Imperial China & Ottoman Architecture: Key Principles

• Study notes on Imperial China, Ottoman Turkey, and the Age of Humanism

Imperial China characteristics:

• Cities are designed with a grid work layout
• Emperors had divine status, believing that the gods mandated their rule
• Chang'an was the central city for the rulers
• The Wangcheng plan dictates that the emperor's palace be at the center, surrounded by other regions
• Designs followed cardinal directions based on Chinese beliefs
• The number 3 was considered harmonious
• Capital scale was enormous; Chang'an during the Sui and Tang dynasties (580-700) was three times bigger than ancient Rome
• Streets were 31 feet wide
• 1 million people lived in the capital
• Heavily monitored by an enormous police force
• Rectilinear urban planning was reflected in house planning
• Structures used a rectangular unit/bay
• Odd numbers of bays were used as even numbers were considered unlucky
• Strong roofs and frames were used, with the walls being filled in
• Wood construction was much more advanced
• Highly regular, highly repetitive designs were common
• Dou gong brackets offered both aesthetics and structural support
• Long eaves were necessary to protect walls from rain

Architectural Elements

• Walls were optional
• Sections and floor plans had a high degree of order
• Buildings were tall and earthquake-resistant
• Methods and design of architecture were written to regulate expenditures
• Teaching architecture to students was very important

Beijing

• Capital was moved here from Chang'an according to the Wangcheng plan
• The Forbidden City was built on an axial plan with high walls
• The taller the roof indicated the importance of the people underneath
• Buildings were oriented by hierarchy and privacy
• Emperor's palace and courtyard were imposing and uninviting to intimidate foreign politicians
• Bracket systems support the core of the roofs
• Emperors were seen as human conduits to heaven
• The Temple of Heaven in Beijing was surrounded by high walls for fertility rituals and prosperity
• Heaven represented as round, square represents earth
• Straight lines and right angles facilitated movement through temple
• Multiples of 9 were used for the emperor's staircases
• Numerology was significant
• The three rings represented pagoda styles

Ottoman Empire:

• The empire was originally a nomadic tribe that took on architectural characteristics from countries and cultures met during conquests
• Big walls were erected, with offices along the edges
• Big courtyards were commonplace
• Front of buildings had intimating pieces
• A series of gardens were incorporated
• Similar to the Forbidden City, only gates could easily be viewed from the front
• Palaces divided into 4 sections
• Sultans and their families rarely left palaces, feeling trapped
• Sultan’s wives were trapped within the palace complex
• Male political zones were much more colorful and imposing than the women's quarters
• Progression moved from open to small, private spaces
• Sinan was a master architect - a greek who converted to Islam
• Piled up domes and arches to hep support domes and regulate cohesion
• Each of Sinan's units had a dome
• Structures of mosques dematerialized into open spaces
• Sinan’s work demonstrated geometry and economy

The Age of Humanism: Italian Renaissance Architecture:

• The Renaissance was the bridge between the medieval world and modern history: a cultural rebirth, rediscovering the literature of ancient Greece and Rome
• Humanism emphasized human potential to attain excellence
• It promoted direct study of literature, art, architecture, and civilizations
• Opposed to the medieval view of the present as preparation for the afterlife
• Architecture books from Rome rediscovered, key source for architecture
• Focus on how to do architecture, a manual for Renaissance architects
• Architects were expected to be educated: in literacy, astronomy, science, and art
• Architectural laws relate to those of the universe and cosmos
• Architects were expected to follow Vitruvius's ideals
• The Vitruvian triad guided architectural conversations
• Human proportions were used, as humans were made in God's image
• Masters of Renaissance like Leonardo da Vinci
• Early 1400s saw renaissance values related to all aspects of nature
• Divine order was considered orderly
• Parts were symmetrical, proportional, geometrical, regular, and related to each other
• Gothic era complexities could be explained in proportions
• Filippo Brunelleschi, architect with self study from Roman ruins
• Designs included orphanages, playing around with elements from Rome: steps, a loggia, and row of arches that make a hallway

Developments in Renaissance:

• Buildings became dignified and sober
• Roman antiquities clearly defined
• Earliest archaeologically correct corinthian columns replicated
• Roman arches, not pointed arche
• Accurate doors built
• Dark stone used
• References to humanism rather than the divine
• Real-world facts included: arches, tabletures, columns in the basilica pylasters
• Linear perspective introduced
• One-point perspective used
• Gardens or courtyards had columns, creating a peristyle
• Building frontage expressed use of each floor
• Leon Battista defined architects and publishing after Vitruvious

Architect Responsibilities:

• Learned scholars shaping the built environment, inventing and meeting human needs
• Create new things that suit human needs and develop architectural principles
• Harmonious buildings unified overall aesthetic in manner that is orderly and proportionate
• Architects inspired by Roman architecture still invented new things
• Cohesive symmetries made
• External facades resolved on interiors
• Roman architecture studied
• Architects drew Roman ruins to inspire modern design

Differences of Brunelleschi and Albertis

• Later knowledge of Roman architecture enabled Alberti to model his work more on Roman types
• Incorporate Romans with Gothic ideas
• Underlying features of both architectures are geometric classical proportioning
• Brunelleschi had lightness and weightlessness of Roman parts
• Alberti reasserted the wall like the romans with humanistic architectures using principles of the past.
• Classical principles allow for many different ideas and interpretations

Cinquecento Italy (1500s): The Late Renaissance and “Mannerism”

• The popes abandoned for a period and many moved to Florence
• People returned to Rome during the 1500s
• Cathedral with Catholicism
• Straight line expressed streets towards the vatican
• High renaissance in the 1500s
• Marked departures from early Renaissance palazzo
• Refined living floor for the noble family, used the Piana noble
• Tuscan columns similar to Doric
• Transition made from high renaissance to late renaissance - with transition to a more robust style
• Tactile sensibility important

Bramantes work:

• The High Renaissance architect
• Also studied ruins in Rome
• Small temple and burial place for Saint Peter, echoes renaissance, fascination with geometry and circles
• Circle obsession from the Renaissance
• Vehicle of imagining heaven
• Competitions for rebuilding St. Peters
• Greek building plans used with circles in tradition and church building
• Serlio wrote five books of architectures
• Elements of Roman architecture like orders columns in depth

Adaptability of Architecture:

• Architects offered historic ways of adapting Roman architecture to the pesent
• Provided design details for architects who have never been to Italy.
• Classical architecture very adaptable
• Focused on fusion between architecture and the outdoors
• Atectonic and sculpted forms that are not structural
• Rooms had full murals
• Stairs curved in the middle

Palladios Influences

• Employed geometry and proportion in a freewheeling way
• Name given by a stage client
• Stone Mason
• Needed a patron or wealth to be an architect
• Had cultural attitude to live in city states
• Works spread to worldwide audience
• New thing - architect telling public his secrets

Explore key aspects of Imperial Chinese and Ottoman architecture, including the function of roof eaves, the Forbidden City's design principles, and the significance of the number three in Chinese structures. Also, examine Sinan's mosque designs and the Ottoman palace complex;s architectural narrative.