Beginnings: Drawing Early Architecture. Timothy Cooke Andrew Ferentinos

Transcription

1 Beginnings: Drawing Early Architecture Timothy Cooke Andrew Ferentinos The following drawings were originally commissioned for the book Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective by Mark Jarzombek (Wiley, 2013). In total, more than 300 hand drawings were produced for the project over the course of three years. This selection is reprinted with permission from the individual artists. The accompanying text is reproduced with permission from Mark Jarzombek.

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11 Figure 1 Orangia I, South Africa Site plan One of dozens of sites from about 100,000 to 60,000 BCE located in a canyon that was used during the dry season, when both humans and animals congregated along the shores of the river. This site was an easily guarded ledge with a cliff behind it protecting the humans from predators. If similar Australian aboriginal sites are any indication, these C-shaped rock enclosures document the arrangement of individual family units organized into mini-clans. Drawing by Andrew Ferentinos Figure 4 Skara Brae, Orkney, Scotland Plan and section Around 3000 BCE, the weather in what is now Scotland was warmer than today, allowing affluent settlements to take root. One of these is Skara Brae, where houses were partially dug into the earth and then enclosed with thick stone walls. The stonework is exquisite and shows a high level of skill. How they were roofed is not known. One drawing shows the houses covered with logs and earth, the other shows the houses covered with a whalebone roof. Drawing by Timothy Cooke Figure 2 Igloos, Alaska, USA Plans Igloos are the characteristic architecture of the Inuit in the Canadian north. The two shown here house multiple families and are used for ritual winter events. Drawing by Timothy Cooke Figure 3 Kin Tiel, New Mexico, USA Plan The Zuni built this relatively compact pueblo around 1275 CE. The pueblo was two stories high at least and contained over a thousand rooms. The curvilinear plan straddles the track of a spring. Drawing by Timothy Cooke Figure 5 Çatal Höyük, Turkey Plan and cutaway axon of a dwelling unit This settlement was no mere village, but neither was it a city; perhaps it can best be described as a very compact village. Dating as far back as 7400 BCE and lasting to about 5500 BCE, it had a population of about eight thousand at its peak. The settlement consisted of rectangular flat-roofed houses packed together into a single architectural mass with no streets or passageways. There was, in that sense, no public space. The outside of the settlement presented a solid blank wall made of mud bricks and reinforced by massive oak posts. There were, however, open areas that separated neighborhoods, perhaps work areas or places from which access to the roofs could be monitored. Inhabitants descended into their homes through openings in the roofs by means of ladders. The roof was in every sense a public area, not much different from how the Hopi used roofs in the Southwest United States. Drawing by Nadine Volicer

12 Figure 6 Sintashta culture, Arkaim, Russia Village plan This fortified village where metal was smelted and manufactured was protected by two circular walls with a circular arrangement of dwellings and an open, central space at its core. Built around BCE, all houses had the same floor plan: an economic zone in the rear, a living zone, and a porch fronting the center of the settlement that also had stairs leading to the roof. Drawing by Timothy Cooke Figure 7 Batak, Sumatra, Indonesia Plan and section Of the Batak tribes of Sumatra, the Karo have more than others resisted change from external influences and retained their traditions. The houses are rectangular or square and supported on strong wooden piles about 1.5 meters high. Above this are the main living quarters with wooden walls slanting outward and topped by a gently curving saddle roof. The roof is exceptionally high in comparison to the low walls. The interior of the house, even though it is divided into apartments, is quite open, producing intense social interaction and limited privacy. Residential areas consist of a kitchen, a living area, and an enclosed sleeping area. Each house has two open platforms, one to the east and the other to the west. Drawing by SunMin May Hwang Figure 8 Batammaliba, Togo, Africa First and second floor plan and cutaway axons of a house For the Batammaliba, architecture is deeply rooted in the concept of the universe and in their understanding of what it means to be a human. The house, in fact, is treated like the anatomy of a human in that it has eyes and doors and a front and a back. Houses are also aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice. The sun enters the house through the west-facing door and symbolizes the return of Kuiye, the sun deity, who is also understood as the first architect who built the earth and constructed the first domicile for himself and his first sons. He is both male and female. Kuiye s residence is placed in the western sky as well as the village of the dead. Each house in that village is a replica of the house in which that person lived. Drawing by Daniele Cappelletti Figure 9 Snaketown, Arizona, USA Village plan, house plan and cutaway axonometric Snaketown was a large Hohokam settlement situated on the north terrace of the Gila River. It was founded around 600 CE and developed into an important center by 1000 CE. The houses are of the pit house type, the beams holding the roof standing on the floor of the pit, not on the surrounding ground level. The different sizes of the houses are indicative of the existence of social hierarchy. Drawing by Andrew Ferentinos