DHRUBAJYOTI ROY, the visionary behind Builtarchi.com, who holds a passion for transforming ideas into tangible and awe-inspiring structures. His multifaceted persona encompasses a love for cars & by profession an Architect.
Of all the things we know about China, it is one of the most religious countries in the world in ancient days and then communism happened, religious architecture is a mixture of architectures like commoners and imperials, china had two major religions back in ancient times which are Buddhism and Taoism, while the Buddhist opted for imperial architecture and Taoist the commoners, both the religious architecture followed similar patterns for construction but different architecture styles, both the religion exchanged their architecture styles at times.
The Buddhists followed their traditional pattern such as a front hall for the four heavenly kings which we can consider as a protection or as a devotional belief, followed by a large hall that acts as the main part of the architecture of the monastery where the Buddha statue placed and to pray, the rooms for monks and nuns placed side by side to the main hall or great hall.
This pattern is strictly followed in Chinese architecture while building a Buddhist monastery and it should never be changed according to their tradition.
Mogao caves in Dunhuang, china is one of the greatest religious architecture in China’s Architectural history, the Buddhist cave with more than a thousand Buddha statues is one fine thing to showcase the art of ancient Chinese Architecture and the artists, it is believed that the cave is constructed for more than a 1000 years including 492 temples with 25km long, the cave architecture still stands as the greatest art exploration in Chinese architecture.
Taoists, on the other hand, followed and preferred a simple architectural style pattern, with the main entrance placed at the side and the main hall at the front with the main deity followed by the sub deities, the structure of Taoist temples built with belief in superstition.
The Temple of Heaven which is considered the greatest Taoist temple ever built is a marvelous creation and example of Taoist architecture and China’s traditional architectural style, the temple is constructed with some interesting facts like the hall of prayer for harvest has massive wooden columns which symbolize the four-season along with 12 months and 12 daily hours, this shows the extraordinary engineering work of china.
Mosques and churches also played important roles in ancient China and Chinese architecture, the Niuijie mosque in Beijing is a massive proof of the Islamic religious architecture in China, the Niuijie mosque is also considered a hybrid Chinese architecture with a mixture of Arabic, the mosque looks Chinese from the outside and Arabic in the inside shows the bond between Chinese and the Arabians, The architecture looks grand in color from red fences and green with golden-red pillars to showcase the Chinese architectural flavor.
Like Arabic architecture influenced Chinese architecture at times western architecture also influenced China and St. Xuijiahui Cathedral is one major proof that still stands today, by the early 19th century Roman architecture influenced China and this is the result, the Xuijiahui church is the largest roman catholic church in history located in Shanghai.
Like how commoner architecture acted as a pattern to build the common people’s houses, imperial architecture acted as an architectural style to build the house or palace of emperors, this is one fine tradition followed by Chinese and Chinese architecture to show the difference between common people and the emperors.
The imperial architecture had large halls and pavilions along with study halls and more space to occupy for several purposes like dining, bathing, and so on, the imperial architecture also followed a set of patterns that is forbidden to be used by other architectural styles.
To show the mighty emperors of China they implemented a lot of decorations and made it a law to construct imperial buildings, the usage of yellow roof tiles is one of the very common patterns in imperial architecture, yellow is the color of imperial and so they added it as their core pattern, the column of the houses were red in color and at some places black also used according to their belief in God, the Chinese dragon symbol is heavily used and implemented in the imperial style of Chinese architecture( the Chinese dragon is also reserved symbol for the imperial china), the dragon symbol used indoors, beams, and pillars.
Another interesting thing is only the emperors are allowed to build gates with five arches and the center one is for the emperor which faces south to protect the emperor from the north wind, like the dragon symbol number “9” was also used heavily in the imperial buildings which are considered as the supreme sovereignty of the emperor.
Timber acted as the source for building imperial architecture as it is their traditional and widely available material but over time they are replaced by stones and bricks along with cement.
Summer Palace is the greatest example of imperial architecture even today, with over 1.5 lakh workers helping to build the mighty imperial palace and it took them nearly 15 years to build, the palace with temples, lake, pavilions along with galleries and archways made it one of finest ancient architecture of china and Chinese Architecture.
Potala Palace is also another great example of imperial architecture, even today it is considered the strongest foundation in the history of China, the building was constructed with extreme innovation and protection in mind and probably may be the first earthquake-proof building the Chinese architecture history, Potala palace build with stone walls along with copper filled into them to protect it from the earthquake, with 117 meters above the ground the building has about 13-Storey with 1000 rooms and 10000 shrines. Stones were used as the major source material to build, iron acted as a decorative material for the palace.
Garden architecture is one of the special architectural styles in Chinese architecture history, probably the first ever architecture type to build gardens, recreate natural landscapes, and create a bond between humans and nature architecture helped throughout the years, the purpose of architecture deliberately designed to walk in a certain path so that human could feel the nature via gardens.
Classical Chinese gardens had a habit of being surrounded by a white wall which instead acted so well as a background for the green trees and colorful flowers, the contrast of trees, flowers, and wall matched so well to see and wonder how they came up with such a creative, the garden architecture also followed a pattern like every other Chinese Architecture style, the gardens were designed to tour it and one cannot able to see the whole garden at once, this pattern is specifically designed for people to feel the garden and every little thing around them.
The garden architecture followed structures to make it well organized, ceremony halls which are located at the entrance of the garden have a courtyard that is used for family celebrations and get-togethers, the pavilion of flowers filled with flowers and plants placed near the residential home.
Rock decor is one of the core decoration patterns we can see in every garden’s architecture, every garden must have some rock elements, and some gardens even have artificial miniature mountains formed by a group of rocks.
The texture, color, and shape of the rocks are chosen according to the gardens and also to add more attraction to the people, the water element is also another important decoration in Chinese garden architecture, a pond is commonly situated in the center of the garden and some great garden even have lakes according to their sizes, the element of water is very important in garden architecture as it symbolizes communication and dreams.
Yu Garden is one of many marvels in China composed of six halls and built-in classical Chinese architecture with amazing sculptures and carvings, the garden was built during the Ming dynasty with exquisite jade rock and a turn bridge along with a mid-lake pavilion teahouse, it is one of extraordinary scenic in the entire china and one must find it amazing rather than artistic.
The humble administrator’s garden is also another and the biggest Chinese classical garden, with miniature hills, bamboo houses pine trees, and small lakes it acts as a standing proof for the Chinese garden architecture, the water element found largely in the garden to keep the visitors or the people at peace and also it represents the architectural efficiency of Ming dynasty.
Confucian architecture is also one of the very important architectural styles in Chinese architecture history, it was created to honor and to spread the works and values of Confucius, Chinese built temples for Confucius to represent his values, tired roofs along with ancient Chinese archways and the magnificent structure was some of the core characteristics of Confucian architecture, most of the Confucian temple is found inside schools and colleges as the core value which Confucius spread is knowledge and education.
Ancient universities in Beijing and temples of literature in Vietnam are some of the greatest Confucian architecture in Chinese history.
After all the massive and marvelous categories of Chinese architecture one cannot be left, the Great Wall of China – the greatest architectural monument ever built by the Chinese, it reshaped the identity of China and recreated an entirely new identity to Chinese architecture, and showcased it to the entire earth and to space too.
With 6000 massive kilometers of length from the Pacific Ocean to the desert of China, it was built for protection purpose but later it transformed into an architectural monument, with over 2000 years of construction the largest construction ever in human history the mighty wall is one fine art to amuse at, the largest stone structure act as the front page of Chinese architecture today.
The Forbidden City is another amazing collection of Chinese architecture with imperial architectural style scattered over the city, the axial symmetrical layout is the place of many wonderful palaces and some important buildings for the emperors, it is also considered the capital for imperial architecture and the emperors.
Woods are largely used as a decorative element in the Forbidden City and stones are used as the major material for constructing walls along with wood as roofs too, china predominantly followed the color pattern like yellow, and red in imperial architecture and it acted so well and mighty to see.
By the 21st century, china had its mark in modern architecture and adapted its way to the modern and advanced concepts of architecture too, the piano house in Anhui is one great proof of China’s entry into the futuristic architectural style along with Taipei 101 with postmodern architecture the country implemented its traditional style with modern architecture styles too.
In the world of architecture, few eras or times made a great impact on people like Georgians, Romans, and so on in European countries, each part of the globe was influenced by a specific architectural era and this architecture is the one which influenced the American architecture mostly and even today we can recognize the essence of federal architecture in most of the American architecture.
During the late ’70s and early ’80s, federal architecture played a very important role in influencing the people of America and reshaping the architectural style of the country, mostly inspired by Georgian architecture the federal architecture formed as a national architectural style of the nation.
The light structure with less decoration has always been the primary pattern of federal architecture philosophy, the revolution of the architectural style began with Charles Bulfinch the renowned architect who helped America to go after federal architecture, with materials being influenced by classical architecture and British architectural style he formed something new and it became a trend among the American architects.
Characteristics
Like every other architectural style, this architecture has its own patterns and characteristics, simple yet elegant is one of the core characteristics of the architecture with two or three-story buildings, and curved and polygonal floor plans that can be seen in almost all the federal architecture buildings.
Federal adopted some features of Georgian but always preferred the simple exterior and narrow columns, unlike Georgian architecture and either square or rectangle box-shaped structures.
Clapboard and bricks were the major materials used in this architecture according to the geography, some parts even cared about the fireproofing of the building, hip roofs with balustrades and center gables with front façade pediments were the most common roof structure followed in the federal architecture style.
Architects and their works
Charles Bulfinch the earliest known professional American architect acts as the reason behind the popularity of federal architecture in America, we can even call him the father of federal architecture but not officially, most of his work resembled a mixture of Georgian and Roman architecture which indeed he studied and got inspired him as an adult, architecture has been his passion until one of his experimental work failed which actually made him a star architect after, most of his works are of governmental building and Massachusetts statehouse is fine to work of Charles Bulfinch.
The Massachusetts Statehouse by Charles Bulfinch is one of the earliest and grandest proofs of federal architecture, the statehouse earned him a remarkable name in the world of architecture and motivated more American architects to follow the federal architecture style, we can witness the larger influence of Georgian and roman architecture characteristics in the statehouse building from the classical entrance to the magnificent central dome, it is one fine architecture lecture to American architects.
Thomas Jeffersonwithout a doubt one of the greatest politicians of America but he is also a legendary architect, Jefferson played a major role in reshaping the entire structure of America and architecture actually helped him to do it, he is fond of the classical architecture style but rather his ideologies expanded and at the end, he mastered numerous architectural styles, this architecture is one among them and Virginia state capitol is the proof for that.
Virginia state capitol by the famous architect Thomas Jefferson is a remarkable work of the federal era, the most simple yet marvelous structure earned a name for federal architecture all around the globe, the interior of the building is a treasure to explore, from the circular roof to the rotunda in the middle with marvelous sculptures and state made it one of legendary architectural work of the late 17th century.
Conclusion
Federal architecture earned a name for American architecture in the world of architecture and impacted several countries to follow their hybrid styles of constructing buildings with the mixture of several architectural styles and present it as one, even today this architecture is considered the national architecture style of America.
China is one of the most popular and powerful nations in the world, there are considerably lot of things China is famous for from the products we use every day to the tea we drink every morning are from china, but there’s more than all of this that the world had to forget about the ancient traditional country, “ the architecture of china”, like the civilization of the country the architecture to go back it’s way back to centuries and even today it stands tall and acts as one fine inspiration to other countries.
The Chinese are well known for their innovation and creativity, they were the same even 2500 years before and there’s one piece of proof to prove it, their ancient architecture and the methods they used to construct buildings, timbers were the most used material for construction in the history of China and unfortunately, most of their architecture haven’t survived due to nature.
Yellow roofs, red columns, and pillars with bronze and golden colors are some of the core characteristics of Chinese architecture colors while marvelous archways with wooden beams and roofs with symmetrical courtyards are other characteristics of the architecture, most of the Chinese architectural styles are influenced by India and then china acted as an inspirational architectural country for Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand which all followed the styles and patterns of Chinese architecture.
Great Wall of China
Extraordinary paintings and sculptures can be seen in almost all of China’s ancient architecture which shows the art of the country and how they developed it with such sincerity, the painted ceiling of the pavilion is one of the greatest creations of ancient Chinese architects which attracted people inside more than outside and then the idea was followed by almost all architectural ideas around the globe.
To categorize Chinese architecture we can go by
Before we get dived into the architecture types let us know some of their ancient marvels and how they built them, like every other country in the globe china had its traditional way of construction, and like said before timber acted as a core material in the Chinese architecture world but by the time they started using bricks, cement, and sand like the rest of world but the thing is still timber act as a major source of the construction in Chinese architecture, maybe they have some bond with their ancient traditions.
China follows a pattern in their architectural style and it is still followed and considered necessary for construction, they have separate patterns for the type of building they construct a gong is one kind of traditional pattern that which Chinese use for constructing the house of imperial (emperors), you which means to build more than two or more floors and then there’s Tai – a pattern to construct terrace, ta – to build temples and so on.
Commoners Architecture
Commoner’s architecture means the house of common peoples like merchants, farmers, and many such people, the term commoners was referred back in ancient times, the house of commoners or the building follows a pattern, and even today the same is being followed in rural parts of China.
The center of the building would be empty and used as a prayer hall followed by rooms for the younger people and elder people on both sides of the prayer hall and then the dining along with the kitchen placed after the center (prayer hall).
Commoner architecture acted as a pattern to build the common people’s houses and it appeared in a “U” shape, they even followed laws and regulations to construct this type of architecture in China, in ancient times they used timber to build the houses with nails as a co material but today bricks and cement replaced as the core material and timber act as supporting material to add decoration and for pillars. The commoner architecture not only acts as one important category of Chinese architecture but also teaches us discipline and an organized way of living in its structure and the shape it resides.
Imperial Architecture
Like how commoner architecture acted as a pattern to build the common people’s houses, imperial architecture acted as an architectural style to build the houses or palaces of emperors, this is one fine tradition followed by the Chinese and Chinese architecture to show the difference between common people and the emperors.
The Imperial Architecture had large halls and pavilions along with study halls and more space to occupy for several purposes like dining, bathing, and so on, The Imperial Architecture also followed a set of patterns that were forbidden to be used by other architectural styles.
To show the mighty emperors of China they implemented a lot of decorations and made it a law to construct imperial buildings, the usage of yellow roof tiles is one of the very common patterns in imperial architecture, yellow is the color of imperial and so they added it as their core pattern, the column of the houses were red in color and at some places black also used according to their belief in god, the Chinese dragon symbol is heavily used and implemented in the imperial style of Chinese architecture( the Chinese dragon is also reserved symbol for the imperial china), the dragon symbol used indoors beams and pillars.
Another interesting thing is only the emperors are allowed to build gates with five arches and the center one is for the emperor which faces south to protect the emperor from the north wind, like the dragon symbol number “9” was also used heavily in the imperial buildings which are considered as the supreme sovereignty of the emperor.
Timber acted as the source for building imperial architecture as it is their traditional and widely available material but over time they are replaced by stones and bricks along with cement.
Summer Palace is the greatest example of imperial architecture even today, with over 1.5 lakh workers helping to build the mighty imperial palace and it took them nearly 15 years to build, the palace with temples, lake, pavilions along with galleries and archways made it one of finest ancient architecture of china and Chinese architecture.
Summer Palace, China
Potala Palace is also another great example of imperial architecture, even today it is considered the strongest foundation in the history of China, the building was constructed with extreme innovation and protection in mind, probably this may be the first earthquake-proof building the Chinese architecture history, Potala palace build with stone walls along with copper filled into them to protect it from the earthquake, with 117 meters above the ground the building has about 13-Storey with 1000 rooms and 10000 shrines. Stones were used as the major source material to build, iron acted as a decorative material for the palace.
Potala Palace, China
Religious Architecture
Of all the things we know about China, it was one of the most religious countries in the world in ancient days, and then communism happened, religious architecture is a mixture of architectures like commoners and imperials, china had two major religions back in ancient times which are Buddhism and Taoism, while the Buddhist opted for imperial architecture and Taoist the commoners, both the religious architecture followed similar patterns for construction but different architecture styles, both the religion exchanged their architecture styles at times.
The Buddhists followed their traditional patterns such as a front hall for the four heavenly kings which we can consider as a protection or as a devotional belief, followed by a large hall that acts as the main part of the architecture of the monastery where the Buddha statue placed and to pray, the rooms for monks and nuns placed side by side to the main hall or great hall. This pattern is strictly followed in Chinese architecture while building a Buddhist monastery and it should never be changed according to their tradition.
Mogao caves in Dunhuang, china is one of the greatest religious architecture in China’s architectural history, the Buddhist cave with more than a thousand Buddha statues is one fine thing to showcase the art of ancient Chinese architecture and the artists, it is believed that the cave is constructed for more than a 1000 years including 492 temples with 25km long, the cave architecture still stands as the greatest art exploration in Chinese architecture.
Taoists, on the other hand, followed and preferred a simple architectural style pattern, with the main entrance placed at the side and the main hall at the front with the main deity followed by the sub deities, the structure of Taoist temples built with belief in superstition.
Temple of Heaven which is considered the greatest Taoist temple ever built is a marvelous creation and example of Taoist architecture and China’s traditional architectural style, the temple is constructed with some interesting facts like the hall of prayer for harvest has massive wooden columns which symbolize the four-season along with 12 months and 12 daily hours, this shows the extraordinary engineering work of china.
Temple of Heaven
Mosques and churches also played important roles in ancient China and Chinese architecture, the Niuijie mosque in Beijing is a massive proof of the Islamic religious architecture in China, the Niuijie mosque is also considered a hybrid Chinese architecture with a mixture of Arabic, the mosque looks Chinese from the outside and Arabic in the inside shows the bond between Chinese and the Arabians, The architecture looks grand in color from red fences and green with golden-red pillars to showcase the Chinese architectural flavor. Like Arabic architecture influenced Chinese architecture at times western architecture also influenced China and St. Xuijiahui Cathedral is one major proof that still stands today, by the early 19th century Roman architecture influenced China and this is the result, the Xuijiahui church is the largest roman catholic church in history located in Shanghai.
Garden Architecture
Garden architecture is one of the special architectural styles in Chinese architecture history, probably the first architectural type to build gardens, recreate natural landscapes, and create a bond between humans and nature architecture helped throughout the years, the purpose of architecture deliberately designed to walk in a certain path so that human could feel the nature via gardens.
Classical Chinese gardens had a habit of being surrounded by a white wall which instead acted so well as a background for the green trees and colorful flowers, the contrast of trees, flowers, and wall matched so well to see and wonder how they came up with such a creative, the garden architecture also followed a pattern like every other Chinese architecture style, the gardens were designed to tour it and one cannot able to see the whole garden at once, this pattern is specifically designed for people to feel the garden and every little thing around them.
The garden architecture followed structures to make it well organized, ceremony halls which are located at the entrance of the garden have a courtyard that is used for family celebrations and get-togethers, the pavilion of flowers filled with flowers and plants placed near the residential home.
Rock decor is one of the core decoration patterns we can see in every garden’s architecture, every garden must have some rock elements, and some gardens even have artificial miniature mountains formed by a group of rocks.
The texture, color, and shape of the rocks are chosen according to the gardens and also to add more attraction to the people, the water element is also another important decoration in Chinese garden architecture, a pond is commonly situated in the center of the garden and some great garden even have lakes according to their sizes, the element of water is very important in garden architecture as it symbolizes communication and dreams.
Yu Garden is one of many marvels in China composed of six halls and built-in classical Chinese architecture with amazing sculptures and carvings, the garden was built during the Ming dynasty with exquisite jade rock and a turn bridge along with a mid-lake pavilion teahouse, it is one of extraordinary scenic in the entire china and one must find it amazing rather than artistic.
The humble administrator’s garden is also another and the biggest Chinese classical garden, with miniature hills, bamboo houses pine trees, and small lakes it acts as a standing proof for the Chinese garden architecture, the water element found largely in the garden to keep the visitors or the people at peace and also it represents the architectural efficiency of Ming dynasty.
Confucian architecture is also one of the very important architectural styles in Chinese architecture history, it was created to honor and to spread the works and values of Confucius, Chinese built temples for Confucius to represent his values, tired roofs along with ancient Chinese archways and the magnificent structure was some of the core characteristics of Confucian architecture, most of the Confucian temple is found inside schools and colleges as the core value which Confucius spread is knowledge and education.
Ancient universities in Beijing and temples of literature in Vietnam are some of the greatest Confucian architecture in Chinese history.
After all the massive and marvelous categories of Chinese architecture one cannot be left, the Great Wall of China – the greatest architectural monument ever built by the Chinese, it reshaped the identity of China and recreated an entirely new identity for the Chinese architecture and showcased it to the entire earth and to the space too.
With 6000 massive kilometers of length from the Pacific Ocean to the desert of China, it was built for protection purposes but later it transformed into an architectural monument, with over 2000 years of construction the largest construction ever in human history the mighty wall is one fine art to amuse at, the largest stone structure act as the front page of Chinese architecture today.
The Forbidden City is another amazing collection of Chinese architecture with imperial architectural style scattered over the city, the axial symmetrical layout is the place of many wonderful palaces and some important buildings for the emperors, it is also considered the capital for imperial architecture and the emperors.
Woods were largely used as a decorative element in the Forbidden City and stones were used as the major material for constructing walls along with wood as roofs, china predominantly followed color patterns like yellow, and red in imperial architecture and it acted as well and mighty to see.
By the 21st century, china had its mark in modern architecture and adapted its way to the modern and advanced concepts of architecture too, the piano house in Anhui is one great proof of China’s entry into the futuristic architectural style along with Taipei 101 with postmodern architecture the country implemented its traditional style with modern architecture styles too.
Conclusion
From caves to temples, palaces to gardens all of Chinese architecture surrounds two major things “creativity” and “innovation”, each architectural style followed its own pattern and had similar characteristics with extraordinary color taste and cravings, like its civilization Chinese architecture came a long way and still stands as mighty as it is.
Architecture is something that we always grow with as a part of our human life, like every other technology or thing in this world gets updated regularly like WhatsApp by adding something better and removing something that is not necessary to keep, futuristic architecture is a highly upgraded version of architecture to create an architecture not for the present but for the future.
The concept of futurism came to light in the early 19th century in Italy when a poet found it as a concept for the future, architecture very soon adapted the concept into its own style, and today we are witnessing the effect of the adaptation and Antonio Sant’elia and peter cook are some of the most famous futuristic architecture in the world.
Modern and futuristic architecture is almost similar but futuristic is just like out of the boundary, from elements used in the architecture to design concept everything seems highly advanced like quantum theories, current world architectures are highly engaged with futuristic building and believe that the world will be full of futuristic architectures in the near future.
Futuristic architecture is the concept of letting the generation build their own cities, letting them create what is best suitable for them that’s where the core philosophy of futuristic architecture lies in, to create sustainable buildings for the present and future rather than just adapting the past architectures and designs.
Highly creative design and usage of unusual materials are some of the common features of futuristic architecture, the Guggenheim museum is built with titanium which is an odd material in the world of architecture.
Architecture Philosophy
To build something that has less or no connection to the past or ancestral architecture, we are not eating foods that are thousand years old but why do we live in the style which found thousands and thousands of years ago? so they came up with the concept of futuristic to build for the current with a short span.
The usage of glass and steel was seen in modern architecture itself but making the same element in a very creative and unusual way is what futurism gave us, futuristic architecture lets the dream of architecture to go any extent until it matches the creativity, today we see a lot of buildings in the shape of fish or chocolate and much more, buildings like these were not possible before the birth of the futuristic architecture.
When it comes to materials used in the building though steel and glass are common, they used some other materials that are new to the entire architectural world like translucent concrete and bacteria building blocks, from bending concrete to aerogel they used every possible combination of materials to make it sustainable.
The design concept of futuristic architecture is one thing to amaze at with no proper principle because it lets the architects have their own principles in designing and construction without any pre manual, simply it gave the entire freedom to the architects.
Burj Khalifa
Burj Khalifa in Dubai is one of the most popular futuristic architecture and the highest skyscrapers in the world, who built something that is 829 meters high? that’s where the futurism lies for the craziest creativity and to make it possible one.
The concrete building is an example of making buildings that are adaptable and sustainable at the same time, Burj Khalifa probably saved more space in Dubai than any other building which is an additional benefit of futuristic architecture.
Shanghai Tower, the theme building in Los Angeles, and the Crystal in London are some of the famous futuristic architectural buildings in the world.
“Why not stay with the old methods and styles when we can create our own with our own creativity and freedom.”
No matter how trendy the world is or how modern it gets day to day, people still love being simple and living a simple life even for saying a simple life is better than anything, minimalism is not just an art or architecture but it is a concept which can be implemented in anything in life.
The usage of simple elements with plain colors with less or no ornamentation is one of the core features of minimal architecture, the architecture concept began in the early 19’s, and maximizing the space of the building is one major advantage of minimalist architecture design.
More than an architecture concept minimalism is one fine concept that is used in life and any work, the design concept used in many art forms from painting to sculptures and even in UI UX design in the modern days, the birth of minimalism has its root to the enlightening Zen philosophy and Japanese culture.
Architecture Philosophy
When the world of architecture is filled with high decorations and usage of colors, the geometry plays well with the usage of various materials and components, minimalism shows something very unusual and simple with less usage of almost everything so that it reduces both cost and the work.
Plain and simple materials with plain color and neat components made it look more formal and we can say that it is inspired by neoclassic architecture, the core philosophy of minimalist architecture is to ignore whatever doesn’t make sense and use only what is necessary.
Traditional Japanese architecture is one of the major reasons and acts as a greater influence in minimalist architecture design, the characteristic of minimal architecture attracted more people and very soon it spread like wildfire from London to New York all major cities and countries adapted to minimalism in no time.
Architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, TadaoRndo, and Donald Judd played a very important role in making minimalist architecture a real one, by the time minimalist architecture changed itself into modern minimalist architecture by implementing modern elements with minimal design and architectural concept.
Some popular minimalist Architecture Buildings
4X4 House
4X4 House is one of the globally recognized minimalist architecture buildings and it resembles the core characteristics and features of minimal architecture, the success of the architecture is using only the needed elements alone, all the credit goes to architecture TadaoAndo in making the house a reality one with the neat and plain structure in the Hyogo region of Japan.
Barcelona Pavilion
In the cultural capital of Spain, the identity of minimal architecture stands in the name of Barcelona in the name Barcelona pavilion, it was designed by one of the most popular minimalist architecture even called the father of minimal architecture, the success of the iconic building lies in the limited usage of element and color.
With plain glass with white walls, the Barcelona Pavilion is a fine lecture for minimal architectural design.
In the world of high fashion and modern culture, simplicity is still chosen by many types of people across the globe, why do we need to have more when there is no need for that, using and having only the need is all minimalism is about, from office to houses and even restaurants adapted to the minimalist architecture concept, more than architecture the minimalism concept is one fine thing to be explored and get more use out of it and implement it in life.
The Mayan civilization is one of oldest civilizations the world has ever witnessed, the Mesoamerican civilization is one classic that holds histories that amaze and leave people without a clue about their intelligence and knowledge on many things like astrology, art, and architecture.
Mesoamerican Architecture is one thing to look at their unusual form of architecture, probably they are one of the earliest people who invented the pyramid structure, and still, we don’t have any clue why they preferred the pyramid style rather than any other style.
Even before 2500, they had a wide knowledge of geometry and how to use it in architecture to make the perfect architectural style, still some of their architecture stood as a witness in a collapsed state but were still there to tell their story.
Sculptures are one of the core elements seen in the architectural buildings and temples, even before America became America itself, they created their own society and culture which is what we are reading as histories of the great American continent, in the Mexico region we can witness most of the proof of the civilization.
When it comes to the architecture of the Mayan people like any other civilization that ever lived on earth they had their own style which is also or may be connected with the Egyptians later, one thing which is common in all of the Mayan architecture regardless of their religion and construction they followed the pyramid pattern in all of their buildings which is what the Egyptians too followed.
Architecture Philosophy
Mayans were great believers in a God that they built temples even more than houses, they had a specific pattern of cities like the palace where the leader or the king lived always placed in the center of the city or town in every Mayan city, placing tombs are always placed in the north side.
As there was no technology back then they used materials available in the surroundings of their living, stones were some of the most common materials used in architecture, limestone and sandstone are other such core elements used while constructing, even before thousands of years ago they cut stones and used it to make the perfect shape possible.
Burnt lime is used as a cement to form the base concrete of the building, high curved sculptures are used for exterior purposes, and even today we can see some of the faded and destroyed sculptures in the remaining whatever is left.
Stucco was used as the exterior material and they used bright colors as paints, larger buildings were used as the administrative or official buildings of the civilization even back then they planned an entire city and followed their pattern in each one of them, flat stones were used as a roof for the buildings by placing one after another.
Works to be looked at
If we separate the types of buildings constructed by people we can list out pyramid which is used as temples mostly, ball courts for legal things and all, palaces for the kings, pigeon houses that were built and used for ceremonial purposes limestones that were used to construct pigeon houses.
Mexico Tulum Maya city
We can witness most of the Mayan architecture buildings in the Mexican American regions like Uxmal and Itza, Sayil palace is one of the most important architecture to be looked at the three-story building is one fine proof of their art and architecture efficiency, most of the amazing architectures of Mayan civilization can be seen in Itza of Mexican region.
The purpose of every architecture is to display their beliefs and to showcase the culture to the entire world, the Mayan architecture shows us the rich culture and the tradition of the people.
