Architecture: A Very Short Introduction

Clearly the point of view of the writer is implicated in the selections that are to be made, and my selections are shaped by my immersion in and formation by Western culture. Other points of view are possible, have validity, and would generate different choices. This is not to say, though, that the ideas presented here have no more than a personal significance. They connect with a tradition that has gone through many transformations and developments, and the ones that are closest to us seem perhaps to be the most significant. Perhaps computers, televisions, and telephones have given us not only new ways of living, but also new ways of being human in a global system of networks. From another perspective, however, these recent developments might look like the continuation of a tendency that has been developing over the last 200 years, or the last 500.

General chronology

The language of architectural history includes words that designate different styles of architecture, and they are associated with different places and times. It has been convenient to divide up the history of human culture into broad periods. It is possible to quarrel with the appropriateness of these divisions, but they are now well established in our language, and they are necessary for finding one’s bearings. We start with the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome, which were admired for their literature, philosophy, and grandiose ruins. These civilizations were called ‘classic’, as a term of approbation. They were seen as the basis of authority and accomplishment in artistic matters, and so the products of those societies were in a general way called ‘classical’. The Oxford English Dictionary gives a date of 1607 for an early use of the word in this way (referring to texts, rather than architecture). The other important classical age was the contemporary one, beginning at the Renaissance, the rebirth of classical learning that was also known as ‘the revival of letters’. This gives us four periods in the history of the world, two enlightened ages and two dark ages. There was the primordial world to which ancient Egypt belonged, then the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome. Then, between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance there was a middle age with nothing particular to recommend it: the medieval period. And then came the Renaissance, the modern age, reason, and progress. While this is an over-simplification, it is a useful one for understanding why different types of architecture have their different reputations. The architecture of the classical age was admired and imitated. The architecture of the medieval period was taken less seriously. This has all changed since the terms were coined. We now know a good deal more about the Middle Ages, and would not want to write off the architecture so readily. Nevertheless the periodization remains in place. We still talk about the ‘Middle Ages’, even when we don’t mean to suggest that they deserve to be neglected, and have forgotten what they were supposed to be in between.