Unit 4

  • Byzantine- 6th Century AD
    • preeminently religious with an emphasis on the interior, being the exteriors very discreet
    • imperial places, military installations, public buildings
    • demand to construct hospices, hospital, and orphanages
    • stone is widely used
    • HAGIA SOPHIA
      • Byzantine architecture
      • the union between the empire and the church
      • the biggest dome for centuries
      • Pendetive (pechina)- triangular elements that connect the semicircular dome
      • earthquakes- seismic area- a lot of intervention for the prevention of falling the structure
      • symbolism- all the proportion needs to inspire and narrate through images and sculptures
    • Military Architecture
      • a defensive system and distribution of water
      • innovation: walls higher than before due to the possibility of attack, became a standard of the military architecture
  • Preromanesco
    • the system is transformed by a pyramidal system of vassalage and control of territories
    • the progressive development of degree in the decoration used
    • massive churches and other religious buildings
    • Lombards(6-8th Century)
      • North Italy
      • uniform style
      • great training in goldsmithing
      • learn how to decorate with floral came from the tradition of balsamic
    • Visigoths (7-8th Century)
      • mediterranean sea
      • plain walls of stone
      • no windows
      • model of the traditional Roman basilica (like the columns)
    • Carolingian (9th Century)
      • religion fundamental for the construction of monasteries
      • decoration more complex
      • Wesrwek- tower that characterized as a church- defense (not used. but more symbolic)
    • Saxons (9-10th Century)
      • Carolingian stylistic
      • abbeys and cathedrals
      • galleries or tribunes
      • feudal anarchy
      • more mature romanesc architecture
      • massive building, and the light
  • Islamic: 8-15th Century
    • different from Christian
    • use of towers- defending
    • absence of human beings (big tabu in Islamic religion)
    • decoration geometrical, floral, and letters as decorating
    • presence of water
    • materials: ceramic, using plaster molds
    • Mosques- places for prayers and gatherings
    • baths (Hamam)
  • romanesque: 10-12th Century
    • presence domes and vaults
    • light buildings
    • a common feature all Europe and mediterranean sea
    • use of bricks
  • Gothic S.XII-XV
    • where the classical feature was not so well spread- Ex: England, north of France
    • features: arches
      • diagonal ribs
      • ovigal arch
      • main feature: use of ribs with stronger material while the panels were built with light and less resistant materials- tecnological advance
    • CATHEDRALS
      • less tall but wider- symbolism to "reach God"
      • the materialization of architecture: walls can be built with glass windows due to the ogival arch
      • improvements: pointed arches and ribbed vaults
      • external shoring system for the arches of the central naves
      • system of stabilization of the structure
      • decoration: frescoes directly on the stone
      • history evolution in the french cathedral
    • CIVIL BUILDINGS
      • commercial markets and buildings for professional guilds
        • Lonja de la Seda - Valencia
      • center of local power
      • light and open structures
      • city councils are built
  • Renaissance 15 and 16 th Century
    • urban culture: traders, commerce, people- money, power, and knowledge
    • humanism: was a philosophy that emphasized the importance of human values and achievements distinguishing them from religious dogma
    • recovery of Romanity, intellectual and artistic achievements of classical antiquity
    • books of Vitruvius
    • proportions in architecture
    • FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI
      • 1377-1446
      • Architect, humanist, sculptor mathematician.
      • ``Architecture is a mathematical science that operates with spacial units''
      • known for the dome of the cathedral of Florence
    • LEÓN BATTISTA ALBERTI
      • 1404-1472
      • architect in theory and practice
      • Its buildings are full of demonstrative intentions and subtle formal resources oriented to proportion
      • He composes several treatises like De Pictura
      • ' Beauty is the harmony between all the parts of the whole according to a certain norm so that it is not possible to remove, put, or change anything without the whole becoming imperfect'
    • ANDREA PALLIDO
      • 1508-1580
      • writes " I Quattro Libri Architettura"
      • more than 40 villas built for the Venetian nobility
      • based on his music studies, he used a numerical system of proportionality
      • He also built two churches in Venice- Basilica of San Giorgio and the Rendentore
    • MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
      • 1475-1564
      • greatest artist: sculptor, painter, and architect
      • illustrates the transition between the Reinassance and Mannerism
      • Laurenziana library
        • combination of curves and right angles - a sense of movement and tension
        • staircase protagonist
      • redevelopment of the Capitoline hill- adds value to the old area
      • new sensualism called Mannerism, opening the way to space and the baroque style
  • Baroque
    • 17th-18th Century
    • emerged as propaganda and glorification of power in the reaffirmation of the counter-reform church
    • architecture
      • maximum possible effects from the molded space, the manipulation of light, color, and sensual detail
    • is the spatial liberation of the rules of the treatises, of conventions, of elementary geometry
    • focus on the visual effect and decor
    • GIAN LORENZO BERNINI
      • Italian architect, sculptor, and painter
      • in architecture pursues the emotional impact and merges into painting and sculpture to recreate art
      • work: Apolo and Dafne (sculpture), Fontana Dei Quattro Fiumi (architecture)
    • FRANCESCO BORROMINI
      • original and revolutionary architect
      • simple geometric elements
      • work: façade of San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane, San Ivo alla Sapienza, Palazzo Spada
    • ROCOCO
      • artistic fashion born in the French courtly environment
      • frivolity and superficiality of a decoration
      • this will raise the unease of the other social classes which lead to the French Revolution
  • Neoclassic
    • 18-19th
    • Enlightenment and the explosion and human inquiry
    • change towards a rational architecture, dominion of the truth over the visual effect
    • new information about classical construction- new mindset- French Revolution
    • moral and ethical underline
    • Louis Boullé and Claude Nicolas Ledoux were the representatives of the new 'talking architecture'
    • around Europe and the USA
  • 19th Century
    • industrial revolution
      • new materials- iron and concrete- that changed the resistance
    • language of architecture rediscovered
    • learn of east countries like japan- new languages
  • 20 th Century
    • Art-Nouveau- Modernism
      • change in mentality (because of war)
      • industrialization - big city overcrowded- the environment of the city wasn´t healthy
      • middle class-
      • decoration, furniture was handmade built by professionals
    • New avantgarde- Expressionism, Cubism; Futurism
      • 1900-1914
      • diffusion of photography
      • Gaudí's Casa Milá, Mendelsohn- most representative in expressionism
      • Gropius, Le Corbusier- cubism
      • futurism- movement- Niemeyer, Sant' Elia
    • Avantgarde: Surrealism, abstracts
      • 1913-1932
      • constructivism: architectural expression of abstractism. Simple architecture and the use of pure lines.
      • Neoplasticism: orthogonal composition extended to infinity
      • Rationalism: Bauhaus (Berlin) aimed functionality, industrialization, seriality, and economy
    • Post-war period
      • 1950-...
      • The 50s and 60s: function adapted to the needs of the human being within its cultural tradition and its place
      • since the 1960s: the personal individuality of the architect, the environmental sensitivities related to sustainability begins to have more expression