Hovering above are pillars of concrete and stone. Its rise and collapse determined by history. A combination of art and science designed to create notorious architecture. The necessity for architecture is distant from extinction and continuously transforming itself with the duration of time creating innovative methods of portraying scenic and functional works of art. The Romans and Greeks established a foundation for architecture that maintains its reputation as remarkable acts of beauty.
The history of architecture is very influential in mankind’s culture. It has evolved and become more prominent with the growth of civilizations. The Egyptians contributed square stones, pyramids, and ramps (St. Petersburg Times). The Greeks gave pillars and theaters (Gascoigne). The most prominent, the Romans, gave domes, aqueducts, and roads (Alchin). Everything else was given by lesser known countries. Without these countries who mastered the art of architecture, the world would look a lot different.
Architecture has always been an integral part of the society and its culture. It not only defines the space of the community that it participates in but it also shapes the community’s place in history. Moreover, historians all over the world have found architecture playing a key role while they study the communities in time periods. Architecture helps the historian decipher the civilization's daily life and the values they hold. The historians are able to decipher as such by looking at the recurring structural feature and ornamental feature of certain buildings of certain time period. Some of the significant feature of the building usually defines the political regime or the religious values of the civilization.
Behind every architectural work there is an architect, whether the architect is one man or woman, a small group, or an entire people. The structure created by any of these architects conveys a message about the architect: their culture, their identity, their struggles. Because of the human element architects offer to their work not just a building is made, but a work of art, a symbol of a people, a representation, is also created.
From the time of the ancient Greeks all the way to modern day, some part of humanity has almost always been interested in the past. For the ancient Greeks, it was discovering Mycenaean ruins and composing stories about them. Today, inspiration is still drawn from classical architecture. One has to look no further than the U.S. capitol building, or even the University of Michigan's Angell Hall to see remnants of this architectural style. This raises the question of why does it still persists? Logically, the best way to answer this is to examine the origins of classical architecture, and what it represented then and now. Furthermore, the study of ancient architecture can show insights into past civilizations which otherwise would have been lost.
Jacob Holstead
Ms. Cwiak
H American Literature
23 May 2017
Frank Lloyd Wright and American Architecture
Do you have a living room, open floor plan, or carpet flooring? Most homes in America today have these basic essentials, and Frank Lloyd Wright can be credited for this. Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most influential Architects in American history. These innovations in modern architecture may not have occurred without him.
Architecture has been known as the product of aesthetics, structure, and function that serves to address social needs, resolve environmental and humanitarian problems through built form. Architecture not only shelters, but also has the ability to consolidate boundaries within our society. It realizes the role by physically defining space and by imposing its symbolic, representative meaning onto our living environment. As Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “Architecture immortalizes and glorifies something”. Indeed, architecture must be documentary and didac...
Publicly, the Agora served as a meeting place, market place, and a center for public activity.? The Agora once contained lush trees and fabulous fountains for public enjoyment (?Agora?).? These aesthetic elements combined to create an area that functioned as a public park and meeting space (ibid).? Athenians could engage in discussion, meet friends, or take their children to play in this free public area (?Athens?).? At the same time, the Agora created a public market for the sale of goods (?Agora?).? Two long stoas, or colonnade halls, once provided an area f...
The ancients Romans were very different from the ancient Greek. “The ancient Romans were down-to-earth realists, not idealists.”(Donn2) You can see this in their statues. The Greeks made statues of perfect people. The Romans created real life statues. A good example of this is a Roman emperor statue because his nose will be huge and the ancient Greek would have never done that. The Romans were fierce soldiers and wonderful builders. They built roads all over the empire and all led to Rome. The ancient Greeks had roads, but they were not built nearly as well and the Greek’s roads did not connect in any particular order. Each Greek city-state was its own unit, not like Rome because in ancient Rome, Rome was the heart of the empire.
Introduction:
Frank Lloyd Wright, born June 8, 1867, was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures, 532 of which were completed. Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. According to Wright's autobiography, his mother declared when she was expecting that her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant's ambition. Wright was admitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a special student in 1886.