Architectural Bias

Architecture should not be separated from the political and social life of human-beings. On the contrary, “throughout the history, architects have always been involved to some extent in politics, and have a nearly always sought positions of power and influence’’. Communist ideology in the Soviet Union had a huge impact on the architectural development of many modern nations: Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Azerbaijan. The amount of affected countries makes the topic of my analysis relevant and worth-discussing. My essay will be structured in a following way. I argue that communist ideology had an

Ching, Francis D., Jarzombek, Mark M., and Prakash, Vikramaditya. Global History of Architecture (2nd Edition). Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 21 October 2015.

“The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built” (Frank Lloyd Wright). Throughout the centuries, architecture has fascinated everyone. History is inscribed in buildings and they can express the political and economic power of a nation. Although time has gone by, buildings have not. You can still idolize ancient Egyptian and Greek architecture and see how the events that occurred at that time influenced them.

Arthistoryarchive.com (2007) Haussmann's Architectural Paris - Architecture in the Era of Napoleon III - The Art History Archive. [online] Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/architec

Leon Krier was criticised for publishing a costly monograph on Albert Speer’s architecture (1985)in which, while acknowledging the crimes of the Nazis and the man, Krier nonetheless claimed the book’s only subject and sole justification was “Classical architecture and the passion of building” (cited by Jaskot, ‘Architecture of Oppression’, 2000). Discuss this claim, the controversy and the issues (historical, philosophical and ethical and possibly others) they raise. Can architecture, Classical, Modern or otherwise, be autonomous from politics and valued independently of the circumstances of politics and history that adhere to it?

Filippo Brunelleschi invented new technology for the dome and created far more advanced technology to help the dome be built. He began studying the science of motion and “particular weights, wheels, and gears” and it lead him to invent some of the first alarm clocks, as well as some of the equipment to raise the bricks from the ground to the roof (King, 13). In addition, Brunelleschi also made sure that the dome was being built to his standard and it was going to last a long time. For example, he inspected every one of the four million bricks that he was going to use for the structure. Another important quality of the dome was the mortar used to hold the bricks together. It was made by mixing sand and water with quicklime (King, 93). The quality of the bricks and mortar was only the beginning. He worked out how to set the bricks for the greatest strength to support the weight of the dome by having them set in a criss crossing herringbone pattern (Mueller, 84). The brickwork was crucial because the bricks needed to make up the dome without any outside support. In order to do this Brunelleschi linked the bricks in a spiral going up to the top, called a herringbone pattern. The vertical bricks acted as book ends to keep the horizontal bricks in place. The ll Duomo di Firenze was built to be an eight sided dome that stood taller and stronger than others during that time period.

As earlier stated, Filippo's took inspiration from his trip to Rome in order to design his ideal Dome, more specifically in fact he took motivation from the magnificent dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. Pantheon’s dome consisted of a single shell of concrete the formula which had long been ignored. The dome needed his engineering skills as well as his vision; Filippo invented and patented a new hoisting machine for raising the masonry required for the dome, the cathedral dome still dominates the sky line of Florence, a lasting vision of his greatest work.

Brunelleschi's design of the dome for Florence's cathedral is one of the most impressive ways to build a dome, the technology at this point of the history, could make seem the building as something impossible to do, but the start motivation was Florence people´s creativity and their neighbors competitiveness.

Without his dome structure we would have struggled to build big and famous buildings in todays society including the Dome of Florence cathedral. The dome structure was different to other buildings during the Renaissance, the huge octagonal shape proved daunting to architects and engineers because they had seen nothing like it before. Some Italian architects were familiar with the dome shape as used on the Pantheon in Rome but that was built with concrete and they had lost the recipe for concrete in the dark ages. Brunelleschi came up with a solution though, there were two domes. The inner dome was made of sandstone and marble, then the outer dome was made with brick and mortar, each brick being fired to be perfectly fitted for the shape. The Duomo was a huge success and Brunelleschi was dubbed the chief architect affiliated with the Renaissance. The architecture that took place in the Renaissance period densely affected modern day construction and

Michelangelo Buonarroti was a natural born artist. As an artist he was capable of different mediums of expressing his artistic talent. However he much preferred sculpting out of them all, it made him most satisfied. When Pope Julius II experienced Michelangelo’s painting he insisted that Michelangelo share his talent with the rest of Italy. Julius II also commissioned Buonarroti with other artistic projects but none were as important as that of the Sixtine Capella(Sistine Chapel). Michelangelo didn’t want to paint the ceiling of the chapel, it was too large of a project and even more he didn’t want to paint at all. He was an excellent painter but he just didn’t have the same motivation as he did with sculpting for example.

Architecture is often mistaken as purely an art form, when in actually it is where art and engineering or art and practicality meet. For example, painting is an art, when preformed well it yields a beautiful picture that evokes a deep human reaction and brings pleasure to its viewer, however this painting provides no function, it cannot shield us from the rain or protect us from the wind or snow, it is purely form. An insulated aluminum shed provides shelter and protection from Mother Nature; however, it is a purely functional building, it was drawn by an engineer, not conceived by an artist to have form. The culmination of form and function is Architecture, the Greeks and Romans fathered this idea and Palladio’s study of roman architecture taught him his valuable truth.

Because Sinan worked on the Hagia Sophia he became intimately familiar with its form and structure so its not surprising that it had an influence on much of his work. Of all his buildings,conceptually the Suleymaniye is probably the most similar to the Hagia Sophia with the basic concept of the central domed space made larger with attached semidomed spaces which in turn have smaller spaces attached topped by smaller domes. Because the dome of the Hagia Sophia was considered to be a great feat for the Christians Sinan designed the dome of the Suleymaniye to send the message that not only were Muslims just as capable but, with an even larger and higher dome, that they were superior.

For a great many years, architecture has been a breaking point for different artisticeras in history. Some of the most famous “works of art” have been chapels, temples, and tombs. Among the most dominant and influential eras of great architecture are the sophisticated, stoic Greeco-Roman periods and the more mystical, elemental Japanese eras. These two very distinct and very different eras have more in common than you may realize.

The history of Architecture started long time ago. The nomadic were groups of people whom move from one place to another in order find shelter and food to survive. As they progress, their techniques to survive evolve. The need for a permanent shelter became vital for a better stability of the group. This is the time when the first structures that provided protection appeared. Post and lintel were the first forms of Architecture, that satisficed the basic needs. Architecture evolved to be more sophisticated and fulfill the people’s needs. Consequently, Architecture evolved throughout different periods such as: Ancient architecture, Romanesque, The medieval, Renaissance, Early modern, and the industrial age, Modernism and Contemporary

Beginning in Florence, Italy, as with much of the other aspects of the Renaissance, the variety of structures and layout would be spread through much of Europe and is still seen even today. Architecture in the revival age mimicked Gothic architecture that was once very popular and was eventually succeeded by Baroque architecture later on in the period. Emphasis was placed on the properties of symmetry, proportion, geometry, and many others that had been largely observed in Greek and Roman buildings that demonstrated such equality, such as the Parthenon. Many buildings came to completely resemble such famous sites, complete with the innovations of earlier periods (especially that of the Romans) like domes, arches with voussoirs, or columns of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian structure, Several periods formed to characterize architecture in this time such as the Quattrocento that focused on solid rules and regulations for buildings and design. Another period was that of Mannerism which, alternatively, gave way to more experimentation and the architect’s own discretion for a project. All saw large-scale figures of Classical architecture throughout Europe. Some of the most notable architects were Filippo Brunelleschi, a forefront leader in Italy known for his invention of linear perspective with such designs as the Dome of Santa Maria