Architectural Styles: What is Style in Architecture?
superadmin
February 9, 2017
The architectural style can be defined as the means of expression that appears in architecture through composition and the materials with which it is built in different historical periods. Therefore, throughout history, different architectural styles have developed to represent the values and aspirations of a specific historical stage.
Architecture as a means of expression on a large scale has evolved as societies have changed over the centuries. Thus, as the power of rulers, whether pharaohs, emperors, or monarchs, shifted from absolute power to being comparable to that of the inhabitants of cities and states, architecture changed in its forms and style. Consequently, the monumental and symbolic character of architecture of the first civilizations evolved towards architecture that initially served civil society and later the individual, well into the 20th century. At the present moment, one can even speak of an architectural style that coexists in balance with the natural environment in which it is built (the bioclimatic architecture), with a style that is therefore completely different from that of previous eras.
Architectural Styles - History:
The history of the West has traditionally been divided into: Ancient Age, Middle Ages, and Modern Age:
- The Ancient Age spans approximately from 3,000 B.C. to the 9th century of our era and encompasses all the great empires of antiquity, from Egypt to the Roman Empire. In Ancient Egypt, architecture is conceived through great funerary monuments. The pyramids are therefore the archetype of monumental architecture, a symbol of an era where the absolute power of the pharaohs is manifested through large stone constructions in the form of square pyramids. These mausoleums were worked on for decades to ensure the transition to the beyond for the pharaohs. Interestingly, the styles of antiquity change as the concerns of the rulers also change. This is the case in Classical Architecture, Greek and Roman, where an evolution in architectural style can be appreciated as the tastes and lives of the ruling classes refine and become more sophisticated, in other words, as war and the conquest of territories give way to a life richer in culture and knowledge. In this sense, the evolution from the Doric order, simple and austere, to the Ionian and Corinthian orders, where more complex forms and vegetative motifs transform columns and bases into ornately decorated objects, can be highlighted. /ul>
- During the Middle Ages, once again power becomes absolute. In this case, kings, nobles, and the Church exercise absolute power over the peasants who make up the majority of society. Interestingly, again the evolution within this society and the relaxation of that absolute power brings about an evolution in forms and the taste for architecture. From the austerity of the Romanesque Style, it moves to Gothic, where forms are stylized with new pointed arches and various ornamental elements completely invade the cathedrals. It is at this moment that a new social class appears, the bourgeoisie, bringing new values and new power relations: the figure of the individual emerges within society, along with the Renaissance, a new style where the individual genius of artists and architects becomes the creative talent with which the new buildings are constructed. /ul>
- With the beginning of the industrial revolution and the arrival of the 20th century, history enters the Modern Age. Great social movements completely change the structure of Western society. The large social groups of the Middle Ages, nobles, kings, and peasants transform into a civil society in which the rights of all its individuals are formally recognized. Absolute power becomes democratic, and buildings become "great machines" at the service of this new modern society. Rationalism as the new style of the 20th century abandons monumentality and ornamentation to allow the new values such as equality among individuals and conditions of hygiene and health in architecture to prevail. /ul>
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