1. Architecture, in the general sense of the word, is the art of
planning and erecting buildings of all kinds, whether of a public or
private nature; and it embraces within its operations a variety of
employments, at the head of which must be placed the Architect.
Architecture is of several kinds, such as _civil_, _naval_,
_military_, and _aquatic_; but it is the first only that we propose to
notice in the present article.
2. The construction of buildings as means of shelter from the weather,
appears to have been among the earliest inventions; and, from the
skill exhibited in the construction of the ark, we have reason to
believe that architecture had been brought to considerable perfection
before the deluge. This opinion is also supported by the fact stated
in holy writ, that the descendants of Noah, not more than one hundred
years after the great catastrophe just mentioned, attempted to build a
city and a lofty tower with bricks burned in the fire. This project
could never have been thought of, had they not been influenced by the
knowledge of former centuries.
3. The confusion of the language of the people caused their dispersion
into different parts of the earth; and, in their several locations,
they adopted that method of constructing their dwellings, which the
climate required, and the materials at hand admitted; but, whatever
the primitive structure may have been, it was continued, in its
general features, from age to age, by the more refined and opulent
inhabitants; hence the different styles of building, which have been
continued, with various modifications, to the present day.
4. The essential elementary parts of a building are those which
contribute to its support, inclosure, and covering; and of these the
most important are the foundation, the column, the wall, the lintel,
the arch, the vault, the dome, and the roof. Ornamental and refined
architecture is one of the fine arts; nevertheless, every part of an
edifice must appear to have utility for its object, and show the
purpose for which it has been designed.
5. The _foundation_ is usually a stone wall, on which the
superstructure of the building rests. The most solid basis on which it
is placed is rock, or gravel which has never been disturbed; next to
these are clay and sand. In loose or muddy situations, it is always
unsafe to build, unless a solid basis can be artificially produced.
This is often done by means of timber placed in a horizontal position,
or by driving wooden piles perpendicularly into the earth; on a
foundation of the latter description, the greater part of the city of
Amsterdam has been built.
6. The _column_, or _pillar_, is the simplest member of a building,
although it is not essential to all. It is not employed for the
purpose of inclosure, but as a support to some part of the
superstructure, and the principal force which it has to resist is that
of perpendicular pressure. The column is more frequently employed in
public than in private buildings.
7. The _wall_ may be considered the lateral continuation of the
column, answering the purposes both of support and inclosure. It is
constructed of various materials, but chiefly of brick, stone, and
marble, with a suitable proportion of mortar or cement. Walls are also
made of wood, by first erecting a frame of timber and then covering it
with boards; but these are more perishable materials, which require to
be defended from the decomposing influence of the atmosphere, by paint
or some other substance.
8. The _lintel_ is a beam extending in a right line from one column or
wall to another over a vacant space. The _floor_ is a lateral
continuation or connexion of beams, by means of a covering of planks.
The strength of the lintel, and, in fact, every other elementary part
of a building used as a support, can be mathematically determined by
the skilful architect.
9. The _arch_ answers the same purpose as the lintel, although it far
exceeds it in strength. It is composed of several pieces of a
wedge-like form, and the joints formed by the contact of flat surfaces
point to a common centre. While the workmen are constructing the arch,
the materials are supported by a _centring_ of the shape of its
internal surface. The upper stone of an arch is called the
_key-stone_. The supports of an arch are called _abutments_; and a
continuation of arches, an _arcade_.
10. The _vault_ is the lateral continuation of an arch, and bears the
same relation to it that a wall bears to a column. The construction of
a simple vault is the same with that of an arch, and it distributes
its pressure equally along the walls or abutments. A complex or
groined vault is made by the intersection of two of the common kind.
The groined vault is much used in Gothic architecture.
11. The _dome_, or _cupola_, is a hemispherical or convex covering to
a building or a part of it. When built of stone it is a very strong
kind of structure, even more so than the arch, since the tendency of
the parts to fall is counteracted by those above and below, as well as
by those on each side. During the erection of the cupola, no centring
is required, as in the case of the arch.
12. The _roof_ is the most common and cheap covering to buildings. It
is sometimes flat, but most commonly oblique, in shape. A roof
consisting of two oblique sides meeting at the top, is denominated a
_pent_ roof; that with four oblique sides, a _hipped_ roof; and that
with two sides, having each two inclinations of different obliquities,
a _curb_ or _mansard_ roof. In modern times, roofs are constructed of
wood, or of wood covered with some incombustible material, such as
tiles, slate, and sheets of lead, tin, or copper. The elementary parts
of buildings, as just described, are more or less applicable in almost
every kind of architecture.
13. The architecture of different countries has been characterized by
peculiarities of form and construction, which, among ancient nations,
were so distinct, that their edifices may be identified at the present
day even in a state of ruin; and, although nearly all the buildings of
antiquity are in a dilapidated state, many of them have been restored,
in drawings and models, by the aid of the fragments which remain.
14. The different styles of building which have been recognised by the
architect of modern times, are, the Egyptian, the Chinese, the
Grecian, the Roman, the Greco-Gothic, the Saracenic, and the Gothic.
In all these, the pillar, with its accompaniments, makes a
distinguished figure. The following picture has therefore been
introduced by way of explanation. The columns are of the Corinthian
order of architecture.
[Illustration]
15. _The Egyptian style._--The first inhabitants of Egypt lived in
mounds, caverns, and houses of mud; and, from these primitive
structures, the Egyptians, at a later period, derived their style of
architecture. The walls of their buildings were very thick, and
sloping on the outside; the roof was flat, and composed of blocks of
stone, extending from one wall or pillar to another; and the columns
were short and large, being sometimes ten or twelve feet in diameter.
Pyramids of prodigious magnitude, and obelisks composed of a single
stone, sometimes often exceeding seventy feet in height, are
structures peculiarly Egyptian. The architecture of the Hindoos seems
to have been derived from primitive structures of a similar character.
[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE.]
16. _The Chinese style._--The ancient Tartars, and other wandering
tribes of Asia, appear to have lived in tents; and the Chinese
buildings, even at the present day, bear a strong resemblance to these
original habitations, since their roofs are concave on the upper side,
as if made of canvas instead of wood. Their porticoes resemble the
awnings spread out on our shop-windows in the summer. The Chinese
build chiefly of wood, although they sometimes use brick and stone.
[Illustration: A CHINESE PAGODA.]
17. _The Grecian style._--This style of building had its origin in the
wooden hut or cabin, the frame of which primarily consisted of
perpendicular posts, transverse beams, and rafters. This structure was
at length imitated in stone, and by degrees it was so modified and
decorated in certain parts, as to give rise to the several
distinctions called orders of architecture. The Greeks, in perfecting
their system of architecture, were probably aided by Egyptian
examples, although they finally surpassed all other nations in this
important art.
18. _Orders of architecture._--By the architectural orders are
understood certain modes of proportioning and decorating the column
and entablature. They were in use during the best days of Greece and
Rome, for a period of six or seven centuries. The Greeks had three
orders, called the _Doric_, the _Ionic_, and the _Corinthian_. These
were adopted and modified by the Romans, who also added two others,
called the _Tuscan_ and the _Composite_.
19. _Doric order._--The Doric is the oldest and most massive order of
the Greeks. The column, in the examples at Athens, is about six of its
diameters in height; in those of an earlier date, it is but four or
five. The temple here adduced to illustrate this order was built by
Cimon, son of Miltiades, about the year 450 before Christ. It is said
to be in a state of better preservation than any other of the ancient
Greek edifices at Athens. It will be seen that the shafts are
_fluted_, that is, cut in semicircular channels, in a longitudinal
direction. The United States' Bank, at Philadelphia, is a noble
specimen of this order.
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS.]
20. _Ionic order._--This order is lighter than the Doric, its column
being eight or nine diameters in height. Its shaft has twenty-four or
more flutings, separated from each other by square edges; and its
capital consists, in part, of two double scrolls, called _volutes_,
usually occupying opposite sides. These volutes are supposed to have
been copied from ringlets of hair, or from the horns of the god
Jupiter Ammon. The following example of this order consists of three
temples, each of which was dedicated to a different individual, viz.,
Erectheus, Minerva Polias, and the nymph Pandrosus.
[Illustration: THE ERECTHEUM AT ATHENS.]
21. _Corinthian order._--The Corinthian is the lightest and most
decorated of all the Grecian orders. Its column is usually ten
diameters in height, and its shaft is fluted like that of the Ionic.
Its capital is shaped like an inverted bell, and was covered on the
outside with two rows of the leaves of the plant acanthus, above which
are eight pairs of small volutes. It is said that this beautiful
capital was suggested to the sculptor Callimachus by the growth of an
acanthus about a basket, which had been accidentally left in a
garden.
22. The Greeks sometimes departed so far from the strict use of their
orders, as to employ the statues of slaves, heroes, and gods, in the
place of columns. A specimen of this practice is exhibited in the cut
illustrative of the Ionic order. It belongs to the temple dedicated to
Pandrosus.
23. The most remarkable buildings of the Greeks were their temples.
The body of these edifices consisted of a walled cell, usually
surrounded by one or more rows of pillars. Sometimes they had a
colonnade at one end only, and sometimes at both ends. Their form was
generally oblong, and as the cells were intended as places of resort
for the priests rather than for assemblies of the people, they were
but imperfectly lighted. Windows were seldom employed; and light was
admitted at the door at one end, or through an opening in the roof.
24. Grecian architecture is supposed to have been at its greatest
perfection in the days of Pericles and Phidias, when sculpture is
admitted to have attained its highest excellence. It was
distinguished, in general, by simplicity of structure, fewness of
parts, absence of arches, and lowness of pediments and roofs.
25. _Roman style._--The Romans adopted the three Grecian orders, with
some modifications; and also added two others, called the Tuscan and
Composite. The former of these they borrowed from the nation whose
name it bears, and the latter they formed by uniting the
embellishments of the Doric and the Corinthian. The favorite order in
Rome and its colonies was the Corinthian. Examples of single pillars
of these orders may be seen at the end of this article.
26. The temples of the Romans generally bore a strong resemblance to
those of the Greeks, although they often differed from the specimens
of that nation in several particulars. The stylobate of the latter was
usually a succession of platforms, which likewise served the purposes
of steps, by which the building was approached on all sides. Among the
Romans, it was usually an elevated structure, like a continued
pedestal, on three sides, and accessible in front by means of steps.
The dome was also very commonly employed rather than the pent roof.
The following is an example of a temple at Rome.
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF ANTONIUS AND FAUSTINA.]
27. _Greco-Gothic style._--After the dismemberment of the Roman
empire, the practice of erecting new buildings from the fragments of
old ones became prevalent. This gave rise to an irregular style of
building, which continued in use during the dark ages. It consisted of
Greek and Roman details combined under new forms, and piled up into
structures wholly unlike the original buildings from which the
materials had been taken. Hence the appellations _Greco-Gothic_ and
_Romanesque_ have been applied to it. The effect of this style of
building was very imposing, especially when columns and arches were
piled upon each other to a great height.
28. _Saracenic style._--This appellation has been given to the style
of building practised by the Moors and Saracens in Spain, Egypt, and
Turkey. It is distinguished, among other things, by an elliptical form
of the arch. A similar peculiarity exists in the domes of the Oriental
mosques, which are sometimes large segments of a sphere, appearing as
if inflated; and at other times, they are concavo-convex on the
outside. Several of these domes are commonly placed upon one building.
The _minaret_ is a tall slender tower, peculiar to Turkish
architecture.
29. _Gothic style._--The Goths, who overran a great part of the
Western empire, were not the inventors of the style of architecture
which bears their name. The term was first applied with the view to
stigmatize the edifices of the middle ages, in the construction of
which, the purity of the antique models had not been regarded. The
term was at first very extensive in its application; but it is now
confined chiefly to the style of building which was introduced into
various parts of Europe six or eight centuries ago, and which was used
in the construction of cathedrals, churches, abbeys, and similar
edifices.
[Illustration: GOTHIC CATHEDRAL AT YORK.]
30. The Gothic style is peculiarly and strongly marked. Its principles
seem to have originated in the imitation of groves and bowers, under
which the Druid priests had been accustomed to perform their sacred
rites. Its characteristics are, pointed arches, pinnacles and spires,
large buttresses, clustered pillars, vaulted roofs, and a general
predominance of the perpendicular over the horizontal.
31. The ecclesiastical edifices of this style of building are commonly
in form of a cross, having a tower, lantern, or spire, erected at the
point of intersection. The part of the cross situated towards the west
is called the _nave_; the eastern part, the _choir_; and the
transverse portion, the _transept_. A glance at the following diagram
will enable the reader to understand the form of the ground-work more
fully.
[Illustration]
32. Any high building erected above a roof is called a _steeple_,
which is also distinguished by different appellations, according to
its form: if it is square topped, it is a _tower_; if long and acute,
a _spire_; or if short and light, a _lantern_. Towers of great height
in proportion to their diameter are denominated _turrets_. The walls
of Gothic churches are supported on the outside by lateral
projections, called _buttresses_, which extend from the bottom to the
top, at the corners and between the windows. On the top of these are
slender pyramidal structures or spires, called _pinnacles_. The summit
or upper edge of a wall, if straight, is called a _parapet_; if
indented, a _battlement_.
33. Gothic pillars or columns are usually clustered, appearing as if a
number were bound together. They are confined chiefly to the inside of
buildings, and are generally employed in sustaining the vaults which
support the roof. The parts which are thrown out of a perpendicular
to assist in forming these vaults, have received the appellation of
_pendentives_. The Gothic style of building is more imposing than the
Grecian; but architects of the present day find it difficult to
accomplish what was achieved by the builders of the middle ages.
34. In the erection of edifices at the present day, the Grecian and
Gothic styles are chiefly employed, to the exclusion of the others,
especially in Europe and America. Modern dwelling-houses have
necessarily a style of their own, so far as relates to stories,
windows, and chimneys; and no more of the styles of former ages can be
applied to them, than what relates to the unessential and decorative
parts.
[Illustration: DORIC. IONIC. CORINTHIAN. COMPOSITE. TUSCAN.