2.3 Architects and Engineers 3
Balance and Specialization
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Vitruvius: architecture = important, worthy of study
Alberti = “true” architecture: elite, intellectual activity (believed theory was more important)
16th century artisan-builders: became readers, writers
“universal” designers vs. division, hierarchy of projects
Architecture vs. Engineering
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Frontinus: Rome’s imperial water commissioner, 95 CE
Book on “indispensable” aqueducts vs. “idle” pyramids; famous but “useless” Greek temples
Honors practical design projects over superficial image
Practical field of engineering and designing of architecture
Renaissance: ‘architect” and “engineer” – skills, job titles
Fortifications: lucrative market creates specialization
Walls and Empires
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New defense science: developed in Renaissance Italy
Primary market: major powers: Austria, Spain, France
1529: Vienna’s medieval walls and luck against Turkish army
1548: new fortification with extensive glacis (open area)
1683: Vienna held out against second Ottoman siege
Barcelona: rebuilt defenses after 1697 defeat by France
Royal Engineers
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Louis XIV: ruled France 1643-1715
Top priority: war (75% of budget)
Corps du Genie: full-time military engineers in war department
1659-1691: “King’s Engineers” grew from 20 to 275
Marshal Vauban (1633-1706)
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Aristocrat: studied math, science; career as a soldier
1663: Louis XIV expands, consolidates French territory
Vauban: expert in penetrating defenses, building better ones
“Trace Italienne” to Vauban Fortification
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Vauban: 27 new cities and fortresses, 300 rebuilt
Chain of fortified “war cities” on Northeast border
Lille: conquered in 1668; new fortifications by 1670
Building Bureaucracies
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Vauban’s innovation: administrative system for fortification design
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Full-time designers = create uniform procedures, strategy
Royal construction bureaucracies:
o Military (King’s Engineers)
o Architectural (King’s Buildings)
o Civil (Bridges and Roads)
Each office: distinct policies, priorities
Distinct tasks, qualifications: education
Engineering: science (firmitas, utilitas)… approaches problems through science, math
Architecture: wasn’t supposed to fall down, but now… its culture, art (venustas)
Royal Academy of Architecture (1671-1793)
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Bureaucracy of “culture” = French Royal Academy System (est. 1635-1671):
o Mission: French cultural supremacy in Europe
o Structure: “academies” = appointed experts in each field
o Function: establish a French “doctrine” for each field
o Result: orthodoxy in arts, architecture, language, science
Royal building: from craft to intellectual, “fine arts” realm
Educating Architects
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Academy system: affiliated schools for each field
Ecole des Beaux-Arts: architecture, painting, sculpture
1800s: worlds’ most prestigious architectural school
Two-part system:
o Ecole: entrance exams, lectures, design competitions
o Architect’s teaching atelier: learn drawing, design
The Beaux-Arts “System”
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Beaux-Arts students learned:
o Parti: clear schematic diagram
o High quality, artistic drawings
o Design using historic styles
o Biggest honor = Rome prize
o “monumental” building types
o They wanted them to be artists, not engineers
Architecture of glory, beauty, memory…. NOT emphasized: economy, practicality
Schools of Engineering
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Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees (Roads and Bridges; 1756)
Ecole Polytechnique (1794): replaced “genie” school (still under French department of Defense)
Main subjects: math, mechanics, physics, chemistry
Also taught architecture: practicality and efficiency
French infrastructure: built by military and civil service
American Engineers
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First engineering school in U.S. = West Point (1817)
Polytechnique model: math, science, military engineering
Engineers: built U.S. railroads, canals, factories, bridges
Other (civilian) programs in 1830s: 1862 Land Grant Act
o PSU is formed WOOOO!
Architects in America
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Most builders: craftsmen using tradition, pattern-books
Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895): went to Beaux-Arts in 1846
1855: returned to U.S.; success with Gilded Age clients
The Beaux-Arts Model
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Hunt’s New York “Atelier”: U.S. students at Beaux-Arts
First formal U.S. Architecture program: MIT (1868)
Most schools followed Beaux-Arts until 1930s
Academic architects in American culture: elite luxury??
Iron, Industry, and Architecture
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Architects: taught to follow tradition, art
Engineers: taught “objective” problem-solving
19th c. shift in building: industrial revolution
Iron: from hand-made luxury to mass-production
Construction: greater strength, less mass, labor
A French Engineer
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Gustave Eiffel: engineered railroad bridges
Trussed wrought-iron: precise, economical designs
How High Can We Go?
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World’s tallest building in 1884: Washington Monument (555’)
Eiffel’s Engineers: take a few trusses, and go up 300 m (980’)
Washington monument: 82,400 tons; trussed tower: 10,000 tons
Engineers’ Triumph
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“temporary” tower to landmark
Tallest structure until 1930
Popular attraction; “ugly scar”
Is it architecture? A building?
Separate Spheres?
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Beaux-Arts Central Courtyard: “modern” glass and iron roof
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Iron revolutionizes spanning large spaces; cheap, easy
19th c.: clear “zoning” of “architecture” and “engineering”
Architecutral Schizophrenia?
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Symbolic buildings still need to use traditional styles
19th century: “engineered” fromed under “architectural” skin
Le Corbusier
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Vers Une Architecture (1923, in English in 1927)
Most influential book on architecture since 1900
Polemical: deliberately radical, controversial
Buildings and Ships
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Said engieners were better architects then architects!!!! OOOOOOOOO
Architects: “disillusioned, unemployed, boastful, peevish”
Engineers: “healthy, virile, active, useful, happy in their work”
Illustrations: demonstrate architecture vs. engineering contrast
Difference: engineers’ forms reflect rational method, modernity
Temples and Cars
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This page: most famous images from Le Corbusier
“Great” design: the same for temples and cars
A well-stated problem and refinement = progress
Architects: adopt engineers’ methods… go further
The Bauhaus
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Educating “modern” architects: what do they need to know?
Bauhuas: new art school in Germany (1919-1933)
o Rejected traditional division between “fine” and “applied” art
o All designers: known industrial materials, “pure” aesthetics
A Modern Arch
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Gateway Arch: 630’ catenary
Form: “rational” and “poetic”
Engineers: adjusted equations so Saarinen’s form would “soar”
Architect as creative author?
Mythic Engineers
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Mid-20th century: era of famous, influential engineers
Von Braun: led NASA’s Saturn V, got U.S. to the moon
Nervi: dramatic concrete shells inspired architects
Vitruvian Revival?
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Santiago Calatrava: engineer, architect, and sculptor
o Milwaukee Art Museum
Norman Foster: architect as engineer
o Millennium Bridge
Le Corbusier: efficiency and aesthetics
Design and Beauty
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Connection between our eyes and our wallets
Beauty: something that is hard to define