Royal Pyramids

 City of Meroë, ancient Nubia (modern-day Sudan), c. 300-100 BCE. 

Kingdom thought to control all of Nubia and Egypt. Funerary monuments. Royal pyramids not meant for everyone. Symbol of power. Borrows idea of hierarchy. Not as large as the great pyramids of giza. Meroe borrowed from Egyptian forms. No culture has exclusive right to architectural for. History not uncovered in archeology and design due to racism.

Bet Giorgis

Ethiopia, c. 200s CEBet Giorgis (St. George's CHurch) Lailbela, Ethiopia, c. 1200s CE

Not studied well, due to the gact they're still in use. Greek cross plan, cut out of the earth. This is a time when Islamic world controlled the region. Rock cut chruches are a places in responce to Islman - local places of pilgrimiage whuch could be desecrated becaue they're not the ideal site. Some would be be Basilica type plan, with upper level galleries, barrel vaults, and carved out rock.

Stelae

Aksum, Ethiopia, c. 200s CE

Indigenous group influenced by western ideas. Converted to Christianity over time and then mixed into own culture. 

Stone sculptures or designs were 70' tall. Tallest one has collapsed. Similar to obelisk, but different in shape and meaning. Possible burial markers for family or important individuals. Known because near by multiple shaft graves were found. Some are catacombs. Also like in Mycenae, many valuable goods were found in storage. All from foreign origins. At base two flat slavs of granite with carving. Perhaps for ritual libations. High detail "crisp and concise". Intended to represent individual buildings in an abstact/miniature way. representing a tall multisory buildings. Pattern designs could emulate a facade. Perhaps a structural emulator, or consideration.

Great Mosque

Dienne, Mali, built originally in the 1200s CE under King Koi Konboro.

Completely rebuilt in 1907 following original style on same site. MAde of adobe brick. STraw and mud. Destryoed by strict Muslim rulers. Mix of provess of worship and prarer. Emulates indigenous architecture. Mixture of outside and isde ideas. Top of cones has little ostrich eggs, which symbolize fertility. Lens to mosque to local design. Wooden pieces stickingout of the facade, torans. These were not decretive, not long beams, but inteded as a scafoling system, a palce to support people while replastering the walls.

Great Zimbabwe Enclosure

Zimbabe c. 1200 - 1400 CE

Great Enclosure or "Imba Huru", with conical tower. Country named after the design element. Land of Zimabwe was a palce for trade. Ivory, exotic skins, valuable skins. 1,000 CE - 1,500 CE. Monumental stone, no mortar. Inredible detail of structure. British archeologist discovery. Impressed enough by ruins "it's sophistication in design must come from northern blood". When proben in 1929 built by Africans, refuted, then assumed it was primitive. 10,000 people lived here. Placed outer elements inside sites. Rock vs. Building. Hard to tell the difference. God Speaks to people through sacred rocks.

Hill Ruin

Krak des Chevaliers

(Qulaat al-Husn)

Syria, enlarged c. 1100 CE

Fortification, not verynice. Temporary gathering points. Once enough people have gathered up behind the walls, they would then set off to another crusade. Sometimes would take several years. At one point may of housed 2,000 people. Renmaed as Qalaat al-Husn. Number of attacks have been taking in Syria today. Without question a sense of defensibility in a sight such as this. Very Thick stone walls. 30' thick in some areas. Very steep hillside, citadel. Place it at an inaccessible location. Series of spaces required to get through. Fully functioning residence for a number of people. Believed to have a huge kitchen. Stables, 1,000 hories. Meeting hall. Chapel. Well. Enough space, and provided the amount of food, one could last five years. Built by Christians to protect from Muslims.

Abbey Church of St. Foy

Conques, France, c. 1050 - 1150 CE

Relics create revenue which creatse power.

Cathedral of St. Lazare

(Originall Abbey Chruch)

Church of St. Sernin

Pilgrimage Route to Santiago de Compostela

Aymery Pieaud's

"Pilgrim's Guide"

Included maps and direction of hte route. Guide book was not altogether different than a guide book we'd pick up today. Where to get food, water, shop, necessary. Despite the infrastructure being built, life wasn't easy. People had to be careful of swindlers and rip offs. This book was designed to keep people away from that.

Relics

(Architectural Importance)

Radiating Chapels

Romanesque Design

(Churches/Cathedrals)

Abbey Church of St. Denis

France, 1140-44 (Transformation to Gothic under Abbot Suger)

The pilgrims coming to the church were getting out of hand. Saints had to escape out of windows with relics in hand. Most pilgrims came because they were devote and true. They wanted to learn ways of the church. In this particular church, financial support was given to the church. First major church built in Goth Style. Expanded earlier church, entire church.  Abbot doesn’t just expand in plan, but also expands vertically. Vaulting system has been done before in certain aspect, but never to the extent of abbot. One indication of Suger is treatment of where the relics were kept. Before radian chapels were distinct. Now It blends in with its surroundings. He also brings in very rich materials to the expansion. Suger makes interior taller. Which then allows the space to bring in more light. These walls arguably dematerialize in the sense of less material, and more glass. Dematerialization, like byzantine with mosaic, here it is done by light. The idea to transform how the viewer feels. Romanesque – clarity. Gothic- free flowing, less clarity. Arches and vaults feel even taller due to ribbed vaults.  Emphasis on Goth vs Romanesque Church design is light. 

Cathedral of Notre Dame

Chartes, France begun in Carolingian period; fires in 1134 and 1194; main expansion between 1194-1260.

Continually rebuilt because it held one of the most important relics of all. In both cases the relic survived. It’s told the Virgin Merry wanted more space.  Contained virgin Mary’s tunic. Pointed arch inside. Not only is a better for support but better for light. Entry ways have literature above door ways. Most of the differences are inside. Height of cathedrals provides one of the more obvious experiences. An elevation has predominantly 3 parts. Romanesque would have two. Major addition would be a clerestory with story telling stained glass. Support was outside of cathedral. Romanesque would build taller = thicker walls = no windows. 

Villard de Honnecourt

(Master Builder)

Left a manual with depictions of machinery, designs. Was very talented, LA, ID, ARCH, ENGIN. Made to help the process of design and make it more efficient. Some of the material was highly needed. Most importantly, this shows us construction processes of the midevil world.

St. Chapelle

Paris, France, 1243-48 Patron: King Louis IX.

Highest ratio of glass to wall than any of the gothic buildings.

Gothic Period

Pointed Arch

Rib Vaults

(Various Types)

Lux Nova

Flyring Buttress

Three-Part Nave Elevation

Master Mason

Windlass

Cloister

Florence

Cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore

(Duomo)

Begun 1296 CE; altered 1357-78 Priginal plan: Arnolfo di cambio; alterations by Francesco Talenti, Andrea. 

This marks the change most dramatically. Duomo - Italian for cathedrals. Cathedral Complex. Dundamentally mid evil building. The only thing renaisance about the building are the contruction and enginerring ideas that went into the dome and the lantern at the top. Thought bapistery was much older than it was. Resembles the ecterior of baptistery. Bell tower is slighty separated from the bodyof the naive. Imortance because the renaissance emphasis secular ideals. 

Campanile

Dome

Lantern 1420-36

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

(a.k.a. "Vitruvius") De Architectura, or "The TEn Books on Architecture," c. 1st century, BCE.

-   Not a single designer out ther in the world today that doesn’t know something about Vitruvius

-   “let him be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, acquainted with the astronomy of the heavens,” and a million other things

“The Vitruvian man”=the famous Leonardo Da Vinci square/circle proportion drawing of the human body

Leon Battista Alberti

More famous for writing books (Ten books on Arch). Rich family talented (renaissance man) well rounded. Man of letters (decrotive man). Song of attitude (arrogant). De re Aedificatoria (On the Art of Building in Ten Books/Ten Books on Architecture), published 1485.

Theorized about the diesng theory of renaissance.

Redefines the roll of designing (separate them for everything else)

Builders, engineer, below him

Designer (peoples of ideas) wrote to this crowd.

Had to have a strong education.

Only reached out to the wealthy.

Church of Saint Andrea

Mantua, Italy 1470-76

Consist of Columns, pediment, pilaster )embedded column) Barrel vault, coffers

Brought back certain elements from the past

Researched and traveled around to put his design into this church

Vicenza (nr. Venice), Italy, 1560s

Countryside house, not a working farm. idea came from pantheon. forms are not exclusive to religion or time. blending the secular to the spiritual. panoramic views of each side. reissuance order (well built mathematical). perfect form of cemetery. each side is altered very slightly to eld with the topography. height of retaining wall, staris, thickness, etc. Follows the shape of the man inscribed within a square & ciricledrawing. The villa plan has a circle with squares.