Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning

816 Pages·2013·66.55 MB·English

by  Leland M. Roth

“A versatile main text that works well for both general humanities courses
ROTH T H I R D E D I T I O N
and more advanced classes in architectural history.”
—Dr. David Seamon, Kansas State University CLARK
Understanding
“Powerful and moving.”
—Judith Cushman-Hammer, Appalachian State University U
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This widely acclaimed, beautifully illustrated survey of Western architecture is now fully
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Architecture
revised throughout, including essays on non-Western traditions. The expanded book vividly
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examines the structure, function, history, and meaning of architecture in ways that are both
accessible and engaging. D
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Its Elements, History, and Meaning
Significant features of the third edition include:
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Increased global coverage, with new essays on Africa, Japan, China, India, Islamic H
architecture, and the architecture of the Americas.
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A new chapter covering twenty-first century architecture. R
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Updated coverage of sustainable and green architecture and its impact on design. I
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• Revised historical survey and expanded and illustrated timeline. TS
Thoroughly revised and expanded art program, including more than 650 black and
white images–135 new to this edition, and more than 200 line art drawings created T
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by author Leland M. Roth. A new 32-page, full-color insert features more than 50
new color images. A
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Understanding Architecture continues to be the only text in the field to examine architecture
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as a cultural phenomenon as well as an artistic and technological achievement with its
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straightforward, two-part structure: The Elements of Architecture and The History and
Meaning of Architecture. Comprehensive and clearly written, Understanding Architecture is D
a classic survey of architecture. U
Leland M. Roth is Marion Dean Ross Professor of Architectural History Emeritus at the I
University of Oregon at Eugene. Dr. Roth is the author of American Architecture: A History R
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(Westview Press), McKim, Mead & White, and other works.
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Amanda C. Roth Clark received her Doctor of Philosophy from The University of G
Alabama, completing her doctoral work on the topic of contemporary artists’ books. She
holds Master and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Oregon in the fields of
Western architectural history and Asian art. She is the daughter of Leland M. Roth.
Cover Image: Rafael Moneo, Museum of Roman Art, Mérida, Spain, 1980-1986. © Lluís Casals, Fotografia de Arquitectura.
Cover Design: Miguel Santana & Wendy Halitzer
THIRD
EDITION
LELAND M. ROTH
AND
www.routledge.com
AMANDA C. ROTH CLARK
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Understanding Architecture
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Louis I. Kahn, The Phillips Exeter Library, Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, 1965–1971. A good example of what
Louis Kahn meant when he said “architecture is what nature cannot make.” Photo: Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of
Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
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Understanding
Architecture
Its Elements, History, and Meaning
THIRD EDITION
Leland M. Roth
and
Amanda C. Roth Clark
New York London
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First published 2014 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2014 by Leland M. Roth and Amanda C. Roth Clark
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Every effort has been made to secure required permissions for all text, images, maps, and other art
reprinted in this volume.
Design and composition by Trish Wilkinson
Set in 9.5-point Goudy Old Style
Photo research by Sue Howard
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roth, Leland M.
Understanding architecture: its elements, history, and meaning / Leland M. Roth and
Amanda C. Roth Clark.—Third edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8133-4903-9 (pbk.)
1. Architecture. 2. Architecture—History. I. Title.
NA2500.R68 2013
720.9—dc23 2013028188
ISBN 13: 9780813349039 (pbk)
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Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Preface xxxv
Introduction 1
Part I
The Elements of Architecture
1 Architecture: The Art of Shaping of Space 9
2 “Commoditie”: Building Functions 21
Function, 22
3 “Firmeness”: Structure, or How Does the Building Stand Up? 33
Elements of the Oldest Architecture, 36
The Elements of Lithic (Stone) Structure: The Post and Lintel, 39
The Classical Orders, 42
Structural Frames, 44
The Arch, 46
Vaults, 47
Domes, 48
Trusses, 53
Space Frames and Geodesic Domes, 54
Shells, 54
Suspension Structures, 56
Building Technology and Risk, 65
Structure as Cultural Expression, 66
4 “Delight”: Seeing Architecture 69
Visual Perception, 69
Proportion, 75
Scale, 76
Rhythm, 79
v
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vi Contents
Texture, 82
Light, 87
Color, 87
Ugliness, 91
Ornament, 91
5 Architecture and Sound 103
Hearing Buildings, 103
Sound: Focusing and Dispersing, 104
Sound: Lingering and Echoing, 105
Shaping Early Church Music, 107
The Synchronous Development of Orchestras and Orchestral Halls, 111
6 Architecture: Part of the Natural Environment 117
Buildings, Sun, and Heat, 117
Buildings and the Wind, 126
The Chemistry of Buildings, 131
7 The Architect: From High Priest to Profession 135
8 Architecture, Memory, and Economics 153
Economics and Historic Preservation, 153
Chronology 160
Part II
The History and Meaning of Architecture
9 The Beginnings of Architecture: From Caves to Cities 165
Early Hominids, 165
Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens,167
Neolithic Dwellings and Structures, 171
Western European Megaliths, 177
From Villages to Cities, 182
The Invention of Architecture, 185
10 The Architecture of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt 187
Mesopotamia: The Land Between the Rivers, 187
Egypt: The Gift of the Nile, 194
The Landscape of Egypt, 194
The Culture of Egypt, 196
Egyptian History, 198
Egyptian Funerary Architecture, 200
Egyptian Tombs, 206
The Temple of Amon at Karnak and Other Egyptian Temples, 207
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Contents vii
Egyptian Villages and Houses, 212
Late Egyptian Architecture, 215
An Architecture for Eternity, 217
11 Greek Architecture 219
The Geography of Greece, 219
Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, 220
The Greek Character, 224
The Greek Polis, 225
Greek City Planning, 226
Domestic Architecture, 230
Public Buildings, 230
The Greek Temple, 234
Hellenistic Architecture, 244
An Architecture of Excellence, 247
12 Roman Architecture 249
Roman History, 249
The Roman Character, 251
Roman Religion and the Roman Temple, 252
Roman Urban Planning, 254
The Enclosure and Manipulation of Space, 257
Domestic Architecture, 263
Public Buildings, 266
Later Roman “Baroque” Architecture, 272
An Architecture of Universality, 272
ESSAY 1: Indian Architecture 275
13 Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture 283
The Transformation of the Roman Empire, 283
Early Christian Architecture, 285
The Movement of Peoples, 293
Monasticism, 295
Byzantine Architecture, 295
An Architecture of Heaven, 305
ESSAY 2: Islamic Architecture 307
Islamic Architecture and the West, 307
Islam Develops, 307
The Mosque, 308
Secular Islamic Buildings, 309
Islamic Architecture in Spain, 311
Islamic Architecture in India, 312
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viii Contents
14 Medieval Architecture 315
The Early Middle Ages, 316
The High Middle Ages: Gothic Architecture, 337
15 Renaissance Architecture 365
Italy in the Fifteenth Century, 365
The Renaissance Patron, 367
Humanism, 367
Roman Building Scale Re-achieved: Brunelleschi’s Dome, 368
Vitruvius and Ideal Form, 371
Brunelleschi and Rationally Ordered Space, 373
Idealized Forms and the Centrally Planned Church, 377
Alberti’s Latin Cross Churches, 379
Bramante and the New Saint Peter’s, Rome, 381
Residential Architecture: Merchant Prince Palaces, 388
Mannerism: Renaissance Perfection in Play, 393
The Palazzo del Te, 394
Late Italian Renaissance Gardens, 397
The Renaissance Exported, 400
An Architecture of Humanist Ideals, 406
ESSAY 3: Ancient Architecture in the Americas 409
Central America, 409
16 Baroque and Rococo Architecture 415
An Architecture for the Senses, 416
Baroque Churches in Rome, 417
An Architecture of Emotional Power, 418
The Central Plan Modified: Bernini’s Churches, 422
Borromini’s Churches, 424
Guarini’s Churches, 429
Baroque Scale, 431
French Baroque: Versailles, 434
English Baroque, 438
The Baroque Staircase, 442
Rococo Architecture: The End of the Baroque, 447
An Architecture of Artifice, 453
ESSAY 4: Chinese Architecture 455
17 The Origins of Modernism: Architecture in the
Age of Enlightenment, 1720–1790 463
The Emergence of Art and Architectural History, 466
A Rational Architecture: Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, 469
“Speaking Architecture,” 470
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Contents ix
Designing the City, 472
The English Garden: “Consult the Geniusof the Place”, 483
Eclecticism and the Architecture of Revolutions, 489
The Industrial Revolution, 492
An Architecture of Rationality, 493
ESSAY 5: Japanese Architecture 497
18 The Roots of Modernism: The Nineteenth Century 505
Neoclassicism, 506
The Gothic Revival, 509
Egyptian Revival, 512
Creative Eclecticism, 516
The Architecture of the New Industrialism, 521
Industry and Urban Growth, 525
Reaction to the Machine, 531
Academic Eclecticism and The École des Beaux-Arts, 537
ESSAY 6: African Architecture 549
19 Versions of Modern Architecture, 1914–1970 557
An Architecture of Its Own Time, 557
Creative Eclecticism (Redux), 561
National Romanticism, 563
Modernism: Phase One, 1914–1940, 566
A Counter-Architecture to Rationalism: German Expressionism in the 1920s, 568
Functional Utilitarianism and the Rise of International Modernism, 571
Modernism: Phase Two, 1945–1970, 582
Modernism: Form Follows Function—or the Other Way Around?, 584
Brutalism: The Rough Edge of Modernism, 603
An Architecture of Perfect Function: Success or Failure?, 605
20 The Expansion of Modernism:
From the Twentieth Century into the Twenty-First 609
Postmodernism Emerges, 611
Late Modernism or Neo-Modernism, 639
Sculpted (Shaped) Modernism, 630
High Tech, 632
Megastructures, 633
Offices Above the Clouds, 636
The International Architect, 639
Resurgent Expressionism, 641
Deconstructivism, 644
Critical Regionalism, 647
Building Communities, 652