Architecture

Architecture, the art of design in building. It is the term given to that quality of thought, of arrangement, and of design in a building which distinguishes it from ordinary construction. Architecture is both a science and an art: a science in that it has to deal with materials of various kinds, and to utilise them in the best way, taking into consideration their durability, hardness, tenacity, endurance, and other qualities, all of which are defined by the natural laws of science. Further, it requires a knowledge of mathematics, of mechanics, and of the laws relating to heating and ventilation, etc. Architecture is also an art in that it calls for the exercise of imagination, of judgment, and of taste in the design and construction of buildings of various kinds, which must not only be conveniently arranged for several purposes, but should show a sense of order, regularity, symmetry or balance, of fitness, good proportion, study of mass and outline, a sense of stability and durability beyond the mere scientific requirements, a character or style suggesting the destination of the building, and in short all those characteristics which constitute a sense of beauty of form, whether the building be of the simplest kind or of a monumental character.

Architecture is regarded as a creative art in opposition to painting and sculpture, which are imitative arts. This is only partially true, for whilst its elements are more purely original than those of the other arts, in its second phase it is to a certain extent imitative of its original types. Thus the first ordinary requirements of mankind having been met by constructions of the simplest kind, such as mud huts built with crude or unburnt bricks, or wigwams constructed with branches of trees consolidated and protected by mud coverings, the features of these created forms - created because they do not exist in nature - have been afterwards copied as an element of decoration in a more lasting and a more durable material.

Thus the early temples and tombs of Egypt suggest by their form and in their decoration the crude brick huts of the earliest erections. The temples of the Greeks and the tombs of the Lyrians betray throughout the wooden prototypes of an earlier civilisation. In both these cases it is not difficult to trace the origin of their forms and decoration; the task, however, becomes more complicated when, in addition to the simpler forms first created as above stated, we have to deal with the influence of other pre-existing styles, an influence exerted by constant migrations of races, bringing with them in some cases a new and a foreign method of building, and in others a recollection, more or less vague perhaps, of forms unknown in their new settlements.

The styles of architecture therefore, as they are now known, have been formed by a gradual growth of elements, sometimes based on simple created forms, sometimes copies more or less varied of preceding styles. There are some styles, such as the Egyptian and the Assyrian, which are purely original, uninfluenced by one another or by any preceding styles. There are others, like the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman, which have been developed according to requirements, race, and religion, and which contain in their earlier and more primitive forms the decorative and sometimes the constructive elements of the Egyptian and the Assyrian; the Greek again borrowing from the Persian, and the Roman from the Greek.

This system of copying, or of attempting to copy, has been the chief characteristic of the first or archaic period of every style, and it exists more or less down to the present day, with this important and wide distinction, however, that since the revival of letters and the publication of illustrations of ancient buildings a new element has crept in, and the traditional style of a country has been passed over in favour of one of exotic growth, which, for the moment, at all events, has enlisted the sympathies of the learned, and has become a fashion, to be set aside again and again in favour of some still more modern discovery. Thus, in the fifteenth century in Italy there took place a revival in favour of the ancient architecture of the Roman Empire, with such modifications and developments as became requisite to meet the new demands of civilisation. A century later the influence of those who were known as the Italian masters (for hereafter the style was known by the name of the man, and not of the country or period) spread to other European countries, and in England is found in the works of Inigo Jones, of Sir Christopher Wren and of his followers, and still later by Sir Robert Chambers. Again, in this century there have been three distinct modern revivals: (A) the Greek, owing its origin first to the works of the Dilettanti Society and to their publications of the temples of the Greeks, and secondly to the revelation to the artistic world caused by the bringing over of the Elgin marbles; (b) the Gothic revival, owing its origin partially to a religious movement in England, and partially to an archaeological and historical interest in favour of ancient English architecture; and (c) a semi-Classic revival known popularly as "Queen Anne," in which there has been a return to the decorative elements of Classic art based, however, on a free interpretation of their usage, and no longer bound by the principles of Italian architecture.

The influences of race and of religion, which to a certain extent may be taken together, have always been leading factors in the type of building created. In the Egyptian and Greek styles, for instance, the principal buildings have been those of a religious nature, whether in the forms of temples or tombs. With the Assyrian, the Persian, and the Roman styles, palaces, or buildings akin to them, by the extent and number of those, the remains of which have been traced, would seem to have been more in accord with the requirements of the people. In the creation and development of the earlier styles, however, there is another element which has been paramount in deciding the nature of their forms and of their construction, and this element is the nature of the material obtainable in the country itself.

The great problem of all ages has been to seek for the simplest, most economical, and most durable method of covering over space. On the solution of this problem may be said to depend the origin, growth, and development of all architectural styles. If we may judge by the representations carved on the earliest rock tombs of Egypt, the method of construction adopted by the Egyptians in their primitive state (and in humble dwellings it is still traditionally carried on down to the present day) was to roof over their houses or huts with palm-tree trunks, covering them with a layer of earth or mud to keep out the intense heat of a tropical sun. Owing, however, to the proximity of two ranges of hills, the Arabian and Libyan ranges, to the banks of the Nile, and the facility of transport which that river afforded, the Egyptian builder had at his disposal good stone of various qualities; and already prior to from 3,000 to 4,000 years B.C. he had learnt how to quarry, work, and transport large masses of stone which took the place, firstly of the crude brick walls hitherto employed, and secondly afforded a more lasting and more durable covering to their temples than palm-tree trunks could give. If the halls or chambers he desired to cover over were too wide to allow of single slabs of stone covering them, by adopting rows of piers or columns carrying beams of stone he could obtain additional support and increase the space covered over to any extent. The adoption of a circular or polygonal column would interfere less with the space occupied than the square pier, and in this way columnar architecture was first created. The technical term given to this construction is trabeated, from trabes, a beam, and the styles in which are columns carrying beams, either of stone or wood, on their upper mouldings or capitals, are known as the trabeated styles. The Egyptian, the Persian, and the Greek styles belong to this class. When, however, we come to the Assyrian style, we find ourselves in presence of another combination created in the flat alluvial lands of Mesopotamia; on the banks of the Tigris and of the Euphrates there was no stone at its disposition, or even timber of sufficient size and strength. The Assyrian builder was obliged therefore to cover over his hall and gateways by the use of the arch or vault. It is still a matter of dispute as to whether the large halls could have been covered in this way; as, however, no traces of columns or piers have been found, or, what is more important, of the foundations necessary to carry such features, there is absolutely no alternative but the vault. The principle of the arch was known long before the erection of the Assyrian palaces; vaults in stone are found in the vicinity of the Pyramids, and there exists down to the present day, behind the Ramesseum at Thebes, the vaulted granaries of Rameses II., built some four to five centuries before the earliest Assyrian palace (Nimroud) yet excavated. The drains of this palace were properly constructed with voussoirs, and in the palace at Khorsabad great gateways have been found, spanned by arches of regular construction, showing that their builders were not only acquainted with the principles, but knew how to build them in a thoroughly scientific way. To this system of construction the term arcuated, from arms, a bow, is given, and the Assyrian, the Etruscan, the principal buildings of the Roman and the Saracenic styles, only to quote the earlier types, all are arcuated styles. The Roman architect borrowed the trabeated style from the Greeks, and reproduced it in his own way, as a constructional form, in the temples; as a decorative form, in the great amphitheatres. He adopted the arcuated style of the Etruscans and developed it in the great thermae or baths, and (for the constructive part) the vaulting of the passages and openings of the amphitheatres. In the earlier basilicas the trabeated style was always employed, the central halls or nave being covered with timber roofs. In the basilica commenced by Maxentius and finished by Constantine, the arcuated style is adopted, the type of building produced being that which was employed for the great central hall, the tepidarium of the Roman thermae or baths.

Constantine, when he transferred the capital to Byzantium (now Constantinople) would seem at first to have employed the basilica plan for the churches which he erected there and throughout Syria, that being the simplest and most economical method of covering over a large space; and except that the columns dividing the nave from the aisles might have carried arches instead of beams, the style was virtually a trabeated one, because a ceiling with trussed beams formed the roof. Constantine seems, however, to have foreseen the necessities of adopting a more permanent and incombustible method of roofing over space, but it was reserved for one of his successors, Justinian, to create a new style by the adoption of the dome or pendentive; the Church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, being the masterpiece of the Byzantine, the next arcuated style developed. From this period (seventh century) onwards the arcuated style has always prevailed, and the Saracenic style (based on the Byzantine, but introducing two new forms of arch, the horseshoe and the pointed), the Romanesque style, as developed in Lombardy, on the borders of the Rhine, in various parts of France, and in England (where it is known as Saxon and Norman), are all various growths of the arcuated style. In the middle of the twelfth century, in France, the pointed arch, erected in the East, was introduced both into the arch and vault, and revolutionised the methods of building, producing what is known as the Gothic or Pointed style, which lasted (at all events in France, Germany, Spain, and England) till the close of the fifteenth century. Since then the trabeated style has again been occasionally employed, but the economy of arcuated construction, except when iron girders are employed, leads to its being almost universally adopted.

It will be seen, therefore, that trabeation depended mainly on the employment of large masses of stone and of beams of wood; arcuation could be adopted with materials of small dimension. In this sense the use of the material brick has not been without its influence in those countries where stone was not to be had; and throughout the North of Germany and in Holland during four or five centuries brick has led to a variety of new forms, sometimes, however, attempted copies of stone construction. For the last two centuries in England it has been generally made use of, and within the last twenty years has come again to the fore, and its adoption in conjunction with terra-cotta, both employed as genuine building materials, not to be hidden beneath cement or stucco, has led to what might almost be called a new development of style.