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INKA ARCHITECTURE INKA ARCHITECTURE, Less is More--Much More! Ar. Navdeep Shukla

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Page 1: Inca architecture

INKA ARCHITECTUREINKA ARCHITECTURE, Less is More--Much More!

Ar. Navdeep Shukla

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Ollantaytambo is a town and an Inca archaeological site in southern Peru some 60 kilometers northwest of the city of Cusco

The most common composite form in Inca architecture was the kancha, a rectangular enclosure housing three or more rectangular buildings placed symmetrically around a central courtyard

Inca architecture is widely known for its fine masonry, which features precisely cut and shaped stones closely fitted without mortar

Ar. Navdeep Shukla &Ar. Shruti H. Kapoor

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The citadel of Machu Picchu, with Huayna Picchu in the background

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MATER

IAL

The buildings are made out of local grey-white granite. The quality of the stonework varies considerably, and not simply because sacred buildings always displayed greater craftsmanship than residential and other mundane buildings. The largest, megalithic blocks and finest stonework are always found in the lower levels of the buildings. As at other sites, certain structures, or parts of them, undoubtedly predate the Incas.

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Different masonry styles.

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Cyclopean masonry.

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A cyclopean block in the Sacristy. Another polygonal block has 32 angles.

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They built with locally available rock, from limestone to granite.

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emplacement ramp.

peculiar grooves

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DOOR IN STONEInka doorways, windows, and wall niches are trapezoidal

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A typical Inca doorway still used in the town..

Note the single stone lintel, a sign of importance

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Wall of the Six Monoliths

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The Enclosure of the Ten Niches.

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Part of the Enclosure of the Ten Niches.

Inca walls had numerous design details that helped protect them against collapsing in an earthquake. Doors and windows are trapezoidal and tilt inward from bottom to top; corners usually are rounded; inside corners often incline slightly into the rooms; and “L”-shaped blocks often were used to tie outside corners of the structure together. These walls do not rise straight from bottom to top but are offset slightly from row to row

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The largest stone in the Wall of the Six Monoliths is about 4.3 m high, 2.1 m wide, 1.8 m thick, and weighs about 50 tonnes. The six monoliths are joined with narrow fillet stones – a style found nowhere else in the Inca empire

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Ollantaytambo bath of the princess Stevage

Detail of drainage canal at the side of the dry moat, stone nail which was used to tie the straw roofs, holes through which removable doors were secured

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Ollantaytambo terraces

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Ollantaytambo granaries Stevage

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Placement of these trapezoidal openings was primarily functional, but occasionally, Esthetic arrangement might dominate the placement of the trapezoids, if there was no conflict with functionality.

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Playful handling of flowing water. Sparkling streams cascade from stone spouts, sometimes decorated with carved designs, into joyfully splashing basins, then flow through quite unnecessarily complex stone channels to pour into the next fountain (or bath, as the fountains are sometimes referred to) and so on from fountain to fountain, one after the other. The Inkas employed the sight and sound of water as an element of architectural design and evidently enjoyed demonstrating their mastery over the course of this essential fluid.

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Stone was cut and shaped mainly with stone tools. Bronze or copper tools may also have been used, but would be of limited use with the hard varieties of igneous rock commonly used by the Inca.

The row of narrow holes forming the line along which it was to be split seem to bespeak the use of a metal tool.

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The conquistadores admired Inka stonework sufficiently to employ Inka stonecutters and techniques in colonial buildings, and many of the "ancient Inka" walls in Cusco belong to the colonial period, such as this wall with carved snakes and stones in non-Incaic shapes.

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It is assumed the Inkas knew the technique of splitting rock using wooden wedges placed in cracks, then soaked in water, until the expanding wood split the rock-- a method developed independently by many ancient societies.

"Peck marks" or, more properly, percussion marks are obvious on much Inka stonework.

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The Inkas could also drill holes through rock, such as in this ring of unknown function projecting from a wall in Machu Picchu. Holes were probably drilled using grit and some sort of pestle stone.

Holes drilled through rock are narrowest in the middle and flare outwards, as drilling with a pestle and grit would inevitably wallow out the first-drilled portions of the hole.

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The glory of Inka stonecutting lies in their ability to cut unusual shapes and fit them tightly together, as exemplified by the famous "twelve-cornered stone" found in a wall of the palace of the Inka Roca. It is both a cliché and a verity that the stones are so closely fitted that a knife blade cannot be jammed between them. How did they achieve these amazing close tolerances?

Twelve cornered stone

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Inkas used a technique known as scribing and coping to fit their wonderful jigsaw-puzzle stones

This technique is used to shape dove-tail joins of logs at the corners of log cabins, resulting in logs carefully fitted together with little or no gap between the cut log faces. A related technique could have been used by the Inkas to shape their stones.

The fact that ‘Inca’ walls tend to incline inwards by 3° to 5° also contributes to their stability.

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For administrative buildings and noble houses, medium rocks, and for fortresses and religious sites, enormous ones. In both cases the rocks were carved completely and not only on their outer edge, to ensure that the joints were perfect, and that not even a pin could go through them. This also ensured that the construction would last in time.

Some Inca buildings were constructed using mortar, but by Inca standards this was quick, shoddy construction, and was not used in the building of important structures. Peru is a highly seismicland, and mortar-free construction was more earthquake-resistant than using mortar. The stones of the dry-stone walls built by the Incas can move slightly and resettle without the walls collapsing.

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View of the residential section of Machu Picchu.

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Interior of a partially restored Inca building, featuring trapezoidal windows.

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Temple of the sun ,the only circular building, with ritual meaning in Machu Picchu

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Utilization of land ,caves, rocks and steep slopes of the Andes in their favor

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Trapezoidal niches, typical of Inca style ,in the so called house of the priest located by the temple of the sun

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Tambo Machay, a site for ritual bathing, consists of massive stone walls with elegant niches, band a series of water fountains cascading from channels hidden within the structure.

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Close-up of the impeccable stonework

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STONE MASONRYROMAN WALL SECTIONS

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Walls were constructed through a number of different techniques which could range from clay packed around a wooden frame through to stone blocks and bricks held together by mortar.

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These techniques had different names such as Opus Mixtum, Opus Reticulatum or Opus Incertum. The different techniques were used according to preference of the particular age, availability of materials, aesthetic result and of course structural function.

Roman wall built in "opus reticulatum"Roman Etruscan walls

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Walls:

OPUS QUADRATUM : Rectangular blocks of stone secured with dowels

OPUS INSERTUM : Good mortar of lime & sand , Stones arranged in a loose pattern with small size stone Like a polygonal wall

OPUS RETICULATUM : Pattern was regular & defined. Stones were at fixed lines, each square in shape

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Opus quadratum is an ancient roman construction technique, in which squared blocks of stone of the same height were set in parallel courses, often without the use of mortar

Opus quadratum was the method of building walls, roads, and bridges by placing cut stone blocks in close proximity, sometimes without mortar or another binding substance. The Latin term translates roughly as square work

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Opus quadratum

Walls of cut stone, rectangular in form

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Opus Incertum

Using irregular shaped and random placed uncut stones or fist-sized tufa blocks inserted in a core of opus caementicium, used from the beginning of the 2nd century B.C, later superseded by opus (quasi) reticulatumThe term literally means "uncertain work," possibly referring to the irregular appearance of walls built using this technique. Small, irregularly shaped pieces of stone — about 4 inches (about 100 millimeters) in diameter — were used for opus incertum.

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Barcelona, the Roman Walls

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Opus Craticium

Term both used for wattle work and walls of half-timer construction, filled in with stones and/or straw and plastered with mortar

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Opus (quasi) Reticulatum

Small square tufa blocks placed diagonally to form a diamond-shaped mesh pattern, often supplemented by other materials at frames of windows and doors or at reinforments at corners of buildings with oblong tufa blocks

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Opus Testaceum / latericium

Brick faced masonry - kiln-backed bricks; the dominant technique throughout the imperial period

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Opus (retilatum) mixtum

Masonry of reticulated material reinforced and/or intersected by brick bands or interlocked with bricks

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Opus vittatum

Oblong (or occasionally square) Tufa blocks intersected by one or more brick bands at regular distances

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Opus SectileDecoration patterns and figures at walls (and floors) with precisely cut pieces of polychrome stone, usually marble

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Opus spicatum

Walls (and floors) made of quite small elongated tiles, laid in a fishbone pattern

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Opus Signinum

Waterproof floor- and wall-revetment of mortar mixed with terracotta shreds and crushed tiles or bricks

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