Architectural styles and their features. Romanesque architecture. Gothic. Baroque. Constructivism

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing and constructing 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, of course, we can talk about its varieties, namely styles, each of which is different, brings something new. Combining with each other, they create the very architectural diversity to which we are so accustomed.

The article discusses the main architectural styles and their features (Western, Central Europe and Russia), starting from the Middle Ages, the features and distinctive features of various styles are determined, the best examples of structures are noted, differences in the development of style in different countries, the founders are indicated andsuccessors of each of the styles, describes the time frame of the existence of styles and transitions from one style to another.

What is architectural style

The initial versions of it appeared when the first great civilizations emerged, each of which left its mark on architecture. Who does not know about the Egyptian pyramids, sphinxes or the ziggurats of South America. Perhaps there is not a single person who is at least slightly familiar with the buildings of different civilizations.

But the topic 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 widely spread 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 stand out that have their own power, protect themselves, concentrate goods and money, and often change hands. From the architectural structures of that time, first of all, a protective function was required. Therefore, both the walls of the cities and the buildings in the cities had to be, first of all, large, massive and capable of protecting the citizens.

They are moving away from previously used materials, replacing wood with other, more durable ones. This is stone and brick, complemented by metaldetails (iron, bronze). Windows in such buildings (usually temples and castles, and then the palaces of feudal lords) were made small and narrow, lancet, located in the upper parts of buildings to protect against fire and arrows. Most castles were located on a mountain or the top of one or a series of hills. The buildings towered over the surrounding buildings and were perceived as one indestructible stronghold. The core of the fortress was usually a round (rarely square) tower - donjon - the refuge of the feudal lord. 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 Gaillard fortress, the fortress city of Carcassonne (XIII-XIV centuries), the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel (founded in the XI century) in France have preserved their original appearance better than others. Romanesque churches are also characterized by vaulted underground rooms - crypts, which were intended to store relics and burials. In terms of the Romanesque church - a Latin cross and a tower with a spire in the center. The interior is influenced by the power of space, elongated and high middle part, an abundance of heavy arches and massive columns. It gave rise to a feeling of calm grandeur and immobility. Traditional Roman forms were adopted unchanged: smooth walls, semi-circular 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, capitals with sculptures are often used.

Gothic architecture

Romanesque and Gothic styles in the Middle Ages were exceptional and ubiquitous inEurope. Religious in form, severely solemn Gothic art is more spiritual, sensitive to life and man. These are temples of statics, anchored in place according to the architectural style. Gothic is a more mature representative of the Middle Ages than Romanesque.

Each medieval city was proud in the XIII-XVII centuries of cathedrals, town halls, exchanges, covered markets, hospitals, usually concentrated around a triangular square, to which streets of various colors flowed. The grandiose Gothic cathedrals differed sharply from the churches of the Romanesque style. They were tall, roomy, and elegantly decorated. Their forms were striking in their dynamism, lightness and picturesqueness, they determined and built the landscape. Following the cathedrals, residential buildings rushed up: the number of floors increased, gable gable roofs stretched upwards. The city developed upwards. The cathedral was the center of the life of the city. The upward movement of buildings was determined by the aspiration of the soul to heaven and the tightness of urban development inside the fortress walls. The towers of the cathedrals were both sentinels and played the role of a fire tower. Sometimes they were crowned with the figure of a rooster, a symbol of vigilance.

Gothic, like other architectural styles and their features, used many design innovations: the vault system becomes complex and logical, a stable frame system appears, internal ribs appear and external supports - buttresses. Vaulted ceilings are lightened to the limit, wide spans and various sections of space overlap, the vault rises and the temple is filled with light. A characteristic feature of Gothic as a style is the lancet arch. Herthe repetition in the drawing of the vault, windows, portals enhances the feeling of lightness and grace. Classical examples of Gothic are the cathedrals of France in Paris, Amiens, Reims, Chartres.

Renaissance in architecture

Speaking of architectural styles, one cannot ignore the buildings of the Renaissance, characterized by an interest in man as a thinking and feeling person, a return to the best examples of antiquity. The first architect of the Renaissance is considered to be F. Bruneleschi - the master of the construction of domes. In his works in Florence, he uses new structures, the frame system of buildings, new forms and methods of building a dome. His followers, the creators of the palaces Rucellai and Strozzi, Alberti and Benedetto da Maiano, also work in the same city.

Representatives of the high Renaissance: Bramante, Sangallo and Palladio worked in Rome, combining ancient Roman elements with contemporary traditions. The work of Palladio undoubtedly advanced the development of architecture, causing 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 conventionally decorative elements are intensified in architecture. The Renaissance is being replaced by the Baroque era.

Architectural style of the Baroque 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, towards the altar - in the Baroque.

Features of Baroque: gravitation towards the largest possible sizes, complexforms, monumentality and pathos. Hence comes the idealization of figurative solutions, increased emotionality, hyperbolicity, an abundance of rich accessories and details. Baroque architects use complex angles, light and color contrasts. Sculpture and painting obey architecture, being in constant interaction with it. At this time, architectural ensembles are created that include 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 form and content of the architectural image. F. Borromini replaces straight lines and planes with curved, rounded, wriggling ones. In the Palazzo Barberini, Villa d'Este in Tivoli, the architects masterfully used the terrain, ponds, pavilions and sculptural groups.

Baroque Works by Bernini (architect, sculptor, painter): Church of Sant'Andrea in Rome, completion of many years of construction of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. In addition to the grandiose colonnade (hundreds of columns), the project for the construction of the cathedral 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 the centralized state and autocracy is reflected in monumental structures. Ensembles take on unprecedented proportions. The most striking example of such an ensemble is Versailles, 17 km from Paris. Order systems of antiquity were used during its construction. Integrity inconstruction of volumes and compositions of buildings repeats Rome and Greece, strict order and symmetry are approved (French parks).

The Louvre as a work of mature classicism served as a model for many public institutions in Europe.

And in Rome, the baroque parade 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 hand in hand.

Baroque style meant looking at and admiring the details. Classicism, on the other hand, demanded the viewer's coverage of the entire ensemble at once with its natural and man-made environment.

Refined Rococo style

With the fading of the 17th century, the styles of baroque and classicism are replaced by a new artistic direction - rococo. Architecture in this style is gradually moving away from grandiose ensembles, but the craving for luxury is only taking on a new form. The castle of the 17th century is being replaced by a city house - a hotel immersed in the greenery of gardens. This, as a rule, is a small mansion of the aristocracy or we althy merchants and usurers. In rococo mansions, the unity of the outer inner, characteristic of classicism, falls apart, logical clarity, clarity and subordination of parts to the whole are violated, but curvilinearity and grace contribute to the impression of lightness and cheerfulness.

A typical example of the Rococo interior is the interior of the Hotel Subise J. Boffan. The space is defined by an oval in the plan of the hotel. All the details of the decoration are intertwined, play and sparkle, the mirrors repeatedly reflect the curves, expanding the space and leading away from reality. The hallmarks of the Rococo architectural style are evident.

By the mid-1750s, the Rococo style was heavily criticized. Comparison of Rococo, Baroque and Classicism leaves the last one to win.

In Paris, J. A. Gabriel (Place de la Concorde) and Souflot (Temple of the Pantheon) are already returning in their works to the tendencies of the divine proportions of classicism.

C. N. Ledoux's work - industrial city project

K. N. Ledoux solves the problem of the urban ensemble by going from the classics, but at the same time boldly breaking its canons, refusing its details and decorations. Severe geometric volumes and powerful masonry were of primary importance in his works.

Ledoux created the project for the industrial city of Shaw and partially implemented it. The ensemble included the House of Friendship, the House of Brotherhood, the House of Education. This project is a 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 tutelage. Classicism is reborn into the heavy and solemn Empire style. He knew how to give antique architectural forms to buildings of various purposes. The favorite motif of the Empire style is the motif of the triumphal arch. The architect F. Chalgrin completes the Arc de Triomphe in honor of the emperor on the Place des Stars in Paris, which completes the panorama of the city. The arch bears the stamp of cold splendor. C. Persier reproduces an antique arch in Carousel Square. Empire style gets into heavy furniture, in addition to interiors, wherethere are motifs of sphinxes, griffins, chimeras.

Empire is the last great style of the 19th century.

Eclectic

Industrial production is expanding, population growth is causing housing need, road problems require the development of architectural trends. Architects are directly dependent on business customers. Construction in cities is carried out without master plans. The main condition for construction is economy, cheapness 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 constructive forms in architecture has not yet been developed. The dominance of eclecticism and imitation of a variety of architectural patterns will last until the end of the century.

New age - new architecture

Technical development is becoming more and more social, production is booming. The need to accommodate the labor force requires the elimination of housing needs. All this causes a lot of urgent, urgent architectural problems.

Architecture cannot be divorced from the solution of these tasks set by life. Therefore, in the 20th century, all conditions were created 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 structures and materials. These are steel, concrete and reinforced concrete, glass, hanging covers, trusses.

The harbinger of its architecture was the Eiffel Tower, erected at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. G. Eiffel initially understood that it was devoid of any utilitarian meaning anduse. How many reproaches and abuse endured for this most visited tourist object of architecture in Paris by its author.

Modern means "modern"

At the end of the 19th century, a trend called "modern" declared itself. The creators of structures of this style sought to rationalize structures, using reinforced concrete, glass, facing ceramics and other new materials. But gaining freedom due to the new properties of various materials led to the development of superficial decorativeism, to the deliberate emphasis on curvature.

Catholics have dubbed the new style "blasphemy of steel, glass and insolence".

Sinuous patterns of metal bindings, balcony railings, roof bends, curvilinear shapes of openings, stylized ornament often very much resembled the historical styles of the past. Art Nouveau had a great influence on decorative and applied arts, but did not create a new artistic and architectural system. The 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 striving first of all for the maximum expressiveness of each of its creations and originality. To do this, postmodernism widely uses the creations of other architects of all eras, repeats them, using the latest building materials and inscribing familiar objects in a completely different environment, partially supplementing and changing their decor. In creations, traits are seen throughbaroque, then gothic elements. Famous practitioners 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 emergence and wide stride of constructivism

Old cities do not meet the spirit of the times. Economy and lack of space require new forms of worker settlement and new urban expansion projects. Garden cities with individual residential buildings, workers' settlements, industrial cities appear around large cities. There are housing projects with economical standard apartments for the population. 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 cities of a new type, industrial settlements and large industrial facilities.

The role of freeways, bridges, transport interchanges is growing in the artistic image of the city.

Perhaps the greatest influence on the architecture of the 20th century was made by the master of the world science of architecture Le Corbusier, the founder of constructivism, who constantly caused crossfire. His ideal is simplicity and thorough alignment of volumes, the use of reinforced concrete, which opened up 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 city territories.

His projects simply sweep away the old ideas about the ways 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 housing filled with light, air and inhabitants.

The nature of constructivism is explained in the Bauhaus building in Dessau. It includes several rectangular 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 laconism, i.e. the most typical features of the constructivist style.

Such a close adherence to the style of constructivism made the ensemble dry and boring.

The architectural style of constructivism has gained particular importance 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, brotherhood, collectivism, etc., prevailing everywhere which suited the Soviet authorities quite well. Residential buildings were built without architectural excesses, projects became typical and similar, like twins, apartments - small. Then they began to paint identical buildings in different colors - to make them beautiful and inexpensive.

And the architects who defend architecture as an art, trying to preserve architectural monuments with all sorts of architectural excesses, became enemies of the authorities.

Hi-tech style in architecture

This style involves the use of ultra-modern materials forincarnations beyond the original projects, similar to the scenery of films about the future or life on other planets. Functionality and brightness, unusual spatial solutions and residential developments, the uniqueness of transport routes, industrial complexes take us into the distant future. However, high-tech buildings look quite heavy due to the use of brutal materials. This style often creates tension and anxiety, and sometimes fear. Hi-tech is best used where dynamics and drive are needed: stadiums, concert and cinema halls.

Hi-tech was based on the work of such architects as N. Foster, R. Rogers, N. Grimshaw and R. Piano in the 70s of the XX century. But the first high-tech attempts began in the 19th century - this is the Crystal Palace of D. Paxton.

A striking example of high-tech is the Fuji TV building built in the capital of Japan.

Deconstructivism as an architectural style

The line of architectural styles and their features will be completed by deconstructivism. It's clearly inspired by disaster movies. The style of deconstructivism is an architectural trend (began in the 80s of the last century), which involves a powerful aggressive intrusion of structures and structures into the urban landscape. The works of deconstructivists visually break the stability of the surrounding urban environment, simply demoralize it with the size and shape of buildings. Examples of deconstructivism include the Zaha Hadid Fire Station and the Frank Gehry Museum.