978-0205677207 Chapter 15

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Chapter Fifteen: Architecture

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

• Environment

• Load-Bearing Construction

• Post-and-Lintel

• Arches and Vaults and Domes

• Cast-Iron Construction

• Frame Construction

• Steel-and-Reinforced-Concrete Construction

Works in Progress

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater

The Critical Process

Thinking about Architecture: Moshe Safdie’s Habitat and Taos Pueblo

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

This Chapter Will:

• discuss the significance of topography to architectural forms

• identify and illustrate the history of architectural methods and technologies

KEY TERMS

topography dome platform wood frame / balloon

technology voussoir column I-beam

ziggurats barrel vault entablature reinforced concrete

kiva keystone springing cast-iron

sipapu groined vault order cantilever

shell system pointed arch stylobate steel

skeleton-and-skin flying buttress shaft International Style

tensile strength entasis capital suburb

MyArtsLab RESOURCES

Closer Look: The Classical Orders

Primary Source Document: Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) – Artists on Art

LECTURE AND DISCUSSION TOPICS

1. Environment and Technology

Introduce this chapter by asking students to identify the different types of architecture

(religious, memorial, residential, commercial, etc.) used by humankind throughout

history. Describe the oldest surviving memorial architecture with the Egyptian Pyramids

Compare and contrast the Greek Parthenon, the Roman Pantheon, and the Gothic

Cathedral. Discuss the differences in appearance, function, and location, and how these

characteristics reflect their respective societies.

2. Early Building Technology

Remind students that early building technology was predicated on the availability of

materials. Sun-dried brick, timber, straw, and other perishable materials were used to

create shelters and other ancient architecture, yet only the structures made with more

durable materials, such as stone, have survived the centuries. The most basic and durable

architecture emphasized symmetry, order, logic, and rationality, values intrinsic to all

areas of art and life in Classical Greece. Have students find on campus, or in their

community, the architectural components of the post-and-lintel method of construction,

including the Greek orders.

Pont du Gard (fig. 462), an aqueduct and bridge built using arches, is the architectural

achievement of Roman engineering. To overcome the limitations of the Greek post-and-

lintel method of construction, the Romans perfected the arch method of construction and

invented a new architectural material—concrete. The arch could span a broad space and

expand in both directions to form a barrel vault, or in 360 degrees to form a dome (see

3. Building in the Middle Ages

Survey art and architecture in Western Europe from the 12th to the 15th centuries to

focus on church building, where sculpture and painting were integrated with architecture

to create a multimedia environment for communal and personal devotion. Discuss the

building techniques of the period, using examples from the chapter. Emphasize the scale

of cathedrals such as Amiens (fig. 470) and Notre Dame (fig. 472). In order to achieve

through them. The element of light not only served a practical purpose but a symbolic

one, since light symbolized God. The stained glass at Chartres Cathedral (see The Rose

Window, fig. 189) was made by assembling small bits of colored glass within a lead

frame. Chartres is unique because most of its stained glass survived both World Wars.

4. Modern Architecture

With the invention of the elevator in the late 19th century, buildings could be extended

vertically. With the invention of new materials such as cast iron, steel, and steel

487-489), Le Corbusier’s “machines for living” (see figs. 485 & 486), and Ludwig Miës

van der Rohe’s “less is more” approach (see figs. 490 & 491). Point out the architectural

contributions made by each architect.

Stress to students that as the International Style and Miës van der Rohe’s dictum “less is

more” came to represent impersonality and conformity, architects such as Le Corbusier

and Eero Saarinen attempted to humanize architecture with such expressive works as

5. Green Architecture

Since man started creating permanent structures, architecture has conformed to the

environment and technology of the time and place it was created. For a time, during the

mid-20th century, it can be said that architecture deviated from this as new technologies

allowed for architects to consider their buildings as art forms that existed for its own

sake. They followed the dictum “form over function”. With the beginning of

Postmodernism in architecture (the first discipline to use the term), there was a return to,

at least, the idea that architecture should serve, first and foremost the people that use it.

Now, with dwindling natural resources, architects are again returning to the idea that

architecture should strive to fit within its natural setting and use technologies appropriate

6. Community Life

Environmental design has tremendous impact on our daily lives. Encourage students to

contemplate how they encounter environmental designs on a regular basis, whether it is

in the campus community or the community itself. Point out how the challenge of

incorporating the natural world into an urban context has been resolved by urban

designers and architects. Focus attention on Frederick Law Olmsted’s achievements in

for recreation and to make sure that there were scenic areas available to all residents. To

accomplish this, he preserved the floodplain and the riverbanks as well as two open areas

of upland. Olmsted paid particular attention to the inner roads of the community, making

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them as scenic as possible. He designed streets that followed the curve of the land and

eased the grade of the slopes. Finally, he avoided all uses of right angle intersections,

creating more public space. He also decided that the area between public streets and

houses was private land with a public function: it was the transitional area between public

and private.

7. The Rebuilding of the World Trade Center Site

The site at Ground Zero in New York City, where terrorists brought down the World

Trade Center, is a massive complex. Unlike the building of a commercial skyscraper in

CRITICAL THINKING: More Opportunities to Think about Art

1. Works in Progress: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater

The Works in Progress section of this chapter discusses Frank Lloyd Wright’s

Fallingwater (figs. 487-489), an excellent example of modern architecture and Lloyd’s

2. Works in Progress: Mierle Ukeles’s Fresh Kills Landfill Project

Mierle Laderman Ukeles became the New York City sanitation department’s unpaid

511). The collaborative project was designed to remediate, reshape, transform, and

recapture the landfill as healed public space after it closed in 2001. Since 1948, Staten

Islanders had watched in outrage as the Fresh Kills Landfill, the so-called “temporary

solution” to New York City’s waste disposal problem, grew to a monstrosity as high as

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3. Thinking about Architecture: Consider how we can clearly see in architecture that

“the more things change, the more they stay the same”. Much has changed in the some

11,000 years that mankind has made permanent structures—technology, aesthetics,

population densities, architectural needs—but architecture still serves a basic human need

for shelter. Also, many of the forms that are now used in architecture have been for a

very long time. Look at the examples of the Taos Pueblo and Moshe Safdie’s Habitat, in

Montreal. Despite much distance and more time between the construction of these two

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

1. Enhance Your Environment

In essay form, have students propose how they could enhance their living environment.

2. A Meeting of the Minds

Have students create a dialogue between two major figures associated with architecture

such as Miës van der Rohe and Charles Moore, or Mierle Ukeles and Leonardo da Vinci.

3. Modern vs. Postmodern

Assign students to visit the closest city and compile a list of buildings located in its center

(or downtown). Students will then categorize each building as modern or postmodern

4. Campus Architect

Have students write a case study about one problem facing their campus community.

Then have them create a design that would alleviate the problem. For example, students

HANDS-ON PROJECTS

1. The Wright House

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Ask students to imagine that money is no object. Have them design a floor plan for their

2. Fresh Kills Commission

Have students propose their own resolution for the redesign of the Fresh Kills Landfill

with attention to the social production of public art and community spirit.

Other Suggested Websites:

The Egyptian Pyramids and their construction is illustrated and explained at

exceptionally deep site, offering computer graphics, and construction information.

Miës van der Rohe’s greatest buildings online can be viewed at