Adama Science and Technology University

School Of Civil Engineering & Architecture

Architecture Program

Theory of Architecture
The Bible Architecture
The Bible Architecture

Book of Kings  Then God said, “Take your son,

 TheOld Testament books of Kings your only son, whom you love
constituted an importance Isaac04 and go to the region of
descriptions of architectural theory Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a
and numeric ratios which is burnt offering on a mountain I
considered to be central to the to will show you.” Genesis 22:2,
02
 Greco-Roman civilization  The Lord had said to Abram,
“Go from your country, your
 Judaic
people and your father's
03  later Christian cultures and household to the land I will show
modern times. you. “ Genesis 12
The Bible Architecture

Book of Kings
 KingDavid unified the tribes of Israelis and made a kingdom by
conquering Jerusalem in about 1000 BCE 04
 He established the capital of his kingdom there to full fill the
promise of God to Abraham
02
 David chose most likely on the same location of mount Moriah,
or the Temple Mount, where it was believed Abraham had built
the altar on which to sacrifice his son Isaac.
03  The First Temple was constructed during the reign of David’s son,
Solomon, and completed in 957 BCE
The Bible Architecture

Book of Kings
 Jerusalem continued as the capital of the kingdom for 400 years
,known as the First Temple period, until04 its destruction by the
Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar
 After the destruction of the temple Israelis were taken to
02 Babylon in 586 BCE as exile.
 However, Cyrus II, from the dynasty of Persia and conqueror
of Babylonia, in 538 BCE and issued an order allowing exiled
03 Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple and
completed in 515 BCE.
The Bible Architecture

The Temple of Solomon

04

Design and Layout

02

03
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

 According to the the Book of Kings, there are five

main elements: 04

1. The decision to build a temple

2. The organization of the construction materials
02
3. Description of the temple and the various cult
objects it contained
4. The dedication of the house to the god
03
5. The king’s prayer
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout  Architecturally speaking, the structure
included five different components:
 the pair04of columns at the entrance
 The three main aspects
of the structure: (Jachin and Boaz),
 the Forecourt (Ulam),
 its plan,
02  the Outer Sanctum (Hechal),
 its interior
decoration and  the Holy of Holies (Devir), and
 its courtyard.  the side chamber (yatsia sovev)
03
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

 Different components of Solomon’s Temple:

04
 The pair of columns at
the entrance,
02 The Forecourt,
 The Outer Sanctum,
 The Holy of Holies, and
03 The side chamber
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

The pair of columns

04
 At the front of the temple, there
two large bronze columns or
pillars
02
 Thepillar on the left is
know Boaz
 Thepillar on the right is
03
known by Jachin
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

 The Temple building faced eastward and consisted three rooms or

spaces that were arranged on a straight axis,
04 one after the other
 Their names, from the outside in, were
 Forecourt, The porch, or vestibule (ʾulam) , it was the first of
02 these three elements.
 Outer Sanctum, the Holy Place (hekhal); main room of religious
service
03
 Holy of Holies, the Holy of Holies (devir), the sacred room in
which the Ark rested.
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

 As one approach the temple of

Solomon, the first one is: 04
 The altar, a structure with an
upper surface for the
02 sacrifices, or for other
ritualistic purposes.
 The size of the altar was 20
03
cubits of length, 20 cubits of
length and 10 cubits of
height
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

The Outer Sanctum (Hekhal)

 The Outer Sanctum was 04

located after the Forecourt

and relatively clearly
described
02 that it was:
 40 cubits long,
 Outer Sanctum was built with four recessed
 20 cubits wide, doorposts (1 Kings 6:33).
03
 and 30 cubits high.  Inside the Outer Sanctum there stood the
gold-covered altar.
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

The Holy of Holies (Devir)

 This is the innermost room in 04

the building,
 It was 20 cubits long, 20
02
cubits wide, and 20 cubits
high; cube-shaped and each
of its sides measured about  It should be noted that the Bible indicates that
8
03m. the Outer Sanctum was 30 cubits high, while the
 Holy of Holies was 20 cubits high, or 4 m lower
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

 Ground plan and

04
 Longitudinal section through
Solomon’s Temple
 It is illustrated based
02
the analysis of the
text and relevant
archaeological data
03
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

The Side Chamber

 The side chamber appears to have two different meanings in the
description of Solomon’s Temple.
 The first meaning is a structure that surrounded the Temple, thus
02
constituting a kind of exterior mantle for the building (1 Kings
6:5–6).
 The second meaning is an attic.
03
 Itwas a storehouse (yaẓiʿa) surrounded the Temple except on its
front (east) side
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

Door, Window and Beams

 The doorway of the Holy of Holies was built with five recessed
doorposts (1 Kings 6:31).
 The
Bible relates that, in the entrance from the Forecourt to the
02
Outer Sanctum, there were four mezuzot (doorposts) of olive
wood (1 Kings 6:33).
 The main temple doors were made of two large bifolding doors
03
 temple entrances could be decorated with four or five recessed
frames
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

Door, Window and Beams

 The text mentions Temple had windows (1 Kings 6:4), However, the
windows described by the Hebrew words sequfim ve’atumim mean
“transparent and opaque.”
02
 Itraised a question, How can windows be both transparent and
opaque?
 According The King James Version translates it as “windows of
03 narrow lights” and the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh
translates these terms as “recessed and latticed.”
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

Door, Window and Beams

 The roof beams were expressed as slaot appears in various contexts in
the description of the Temple.
 In principle, the term refers to wooden planks, for example in
02
“planks of cedar” and “planks of cypress” (1 Kings 6:15).
 Such planks were used to panel the interior walls of the Outer
Sanctum and the Holy of Holies
03
The Bible Architecture
Design and Layout

 Architectural elements that do not appear in the biblical text, such as

 steps in the front and triangular protrusions on the roof
 Narrow windows on the top of each side of the room
 There is no information at all about the height of the three-
02
story side chamber.
 Thus, it is believed to have a height of each of the three
stories of the side chamber wing was 6.6 cubits.
03
 the cumulative height of the columns (including the capitals)
to be 20 cubits
The Bible Architecture
The Temple of Solomon

04

02

03 reconstruction of Solomon’s Temple based on

Isometric Reconstruction of the façade of Solomon’s Temple based
analysis of the text and relevant archaeological data. on analysis of the text and relevant archaeological data.
ABBOT SUGER

04

The Birth Place of Gothic

02
Architecture

03
ABBOT SUGER
The Birth Place of Gothic Architecture

 The one-time village of Saint-Denis (now a part

of Paris) holds a particularly important place
within Architectural history and Theory
 The rebuilding of this church (originally founded
in the late 8th century) is owed to the efforts of
02
 Abbot Suger in the early 12th Century or
the Middle Ages
03  It is considered as the origin of Gothic
architecture
ABBOT SUGER
The Birth Place of Gothic Architecture

 Abbot is a French word meaning:

Head or superior, usually elected, of a
monastery.
 Suger was a French abbot,
02 statesman, and historian and one
of the earliest patrons of Gothic
architecture,
 He is widely credited with
03
popularizing the Gothic style.
ABBOT SUGER
The Birth Place of Gothic Architecture
 His structural innovation With
the removal of the traditional
walls in Romanesque churches
became
02  The new structural solution
even achieved the status of
a ‘‘miracle’’ which
Resisted a violent storm
03 destroyed many
surrounding buildings
ABBOT SUGER
The Birth Place of Gothic Architecture
 Sugar’s relate an importance of
 Geometry and
 Proportions as the basic
symbolism of the church.
02
 Walls of glass,
introducing both abundant
light and extreme visual
03 lightness.
ABBOT SUGER
The Birth Place of Gothic Architecture

 Suger and his (unknown) master mason, created new features which
had been introduced to Romanesque architecture
 Pointed arch,
 Ribbed vault
02
 Ambulatory with radiating chapels,
 Clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different
directions and
03
 Flyingbuttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestory
windows
ABBOT SUGER
The Birth Place of Gothic Architecture

 The Abbey of Saint-Denis thus

became
 The prototype for further
building in the royal
02 domain of northern
France.
 It is often cited as the
03
first building in the
Gothic style.
WILLIAM DURANDUS

04

The Symbolism and

02
Ornaments Churches

03
William Durandus
The Symbolism and Ornaments Churches

 William Durandus was a prominent

theorist of canon law, a body of
religious law governing the conduct of
members of a particular faith.
02  Born in French Provence, he first
studied law at Bologna before
teaching canon law at Modena.
 Histreatise of eight books is still
03
today seen as the most complete
medieval treatise of its kind
William Durandus
The Symbolism and Ornaments Churches

 Itis still the standard authority for the ritual

of 13th century and for the symbolism of rites
and vestments in church architecture
 Rites:Refers to a formal or ceremonial
02 act or procedure prescribed or
customary in religious
 Vestments: symbolizes a spiritual
03
dimension of the priesthood, with roots
in the very origins of the Church
William Durandus
The Symbolism and Ornaments Churches

 Book 1, which in 1843 was translated as The Symbolism of Churches

and Church Ornaments, deals with the symbolism of the church itself
and its various parts,
 Its
architectural component of a Gothic church had its specific
02 meaning or message for the worshippers
 For instance, The glass windows in a church are:
 Holy Scriptures, which expel the wind and the rain, that is all
03 things hurtful, but transmit the light of the true Sun, that is, God,
into the hearts of the faithful.
William Durandus
The Symbolism and Ornaments Churches

 Also, by the windows the senses of the body are signified:

 which ought to be shut to the vanities of this world, and open to
receive with all freedom spiritual gifts.
 By the lattice work of the windows, we understand the prophets
02 or other obscure teachers of the Church Militant:
 The door of the church is Christ: according to the saying in the
Gospel, ‘‘I am the door.’’ The apostles are also called doors.
03  The bases of the columns are: the apostolic bishops, who support
the frame of the whole church.
William Durandus
The Symbolism and Ornaments Churches

 The Capitals of the piers are

 the opinions of the bishops and doctors.
 For as the members are directed and moved by the head, so are
our words and works governed by their mind.
02
 The ornaments of the capitals are
 thewords of Sacred Scripture, to the meditation and observance
of which we are bound.
03
 The pavement of the church is the foundation of our faith.
Thank You
Adama Science and Technology University
School Of Civil Engineering & Architecture
Architecture Program

Theory of Architecture
The Renaissance
The Renaissance
Introduction

 By 100 AD, the roman empire reached its highest level of organized
military and governance system conquering04Europe, Asia and Africa

 However, by 476 AD, the

empire is collapsed by
02
uncivilized barbarian tribes
from todays Germany and
 European history is portrayed
03 taking a ‘wrong turn’.
as
The Renaissance
Introduction
 Thisperiod (5th – 14th centuries) between the fall of the Roman
empire and the Renaissance known by the ‘The Dark Ages’ :
04
 Its1st part of the middle ages known as the Medieval era
where the period ancient civilization declined and saw little
advancement
02
 However, many historians have dismissed it where During the
medieval era:
 The study of Theology and God illustrated the passionate
03
interest and idealistic expression of the Christian and Catholic
faith.
The Renaissance

Introduction

 Architectural designs and their

interior décor showed avid 04
expressions of the deep religious
faith of the people of the Middle
Ages.
02
 Early Christian period(330 - 880)
 The Byzantine periods (330 -1453)
03 Romanesque (800 - 1150)
 Gothic period (1150 -1500)
The Renaissance

04

The Renaissance Architecture

02

03
The Renaissance Map of Italy at
15th century
Introduction

 Until the 19th century, Italy was not

unified nation but governed by a
number of powerful city-states.
 These includes:
02  Florence, Milan, Venice,
Naples and Rome
 The word Renaissance means
03
to be Re-birth
The Renaissance
Renaissance architectural theory
 Itused to describe unanimously cultural development in Italy, from early
1300 to 1650
04
 During the renaissance people began to pay more attention to:
 Earth and humanity or major focus purely on reason
02  They tried to investigate the details classical ruins as an
important aspects of architectural theory
 But the style also became more decorative and ornamental,
03 with a widespread use of statuary, domes
The Renaissance

04

Filippo
02
Brunelleschi

03
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi

 Filippo Brunelleschi, (1377-1446), was a

Florentine architect and engineer who was 04
one of the pioneers of early Renaissance
architecture in Italy.
02 “Filippo Brunelleschi and
the Spirit of Classicism”
Brunelleschi
03 captured the Renaissance spirit using classical influenced
proportions to create new spaces to the 15th century Florentine values
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 In 1401, Florence held a competition for new bronze doors to the
Florence Baptistry, depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac
04
A Bible story where God tests
Abraham by asking him to kill his
only
02 son Isaac
 But sculptural competition awarded
to Lorenzo Ghiberti may have
turned Brunelleschi to architecture
03
and his theory of linear perspective. Competition Panels by Lorenzo Ghiberti (left) and Filippo
Brunelleschi (right)
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 Brunelleschirediscovered the principles
of linear perspective known to the
04
Greeks and Romans
 Linear perspective, a system of
creating an illusion of depth on a
02
flat surface.
 He had understood the concept of
a single vanishing point where
03 lines appear to converge at a
single fixed point in the distance. Brunelleschi 'Rediscovers' Linear Perspective
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 His technique was a revolutionary device
for representing buildings and other
04
objects in 3D.
 This is not to say that people were not
already drawing in 3D, but not
02
consciously using the technique of
picking a vanishing point to which all His studies included drawings and paintings
lines to Converge. of the Florence Baptistery and the Palazzo
Vecchio as he perfected the technique.
03
 The style became standard practice
until the 19th century
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 in 1420 Brunelleschi's experiment with
perspective provided a correspondingly
04
accurate representation of physical
space. Brunelleschi, elevation of Santo Spirito,
1434-83, Florence
 Comparing this drawing (left) with a
02
modern photo of the actual church
(below).
 It is clear how effective the new
03 technique of mathematical perspective
was in depicting spatial reality
 The Duomo

04

02

03
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 One of the major work of Brunelleschi is the dome of the Cathedral
of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) in Florence (1420–36)
04
 The Cathedral of Santa Maria del
Fiore (Saint Mary of the flower)
02was dedicated to the Virgin Mary
 Originally it was designed by
Arnolfo di-Cambio,
03ConstructionStarted in 1296 but
remained unfinished for many years
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi

 Florentine fathers announced a contest to Build a Dome Without

pointed arches or the use of flying buttresses
04

 They don’t want see these

elements were commonly
02
used in the traditional
Gothic style
 As such elements were use
03 by rival cities like Milan.
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 At the same time the dome would
have to be almost
04
 46 meters across and
 tostart 55 meters above the
02 ground,
 Its shape was an uneven
octagon not typical semi-
circle shape With no true
03
center
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 Brunelleschi,his archrival Lorenzo Ghiberti, and others submitted a
model to construct the dome,
04
But this time, the decision was
reached in favor of Brunelleschi’s
02
model
 There is one popular story tells us that
Brunelleschi refused to share his
03
drawings, But finally convinced the jury
by using an egg to convey his argument.
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 He made an egg stand up straight on the table and smashed the
rounded bottom of the egg helping it to stand upright as he asked.
04

 Brunelleschi not only designed

a revolutionary dome,
02
 but he engineered custom
machines needed to build it
as well.
03
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 No one still Know completely how
Brunelleschi built his dome as he did not
04
leave records of his construction process
 Brunelleschi implied the tactic of
employing sets of diagonal ribs
02
based on the pointed arch and
solved the problem of the dome
 Butusing a deep understanding of
03 the laws of physics and
mathematics
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 The dome was constructed using
 Double dome construction or 04
scheme of two domes connected
by massive brick arches
interlocking
 02 rings of stone and
wood
 The dome would weigh about
37,000 tons with over 4 million
03
Lightweight bricks using
Herringbone brick pattern
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 The geometry of the dome was not a
simple hemisphere but rather an eight
04
sided shape or octagonal.
 The external diameter of the
dome is about 52 meters and
02
 the overall thickness of the dome
is one tenth of the external
diameter
03
 The inner span is about 42 meters
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 The vertical curve is circular with its
center of curvature at the base of
04
the dome, one-fifth the dome's
span from the edge
 While the designer Arnolfo di
02
Cambio 124 years earlier had laid
out the shape of the dome,
 But most of the engineering details
03
to make it possible were left up to
the builder,
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 Brunelleschi had two principal models:
 the Baptistery in Florence having an04
octagonal Baptistery with an inner dome
and a pyramidal nearly two domes
the
 02 Pantheon in Rome. Which has vertical
and horizontal ribs.
 Certainly the Pantheon and Baptistery
probably suggested him the idea to make
03
the ribs and make a dome with two caps.
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 theDome of Pantheon in Rome is a perfect
hemisphere
04
 From the interior it has a diameter
of 43.3 meters and rests on top of
the rotunda walls which have an
02
equal height.
 This means that the Pantheon is
designed to theoretically hold a
03 sphere of equal diameter to that of
the dome
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi

04

02
Other architectural works

03
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 Another notable examples of Brunelleschi with the Renaissance style is
the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, the first building in the
04
Renaissance manner
 It is designed with a very
02 graceful Classical elements
such as: the Arcade &
Composite columns
 Regularly spaced windows
03
and pediments above each
of the arches. Ospedale Degli Innocenti (Florence) (1419-1426)
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 Thedesign was based on Classical Roman, Italian Romanesque and late
Gothic architecture
04
 The façade is made up of nine semicircular arches and columns of
the Composite order.
 The semicircular windows bring the revival of the classical style, no
02
longer a pointed arch
 The height of the columns is the same as the width of the inter
columniation and the width of the arcade, making each bay a
03
cube
 Similarly, the height of the entablature is half the column height,
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 San Lorenzo, Basilica of Saint Lawrence, is another early Renaissance-
style church designed by Brunelleschi and constructed in Florence from
04
1421 to the 1460s,
 He used an integrated system of
02 column, arches, and entablatures,
based on Roman Classical
proportions
 the use of spherical segments in
03
the vaults of the side aisles.
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi

 Further, his design of the church

as a whole was one of unusual
regularity, where the separate
parts of the church rationally
02
corresponded to each other and
created a profound visual and
intellectual harmony.
03
The Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
 The Pazzi chapel marked a
momentous return to classical
04
rudiments.
 It has a central dome "reminiscent
of the lines of Rome's Pantheon"
02
 It has an oculus just like the
Pantheon. Furthermore, although
smaller in scale, the dome of the
03 chapel is also hemispherical in The Pazzi Chapel, Florence
shape and austere in design
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-
1472)
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 in Florence, Italy. He studied
arts, philosophies, sciences and law, later became a noted theoretician.
04
 The diverse nature of his education
and focus on arts made him one of
02 the first 'universal men' of the
Renaissance.
 Alberti worked his inspiration from
03
the ancient Romans, and fellow
architect Filippo Brunelleschi, who he
greatly admired.
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 Three major treatises by Alberti helped define the Renaissance in this
regard.
04
 His work on sculpture: in which he outlines proportional theory
and details the temperament necessary of a sculptor.
02  Major treatise on painting: laying down his theory on linear
perspective and, again, the behaviors that artists must emulate.
 His last major treatise, one on Architecture that he argued
architecture was among the most notable of art forms and
03
believed that the city was a necessary component of civilization.
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 His focused on ancient Greece and Rome led him to study the Classical
architectural orders.
04
 In particular, he obsessed over Vitruvius' De Architectura, the only
surviving work of the great Roman architectural theorist and
explored closely on the three fundamentals of building outlined
02
by Vitruvius, called the Vitruvian Triad.
 The stability and usefulness of a structure.
 The aesthetic elements of lines, angles, and proportions.
03
 The elements of beauty and ornamentation.
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 In his basic terms, a great structure must be:
“ Stable/useful, aesthetically pleasing,
04 and decorated
well, and each element must work with the others to
create a consistent and unified whole”.
02
 Likethe ancient Greeks and Romans, he believed in perfect
harmony and proportions of architectural elements in a structure.
 He outlined the theories that should guide architects, and set
03
practical and pragmatic standards for creating mathematically
harmonious structures.
Alberti’s Concepts of
Architecture
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 Alberti’sbook on the Art of Building was to replace Vitruvius’s Ten
Books, not simply by cleaning it up and removing any confusing
04
terminology or by simply translating it into his native Italian.
 His aim, and the aim of the Italian Renaissance in general, was
something much more creative.
02

Alberti’s Modification of the

03 Vitruvian Triad
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 Convenience, Stability, Beauty.
 Alberti has tried to explain from the principles
04 of architecture to
building correctly.
 “the art of building consists in the design and structure.” It is this
02 interrelation that will make the building complete and make all
its’ parts fall in order.
A large interest for him seems to be the climate; air, wind, sun
and water, he says “If the Earth or Water had any defect in
03
them, Art and Industry might correct it;
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 Alberti strongly suggests that the place should be:
 Easily accessible 04
 shouldn’t be neither in drought nor in much humidity, and not too
cold nor too hot, and not to be located between two hills.
 should
02 have healthy water nearby, avoid humidity from the walls
 a place that has sunshine and just a little rain etc
 Though the wind is incredibly important in decision making from the
03 temperatures it brings, the strength it carries, the direction it has etc
Alberti’s On Architectural
Design
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 Leon Battista Alberti, established a guideline for the creation of
buildings that would be followed for centuries,
04
 designed a façade that was truly divorced from the medieval style, and
could finally be considered quintessentially Renaissance:
Some
 02 of his deigns best known 15th century are:
 The Palazzo Rucellai
 The facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella.
03  The Basilica of Sant'Andrea in Mantua, Italy
Palazzo Rucellai
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 The Palazzo Rucellai (1446-145) was just one of many important
commissions that Alberti completed for the Rucellais wealthy merchant
04
family
 Alberti used
02 Horizontal entablatures consists
of architrave, frieze, and cornice
 Pilasters to articulate function to
03 visually support the entablature.
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 On the first tier, they are of the Tuscan order, on the second tier they
are of the Ionic order, and on the third they are Corinthian
04

 On the second and third tiers,

02 Alberti used smaller stones to give
the feeling of lightness,
 which is enhanced by the rounded
03
arches of the windows, a typically
Roman feature
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 The Palazzo Rucellai actually had four floors:
 The first one for family to conduct their
04 business
 The second floor, or piano nobile, was where they received
guests;
02  The third floor contained the family’s private apartments; and
a hidden fourth floor, which had few windows and is invisible from
the street, was where the servants lived.
03
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 The Palazzo Rucellai has many features in common with the Palazzo
Medici (below) which was constructed a few years before, not far from
04
Alberti’s building.
 The Palazzo Medici is also divided into three horizontal planes that
decrease in heaviness from bottom to top.
02
 In many ways, this building is very similar to the Colosseum, which
Alberti saw in Rome during his travels in the 1430s.
 whichis also divided into tiers with architectural features for decorative
03
purposes rather than structural support
The Renaissance
Leon Battista Alberti
 The columns on the Colosseum, and the pilasters on the façade of the
Rucellai do nothing to actually hold the building up.
04
 At the same time , both of these buildings, the order of the columns
changes, going from least to most decorative as they acend from the
lowest to highest tier.
02
 The main difference between the Palazzo Rucellai and other palazzi
was Alberti’s reliance on ancient Rome. This may have reflected
Giovanni Rucellai’s pretensions for his family.
03
 Alberti on Architecture
Palazzo Rucellai

Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici, 1445-60, Florence (Italy

Thank You