The Architecture Portal
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings or other structures. The term comes from Latin architectura; from Ancient Greek ἀρχιτέκτων (arkhitéktōn) 'architect'; from ἀρχι- (arkhi-) 'chief', and τέκτων (téktōn) 'creator'. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilisations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.
Architecture began as rural, oral vernacular architecture that developed from trial and error to successful replication. Ancient urban architecture was preoccupied with building religious structures and buildings symbolizing the political power of rulers until Greek and Roman architecture shifted focus to civic virtues. Indian and Chinese architecture influenced forms all over Asia and Buddhist architecture in particular took diverse local flavors. During the Middle Ages, pan-European styles of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals and abbeys emerged while the Renaissance favored Classical forms implemented by architects known by name. Later, the roles of architects and engineers became separated.
Modern architecture began after World War I as an avant-garde movement that sought to develop a completely new style appropriate for a new post-war social and economic order focused on meeting the needs of the middle and working classes. Emphasis was put on modern techniques, materials, and simplified geometric forms, paving the way for high-rise superstructures. Many architects became disillusioned with modernism which they perceived as ahistorical and anti-aesthetic, and postmodern and contemporary architecture developed. Over the years, the field of architectural construction has branched out to include everything from ship design to interior decorating. (Full article...)
Selected article –
The Daily Express Building, located on Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, England, is a Grade II* listed building which was designed by engineer Sir Owen Williams. It was built in 1939 to house one of three Daily Express offices; the other two similar buildings are located in London and Glasgow.
The pre-World War II building is notable for its timeless, "space-age" quality and is often mistaken for being much younger than it is due to its futuristic avant garde appearance. The building is futurist art deco, specifically streamline moderne with its horizontal lines and curved corners. It is clad in a combination of opaque and vitrolite glass. It was considered highly radical at the time, and incorporates what was at the time a growing technology, curtain walling. (Full article...)General images –
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that after architect Frà Antonio Cano died of a fall from scaffolding at his new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Snows, Alberto della Marmora accused him of destroying many former basilicas?
- ... that when the Bowery Savings Bank Building opened in 1895, "the bank as a work of architecture went from the merely big to the colossal"?
- ... that the village of Ayazini in Turkey, a historic place settled by Phrygians, Ancient Romans, Byzantines and Seljuks, features many dwellings, churches and tomb chambers in rock-cut architecture?
- ... that St. Bernward in Döhren was consecrated in 1893, when part of Christoph Hehl's design of a basilica in the Romanesque Revival style was built, but the building was only completed after World War II?
- ... that Sarkis Lole, the Armenian chief architect of Mardin who constructed much of the early modern architecture of the city, never received any formal training and designed his buildings in the sand?
- ... that after Deutsche Bahn built Berlin's central railway station according to plans that had been altered against the original architect Meinhard von Gerkan's wishes, he sued them, and won?
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