ARCH 272 Notes: Imperial China, Ottoman Empire, Italian Renaissance PDF

1/13: 1. Imperial China and Ottoman Turkey Imperial China ​ City grid work ​ Emperor had divine status and gods mandate to rule the territory ​ Chang’an - central rulers city ​ Wangcheng plan - means rulers city - emperors palace sits at the center and the symbolic center of the...

1/13: 1. Imperial China and Ottoman Turkey Imperial China ​ City grid work ​ Emperor had divine status and gods mandate to rule the territory ​ Chang’an - central rulers city ​ Wangcheng plan - means rulers city - emperors palace sits at the center and the symbolic center of the world while regions sit around it ​ Follows cardinal directions part of chinese beliefs ​ 3 = harmonious number ​ Scale of capital was huge - three times bigger than ancient rome chang’an during Sui and Tang dynasties 580-700 ​ 31 foot wide streets ​ 1 million people in the capital ​ Enormous police force, people heavily monitored ​ Rectilinear urban plan was reflected in the house planning as well ​ Rectangular frame/unit/bay that could be repeated and formed in different ways - floor, four posts, roof ​ Odd number of bays - even numbers considered unlucky in chinese cosmology ​ Strong roof and frame - walls filled in ​ Construction of wood much more advanced than other civilizations at the time ​ Highly regular, highly repetitive ​ Dou gong bracket - lincoln log style - can be configured in many different ways for aesthetics but also strengthens structure to make longer eaves of the roof (overhang) ​ Long eaves needed to keep rain of the walls that easily degraded/temporary ​ Walls optional ​ High degree of order in sections and floor plans ​ Tall and earthquake resistant buildings ​ One of the oldest books architecture - methods and design of architecture - written to regulate expenditures and carpenters from spending too much time on ornamentation of dou gong brackets ​ Also helped teach architecture to students  ​ Capital moved from chang’an to BEijing - also designed with wancheng plan ​ Forbidden city formed on an axial plan - hard to reach - high wall around the city ​ They taller the roof, the more important the people under it ​ Building oriented by hierarchy and privacy ​ Emperors palace and courtyard - imposing and uninviting on purpose - intimidating for foreign politicians to come up to the palace ​ Bracket system core of roof - roof just lays over bracket system ​ Emeprior- human conduit to heaven ​ Temple of Heaven, Beijing - surround by high walls -rituals for fertility prosperity ​ Heaven is round, square is earth ​ Straight lines and right angles for movement through temple ​ Multiples of 9 in staircase and number of poles etc.- for the emperor ​ Numerology very significant ​ Three rings - pagoda style ​ 4 central posts in temple - represents 4 seasons Ottoman Empire ​ Originally a nomadic tribe - thus picked up architectural characteristics from countries and cultures they met during their conquests ​ Big walls - offices positioned toward the edges ​ Big courtyards ​ Intimating pieces in the front ​ Series of gardens ​ Like forbidden city - all people can see is the gate from the front ​ 4 sections ​ Sultan and family never left the palace - sort of trapped there ​ Sultans wives would be trapped within only regions of the palace complex ​ Male political zones much more colored and imposing than the women's quarters which were understated and more human scale ​ Progression of more open spaces to more small and familial private spaces - architectural narrative ​ Sinan - master architect - greek slave converted to islam and deploy in military to become ottoman ​ Piled up domes and arches to help support main dome and regulate cohesion and symmetry ​ Sinan - each of his units has a dome ​ Sinan dematerializing the structure of mosque into open space - like gothic cathedrals ​ Sinans work - rigorous geometry and economy - repetition of geometric forms 1/15: 2. The Age of Humanism: Architecture of the Italian Renaissance ​ The Renaissance: a period in European history considered the bridge between the medieval world and modern history. A cultural “rebirth” based on the rediscovery of the literature of ancient greece and rome ​ Humanism: cultural and intellectual movement of the renaissance that emphasized human potential to attain excellence and promoted the direct studio of the literature, art, architecture, and civilizations ​ Very different than medieval period - present life only view as preparation for afterlife ​ Architecture books wrote long before renaissance was rediscovered - primary source of architecture in rome ​ How to do architecture in the ancient tradition - manual for renaissance architects ​ First to say architects should be educated - literacy, astronomy, science, art ​ Because the universe and cosmos has architectural laws ​ Should follow Vitruvius ​ The Vitruvian triad goes on to guide most conversations about architecture ​ Humans made in god's image - human proportions guide in architecture ​ Renaissance master: leonardo da vinci ​ Early 1400s ​ Fundamentally related to all aspects of nature ​ Evidence that the divine order was orderly ​ Symmetry, proportion, geometry, regularity of parts, and relationship between these regular parts ​ Made sense of gothic era complexities in proportions ​ Fillipo brunelleschi - architect and goes to rome to study ruins - self taught ​ Designs an orphanage and plays around with roman things he's seen: steps up the orphanage, and an logia (row of arches that make a hallway ​ Uncommon sight in florence  ​ Building very dignified and sober ​ First renaissance era building to make very clear roman antiquities ​ Earliest archaeologically correct corinthian columns since the roman empire so he did his research ​ Rounded arches - roman vs pointed arches ​ Archaeologically correct door ​ Uses dark stone, very florentine ​ No reference to divine or angles, uses real world facts, coming from humanism\ ​ arches , tabletures, columns in interior refitting of old church basilica pylastures read as structural but are only decorative ​ Brunellesic introduces in a perceptive way linear perspective using geometry ​ People weren't doing it before in paintings or architecture ​ One point perspective - has one vanishing point ​ Garden or courtyard with columns around it is a peristyle ​ Urban florentine house - no hallways one room leads unfelade onto the other, no hallways just doors in between rooms in a line ​ Biforium windows - two arched double windows - rounded arches, used to have pointed as they were from gothic era ​ Uses of each floor in building is visually expressed front he exterior ​ Recognized value of street perspective by skewing symmetrical building ​ Leon battista known for defining the architect and publication after Vitruvius ​ Architects are learned scholars that shape built environment - a real architect invents and makes new things to suit human needs and further develop past principles ​ Concinnitas: harmony or congruity of building in nature - orderly and proportionate, unified overall aesthetic Continued ​ Roman temple = stairs ​ Alberti inspired by roman architecture but still believes architects should invent something new ​ Roman device = building protruding outward ​ Proportion and geometry above all ​ Pediment = triangle roof thing ​ Floor plan of church - greek long cross ​ Cohesive symmetry of a circle within a square ​ Knave = long hallway ​ External facade resolved on interior - new architectural design of the time ​ An architecture about walls ​ 1465 - roman architecture and studies are spreading over Europe ​ Architects going to draw roman ruins in detail for other architects to use as inspiration dn adapt to modern purposes  ​ Reason for difference in brunelleschi and Alberti’s work: Alberti modeling much more literally on roman types (mass, wall) partly because by the time he's practicing there's more general knowledge of roman architecture for him to study - whereas Brunelleschi took a trip to rome and seen the ruins but still incorporated roman ideas in tandem with gothic architecture ​ Underlying features of both architects methods: geometric classical proportioning ​ However each architect had a different effect: Brunelleschi - lightness, weightlessness of roman parts that clearly reveal themselves Alberti - reasserts the wall like the romans, humanist architects using principles of the past ​ Classical principles do no equal one solution but many different ideas and interpretations 1/22 Lecture 3: Cinquecento Italy (1500s): The Late Renaissance and “Mannerism” in the Italian City and Villa ​ Popes had abandoned rome in this time - many people moved to Florence ​ People and artists started to return to rome in the 1500s ​ Catholocism with Rome ​ First straightly expressed line street towards the vatican - cathedral ​ 1500: “high renaissance” ​ Palazzo Caprini 1501 by Donato Bramante - marked a significant departure from early renaissance palazzo architecture - similar to palazzo medici ^^ ​ Piano noble - refined living floor for the noble family ​ Tuscan column - if theres a base then its a tuscan column - similar to doric ​ Balustrade - gate-like thing in front of windows ​ Making transition from high renaissance to late renaissance - transitioning to a more robust style, emotional, tactile sensibility, contours and details that are interesting to look at ​ Donato Bramante - high renaissance architect ​ He also studied ruins in Rome ​ Tempietto - small temple - also a burial place for Saint Peter - echoes renaissance fascination with geometry and circles ​ Circle - vehicle for how we could imagine the perfection of heaven ​ Bramante - circle obsession ​ Early design competition for rebuilding the St. Peters cathedral c. 1503 ​ Greek cross - greek and byzantine planning used circles in tradition and church building - others used the cross - Bramante’s St. Peters plan mixed both ​ Sebastian Serlio - wrote the five books of architecture -​ Classified archetypes -​ Provides all the elements of roman architectures like orders (columns) in detail  -​ But then does something new - creates proposals for future designs and recent architecture and what architects have been doing with it and what they could do with it in the future -​ Offer historical information and methods of adapting roman architecture to the present ​ Classical architecture - very adaptable Giulio Romano, Palazzo del Te, Mantua, 1525-34: “Mannerism” -​ Vacation home for wealthy client -​ “Weekend pleasure palace” -​ Focuses on fusion between architecture and the outdoors -​ Triglyph - pieces in between columns - falling down in this case -​ Keystone under pediments - never happens in roman arch -​ Serliana (derived from Serlios) - an arch supported by columns with two rectangles on the side - new -​ 4 columns to support barrel vaulted arch (round) - weird at the tiem ​ Atectonic - sculptural forms that are not structural of a constructional form ​ Keystone - protruding stone ​ Room with full mural - for the senses - humanism to its logical extreme Design by Michelangelo: Vestibul and Steps of Laurentian Library, Florence, completed in 1559 ​ Was a designer too ​ Stairs curved in middle while straight on the edges ​ Used pietra serena(dark stone) detailed ​ Rounded pediment on windows ​ Groupings of columns for decoration ​ Employs geometry and proportion but does it in a freewheeling way yet still controlled ​ Much different from early renaissance brunelleschi Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) ​ Arguably most influential architect of western architecture - palladian designs used the US and in mansions today ​ Palladio was a stage name given to him from a client because of his talent for architecture ​ Stone mason ​ Wealth/having a patron was needed at the time people become architects ​ Cultural attitude if you were wealthy to have a country home in addition to your city palace ​ Published a book - Four books of Architecture - promotional manual for his own design work ​ First architect to promote his design through promotion ​ Works spread to worldwide audience ​ Explains why he did things in certain ways ​ New thing - architect telling public his secrets ​ Provided design details for architects who have never been to italy  ​ His books in order: -​ First book: studies of various decorative styles, the classical orders, and materials -​ Second book: drawings and explanations of palladio's own town and country house designs as well as the classical buildings that inspired him -​ Third book: his bridge and basilica designs and city planning designs as wells as municipal buildings and classical halls -​ Fourth book: Information and construction details of ancient roman temples ​ Serliana: archway held up by two columns flanked by rectangle openings ​ In his books he idealized his designed - explained them as if it would turn out in the best circumstance not reality ​ Defying geometrical purity from earlier architects like brunelleschi ​ Building a house that looks like temple - wealth ​ Palladio created a new kind of architecture style for the wealthy’s houses -museum, temple-like house - making families feel like kings living in palace ​ Believed some numerical orders were prettier/better than others ​ Proportion and numerical harmony related to the divine ​ Medici Family - well - known patron family ​ Serlio - early published work - Palladio’s published work much different ​ Devoted to creating pleasurable spaces for people to live in ​ A period in the mid-1500s where noble people wanted country villas to farm for side money ​ Villas modeled on roman classical country villas ​ Wealthy people wanted to pretend they were living in authentic roman palaces ​ Positioned En falade - positioned in a line ​ Painting in perspectives - aiming to expand the architecture beyond the surface of the walls ​ wealthy people educated in classic literature - appreciated architects artistic details ​ Later renaissance - exploration of the possibilities of roman architecture through a modern lense ​ Wholly unified architecture plans ​ Middle of 1500s - very artistic, sensory experience “High” Renaissance (c. 1490-1550ish): Key Locations: Florence, Rome Key architects: Donato Bramante “Late” Renaissance (Mannerism) (c. 1530-1590s) – overlaps with High Renaissance period: Whether a building is “High Renaissance” or “Mannerist” depends a bit on the building’s style and the architect’s approach to or particular uses of Roman Classicism. Today, many historians prefer the term “Late” Renaissance for its objectivity. Key Locations: Venice, Vincenza, Mantua Key Architects: Giulio Romano, Michelangelo, Andrea Palladio