Great buildings

258 Pages·2012·101.984 MB·English

by  Wilkinson, Philip

THE WORLD’S ARCHITECTURAL MASTERPIECES EXPLORED AND EXPLAINED

BUILDINGS
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BUILDINGS
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Contents
Angkor Wat 56
Angkor, Cambodia
Looking at Buildings 6
Abbaye de Ste-Madeleine 60 Belém Tower 112
Vézelay, France Lisbon, Portugal
Great Pyramid 16 Krak des Chevaliers 64 Château de Chambord 116
Giza, Egypt Near Homs, Syria Loire Valley, France
The Parthenon 20 Borgund Stave Church 68 St. Basil’s Cathedral 120
Athens, Greece Lærdal, Norway Moscow, Russia
Colosseum 24 Chartres Cathedral 72 Villa La Rotonda 124
Rome, Italy Chartres, France Vicenza, Italy
2500 bce–1100 1100–1500 1500–1700
Pantheon 28 Burghausen Castle 78 Himeji Castle 128
Rome, Italy Burghausen, Germany Himeji, Japan
Hagia Sophia 32 Florence Cathedral 82 Masjid-i-Shah 132
Istanbul, Turkey Florence, Italy Isfahan, Iran
Temple of the Inscriptions 38 Alhambra 88 Taj Mahal 136
Palenque, Mexico Granada, Spain Agra, India
Bulguksa Temple 42 Doge’s Palace 94 Royal Palace 142
Jinheon-Dong, South Korea Venice, Italy Amsterdam, Netherlands
Palatine Chapel 46 Temple of Heaven 98 Palace of Versailles 146
Aachen, Germany Beijing, China Paris, France
Borobudur 50 King’s College Chapel 102
Magelang, Java, Indonesia Cambridge, UK
Ducal Palace 106
Urbino, Italy
DK LONDON DK INDIA
Senior Editor Angela Wilkes Senior Editor Kingshuk Ghoshal
LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH, Senior Art Editor Gillian Andrews Senior Art Editor Rajnish Kashyap
MELBOURNE, DELHI Editor Anna Kruger Editors Shatarupa Chaudhuri,
Designer Phil Gamble Esha Banerjee
Production Editor Tony Phipps Art Editors Pooja Pipil, Vikas Chauhan
Production Controller Mandy Inness DTP Designers Shanker Prasad,
WRITTEN BY
Picture Research Sarah Smithies, Roland Smithies Arjinder Singh
Philip Wilkinson Jacket Designer Mark Cavanagh Managing Editor Saloni Talwar
Managing Editor Stephanie Farrow Managing Art Editor Romi Chakraborty
Managing Art Editor Lee Griffiths DTP Manager Balwant Singh
US Editors Kate Johnsen, Shannon Beatty Managing Director Aparna Sharma
Melk Abbey 154 Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao 222
Melk, Austria Bilbao, Spain
Blenheim Palace 158 Chrysler Building 194 Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre 226
Woodstock, UK New York City, USA Nouméa, New Caledonia
Amalienburg Pavilion 164 Villa Savoye 198 Jin Mao Tower 230
Nymphenburg, Germany Poissy, France Shanghai, China
Monticello 168 Fallingwater 202 Seattle Central Library 236
Charlottesville, USA Pennsylvania, USA Seattle, USA
1700–1900 1900 TO PRESENT
Houses of Parliament 172 Sydney Opera House 208 Palace of the Arts 238
London, UK Sydney, Australia Valencia, Spain
Neuschwanstein Castle 176 Brasília Cathedral 212 MAXXI 240
Bavaria, Germany Brasília, Brazil Rome, Italy
Sagrada Familia 180 Pompidou Centre 216 Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum 244
Barcelona, Spain Paris, France Kōchi, Japan
Hôtel Tassel 186 National Gallery of Canada 220
Brussels, Belgium Ottawa, Canada
Glossary 246
Grand Palais 188 Index 250
Paris, France Acknowledgments 255
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7
LOOKING AT BUILDINGS
Looking at
Buildings
Buildings are among the largest structures made by human beings,
and the most ubiquitous. Apart from agriculture, no human activity
has changed the face of the Earth more than architecture. All around
the world there are buildings from across the ages, some dating back
thousands of years. Fascinatingly diverse, they range from simple
wooden churches to magnificent Gothic cathedrals, and from grandiose
palaces to minimalist modernist villas.
The astonishing variety of buildings stems in part from the different
cultural traditions that have developed around the world. Western
architecture, with its succession of styles from classical to Gothic, is
one of the most prominent traditions, and its influence has spread far
and wide, but the buildings of other civilizations—those of China, Japan,
or Islam, for example—are equally fascinating. Great Buildings takes an
in-depth look at some of the most distinctive buildings produced by
these different traditions. It also explores innovative buildings of the
20th and 21st centuries, designed by architects who have broken with
tradition and work internationally.
Looking at architecture is a personal experience, but one that is enriched
by broader knowledge—the more you know about buildings, the closer
you look, and the more you notice and enjoy. Like a helpful guide
standing next to you, this book takes you on a visual tour of 53 of the
world’s great buildings—outstanding examples of architecture that are
typical of their period or style. The book suggests a way to look at every
building—taking it in as a whole, then looking slowly around the outside
before going inside to explore the interior and take a close look at details.
This approach highlights how one room leads to another in a carefully
managed, almost theatrical country house, or how one space merges
seamlessly into the next in the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd
Wright. It helps you to understand how the spaces in a Buddhist temple
embody the essence of the faith, and how contemporary architects have
planned the interior of an art gallery or an office block. By understanding
the parts of buildings, you can appreciate them as a whole—their history
and purpose, their use of space and form, and the fascinating details
that make them unique. To do so makes you marvel at the skill of the
architects, builders, and craftsmen who created these great buildings.
8
LOOKING AT BUILDINGS
External form
Every building exists in three dimensions, and when entrance courtyards that spread out over a huge
you look at it from the outside, you see a solid area. These different approaches suggest contrasting
object. This three-dimensional quality of a structure ways of living—a cultured country retreat in the
is often called its form, and the form of a building case of the villa, a lifestyle on the most lavish scale
has a huge impact on how you perceive it. Whether at Versailles, with a sizable household and staff.
a building dominates its setting or blends into it, The villa looks out over the landscape; the palace,
whether it is tall or hugs the ground, whether however, seems to take over and colonize the
its façades are symmetrical or irregular, whether it landscape with its all-embracing form.
has an internal courtyard or not—all of these are
FORM AND FAITH
different aspects of a building’s form.
Religious buildings show similar contrasts of form.
COMPACT OR EXTENDED FORMS
Mosques often combine a spacious prayer hall,
Even two buildings with a similar purpose—two sometimes roofed with a dome, with one or more
country houses, for example—can take radically slender minarets; a major mosque may also have
different forms because their owners and architects a courtyard leading to various other rooms and
had different priorities. Some houses, such as buildings. Many Christian churches, especially large
Palladio’s villas, have a compact, symmetrical form cathedrals and abbeys, combine upward-pointing
focused on a central feature—a portico or a dome spires, turrets, and pinnacles with a layout that
perhaps. Although houses like this can be grand and places an emphasis on length. Buildings associated
formal, they are also self-contained, occupy relatively with eastern religions, such as Buddhist shrines, are
modest sites, and were designed to accommodate usually more centralized structures and, although
just a small number of people. There are, however, they may rise to a point, they do not have the tall,
country houses that take a very different form— slender, spires of Gothic cathedrals. The form of
vast, sprawling buildings that extend for thousands different kinds of religious structures has evolved
of feet, incorporating service wings, courtyards, from the way they were used. A mosque needs to
gatehouses, and other elements. This kind of house— accommodate a group of people at prayer and
the Palace of Versailles outside Paris is a famous to provide a place from which the call to prayer is
example—has long and complex façades, and made. A cathedral, with its spires and grand west
21 CONTRASTING HOUSES While the Villa La Rotonda, Italy (left), has a compact,
self-contained plan centered on its dome, Blenheim Palace in the UK (above)
extends over an enormous site and is visible from far across its vast park.
Both the houses however, have formal, symmetrical façades and use elements
of classical architecture to create a sense of grandeur.