Interior Designing
PROFESSIONAL INTERIOR DESIGNProfessional interior design can be divided into two distinct specialties: residential design and nonresidential, or contract, design. Residential design concerns the interiors of apartments and houses—that is, dwellings. Nonresidential design concerns public spaces such as concert halls, banks, offices, building lobbies, theaters, restaurants, hotels, and religious buildings. Many contract designers specialize in one or more of these areas.
Sometimes the architect and designer are one and the same, or an architect and an interior designer may collaborate on a project to create a single unified whole. More often, however, the designer works independently in an existing space, making cosmetic changes to the structure as necessary.
Professional designers normally work from a scale drawing, usually of an existing space that cannot be restructured, although minor architectural changes (location of doors, walls, electrical outlets, and lighting fixtures) may be involved. The designer creates effects with a wide variety of design components, including lighting, colors, fabrics, floor and wall finishes, custom functional and decorative elements (such as cabinetry or woodwork), and furniture. The designer’s final choices are guided by the client’s tastes and budget, as well as the intended function of a given room.
Certain colors have the effect of enlarging a space (white and the cool, light colors); others...
The lighting, whether natural, artificial, or a combination of the two, has a profound effect on the atmosphere of the room. Lighting is taken into account when a color scheme is being determined. The cool colors (blue, green, gray) and the warm colors (red, yellow, orange, brown), the strong dramatic colors (red, brown, purple, black), and the less prominent colors (beige, pink) can contribute a great deal to the feeling created by a room. Certain colors have the effect of enlarging a space (white and the cool, light colors); others, of diminishing it (black and the warm, dark colors). Certain colors blend unobtrusively with other colors; the same colors in differing intensity or shades can become strikingly emphasized. Small objects in a room can be rendered conspicuous if their colors contrast with the background colors of the room.
Texture is another element that contributes to the overall impression of a room. Bark cloth, slate, brick, glass, plaster, glazed chintz, damask, linen, polished wood, silk, wool, linoleum, and tile—all have different textures that can add to the effect of a decorative scheme.
HISTORYAs archaeologists continue to demonstrate, human concern for improvement of the immediate environment has always been present.
A.
The Ancient World
The high, decorated ceilings and painted walls of the 14th-century Palazzo Davanzati in Florence, Italy, were typical in the homes of wealthy people during the RenaissanceInterior Design, the development of indoor living and working spaces, usually involving both practical and aesthetic decisions.
Apart from their religious significance, the drawings on cave walls suggest that humans of prehistoric times had some eye for beautifying their surroundings by the addition of color and natural imagery. Historical accounts of the Mesopotamian and Palestinian cultures show progressive advancement in planning human habitations, and Egyptian temples, tombs, and palaces, many of which survive today, evidence close attention to interior spaces. Recent discoveries of artifacts, utensils, and furnishings from ancient Chinese cultures indicate a highly sophisticated concept of pleasure in everyday life. From the beginnings of Western civilization, marked by the achievements of the Greeks, among other ancient cultures,...
many examples remain of conscious exploitation of interior space. Ancient Roman culture, which assimilated and emulated that of Greece, became even more fascinated by the boundless possibilities for controlling and enhancing the human environment. The classical style has had a vast influence on Western taste throughout history. The Eastern cultures—especially those of India, China, and Japan—have also influenced Western design, but neither as directly nor as early as the classical tradition.
The modern dimensions of interior design in the West began to take shape in the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) in Europe. The remainder of this article is a historical survey of domestic interior design in Europe and America from that time to the present.
B. The Middle Ages: Romanesque and Gothic Interiors
During medieval times most people lived in hovels or huts that provided little but shelter. The nobility and their retainers lived in structures built mainly for defense.
In larger dwellings, the principal room was the great hall, which served for cooking, dining, and sleeping. Before the introduction of separate rooms for sleeping—a practice that began toward the end of the Romanesque period (11th century to 12th century)—all the retainers slept in the great hall, the women occupying a space enclosed by curtains. The great hall might be as long as 18 m (as long as 60 ft) and as wide as 6 m (as wide as 20 ft). This large area was covered with a roof supported by great wooden beams or trusses, which in later times were carved or painted. The ground floor, which was made of stone, earth, brick, or tile, was, in northern Europe, covered with rushes, straw, or leaves. During the time of the Crusades (12th century to 13th century), the use of Asian rugs (see Rugs and Carpets) brought from the Middle East came into vogue; these were initially used as decorative additions and not as floor coverings. The Normans hung tapestries on the walls of the great halls (see Tapestry). Need for insulation against heat and cold led to the plastering of the stone walls; after plastering came into use, the walls were often decorated with paintings in fresco. The principal objects of furniture were tables, benches, stools, and large storage chests, usually of oak. The storage chests, made of wrought iron or wood reinforced with wrought iron, were of particular importance: Most of the possessions of the lord of the castle, and also those of his retainers, were stored in these chests so that they could be removed expeditiously if military attack or fire made abandoning the castle necessary.
After the introduction in the 14th century of cannons and gunpowder, the castle no longer provided adequate protection. In addition, the establishment of relatively peaceful conditions in Europe, together with the rise of a merchant middle class, led to a demand for homes more comfortable than the castle and more suited to the needs of daily life (see House). Consequently, the Gothic manor house and the château began to evolve. Two- and three-story town and country houses were built, with living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and storage space. The first such houses appeared in Italy, England, and France by the 13th century. After 1400 the use of tapestries, usually made in France, became general in northern Europe for wall coverings, for partitioning large rooms, for hanging over doors, and for enclosing beds. Wood shutters, formerly used on windows, began to be replaced by curtains.
C. Renaissance Interiors
The houses of affluent people in the Renaissance (14th century to 16th century), contained large rooms and high ceilings elaborately ornamented with painted decorations and plaster moldings, usually derived from ancient Greek and Roman styles. Both the decorations and the furniture of the rooms were calculated to create an effect of richness and magnificence. In France and Italy, where such famous artists as Benvenuto Cellini and Raphael created household decorations, a room was judged by the ornamentation on the ceilings and walls. Little furniture was used. Sideboards (dressoirs), chests (cassoni), and clothes presses (armoires) were designed to complement the formal, symmetrical architectural features of the rooms.
In England during the early Renaissance, houses were typically constructed in the Tudor style, approximately half timber and half brick and stone. Lavish use was made of wood paneling and of such features of Gothic art as mullioned windows, elaborate chimneys, fireplaces, and mantels. Rooms were simple and dignified, with few articles of furniture or accessories. Ceilings and walls were decorated with plaster moldings or hung with tapestries. Windows, doors, and the large four-poster beds characteristic of the period were draped with heavy velvets, damasks, and brocades.
D. Baroque Interiors
The reception room at the palace at Versailles, France, is designed in the baroque style. Some of the features include ormolu ornamentation above the mirror, classical motifs in the rug and candleholders, and intricate carved friezes (boiserie) along the top of the walls. The furniture style is far simpler than that of the rococo era that followed.
France set the style of interior decoration for most of Europe from the 17th century to the 19th century. Two decorative styles predominated in 17th-century France, named after the kings in whose reigns they developed: Louis XIII (Louis Treize) and Louis XIV (Louis Quatorze). The former style prevailed during approximately the first half of the century; it was a development of French Renaissance style that still retained some Gothic features, such as angular or square-shaped furniture. In the second half of the 17th century and the first two decades of the 18th century the Louis XIV style prevailed; it was characterized by solidity, dignity, and a profusion of ormolu (gilt bronze) ornamentation. It possessed the classic quality of symmetry, but it was baroque in its elaborateness and ostentation (see Louis XIV, XV, XVI Styles). The Château de Versailles is the most famous specimen of the style. Among the designers who contributed to the decoration of Versailles were architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Charles Lebrun, director of the Gobelins factory, which manufactured all the royal furnishings. Gobelins tapestry came into extensive use in France and elsewhere during this period.
Also during this period, walls began to receive special attention as areas of decoration. Instead of solid wood paneling, walls were covered with graceful carvings, termed boiserie, often gilded and influenced by Asian designs. From the 18th century on, walls were frequently framed in molded strips of wood.
In England the ornate Jacobean style dominated the first quarter of the 17th century; it employed many elements derived from the art of ancient Greece and Rome. During the Puritan protectorate (1653-1660), by contrast, the tendency was toward greater simplicity in the design and decoration of rooms. The Restoration (1660) again brought into fashion a heavy and ostentatious style. After the accession of William and Mary (1689), decorative influences from the Netherlands restored simplicity to English interiors. The English rooms of the last decade of the century were designed for intimate and comfortable living. They were small, with low ceilings and many windows. Ceilings were unornamented; walls and floors were usually of wood. Asian rugs were coming into use as floor coverings, and painted or printed wallpaper was designed to resemble tapestries and textiles.
E. Rococo Interiors
In France the baroque style of Louis XIV was succeeded in the third decade of the 17th century by the rococo style of Louis XV. Rococo was characterized principally by elaborate but delicately curved lines. The dwellings of the noble and rich generally had wall panels of carved wood; unpaneled walls were sometimes painted in pastel colors, with designs imitated from Chinese art or with stylized representations of scenes from nature. A characteristic feature of the Louis XV room was its small marble mantel exquisitely carved with a curved design; above the mantel was a richly carved and painted overmantel with a mirror (trumeau). The draperies and upholstery used in the Louis XV style were of fine texture and were patterned with scroll, ribbon, and flower motifs. Lighting fixtures, fireplace accessories, and hardware were of finely chased, often gilded metalwork. The floors were of wood laid in marquetry patterns or in larger, geometric parquet designs. The use of Aubusson rugs, made in tapestry weave at Aubusson, France, and of Savonnerie rugs was a feature of the Louis XV room. Special kinds of furniture were created to fill the needs of intimate social life, among them the chaise longue, the type of upholstered chair known as the bergère, and a small desk called an escritoire.
In Germany and Austria, and particularly in Bavaria, the rococo style developed independently in a rich and fantastic manner. For example, the pilgrimage church of Die Wies (1745-1754) near Munich by Dominikus Zimmermann has an exuberant playfulness of form and decoration not found in religious structures west of the Rhine. Flemish-born architect François de Cuvilliés created the famous Amalienburg Pavilion (1734-1740), a royal hunting lodge in Munich that combines a chaste neoclassical exterior with opulent interiors considered the supreme secular monument of the rococo.
In the last third of the 18th century the Louis XV style was succeeded by the Louis XVI, characterized by classical restraint and deeply influenced by neoclassical art and architecture. Louis XVI furniture and decorations had straight lines and right angles. Rooms were smaller, less formal, and more specialized: the bedroom, boudoir, dining room, and library became distinct types. Wall paneling in the Louis XVI room was less profusely carved. In wall painting, scenes from nature gave way to designs with classical elements. Doors, windows, and marble mantels were of classic rectangular design. Ceilings were in most instances left unornamented; occasionally, when a more luxurious effect than usual was sought, ceilings were painted to represent sky and clouds.
F. The Adam Style and the Beginnings of American Interior Decoration
The Red Drawing Room is part of Syon House (Middlesex, England), designed and built by Scottish-born architect Robert Adam from 1762 to 1769. Classical Roman interiors were an influence on Adam’s work, but he also used ideas from his French contemporaries, who he felt understood how interior space and daily life were interconnected.
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The Georgian style, characterized by dark mahogany furniture and paneled or plasterwork wall decoration, dominated English interior design during the first three quarters of the 18th century. In the 1770s the neoclassical designs of Scottish architects Robert Adam and his brother James (see Adam) set the style in Britain for the next two decades. Robert Adam considered the interiors of the large country houses he designed to be integral components of the whole structure, and he devoted great attention to wall decoration, furniture, and fittings for the main rooms. Adam interiors are characterized by formality, symmetry, simplicity, and the use of details from ancient Greece and Rome and of broad surfaces of delicate color. These beautifully proportioned and elegantly ornamented rooms had a great influence on English master furniture craftsmen of the period: Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite (see Hepplewhite Style), and Thomas Sheraton.
In the earliest American homes comfort and beauty were secondary considerations. The New England interiors of the early 17th century were characterized by low ceilings, large fireplaces, and small windows. More provisions for comfort marked the New England interiors of the late 17th century. The walls were finished with rectangular wood panels of upright boards; the ceilings were beamed; and the fireplace, centered in the house, took up most of one wall and was usually spanned with a heavy carved beam. The floors were constructed of wide boards, sometimes painted or covered with painted canvas floor cloths. As the merchant class in the American colonies began to import books on architectural style and furniture from England, the colonial style, a modification of English Georgian, began to take form. The Adam style of furniture and interior decoration influenced the work of noted American architects Charles Bulfinch and Samuel McIntire. Wealthy interiors of the 18th century were characterized by painted woodwork, an abundant use of pilasters and cornices, mantelpieces of carved wood, and floors of wide boards. Imported wallpapers were in general use, as were rich fabrics such as damasks and satins for draperies.
G. Empire and Victorian Styles of Decoration
This interior was designed by British artist William Morris and his associates around 1860. The style is that of the Arts and Crafts movement, which was started by Morris in reaction to the decorative excess of the Victorian style and to the lifelessness of mass production. The furniture, textiles, and wallpaper are all handmade. The cabinets on the right and left feature Pre-Raphaelite paintings; the Morris designs on the wallpaper and carpet are taken from medieval manuscripts.
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Early 19th-century interiors in Europe and the United States were decorated largely in the Empire style that had dominated France during the Napoleonic era (1804-1815). The Empire style of furniture was modeled on classical and Egyptian styles and often incorporated ornaments of ivory, ormolu, and brass. A modified form of this style was developed in America and was known as the Federal style; one of its chief exponents was New York cabinetmaker Duncan Phyfe.
The Victorian style of heavily ornamented interiors displaying many pieces of furniture, collections of small ornamental objects, and surfaces covered with fringed cloths prevailed in middle-class homes in England and America during the latter half of the 19th century. Moreover, in both countries, techniques of mass production promoted the use of reproductions in many different styles. This vigorous eclecticism held sway until the beginning of the 20th century and the growth of the functionalist movement in interior design. Presaging that trend, the Arts and Crafts movement, led by British poet, artist, and architect William Morris, pioneered in the effort to reject opulence in favor of simplicity, good craftsmanship, and good design. The immediate influence of the Arts and Crafts movement is evident in the unique work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the early 20th century, which combined the solidity of Arts and Crafts interiors with the grace of art nouveau. Art nouveau, which flourished at the turn of the 20th century, featured curved lines (the so-called whiplash curve), undulating surfaces, and imaginative exoticism in interiors, such as those in the mansions created in Brussels by Victor Horta and in Paris by Hector Guimard.
IV. 20TH-CENTURY APPROACHES TO INTERIOR DESIGN
This art deco-inspired interior of Unilever House in London was designed by British architect Theo Crosby in 1979. The 1920s building was renovated by Crosby using the geometric patterns and colors popular in the art deco style.
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After World War I (1914-1918) the breach between the traditionalists, who devoted themselves to furnishing rooms with antiques or reproductions of them, and the functional modernists, whose aim was to originate new styles in keeping with 20th-century life, became even wider. The modernists themselves were divided into several schools. One school, working in a style called art deco, freely modified the traditional historical styles and adapted them to the needs of contemporary life. The interiors created by this school utilized pastel color schemes and rich-textured draperies and upholstery. Another group, the Dutch De Stijl, designed interiors with bold primary color schemes and cubist patterns, with an emphasis on rectangular forms.
A third group of modernists, led by the Bauhaus school in Germany, designed interiors in keeping with the functionalism typical of modern architecture (see Modern Architecture). This group utilized steel, aluminum, and plywood, among other materials, to make simple, practical furniture, known as Bauhaus furniture, unlike that of any historical style. Its best-known exponents were architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, and Walter Gropius. Designers in Scandinavian countries used bright colors, curves, and softly molded but simple lines. Foremost among them was Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, renowned for the chaste simplicity of his designs in wood.
In the United States, interior design has become a widely practiced profession. Its foremost exponents in contemporary design have been architects, such as Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, and artists, such as sculptors Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi. Among the most prestigious design firms is Knoll International, founded as Knoll Associates in 1938 by German-born entrepreneur Hans Knoll; he pioneered the popularization of works by the Bauhaus designers and also commissioned work from Eames, Saarinen, Bertoia, and Noguchi, among many others. Such recent art movements as op art and pop art have strongly influenced interior design, especially in the bold use of color and geometric forms. Revivals of interest in art nouveau and art deco, as well as in the Arts and Crafts movement, have also influenced taste in interiors. One of the most striking of recent innovations is the style called high tech, which employs industrial, medical, and other technical equipment as components in residential room design.
Not all modern interiors rely solely on the elements of the 20th century, however. Since the early 1950s the influence of the old has taken its place alongside modern developments as an integral part of creative design schemes. A juxtaposition of fine antiques or reproductions with designs in steel and glass has enhanced many contemporary interiors.
M O R E P I C T U R E S O F I N T E R I O R D E S I G N
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Modern Architecture
American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, a pioneer of modern architecture, lived and worked in the Chicago area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He designed many single-family houses, known as prairie houses. The Hills/DeCaro house in Oak Park, west of Chicago, is one of more than 20 houses Wright designed while living in the town between 1890 and 1910.
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Modern ArchitectureModern Architecture, the buildings and building practices of the late 19th and the 20th centuries. The history of modern architecture encompasses the architects who designed those buildings, stylistic movements, and the technology and materials that made the new architecture possible. Modern architecture originated in the United States and Europe and spread from there to the rest of the world.
Among notable early modern architectural projects are exuberant and richly decorated buildings in Glasgow, Scotland, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh; imaginative designs for a city of the future by Italian visionary Antonio Sant’Elia; and houses with flowing interior spaces and projecting roofs by the American pioneer of modernism, Frank Lloyd Wright. Important modern buildings that came later include the sleek villas of Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier; bold new factories in Germany by Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius; and steel and glass skyscrapers designed by German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
CHARACTERISTICSModern architects reacted against the architecture of the 19th century, which they felt borrowed too heavily from the past. They found this architecture either oppressively bound to past styles or cloyingly picturesque and eclectic. As the 20th century began they believed it was necessary to invent an architecture that expressed the spirit of a new age and would surpass the styles, materials, and technologies of earlier architecture. This unifying purpose did not mean that their buildings would be similar in appearance, nor that architects would agree on other issues.
The aesthetics (artistic values) of modern architects differed radically. Some architects, enraptured by the powerful machines developed in the late 19th century, sought to devise an architecture that conveyed the sleekness and energy of a machine. Their aesthetic celebrated function in all forms of design, from household furnishings to massive ocean liners and the new flying machines. Other architects, however, found machine-like elegance inappropriate to architecture. They preferred an architecture that expressed, not the rationality of the machine, but the mystic powers of human emotion and spirit.
Modern architects also differed in their understanding of historical traditions. While some abandoned historical references altogether, others used careful references to the past to enhance the modernity of their designs. Italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia resoundingly rejected traditional architecture in his Futurist Manifesto of 1914 (Futurism). He called for each generation to build its houses anew and celebrated glass, steel, and concrete as the materials to make this possible. The modern designs of his countryman Giuseppe Terragni, on the other hand, referred explicitly to the past. Terragni’s Casa del Fascio (Fascist Party Headquarters, 1932-1936) in Como, Italy, featured an inner atrium for public assembly inspired by the courtyards of Italian Renaissance palaces, and windows laid out according to ancient Greek and Roman theories of ideal architectural proportions. Terragni saw tradition as providing ideal building blocks for a new architecture. But the building’s concrete and steel construction and its sleek, unornamented form expressed a thoroughly modern aesthetic.
In the United States Frank Lloyd Wright also rejected 19th-century European architecture. He attributed his new architectural concepts to educational building blocks he had played with as a child, to Japanese architecture, and to the prairie landscape on which many of his houses were built. Yet the fireplaces with adjacent seating that occupied a central position in his houses referred to the very distant past, when tending and maintaining a fire was essential for human survival. In Wright’s houses, few dividing walls separated rooms and one room seemed to flow into the next. Wright’s open design was extremely influential, and variations of it were used, not only for the houses of the wealthy, but for apartments and middle-class homes in Europe and the United States.
Modern architecture also challenged traditional ideas about the types of structures suitable for architectural design. Important civic buildings, aristocratic palaces, churches, and public institutions had long been the mainstay of architectural practices, but modernist designers argued that architects should design all that was necessary for society, even the most humble buildings. They began to plan low-cost housing, railroad stations, factories, warehouses, and commercial spaces. In the first half of the 20th century many modernists produced housing as well as furniture, textiles, and wallpaper to create a totally designed domestic environment.
NEW MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY
Ironbridge, Telford, England Ironbridge, which crosses the River Severn in northwest England, was the first large-scale structure made entirely of cast iron. It was designed by English
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Developments in two materials—iron and concrete—formed the technological basis for much modern architecture. In 1779 English architect Thomas Pritchard designed the first structure built entirely of cast iron: Ironbridge, a bridge over the River Severn in England. At around the same time, another Englishman experimented with a compound of lime, clay, sand, and iron slag to produce concrete. Iron had been used since antiquity to tie building elements together, but after the erection of Ironbridge it took on a new role as a primary structural material. Builders throughout Europe and North America began to erect warehouses with beams of iron instead of wood and to create storefronts with cast-iron façades.
Eiffel Tower, ParisThe Eiffel Tower, rising in the twilight sky above Paris, was built for the World’s Fair in 1889. French engineer Gustave Alexandre Eiffel designed it as a cross-braced latticed girder with minimum wind resistance. Constructed from over 6300 metric tons (7000 tons) of highest quality wrought iron, it is a masterpiece of wrought-iron technology.
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One of the most spectacular examples of early iron construction was the Crystal Palace in London, England, designed by English architect Joseph Paxton to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Spreading over 7.3 hectares (18 acres), the building consisted entirely of panels of glass set within iron frames. Paxton adapted two major features of the Industrial Revolution to the architecture of the Crystal Palace: mass production (in the manufactured glass panels and iron frames) and the use of iron rather than traditional masonry (stones or brick). He managed to erect this vast building in less than six months, a feat he accomplished by detailed planning and by prefabrication of the building parts off-site. In 1889 French engineer Gustave Eiffel carried forward Paxton's daring ideas for iron construction in his 300-m (984-ft) tall Eiffel Tower in Paris. Steel for construction also became abundantly available in the 19th century.
A. Reinforced Concrete 
Three Views of the Flatiron Building Completed in 1902, the Flatiron Building in New York City was once the world’s tallest building at 91 m (300 ft) tall. Designed by Chicago School architect Daniel Burnham, the triangular building features a decorative exterior supported by a steel skeleton. The Chicago School comprised architects from Chicago, Illinois, who built some of the first skyscrapers in the United States.Gail Mooney/Corbis; Archive Photos; Chromosohm Media Inc./Corbis; Archive Photos
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Improvements in concrete ran parallel to developments in iron and steel technology. In 1892 French engineer François Hennebique combined the strengths of both in a new system of construction based on concrete reinforced with steel. His invention made possible previously unimaginable effects: extremely thin walls with large areas of glass; roofs that cantilever (project out from their supports) to previously impossible distances; enormous spans without supporting columns or beam; and corners formed of glass rather than stone, brick, or wood.
One of the earliest architects to experiment with these new effects was Belgian architect-engineer Auguste Perret, whose 1903 apartment building on Rue Franklin in Paris, France, exemplified basic principles of steel reinforcement. On the façade, Perret clearly separated the structural elements of steel-reinforced concrete from the exterior walls, which were simply decorative panels or windows rather than structural necessities. The reinforced concrete structure also eliminated the need for interior walls to support any weight, permitting a floor plan of unprecedented openness. Perret's building stood eight stories high, with two additional stories set back from the front of the building, the typical height of most Paris buildings at the time.
B. Chicago School The construction of buildings taller than Perret’s was made possible by the safety elevator, first demonstrated in 1854 by American inventor Elisha Otis. Architects in Chicago, Illinois, were the first to exploit the possibilities offered by the elevator in combination with the new steel and concrete technologies. Following a disastrous fire in 1871, Chicago experienced a massive boom in new housing, warehouses, and commercial buildings. The collective response of a diverse group of architects to the reconstruction of the city led to the development of the skyscraper.
Architect William Le Baron Jenney devised a solution to the problem of fireproof construction for tall buildings by substituting steel in the structural system for cast iron, which melts at high temperatures. He continued to clad the building’s exterior with traditional masonry, however. Jenney brilliantly demonstrated his system in the Second Leiter Building (1889-1891, Chicago), in which a steel frame held together by rivets supported itself as well as all the interior walls and floors and the exterior cladding.
Architect Daniel H. Burnham and Charles B. Atwood, a designer in Burnham’s firm, took Jenney’s system and drove it to new heights with the Reliance Building (1889-1895), which stood 16 stories high, at least 6 stories higher than had been possible with masonry construction. Their design stripped away the ornamentation characteristic of most buildings at that time and instead used tall windows to emphasize the beauty of the building’s skyward thrust. Most importantly, they eliminated Jenney’s heavy masonry exterior, creating a system known as curtain-wall construction. In this system, the exterior wall of each floor is hung on the iron or steel frame so that the wall supports only its own weight and not the floors above it. This method of construction reduced the overall weight of a building, which allowed it to be built higher, and permitted the extensive use of glass on the façade. The glass-and-steel skyscrapers erected through most of the 20th century drew much of their aesthetic as well as technological inspiration from the clean lines and light appearance of late-19th-century Chicago buildings such as this one.
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Classical Architecture
The building systems and forms of ancient Greece and Rome are called classical architecture. Greek contributions in architecture, as in so much else, defy summarization. The architecture of the Roman Empire has pervaded Western architecture for more than two millennia.
Aegean Architecture The architecture that developed on mainland Greece (Helladic) and in the basin of the Aegean Sea (Minoan) belongs to the Greek cultures that preceded the arrival in about 1000 bc of the Ionians and the Dorians. The Minoan culture (3000-1200 bc) flourished on the island of Crete (Kríti); its principal site is the multichambered Palace of Minos at Knossos (Knosós), near present-day Iráklion. On the Pelopónnisos near Árgos are the fortress-palaces of Mycenae and Tiryns, and in Asia Minor the city of Troy—all of them excavated by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the last quarter of the 19th century. Mycenae and Tiryns are believed to represent the Achaean culture, the subject of Homer’s epic Iliad and Odyssey.
Treasury of Atreus After about 1600 bc the Mycenaeans, ancient inhabitants of the southeastern Greek mainland, buried their dead in tholos tombs, stone chambers with beehive-shaped domes. From about 1300 to 1250 bc they built this tholos tomb, mistakenly called the Treasury of Atreus by its discoverer. It was constructed with measured stone blocks placed in ascending concentric circles. The vault of this dome reaches a height of about 12 m (40 ft). by: Vanni/Art Resource, NY
Greek Architecture The Greek temple emerged as the archetypal shrine of all time. Unlike the Egyptians, the Greeks put their walls inside to protect the cella and their columns on the outside, where they could articulate exterior space. Perhaps for the first time, the overriding concern is for the building seen as a beautiful object externally, while at the same time containing precious and sacred inner space. Greek architects have been praised for not crushing the viewer with overmonumentality; yet they found it appropriate to build temples on basically the same theme ranging in size from the tiny Temple of Nike Apteros (427-424 bc) of about 6 by 9 m (about 20 by 30 ft) on the Athens Acropolis to the gigantic Temple of Zeus (500? bc) at Agrigento in Sicily, which covered more than 1 hectare (more than 2 acres). The Greeks seldom arranged their monuments hierarchically along an axis, preferring to site their temples to be seen from several viewpoints in order to display the relation of ends to sides.
In successive efforts during many centuries the Greeks modified their earlier models. Concern for the profile of the building in space spurred designers toward perfection in the articulation of parts, and these parts became intellectualized as stylobate, base, shaft, capital, architrave, frieze, cornice, and pediment, each representing metaphorically its structural purpose.
The Greek Orders Two orders developed more or less concurrently. The Doric order predominated on the mainland and in the western colonies. The acknowledged Doric masterpiece is the Parthenon (448-432 bc) crowning the Athens Acropolis.
The Ionic order originated in the cities on the islands and coasts of Asia Minor, which were more exposed to Asian and Egyptian influences; it featured capitals with spiral volutes, a more slender shaft with quite different fluting, and an elaborate and curvilinear base. Most of the early examples are gone, but Ionic was used inside the Propylaea (begun 437 bc) and in the Erechtheum (begun 421 bc), both on the Athens Acropolis.
The Corinthian order, a later development, introduced Ionic capitals elaborated with acanthus leaves. It has the advantage of facing equally in four directions and is therefore more adaptable than Ionic for corners.
City planning was stimulated by the need to rebuild Dorian cities after the end (466 bc) of the Persian Wars and again by the challenge of new cities established (beginning 333 bc) by Alexander the Great. The plan of Miletus in Asia Minor is an early example of the gridiron block, and it provides a prototype for the disposition of the central public areas, with the significant municipal buildings related to the major civic open spaces. A typical Greek agora included a temple, a council house (bouleuterion), a theater, and gymnasiums, as well as porticoes giving shape to the edges of the open space. Greek domestic architecture transformed the Mycenaean megaron (hearthroom) into the house with rooms disposed about a small open court, or atrium, a theme later elaborated in Italy, Spain, and North Africa.
Roman Architecture
Colosseum
The Colosseum in Rome (70-82) is best known for its multilevel system of vaults made of concrete. It is called the Colosseum for a colossal statue of Nero that once stood nearby, but its real name is the Flavian Amphitheater. It was used for staged battles between lions and Christians, among other spectacles, and is one of the most famous pieces of architecture in the world.
Scala/Art Resource, NYRoman architecture continued the development now referred to as classical, but with quite different results. Unlike the tenuously allied Greek city-states, Rome became a powerful, well-organized empire that planted its constructions throughout the Mediterranean world, northward into Britain, and eastward into Asia Minor. Romans built great engineering works—roads, canals, bridges, and aqueducts. Their masonry was more varied; they used bricks and concrete freely, as well as stone, marble, and mosaic.
Use of the arch and vault introduced curved forms; curved walls produced a semicircular space, or apse, for terminating an axis. Cylindrical and spherical spaces became elements of design, well suited to the grandiose rooms appropriate to the Roman imperial scale.
The Dome
Barrel or tunnel vaults are inherently limited in span, and they exert lateral thrust. Two Roman inventions of enormous importance overcame this. First was the dome, inherently more stable than the barrel vault because it is doubly curved, but also limited because it thrusts outward circumferentially. It was possible for Hadrian to rebuild (ad 118-128) the Pantheon in Rome with a dome 43 m (142 ft) above the floor, but only by encircling it with a massive hollow ring wall 6 m (20 ft) thick that encloses eight segments of curved units. Thus, a dome provides for a one-room building but cannot easily be combined with other domes to make a larger space.
The Groin VaultThe second important invention was the groin vault, formed by the intersection of two identical barrel vaults over a square plan. They intersect along ellipses that go diagonally to the corners of the square. Because the curvature is in more than one direction, each barrel tends to reinforce the other. The great advantage of the groin vault is that it can be placed on four piers (built to receive 45° thrust), leaving the sides of the square for windows or for continuity with adjoining spaces.
In the great Roman thermae (baths) and basilicas (law courts and markets), rows of square groin-vaulted bays (or units) provided vast rooms lighted by clerestory windows high on the long sides under the vaults.
The Romans introduced the commemorative or triumphal arch and the colosseum or stadium. They further developed the Greek theater and the Greek house; many excellent examples of houses were unearthed in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum, towns that were buried in the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ad 79.
The Roman genius for grandiose urban design is seen in the plan of Rome, where each emperor left a new forum, complete with basilica, temple, and other features. Their plans are axially organized, but with greater complexity than heretofore seen. The most remarkable among the great complexes is Hadrian’s Villa (ad 125-132) near Tivoli, which abounds in richly inventive plan forms.
The Greek orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) were widely adopted and further elaborated. But the Romans ultimately trivialized them by applying them indiscriminately, usually in the form of engaged columns or pilasters with accompanying cornices, to both interior and exterior walls as a form of ornamentation. They lost in the process the orders’ capacity to evoke a sense of the loads being sustained in post-and-lintel construction. See Roman Art and Architecture.
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One of the earliest examples of Christian architecture and an excellent example of the basilica form, the church known as Old Saint Peter’s, in Rome, Italy, was begun in ad 333 and demolished in the 16th century by order of Pope Julius II to make way for the new Saint Peter’s. Based on the shape of a Latin cross, Old Saint Peter’s had a long nave (central aisle) with a transept (projecting wings) crossing the nave near the front of the church. Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) commissioned the construction of Old Saint Peter’s as a church and public hall after legalizing the Christian religion.
The 5th-century Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy, is an Early Christian mausoleum built in the form of a Greek, or equal-armed cross. This type of centralized plan, borrowed from classical architecture, usually features a round or polygonal building topped with a dome. The structures were used for Early Christian mausoleums, baptisteries, and martyr shrines.
Built between ad 526 and 547, the church of San Vitale stands as one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture. Emperor Justinian I, ruler of the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565, built San Vitale in his Italian stronghold at Ravenna when he extended Byzantine rule through western Europe. The church’s design, especially its domed, centralized, octagonal core, drew heavily from earlier Byzantine architecture in Constantinople, the capital of the empire. Beautiful mosaics within the church commemorate various spiritual and secular subjects, including Justinian and the rest of the Byzantine court.
Hagia Sophia (Church of the Holy Wisdom) was built in Constantinople (now Istanbul) between 532 and 537 under the auspices of Emperor Justinian I. Innovative Byzantine technology allowed architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to design a basilica with an immense dome over an open, square space, pictured. The original dome fell after an earthquake and was replaced in 563. The church became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of 1453, and is now a museum.
Cathedral Group at Pisa 
Notre-Dame-la-Grande, France
Salisbury Cathedral 
Royal Abbey at St. Denis 
The Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul was built in 1550. The architect, Sinan, based his design on Byzantine churches, in particular the Hagia Sophia. The large central dome above a square opens to smaller spaces vaulted by buttressing half-domes. The four tapering minarets with balconies are characteristic of the architectural style of later Islamic mosques. Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2002.
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