Interesting Architectural Structures

The temple Borobudur in Java, Indonesia is a colossal stupa built on a small hill in the Kedu valley.Its form and site are symbolic references to Mount Meru, which in Indian mythology represents the center of the Universe.

Wonders of the World
Edited by Alessandra Capodiferro

A symbol of the vast size of China, the Great Wall crosses almost two thirds of the country from east to west, covering a distance of 4,160 miles.

Wonders of the World
Edited by Alessandra Capodiferro

This is incredibly interesting dear Inda!

I have been lately reading "Lindesfarne Letter" eometry and Architecture. I know your Estonians build many spires reaching so high... Maybe the reason is in the following quote:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Sacred in Architecture has common ground with health and cosmology, since the inner essence of correct and appropriate form in Architecture is based on a resonance of harmony and health. Total healthiness comes from wholeness, which is holiness. This resonance enables a consonance to sound from microcosm through mesocosm to macrocosm, and is the root and secret to finding unity and the unified experience.

The material world is subject most dramatically and universally to the laws of gravity - in human experience that which "pulls down" to earth. The realm of life, however, is dominated by levity, a word meaning "up-lift" that has significantly fallen out of use in the English language since the Industrial Revolution. If the material world is essentially about "pulling down" (entropy?), then the human world, particularly as understood in the inspiring philosophy and ideals of a sacred tradition, is essentially about "lifting up." As all life draws up to the light, so is the human psyche attracted to the elevating principles which act as constant regenerators to the forms and beings of our world.

Architecture, as sacred expression, is concerned with the power of levity in the physical, emotional, intellectual, inspirational and ontological realms, always dedicated to raising experience to a more inclusive and comprehensive unity and integrity. Therefore, it is not without relevance that the vertical dimension is so often the dominant one in so much of sacred architecture.

There are architectural principles that transcend different cultural expressions. These are based on elemental and primordial factors and demonstrate how structure on the physical level is integral with structure on the metaphysical level. They are analogous to the universal anatomical and physiological laws, transcending culture or race, that rule our human bodies: the blood groups, for instance, are a most insistent symbol of human unity on a physical level despite all the differences of skull shape, skin color or hair texture. We must not lose sight, however, of the fact that the Anthropos is the collective archetype for the whole human family - without which to be human has no meaning.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is information in that description that speaks to the eternal self and unity consciousness that meditators and positive futures thinkers can use! I KNEW levity was important! - light being to all!!!

My own understanding of humans constructing THINGS in the best way is: "As above, so below" meaning we reflect the cosmic principles as best we can to be in harmonious balance with all, the cosmos, or God. I have read that entire towns were designed by wise ones who overlooked the entire area, and planned the paths into and around the structure to be in alignment with cosmic processions such as sun, moon and important constellations. From Stonehenge to Aztec pyramids and towns to airport designs these functions are clear. Since you are starting this post with caveman and the ancient archetects, here are some temple layouts of Chemetan (Egyptian) towns and monuments. I believe walking through a procession in those days would have been fabulous. Brazilian Carnival perhaps comes close, or the Vatican.







The great pyramids were supposed to be covered in white in their prime, what a glorious view eh? Interestingly the word Architecture has the root word "Arch," and the Islamic arches were a gift to southern European cultures such as Italy, Spain and Portugal. Not arch-enemies, but arch-friends! he he..

As a reference as to why I am so thrilled about this subject, see my greatest reference below, I was "Information Architect" for TIS Worldwide (Transaction Information Systems) on 2nd and Market in SF.




And Givnology is my greatest architectural creation (thanks to you all)!

Love and light being, Teo

Thank you Teo for your vast research and comprehensive reply.

I found a picture of the area depicted on your map of the great pyramids and the sphynx.

The Sphynx at the centre of the photo lies to the right of the processional way that joined the valley temple to the upper temple. The pyramids were built between 2590-2506 BC.

Clustered papyrus-bud columns in the hypostyle hall of Amenophis III at Luxor, early fourteenth century B.C.
The Pharaoh's architect was Amenhotep-son-of-Hapu.

Photo: Roloff Beny
Odyssey

Thank you dear Inda for starting this interesting post. It is fascinating to see how architectural structures have evolved through the ages.

... Teo dear, only you could associate Brazilian Carnival with the Vatican!!

Telephone .........

bye bye
Love, Margherita

Brazilian Carnival with the Vatican!! could become quite an interesting addition to the thread
Let us see what Teo can find
************************************************

The ruins at Nankoweap are among the best known of the prehistoric ruins at Grand Canyon.
The Anasazi may have been the ancestors of the people who later lived and farmed both in the inner canyon and on its rims.

Preeminent among megalithic monuments in Great Britain is Stonehenge.
Enclosed by a circular ditch 300 feet in diameter, stones are arranged in 4 series. 2 outermost form circles. The 3rd is a horseshoe shape. The innermost is ovoid in form. Some original uprights remain.
Within the ovoid lies the "Altar Stone."
It was probably a bronze age burial site. Nothing is known for sure.

Thank you everyone for your contribution. I can see that this will be a wonderful thread. Looking forward to at least 100 replies

Love,
Sue

Machu Picchu (which means "manly peak") was most likely a royal estate and religious retreat. It was built between 1460 and 1470 AD by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, an Incan ruler. The city has an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is high above the Urubamba River canyon cloud forest, so it likely did not have any administrative, military or commercial use. After Pachacuti’s death, Machu Picchu became the property of his allus, or kinship group, which was responsible for it’s maintenance, administration, and any new construction.

The Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Their art and culture are deeply rooted to their homeland. Beautiful wood carvings that adorn the huts and fancy fish hooks carved out of whale bones give the Maori art their special flavour.

Legends passed down from generations to generations tell of the gods that created the land they live in. The natural disasters the ancient Maoris faced are explain by colourful narrations of angry gods out to punish the people.

Their history in New Zealand stretches back to the 12th century -- way before the Pakeha, the white man, invaded New Zealand.

Today the Maoris remember their roots by teaching the young about the history of the Maoris. Annually, a festival called Aotearoa Traditional Maori Performing Arts Festival will be held in New Zealand.

The South Pacific islands, with their mild and temperate weather patterns called for a different kind of architecture that was found in harsher climates.

Nipa hut and coco palms in Samoa

In the North West Territories of Canada we have a slightly different climate ,where the ground has always a little permafrost, which calls for a different architecture than anywhere else.
There are two cultures here, the Dene and the Inuit people.

Japan

The grounds of Horyuji (Horyu Temple) house the world’s oldest surviving wooden structures, conveying images of Japan as it existed more than 1300 years ago, during the Asuka Period (AD. mid 6th - beginning of 8th c.). Horyuji is located at Nara (90 minute drive East of Osaka).

Royal residence and gardens, the Grand Palace
Just south of Wat Phra Kaew we visited the gardens of the royal palace residence. The residence and the grand halls adjacent to it have not been the actual living residence of the king for some years now, yet they are still used for coronations, official ceremonies and the interment of royal ashes. At the center of the garden is Chakri Mahaprasat, the Great Holy Hall of Chakri. Built in 1882 by British architects, the hall combines an odd, yet successful blend of Thai, Victorian and Italian Renaissance architecture.

Wooden churches were built in many countries hundreds of years ago. Slovakia, the Ukraine, Poland, and Russia, just to name a few, all house these beautiful works of architecture. All of these churches offer something unique and different to visitors. The beauty and history of each church attracts thousands of tourists each year.

Russian Orthodox Wooden Church

Thank you Vicky for all your input. You have posted some wonderful images and information.

I found another image of a little wooden church.
It is the Church of Our Savior from the village of Faminskoye, Russia (1712). It is now in the Costrama Museum of Wooden Architecture.

We don't have to keep this tread in complete chronologic order, so I will take us back to the Acropolis in Greece which is an amazing architectural complex.


The Acropolis hill, so called the "Sacred Rock" of Athens, is the most important site of the city. During Perikles' Golden Age, ancient Greek civilization was represented in an ideal way on the hill and some of the architectural masterpieces of the period were erected on its ground.
The first habitation remains on the Acropolis date from the Neolithic period. Over the centuries, the rocky hill was continuously used either as a cult place or as a residential area or both. The inscriptions on the numerous and precious offerings to the sanctuary of Athena (marble korai, bronze and clay statuettes and vases) indicate that the cult of the city's patron goddess was established as early as the Archaic period (650-480 B.C.).

Acropolis, Athens

Photo by: Glen

Great inspiring architecture and posts!!!


From: http://csc.apolyton.net/scenarios/mexico.shtml

quote:

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The Aztecs entered Anáhuac (the Valley of Mexico) in the mid-thirteenth century, but it was not until 1325 when they founded their capital city, Tenochtitlán, in the place where an eagle was sighted killing a snake on a cactus. Gradually the Aztecs transformed their capital from a miserable village of thatched huts to a grand city with adobe houses and stone temples. Paralleling the sophistication of their city, the Aztecs put themselves on the road to empire.

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PYRAMID OF THE MOON
From: http://members.cox.net/davehanson/aztec/

quote:

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Teotihuacan was an abandoned ghost city by the time the Aztecs found it, and gave it its name, which means "the place where men become gods". No one knows the true name of the city or the people who lived there (who once numbered 200,000). The huge site is laid out on both sides of the "Avenue of the Dead", which was perfectly aligned on a north/south axis. At one end of the avenue was the Plaza of the Moon, surrounded by several flat-topped step pyramids shown in the foreground above. In the background is the large Pyramid of the Moon, which I enjoyed climbing, especially because that end of the site was relatively deserted early in the morning.

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PYRAMID OF THE SUN

From: http://www.crystalinks.com/pyrsun_moon.html

quote:

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The Pyramid of the Sun, built in the 2nd century AD, dominates the landscape of the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico.

Teotihuacan -the place of the Gods - was the first true city in Mesoamerica, at its peak - 600 AD - it housed more than 100,000 people.

It is the third largest pyramid in the world and the largest in the Teotihuacan complex.

It's sides are 700 feet long, it is about 200 feet high, and is actually a succession of pyramids built one on top the other over the centuries. The pyramids and many other structures at Teotihuacan are stepped, rather than smooth sided like the Egyptian pyramids, and the stones of which they are made are not so large that there would be a mystery about how they were moved as there is with the Egyptian pyramids, the Moai statues of Easter Island, and the Nasca Lines.

At its peak time - most of Teotihuacan was plastered, and the pyramids were painted bright red.

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from the same site:


STREET OF THE DEAD

Well, if that gives you the creeps, a bad joke to make up for the deadheadedness...

Thank you for the fabulous images Teo.

Now we come to a Roman aqueduct.

One of the greatest surviving monuments of Roman engineering, this aqueduct stretches from the walls of the old town to the edges of Sierra de Guadarrama. It is about 2950 feet long although the section where the arches are divided in two levels is about 900 feet. It is made of rough-hewn massive granite blocks, joined without mortar or clamps.

Ephesus in Turkey was a major centre of Greek and Roman Asiatic colonies. It once had a population of 300,000.

Here is the "Library of the Ancient Ruins."
Ephesus, Turkey (c.356BC)
Photo by: Nick Meers

I love this thread. When I have a bit of time I'll get some help with posting some images.
Thank you all for your contribution. The images are awesome.

Love,
Sue

Thank you for this wonderfully informative thread.I love all the pictures and the text.

I see you girls are having problems posting your images; I hope the problem can be corrected, otherwise we will miss a lot of beautiful images.

Gisele

btw I am working on the uploading and attachment viewing issue here and it may mean we all grajimicate to using the photo albums, what joy, more OMWORK you all! he he..

St Mark's Cathedral, Venice, the most important church in the city since Early Christian times but the cathedral of Venice only since 1807. The body of the apostle St Mark, stolen from its resting place in Alexandria, was brought to Venice in 828 and subsequently interred in the new church. Virtually nothing of the 9th-century church survives; it was badly damaged by fire in 976 and only temporarily repaired. The present basilica was begun c. 1050 and completed in the 1090s.

Thank you Vicky for your post. I love Venezian architecture.

The Ca d'Oro.
A jewel of gothic palace architecture on the Canal Grande. It was built from 1421-1434/38.

The Ponte di Rialto (Rialto Bridge, at the bottom) is the true heart of Venice. The current structure was built in just three years, between 1588 and 1591, as a permanent replacement for the boat bridge and three wooden bridges that had spanned the Grand Canal at various times since the 12th Century. It remained the only way to cross the Grand Canal on foot until the Accademia Bridge was built in 1854.



"The Doge's Palace, Venice, has faades which date from 1309-1424, designed by Giovanni and Bartolomeo Buon. The palace, started in the ninth century, several times rebuilt, and completed in the Renaissance period, forms part of that great scheme of town-planning which was carried out through successive centuries. The faades, with a total length of nearly 152 m (500 ft), have open arcades in the two lower storeys, and the third storey was rebuilt after a fire in the sixteenth century, so as to extend over the arcades. This upper storey is faced with white and rose-coloured marble, resembling ornate windows and finished with a lace-like parapet of oriental cresting."

— Sir Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. p506.

From Ixquick

Now we are going to another part of the world to look at a wonderful Byzantine structure.

The Church of Hagia Sophia, associated with one of the greatest creative ages of man, was also the Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for more than one thousand years. Originally known as the Great Church, because of its large size in comparison with the other churches of the then Christian World, it was later given the name of Hagia Sophia, the Holy Wisdom of Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Justinian conceived the grandiose project of rebuilding the Great Church from its foundations. Nothing like it was ever built before or after. Construction work lasted five years [532-537] and on December 27, 537, Patriarch Menas consecrated the magnificent church.

Now that it is easy to post images here I will give it a go:

Westminster Abbey is a living church as well as an architectural masterpiece of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. Founded as a Benedictine monastery over a thousand years ago, the church was rebuilt by Edward the Confessor in 1065 and again by Henry III in the thirteenth century in the Gothic style we see today.

Known as the House of Kings, the Abbey is the final resting place for monarchs including Edward I (called ‘Longshanks’), Henry III, Henry V and Henry Vll who built a magnificent Lady Chapel here. The shared vault containing Elizabeth I and her half-sister Mary I (‘Bloody Mary’), and the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots are echoes of the bloodstained and turbulent Tudors.

The Abbey has been the setting for Coronations since that of William the Conqueror in 1066 and is home to the Coronation Chair. It has also witnessed numerous other royal occasions such as weddings and funerals.

In Poets’ Corner you will be surrounded by memorials to Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and many others. Great scientists and musicians are also remembered in the Abbey, from Newton and Darwin to Purcell and Handel. The grave of the Unknown Warrior is to be found in the Nave.

Westminster Abbey is central to the life of the nation. Worship is offered every day. You are always welcome at any of the regular services.

Budapest, Hungary.

No one seems to know why this is so named - it has certainly never been called on to defend anything. The stories say that in the old days this was where the fishermen defended Castle Hill from. It stands behind Matyas Church, overlooking the river and was built around 1900 by the same person who was responsible for the reconstruction of the church. There is a small fee to pay to climb up it, but it is worth it for the views. It makes for some of the finest photo opportunities in all of Budapest.

Budapest, Hungary.

On the left of the Bastion is the Hilton hotel which blends in beautifully with the surrounding architecture.

Parliament Building - Budapest, Hungary.
This magnificent building, constructed between 1885 and
1904, is undergoing renovations.

Lavish external ornaments of soft limestone cannot tolerate modern polluted air, and they are thus
being replaced by hard stone over the years.

Warwick Castle was founded in 1068 and was rebuilt and updated a number of times. Today it combines castle ruins, largely of the fourteenth century with one of the finest great houses in England.

Great replies, posts and attachments! Like my first post in this topic, I will share some terminology and breakdowns, not hoping any architecture breaks down, he he.. but de-extrapolations, what some of the root terms mean.

The word Architecture has roots in the word Arch, and the arches are an importand design element. Additionally, Arch has roots in the word Arc, and this is the fundamental mathematics of all building and architecture.


Various forms of arches (Sturgis)


More Arch terminology


Perspective section of nave bay of Amiens Cathedral
A) nave arcade, B) triforium, C) clerestory, D) side aisle, E) buttress, F) pinnacle, a) blind arcade, b) compound pier, c) respond, d) mullion, e) tracery, f) traverse rib, g) diagonal rib, h) boss, i) molding profile, j) strut, k) finial

-From Abacus To Zeus, A Handbook Of Art History, James Smith Pierce

This thread is truly very interesting and we can go on and on ...
Looking at the Igloo Vicky posted I suddenly was reminded of the Apulia a Region in the South of Italy where there are characteristic buildings called TRULLI.(trullo from Latin turrula which means "little tower")


Alberobello is the name of the little town




Puglia, land of the Trulli
Trulli are circular, conical-roofed white-washed houses built of stone without any use of mortar. Their roofs, topped with pinnacles, are tiled with concentric rows of gray slate and often painted with astrological or religious symbols.
Their origin is obscure but few of these solid-looking constructions date back more than a couple of centuries. (In another text I read instead that these constructions go back to the XIIth century) The greatest concentration of Trulli houses is in and around Alberobello.
The characteristic of this type of construction is that the ambient inside temperature remains almost constant irrelevant of outside temperature, therefore it is relatively warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Alberobello is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which has concentrations of Trulli with many of them now souvenir and wine shops, boutiques and restaurants.


For those who understand French:

Les trulli

Entre Castellana Grotte et Ostuni, ces petites poivrières grises ou éclatantes de blancheur font partie intégrante du décor. Un décor verdoyant parsemé de vignobles, d’amandiers et d’oliviers. Dans un pays où la pierre abonde, le trullo a résolu pendant des millénaires, d’une manière simple (en apparence) et harmonieuse, les problèmes de l’habitation. On raconte que le seigneur du cru, le comte d’Acquaviva, cherchant à loger les paysans qui travaillaient sur ses terres, le fit dans une ferme provisoire au toit et aux murs en pierres non jointes. Le bâtiment était facilement démontable en cas d’inspection royale alors que Ferdinand I" d’Aragon avait interdit dans la région l’édification d’habitations stables. Cependant il existe un lien manifeste entre les trulli (trullo vient sans doute du latin turrula qui signifie " petite tour ") dont les plus vieux remontent au XII’ siècle, et les " maisons en pain de sucre " de la Syrie du Nord (surtout la région d’Alep) qui existaient déjà dans l’Antiquité. On peut y voir un effet des Croisades et des rapports que le comté d’Edesse et la principauté de Tripoli entretenaient au Moyen Age avec l’Italie à travers la Pouille et l’Apulie.



The name of Alberobello /Beautiful Tree comes from Latin Silva Arboris Belli, because in that Region in the past there was a big region covered with a forest.



Love, Margherita

Dear Margherita,

Your images are magical

Here is a little old residential house from Tallinn, Estonia. At the present time it is home to a tiny giftshop.

The Church of the Resurrection,
St.Petersburg, Russia

Designed by Alfred Parland in the style of 16th and 17th-century Russian churches, the Church of the Resurrection provides a stark (some would say jarring) contrast to its surroundings of Baroque, Classical and Modernist architecture.

The Cesmenskaya Church
St.Petersburg, Russia.

Architect: Y.M. Felten 1774-1777