HISTORY OF

ARCHITECTURE 1
Introduction to the History of Architecture
Method of Studying History:

To try not to memorize… but to understand

History is not a list of facts… it is a story that can
be retold over and over
 DEFINITIONS:
History - A systematic, often
chronologicalnarrative of significant events as
relating to a particular people, country, or
period, often including an explanation of their
causes.
History of Architecture – A record of man's
effort to build beautifully. It traces the origin,
growth and decline of architectural styles
which have prevailed lands and ages.
Prehistoric – Of pertaining to, or existing in
the time prior to the recording of human events
knowledge of which is gained mainly through
archeological discoveries, study, and research.
Civilization – An advanced state of human
society marked by a relatively high level of
cultural, technical, and political development.
Society – An enduring and cooperating
large-scale community of people having
common traditions, Institutions, and identity,
whose members have developed collective
interests and beliefs through interaction with
one another
Culture – thee integrated pattern of human
knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors built up
by a group of human beings and transmitted
from one generation to the next
Style – A particular or distinct form of artistic
expression characteristic of a person,
people, or period
 DEFINITIONS:
Expression – the manner in which meaning,
spirit, or character is symbolized or
communicated in the execution of an artistic
work
Stone Age – the earliest known period of human
culture, preceding the Bronze Age and the Iron
Age and characterized by the use of stone
implements and weapons.
Paleolithic – Old Stone Age, a prehistoric period
from c.600 000 to 8000 BC, predating the
Mesolithic period and characterized by the rise to
dominance of the human species, Homo
sapiens, during which the first implements were
struck from stone
Mesolithic – Middle Stone Age, a
prehistoric period from c.8300 to 4000 BC,
between the Paleolithic and Neolithic,
during which use of the axe became
widespread and principal tools were struck
from stone.
Neolithic – of or pertaining to the last phase
of the Stone Age, characterized by the
cultivation of grain crops, domestication of
animals, settlement of villages, manufacture
of pottery and textiles, and use of polished
stone implements, thought to have begun
c9000-8000BC
 INFLUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF ARCHITECTURE:
- New Stone Age, a prehistoric period in Europe
from c.4000 to 2000 BC, after the Mesolithic,
during which the use of clay became widespread
and the principal tools were finished by grinding.
Historic Styles of Architecture
"The particular method, the characteristics, manner
of design which prevails at a certain place and
time.“
Six Influences of Architecture:
Geographical
Geological
Climatic – people in warmer climates needed little
clothing while those in colder climates took
protection in caves or animal hides over wooden
poles
Religious - No organized religion
- The dead are treated with respect
which can be seen in their burial rituals
and monuments
Social - political
Historical - Direct human ancestors
evolved in Africa from 2.3 million years
ago
- Homo h abilis , Homo erectus, Homo
sapiens, Homo sapiens sapiens.
- The success of the human race was
largely due to the development of
tools made of stone, wood, bone
 Cultural Stages
Stone Age
Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)
• Used stone and bone as instruments
• Livelihood from hunting and food gathering
• Learned to make fire
• Lived in caves and rock shelters
 Cultural Stages
Stone Age
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age)
• Fashioned stone tools like the bow
• Made body coverings from animal hides
• Made the canoe for fishing
• Built huts from bones, animal hides, reeds
and grass
 Cultural Stages
Stone Age
Neolithic (New Stone Age)
- human beings settle down to the business of
agriculture, instead of hunting and gathering,
permanent settlements become a factor of life and
story of architecture can begin.
• Polished stone tools for grinding, cutting and
chopping
• Development of pottery
• Agriculture ( wheat and barley) and domesticated
animals
• Sew clothing from animal hides using fish bones as
needles
• Built huts of stones and mud with thatched roofing
• Practiced burial rituals and built tombs
 Cultural Stages
Bronze Age
- A period in the ancient and
prehistoric cultures of the Near
East and Europe from 3500 to 800
BC during which forging
technology for rudimentary
implements etc. in bronze was first
developed, running concurrently
with the Stone Age.
Cultural Stages
Iron Age
- A prehistorical or historical
period, running concurrent
with the Bronze Age from
c.1200 BC to 1 AD, during
which implements were
forged from iron
Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
Constructive Principles
• Post and Lintel (Trabeated)
• Arch and Vault
• Corbel and Cantilevered
• Trussed
Classification of Early
Known Types of
Architecture
• Dwellings
• Religious Monuments
• Burial Grounds
Dwelling Structures
Primitive Dwellings -
mostly had one room,
development of more
complex civilizations led
to division of the room
into smaller ones for
eating, sleeping,
socializing, development
of agricultural civilizations
made people want to
settle down, live in
communities
1. Rock Shelter - a
shallow cave like opening
at the base of a bluff or
cliff
Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
2. Rock Caves
3 Stages of the Evolution of Cave
a. Natural Cave
b. Artificial Cave
c. Cave above the ground
3. Cliff Dwelling - the general archaeological
term for the habitations of prehistoric
peoples, formed by using niches or caves in
high cliffs.
- Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) people of
the southwestern United States
Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
4. Tents and Huts - made from tree barks, Beehive Hut (clochan) ; an Early Christian
animal skins, and plant leaves. Huts are drystone dwelling used by monks in Ireland and
usually made up of reeds, bushes and the Scottish Western Isles, constructed in the
wattles. shape of a beehive with corbelled vaulting.
Hut – a small, simple dwelling or shelter,
esp. one of natural materials
Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
Trullo - a dry walled rough stone shelter with Wigwam - rush mats over a wooden frame,
corbelled roof. Done by dabbing dry roughly with animal skin door
plastered walls
 Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
Tepee - conical tent with poles as framework
and bark or animal skins
 Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
Hogan - primitive Indian structure of joined Nigerian hut - with mud walls and roof of
logs palm leaves
 Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
Igloo - Innuit (Eskimo) house constructed of
snow blocks with an entrance tunnel. Made of
hard packed snow blocks built up spirally
Sod house - a house built of strips of sod,
laid like brickwork, and used esp. by settlers
on the Great Plains when timber was
scarce.
 Stone Age: Dwelling Structures
Yurt – a circular, tent like dwelling of the
Mongol nomads of central Asia, consisting of
a cylindrical wall of poles in a lattice
arrangements with a conical roof of poles,
both covered by felt or animal skins
Catal Huyuk , Turkey – a Neolithic settlement in
Anatolia, dated 6500 5000 B.C. One of the world’s
earliest cities. They were rectangular single roomed
with mud plastered wall and floors. Access was by
ladder from the roof. There were no roads but
everybody walked on each other’s roof.
 Stone Age: Religious Monuments
Classification of Megalithic Menhir - a prehistoric monument consisting of an upright
Religious Structures megalith, usually standing alone but sometimes aligned
Megalith -large stone used to with others. Arranged in parallel rows, sometimes reaching
construct a structure either alone or several miles and consisting of thousands of stones
together with other stones, utilizing
and interlocking system without the
use of mortar or cement.
– A very large stone used as found
or roughly dressed, esp. in ancient
construction work
1. Monolith - a single block of stone
of considerable size, often in the
form of an obelisk or column.
Isolated single upright stone also
known as “ menhir ”.
Stone Age: Religious Monuments
2. Dolmen – a prehistoric monument
consisting of two or more large upright
stones supporting a horizontal stone slab,
found esp. in Britain and France and usually
regarded as a tomb
Stone Age: Religious Monuments
3. Cromlech – a circular arrangement of
megaliths enclosing a dolmen or burial
mound.
 Stone Age: Religious Monuments
4. Trilithon – two upright megaliths
supporting a horizontal stone. Also called
trilith
5. Stone circle or Stone Row – made up
of 3000 stones spaced upright (e.g.
Stonehenge, located at Wiltshire and on
Salisbury Plain)
Stonehenge – a megalithic monument
erected in the early Bronze Age c2700
B.C. on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire,
England, consisting of four concentric
rings of trilithons and menhirs centered
around an altar stone: believed to have
been used by a sun cult or for
astronomical observation
 Stone Age: Religious Monuments
6. Tumuli/Barrow – earthen
mounds used for burials of
several to couple hundred
of ordinary persons.
7. Passage grave – a
megalithic tomb of
Neolithic and early Bronze
Ages found in the British
Isles and Europe,
consisting of a roofed
burial chamber and narrow
entrance passage, covered
by a tumulus: believed to
have been used for
successive family or clan
burials spanning a number
of generations