architecture

Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Facultad de Lenguas

Cultura y Civilización de los Pueblos de Habla Inglesa I

2007

ArchitectureArchitecture

Marina L. Colomba

Introduction

Architecture implies building beautifully and well. It can be profoundly moving because it is a

three-dimensional art, the beholder may enter into it, and he may feel himself to be an integral

part of it. For the architects the building itself must fulfil its purpose and delight the beholder. The

factors that govern the form of any building are three: its purpose (needs), the skill of the

builders, and the materials available. As the first two changes, architecture can be treated

chronologically.

Archaeological interest, historical association, and an understanding of structural problems

contribute to our enjoyment (not only the purely aesthetic appreciation).

Architecture is the highest physical expression of man’s endeavour, and in England there

exists more beautiful architecture that in almost any country in the world.

Building Materials: This subject is not susceptible to chronological treatment, for the

materials available vary with locality, and change with the passing of time.

In the days of bad communications, only the most expensive and elaborate building could

afford to use any but local materials, and even then seldom for the main structure.

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Churches and castles are the exceptions to the rule. The importance of religion and war to

medieval peoples was such that, if humanly possible, stone, the noblest and most lasting

material, would be transported for the work.

The first and most primitive material is timber (oak).

Building stones vary from the hard granite of the west and north to the flints and chalk of

East Anglia. But the best stone lies between the two extremes. This is the limestone that

runs in a great belt across the country.

The clay of the valley bottoms has since the time of the Romans been used for making

bricks, but this was not used until the 16th C, when timber was becoming scarce.

Social Conditions: Broadly speaking, there are 3 main periods into which English architecture

may be split. Between these periods there came times of transition.

The Medieval period: + religion, + insecurity

The Renaissance: + intellect, - religion, - insecurity

The Industrial period: + gain, -- religion, -- insecurity

The Medieval period : This extended from the Dark Ages to the Reformation (about AD 600

to 1500), and was the longest of the three. The most important buildings of this time were those

of a religious nature (99%). The remainder are nearly all castles, which were built to subdue the

country, to house the feudal lords, and to form part of a chain of defensive points throughout the

land. Castles were built until the end of the 15th C, when the use of gunpowder had made them a

relic and the country was sufficiently secure internally.

The Saxons: When they were converted to Christianity, the people were living a life of little

security, and have very little skills in building in anything but timber. Although association

with the continent seems to have been fairly constant, they hardly benefited at all by the

greater skill of the Latin people. This is partly explained by the character of the Saxons,

who were light-hearted, impractical and imprudent people.

The Normans: When they occupied the lands, they brought their superior technical skills

with them, and taught the Saxons how to build in the Norman manner. All this time, the

majority of the buildings (houses) were in timber. These houses were built under the

shadow of the castles or huddled together inside their curtain walls for protection. The

majority of buildings in the period then are ecclesiastical, with a number of castles that

later give place to manor-houses.

The beginning of the Renaissance in England was a period of great mental and social

upheavals: questioning of the established order of social life and of the Church (the spirit of

reason was the mainspring of all the next 200 years). Under these circumstances, material

comforts and improvements in domestic buildings were natural.

Learning was made possible for anyone who cared to acquire it, and was no longer

confined to the monks and friars. A great number of colleges and schools were consequently built

in the Tudor period.

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Wealth was concentrated into few hands and vast country estates were enclosed by

wealthy men. On these estates were built immense houses. In the towns whole neighborhoods

were owned by single landowners.

The Industrial period : Land enclosure in the country and increased industrial activity

resulted in the formation of new towns. During the 18th and 19th C, a prodigious increase in

population took place.

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Rows of depressing and cheap houses

New factories

Great engineering works

Schools were built (compulsory education was introduced)

Hospitals, public buildings

During the 19th C, the main types of buildings were industrial, commercial and civic. Life

became chaotic for the increase of development. In the 20th C, the accent was on domestic

building and the improvement of public services.

Buildings of the Medieval Period

Pre-Conquest or Saxon

(600 - 1066)

Saxon churches are the oldest English buildings (we are not concerned here with the

buildings of the Romans, visitors from abroad, nor with the mysterious works of the prehistoric

peoples, but with the parish church).

The Saxons were primitive and uneducated. In the country, which has become Christian

again, a considerable amount of church building was undertaken. Later, more heathen-Danes-

invaded the country and destroyed many churches.

Of the few Saxon churches that remain, all are small. They are the simplest possible

buildings, with the simplest possible windows and doors. They built up their churches

piecemeal like children playing with bricks. They did not realize that the nave and the chancel

should have been in the same enclosed space, and they built them separately.

Although complete Saxon buildings are very rare, many churches have Saxon works in

them, and there are a number of smaller works such as stone crosses erected to mark the old

crossing of ways. The Saxons were great tower-builders and it is this, the strongest part of the

church, that has most often survived.

The exterior of the churches were very simple and were sometimes decorated with a criss-

cross pattern. The use of alternate vertical and horizontal stones at the corners is very typical

of the awkward way in which they used stone, for timber was their natural traditional material.

Their windows and doors are like small holes punched in very thick walls. Their windows are

usually placed with round arches over them. The hall-mark on Saxon work is its crudeness and

smallness.

Norman or Romanesque

(1066 - 1200)

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The king gave manors to the lords for them to build castles that had to be separated from

each other in order to prevent them from getting together and react against the king.

Norman building has become a synonym for solidity. William the Conqueror’s tasks were:

To make the country secure: CASTLES (wooden first, then made of stone keeps).

To establish his church: CHURCHES (parish churches, cathedrals, abbeys, and

monasteries)

In the Norman period, building activities split into secular and religious. The main

characteristic of all Norman work is its roundness. To the Norman designer, the square and the

circle were the most important shapes. The method was to rely on the dead weight and solidity

of their walls to take the sideways thrusts of the arches. They used only a few shallow

buttresses. They cut as few stones as they could, making their walls and pillars of two skins of

cut stones and filling in the space inside with rubble. This method was most unsatisfactory,

since some towers fell down as soon as they were built.

These towers were squat and square, giving to all Norman churches and cathedrals a

stocky appearance that is unmistakeable. In the bigger churches and cathedrals, the pillars,

thick and round, supported semicircular arches to hold the high walls of the clerestory above.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Norman buildings is the roof. Usually they roofed

their buildings with timber. Later, they made stone roofs. The roof was not altogether of stone.

They built a stone inner-vault and put a steep, wooden roof on top of it. The development of

the stone inner-vault is both interesting and it illustrates that structural necessity and practical

requirements were the cause of the introduction of features in a building that give it its “style”

(the introduction of the concept of STRUCTURE was one of the most important aspects of the

late Romanesque; it evolved in the Gothic). The most elementary sort of vault known to the

Normans was the Barrel vault, which was simply a tunnel; by making two barrel vaults intersect

at right-angles, a groined cross vault was achieved. In order to lessen the amount of timber

centering, as the temporary support is called, they found it convenient to build proper arches

between the columns first, and built the groined vault between them afterwards.

They discovered the advantage of making diagonal arches first, quite separately as self-

supporting members, and filling in with between the diagonals and side arches with thin panels

of stone work. All these vaults, however, were only suitable for roofing over squares. A pointed

arch was to be the solution to overcome vaulting problems. Now it was a matter of refinement.

The pointed arch was invented and used as early as 1130 (Durham Cathedral), but it came into

general use at the end of the century.

Norman windows and doors were small for defence, roundheaded openings in thick walls.

Often if they wanted a rectangular door, they filled in the arch with a large, semi-circular stone

called “tympanum”. They decorated this with spirited carvings and used low relief.

The arches over the windows and doors often consisted not of a thick arch but of a series of

concentric rings of arches, receding into the thickness of the wall. These were usually carved,

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each ring of stone with a different pattern, and each stone being carved as one whole section

of a repeating motif.

The capitals of the Norman columns are often carved with beasts and stiff formal foliage,

but the most usual capital consists of a large flat square stone. In the more highly decorated

buildings the shafts of the columns were carved with big zigzags and spirals. The feet of the

columns were normally very simple, with a wider course of stones at the bottom to spread the

weight, carved into a round-shaped moulding, sitting on a square of masonry.

All the details and constructional features of churches and cathedrals apply to castles also.

But here the plan is different. The main object of a castle is its durability and its ability to

withstand siege-engines, battering-rams, mines, and so on. A high square tower with

immensely thick walls and narrow round-headed windows is the essence of the Norman

castles. This is the keep, and it stands isolated from the other castle walls. A curtain wall

surrounds this bailey, or open court, and often round the whole work flows a river.

The living-quarters of the baron himself were in the keep, and a cheerless, comfortless

place it must have been.

Styles:

Romanesque / Norman: 11th – 12th C

Gothic : 13th C Early English

14th C Decorated 15th C Perpendicular.

Gothic

The Early English Period

(1201 - 1300)

This is the earliest phase of the Gothic style. It implies barbarity. The Early English builders

made their churches as austere as possible, a symbol of the renunciation of the flesh and of

worldly riches. They built their cathedrals as high as they dared, a symbol of man reaching to

heaven (desire for salvation, life after death). Architecture had an educational purpose, since it

helped people know the history and the Bible through the Bible and stained glass.

Engineering skill had increased during the last 50 years, and builders understood how the

thrusts were set up inside a structure based on arches. The structural principle of the Early

English church is that walls are only built thick enough to withstand the sideways pushing of

the arches at those points where the arches join them. Between these points, the wall may be

thinner.

The lightning of large churches and cathedrals complicated the issue. So the centre of all

big churches is raised up and clerestory windows are put in. The thrust of the vault of the main

roof, however, was now transferred across the aisle roof to the supporting buttresses. An arch

flung across the gap at an angle was the solution. These flying buttresses take the weight of

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the nave roof and vaulting, and pass it downwards and outwards to the great buttresses on the

outer wall. All this was pure engineering, just to obtain a high building with an economical use

of stone (form follows function).

The characteristic features of this period are the form of the arch, which now became

pointed, the tall thin windows, and the general accent on height and verticality, and all the

structural features arising from this.

The pointed arch is exclusively used in the vaulting of this period. No fundamental changes

came about in vaulting, the Early English being merely an elaboration of the Norman style.

Additional ribs were introduced between the main cross ribs and the diagonals.

Now, with the introduction of the chisel, considerable undercutting was possible. In its fully

developed Early English form the decoration of the capitals became a deeply undercut, very

formalized pattern of leaves with a strong feeling of supporting what was above it. No longer

were the simple zigzags and geometrical shapes used as they had been.

Window design changed considerable. Towards the end of the 12 th C glass for windows

became available. This, together with the advantage of the windows occurring in the thin wall

between the buttresses, enabled the builders to make their windows much larger. The typical

window of this period was tall and thin, with the new pointed arch as its head like a lancet.

Soon groups of lancets were arranged together between pairs of buttresses.

The Norman pillars of the last century were made of rubble with dressed stone faces. Now

columns were made with solid blocks and were decorated with detached shafts of polished

limestone or marble. The shafts were supported with small bonding stones that make the

characteristic “rings” seen in intervals up their length. In the later stages of this period the

shafts were to become merged with the parent column.

The doorways of this period were similar to the predecessors, except that they are far

simpler and have the pointed arch and not the round. They have the deep, parallel mouldings

instead of the Norman ornaments and the columns at the sides are detached from the jambs,

and are more often in one shaft of stone than were those in Norman work.

The Early English builders were very fond of detaching shafts from their background, and it

is one of the main characteristics of their work. This increased desired to have their details

freestanding is evidence of an increased interest in space.

The castles of the period were very much more elaborate than the simpler Norman keep.

Halls, for a degree of comfort that was impossible in the keep, were built within the walled ring,

or, if none existed, walls were built.

Crenellation (the action of protecting with battlements) and all the fascinating features of

medieval military architecture, like shoots, down which to pour molten lead or boiling pitch,

portcullises and drawbridges, all were invented towards the close of the period.

Gothic

The Decorated Period

(1300 - 1400)

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In the 14th C the simplicity and economy of the Early English building gave place to a more

highly decorated style. The accent was on gaiety, elaboration and comfort, for England was

becoming a prosperous nation.

Domestic building, other than those of a purely military character, had become more

common as the homes of a growing class of wealthy yeomen. This was also a period of

improvement and enlargement of the parish church. The castle was by now as it was ever to

be. The second half of the century is overshadowed by the Black Death (1348-49), after which

very little big building was done.

Manor-houses became of some importance during the century. The nucleus of the medieval

house was the hall, and round this nucleus the house-plan continued to develop until the

Renaissance.

Bricks were used almost for the first time since the days of the Romans. This foreign

innovation was only used in secular buildings and in a few isolated examples. The popularity of

bricks was not for a long time. The usual material for wealthy building was still stone.

The main contribution of the 14th C to the ecclesiastical architecture was the development

of the window. No important changes came over the design of buildings. It is a period of

development rather than invention. The Early Norman window had sometimes consisted of two

openings linked with one arch. In the next century, builders continued this idea, by introducing

plate tracery by piercing the blank wall enclosed above the openings with simple circular or

quatrefoil holes.

In the 14th C this develops into true window tracery, based on simple geometrical forms.

The elaboration of small arches and pierced shapes into trefoils and quatrefoils followed.

From this geometrical basis where pointed arches and circles are the only motifs used, the

ogee-convex and concave-arch was evolved. This is a 14th invention and is the basis of most

curvilinear tracery.

Early English vaulting developed in the Decorated Period only in its greater technical

efficiency. The panels between the ribs were made lighter and the number of ribs was

increased. The fine carving of the 13th C developed into a much more elaborate technique, the

carver often trying to make in stone exact replicas of natural foliage, with a consequent loss of

beauty and fitness of form. The same decadence in design is seen in the capitals of columns.

Columns are taller and more slender than those of the Early English period, better built, and

with no free standing shafts. These shafts have now become joined to the parent body of the

column to make a cluster of piers.

Castles are rare, but many older castles were enlarged and elaborated. Indeed, the military

role of the castle was declining. One is tempted to presume that the technique of military

engineering had already run faster than its uses.

Gothic

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The Perpendicular Period

(1401 - 1500)

The keynote of Perpendicular design is that of sophisticated moderation, coupled with a

mechanical precision of detailing and proportion that seems to lend to the masonry a quality

almost metallic. Walls are finished so fine as to seem infinitely thin, while the windows are so

large that the building seems a glass box supported by fine shafts of stone. Up to this time all

the building styles in England had had their counterparts on the continent, particularly in

France. It is now that that English builders strike out for the first time on a line of their own. In

France, the last stages of Gothic developed into a style known as Flamboyant, all curves and

carvings. But in England, a return to simplicity and austerity of design took place. Why this

should have been is not certain (the comeback to simplicity in the Perpendicular reflects a

change in economy and society (Capitalism). There was a preference for reasonableness/ a

practical approach to life.)

Decorated Flamboyant

Perpendicular

ENGLAND THE CONTINENT

Great numbers of parish churches were built and additions to many cathedrals were carried

out with the money made from wool.

Castles are no longer able to withstand sieges. Gunpowder came into general use in

warfare and this altered the conception of fortification tactics. Consequently, houses designed

as non-defensive homes were now built in large numbers for the first time. The manor-house

continued to develop.

As regards the detailed appearance of Perpendicular buildings, the most noticeable feature

are the lower and flatter arch, which appears in most work, the simplification of window tracery

and the beautiful development of rib-vaulting into its last and most advantage stage, fan

vaulting, only seen in the most expensive works of the period.

As a means of spanning over a space with the smallest rise in height, the four centred-arch

was evolved.

In church building, the natural development of the structure continued, resulting in larger

windows filling the entire wall space between even deeper buttresses. This method divided the

windows into similar rectangular shapes that lent themselves well to repetitive or mass-

produced glazing, and each panel could be made to contain a separate picture of a story or a

separate saint in a series, in stained glass.

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The well-dressed stones that the masons were able to cut in this period gave the walls a

clean, bare appearance that contrasts beautifully with the elaboration of windows.

Roofs in both stone and timber had by this time developed considerably. In late work, stone

vaults were bought to a great pitch of refinement in with the fan-like springing of many ribs

assumed the form of an inverted curved cone.

The vault ceased now to be a pointed tunnel intersected by other similar pointed tunnels

and became a curved shell of great complexity. The ribs of these vaults were formed into a

panelled pattern that echoed the window tracery.

For centuries the roofs of halls and smaller churches had been built in timber. It is in the

Perpendicular period that timber roofs became most developed. They are of all types. It is

hammer-beam roof that takes pride of place. For splendour it has no equal. The timbers of

these roofs were usually brightly painted in colours.

In following the tendency towards simplicity, and a preference for rectangular shapes, the

15th C designer made the hood moulds over his doorways square, filling in the triangular space

between the hood mould and the arch with simple cusping or other plain patterns, occasionally

incorporating a coat-of-arms but never indulging in naturalistic foliage or realistic scenes.

Flamboyance is whole lacking in this type of design.

Moulding round arches tend to become rather thin, flat and mean, having none of the deep

cut or voluptuous quality of the Early English or Decorated work. Curving is of highly formalised

nature. Foliage is made to conform to a set geometrical design. Mock battlements are a very

usual feature of this type of building.

Perpendicular building is unlike any other building form, is very easily recognisable, and

wholly English. The 15th C builders had a special genius for adding to existing buildings the new

style, harmonising with the old without accepting any of its form or detail.

Transition to the Classical Period

Renaissance

(1501-1625)

The Renaissance was the rebirth of Greek and Roman ideas that supplanted medieval ways

and influenced every aspect of life. It appeared in Italy in the 15th C, in England in the 16th C,

but it began in Greece. By the 5th C BC, the Greek had developed the beam-and-pillar building

type (Parthenon). The columns they used were of 3 different sorts: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.


Later the Romans colonised Greece and adopted the arch for their buildings. However, they

were so impressed by the superior culture and refinement of the Greek that they took their

beam-and-pillar style and incorporated them as decoration, but they added some ordinary

details of their own.

Early in the Christian era the Roman Empire collapsed, and the Greek suffered in the same

collapse. The Emperor established his capital in Constantinople. Through the Dark Ages that

follow, invaders destroyed everything, but the rock of Christianity, the rock on which was to be

built the civilization of Western Europe. By the 13th C the great buildings were in ruins. Now

men prepared the ground for a revolt against the medieval outlook of mysticism and religious

preoccupation.

When in 1453 Constantinople was sacked by the Turks, Western Europe was flooded with

refugees. Among them were many learned scholars who had escaped with treasures from the

libraries. People needed a change and an enthusiasm for classical culture was emerging.

Influential Italians, by their patronage, enabled Italian architects, artists, and craftsmen to

execute many works in which they expressed their enthusiasm for antiquity and the classical

materialist outlook.

The new Italian buildings, however, were very different from the Roman buildings, for they

fulfilled different purposes. They included classical motifs such as the pediment, the dome,

semi-circular arches, or straight beams, the Roman mouldings and columns.

On their journey from Italy to England, the new buildings suffered many changes. They

came via France and the Netherlands, and were debased by the English builders who did not

understand them.

The transition was divided into two parts: TUDOR (medieval in detail) and ELIZABETHAN

AND JACOBEAN (classic in detail). Although Elizabeth was a Tudor the architecture of her reign

is wholly different from the first.

During the medieval era, the structural problem governed all and every part of the building.

Now, in the 16th, 17th and 18th C builders had simpler problems. They had to build in a “good

Roman manner”; that is, with an appearance of solidity to achieve magnificence.

Their admiration for the ancients gave the Renaissance builders the desire to adopt these

features, and their scientific knowledge allowed them to do it.

Here we enter on an age in which spiritual attainments is of secondary importance,

intellectual ability paramount. It is a highly civilised age of great artificiality.

Tudor

(1485-1560)

Tudor buildings are Gothic in form, but they are nearly all secular due to the unpopularity of

the Church. The dissolution of the monasteries provided lands for farms (cottages) and Henry


VIII encouraged the constructions of large mansions and palaces to increase British prestige

abroad. Consequently, the accent was domestic rather than ecclesiastical building. Castles

were by this time unnecessary.

Windows and doors become smaller, buildings more complicated, and chimneys and

fireplaces more common. The most characteristic feature of Tudor buildings is the use of brick.

The typical Tudor Great House had a Romantic appearance with steep roofs and fantastic brick

chimneys like corkscrews, many gables and turrets. Above the door a coat-of-arms displayed

social status. Built in red brick, its most noticeable feature was the gate-house. The interiors

are usually panelled in oak. The chimney-stack was introduced because of the new fuel: coal.

The new floor was usually left bare underneath without a plaster ceiling. Windows, in iron and

glass, are small and are single or grouped in pairs or threes with a stone or brick over them.

Larger windows were perpendicular with tracery and stained glass as before. The oriel window

was used and became larger. The arches were usually four-centred.

Not all Tudor work is in brick, but there are some houses made with timber or local

materials were used. The combination of various materials is one of the most delightful

features of the Tudor small house. Often houses were built of many stories, each storey

projecting beyond the one below till houses on either side of the street practically touched. This

practice was discontinued in Jacobean times.

Smaller buildings were still completely Gothic in character for years after the Renaissance.

One of the most remarkable buildings of this period in England was Henry VII’s chapel at

Westminster, which is essentially perpendicular in form. Although it does not necessarily

represent the highest achievement of Gothic art, it is the Gothic building carried to its last

stage. Development from here could clearly go no further.

Elizabethan and Jacobean

(1560-1620)

After the death of Henry VIII less building was undertaken, for the king left the country

practically bankrupt. However, at the accession of Elizabeth the prosperity of country began to

revive. Wealth was now distributed among the different classes, which augmented the boom in

small house building. Big buildings in the form of country mansions also took place, and many

older houses were altered and modernised.

The main features of the Elizabethan great house were the symmetry in the façade, a long

gallery, an imposing staircase, and a formal garden with yew walks, terraces and fountains.

The symmetrical layout was the first indication of a change towards the classical plan. The

layout had adopted an E-shape, the vertical stroke representing the main hall, the two

horizontals the sides of the old courtyard and the short horizontal being the entrance porch.

The “hall” was a large imposing entrance and the staircases were more elaborated. The

fundamental change here is that the hall became less important, whereas the long gallery had

become the chief feature of the house. Usually built in stone (brick was losing popularity for

important buildings), the Elizabethan mansion is extremely imposing. Chimneys were grouped,


resembled classical columns, and were usually rectangular. Windows are rectangular and

larger than ever before.

The Elizabethan work is distinguished by the mixture of Gothic ideas with classical detail.

The architectural expression of the Renaissance movement in England was only in the form of

fashionable decoration.

The front doors of the houses of the wealthy expressed in their elaboration the spirit of

hospitality and ostentation. It usually had a round semi-circular arch flanked by classic

columns.

The smaller homes continued in the Tudor tradition and adopted the Renaissance style for

decoration. Fireplaces and chimney-stacks now became common. Timber buildings were more

efficiently and economically constructed. In Jacobean times, the king prohibited the

construction of overhanging houses to protect them from fire.

The most characteristic detail of Elizabethan and Jacobean work is the use of strap

ornament of German origin. The decoration of the columns resembles ivy climbing a tree-trunk.

The interiors were panelled in oak or decorated with plaster.

In Jacobean times, female caryatids are usually employed in columns. Decorative plaster

ceilings were much in fashion in the Elizabethan mansion.

At the 17th c progressed, the quality of the decorative work became more correct, and the

vulgar features of Stuart detailing gave place to a sober but ponderous classicism.

Buildings of the Classical Era

Inigo Jones & Christopher Wren

(1620-1720)

During the first three quarters of the 17th C only a few large buildings were undertaken

because of the social and religious upheavals that were taking place. During this period,

individual architects became important and architecture independent more on mind and

intellect than on craftsmanship and material. At the beginning, there was little knowledge of

classical proportions.

Inigo Jones was the first man to bring the pure Italian Renaissance style to England. He was

an architect who had studied in Italy for some years, and he was the chief architect to the

Crown. The style he built in was Italian, that is, very un-English. His two most revolutionary

designs were the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall and the Queen’s House at Greenwich. This house

influenced all subsequent domestic design. It was rectangular, with no gables; it was

completely symmetrical, with the rooms on the first floor, with large windows.

Inigo Jones designed in accordance with Palladio’s rules of classic proportions and he had to

convince builders and masons to change their traditions. He had little influence on architectural


design during his lifetime, but he influenced men like Christopher Wren. The problem that now

arose was how to adapt this new technique to English ways, climate, material and craftsmen.

Christopher Wren achieved the solution by using traditional materials, bricks and ordinary tiles,

inventing new ways of using them in order to keep within the limits of classical rules. He also

popularised the use of Portland stone in London. He, like Inigo Jones, worked for the Crown on

the task of rebuilding the churches of London, burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666. It should

be stressed that the house remains the predominant building type of the 17 th and 18th C, and

then comes public and commercial buildings.

The new conception of a church was a large room in which as many people as possible

could hear the preacher in comfort, a room that was full of light and clarity. Wren’s interiors are

clean, beautiful rooms, with gold-and-white plaster work and large pale windows, with galleries

around for extra people. The altar was often in the body of the church rather than at the east

end since the importance of the sermons was paramount. Outside, they are very simple,

usually crowned with spires or towers. One of his achievements was the construction of the

dome of St. Paul Cathedral.

Wren influenced the design of houses, and under his influence the characteristic Queen

Anne house evolved. These houses were not palaces but still retained the simple dignity of a

classical design. Built in stone or brick, these houses had hipped roofs, dormers were given

pediments either curved or triangular, the windows had wood or stone frames. The sash

windows were introduced in the 18th C and remained the standard domestic window. The

doorways, usually made of wood, stone or brickwork, were given canopies supported on

brackets. Chimneys were also framed in marble with mouldings.

The poor man’s house had hardly changed, but was slowly becoming less medieval in its

details. The rich man’s house changed completely, with battlements and turrets, oriel windows,

and clipped yew hedges, to the symmetrical, steep hip-roofed mansion, with ponderous

chimneys, with square windows framed like pictures and its solemn tall rooms.

In the next century we shall see the further development and refinement of these

tendencies, the growth of town planning, and the beginning of the industrial revolution.

The 18th century - Baroque

(1720-1800)

18th C building is characterised by its great refinement. It is the architecture of a very

civilised age. The predominating building type is the Town House. The Georgian terrace house

was made common. The philosophy of the time was that of materialism and reason and it

implied that there was only one right way to build; to do something different would be bad

taste. Many buildings (shops, public works, and commercial buildings) were erected.

As the rich enclosed huge tracts of land, common land became scarce and smallholders

moved to towns. Wealthy man had enormous parks with avenues of trees, artificial lakes, and


monuments. In the early part of the century these great houses were often designed in the

Baroque manner.

The Baroque implies a style that owes little to convention and all to effect. It appeals to

the senses and to the intellect. The designer allows his imagination to produce splendid

compositions in stone and brick. The Baroque is immensely three-dimensional, producing a

strong consciousness of the mass of the building and of the space enclosed within it.

Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor were the main exponents of Baroque in

England, where it was never very popular. The British taste for modesty and lack of ostentation

is probably responsible for this unpopularity, for Baroque owes a great part of its attraction to a

magnificent exaggeration. Great size is an essential quality of this style, but in Vanbrugh’s

hands it became titanic. His two greatest works are the Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard.

Hawksmoor’s chief works were churches. He built in the free inventive style of Wren. After

Wren, Vanbgrugh and Hawksmoor had died the spirit of experiment and invention died too and

architecture settled down to a conventional good taste (Palladio and Jones).

For the upper middle class the terrace (Georgian) was invented towards the end of the 17th

C as a means of preserving dignity suitable to the wealth of the occupant together with

economy in space. By building a whole street of houses treated as an architectural whole could

be given all the dignity of a palace. They were simple brick buildings with stone tops, usually of

four stories, with basements, sash windows and generous and delicate front doors. Some of

them had beautiful gardens in the middle. The insistence on vistas and avenues was a

technique that the Renaissance architects had taken from ancient Rome, and was a complete

innovation to England. Another aspect of the Georgian street scene is the large number of

beautiful shop fronts.

Buildings of the Industrial Era(1801 to present day)

The Nineteenth Century

The architecture of the 19th C falls into 3 categories: Regency architecture, revival

architecture, and industrial architecture. The first belongs to the first thirty years of the century

and is a direct continuation of the Georgian tradition of building. The second overlaps the first

in time and is a phenomenon of the 19th and early 20th C, a movement for reviving past styles.

The third runs as an undertone to the other two throughout the 19 th C, and continues in the

20th, and is the outcome of experiment with new materials (the Crystal Palace, the iron and

glass railway stations and the Bridges of Telford and Brunel).

During the Regency and the reign of George IV, upper and middle-class homes continued

in the classical tradition. The typical Regency house, whether in terrace or a detached villa, is

built of brick and is covered in stucco or painted plaster. The stucco was intended to imitate


stone and it was a cheap and mouldable material. Elegance is the essence of Regency

architecture.

The revival of Greek culture invaded every sphere of life. The Roman versions were

replaced by the Greek, but terraces were still built in the Roman manner. The smaller and

simplest terraces of the Regency are a less robust version of the Georgian terrace with few

decorations and with an air of decadence and lightness. The detached houses and small villas

are similar to the terraces. Curved bow windows now came into fashion and also the low

pitched slate roof.

The social evils that now resulted from the fearsome increase of industry and population

were becoming all too evident. Grace, peacefulness and dignity seemed no longer to exist in a

world of ugliness, meanness, and squalor. Instead of blaming their inability to organise the new

world, men blamed the machines themselves. They encouraged the making of articles by hand,

and regarded all the things made by machines as worthless. In this idiom there was a Gothic

revival in building and its popularity was due to the romantic escapist tendencies we

mentioned before. But as the size of the house diminishes, this fashion becomes more and

more ridiculous, but tremendous arguments took place between classical and the medieval. In

the end some compromise appears to have been reached as buildings of an ecclesiastical or

scholastic character were usually Gothic and business and civic buildings were of a classic

style.

Building in fancy-dress styles continued throughout the 19th C, the periods from which the

styles were borrowed varying from time to time, Tudor, Jacobean, Perpendicular Gothic,

Norman, or Elizabethan.

Engineers (more concerned with technology) now came into prominence as apart from

architects (more concerned with aesthetic) due to industrial necessity. They welcomed new

materials such as sheet glass and cast iron, which were the two most important ones. They

were used by Joseph Paxton, who designed the Crystal Palace. Immense railway bridges were

constructed of iron and steel.

Towards the end of the century commerce and urban populations had increased, so larger

building became necessary. In crowded cities it was necessary to build high, and this led to the

invention of the steel frame (just as the wooden skeleton used in medieval times). The frame

was clothed in massive stonework to represent the classical facade of solidity and worth.

Regarding the poor man’s house, the population had increased so rapidly that more and

more houses were built creating the slums of industrial England. The endless rows of exactly

similar ill-built, depressing unsanitary houses constituted an environment as horrible as any

that man has ever devised.

The 19th C was one of great contrasts. Pomp and splendour and appalling squalor on the

one hand; and on the other a welter of insincerity, imitation, and fancy-dress building

contrasted with splendid feats of engineering.

The Twentieth Century


The beginning of the 19th C saw the emergence of the engineer in contrast to the architect.

Towards the end of the 19th C, some architects evolved more solutions to building problems in

full collaboration with engineers, believing that if a thing was truly fitted to its purpose it must

be beautiful. This revitalized architecture and produced the modern tradition.

The fundamental principles of design underlying architecture today are truth and economy

of means.

…

Economy of means is fundamental to good building. To achieve this, the use of machine-

made materials is essential. Buildings owe their form to the purpose they are to fulfill, to the

materials at hand and to the skill of their builders.

The needs of today are very different from those of the past. The urban life has caused a

realization of the need for sun and air in our homes. The distinction between rich and poor is

less marked than before, so a higher standard of conditions in which we work and live is

needed. We need different sorts of buildings such as health centers and colleges, airports,

factories and television studios. Due to the motor-car, we need garages, and new highways.

Modern conditions, transport and industrial techniques have made available a variety of

materials. Not only do we have the traditional materials of brick, stone and timber, but steel

and concrete, plywood and plastics, aluminum and bitumen, rubber and asbestos, and

prefabricated parts of buildings among others. Old materials have found new forms and

applications (window glass has become plate-glass). Due to communication, designers can get

international repute, and national differences in aesthetic and technique have ceased to exist.

The typical building of the first half of the 20th C is perhaps the small house, though they

were not truly modern. Latterly the rehousing of those displaced by slum clearance has

produced some housing development. Skyscrapers are a common feature of urban central

areas due to the need of land.

The two most important materials are steel and concrete (structural). Iron was first used

structurally, but then the invention of a method of mass-producing steel made possible to build

very much larger and higher buildings than before since steel is very resistant. The main

advantage of steel is that the great loads it can carry allow of considerable economy of space

on the lower floors. Another advantage is the speed with which a building can be erected.

More sophisticated methods of reinforced concrete construction are now used, such as pre-

stressing and post-tensioning, where the viements of the building are artificially bent to induce

a stress opposite to that which will be imposed on it in use. Another technique is that of shell

construction for roofs (New Opera House in Sydney).

Austerity is not a fundamental characteristic of modern architecture. The economic use of

machine-made materials and of scientific structural methods are essential results of our social

structure. Modern architecture is the organization, form, roots, structure, technology and finish

not only of the building in isolation but of groups of buildings, the spaces between, the

neighborhood, the town – in fact the artificial environment of mankind.


Architecture in England

med

ieval

peri

od

PR

E-

con

qu

est

or

Saxon

(60

0-1

06

6)

Hallmark→ Smallness, crudeness and simplicityOldest English building →churchesParish churches → small and simpleInvasionsGreat tower-builders → for defenseMaterials → Stone and timberWindow/doors → Small (holes on the walls) W w/round arches

A roof in Sussex, a Saxon tower at Sompting (original in shape)

Norm

an

or

Rom

anesq

ue

(10

66

- 1

20

0)

Hallmark → Solidity, roundness and massiveness. William’s tasks, territorial feudalism, diff of classesMain characteristics → round arches (later pointed arches to support weight), squares and circles, thick wallsBuilding → Secular and religious

Churches (abbeys and monasteries)Tall churches → to reach heaven and GodPillars → Massive, cylindrical, thick, filled with rubble, not so strongBarrel vaults → Two tunnels intersected, crossed vault of stoneWindows and doors → Small for defense, round-headed openings in thick walls, no glass, a tympanum with carvings, geometrical shapesCarvings → Simple, abstract, mythological and spiritual, foliage, zigzagsStaircase → round, spiral (for defense), with a vertical central shaft

Castles No glass (for defense), stone floors, no fireplaces

Leeds Castle, Windsor Castle (William I), Winchester Cathedral, Durham Cathedral


goth

ic

earl

y E

ng

lish

(12

01

- 1

30

0)

Main characteristics → Accent on height and verticality, simple proportions, pointed arch, tall thin windows, spacious. GLASSArchitecture → Educational purpose Churches Austere → renunciation of the flesh and worldly richesHigh → men reaching heavenDominated the landscape → to show power of Catholic faith Pillars / columns → made of rubble and decorated w/ detached

shaftsButtress → to support buildings under construction, flying

buttresses (over them they put the pinnacles)Windows and doors → pointed lancet windows, plate tracery w/

glass, life more settled and churches not for refuge, largerVault → ribbed vaults, additional ribs, pointedArch → lancet, pointed, mouldings around themChisel → tool for carving, undercutting was possibleCarvings → leaves pattern, dog tooth, w/ more detailsLightning …. Clerestory windowsPeople outside the church could not read or write, and expressed

their beliefs on wood and stoneCastles More elaborated, halls within the walled ring

Salisbury Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Westminster Abbey

goth

ic

Deco

rate

d

(13

01

-14

00

)

1º → England was a prosperous nation→ gaiety and comfort, manor-houses were more important, hall (nucleus)

2º → Black Death→ Little building was done (shortage of hand labor)

Hallmark → Elaboration and decoration, curvilinear, geometrical, flamboyant (color) BRICK (stone more used). STAINED GLASS

ChurchesWindows→better lightning, narrow w/ plate tracery, stained glassVault → technically improved, star-like patterns, decoratedArches → Small ogee, concave and convexCarving → curved, overelab, naturalistic, grotesque, facesColumns → taller and slender, w/ no free shaft, better builtWalls → Wider than ever before to support weight (buttresses) Improvement and enlargement of parish churches

Castles Older castles were enlarged and elaborated. No more keeps

York Cathedral, Tintern Abbey, Exeter Cathedral

goth

ic

Perp

en

dic

ula

r

(14

01

-15

00

)

Hallmark → Sophistication, detail, proportion, precision1st English styleMain characteristics → return to simplicity, austerity of design,

vertical lines, wall paneling, lower flatter arches

ChurchesWindows→ Vertical lines in tracery, larger than ever beforeVault → fan-like vaults, hammer-beam roofs, diamond-shaped

ceilings, roof vaulting, elaborate and ornateCarvings → flamboyance (more delicacy and simplicity)Mock battlements → Decorative

CastlesGunpowder→ Castles unnecessary (not able to resist attacks)

Winchester Cathedral, King’s College Chapel


tran

sit

ion

al

peri

od

ren

ais

san

ce

(15

01

-16

25

)

Rebirth of Greek and Roman ideasGreek → Beams and pillarsRomans → Added the arch and domeItaly 15th C – England 16th COrders → Doric, Ionic, CorinthianSuperposition of styles

Tudor

(1485-1560)

Medieval in detailGothic in formSecular Emphasis on domestic rather than ecclesiastical Windows and doors → smaller, oriel windowBuildings more complicatedFireplaces → with a huge central archChimneys → Cock-screw form. COALBrick → NetherlandsCastles not necessaryHouses in black and white (whitewashed plaster set between blackened oak timber)

Tudor Great Housemansions of traders and merchants, romantic appearance

Gate-house → octagonal columns, low arch, coat-of-arms, mocked fortification

Arches → flat and four-centered

Hampton Court Palace

Elizabethanand

Jacobean

(1560-1620)

Classic in detailBlack and white

Elizabethan Great HouseE-shape, tribute to ElizabethLayout → symmetry, long galleries, formal garden, staircase, yew

walks, terraces, fountainsChimneys → grouped in pairs, rectangular, like columnsWindows → rectangular, larger, no arch, simple grid of mullions Fireplaces → decorated and fashion Front doors → elaboration, ostentation, hospitality, arms of the

owner, round semi-circular arch w/ classical columnsStrap ornaments → Jacobean→ Hinges in the doors

cla

ssic

al

peri

od

inigo jonesand

Christopher wren

(1620-1720)

Inigo Jones → Italian styleQueen’s house → domestic design, rectangular, no gables, rooms on the first floor, large windows, magnificent, high

Christopher Wren → IngeniousTraditional English materialSt. Paul Cathedral→ New conception of church. Dome Queen Anne’s house → hipped roofs, sash windows, dormers with pediments, symmetrical chimney, rectangular, brick, heavy wood or stone frames (windows)


baroque

(1720-1800)

Hallmark → Great refinement, exaggerationsWealthy of the country in few handsGregorian Terrace HouseArtificial lakes, trees, wonderful avenues, monumentsThick walls, sash windows, doors with fanlights 4/5 floors, first most importantExponents → John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor (Wren)

ind

ustr

ial

era

regencyrevival

industrial

1801

Terrace housesReturn to a fine Greek style of building → RegencyTall windows, iron balconies, round-headed ground floor windowsDoors → SimpleDetached houses, small villas w ironwork verandas, gardens

Revival Greek → pilasters, windows w/ triangular pediments, steel and glass, dome. Buckingham Palace, National Gallery. Gothic → Westminster Hall → pointed arches and vault. Tower Bridge.

IndustrialDistinction between the houses of the rich and the poorDepressive industrial areasCrowded citiesMore inventions → steel frame (to build high). Railways London → shops, offices, blocks of flats, banksSheet glass and cast iron → Industrial revolutionJoseph Paxton → The Crystal Palace (for exhibition)

Glossary

Arch: ArcoAsbestos: Asbesto (como una mezcla de

plástico y Madera: Culata escopeta)Awkward: Torpe, poco diestroBare: Descubierto, sin revestimiento, vacíoBarrel vault: Bóveda cilíndrica, de cañónBattlement: Almena (en los muros de

antiguas fortalezas)Beam: Viga, tablón, maderoBitumen: Betún naturalBonding: Pegadas, ligadasBow window: Ventana saliente arqueadaBrackets: Puntal, repiza, mérsulaButtress: Estribo, puntal, refuerzo, sostén,

contrafuerteCanopy: Pabellón (de trono/ altar), doseleteCast iron: Chalk: Chancel: Presbiterio, antealtarChimney-stack: Clay: arcilla, lodoClerestory: Triforio, galeríaCraftsmanship: Artesanía, mano de obraCross vault: Arco crucero, bóveda de

artistasDome: Domo, cúpulaDormers: BuhardillaDrawbridge: Puente levadizo, giratorioEndeavour: EmpeñoFan: Abanico, ventiladorFlint: PiedraFlying butresses: Arbotante, botarelFreestanding: AutoestableGate-house: Caseta de guardabarreraGroin: Rincón, arista de encuentroHeathen: pagano, ateo, incultoHinge: BisagraHipped roof: De cuatro aguasHood: Capilla, sombrerete de la chimeneaInner-vault: Cúpula interiorImbrication: Adorno en escamasIvy: HiedraKeep: Torreón, torre de un astilloLimestone: Piedra calizaLow pitched slate: Teja de techo bajolUpheaval: revoltMainspring: Causa principal, móvilMotifs: MotivoMoulding: MolduraMullion: MontanteOak: RobleOgee: Gola, talónOriel: Mirador, camónPediment: FrontónPiecemeal: Pieza por pieza, fragmentario,

gradualmentePilaster: Pilastra, pilar entregadoPlate-glass: Vidrio en planchas, v.

cilindradaoPlywood: Madera tericada

Portcullises: Rastrillo (en la entrada de castillos)

Proper: ApropiadaQuatrefoil: Cuatrifolia (arcos convergentes)Rib: Nervadura, costillaRubble: Canto rodado, ripio, escombro, cascoteSecular: ProfanoShaft: Fuste estriado (de la columna)Shallow: Superficial, tribialSiege: Sitio, cerco, lugar, trono, sitialSiege-engines: Slate roof: Techo de pizarraSpire: Aguja, torrecilla, cúspideSpringing: Arranque (línea de) imposta (de arcos)Squat: Ocupar terreno ajeno sin derechoStained glass: Vidrio de colorSteep: EmpinadoStocky: RobustoStorey: Piso, planta, tejado de gradasStrap: Correa, bandaStroke: Thrust: Empuje de un arcoTracery: TraceríaTrefoil: TrifolioTurret: TorrecillaUndercut: Cincelado, talladoUnderneath: Debajo, por debajoWalks: Avenida, alameda, acera, senderoYew hedges: Yew:Tejo

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