History of Architecture and Architectural Movements

Prehistoric Architecture

Structures built before recorded history, including earthen mounds, stone circles, megaliths, and monumental structures like Stonehenge.

Ancient Egypt Architecture ($3,050$ BC to $900$ BC)

A period characterized by powerful rulers constructing monumental pyramids, temples, and shrines, such as the Pyramids of Giza.

Mesopotamia

West Asiatic Architecture flourishing in the Twin Rivers Tigris and Euphrates, referring to Persia, Assyria, and Babylon.

Classical Architecture ($850$ BC to $476$ AD)

Buildings constructed according to precise rules known as the Classical Orders, which defined column styles and entablature designs during the Greek and Roman eras.

Byzantine Architecture ($527$ to $565$ AD)

A classically-inspired style that evolved after the capital moved to Byzantium, featuring brick construction, domed roofs, and elaborate mosaics.

Romanesque Architecture ($800$ to $1,200$ AD)

A style characterized by heavy, stocky structures with rounded arches, thick walls, and heavy piers found in churches and castles.

Gothic Architecture ($1,100$ to $1,450$ AD)

An innovative style featuring pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, and flying buttresses, allowing for taller cathedrals like Chartres and Notre Dame.

Renaissance Architecture ($1,400$ to $1,600$ AD)

An "age of awakening" that returned to the classical orders of ancient Greece and Rome, popularized by architects like Andrea Palladio.

Baroque Architecture ($1,600$ to $1,830$ AD)

An opulent and dramatic style with irregular shapes, extravagant ornamentation, and complex combinations of Classical restraint and luxury.

Rococo Architecture ($1,650$ to $1,790$ AD)

The final phase of the Baroque period featuring graceful white buildings with sweeping curves, scrolls, vines, shell-shapes, and delicate patterns.

Neoclassicism ($1,730$ to $1,925$ AD)

A return to classical shapes and proportions of the Greek and Roman orders, heavily inspired by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.

Art Nouveau ($1,890$ to $1,914$ AD)

Known as the New Style, featuring asymmetrical shapes, arches, and decorative surfaces with flowing, plant-like designs.

Beaux Arts Architecture ($1,895$ to $1,925$ AD)

Characterized by order, symmetry, formal design, grandiosity, and elaborate ornamentation; also known as Academic Classicism.

Art Deco ($1,925$ to $1,937$ AD)

A jazz-age style featuring zigzag patterns and vertical lines, with motifs often inspired by the architecture of ancient Egypt.

Modernist Style ($1,900$ to Present)

A period of dramatic diversity including movements like the Bauhaus School, Deconstructivism, Formalism, and Structuralism.

Postmodernism ($1,972$ to Present)

A reaction against Modernism that re-invents historical details and familiar motifs with dashes of whimsy and bright colors.

Chicago School of Architecture ($1880$-$1910$)

A center of high-rise development founded by William Le Baron Jenney that pioneered metal skeleton frames and new foundation techniques.

Bauhaus Design School ($1919$-$1933$)

An influential center of modernist architecture founded by Walter Gropius, characterized by clean lines and a total absence of ornamentation.

Brutalism ($1950$s to mid-$1970$s)

An uncompromising style emphasizing materials, textures, and construction in their raw form, often using exposed concrete ($beton\,brut$).

Deconstructivism

An approach to building design characterized by non-rectilinear shapes that distort geometry to create an appearance of instability, explosion, or collapse.

Blobitecture ($1990$s)

A style of postmodernist architecture involving organic, rounded, and bulging shapes, heavily dependent on $CATID$ software.

Torogan

A Maranao ancestral house for the Datu or upper-class, elevated on huge tree trunks and ornately decorated with $okir$ designs.

Panolong

A wing-like beam located at the ends of the floor of a Torogan, featuring motifs like the $Pako\,Rabong$ (Fern) or $Naga$ (Serpent).

Bahay na Bato

A Spanish colonial era house in the Philippines, featuring a stone ground floor and a wooden second floor, evolving from the Bahay Kubo.

Zaguan

The area on the ground floor of a Bahay na Bato where