Gothic Architecture and St. Denise

In Gothic architecture, with a romanesque style but a lot heavier, ribbed vault and pointed arch are the most commonly used during that time. Vaults were used to transfer the roof's load and passes down to colonnades which at last sends directly to the ground. One of the reasons why vaults were used a lot in Gothic style is because of the idea of minimizing number of columns as much as possible in the interior which required enough vaults to help transferring load through flying buttress instead of directly pass to straight columns. Moreover, Gothic architecture involved a lot of natural light use through windows and tracery on the second gallery.

The Abbey church of Saint Denis was one of the structures introduced with pointed arch rib vault and a significant use of light.

Within Gothic architecture, light plays an important and better role comparing to Romanesque period. By the use of flying buttresses, they allow more light to penetrate inside the space because columns, that are blocking the space, are hardly find.

Romanesque in 19th century

Language of Romanesque had been brought back during 19th century especially for purpose of learning areas and buildings. First of all, the reason why monastery design is best for university is because the design of the church gives and transfers knowledge through its structure, e.g. tympanum, wall crafts, or sculptors; since in early days, churches were used as schools for children as well. Providing hugh space due to the layout of the monastery, it supports schools or universities needs in plenty of land for enough numbers of students each year and as well as gathering space. Not only beneficial to schools, students and colleagues would be more relax and happier when spending time at hugh schools with enough space for students use and school activities areas instead of a crowded one with limitation of land use. Also, the circulation designed of basilica tends to be well prepared for a big group of people, when having ceremonials, it helps reducing crowds and junctions within the school with a good people flow circulation. Furthermore, buildings are used to represent beliefs or religions as they indicate fame and popularity of each beliefs. At the same time, universities, schools, or education areas can simply show how famous and elegant the countries are since education is the basic standard that defines people. Therefore, the basilica forms were used even in 19th century due to its enormous space, well designed, and elegance in architecture.

influence of Greek architecture on Indian's

Even locating in different continents, Indian architecture was also influenced by ancient Greek architecture during 324 - 323 B.C. Due to the power extension of Alexander the Great, Greek empire was wider spread through Asia Minor (Turkey), Syria, Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan, and also India. During Alexander the Great period, Hellenistic period, Greek columns were still used and corinthian style became more common and well known. In Indian architecture, column also played an important role to the design and they were vary.

Due to Indian geography and history, the country had been invaded many times by different region of foreigners, also the country was crisscrossed by merchants from surrounded country for trading reason; therefore a hugh diversity in cultures and styles were left behind especially in architecture.

Indian architecture also involved in column use which the designs were many and they were different due to the area of the structure and influences around.

There were many variations of columns design in Indian architecture and some of them were proportional to Greek columns of classical order but some were totally different.

types of columns used in Hindu architecture

Ground Zero Mosque

After the World Trade Center in New York City was destroyed in 2001 or what people called 9/11 event, which it was believed has been done by islam people; the new islam mosque that is planned to be built few blocks away from the tragic site angered up many Newyorkers and relative of victims. There were many complains, arguments, and protests against this plan by which they said it was disrespectful and rude to have islam mosque around there. Also this wouldn't have been an issue if the new mosque did not look modern and beautifully designed with barely sense of islam at all. Because of its design, some people said islam tried to mock with Newyorkers, mainly the victims.

This new mosque has a very modern design with the use of facade and high-rise shape building which can rarely seen in islamic mosque history. However within the limited space in the middle of New York City, in order to provide enough space for any ceremonials or events preparing to many islamics, high-rise shape building seems to be a good solution of it. Also according to the site and its surroundings, surrounded by series of building blocks, the design of the mosque fit well with the location creating better flow of vision and suitability comparing to common islam mosque.

location where the mosque was planned to build

Moreover, the design symbolizes and welcomes the new and modern period of architecture. The facade or Jolique, itself, plays an important role on the design which it is the main structure that represents the modern era. The Jolique is also well designed as it helps reducing energy use within the building due to natural light portraying as well as ventilation inside the space.

Roman and Byzentine

Roman construction techniques

During the Roman Empire, new construction techniques were invented resulting in faster and cheaper construction. The method of this technique is to combine concrete with brick or stones which can be identified in 3 types of construction techniques: opus incertum, opus reticaltum, and opus testaceum - chronological order

In opus incertum, regular and uncut stones were placed randomly in a core of concrete material, opus caementicium. Later, the surface was simply flatter because more regular shape stones were selected and less amount of concrete was used.

Temple of Jupiter in Terracina Anxur

Second technique is called opus reticulatum where rocks were cut in diamond shape and placed around the core of the concrete. The pattern of this technique is neater than the opus incertum where rocks line in a diagonal pattern, looking like a net, which rock shapes were placed roughly 45 degree flatting on the surface.

Insula of the Charioteers

Lastly, Opus testaceum, also known as opus latericium, was invented in the first century BCE where it used bricks as the main construction. Opus testaceum was widely used in many large structure and was used throughout the imperial period. Using this technique, the surface is flat by the use of square brick shapes on the exterior where bricks were cut in diamond shape at the back.

Appian Way

Some example of techniques influenced in modern society

- opus incertum inspired

According to Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier was a Swiss - French architect which he was known for being one of the modern architects. He was a master in studying modern design with a better living conditions for the residents.

Towards a New Architecture, by Le Corbusier

First segment under Three Reminders to Architects

First Reminder : Mass

Le Corbusier had mentioned about shapes and forms in this topic. Primary forms had been agreed as great beautiful forms which are cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, and pyramids. These forms had been involved with architecture for so many years, for example, the pyramids in Egypt. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architecture are the architecture those primary forms while Gothic architecture used only an expression of simple forms and more on complex geometry of the second order.

Examples of different forms in different architectural approaches

CUBE

Zollverein School of Management and Design, Germany

The building is simply just a cube but what interests people is those tons of small square windows around the building. Those windows help with lighting as well as visual interest.

CONE

Midrand Water Tower, South Africa

It was designed as urban sculpture with a thought of functional and yet aesthetic structure. Capable of holding 6.5 megalitres, Southern hemisphere now have the largest water tower located in Midrand town, South Africa. The cone has 4 meters length in diameter stem with another 10 meters cube concrete base.

SPHERE

Dome of the Rock, Israel

It is the oldest existing Islamic building in the world located in Jerusalem, Israel. It is also known as the third sacred place for Muslims. The dome, or hemisphere, was widely used in Middle East to represent holy structures and as a place for worshipping and religious interactions.

CYLINDER

Faulx Les Tombes Castle, Belgium

The structure was built in 1872 by Hendrik Beyaert in a Gothic style. Big towers' shape is influenced by the primary form of cylindrical shape with an upside down cone on top of them.

PYRAMID

The pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu, Egypt

The pyramidal shape was first invented by the Egyptians, as far from research, and mainly was constructed using stones. The shape consists of a square base with four subsided of triangle form, however, the steep of pyramids are vary.