Week 2: Trabeated construction Types: column and beam, truss (types) and space-frame. Timber trabeated construction Seaford Lifesaving Club, Station Street, Robert Simeoni, 2005-08: timber frame.
Thatcher House, Yea, Bohdan Kuzyk Building Designer, post and beam (trabeated construction) house being constructed, 14 August 2014.
Trabeated stone construction Egyptian Temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, Luxor, Egypt, 1,530-323 BC. Enclosing wall, 6-9 m thick. Hypostyle hall, 24 m high. The Greatest Egyptian temple, built over 1200 years. Temple of Amen-Re, Karnak.
Temple of Amen-Re, Karnak.
Kom Ombo Temple (145BC-14AD, Ptolomaic Roman). The Syme memorial, architect Arthur Peck, 1908, Kew, Melbourne, in memory of David Syme, political economist and publisher of The Age newspaper, as an Egyptian temple, each capital different. These support a coved cornice, with balustrades between granite piers as unroofed porch spaces. There is a variegated Port Jackson Fig at each end.
Trabeated stone construction Greek Shrine of Remembrance portico, St Kilda Road, Melbourne (1927-34, forecourt, 1950-54, Ernest E Milston, and additions 2003, Ashton Raggatt McDougall). Stone cladding a load-bearing brick building, with a prostyle (projecting) temple front (or aedicule).
The Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, 447-436 BC, architects: Ictinus & Callicrates and sculptor: Phidias, during Pericles rule. This is the finest Greek sanctuary. It uses structure as decoration. Concealed timber joists and rafters support marble roof tiles, and triglyphs pretend to be the ends of timber joists, reminiscent of the primitive hut. Reconstruction of the Acropolis, Leo von Klenze, 1846. Proportion: Height, including the capital = 4-6 column diameters at the base. Optical correction: entasis: convex elevation, arched stylobate, vertical vanishing point.
Primitive hut source It appears as a simple gable-roofed building, supported by four live tree-trunks with branches as capitals, rooted in place, with sawn logs for beams and rafters, prototypical of all great architecture, leading to a search for the earliest Classical temple, where the Orders were used structurally, rather than as decoration. The Abbe Marc-Antoine Laugier (1713-69), in his Essai sur l Architecture (1753) was its main proponent of the primitive hut and later Sir William Chambers, A treatise on civil architecture in which the principles of that art are laid down and illustrated by a great number of plates accurately designed and elegantly engraved by the best hands, London 1759, illustrates a primitive hut. 1 Marc-Antoine Laugier, Essai sur Sir William Chambers, 1759. l Architecture Paris, 1753. Other elements derived from the timber hut include: the architrave (from a lintel), capitals (for load distribution), as well as the triglyphs (for joists). 2 1 John Harris, Sir William Chambers: Knight of the Polar Star, University Park, Pennsylvania, no date [c1970], plate 4. 2 James Stevens Curl, A Dictionary of Architecture, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1999, p 520 and Joseph Rykwert, On Adam s House in Paradise, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1973.
The Classical Language The architectural style, or canon, expressing measured human scale, gravitas, calm resolution and harmony, derived from lasting values, principles, and precedents, and particularly the orders of the temple architecture of ancient Greece and later in the splendour of Rome, and continuing in architecture ever since. Order In the Classical architecture of ancient Greece and Rome and until the present, a column with a entablature, capital, shaft and generally, a base, all decorated and proportioned according to one of eight orders: Greek Doric, Greek Ionic, Greek Corinthian, Roman Doric, Roman Ionic, Roman Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite. Greek Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian orders. The 3 Greek orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Capital The topmost crowning element of a column usually decorated, of a column or pilaster and often in one of the three the Classical orders of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.
Entablature In Classical architecture, all of the building above and spanning the colonnade (a sequence of columns), the upper part of an order, consisting of architrave, frieze and cornice: Pediment, cornice, frieze, architrave, capital, column shaft, base and plinth, or stylobate. In antis. The columns between the antae, the projecting side walls of a Classical temple portico. Most Melbourne terraces are in antis, with the verandah between side wing walls. Prostyle A building with a colonnade in front, usually as a portico. In antis Prostyle.
Melbourne terraces with in antis boundary wing walls, Fishley Street, South Melbourne, c1875.
Roman The 5 Roman orders: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, or Composite. Stylar and astylar A classical façade superimposed with vertical (eg: columns, or pilasters) and horizontal (eg: stringcourses, bands and architrave) divisions, forming a decorative grid framework system of scale and proportion.
Stylar: GPO (former General Post Office), Elizabeth Street, cnr Bourke Street, 1859-67.
Stylar: The Colosseum (or Flavian amphitheatre), Rome, 72-80 AD. Astylar: Government House, Melbourne, St Kilda Road (1872-6) William Wardell, J J Clarke and Peter Kerr of the PWD. An Italianate villa, derived from Queen Victoria s residence Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England. (1845-51) designed by Thomas Cubitt under the direction of Prince Albert. Very influential. Extremely lavish, yet plain. Rendered brick, later painted. Government House Melbourne, astylar.
Pilaster An engaged shallow rectangular section non-structural pier, projecting from the face of a wall, usually expressing the Classical language. Like a shallow flat column, it has a base, shaft and capital, and usually supports an entablature, first used by the ancient Romans. Pilasters.
Cladding
Timber truss Timber truss roof: St Paul outside the Walls Basilica, Rome, 320 AD. Timber truss roof: Early St Peter s Vatican Basilica, Rome, 320 AD.
Domestic timber roof truss, Melbourne, 2014.
Types of trusses.
Space-frame A 3-dimensional truss. Space-frame roof: Collins Place, 45 Collins Street, Melbourne, Bates Smart & McCutcheon and Harry Cobb of I M Pei, New York, 1970-80.
Arcuated construction Types: arch, arcade, vault, groin and dome. Arches Princes Bridge, Melbourne, 1886-88, 30 m wide, 3 spans of 30 m and 120 m long, with Harcourt granite half columns on the bluestone piers that support the three iron girder arch spans. The design is very similar to earlier Blackfriars Bridge, over the Thames, London, completed 1869. Princes Bridge is wider, 99 ft compared with 24 m, but with 3 spans of 30 m and an overall length of 122 m it is much shorter that Blackfriars Bridge's 5 spans with its central span of 56 m. It was restored in 2005, but has never been strengthened or reconstructed, to take the additional loads of motor traffic and electric trams. Princes Bridge, Melbourne.
Princes Bridge, Melbourne, underside.
Arcuated construction: arcades Arcade: GPO, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Bologna, Italy, has 40 kilometres of old arcades.
Arcuated construction: basilicas A building type in the form of a huge rectangular hall, usually with a double colonnade and apse for the altar at one (liturgical east) end, used by the imperial Romans for law courts and other assemblies, and later, as the most common Christian church form. It usually has a raised central longitudinal roof section, with clerestory windows and the main entrance at the opposite (or liturgical west) end. Law court, and public meeting hall. The first buildings where interior was more important than exterior, which was often plain. Rectangular plan, length twice width, a pair, or 4 colonnaded aisles. Sometimes galleries over them, clerestory windows for more light. Side entrance, with a tribunal (or apse) opposite and often a timber truss roof. Basilica Ulpia, Trajan s Forum, Rome (98-112AD). Nave 120m long, 35m high. Includes: Trajan s Markets (100-112AD). Trajan s Forum,
Basilica Ulpia, Trajan s Forum, Basilica Ulpia, Trajan s Forum,
Mass concrete, groin vault New Basilica of Maxentius (later Constantine), AD 306-313, 96 x 65 m, central hall 25 m wide. 4,000 m 2 area. Coffered groin vaults, 25 m high. Entirely roofed in concrete. New Basilica of Maxentius (later Constantine). New Basilica of Maxentius (later Constantine), above..
Early Christian basilica: St Paul-Outside-the-Walls, Rome, 330AD, rebuilt 1823. St Paul outside-the-walls, Rome.
Shopping arcade, basilica form: Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel, Milan, 1865-77, Giuseppe Mengoni. Basilica form: Chadstone Shopping Centre, 1960-2013, 215,000 m 2.
Chadstone Shopping Centre.
Arcuated construction: amphitheatres Amphitheatres were invented by Romans for public spectacles: gladiatorial mortal combat, naval battles, and animal displays. Colosseum (or Flavian amphitheatre), Rome (72-80 AD). Seated 50,000, an 188 x 156 m ellipse around a 76 x 46 m arena, and 57 m high. 80 exits. The four stories are stylar superimposed orders as a non-structuraldecorative system of scale and proportion, with Doric, Ionic and Corinthian engaged columns and Corinthian pilasters. A frequent source for Renaissance facade designs. It has a lava foundation, built of tufa and brick, faced with travertine, held by metal clamps, using concrete with pumice for vaults. It has a complex corridor and stair access and ticketing to its seating. It is the largest, most intact, surviving Ancient Roman monument. Velarium - Its vast retractable fabric roofing was supported by cables that stretched over the whole of the cavea (the seating area) to shade and protect spectators from weather, but mostly as a ventilation updraft creating circulation and a breeze. More than 1,000 sailors were used to install it, by anchoring it to the ground. 3 Colosseum. 3 Stanford Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project www.formaurbis.stanford.edu/docs/furglossary.html and Gabriella Bacchelli, Collins Italian Dictionary, HarperCollins Publishers, Glasgow (1995) 2005, p 1576 and Wikipedia, accessed 8 February 2014, for the 5 images.
Colosseum, aerial view. The Roman Forum is top left. Colosseum section.
View into the shell of a box jelly fish, showing the velarium, a ring of flap tissue around the bottom inside of the bell. Velarium: Colosseum, Rome.
Velarium cable supports: Colosseum, Rome.
Velarium, Colosseum, Rome. Velarium, Colosseum, Rome.
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Ave Caesar Morituri te Salutant, showing velarium. Docklands Stadium (Etihad Stadium, Telstra Dome, Colonial Stadium), Docklands, Melbourne. 1997-2000. Seating Capacity: 53,359. Ground dimensions: 160 metres x 128.8 metres, 4 times the playing area of the Colosseum. Retractable roof 38 m above the playing surface, takes eight minutes to open or close. 9 exits, 42 aisles. (The Colosseum has 80 wide exits).
Arcuated construction: Romanesque Round arches. Romanesque: RMIT University Building 20, former Melbourne Magistrates' Court, cnr La Trobe and Russell Streets, Melbourne, George B H Austin, Chief Architect Public Works Department, Victoria, 1914.
Romanesque: RMIT University Building 20, former Melbourne Magistrates' Court. Romanesque: RMIT University Building 20, former Melbourne Magistrates' Court.
Romanesque: Church of Notre Dame-le-Grande, Poitiers, France, 1050-1100. Romanesque: Westminster Hall, former Palace of Westminster, London, built 1097-99, by far the largest hall in England, and probably in Europe at that time, 73 x 20 m, the largest medieval timber roof in Northern Europe, 1393.
Arcuated construction: Gothic Pointed arches Chartres Cathedral, South West of Paris (1194-1260). A classic Gothic cathedral. Pilgrimage church. Broad aisles, equal height to nave, doubled in choir for circulation, transepts also have triple portals. All vaults are quadripartite, 37m high. Stained glass windows are almost as tall as nave, plate tracery, rosette and two lancets, vast rose windows. Glass is finest anywhere. Massive construction to support windows, with substantial flying buttresses. Chartres Cathedral, France.
Chartres Cathedral, France, South Elevation. Chartres Cathedral, France, floor plan.
Chartres Cathedral, France.
Chartres Cathedral, France.
St Patrick s Roman Catholic Cathedral, 5 Gisborne Street, East Melbourne (1858-99) Wiliam Wardell. Spires and altar west portal (1936-40). W P Connolly & G W Vanheems. Gothic Revival style. The spires are 27 m higher than Wardell s design and altered west portal (1937-9) are by W P Conolly and E W Vanheems and a new pink marble high altar, designed by Arthur Andronas, of Falkinger & Andronas is under the crossing. Otherwise, every detail is designed by Wardell. It is one of the greatest Gothic Revival churches in the world. It is Footscray basalt, dressings of Kangaroo Point, Tasmania sandstone, and the spires and entrance of Hawksbury sandstone, from Woodbyne, NSW.
St Patrick s Cathedral.
Domical construction: concrete The Pantheon, Rome, 120-124 AD, Emperor Hadrian, Architect. Well preserved. Portico plus rotunda. Brick walls, coffered concrete dome decreasing in thickness to 9m diameter open oculus, of 8.95 m diameter. Dome shell thickness: 1.32-1.35 m, dome wall thickness: 5.93. Corinthian octastyle prostyle. Rotunda: height and diameter are both 43.45 m. 8 recesses including entrance as buttresses. Bronze doors. Largest dome of the world until 1881, still the largest unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world and the archetype of Western dome construction. The quality of light in the interior is superb. 4 The Pantheon, Rome: floor plan. 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_roman_domes
The Pantheon, Rome: cross-section, showing how a 43.3 m diameter sphere fits under its dome. The Pantheon, Rome: interior, showing the open oculus.
The Pantheon, Rome. Painting Rudolf von Alt, 1835, showing the asses ears twin bell towers, misattributed to Bernini, now demolished.
State Library of Victoria (former Melbourne Public Library), 302-304 Swanston Street. Joseph Reed, Architect, 1854. Competition winning design. Museum incorporated 1862. Central pavilion (1854-56): Malmsbury bluestone base; Kangaroo Point, Tasmania sandstone. Portico (1870): Spring Bay, Tasmanian sandstone; South Corner (1899): Footscray bluestone and Stawell sandstone. Domed reading room 1913: Bates, Peebles & Smart, early reinforced concrete, largest in the world. State Library of Victoria.
State Library of Victoria.