Entry #9 Thurs. 7/23

will complete by midnight tonight.

Entry #8 Tues. 7/21

St. Tromine -- Arles, France -- 1170

I took one look at this church and for some reason, I thought "Mexico!, wait France?" The rooftop and the ornament on the apex just seemed like something I'd seen in an old western.

Now heres a church in Coatepec Mexico:

As you can see, there are many similarities between these two churches. It is apparent that the French designs were carried through Spain and eventually into the growing Mexico. Below, you can see a different view of the Mexican church, showing a dome which was used a lot in French architecture.

Entry #7 Mon. 7/20

Michelangelo (Orange, personal favorite) -- Leornardo (Blue) -- Donatello (Purple) -- Raphael (Red)

Now all these weapon-wielding, mutated, teenage turtles were actually real 16th century artists. Donatello actually came about in the early Renaissance, and the other three were around for the late Renaissance. I'm not sure however, if the different personalities of each ninja turtle do indeed reflect the style of each artist. For example, in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV show, Donatello is portrayed as the technologically-inclined turtle. He is good with his hands, maybe to reflect the real Donatello's sculptures. But then again, the real Michelangelo was a great sculptor too, and the turtle version is simply a wild, pizza-eating, "CoWaBuNgA!"-yelling, skateboarding turtle... with nun-chuks.

Entry #6 Thurs. 7/16

Spiro Kostof (1936-1991)

Spiro Kostof was and still is a significant part on how architectual history is studied. As a professor at University of California, Berkeley, he studied the social, cultural, political, and physical links between buildings instead of concentrating on "sequence of style" [1]. After studying at Instanbul's Robert College in his home country of Turkey, he attended Yale University for graduate work in architectual history.

Along with hosting a series on PBS called "America by Design", he wrote several books; including the textbook published in 1985, History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals that we use in our class today. Others include: The Architect: Chapters in the History of the Profession (1977), America by Design (1987), The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings (1991), and The City Assembled: Elements of Urban Form through History (1992). As you can see, Kostof focused on urban design later in his career.

Kostof was diagnosed with cancer in 1991. In his final months, he finished up his final book, The City Assembled, written in it describes his view on how cities "live":

"... Cities are live, changing things -- not hard artifacts in need of prettification and calculated revision. Cities are never still; they resist efforts to make neat sense of them. We need to respect their rhythms and t recognize that the life of city form must lie loosely somehwere between total control and total freedom of action. Between conservation and process, process must have the final word. In the end, urban truth is in the flow." (pg 305) [2]

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Kostof, Foreward to The Architect, Spiro Kostof

Entry #5 - Tues 7/14

The Dark Ages. We merely mentioned it in class. Since I am a "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" fan, we have to look deeper. There are many castles that make appearances in the film made in 1975 by the absurdly hilarious brits, John Cleese, Eric Idle, et. al. In the "Tale of Sir Lancelot" segment, a king and his castle are depicted at the real-life Bodiam Castle in Kent.


Built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight under the renowned Edward III and with the permission of Richard II (as Edward's reign ended in 1377) as a fortification against possible French attacks. Ironically, the design was inspired by the French castles that Sir Edward the Knight had seen in his military escapades in years past. This castle's design was also well-suited for imprisoning captured rich dignitaries.


It is a quadrangle castle with cylindrical towers on the four corners, two square towers on the East/West walls, and two entrance gate towers on the North/South walls. It is also surrounded by a moat to protect from advancing enemies. However, the castle is thought to have been built more for show & comfort instead of defense. The towers have too many windows to be militarily effective, the walls were not very thick (2 ft would not hold against the primitive cannon), and the moat was considerably shallow.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodiam_Castle

Entry #4 - Mon. 7/13

Architectural History Timeline!
*click images to enlarge*
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6000 BC - 1000 AD

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1000 - 1750

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1750 - early 1900s

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Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_architectural_styles_1900%E2%80%94Present

Entry #3 - Thurs. 7/9

Chaitya Hall, Karli, India

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The rock cut temples of India. Namely, the Chaitya Hall in Karle was mentioned today in class. That stuff is simply amazing. Just the thought of shaving out a temple from the inside-out, on a cliff side is mind-boggling for me. However, it reminded me of a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade... Let us indulge in some classic movie history.

In this awesome Indy film, the "Temple of the Sun" is where the oh-so-sought-after Holy Grail is kept. This was the image I pictured in my head the instant I saw the rock cut temples of India in the slides during class. I guess you could say I daydream a bit, who doesn't. What's cool about the setting of this temple is that Spielberg depicted it to be cut from the cliff side of a crescent moon canyon. But in reality, this is not true.

"Temple of the Sun" - but really the "Al Khazneh"

The actual Al Khazneh is located in the ancient city of Petra, Jordan, far from the crescent canyon in Turkey. Carved out of a sandstone rock from around 100BC - 200 AD. The columns out front must indicate some sort of Greek influence. Al Khazneh literally means "The Treasury" which also reinforces the Greek influence, like how our own US Treasury has Greek-like columns.

US Treasury

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Khazneh
http://indianajones.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page