Rock- cut

Resembling greatness

One-of-a-kind
Carefully detailed
Kanheri and Ajanta Caves
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Chaityas
Unable to be compared
Temples made to last

Ancient Indian architecture arose during 1500 B.C. - 200 A.C.. They used and created form Earth directly. The sculpted and carved into mountains to create caves that were temples. Some famous ones are the Kanheri and Ajanta caves. They serve the purpose of being temples of worship for the designated god. More of these temples were Chaityas, Viharas, and the Rathas. They were half sculptures, half architecture. Meaning, both artist and architectures were involved in the process. All of the columns and beams are carved away from the mountain.
Even though these temples are from the same culture. They do have some degree of difference. There are two styles: North and South. The North style is less detailed. While the South style is way more detailed. The level of detail increases as the level go higher. It's as if they pay more detail, higher and higher than they go. Then the Innermost Sanctum are the ones with the most details.

100 Ideas That Changed Architecture: Walls

Walls. At first, the Greeks didn't believe that walls were much of importance. The put them after the columns. Unlike the Egyptians who used them for monumental purposes. Romans were the first who put them ahead and used them for the practical use of separation. When the interest of Roman Architecture sparked up in Italy, the wall became of importance once again. Alberti and other architects established the idea of the wall's importance, that later dominated the Western Architecture. They varied of materials, from stone all the way to plastic. Depended on the architect. 

It wasn't until big buildings did the importance of the wall arose. Instead of just being the support for the houses, they soon became a way of defining space. Then in the twentieth century, new ideas started sparking up on how the wall consumed and released energy. You see, the wall may seem like nothing, but it provides more than we think. Not only does it define space, it provides protection. Privacy, space. It crated new designs and functions that hadn't been seen. It gives the architect more space to play with. 

Greek Influence

Greeks contributed a lot to what see today. Their flourishing time was during 900 B.C - 100 A.D.. They built temples, theaters, Agoras, Stoas, the Parthenon, created Architectural Orders, Decorations and painted with dry colors. All of these majestic buildings were built with the simple material of stone. Their walls were decorated with sculptures and paintings inside of them. They were built with a scale far grater than the human scale. The still stand with the greatness they were built with.


I believe that the Greek architecture is one of the most important basis of modern architecture. Most of the ideas that originated in Greece are used in modern times. A big one is Columns and Beams, they're everywhere. The way buildings and materials are place as well. The size in proportion to the scale of them. The hangars over outdoor shopping centers are a big one. Little things we don't take in count because it's always there. It's everywhere. No matter where we look. The columns supporting the houses, the things over our heads on the hallways. Everywhere.

Haiku: Egyptian Architect

The grandest of all,

Wonders never accomplished,

Made to survive

Architectural Sketches

Sketches have different purposes. Sometimes, they're just to get an image out of your mind. Others to figure solutions out. But many times, sketches are made to improve. That's one of the reasons why they're made in Architecture. Those kinds of sketches are called "Referential Sketches". They're drawn to remember where you've been, what you've seen and what you payed attention to the most. These kinds of sketches then lead into what's called "Preparatory Study". It's sketching and tracing to revise and refine the designs. As your drawing ad refining, you're creating and improving the "interactions of our minds, eyes and hands." They create connections between ideas that hadn't been seen. 

They have the tendency to allow room for improvement from the first ideas.  They give and show how much the architect's ideas have flourished through out the project. Showing their mental growth such as their imaginative and creative side. They made notes to the side on things to add and things to remove. It was a really, really rough idea before creating all the models and floor plans of the plans they did. 

Mesopotamian Architecture

"Isolation's fine
The grandest of all cities
Lonely, powerful"

Mesopotamian Architecture started and created innovations for future generations and cities. Some concepts were: Urban planning, Arches, Courtyard houses, Ziggurats, Tower of Babel, and Building Material. The City of Ur was and is greatly known for the unusual size of the walls. They were far taller than the human scale. Another example of the great scale difference is the Ziggurats. Compared to the Ziggurats, the houses were ants. They were made to represent  the greatness and power the people living inside and the deities that were worshipped there.
Isolation was present, everywhere. The houses the people lived in had courtyards inside them. Only one entrance. They were made to provide protection from the private and public lives they lived. The entrances were made in a "zig-zag" formation. To prevent any trespassers from entering directly to their houses. The arches had been used prior to them but they enhanced the use of them. They specified them for a usage.  They gave these things a reason. 

Sketches of Frank Gary: Paul Goldberger

"It is important...but it's not bread on the table...it gives deep depth on the background of life,"

- Paul Goldberger

It's been three and a half months since I thought in depth about architecture. Even if I haven't been thinking about it, I can't not see it. It's everywhere. It's where we eat, sleep and study. It

is in our daily lives, to a point where we don't see it that way. It fades away. Paul Goldberger is right when he says,"It's important...but not bread in the table." It's important in the sense that it makes up our daily lives. It's in our cycle. Where we eat, live, sleep, learn? In a building. And what's a building? Architecture.
As Goldberger said,"Architecture is with us all the time, like it or not." He keeps going back to the topic of Architecture being everywhere. It creates who we are "it's history, it's culture. Not only does it make up a single person's life, but it also makes up and entire population's life and history. Like our buildings, they have a unique history. They tell the story of how we progressed. How we've progressed, yet we kept our culture and incorporated it into our lives.