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Churches were built very magnificiently in the old days. What structures are mostvalued in todays society? How have structures of past influenced us in todays builtenvironment?

Christianity existed at times before churches were built. The main reason churcheswere built was for the kings to show their power and dominance and also to gain thetrust and support of the people by giving them a place for mass worship. Also, animportant thing to consider is the shape and size of the church. Churches were built insuch a way that the natural reverberation would instill a sense of serenity in everyonessoul. So naturally, churches were expensive not only for the size and material used, butalso because of the lack of structural knowledge on how to build them during thoseearly years and also stiff political influence. Later, artisans called guilds funded thesechurches and this enabled the construction of magnificent structures that extended intothe sky.

This leads us to the next question: What structures are most valued in our society.Structures that are mostly valued in any society are those which highlight, portray orhave been developed due to the culture that existed or in some cases still existing;something which speaks about their lifestyle, beliefs, practices, religion and evenpolitics.

Why they gain importance is because they have been built accordingly to satisfy theneeds of the people in that society for their living and also because youll find that thosestructures or buildings were built with locally available materials and to suit the climateof that place. For example, the concept of Roman and Greek amphitheaters was

developed with these factors in mind. In Rome and Greece, people had a very rich folkforma street dance. So they decided to build a structure, which would complimentthat, and amphitheaters came up. Roman cities were mostly on small hills and so theygot his natural contour for creating the sloped seating. This sloped seating provided aview of the surrounding backdrop of the city, served as a backdrop for the danceperformance on a stage, plus their climate was very pleasant, allowing for an openenvironment.

Today, we use a mix of contemporary and the traditional style. At present, everybuilding uses contemporary materialssteel, glass, etc. But still we find certainelements like decorative columns, pediments, statues, frescos, stained glass etc. being

used extensively in addition to our modern, square and tall skyscraper structures. Thisis mainly to add value to a structure or to emphasize on something like a belief or tomake a statement.

Todays buildings everywhere use bits and pieces of architectural styles from all aroundthe world. Lets say, the White House. The White House uses two of the most commonarchitectural styles followed in commercial to residential to monumental structures allover the worldFrench Windows and Greek Columns. This structure is a fusion of so

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many architectural styles and for a specific reason. France was a very beautiful city withbrilliant landscape. So the people decided to have views all around their buildings.Initially they had colonnaded porches but later they felt the need to have that feelingeven from inside the building. This way the idea of large windows came up. Yet thislarge window was not a new concept. It was already experimented in the various gothic

churches. So now they imitate this French window concept for creating openings tolawns or to frame any view.

The reason behind the Greek Columns is that they stand as a symbol of power andequitable justice. (Image: Art A Brief History, Stockstad, Cothren page 112) If youanalyze the structure, you can see it has been derived from the Basilicas of Greek andRoman period. Basilicas were court structures in those early years that stood for justice.Basilicas were massive structures and were mostly domed. The front entrance was apedimented porch with Greek order columns. The same is replicated in the WhiteHouse too. Those basilicas had plain horizontal surfaces punctured by windows. It wasnot just the columns but also the entire building was symbolic of justice, which is whythe idea was used in the design of the White House.