Architectural Word of the Day; 161 - 170

 

 

MOORISH, HORSESHOE ARCH

Prominently employed though not exclusive to Islamic architecture, an arch featuring a curve that continues slightly past its diametre, resulting in the opening below being narrower than its greatest span.

I quite like the scalloped treatment of the upper storey arches in this exemplary Charleston façade.

 

OGIVE

The diagonal ribs of a Gothic vault. 

 

FAÇADE

The exterior face, the architectural front of a building. Sometimes, as is the case with the tombs at Petra carved out of the living rock that is all there is, nothing more than a façade...and sometimes that is enough... 

 

 

 

 GROTTESCA

Fantastical morphings of human, animal and vegetal forms were typical Roman crypt decor. "Grottesca" is Italian, meaning "of the grotto" which derives from old Vulgar Latin "grupta" from the Classical Latin "crypta". Surprising to know our use of the English "crypt" is closest to the original Latin pronunciation!

 

CAMERA VITREA

Literally meaning the "glass room", the term implies a vaulting of plated glass. The Cour Vitrée of the Palais des Études, École des Beaux-Arts in Paris provides an exceptional example of the delicacy and sophistication typical of the 19th century use of glass and steel.

 

 

 

VIGNETTE

Ornamentation of a running vine featuring grape clusters and accompanying leaves. This unusual polychromatic example in high relief is taken from the ceiling of a late seventeenth century Irish chapel. 

 

 

 

 

LAVABO

A large stone basin with orifices of flowing water traditionally used in ablutions, ritual washings of purification.

This example from the Abbey of Valmagne, Languedoc provides such a peaceful setting for inner reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

PYLON

The Greek word for gateway that we apply almost exclusively to the massive, slanted entrance portal to ancient Egyptian temple complexes. Note how each one of those column capitals to the right are unique.

 

 

TETRAPYLON

A monumental arch having four portals allowing for the passage of two intersecting streets.

 

 

 Contributed by Patrick Webb

 

 

A Post-Industrial Revolution

"This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy." - Bill Gates*

There is no question that the so-called Industrial Revolution has transformed human society, and more broadly speaking, life on earth. At the dawn of the 18th century most goods were produced in small craft workshops or "put out" to domestic households. A convergence of developments towards the close of the century, taking place first in England, led to rapid changes. Advances in the precision of machine tooling increased the mechanical efficiency of the steam engine. At the same time coal began to replace bio-fuels such as wood to heat the boilers of said engines. The looms of the textile industry were the first large scale application of machine labour, increasing daily production from tens to hundreds of times over human output for certain aspects of the work.

A further series of advances sprung up one from another sometimes dubbed as a second, Technological Revolution. Mass manufacture of steel in the 1860's coincided with the rise of the petroleum and chemical industries. By the close of the 19th century coal fired electrical power was supplanting steam power for factory machinery. The enormous capital required for these technologies consolidated control of the means of production into the hands of a few wealthy industrialists.

Actually, we find ourselves in the latest ongoing phase of industrialization which began in the mid-20th century, commonly called the Digital Revolution, so named by the development of technologies derived from the digital logic circuit: computers, cellular networks and the internet. This digital revolution is culminating in a large scale automated workforce of robots run by integrated artificial intelligence programs and networks.

Revolution or Evolution?

The first thought that comes to mind at the mention of revolution is often a  forcible overthrow of a government, prominent examples being the French, American and Bolshevik Revolutions. A long standing system is upended, usually accompanied by extreme violence, replaced with an entirely new social order. In that sense, the changes wrought by Industrialization since the late 18th century might justifiably be called a revolution, if more of an economic than a political one.

However, I would contend that "revolution" is really a misnomer for such events or periods. Our English word "revolution" derives from the Latin verb "volvere",  meaning to "roll, turn" combined with  the prefix "re-",  meaning "back, again". So the fundamental meaning of "revolution" is a "rolling, turning back". This is the sense we apply to the rotation of the earth. A 24 hour day is one "revolution" of the planet. We return to the origin, a new day it may be but a day much like the previous one.

By contrast, the changes produced by Industrialization are entirely new, without precedent. I suggest "evolution" might be a better description. Sharing the same root verb "volvere", the sense of "evolution" changes by substituting the prefix "ex-", meaning "out". An "evolution" is an "unfurling", a "rolling out" of something truly different. Industrialization was and continues to be an economic Evolution of unprecedented change.

Evolution and Entropy

The second law of thermodynamics states that while it is possible for the total complexity of a system to remain constant for a reversible, cyclic or revolutionary process, that it can only increase in disorder or "entropy" for evolutionary, irreversible processes.

As we pass wholly from the "technological" to the "digital" phase of industrialization our machines will increase in complexity while we can expect our own social complexity, human beings' diversity of language, art, and culture to continually, exponentially decrease. Governments, industry, public and higher education are preparing for this globalized world where basic necessities (food, clothes, shelter and medicine) and even the arts (painting, sculpture and musical composition) will be fully automated.

What finances this mad evolutionary rush? Cheap energy, principally fossil fuels. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that fossil fuels are inherently bad. Quite the opposite, they represent hundreds of millions of years of accumulated, irreplaceable resources. Properly managed fossil fuels should have improved our own lives, our children's lives, and our children's, children's lives a million years into the future. Instead we've decided in a couple of generations to set fire to every last drop in one big, selfish, orgiastic party. The greatest act of social entropy ending in billions of people whose lives are devoid of meaning with little to keep them occupied: sounds like a recipe for social upheaval to me.

The Post-Industrial Revolution

We're already deep into a cultural dark age. We just don't realize it because of the comfort of air conditioning and the latest app we've downloaded onto our iPhone. The modern world may outwardly appear to be sophisticated and complex; nevertheless, it is getting simpler, more standardized every day. In the past couple of hundred years, thousands of languages have been extinguished along with thousands of ways of understanding, describing and inhabiting the world. Entropy, simplification and the loss of diversity of human activities such as farming, cooking, weaving and building parallel the loss of complexity of the biological systems, plant and animal species we depend on for survival.

What happens after our present unsustainable industrial evolution collapses upon itself? What does the world and human society look like then? I don't know for sure but I suspect after a period of great tribulation and turmoil it will in time resemble our pre-industrial past. In the meantime, certain among us understand where we are in human history. Like monks holding a dimly lit flame in the depth of darkness we seek to copy the manuscript one more time, keep our traditions alive for one more generation. We seek to bring a little bit of human happiness to our brothers and sisters today and make the return to a sustainable society a bit less painful for our children.

*Andrew Lephter,  The PWOT Bill Gates Interview

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Contributed by Patrick Webb

Oyster Shell Tabby

Colonial Fort Dorchester, circa 1757

One of the oldest, most enduring forms of Spanish and British colonial architecture is oyster shell Tabby. I'll briefly share what I've learned about the history, the materials and how to go about building traditional Tabby walls.

In 15th century Iberia and North Africa there existed a strong tradition of rammed earth construction inherited from the Romans: taking clay, sand and larger granite aggregates and tamping a nearly dry mix into wooden forms. In Spain this type of consturction was called 'tabia', a borrowed word from the Arabic 'عتاب' (attab). When the Spanish began to establish colonies along the Southern coast of North America they modified the 'tabia' construction as suitable clay was rare along the southeast coast and Florida, the general condition being a thin layer of topsoil covering over sand. Although the 'pluff mud' found in the 'back barriers' and tidal lagoons is partly composed of clay, it also contains large percentages of fine sands, even finer silts as well as organic matter that make it entirely unsuitable for construction. However, pluff mud does provide a perfect nesting bed for a natural resource that would prove extremely useful as a building material: oysters.

Whereas in Spain readily available limestone was quarried and dressed as masonry units or burnt for lime, in the colonial outposts it was largely unavailable (the Coquina of St. Augustine providing an exception). However, there were plenty of oysters available whose shells were a ready source of lime. The oyster shells were harvested, oyster removed and the shells left outside for weeks to allow the rain and insects to clean out any organic matter. Most often 'middens', Native American waste oyster shell heaps, were already available and exploited for raw material.

The shells were used in three ways. Shells were broken up to provide a gradation of small to medium aggregates although many were left intact for the larger aggregates. A good percentage was set aside for a lime burn. Shells were stacked atop a 'rick' of alternating logs not unlike a funeral pyre and the logs would be set alight, burning for a couple of days. Carbon dioxide calcines from the shells with the intense heat (over 1500° F) leaving a caustic highly alkali compound, Calcium Oxide commonly known as quicklime. 

Making Tabby is a lot like making pancake batter. One starts with hoeing up the dry ingredients:

1 part quicklime
1 part broken shells
1 part whole shells
1 part sand

Next comes the water. One needs to be very careful at this step because with the addition of water the slaking process, conversion of quicklime to Calcium Hydroxide of slaked lime, is a very rapid, exothermic reaction. Larger pebbles of quicklime can quickly release steam that can cause the mix to pop and splatter the highly alkali mix onto exposed skin or eyes.




 
The mix should be just wet enough to be able to tamp. Excess water will make the lime matrix weakened by voids as the water evaporates and take longer to achieve a sufficient compressive strength. Tabby can be hodded to the site with barrows. Balls of Tabby are made by hand and slung into wooden forms. The mix is then vigorously tamped from above.

With all of the rough oyster shell aggregate exposed at the surface, tabby walls are vulnerable to erosion from streaming water. Typically, like the wall itself, they were covered with a lime plaster using just the smaller crushed oyster shell and sand for aggregates. This render served as a sacrificial coat to protect the wall. The entire system is both aesthetically pleasing and very durable, proof of which being a number of colonial and early federal sites that have endured hundreds of years even without maintenance. 

Contributed by Patrick Webb

Architectural Word of the Day; 151 - 160

QUADRIGA

A chariot drawn by four horses, typically driven by a one of the goddesses such as Victory, Peace, Triumph or Fame. Very often a quadriga will be found surmounted upon a standing triumphal arch or an arch incorporated into a façade.

INTRADOS

The precise term for the concave inner face of an arch or vault.  






EXTRADOS

The convex visible outer face of an arch or vault. This well preserved bath complex by the Romans in Leptis Magna display extraordinary examples of visible extrados including a hemispherical dome, barrel, groin and segmental vaults.  

GEMINATED

Think "Gemini" or "twins", geminated columns are coupled. A frequent and enjoyable approach of support employed in cloistered Romanesque colonnades.

TRACHELION

As every good head is supported by a neck, the Greeks decided their finest capitals should appear supported by a NECKING band or "trachelion".

To take the anthropomorphic metaphor a bit further, I could imagine the alternating lotus and palmette motif of the Erechtheion trachelion as a kind of necklace.

HYPOTRACHELION 

 
As "trachelion" is Greek for "necking". The "hypo-" prefix means "under" so that the "hypotrachelion" indicates an element under the necking band.

In contrast to the Romans who would typically form an astragal or bead profile as a binding element between the capital and shaft below, the Greeks preferred to incise a deep groove, the hypotrachelion as a dividing element.

PALMATE

A column capital crowned with the stylized spreading leaves of the palm tree. This ancient example from the temple of Horus at Edfu casts some dramatic shadows under the Egyptian sun.  

PUTTI

Latin for "little boys" or "children", the Putti were revived as a theme from antiquity and fattened up during the Renaissance. Despite a frequent effort to Christianize Putti as winged Cherubim, this only served to closely associate them with the pagan Roman god of desire CUPID.


Contributed by Patrick Webb

Architectural Word of the Day; 141 - 150

CHIMERA

This is just a delicious bit of ornamental carving I had to find a way to squeeze in!

The Chimera originates in Greek mythology, the monster having the heads of a lion and he-goat and the tail of a serpent. It has come to denote any unnatural assemblage of animal forms into a single, fantastical creature.

COLONNADE

A series of columns arranged in a rhythmic order that support an entablature and often a projecting roof.

ARCADE

A series of counter-thrusting arches raised on columns or piers that support an entablature and often a projecting roof. 'Arcade' has also come to mean the space the projected roof encloses, a covered walkway.  



LOGGIA

A colonnaded or arcaded gallery attached to a larger structure that is roofed and open to the exterior on at least one side. 

IMBRICATION

The weather tight, overlapping of shingles or tiles having the joint perpendicular to the lap. Alternatively, it can be a treatment resembling such a pattern often featuring stylized forms of overlapping leaves, feathers, scales etc.  





CUL-DE-LAMPE

Typically, a pointed pendant ornament serving to corbel and terminate a projecting feature such as an arch, oriel, turret etc. However, they lend themselves to thematic expression as has this example of a reclined minstrel. 

HEMICYCLE

A semicircular alcove recessed into the wall of a room or more typically an outdoor wall, of sufficient size to provide seating for several persons. The Romans were fond of this design for sheltered rest areas both in town and garden.  

GUTTAE

The "guttae" is Latin for "drops" or "tears". They are the small conical, peg-like elements beneath the tryglph specific to the Doric entablature.

The narrow plate the guttae are driven through is called the REGULA.

Contributed by Patrick Webb

Modernism Word of the Day; 31 -40

TEXAS DOUGHNUT

Heck ya'll, its a 150,000 ft2 city block mega-structure of residence and retail wrapped around a big ass parking garage. Hell, I think its uglier than a mud fence but them Nurbanites planning West Village Dallas, TX seemed to like it mighty fine being pet friendly and all.

Order up for a city near you: a baker's dozen of them Texas Doughnuts, with amenity sprinkles on top. Much obliged! 

SUBURB

Here in America we all know 'what' they are. Lewis Mumford captured eloquently 'why' they are:

"The suburb served as an asylum for the preservation of illusion. Here domesticity could prosper, oblivious of the pervasive regimentation beyond. This was not merely a child-centered environment; it was based on a childish view of the world, in which reality was sacrificed to the pleasure principle."  

 

KITSCH

The sensuous lie.
A succubus to art and craft, a visually stimulating form associated with quality of detail and permanence, that manifests neither.

The old Modernists answer to avoid kitsch was to toss beauty in the rubbish bin. Contemporary Modernists have dragged beauty back out, yet only to desecrate her, propagating sham works devoid of meaning.

DENSITY

Its the buzzword of sustainability in urban planning circles. Funny, it doesn't look very sustainable. I suppose the idea is to make the automobile traffic so damn congested that people just give up and walk instead?

"My density has brought me to you. What I meant to say was...I'm your density. I mean, your destiny." - George McFly

HYPHEN

After you have constructed the building as huge as legally possible upon exhausting every variance, filling the entire city block, you can play architectural pretend by introducing 'hyphens', setbacks that fool everyone into thinking that its really a bunch of separate buildings.

Yippie, make-believe, so convincing...
See-how-this-sentence-is-so-legible-by-running-all-my-words-together-with-hy-phens-!

NEOPLASTICISM

Just when you thought you've exhausted every Modernist architectural "-ism", ideology, another one pops up. This one is better known as DE STIJL, Dutch for "The Style". It promoted a "pure" architecture reduced to the bare minima.

Colours: the primaries of red, blue, yellow as well as monochrome black, white and greys. Form: lines and rectilinear planes that orient only horizontally or vertically. No diagonals, no curves. 

OPEN FLOOR PLAN

The obliteration of Puritanical stereotypes of division of public and private space. Former delineated enclosures such as the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom are released as interchangeable forms to fulfill bodily functions. Key party anyone?

INTERNATIONAL STYLE

Modernism goes mainstream when an "International Style" was unveiled in 1932 at the Museum for Modern Art in Manhattan, NY. What made the this style "international"? It certainly did not embrace the millennia of accumulated traditions of many nations and peoples from across the globe. In stark contrast, the International Style enforced the complete extinguishment of any lingering artifacts of human culture. The new doctrine dictated that "Form" was to follow only practical "Functions". It might have been more appropriately called the Extranational Style, as it reflected an aesthetic beyond the influence of any nation or culture. 

GATED COMMUNITY

No folks, this is no Carcassonne. More like a contemporary self imposed golden ghetto, the illusion of a protected compound that only serves to severe oneself from the greater community.



Contributed by Patrick Webb

Architectural Word of the Day; 131 - 140

THOLOS

The Greek word 'tholus' (θόλος) originally meaning 'dome', has long since been extended to include a circular structure, particularly of the colonnaded variety. The memorial to Mary Baker Eddy in Cambridge, MA provides a pristine example. 

PITCHED MASONRY

The dressing of masonry where all of the arrises or edges are in the same plane whilst the facing if left rough, simply dressed with a pitching chisel. 

 

PIAZZA

In Italy it refers to a public space enclosed or nearly enclosed by buildings. We inherited the equivalent "place" from the French. Somehow it doesn't sound nearly as exotic.

As a child I always thought it amazing you could get a pizza in the piazza.

PIAZZA (Charleston)

Pronounced Pee-OZ-ah locally, the side portico is a distinctly Charlestonian feature. Typically running the side length of the home with multiple doors opening to the interior, the open air porch takes advantage of the cooler breezes coming off the water in an effective attempt to beat the summer heat.

I like to think of them as the private country clubs of the landed gentry, a comfortable place for Charleston high society to mingle and philosophize over a chilled drink.

PULVINATION

The bulging out or pillowing ("pulvinus" is literally the Latin word for "cushion") of a moulding element, most commonly the frieze band of the Ionic order specifically referred to as a "pulvinated frieze". 

 

TRIVIUM

In a classical liberal arts program these are the "three paths" that prepare the student for the deeper studies of the quadrivium. A simplified description is as follows:

GRAMMAR - the mechanics of language

LOGIC - the mechanics of thought

RHETORIC - the use of grammar and logic to instruct or persuade

Contributed by Patrick Webb