Architecture Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Historic treatises=== The earliest surviving written work on the subject of architecture is {{Lang|la|[[De architectura]]}} by the Roman architect [[Vitruvius]] in the early 1st century AD.<ref name="Vitruvius">D. Rowland β T.N. Howe: Vitruvius. Ten Books on Architecture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, {{ISBN|0-521-00292-3}}</ref> According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of {{lang|la|firmitas, utilitas, venustas}},<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/LIH/history/vitruvius.htm#ch1-3|title=Vitruvius Ten Books on Architecture, with regard to landscape and garden design|work=gardenvisit.com|access-date=14 November 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012035458/http://gardenvisit.com/landscape/LIH/history/vitruvius.htm#ch1-3|archive-date=12 October 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="elements">{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/home.html |title=Vitruvius |publisher=Penelope.uchicago.edu |access-date=2 July 2011 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730065630/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/home.html |url-status=live }}</ref> commonly known by the original translation β ''firmness, commodity and delight''. An equivalent in modern English would be: * Durability β a building should stand up robustly and remain in good condition * Utility β it should be suitable for the purposes for which it is used * Beauty β it should be aesthetically pleasing According to Vitruvius, the architect should strive to fulfill each of these three attributes as well as possible. [[Leon Battista Alberti]], who elaborates on the ideas of Vitruvius in his treatise, ''[[De re aedificatoria]]'', saw beauty primarily as a matter of proportion, although ornament also played a part. For Alberti, the rules of proportion were those that governed the idealized human figure, the [[Golden ratio|Golden mean]]. The most important aspect of beauty was, therefore, an inherent part of an object, rather than something applied superficially, and was based on universal, recognizable truths. The notion of style in the arts was not developed until the 16th century, with the writing of [[Giorgio Vasari]].<ref>[[FranΓ§oise Choay]], ''Alberti and Vitruvius'', editor, Joseph Rykwert, Profile 21, Architectural Design, Vol. 49 No. 5β6</ref> By the 18th century, his ''[[Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]]'' had been translated into Italian, French, Spanish, and English. In the 16th century, Italian Mannerist architect, painter and theorist [[Sebastiano Serlio]] wrote ''Tutte L'Opere D'Architettura et Prospetiva'' (''Complete Works on Architecture and Perspective''). This treatise exerted immense influence throughout Europe, being the first handbook that emphasized the practical rather than the theoretical aspects of architecture, and it was the first to catalog the five orders.<ref>[https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/serlio Sebastiano Serlio β On domestic architecture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416091747/https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/serlio |date=16 April 2021 }}, Columbia University Libraries, accessed February 5, 2021</ref> In the early 19th century, [[Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin]] wrote ''Contrasts'' (1836) that, as the title suggested, contrasted the modern, industrial world, which he disparaged, with an idealized image of neo-medieval world. [[Gothic architecture]], Pugin believed, was the only "true Christian form of architecture."<ref>{{cite journal|last=D'Anjou|first=Philippe|title=An Ethics of Freedom for Architectural Design Practice|jstor=41318789|volume=64|date=2011|journal=Journal of Architectural Education|pages=141β147|number=2|doi=10.1111/j.1531-314X.2010.01137.x|s2cid=110313708}}</ref> The 19th-century English art critic, [[John Ruskin]], in his ''[[Seven Lamps of Architecture]]'', published 1849, was much narrower in his view of what constituted architecture. Architecture was the "art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men ... that the sight of them" contributes "to his mental health, power, and pleasure".<ref name="Ruskin">John Ruskin, ''[[Iarchive:sevenlampsofarch0000rusk v7h2|The Seven Lamps of Architecture]]'', G. Allen (1880), reprinted Dover, (1989) {{ISBN|0-486-26145-X}}</ref> For Ruskin, the aesthetic was of overriding significance. His work goes on to state that a building is not truly a work of architecture unless it is in some way "adorned". For Ruskin, a well-constructed, well-proportioned, functional building needed string [[Course (architecture)|courses]] or [[Rustication (architecture)|rustication]], at the very least.<ref name=Ruskin/> On the difference between the ideals of ''architecture'' and mere ''[[construction]]'', the renowned 20th-century architect [[Le Corbusier]] wrote: "You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: This is beautiful. That is Architecture".<ref>Le Corbusier, ''Towards a New Architecture'', Dover Publications(1985). {{ISBN|0-486-25023-7}}</ref> Le Corbusier's contemporary [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]] is said to have stated in a 1959 interview that "architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/best-brick-buildings-architecture/index.html|title=9 innovative contemporary buildings that test the limits of humble brick |last=Verney |first=Harriet |date=July 25, 2017 |publisher=CNN |access-date=May 29, 2023 |url-status=live|archive-date=May 29, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529231129/https://www.cnn.com/style/article/best-brick-buildings-architecture/index.html}}</ref> [[File:Congresso do Brasil.jpg|thumb|alt= The view shows a 20th-century building with two identical towers very close to each other rising from a low building which has a dome at one end, and an inverted dome, like a saucer, at the other.|The [[National Congress Palace|National Congress of Brazil]], designed by [[Oscar Niemeyer]]]] Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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