Evaluation of Architectural Design
Evaluation of Architectural Design
Evaluation of Architectural Design
History of Architecture
• The history of Architecture is a record of man’s effort to build beautifully. It traces the origin, growth and decline of architectural styles
which have prevailed lands and ages.
Historic Styles of Architecture
• It is the particular method, characteristics, and manner of design which prevails at a certain place and time.
Egyptian Architecture: 3200 B.C. to First Century A.D.
• Geographical
✓ Egypt consists of a narrow strip of fertile, alluvial soil along both banks of the Nile River, flanked by shelves of barren land and
rugged cliffs, beyond which lie arid, desert plateau.
✓ The Nile was a trade route to Eastern and Western foreign trade and because of its overflowing fertilizing waters made desert
sands into fruitful fields. On its banks the Egyptians set their villages and cemeteries.
• Geological
✓ Stone is abundant in Egypt in quantity and variety. They were used for buildings and vases and personal ornaments as the
country was poor in metals. However, copper is gained chiefly from the Sinai Peninsula. Tin was imported for making of bronze.
✓ For building, the chief kinds of stone were limestone, sandstone, alabaster and hard stone such as granite, quartzite and basalt. It
is partly owing to the durable nature of these buildings that so many monuments still exist.
✓ The gigantic scale which distinguishes Egyptian Architecture was made possible not only by the materials, but also by the methods
of quarrying, transporting and raising enormous blocks of stone into position.
✓ Quarrying was done with copper tools and by the use of timber wedges which were swollen by water, split the blocks away from
the natural rock.
✓ Houses were constructed of large sun dried bricks. There were very little building timber, but the indigenous date palm, was
sometimes used in logs for roofing. Cedar and other woods were imported.
✓ Palm leaves, reeds and rushes used to frame or reinforce mud brick constructions, or as mats for such as panels, partitions and
fences, had a great and permanent influence on the form and character of stone architecture.
• Climate
✓ Egypt has only two seasons. Spring and summer. The climate is warm. Snow is unknown. Rain is rare and thus contributed to the
preservation of buildings.
✓ Simplicity of design is conducted by the brilliant sunshine; for as sufficient light reached the interior of temples doors and roof slits,
there was no real need for windows and thus unbroken massive wall not only protected the interior from the fierce heat of the sun,
but also provide an uninterrupted surface of HIEROGLYPHICS.
✓ Hieroglyphics are pictorial representation of religious rituals, historic events and daily pursuits.
✓ Roof was not an important consideration and flat roofs of stone slabs sufficed to cover the buildings and exclude the heat.
• Historical and Social
✓ The Egyptian civilization is among the most ancient social and industrial conditions in Egypt were largely determined by the
inflexible rule of an omnipotent government, which while employing large staffs of trained craftsmen continuously, levied vast
armies of laborers for the erection of monumental buildings when the annual floods made agriculture impossible. Prisoners of war
were also turned on to the same work.
Page 1 of 8
EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
✓ Craftsmanship was very highly developed, particularly in the royal workshops, and the Egyptians attained great skills in weaving,
glass blowing, pottery-turning, metal working and in making musical instruments, jewelry and furniture.
✓ The pursuit of learning astronomy, mathematics and philosophy was continuously carried on, especially by the priests.
✓ The Kings of ancient Egypt are known as pharaohs, are silhouetted against the mysterious desert background; sometimes they
appear as gods and semi-gods, often as mystery priests, generally as builders, but rarely as fathers of their people.
• Religious
✓ Religious rites were traditional, virtually unchangeable and mysterious and these traits are reproduced in the architecture, both of
tombs and temples.
✓ The religion was monotheistic in theory, but polytheistic in practice through the cult of many gods representing natural phenomena
and the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, the moon and stars and by the worship of animals as personifications of gods.
✓ The keynote of the Egyptian religion was that of awe and submission to the great power represented by the sun, while the chief
worship for OSIRIS, the man-god, who died and rose again, the god of death and through death of resurrection to eternal life.
✓ Elaborate preparations were made for the care of their bodies after death, and the wealthy built themselves lordly tomb-houses.
✓ In Egypt there were no dividing line between gods and kings; no need for the doctrine of the divine right of kings; for kings were
ranked, both by themselves and by their people.
✓ Some gods were the powerful Osiris, god of the dead: Isis, his wife, Horus, the sky god; Hathor, goddess of love; Set, dread god of
evil and Serapis, a bull-god representing the strange cult of the sacred bulls.
✓ The outstanding feature of the religion of the Egyptians was their strong belief in a future state hence the erection of such
everlasting monuments as pyramids for the preservation of the dead.
✓ The dwelling-house was regarded as a temporary lodging and the tomb as the permanent abode. This religious attitude is typified
in the two predominant types of buildings, the solemn and mysterious temples of the gods & enduring pyramids of the early kings.
• Architectural Character
✓ The primitive architecture in the valley of the Nile consisted of readily available materials like reeds, papyrus and palm breached
ribs, plastered over with clay. With bundles of stems placed side by side and lashed to a bundle placed horizontally near the top,
walls or fences could be made.
✓ The pressure of the flat reed-and-mud roofs against the tops of wall reeds may have produced the characteristic Egyptian ‘gorge’
cornice.
✓ Timber, once quite plentiful, also was used for the better buildings, in square heavy vertical plates lapping one in front of the other
and producing an effect of composite buttress joined at the head, in the upper parts of which window-vents might occur.
✓ Palm logs, rounded on the underside were sometimes used as roof. Stone was not much used except as rubble and as a
stiffening or foundation to mud solid walls.
✓ Sun-dried mud-brick walling never ceased to be employed, for it was only the finest buildings of religious character that cut stone
became normal.
✓ Made of Nile mud and mixed with chopped straw or sand, and thoroughly matured by exposure to sun the mud bricks were very
long lasting and large, about 356 mm or 14” long, 178 mm or 7” wide and 102 mm or 4” thick. For stability, walls demised course
by course towards the top, chiefly because of the alternate shrinkage and expansion of the soil caused by the annual inundation or
flood. As the inner face of the walls had to be vertical for ordinary convenience, it was the outer face only which showed this
inward inclination of ‘batter’, which remained one of the principal characteristics of the Egyptian Architecture.
✓ Egyptian Columns have distinctive character and a very large proportion of them plainly advertise their vegetable origin, their
shafts indicative of bundle of plant stems, gathered in a little at the base, and with capitals seemingly derived from the lotus bud,
the papyrus flower or the Ubiquitous palm.
o Papyrus Capital o Doorway in Pylon
o Palm Capital o Hosiris Pillars
o Composite Capital o Sphinx
o Column with Bud Capital
o Volute Capital
o Hathor Head Capital
✓ Egyptian monumental architecture, which is essentially a columnar and trabeated style, is expressed mainly in pyramids and other
tombs and temples.
Page 2 of 8
EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
✓ Egyptian temples approached by impressive avenues of Sphinxes or mythical monsters each with the body of a lion & head of a
man, hawk, ram pr a woman, possess in their massive pylons, great courts, hypostyle halls, inner sanctuaries & dim secret rooms.
o Pylon, monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple consisting with slanting walls flanking the entrance portal.
✓ Greek temples were but a string of successive buildings diminishing in height behind their imposing pylons.
• Examples of Egyptian Architecture
✓ Tomb Architecture
o Type A: Mastaba. An ancient Egyptian rectangular, flat topped funerary mound, with battered (sloping) sides,
covering a burial ground. Examples are the: Mastaba at Beit Khallaf, 3rd Dynasty and the
Typical Mastaba at Gizeh, 4th Dynasty.
o Type B: Royal Pyramids. A massive funerary structure of stone or brick with a square base and four sloping triangular
sides meeting at the apex; used mainly in ancient Egypt. The finest true pyramids are the three
at Gizeh, built by the fourth dynasty successors of Seneferu. They are the pyramids of Cheops,
Chefren and Mykerinos.
Pyramids did not stand in solitary isolation but were the primary part of a complex of buildings.
They were surrounded by a walled enclosure and had the following:
a. An offering chapel, with a stele (an upright slab carrying inscription) usually abutting the
east side of the pyramid but occasionally on the north.
b. A mortuary temple for the worship of the dead and defied Pharaoh.
c. A raised and enclosed causeway leading to the nearer, western edge of the cultivation.
d. Valley Temple in which embalmment was carried out and internment rites performed.
A canal was built to connect the Valley Temple with the Nile, by which the funeral cortege
magnificently arrived.
o Type C: Rock-Hewn Tombs A type serving for the nobility rather than loyalty.
✓ Temples
o Type A: Mortuary Temples For ministrations to deified pharaohs. Developed from the offerings, chapels of the royal
mastabas and pyramids, assuming early permanence and ever greater importance.
o Type B: Cult Temples For the popular worship of the ancient and mysterious gods. Began in the worship of
multifarious local deities.
o Examples The Great Temple of Ammon, Karnak, Thebes
The grandest of all Egyptian temples, was not built upon one complete plan but owes its size,
disposition and magnificence to the work of many kings.
The Great Temple of Abu-Sinbel
Is one of the rock-hewn temples at this place commanded by the indefatigable Rameses II.
Temple of Khons
A cult temple, characterized by entrance pylons, court, hypostyle hall, sanctuary and various
chapels all enclosed by a high girdle wall.
Obelisks
Originating in the sacred symbol of the sun god Heliopolis, and which usually stood in pairs
astride temple entrances, are huge monoliths square on plan and tapering to an electrum-
capped pyramidion at the summit, which was the sacred part. They have a height of nine or ten
times the diameter of the base and the four sides are cut with hieroglyphics.
Dwellings
Clay models deposited in tombs indicate that ordinary dwellings were of crude brick, one or two
storey high, with flat or arched ceilings and a parapet roof partly occupied by logia (a gallery
behind an open arcade or colonnade).
Fortresses
Most of the fortresses are on the West bank of the Nile or on islands. There was close
communication between one fortress and the next, with the headquarters at Buhen, the largest
stronghold.
Page 3 of 8
EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Paestrum in South Italy, Syracuse, Selinus and Agrigentum in Sicily among colonial cities in Western Greek world, contributed
uniquely to the expression of Greek ideas and produced a brilliant outburst of building and architecture.
o By 600 B>c> the cities of Greece has settled down to their several forms of government; oligarch, tyrannical or democratic;
and by the end of the 6th century the tempo of events and ideas accelerated further. The disruption by war, and the final
astonishing victory of collection of small city-states over the Persian Empire, paved the way for the downfall of tyrannical
governments and the development of democratic regimes based on elections. The democratic process was an Athenian
influence. The rule of Pericles (444 to 429 B.C.) marked the climax of Athenian prosperity, and the outburst of building activity
in reconstruction which was to express the ultimate development of Hellenic Art and Architecture.
o Despite political dissensions and military excesses the 5 th century witnessed the great flowering of Greek philosophies in
many fields of thinking. The late 7th and early 6th century had been a time of law-making, followed during the 6th century by
speculation in philosophy and science.
✓ Hellenistic Greece (323 to 30 B.C.) The succession of Sparta was short-lived and the 4th century saw a sequence of attempts by
city states to dominate Greece. The confused situation was resolved into a federal system imposed by the supremacy of
Macedonia. Under Philip (359 to 336 B.C.) the unification of Greece was accomplished and firmly established under his son
Alexander the Great (336 to 323 B.C.) who then embarked on a national crusade against Persia. Within 5 years he completely
destroyed the Persian Empire, annexing Egypt and penetrating as far east as the Punjab. The vast territory became a
Hellenistic Empire through which Greek civilization was extended new and splendid cities were found of which Alexandria
was to be the largest and most famous. As a result the center of the Greek world shifted east; politically, economically and
artistically; and the West declined in importance.
• Religious
✓ The religion of the “Aegean’s” was a nature worship which went through a series of primitive stages. Mysteries of masculine
force were represented by the sacred Bull, symbolized by the “horns of consecration”, and the shield and the sacrificial double also
had mystical virtues. The supreme deity was the fertility or mother-goddess, Rhea, priestesses rather than priests conducted the
religious rites. Worship centered on sacrificial altars, in open-air enclosures, caves, small chapels or household shrines. The
religious ceremonies of the Aegean have included sacred games and ritual dances.
✓ The Greek religion was also a worship of natural phenomena and highly developed. The gods were personification of particular
elements or were defied heroes and its town or district has its own local preferences, ceremonies and traditions. There was no
regular priesthood. The priests and priestesses were not members of an exclusive class but led the normal community life. The
principal Greek deities, with their attributes and Roman names are as follows:
Greek: The 12 Olympians Deity Roman
Zeus The supreme god and ruler of the sky. Jupiter (Jove)
Hera Wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage Juno
Apollo God of law and reason, art, music and poetry, founder of cities Apollo
Athena Goddess of wisdom and learning Minerva
Poseidon The sea god Neptune
Dionysos God of wine, feasting and revelry Bacchus
Demeter Goddess of earth and agriculture Ceres
Artemis Goddess of the chase Diana
Hermes Messenger of the gods Mercury
Aphrodite God of commerce Venus
Hephaestus God of fire, flame and forge God of handicrafts Vulcan
Ares God of war Mars
Heracles (Hercules) God of strength and labor pan, god of the flocks
From the original two “orders of Architecture”, Doric and Ionic, evolved simultaneously by the two main branches of the
Greek race, there at length arose a third, the Corinthian a purely decorative which although invented by the Hellenic Greeks
was only to attain its full identity in the hands of the Romans.
The Etruscans developed the Tuscan, inspired by the Doric and a simpler and cruder version of it. While the last to appear
was the “Composite” a Roman contribution which did not differ greatly from the Corinthian and which, like it was an offshoot
from the Ionic. These were the “FIVE ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE” of classical times
✓ Hellenistic Period. 323 to 30 B.C.
o This period provided much of the decorative inspiration of some of Roman building types. Greek Hellenic architecture mostly
had been of a religious character, but from the 4th century B.C. onwards, public buildings multiplied in type and number and
passed into permanent form. They were dignified and gracious structures.
Trabeated a style of architecture in Greek in which the beam forms the constructive feature.
Exedrae or exedra, a recess or alcove with raised seat where the disputation of the learned took place.
Voussoirs the truncated wedge shape blocks forming an arch.
o Examples
In Greek cities there was a place apart, usually upon the highest part, for the ‘Temenos” or sacred enclosure, as at Delphi.
Often topography allowed this to be a citadel too, an acropolis or upper city, where the principal sacred buildings might stand,
both for dignity and safety. These were walled like the city itself, and sometimes were very irregular in shape due to the lie of
the land.
Propylaea or entrance gateways marked the approach to the sacred enclosure in many cities such as Athens, Epidauros,
Eleusis and Priene.
o The PROPYLAEA, ATHENS, erected under Pericles by the architect Mnesicles, forms the imposing entrance to the Acropolis,
approached by a steep ascent from the plain below the front and rear Hexastyle Doricporticoes are on different level, and give
access to a covered hall with a wide central passage flanked by ionic columns and with an eastern wall with five doorways of
different heights. The projecting wings on either side of the western front have three columns, smaller than those of the main
block. The northern wing, provided with windows was used as a pinacotheca.
Pinacotheca a picture gallery or a building to contain painted pictures.
o The ACROPOLIS, ATHENS, is the supreme example, foremost among world famous building sites. A general idea of the
original appearance of the Acropolis can be obtained from the restoration. Normally, a city temenos contained a principal
temple and maybe one or two subsidiary temples or shrines, together with treasures in which were stored the offerings and
processional regalia of other cities that held the presiding deity in esteem.
Temples were the chief class of buildings in the Hellenic period. They were built with special regard to outward effect, since
they were not intended for internal worship and the altar stood opposite the east front. They were adorned with fine sculpture
Page 6 of 8
EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
in order to form fitting shrines on the deities to whom they were dedicated. They generally stood upon a crepidoma or three
or more steps.
Crepidoma the steps forming the base of a columned Greek temple.
Greek temples were not large, but even so, internal double tiered colonnades were often needed to help support the roof. On
the two short ends of the temple, a triangular shaped pediment, usually filled with sculpture, terminated the simple span roof.
These roofs were constructed of timber members, boarded and covered with terra cotta or marble tiles overlapping one.
Another and finished off at the caves with antefixae.
Pediment a triangular piece of wall above the entablature enclosed by raking cornices.
Antefixae ornamental blocks fixed vertically at regular intervals along the lower edge of a roof, to cover the ends of tiles.
o Examples of Doric Temples in Greece
Temple of Apollo, Corinth
Temple of Apollo, Delphi
Temple of Zeus, Olypia,Agrigentum
o Examples of Ionic Temples in Greece
Temple of Illisus, Athens
Temple of Nike, Apteros, Athens
The Erechtheion, Athens
o Examples of Corinthian Temples in Greece
Temple of Apollo Epicurius (internal)
The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens
o Theatres
The Greek theatre, an open-air structure, was generally hollowed out if the slope of a hillside, in or near a city, and received
definitive architectural form only in the 4th century B.C. The developed form consisted of three independent elements: the
auditorium or (cavea) in tiers of stone seats arranged in a horseshoe shape around the circular paved space (orchestra) used
by the chorus, and the stage (skene) for actors. The skene was a structure, tangential to the orchestra, affording a backing
for simple stage décor. The orchestra was the focal point, for on it the churos enacted the action of the drama and around it,
greater than a semi-circle, was organized the arrangement of the seating.
o Public Buildings
AGORA, Athens: or town square was the center of social and business life, around or near which were stoas or colonnaded
porticoes, temples, administrative and public buildings, markets, places of entertainment, monument and shrines.
STOA, a long colonnaded building, served many purposes. Stoas were used around public spaces and as shelters at
religious shrines.
PRYTANEION, served as senate house for the chief dignitaries of the city and as a place where distinguished visitors and
citizens might be entertained. It contained the official banqueting room and also the symbolic communal hearth on which a
fire ‘burnt’ perpetually, associated with the cult of Hestia goddess of the hearth.
BOULEUTERION, or council house was covered meeting place for the democratically elected councils. Small and with many
columns, Bouleuterion are usually rectangular buildings with banked seats facing inwards on three sides, or arranged in a
semi-circle.
Assembly halls, for citizens in general, were similar, but needed to be larger.
ODEION, a kindred type to the theatre, was buildings in which musician performed their works for the approval of the public
and competed for prizes.
STADIUM, was the foot racecourse in cities where games were celebrated, and had a length of about 183 m (600 ft.) between
banks of seats founded on convenient natural ground or on the spoil from excavation of flat sites. The starting end was
straight, the other semi-circular.
HIPPODROME, was a similar though longer type of building for horse and chariot racing and was the prototype of the Roman
Circus.
PALAESTRA, was a wrestling school, but the term is usually used interchangeably with Gymnasium, a place for physical
exercises of all kinds.
NAVAL BUILDINGS, included ship-sheds and stores.
Page 7 of 8
EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
TOMBS, Nereid Monument, (Xanthos) typifies Ionian sculptural luxuriance and the use in Greek Asia Minor of a temple form
of tomb, elevated on a high podium. The entablature lacks a true frieze, but the architrave is sculptured and there are other bas-
relief frieze on the podium. Between the columns stood nereids or marine nymphs.
podium a continuous pedestal; also the enclosing platform of the arena of an amphitheatre.
SARCOPHAGUS, Cnidos; taken from a tomb chamber, of the ornamental treatment given to a stone coffin hewn out of one
block of marble and with sculptures of a late period.
Mausoleum, Halicarnassos; the most famous of all tombs and one of the seven wonders of the world, was erected to King
Mausolos by his widow, Artemisia, and from it derived the term “Masoleum” applied to monumental tombs. It had a lofty
podium and a temple like upper part surrounded by Ionic columns and surmounted by a pyramidal roof, with a marble
quadriga and a group of statuary at its apex.
DOMESTIC BUILDINGS
The Greeks lived much of their waking life in the public and sacred parts of the city, and their houses were at first modest in
scope and materials. The rooms looked towards a small court, and chief apartments being on the north side, facing the
wintrer sun, with others on the east and west sides. Two-storey arrangement were quite common. The DORIAN GREEKS
developed the “pastas” house, being a long shallow room, crossing the house from side to side and partly open on the South
towards the court, whilst serving too for access to the main inner rooms to the North.
Caryatid sculptured female figures used as columns or supports.
Canephora sculptured female figures bearing baskets on their heads.
Page 8 of 8