Architecture

Greek architecture is not just about beautiful buildings. It is the first attempt in Western history to develop a systematic architectural language with rules, proportions, and a grammar. The three orders—Doric, Ionic, Corinthian—are not merely three decorative styles. They are three different pr...

To understand the Greek orders means to understand the principle that still operates throughout Western architecture: form must express structure, and beauty is the correct proportion.

The Doric order is the earliest and the strictest. Heavy, squat columns without bases rise directly from the stylobate (the temple's upper step). The simple capital (abacus and echinus), frieze alternating triglyphs and metopes. This is muscular, austere architecture.

The Parthenon (447–432 BC) is the pinnacle of the Doric order, yet full of “corrections” against visual distortions. The stylobate is slightly convex: a flat horizontal surface appears to sag, so the architects Ictinus and Callicrates made it dome-shaped. The columns are slightly inclined inward:...

If Greek architecture is a philosophy of beauty, Roman architecture is a philosophy of power and engineering. The Romans were pragmatic: they adopted Greek orders as a decorative language, but underneath, they built with their own invention—concrete (opus caementicium). Concrete liberated archite...

The result: architecture that for the first time in history became truly engineering-driven. Aqueducts, roads, bridges, amphitheaters, baths—all of it required complex engineering calculations. Rome at its peak was a city with a population of about 1 million people—the first metropolis in history...

The Pantheon (118–128 AD, architect presumably Apollodorus of Damascus) is one of the best-preserved monuments of Antiquity. Unlike most ancient buildings, it is almost undamaged: it has been used continuously—initially as a temple to all gods, then as a Christian church since 609. This is what s...

The challenge: to build a dome 43.3 meters in diameter without modern technology. The solution: a concrete dome with coffers (rectangular niches) that reduce weight while preserving structural integrity. The concrete at the base of the dome is made from volcanic tuff and brick, towards the top—fr...

The transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages in architecture is a transition from a building-for-the-outside to a building-for-the-inside. The Greek temple organized the external space around itself; the medieval cathedral organized the internal space for the transformation of the believer's ...

Early Christians inherited their form from Rome—not from the temple, but from the basilica (a public hall). A rectangular space, divided by rows of columns into a nave and side aisles, with an apse at the end. The movement from the entrance to the altar is a metaphor for the spiritual path. The a...

The Romanesque style (11th–12th centuries) is the first fully formed architectural style of the Middle Ages. Its features: massive walls, semicircular arches, small windows, and a cylindrical shape of vault. This "enclosure" is not only a technical choice, but also a theological one: the church a...

Pilgrimage churches are a special type. Alongside the main nave runs an ambulatory, allowing pilgrims to bypass the altar without disrupting the service. The Church of Saint Sernin in Toulouse (1080–1120) is a model example: a cross-shaped plan, ambulatory gallery, four "arms" of the transept. Th...

In 1418, the Florentine authorities announced a competition for the construction of a dome above the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The problem was enormous: the diameter of the span was 43.7 meters. Traditional methods did not work: formwork of this size would have required timber from all ...

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) proposed a solution and was awarded the contract. His solution was revolutionary: a double dome (an outer and inner shell with space between them) built from horizontal layers of bricks without formwork — in a spiral “herringbone” pattern, creating a self-supporti...

Brunelleschi is famous not only for the dome. Around 1420, he conducted an experiment that changed the history of Western art: he created the first “perspective panel” — an ideal depiction of the Florence Baptistery with a single vanishing point. This was the first systematic application of mathe...

Perspective is not just a technique: it is a fundamentally different relationship to space. The world is perceived from the single viewpoint of a specific observer. This is an anthropocentric shift: not “God sees everything” (medieval multi-perspective depiction), but “human looks” (Renaissance p...

Baroque architecture is the architecture of persuasion. It is the statement of the Counter-Reformation: "The Catholic Church is grandiose, theatrical, sensual — it captivates you bodily." Baroque attacks vision, movement, physical presence in space. If the Gothic cathedral transformed you through...

The Counter-Reformation (after 1563, the Council of Trent) set the task: to return the flock from Protestant austerity to Catholic abundance. Art is a tool of mission. Bernini, Maderno, Borromini worked for the Vatican as directors of a grandiose performance.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) is the most influential architect and sculptor of the Italian Baroque. He essentially created the visual image of Baroque Rome.

St. Peter’s Square (1656–1667) is his architectural pinnacle. Two semi-circular colonnades (284 columns in Doric order each) “embrace” the square in front of the cathedral. Bernini explained the symbolism: “Mother Church embraces her children.” Functionally: pilgrims pass between the rows of colu...

Andrea Palladio (1508–1580) is possibly the most influential architect in history. His “Four Books on Architecture” (1570) became the handbook for architects of the next three centuries. His villas in Veneto gave rise to an architectural style—“Palladianism”—that defined the appearance of governm...

Palladio developed a villa type that became the template for the Western country house. Villa Rotonda (1567–1572, Vicenza) is the most famous example. A square plan with a dome at the center; four façades, identical on all sides; each has a classical portico. The building welcomes guests equally,...

This is several principles at once: symmetry as an expression of reason and predictability; connection to the landscape through four open porticoes; classical grammar in a modern residential function. Villa Barbaro (1558, in collaboration with Veronese, who painted the interiors) is another examp...

Inigo Jones (1573–1652) brought Palladianism to England after his trip to Italy (1613–1614). His “Banqueting House” in London (1619–1622) is the first purely Renaissance building in England. A strict Palladian façade, a two-tiered interior with ceiling frescoes by Rubens. It was through the windo...

When Abraham Darby III built the Iron Bridge across the River Severn in England in 1779, nobody yet realized that architecture would never be the same. The bridge was the first fully metal structure in history. Its span was 30.5 meters. It still stands today. This was a demonstration that metal w...

The Industrial Revolution (approximately 1760–1840) brought two new materials into architecture: cast iron and glass in industrial quantities. This changed not only the technology, but the very architectural program itself: what a "building" means, who commissions it, and for whom it is constructed.

The Crystal Palace (1851, architect Joseph Paxton) was a building constructed for the World's Fair in Hyde Park, London. Paxton was a gardener—he applied the technologies of his greenhouses to a public building.

Specifications: 563 × 124 meters. Built in 17 weeks. Standard cast iron modules and mass-produced glass panels. After the exhibition, it was dismantled and relocated.

In 1919, Walter Gropius founded a school in Weimar with a radical program: “The ultimate goal of all creative activity is building.” Architecture, painting, sculpture, design, typography, theater—all were to be integrated into a single practice aimed at creating a well-designed world.

The Bauhaus existed from 1919 to 1933 (closed by the Nazis). In 14 years, it graduated several hundred students and created a visual language that still defines graphic design, furniture design, and architecture.

The principles of Bauhaus. First—learning by doing: students learned not in theory but by producing real objects. Second—the synthesis of art and craft: there is no “pure” art—sooner or later, all art incarnates into an object that serves a function. Third—industrial production as the norm: objec...

Teachers: Kandinsky, Klee, Mies van der Rohe. Bauhaus products—the Marcel Breuer chair, Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s table lamp, Josef Hartwig’s chess set—are still being produced and sold.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) is one of the most original architects in history. He worked for 70 years, created more than 1000 projects (about 500 of which were realized), invented the principles of organic architecture and the "prairie house," and died at the age of 91 when his Guggenheim Muse...

Wright studied under Louis Sullivan (author of "form follows function"), whom he called "Lieber Meister"—beloved master. But he went further: not just form follows function, but form grows from the place, from the material, from the way of life of people.

"Organic architecture" is not a metaphor and not a style. It is an approach: a building must grow out of its place, like a plant from the soil. Materials are local. The form is derived from the landscape, climate, way of life. The building is not an object on a plot, but part of the ecosystem.

Prairie Style (1900–1920): houses with flat or gently sloping roofs, horizontal lines, wide overhangs, spacious verandas. The horizontal—because the American prairies are horizontal. Wide overhangs—protection from summer sun and rain. The central hearth as a symbolic and literal center of the hou...

The 1960s brought a systemic critique of modernism. Jane Jacobs’s *The Death and Life of Great American Cities* (1961) was a documentary attack on the urban planning ideas of Le Corbusier. “Diversity, mixed uses, old buildings alongside new—this is not chaos, this is life. Your ‘order’ kills it.”...

Robert Venturi’s *Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture* (1966) was a theoretical manifesto. “And/and,” not “either/or”: a building can be both beautiful and awkward, both simple and complex. Historical references, irony, local context—all this is not “mess,” but the human dimension of arc...

Charles Moore, Michael Graves, Robert Stern—the American postmodernists of the 1970s–1980s—literally brought back historical elements: columns, pediments, arches, color. Moore’s Piazza d’Italia in New Orleans (1978) is a fountain-plaza quoting classical architecture with open irony: columns of st...

This is a deliberate reinterpretation: “high” style (classicism) is applied to a commercial space with undisguised playfulness. Postmodernism said: there is no “pure” style—everything is already mixed, everything is already a quotation. It is better to acknowledge this explicitly.

Definitions

Passive solar heating

— orientation of the building (main windows to the south in the northern hemisphere), thermal mass (concrete or brick accumulates heat during the day and releases it at night), louvers and canopies (block summer sun, let in winter sun). This reduces...

Passive ventilation

— “stack effect”—warm air rises, creating a draft. Atriums, light wells, high ceilings with ventilation outlets—architectural tools for passive cooling.

Green roofs and facades

— plants reduce surface temperature, insulate, create biodiversity, and manage rainwater runoff. This is also psychologically positive: studies show that access to greenery reduces stress and increases productivity.

The construction industry is responsible for approximately 40% of global energy consumption and about 36% of CO₂ emissions. This makes architecture one of the key contributors to the climate crisis—and one of the major fields for solutions. Sustainable architecture is not just a trend. It is a tr...

Sustainability is not a new idea. Traditional architecture was always bioclimatic: houses were built for the climate of their region. The Inuit igloo is perfect thermal insulation. Arabic windcatcher towers (badjir) provide passive ventilation without electricity. Irish round towers protect from ...

Bioclimatic design works with the climatic conditions of the site—using them, rather than fighting them.

Passive solar heating: orientation of the building (main windows to the south in the northern hemisphere), thermal mass (concrete or brick accumulates heat during the day and releases it at night), louvers and canopies (block summer sun, let in winter sun). This reduces the need for heating witho...

The architecture of a single building is part of a broader system. The city is a metasystem: buildings, streets, infrastructure, and public spaces in their interaction create the “urban fabric” that determines the quality of life for millions. Urbanism—the science of designing this fabric—stands ...

By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will live in cities (UN, 2018). Management of urban space is one of the key challenges of our time. How can a city be organized so that it is efficient, fair, sustainable, and pleasant to live in?

This is the central polemic of twentieth-century urbanism. Le Corbusier proposed the “Radiant City”: residential towers in a park, functional zoning (housing separate from workplaces), high density in towers. This is a rational plan, a “machine for living.”

Jane Jacobs (“The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, 1961) responded: “Look at real, living streets.” Her analysis of Greenwich Village showed: life is created by the mixing of functions (housing + shops + offices in one block), variety in building ages (old cheap buildings are needed for ...

The 18th–19th centuries were an era of architectural references to Greco-Roman heritage. This was no coincidence: the Enlightenment, with its rationalism, republican ideals, and interest in nature and reason, found spiritual ancestors in antiquity. The discovery of Pompeii (1748) and Herculaneum ...

Neoclassicism was a deliberate cultural project, not just a style. In revolutionary France—republican allusions to Rome: the columns of the Panthéon, the Arc de Triomphe. In the USA—the Capitol, the White House—Greek and Roman forms as the embodiment of republican values. In Russia—the Empire sty...

Napoleon consciously built Paris as a new Rome: triumphal arches, columns with bas-reliefs of victories, wide avenues for military parades. Architecture as political propaganda.

Empire style (Empire style) is a version of neoclassicism developed for Napoleonic France by architects Percier and Fontaine. Heavy, monumental, loaded with military symbolism: eagles, laurel wreaths, trophies. This is the architecture of the victor, creating a visual sense of the inexorability o...

Gothic architecture (12th–16th centuries) was rediscovered in the late 18th–19th centuries—with a romantic reinterpretation. If the Enlightenment valued Greece and Rome, Romanticism valued the Middle Ages: organic unity, spirituality, national individuality.

In Britain, Gothic was proclaimed the “national style” because it originated in the Middle Ages, when English identity was forming. Parliament (the Palace of Westminster, 1840–1870) was rebuilt in the Gothic style after the fire—a conscious political choice: the institution of democracy visually ...

Augustus Pugin (1812–1852) was the chief ideologist of the Gothic Revival. His argument: Gothic is not just a style, but the expression of Christian civilization. Classicism is pagan. Modern industrial architecture is soulless. “Contrasts” (1836): parallel images of a medieval city and a modern o...

This was a religious-cultural argument: architectural style carries moral content. The Catholic Revival in England (Pugin converted to Catholicism) found its language in Gothic. This influenced the construction of hundreds of Catholic churches in the Gothic style across the world.

The Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed most of the city. It was a catastrophe—and an opportunity. Chicago was rebuilt anew in the era of the steel frame, the Otis elevator, and a new understanding of the function of a building. The result: the Chicago School and the birth of the skyscraper.

William Le Baron Jenney (“Home Insurance Building”, 1885) — the first building with a steel frame bearing the load instead of the walls. This was a revolution: the wall no longer bears the load, it can be glass. This is the prerequisite for modern glass high-rise construction.

Louis Sullivan is the main theorist of the Chicago School. His formula “form follows function” became the manifesto of functionalism. The skyscraper, according to Sullivan, must openly express its structure: vertical accents, repeating typical floors, ornamentation as decoration rather than false...

New York in the 1920s–30s: a competition of skyscrapers. Chrysler Building (1930)—Art Deco with stainless steel eagles and automotive motifs. Empire State Building (1931)—443 meters, a record for 40 years. This was not just construction—it was a demonstration of corporate and national power.

The totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century — Nazism and Soviet Stalinism — used architecture as a powerful political tool. Their architecture shares certain characteristics: overwhelming scale (the building is larger than the person), monumentality, historical references (to Rome or classi...

This is no accident — it is a program. Architectural scale physically puts the individual in their place: you are small in the face of the state/nation/class. This is "architecture of suppression" — not only beautiful, but also psychologically functional.

Albert Speer — the main architect of Nazi Germany. Nuremberg party congresses (Zeppelinfeld, 1934): 340,000 people on the stands, a "light crown" of 130 floodlights — a "cathedral of light". This is a total artistic experience, constructed for political mobilization. Berlin was supposed to become...

Soviet architecture followed a complex path. The 1920s: Constructivism — the avant-garde at the service of the revolution. The 1930s: Stalin declared socialist realism the official method — a return to "classic" with socialist content.

Brutalism (from the French béton brut — "raw concrete") is an architectural style of the 1950s–1970s that uses exposed concrete as its main expressive material. This is not "brutal" architecture — it is architecture of honesty: the material is not hidden, the structure is revealed, function deter...

Le Corbusier is the precursor: Unité d'Habitation in Marseille (1952) — a residential "machine" with 337 apartments and all necessary infrastructure on the rooftop. This is a utopian project: to solve the housing problem of the modern city through vertical density and collective services.

The Smithsons (Alison and Peter) in Britain are the ideologists of the "new brutalism": honesty in material use, functionality, orientation toward the working class. "Street in the air" — the corridor as a social space transferred upwards.

After World War II, Europe urgently needed to solve the housing crisis: millions homeless, cities destroyed. State programs for mass housing construction created a new architectural typology — the multi-apartment panel building.

Warsaw was destroyed by about 85% during the War—first through the ghetto, then through systematic destruction after the 1944 uprising. The residents faced a choice: build a new city or restore the old one. They chose the latter—one of the most grandiose historic restoration projects in history.

The Old Town of Warsaw was restored down to the smallest details—using paintings by Bellotto (Canaletto) from the eighteenth century. These are “pauses” (faux-historique)—the creation of a past that does not physically exist. From the perspective of the Venice Charter (1964)—this is not restorati...

The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) in Dresden was destroyed in February 1945 during bombing raids. The GDR left the ruins as a “monument to the victims of bombing.” After the reunification of Germany (1990), a discussion began: should it be restored or not?

The reconstruction of the Frauenkirche (1994–2005) was the result of private initiative, international donations, and an extremely complex architectural challenge. Black original stones are included in the walls among the new white stone—a visible trace of history. This is a compromise: reconstru...

Robert Venturi ("Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture", 1966) — a manifesto of architectural postmodernism. Opposing the puritanism of Mies van der Rohe and his "Less is more", Venturi proclaimed "Less is bore." Architecture should be complex, contradictory, ambiguous, historically satura...

"Learning from Las Vegas" (1972, with Denise Scott Brown and Steve Izenour): a provocative analysis of commercial American architecture. Venturi takes the "vulgar" and "low" — billboards, casinos, roadside diners — and analyzes them as architectural phenomena. Two models: "Duck" (a building in th...

Postmodernism in architecture actively quotes historical styles — but ironically, "in quotation marks." The AT&T building (now 550 Madison Avenue) by Philip Johnson (1984) — a glass skyscraper with a "Chippendale" top (like an antique secretary desk). This is an ironic quotation — and a scandal.

Postmodernism creates "architecture of pleasure" — pleasant, playful, diverse, saturated with historical references. Its critics: it creates "Disneyland", not real architecture; historical quotations are empty signs without content.

Deconstructivism is an architectural movement of the late 1980s–90s, inspired by Derrida’s philosophy. While postmodernism ironically quoted the past, deconstructivism exploded the very idea of wholeness and stability of form.

Frank Gehry is the main star of deconstructivism. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (1997) is a turning point in architecture. Fractured titanium surfaces, fragmented form, absence of the familiar “readable” structure. This is the first “iconic” museum, changing the economy of an entire city: the “...

Zaha Hadid is a pioneer of “parametric” architecture: computer algorithms enabled the creation of curvilinear forms impossible with manual design. MAXXI (Rome, 2010), Guangzhou Opera House, Heydar Aliyev Center (Baku): buildings without right angles, fluid surfaces, disorienting spatial solutions.

Digital tools (CAD, BIM, parametric design) radically changed architectural possibilities. What was previously impossible to build — because it could not be calculated — is now achievable. This is both freedom and risk: the computer allows everything, but not everything should be built.

Kenneth Frampton (“Critical Regionalism”, 1983) — an architectural manifesto against two extremes: universal modernism (the identical “international style” everywhere) and sentimental regionalism (decorative “folksiness”).

“Critical regionalism” is a third path: architecture that uses the local climate, topography, materials, building traditions — not as décor, but as a functional foundation. At the same time — it treats this heritage critically, not reproducing it mechanically.

Examples. Tadao Ando (Japan): minimalist architecture with the Japanese aesthetic of emptiness, but in modern materials (concrete, glass). Light is the main architectural material. The Church of the Light in Osaka (1989) — a simple concrete cube with a cross formed by gaps in the wall letting in ...

Persian Gulf architecture is an extreme case of the collision between the global and the local. Dubai: skyscrapers by Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster in the desert. Huge air-conditioned shopping malls. Examples of “iconic” architecture without ties to the local climate, culture, or building traditions.

The construction sector accounts for 40% of energy consumption and about 36% of CO₂ emissions worldwide. This makes architecture a key field in the fight against the climate crisis. “Sustainable architecture” is a broad term, encompassing everything from better insulation to buildings that genera...

The LEED system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, USA) and its equivalents are standards for certifying green buildings. They evaluate: energy efficiency, water usage, air quality, and use of local materials. However, LEED is criticized for “greenwashing”: a certified building can b...

“Regenerative design” goes beyond sustainability (sustainability = “do no harm”) to restoration (regeneration = “improve the ecosystem”). Buildings as part of the ecological cycle: collect rainwater, purify air, create biodiversity, produce food.

Biomimicry is design inspired by biological solutions. Termite mounds in Africa maintain a constant temperature using a complex ventilation system. The Eastgate Centre in Zimbabwe (Mick Pearce, 1996) replicates this principle: natural ventilation without air conditioning.

COVID-19 conducted the largest remote work experiment in history. 2020–2021: the majority of “office” workers worked from home. The result: many discovered that productivity did not decrease, but actually increased. The centers of large cities emptied out. Commercial real estate was under threat.

2022–2024: “return to the office”—but differently across various companies and cultures. Hybrid models (2–3 days in the office) became dominant. This created new architectural challenges: why come to the office if you can work at home? The office must provide what a home workspace cannot: collabo...

“Activity-based working” (ABW)—an office without assigned desks. Instead of a “forever” desk, you choose a workstation tailored to your task: a quiet zone for concentration, collaborative tables for teamwork, meeting rooms, phone booths, lounges. This requires trust (management by results, not by...

Offices as a “third place”: neither home nor a private office, but something in between. WeWork created the coworking market—a shared space with infrastructure. Spotify, Google, Apple create “campuses” like a city within a city: cafes, gyms, parks, kindergartens—minimizing the need to go “outside”.

In most major cities around the world—London, New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Moscow—housing is becoming unaffordable for the middle class, not to mention the poor. This is not just an economic problem. It is an architectural, planning, and political challenge.

Causes: supply deficit (zoning restrictions, resistance from existing homeowners), financialization of housing (apartments as investment assets rather than places to live), urban population growth, monopolization of the construction market.

Architectural responses. “Micro-apartments”: 25–40 sq.m. with smart furniture—making maximum use of minimal space. The Tokyo model: constant construction, liberal zoning rules, relatively low prices. “Co-living”—shared spaces, private bedrooms—reducing costs through shared areas.

Cooperative housing (Switzerland, Austria, Singapore): residents own housing collectively, not as an investment. This stabilizes prices and creates communities. Zurich: about 25% of housing is cooperatively owned—a city policy that limits financialization.