DK - The Architecture Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

What is architecture? Why does it matter? How has it developed through the centuries and around the world? And how is it adapting to powerful forces such as globalization and environmental change? These are some of the questions this book aims to answer.

Architecture is the backdrop to our lives, especially if we live in towns or cities, which are continually evolving. Without architecture, buildings would be no more than rudimentary forms of shelter. Yet architecture is not only about structures that have been built using stone, brick, timber, reinforced concrete, and steel. Elemental building types yurts, tipis, igloos, huts, and houses made of mud, reed, or straw are also designed structures, with their own advantages, strengths, and beauty. In pastoral or hunter-gathering societies, they are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago.

Architecture began when two bricks were put together well.

Mies van der Rohe

German architect (18861969)

The art, science, and act of designing and constructing buildings emerged where people first settled and formalized government, religion, and what became civic life, building temples, palaces, and tombs in honour of their gods and rulers. Gradually, the concept of architecture was applied to other kinds of buildings.

People used architecture to say something about themselves or about the society in which they lived. It could convey power and authority, as Roman architecture did, or reinforce an identity. Carvings in Hindu temples told origin stories; the rock-built churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia united Ethiopians in the Christian faith.

Initially, the ambition of those who commissioned, designed, and built architecture depended to an extent on local climate, geography, geology, economies, culture, and knowledge. But as societies developed, in tandem with foreign trade and territorial conquest, awareness of what might be possible expanded. New ideas crisscrossed territories, nations, and eventually entire continents.

Over the centuries, theories of architecture began to develop, along with its codification rules and principles. In ancient Greece and Rome, for example, the style and proportions of buildings were determined by the order (column style) used. In China, architects were guided by numerology (the meaning of numbers) and feng shui the significance of place and positions.

New ideas and structural daring, as masons, carpenters, and builders gained a better understanding of the properties of materials led to the magnificent buildings of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium; the temples of India, China, Cambodia, and the Americas; and the cathedrals and civic buildings of medieval Europe. As the insides of buildings became as important as external expression, dark cell-like spaces gave way to imaginatively planned interiors.

It was at the time of the European Renaissance that the specialist architect emerged, but architecture was not treated as a distinct profession until the 19th century, when schools of architecture were widely established. Until then, architectural work had been largely carried out by stonemasons or other builders who learned their craft through apprenticeships and experience rather than books and academies.

Designing buildings became a highly regarded and well-paid profession in Europe, the US, and their spheres of influence around the globe. This change marked a decisive division between those who designed and those who constructed buildings, with engineers playing a third role as buildings became more complex. Today, with so many new methods, materials, and demands made on new buildings, architects work as part of interdependent teams of specialists.

The Industrial Revolution brought many advances in architecture, spurred on by technological developments and the need for new kinds of building, from factories to trainsheds. Inventions such as lightweight steel and reinforced concrete enabled architects to span huge areas and build to great heights. Skyscrapers were first constructed in the US, but they soon transformed the appearance of major cities across the world.

In the late 20th century, computer-aided design (CAD) the use of algorithms to generate new forms pushed the boundaries of architecture even further. Designs previously considered unbuildable suddenly became feasible, leading to some of the worlds most thrilling buildings and reigniting an old debate should form (aesthetic design) ever be more important than function (the purpose of a building)? Function had prevailed for large parts of the 20th century.

Architecture is also influenced by wider cultural changes and new ideas in other art forms, especially art and literature. The Renaissance produced a flowering of Classically-inspired architecture across Europe; the Arts and Crafts movement at the end of the 19th century was part of a wider backlash against the inhumanity of the industrial age; in the early 20th century, Cubism was an important influence on Modernist architecture.

On a more fundamental level, buildings are also shaped by the needs and welfare of the people who live and work in them. In the early days of the Soviet Union, for example, Constructivist architecture aimed to raise the living standards of people who had previously been peasants.

The biggest influence on architecture today is the need to protect the planet. This has resulted not only in initiatives to reduce the energy use of buildings, and of construction itself, but also in a return to architecture shaped by the local environment. In parts of Africa and Asia, architects are reviving and adapting ingenious vernacular forms that had been eclipsed by styles imported from the West. The challenge for all architects is to produce beautiful, functional buildings that tread lightly on the planet.

Architecture should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.

Zaha Hadid

British-Iraqi architect (19502016)