliest examples of SE Asian architecture, from Cay Thi mound, Vietnam
Cambodian • Khmer architecture, due to Khmer civilization • Main evidence is large temples, built of brick and sandstone • Key example is Angkor Wat
Indonesian • Influences from Hindu, Buddhist and Oceanian architecture • Key features are wooden dwellings, sharply tilted roofs, extended roof ridges, some similarity to old Scandanavian houses
Chinese • Huge time period • Emphasis on the horizontal, with heavy platforms and large roofs, little emphasis on vertical walls, e.g. Forbidden city • Deviation is the tower architecture, with repeated layers of roofs, influenced by Nepalese Buddhist architecture
Korean • Similar to other east asian styles • Sometimes walls are entirely moveable doors, although a transitional space is always maintained • Key building - Namtaemun Gate, Seoul
Japanese • Ancient architecture had temples with heavy tiled roofs, leading to modern development of skyscrapers due to familiarity with principles
Mesoamerican • Includes architecture from the Olmecs, Maya and Aztecs • Key types is the step pyramids, large open spaces, stone construction
Inca • Similar to Mesoamerican • Key sites are Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo • Stone buildings, no mortar
Byzantine • Emerged after fall of Roman empire, from 330 to 1500 AD • Influenced Medieval, Renaissance, and Ottoman architecture • Originally Roman, influenced by near eastern • Complex buildings, use of brick and plaster, mosaics instead of carvings, exotic and high domes • Key type is the round arch!
Romanesque • 1050-1150 • First pan-european style since Roman • Term is used to describe similarity to Roman • Characterised by round/slightly pointed arch, barrel vaults and cruciform piers for vaults • E.g. Durha, cathedral
Gothic • 1200 - 1550 • Emphasis on verticality, with skeletal stone, lots of stained glass, flying buttresses, pointed arches, ribbed vaults, pinnacles and spires • This allowed very tall cathedrals • Key buildings include the abbey church of Saint-Denis, Paris, Brussels Town Hall, Notre Dame (French Gothic)
Russian • Key characteristics are external galleries on towers, multiple towers and domes (inherited from eastern minarets and Byzantine) • Key buildings - Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the Kremlin
Renaissance • Often refers to the Italian Renaissance, 1400-1600 • Influenced by invention of perspective, leading to lots of wide open spaces • Carved stone, lots of classical influences, clean lines and symmetries • Buildings: St Peter’s square, chateau de chantilly, Queen’s house greenwich, Banqueting Hall whitehall
Baroque • 1600 - 1750 • First truly global style, seen in Europe, Latin America etc • Originated in Rome, influenced by Catholicism • Trend towards flair, theatricality, grandness • Took domes and colonnades, made them lighter, more flourishes, grander, more decorated • Used quadratura or trompe l’oeil painting, draws the eye upwards, lots of use of light, grand stairways, the !cartouche! to frame monogram, date etc • Key buildings: Trevi Fountain, Winter Palace, St Petersburg, Clementinium, Prague
Rococo • Around 1700s but check this • Originated in the Palace of Versailles • Trend towards comfort, intimate scale • Use of colour, light, frivolous themes, softer demarcation, flowing of walls, floor and ceiling • Heavy use of some ornamental motifs such as the scallop shell, acanthus, birds, bouquets, fruits and angels • Lots of decoration, curves, natural elements • Simple exterior, interiors dominated by ornament, very theatrical, designed to impress • Key buildings: Hotel de Soubise, Rohan Palace
Neoclassicism • Mid 1700s • Shift to classical style again from the baroque • Primarily england and france, influenced by exposure to classical sites, excavation of pompeii and herculaneum • Research this more
Revivalism • In the 1800s • A conscious echo of older styles, demarcated by a ‘neo-’ such as neo-baroque, neo-gothic, and neo-classic as above • Key buildings - Natural history museum, london is neo-romanesque, alexander nevsky cathedral in bulgaria is byzantine revival, belfast city hall is neo-baroque
Beaux-Arts • Very specifically refers to style taucht in ecole des beaux-arts in paris • Key characteristics: monumental, heavy buildings, arched windows, arched and pedimented doors, symmetry, statuary, classical details • See beaux-arts villa, antwerp, palais garnier in paris, petit palais, france
Art Nouveau • Around 1900 • A response to shifting needs due to technological and societal change • Trend towards natural forms, simple ornament, blurring between form and ornament • See casa batillo in barcelona
Early Modern • 1900 to 1940 • Trend away from ornament to simplistic style, became International Style around 1940 • Simplification of form, elimination of ornament, form follows function
Art Deco • Emerged in paris around 1925-1950 • Heavy use of reinforced concrete, straight lines and geometry, steel, plaques etc • Departure from art nouveau • Became popular in the US in 1920s, used for skyscrapers • Declined around 1940 due to great depression • See the chrysler building, the empire state building, the radio city music hall
Contemporary • Research more
Modern • 1915-1965 • Characterised by simplification of form and absorption of ornament into overall structure • Trends of large scale movement, curves, large patterns
Postmodernism • Started around the 1950s to present day • Return of eclectic styles, ornament, trend away from uniformity • See the lever house, seagram building, portland building
Deconstructivist • 1980s onwards • Style of postmodernism, ideas of fragmentation, nonlinearity, non-euclidean geometry, distortion, unpredictability • See imperial war museum, manchester