Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

a square building. Inside were marble

pillars and much decoration. The most

famous building in this style is the

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, completed

in 537. As the Eastern Orthodox

church spread to Greece, eastern

Europe, and Russia, domed churches

were built there too.

U.S. architects

copied ancient

Roman styles

in their

designs for

the U.S.

Capitol and

many other

government

buildings.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Architecture 169

 

Cordoba, Spain (700s–900s). In

southern Asia, Islamic architecture came

to include Hindu and Persian elements

too. White marble and red sandstone

were often used. A famous example of

this style is the Taj Mahal, a tomb built

in Agra, India, in the 1600s.

Renaissance, Baroque, and

Later Styles

A period called the Renaissance began in

Italy in the 1300s. Renaissance architects

revived classical Greek and Roman

styles, using columns, round arches, and

domes. Among the famous Italian

Renaissance architects were Filippo

Brunelleschi, Bramante, Leon Battista

Alberti, and Andrea Palladio. The

Renaissance style spread from Italy to

the rest of Europe.

Baroque architecture became popular in

southern Europe in the 1600s. It

emphasized dramatic and elaborate

decorations, vivid colors, and luxurious

materials. In France and England the

baroque was more subdued and was

often mixed with the classical style.

In the 1700s some European architects

returned to a simpler style called neoclassicism

(or new classicism). In

England the ancient form of the Roman

villa was adapted to suburban and country

houses. In the 1800s Gothic styles

became popular again in England and

the United States. Renaissance and

baroque styles were also used in the

United States for houses and public

buildings.

Modern Developments

The growing population and rising cost

of land in cities in the late 1800s made

it necessary to put tall buildings on

small lots. As buildings got taller the

walls had to become stronger. In 1885

William Le Baron Jenney designed the

Home Insurance Company Building in

Chicago, Illinois. It was the first building

in which the exterior walls were

entirely supported on an internal steel

frame. The steel frame led to the skyscraper

age.

One of the most influential architects of

the skyscraper was Chicago’s Louis Sullivan.

He believed that a building’s design

should reflect its function, and he often

used decoration based on natural forms.

His student Frank LloydWright became

one of the most influential architects of

the 1900s. He thought buildings should

be in harmony with their natural surroundings

and the people who use them.

The clean, simple lines of modernist

architecture are shown in

buildings designed by Mies van

der Rohe.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Architecture 171

 

His Prairie style emphasized horizontal

lines in houses with low, gently sloping

roofs.

Modernist buildings of the mid-1900s

typically had plain, rectangular forms

with no extra decoration. The architect

known as Le Corbusier designed buildings

in France with flowing interior

spaces, flat roofs, and large windows in

plain white walls. German architect

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed

steel and glass structures in simple geometric

forms with clean lines.

Beginning in the 1960s some architects

reacted against what they saw as the

cold, bare forms of modernism. These

architects were called postmodern. They

included Philip Johnson, Robert

Venturi, and Michael Graves. Some of

them playfully used classical features

such as arches and columns in new

ways. Starting in the late 20th century

architects such as Frank Gehry moved

away from traditional right angles. They

featured free-form curves in many of

their designs.

#More to explore

Acropolis • Brick and Tile • Cathedral

• Concrete • Church • Egypt, Ancient

• Greece, Ancient • Iron • Middle Ages

• Mosque • Pyramid • Renaissance

• Skyscraper • Steel • Taj Mahal

• Temple

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic is the smallest of the world’s

oceans. It occupies the most northern

region of Earth. The North Pole is near

the center of the Arctic Ocean.

Physical Features

The Arctic Ocean covers an area of

5,440,000 square miles (14,090,000

square kilometers). The landmasses of

Eurasia (Europe and Asia), North

America, and Greenland surround the

ocean. The Arctic has several islands on

its edges but none in the center, where

there is a permanent cover of ice. A

narrow passage called the Bering Strait

connects the Arctic Ocean with the

Pacific Ocean. The Greenland Sea

connects the Arctic with the Atlantic

The MARTa museum in Germany was

designed by Frank Gehry.

172 Arctic Ocean BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Ocean. The deepest point in Arctic

waters is 18,050 feet (5,502 meters),

but the average depth is 3,240 feet (988

meters).

Two forms of ice are found in the

Arctic Ocean: sea ice and pack ice. Sea

ice is frozen seawater that forms and

melts depending on the season. The

mass of sea ice that remains frozen year

after year is called pack ice. Pack ice is

generally smoother and less salty than

other sea ice.

The pack ice in the Arctic is hundreds of

miles across. It drifts around the ocean

in a clockwise direction. It completes