Architectural types

Architecture is created only to fulfil the specifications of an individual or group. Economic law prevents
architects from emulating their fellow artists in producing works for which the demand is non-existent
or only potential. So the types of architecture depend upon social formations and may be classified
according to the role of the patron in the community. The types that will be discussed here—domestic,
religious, governmental, recreational, welfare and educational, and commercial and industrial—
represent the simplest classification; a scientific typology of architecture would require a more detailed
analysis.

Domestic architecture

Domestic architecture is produced for the social unit: the individual, family, or clan and their
dependents, human and animal. It provides shelter and security for the basic physical functions of life
and at times also for commercial, industrial, or agricultural activities that involve the family unit rather
than the community. The basic requirements of domestic architecture are simple: a place to sleep,
prepare food, eat, and perhaps work; a place that has some light and is protected from the weather. A
single room with sturdy walls and roof, a door, a window, and a hearth are the necessities; all else can
be considered luxury.

“Vernacular” architecture

In much of the world today, even where institutions have been in a continuous process of change,
dwelling types of ancient or prehistoric origin are in use. In the industrialized United States, for instance,
barns are being built according to a design employed in Europe in the 1st millennium BCE. The forces
that produce a dynamic evolution of architectural style in communal building are usually inactive in the
home and farm. The lives of average people may be unaltered by the most fundamental changes in their
institutions. The people can be successively enslaved persons, the subjects of a monarchy, and voting
citizens without having the means or the desire to change their customs, techniques, or surroundings.
Economic pressure is the major factor that causes average individuals to restrict their demands to a level
far below that which the technology of their time is capable of maintaining. Frequently they build new
structures with old techniques because experiment and innovation are more costly than repetition. But
in wealthy cultures economy permits and customs encourage architecture to provide conveniences such
as sanitation, lighting, and heating, as well as separate areas for distinct functions, and these may come
to be regarded as necessities. The same causes tend to replace the conservatism of the home with the
aspirations of institutional architecture and to emphasize the expressive as well as the utilitarian
function.
Religious architecture

The history of architecture is concerned more with religious buildings than with any other type, because
in most past cultures the universal and exalted appeal of religion made the church or temple the most
expressive, the most permanent, and the most influential building in any community.

The typology of religious architecture is complex, because no basic requirements such as those that
characterize domestic architecture are common to all religions and because the functions of any one
religion involve many different kinds of activity, all of which change with the evolution of cultural
patterns.

Governmental architecture

The basic functions of government, to an even greater extent than those of religion, are similar in all
societies: administration, legislation, and the dispensing of justice. But the architectural needs differ
according to the nature of the relationship between the governing and the governed. Where
governmental functions are centralized in the hands of a single individual, they are simple and may be
exercised in the ruler’s residence; where the functions are shared by many and established as
specialized activities, they become complex and demand distinct structures. There are, however, no
basic formal solutions for governmental architecture, since the practical needs of government may be
met in any sheltered area that has convenient space for deliberation and administration. A distinct type
is created rather by expressive functions arising from the ideology of the different systems of political
organization (monarchy, theocracy, democracy, etc.) and from the traditions of the various offices of
government (law courts, assembly houses, city halls, etc.). Governments that exercise power by force
rather than by consent tend to employ the expressive functions of architecture to emphasize their
power; they tend to produce buildings of monumentality disproportionate to their service to the
community. Those in which the ruler is given divine attributes bring religious symbolism into
architecture. Democratic governments have the responsibility of expressing in their architecture the
aims of the community itself, a difficult task in the modern world, when the community may be neither
small enough to express itself easily nor homogeneous enough to agree on how to do so.

The simple democratic processes of the Greek city-states and the medieval free towns produced
governmental architecture on a domestic scale, while the Roman Empire and later monarchies seldom
made important distinctions between the palace and the seat of state functions. The widespread growth
of representative government and the increase in the size and functions of the state in the 19th century
created a great variety of buildings, some for entirely new uses. Some examples are: first, capitols,
courthouses, parliament buildings, printing offices, and mints and, later, post offices, embassies,
archives, secretariats, and even laboratories, when the work, the increased personnel, and the
complexity of mechanical aids demanded specialized architectural solutions. Bureaucracy, for better or
for worse, has made governmental architecture more important than at any time in history.

In the first rapid expansion from about 1780 to 1840, Neoclassical architects found impressive solutions
to the new problems, but afterward governmental architecture lapsed into a century of conservatism,
following at a safe distance behind private building. After World War II, governmental architecture
showed new vitality. Outstanding are Le Corbusier’s work at Chandigarh, Punjab, India, the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization headquarters in Paris, and the program of the
U.S. Department of State for building American embassies.

Military architecture is closer to the governmental type than to others, but its expressive function is so
much subordinated to the practical that it is usually regarded as a class of engineering (see fortification).

Recreational architecture

Few recreations require architecture until they become institutionalized and must provide for both
active and passive participation (athletic events, dramatic, musical performances, etc.) or for communal
participation in essentially private luxuries (baths, museums, libraries). Throughout history, recreational
architecture has been the most consistent in form of any type. Diversions may change, but, as in
domestic architecture, the physical makeup of human beings provides consistency. If their participation
is passive, they must be able to hear and to see in comfort. If their participation is active, they must be
given spaces suited to the chosen activities. In most cultures, recreational institutions have their origins
in religious rites, but they easily gain independence, and religious expression is reduced or eliminated in
their architecture.