Architecture

•What is
Architecture?
• It is an art of designing and constructing a
building.
• man-made building or structure, like a tower
or monument
• a carefully designed object, such as a chair, a
spoon, or a tea kettle
• a design for a large area such as a city, town,
park, or landscape
• Architecture is from the Latin
word architectura, a word used to describe
the job of an architect. The ancient
Greek arkhitekton was the chief builder or
master technician of all craftsmen and
artisans.
• The types of architecture are established not
by architects but by society, according to the
needs of its different institutions. Society
sets the goals and assigns to the architect the
job of finding the means of achieving them.
 The three basic
construction type:
• Post and lintel
• Arch
• Cantilever
 Post-and-lintel
• The earliest of the three
• It consist of vertical post for
support (post)and a
horizontal line.
• Generally used for wooden
building.
• The biggest disadvantage to a post and lintel
construction is the limited weight that can be held up,
and the small distances required between the posts.
• It supports a large amount of weight, thus allowing
buildings to rise higher than one story and broadening
doorways and windows. There are many variations to the
post and lintel design, with crossbeams, arches and walls
added for extra support or as design elements.
Post-and-Lintel
 Arch
• The arch can be called a curved lintel.
• Dominant in Roman Architecture.
• An architectural form built from
pieces of wood called voussoirs with
joints between them and are arranged
in a semi-circle.
• Arches were known in Egypt and
Greece but were considered unsuitable
for monumental architecture.
• How does the arch work?
• The arch bridge works by distributing
compression through its semicircular form
into a horizontal thrust restrained by its
abutments, or legs. Longer bridges often
consist of a series of arches, as the greater
the curvature, the more tension on the
bridge's underside
 Cantilever
• Any structural part projecting horizontally
and anchored at one end only.
• This method of construction needs a
beam with great tensile strength that
can be securely fastened at the supported
end.
• Steel has great tensile strength, and does
not crack or break easily
• Cantilever is used in the construction of
skyscraper which depends for their
support upon a steel skeleton.
• How does a cantilever bridge work?
• In a common variant, the suspended span,
the cantilever arms do not meet in the center;
instead, they support a central truss bridge which
rests on the ends of thecantilever arms. The
suspended span may be built off-site and lifted
into place, or constructed in place using special
travelling supports.
 The most common materials used in
architecture are:
Wood
• Is the common building material today. Its
advantages are its abundance, relative durability
and high tensile and compression strength.
Stone
• Material used in most o the great architecture of
the world where permanence is desired.
Concrete
• A building material made of sand and
gravel mixed with cement.
Steel
• Is still in great demand of today.
• A tough alloy of iron in variable amounts.