Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning

Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Part I  The Elements of Architecture
	1 Architecture: The Art of Shaping of Space
	2 \"Commoditie\": Building Functions
		Function
	3 \"Firmeness\": Structure, or How Does the Building Stand Up?
		Elements of the Oldest Architecture
		The Elements of Lithic (Stone) Structure: The Post and Lintel
		The Classical Orders
		Structural Frames
		The Arch
		Vaults
		Domes
		Trusses
		Space Frames and Geodesic Domes
		Shells
		Suspension Structures
		Building Technology and Risk
		Structure as Cultural Expression
	4 \"Delight\": Seeing Architecture
		Visual Perception
		Proportion
		Scale
		Rhythm
		Texture
		Light
		Color
		Ugliness
		Ornament
	5 Architecture and Sound
		Hearing Buildings
		Sound: Focusing and Dispersing
		Sound: Lingering and Echoing
		Shaping Early Church Music
		The Synchronous Development of Orchestras and Orchestral Halls
	6 Architecture: Part of the Natural Environment
		Buildings, Sun, and Heat
		Buildings and the Wind
		The Chemistry of Buildings
	7 The Architect: From High Priest to Profession
	8 Architecture, Memory, and Economics
		Economics and Historic Preservation
Chronology
Part II The History and Meaning of Architecture
	9 The Beginnings of Architecture: From Caves to Cities
		Early Hominids
		Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens
		Neolithic Dwellings and Structures
		Western European Megaliths
		From Villages to Cities
		The Invention of Architecture
	10 The Architecture of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt
		Mesopotamia: The Land Between the Rivers
		Egypt: The Gift of the Nile
		The Landscape of Egypt
		The Culture of Egypt
		Egyptian History
		Egyptian Funerary Architecture
		Egyptian Tombs
		The Temple of Amon at Karnak and Other Egyptian Temples
		Egyptian Villages and Houses
		Late Egyptian Architecture
		An Architecture for Eternity
	11 Greek Architecture
		The Geography of Greece
		Minoan and Mycenaean Greece
		The Greek Character
		The Greek Polis
		Greek City Planning
		Domestic Architecture
		Public Buildings
		The Greek Temple
		Hellenistic Architecture
		An Architecture of Excellence
	12 Roman Architecture
		Roman History
		The Roman Character
		Roman Religion and the Roman Temple
		Roman Urban Planning
		The Enclosure and Manipulation of Space
		Domestic Architecture
		Public Buildings
		Later Roman \"Baroque\" Architecture
		An Architecture of Universality
	ESSAY 1: Indian Architecture
	13 Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture
		The Transformation of the Roman Empire
		Early Christian Architecture
		The Movement of Peoples
		Monasticism
		Byzantine Architecture
		An Architecture of Heaven
	ESSAY 2: Islamic Architecture
		Islamic Architecture and the West
		Islam Develops
		The Mosque
		Secular Islamic Buildings
		Islamic Architecture in Spain
		Islamic Architecture in India
	14 Medieval Architecture
		The Early Middle Ages
		The High Middle Ages: Gothic Architecture
	15 Renaissance Architecture
		Italy in the Fifteenth Century
		The Renaissance Patron
		Humanism
		Roman Building Scale Re-achieved: Brunelleschi\'s Dome
		Vitruvius and Ideal Form
		Brunelleschi and Rationally Ordered Space
		Idealized Forms and the Centrally Planned Church
		Alberti\'s Latin Cross Churches
		Bramante and the New Saint Peter\'s, Rome
		Residential Architecture: Merchant Prince Palaces
		Mannerism: Renaissance Perfection in Play
		The Palazzo del Te
		Late Italian Renaissance Gardens
		The Renaissance Exported
		An Architecture of Humanist Ideals
	ESSAY 3: Ancient Architecture in the Americas
		Central America
	16 Baroque and Rococo Architecture
		An Architecture for the Senses
		Baroque Churches in Rome
		An Architecture of Emotional Power
		The Central Plan Modified: Bernini\'s Churches
		Rorromini\'s Churches
		Guarini\'s Churches
		Baroque Scale
		French Baroque: Versailles
		English Baroque
		The Baroque Staircase
		Rococo Architecture: The End of the Baroque
		An Architecture of Artifice
	ESSAY 4: Chinese Architecture
	17 The Origins of Modernism: Architecture in the Age of Enlightenment, 1720-1790
		The Emergence of Art and Architectural History
		A Rational Architecture: Sainte-Geneviève, Paris
		\"Speaking Architecture,\"
		Designing the City
		The English Garden: \"Consult the Genius of the Place\"
		Eclecticism and the Architecture of Revolutions
		The Industrial Revolution
		An Architecture of Rationality
	ESSAY 5: Japanese Architecture
	18 The Roots of Modernism: The Nineteenth Century
		Neoclassicism
		The Gothic Revival
		Egyptian Revival
		Creative Eclecticism
		The Architecture of the New Industrialism
		Industry and Urban Growth
		Reaction to the Machine
		Academic Eclecticism and The École des Beaux-Arts
	ESSAY 6: African Architecture
	19 Versions of Modern Architecture, 1914-1970
		An Architecture of Its Own Time
		Creative Eclecticism (Redux)
		National Romanticism
		Modernism: Phase One, 1914-1940
		A Counter-Architecture to Rationalism: German Expressionism in the 1920s
		Functional Utilitarianism and the Rise of International Modernism
		Modernism: Phase Two, 1945-1970
		Modernism: Form Follows Function—or the Other Way Around?
		Brutalism: The Rough Edge of Modernism
		An Architecture of Perfect Function: Success or Failure?
	20 The Expansion of Modernism: From the Twentieth Century into the Twenty-First
		Postmodernism Emerges
		Late Modernism or Neo-Modernism
		Sculpted (Shaped) Modernism
		High Tech
		Megastructures
		Offices Above the Clouds
		The International Architect
		Resurgent Expressionism
		Deconstructivism
		Critical Regionalism
		Building Communities
	21 Into the Twenty-First Century
Suggested Readings
Notes
Glossary
Index