Architecture Quiz: Structures and Styles

Architecture

• Environment and Technology:
  • Pyramids of Giza and ziggurats of Sumer imitated nature. Pyramids replicated sun rays, ziggurats resembled mountains.
  • Mesa Verde's Spruce Tree House and rock shelters, kivas, are examples of adapting to the environment.
• Load-Bearing Construction:
  • Structures like the Lion Gate in Mycenae were built using mass.
  • The Temple of Hera in Paestum showcases post-and-lintel construction.
• Post-and-Lintel Construction:
  • Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders are different styles of columns and entablature. The Doric order has a plain capital, the Ionic is characterized by volutes, and the Corinthian order features ornate capitals.
• Arches, Vaults, and Domes:
  • Different types such as round arches, barrel vaults, groin vaults, springing, pointed arches, flying buttresses, and ribbed vaulting were used.
  • Gothic architecture is an example that uses particular arch forms.
• Architectural Materials:
  • Cast iron was used in buildings like the Eiffel Tower.
  • Wood frames were used in buildings like the Charles Bulfinch's and Harrison Gray Otis house.
  • Steel & reinforced concrete were used in buildings like Louis Sullivan's Bayard Building with large windows and decorative facades. Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie and Fallingwater Houses featured cantilevering, designs that seem to grow out of the environment. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret's Villa Savoye is another example.

Additional Architectural Styles

• International Style: Homes and buildings like the Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe Farnsworth House embodied the "less is more" aesthetic.
• Modernism: Concepts of pure functionality and the "machine for living" as presented in examples like Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye. Example uses of rationalism in architecture are evident in Gerrit Rietveld's Schroder House.

Artwork

• Fauvism: André Derain's "Turning Road" (1905) exemplifies Fauvism. Fauvism is recognized by its arbitrary use of color.
• German Expressionism: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Street, Dresden" (1908) exemplifies German Expressionism, an artistic style often characterized by subjective presentation of emotion, angst.
• War/Social Commentary: Kathe Schmidt Kollwitz's "The Outbreak" (1903) depicts a scene of war through independent expressionism.
• Cubism: Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907), which is an example of Cubism's technique, is characterized by fragmented forms and multiple viewpoints. Georges Braque's "Houses at L'Estaque" showcases multiple viewpoints, the use of cubes, and an equivocal space.
• Analytical Cubism: exemplified by Georges Braque's "Violin and Palette" (1911), which uses fragmented forms.
• Synthetic Cubism: Georges Braque's "Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe and Glass", (1913) is an example of a synthetic cubism piece.
• Futurism: Gino Severini's "Armored Train in Action" (1915) displays a cubist artistic influence.
• Non-Objective Art: Kazimir Malevich's "Suprematist Painting" (1915) is a good example.
• Surrealism: Meret Oppenheim's "Object" (1936) is illustrative of surrealism. Constantin Brancusi's "Bird in Space" (1923) displays reductive and organic forms.
• Precisionism: Georgia O'Keeffe's "City Night" reflects Precisionism.
• Dada: Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" (1950) represents Dada, along with his L.H.O.O.Q, and Hannah Höch's "Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany" (1919-1920) showing irreverence through photomontage.
• Other Modern Art Styles: Motion studies, collage techniques of artists like Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters.

Explore the fascinating world of architecture with this quiz focusing on various historical structures and construction techniques. From the pyramids of Giza to Gothic architecture, test your knowledge on load-bearing construction, post-and-lintel design, and the use of arches and vaults. Delve into the principles that shaped our built environment.