History of Architecture I Lect.

1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

History of Architecture I

Lecture 1. Introduction

Prepared By Tsegaye Kassa (lecturer)

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

1. Courses of the Module

I. Category Description: History and Theory of Architecture

Module 27: History of Architecture: Introduction to History of art and Architecture, History of
Architecture I, History of Architecture II
Module 28: Ethiopian History of Architecture
Module 29 : Theory of Architecture I, Theory of Architecture II

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

1. Courses of the Module

1.1. Introduction to History of art and Architecture: ARCH2271

• Course Objectives & Competences to be acquired:

 Introduces the history of fine arts (painting, sculpture and architecture) -
 It focuses on buildings from technological, social, artistic, religious and political points of view in order to
create an understanding for the complex factors that shape architecture.
 Students will be enabled to carry out case studies on historical buildings and themes.
• Course Description/ Content:
• The course focuses on brief history of art:
 from prehistory to romanticism (19th century) world history of art,
 impressionism, post impressionism, modern art, post modern introduces Methodologies of art history,
language of art, stylistic terminology;

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

1. Courses of the Module

1.2. History of Architecture I: Arch 2272

• Course Objectives & Competences to be acquired:

 The course focuses on the architecture and urbanism of pre-historic and ancient civilizations (Mesopotamian, Egyptian;
Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, Islamic Architecture)
 Medieval -18th century Europe (Early Christian and Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo)

• Course Description/ Content:

 This course introduces students to the main buildings, cities, principles and architects of different world cultures.
 It focuses on buildings from technological, social, artistic, religious and political points of view in order to create an
understanding for the complex factors that shape architecture.
 This course covers the periods from ancient times to the beginning of the industrial revolution and the modern movement in
architecture. It aims not to go along chronological lines only but also draw references across historical periods and cultures.
 Students will be enabled to carry out case studies on historical buildings and themes.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

1. Courses of the Module

1.3. History of Architecture II: Arch 3271

• Course Objectives & Competences to be acquired:

 This course introduces students to the main buildings, cities, principles and architects of the modern movement from the late
19th century until the 1960s.
 It focuses on the interrelation of industrialization and architecture and the technological, social, artistic and political changes
arising there from.
 Students will be enabled to carry out case studies on buildings and themes of the modern.

• Course Description/ Content:

 Rationalism, Industrialization and the Search for Principles: Neoclassicism, Romantic Classicism, Enlightenment, MODERNISM,
Chicago School and the invention of the sky-scrapper, Art Nouveau and Secession, Arts and Crafts/ Organic Architecture, The
Werkbund, De Stijl, and the Bauhaus Avant-Gardes and Machine Aesthetic, Architecture After Modernism, Post War
Reconstructions Critical Reactions after 1960, Populist Movements, Postmodernism, DE constructivism, Minimalism, Hi- Tech,
Regionalism Ecological Approaches, Contemporary Architecture
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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

1. Courses of the Module

1.4. Ethiopian History of Architecture: Arch 3282

• Course Objectives & Competences to be acquired:

 This module introduces students to the development of vernacular, historic and modern architecture and
settlements in Ethiopia.
• Course Description/ Content:
 Vernacular architecture and settlements
 Historic architecture from Yeha to Addis Ababa
 Urban architecture from pre-Axumite settlements to modern cities

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

2. Dictionary meaning of the word Architecture

architecture • n.
1. The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
>the style in which a building is designed and constructed.
Defining Architecture 2. The complex structure of something.
>the conceptual structure and logical organization of computer
or computer-based system.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

2.1. Architecture is Derived from:

Tectonics

Defining Architecture Architectonics

Architect - from Gk arkhitekton - ‘chief builder’.

architectonic /adj.
1) relating to architecture or architects.
2) having a clearly defined and artistically pleasing structure.
Architectonics / n.
1) the scientific study of architecture.
2) musical, literary, or artistic structure.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Subjective

Architecture =Art + science of buildings

Defining Architecture

Objective

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Architecture =Art + science of buildings

Defining Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Defining Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Architecture:
The Art
• The product or result of architectural work: buildings, collectively.
And Science
• A style or method of building characteristic of a people, place, or time.
Defining Architecture Of Designing
• The profession of designing buildings and other habitable environments.
And Constructing
• The conscious act of forming things resulting in a unifying or coherent
structure.
Buildings

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

For Le Corbusier, “ Architecture is the masterly, correct and

magnificent play of masses seen in light”. For him Architecture
with a capital A is an emotional and aesthetic experience.

Defining Architecture
But if we restricted our definition of architecture solely to those
buildings that raised our spirits, then we would end up with rather
a short list.

Some view there is a clear distinction between architecture,

building and engineering, and architecture is seen as „art‟,
whereas building and engineering are seen as utilitarian.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

We are surrounded by Architecture which is unavoidable art.

Architecture is written record of human activities.
Defining Architecture
Architecture has the power to affect and condition human
behavior.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Architecture is the art of how to waste space.

Philip Johnson, New York Times

Architecture is what nature cannot make.

Louis Kahn, Architect

Defining Architecture Architecture is an art for all to learn because all are
concerned with It.
John Ruskin

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

2.2. Architecture and Human Environments

Architecture is a richly informative cultural artifact. Not only it

includes buildings, but also those which necessitated
substantial expenditure of energy and funds, but also self built
vernacular houses.

Defining Architecture It is understood to be the whole of the environment built by

humans, including buildings, urban spaces, and landscapes.

architecture has the power to affect and condition

human behavior.

“We shape our buildings and our building shape us”

Architecture Environment

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Architecture and Human Environments

Unlike other animals human beings shape their
environment consciously.

“Architecture is deliberate remodeling of human

Defining Architecture environment ”

“Architecture is a conscious act, a reflective act, an act

that embodies countless decisions and choices.”

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Architecture and Human Environments

“Architecture, painting and sculpture are called the fine arts.

They appeal to the eye as music does to the ear.

Defining Architecture But architecture Is not judged by visual appeal alone.

Architectural buildings affect all of the human senses- sound,
smell, touch, taste. and vision”.
-Forrest Wilson

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

2.3. Elements of Architecture

Three basic elements of architecture coined by Roman
Architect Vitruvius.
Utility

Defining Architecture

Firmness Beauty

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Elements of Architecture

“In architecture as in all other operative arts, the end must

direct the operation. The end is to build well. Well-building has
three conditions: Commodity , Firmness and Delight.”
Defining Architecture Sir Henry Wotten: The Elements of Architecture. 1629

Commodity

Firmness Durability

Delight

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Elements of Architecture

The three basics also defined as Function, Structure and

Aesthetics.

Defining Architecture  Utility  Function

 Firmness  Structure

 Beauty  Aesthetics

+
Economy

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

2.4. What is Architecture? (additional definitions)

• Architecture is the art and technique of designing and erecting buildings, as distinguished from the
skills associated with construction.

• It is the practice of erecting physical structures where it is employed to fulfill both practical and
expressive requirements, and thus it serves both utilitarian and aesthetic ends.

• It is a practice where these two ends may be distinguished, while they cannot be separated, and the
relative weight given to each can vary widely.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

3. Natural and Social Contexts of Architecture

• Because every society – whether highly developed or less so, settled or nomadic – has a spatial
relationship to the natural world and to other societies (natural and social contexts), generally the
structures they produce reveal much about their:

 Environment (including climate and weather);

 History, ceremonies, ….Culture, and

 Artistic sensibility, as well as many aspects of daily life.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

4. Characteristics of Architecture

• The characteristics that distinguish a work of architecture from other man-made structures are:

a. Its suitability to use by human beings in general and the adaptability of it to particular human
activities;

b. The stability and permanence of the work’s construction, and

c. The communication of experience and ideas through its form.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Characteristics of Architecture

• All the above three conditions must be met in architecture.

• The second is a constant, while the first and third vary in relative importance according to the social
functions of buildings.

• If the function is chiefly utilitarian, as in a factory, communication is of less importance.

• If the function is chiefly expressive, as in a monumental tomb, utility is a minor concern.

• In some buildings, such as churches and city halls, utility and communication may be of equal
importance.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

5. Types of Architecture (uses)

• The types of architecture are established not by architects but by society, according to the needs of
its different institutions.

• Society sets the goals and assigns to the architect the job of finding the means of achieving them. The
uses of architecture is concerned with architectural typology, with the role of society in determining
the kinds of architecture, and with planning - the role of the architect in adapting designs to
particular uses and to the general physical needs of human beings.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Types of Architecture
A. Domestic Architecture: Vernacular, Power, Group housing

• Domestic architecture is produced for the social unit: the individual, family, or clan and their
dependents, human and animal.

• It provides shelter and security for the basic physical functions of life and at times also for
commercial, industrial, or agricultural activities that involve the family unit rather than the
community.

• The basic requirements of domestic architecture are simple: a place to sleep, prepare food, eat, and
perhaps work; a place that has some light and is protected from the weather.

• A single room with sturdy walls and roof, a door, a window, and a hearth are the necessities; all else is
luxury.
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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Types of Architecture
B. Religious Architecture: the Temple or Church, Shrines and memoria, Funerary art

• The history of architecture is concerned more with religious buildings than with any other type,
because in most past cultures the universal and exalted appeal of religion made the church or temple
the most expressive, the most permanent, and the most influential building in any community.

• The typology of religious architecture is complex, because no basic requirements such as those that
characterize domestic architecture are common to all religions and because the functions of any one
religion involve many different kinds of activity, all of which change with the evolution of cultural
patterns.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Types of Architecture
C. Governmental architecture

• The basic functions of government, to an even greater extent than those of religion, are similar in all
societies: administration, legislation, and the dispensing of justice.

• But the architectural needs differ according to the nature of the relationship between the governing
and the governed.

• Where governmental functions are centralized in the hands of a single individual, they are simple and
may be exercised in the ruler's residence; where the functions are shared by many and established as
specialized activities, they become complex and demand distinct structures.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Types of Architecture
C. Governmental architecture

• There are, however, no basic formal solutions for governmental architecture, since the practical
needs of government may be met in any sheltered area that has convenient space for deliberation
and administration.

• A distinct type is created rather by expressive functions arising from the ideology of the different
systems of political organization (monarchy, theocracy, democracy, etc.) and from the traditions of the
various offices of government (law courts, assembly houses, city halls, etc.).

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Types of Architecture
D. Recreational architecture: Theatres, Auditoriums, Athletic facilities, Museums and libraries

• Few recreations require architecture until they become institutionalized and must provide for both active and
passive participation (athletic events, dramatic, musical performances, etc.) or for communal participation in
essentially private luxuries (baths, museums, libraries).

• Throughout history, recreational architecture has been the most consistent in form of any type. Diversions may
change, but, as in domestic architecture, the physical makeup of the human being provides consistency.

• If his participation is passive he must be able to hear and to see in comfort. If his participation is active, he must
be given spaces suited to the chosen activity.

• In most cultures, recreational institutions have their origins in religious rites, but they easily gain independence,
and religious expression is reduced or eliminated in their architecture.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Types of Architecture
E. Architecture of welfare and education

• The principal institutions of public welfare are those that provide facilities for education, health, public security,
and utilities.

• Some of these functions are performed by the church and the state, but, since their character is not essentially
religious or political, they may require independent architectural solutions, particularly in urban environments.

• A consistent typology of this architecture, however, cannot be established throughout history, because the
acceptance of responsibility for the welfare of the community differs in degree in every social system.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Types of Architecture
F. Commercial and industrial architecture

• Buildings for exchange, transportation, communication, manufacturing, and power production meet the
principal needs of commerce and industry. In the past these needs were mostly unspecialized.

• They were met either within domestic architecture or in buildings distinguished from domestic types chiefly by
their size. Stores, banks, hostelries, guildhalls, and factories required only space for more persons and things
than houses could accommodate. Bridges, warehouses, and other structures not used for sheltering people
were, of course, specialized from the beginning and survived the Industrial Revolution without basic changes.

• The Industrial Revolution profoundly affected the typology as well as the techniques of architecture. Through the
introduction of the machine and mass production, economic life moved out of the domestic environment into an
area dominated by devices and processes rather than by individuals, creating the need for buildings more
specialized and more numerous than the total accumulation of types throughout history.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

6. Meaning in Architecture

• All buildings have the power to transmit ideas and emotions, whether or not the building is designed
to be ‘beautiful’.

• Architecture is building with meaning;

• Meaning in architecture can be conveyed in many different ways, for example through form,
materials, scale, ornamentation, signage and conventions and traditions.

• Meaning is not limited to indicating function (non-abstract, for example, a cross indicating a church)
but may be more abstract (for example, adopting the latest fashion to indicate wealth and status).

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Meaning in Architecture

• Ideas of beauty and meaning in architecture change according to place, time and the point of view of
the observer;

• The role of architectural history is to interpret the meanings of buildings and how the meanings are
conveyed;

• There are no right and wrong answers, interpretations are open to argument and must be supported
by reasons;

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

7. Methods of Studying History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

8. Objectives of Studying History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Why do we Study History of Architecture?

• To understand technological, sociological, aesthetic, and artistic influences which determine our built
environment;

• To get an holistic knowledge about development of architectural language;

• To understand the inception and growth of towns and cities, and the influences that have shaped
their urban forms and their architecture;

• To study and understand the patterns and characteristics of human settlements and individual
structures built according to local traditions;

• To understand behavioral, social, and cultural factors in design.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

9. How did Architecture Begin?

Hunting and gathering culture - also called foraging culture

• Any group of people that depends primarily on wild foods for subsistence. Until about 12,000 to 11,000 years
ago, when agriculture and animal domestication emerged in southwest Asia and in Mesoamerica, all peoples
were hunters and gatherers.
• Their strategies have been very diverse, depending greatly upon the local environment; foraging strategies have
included hunting or trapping big game, hunting or trapping smaller animals, fishing, gathering shellfish or insects,
and gathering wild plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, tubers, seeds, and nuts.
• Most hunters and gatherers combine a variety of these strategies in order to ensure a balanced diet.
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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

prehistory • n.
1) the period of time before written records.
2) the events or conditions leading up to a particular phenomenon.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

10. Major Periods in History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture
11. Architectural
Popular archutecture
Indigineou
Traditional
vernacular

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Culture and Civilization

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Culture and Civilization

B. Civilization:-

• Advanced state of a society possessing historical and cultural unity.

• Historians often write of world history in terms of the development of civilizations defined by a
characteristic empire.

• The regions of Mesopotamia, Egypt (the Nile Valley), and the Indus Valley are three rich areas for
studying how people and ideas come together to create civilizations and empires. - Civilization is
transmitted primarily by writing.

• Stone age, iron age and bronze age;

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Culture and Civilization

B. Civilization:-

i. Stone Age

• Prehistoric cultural stage, or level of human development, characterized by the creation and use of stone tools.
The Stone Age is usually divided into three separate periods—Paleolithic Period, Mesolithic Period, and Neolithic
Period—based on the degree of sophistication in the fashioning and use of tools.

• Paleolithic archaeology is concerned with the origins and development of early human culture between the first
appearance of man as a tool-using mammal, which is believed to have occurred about 600,000 or 700,000 years
ago, and near the beginning of the Holocene Epoch, about 8000 BC. It is included in the time span of the
Pleistocene, or Glacial, Epoch—an interval of about 2,600,000 years.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Culture and Civilization

B. Civilization:-

ii. Bronze Age

• Third phase in the development of material culture among the ancient peoples of Europe, Asia, and the Middle
East, following the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages.

• The term also denotes the first period in which metal was used.

• The date at which the age began varied with regions; in Greece and China, for instance, the Bronze Age began
before 3000 BC, whereas in Britain it did not start until about 1900 BC.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Culture and Civilization

B. Civilization:-

iii. Iron Age

• Final technological and cultural stage in the Stone–Bronze–Iron-Age sequence.

• The date of the full Iron Age, in which this metal for the most part replaced bronze in implements and weapons,
varied geographically, beginning in the Middle East and south-eastern Europe about 1200 BCE but in China not
until about 600 BCE.

• Although in the Middle East iron had limited use as a scarce and precious metal as early as 3000 BCE, there is no
indication that people at that time recognized its superior qualities over those of bronze.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

What is History of Architecture?

 The history of shelters men have built for themselves and for their gods.

 Architectural history is always a part, sometimes even the most important part, of history in general. Yet to
consider architectural history merely as a part of general history is to miss a great deal of its potential interest.

 Despite the social, technical, and functional aspects of buildings - those that link architecture most closely to
other aspects of history — architecture also exists in the realm of art, more specifically of the visual arts.

 It is the history of way of life: architecture is part of our personal history – we are born, we work and play, learn
and teach and worship, we sell and buy, try criminals, etc. in buildings.

 It is the history of the rise, development and decadence of building techniques;

 It is an expression of what men thought of life and death of each other and of their gods.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Architectural Education

• Architectural Education is about learning to understand our human-made environment. It is

about architecture as a physical vessel, a container of human activity.
• But since architecture is a social activity, building is also a social statement and the creation of a
cultural legacy.
• Moreover, every building, whether a commanding public structure or a private shelter—whether a
cathedral or a bicycle shed—is constructed in accordance with the laws of physics in ways that
crystallize the cultural values of its builders.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Architectural Education

• Hence, architectural education provides the understanding to the artistic urge that impels humans to
build, as well as to the structural properties that enable buildings to stand up.
• It is also an education to the silent cultural language that every building expresses. It, then, might be
thought of as a primer for visual environmental literacy.
• Architectural Education is about learning to understand our human-made environment. It is about
architecture as a physical vessel, a container of human activity.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Understanding the History of Architecture

• Architecture is generally something people take for granted, moving toward it, around it, through it,
using it without a thought. It is simply there, an unassuming backdrop, a mute, utilitarian container.

• Architecture is much more, however; it is the crystallization of ideas. It has been defined many ways -
as shelter in the form of art, a blossoming in stone and a flowering of geometry (Ralph Waldo
Emerson), frozen music (Goethe), human triumph over gravitation and the will to power (Nietzsche),
the will of an epoch translated into space (architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), the magnificent play
of forms in light (architect Le Corbusier), a cultural instrument (architect Louis I. Kahn), and even
inhabited sculpture (sculptor Constantin Brancusi).

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Understanding the History of Architecture

• More recently, architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable framed a rather clinical definition, calling
architecture a “balance of structural science and aesthetic expression for the satisfaction of needs
that go far beyond the utilitarian.”

• The architect Louis I. Kahn wrote that “architecture is what nature cannot make.”

• Humans are among several animals that build, and indeed some structures built by birds, bees, and
termites, to name but a few, demonstrate human-like engineering skill in their economy of structure.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Understanding the History of Architecture

• Architecture is the unavoidable art. Almost every moment of our lives, awake or asleep, we are in
buildings, around buildings, in spaces defined by buildings, or in landscapes shaped by human
artifice.

• It is possible to deliberately avoid looking at paintings, sculpture, drawings, or any other visual art,
but architecture constantly touches us, shapes our behaviour, and conditions our psychological
mood.

• The blind and deaf may not see paintings or hear music, but they must deal with architecture.

• Moreover, aside from being shelter or a protective umbrella, architecture is also the physical record
of human activity and aspiration; it is the cultural legacy left to us by all preceding generations.

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History of Architecture I Lect. 1, Introduction to the History of Architecture

Understanding the History of Architecture

• Since architecture is a social activity, building is also a social statement and the creation of a cultural
legacy.

• Moreover, every building, whether a commanding public structure or a private shelter—whether a

cathedral or a bicycle shed—is constructed in accordance with the laws of physics in ways that
crystallize the cultural values of its builders.

• Hence, architectural education provides the understanding to the artistic urge that impels humans to
build, as well as to the structural properties that enable buildings to stand up.

• It is also an education to the silent cultural language that every building expresses. It, then, might be
thought of as a primer for visual environmental literacy.

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