arch350 final

Gabled roof/hipped roof: Gable: The area where the wall meets the overhangs of a pitched or otherwise inclined roof. (4.2)

Hipped roof: A pitched roof with sloping gable ends. (11.1) 

Week 7

Key terms:

Parapet:  A low guarding wall at the top of a building. (3.3) 

Eave: The overhang of a sloping roof projecting beyond a wall. (1.2; 5.2)

gabled roof/ hipped roof

Key Works:

7A. Ancient China

• Great Wall, China, ca 221 BCE-1368 BCE

•  Funerary Complex of Qin, Xi'an, China, 210 BCE

• Huge, underground

• Courtyard house (Siheyuan), Beijing, China, ca 100 CE

Siheyuan: A Chinese courtyard house dwelling with several individual pavilions set around an open court. (5.2)

• Pit house (Yao Dong), Loess Plateau, China, ca 200 BCE

Pit house (Yaodong) (p.15): A pit house is a dwelling partially or fully dug into the ground. In ancient China, these houses were carved into the soil, often featuring a central courtyard and rooms that provided good insulation against temperature extremes.

• Carved out of hillside/ or cliff 

  • faced south

  • Barrel vaulted ceilings

• Sunken Courtyard plan, excavated solid from the ground (image above shows this type)

  • Rooms opened up to courtyard, kitchen and family room faced east

  • Using earth, vaulted ceilings, and thick walls for temperature control (cool in summer, warm in winter)

7B. Ancient Mexico

Cantilever: An overhang supported at only one end by a wall or a column. (1.2)

Talud-tablero: An inclined plane supporting a cantilevered box used on the facades of ancient Mexican buildings. (5.3)

-architectural profile associated with teotihuacan. 

- one platform stacked on top of another

- tablero is the vertical part of it

- talud is the sloping part of it

• Ceremonial Center, (includes Pyramid of the Sun , Pyramid of the Moon and Temple of Feathered Serpent), Teotihuacán, Mexico,  ca 100 BCE- 200 CE

Pyramid of the sun:

• Over 700 feet long

• Perpendicular to the avenue of the dead

• Steps 

• Was painted with murals

• Long tunnel  under it- extraordinary objects found in here

• Adobe bricks, different kinds of stone

Pyramid of the Moon:

• Male sacrifice between 40-50 years old, from outside the city in many burials

• Sacrificed animals like birds and snakes

• Burial 6, a series of males bound together, many decapitated, also cats, dogs, and birds here. 

• Black boxes show the locations of the burials 

• Built in layers, stacked with clay and rocks

• Whole structure was clad with stones, then plastered and painted

Temple of the feathered Serpent, Teotihuacan:

• 7 tier pyramid temple construction

• Had feathered serpent heads on the outside, had a god on top of heads of fertility or nature

• Apartment Compounds, Teotihuacán, Mexico, 100 BCE-200 CE

Apartment Compound, Teotihuacan:

• Raised on earthly platforms

• Surrounded by wall

• Had courtyards

• Mostly intermediate status

• Had courtyards

• Had porches and doorways

• Courtyard was shared by all residents of the compound

Week 8

Key Terms: 

Catacombs: 

 An underground system of passages used as a cemetery. (6.1)

Christian basilica (atrium, narthex, nave, transept, apse)

Central plan church: 

A ground plan that is symmetrical in all directions. (6.1)

Ambulatory: 

 A processional passageway around a shrine or flanking the apse of a Christian church. (6.1)

Barrel vault:

 A long, rounded vault. (5.1)

 groin vault:

Clerestory:  

A window, usually in a series, disposed at an upper level, above head height. (2.2)

Pendentive: 

A curving triangular surface or spandrel that makes the transition from the corners of a square or polygonal room to a circular dome or its drum. (6.

Dome:

Key Works:

8A. Old Christian

Dura-Europos, (Christian Community House and Synagogue), Syria, ca 250 CE

• Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, Rome, Italy, 306-312 CE

Old St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Italy, 318-320 CE

8B. Byzantine

• San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy, 526-540 CE

• Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, ca 532-537 CE

Week 9

Key works:

9A. Gupta India

• Chaitya Hall, Karli, India, 200 CE

• Buddhist temple

• Ashoka column ( upper left black circle)

• Vestibule 

• Nave (center line)

• basalt columns, topped with sculptures w/ elephants, people, lotuses. 

• Kailasanatha Temple, Ellora, India, 760 CE

  • Used to have flying bridges, but they collapsed

  • Lower stories were typically covered in massive carvings, the elephants bear the weight of the structure

  • The builders would have had to scoop the rock out, from the top down, 

• Hindu temple (gopura, shikhara(p227), mandapa(p223), garbha griha): 

• Gopura: 2 story gateway

• Mandapa: the columned hall

• Garbha Griha: womb chamber

•  w shikara above: a tower or spire that is a prominent feature of Hindu temples in North India

9B. Islam

• Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Israel, 687-691 CE

• Shrine

• Entered through 4 points of the compass

• Mosaic on top half of walls

• Stone on lower half of walls

• Surface was resurfaced with gold in 1990s, before this had copper

• Shape was influenced by San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

• Constructed of double shell dome w/ 32 converging wood ribs

• Great Mosque of Damascus, Damascus, Syria, 704-715 CE

• Takes Christian prototype to make something new for new religion 

• Islamic mosque terms:

• Minaret: corner towers. 3 minarets here, singing voices/ defense mechanism

• Sahn: courtyard.had a fountain, surrounded by colonnades

• Prayer hall: The prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Damascus, also known as the Umayyad Mosque, is a long, east-west-oriented space with three aisles and a central nave

• Mihrab: an alcove in the center of the qibla wall that focuses Muslims in their prayers

• Qibla: wall that shows the direction Muslims pray towards

9C.Tang China and Japan

• Foguang Monastery, Shanxi Province, China, 857 CE

Parts:

• Monks quarters

• Wang hall

• Hui zhi yuan gate

• Xiang feng hua yu building

• Northern wing

• East hall, 7x4bays, northern wing

- Dougong: interlocking wooden brackets used in traditional Chinese architecture to connect columns to beams and rafters, distributing the weight of the roof and providing stability, especially during earthquakes.

• Fogong Si Pagoda, Yingxian, China, 1056 CE

• Odd number of levels

• Alternating stories

• Windowless spaces

• Bracket systems at each level 

-Pagoda: A multistoried Chinese or Japanese prayer tower with elaborately projecting roofs at each story. (7.2)

• Imperial Shinto Great Shrine, Ise, Japan, begun 792 CE<----plan 

Key terms/ parts of this work:

- Torii (p.249):  A torii is a traditional Japanese gate that marks the entrance to a Shinto shrine, symbolizing the transition from the mundane to the sacred.

- Chigi (p.249): Chigi are decorative rafters that stick out from the gables of Shinto shrine roofs. They are often gilded and are a key feature of traditional Shinto architecture.

- Shoden (p.249): A shoden is the main hall of a Shinto shrine, where sacred objects representing the kami (spirits) are housed. It is a modest wooden structure that serves as the focal point for worship and rituals.

• Most sacred site of Ise Shrine

Week 10

Key Works: 

10A Africa

• Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Africa, 1100-1400 CE

High plateau, high above sea level, temperatures were lower

• More than 4000 gold, copper mines- mineral rich area

• 40% of total mine gold came from this area

• At Least 7 stonewall complexes in this area

• Great zimbabwe extends at least 2000 acres

• The culture was the shona people, largest ethnic people

• Famous in legend, once thought to be the residence of the biblical queen of shibah. 

• A natural citadel, rock acropylous that covered all the land

• This one is the great enclosure 

• Site had incredibly complex drainage system 

• 18-20,000 people in this capital

• Only some of the people lived inside the stone enclosure, they were the elite

• Fortified administrative center, where kings governed, place of power

• No straight lines in structure

                               Conical tower/ silo

                                                        /

          ^Parallel passage                    ^entrances

Build and structure:

• Contained houses inside

• No mortar, precise coursing 

• Decorative symbolic purpose

• Thousands of hours of labor

• Representing power and authority by the silo (conical tower)

  • Silo: A well-sealed structure, usually without windows, for storing grain. 

    • 10 m tall

    • Completely solid inside

Week 11

Key Terms:

Corbeled vault: A corbeled vault is a type of ceiling or roof made by stacking stones or bricks in layers that gradually project inward until they meet at the top. 

This technique creates an arch-like shape without using true arches.

Chacmol:  An altar made in the shape of a reclining person with the belly facing the sky, used by Aztecs and earlier Mesoamerican cultures for blood sacrifices. (10.3)

Key Works:

11A. Mayan

• Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, ca 890 CE (Includes El Castillo (Temple of Kulkukan), Ball Court and El Caracol)

                   Cenotes^

Cenote (p.264): A cenote is a natural sinkhole or pit formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock, exposing groundwater underneath

• Roadways are plaster paved, lifted above rainforest floor

  • They connected the cenotes and the structure

Parts of this work

• El castillo

  • The castle

  • Constructed around 900 CE

  • Centrally located

  • Stepped mass form, series of stepped mass terraces

  • Reach a height of about 100 feet or 30 m

  • All four sides had staircases on the sides that led up to pavilion at the top

  • Each 4 sides faced a cardinal direction, 91 steps each side, 364 total steps, plus the platform on the top is 365. (days in calendar)

  • Constructed w limestone block with stone tools (randomly available materials)

  • Mortar (burnt lined cement)

  • Would have been faced with stucco, so brightly colored and painted

  • Temple pyramid, leading up to the square pavilion

  • A snake carved head on side

  • During spring and fall, there is a shadow cast on the structure that looks like a snake body 

    • Tells us link to nature, movement of the sun

  • Corbeled arch at door entrances 

• The great ball court

  • Sides of walls carved with reliefs

  • Skull rack, has relief carved of skulls of the losers

  • Violent nature of the game, sacrifice was seen to be necessary to ensure the sustenance of life

  • Unusual round structure, circular tower on the caracol

• Caracol

• Word means snail

• Set on platforms, series of 2 staircases

• Area for ritual and sacrifice

• Round tower sits on a platform, and another platform to raise it

• Main circular structure has 4 entrances

• Believe that it was rebuilt many times

• Built to resemble a snail

• Upper portion has chamber with slots that have been carved into the masonry, reveal alignments to the planet venus 

  • The idea is tracking venus

  • Considered a war god, and the suns twin by the ancient mayans

  •    Walk up from circular staircase

11B. Pre-Contact America

Mound types:

• Effigy: mounds shaped like animals (snakes, birds, bears) build along the great lakes

• Platform: built with a flat top, intended to be the platform for a structure that was built on top. Usually rectangular. 

  • Example: Eastern north american platform mound section

• Serpent Mound, Adena, Ohio, ca 300 BCE-1000 CE

• Begun by adena people, finished by poor ancient people

• Significance for size and historical relevance

• Effigy mound, in shape of snake

• Length around 300m, 1-3 feet in height

• Has 3 parts, head, body, coil

• Width varies 20-25 ft

• Winds at the tail coiling at very end

• Conformed to natural topography of the site

• The head of the creature approaches a steep natural cliff above the cliff

• Burials near by

• Suggested that it had a relationship to astronomical environments

• Cahokia Mounds, (includes Monks Mound), Collinsville, Illinois, ca 1050-1200 CE

Parts: 

• a large open grand plaza

Plaza: Spanish word for an open public space in a city. (12.1)

• Monk’s mound, large platform found

  • About as high as 100 feet

  • Series of 4 terraces

  • Base suggested that it had dimensions similar to the great pyramid ageza ?

  • Constructed layers of soil and clay, that were dug up

Native american cultures of southwest: 

• Cliff palace, mesa verde, colorado

• Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 12th century CE

• Desert region, water is scarce

• Natural springs maybe, have been depleted over time

• A series of villages, varying in size

• Kivas = circular round rooms

• You can tell it was built in different times because the quality of the masonry

• Providing usable outdoor south facing space

• Variety or room sizes

• Variety of size of kivas

• Follows slope of cliff

• South facing rooms provide best warmth for the units

• Cooking could be done outside during summer, moved inside during winter

Kiva: Male meeting hall used by the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest, usually round and below grade. (10.3)

Kiva, Pueblo Bonito

• Large circular rooms, also underground

• Used as exclusively male spaces for religious rituals

• Entered through oculus in the room, (hole in roof)

• Had benches lining interior walls

• fireplace/ hearth with deflector 

  • Deflector is method of keeping ventilating wind from deflection the fire, protected the fire

• They were roofed