Architecture is both a process and a product of the planning, design and construction of buildings or any other structures. Architectural works in the material form of buildings are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving achievements.
In the context of architecture, we can of course talk about its varieties, namely, styles, each of which is different, introduces something new. Combining with each other, they create the very architectural diversity that we are so accustomed to.
The article discusses the main architectural styles and their features (Western, Central Europe and Russia), starting from the Middle Ages, identifies the features and distinguishing features of various styles, highlights the best examples of structures, differences in the development of style in different countries, specifies the founders and successors of each of the styles , describes the time frame for the existence of styles and transitions from one style to another.
What is architectural style?
Its initial variants appeared when the first large civilizations arose, each of which left its mark on architecture. Who does not know about the Egyptian pyramids, sphinxes or ziggurats of South America. Perhaps there is not a single person who is even a little familiar with the structures of different civilizations.
But the theme of the main architectural styles and their features on a global scale is too extensive, back to Europe. It is here that there are many differences and you can consider their main features.
Romanesque style and its features
One of the first styles of architecture in the Middle Ages should be considered the Romanesque style, which was widespread in the XI-XII centuries and was the product of the Crusades, internecine wars and Europe, not yet divided into states. The presence of a common style did not exclude the existence of various local architectural schools. So far, only cities have their own power, protecting themselves, concentrating goods and money, and often changing hands. From the architectural structures of that time was primarily required a protective function. Therefore, both the city walls and the buildings in the cities had to be primarily large, massive and able to protect the townspeople.
They are moving away from previously used materials, replacing wood with other, more durable ones. This is stone and brick, complemented by metal parts (iron, bronze). The windows in such buildings (usually temples and castles, and then the feudal palaces) were made small and narrow, lancet, located in the upper parts of the buildings to protect against fire and arrows. Most castles were located on a mountain or at the top of one or a series of hills. The structures towered above the surrounding buildings and were perceived as one indestructible stronghold. The core of the fortress was usually a round (less often square) tower — the donjon — the feudal lord’s refuge. Castles and palaces in most countries of Western and Central Europe can be attributed to the early Romanesque style. The castle in Loches (X century), the fortress of Gaillard, the city-fortress of Carcassonne (XIII-XIV centuries), the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel (founded in the XI century) in France retained their original appearance better than others. Vaulted underground rooms - crypts, which were intended for storing relics and burials, are also characteristic of Roman churches. In terms of the Romanesque temple - a Latin cross and a tower with a spire in the center. The interior is affected by the power of space, elongated and high middle part, an abundance of heavy arches and massive columns. He gave rise to a feeling of calm greatness and stillness. The traditional Roman forms were adopted without changes: smooth walls, semicircular arches, columns and pillars. In the early period, the capitals of the columns were covered with ornaments. These were images of plants and animals; in the era of style maturity, a capital with sculptures is often used.
Gothic architecture
Romanesque and Gothic styles in the Middle Ages were exceptional and ubiquitous in Europe. Religious in form, severely solemn Gothic art is more spiritual, sensitive to life and man. These are temples of statics, tied to a place according to the architectural style. Gothic is a more mature representative of the Middle Ages than the Romanesque.
In the XIII-XVII centuries, every medieval city was proud of cathedrals, town halls, stock exchanges, covered markets, hospitals, usually concentrated around a triangular square, to which varied streets flowed. Grandiose Gothic cathedrals differed sharply from Romanesque churches. They were tall, roomy, elegantly decorated. Their forms were striking in their dynamism, lightness and picturesqueness, they defined and built the landscape. Following the cathedrals, residential buildings rushed up: the number of floors increased, gable roofs pulled up. The city developed up. The cathedral was the center of the city's life. The movement of buildings up was determined by the desire of the soul to the sky and the cramped urban development inside the walls. The towers of the cathedrals were both sentinels and played the role of a fire tower. Sometimes they were crowned with a rooster - a symbol of vigilance.
Gothic, like other architectural styles and their features, used many design innovations: the arch system becomes complex and logical, a stable frame system appears, internal ribs-ribs and external supports - buttresses appear. Vaulted ceilings are eased to the limit, wide spans and various segments of space overlap, the vault rises and the temple is filled with light. A characteristic feature of Gothic style is the lancet arch. Its repetition in the figure of the arch, windows, portals enhances the feeling of lightness and grace. Classical examples of Gothic are the cathedrals of France in Paris, in Amiens, Reims, Chartres.
Renaissance in architecture
Speaking about architectural styles, one cannot ignore the buildings of the Renaissance, characterized by interest in a person as a thinking and feeling person, a return to the best examples of antiquity. The first Renaissance architect is considered to be F. Bruneleski - the master of the construction of domes. He uses in his works in Florence new designs, a frame system of buildings, new forms and methods of building a dome. His followers, the creators of the palaces of Rucellai and Strozzi, Alberti and Benedetto da Mayano, also work in the same city.
Representatives of the high Renaissance: Bramante, Sangallo and Palladio worked in Rome, combining ancient Roman elements with modern traditions. Palladio's work undoubtedly promoted the development of architecture, determining the architecture of classicism in England, France and Russia.
The onset of the feudal-Catholic reaction in the 16th century leads to the fact that conditionally decorative elements are strengthened in architecture. The Baroque era is replacing the Renaissance.
Baroque architectural style and its features
In the best works of each style, the general direction of movement is clearly visible: down - in the Romanesque style, up - in the Gothic, to the altar - in the Baroque.
Baroque features: the attraction to the largest possible sizes, complex shapes, monumentality and pathos. From here comes the idealization of imaginative solutions, increased emotionality, hyperbolicity, an abundance of rich accessories and details. Baroque architects use complex angles, light and color contrasts. Sculpture and painting are subordinate to architecture, being in constant interaction with it. At this time, architectural ensembles were created, including nature, transformed by man. Rome becomes a brilliant center of baroque architecture.
Baroque architects do not introduce new types of buildings, but find new compositional and decorative techniques for old buildings that completely change the shape and content of the architectural image. F. Borromini replaces straight lines and planes with curved, rounded, writhing. In the Palazzo Barberini, Villa de Este in Tivoli, the architects masterfully used the terrain, ponds, pavilions and sculptural groups.
Bernini's Baroque Works (architect, sculptor, painter): Church of Sant Andrea in Rome, the end of many years of construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In addition to the grand colonnade (hundreds of columns), the cathedral’s construction project included two fountains and an obelisk between them.
The next stage and step in the development of architecture is classicism.
Comparison of baroque and classicism
The triumph of a centralized state and autocracy is reflected in monumental buildings. Ensembles are gaining unprecedented proportions. The most striking example of such an ensemble is Versailles, 17 km from Paris. During its construction, order systems of antiquity were applied. The integrity in the construction of volumes and compositions of buildings repeats Rome and Greece, a strict order and symmetry are affirmed (French parks).
The Louvre as a work of mature classicism served as a model for many government institutions in Europe.
And in Rome the parade procession of the Baroque continues: the Spanish Steps, the large Christian basilicas of San Giovanni and Santa Maria Maggiore, the composition of the Trevi Fountain, overloaded with details. Baroque and classicism go side by side.
The Baroque style involved looking at and admiring the details. Classicism, on the other hand, required a spectator reach of the entire ensemble at once with its natural and man-made environment.
Refined Rococo Style
With the extinction of the XVII century, the styles of Baroque and Classicism are replaced by a new artistic direction - Rococo. Architecture in this style is gradually moving away from grand ensembles, but the craving for luxury only takes on a new form. The 17th century castle is being replaced by a city house - a hotel surrounded by green gardens. This is usually a small mansion of the aristocracy or wealthy merchants and money lenders. In the Rococo mansions, the unity of the external internal, characteristic of classicism, breaks down, logical clarity, clarity and submission of parts to the whole are violated, but the curvature and grace contribute to the impression of lightness and cheerfulness.
A typical example of the Rococo interior is the interior of the Subiz J. Boffan Hotel. The space is defined by an oval in terms of the hotel. All the details of the decoration are intertwined, play and sparkle, the mirrors repeatedly reflect the bends, expanding the space and leading away from reality. Distinctive features of the architectural style of Rococo are evident.
By the mid-1750s, the Rococo style was sharply criticized. A comparison of Rococo, Baroque and Classicism leaves the victory for the latter.
In Paris, J. A. Gabriel (Place de la Concorde) and Souflo (Pantheon Temple) are already returning in their works to the trends of the divine proportions of classicism.
Work K. N. Ledoux - industrial city project
K.N. Ledu solves the problem of the urban ensemble, going from the classics, but at the same time boldly breaking her canons, abandoning her details and jewelry. The main importance in his works was severe geometric volumes, powerful masonry.
Ledoux created a project for the industrial city of Shaw and partially implemented it. The ensemble included the House of Friendship, the House of the Brotherhood, the House of Parenting. This project is the forerunner of constructivist ideas and buildings of the Soviet period in Russia.
Empire as an architectural style
During Napoleon, art as under Louis XIV is subject to strict state guardianship. Classicism is reborn into a heavy and solemn Empire style. He knew how to give buildings of various purposes antique architectural forms. The favorite motif of the empire is the triumphal arch motif. The architect F. Schalgren completes the Arc de Triomphe in honor of the emperor in the Place de la Paz in Paris, which completes the panorama of the city. The arch bears the stamp of cold parade. S. Persieu reproduces the ancient arch on the Carousel square. Empire style gets into heavy furniture, in addition to interiors, where there are motifs of sphinxes, griffins, chimeras.
Empire is the last great style of the 19th century.
Eclecticism
Industrial production is expanding, population growth is causing housing needs, road problems require the development of architectural areas. Architects are directly dependent on customer entrepreneurs. Construction in cities is carried out without master plans. The main condition for construction is profitability, low cost and convenience. All kinds of eclectic elements appear, old styles are mixed in new buildings. A specific language based on the use of new engineering and structural forms in architecture has not yet been developed. The dominance of eclecticism and imitation of a variety of architectural patterns will stretch to the end of the century.
New Century - New Architecture
Technical development is becoming more and more public, production is booming. The need for placement of labor requires the elimination of housing needs. All this causes a lot of pressing, urgent solutions, architectural problems.
Architecture cannot be divorced from the solution of these tasks posed by life. Therefore, in the XX century there were all the conditions for the rise of architecture. The eclecticism of the 19th century is being replaced by the search for an integral style based on the use of new designs and materials. These are steel, concrete and reinforced concrete, glass, hanging coatings, trusses.
The harbinger of its architecture was the Eiffel Tower, erected at the Paris World Exhibition in 1889. G. Eiffel initially understood that it was devoid of any utilitarian value and use. How many reproaches and curses stood up for this author of architecture of Paris visited by tourists.
Art Nouveau means "modern"
At the end of the 19th century, a direction called “modern” declared itself. The creators of structures of this style sought to streamline structures using reinforced concrete, glass, cladding ceramics and other new materials. But gaining freedom due to the new properties of various materials led to the development of surface decorativeism, to the deliberate emphasis on curvature.
Catholics dubbed the new style "blasphemy of steel, glass and arrogance."
Sinuous patterns of metal bindings, balcony fencing, bending of the roof, curved shapes of openings, a stylized ornament often resembled the historical styles of the past. Art Nouveau had a great influence on decorative and applied art, but did not create a new artistic and architectural system. A decisive turning point in the development of architecture comes after the First World War.
Basic principles and architects of postmodernism
Postmodernism in the architecture of 1970-2000 is a movement that seeks primarily to maximize the expressiveness of each of its creations and originality. For this, postmodernism makes extensive use of the creations of other architects of all eras, repeats them, applying the latest building materials and fitting familiar objects into a completely different environment, partially complementing and changing their decor. In the creations, either Baroque or Gothic elements are visible. Famous practices of postmodernism: R. Venturi, A. Rossi, P. Aizenman and others. An example of the construction of postmodernism in the architecture of 1970-2000 is the Crooked House in the city of Sopot.
The appearance and wide pace of constructivism
Old cities do not meet the spirit of the times. Profitability and lack of space require new forms of resettlement of workers and new urban expansion projects. Around the big cities there are garden cities with individual houses, workers' villages, industrial cities. Housing projects appear with economical standard apartments for the population. The requirements for houses, as well as for cars, are typified. The principles of a dull functional-constructive system are increasingly being introduced into the design of new type cities, factory towns and large industrial facilities.
In the artistic image of the city, the role of motorways, bridges, traffic intersections is growing.
Perhaps the greatest impact on the architecture of the 20th century was made by Le Corbusier, the master of world science of architecture, the founder of constructivism, who constantly caused himself to crossfire. Its ideal is simplicity and thorough accuracy of volumes, the use of reinforced concrete, which has opened beyond the possibilities for unusual urban compositions. It was Le Corbusier who put forward the idea of ​​building the city with skyscrapers, the complete replacement of its transport system, the wise zoning of all the territories of the city.
His projects simply sweep away the old ideas about the methods of urban development remaining from the era of feudalism. The most famous works of Corbusier: a hostel in Paris, a villa in Poissy, etc. In an experimental 17-storey residential building in Marseille, he seeks to create a housing full of light, air and residents.
The nature of constructivism is explained in the Bauhaus building in Dessau. It includes several rectangle cases. Its features: contrasts of smooth concrete (walls) and horizontal huge windows in the form of slots, the absence of any decorating details, extreme degrees of laconicism, that is, the most typical features of a constructivist style.
Such an exact adherence to the style of constructivism made the ensemble dry and boring.
Constructivism gained particular importance in the architectural style in Russia. After the October Revolution, he began to be supported by the authorities. Its focus on the communal life of the people, on the construction of structures that unite people on some grounds (kitchen factories, houses of culture, palaces of pioneers or metallurgists, etc.) helped to support the ideas and slogans of unity, fraternity, collectivism, etc. that prevail everywhere. that completely suited the Soviet government. Residential buildings were built without architectural excesses, the projects became typical and similar, like twins, apartments became small-sized. Then identical buildings began to be painted in different colors - to make beautiful and inexpensive.
And the architects who defended architecture as art, trying to preserve architectural monuments with all sorts of architectural excesses, became enemies of power.
High tech style in architecture
This style involves the use of ultramodern materials for the realization of original projects, similar to the scenery of films about the future or life on other planets. Functionality and brightness, the unusualness of spatial solutions and residential buildings, the uniqueness of transport highways, industrial complexes transfer us to the distant future. However, the high-tech buildings look quite heavy due to the use of brutal materials. This style often creates tension and anxiety, and sometimes it inspires fear. High-tech is best used where you need dynamics, drive: stadiums, concert and cinema halls.
The hi-tech was based on the work of architects such as N. Foster, R. Rogers, N. Grimshaw and R. Piano in the 70s of the XX century. But the first hi-tech attempts began back in the 19th century - this is D. Paxton's Crystal Palace.
A striking example of hi-tech is the Fuji TV building, built in the capital of Japan.
Deconstructivism as an architectural style
Deconstructivism will end the line of architectural styles and their features. It is clearly inspired by disaster films. The style of deconstructivism is an architectural trend (started in the 80s of the last century), which involves a powerful aggressive invasion of structures and structures in the city landscape. The work of deconstructivists visually breaks down the sustainability of the surrounding urban environment, simply demoralizes it with the size and shape of the structures. Examples of deconstructivism include the Zaha Hadid Fire Station and the Frank Gehry Museum.