HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1
AR1125
Ar. Angelito R. Perez, uap, M. Arch
History of Architecture
- It is 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.
Historical Styles of Architecture
- The particular method, characteristics, and
manner of design which prevails at a
certain place and time.
Factors affecting the styles of architecture:
1. History
2. Society
3. Religion
4. Geography
5. Geology
6. Climate
Prehistoric Architecture
Influences:
HISTORY
Neolithic or New Stone Age
(8000-3000 BC)
-Hunting and food gathering
RELIGION
No organized religion
Burial rituals and monuments
TUMULUS
Passage grave, a dominant tomb type
appearing like a mound
Primitive Dwellings
Natural and artificial caves
Beehive hut
Trullo
Wigwam or Tepee
Hogan
Igloo
Egyptian Architecture
Influences:
HISTORY
3200BC – 1AD
-Centralized omnipotent authority of the
pharaoh (king), seen as a god dwelling on
earth, and sole master of the country and its
inhabitants
-knowledge in astronomy, mathematics,
philosophy, and music
RELIGION
Cult of many gods representing nature
Egyptians wished for a fine burial,
embalmment and funeral rites, a permanent
tomb or eternal dwelling
GEOGRAPHY/GEOLOGY
Nile River – travel and trade route
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
Megalithic – large stones
MATERIALS
Animal skins, wooden frames, bones
ORIENTATION
Faces towards cardinal points
DOLMEN
Tomb of standing stone usually capped with
a large horizontal slab
CLIMATE
Spring and summer, brilliant sunshine
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
Simplicity
Massiveness
Monumentality
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
Columnar and trabeated
MATERIALS
Stone: abundant in variety and quantity
Softstone: limestone, sandstone, alabaster
Hardstone: ganite, quartite, basalt
CROMLECH
Enclosure formed by huge stones planted
on the ground in circular form
ROOF AND CEILING
Flat roofs sufficed to cover and exclude heat
WALL
Batter wall diminishing in width towards the
top
OPENINGS
No windows; skylights, roof slits,
clerestories
DECORATION
“Gorge” or “Hollow and Roll” moulding
Hieroglyphics
Sphinxes
Solar disc and vulture with spread wings
Scarab, symbol of resurrection
Papyrus, lotus, and palm symbolizing
fertility
Grapes symbolize eternity
ORIENTATION
Faces towards cardinal points
EXAMPLES
Examples
MENHIR
Single, large, upright monolith, sometimes
in parallel rows reaching several miles
Palm capital
Square pillar
Polygonal column
Palm-type column
Bud-and-bell column
Foliated capital column
Hathor-headed column
Osiris pillars
COLUMNIATION, CAPITALS
Lotus capital
Papyrus capital
MASTABAS
Rectangular flat-topped funerary mound,
with battered side, covering a burial
chamber below ground
2 doors: one for ritual and a false door for
the spirits
Offering chapel, serdab contains the
statue of the deceased), offering room with
stelae (stone with name of deceased
inscribed), and offering table
Mastaba at Zoser
Funerary Complex, Saqqara
Mastaba of Aha-Sakkara
Mastaba of Thi-Sakkara
Mastaba at Giza
Mastaba at Beit Khallaf
PYRAMIDS
Massive funerary structures of stone or
brick with square plan and four sloping
triangular sides meeting at the apex
Walled enclosure with an offering chapel
(north or east side); mortuary chapel; raised
and enclosed causeway leading to west;
valley building for embalmment and
interment rites
Types of Pyramids
Step
(Step Pyramid of Zoser, Saqqara)
Slope
(Pyramids at Gizeh – Cheops, Chephren,
Mykerinos)
Bent
(Bent pyramid at Senerefu)
ROCK-CUT or ROCK-HEWN TOMBS
Built along hillsides for nobility, not royalty
Tombs at Beni Hasan
Tombs of the Kings, Thebes
PYLONS
Monumental gateway to the temple
consisting of slanting walls flanking the
entrance portal
Pylon, Temple of Isis, Philae
OBELISKS
Upright stone square in plan, with an
electrum-capped pyramidion on top,
symbolizing the sun-god Heliopolis
Came in pairs fronting temple entrances
Height of nine or ten times the diameter at
the base with four sides featuring
hieroglyphics
Obelisk, Piazza of S. Giovanni
TEMPLES
Mortuary temples – in honor of pharaohs,
the dead
Cult temples – in honor of a deity
Great Temple of Amon, Karnak, Thebes
(grandest temple)
Parts:
Entrance Pylon
Hypaethral court
(large outer court open to the sky
surrounded by double collonades)
Hypostyle hall
(on which the roof rests and through which
light is admitted via clerestory)
Sanctuary
Chapels/Chambers
Mammissi Temple
Prototype of Greek temple
ORIENTATION
Four corners toward the cardinal points
MATERIALS
Stone, Brick, Timber
EXAMPLES
COLUMNIATION, CAPITALS
Persians introduced the use of columns
ZIGGURATS
Artificial mountains or tiered,
rectangular stages with temple at the
summit
Great Temple of Abu-Simbel
(Example of a rock-cut temple)
Four rock-cut colossal statues of Rameses
Temple of Khons
Parts: pylons, court, hypostyle hall,
sanctuary, chapels enclosed by high gidle
wall, avenue of sphinxes and obelisks
fronting pylons
Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahari
Temple of Amon, Luxor
West Asiatic
Influences:
HISTORY
5000BC TO 641 AD
Three periods:
-MESOPOTAMIAN
(Babylonian/Chaldean)
-ASSYRIAN
-PERSIAN
GEOGRAPHY/GEOLOGY
3 Zones:
-Deserts of the Arab peninsula
-Grasslands,steppes, river plains of the
Fertile Crescent
-Mountains and Plateaus from west to east
COLUMNIATION, CAPITALS
Due to lack of stone, no columns were used
DWELLINGS
Megaron – jouse with entrance at
end rather than on long sides
Ziggurat at Bulsippa
Ziggurat and Precinct at Ur
The White Temple and Ziggurat at
Warka
Columned portico as entrance or
vestibule
Assyrian
PALACES
Palace platform, Persepolis
Palace of Darius
Palace of Xerxes
Hypostyle Hall of Xerxes
Hall of Hundred Columns (Darius)
Propylaeum (Xerxes)
MATERIALS
Stone, Timber
DECORATION
Winged bulls guarding chief portals
Glazed bricks in blue, white, yellow, green
Low relief sculpture in stone
Murals
EXAMPLES
TEMPLES
With or without ziggurats
ZIGGURATS
Of seven stages
PALACES
Came with or without a ziggurat,
hypostyle hall, monumental
entrances
Palace of Nebuchadnezzar,
Khorsabad
Early Mesopotamian
(5000BC – 2000BC)
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
Massiveness
Monumentality
Grandeur
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
Arctuated
MATERIALS
No stone, clay bricks, soil
EXAMPLES
Palace of Sargon
Apartments:
Seraglio
(king’s residence)
Haram
(private chamber)
Khan
(service chamber)
Persian
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
Light and Airy Magnificence
Purity of Line
Perfection of Proportions
Refinement of Detail
Aegean
(3000 BC to 1100B)
-rough and massive
COLUMNATION, CAPITALS
Two-part capital:
Square abacus above and circular
bulbous echinus below
WALL
Cyclopean wall:
Large stones, no mortar, clay
bedding
Polygonal wall:
Advanced technique, Hellenic
period, no pith / tar
Rectangular wall:
Dowels were used
Greek
Influences
HISTORY
-Aegean
-Mycenean or
Helladic
-Hellenic
-Hellenistic
RELIGION
Nature worship
Greek gods
GEOGRAPHY/GEOLOGY
Mainland
-mountainous
-separated people into
groups, clans, states
Archipelago and islands
-sea was inevitable means of
trade and communications
CLIMATE
-Between rigorous cold and
relaxing heat
-Clear atmosphere and
intense light
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
Simplicity and Harmony
EXAMPLES
MEGARON
Single storeyed house of deep plan,
columned entrance porch, anteroom
with central doorway, living
apartment or megaron proper,
central hearth, columns supporting
roof, thalamus/sleeping room
PALACES
Palace of King Minos, Knossos
Palace at Tyrins
Lion Gate, Mycenae
TOMBS
Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae
Hellenic
(650 BC to 323 BC)
-mostly religious
-carpentry in marble
(timber forms imitated in tone with
remarkable exactness)
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
Columnar and trabeated
MATERIALS
Timber, stone, terra cotta
COLUMNIATION, CAPITALS
-First columns and entablature were
made of timber with terra cotta
decorations
-Stone columns started in 600BC
GREEK ORDER:
-capital
-base
-column shaft
-horizontal entablature
(architrave, frieze, cornice)
-Doric
-Ionic
-Corinthian
DECORATION
-Refinements used to correct optical
illusions such as Entasis
-Sculptures, colors, murals
EXAMPLES
TEMPLES
Chief building type, resembling a
megaron in plan and construction
Hellenistic
(323 BC to 30 BC)
-provided Roman inspiration
-not religious, but civic
-dignified and gracious
-symmetrical, orderly
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
Columnar and trabeated
COLUMNS, CAPITALS
Greek orders
OPENINGS
Clerestory – between roof and upper
wall
Skylight – made of thin, translucent
marble
TempLe Door – oriented to the East
DECORATION
Mouldings – architectural device,
with which light and shade, produce
a definition to a building
Examples:
Cyma recta
Cyma reversa
Ovolo
The Fillet
Astragal or bead
Cavetto
Scotia
Torus
Bird’s beak
Corona
ORIENTATION
-Entire groups of buildings laid out
symmetrically and orderly
-Doors oriented towards east
EXAMPLES
Temenos
-Sacred enclosure built on the
highest part of a settlement, allowing
it to be a citadel or acropolis
Acropolis at Pergamon
Acropolis at Athens
-Supreme example of a temenos
-foremost among world-famous
building sites
-10 structures:
1. Propylaea
2. Pinacotheca
(gallery of painted
pictures)
3. Statue of Athena
4. Erectheion
5. Parthenon
6. Temple of Nike
Apteros
7. Old Temple of Athena
Promachos
8. Stoa of Eumeses
9. Theater of Dionmysus
10. Odeon of Herodes
Atticus
Temples
-not intended for internal worship –
altar was outside, on the east front
-built with special regard for outward
effect

Part of a temple:
1. Naos – principle chamber
containing statue
2. Treasury Chamber
3. Pronaos - front portico
4. Opisthodomus or Epinaos –
rear portico

-planned by number of columns:
 Hemostyle
 Distyle
 Tristyle
 Tetrastyle
 Pentastyle
 Hexastyle
 Heptastyle
 Octastyle
 Enneastyle
 Decastyle
 Dodecastyle
-planned by column arrangement
 In-antis (between anta and
the front)
 amphi antis (at the front and
rear)
 prostyle – portico at the front
 amphi-prostyle – porticoes at
front and rear
 peripteral – on all sides
 pseudo peripteral
(flanking columns attached to
naos)
 dipteral – double line of
columns surrounding naos
 pseudo dipteral
like dipteral, but inner
columns omitted on the
flanks of naos.
Doric Temple
-had a timber origin
Structural Parts:
 Pediment
 Cornice
 Triglyph
 Metope
 Architrave
 Abacus
 Echinus
Entablature
H= 1 ¾ X lower dia. of
column
Column
-without base
H= 4-6 x base dia.
Parthenon, Acropolis
-one of the biggest temples
-designed by Ichtinus & Callicrates
-sculpted by Phidias
Temple of Hera, Paestum
Ionic Temples
-evolved from timber forms
-volute capital derived from Egyptian
lotus and Aegean art
Structural Parts:
 Entablature
H= 2 1/4 x diameter of
column
o Sima
o Geison
o Denticulate
o Frieze
o Architrave with fascia
o Cornice
 Capital
o Abacus
o Volute
o Neckpiece
o Shaft
o Base
 Crepidoma
o Stylobate
o Stereobate /
Euthynteria
 Column
-mode slender than Doric
-needed a base to spread
load
H= 9x base diameter of
column
24 flutes separated by fillets
Temple of Nike Apteros, Athens
-designed by Callicrates
-one of the smallest temples
Erectheion, Acropolis
-designed by Mnesicles
-features the Caryatid porch
Temple of Artemis,Ephesus
-designed by Demetrius and
Paenius Denocrates
-sculpted by Scopas
Corinthian Temples
-decorative variant of Ionic Order
Column
-base and shaft resembled Ionic
-more slender
H= 10X column diameter
Capital
-much deeper than Ionic
H = 1 1/6 column diameters
-invented by Callimachus, inspired
by basket over root of acanthus
plant
Entablature
-same as Ionic
-3 parts:
o Architrave
o Frieze
o Cornice
Temples of Apollo Epicurius
Paracenia
-projecting wall / wing at end of
skene
Gymnasium
-used for all types of physical exercise
(prototype of Roman Thermae)
Procenium
-in front of skene, used as a
speaking place or locelon
Tombs
Nereid Monument at Xanthos
Sarcophagus, Cridos
Mausoleum, Halicarnassos
-most famous of all tombs
-one of seven wonders of the world
-for King Mausolos from his widow,
Artemisia
Episcenium
-raised background to the 2-storey
skene building
Theater of Dionysus
-Prototype of all greek theatres
Theater of Epidauros
-Most beautiful Greek theatre
-designed by Polycleitos
Agora
-marketplace or town square and center of
social and business life
Stoa
-Long colonnaded building by the public as
a shelter and also as a religious shrine
-used as a link between buildings in a public
area
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens
Propylaea
-monumental gateway
-prophulus of Athena, Athens
Theaters
-open air structure hollowed out of hillside
-acoustically efficient, sound intensified by
reflection on hard paving of orchestra
Prytaneion
-Senate house, used for entertaining
distinguished visitors and citizens
Bouleuterion
-Council house, rectangular with banked
seats facing inwards
Cavea
-auditoriums in tiers of stone seats
Influences
HISTORY
-centrally located on the Mediterranean,
was able to serve as intermediary in
spreading art and civilization in Europe,
West Asia, and North Africa
-Etruscan
(750 BC to 146 BC)
-Roman
(146 BC to 365 AD)
RELIGION
-Roman mythology slowly derived attributes
from those of Greek gods
GEOGRAPHY/GEOLOGY
-Italian Peninsula
-Central and commanding position on
Mediterranean sea
Assembly Hall
-used by citizens in general
CLIMATE
-temperate climate in the North
-sunny in central Italy
-almost tropical in south
Odeion
-similar to theatre, used solely for musical
presentations or contests
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
-vastness and magnificence
-ostentation and ornateness
Stadium
-foot race course
Skene
-building for scene or stage decor,
tangential to orchestra
Hippodrome
-similar to stadium in plan used for horse
and chariot racing (prototype of the Roman
Circus)
Parados
-passageway to skene
Palaestra
-wrestling school
COLUMNIATION, CAPITALS
-new Tuscan order
EXAMPLES
Tombs
-existed in great numbers outside city walls
in special necropolis sites
Roman
Parts:
Orchestra
-focal point, stage or concrete circles
elevated with an altar in dedication
to their gods
-earth for making terra cotta and bricks
-first use of concrete (300 AD to 400 AD)
with stone or brock rubble and mortar or
pozzolana, a thick volcanic earth material
Etruscan
(750 BC to 100 BC)
-great builders
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
-earliest use of true or radiating arch
MATERIALS
-stone: tufa, peperino, travertine, lava stone,
sand, and gravel
Drainage
-Cloaca Mazima, Rome
Arches
-Arch of Augustus, Perugia
Temples
-Temple of Juno Sospita, Lanuvium
Roman
(300 BC to 365 AD)
-utilitarian, practical, economic use of materials
-complex, of great constructive ability
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM
-Greek orders of architecture used as
decorative features which could be omitted
-adopted columnar and trabeated style of
Greeks
-developed arch and vault system started by
Etruscans
-combined used of column, beam, and arch
MATERIALS
-marble, mostly white
-concrete, to build vaults of a magnitude
never equalled until 19th century steel
construction
COLUMNIATION, CAPITALS
-4th and 5th orders:
Tuscan
-simplified version of Doric
order
H= 7x col. Diameter
Base, unfluted shaft,
moulded capital, plain
entablature
-sculptured memorials
Composite
-combines prominent volutes
of Ionic with acanthus leaves
of Corinthian
ROOF AND CEILING
-wagon barrel / tunnel vault
-wagon vault with intersecting vault
-cross vault
-hemispherical dome / cupola
WALLS
Opus Incertum
-small stones, loose pattern
resembling polygonal walling
Opus Quadratum
-rectangular blocks with or without
mortar joints
Opus Reticulatum
-net-like effect, with fine joints
running diagonally
Opus Testaceum
-brick facing
Opus Mixtum
-alternation of brickwork and small
squared stone blocks
EXAMPLES
Rectangular Temples
-amalgamation of Etruscan and Greek
Types
Basilicas
-venues for commercial exchange or halls of
justice
-usual plan:
Plan length is twice the plan width
Trajan’s Basilica, Rome
Basilica in the Forum, Pompeii
Basilica of Septimius Sevenus, Lepcis
Magna
Thermae
-palatial baths
-3 parts:
Open Space
Outer ring of aprtments
Main building
-dominant central hall, symmetrically
arranged rooms
-tepidarium (warm)
-calidarium (hot)
-sudatorium /
laconicum (dry)
-frigidarium (cold)
-apodyteria (dressing)
-unctuaria (oils)
Thermae of Caracalla
Baths of Diocletian, Rome
Theaters
-Greek type adaprted to suit Roman drama
-hollowed out of hillside or built-up by
concrete vaulting supporting tiers of seats
Theater and Portico of Pompeii, Rome
Maison Caree, Nimes
-best preserved, Corinthian order
Circular Temples
-Pantheon, Rome:
Finest illustration of Roman construction
-Temple of Vesta, Rome
Forums
-correspond to agora in Greek architecture;
a central open space used as a meeting
place, market, venue for political
demonstration
-Forum Romanum
-Imperial Forum
-Trajan’s Forum
Ampitheaters
-elliptical theatres, regarded as a compound
of 2 theaters, stage-to-stage
The Colosseum, Rome
Circus
-for horse and chariot racing, from
hippodrome
Circus Maximus, Rome
Tombs
-coemeteria
-monumental tombs
-pyramidal tombs
-temple-shaped tombs
Triumphal Arches
-erected to emperors and generals for
victorious campaigns
Arch of Titus, Rome
Arch of Constantine, Rome
Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome
Dwellings
Domus – private house
Villa – country house
Insula – apartment block
Aqueducts
-Pont du Gard, Nimes, France
-Segovia aqueduct
Bridges (Pons)
-Bridge of Augustus, Rimini
Rostral Column
-erected to commemorate Naval victories